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Editor, 
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FEATURE STORY
Why Wireless in the Commercial Market?
Wireless plant extensions can quicken cable's assault on the commercial services market, provided operators are able to decide from among a wide range of choices.
"The motivation for wireless is two-fold," Pete Hicks, manager of product development for commercial data at Charter Communications, says. "One is to shorten our delivery time to commercial customers. The second is capital reduction."
Charter is deploying wireless line extension technology from Wireless Bypass (http://www.wireless-bypass.com) in collaboration with Denver-based integration and consulting services provider Anyware Network Solutions (http://www.anyware-ns.com). Along with not having to sink capital into time-consuming highway or parking lot construction projects, Hicks notes an operational benefit of this particular solution.
"It actually transmits the DOCSIS channel wirelessly," Hicks says. "From an operator's perspective, we troubleshoot that wireless customers the same way we do a hardline. If a signal-to-noise is too high or low, those operational parameters are the same kind for wireless."
Wireless Bypass says it is now a corporate-approved and supported product line series in two of the three largest MSOs in the U.S.
Choices and More Choices -- Dan Heller, director of technical operations for central Oregon-based Bend Cable, is considering his options, but says he is cautiously leaning toward an 802.11 Ethernet-based system from Cisco (http://www.cisco.com). "There needs to be some additional security, and Cisco and others are working on this," he explains.
In addition to security, Heller says bandwidth congestion -- "when all the wireless devices are talking amongst themselves" -- is a secondary concern.
Charter's Hicks has a caveat of his own regarding the Wireless Bypass product. "It's not always deployed because of the line-of-sight issues," he says. "There are some environmental, or topological, issues that we have to consider."
Then there's multipath, notes Chris Martin, vice president of marketing for ArcWave (http://www.arcells.com). "Wireless places demands on a cable modem that aren't there on a cable plant," he says. But using a robust technology with a sufficiently broad reach can ensure a quick payback, he adds.
Martin says two California-based operators -- USA Media and Los Gatos -- have deployed ArcWave technology, and that Time Warner Cable and Comcast have completed trials in Los Angeles and Atlanta, respectively.
And That's Not All -- The options don't end there. A Motorola (http://www.motorola.com) spokesperson confirms that it is directing its Canopy technology toward cable operators.
And one systems integrator points to additional wireless access technologies offered by Advent Networks (http://www.adventnetworks.com), Axxcelera Broadband Wireless (http://www.axxcelera.com), Dragonwave (http://www.dragonwaveinc.com), Trango Broadband Wireless (http://www.trangobroadband.com), Proxim (http://www.proxim.com), Viadux (http://www.viadux.com), and Wave Wireless (http://www.wavewireless.com). He commends Wave and Proxim for their security encryption. -- Jonathan Tombes
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ENGINEERING NEWS
Eating Worms
You're quietly shouldering massive cost burdens in order to minimize the impact of worm attacks on residential high-speed data subscribers, according to new research from Sandvine (http://www.sandvine.com).
"Worms exact a massive toll by forcing service providers to mobilize premium resources in order to quell attacks and protect the subscriber experience," Tom Donnelly, co- founder and VP, marketing and sales of Sandvine, says. "Uncovering the true costs and inefficiencies that worms impose on the broadband sector is crucial if we're going to identify appropriate solutions."
What Worms Cost -- Working from metrics derived from customers and selected industry sources, Sandvine calculated that worm attacks will cost the North American service provider sector as much as $245 million in 2004.
That figure includes the cost of specialized tactical response teams, swamping of customer support resources, inflated transit costs and perhaps most damaging over the long term, a loss of brand equity that aggravates the industry-wide problem of customer churn.
* Laubach Elevated to Senior Member Status -- SCTE (http://www.scte.org) elevated Mark Laubach to its Senior member status. Laubach, a Society member since 1996, has been the CEO of Broadband Physics Inc. (http://www.broadbandphysic.com) since December 2002. The company is a fabless provider of semiconductors for broadband signaling transmission systems.
SCTE grants Senior member status to industry professionals who have exhibited a high level of competence and professionalism in their career while actively participating in the Society. SCTE Senior members must possess a minimum of 10 years of technology experience, including five years of broadband communications experience.
Laubach's participation in cable telecommunications started in 1994 when he co-founded the cable modem company Com21. He has been continually involved with the industry since then through publications writing, advising for cable-related companies, and running his current company, Broadband Physics. His SCTE involvement has included contributions to the Society's Data Standards Subcommittee (DSS).
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CAREER ENGINEER
The RF Doctor Is In
Communications Technology's next interactive WebEvent, "ComSonics Keys for Maximizing Shielding Integrity" will provide participants with an insightful overview of shielding integrity and unique keys for maximizing your integrity auditing and integrity management program. This interactive moderated session on April 7, 2004 from 2:00-2:45 EST features Don Runzo, "Dr. of RF Technology."
To register for this free Web seminar, visit http://www.broadbandlearninglive.com/pbi/pbi_list.htm
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BROADBAND SOAPBOX
P2P: Big Headache or Big Revenue Potential?
Peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic is the dominant traffic on your data network, but you're not getting revenue from it. If you do nothing about P2P, you're setting yourself up for increased bandwidth and equipment costs. Many solutions are available to minimize costs while gaining P2P revenues. What are you looking to deploy and why?
Share your opinions by sending an email to . All letters may be published and edited for style or length.
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SCTE ANNOUNCEMENTS
SCTE Board Election 2004--Who Will the Winners Be?
Vote online. It's simple. Use your member ID and ballot control number, which SCTE sent you. Or use your paper ballot. Deadline: March 26. Don't know the candidates? Biographies available. http://www.scte.org/membership/index.cfm?pID=126
SCTE Membership Directory 35th Anniversary Edition in the Works
- Update your member profile by March 15. It's a snap. Simply log in to the Members Only section and click on User Profile. https://www.scte.org/membersonly/login.cfm
- Get your company noticed. Advertise. Sustaining members--enjoy discounts. Contact Wade Pierce at , ext. 4, or .
Congratulations Mark Laubach! He's the latest SCTE member to attain Senior member status. http://www.scte.org/news/detail.cfm?ID=239
Have You Checked out the SCTE Career Center Lately? Employers--use one great Society resource and benefit another one. Your ads with the Center support CLC. Job hunters--streamline your search. http://scte.broadbandcareers.com/Default.asp
Tap Into the SCTE Scholarship Fund -- Apply a scholarship toward most any professional development opportunity, including Cable-Tec Expo 2004, June 15-18 in Orlando. http://www.scte.org/documents/pdf/SCTE%20Scholarship%20Application.pdf
Tom Polis Classic Returns July 12 -- Tee up in the annual suburban-Philadelphia benefit golf tourney or make a donation. The Classic supports the Thomas J. Polis Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Chester County, Pa., chapter of Young Life. To participate, contact Mark Manning at or ; Rick Pieper at , ext.509, or ; or Jim McCauley at or .
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IDEAS AND INNOVATIONS
This Is Just a Test
This week, our virtual trade show floor focuses on broadband cable test and measurements. Stroll around these links for more details on products and educational resources that will help you save on operational costs and drive new revenues with your HFC nets.
Calibration-a-Go-Go -- ComSonics (http://www.comsonics.com) can now bring calibration to your doorstep. The company's Mobile Calibration Labs can certify a vast array of manufacturer's test equipment to their original specs. The procedures are based on those published by the National Bureau of Standards. According to the company, you'll typically receive same-day service and certificates of calibration for each unit.
Got a Burning Measurement Question? What causes distortion? Can passive devices cause distortion? What is the relationship between carrier level and second and third order distortions? These and other questions are answered by Matrix Test Equipment at http://www.matrixtest.com/FAQsonDistortion.htm.
Combo QAM Analyzer/NTSC Demod Function Now Available -- Sunrise Telecom Broadband's (http://www.sunrisetelecom.com/broadband) new AT2500RQv is a 1.5GHz RF spectrum analyzer combining analog, digital and video testing. Designed specifically for cable, the AT2500RQv performs all the FCC proof-of-performance and does them all 100% in service, with no interruptions to consumer viewing. According to Sunrise, it is the only RF spectrum analyzer on the market equipped with both a digital QAM analyzer function (with displays for constellation, statistics, adaptive EQ and QAM impairment analysis) and a new video NTSC demodulation function (featuring waveform monitor, video analysis and vectorscope modes).
Is Your Team QAM Savvy? -- Trilithic's (http://www.trilithic.com) TechFiles are brief technical overviews designed to help educate cable techs. They are written in an easy-to-understand language and are illustrated with great detail for a concise overview of some of the most frequently asked questions of today's industry technology. Available now at http://www.trilithic.com/default.asp?d=2&mnu=397&mpos=0015 is "Understanding QAM: An Introduction to Quadrature Amplitude Modulation Measurements." This TechFile will give your team an overview of QAM, including an introduction to reading and interpreting constellation diagrams, measuring MER and BER and understanding how QAM is used with today's technology.
Watch for more test and measurement news in upcoming issues of "Pipeline." If you've got new product/service information you'd like included in this section, send an email to .
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If you find CT's Pipeline to be a valuable resource, e-mail this issue to your colleagues and tell them it's just one of the many exclusive benefits of SCTE membership--only a click away at http://www.scte.org/membership/index.cfm?pID=27.
To advertise on CT's Pipeline, contact Tim Hermes at or .
To change your contact information or update your email address, please contact JoAnn Hagelin at ext 264; outside US ext 264 or .
To unsubscribe from CT's Pipeline, visit http://www.scte.org/membership/index.cfm?pID=208.
Copyright ©2004 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without expressed written permission of Access Intelligence, LLC is strictly forbidden. Access Intelligence, LLC • 1201 Seven Locks Road • Potomac, MD 20854
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Christopher Skarica
Architecting Next-Gen SONET and Beating the LECs
SCTE Member Since 1990
Title: Chief Technology Advisor, Global MSO Solutions Team, Nortel Networks
Broadband background: Before joining Nortel in 1999, Christopher Skarica spent 11 years working on the corporate engineering teams of several Canadian MSOs. He was most recently the director of engineering for Cogeco Cable’s Ontario operations. Skarica spent more than three years as a senior network architect and technology advisor at Nortel, specializing in end-to-end voice/video/data network architectures.
You surveyed GFP, VCAT, LCAS in a paper last summer at Expo. How is next-generation SONET shaping up? "From a global service-provider perspective, the market for next-generation SONET—also known as multi-service provisioning platform (MSPP)—is alive and growing. The worldwide market for MSPPs in 2003 was roughly $1.5 billion. The worldwide service-provider industry has collectively spent in excess of $250 billion on SONET/SDH transport networks. It is, by far, the most deployed optical transport technology throughout the world.
"That said, the traditional TDM, circuit-based, metropolitan and enterprise data-service delivery model is quickly migrating to one that also includes both IP/Ethernet and storage connectivity services. That’s why the deployed base of equipment needs to be leveraged for emerging packet and storage connectivity services and protocols. Next-generation SONET protocols like GFP (generic framing procedure), VCAT (virtual concatenation), and LCAS (link capacity adjustment scheme) were designed to provide more efficient, dynamic, scaleable, multi-protocol transport over the vast installed base of SONET/SDH."
And what about RPR? "RPR is a new layer-2 MAC protocol being developed by the IEEE 802.17 working group that can utilize SONET as its layer-1 transport mechanism. So it is also found on some vendors’ MSPPs for the support of dynamic, tunable, protected, ring-based packet service delivery."
What’s the advantage of these enhancements? "Multi-service provisioning platforms that offer native interface connectivity, such as GigE and Fibre Channel, and the continued ability to support traditional TDM services with no loss of performance bring a powerful new capability to traditional SONET/SDH networks. Combine this with the need to only deploy these platforms at the source and termination points, and existing SONET transport networks can be fully utilized for new and emerging data service delivery."
That ‘lambda on a pole’ that Tom Staniec was talking about at ET sounded like something you were showing at Western. Care to comment? "About 20 months ago, Nortel met with Tom Staniec (Time Warner Cable, VP network operations and engineering) and he described his vision of using existing fiber plant to deliver cross country wavelength services to enterprises. He believed the network core could be figured out, but we needed an answer to the access network question of how you get the wavelength to and from the pole where the existing node fibers are. After further discussion, we created a "lambda on a pole" prototype and showed it to engineers from Time Warner and MediaCom at CableTecExpo in Philadelphia last year."
Which led to your CWDM Enclosure? How does it work? "It’s an environmentally hardened, standards-compliant, CWDM-based private wavelength PON (passive optical network) system that allows the 3 fiber pairs today at the 500 homes-passed HFC node to be virtually expanded to 27 fiber pairs without installing any additional fiber. So the technology prepares the existing MSO access network for any sort of fiber-to-the-premise threat posed by the ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) community. It also allows the MSO to offer new, high-margin, wired and wireless optical broadband services to enterprise customers via the existing HFC deep-fiber access network infrastructure."
Can the LECs make it with their optical passive fiber push? "The jury is out on this one. One thing for sure, the greater MSO community needs to remain hungry and ensure it is first to offer the triple play of voice, video, and high-speed data/multi-media services. I believe the most dangerous, long-term competitive threat to the MSOs is the LECs. They have deep pockets, the same access-network rights of way, and an installed, wired infrastructure into each residence. Only they have the ability to deliver narrowcast services to small groups of homes like the MSO’s. Their access networks are lacking in many cases and are inferior to HFC, but they have deep pockets and will not go without a fight."
Using what technology? "The only wired access network technology that can deliver more raw bandwidth than HFC is fiber. The ILECs have openly stated their intentions of deploying PON-based, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) architectures. Their copper-based access networks are clearly limited. Direct fiber connectivity fixes the problem and gives them a future-proof medium. The ILEC’s also may choose to use advanced last-mile wireless technologies."
So will their approach work? "I am of the belief that the lack of powered elements in their PON access-network architecture puts them at a fundamental disadvantage to HFC. The savings in operational costs are greatly outweighed by the flexibility and scalability gained with environmentally hardened, active network elements. I also believe an active, standards-based, point-to-point, switched Ethernet architecture for all services is probably the winner for any MSO FTTH deployment."
You're enthusiastic about sub-band division multiplexing (SDM). Why? "When you start calculating the bandwidth requirements to support an HFC-based, all-digital, all-HDTV, everything-on-demand, MSO video-services model, it becomes quickly evident that today’s 500 homes-passed node, 6MHz RF Channel, MPEG2-encoded network breaks. The MSO access network runs out of bandwidth. To prepare for the future without encountering capital-intensive HFC bandwidth expansion programs and rebuilds, some things must change. Specifically, a different form of video encoding and more efficient and robust means of digital RF modulation will be required."
So you want new encoding and modulation? "The biggest problem lies in the fact that MPEG2 HDTV content requires roughly five times the bandwidth of today’s standard definition, MPEG2-encoded NTSC video signals. Different forms of MPEG4 encoding have successfully displayed a 2.5 times increase in bandwidth efficiency for HDTV-encoded content. If this is combined with a doubling of spectral efficiency on the RF bandwidth front via a new modulation scheme, the problem is alleviated."
That doubling comes from SDM? "Correct. SDM is an advanced form of digital RF modulation that uses wavelet mathematics, digital filtering, and 18 MHz RF channels to effectively double the spectral efficiency of traditional 6 MHz, 256 QAM modulation. It also provides increased signal robustness due to the subdivision of spectrum into independent 100 KHz channels and the elimination of RF phase modulation as found in all forms of QAM. Lastly, guard bands are significantly reduced in size to provide utilization of more precious RF spectrum."
The installed base poses a slight obstacle here, doesn’t it? "Obviously, the limitations of today’s deployed set top boxes and cable modems as well as the new one-way Consumer Electronics agreement will delay the adoption and implementation of this, or any other new RF modulation technology. But the MSO community needs to realize now that a RF bandwidth problem is on the horizon with our current approaches and begin work on the standardization of next-generation RF modulation techniques to prepare our existing HFC networks for the future." – Jonathan Tombes
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