Backed by its own silicon and design, Terayon Communication Systems Inc. will
roll out its next-generation cable-modem-termination systems based in Data Over
Cable Service Interface Specification 1.1 and the developing DOCSIS 2.0
standard.
The Terayon 'BW 3000' series CMTS units will combine DOCSIS 1.1's quality of
service and capabilities with the upstream throughput boost from the proposed
DOCSIS 2.0's advanced-physical-layer technology.
In turn, that will allow cable operators to expand their bandwidth capacity
and better offer cable telephony, videoconferencing and business services using
their existing cable plant, according to Terayon.
The product line includes the $70,000 'BW 3500,' a full-chassis CMTS unit,
and the $25,000 'BW 3200,' a compact, scaled-down CMTS.
The BW 3500 has greater capacity for large, central headends, while the
smaller 3200 could be used by small to midsized cable systems or as a
network-edge unit for a larger operator.
Units will be available in early 2002, with volume shipments planned for
April.
Cable Television Laboratories Inc. announced this summer that it would begin
work on DOCSIS 2.0, an advanced-physical-layer specification that could triple
upstream capacity.
Terayon's CMTS units supports the A-TDMA (asynchronous time-division
multiple-access) and S-CDMA (synchronous code-division multiple-access) schemes,
and can now offer advanced-physical-layer benefits, director of product
marketing Elisa Camahort said.
'We really think that the primary driver behind DOCSIS 2.0 and our
implementation of it is to enable more DOCSIS 1.1-based services to be delivered
to more subscribers with more reliability and security over the same
infrastructure,' she said. 'For the cable operators, there is a real bottom-line
result, which is more dollars.'
The units can also support older DOCSIS modems, so adding the technology
doesn't require a refit.
'What's appealing to the operators is that they don't have to do anything to
their whole install legacy base of DOCSIS modems, and they can just start adding
2.0 modems to their network and get more throughput for the modems that are
already there,' Camahort said.
