BTR Interview: Curtis Knittle, VP of Wired Technologies, CableLabs - Part 1

Welcome to Part 1 of Broadband Technology Report's interview with Curtis Knittle, VP of Wired Technologies at CableLabs. The overall discussion centers on CableLabs' 2022 technology milestones, particularly in the area of 10G, with a look ahead into the broadband industry for 2023.

To start off, BTR senior editor Matt Vincent inquires about industry feedback from last year's CableLabs 10G Showcase and Convergence Proof-of-Concept demonstrations, and wonders what further demonstrations might be on deck in 2023. The CableLabs 10G Showcase highlighted the capability of DOCSIS 4.0 technology to support 9 Gbps downstream capacity and 6 Gbps upstream capacity, as demonstrated by multiple operators and supporting equipment providers at the showcase. For its Convergence Proof-of-Concept demonstration, at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2022, CableLabs demonstrated network-as-a-platform concepts and the power of a converged network running on virtualized infrastructure to improve scalability and reliability as part of the CableLabs 10G Lab initiative. This confirmed the ability to use the same application interface to temporarily increase a customer’s network speed, regardless of the type of network (e.g., DOCSIS technology, PON or wireless.)

Next, Knittle addresses how last year, CableLabs and its subsidiary, Kyrio, with support from Comcast, Apple and Google, organized a groundbreaking interoperability event to test and refine implementations and demonstrate Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable Throughput (L4S) technology applications. Questions from BTR include: How did confirmation of successful interoperability lay the groundwork for the goal of a 10G-powered metaverse? And how much closer to this goal will we be in 2023? 

Watch Part 2