DOCSIS 3.1 interoperability milestone clears path towards DOCSIS 4.0 deployments
June 12, 2026 11.15 Europe/London By Julian Clover


CableLabs has announced a significant milestone in the industry’s transition towards DOCSIS 4.0, with cable modem devices from six manufacturers achieving DOCSIS 3.1 Verified for Interoperability (VFI) status.

Devices from GemTek, Hitron, MaxLinear, Sagemcom, Sercomm and Ubee have successfully completed interoperability testing through the CableLabs DOCSIS Certification programme. The certified devices include products based on chipsets from both Broadcom and MaxLinear.

CableLabs said the achievement represents an important early step in the DOCSIS 4.0 certification process, validating that devices can operate reliably within multi-vendor DOCSIS 3.1 network environments before progressing to more advanced DOCSIS 4.0 testing.

DOCSIS 3.1 VFI status serves as a prerequisite for full DOCSIS 4.0 certification, providing operators with confidence that equipment from different vendors can interoperate successfully in deployed networks.

The milestone covers devices supporting both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Full Duplex (FDX) variants of DOCSIS 4.0, creating a common foundation for future deployments regardless of the upgrade path chosen by operators.

CableLabs said interoperability testing is designed to reduce deployment complexity and ensure standards-based operation across equipment from multiple suppliers. The organisation provides a neutral validation environment where manufacturers can test products against a range of implementations before commercial deployment.

The certification programme forms part of CableLabs’ wider network evolution strategy, which aims to support the cable industry’s move towards higher-capacity and more flexible broadband networks.

While the VFI milestone validates interoperability within existing DOCSIS 3.1 environments, devices will now progress through additional testing phases as part of the full DOCSIS 4.0 certification programme.

DOCSIS 4.0 is expected to enable multi-gigabit broadband services through a combination of higher network capacity, improved upstream performance and enhanced spectral efficiency, supporting the next generation of broadband applications and services.