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NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

DOCSIS 3.1 PHY Introduction

Jason Lowe
December 6, 2014
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NOTES

This presentation highlights the new DOCSIS 3.1

technology (at a high level) and some of the potential
deployment issues.
It is forward looking but it is not intended as a
deployment strategy.
Although the DOCSIS 3.1 specification has been released
by CableLabs no equipment exists today to test.
As the technology is better understood and lab testing
occurs parts of this presentation will change.

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What Are The Changes (PHY)

DOCSIS 3.1 is intended to deliver PON like speeds via the HFC
Plant.
This is done by increasing the modulation and using more
spectrum.
To use higher order modulation(s) the PHY now uses OFDM (or
OFDMA in the upstream).
A change in FEC to improve channel robustness (to open up
more upstream spectrum and to also help with higher order
modulations in both the upstream and downstream directions).
A possible change in the split to increase upstream spectrum.

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DOCSIS 3.0 The New Legacy Technology

In Annex B the downstream carriers follow the standard CATV 6

MHz spacing (which comes from the days of NTSC Analogue TV).
Annex A uses a 8 MHz spacing (EuroDOCSIS).
Downstream carriers are 256 QAM (64 QAM is also an option but
we do not use it here), at Annex B we have a usable throughput
of 36 to 38 Mbps per carrier.
The current state of the art is 24 downstream channels. Some
venders are talking about 32.
Channels are now referred to as SC-QAM (Single Channel-QAM)
Upstream is up to 8 channels today (3.2 or 6.4 MHz, 1.6 MHz is
also a valid configuration) but this is spectrum limited.

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DOCSIS 3.0 Downstream Speeds

Technol
ogy

Number
of DS
Channel
s

Occupie
d
Spectru
m

DS Pipe
Size

Highest
Service
Package

D2.0

1
Tuneable

6 MHz

38 Mbps

~18
Mbps

D3.0

24 MHz

152 Mbps 75 Mbps

D3.0

48 MHz

304 Mbps 150

Mbps+

D3.0

16

96 MHz

608 Mbps 300

Mbps+

D3.0

24

144 MHz

912 Mbps 450

Mbps+ 5

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What is OFDM

Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing

Conceptually a large number of slow speed (narrowband)
carriers that as a group provide a larger pipe.
There are centre carriers and sub carriers.
The ability to deal with extremely poor channel
conditions.
OFDM is not unique to DOCSIS 3.1, it is used in multiple
different communications technologies.
Wireless LAN, ADSL, Cellular, etc.

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OFDM Example

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DOCSIS 3.1 Downstream

Move away from the 6 MHz channel plan (circa 1950s).

Downstream carriers are 25 KHz or 50 KHz wide and can occupy a spectrum
bloc of up to 192 MHz (7601 25 KHz sub carriers per block).
192 MHz of spectrum can have 190 MHz of data carriers)
We need to think more about spectrum and spectral efficiency than carriers.
Modulation of 256, 512, 1024, 2048 and 4096 QAM.
FEC changes from Reed-Solomon (all previous DOCSIS versions) to LDPC
(Low Density Parity Check) to improve robustness.
Likely a 6 dB improvement.
Modems are supposed to also fully support D3.0 so they should also do SCQAM.
Downstream frequencies will be either SC-QAM or OFDM (cannot be both).
The modems must support an upper band edge of 1.2 GHz and may support
up to 1.7 GHz.

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Spectral Efficiency (SC-QAM)

With the DOCSIS change away from SC-QAM, we need to start thinking in
terms of spectrum and spectral efficiency as opposed to the number of
discrete carriers.
How much throughput (or pipe size) will depend on how many bits can be
sent per Hz and how many Hz are being used (symbol rate).
For legacy DOCSIS 256 QAM there are 8 bits per symbol and 5.36 Msym/sec
= 42.88 Mbps (36 to 38 are useable due to MPEG encoding and overhead).
255 in binary is 11111111
Remember we must send 0 (0 to 255 is 256 possible combinations)
The legacy DOCSIS downstream carriers have steep filter alphas so to keep
it simple we can consider the bits per symbol gross spectrum efficiency
(SC-QAM 256 can do 8 bits per Hz of spectrum).
Net is lower (6.33 bits/Hz).

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Spectral Efficiency OFDM

Carrying the concept forward to OFDM:

256 QAM = 8 bits/Hz (baseline)
512 QAM = 9 bits/Hz (12.5%)
1024 QAM = 10 bits/Hz (25%)
2048 QAM = 11 bits/Hz (37.5%)
4096 QAM = 12 bits/Hz (50%)
All the above are gross and include all the overhead.
4096 QAM is 50% more spectral efficient than 256 QAM.
This means 4096 QAM will result in a 50% larger pipe for the same
occupied spectrum.
192 MHz of spectrum is 2.3 Gbps at 4096 QAM.
7680 subcarrier with 7601 possible active 25 KHz subcarriers.
3840 subcarriers with 3801 possible active 50 KHz subcarriers.
Multiple 192 MHz blocks can also be deployed!

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Robustness Improvement

To carry the higher order modulation the robustness of the carrier will
need to be improved AND the performance of the plant may need to be
addressed.
Every time we the area of the decision boundary we lose about 6 dB
of channel robustness (for example 64 QAM is 6 dB more robust than
256 QAM).
Every increase of 2 bits is also 6 dB.
DOCSIS 3.1 helps to offset this through new and improved FEC (LDPC)
and through OFDM.
In theory this alone should allow 1024 QAM to work where 256 QAM
works today (1024 QAM is 25% more spectral efficient than 256 QAM).
Given plant robustness and SNR numbers 2048 and even 4096 may be
practical.

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Downstream Deployment Considerations

OFDM and SC-QAM cannot occupy the same channel space.
OFDM will require additional spectrum over and above what DOCSIS 3.0 is using
OR it will require a portion of the DOCSIS 3.0 spectrum to be converted.
Modem support of SC-QAM and OFDM at the same time?
OFDM is not required to deploy D3.1 modems since the D3.1 modems are
supposed to also support SC-QAM.
How much downstream spectrum is available?
How can we divide up the spectrum between different OFDM modulations?
What will the granularity be?
Can the Downstream AM Laser handle the higher order modulation?
If higher order modulation is used the frequency selection may become much
more critical.
The higher order QAMs may have issues with ingress from OTA/ATSC channels.
Parts of the downstream spectrum have more noise or distortions than others
(CTB, CSO, etc).
Other yet unknown issues!

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Return Changes

The return uses OFDMA (Orthogonal-Frequency Division Multiple

Access).
Like the downstream they are 25 KHz or 50 KHz subcarriers.
The return is up to 96 MHz blocks (downstream was up to 192 MHz
blocks).
LDPC replaces Reed-Solomon, same expected 6 dB advantage.
256 QAM should have the same robustness 64 QAM does today.
The DOCSIS 3.1 modems will also support SC-QAM return carriers
(DOCSIS 2.0/3.0).
The return spectrum can be shared between OFDM and SC-QAM
burst by burst (within the same channel space).
The return BW can be 5 to 42 MHz, 5 to 65 MHz, 5 to 85 MHz, 5 to
117, or 5 to 204 MHz.
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Legacy DOCSIS Returns

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5 to 42 MHz OFDM

If we can use 256 QAM over 25 MHz of spectrum we can

achieve a 200 Mbps upstream pipe (gross).
8 bits per Hz
The capacity will be reduced by support for the legacy
DOCSIS carriers
Where the D3.0 carriers are the spectrum will be
switching between SC-QAM and OFDM.
How much will depend on the modem mix.
Higher order modulations in a 5 to 42 MHz return are unlikely
but.
512 QAM could be 225 Mbps.
1024 QAM could be 250 Mbps.
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Increasing the Return Spectrum

What split do we use?
65 MHz
85 MHz
117 MHz
204 MHz
Must replace all the 42 MHz diplex filters for all options.
Will likely require the replacement of all the amplifiers.
Must remove all downstream carriers in the impacted spectrum.
They are analogue carriers today.
May need to replace the return lasers due to increased load (laser clipping).
May need to do this to support the higher order return modulation anyways.
IF frequency interference (45 MHz)
FM band will likely cause serious ingress problems.
May need to trap this band out at every amplifier.
Aviation ingress?
DTV OOB at ~74.5 MHz.
May not be movable on all boxes.
Cannot be moved beyond 129 MHz on many boxes.
200 MHz split will likely require the removal of the Legacy DTV platform or a move to DSG
may solve part of the problem.
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DOCSIS Return

Estimated (guestimated) 150 MHz of useable spectrum.

Potentially 500 Mbps to 1.5 Gbps depending on the
modulation.
There may be big chunks of spectrum that will be
unusable.
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Theoretical Pipe Size

Each downstream block of 192 MHz is capable of 2.3 Gbps (at 4096 QAM).
Multiple blocks are possible, in a 258 to 1 GHz system three+ blocks are possible
for a pipe of almost 7 Gbps.
Extending the BW to 1.2 GHz could increase this above 10 Gbps.
It is unlikely the entire spectrum can support 4096 QAM.
It also requires all other services other than D3.1 to be removed!
The upstream may have 150 MHz of usable spectrum (maybe more) with a 200 MHz
split.
This will result in a 500 Mbps to 1.5 Gbps pipe.
If we can achieve 2.3 Gbps downstream and 1 Gbps upstream we have pipe sizes
(and possibly achievable speeds) directly comparable to G-PON.

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