July 2010
34
www.cable360.net/ct EMPOWERING BROADBAND PROFESSIONALS. VOL 27 NO. 07 JULY 2010 Growing Rural WHO'S GOT THE BEST CONNECTIONS? CABLE, TELCOS, WIRELESS, SATELLITE VIE FOR RURAL BIZ 14 FENDING OFF CYBER ATTACKS AN INTEGRATED APPROACH WILL SAVE MONEY, REDUCE CHURN 22 IS YOUR NETWORK AILING? THREE TECH DOCS CAN MAKE IT ALL BETTER 26 Next Month: Convergence, Home Networking
Transcript of July 2010
www.cable360.net/ct
EMPOWERING BROADBAND PROFESSIONALS. VOL 27 NO. 07 JULY 2010
Growing Rural
WHO'S GOT THE BEST CONNECTIONS? CABLE, TELCOS, WIRELESS, SATELLITE VIE FOR RURAL BIZ 14
FENDING OFF CYBER ATTACKSAN INTEGRATED APPROACH WILL SAVE MONEY, REDUCE CHURN 22
IS YOUR NETWORK AILING?THREE TECH DOCS CAN MAKE IT ALL BETTER 26
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contentsTOTALCOSTBEINGEQUAL...WHICHWOULDYOUCHOOSE?
Analysis shows that cost per subscriber for All-Fiber Access Networks and HFC deployments reachparity at traditional take rates. Corning’s All-Fiber Access Networks solution is the clear choiceeven at lower take rates to support RFoG networks today and provide amigration path to futureenhancements. For information on how Corning’s All-Fiber Access Networks solutions will workfor you, contact your Corning Cable Systems Customer Service Representative at 800-743-2671 .
©2010 Corning Cable Systems LLC www.corning.com/cablesystems/catv
Tomorrow’s benefits. Today’s cost.
14000
8000
2000
CostPerSubscriber
0 25 50 75 100
Take Rate (Percentage)
Parity at TraditionalMSO Take Rates
HFC Subscriber
AFAN Subscriber
EV-03067 CT_AFAN Feb2010:Layout 1 1/20/10 8:57 AM Page 1
july2010 3
contentsTOTALCOSTBEINGEQUAL...WHICHWOULDYOUCHOOSE?
Analysis shows that cost per subscriber for All-Fiber Access Networks and HFC deployments reachparity at traditional take rates. Corning’s All-Fiber Access Networks solution is the clear choiceeven at lower take rates to support RFoG networks today and provide amigration path to futureenhancements. For information on how Corning’s All-Fiber Access Networks solutions will workfor you, contact your Corning Cable Systems Customer Service Representative at 800-743-2671 .
©2010 Corning Cable Systems LLC www.corning.com/cablesystems/catv
Tomorrow’s benefits. Today’s cost.
14000
8000
2000
CostPerSubscriber
0 25 50 75 100
Take Rate (Percentage)
Parity at TraditionalMSO Take Rates
HFC Subscriber
AFAN Subscriber
EV-03067 CT_AFAN Feb2010:Layout 1 1/20/10 8:57 AM Page 1
Rural Broadband
© 2010 by Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced without permission. Communications Technology™ (ISSN 0884-2272) is published monthly by Access Intelligence, LLC, 4 Choke Cherry Road, Second Floor, Rockville, MD 20850, USA. Editorial: (301) 354-1795. Sales: (301) 354-1785. July 2010, Volume 27, Number 07. Periodicals postage paid at Rockville, MD, and ad-ditional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Communications Technology, P.O. Box 3230, Northbrook, IL 60065-3230. Change of address two to eight weeks notice requested. Send to the above address or call (847)559-7314. Email: [email protected]. Subscriptions: Free to qualified individuals directly involved in the cable industry. All other subscriptions, US: one year $99; two years $188. Canada: one year $129; two years $208. Foreign: one year $149, two years $278. Canada Post PM40063731. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Station A, PO Box 54, Windsor, ON N9A 6J5.
14 Who's Winning The Services War?The FCC says 14 million Americans still have limited broadband access, and cable, telco and satellite providers are racing against each other to get those potential subscribers to "click here" for voice, video and data.
features
E M P O W E R IN G B R OAD BA ND PRO FESS I O NA LS. VO L 2 7 NO. 07 JULY 2010
columnsBroadband 12Ron Hranac explains why we don't really
know the things we think we know.
Reality Check 30Katherine Waldron of Waldron and
Associates discusses how education
and more tax dollars could be part-and-
parcel results of federal broadband
stimulus funding.
news and opinionEditor’s Letter 6Times Have Changed But Not
Nearly Enough
CT Reports 8 VOD and Multi-Platforms 8
GPON vs. EPON Sales 8
New Broadband Tech Group Forms 9
FTTH in Tennessee 9
Videotron's Wireless Future 10
Big BIP Bucks 10
CWA Says No to Comcast/NBCU 10
Maine PUC Backs Rural LECs 11
What's New in MoCA Specs 11
referenceBusiness/Classifieds 29Advertiser Access 29
18 Rural Broadband: Is Fiber Cable's Best Buildout Bet?The real debate doesn’t begin in the political arena, but with a dollars-and-cents
understanding of the technologies being pitted against each other.
22 Cyber Safety: Secured Messaging = A Protected BrandAs cyber threats and attacks continue to evolve, it is critical that cable providers act
now to develop a comprehensive security strategy that is risk-based, policy-driven,
information-centric, operationalized and features a well-managed infrastructure.
departments
26 Tech TalkDoctor, doctor, give me the news: I've got a
bad case of upstream blues! Your questions
answered!
28 Global UpdateExpect a 2010 pay-TV growth spurt, Chinese
cable continues to outperform expectations
and Vietnam is on the DTH TV short list.
®
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editor’s letter
Back in the days before 3G and 4G, getting a cellphone
signal in a rural area (and even in some suburbs with
notorious dead spots) was an iffy situation at best. Amaz-
ingly enough, on a car trip through the farmland of south
central Illinois, I was able to make and receive calls via
my Mitsubishi handset and T-Mobile’s towers.
Things have changed, but not nearly enough. Cable
operators and telcos still haven’t covered 100 percent of
the U.S. footprint with services robust enough to offer
broadband at the speeds enjoyed by most of the rest of
the world. And pricing has kept many consumers from
being plugged in to the Internet. In fact, the number of
U.S. businesses and households with Internet connec-
tions has dropped slightly this year.
The United States currently is ranked Number 22
when it comes to broadband connection speeds world-
wide, according to a recent Akamai study, with AsiaPac
far in the lead. There are many business reasons as to why
rural areas have not been wired, fibered, towered, etc. In
many cases, satellite providers have taken advantage of
this competitive situation by being first to market.
Speaking at a NARUC staff event earlier this year,
CenturyLink exec David Bartlett pointed out that while
it costs his company $35 per subscriber for wired service
in urban areas, its capex per sub in rural areas is $300.
Looking at things from a network opex point of view,
CenturyLink spends $50 per sub in the city and suburbs,
and $57 per sub in rural areas. Transit and transport cost
the carrier $6 per sub in the city and $150 per sub in the
country.
Jim Farmer writes in this issue (see page 18), “The
blunt reality is that this is a capital-intensive business
for any operator. Only now are we beginning to emerge
from a credit crisis in which available capital was in
short supply.”
Things have changed, but not nearly enough. Who
will be able to offer more broadband choice and speed to
those who live in unserved or underserved areas? Will it
be you? According to Farmer, “Cable operators that sit
back and wait run the risk of being left behind as other
service providers take matters into their own hands.”
On a different note, I’m going to The Independent
Show in Baltimore later this month, and I’d love to talk
to you. Email me at [email protected], and we’ll
set something up!
Things Have
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ct reportsTo subscribe to CT Reports, visit our Web site at www.cable360.net/subscribe/
The maturation of video-on-demand
(VOD) technology is driving record lev-
els of usage by consumers, and it’s not
only pushing the cable industry’s on-de-
mand expansion deeper and wider into
people’s homes, but across multiple plat-
forms and devices.
A fresh study from the media measure-
ment company Rentrak captured data
from 33 service providers and 100 content
providers, finding VOD viewers spent 3.1
billion hours watching on-demand content
last year, a 12-percent increase compared
with 2008. In addition, more than $963
million in transactional on-demand content
was generated, with 1.6 billion subscrip-
tion-video-on-demand (SVOD) transac-
tions. In an average month, 45 percent of
enabled set-top boxes used VOD.
“This year, kids’ programming and mu-
sic really came on strong; these are what
have drawn in VOD viewers,” said Jarvis
Schuckman, manager/Industry Research
at Rentrak. “But TV entertainment is the
fastest growing because it’s coming di-
rectly from cable over free on-demand.”
Yet even with across-the-board spikes
in VOD usage, such emerging technolo-
gies as dynamic ad insertion and En-
hanced Binary Interchange Format (EBIF)
are nudging VOD technology into multiple
platforms, mobile devices and more.
“The business has grown 40 percent
since 2006, and that reflects consumer
interest in VOD and its technology. Now,
it’s about access to content and multiple
devices,” explained Steve Brookstein,
COO at Bresnan Communications (now
in the process of being acquired by Ca-
blevision). “Streaming ability and access
through our portal is on our road map.”
Bresnan, he added, currently is in
trials with advanced advertising pro-
vider BlackArrow to develop a workable
dynamic-insertion model. The hope,
Brookstein continued, is a for a viable
business/technology model and “tech-
nologies that allow better targeting and
the ability for VOD to target by level of
service, geography, demographics and
more. A confluence of these models
with dynamic insertion will allow better
business models.”
One model garnering more attention
is EBIF. “You can make ad placements
based on EBIF, for example, where the
customer lives. It’s all reportable, and you
can check to be sure VOD assets are avail-
able and visible to the customer,” main-
tained Malcolm Stanley, director/Advertis-
ing Products for SeaChange International,
a player in the VOD space. “There are six
major operators beginning to incorporate
EBIF into their systems.”
Yet getting the technology and busi-
ness models to line up for VOD’s inevi-
table move to multi-platforms and mobile
devices is no slam-dunk proposition. In
fact, it’s an ongoing, top-of-mind issue
for the cable industry and its vendor
community, Stanley admitted.
“In a multi-network environment,
there are lots of vendors and systems,
and it takes network smarts,” he said. “It
all comes back to the value proposition
for operators and their ability to provide
all these extensions to customers. But
there’s a huge migration to multi-screen,
multi-platform systems.”
VOD’s fundamental technology is
paving the way for IP across multiple
devices, according to Pankaj Gupta,
director/Service Provider Marketing at
Cisco Systems.
“There’s lots of intelligence coming into
streaming and it’s evolving, while user
generated content is also driving VOD,”
Gupta said. “Content aggregators are
now realizing the power of content over
multiple devices. But how to monetize it
is the challenge.”
– Craig Kuhl
VOD Tech Drives Deeper, Wider Into Multiple Platforms
Dell’Oro Group research says first-quar-
ter GPON equipment revenues from
both optical line terminals and optical
networking terminals surpassed EPON
revenues for the first time and hit a re-
cord level, growing almost 40 percent
sequentially and 70 percent compared
with the year-ago period.
“GPON growth in the first quarter
was largely due to deployments in
China,” said Tam Dell’Oro, president
of Dell’Oro Group. “China Unicom and
China Telecom are deploying both EPON
and GPON. China Mobile, which was
recently granted permission to deploy
broadband and for which GPON is its
preferred technology, also contributed
to first-quarter GPON growth. Other
sizeable GPON shipments in the first
quarter included those to Korea, Malay-
sia, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, the UAE
and the United States."
The report also showed Huawei main-
tained its lead for GPON revenue, largely
due to being a primary supplier in the
China market. Second was Alcatel-Lu-
cent, which narrowed the gap with Hua-
wei due to growth of its ONT shipments
to North America and EMEA. Rounding
out the top four was Motorola, followed
closely by Ericsson, which doubled its
share mainly due to growth in its GPON
shipments to China.
GPON Sales Surge Past EPON in First Quarter
8 july2010
ct reports
Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group FormedA group of broadband and high-tech com-
panies joined Adjunct Professor Dale
Hatfi eld of the University of Colorado at
Boulder in announcing initial plans for a
voluntary Broadband Internet Technical
Advisory Group (TAG).
The TAG's mission is to bring to-
gether engineers and similar technical
experts to develop consensus on broad-
band network-management practices
or other related technical issues that
can affect users' Internet experience,
including the impact to and from appli-
cations, content and devices that use
the Internet.
"The TAG will function as a neutral,
expert technical forum and promote a
greater consensus around technical
practices within the Internet communi-
ty," Hatfield explained. "The TAG would
consider a number of factors in looking
at technical practices, including wheth-
er a practice is used by others in the
industry; whether alternative technical
approaches are available; the impact
of a technical practice on other enti-
ties; and whether a technical practice is
aimed at specific content, applications
or companies."
Participants agreed that the TAG's
mission also could include: (1) educat-
ing policymakers on technical issues;
(2) attempting to address specifi c tech-
nical matters in an effort to minimize
related policy disputes; and (3) serving
as a sounding board for new ideas and
network-management practices.
Hatfi eld, a former Federal Communi-
cations Commission (FCC) chief tech-
nologist, will facilitate the TAG.
Participants in the initial efforts have
included representatives from AT&T,
Cisco, Comcast, DISH Network, Echo-
Star, Google, Intel, Level 3, Microsoft,
Time Warner Cable and Verizon.
The group also aims to advise on
technical issues, attempt to resolve dis-
putes over network management and
related issues outside of an adversarial
context, and help inform federal agen-
cies (e.g., the FCC, the Federal Trade
Commission and the U.S. Department
of Justice) in their industry-oversight
functions.
EPB Fiber Optics, Chattanooga’s mu-
nicipally owned fi ber-to-the-home (FTTH)
network, now is offering a 150 Mbps
symmetrical residential Internet product
called "Fi-Speed Internet 150."
Prior to the introduction of Fi-Speed
Internet 150, EPB’s FTTH network was
capable of providing 100 Mbps sym-
metrical Internet speeds to more than
100,000 homes and businesses in the
Chattanooga, Tenn., area.
EPB’s service area covers 170,000
homes and business, and 600 square
miles in Chattanooga, Hamilton County
and parts of fi ve other counties in south-
east Tennessee and three in northern
Georgia.
Access to the 100-percent fi ber-optic
network will be available to everyone in
EPB’s service area by the end of 2010.
Tennessee Muni Cuts Over 'Fi-Speed' Service
july2010 9
To subscribe to CT Reports, visit our Web site at www.cable360.net/subscribe/ct reports
Rural Telephone/Nex-Tech tapped long-
time partner Occam and its BLC 6000
multiservice access platform (MSAP) to
deliver fiber-based broadband services
into 21 communities and 26 rural areas
across more than 4,600 square miles.
Rural Telephone/Nex-Tech was awarded
$101 million in combined Broadband Ini-
tiatives Program (BIP) grants and loans
to bring advanced broadband services to
western Kansas.
Rural Telephone/Nex-Tech, based in
Lenora, Kansas, will reach 23,000 house-
holds and businesses with broadband
over a combination of fiber and WiMAX
technologies. Funding will pay for infra-
structure, construction, labor and elec-
tronics during the course the next three
years.
Big B-Stim Bucks
CWA: Proposed Comcast-NBCU Merger Will Harm Workers, Slow Customer SatisfactionThe Communications Workers of America
(CWA) believes the proposed Comcast-
NBCU merger would lead to job cuts,
aggravate the already anti-competitive
behavior of the cable industry and restrict
consumer access to the online video con-
tent of their choice.
In remarks before a field hearing of the
U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary
Committee, CWA District 9 Vice President
James Weitkamp stressed that the public
must be protected from the “significant
harms” created by a merger of such un-
precedented scale.
"The Comcast/NBCU merger is not
in the public interest. Federal regulators
cannot endorse this merger without care-
fully considering the significant impact
the merging companies will have on
video competition, choice and jobs," Weit-
kamp said.
CWA represents 700,000 employees
nationwide, including workers at both
Comcast and NBC-Universal. Weitkamp's
comments echoed those made earlier
this year by CWA President Larry Co-
hen in testimony before the full Judiciary
Committee on Capitol Hill.
Weitcamp continued, "The Internet
allows consumers access to the video
content of their choice, unmediated by
the pre-packaged bundles of the cable
company. A combined Comcast-NBCU
could limit consumers’ online access to
NBC content, or it could charge consum-
ers higher prices to access that content
unless they are cable subscribers. This
is the 'TV Everywhere' model that Com-
cast and NBC have already begun to de-
ploy, which forces Internet customers to
buy cable packages in order to see con-
tent online.”
He also mentioned the CWA believes
a Comcast/NBCU combination will result
in the loss of good jobs and will depress
labor standards for those who still have
jobs after a merger. The merged company
would add an additional $8 billion to the
current debt load, giving the new compa-
ny the choice of cutting jobs and/or raising
cable prices.
Videotron CEO Talks Shop
10 july2010
Robert Dépatie, president and CEO of
Videotron, discussed his vision for both
Videotron’s future and that of the telecom
industry in an address to industry stake-
holders gathered at the recent 2010 Cana-
dian Telecom Summit in Toronto.
On Videotron’s wireless network:
“We are engaged in extensive network test-
ing and are on the verge of launching Que-
bec’s most competitive, and its most com-
plete, wireless service. Our 3.75G network
will be fast, able and stable, with technology
and entertainment capabilities that will go
above and beyond what is presently out
there. Our wireless network will soon be at
the heart of our strategies and our wireless
plan, like all our service and product plans,
will be focused on the customer and on
how will we deliver value.
“We see our wireless network as an ex-
cellent means to extend the Videotron expe-
rience to mobile users, certainly, but also to
fixed users who are beyond the reach of our
fixed broadband services.”
On creating a technological ecosys-
tem for the consumer: “Our goal is to
provide our customers with…an envi-
ronment that can respond to customer
requests and requirements, and that
can create new services. Full choice, full
flexibility, full ubiquity. With this, our cus-
tomers will have three screens and three
different formats, which means three dif-
ferent types of challenges for our systems
and processes.”
On future wireless spectrum auc-
tions: "Our government is also contem-
plating auctions of other spectrum blocks.
I urge the Canadian government to help
us, and help Canadians, to focus on the
700 MHz spectrum. We can give Canadi-
ans results in less time, for less money
and regain our place at the forefront of
the world.”
july2010 11
ct reports
MoCA Ratifies Next-Gen SpecsThe Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA)
gave the nod to its next-generation speci-
fication, MoCA 2.0, that offers two perfor-
mance modes -- Basic and Enhanced -- with
400 Mbps and 800 Mbps net throughputs
(MAC), using 700 Mbps and 1.4 Gbps PHY
rates, respectively.
For point-to-point WAN applica-
tions, performance can be optimized for two
node networks, with Basic mode delivering
500 Mbps net throughput (MAC) and En-
hanced mode providing 1 Gbps net through-
put. The new spec also features an expanded
operating frequency range to serve an even
broader array of use cases and two network
wide, low power-saving modes, the group
said.
Essential to the spec is its full
backward interoperability with MoCA
1.1/1.0, reportedly enabling operators to
capitalize on their MoCA investment and
to future-proof their networks to deliver
the next level in high performance and
highly reliable home networking.
MoCA 2.0 Technical Highlights:
Net throughput (MAC) rates of 400 Mbps
(baseline mode) and 800 Mbps (enhanced
mode), up from 175 Mbps for MoCA 1.1,
with turbo modes at each level. PHY rates
are 700 Mbps and 1.4 Gbps, respectively.
More than double the performance of
MoCA 1.1 the 400 Mbps baseline level is
achieved through higher levels of modula-
tion and expansion of the operating chan-
nel bandwidth to 100 megahertz from the
current 50 megahertz. Enhanced mode
performance of 800 Mbps is made pos-
sible through channel bonding.
The packet error rate (PER) has been im-
proved to one packet error in 100 million. The
PER mode is programmable on a per-flow
basis and can be assigned depending on the
necessity of content. On-time delivery is as-
sured, MoCA said, with an average latency
of less than 3.5ms across all received pack-
ets and traffic profiles.
The addition of sleep and stand-by
modes for networked devices helps
manufacturers and operators comply with
worldwide energy reduction initiatives.
Expanded operating frequency range of
500 MHz to 1650 MHz enables all types
of pay-TV providers to provide advanced
home entertainment networking simulta-
neously with devices and services already
in use on the same coaxial cable.
Full backward-interoperability with
MoCA 1.0 and 1.1 protects investment
in current equipment. MoCA 1.0 and
1.1-based devices continue to operate at
full speed even when MoCA 2.0-based
devices are on the network.
TWC Unsuccessful Re: Maine Rural Telco PetitionFive Maine local telcos won what attorneys
dubbed “a nationally significant ruling”
from the Maine Public Utilities Commission
(PUC) that will protect them from “undue
competition from Time Warner Cable.”
In a nutshell, the Maine PUC voted to deny
a request on behalf of Time Warner Cable
(TWC) to terminate the “Rural Exemption”
under Section 251(f) of the federal Telecom-
munications Act of 1996 as it applies to the
five rural carriers. According to the plaintiffs,
TWC sought to terminate the exemption in
order to move forward with its digital phone
service in portions of the service areas be-
longing to the local companies.
PUC commissioners gave the victory to
Lincolnville Networks, Tidewater Telecom,
Oxford Telephone Company, Oxford West
Telephone Company and Unitel. They were
unanimous in voting to uphold the exemp-
tion for Unitel, Oxford and Oxford West,
while a majority of the three commissioners
voted to maintain the exemption for Lincoln-
ville and Tidewater. As a result, all five will re-
main - in their geographic service territories
- the sole providers of wireline service.
“Our decision…is taking place in a chang-
ing landscape for telephone regulation at the
federal level with pending congressional and
FCC actions, in the marketplace and in wire-
less technology,” stated Commission Chair
Sharon Reishus. “Our decision came down
to an analysis of the current financial ability
of the rural companies to withstand market
competition if the exemption were lifted.”
She continued, “Customers in these
rural areas must be assured a telephone
service provider of last resort and access
to lifeline services. Although the commis-
sion has a long history of recognizing the
value of competition in the telecommunica-
tions market, in this instance, where Time
Warner is not proposing to expand the avail-
ability of its service throughout the entire
service territory of the rural companies,
selective competition would undercut the
ability of the rural companies to fulfill their
‘provider of last resort’ obligations.”
The PUC weighed several factors for each
rural phone company: the technical feasibil-
ity of the proposed interconnection, whether
lifting the exemption would create an undue
economic burden on the rural telephone
company, and whether lifting the exemption
would be consistent with the universal ser-
vice goals of ensuring quality phone service
at just, reasonable, and affordable rates for
all Maine residents and access to advanced
telecommunications and information servic-
es. There also were some universal-service
issues addressed in the decision.
The final PUC order has yet to be released.
TWC told Communications Technology it had
no comment on this decision.
– Debra Baker
broadband
1985 2010
By Ron Hranac, Senior Technology Editor
Did you know the “digital” signals we carry on our
cable networks aren’t “digital?” They’re analog!
Our networks can’t carry baseband digital data --
for the purists, a length of coaxial cable can, but that
digital data won’t make it past the first active -- so
we have to convert the digital data we want to trans-
mit to and from subscribers into analog RF signals.
The latter is done using a modulation process called
quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), which re-
sults in a double-sideband, suppressed-carrier analog
RF signal. The digital information to be transmitted is
represented by variations in the RF signal’s phase and
amplitude. There are no zeros and ones per se in what
we call “digital” signals.
While we’re on the subject of digital, I’m occasion-
ally asked about whether
or not cable operators
should do some sort of
proof-of-performance
tests on digital signals,
and when is the FCC
going to require digital
proofs? The answer to
the first question is, in
most cases, yes. What
about the second ques-
tion? Did you know the
FCC has required digital
signals on most cable
networks to meet certain specs, and that this requirement
has been on the books for several years? §76.640(b)(1)
(i) is where you’ll find the rules for digital signals.
(1) Digital cable systems with an activated channel
capacity of 750 MHz or greater shall comply with the
following technical standards and requirements:
(i) SCTE 40 2003 (formerly DVS 313): “Digital
Cable Network Interface Standard” (incorporated by
reference, see §76.602), provided however that with
respect to Table B.11, the Phase Noise requirement
shall be −86 dB/Hz, and also provided that the “tran-
sit delay for most distant customer” requirement in
Table B.3 is not mandatory.
Yep, digital signals in most systems are supposed
to comply with the technical parameters in SCTE-
40 (www.scte.org/documents/pdf/standards/ANSI_
SCTE%2040%202004.pdf).
What’s not in Part 76 of the FCC Rules is the how to
behind helping to ensure those digital signals comply
with SCTE-40. The good news is that several digital-
measurement procedures are described in “Recommended
Practices for Measurements on Cable Television Systems,
3rd Ed.,” also available from SCTE. If you have a modern
combination QAM analyzer/spectrum analyzer, most of
the required measurements can be performed fairly easily
using that kind of test equipment.
Did you know that such distortions as composite
triple beat (CTB), composite second order (CSO) and
common path distortion
(CPD) don’t go away in
an all- or mostly digital
network? Rather than
clusters of discrete beats
that occur in a network
carrying large numbers
of analog TV channels,
the digital distortions are
noise-like! Those noise-
like distortion products
are known as composite
intermodulation noise
(CIN), composite in-
termodulation distortion (CID) or intermodulation
noise (IMN) -- none of which should be confused
with thermal noise.
Confusion does occur, though. We know that
raising RF levels in the plant improves the carrier-to-
noise ratio (CNR). But in a system with a lot of digital
signals, did you know raising levels improves CNR
to a point, then the noise floor starts to increase and
the CNR gets worse? That seems counterintuitive,
but the now-elevated noise floor no longer is just
noise. It’s a combination of thermal noise and the
previously mentioned noise-like distortions. When
characterizing plant performance in the presence of
CIN, the term “carrier-to-composite noise (CCN)
ratio” commonly is used. Indeed, CCN is a much
more appropriate measurement metric than is CNR
“ Did you know the broadband sweep gear used to align and maintain out-side plants only shows half of the measured frequency response?”
When Digital
Really Is Analog And Other
Things You May Not Know
12 july2010
under these circumstances, because there
is no practical way to differentiate ther-
mal noise from CIN.
As more and more cable networks
carry larger numbers of digital signals,
the issue of signal leakage compliance
comes up. I wrote about this in my
February 2009 column (www.cable360.
net/ct/operations/bestpractices/33882.
html), and follow-up articles appeared in
the March 2009 (www.cable360.net/ct/
deployment/techtrends/34303.html) and
May 2009 (www.cable360.net/ct/opera-
tions/bestpractices/35443.html) issues of
Communications Technology.
Comcast’s Ray Thomas and I co-au-
thored a paper that was presented dur-
ing last year’s Cable-Tec Expo technical
workshops. A copy of our paper and our
PowerPoint slides can be found on the
proceedings’ CD-ROM; contact SCTE for
details. Our technical workshop high-
lighted the results of extensive field tests
that characterized leakage from all-digital
networks. Did you know leaking digital
signals can cause harmful interference
to over-the-air services under the right
conditions? And did you know that cur-
rently available leakage detectors can’t be
used to measure leaking digital signals?
The good news is that manufacturers are
working on digital-compatible leakage-
detector technology. But until that equip-
ment is available in production, the only
way to comply with the FCC’s existing
leakage rules is to use an analog TV
channel or continuous wave (CW) car-
rier when measuring leakage.
The migration to larger numbers of digi-
tal signals presents another complication.
Did you know most older amplifier auto-
matic gain control (AGC) circuits don’t play
nicely with a digital signal on the AGC pilot
frequency? Those AGC circuits originally
were designed for analog TV channels or
CW carriers, and not for noise-like digital
signals. Most amplifiers manufactured dur-
ing the last few years have digital-compat-
ible AGC, but hundreds of thousands (or
more!) of older amps do not. In most in-
stances, it will be necessary to use an analog
TV channel or CW carrier on the AGC pilot
frequency if you want those older amps’
AGC to work properly.
Did you know the broadband sweep
gear we use to align and maintain our out-
side plants only shows half of the measured
frequency response? Before you accuse me
of running low on caffeine, understand
that “frequency response” is a complex
quantity that has two components: magni-
tude- or amplitude-versus-frequency, and
phase-versus-frequency. The display of a
sweep receiver shows us amplitude-versus-
frequency, but not phase-versus-frequency.
Ideally, amplitude-versus-frequency
should be flat, and phase should change
in proportion to frequency. When am-
plitude-versus-frequency is not flat, we
see amplitude ripple (“standing waves”),
amplitude tilt or some combination of
the two. When phase-versus-frequency is
out of whack, we have group delay.
Did you know that what are sometimes
called “sunspot outages” have nothing to do
with sunspots? Those outages actually are
solar transit outages, which are twice-year-
ly satellite reception outages that happen
when the sun lines up with geostationary
satellites. The sun emits electromagnetic
radiation across a wide range of frequencies,
including those used by communications
satellites. When the sun is directly behind a
satellite from the perspective of a given earth
station, the RF energy from the sun is strong
enough to exceed the desired signal(s) from
that satellite. Solar-transit outages occur for
a few minutes on each of several days near
the spring and autumn equinoxes.
Finally, did you know that when we
measure the RF level of analog TV chan-
nel visual carriers, we don’t measure
peak power? We measure peak envelope
power (PEP), which is the average power
of one cycle during the modulation crest.
A visual carrier’s modulation crest occurs
during sync pulses.
Ron Hranac is a technical leader. broadband
network engineering, for Cisco Systems and
CT's senior technology editor. Contact him at
july2010 13
The FCC says 14 million Americans still have limited broadband access, and cable, telco and satellite providers are racing
against each other to get those potential subscribers to "click here" for voice, video and data.
Who's Winning The Services War?
Broadband services
are the drivers of
revenue growth in
today’s communi-
cations market.
C o m p e t i t i o n
among cable, telco
and satellite providers for broadband
customers is fierce. Fortunately, the battle
for broadband is not a zero-sum game.
The rural market offers a ripe opportunity
for expanding the broadband subscriber
base and delivering new services to a
population clamoring for high-speed data.
According to the Federal Communica-
tions Commission’s April 2010 report,
“The Broadband Availability Gap,” there
are 7 million housing units, represent-
ing 14 million people, whose access to
broadband does not meet the national
broadband availability targets of at least 4
Mbps (download) and 1 Mbps (upload).
More than 4 million housing units have
no broadband access at all. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture also noted in
its 2009 report on rural broadband that
only 70 percent of rural households with
in-home Internet access had a broadband
connection compared with 84 percent of
urban households. The main reason for
this difference: lack of availability.
Sunflower Broadband recognized the
value of these unserved rural customers
and is pursuing a strategy that combines
fixed-wireless technology and fiber to the
premise to extend its network reach and
to serve new customers. In 2005, the
cable operator launched its Wave Runner
Wireless service. Based on Motorola’s
By Jennifer Whalen
14 july2010
Canopy products (line-of-site, 2.4 GHz
wireless, unlicensed spectrum), Wave
Runner Wireless delivers as much as 2
Mbps download and 256 Kbps upload
speeds for $49.95 per month. Rod
Kutemeir, general manager at Sunflower
Broadband, reported that 656 customers
subscribe to the service.
But the wireless Internet service is
just the launching point for reaching
new rural customers. In 2007, Sunflower
began deploying CommScope’s Bright-
Path radio frequency over glass (RFoG)
solution. The operator’s RFoG deploy-
ments now also include products from
Alloptics, Aurora Networks and Hitachi,
adds Kutemeir.
Sunflower uses Wave Runner Wireless
to introduce new rural subs to its broad-
band services, and then it builds the RFoG
fiber network into those areas. “Custom-
ers develop a relationship with us,” said
Kutemeir. “Then when we run glass to
their house, they are standing there with
lemonade, saying ‘Come on in.’”
He added that most customers passed
by the RFoG network switch to the com-
pany’s DOCSIS 3.0 50 Mbps service,
which costs just $10 more a month than
Wave Runner Wireless. As rural custom-
ers migrate from the wireless service to the
DOCSIS 3.0 offering, Sunflower reclaims
the Canopy products and installs them in
new rural areas that are again outside the
reach of its network. Those areas become
future prospects for RFoG deployments.
Sunflower passes 450 homes with RFoG
and has 297 active customers.
Benefits Of RFoGSo why is RFoG suitable for rural areas?
“It’s much more cost-effective. We can
build out with lower densities per mile
of fiber,” said Kutemeir. “With HFC, we
need 100 to 150 homes per node. With
fiber to the home, we can get to under
10 homes passed per mile and still be
profitable.”
From where are these savings gleaned?
Because it’s a passive architecture, RFoG
eliminates the need for active devices,
which saves capital. It also accrues signifi-
cant maintenance benefits. “Eliminating
active devices, power supplies and all of
the touch points you have for mainte-
nance simplifies the network dramatically,
while still providing the same services that
operators deliver on their HFC networks,”
said John Dahlquist, vice president/Mar-
keting for Aurora Networks.
RFoG also help operators reach far-
flung rural homes. “It provides the
opportunity to reach much longer dis-
tances,” explained Matt Endsley, vice
president/Strategic Accounts/West for
ARRIS. Plus “it provides the ability to
build in a pay-as-you-go approach,” said
John Homsey, senior director/Sales En-
gineering and Applications Engineering
for Hitachi Communication Technolo-
gies America. “With RFoG, you con-
struct the fiber past the homes, but only
put the equipment necessary in place
when customers turn up service.”
Migration To All DigitalBut what if, like many rural cable op-
erators, you still maintain a 550 MHz
HFC plant? Will your network have the
capacity to support the 50 Mbps and
100 Mbps DOCSIS 3.0 broadband data
services that will be necessary to remain
competitive? Ironically, a development in
the video space could provide a solution.
Roughly 60 percent of CableOne’s plant
operates at 550 MHz, reported Thomas
Might, president and CEO of that com-
pany. However, Might admitted that many
of those systems lack the bandwidth to
support DOCSIS 3.0.
To solve that problem, CableOne
sought a waiver from the FCC to allow it
to deploy low-cost, high-definition (HD)
set-top boxes that did not include re-
movable cable cards. Last year, the FCC
granted CableOne a waiver for its Dyers-
burg, Tenn., system. The FCC has since
indicated a willingness to eliminate that
HD set-top requirement for all systems
operating at 550 MHz and lower, and pos-
sibly for systems operating at 750 MHz
and higher.
What does this mean for CableOne? In
December 2010, the operator expects to
take delivery of new low-cost ($50) HD
set-tops for deployment in Dyersburg.
Should the FCC expand the waiver to all
550 MHz systems, CableOne will convert
them to all digital. “We will free up 300
megahertz of the 550 MHz by going to all
digital. That will allow us to add a lot of
HD and DOCSIS 3.0 channel bonding,”
Might explained.
The new set-tops also will support fu-
ture capacity expansion, which is critical
for sustaining rural broadband growth.
“The boxes are also MPEG-4 capable,” he
continued. “So if we start running tight
on bandwidth again, we can implement
MPEG-4 and reclaim another 40 percent
of our bandwidth.”
DOCSIS 3.0: The Killer AppWhether you’re deploying RFoG or mov-
ing to all digital in your rural networks,
supporting DOCSIS 3.0 data services is
the key broadband driver. With DOCSIS
3.0, cable operators can bond channels to
offer speeds as fast as 100 Mbps. Sunflow-
er Broadband already has upgraded all of
its systems to DOCSIS 3.0. The company
currently offers 50 Mbps service and ex-
pects to launch 100 Mbps service by year
end. Wave Broadband has upgraded five
of its systems to DOCSIS 3.0, and it also
offers 50 Mbps service in those areas.
“We believe that the benefits of DOC-
SIS 3.0 go well-beyond offering 50 Mbps
or 100 Mbps service. The ability to load
balance, better balance customer usage,
and use more down streams is what’s
going to make this technology so valu-
able,” said Steve Friedman, COO at
Wave Broadband.
In 2007, Sunflower Broadband began deploying
CommScope’s BrightPath radio frequency over
glass (RFoG) solution; it also uses products from
Alloptics, Aurora Networks and Hitachi.
july2010 15
Friedman is a bullish about broadband’s
role for rural operators. “The reason our
business has grown over the years is be-
cause of the Internet,” he said. “Yes, we
add new services to video and revenues
grow. But the real base of the business is the
Internet. That’s driven our growth at Wave
Broadband. That’s how you grow the busi-
ness, how you protect your business in the
future, and how you satisfy your customers.
The Internet leads the way.”
However, you have to get to the Internet.
“The Number One challenge facing rural
broadband providers is getting good access
back into the Internet,” said Friedman, who
also serves as chairman of the American
Cable Association (ACA). “Many of our
members have a problem getting fiber built
out far enough to access the national fiber
network.”
These rural broadband providers must
purchase T1 or DS3 circuits from local
telcos to connect their networks to the
Internet. “Because there is no competi-
tion in many of these markets, telcos can
charge exorbitant rates, sometimes up to
$100 a megabyte,” said Matt Polka, ACA
president and CEO. “Where there is com-
petition, costs can come down to less than
$10 a meg.”
It’s not just the high cost of these circuits
that causes problems for rural broadband
providers; it’s their limited capacity as well.
“If I can’t scale my network, customers will
see slower speeds. All the speed in my net-
work does no good if I don’t have access to
the fiber backbone,” said Friedman.
DSL CompetitionLike cable, telcos are pushing their copper
plant deeper into rural areas to deliver fast-
er broadband speeds. “Qwest is competing
aggressively,” said CableOne’s Might. “It’s
traditional digital subscriber line (DSL),
but very aggressive DSL.”
Might reported that Qwest offers 20
Mbps data service in many of CableOne’s
service areas and 40 Mbps DSL in a few.
Qwest has also applied for a federal stimu-
lus grant to extend broadband at speeds
of 12 to 40 Mbps to rural communities
throughout its local service region. (Editor’s
note: Qwest declined CT’s request for an inter-
view for this story.)
FTTH InroadsIndependent telcos also have rural broad-
band expansion plans. Solarus, the largest
independent telephone company in Wis-
consin, is conducting a 300-home trial of
fiber to the home (FTTH). The company
plans to upgrade its entire service terri-
tory to FTTH during the next three to five
years, said Mike Meinel, director of sales
and marketing for Solarus.
“We are building FTTH because the
appetite for broadband is growing substan-
tially,” Meinel said. “Ten years ago, when we
built fiber to the curb, we thought 5 Mbps
pipes were enough. Now people are talking
about 100 Mbps to the home.”
Solarus offers two DSL packages — 1
Mbps and 2 Mbps symmetric DSL — to 98
percent of its territory. The service costs $50
when bundled with voice and video ($10
more for the 2 Mbps service). As a com-
petitive local exchange carrier, Solarus also
delivers fixed wireless broadband services
via its 700 MHz licensed spectrum to 1,000
customers outside of its territory. The wire-
less service is available at speeds ranging
from 768 Kbps symmetric ($39 a month) to
Advice for Rural Broadband Providers
Deploy RFoG. “Just do it,” said Sunflower Broadband’s Rod Kutemeier. “There is always
somewhere close to town where you can try this. Once you try it, you’ll see that it’s easy and
that the economics are there.”
Secure Fiber Connections to the Internet. “Manage your costs and manage your capacity
all the way to the Internet,” said Wave Broadband’s Steve Friedman. “When you do that, you’ll main-
tain the speeds and service levels that customers will want, which will lead to growth.”
Go Digital. “Rural operators need to be transitioning to digital as quickly as they can, imple-
menting technology to reclaim analog bandwidth, and using it for higher broadband speeds,”
said ACA’s Matt Polka.
Eliminate Amplifiers. “Push fiber deeper and eliminate RF amps, those power-hungry
gremlins that cause you to spend money on maintenance and power and that cause reliability
problems,” said Aurora Network’s John Dahlquist.
Build Your Network Once. “We’re only just touching what fiber optics can do. It’s not a
one-service network, but supports multiple services, platforms, and products,” said Hitachi’s
John Homsey. Deploying fiber eliminates the need for rebuilds.
Prepare for the All-IP Future. “We are in the midst of transitioning from an analog envi-
ronment to an all-IP environment. Investigate new IP solutions to make sure you are making
the right decisions for your network,” said ARRIS’s Matt Endsley.
Make Your Voice Heard. “If you are subject to a government overbuild, be vocal. Scream bloody
murder,” said ACA’s Polka, addressing the federal broadband stimulus funds now being awarded (see
related story on page X). “It’s not fair. The government isn’t supposed to pick winners and losers.”
Year Cable Modems DSL Fixed Wireless Fiber To The Home Satellite
2002 59.0 40.4 -- 0.6 --
2003 60.4 39.2 -- 0.4 --
2004 59.0 40.6 -- 0.3 --
2005 57.0 40.9 0.5 0.7 1.0
2006 54.1 43.3 0.7 0.9 0.9
2007 52.4 43.7 0.9 2.0 1.1
2008 52.3 42.3 1.1 3.1 1.2
2009 50.7 42.4 1.8 3.8 1.2
2010 48.5 41.6 2.5 6.2 1.2
2011 46.6 40.1 3.3 8.7 1.3
2012 45.0 39.0 4.3 10.3 1.4
2013 44.2 38.4 4.6 11.5 1.3
TABLE 1: The TIA's upcoming 2010 ICT market review and forecast notes that cable
modems are now and will continue to be the prime source of U.S. broadband access.
16 july2010
3 Mbps symmetric ($159 per month).
The Telecommunications Industry As-
sociation (TIA) predicts fixed wireless so-
lutions will play a growing role in rural
broadband, adding 4 million customers
between now and 2013, making it second
only to FTTH as the fastest-growing broad-
band technology.
Competition From The SkySatellite also plays a role in rural broadband.
Such providers as WildBlue and HughesNet
deliver broadband services via satellite to
roughly 1 million customers, reported Tom
Moore, president and CEO of WildBlue; of
those, WildBlue serves north of 400,000.
WildBlue provides three levels of service:
512 Kbps/128 Kbps, 1.0 Mbps/200 Kbps
and 1.5 Mbps/256 Kbps. Prices range from
$49.95 to $79.95 a month plus set-up fees.
Moore acknowledged that the WildBlue
network is capacity-constrained on the East
and West Coasts, and the company no is
longer adding customers in those areas.
However, it has ambitious plans to address
those constraints.
Early in 2011, WildBlue parent com-
pany ViaSat intends to launch the ViaSat-1
satellite, which will provide 140 Gbps of
capacity and enable the company to deliver
services ranging from between 2 Mbps and
10 Mbps download speeds. “ViaSat-1 is not
the end point,” Moore said. “In six years,
we’ll need a terabyte satellite to keep up. We
think we can do that.”
WildBlue also is adding 17 new gateways
to its network to complement the 11 that
already exist. “These will be located right
on a fiber backbone. Each of them will have
a 10 Gbps bidirectional path out of them,”
Moore explained. The new gateways cur-
rently are under construction, and Moore
expects WildBlue to begin rolling out its
higher-speed services in the spring of 2011.
Other planned enhancements include a
new CPE device based on WiMAX rather
that the current DOCSIS, and new accel-
eration techniques to compensate for the
latency experienced with satellite delivery.
Why Serve Rural America?According to the U.S. government, rural
citizens deserve the same broadband ser-
vices as urban dwellers now enjoy. Fiber,
copper, wireless and satellite technologies
exist to cost-effectively reach low-density
populations. “There’s more competition in
town, so it’s worth it to look for other areas
to serve,” said Sunflower Broadband’s Kute-
meir. “There’s a whole customer base out
there that we can extend to.”
In addition, rural customers are more
likely to take the triple play, as there may
be few competitive options for telephony in
their areas. The possibility of the triple play
makes the economics of serving rural subs
even better. Churn also is lower.
“Customers who live in the country
don’t turn off as often as customers who
live in town. It’s a long-term relationship,”
added Kutemeir. By extending broadband
services into rural areas, providers can
expand their subscriber bases and gener-
ate new revenues while simultaneously
improving their communities.
Jennifer Whalen, a former editor of Communi-
cations Technology, is a freelance writer special-
izing in broadband. Contact her at jwhalen@
whalencom.biz.
Satellite-Enabled Voice, Tweeting Speed Rural Road Rally Communications
Performance rally driving is an exciting and demanding motorsport sanctioned by the group Rally
America. With its high percentage of stage miles and a course featuring some of the most challenging
roads in the world, the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (STPR) in rural Pennsylvania reportedly
is one of the America’s best-known rally events.
According to STPR, its events regularly draw the top rally teams from the United States, Canada and
abroad that enjoy putting their skills to the extreme test of performance rally. However, this particular
event was an off-road adventure that stopped in remote Germania, Pa., where current wireless cover-
age is limited. As such, Indigo Wireless, a rural wireless operator with service areas in Pennsylvania
and Nebraska, used Globecomm’s Transportable SatCell trailer (akin to a cellsite on wheels [COW]) to
power a temporary wireless network.
Globecomm set up its GSM SatCell trailer in Germania in about an hour to provide additional GSM
coverage for the multi-day rally.
SatCell Instant Wireless is an integrated satellite terminal and wireless base station, housed in a
trailer-mounted enclosure, for rapid deployment of cellular voice and data services. With the addition of
a mast or other mobile antenna, Globecomm says it provides “a fully operable network node that can
be moved to any strategic location and set up and activated within an hour. The SatCell unit can operate
as an island of coverage, or be interconnected with other terminals to form a wide-area network.”
“We work with Indigo Wireless to provide managed network services using our 3G switch, so add-
ing the SatCell unit was a natural extension of our capabilities,” said Andy Silberstein, vice president
and general manager/Services at Globecomm.
Sponsors of the rally had asked attendees to use Twitter from their cellphones to provide up-to-date
information from the remote locations to STPR’s live feed, and this could not have been done without
the SatCell deployment.
Besides Indigo Wireless, Silberstein told CT his company provides fixed wireless backhaul services
to seven or eight other rural operators around the country.
july2010 17
BROADBAND
“(Broadband) technology has changed traditional business
models that all small business owners once relied on. As such,
it is particularly important that small businesses have access to
broadband technologies so they can compete on a global level
... We don’t want to connect just Main Street, we also want to
connect every street, every side alley and every country road so
that all small businesses, whether they are in traditional farm-
ing interests or Internet start-ups out in these less populated
areas have the same technological opportunities ... at the same
time, we must assure broadband is affordable.”
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), chair of the Senate Committee on
Small Business and Entrepreneurship, made this statement in her
opening remarks at an April 27 hearing on federal efforts to ex-
pand small-business Internet access across America, especially in
small and rural markets that either are under-served or not served
at all by broadband access to the information superhighway.
But while it is fair and legitimate for this issue to have entered
the political sphere, politicians only can define a sound direction
for public policy when they have a clear understanding of the busi-
ness case for, and the capabilities of, the technologies at hand.
At that hearing, Steve Friedman, chair of the American Cable
Association (ACA), declared, “Cable is the best technology in the
ground today to meet the Administration’s goals of bringing 100
Mbps broadband speed to all. With the advent of DOCSIS 3.0,
cable operators can deliver these speeds over their existing cable
networks without the need for government funding.”
He also observed that the cable industry as a whole provides
broadband access to 95 percent of the country, “the vast major-
ity of which receive speeds of at least 3 Mbps – faster than most
DSL providers.”
The National Broadband Plan, however, calls for at least 100
million U.S. homes to have, within the next decade, affordable
access to actual download speeds of at least 100 Mbps and actual
upload speeds of at least 50 Mbps (see Figure 1 on page 20). Obvi-
ously, there is a significant chasm to be crossed to reach that 100
Mbps target.
The nation’s large MSOs are preoccupied by their battles to
control large urban markets with high subscriber density, pitting
advanced fiber-optic network technology against HFC networks
operating on the DOCSIS 3.0 standard. Less lucrative suburban
and rural markets often are neglected. Why?
For large operators, it is difficult to develop a viable business
case for these markets. Even if stimulus funding is obtained (a
foreign concept to many MSOs), a large operator still is faced with
a fragmented marketplace, in which multiple applications must be
made in multiple markets, which raises a legitimate concern about
the ultimate return on the investment.
The blunt reality is that this is a capital-intensive business for
any operator. Only now are we beginning to emerge from a credit
crisis in which available capital was in short supply. However,
given the high-volume metrics upon which the business models
of the big guys rely, what may be a marginal play for them in terms
of ROI may in fact present a good business opportunity for smaller
operators – those that are more flexible and nimble in terms of the
markets they accustomed to serving, can avail themselves of such
funding sources as stimulus monies, and have fewer legacy issues
related to big investments in traditional industry technologies.
Does this, then, position the small and mid-sized independent
cable operators, represented by the ACA, as the hope of rural and
small-town America for broadband connectivity? If so, they need
to move fast. A recent study conducted by RVA Market Research
for the Fiber-to-the-Home Council found that hundreds of small
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By Jim Farmer
18 july2010
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A part of
independent telcos, broadband service
providers and municipalities, in addition
to some cable-TV operators, already have
brought gigabit-enabled, all-fiber service
to a total of more than 1.4 million North
American homes - about a quarter of all
Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) and Business
(FTTB) connections on the continent. All-
fiber networks now reach 16 percent of
homes in North America, with 5.8 mil-
lion homes now receiving TV, high-speed
Internet and/or phone service via these
networks.
Typically, these municipal deployments
have been done to provision advanced
triple-play services. These networks provide
affordable broadband services with upload
and download speeds that start at 10 Mbps.
This compares to services delivered over
DSL and HFC, in which the upload speeds
typically are only a fraction of the down-
load speed – which can be a significant
hindrance to local businesses attempting to
expand and compete on the global stage.
And business is the real issue here.
As both Sen. Landrieu and Sen. Olympia
Snowe (R-Maine) emphasized during the
April 27 hearing, the fact that only one
percent of America’s small businesses ex-
port anything is a critical issue that must
be addressed at a time when the nation is
facing a jobless recovery.
Sen. Snowe cited a recent report from the
Brookings Institute that found broadband
capital expenditures helped create 500,000
jobs in 2009 alone while estimating a $5
billion increase in funding would increase
broadband penetration by 7 percent, result-
ing in 2.4 million new American jobs.
If, in fact, the ACA’s membership has the
technological capabilities in the ground
today to meet the ambitious target set forth
by the National Broadband Plan, as Fried-
man said, then significant work remains
to be done. A key question however, is
whether the technology available today
upon which most of the industry is rest-
ing its hopes – DOCSIS 3.0 – truly has the
horsepower to get the job done, and if it
doesn’t, what options are there for cable
operators that won’t break the bank?
The drive toward fiber at the commu-
nity level was represented at the hearing by
Terry Huval, director of Louisiana Utilities
Services – a municipal-owned utility that
operates one of the largest and most suc-
cessful broadband fiber deployments in the
country in the city of Lafayette. Residential
service begins with a symmetrical 10 Mbps
connection for $29.95 a month and 50
Mbps for $57.95. A business service with
download speeds of as much as 100 Mbps
also is available.
However, Lafayette faced bitter opposi-
tion from incumbent cable and telephone
providers that fought the deployment all
the way to the state Supreme Court after
refusing to install an advanced broad-
band network on the grounds that the
community was too small to warrant
such an investment.
Typically, municipalities are forced to
step in when commercial service providers
don’t install advanced capabilities. But even
Huval, for all his frustration, stated that
deploying advanced broadband networks to
small and rural communities shouldn’t have
to be the job of local government.
“Our major point is that this kind of
infrastructure is what we need to have, we
need to all set the target – here’s where we
want to be and ask everyone at the table,
‘who’s going to get us all there fastest,’”
Huval said. “If the private sector can, then
they should.”
Cable operators that sit back and wait
run the risk of being left behind as other
service providers take matters into their
own hands.
Addressing The ChallengesIn fairness to the membership of the ACA,
Friedman did cite several key policy re-
forms government must undertake to help
ensure cable operators serving smaller and
rural markets can afford to make necessary
broadband investments.
Friedman emphasized the importance of
upgrading middle-mile infrastructure, an
undertaking often too expensive for inde-
pendent cable operators to do themselves.
Rural middle-mile links, he claimed, “are
often high-cost, low capacity pipes creating
a bottleneck that reduces data speeds for
our customers.”
He also cited the rising fees to attach
cable wires and routing equipment to tele-
phone poles owned or controlled by electric
cooperatives and municipalities as barriers
FIGURE 1: The National Broadband Plan calls for at least 100 million U.S. homes to have,
within the next decade, affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 100 Mbps and
actual upload speeds of at least 50 Mbps. Today, much of the United States meets that challenge.
Source: FCC
20 july2010
to rural broadband investment.
Lastly, Friedman called on the FCC to act
on a recent proposal that would allow all
cable operators to offer low-cost, low-func-
tionality HD set-top boxes as a substitute
for expensive CableCARD-enabled boxes
mandated under regulations in effect since
July 2007 for the transition from analog to
digital service. He said this would help free
bandwidth capacity that will allow for the
provision of broadband speeds as fast as
100 Mbps.
However, while you can create more
bandwidth if you repurpose some video
channels to data (and one way to achieve
this is to convert more channels to digital),
you still aren't going to reach that magical
100 Mbps target without that costly up-
grade to DOCSIS 3.0.
Is DOCSIS 3.O Enough?Which brings us to the fine point of the
matter – how does DOCSIS 3.0 shape up
against a passive optical network (PON)
that brings fiber all the way to home and
business? At what point does the cost and
effort of upgrading to DOCSIS 3.0 and pre-
planning a network to squeeze as much
bandwidth as possible from an existing
HFC infrastructure make fiber a much
more economical alternative?
While DOCSIS 3.0 has made signifi-
cant improvements in bandwidth availabil-
ity compared with its predecessors through
channel bonding, an operator always must
make tradeoffs between downstream chan-
nel allocation and the type of traffic that will
be carried on a network, be it video or data.
Such advanced network planning might
meet the short-term traffic patterns of the
network and the bandwidth allocation to
the node (nodes represent a group of sub-
scribers that are sharing the allocated chan-
nels and bandwidth, similar to a PON
network where an optical fiber is serving
multiple customers).
However, as consumers demand more and
more bandwidth-intensive TV services like
HD and 3D, having sufficient bandwidth to
allocate will become increasingly difficult, if
not impossible. DOCSIS 3.0 sharing might
see as many as 150 subscribers on a node,
with shared bandwidth approaching 160
Mbps, at a cost of 40 standard definition
(SD) or 8 HD video programs. The data
represents an average speed per subscriber
of about 1 Mbps, which is a lot today, but
as more subscribers download over-the-top
video and other bandwidth-intensive mate-
rial, more bandwidth is needed.
Fiber, on the other hand, provides more
flexibility and requires less advance plan-
ning. Take for example, a network on one
of the common FTTH standards: gigagit
passive optical network (GPON), in which
32 subscribers are served from a single
node. These 32 subscribers will share a 2.4
Gbps connection, for an average down-
load speed of approximately 75 Mbps per
subscriber. Obviously, we are much closer
to the 100 Mbps target called for in the
National Broadband Plan. Depending on
how much bandwidth is being used by in-
dividual subscribers at any one time, service
will almost always hit the 100 Mbps mark.
To achieve similar performance with
DOCSIS 3.0, the number of subscribers
per node would have to be limited to two.
That’s going to require a lot of new invest-
ment in hardware and cable runs that, in
the final analysis, makes a fiber deployment
much more economical by comparison.
All this pertains only to the downstream
capacity. A fundamental challenge, and lim-
itation, with DOCSIS 3.0 is its upstream ca-
pacity, which is dictated by the actual plant,
the issue of noise funneling depending on
how many homes and businesses are on the
same channel, and the condition of in-home
wiring. This can be addressed to some de-
gree by reducing the number of subscribers
per channel but, again, that requires costly
investments in new gear as well as frequent
reengineering of the network.
A Happy Medium?Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) also
has emerged as new option for cable pro-
viders, in which RF transmission is used in
both directions. However, it still is a DOC-
SIS-bound solution, subject to DOCSIS’
inherent shortcomings compared to fiber.
It bears noting that there are two parts to
a cable operator’s network: the physical net-
work infrastructure and the management
system that manages traffic over that infra-
structure. For many operators, being able
to manage the network with their DOCSIS
management system is of greater impor-
tance than the underlying infrastructure.
What cable operators need is a means to
uncouple from that legacy HFC network
and make the most of a DOCSIS investment
by being able to plug into a fiber network
they can manage with their DOCSIS sys-
tem. That is coming.
In the meantime, we remain where we
are – the big MSOs are, for the most part,
investing little if any capital to upgrade
their rural subscribers to DOCSIS 3.0.
When the local municipality decides to
fill the gap with a broadband network of
its own, the response is often a price war,
a legal action or even a departure by the
MSO from the market.
There is no real reason why a MSO can-
not move away from DOCSIS 3.0 for green-
fields and new developments or deploy a
FTTB overlay. An existing video headend,
for example, can be shared between fiber
and HFC cable, using existing voice equip-
ment. While most of the MSO’s cable busi-
ness (read “revenue”) can remain on its
existing HFC build, it can deploy FTTH
and FTTB to new greenfield developments
or any other market segment to which it
has not yet run cable.
And Smaller Players?As for the smaller operators represented
by the ACA, they are in an excellent posi-
tion to address the rural broadband divide.
The cable industry, after all, did begin as a
grassroots endeavor to serve rural residents
and small communities. Part of the solu-
tion resides with government dealing with
the issues outlined by Friedman at the
April 27 hearing.
Of course, favorable regulatory and policy
decisions are only part of the equation. The
onus is on the cable operators themselves
to set their priorities for the future and to
consider what technologies allow them to
best serve the needs of the communities
they connect. All stakeholders must work
together to define business models that
make it financially possible to roll out the
advanced broadband connectivity rural and
small communities need at an affordable
price to subscribers. While Friedman said
his membership can deliver broadband ser-
vice without government stimulus monies,
it may in fact be a necessary step to deploy
a future-proof network that will endure for
decades to come.
Because the thirst for more bandwidth
shows no sign of abating.
Jim Farmer is chief network architect at Enablence
Networks Inc. Contact him at Jim.farmer@
enablence.com.
july2010 21
CYBER
Secured Messaging = A Protected Brand By David Harvey, Message Systems, and Ken Schneider, Symantec
SAFETYC
yber threats against
most organizations, in-
cluding cable providers,
increasingly are origi-
nating from emerging
countries where In-
ternet infrastructures are growing rapidly.
Attacks—including phishing, bots, spam
and denial of service (DOS) attacks—from
these developing areas are becoming more
malicious in nature and can be directed at
any country. Where previously attackers
wrote a relatively small number of threats
targeted to a large group, now they create a
much higher number of threats targeted to
small groups.
As a hedge, cable providers now need
to implement a progressive solution that is
global in its resources and blends automa-
tion with human intelligence. Increasing,
barriers to unwanted attacks not only will
save the company money, but also will help
protect the company’s brand reputation by
enabling a better user experience.
Only a next-generation threat-protection
system that enables the dynamic application
of real-time intelligence sharing for
greater effectiveness, responsiveness and
operational efficiency can absorb and defend
against these sophisticated attacks. Cable
operators need a multi-tiered system that
provides protection at both the network and
application levels to enhance the accuracy
and effectiveness of threat detection and
ensure the environment remains safe.
With a sweeping approach to message
security that goes beyond content scanning,
carriers and other service providers will
gain a competitive edge through improved
service levels and better user experiences.
That means less customer churn, higher
average revenue per user (ARPU) and sim-
plified management—all at a lower total
cost of ownership.
Email remains a vital messaging
channel for cable providers. However,
spam continues to grow (now 85 percent
of all email traffic) and evolve along with
22 july2010
security continue to be under pressure even
as volumes and threats grow.
As such, messaging threats tend to be
treated with older solutions using historic
thought practices and pieced-together dis-
parate products and services. Solutions that
offer advanced message management and
security capabilities in a single integrated
package simply have not been available
until recently. The net result of these factors
generally is sub-par threat protection.
Key Components In some cases, cable providers are strapped
by legacy systems that aren’t flexible and
don’t scale. In others, they’ve got point
applications and platforms that aren’t ex-
tensible or simply don’t provide solutions
adequate to today’s challenges and needs.
What’s needed is a combination of best-
of-breed products and services to create a
well-rounded suite of message security and
management solutions. This combination
will more readily enable service providers
to achieve their business objectives, to post
higher financial returns and to gain a com-
petitive edge in the marketplace.
Cable providers should look for features
that include network-level, multi-tiered fil-
tering; advanced spam detection and pre-
vention capabilities; flexibility in running
different rule sets for different groups on a
side-by-side, per-message basis; and the un-
paralleled ability to integrate into virtually
any client environment.
To keep the network and customers safe,
cable providers need a next-gen threat pro-
tection system that stays ahead of threats
and helps ensure airtight security in an
ever-changing environment. This solution
requires a comprehensive, holistic approach
that enables carriers and service providers
to block threats at the earliest point with
fully integrated security components at all
levels (content, protocol and edge of net-
work) for realtime intelligence sharing.
As a result, they can detect and respond
to threats faster (before they cause serious
damage to the business), deploy enhanced
security capabilities to counter ever-
evolving attacks, improve service levels,
improve customer experiences and reduce
costs through streamlined operations.
An important consideration for cable-
cos regarding a next-gen threat protection
system is tight integration offered by inde-
pendent application and platform providers.
Tight integration is important to maximizing
the benefit of both, but not to the point of re-
stricting choice, such as with a single-source
or closed solution. Choosing independent
application and platform providers is impor-
tant because it allows cable providers to take
advantage of the technology innovation of
both while preserving the choice to respond
to ever-changing threats in the ways that
best suit each operator’s unique needs.
The Benefits Here’s a comprehensive checklist regarding
the benefits of an integrated solution:
It provides better service: The need
for cable providers to enhance the user
experience, and to reduce customer churn
and infrastructure investment is not a
“nice to have;” it’s a “must have.” Genesys,
Greenfield Online and analysts from Data-
monitor/Ovum found a $50.6 billion loss
from customer churn and industry defects.
Cable providers are fighting to keep cus-
tomers who are looking at low cost and free
services. Estimates show the cable/satellite
industry has lost more than $10 billion
from poor customer service.
It better leverages existing infrastruc-
ture: The cable industry can better lever-
age its infrastructure by stopping spam
at the network level. However, efficiency
and effectiveness gains are based on intelli-
gence-sharing between all components of a
solution. This means the solution is depen-
dent on adequate end-to-end resources to
identify abuse and to communicate (share
intelligence) with the other components.
While lower overall network traffic might
appear to justify a reduction in downstream
servers, such reductions could hinder the
effectiveness of the solution and could
introduce latency. With the cable industry
TY
As cyber threats and attacks continue to evolve, it is critical that
cable providers act now to develop a comprehensive security strategy
that is risk-based, policy-driven, information-centric, operationalized
and comes with a well-managed infrastructure.
the increasing number of such security threats
as viruses, phishing (see Figure 1 and Figure 2
on page 24), Trojan horses and malware. More
than 40 percent of IT groups cite cyber risk as
their top concern, yet most carriers continue to
rely on technology that’s a step behind. Failing
to detect these threats early and allowing them
to infiltrate the network deeply is costly. In
addition to hard costs, cable providers face
customer-satisfaction issues that often are
damaged beyond repair.
Almost No One Is ImmuneIf last year is any indication, three out of four
communications service providers will be hit
by cyber attacks in 2010. While the potential
damage from these and other attacks, such as
DOS, can be severe, fully 90 percent are avoid-
able if companies better protect their networks.
Unfortunately, operating budgets for messaging
july2010 23
looking to expand into the business/en-
terprise market, operators should leverage
their existing infrastructure but take cau-
tion in reducing it.
It provides better decision-making
through shared intelligence from other
networks and data sources: If a cable
provider chooses an intelligence network
with a large base of experts and a high
detection rate with few false positives,
then it most likely find an automatic and
seamless information transfer to both
internal and external data repositories
and additional intelligence that improves
a solution’s accuracy and effectiveness in
filtering out threats.
It offers complete control and visibility
of all messaging activity and response to
observed behavior: Unlike point-focused
products, multi-tiered systems provide pro-
tection at both the network level and at the
application level to enhance the accuracy
and effectiveness of threat detection and to
help ensure the environment remains safe.
And with a sweeping approach to message
security that goes way beyond content scan-
ning, service providers will gain a competi-
tive edge through improved service levels
and better end-user experiences.
There could be lower costs and greater
efficiency via connection/bandwidth man-
agement: Connection/bandwidth manage-
ment with SMTP trending and Layer Three
network-level control combine multiple
content scanning modules with heuristics
and reputation data at the platform and net-
work levels for true multi-tiered filtering.
Achieved through tight integration, this ap-
proach is proved to deliver better results and
more efficient operations than specialized
point products.
Combined global and local reputation
data maximizes accuracy and minimizes
false positives with expanded use of a ven-
dor’s reputation lists as well as data from
a provider’s local servers. This balanced
approach incorporates new feedback faster,
further optimizes Layer Three (TCP/IP)
throttling at the network edge and blends
the benefits of a global view with filtering
tailored for your environment. The result
is threats are quickly and efficiently identi-
fied and dealt with, and spammers seek out
more vulnerable targets.
There could be advanced security
capabilities to counter ever-evolving
threats: Message parking for zero-hour
and outbound attacks improves the ability
to filter newly released spam threats as well
as outbound attacks (egress spam) accu-
rately. Combined with such powerful heu-
ristics as improved botnet detection, fully
integrated message parking is an effective
method for staying a step ahead of spam-
mers by identifying suspicious messages
and holding them for scanning when
new filters are available.
Enhanced detection of “snowshoe”
spam goes beyond basic filtering methods
that aren’t enough to protect from today’s
more sophisticated messaging abuse.
However, new tools enable the solu-
tion to identify snowshoe attacks—small
volumes of spam sent from numerous
IP addresses—and prevent these covert
threats from impacting a network.
Simplified management and solid
business continuity: Once a global team
is on the same page, it can create a unified
interface with robust reporting in a single,
unified management console for policy
and configuration changes, making ad-
ministering the solution easy and efficient,
and giving cable providers greater control
over all parts of email security. Powerful
reporting consolidates data from all solu-
tion components into cohesive graphs,
reports and logs for complete end-to-end
insight that’s truly actionable.
Additional components include a
streamlined and rapid installation able
to duplicate a cable provider’s current
configuration so it can be assured of a
non-disruptive migration. With the flexi-
bility to run entirely different rule sets for
individual user groups on a side-by-side,
per-message basis, administrators have
incredible control over the way messages
are handled across the network.
Seamless integration and carrier-grade
availability provide an unparalleled
ability to integrate with virtually any
environment, resulting in a fast, easy
implementation with minimal adminis-
tration so cable providers can experience
the benefits immediately. Some solutions
provide an automatic failover to help
ensure 100-percent platform availability.
Once it’s up, it stays up.
David Harvey is vice president/Business Devel-
opment at Message Systems, and Ken Schneider
is CTO/Enterprise Security Group at Symantec.
Contact them at david.harvey@messagesys-
tems.com and kenneth_schneider@symantec.
com, respectively.
❯
❯
❯
❯
❯
❯
FIGURE 1: Phishing Sources by Country. This chart measures phishing by country of origin as a percentage of all phishing email (ac-curate as of May 31, 2010).
FIGURE 2: Phishing Sources by Continent. This chart measures phishing by continent as a percentage of all phishing email. Europe is the dominant source of phishing emails (accurate as of May 31, 2010).
Sou
rce:
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Sou
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24 july2010
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Tech Talk
In the business world, performance met-
rics are the de facto thermometer used to
gauge a company’s fitness. As such, cable
technicians keep a sharp eye on such things
as spectrum health, signal health and data
health. If one of these categories shows
signs of the flu, the others will suffer.
A recent Communications Technology
Webcast sponsored by JDSU addressed ad-
vanced upstream troubleshooting, spawn-
ing a spate of queries from listeners during
the course of that hour. The three panelists
– Ron Hranac (technical leader/CMTS Busi-
ness Unit at Cisco and senior tech editor
here at CT), David Haigh (lead engineer, Mid-
continent Communications) and Jim Walsh
(product manager, JDSU) – tackled some of
the most-asked-about issues surrounding
how to keep the upstream in top condition.
What causes code-word errors (CWE)?
How can field network technicians trou-
bleshoot them?
Pretty much anything that impairs up-
stream signal transmission can cause CWE
if those impairments are severe enough:
low carrier-to-noise ratio, ingress, impulse
noise, laser clipping, nonlinear distortions,
linear distortions, etc. If you don't see vis-
ible ingress, the problem may well be re-
lated to impulse noise (a form of ingress),
laser clipping or linear distortions.
Impulse noise frequently shows up quite
well in the constellation using a QAM ana-
lyzer. A packet impacted by single fast im-
pulse noise burst generally will have just a
few symbols significantly moved from their
desired locations. If there are no other im-
pairments present it is even easier to see;
you will have a very tight constellation with
just a few outlier symbols. You can see ex-
ample constellation pics in the app note pub-
lished at www.jdsu.com/product-literature/
QAMTrak_Analyzer_Application_Note.pdf.
To check for impulse noise, connect a
spectrum analyzer to an upstream test point
in the headend or hub. Set the spectrum ana-
lyzer span control to display 1 MHz-50 MHz,
and turn on peak hold. Let the analyzer sit in
peak hold mode for several minutes and see
if the noise floor builds up significantly higher
than when the analyzer is not in peak hold
(do this when the CMTS is reporting code-
word errors).
You can also try placing the analyzer in
zero-span mode, which displays amplitude
versus time; impulse noise often can be
seen more easily this way.
Can an individual modem cause code-
word errors?
If that modem were transmitting at or above
its rated maximum output level, the transmit-
ted signal might become distorted. The latter
might cause uncorrectable errors. A rogue
modem maxed out might clip the upstream
laser, affecting all traffic on that return path.
What type of impairments will affect the
entire return segment and what type of
impairment is only localized to a specific
household?
Impairments that "funnel" back to the node
will affect the entire return segment. Ex-
amples include thermal noise, such nonlin-
ear distortions as common point distortion
(CPD), impulse noise and ingress, and laser
clipping. Individual drop problems that affect
the upstream signal level from a given mo-
dem generally will affect only that modem
(example: a backwards splitter or other drop
problems), linear distortions (micro-reflec-
tion, amplitude ripple, group delay) through
which certain modems' signals pass, etc.,
will not affect the entire return segment un-
less very close to the node.
Will moving to an all-digital format make
CPD go away?
No, CPD does not "go away" in an all-dig-
ital or mostly digital network. The sec-
ond- and third-order distortions become
noise-like rather than discrete beat clus-
ters one sees in a network with a large
number of analog TV channels. When CPD
exists in a network with a lot of digital sig-
nals, the effect is an elevated noise floor.
And going all digital may make CPD a lot
more difficult to identify. Analog CPD is
very distinctive. Digital CPD just looks
like noise and could be confused with
other impairments.
Under what circumstances would a
technician find severe upstream data
collisions, and how would you discover/
troubleshoot that?
Data collisions typically occur during con-
tention slots for modem transmissions (this
is normal and expected behavior). Exces-
sive retransmissions may be an indication
of data collisions.
Regarding transmissions, is it better to
have the transmit level as high as possi-
ble and close to the minimum threshold
to have a better upstream CNR?
It is a good idea for modem transmit levels to
be fairly high for a better carrier-to-junk ratio,
but a given modem's transmit level should
have around 6 dB of headroom with respect
to that modem's maximum transmit power
capability. The latter helps ensure sufficient
output power dynamic range to accommo-
date temperature-related signal level chang-
es in the coax plant.
What causes laser clipping, and how can
it be resolved?
The most common cause of laser clipping is
RF levels that are too high at the laser input.
How do I know if I have laser clipping?
To check for laser clipping, observe the
spectrum from 42 MHz to about 200
MHz with your analyzer. Clipping pro-
duces distortions that are visible in this
frequency range.
At exactly what frequencies does laser
clipping occur?
When laser clipping occurs, it affects all fre-
quencies in the signal path. This is known
as cross-compression. A good place to look
for the presence of clipping distortion (up-
stream) is in the 42 MHz-200 MHz band.
Which lasers are affected: those in the
node or those in the hub?
Any return laser through which upstream
Curing A Sick Network
26 july2010
Tech Talk
signals are transmitted is susceptible to clip-
ping (downstream lasers can clip, too).
From the CMTS perspective, is there any
best practice that can be applied for up-
stream issues?
Consult with your CMTS manufacturer for
recommended configurations and modula-
tion profiles.
What is meant by unequalized vs. equal-
ized modulation error ratio (MER)?
Equalized MER is computed in a QAM re-
ceiver (cable modem, set-top, CMTS up-
stream receiver, QAM analyzer, etc.) after the
adaptive equalizer compensates for channel
response impairments. Unequalized MER is
computed before the adaptive equalizer. (For
more on this, see "Equalized or Unequalized?
That is the Question" at www.cable360.net/
ct/operations/bestpractices/21885.html.)
What effect does combining upstream re-
turns on a DWDM link have on upstream
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and CWEs?
This would first depend on whether the re-
turn is analog or digital. Digital returns are
usually unaffected by DWDM technology
unless “normal” optical impairments are
present (e.g., low light due to muxing, etc.).
If not aligned correctly the amount of analog
upstreams combined can affect upstream
SNR (MER) or CWE.
Most CWE or MER problems that
have been encountered with upstream
optics are due to other such normal opti-
cal impairments as low or excessive light
levels, low or excessive RF levels, over-
driving an upstream erbium doped fibre
amplifier (EDFA) or laser clipping. One of
the major contributors to low upstream
SNR (MER), are misaligned optics on the
return path.
How does TI’s SNR differ from Broad-
com’s SNR reporting?
Texas Instruments burst receivers report
unequalized MER, while Broadcom burst
receivers report equalized MER.
Given that MER is extremely accurate,
is there a limit to a field meter’s (specifi-
cally a DSAM 6000) accuracy in regards
to MER? Are the rumors true that the
DSAM is inaccurate when reading MER
at higher (or lower) error ratio levels?
The article "Is MER Overrated?" may an-
swer your question from a general per-
spective as to why one often sees differ-
ences in reported MER among various
makes/models of test equipment (www.
cable360.net/ct/sections/columns/broad-
band/39246.html). All of JDSU’s DSAM
meter’s have an MER accuracy specifica-
tion of 35 dB +/- 2 dB (typical), with an
input level between -5 dBmV and +50
dBmV. Although the DSAM meters can
display MER readings up to 40 dB (or
slightly higher), the MER accuracy is not
guaranteed. But that doesn’t necessarily
mean that they are “inaccurate.”
How accurate is the Broadcom SNR mea-
sure compared to a spectrum analyzer?
A CMTS burst receiver chip's reported
"upstream SNR" actually is MER. It is NOT
the same thing as CNR that you would
measure with a spectrum analyzer. CNR
does affect the reported MER, but many
other factors do, too.
Which equipment can help technicians
see linear distortions?
An upstream-capable QAM analyzer or
similar digital signal analyzer is useful for
determining the presence of linear distor-
tions. The screenshots used during the
CT/JDSU Webcast were from JDSU's
PathTrak WebView 2.5, scheduled for re-
lease later this summer.
Is measuring the micro-reflection on
a CMTS one way of locating linear
distortion?
When "upstream SNR" (MER) is degrad-
ed but CNR is good, that may be an in-
dication of the presence of linear distor-
tions. Specialized test equipment is the
best way to characterize the severity of
linear distortions.
What is most common outside plant
cause of group delay? Is it diplex filters
in actives?
Group delay in the outside plant is prob-
lematic at the return path band edges
(5 MHz~10 MHz, caused by AC chokes/
filters, and greater than about 35 MHz,
caused by diplex filters). When a micro-re-
flection creates amplitude ripple ("stand-
ing waves"), one is likely to see group de-
lay ripple, too. The testing Midcontinent
has performed on live plant pointed to a
diplexer each time. Each time it tested a
cable modem following an amplifiers di-
plexer, the group delay increased until the
test reached the fourth and fifth amplifier,
where the cable modem struggled to op-
erate.
What are some options for performing re-
verse sweep in a fully loaded upstream?:
Your sweep equipment manufacturer can
provide recommendations about sweep
equipment configuration for use in a con-
gested upstream spectrum. Many op-
erators leave small gaps between each
upstream to enable a sweep point to
be inserted. You NEVER want to insert
sweep pulses and/or sweep telemetry
carriers anywhere within the occupied
bandwidth of any upstream carrier! One
vendor recommends that cable operators
allow a 500 kHz guard-band between
carriers for sweep insertion points if pos-
sible in order to avoid interfering with up-
stream carriers.
At worst case, the guard band can be
a minimum of 100 kHz; however, when-
ever inserting sweep pulses within 100
kHz guard bands, it is recommended that
the sweep pulses and telemetry insertion
levels are reduced by approximately 6 dB
to 10 dB to avoid any interference with up-
stream carriers.
(Editor’s note: To listen to the entire “Advanced
Upstream Troubleshooting” Webcast and to
download the slide deck, go to www.cable360.
net/ct/webcasts/2010_05_27/)
july2010 27
Global Update
A new report from ABI Research has found
that while pay-TV market growth slowed in
2009 due to the recession, 2010 is expect-
ed to be a better year as operators have
been signing up new subscribers, and
existing subscribers migrate to premium
channels and advanced services.
“As a re.sult of the positive market out-
look for pay-TV, global pay-TV revenue will
net more than $312 billion for cable and
telecom carriers in 2010,” commented
Jason Blackwell, ABI Research’s practice
director.
Among the different pay-TV platforms,
telco TV service revenue is growing the
fastest as broadband penetration and In-
ternet speeds ramp up, the research firm
found. “For example, Deutsche Telekom’s
IPTV subscriber base essentially doubled
within a year, to one million,” it added.
“As fiber broadband deployment expands
its footprint, operators will have the op-
portunity to offer high-definition IPTV that
should help to boost ARPU and service
revenue.” As such, ABI Research predict-
ed telco-TV service revenue will top $17
billion this year alone.
In terms of telco TV service revenue,
Western Europe leads in market share
with 59 percent, followed by North Amer-
ica and Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific’s telco-TV
service revenue comprised 10 percent of
the total market last year, and it’s expect-
ed to grow to 25 percent by 2015.
In addition, pay-TV operators are com-
peting to raise ARPU while lowering
churn. ABI found that many operators
are upgrading programming packages
and steadily introducing high definition TV
services. “Pay TV operators need to ag-
gressively promote the purchase of HDTV
set-top boxes in order to lift ARPU,” said
Research Associate Khin Sandi Lynn. “This
does not have to come through subsidies.
Carriers could do a better job of promot-
ing the benefits of HD for the end-user
viewing experience. Furthermore there’s
the promise of 3D TV. At present many us-
ers are not clear what the benefits are.”
Another research firm, In-Stat, believes
Asia dominates worldwide pay-TV servic-
es, accounting for slightly more than 50
percent of subscribers this year.
“China alone will encompass 26.3 per-
cent of the total, followed by the rest of
Asia Pacific at 22.3 percent, North Amer-
ica 15.3 percent and Western Europe at
15.6 percent,” it writes. “While IPTV grew
faster than cable and satellite in 4Q09,
consistent growth is expected for all Pay-
TV platforms over the next five years.”
Explains Norm Bogen, In-Stat analyst,
“By 2012, there will be nearly three-quar-
ters of a billion pay-TV subscribers world-
wide. Asia will continue to represent over
50 percent of pay-TV subscribers through
2014, when we expect total subscribers
to reach 855 million.”
Vietnam Prepares For Sat-Delivered DTH TV
SES World Skies, a division of SES S.A.,
signed a multi-year agreement with Audio
Visual Company JSC (AVG), a joint stock
company of An Vien Group, to provide tran-
sponder capacity on the NSS-6 satellite for
its new direct-to-home (DTH) satellite tele-
vision service in Vietnam.
AVG has been approved by the Govern-
ment of Vietnam to develop and operate a
nation-wide digital terrestrial broadcasting
network in combination with digital satel-
lite transmissions and to provide multi-
channel DTT and DTH services in Vietnam.
The company initially plans to offer as many
as 80 channels of television programming
in Vietnam, with service scheduled to be-
gin in the fourth quarter. At launch, the ser-
vice will utilize 2.5 transponders; AVG has
an option for one more transponder, which
it expects to exercise in mid-2011.
According to Scott Sprague, senior vice
president/Sales at SES World Skies, “Viet-
nam is one of the fastest growing pay-TV
markets in Asia-Pacific. SES World Skies
is proud to have partnered with the only
fully private pay-TV operator in Vietnam,
and plans to support AVG’s fast and robust
growth strategy in that market.”
Added Pham Nhat Vu, CEO of An Vien
Group, “We selected SES World Skies high-
powered NSS-6 satellite because of its opti-
mal DTH coverage of our target market. SES
is also a large satellite operator with a fleet
of 44 satellites and several more under con-
struction; therefore, we felt that a relation-
ship with such a large and stable partner will
ensure that our DTH business will be pro-
tected and secure as we grow this business
in Vietnam.”
More In-Stat Statistics:
IPTV subscribers increased 9.1 percent
compared with the previous quarter and
46.1 percent year over year, reaching
33.3 million subscribers in 4Q09.
Eastern Europe and Western Europe
combined accounted for 49 percent of
IPTV subscribers in 2009.
Worldwide cable subscribers grew 4.4
percent in 2009.
Worldwide satellite subscribers will
reach a quarter-billion by 2014.
In 2010, Asia Pacific will overtake North
America as the largest satellite market.
Asia Pacific and Latin America/Caribbean
regions show the greatest growth rate in
satellite subscribers from 2009-14.
Worldwide Pay-TV Surge Predicted This Year
28 july2010
Global Update
Using a three-pronged plan, NDS Group Ltd.,
plans to sink even more money into China.
The U.K.-based company, which cre-
ates technologies and applications that
enable pay-TV operators to deliver digital
content to set-top boxes, digital video re-
corders, PCs, mobile devices and other
multimedia equipment, will expand its
partnerships with local Chinese business-
es, including consumer-electronics and
chipset manufacturers, application devel-
opers and systems integrators. Finally, it
will build on its partnerships with such
Chinese fi rms as DOXTV and Changhong
to export Chinese digital pay-TV solutions
to the rest of the world.
Earlier this year, NDS announced it had
increased its headcount by 73 percent in
China during the past year. Moving for-
ward, staff numbers will increase further,
with local hires as well as the relocation
of a percentage of existing NDS R&D re-
source from India and Israel.
According to Media Partners Asia, Chi-
na is experiencing phenomenal growth in
digital pay-TV, outstripping all other mar-
kets, adding China is the largest market
worldwide, with more than 66 million
digital pay-TV subscribers. By 2014, the
group predicted this number will grow to
198 million subscribers. In parallel, cable-
TV revenues will increase from $9 billion
in 2009 to $17 billion in 2014.
In separate China news, Texas-based
Microtune Inc. said Coship Electronics
Co. Ltd., reportedly one of China's largest
manufacturers of set-top boxes, designed
its DVB-C cable set-top box and its high-
speed cable modem using the MicroTuner
MT2066 TV tuner chip; operating from a
3.3-volt supply, the MT2066 is a miniature
6.35 mm, multi-functional chip.
Addressing the large and growing do-
mestic China cable services market, Co-
ship said its products help Chinese cable
operators to add video, voice and data
services to their cable network infrastruc-
ture as part of the country’s transition to
digital TV.
According to research group BDA Chi-
na, cable TV reached 163 million house-
holds and an estimated 500 million peo-
ple in China in 2009, making it the world's
largest cable market.
NDS Triples 2010 China Investment, Grows Staff;
Coship Uses U.S. Tuner For STBs, Cable Modems
advertiser access
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july2010 29
Reality Check By Katherine Waldron
The federal government’s push to bring broadband
to everyone is in full swing. With the final round of
the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program
(BTOP) applications submitted to Department of
Commerce’s NTIA and the USDA’s RUS in late March,
the first several billion dollars committed to pushing
broadband out to the last of the unwired homes and
anchor institutions in the United States has begun.
Already, much has been said regarding the myriad
possibilities and opportunities available and afford-
able access to the Internet can provide to all popu-
lation segments. But what may prove to be most
significant is the impact this broadband rollout can
have on the U.S. educational system, with a resulting
positive influence on the tax base. One recent applica-
tion from Florida may
serve as an example of
what could be accom-
plished.
It’s no secret Florida’s
educational system has
ranked near the bot-
tom for many years,
and the state’s ability in
this economic environ-
ment to make aggres-
sive improvements is challenged. Seeking a way to
make a difference, one group of educational leaders
teamed to submit a BTOP application this past March.
The result was “Florida SmartNet,” a partnership led
by the Foundation for Florida’s Community Colleges
that includes all of the Sunshine State’s 28 community
colleges, and many of the independent colleges and
universities as well as all 26 Florida PBS stations.
The basic concept behind this project is to tie the
higher-educational institutions and the PBS stations
into one high-speed network with a minimum inter-
connection speed of 1 GB. Performance improvement
would be realized through the creation of new applica-
tion solutions, including on-demand remote learning,
sharing of courses, decreased administrative costs
through shared costs and increased course availability
for students. This could result in an increase in Flori-
da’s educational level and graduation count estimated
to be 5 percent per year -- translating into an expanded
college pool of 3,270 students per year or 130,800 job-
years (3,270 x 40 years) during a 40-year career.
The anticipated monetary benefit to the state will
be enormous, as there are tax benefits to be realized
when increasing the number of college graduates.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Internal
Revenue Service, a college graduate earns an average
of $58,866 annually compared with high-school-only
workers, who earn an average of $33,419 annually.
The tax contribution attributable to these two levels
of education is substantial, with annual payments of
$13,762 and $7,053 per person, respectively.
Applying the income-earned and taxes-paid differ-
entials to a single incremental graduate resulting from
the Florida SmartNet project, additional individual in-
come of $25,447 and tax
revenue of $6,709 are
created annually. Multi-
plying these amounts by
the incremental gradu-
ates from a single year of
operation under Florida
SmartNet creates $83.2
million in income (3,270
graduates x $25,447)
and $21.9 million in tax
revenue (3,270 graduates x $5,300). In other words,
within the first five years of this project, an estimated
$1.25 billion in new wealth will be created and will
generate $329 million in new tax revenue -- just from
graduates with bachelor’s degrees alone.
While paying for itself, Florida SmartNet also will
deliver the indirect societal benefits resulting from a
better-educated community, including reduced crime
rates, a lower payout of unemployment compensation
and welfare, and the indirect wealth created through
economic multipliers applied to this more highly
educated core of income growth.
This is an application that will have a transforma-
tive impact at many levels, becoming a pattern for
other states to follow.
Katherine Waldron is CEO of Waldron and Associates, with of-
fices in Florida and Washington, D.C. Contact her at
Will BTOP Funding
Create More Florida
College Grads?
“ There are tax benefits to be realized when increasing the number of college graduates.”
30 july2010
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