Watching the
PacketCable
PacketCable 2.0 incorporates components of 3GPP, but in the near
term, this spec’s potential lies more with business voice and possibly
home networking than wireless infrastructure.
By Justin J. Junkus
CableLabs’ current activities may not be a foolproof indicator of
cable’s future service offerings, but history indicates that they correlate well with how we got to where we are today.
DOCSIS-compliant plant and customer premises equipment
(CPE) implementations preceded high-speed data offerings as a
way to meet customer needs for data transport that matched the
rapidly increasing processing power of personal computers. Similarly, PacketCable 1.0 through 1. 5 found
its way into cable networks in anticipation of
the carrier-grade residential telephony of-
ferings that have become a staple of cable’s marketing mix.
These technology implementations have a common thread.
Technology that has gained acceptance has been defined by
CableLabs specifications.
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