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April 2001 Issue
Industry Insider: Experience the Solutions at Cable-Tec Expo 2001
By Brad Dusto

Every year, more than 11,000 technical professionals come to Cable-Tec Expo to learn about the latest technical advances and best practices, and to discuss common issues facing the industry. As the broadband telecommunications industry has grown from a one-way analog distribution system to a fully integrated bi-directional communications network, so too have the skills required to operate these systems. Cable-Tec Expo provides an opportunity to learn directly from industry experts through workshops and from vendors demonstrating technical innovations on the show floor.

The Cable-Tec Expo Program Subcommittee has selected a wide variety of workshop topics. Following is an overview.

Network protocols

This preconference tutorial focuses in on all those digital service acronyms and the technology behind some of the protocols. These are the base technologies that all the advanced services rely upon and this tutorial will prepare you for all of the workshops.

Delivering DOCSIS 1.1

Most of us are aggressively launching cable modems based on Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS 1.0), so why is everyone now talking about DOCSIS 1.1? Find out what it’s all about at this preconference tutorial that focuses on what this new specification is and how to deploy new equipment to support this standard.

Implementing new services

This workshop will help you prepare your broadband network for advanced services, from the physical headend requirements through the transport system all the way to the customer equipment.

Return path

The return path is critical to many of these new advanced services and this workshop will focus on techniques to improve the reliability and performance of the return path. New tools, technologies and measurements will be discussed.

Technical team

One of the most difficult issues technical leaders face is finding and keeping enough qualified people to meet business requirements. This workshop will focus on proven techniques to hire, train and retain your technical team.

Network management and monitoring

Many of our advanced services are delivered in digital packets. To ensure these packets are delivered accurately to the customer, network management tools and network monitoring systems will be required. These discussions will investigate the requirements for network management and how to monitor your broadband system.

Home networks

There are many types of home networks that use phone lines, power lines, coax, Category 5 cable and wireless systems to move information and entertainment around the home. This session will describe these networks, the various enabling technologies and take an in-depth look at the challenges facing these networks.

Video-on-demand

Everyone has been talking about video-on-demand (VOD) for a couple of years, and now it is time to begin widely deploying the systems. This workshop will teach you how to launch VOD, and includes discussions of fiber usage, transport options, optimizing servers and spectrum analysis.

Preparing our broadband networks for advanced services is critical to the success of our companies. The vendors demonstrating their products on the show floor and these workshops are aimed at giving you the information necessary to "Experience the Solutions." This Cable-Tec Expo is a must for every technical leader. See you in Orlando!

Brad Dusto is senior vice president, engineering, for Comcast Communications.

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