Analogue axe 'could lead to 100Mbps net'

[Devilfish]

Turning off analogue signals will allow Virgin Media to provide 100Mbps downstream speeds over its cable network "if we chose", according to the firm's chief executive.

Neil Berkett said the combined effects of introducing the DOCSIS 3.0 transmission standard and the freeing up of capacity by switching off analogue cable TV transmissions would allow it to continue providing faster broadband than competitors.

The company today confirmed it was commencing a tentative region-by-region programme of ending analogue cable TV service.

"Relatively modest investment in customer equipment and [headend] ports for channel bonding is required to do this and is included in our current capital expenditure guidance," he told investors.

"Next year our 20Mbps and 50Mbps customers will move to the DOCSIS 3.0 platform. This will significantly improve the quality of service provided to all our customers, as the 2Mbps and 10Mbps customers will have more bandwidth specifically dedicated to them. This will help push real world delivery speeds as close as possible to the advertised headline speeds."

Berkett said: "We currently only use two 8Mhz channels to serve all our broadband customers. For DOCSIS 3.0 this will be tripled. Each additional channel will be freed up by switching off a single analogue channel.

"Clearly it will not be long before we are in a position to switch off analogue completely, and this will free up significant bandwidth for even higher broadband speeds. We could easily provide 100Mbps if we chose to do so. We have a huge broadband advantage over competing technologies for speed quality, reliability and cost."

The newly freed-up spectrum could also be used to provide more linear television channels or more on-demand programmes and films.

Berkett said broadband provided over BT's network would be unable to match Virgin's speeds despite a significant ongoing investment in its network. He also predicted that development of new super-high speed networks was some way off.

[C64]

I reckon 100mbps will be the top package in around 4 years :)

[MFCGAVMFC]

100mbps? how good would that be until 4pm

[McMav]

100mbps? how good would that be until 4pm

Quoted for truth.

[jhdetailing]

hope my 2meg will go up soon

[caveman_nige]

FYI,

DOCSIS
From Wikipedia,

Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) is an international standard developed by CableLabs and contributing companies that include: ARRIS, BigBand Networks, Broadcom, Cisco, Conexant, Correlant, Intel, Motorola, Netgear, Terayon, and Texas Instruments. DOCSIS defines the communications and operation support interface requirements for a data over cable system. It permits the addition of high-speed data transfer to an existing Cable TV (CATV) system. It is employed by many cable television operators to provide Internet access (see cable internet) over their existing hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) infrastructure. The first DOCSIS specification was version 1.0, issued in March of 1997, with revision 1.1 (adding Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities) following in April of 1999. Because of increased demand for symmetric services such as IP telephony, DOCSIS was revised to enhance upstream transmission speeds; DOCSIS 2.0 was released in December 2001. Most recently, the specification was revised to significantly increase transmissions speeds (this time both upstream and downstream) and introduce support for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). This version, DOCSIS 3.0, was released in August 2006. Cross-version compatibility has been maintained across all versions of DOCSIS, with the devices falling back to the highest supported version in common between both endpoints (cable modem and cable modem termination system).

As frequency allocation band plans differ between U.S. and European CATV systems, DOCSIS standards have been modified for use in Europe. These changes were published under the name of "EuroDOCSIS". The main differences account for differing TV channel bandwidths; European cable channels conform to PAL TV standards and are 8 MHz wide, whereas in North-America cable channels conform to NTSC standards which specify 6 MHz. The wider bandwidth in EuroDOCSIS architectures permits more bandwidth to be allocated to the downstream data path (toward the user). EuroDOCSIS certification testing is executed by Excentis (formerly known as tComLabs), while DOCSIS certification testing is executed by CableLabs. Typically, CPE gear receives "Certification", while CMTS equipment receives "Qualification".

Japan employs other variants of DOCSIS

DOCSIS includes MAC layer security services in its Baseline Privacy Interface specifications. DOCSIS 1.0 utilized the initial Baseline Privacy Interface (BPI) specification. BPI was later improved with the release of the Baseline Privacy Interface Plus (BPI+) specification used by DOCSIS 1.1 & 2.0. Most recently, a number of enhancements to the Baseline Privacy Interface were added as part of DOCSIS 3.0, and the specification was renamed "Security" (SEC).

The intent of the BPI/SEC specifications is to describe MAC layer security services for DOCSIS CMTS to CM communications. BPI/SEC security goals are twofold:
provide cable modem users with data privacy across the cable network
provide cable service operators with service protection; i.e., prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to the network’s RF MAC services

BPI/SEC is intended to provide a level of data privacy across the shared medium cable network equal to or better than that provided by dedicated line network access services (analog modem or digital subscriber line). It does this by encrypting data flows between the CMTS and the CM. BPI & BPI+ utilize 56-bit DES encryption, while SEC adds support for 128-bit AES. All versions provide for periodic key refreshes (at a period configured by the network operator) in order to increase the level of protection.

The earlier BPI specification [ANSI/SCTE 22-2] had limited service protection because the underlying Key management protocol did not authenticate cable modems. BPI+ strengthened the service protection feature by adding digital certificate based authentication with a public key infrastructure to its Key exchange protocol.

Speed Table

Maximum synchronization speed (Maximum usable speed)Version DOCSIS EuroDOCSIS
Downstream Upstream Downstream Upstream
1.x 42.88 (38) Mbit/s 10.24 (9) Mbit/s 55.62 (50) Mbit/s 10.24 (9) Mbit/s
2.0 42.88 (38) Mbit/s 30.72 (27) Mbit/s 55.62 (50) Mbit/s 30.72 (27) Mbit/s
3.0 4channel +171.52 (+152) Mbit/s +122.88 (+108) Mbit/s +222.48 (+200) Mbit/s +122.88 (+108) Mbit/s
3.0 8channel +343.04 (+304) Mbit/s +122.88 (+108) Mbit/s +444.96 (+400) Mbit/s +122.88 (+108) Mbit/s

Note: NTSC 6MHZ channel spacing will allow 10 bonded 6MHz channels as MAX spectrum allocation for DOCSIS3.0 data, 60MHz spectrum allocation could increase with consumer needs and re-allocation of analog TV channels into compressed digital space, leveraging the capability of DOCSIS 3.0 infrastructure to allow for 1Gbps speeds in the future

[Jocky666]

If they7 can manage 100mbits then may be the SHOULD LEAVE MY UNLIMITED SERVICE ALONE Instead of throttling it those fcking cock juggling thunder cnts!!!!!!!!!!
Honestly who advertises an unlimted service then complains that people use it twts!!!!!!
Anyone point me in the direction of some good modem advice :-)

[davelister30]

that download cap is a load of bollox, whats the point of 20mg service if u can only download 5 gig a day? pointless

[bugaloo41]

Not a huge downloader but seems to me that vm have capped my speed and I certainly aint met any cap. 100 mb would be good potentially a film in under 10 secs!

[terry2t]

If we get 100mbs then all the sites which are toiling at the weekends now will go into meltdown.

[Bliss IRL]

Amsterdam have been testing 100 - 150mb to the home over scientific atlantica modems (cisco) i have seen them as standard issue in ireland , just last month we got a free upgrade from 6 mb to 12 mb and just today its up again 20mb and 1.5mb up so yes ntl upc customers will see the best of speeds when they push docsis 3.0 out.

[cp52]

I don't see the point of a 100meg it's useless for browsing & you can't download much due to the draconian caps

[kawasakikr1]

Next year our 20Mbps and 50Mbps customers will move to the DOCSIS 3.0 platform.

I didn't know they had 50Mbps customers, I thought 20Mbps was the fastest?