Cisco unveils Full Duplex DOCSIS reference design

Cisco has unveiled a reference design for Full Duplex DOCSIS, the latest iteration of the cable broadband technology that is designed to deliver fibre-type speeds over hybrid fibre-coax networks.

Cisco says that the technology will enable cable operators to deliver multi-gigabit speeds over their HFC networks, enabling the deployment of new services such as 4K TV, security and managed business services without the need to drive fibre to the premise.

The company says that Full Duplex DOCSIS will also enable the deployment of symmetrical bandwidth services.

Cisco has developed a reference design for a ‘multi-slice’ digital echo canceler for the Full Duplex DOCSIS specification that can support return paths from 200MHz/1.7Gbps to 1.2GHz/10Gbps.

The technology was demonstrated earlier this week at the closed CableLabs summer conference in Keystone, Colorado.

CableLabs revealed its plans for Full Duplex DOCSIS in February at its Orando winter conference. The technology taps techniques currently used by wireless networks to combine upstream and downstream bandwidth rather than having a dedicated upstream channel.

According to the standards body, the technology could double the capacity available for upstream traffic by simultaneously using the same spectrum, unlike current technologies such as frequency division duplexing – currently used by DOCSIS – and time-division duplexing, used by Wi-Fi and G.Fast networks.

Cisco is making its own technology available on an open source basis.

“By making this royalty-free design available to the industry, we can help our cable customers evolve to more rapidly deploy virtualised, fibre-deep, and all-IP infrastructures,” said John Chapman, Cisco fellow and CTO, cable access business.

“We hope to accelerate the transformation of the cable industry to deliver multi-gigabit speeds and new high bandwidth services and products, and in the near future, customers can begin to enjoy the benefits of Full Duplex DOCSIS technology.”