CableLabs Approves Nine New Products

Ending the year with a bang, CableLabs has approved nine new tech products for interoperable use by cable operators. Wrapping up the last of its eight certification waves for 2005, CableLabs certified or qualified a bevy of PacketCable-related products last week, including two embedded multimedia terminal adapters (e-MTAs), two cable modem termination systems (CMTSs), a media gateway and a policy server. The two CMTSs from Cisco Systems and BigBand Networks and the policy server from Juniper Networks cleared the PacketCable Multimedia hurdle. A Terayon CMTS met the PacketCable 1.5 spec while an Asustek e-MTA and a Siemens media gateway earned the PacketCable 1.0 seal of approval. CableLabs also approved three more DOCSIS 2.0 cable modems in Certification Wave (CW) #40. In 2006, the consortium plans another eight equipment testing waves, with the first round due to start in mid-January.