(Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) A cable modem standard from the CableLabs research consortium (www.cablelabs.com), which provides equipment certification for interoperability. DOCSIS supports IP traffic (Internet traffic) over digital cable TV channels, and most cable modems are DOCSIS compliant.

Originally formed by four major cable operators and managed by Multimedia Cable Network System, management of the project was later turned over to CableLabs.

DOCSIS 1.x, 2.0 and 3.0
The first versions of DOCSIS (1.0, 1.1 and 2.0) provided a maximum downstream speed of approximately 40 Mbps with upstream speeds of 10 Mbps for Versions 1.x and 30 Mbps for DOCSIS 2.0. Introduced in 2006, DOCSIS 3.0 added channel bonding. The minimum number of channels that are coupled is four, providing maximum downstream/upstream speeds of 160/120 Mbps. In practice, all this bandwidth is shared among neighboring subscribers. See cable modem, EuroDOCSIS, eDOCSIS, CMTS and S-CDMA.