The Cisco® 1.25 GHz Surge-Gap Flexible Solutions Taps (FST) are the latest products designed for the DOCSIS® 3.1 evolution of hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) networks. DOCSIS 3.1 technology allows cable operators to fully and efficiently use their broadband networks to provide the services that subscribers demand. As part of DOCSIS 3.1 support, the broadband operating frequency range has been increased to cover the entire 5 MHz to 1.218 GHz spectrum. These products are also fully compatible with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) signaling requirements. These new capabilities can contribute to higher customer revenue by allowing increased bandwidth across a network, so new and improved services can be provided. The taps (Figure 1) offer best-in-class performance along with added flexibility in system design. This flexibility is achieved using three types of optional plug-ins that are ideal for higher output, deep-fiber architectures.