CableLabs® Certifies One More Firm
for Home Networking Equipment

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CableLabs® has awarded certified status for CableHome™ 1.0 to one more cable home networking product in its recently concluded Certification Wave 27. Motorola received certified status for residential gateways. Recertification also was awarded to Ambit, Netgear, and Scientific-Atlanta residential gateways.

“The industry is rapidly gaining a critical mass of companies which have successfully dedicated resources to this new business opportunity for cable operators,” said Richard Hertz, vice president of Engineering with Comcast Cable. “This kind of support and success bodes well for the industry’s CableHome initiative.”

CableHome is a CableLabs-managed initiative that, coupled with cable broadband service, allows for the distribution of broadband service throughout a consumer’s home. The initiative offers the consumer a secure and managed residential gateway that can be connected to the cable network in a plug-and-play fashion, offloading much of the technical burden inherent in home networking from the consumer to cable operator.

It builds upon the already successful Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS®) project that has helped launch the deployment of more than 25 million high-speed, always-connected, interoperable cable modems internationally. Hundreds of cable modems have achieved DOCSIS-certified status. This announcement, which marks the conclusion of the third CableHome certification wave, brings the number of certified CableHome devices to seven.

Ralph Brown, Senior Vice President Broadband Access and leader of the CableHome initiative, said: “This is great news for our industry. We continue to make substantial progress in certifying innovative home networking solutions for the consumer thanks to the substantial commitment of our suppliers.” CableHome 1.0 features, Brown noted, include a number of effective and friendly home network troubleshooting tools, and help ensure customer privacy and provides protection from hackers attempting to gain unauthorized access to their wireless home network. CableHome 1.0 devices do not provide the ability to query or to configure consumer devices, such as PCs, within the home, Brown added.

The home network service support tools that the operator receives in a CableHome-compliant residential gateway enable improved customer support and increase the efficiency of customer care operations. CableHome 1.0 provides standardization of home networking functionality within a residential gateway, allowing for deployment of a single common back office support infrastructure, and provides a multiple supplier environment. CableHome 1.0 also has been internationally standardized within the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as Recommendation J.191.

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