DVB's second generation system for cable transmission -DVB-C2 -has been standardized in the beginning of 2009. This also set the starting point for the development of DVB-C2 equipment. Nevertheless, in the early stage a complete transmission chain for demonstrating DVB-C2 was not available. Therefore, we developed a DVB-C2 receiver employing a Software Defined Radio (SDR) approach. The system utilizes a standard PC and is able to decode an 8 MHz channel with 4096-QAM modulation in real-time. The developed receiver was used for the world's very first DVB-C2 transmission and will be extended to DVB-T2 in the near future.

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The new DVB-C2 specification defines the physical layer and low-layer signaling techniques for the transmission of digital broadcasting and IP streaming services via cable networks. The technology provides extremely efficient transmission capabilities combined with a high degree of operational flexibility. Both properties are instrumental for a worldwide introduction of the technology in different regional cable markets which have varying technical and business requirements. In addition, DVB-C2's close similarity to other specifications of the DVB Family of second generation Standards (e.g. DVB-T2, DVB-S2) shortens time to market and limits development costs and efforts for the equipment manufacturing industry.

The new DVB-C2 physical layer architecture composing state of the art modulation and channel coding techniques provides superior transmission capabilities compared to existing systems such as DVB-C and DOCSIS. Results of simulations performing signal transmissions under realistic cable channel conditions indicate an increase of some 7 dB in terms of robustness and of up to more than 60 % in terms of spectral efficiency. A broad roll-out of DVB-C2 in cable networks, however, will not only increase the capacity of the networks significantly, it will also provide new operational opportunities for MSOs due to the high degree of flexibility supported. Incorporating the DVB-C2 PHY in DOCSIS and using it for DOCSIS downstream transmission will result in a flexible and efficient broadband communications system.

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