The present document gives guidelines for the implementation of DVB-C2 based cable transmission systems. The DVB-C2 standard [i.1] contains a detailed and precise description of techniques used at the transmitting end. The target of the DVB-C2 standard document [i.1] has been to provide an instruction manual allowing a non-ambiguous implementation of the technology. Explanations on transmission aspects and matters of receiver implementation have not been subject to standardization. Since the developers of the DVB-C2 standard [i.1] felt that such information would be essential for an accurate implementation of an end-to-end DVB-C2 system, the present document was prepared covering the following topics:

• Descriptions of techniques implemented at the transmitting end complementing the explanations given by the DVB-C2 standard [i.1] and extending the focus area to matters of headend architectures, for instance.
• Explanations on CATV network aspects to an extent important for an implementation of a DVB-C2 device.
• Guidelines for the implementation of equipment installed at the receiving end.

DVB-C2 was developed in coincidence with the DVB philosophy to make use of state-of-the-art technologies if possible rather than to invented technologies with almost no advantages compared to existing ones. However, a number of elements of DVB-C2 are based on newly invested techniques which have been used neither in the first generation DVB family of transmission systems nor in the standards of the second generation agreed prior to DVB-C2 (e.g. DVB-S2, DVB-T2), nor have been implemented in a comparable manner in any other transmission technology known. Techniques of the combined PLP and Data Slice multiplex concept are an example for such a novelty. These and other techniques had to be invented to ensure that DVB-C2 not only meets its commercial and technical requirements, but provides an optimized solution with regard to operational flexibility and transmission efficiency to an extent possible today. These techniques have not been discussed at the time of publication of this paper in the wider literature but are presented in the present document in a detail which is important to know for an implementer.

The present document has the objective to make available to DVB-C2 implementers as much as possible of the common understanding captured during the work of the experts group developing the DVB-C2 standard [i.1]. The present document was prepared by these experts with the intention to provide know-how complementary to the explanations of the DVB-C2 standard [i.1] itself and about the environment in which a DVB-C2 system will be operated. Network aspects and matters of receiver implementation are mentioned by way of an example.