Application Guide

DOCSIS 3.1 Technology Whitepaper
Ultra-fast download speeds, once a fantasy, are now a reality from your cable provider, thanks
to the new breakthrough DOCSIS 3.1 technology
Movies. Videos. Music. Photos. Wouldn’t it be great if you could download content from the internet
faster over your existing cable connection? Incredibly faster? Well, you can. With new DOCSIS 3.1 it is now
possible to get Gigabit Internet speeds on your existing Cable connection.
Cable providers have started rolling out DOCSIS 3.1 nationwide. Comcast has already started rolling out
gigabit services in Atlanta, Chicago, Nashville and more cities are planned for the rollout. Other cable
service providers are expected to follow soon.
What is DOCSIS?
DOCSIS is a technology developed by CableLabs for transfer of data over coaxial cable that are deployed
and used for cable TV connection. Cable operators across the world have adopted DOCSIS standards for
providing internet data, voice and video services using existing cable TV systems.
Over the last two decades, DOCSIS technology has evolved from the initial 1.0 version with top speeds of
42 Mbps, to DOCSIS 3.0, which can provide 100s of Mbps speeds for internet, telephony and video
services.
To meet the demand of higher data rates and to compete with Fiber technology, CableLabs has now
developed DOCSIS 3.1 standards, which can scale up to 10 Gigabit/sec.
What is the key advantage to DOCSIS 3.1?
One of the key advantages of DOCSIS 3.1 over Fiber is that it uses the same ‘last mile’ technology - the
coax cable - to support the higher Gigabit speeds. Fiber requires a completely new infrastructure and new
cable layouts to the home, making deployment costs much higher. DOCSIS 3.1 technology is a much more
cost effective technology for cable internet providers to implement.
DOCSIS 3.1 offers a huge jump in download and upload internet speeds, supporting up to 10 Gbps
download and 1 Gbps upload speeds. Using DOCSIS 3.1, Comcast is offering Gigabit and Gigabit Pro
Internet service with 1 and 2 Gigabit download speeds. As DOCSIS 3.1 is backward compatible with
DOCSIS 3.0, operators are still using DOSCIS 3.0 for upstream connection. This backward compatibility
DOCSIS Speed Comparison
Version
Specification
Released
Maximum Download
Speed
Maximum Upload
Speed
DOCSIS 1.x
1997
42.88 Mbps
10.24 Mbps
DOCSIS 2.0
2001
42.88 Mbps
30.72 Mbps
DOCSIS 3.0
2006
1372.16 Mbps
245.76 Mbps
DOCSIS 3.1
2013
10,000 Mbps (10 Gbps)
2,000 Mbps (2 Gbps)