scope:

Introduction and Purpose

The present document is part of a series of specifications that define the third generation of high-speed data-over-cable systems. This series was developed for the benefit of the cable industry and includes contributions by operators and vendors from North America, Europe and other regions.

The present document defines the Media Access Control (MAC) layer protocols of DOCSIS 3.0 as well as requirements for upper layer protocols (e.g. IP, DHCP, etc.). DOCSIS 3.0 introduces new MAC layer features beyond what were present in earlier versions of DOCSIS.

Requirements

Throughout the present document, the words that are used to define the significance of particular requirements are capitalized.

The present document defines many features and parameters and a valid range for each parameter is usually specified. Equipment (CM and CMTS) requirements are always explicitly stated. Equipment must comply with all mandatory (MUST and MUST NOT) requirements to be considered compliant with this specification. Support of non-mandatory features and parameter values is optional.

Conventions

In this specification the following convention applies any time a bit field is displayed in a figure. The bit field should be interpreted by reading the figure from left to right, then from top to bottom, with the MSB being the first bit so read and the LSB being the last bit so read.

MIB syntax and XML Schema syntax is represented by this code sample font.