veex_1 27/02/2015 16:12 Page 1
Nitish Khullar, product
manager at test and
measurement solutions
specialist VeEX, shares
his thoughts on how
adopting the best
monitoring practices are
a step towards better
subscriber QoE.
s the cable plant evolves in
technology and complexity, the
monitoring needs have become
pivotal. Cable industry experts are
preaching a sage truth: proactive
network maintenance simply saves time
and money. The proactive identification
and resolution of potential, serviceaffecting issues yield more reliable
services, which in turn improve overall
A
significant enough to start impacting their
a DOCSIS Burst Demodulator. The basic
subscribers;
process is as follows:
2. Correlate an identified issue to a
l Capture all available Upstream
physical location,
Channel Descriptors
so that they can
(UCD) provided by the
dispatch a field
CMTS from a specific
VeSion
technician to the
downstream DOCSIS
site with some level
channel
l Cloud based – one system
of confidence,
platform
l Triggered alarms
instead of being
automatically initiate a
l Monitor RF, MPEG Analysis,
blind-sided by a
test on the relevant
Ethernet
subscriber-initiated
Upstream channel;
l True Return Path QAM analyser
trouble call. With
captures and decodes
and tracer with Bursty QAM
ongoing proactive
burst cable modem
Demodulator
maintenance, the
signals
l Mapping and integration with
success rate of
MSO's billing system
l Report key metrics
for the Upstream
technicians sent to
l Upstream testing qualification
Channel: Upstream
the field goes up
and troubleshooting
unequalised MER,
and ultimately, the
l Workforce and asset
burst constellations,
overall rate of truck
management, data enrichment and
equaliser taps, and a
rolls goes down.
mapping
list of associated cable
For the RF
l Sweep (Forward and Return)
modem MAC
upstream, Proactive
l Web, tablet or field meter access
addresses
Network Maintenance
has never been more
achievable, mainly due to the increasing
‘ubiquity’ of DOCSIS capable devices in MSO
networks. As cable networks evolve,
increasingly, intelligent end devices
such as digital set-top boxes
(STBs), multimedia terminal
adapters (MTAs), embedded MTAs
and high-end television sets are
DOCSIS capable, resulting in
DOCSIS ubiquity. The subscriber’s
DOCSIS cable modems can provide
a wealth of diagnostic
measurements. This available data
can be utilised in various ways to
achieve the goals of MSO's Network
Operations and Maintenance staff.
The latest innovations in Cable test
monitoring systems can play a pivotal role
for an MSO's ongoing network maintenance
needs. The increasing ‘ubiquity’ of DOCSIS
cable modems actually represents