By Lei Zhou, Robert Thompson, Robert Howald, John Chrostowski & Daniel Rice, Comcast Cable
Deployment of an expanding range of upstream split options for the return path in coax systems has many challenges. Among these challenges are old infrastructure components such as drop-amps and splitters, legacy customer premises equipment (CPE) and services sharing common or overlapping spectrum. This technical report presents a scheme that leverages remote feature control (RFC) and remote health monitor (RHM). These systems selectively enable enhanced return path high-speed internet service (HSI) for Cable Modems based on a quality of service (QoS) measurement from all CPE in the household.
Specifically, current use cases will describe how DOCSIS© TLV84 is used to remotely enable mid and high-split. At the same time, downstream and upstream performance metrics, such as signal-to-noise (SNR), modulation error ratio (MER), and other metrics are remotely monitored from all CPE devices within the home and, in the case of high split and full duplex (FDX), within neighboring homes as well, to evaluate potential disruption of revenue generating services. Households are scored to determine whether they are capable of self-installation of enhanced HSI services. The advantage of this technique includes allowing:
- scalable individualized and progressive HSI deployment with a remediation strategy focused only on customer networks where potential issues exist and
- proactive and adaptive network operations in accordance to a varying environment thus minimizing trouble calls, truck rolls, and customer contact.