Pace, Broadcom Bond Over DOCSIS 2.0

Channel-Bonding Set-Top Silicon Has DOCSIS 3.0 Features

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, June 19, 2007

Orlando, Fla. -- Can't wait for 3.0? Set-top-box maker Pace Micro Technology will use Broadcom's chips in its set-top boxes to bond multiple downstream Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification 2.0 channels -- and deliver download speeds of 100 megabits per second.

Broadcom’s DOCSIS 2.0 with channel-bonding set-top silicon borrows one of the key features from Cable Television Laboratories’ DOCSIS 3.0 spec: the ability to aggregate downstream channels (in this case, three) to deliver higher download speeds. Broadcom said the chip's feature is forward-compatible with the full DOCSIS 3.0 spec.

Using the Broadcom chip, Pace's DOCSIS-enabled set-top boxes will be able to display video sent over the connection or pass data through to Ethernet devices such as a router, PC or voice-over-Internet-protocol phone.

Pace said it will soon incorporate the Broadcom channel-bonding feature into all of its DOCSIS-enabled set-top boxes.

“This channel-bonding technology enables cable operators to leverage their existing investments in a DOCSIS 2.0 infrastructure … and not wait for DOCSIS 3.0 deployments,” Pace Americas vice president of technology Chris Dinallo said.

The two companies are demonstrating the DOCSIS 2.0 channel-bonding here at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers' Cable-Tec Expo 2007.