CableLabs Qualifies Another DOCSIS 2.0 CMTS; 3 More DOCSIS 2.0 Modems Certified.

LOUISVILLE, Colo. -- CableLabs(R) announced today that it has awarded qualified status to a DOCSIS(R) 2.0 cable modem termination system (CMTS) from Arris.

CableLabs also announced three more DOCSIS 2.0 cable modems had achieved certified status, that it had recertified five other DOCSIS 2.0 modems, and that it had qualified two DOCSIS 1.1 CMTSs.

Ambit, Cisco-Linksys, LLC and Thomson were certified for DOCSIS 2.0 modems. Conexant (2), Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta (2) received re-certifications. ADC and Motorola were qualified for DOCSIS 1.1 CMTSs.

This marks the first time that all submitted DOCSIS devices have passed certification or qualification testing in a single certification wave.

There are hundreds of DOCSIS cable modems and CMTSs that have been certified or qualified, respectively.

DOCSIS 2.0 is backward compatible with earlier versions of DOCSIS products, fully supporting advanced Internet Protocol (IP)-based cable services. It adds advanced digital modulation capabilities to cable modems and headend equipment enabling cable companies to increase, by a factor of three, the speed of the return (or upstream) path of their networks as compared to DOCSIS 1.1, or a factor of six as compared to DOCSIS 1.0. DOCSIS 2.0 provides not only significantly higher channel capacity, but also better robustness against the impairments found in noisy cable plants. Better robustness has been achieved by adding features such as stronger Forward Error Correction (FEC), byte interleaving to break up noise bursts and a more powerful equalizer. In addition, many CMTS vendors have implemented advanced ingress/impairment cancellation algorithms. The typical impairments that DOCSIS 2.0 is able to mitigate include additive white Gaussian noise, impulse/burst noise, narrowband ingress, common path distortion, micro-reflections and hum modulation.

DOCSIS 1.1 opens a technological doorway to augmented revenue streams for cable providers by enabling the existence of high-speed Internet service tiers, via techniques known as data fragmentation and concatenation. Those techniques allow cable providers to deliver high-speed Internet services simultaneously over the same plant with guaranteed quality-of-service (QoS). Perhaps most importantly, equipment built to comply with the DOCSIS 1.1 specification becomes the foundation for an expanding list of advanced IP-based cable services offered by cable providers, including home networking through CableLabs' CableHome(TM) project, and packet telephony and multimedia services through CableLabs' PacketCable(TM) project.

CableLabs(R) Certified(TM) or CableLabs Qualified means that the device has passed a series of tests for compliance with the indicated version of the specification and has thus demonstrated interoperable functionality with any other "CableLabs certified/qualified" device. Many of these devices provide other functions or are designed to comply with other specifications, in each case tailored by the manufacturer to meet the growing needs of consumers or cable operators in an evolving communication/entertainment sector. While CableLabs encourages such innovation and diversity, the phrase CableLabs certified/qualified should not be understood as an endorsement of these other attributes (or that the product is certified to other specifications or versions), which are solely the responsibility of the company making the additional claims.

Founded in 1988 by members of the cable television industry, Cable Television Laboratories is a non-profit research and development consortium that is dedicated to pursuing new cable telecommunications technologies and to helping its cable operator members integrate those advancements into their business objectives. Cable operators from around the world are members. CableLabs maintains web sites at www.cablelabs.com; www.packetcable.com; www.cablemodem.com; www.cablenet.org; and www.opencable.com.

CableLabs(R), DOCSIS(R), CableHome(TM), PacketCable(TM), OpenCable(TM), OCAP(TM), CableCARD(TM), Go2BroadbandSM and CableNET(TM) are marks of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.