Fiber Optic Troubleshooting & Monitoring
Driven by demand for more bandwidth and faster speed, fiber optics are replacing copper wire communications because of its many advantages over copper. Cable based methods for data transmission can’t provide the bandwidth of fiber, and is limited in the distance that signals can be sent due to power loss. Fiber optics offer greater bandwidth capacity, and the ability to transmit signals over longer distances with very little power loss. Fiber’s resistance to magnetic interference can make transmissions nearly noise free. Coupled with the low security risk of transmissions via light and the ease of installations with smaller size and lighter weight cables, fiber is bringing convenience and monetary advantages to the broadband operator.
Benefits of Netflow in Network Traffic Analysis 
There is a vast and growing array of network monitoring tools and software out there. New software, tools, and utilities are launching almost every year to compete in an ever-changing marketplace of technology monitoring. These new tools reinforce some of the most needed features, such as more granular and in-depth traffic data and better views of bandwidth usage.
Distributed Access Architecture: Choices, Challenges and Considerations 
Due to the insatiable appetite of subscribers for bandwidth services such as 4k and IP video, coupled with the exploding increase in WiFi, it has become almost mandatory for providers to offer gigabit speeds to homes and businesses. Operators scrambling to meet the demands have typically relied more and more on node splits.
Keeping Pace with the Competition: Cloud VoIP Outsourcing
Service providers are looking to residential and business VoIP services to augment revenues, monetize broadband infrastructure and increase customer win and retention rates. To deliver phone, many service providers partner with VoIP solution providers to accelerate timeto-market, increase service agility and improve business results. By outsourcing VoIP infrastructure, ISPs, MSOs and telcos can significantly reduce the time, capital and human resources required to deploy and support next-generation voice services.
Measuring Complex Subscriber Viewing Behavior
Viewership analytics are nothing new. For years, operators have relied on simple amounts to measure the most and least watched channel performance – particularly how busy a channel is during certain times of the day or week. Viewer counts were never very reliable, but it was the standard for the times. Now new data analytics tools have gone beyond the simple viewer counts in measuring TV channels and opened a much broader range of measurable data that will give operators clearer insight into their subscribers’ viewing habits.
Cable Signal Leakage
Cable signal leakage, sometimes called egress, occurs when RF signals “leak out” from the cable plant and spread into the environment. Cable signal leaks can be caused by loose connectors, damaged plant cables or cracked or unterminated cables. And egress or leakage is an open invitation for ingress, when outside signals get into a coaxial cable causing a disruption in online and voice services, poor picture quality, tiling, and picture freezing. These lead to customer complaints and result in long hours of troubleshooting. But signal leakage also has other repercussions for the operator, the most serious being the increased liability due to “harmful” interference with aeronautical communication.
Six Critical Considerations Before You Spend Another $1 on Service Provider DDoS Defenses
Like any business, service providers are vulnerable to crushing multi-vector distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks carried out for political, social, criminal or competitive reasons. However, service providers must also contend with the DDoS domino effect: the added challenge of protecting their infrastructure from targeted attacks against subscribers that cause collateral damage to infrastructure and other unsuspecting business customers.
Spectrum Analysis and Capture Capabilities
As operators we have many (sometimes too many) monitoring tools to gauge the health of our plant. This is especially true on upstream signals where we often find the most problems. The downstream, while typically a “cleaner” set of frequencies to transmit on, has challenges of its own and is much more difficult to monitor effectively because the signal is going to each customer location rather than straight to the head end.
Broadband Providers Guide to Transitioning to IPv6
On February 3, 2011, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated the last five remaining “/8”s of IPv4 address space to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs); the local registries are running low on IPv4 addresses, rapidly. The advent of new Internet-connected locations (from hotels to planes and more world-wide) and new Internet-connected devices (notable examples include smartphones, smart meters, gaming devices and other household appliances) has exacerbated the shortage. Each of these extra devices places greater pressure on the existing IPv4 infrastructure.
DOCSIS 3.1 and the PNM Toolbox
As cable networks transform, and services such as data, video, telephone, home monitoring and other services are going through them, the demand for exceptional reliability increases. To achieve such reliability the old break-fix routine also has to transform. Operators have to fix problems before they have an impact on service.
DOCSIS Evolution and How 3.1 Will Change Everything
The cable modem of the 1980s wasn‘t even called a cable modem. It was designed and used primarily by engineers and was just called a modem, or sometimes, an RF modem. The information was digital—1s and 0s—and these early cable modems were less complex and served limited purposes.
Transforming VoIP Economics with a Cloud-Based Platform
Voice communications remain essential to individuals and businesses. This presents a great opportunity for broadband service providers, who can offer an additional service over their broadband connection and gain some significant new revenue while they’re at it.
DSL Operators: Migrating from PPPoE/PPPoA to DHCP
DHCP doesn’t just solve IP address management problems, it can save you at the bank when it’s upgrade time. Want to know more? Read Scott’s answers to DHCP questions and find out the number one reason operators switch, why most telco or DSL operators may already be equipped to make the switch, and more.
Managing Customer Churn to Boost Your Bottom Line
Many broadband companies spend a good deal of time and money in an attempt to attract new subscribers. Of course, efforts focused on gaining new customers are an important tactic in growing your business. Just as important, however, is taking the steps necessary to reduce the loss of existing customers.
Correlation Groups and vTDR Using DOCSIS PNM
As its name suggestion, proactive network maintenance (PNM) allows cable operators to get ahead of the curve in being able to diagnose issues in the cable plant. When network impairments are concentrated in an area, it’s easier to locate the problems if technicians can zero in on multiple cable modems that are having the same problem and group those modems together.
Using the CMTS to find Return Path Ingress for DOCSIS Cable Plants
The return path in any DOCSIS network is most frequently the weakest link of the DOCSIS network. It is the source of most RF impairments and also the location of RF ingress, which disrupts DOCSIS communication of any type. Why is this?
DOCSIS Pre-Equalization: Vastly Powerful, Often Undervalued
You probably already know that by adding a simple, one-line command in the CMTS you can see an immediate 5 to 10 dB improvement upstream MER (SNR). It’s like a magic pill that eliminates the pain that would normally be caused by impairments in your outside plan an the subscriber’s home.
Best Practices for Providing Uncompromising Broadband Support
A recent poll ranking the customer service of 235 companies across 19 industries found that cable and telco providers aren’t scoring so well with their customers. The bottom of the barrel in this survey is a who’s who of TV and Internet companies, with eleven of those companies landing between 222 to 235 in the rankings.
Best Practices for Implementing Broadband Usage Management
If you’re like most cable providers, it’s been a challenge to keep up with the increasing demand for bandwidth. As quickly as you add capacity, it seems you need more, and the cost of constantly bumping up your bandwidth probably isn’t being offset by an increase in revenue per subscriber.
DOCSIS Codeword Errors & Their Effects on RF Impairments
DOCSIS codeword errors are the most effective metric to determine if a data issue like slow web pages, slow gaming, poor voice quality, etc., is an RF plant problem or if it is a data network problem. Understanding codeword errors and their effect on RF impairments will enable you to improve your subscriber’s experience, lower your costs and save your technicians time in the field.
