One of the key disadvantages of cable has long been its topheavy nature, or the fact users' upstream speeds are notably slower than their downstream speeds. Initially offering 5 Gbps down and 1 Gbps up, and with plans to nudge that to 10 Gbps down, 1 Gbps up -- the DOCSIS 3.1 standard goes a long way in pushing cable broadband into fiber to the home territory. But according to CableLabs, the organization is cooking up plans to finally make cable broadband connections fully symmetrical.

Back in March CableLabs stated that "full duplex" technology that should upgrade the existing DOCSIS 3.1 standard is on the fast track to adoption.

Sources tell Light Reading that this effort has now moved from broad examination toward the pursuit of a hard specification. The news comes after Cisco this week announced that it has released a silicon reference design for Full Duplex networking.

Cable s upstream has long been relegated to a limited slice of bandwidth (5 MHz to 42 MHz) referred to as a "low split." To dramatically increase upstream cable speeds, cable operators have been exploring a "mid-split" that would bump the ceiling to 85 MHz, or a "high-split" that would push it to 200 MHz. Full duplex technology would eliminate the need for these splits entirely.

That's not great news for telcos, which here in the States are already struggling to keep up with cable due to unwillingness to more seriously invest in fiber upgrades. According to CableLabs, the full duplex upgrade will be an extension and not an entirely new update, meaning it should be pushed into research and development relatively soon. The organization says it should have more detail to share on a timeline sometime this summer.
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