DOCSIS is just old toys (and that is not bad)!

I have been working as a network engineer focused on DOCSIS networks for around 2 years in one of the largest ISPs in the region. One of the main reasons that i accepted the position is the opportunity and access to some of the most advance and modern technology and equipment that is used in today’s telecommunication networks (and i ended up in DOCSIS…..).

In my experience cable networks are not something that is widely taught, even in higher education and most of the industry and education seem to be focused on fiber and wireless technologies as building blocks to the future.

This leaves coax networks in some sort of no man’s land, with people seemingly losing interest by considering DOCSIS as a technology of the past and something that is actively being surpassed by almost every new technology that is being developed.

From my perspective this is a potentially dangerous train of thought because for the technology to evolve and advance you need a constant stream of educated and passionate people that will focus their time and energy to continuously improve and push the wheel forward.

By labeling DOCSIS as a technology of the past people are increasing the risk of it actually becoming the self fulfilling prophecy by turning away people that could potentially bring huge value to it.

As humans it is in our nature to pivot toward new shiny things that on the first look seem amazing and perfect, but experience teaches us that not everything that shines turns out to be gold.

Sometimes you are not looking for a new seemingly perfect, but unproven and risky solution. Sometimes you need to rely on a historically good, battle tested, and reliable solution that may not have all bells and whistles but at the end of the will solve your problem and get you where you need to be.

In my opinion, this is one of the most valuable characteristics of modern DOCSIS networks, yes the perfromance are currently mostly not up to par with fiber networks, but the real question is are they good enough for current (and down the line) future customer needs.

What percentage of users are truly using all the capacity that is given to them? How many of those can be fulfilled with Docsis 3.0 and 3.1 modems and routers? How quickly does the change need to come, are we jumping in front of a train or is that train long gone?

In the culture that i was brought up we are thought to be considerate and thoughtful about the world around us. When you only have a few old toys left from your older brother to play, with you need to be creative but also careful in order to get most out of your playtime. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun with them, and also make them better for your younger sibling.

I look at DOCSIS technology in a similar way as those toys, yes you have limited resources, yes you are competing with new fancy robots and screens, yes your old toy car may not be as fast as a brand new one, but you can have good time with both of them.

As we go towards the future with hardware and resources being less obtainable, it is important to be responsible and to try to make most out of what we have right now, because we can’t be certain about what we will have tomorrow.

As we have seen in the new specifications it is possible to fit a ton of zeros and ones through the existing copper wires that are all around the world, a thought which was a dream just a short time ago.

And there will probably be a new one after that one that will seem even better and the next one, and the one after that.

But for that to happen people are needed. New people with fresh ideas, young people with wrong ideas working with passionate and experienced seniors willing to show the existing path and build future one together.

It is hugely important to repeat and to establish that there is a lot of life and opportunity in the cable networks, for the providers and for the customers both, because that is the only way that will stay true.

That old teddy bear may be missing an eye, and could be a little dusty, but all we need is a button, needle and some soap and he will be good as new.

Same is true in this context, DOCSIS may have fallen to the shadows compared to other modern technologies but it does not have to remain like that. As long as there are passionate and diligent people staying true and keeping the flame going it should be running for a long long time, and when it finally goes out at-least we knew that it had a good run.

Thank you for your time, looking forward to hear your thoughts about this, and many other topics

-Darko Djokic

Just a couple of words….

One of the goals of starting DocsisTools.com is to try to connect and bring together amazing people that are working in this sector, or are actively contributing in their own ways.

Knowledge from older colleagues are invaluable since most of the problems that we face are not easily google-able nor solvable by ChatGPT (yet), and it is so so important to share our practices, tools, ideas, problems and to try to keep the industry pushing forward.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and having discussions, it will take some time to set up everything, but hey we gotta start somewhere and take it one at a time.