What is basic difference between DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1?
Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications (abbreviated as DOCSIS) is a globally-recognized telecommunications standard that enables high-bandwidth data transfer via existing coaxial cable systems that were originally used in the transmission of cable television program signals (CATVS).
DOCSIS is a technology for transferring data over coaxial cable that is developed 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.
It all began in March 1997 with the introduction of the DOCSIS 1.0 specification. 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.
DOCSIS 3.1 technology enables a new generation of cable service that includes the latest and greatest of digital communication technologies such as LDPC encoding, very high modulation orders (4096 QAM for example), more than 1 GHz of usable spectrum and support of QoS and low latencies.
Key difference between DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 are shown in the following table:
| Feature: | DOCSIS 3.0 | DOCSIS 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum upstream speed | 200 Mbps | 1 Gbps |
| Maximum downstream speed | 1 Gbps | 10 Gbps |
| Throughput | 256-QAM (42.88 Mbps per 6 MHz channel) | 4096-QAM (1.89 Gbps per 192 MHz channel) |
DOCSIS 3.1 technology delivers all of this while maintaining backward compatibility to DOCSIS 3.0 technology and the ability to deploy it on today’s HFC network without any requirement to upgrade today’s plants.
| Feature: | Advantage: | |
|---|---|---|
| Coax cable | Supports faster downloads compared to fiber cable. | ✔ |
| Enhanced security features | Reduces the risk of malicious firmware being downloaded to your cable modem | ✔ |
| Reduced packet latency | Improves voice quality for VoIP calls and online gaming experiences | ✔ |
| Sleep mode | Reduces power consumption | ✔ |
Compared to DOCSIS 3.0 technology, DOCSIS 3.1 technologies improve the general efficiency of their HFC system and so raises the potential significantly. Even though DOCSIS 3.0 technology supports up to 256 QAM (8 bits/symbol), DOCSIS 3.1 technology supports up to 4096 QAM (12 bits/symbol) thus providing the capability to radically increase the system capacity.
Network Manager are available for your DOCSIS network. Whether you are upgrading an existing system or starting from scratch, we are here to help.
