The U.S. cable industry is borrowing a page from the wireless industry in its race to offer 1 Gbps Internet speeds to users. The cable industry's new DOCSIS 3.1 network standard, developed largely by CableLabs, uses the OFDM technology initially pioneered by companies in the wireless industry.
CableLabs' Belal Hamzeh said that the DOCSIS 3.1 standard makes use of OFDM to make data transmissions more efficient. Further, the DOCSIS 3.1 standard makes more bandwidth available to cable customers; it is more energy efficient due to enhancements of DOCSIS protocols; and it provides cable operators with more flexibility in terms of how they configure their networks.
Comcast, Arris and other cable players are hoping to move to the DOCSIS 3.1 standard to offer faster Internet speeds in order to counter the competitive threat posed by fiber players like Google Fiber, AT&T and Verizon.
See this FierceCable special report for more details.