SIS). The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) have approved the standards listed in Table 4-4 in the "Appendix" section of this chapter. However, the international versions of DOCSIS vary a little from that used in the United States. The DOCSIS standard in Europe and parts of Latin America is referred to as EuroDOCSIS. Transitioning from Asymmetric to Symmetric Channels Until 2016, MSO offerings for residential-consumer Internet access were primarily asymmetric, with higher speeds in the downstream channel from the cable provider to the subscriber, and lower speeds upstream from the subscriber to the provider. Splitting the frequencies into different ranges enables the same coaxial cables to be used for both sending and receiving signals. Unlike fiber cabling, for which separate strands of fiber are used for sending and receiving, a separate coaxial cable does not need to be installed for the reverse, upstream channel. With the advent of new cable www.TechnicalPDF.com modem standards (see DOCSIS below), both upstream and downstream capacities are the same. They are symmetric. Upstream and downstream bits use the entire range of frequencies in the cable. Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1 - -Symmetric Speeds The DOCSIS 3.1 standard specifies support for 10Gbps per 6MHz (6 megahertz) channel. Users on the same node share this capacity. DOCSIS 3.1 is currently the fastest, most advanced cable modem standard. It is compatible with the previous DOCSIS 3.0 that specified bonding to increase capacity on broadband. Bonding enables support for higher data rates of 173Mbps to 343 Mbps downstream to homes, and Mbps upstream to the cable operator. Bonding is the process of combining adjacent channels into one large channel to support higher- speed services. For example, bonding four channels together that each comprise 38 1Mb channels creates a single 152Mb channel. In effect, bonding creates a bigger pipe that is shared by homes connected to the same node. Bonding 