ETSI ES 203 312 describes a method for distributed deployment and centralized control of a DOCSIS cable broadband access system in which the cable network equipment is used in a plant where fibre is run to the cabinet (e.g. in the basement of a customer's multiple dwelling unit) and coax to each customer. This architecture is collectively referred to as Cabinet DOCSIS or "C-DOCSIS". It has been developed to meet the operability and manageability requirements for cable networks that offer a variety of high-bandwidth services and provide QoS guarantees for these services in a distributed architecture. This architecture applies to the operations, administration and management (OAM) of cable broadband access networks.

The present document defines optional implementation architectures for CMTS equipment intended for use in distributed deployments. It defines the functional modules within the CMTS, three different system architectures utilizing the functional modules and the data and control interfaces between these modules for each of those architectures. It also defines general device requirements for the different distributed CMTS architectures.

The present document corresponds to the CableLabs C-DOCSIS specification [i.4].

NOTE: DOCSIS® is a registered Trade Mark of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc., and is used in the present document with permission.