Channel Bonding Question

[Rebbig]

Hello,
I'm with Time Warner Cable (TWC) and I'm looking to buy my own cable modem to avoid the leasing fee. I'm trying to decide between the following two modems: Motorola SB6121 and Motorola SB6141 (let me know if you think I should be going with other modems). From my understanding, the main difference between these two modems is that the SB6121 supports 4 channel bonding while the SB6141 supports 8 channel bonding.
My question is, under what conditions will I benefit from 8 channels? Is it worth spending the extra money? For example, is it possible for me to benefit from 8 channels if my subscription plan for TWC is only 15mbps or 30mbps download speed? Can the 8 channels help me out during peak times? Thank you.

 

[Pinhedd]

Hello,
I'm with Time Warner Cable (TWC) and I'm looking to buy my own cable modem to avoid the leasing fee. I'm trying to decide between the following two modems: Motorola SB6121 and Motorola SB6141 (let me know if you think I should be going with other modems). From my understanding, the main difference between these two modems is that the SB6121 supports 4 channel bonding while the SB6141 supports 8 channel bonding.
My question is, under what conditions will I benefit from 8 channels? Is it worth spending the extra money? For example, is it possible for me to benefit from 8 channels if my subscription plan for TWC is only 15mbps or 30mbps download speed? Can the 8 channels help me out during peak times? Thank you.

You'd have to call Time Warner to find out for sure. The DOCSIS specification (all current versions) specify a downstream throughput of 42.88 megabits per second (38 megabits after overhead) per channel. For DOCSIS 3.0 there is no specified maximum number of concurrently selected channels, but the SB6121 and SB6141 will have an absolute maximum downstream demodulation rate of 152 megabits per second, and 304 megabits per second respectively after overhead.

If your cable subscription is for less than 38 megabits per second, then it's unlikely that your modem will ever bond a second channel. However, some cable providers allocate channels to a burst bandwidth pool temporarily which are bonded only briefly to provide burst bandwidth for loading web pages (helps combat the effects of congestion).

I cannot stress enough that you need to check with TWC to see if your modem is supported by their network. I have an SB6120 myself and it's a kickass device so I highly recommend that you go with the lineup, just make sure that it works first.

 

[Rebbig]

I'm assuming that so long as my modem is on this list: http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/residential-home/support/topics/internet/buy-your-modem.html, it should be fine. Thank you for your input, it seems like you're saying that 8 channels may be beneficial (if it's supported in the area) compared to 4 channels, but it's unlikely (and if it is beneficial, it wouldn't be beneficial very often unless I go to a really high download tier). Is my reading correct?

Hello,
I'm with Time Warner Cable (TWC) and I'm looking to buy my own cable modem to avoid the leasing fee. I'm trying to decide between the following two modems: Motorola SB6121 and Motorola SB6141 (let me know if you think I should be going with other modems). From my understanding, the main difference between these two modems is that the SB6121 supports 4 channel bonding while the SB6141 supports 8 channel bonding.
My question is, under what conditions will I benefit from 8 channels? Is it worth spending the extra money? For example, is it possible for me to benefit from 8 channels if my subscription plan for TWC is only 15mbps or 30mbps download speed? Can the 8 channels help me out during peak times? Thank you.

You'd have to call Time Warner to find out for sure. The DOCSIS specification (all current versions) specify a downstream throughput of 42.88 megabits per second (38 megabits after overhead) per channel. For DOCSIS 3.0 there is no specified maximum number of concurrently selected channels, but the SB6121 and SB6141 will have an absolute maximum downstream demodulation rate of 152 megabits per second, and 304 megabits per second respectively after overhead.

If your cable subscription is for less than 38 megabits per second, then it's unlikely that your modem will ever bond a second channel. However, some cable providers allocate channels to a burst bandwidth pool temporarily which are bonded only briefly to provide burst bandwidth for loading web pages (helps combat the effects of congestion).

I cannot stress enough that you need to check with TWC to see if your modem is supported by their network. I have an SB6120 myself and it's a kickass device so I highly recommend that you go with the lineup, just make sure that it works first.

 

[Pinhedd]

I'm assuming that so long as my modem is on this list: http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/residential-home/support/topics/internet/buy-your-modem.html, it should be fine. Thank you for your input, it seems like you're saying that 8 channels may be beneficial (if it's supported in the area) compared to 4 channels, but it's unlikely (and if it is beneficial, it wouldn't be beneficial very often unless I go to a really high download tier). Is my reading correct?

Hello,
I'm with Time Warner Cable (TWC) and I'm looking to buy my own cable modem to avoid the leasing fee. I'm trying to decide between the following two modems: Motorola SB6121 and Motorola SB6141 (let me know if you think I should be going with other modems). From my understanding, the main difference between these two modems is that the SB6121 supports 4 channel bonding while the SB6141 supports 8 channel bonding.
My question is, under what conditions will I benefit from 8 channels? Is it worth spending the extra money? For example, is it possible for me to benefit from 8 channels if my subscription plan for TWC is only 15mbps or 30mbps download speed? Can the 8 channels help me out during peak times? Thank you.

You'd have to call Time Warner to find out for sure. The DOCSIS specification (all current versions) specify a downstream throughput of 42.88 megabits per second (38 megabits after overhead) per channel. For DOCSIS 3.0 there is no specified maximum number of concurrently selected channels, but the SB6121 and SB6141 will have an absolute maximum downstream demodulation rate of 152 megabits per second, and 304 megabits per second respectively after overhead.

If your cable subscription is for less than 38 megabits per second, then it's unlikely that your modem will ever bond a second channel. However, some cable providers allocate channels to a burst bandwidth pool temporarily which are bonded only briefly to provide burst bandwidth for loading web pages (helps combat the effects of congestion).

I cannot stress enough that you need to check with TWC to see if your modem is supported by their network. I have an SB6120 myself and it's a kickass device so I highly recommend that you go with the lineup, just make sure that it works first.

Correct

 

[RobWiz]

Hello,
I'm with Time Warner Cable (TWC) and I'm looking to buy my own cable modem to avoid the leasing fee. I'm trying to decide between the following two modems: Motorola SB6121 and Motorola SB6141 (let me know if you think I should be going with other modems). From my understanding, the main difference between these two modems is that the SB6121 supports 4 channel bonding while the SB6141 supports 8 channel bonding.
My question is, under what conditions will I benefit from 8 channels? Is it worth spending the extra money? For example, is it possible for me to benefit from 8 channels if my subscription plan for TWC is only 15mbps or 30mbps download speed? Can the 8 channels help me out during peak times? Thank you.

Check out this article in Squidoo: Motorola SB6141 or SB6121. Which of these cable modem should I buy. It is written in simple to understand terms and you should have a good idea on which modem to buy after going through this article.