| Fiber Optic cable and the old common (coaxial or RF) | | | | cable losses are very low. |
| cable are two different cable system technologies that | | | | Digital Television |
| can be used to distribute various services to end | | | | Digital television in cable networks can be divided into |
| users--homes. In general, they differ only in technical | | | | two totally different ways of distribution. The first one |
| (electrical/communication) point of view. This is mainly | | | | is an equivalent to digital broadcasting and the other |
| important for the network operators because end | | | | way mainly used in fiber optic networks is IP television. |
| users or viewers don't care about the technology, they | | | | Digital Cable Broadcasting |
| are interested in services and TV channels. | | | | This is equivalent to analog distribution over (RF) cable |
| There are few different ways that can be used to | | | | but with digital signal. The same technology |
| distribute common services like television channels via | | | | (modulation) can be used as for terrestrial |
| cable networks. Each has some advantages and | | | | broadcasting but usually, there are more efficient |
| disadvantages and needs different topology or | | | | systems that take into account specific properties of |
| network infrastructure. | | | | cable systems. One typical example is DVB-T system |
| Analog Television | | | | which is used in Europe for digital terrestrial video |
| The first cable television networks were simply an | | | | broadcasting but cables use similar DVB-C system. |
| extension of the broadcasts in the air. This was | | | | IP Television |
| implemented by deploying ordinary antenna cable (but | | | | This is the most popular digital television distribution |
| with lower losses) from the cable system headend to | | | | used with fiber optic cable systems. It means |
| the homes. Because of the distances there were also | | | | distributing TV channels with the IP protocol which is |
| many amplifiers at specific points to ensure required | | | | the backbone of internet communications. Each TV |
| signal levels. The communication was exclusively | | | | channels is encoded with either MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 |
| one-way, but later most such cable networks were | | | | system and then distributed over fiber optical cable |
| extended to allow bidirectional communication needed | | | | network to the homes. The advantages are |
| for access to the internet by using systems like | | | | enormous. The capacity for the number of channels is |
| DocSys. | | | | pretty high, all the channels can be encoded and |
| This approach can be used with RF (coaxial) and fiber | | | | distributed with very high quality, it is very easy to |
| cables. Fiber optic cables are also used in some cases | | | | distribute HD channels, access to the internet is very |
| to distribute the old analog cable television. The | | | | simple because of the IP protocol and native |
| advantage of optical network is because it can use | | | | technology. |
| available fibers in existing fiber optic cables and the | | | | |