CableLabs Primer Overview

Founded in 1988, Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs®) is a non-profit research and development consortium dedicated to pursuing new cable telecommunications technologies and to helping its cable operator members integrate those technical advancements into their business objectives.

CableLabs serves the cable television industry by:

• researching and identifying new broadband technologies
• certifying or qualifying products
• authoring specifications
• disseminating information

CableLabs benefits the cable television industry and consumers by:

• enabling interoperability among different cable systems helping cable operators deploy innovative broadband technologies
• facilitating retail availability of cable modems and advanced services

CableLabs is funded by subscription fees paid by members as well as by testing-related fees. Cable operators from around the world are eligible to become members.

CableLabs' Governance

The Board of Directors is comprised of CEOs from CableLabs' member companies. An Executive Committee of the Board serves as a steering group. There also is a member-appointed advisory group of technical and business executives called the Technical Advisory Committee that works with CableLabs staff on an ad hoc basis.

CableLabs' Projects

CableLabs works with its member companies to identify projects that lead to the deployment of new broadband technologies to meet business objectives. CableLabs follows a project development process to launch its innovative projects.

1. CableLabs works closely with member companies to determine what kinds of functional requirements the cable operators wish to enable in a specification set. It then begins to work on creating specifications that enable those requirements.
2. Focus teams, comprised of CableLabs' staff, cable operators, and suppliers, work together to develop specifications and technical reports. Once interface specifications are mature and stable enough to enable product development, these specifications are made available to the public on CableLabs' Web site. At that time, CableLabs encourages suppliers to come to CableLabs for interoperability testing, followed by certification/qualification or verification testing.
3. The testing program provides a comprehensive environment in which there is multi-vendor interoperability testing as well as certification/qualification or verification testing against the requirements in the project's specifications. This process, managed by CableLabs technical staff, evaluates how well the products meet the key elements of the specifications. In this way, CableLabs is able to verify that interoperability exists across companies' product lines, and that they adhere to the specifications.
4. CableLabs has organized a royalty-free patent pool for essential intellectual property in most of the projects. This pool is open to any company that builds products in a particular project or initiative.
5. Vendor products/services certified or announced as compliant.

DOCSIS®

DOCSIS defines cable modem interface requirements. It also provides cable modem equipment suppliers with a fast, market-oriented testing method for pursuing DOCSIS compliance, and has resulted in high-speed modems being certified for retail sale. The current version of DOCSIS being specified would allow for approximately 160 Mbps of throughput capacity. For more information, please visit the DOCSIS Web site.

OpenCable™

OpenCable is a project seeking to provide next-generation digital cable-ready devices, to create a common platform for advanced interactive cable services, and to create a retail hardware platform. The project has created specifications to define a CableCARD™ removable security module that separates a retail device (a "host," the retail device that consumers will purchase) from the cable operator's proprietary conditional access system in order to enable equipment portability. The OpenCable project also developed two key specification sets for its hardware and software (OpenCable Platform) components. It is currently working to finalize enhanced television (eTV) specifications and is working with CableLabs members on the next generation security system called downloadable conditional access. For more information, please visit the OpenCable Web site.

PacketCable™

Using Internet Protocol and the cable industry's DOCSIS infrastructure, PacketCable defines a common platform to deliver data and voice traffic efficiently and economically using a single high-speed, quality of service-enabled broadband architecture over two-way cable plant. CableLabs® recently issued a series of specifications (with working title PacketCable 2.0) that will enable cable operators to deliver Internet Protocol (IP)-based communication and entertainment services to customers' televisions, personal computers, fixed-line phones and mobile phones. For more information, please visit the PacketCable Web site.

Security

The Security Group assists CableLabs' members in developing, enhancing, and maintaining robust broadband security through innovation and application of standards-based security measures. The group: manages CableLabs' Public Key Infrastructures (PKIs); supports CableLabs' projects' security requirements; hosts CableLabs' Industry Security Task Force; and identifies CableLabs' security services opportunities. For more information, please contact CableLabs.

Go2Broadband(SM)?

Go2Broadband (G2B) is the cable industry's "service locator" solution for broadband services deployed by cable operators. It is an open, standardized e-commerce system that links retailers and PC manufacturers to a one-stop, industry-wide site for information about where broadband service is available. G2B provides a single interface to its affiliates and member cable operators, helping them to increase the efficiency of their sales processes. For more information, please visit the Go2Broadband Web site.

On-going Projects

CableLabs also conducts research in areas such as Advertising & Interactive Services, Video-on-Demand (VOD) Metadata, and bandwidth management. The VOD Metadata project investigates the distribution of content assets (e.g., movies) from multiple content providers sent over diverse networks to cable operators. Initial efforts focus on creating specifications for video-on-demand (VOD) and subscription VOD applications. For further information about VOD Metadata, please view the VOD Metadata Web site. The Bandwidth Management project develops models for improving the efficiency of distribution of data over a network.