10Galore

By Curtis Knittle

A few years ago, at the beginning of 2019, the cable industry came together and defined a term representative of their collective efforts over not just the previous umpteen years, but something that also embodied their intentions and goals for the next umpteen years. You see, for years the cable industry invested their earnings back into the network, continually upgrading the network to bring consumers the next high speed data service tier, the next version of DOCSIS^® technology, improving network reliability, etc. What was that called? I don’t know. Network reinvestment? Too business-y. Network upgrade? Nah, too nerdy. There was never a term that embodied all that activity, all that investment, all that improvement, especially one that had that certain je ne sais quoi.

That is, until 10G came along.

“10G” is short for the 10G Platform (https://www.cablelabs.com/10g), and it’s really quite simple what it represents – we’ll get to that in a moment. Linguistically, 10G rolls off the tongue, it’s very simple to say. Go ahead, say it with me, “ten…gee.” When someone asks me what I’m working on, it’s easy (and truthful) for me to say “ten-gee.” If I’m going to a conference, and I am asked what I expect to hear, that’s easy too: “ten-gee.”

Seriously though, 10G is a simple yet important term for everything the cable industry is doing. Specifically, 10G encompasses the following general activities:

• Speed: 10x higher speeds than today’s networks
• Low Latency: Lowering latencies to improve gaming and applications
• Reliability: Improving reliability to support the expected number of connected devices
• Security: As our daily lives become more dependent on the network, the need for security and safety becomes more critical

These are just words though, providing a definition for 10G. What’s really cool is the important stuff happening under the 10Gcovers! Now, there’s too much to mention to truly give justice to all of the important activities under the 10G umbrella, but there is one activity or event that provides a solid indication of just how far into the journey we are: The 10G Showcase.

10G Showcase

In early February of this year, a seed was planted by a CableLabs member company about doing a demo of DOCSIS 4.0 technology. As one might imagine that seed grew into a raging forest, and by the end of April there were 45 member companies represented, attendees from 27 vendor companies, and representatives from ~10 media companies watching the technology demos. The demos consisted of DOCSIS 4.0 cable modems, DOCSIS 4.0-based remote PHY and remote MACPHY devices, and 10 Gbps passive optical networking, all coming together to demonstrate the 10G journey. And how did the DOCSIS 4.0 technology perform? Approximately 9 Gbps downstream and 6 Gbps upstream of raw speed test capacity! By the way, if you’re keeping track, that downstream capacity for a DOCSIS-based HFC network is higher than the usable capacity of 10 Gbps PON technology.

10G Challenge

Everyone asks me “What are consumers going to do with that much speed?” to which I reply, “I don’t know!” I wish I did know, but I don’t. But one thing is certain, and that is people asked the same question when high speed data service tiers jumped up to 1 Mbps, and then again to 10 Mbps, and then 100 Mbps, and so on. You see, I believe the network was able to support these capacities before an application was created that required the capacities. Make sense? In other words, the 10G Platform is a platform for innovation, a platform that will encourage innovation in the form of new applications, new uses for all of that capacity. That’s the goal of the 10G Challenge, to inspire innovators to leverage the emerging 10G network.

We announced the 10G Challenge at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2021 with a goal of inspiring and supporting innovators who are developing technologies, services and applications that rely on faster speeds, lower latency, and enhanced security and reliability. Over the past several months we have received some fantastic submissions and we are excited to announce the winners at Expo 2022.

And no road to 10G would be complete without its own avenue. So, making its Expo debut, 10G Avenue will line the corridor to the Innovation Theater, showcasing finalists of the 10G Challenge and a collection of some of the world’s most innovative technology companies who are paving the way toward 10G.

The Fall Technical Forum tucks into the 10G conversation with workshops ranging from “Navigating the 10G Journey” to “Plant Design for the Future of 10G and DOCSIS 4.0.” Also, please join us at Expo for a special fireside chat on Wednesday, September 21 at 1:30 p.m., where you can learn more about the experiences that are in store for us in the future, as innovators develop new solutions that impact the way we live, work, learn and play.

The 10G platform is a combination of technologies that will deliver internet speeds 10 times faster than today’s networks. 10G provides faster symmetrical speeds, lower latency, enhanced reliability and better security in a scalable manner.

Charter Communications demonstrates 8.9 Gbps download and 6.1 Gbps upload speeds at CableLabs’ 10G Showcase in April 2022.

By Curtis Knittle, Ph.D.,

Vice President of Wired Technologies,

CableLabs^®

Images provided by author