Cable Modem Termination System
The CMTS provides, at the cable-provider's head-end, many of the same functions provided by the DSLAM in a DSL system. The CMTS takes the traffic coming in from a group of customers on a single channel and routes it to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) for connection to the Internet. At the head-end, the cable providers will have, or lease space for a third-party ISP to have, servers for accounting and logging, dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) for assigning and administering the IP addresses of all the cable system's users, and control servers for a protocol called Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications (DOCSIS), the major standard used by U.S. cable systems in providing Internet access to users.

The downstream information flows to all connected users, just like an Ethernet network -- it's up to the individual network connection to decide whether a particular block of data is intended for it, or not. On the upstream side, information is sent from the user to the CMTS -- other users don't see that data at all. The narrower upstream bandwidth is divided into slices of time, measured in milliseconds, in which users can transmit one "burst" at a time to the Internet. The division by time works well for the very short commands, queries and addresses that form the bulk of most users' traffic back to the Internet.

A CMTS will enable as many as 1,000 users to connect to the Internet through a single 6 MHz channel. Since a single channel is capable of 30-40 megabits per second of total throughput, this means that users may see far better performance than is available with standard dial-up modems. The single channel aspect, though, can also lead to one of the issues some users experience with cable modems.

If you are one of the first users to connect to the Internet through a particular cable channel, then you may have nearly the entire bandwidth of the channel available for your use. As new users, especially heavy-access users, are connected to the channel, you will have to share that bandwidth, and may see your performance degrade as a result. It is possible that, in times of heavy usage with many connected users, performance will be far below the theoretical maximums. The good news is that this particular performance issue can be resolved by the cable company adding a new channel, and splitting the base of users.

Another benefit of the cable modem for Internet access is that, unlike ADSL, its performance doesn't depend on distance from the central cable office. A digital DATV system is designed to provide digital signals at a particular quality to customer households. On the upstream side, the burst modulator in cable modems is programmed with the distance from the head-end, and provides the proper signal strength for accurate transmission.

According to IDC, a market research firm, cable modems were the most popular form of broadband Internet access in 1999, with more than 1.35 million customers. IDC predicts that the total number of households connected via cable modem will grow to nearly 9 million by 2003.