NEWS ARTICLE FROM 11/95
Zenith Electronics Corporation today announced a new family of cable modems that will deliver up to 40 megabits-per-second (Mbps) of digital data over a 6-Megahertz cable channel. The ultra-high-speed cable modems will operate on a flexible new data communication architecture compatible with emerging standards -- paving the way for
mass deployment of industry-standard cable modems.
To support its end-to-end solution for ultra-high-speed data delivery on cable systems, Zenith has joined forces with Cisco Systems Inc., (Nasdaq: CSCO) a leading supplier of internetworking solutions.
"With our efficient and very flexible bandwidth-on-demand system, cable operators will have the tools to provide high-speed data services to tens of thousands of subscribers simultaneously," said William G. Luehrs, president of the Zenith Network Systems division, announcing the new products that will operate at speeds as much as 1,500 times faster than today's fastest telephone-based modems.
Zenith's forward-looking approach to cable modem design allows cable operators to generate revenues today with Zenith's current "HomeWorks" modems, which will co-exist with the higher-bandwidth digital systems of tomorrow. "More bandwidth will allow cable operators to serve 10-20 times as many subscribers and to offer more advanced
multimedia applications, including work-at-home, very high speed Internet access and videoconferencing," Luehrs said.
The new ultra-high-speed cable modem architecture is based on a flexible design that takes advantage of high-bandwidth digital modulation technologies planned for deployment by the cable industry. Versions for 40 Mbps data delivery will be available for 16-VSB* (vestigial sideband) and 256-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) cable systems. The flexible architecture also has been designed to work with 64-QAM transmission technologies. For upstream data, Zenith plans to offer a range of options and speeds, including both telephone and RF (radio frequency) return path technologies.
Zenith and Cisco have ported the Cisco IOS internetworking software to Zenith's cable system architecture. In addition, Cisco will provide routers, switches and Cisco IOS software that will allow cable operators to receive data at 45 Mbps over T3 telecommunications lines.
The provision of high-speed internetworking equipment at the headend will relieve a bottleneck that currently exists between the cable operator (which can carry high-speed data on its own system) and switched public telecommunications networks.
NOTE: The 16-VSB digital modulation and transmission technology was developed as part of Zenith's high-definition television (HDTV) research, and is the cable delivery mode of the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance system, recommended to the Federal Communications Commission yesterday.
CONTACT: John Taylor of Zenith, 708-391-8181, or Adam Stein of Cisco, 408-526-7388 |
