The broadband industry is at an inflection point. AI-enabled networks, fiber expansion and converged connectivity are reshaping how operators compete and deliver value. The question isn’t whether transformation is coming — it’s whether you’ll lead it or follow it.

Revolutionizing the network landscape promises a future of connectivity with limitless possibilities. How can broadband operators and their suppliers thrive in the midst of the evolving landscape of wireline, wireless and converged networks? Discover how to leverage cutting-edge technologies like AI, automation and advanced networking while tackling challenges in security, operations and construction — all to deliver the seamless experiences customers crave.

Where Innovation Meets Execution

SCTE TechExpo25, the Americas’ largest broadband event, tackles the industry’s most pressing trends and challenges head-on, equipping broadband operators and their suppliers with the tools and insights to stay ahead in this transformative era.

From Monday, Sept. 29, to Wednesday, Oct. 1, in Washington, D.C., TechExpo attendees will join a community of thought leaders and experts as they dive deep into the trends and technologies reshaping broadband, including:

• Fiber expansion: Discover strategies to accelerate fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) deployments, ensuring you lead in the race for gigabit connectivity.
• Convergence of networks: Learn how to seamlessly integrate wireless and wired networks to maximize performance and efficiency in a 5G-driven world.
• Rural broadband solutions: Uncover innovative approaches to close the digital divide and win in underserved markets with government-backed incentives.
• Customer-centric experiences: Explore how to meet rising customer expectations with better reliability, exceptional service delivery and new differentiated services.

Why Attend?

• Expert-led sessions: Learn from industry leaders who are shaping the future of broadband.
• Cutting-edge innovations: Experience live demonstrations of the latest technologies and solutions driving the broadband network (r)evolution.
• Actionable insights: Walk away with a clear roadmap to tackle your unique challenges and thrive in the competitive broadband space.
• Network with the best: Build connections with peers, partners and innovators.

In addition, employees of CableLabs member operator companies can receive complimentary full-access passes, which include all headliner and conference sessions as well as entry to the show floor and a private lounge. SCTE is a CableLabs subsidiary.

Fueling the Future of Connectivity

This year’s agenda spans seven dedicated tracks — from AI & Automation to Differentiated Services, Wireless & Convergence and StreamTech — ensuring that every attendee leaves with practical knowledge and actionable insights. The AI Zone will return, bringing live demos and cutting-edge applications to the show floor.

Featured speakers include CableLabs President and CEO Phil McKinney, CableLabs CTO Mark Bridges, SCTE President and CEO Maria Popo, and executives from CableLabs member companies:

• David Watson, Chief Executive Officer, Connectivity & Platforms, Comcast
• Frédéric Perron, President and CEO, Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc.
• Bin Haga, Chairman of the Board, Representative Director, J:COM
• Charlie Herrin, President, Technology & Product, Connectivity & Platforms, Comcast
• Justin Colwell, Executive Vice President, Technology Strategy & Innovation, Charter Communications
• Elad Nafshi, Executive Vice President, Chief Network Officer, Comcast
• Tom Monaghan, Executive Vice President, Field Operations, Charter Communications
• Damian Poltz, Senior Vice President, Wireline Network and PMO, Rogers Communications
• JR Walden, CTO & SVP, Mediacom Communications

Connect With CableLabs at SCTE TechExpo25

If you’re making TechExpo25 plans, reserve time in your schedule to engage with CableLabs experts in behind-the-scenes explorations of the technologies and companies forging the future of the broadband industry. In addition to providing their perspectives in nearly two dozen engaging sessions, our team will be on hand to bring you live, interactive demonstrations and guided tours that bring the latest broadband innovations to life.

Join us for the demos, tours and sessions below to explore our comprehensive Technology Vision for the future of connectivity, and discover how these breakthroughs are transforming everything from spectrum sharing approaches to seamless user experiences.

Expert-Led Demos Powered by CableLabs

From Monday through Wednesday on the show floor, visit the NCTA booth (F600) for hands-on demonstrations with CableLabs experts. Each demo offers a unique opportunity to engage directly with our team and see firsthand how these technologies can address real-world challenges in our industry.

They will take place from 10:45 a.m.–1 p.m. Monday, 10:30 a.m.–1 p.m. Tuesday and 10 a.m.–1 p.m. Wednesday, except where otherwise noted. All times below are EDT.

The demos include:

• Frictionless Connectivity: Explore Zero-Touch Onboarding, which can automate Wi-Fi connections for health care devices without apps or technical support. See how users — such as patients and caregivers — can benefit from instant, seamless and secure connectivity for remote monitoring and virtual visits.
• Smart Networks, Seamless Experiences: Dive into Quality by Design technology, where apps and networks can communicate automatically to resolve performance issues. Experience how this delivers smoother streaming and faster load times without user intervention.
• Optimized Network Performance: Session automation gets the spotlight in this AI-powered network optimization demo showing automatic bandwidth management for multiple devices and applications. Watch how critical tasks like video calls maintain quality even during peak household usage. (Note: This demo will be available early on Wednesday, beginning at 9 a.m.)
• The Future Is Dynamic: Dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) technologies can transform how operators deploy networks by allowing different technologies and use cases to coexist in the same spectrum. This presentation will explore how DSS can create abundance out of scarcity — enabling seamless and reliable connectivity for consumers no matter where they are. (Note: This demo will be available early on Wednesday, beginning at 8:30 a.m.)

Member-Only Vendor Tours

Exclusive to CableLabs member operators, we are also offering a series of five curated tour experiences on the TechExpo show floor. Members can register for one of the five tours, each featuring companies that are developing DOCSIS 4.0 or XGS-PON technology products.

• DOCSIS 4.0 Core (Tour 1): 11–11:45 a.m. Monday
• DOCSIS 4.0 CPE (Tour 2): Noon–1 p.m. Monday
• XGS-PON OLTs/ONUs (Tour 3): 10:45–11:30 a.m. Tuesday
• DOCSIS 4.0: Actives and Passives (Tour 4): 11:15 a.m.–12:10 p.m. Tuesday
• XGS-PON ONUs (Tour 5): 9:15–10 a.m. Wednesday

At each stop, members will have opportunities to:

• Engage with product experts who have successfully participated in recent CableLabs Interop·Labs events.
• Get an inside look at the latest innovations driving multi-gigabit, low-latency and highly reliable broadband.
• Get a jump on understanding future solutions and start building your own views of these important technology solution areas.

If you’re a CableLabs member attending TechExpo, view the tour topics and find a time that works with your schedule. Spots are limited, so register for a tour by Wednesday, Sept. 24.

Focused, Expert-Led Sessions

The action-packed TechExpo agenda features numerous sessions with CableLabs experts serving as moderators or panel members, including:

Monday

• Agentic AI Transforming Network Operations (Session block: Intelligence at the Edge, 1-2:15 p.m., Room 151 AB) — See how agentic AI is revolutionizing network operations across Wi-Fi, access networks and field operations through predictive analytics and real-time optimization. Paul Fonte, director of the Future Infrastructure Group at CableLabs, leads a panel discussion on AI-driven solutions that boost customer experience through predictive maintenance, remote diagnostics and guided repairs.
• An Automated Spectrum Analysis Framework (Session block: Analyzing, Managing and Maximizing Wireless Networks, 1:20–2:15 p.m., Room 150 AB) — Explore a comprehensive end-to-end framework for real-time dynamic spectrum sharing across multiple technologies and use cases to ensure regulatory compliance and interference mitigation. Robust spectrum analysis systems provide critical insights into spectrum usage and enable dynamic spectrum sharing capabilities. Mark Poletti, Roy Sun and Rahil Gandotra from CableLabs’ Wireless Technologies team discuss the latest technology trends and activities around DSS.
• Wi-Fi Reliability (Session block: The Reliability Revolution in Wi-Fi, 2:30–3:45 p.m., Room 150 AB) — This session, moderated by CableLabs principal architect Josh Redmore, dives into the growing complexity of managed Wi-Fi networks, from capacity planning and traffic modeling to translating lab testing into real-world performance gains. Join us as we explore cutting-edge approaches to Wi-Fi diagnostics, congestion management and the latest advancements in Wi-Fi standards.
• Edge LLM Hosting (Session block: Operationalizing LLMs in the Network Ecosystem, 4–5:15 p.m. ET, Room 151 AB) — Find out how to host large language models using edge compute infrastructure and integrate them into generative AI systems for industry-specific applications. The session covers reinforcement learning techniques and fine-tuning strategies that customize models for low-latency, agentic AI use cases. Distinguished technologist Randy Levensalor presents this technical paper.
• Emerging Fiber Technologies — How AI is Driving Innovation of Future of Transmission Networks (Session block: Speed, Intelligence and the Future of Fiber: Innovations Driving Next-Gen Transmission, 4–5:15 p.m. ET, Room 146 BC) — This panel looks at next-generation fiber innovations designed to meet generative AI’s demanding requirements for reduced latency and increased reliability. The discussion covers complementary technologies like Distributed Acoustic Sensing and high-density connectivity that accelerate repair speeds and enhance network scalability. Dr. Alberto Campos, CableLabs fellow, joins this panel.

Tuesday

• E.T. Phone Home: Converging Opportunities from Earth to Space (Session block: Converging Networks, Expanding Horizons, 12:30–1:45 p.m. ET, Room 150 AB) — See how cable and satellite operators are working together to create converged network services that expand coverage and enhance customer connectivity. The session examines real-world partnership results between major MSOs and satellite providers and looks at how satellite capabilities fit into hybrid network strategies. CableLabs Vice President of Technology Strategy Chris Stengrim moderates this session, and principal strategist Hans Geerdes joins as a panelist.
• Connectivity as a Service (CaaS) — CableLabs Members Only (Session block: Seamless by Design: Innovative Paths to Scalable, Always-On Networks, 2–3:15 p.m., Room 150 AB) — This exclusive, members-only session covers the future of always-on connectivity using wired, wireless and satellite networks that work together seamlessly regardless of access technology. CaaS simplifies user experience while identifying the competitive advantages, architectural requirements and use cases operators need to bring this service model to market. CableLabs’ David Debrecht, vice president of Wireless Technologies, and Sanjay Patel, senior director of Technology Strategy, share their perspectives.

Wednesday

• The Transformative Impact of Coherent PON (Session block: Architecting the Future Access Platform, 11:30 a.m.–12:45 p.m., Room 146 BC) — Distinguished technologist Matt Schmitt moderates this session on how coherent PON technology enables revolutionary new architectures and advanced services that go beyond traditional point-to-point connections. The discussion covers the strategic reasoning behind key technical decisions in transmission convergence and physical media dependent layer specifications, plus how these advancements unlock new possibilities for scalability and service innovation.

Discover many more game-changing technology topics across all tracks and expert speakers.

Are You Ready for the (R)evolution?

TechExpo gives you hundreds of opportunities to explore groundbreaking solutions, forge strategic partnerships, stay current on policy developments and transform your operations to meet the demands for seamless experiences.

Register for TechExpo25 today to connect with global operators, policymakers, vendors and innovators next month in Washington, D.C., and join the conversations shaping the industry’s future.

The broadband industry is preparing to bid farewell to one of its most influential leaders. Michael Powell's retirement from NCTA – The Internet and Television Association caps a distinguished tenure marked by revolutionary policy innovation and unwavering commitment to increasing access and advancing connectivity for all Americans — a transformative chapter that paves the way for continued progress.

As the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Michael brought a unique perspective to policy shifts in the industry. Over the past 15 years as president and CEO of NCTA, he has advocated for policies that support innovation, helping to shape the future of connectivity.

Michael announced his retirement in February. This week, NCTA announced the appointment of his successor, former U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, who represented Colorado in the Senate from 2015 to 2021 and in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2015. He will officially join the association later this month.

Champion of Broadband Access and Innovation

Michael has been called a champion of the industry by many, but his vision for the future of connectivity extends far beyond traditional broadband infrastructure.

He has been a steadfast industry ally throughout his career, first as FCC chairman, fighting battles over Title II broadband regulations, and later as president and CEO of NCTA, where he has led some of the most significant efforts toward seamless connectivity through the 10G initiative.

Michael’s advocacy for the 10G initiative — which enables widespread seamless connectivity and enables technologies that will fundamentally change how we live, work, learn and play — exemplifies his commitment to pushing the boundaries of what's possible in broadband technology. Advocating for improved speed, access and reliability for all, Michael has described 10G as “not the picture, (but the) canvas on which the demands of our imagination will be built,” underscoring the massive opportunities for innovation such a network can offer.

His ability to recognize future connectivity needs and champion the policies to make them reality has been invaluable. When the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for reliable, secure and fast connectivity, the broadband industry showed it was not only ready but performed exceptionally well. Michael’s efforts and contributions to the 10G initiative helped move us forward into the connectivity that we know today and set the stage for the innovations that will drive our future.

His work with the initiative is foundational to the Technology Vision for the future of the industry, the next generation of connectivity innovation.

Above and at top: Michael Powell speaks with CableLabs President and CEO Phil McKinney during a general session at SCTE TechExpo in 2023.

Spectrum Leadership and Wi-Fi Advocacy

Michael’s tireless advocacy for unlicensed spectrum and innovative solutions to unlock these wireless resources has been instrumental in shaping the industry's future. His support for spectrum sharing solutions like Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) has increased access to critical spectrum resources, enabling additional mobile capacity to enhance consumer choice in mobile services while extending high-speed internet access to Americans in rural and underserved areas.

Earlier this year, Michael testified before the House Energy & Commerce Committee, advocating for a more comprehensive approach to spectrum management and emphasizing its essential role in maintaining America's economic and technological leadership. He argued that efficient spectrum use is fundamental to the country's competitive advantage in the global marketplace.

Michael’s advocacy stems from his conviction that “Wi-Fi is more than just convenience — it's a game-changer for our economy and innovation.”

The CableLabs Connection

For many years, Michael has served as a non-voting member of the board of directors at CableLabs. Michael’s policy work and vision for "permissionless innovation" — the idea that individuals and companies should be able to experiment and innovate with new technologies without extensive regulatory barriers — is a philosophy that has guided much of his work and helped create an environment where breakthrough technologies can flourish.

CableLabs President and CEO Phil McKinney reflects on Michael’s impact:

"We at CableLabs are immensely grateful for Michael’s leadership and advocacy. He has certainly contributed to our ability to innovate and build the networks of the future.

"He has been a guiding light on policy in the broadband industry and has brought us to where we are today. Michael has an uncanny ability to balance competing interests, promote innovation and navigate complex government and policy issues.

"The foundations he has laid will continue to benefit all of us for years to come. We’re all stronger, more innovative and better positioned for the future because of his efforts.”

Michael — who was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Cable Hall of Fame in 2022 — leaves a legacy of impact that will continue to position America as an economic and technology leader far into the future. CableLabs is grateful for his efforts and wishes him success and happiness in his well-deserved retirement.

CableLabs engineers and technologists are actively contributing to the Reference Design Kit for Broadband (RDK-B), an open-source software platform deployed by many CableLabs member companies to power connected home experiences. RDK-B forms the foundation for key residential gateway features, including set-top box (STB) integration, IoT device management and managed Wi-Fi in both single-family homes and multi-dwelling units (MDUs).

As a vendor-neutral, open-source software stack, RDK-B offers operators flexibility, transparency and control over their broadband infrastructure — values that align closely with CableLabs’ mission to drive interoperable innovation at scale.

Elevating Mesh Networking with EasyMesh

In 2024, the RDK-B community launched a major initiative to integrate support for Wi-Fi Alliance’s Wi-Fi CERTIFIED EasyMesh™ standard — prompting CableLabs to get directly involved. As longstanding contributors to the Wi-Fi EasyMesh specification, CableLabs is uniquely positioned to enhance RDK-B’s implementation and help ensure seamless, vendor-agnostic mesh networking experiences for operators and their subscribers.

Wi-Fi EasyMesh represents a significant evolution in home networking. Unlike proprietary mesh solutions, Wi-Fi EasyMesh is an open standard, enabling multi-vendor interoperability among access points, extenders and controllers. This is particularly important for operators looking to break free from vertically integrated, locked-in ecosystems that limit flexibility and slow innovation.

By standardizing mesh behavior — including topology formation, channel management and band steering — Wi-Fi EasyMesh gives operators a common framework to manage and optimize Wi-Fi networks across diverse hardware. It also opens the door for competitive procurement, reduced vendor dependency and consistent user experiences across device brands and firmware versions.

Advancing Wi-Fi Easy Connect and Seamless Onboarding

CableLabs’ first major upstream contribution to RDK-B was the industry’s first fully open-source implementation of the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Easy Connect™ protocol, also known as the Device Provisioning Protocol (DPP). This milestone brings support for Zero-Touch Onboarding (ZTO) to RDK-B, enabling secure, user-friendly network enrollment via QR code — without requiring users to know or input Wi-Fi credentials.

DPP is particularly well-suited to modern mesh deployments, where adding new devices (e.g., access points, IoT endpoints, controllers) needs to be fast, secure and reliable. With Wi-Fi Easy Connect now part of the RDK-B Wi-Fi EasyMesh stack, operators can deliver a smoother out-of-the-box experience for end users while enhancing network security through modern cryptographic provisioning methods. Again, CableLabs is uniquely positioned to contribute Wi-Fi Easy Connect functionality due to our continuing leadership and contributions to the specification during its development in Wi-Fi Alliance.

CableLabs publicly showcased the integration at RDK Summit 2025 in London, where I gave a featured technical talk highlighting the importance of seamless and secure onboarding in connected home environments. Simultaneously, my colleague Ben Carlson hosted a live demonstration booth, offering hands-on insight into CableLabs’ open-source contributions and their impact on RDK-B’s capabilities.

Strategic Synergy Between CableLabs and RDK-B

The collaboration between CableLabs and the RDK-B community represents a natural synergy. Both ecosystems are built around the values of interoperability, openness and scalable innovation. RDK-B provides a robust deployment vehicle, and CableLabs brings a deep well of standards leadership, cross-industry coordination and forward-looking technology development.

By contributing directly to RDK-B, CableLabs can help ensure that its latest innovations — many of which are defined in collaboration with operators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and global standards bodies — are production-ready and deployable across member networks. The result is a faster path from spec to field deployment, enabling member companies to move with greater agility and confidence.

RDK-B also benefits from CableLabs’ neutrality and long-term vision. Our work with Wi-Fi EasyMesh, Wi-Fi Easy Connect and the broader Wi-Fi ecosystem is guided by industry consensus and technical rigor, helping RDK-B implementations remain future-proof and aligned with operator priorities.

RDK-B as a Strategic Distribution Platform

Because RDK-B serves as the networking software platform for many CableLabs members, it offers a compelling vehicle for delivering and scaling future innovations across the broadband ecosystem. Beyond Wi-Fi EasyMesh and Wi-Fi Easy Connect, CableLabs is actively exploring opportunities to leverage RDK-B for deployment of:

• Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable Throughput (L4S)
• Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Data Elements™ for advanced telemetry
• Enhanced security and diagnostics capabilities
• Multi-access and hybrid access techniques
• Additional next-generation technologies in development

By aligning closely with the RDK-B community and contributing robust, standards-based enhancements, CableLabs is helping ensure that our members have access to a secure, flexible and future-ready broadband platform — one that evolves in tandem with the needs of modern connected households.

Together, RDK-B and CableLabs are building the foundation for the next generation of broadband. If you use the RDK-B platform, be on the lookout for these and other new features.

The latest DOCSIS® 4.0 interop event wasn’t just another gathering of broadband innovators — it was another significant step forward for the industry.

With more than 50 attendees from around the globe, the energy in the room was palpable. This event wasn’t just about checking boxes for protocol compliance; it was about pushing the limits of broadband technology and seeing what happens when the brightest minds and the fastest modems in the business are brought together at CableLabs.

The Interop·Labs event, held Aug. 11–14 at CableLabs headquarters, gave suppliers an opportunity to verify interoperability between equipment designed to comply with DOCSIS 4.0 specifications. It focused on three key areas: speed, stability and a diverse ecosystem. Each of these components directly impacts the quality and reliability of broadband service.

Ten Modem Suppliers, One Goal

One of the standout aspects of this interop was the 10 participating modem suppliers. Each supplier brought their own unique hardware and firmware optimizations to the table, creating an environment where innovation could thrive.

Once again, attendance at the event was the highest yet and included three operators on hand to observe demos and share their DOCSIS 4.0 network progress.

Three suppliers — CommScope, Harmonic and Vecima — brought DOCSIS 4.0 cores to the event. Again, we saw five Remote PHY Device (RPD) platforms from Calian, CommScope, Harmonic, Teleste and Vecima. And, of course, the icing on the cake was the number of DOCSIS 4.0 modem suppliers in attendance — Arcadyan, Askey, Compal, Gemtek, Hitron, Sagemcom, Sercomm, Ubee, Vantiva and WNC — who brought multiple modem models.

Chipmakers Broadcom and MaxLinear brought local engineering support for their cable modem partners, and Calian participated with its test solutions.

Every supplier was aligned on one common goal: proving that DOCSIS 4.0 technology is not simply a theoretical leap forward but that it is a commercially viable technology ready for wide-scale rollout. The interoperability tests weren’t simply about passing; they were about performance headroom, feature robustness and forward-compatibility.

And the results? Let’s just say fast doesn’t even begin to describe it.

The Showstopper: 16 Gbps Downstream

If there was a single number everyone walked away talking about, it was 16 Gbps downstream. Achieving this kind of throughput in a lab environment is one thing; demonstrating it live in a collaborative interop environment — across multiple suppliers — is something else entirely.

This wasn’t an isolated “best case” setup either. Several configurations reached double-digit gigabit speeds, showing that DOCSIS 4.0 technology isn’t just an incremental step — it’s a foundation for multigigabit service tiers that can compete head-to-head with fiber.

Collaboration Is the New Competition

Perhaps the most inspiring part of the event wasn’t the hardware or the speed tests — it was the culture of collaboration. Ten different modem suppliers, each with their own market goals, came together to ensure that when DOCSIS 4.0 technology hits the field, it will work seamlessly across the ecosystem. The modems spent most of the interop working on the three cores, driving interoperability across the wider ecosystem with the RPD suppliers.

This spirit of cooperation ensures that innovation isn’t locked in silos. When suppliers solve interoperability challenges together, operators and consumers benefit from a smoother, faster rollout of next-gen services.

Additional Cable Modem PNM Operations

With a record number of modems in attendance, we rolled out the proactive network maintenance (PNM) tests for the modems. More and more, the signals on the plant are orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), which provide higher speeds and capacities than traditional quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals.

At this interop, we ran five PNM tests on the modems, specifically getting data from DOCSIS 4.0 modems and verifying interoperability with the application programming interfaces (APIs) and with the data generated by the modems. This PNM data will enable the most efficient operation of the coaxial cable network, keeping the data levels at their peak by using the more efficient OFDM and OFDMA signals.

DOCSIS 3.1 Plus: Beyond the Buzzword

DOCSIS 3.1 Plus (DOCSIS 3.1+) was also prominent at the interop with several modems in attendance. The leap from DOCSIS 3.1 to DOCSIS 3.1+ is about raw speed. The “Plus” brings expanded support for more OFDM channels, which means more downstream speed. More than slides in a presentation, these advancements were tested, measured and verified in real time.

Operators are already discussing how these capabilities could fit into their network evolution plans. With the cost efficiency of leveraging existing HFC plant and the performance benefits on display, DOCSIS 3.1+ has emerged as a compelling strategy for rapid, wide-scale multigigabit deployment.

What’s Next

With the success of this record-breaking interop, the stage is set for even more ambitious goals. The industry now has proof that multi-vendor DOCSIS 4.0 systems can deliver and play nicely together. The next steps will likely include refining firmware for even better efficiency and starting the migration path toward DOCSIS 4.0 technology.

There are lots of moving parts in these interops, but one thing is certain: the 16 Gbps milestone will be remembered not just for the number but for what it represents — the moment when the industry saw the future of HFC networks and realized it was already within reach.

This interop wasn’t just an event — it was a benchmark for the broadband industry’s future. With record attendance, diverse vendor participation and real-world proof of DOCSIS 4.0 capabilities, the path to multigigabit broadband has never been clearer.

Another DOCSIS 4.0 interop is planned for the week of Oct. 20 at CableLabs. Consider joining us to see the speed and service possibilities firsthand!

Learn More at SCTE TechExpo

There’s still time to join us at SCTE TechExpo25, Sept. 29–Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Employees of CableLabs member companies are eligible to receive a complimentary full-access pass. Register today if you haven’t yet!

If you’re attending, plan to attend “Self-Healing Networks: The New Frontier of DOCSIS Operations” on Monday, Sept. 29. In this session, my CableLabs colleagues will join a conversation on how PNM and Profile Management Application (PMA) technologies can create intelligent, self-optimizing networks that proactively detect issues, adapt performance in real-time and shift operations from reactive troubleshooting to automated network resilience.

The latest CableLabs Interop·Labs CPMP XGS-PON event took place Aug. 4–7 in our Louisville, Colorado, labs and was designed to test the ONU Management and Control Interface (OMCI). The event focused on exercising a core subset of the OMCI requirements defined by a combination of the ITU-T Recommendation G.988 and CableLabs’ Cable OpenOMCI specifications. For background on the importance of OMCI interoperability testing and the genesis of the Cable OpenOMCI specification, please see my blog post, “Driving Alignment: New Progress Toward XGS-PON Equipment Interoperability” (May 2025).

This was the second interop event at which we tested the OMCI layer via pairings of optical line terminals (OLTs) and optical network units (ONUs) from various suppliers. And for this event, supplier engineers executed test cases designed to exercise requirements from the I02 version of the Cable OpenOMCI specification, published in July 2025.

Supplier Participation at the XGS-PON Interop

For the August event, we hosted an array of ONU suppliers, who brought a variety of devices to test. These suppliers and devices included:

• Calix — ONU and gateway
• Ciena — multiple ONU models
• Comtrend — ONU
• Hitron — ONU
• Nokia — multiple ONU models
• Sagemcom — ONU and gateway
• Ubee — multiple gateway models

Also for this event, we hosted our largest number of OLT suppliers yet. OLT suppliers on hand were:

• Calix — AXOS E7-2 OLT
• Ciena — Tibit MicroPlug OLT
• Harmonic — Pier OLT
• Nokia — Lightspan MF-2 OLT

Some of the OLT suppliers also made use of their DOCSIS Adaptation Layer capabilities to help streamline ONU service provisioning in the lab.

Interop Test Plan Evolution

For the interoperability event, the test setup was duplicated on each participating OLT supplier workbench. A small-scale PON optical distribution network (ODN) was built on each workbench, connecting the supplier’s OLT to one or more ONUs under test. The OLT supplier made use of its OLT’s logging and debugging capabilities or the lab’s XGS-PON analyzer equipment to record the results of each OMCI test case.

Interested participating suppliers met a few weeks in advance of the event to update the test plan, based on changes from the I02 specification and from lessons learned from previous events. In addition to the five test cases described in my May blog post, the interop test plan for this event was extended to include test cases for ONU time synchronization and access network interface optical power levels.

Overall results from the interoperability events continue to be encouraging. Suppliers have taken lessons learned from previous events and made improvements to their software implementations. Testing at this particular event showed the resolution of previous issues but also uncovered new ones.

Continuous Improvement Cycle

As a next step, the CableLabs CPMP working group will discuss the findings from this event and, if necessary, define solutions for those issues in the form of engineering change requests against the published Cable OpenOMCI I02 specification.

Once significant engineering changes have been incorporated into that version, we’ll issue an I03 version of the spec. In some cases, the working group may determine that a discovered issue would be best addressed in the ITU-T space. In those cases, a working group member company will deliver a proposal to the ITU-T Study Group 15, Question 2 working group for consideration as a change to G.988.

See You In November

CableLabs is planning another PON Interop·Labs event the week of Nov. 3. Details of that event will be made available as we get closer to that week.

We plan to welcome OLT and ONU suppliers back to our lab to exercise the interoperability aspects of the I03 version of the Cable OpenOMCI specification. We expect to have an updated interop test plan (based on the I03 version) available to participants in advance of the November event.

Imagine that you arrive at a hotel after a long drive, and something remarkable happens: nothing. Your connected car has automatically uploaded telemetry data and downloaded updates over the hotel’s Wi-Fi. Your medical monitoring device has seamlessly maintained its secure connection to your health care provider. Your laptop and phone have instantly connected with the same performance and security policies you enjoy at home. No passwords. No QR codes. No fumbling with apps. All your devices are simply connected upon arrival.

This vision of effortless connectivity isn’t science fiction. It’s the promise of the Context-Aware Network (CAN), a transformative framework that CableLabs is developing to revolutionize the way devices, users and applications interact with network infrastructure. By making networks truly context-aware, we’re shifting the paradigm from location-bound connectivity to experiences that follow users wherever they go.

The Problem With Location-Bound Connectivity

Today’s connectivity model is fundamentally broken. When we think about “our network,” we envision the Wi-Fi router sitting in our home — a fixed point in space that defines where we can connect. Step outside that bubble, and our devices become digital strangers, forced to navigate a maze of guest networks, captive portals and security compromises. Even within our homes, every new smart device demands its own setup ritual: entering passwords, scanning codes, downloading apps and hoping everything connects properly.

This fragmentation isn’t just inconvenient; it’s holding back entire industries. Connected vehicles rely almost exclusively on expensive cellular connections because Wi-Fi networks can’t provide the seamless, context-aware connectivity they need. Health care providers struggle to deploy remote patient monitoring at scale when each device requires manual configuration by patients who may not be tech-savvy. Hotels consistently rank Wi-Fi issues among guests’ top complaints, from login difficulties to dropped connections.

The root cause? Networks today lack the essential ability to understand device and user context. They treat devices as anonymous endpoints rather than known entities with established trust relationships, ownership models and service requirements. This limitation prevents networks from delivering the differentiated, portable and secure experiences that modern connectivity demands.

A New Framework for Modern Connectivity Experiences

CAN represents a paradigm shift in the way network infrastructure understands and interacts with the devices, users and applications that connect to it. Built specifically for hybrid fiber coax (HFC) network operators and their ecosystem of customer premises equipment (CPE) — including Wi-Fi access points, cable modems, optical network units (ONUs) and gateways — this framework standardizes the capabilities needed to make connectivity truly intelligent and aware.

At its core, CAN enables three transformative capabilities. First, it allows networks to recognize and authenticate devices as known entities rather than as anonymous endpoints. Second, the framework associates those devices with their owners and the policies that should govern them. Third, it makes these contextual relationships portable, allowing devices to maintain their trust relationships and service levels as they move across different networks and operator footprints.

This isn’t about creating new protocols from scratch. Rather, CAN provides the orchestration layer that allows existing technologies — including Wi-Fi, DOCSIS, Passive Optical Network (PON), the Matter smart home standard, Device Provisioning Protocol (DPP), Network as a Service (NaaS) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) — to work together and deliver context-aware experiences at scale.

Building Blocks of Context-Aware Experiences

The magic of CAN comes from two foundational capabilities that work in concert: Zero-Touch Onboarding and trust domains. Together, these concepts address the key challenges of device provisioning and policy management that have plagued connectivity for decades.

Zero-Touch Onboarding eliminates the manual burden of connecting devices to networks. Through a protocol-agnostic NaaS API, operators and third-party service providers can pre-provision devices to automatically join the correct network without any user intervention. Imagine a health care provider shipping a heart monitor to a patient: Before the device even arrives, the provider uses the Zero-Touch Onboarding API to register it with the patient’s home network. When the patient powers on the device, it automatically discovers and connects to the right network with the appropriate security policies already in place. The solution is flexible and can support a number of onboarding technologies, including Matter Commissioning and Device Provisioning Protocol (aka Wi-Fi Easy Connect).

The framework is designed to be protocol-agnostic, allowing device manufacturers to leverage whichever onboarding method best suits their use case. Regardless of the underlying protocol, the principle remains the same: Devices can securely authenticate themselves and join the network without manual intervention.

This flexibility ensures that the framework works across a broad range of devices — from sophisticated connected vehicles to simple Internet of Things (IoT) sensors that lack user interfaces — while allowing operators to adopt emerging standards as they mature. As the industry evolves, the CAN framework can seamlessly incorporate new onboarding protocols, ensuring that operators maintain a future-proof connectivity platform.

Trust domains provide the policy and ownership framework that makes context awareness meaningful. A trust domain is a logical construct that groups devices under common policies for access control, security and quality of service. But trust domains go beyond simple network segmentation. They encode ownership relationships and make policies portable across networks.

When that medical device connects at home, it joins a trust domain specifically configured for health care IoT: isolated from other devices, with encrypted connections to authorized endpoints only, as well as quality-of-service settings for reliable data transmission. When the patient travels to a hotel equipped with CAN, the device’s trust domain travels too, maintaining the same security policies and connectivity requirements without any reconfiguration.

This portability extends to all types of devices and use cases. A connected vehicle could maintain its high-bandwidth offload policies whether parked at home, at the office or at a shopping center. Business laptops could enforce enterprise security policies regardless of which operator’s network they join. Gaming consoles could maintain their low-latency configurations across different locations.

The framework also integrates with complementary NaaS capabilities that enhance the context-aware experience. Quality on Demand APIs allow dynamic adjustment of bandwidth and latency based on device or user tier. Quality by Design APIs provide real-time monitoring and troubleshooting, giving service providers visibility into connectivity health. Together, these capabilities create a complete ecosystem for delivering differentiated, intelligent connectivity services.

Help Us Shape the Future of Connectivity

CAN represents more than a technical evolution; it’s an opportunity for the cable industry to redefine what connectivity means in an increasingly connected world. By making networks aware of context, we can finally deliver the seamless, secure and portable experiences that consumers expect and that new markets demand.

The market opportunity is substantial and immediate. Connected vehicles represent a significant revenue opportunity for data-offload services, with automakers actively seeking alternatives to expensive cellular-only strategies. Remote patient monitoring offers strong growth potential while improving health care outcomes and reducing costs. The hospitality sector sees additional opportunities for monetizing premium connectivity experiences that follow guests across properties.

But seizing these opportunities requires industry alignment and action. The technology is ready. What’s needed now is collective commitment to deploy these capabilities uniformly across cable networks. By working together to implement CAN, operators can establish cable as the definitive platform for next-generation connectivity services.

CableLabs is actively working with members and technology partners to refine these specifications and accelerate deployment. We’re developing reference implementations, creating interoperability test suites and fostering the ecosystem necessary to bring context-aware experiences to market. The window of opportunity is open, but competitors aren’t standing still. The time to act is now.

In November 2024, CableLabs released NetLLM: Your Handy Automated Network Assistant. NetLLM is a set of tools that collects metrics from the network and passes them as text to an out-of-the-box Large Language Model (LLM) trained on natural language for analysis.  This approach works well and has the added benefit of allowing people to communicate with their router in conversational English.

The next step, which is the subject of this blog post, was to train a model on network communication itself rather than a text description. Our model is trained on the raw network packets, treating the sequence of packets as a language by handling each packet as a sentence in the context of the overall network conversation. This approach led to a custom architecture that allows us to build a real intuition for understanding network traffic in more detail.

What We Made

Our model takes in a Packet CAPture (PCAP) and outputs its understanding of what’s happening in that network traffic in the form of a vector of numbers (or embedding) for each packet. In LLMs, words and ideas are internally represented using embeddings, which are tuned to reflect the ideas they represent. If you think of packets as their own ideas, then you can represent these ideas numerically too, with embeddings, which can be thought of as translations of packets on the network to something that a machine can understand.

As a test, we used these embeddings to classify traffic into categories, focusing on two initial use cases: identifying the type of IoT devices on a network and detecting security attacks. For each of these use cases, the embeddings were transformed to create a probability distribution for the target classes, which allowed us to classify the traffic into two or more categories (or labels). Our categorization success rate with each of these use cases was over 90%.

Architecture Overview

To capture the full meaning of a PCAP, the most important aspects are the timing and content of each packet and the relationship between packets; the architecture needs to reflect this.

The first step is to break each packet down into its constituent protocols, each of which is passed through a dedicated layer that has learned to extract features specific to that protocol. The packets are then sent through a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network, which is a type of machine learning layer that excels at extracting temporal relationships between time steps and transforming them to take previous time steps into account. We then pass these time-aware representations through a self-attention layer that excels at identifying the role and meaning of each packet in the broader context of the surrounding packets.

Figure 1: A high-level overview of the path that a packet takes as it is processed by our model and what it represents at each step

The output of the model, the final embedding, is a list of embeddings, one per packet, that is a learned understanding of the original PCAP. To see how you can use these embeddings, imagine a classification task. These embeddings would be used to predict which class a given PCAP belongs to. For example, if we trained the model to predict which type of IoT device we’re looking at, the output of this classification would be a probability distribution over the potential labels (e.g., 80% smart camera, 10% smart lightbulb, and 10% other).

When designing our architecture, we wanted to make sure that our model could exist where it would be most effective. Many network analysis tools are quite large and live in the cloud, which has a few potential drawbacks:

• There are privacy concerns in sending potentially confidential information up to the cloud.
• Sending all traffic up to the cloud is a huge waste of upstream bandwidth.
• The analysis system fails if the backhaul goes down and the cloud cannot be reached.

We focused on a local solution, making the model as lightweight as possible, so that it could run on CPE and function even without access to the wider internet.

Continued Development

But there is more that can be done with these embeddings!

The Packet Transformer. When we take a wider view of the PCAP Comprehension Module in Figure 1 above, it looks similar to the encoder block of a transformer. For natural language processing (NLP) classification tasks, in models like BERT, the encoder is used to understand and then classify the input, just like our model. To produce text, most modern LLMs use a decoder-only architecture. This works well for text because text doesn’t need any additional processing or understanding. So, if we feed our embeddings into the decoder (along with text and any other relevant measurements), we would be able to create a Multi-Modal LLM that has a deep understanding of network communications and can explain and answer questions about it.

The Network Agent. This PCAP Comprehension module could also be used as a network comprehension agent inside a larger agentic system. In this way, the comprehension agent would be invoked when the coordinating agent thinks there is a need to look in detail at network traffic.

Building for the Future

As our industry moves forward, flexible and resilient systems that can communicate better with consumers are a necessity. Systems that both understand networking and diagnose/fix issues can solve customers’ problems more quickly and save on customer service costs.

This innovative approach is powerful, lightweight and able to run directly on CPE. So, instead of trying to squeeze as much compute power into hardware as possible (which is expensive, power-hungry and time-consuming), we can work smarter by using this novel architecture on any existing hardware.

To continue to develop our model, we need more data. If you are a CableLabs member or part of our vendor community, this is where you can help. If you have any labeled or unlabeled PCAPs and would like to contribute to this model development or collaborate, let us know.

“Have you ever had to…”

This phrase sometimes precedes a story about a challenging or difficult experience. For internet users around the world, maybe this rings a bell: Have you ever had to turn off the Wi-Fi on your phone to prevent calls from dropping when leaving home?

It’s likely that many people reading here can relate to this scenario. Why is that?

It’s because mobile devices tend to stick to Wi-Fi (whether at home, in the office or elsewhere) for too long, often switching to cellular when it’s too late. This can lead to dropped voice calls and data connections that stall for 20 seconds or more. This “sticky” behavior has existed ever since mobile devices first integrated Wi-Fi and cellular radios.

The problem stems from a fundamental characteristic of mobile devices, which follow a “Wi-Fi first” approach. However, the problem is exacerbated by the lack of a standardized mechanism to seamlessly transition between Wi-Fi and cellular networks, which leaves users vulnerable to connectivity disruptions.

How Does This Impact the End User?

In today’s digital age, we rely heavily on mobile devices for everything — from video calls and streaming services to online work and social interactions. Yet, many users face a frustrating experience: When moving between cellular and Wi-Fi networks, their devices often struggle to maintain a stable connection, resulting in dropped calls, buffering videos or lost data sessions.

This lack of seamless connectivity not only disrupts user activities but also impacts perceptions of service quality, leading many to disable Wi-Fi altogether or switch to less efficient networks.

How Can We Improve the Experience?

Collaborating with member operators, CableLabs has been working to characterize the poor user experience that this problem creates and to understand how frequently it happens.

Our field testing included evaluating hundreds of video conference calls, testing video calling apps and making voice calls across devices from major manufacturers and operating systems. We assessed the user experience based on audio dropouts, video stutters and freezes, and dropped calls, and compiled the results.

Our members also analyzed hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi signal strength data points during times when phones transitioned from Wi-Fi to cellular networks. We even conducted surveys with actual customers to gather insights into their experience when leaving Wi-Fi coverage.

What Did We Find?

Long story short, the problem is real. It’s disruptive to users and occurs frequently. Our testing highlights the extent of this issue as summarized below.

• Most devices we tested experienced long periods (usually between 19 and 54 seconds) of bad audio, dropped audio and/or frozen video during calls.
• Standard voice-only calls had between 10 and 13 seconds of bad audio during the transition from Wi-Fi to cellular.
• From analysis of operator-provided Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) data, the RSSI is low enough to likely cause issues with Wi-Fi voice calls 60 percent of the time when transitioning from Wi-Fi to cellular. When using other apps problems are likely to occur 40 percent of the time.
• About half of the surveyed users manually switch their mobile device between their home Wi-Fi and cellular at least once per week, with 44 percent of those users experiencing issues during the transition.

The consequence is clear: Without seamless network transitions, user experience suffers, reliability drops and dissatisfaction increases.

While standards development organizations have made some advancements, particularly for Wi-Fi calling, these solutions have not yet fully addressed the latency and disruption challenges during network transitions for other applications.

What’s Next?

This problem is multifaceted, given the diverse set of stakeholders involved — including device vendors, operating system (OS) vendors, chipset vendors, operators and application developers, each using their proprietary algorithms/KPIs to try to solve the sticky Wi-Fi problem. Switching to cellular as soon as Wi-Fi starts to degrade can improve the user experience to a certain extent, but it won’t fully solve the problem.

CableLabs is actively engaging with all the industry stakeholders in an attempt to align on a common, streamlined solution aimed at enhancing the user experience. This will ensure we can address the challenges users face today during network transitions in a consistent manner, regardless of a user’s access network or device.

We are also working with industry vendors and standards organizations (like Wi-Fi Alliance) to test and develop solutions for truly seamless connections that offer reliable and consistent experiences for users. If your company is a mobile device vendor and you would like to engage with CableLabs in this work, contact us to learn how we can collaborate to achieve seamless connectivity.

To read more about this and the CableLabs working group tackling this problem, read our recent blog post, “Unlocking the Power of Seamless Connectivity.”

The broadband industry is experiencing a transformative moment — one defined by unprecedented collaboration, groundbreaking technology and milestone achievements that set the tone for the future of connectivity. Today, we’re excited to highlight a convergence of firsts that represent significant strides in driving scalable, interoperable and high-performance broadband networks.

These advances were on full display at the latest Interop·Labs event, held June 9–12 at CableLabs’ headquarters in Louisville, Colorado. The event provided an opportunity for suppliers to verify interoperability between equipment designed to be compliant to the DOCSIS 4.0 specifications. The focus: speed and stability, two critical factors that directly impact the quality and reliability of broadband service.

A New Milestone: Uniting Innovation With Scale

In this blog post, we’ll walk through the key breakthroughs that made this interop a milestone event for DOCSIS 4.0 technology and the broadband industry as a whole.

1. 10 DOCSIS 4.0 Modem Suppliers

Interest in delivering modems into the DOCSIS technology ecosystem remains high, with 10 modem suppliers having attended a DOCSIS 4.0 interoperability event at CableLabs.

2. Three CCAP Core Suppliers Demonstrating Advanced Capabilities

In an industry first, three DOCSIS core suppliers attended the interop and demonstrated:

• Stable registration with multiple high-speed channels.
• Cable modem interoperability.
• High-speed throughput both upstream and downstream.
• Advanced service features.

The successful interop of multiple cores with the modems at the interop further proves that operators are no longer bound to a single core vendor solution. Instead, they can architect their networks based on performance, cost and feature alignment — without compromising on integration or scale.

3. Five RPD Suppliers Interoperating in a Single Network

Additionally, for the first time, five Remote PHY devices (RPD) were tested during the event and successfully achieved interoperability with the cores, reinforcing the maturity of the Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) ecosystem. Additionally, for the first time, five Remote PHY Devices (RPD) were tested during the event and successfully achieved interoperability with the cores reinforcing the maturity of the Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) ecosystem. This marks a major achievement for interoperability in a traditionally siloed space, where vendor lock-in could limit agility and innovation.

Each RPD supplier brought unique implementation characteristics to the table — ranging from management capabilities to different form-factors. The cores not only handled these diverse devices gracefully but also maintained service performance and control plane consistency while achieving high-speed data delivery.

4. Achieving 14 Gbps DOCSIS Downstream Throughput

The fourth major milestone is a technological leap forward: 14 Gbps of downstream DOCSIS throughput achieved across a multi-vendor network. This achievement leverages the full potential of DOCSIS 4.0 technology, DAA architectures, next-gen modulation (4096-QAM) and intelligent spectrum management.

This bandwidth benchmark isn't just a speed milestone — it’s a validation of the DOCSIS roadmap, demonstrating that hybrid fiber coax (HFC) infrastructure remains a future-ready platform that can compete with fiber on both performance and longevity.

Why These Firsts Matter

These achievements go beyond engineering milestones — they signal a new era of openness and agility in broadband infrastructure. For operators, this means:

• Faster innovation cycles due to supplier interoperability and innovation.
• Reduced operational risk via interoperable fallback options.
• Future-proof investments in scalable architectures like DAA and DOCSIS 4.0 technology.

For consumers and businesses, it translates to more reliable service, higher speeds and faster deployments of next-generation broadband.

Participants test their equipment for interoperability, with a focus on speed and stability, during the June 2025 event at CableLabs.

Key Contributors and Participants

Attendance at the event was strong, with new suppliers, new products and three operators on hand to observe demos and share their DOCSIS 4.0 network progress.

Suppliers included CommScope, Harmonic and Vecima, who brought DOCSIS 4.0 cores to the event. For the first time, we saw five Remote PHY Device (RPD) platforms from: Calian, CommScope, Harmonic, Teleste and Vecima. Eight DOCSIS 4.0 modem suppliers in attendance — Arcadyan, Askey, Compal, Gemtek, Hitron, Sagemcom, Sercomm and Ubee — brought multiple cable modem models.

Participating in the event were chipmakers Broadcom and MaxLinear, who brought local engineering support for their cable modem partners. Calian participated with its test solutions, and Microchip brought its clock and timing system.

Testing combined virtual cores, RPDs and modems from different vendors to verify performance and cross-compatibility. DOCSIS 3.1 and 4.0 devices were once again integrated to showcase interoperability between legacy and next-gen technology. Suppliers providing test equipment used these setups to verify their solutions.

Looking Ahead

This confluence of industry firsts is not an endpoint, but a foundation. With successful demonstrations of interoperability, performance and scalability, our industry is entering a period where the promise of next-gen broadband becomes reality — not just in labs, but in communities around the world.

The future is open, fast and here — and we couldn’t be more excited to play a part in building it.

Upcoming Events

The next phase of broadband promises faster speeds, greater reliability and seamless integration across today’s HFC networks. Another DOCSIS 4.0 interop is planned in August at CableLabs. Consider joining us to explore the possibilities firsthand.

Also, registration is now open for SCTE TechExpo25, happening Sept. 29–Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The theme of the industry-leading annual event is “Network (R)Evolution: Delivering the Seamless Experience.” Join us to explore how operators can thrive amidst the transformation across wireline, wireless and converged networks. CableLabs members are eligible to receive a complimentary full-access pass to SCTE TechExpo.

There are a lot of reasons to attend an industry conference. To name just a few, events like SCTE TechExpo or the recent CableLabs Winter Conference provide opportunities to:

• Learn about the latest technology research.
• Discover emerging products.
• Network with colleagues.
•  Identify technology trends.

The last of these was very much evident at this year’s Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) conference, the world's leading event for fiber optic technologies, where there was a palpable shift in how CPON technology is being viewed. In past years, much of the conversation has centered around if coherent optics technology could viably and practically be applied to passive optical networks. This year, it was much more about when the technology would come to market and how to make it cost effective.

What was once a forward-looking vision is evolving into a real-world opportunity with long-term potential.

CPON, a mainstay in CableLabs’ optical fiber portfolio, is entering a new, more active phase of industry planning. Network operators are exploring opportunities to implement it sooner rather than later, and the broader ecosystem — including vendors and standards bodies — is also signaling interest.

We’ve often seen the technology talked about in the context of long-term evolution, but it also holds the potential to solve immediate challenges for operators. With speed no longer a key service differentiator, providers are tasked with delivering superior online experiences and services that adapt to the needs of the user.

CPON technology contributes to experience and adaptability by enabling:

• Lower latency.
• Streamlined integration with existing architectures.
• Simplified, cost effective capacity scaling.
• Reduced operational complexity.

These capabilities parallel the Technology Vision for the industry, which emphasizes competitiveness, scale and alignment across the ecosystem while also cultivating next-generation technology solutions.

What Is Coherent PON, and How Did We Get Here?

Amid ever-increasing demands for a faster, more reliable exchange of data, PON technologies remain one of the dominant architectures capable of meeting that growth. Existing PON technologies transmit data over fiber optic cables using a technique known as Intensity Modulation – Direct Detect (IM-DD), which has proven to be a simple, cost-effective means of supporting multiple users over a shared optical data network (ODN).

However, there’s a problem. As speeds ramp up higher and higher, IM-DD based PON solutions require more and more power, require more complicated signal processing, have more limitations on operating frequencies, and can only reach more limited distances. As capacity increases, IM-DD is no longer the simple, cost-effective solution it was before.

So, what’s the alternative?

Coherent optics is an advanced fiber optic technology, which uses coherent modulation and detection to transmit more data for a given unit of time with greater sensitivity over longer distances than comparable IM-DD solutions. Coherent optics has long been used for point-to-point connections in submarine, long-haul and metro networks. More recently, it has begun to be applied to the access network as well, driven in part by work done by CableLabs to demonstrate that it can be a practical, cost-effective solution with a wide range of benefits.

CPON, for the first time, applies coherent optics technology to PON, resulting in a whole host of benefits.

Compared with traditional PON technologies, CPON solutions enable data transmission rates starting at 100 Gbps upstream and downstream — with the ability to easily scale to even higher capacities — while covering greater distances with better signal quality. This combination allows CPON systems to support more users and services on the same network.

More than simply an upgrade in speed and capacity, CPON technology also enables a shift in how networks are built. Combined with expanded, scalable capacity and ultra-low latencies, CPON technology also expands the services that can be provided over those networks. This enables CPON to provide a foundation for scalable service delivery across increasingly complex network architectures. As operators shift their network strategies to include a mix of technologies — hybrid fiber coax (HFC), fiber, wireless and even satellite — the technology is emerging as a key enabler of unified, flexible architectures.

Coherent PON On the World Stage

While CPON has long been a priority within CableLabs’ optical strategy, it’s exciting to see the broader industry begin to take notice, too.

As we mentioned earlier, the energy around CPON was especially visible this year in San Francisco at OFC 2025. We saw a significant uptick in technical contributions related to coherent technology, providing further proof that momentum is building beyond CableLabs’ own efforts. Multiple sessions, presentations and demos focused on coherent optics and access network applications, drawing particular interest from network operators considering new avenues to rethink network design and service delivery.

The event made it clear that coherent technology has entered mainstream planning discussions for PON. The increase in engagement signals a growing recognition that CPON is becoming a necessary component of next-generation broadband strategy. Much more importantly, it demonstrates the industry’s collective commitment to moving the technology forward.

Additionally, even as CPON gains more attention from the broader industry, CableLabs continues to serve as a leader in advancing this technology. At OFC 2025, our CableLabs working group participants were particularly productive, covering next-gen PON solutions generally and CPON technology and solutions specifically in several engaging talks (both invited and contributed) as well as panel discussions. Here are some of the highlights from the PON-related contributions presented by our working group collaborators:

• Single-Laser BiDirectional Coherent PON: a Hybrid SC/DSC Architecture for Flexible and Cost-Efficient Optical Access Networks — Showcased a novel single-laser BiDirectional CPON capability featuring hybrid single-carrier and dual-subcarrier support.
• Low-Complexity 100G Burst-Mode TDMA-CPON Transmission Achieving 38 dB Link Budget — Experimentally demonstrated practical 100 Gbps burst-mode coherent transmission and reception without optical amplification.
• Robust Colorless Coherent Receiver for Next-Generation PONs: Coexistence With Legacy Systems and Multi-Wavelength Operation — Explored a colorless coherent receiver designed for next-generation PONs, emphasizing its ability to coexist with legacy PONs and support multi-wavelength operation.
• Crafting Fiber Access Networks for Service Excellence Assurance — Provided in-depth analysis and insights into the evolving landscape of fiber access networks.
• Harmony From Chaos: Orchestrating and Interoperable Ecosystem for the Future of PON — Explored standards and strategies for streamlined future-ready deployment and management across diverse vendor systems.
• Out of the Darkness: A Sneak Peek at CableLabs’ CPON Specifications — Covered how CPON is shifting from feasibility to implementation.

Accelerating Adoption Through Collaboration

Together with our member operators and vendor community, we’re actively shaping the direction of CPON technology. A CableLabs-led working group continues to advance this effort, with a shared goal of moving CPON from specification to broader adoption. Our work to develop and refine the suite of specifications is ongoing, and we expect to publicly issue the full suite by the end of 2025.

These working groups play a critical role in building a healthy, collaborative broadband ecosystem: ensuring that resulting solutions align with the real-world needs of both operators and end users, and can be developed and built by manufacturers at a reasonable cost. If you’re a CableLabs member or vendor interested in contributing to this effort, we encourage you to learn more about our working groups and how you can get involved.

Continuing this shared development and ecosystem-wide collaboration is critical, especially as the suite of specifications moves closer to public release and industry interest ramps up.

As CPON systems move closer to widespread implementation, this collaborative model will be key to its success. More than a next-gen PON technology milestone, CPON is a foundation for seamless, scalable connectivity — enabling a faster, more responsive and more reliable broadband experience for the future.