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Your Crappy Cable Upstream Speeds Could Soon Improve

Your cable connection's pathetic upstream speeds may soon be a thing of the past. CableLabs recently announced the successful completion of the Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1 specification, which should ultimately help cable companies deliver symmetrical (both upstream and downstream) speeds of up to 10 Gbps. But the organization has since announced the release of the full DOCSIS 3.1 Physical Layer Specification, which should pave the way for commercial deployment of much faster cable speeds over the next five years or so.

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This week, CableLabs stated in a blog post that the standard has taken another step toward commercial deployment with the addition of MAC Layer support.

The addition focuses on the MAC management messaging and operation needed to enable FDX between the CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) and CM (Cable Modem).

"This important milestone is the result of a great deal of work by CableLabs members, vendors and employees during the past year, and we take this opportunity to acknowledge their valuable contribution to the cable industry," says CableLabs. "Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1 significantly increases upstream capacity on the HFC network, allows flexible splits of upstream and downstream capacity, and enables cable operators to deploy multi-gigabit symmetrical services."

In short, in a few years you'll no longer have to deal with bizarrely topheavy cable broadband speeds.

Cable’s upstream has long been relegated to a limited slice of bandwidth (5 MHz to 42 MHz) referred to as a "low split." To dramatically increase upstream cable speeds, cable operators have been exploring a "mid-split" that would bump the ceiling to 85 MHz, or a "high-split" that would push it to 200 MHz. Full duplex technology would eliminate the need for these splits entirely.

Ultimately, these advancements should result in full duplex 10 Gbps bandwidth per node, up from the original 10 Gbps down, 1 Gbps DOCSIS 3.1 standard. That should ultimately be great news for cable broadband customers who want more than the 35 Mbps maximum upstream delivered by companies that have already partially deployed DOCSIS 3.1 updates.


Most recommended from 66 comments



Economist
The economy, stupid
Premium Member
join:2015-07-10
united state

1 edit

25 recommendations

Economist

Premium Member

We are bumping your 1000/35 to 1000/50

And here is your $40 price increase. -Cox

P.S. Your cap is still 1TB

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

20 recommendations

camper

Premium Member

Soon?

From the article summary:
...may soon be a thing of the past ... over the next five years or so ...

Instead of "soon," maybe a better word might be "eventually." And if you're a Comcast customer in the New England region, perhaps, "in a decade or two."

         
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

16 recommendations

davidhoffman

Premium Member

D3.1 Full Duplex.

I dislike cable companies for many reasons, but this technological advancement is to be applauded. The mathematics, science, and engineering that underlies this advancement is truly amazing. A dozen years ago many decent people honestly thought it would be impossible to advance this far. Thanks to all the scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians who worked so diligently to get us this far.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

14 recommendations

BiggA

Premium Member

Very Skeptical

Cable providers don't seem to give two craps about cable upload speeds. With a well maintained 5-42 split, they can easily delivery 40mbps of upload, yet most deliver 5-10. They don't want to invest in cleaning the plant up, node splits, or whatever else is needed to get more out of the current technology.

I don't think we'll see FDX for a while, as there is so much 5-42 split equipment out there, including drop amps in the home. FDX requires N+0, which, as far as I can tell, may not scale well to more exurban/rural areas with fewer homes per cable mile that currently use a lot of amps to keep the levels up on longer cable runs.

I've got 4 upstream channels locked right now, but Comcast will only provide 10mbps upload on the residential side. The gigabit plans, when they get rolled out, are a huge improvement, but it continues the tradition of selling downstream that no one needs in order to get more upstream. I'd be very happy with 400/40 or something, which is perfectly achievable on a 16x4 D3 modem on a 5-42 split plant with the right node splits.

davidc502
join:2002-03-06
Mount Juliet, TN

3 recommendations

davidc502

Member

Yeah, cable companies will be happy

Because they will now be able to charge more if you want faster uploads.
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

3 recommendations

davidhoffman

Premium Member

D3.1 Full Duplex.

I dislike cable companies for many reasons, but this technological advancement is to be applauded. The mathematics, science, and engineering that underlies this advancement is truly amazing. A dozen years ago many decent people honestly thought it would be impossible to advance this far. Thanks to all the scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians who worked so diligently to get us this far.
klineba
join:2010-08-30
Perrysville, OH

3 recommendations

klineba

Member

New hardware

Does this require new DOCSIS 3.1 hardware?

IowaMan
Premium Member
join:2008-08-21
Grinnell, IA

2 recommendations

IowaMan

Premium Member

Mediacom has 50 Mb

Mediacom has 50 Mb worth of upload speed