One of the big questions being asked by providers is how do I handle ingress encountered in the reverse path? To their exasperation, many are finding that there’s not an easy solution to this question. Different types of spectrum analyzers [...]
Buddy Bertram on Ingress and Return Path Analysis
By Marsha Hemmerich | February 5th, 2015 |Categories: Ask an Expert
Finding Hidden Impairments with Proactive Network Maintenance Tools
By Marsha Hemmerich | October 22nd, 2014 |Categories: Hot Topics, Technology
Locating impairments getting spooky? Who you gonna call?
Plant impairments come in all shapes and sizes. Gremlins chew on your cables, monsters loosen your fittings and ghosts haunt your field techs. Take Marty Carollo, Network Manager of [...]
Finding Common Impairments with DOCSIS Proactive Network Maintenance
By Marsha Hemmerich | September 19th, 2014 |Categories: Ask an Expert, PNM, proactive network maintenance, correlation groups, ask a broadband expert, DOCSIS pre-equalization, PreEqualization Analyzer, technical paper
Proactive network maintenance (PNM) and DOCSIS pre-equalization are important tools to mitigate upstream impairments. When a CMTS has pre-equalization enabled, it can look at the quality of the signals being received from all of the cable modems [...]
TruVizion's Post-Install Report in Action
By Marsha Hemmerich | August 28th, 2014 |Categories: TruVizion, Videos
You got a new customer. That's always a good thing. Then you get that dreaded phone call a day or two later, or maybe it's a week or two later, saying "My Internet just isn't working right." TruVizion's Post-Install report lets you see how things [...]
Ask a Broadband Expert - DDoS Attacks
By Marsha Hemmerich | June 25th, 2014 |Categories: Ask an Expert, DDoS Attacks, ask a broadband expert, Distributed Denial of Service Attacks
Help I’m Under Attack! Unfortunately that plea is becoming more and more common these days. Here’s why, and some ways that the ISP community can help. All networks receive packets from other networks. Normally a packet will contain the IP address [...]
Ask a Broadband Expert - DOCSIS Pre-Equalization
By Marsha Hemmerich | January 30th, 2014 |Categories: Ask an Expert, DOCSIS, ask a broadband expert, interview, pre-equalization
DOCSIS pre-equalization is a subject that every cable provider should know more about. With a simple line of code on the CMTS, you can achieve an immediate and significant improvement in your upstream signal levels.
Ask a Broadband Expert - Customer Support
By Marsha Hemmerich | December 17th, 2013 |Categories: Ask an Expert, ask a broadband expert, interview, network virtualization
A veteran of technical support and customer service, Jason Young has been with ZCorum since 1999 and serves as Vice President of Support Services. In that role he manages ZCorum’s call centers, including a staff that supports data, voice and video [...]
Ask a Broadband Expert - Rural Broadband Survival
By Marsha Hemmerich | October 3rd, 2013 |Categories: Ask an Expert, ask a broadband expert, interview, network virtualization
Nearly sixty-five percent of very rural residents who live outside of metropolitan areas, only have basic wired internet service and no access to the faster broadband that's needed in today's fast paced internet world. Overall, the country is [...]
Ask a Broadband Expert - Bandwidth Usage Management
By Marsha Hemmerich | July 24th, 2013 |Categories: Ask an Expert, ask a broadband expert, interview
Keeping up with customer bandwidth demands is a big challenge for service providers today. Throwing bandwidth at the problem is not the solution. Instead, bandwidth management policies that moderate peak-time usage and tie revenue to bandwidth used [...]
Ask a Broadband Expert - What are DOCSIS Codeword Errors?
By Marsha Hemmerich | May 7th, 2013 |Categories: Ask an Expert, Codeword Errors
This month’s Ask a Broadband Expert features Brady Volpe, a highly respected speaker and industry thought leader on broadband. Mr. Volpe is a frequent presenter at industry trade shows, conferences and regional seminars. He has published numerous [...]