DOCSIS IP-Video Bypass Architecture (DIBA), an Architecture for IPTV over Cable

As with other video service providers, the cable industry is anticipating IP-video and IPTV, and plans to deliver these over the DOCSIStrade (data over cable service interface specification) protocol that cable modems use. The delivery of IP video services will lead to a tremendous increase in DOCSIS traffic, higher IP bandwidth provisioning, and a lessening of the reliance on traditional, non-IP digital video. Indeed, DOCSIS 3.0 was developed with multiple downstream channels to the cable modems, in part, for the delivery of IP video services. The Modular CMTS separated the downstream modulators (EdgeQAMs) from the CMTS core to allow scaling of the number of downstream channels, mainly for IP video. However, there is an economic issue in play, namely that digital video bandwidth is still only a fraction of the cost of the IP / DOCSIS bandwidth that would supplant it. The DOCSIS IP-video bypass architecture (DIBA) mitigates this problem by exploiting the repetitiveness of video packets. IP-video is made to follow the same path as digital video, but still emerge with correct DOCSIS encapsulation. DIBA promises IP-video at cost parity with digital video.