By Bob Harrison, Spyglass Integration
A team of RF, system integration, quality assurance testing, and software development engineers at Spyglass Integration has recently created a comprehensive suite of testing and measurement tools and methodologies that characterize the downstream and return path bandwidth utilization for different classes of 2-way interactive services such as VOD, tCommerce, and unified messaging. These characterizations can be mapped to an operator's existing broadcast and return system network as a means to identify and mitigate bottlenecks and realize a balanced delivery of services for both steady-state and peak subscriber access.
In this paper, we will introduce these tools and methodologies that may enable operators to determine their current network's suitability for deploying 2-way interactive services, and identify where infrastructure investment or bandwidth allocation modifications may be considered to achieve required quality of service for subscribers.