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.

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.

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 network is an ideal solution to alleviate the first/last mile bottleneck of current Internet infrastructures. Richly illustrated throughout to help clarify important topics, Broadband Optical Access Networks covers the architectures, protocols enabling technologies of broadband optical access networks, and all current and future competing technologies for access networks. This comprehensive work presents the evolution of optical access networks, including reach extension, bandwidth enhancement, and discusses the convergence of optical and wireless technologies for broadband access, making it an invaluable reference for researchers, electrical engineers, and graduate students.

This book includes detailed coverage of digital cable systems -- most existing systems are analog. It shows how to control the return data coming from customers via the coax network. It discusses migrating from a broadcast-only network to one that can handle 2-way traffic.

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.

An essential reference for deploying IPv6 in broadband networks With the exponential growth of the Internet and increasing number of end users, service providers are increasingly looking for ways to expand their networks to meet the scalability requirements of the growing number of Internet-ready appliances or "always-on" devices. This book bridges a gap in the literature by providing coverage of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), specifically in broadband access networks. The authors, who are Cisco Certified Internetworking Experts (CCIE), provide comprehensive and first-rate coverage of: IPv6 drivers in broadband networks IPv6 deployment in Cable, DSL, ETTH, and Wireless networks Configuring and troubleshooting IPv6 gateway routers and host Configuring and troubleshooting IPv6 edge routers Configuring and troubleshooting IPv6 provisioning servers The authors also discuss challenges faced by service providers and how IPv6 addresses these issues. Additionally, the book is complemented with examples throughout to further facilitate readers' comprehension and a real large-scale IPv6 BB SP case study is presented. Deploying IPv6 in Broadband Access Networks is essential reading for network operators, network design engineers and consultants, network architects, and members of the networking community.