Broadband Cable Access Networks

Broadband Cable Access Networks focuses on broadband distribution and systems architecture and concentrates on practical concepts that will allow the reader to do their own design, improvement, and troubleshooting work. The objective is to enhance the skill sets of a large population that designs and builds broadband cable plants, as well as those maintaining and troubleshooting it. A large cross-section of technical personnel who need to learn these skills design, maintain, and service HFC systems from signal creation through transmission to reception and processing at the customer end point. In addition, data/voice and video specialists need to master and reference the basics of HFC design and distribution before contending with the intricacies of their own unique services. This book serves as an essential reference to all cable engineers—those who specifically design and maintain the HFC distribution plant as well as those primarily concerned with data/voice technology as well as video technology. Concentrates on practical concepts that will allow the user to do his own design, improvement, and trouble-shooting work. Prepares cable engineers and technicians to work with assurance as they face the latest developments and future directions. Concise and tightly focused, allowing readers to easily find answers to questions about an idea or concept they are developing in this area.

This book will discuss the principles of operation and features for the emerging consumer home terminals such as digital set-top boxes and cable modems. This book will also provide the detailed technical principles of both fiber optics and RF cable TV systems.

An inside look at high-speed access written for the cable industry Cable modems have emerged as a leading consumer choice for high-speed Internet access, outpacing alternatives such as digital subscriber lines, but not without raising issues about quality of service and controversy about open access. Providing an objective review of residential broadband and cable television networking, this book will be of great use for professionals who are integrating cable into their networks or service offerings. The authors compare cable access systems to competing technologies and discuss the increasingly difficult issues confronting each. Readers will also find coverage of the hottest areas in the field including high-speed data and packet voice standards, managing the "always-on" connection, and security and privacy risks.

The access network is expected to be one of the major battlegrounds of telecommunications network operators, since upgrades of the existing narrowband access network will be the critical factor in supplying multimedia broadband services in a competitive market. The future broadband access network architecture needs to be flexible enough to efficiently support the provision of a full set of broadband and narrowband services with a wide range of capacity demands. A wide range of broadband access technologies are available. Furthermore, the key issues in the upgrading of the very cost sensitive access network are financial as well as technological, both for incumbent and new entrant operators. Thus, in order to identify minimum-risk introductory strategies the economic viability of access network broadband upgrades needs to be carefully assessed. However, despite the definite need for techno-economic evaluations, very few books have been published in this field. One of the reasons might be that broadband access network upgrading only very recently gained wide recognition as a key challenge for broadband delivery. Secondly, this kind of strategic work and these studies tend to be considered rather sensitive by operators, and thus both results and methodologies are not usually readily available. Thirdly, the work reported in this book in many respects was a major pioneering effort, which quite ambitiously aimed at modelling the whole life-cycle costs and revenue streams of access network upgrades, as opposed to several other efforts, which often are limited to pure investment cost comparisons.

Considering the key evolutions within the access network technologies as well as the unprecedented levels of bandwidth demands by end users, this book condenses the relentless research, design, and deployment experience of state-of-the-art access networks. Furthermore, it shares the critical steps and details of the developments and deployment of these emergent technologies; which is very crucial particularly as telecommunications vendors and carriers are looking for cost-effective ultra-broadband “last-mile” access solutions to stay competitive in the “post bubble” era. The book is written to provide a comprehensive overview of the major broadband access technologies and deployments involving internationally recognized authors and key players. Due to its scope and depth, the proposed book is able to fill an important gap of today’s available literature.

Written by experts in the field, this book provides an overview of all forms of broadband subscriber access networks and technology, including fiber optics, DSL for phone lines, DOCSIS for coax, power line carrier, and wireless. Each technology is described in depth, with a discussion of key concepts, historical development, and industry standards. The book contains comprehensive coverage of all broadband access technologies, with a section each devoted to fiber-based technologies, non-fiber wired technologies, and wireless technologies. The four co-authors’ breadth of knowledge is featured in the chapters comparing the relative strengths, weaknesses, and prognosis for the competing technologies. Key Features: Covers the physical and medium access layers (OSI Layer 1 and 2), with emphasis on access transmission technology Compares and contrasts all recent and emerging wired and wireless standards for broadband access in a single reference Illustrates the technology that is currently being deployed by network providers, and also the technology that has recently been or will soon be standardized for deployment in the coming years, including vectoring, wavelength division multiple access, CDMA, OFDMA, and MIMO Contains detailed discussion on the following standards: 10G-EPON, G-PON, XG-PON, VDSL2, DOCSIS 3.0, DOCSIS Protocol over EPON, power line carrier, IEEE 802.11 WLAN/WiFi, UMTS/HSPA, LTE, and LTE-Advanced

Broadband Optical Access and Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) will provide the ultimate broadband service capabilities. Compared with the currently well-deployed broadband access technologies of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and Cable Modems, optical broadband access with Fiber-to-the-User’s home will cater for much higher speed access for new services. Broadband Optical Access Networks and Fiber-to-the-Home presents a comprehensive technical overview of key technologies and deployment strategies for optical broadband access networks and emerging new broadband services. The authors discuss network design considerations, new services, deployment trends and operational experiences, while explaining the current situation and providing insights into future broadband access technologies and services. Broadband Optical Access Networks and Fiber-to-the-Home: Offers a comprehensive, up-to-date introduction to new developments in broadband access network technologies and services. Examines the impact of research and development in photonics technologies on broadband access and FTTH. Covers ADSL, VDSL with FTTC (Fiber-to-the-Curb), Cable Modem over HFC (Hybrid-Fiber Coax) and Gigabit Ethernet. Discusses the roles of Broadband Wireless LAN and integrated FTTH/Wireless Broadband Access as well as Broadband Home Networks. Provides a global view of broadband network development, presenting different technical and system deployment approaches and strategic considerations for comparison. Gives insight into the worldwide broadband competition and the future of this technology. Broadband Optical Access Networks and Fiber-to-the-Home will be an invaluable resource for engineers in research and development, network planners, business managers, consultants as well as analysts and educators for a better understanding of the future of broadband in the field of telecommunications, data communications, and broadband multimedia service industries.

Debate has begun about what statutory and regulatory framework is most likely to foster innovation and investment both in physical broadband networks and in the applications that ride over those networks. Perhaps the most contentious element in that debate is whether competitive marketplace forces are sufficient to constrain the broadband network providers from restricting independent applications providers' access to their networks in a fashion that would harm consumers and innovation. The telephone and cable companies are deploying wireline broadband networks with unique architectures. For example, Verizon is deploying optical fiber all the way to the customer premise, while AT&T is deploying fiber to a node and then using DSL over existing copper lines to reach the customer premise, and Comcast and other cable companies are deploying a hybrid fiber-coaxial cable network. But in each case, their broadband networks have the same basic structure, with three primary components -- the broadband "last mile" grid to end-user customers, the company's proprietary IP network, and the company's facilities in what has traditionally been called the internet backbone (and is often referred to as the "public internet"). This report analyzes these three components to identify the parameters that network providers have within their control (such as their choices about network architecture, overall bandwidth capacity, bandwidth reserved for their own use, traffic prioritization, the terms and rates for access to their networks and for their retail services) that can affect how end users and independent applications providers can access their networks, how those parameters contribute to the management and operation of the network, and how those parameters might be used strategically to harm competition for, and consumers of, voice over internet protocol (VoIP), video, and other applications that ride over broadband networks. The report then reviews various legislative proposals affecting network access to assess their potential impact on broadband network providers' ability to manage their networks and to practice anticompetitive strategic behavior. Two bills, H.R. 5252 as passed by the House and H.R. 5252 as amended by the Senate Commerce Committee (originally introduced as S. 2686), specify particular consumer rights to broadband access. Three bills -- H.R. 5273, S. 2360, and S. 2917 -- propose variations on "network neutrality" rules that have provisions affecting the access of independent applications providers, as well as consumers, to broadband networks. Two other bills, H.R. 5417 and S. 2113, propose modification of existing competition law (involving antitrust and unfair methods of competition) to explicitly address broadband access issues. This report will be updated as warranted.