Comcast unveils DOCSIS 3.1 gateway with advanced capabilities

US cable giant Comcast has unveiled its own home-built DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem and said it will go into production this year ahead of deployment in 2016.

Comcast, which has been a driving force behind development of a number of the cable industry’s next-generation technologies, including the Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) and the RDK software bundle for consumer premises equipment, has combined a WiFi router, IP video technology and integrated home automation and security capabilities in the device, according to CTO Tony Werner’s blog posting.

Werner said that the Comcast Gigabit Home Gateway could deliver speeds in excess of 1Gbps, thanks to DOCSIS 3.1, and that it would be backward compatible with the DOCSIS 3.0 standard to enable deployment in the near term. 

The device integrates the PowerCloud home network control and monitoring technology acquired by Comcast in 2014, and also uses the RDK-B open-sourced software developed by Comcast with contributions from companies including Cisco.