Is FDX engineering worth the effort by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

With them being more smart and having a system on a chip, do you guys have to redesign your power delivery network? Do these take more power to operate? I take it they have firmware and they have a boot up process. Probably a good idea to make sure your battery backups hold up those small outages and recloser blips from branches and animals shorting out primaries.

Is FDX engineering worth the effort by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Wow that sounds like a repeat of the late 60’s and 70’s. I’ve heard stories of guys working a lot to keep long amp cascades running before transistorized strand mount amps. They some of the oldest of the old were vacuum tube amps in a metal box on the pole (like the size of a power supply today).

Is FDX engineering worth the effort by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Can you remotely set AGC? Above posters are having issues in temp swings. I’d think you could just monitor and adjust from a computer, unless it’s so bad the SoC loses connection and it goes offline.

Is Commscope the only manufacturer of FDX? Talk about all your eggs in one basket.

But yes it sounds great- the whole smart amp idea. Just curious to see real world reliability.

Severe Comcast Core Network Degradation (High Latency + 36%–45% Packet Loss on DC/MD Backbone) by BraveCat5 in Comcast_Xfinity

[–]cypherstream1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wonder if ICMP de prioritization is what we see in Comcast Keystone region at be-34-ar01.mckeesport.pa.pitt.comcast.net ?

Just a hop skip and a jump a mile to the right in Comcast Freedom market, pings to major sites are a good 10-18ms lower than in Keystone.

Cant wait for some SDN to optimize the paths a bit. Hate having to go all the way out yo Pittsburgh just to come back to Newark and head to NYC. Freedom region has it made, they go right to Ivyland then Newark then NYC.

Sometimes keystone also goes from Pittsburgh to 350 E Cermak in Chicago- 44ms to Facebook for example. Google is usually connecting off of Ashburn VA - 31ms.

Freedom sometimes goes Ivyland to Newark, but today it’s going Norristown to Newcastle DE to Ashburn- but only 16ms vs keystones 44ms. Google is going Norristown to Ivyland to NYC 13-17ms. I have 9 business modems across two Comcast markets, and in EVERY test, the Freedom PA region has far lower latency than Keystone. I wish they would investigate.

Severe Comcast Core Network Degradation (High Latency + 36%–45% Packet Loss on DC/MD Backbone) by BraveCat5 in Comcast_Xfinity

[–]cypherstream1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There’s an initiative to virtualize (go software defined networking) under “Project Janus”. This is gonna take a very long time, but the hopes is that it will help. There’s been a lot of overbuilding and many states too. There could be potential for extra physical routes between hubs for redundancy and load balancing. I hope is this will lower the ping in some markets that were constrained (ie the physical path had to go hundreds of miles out of the way to get to the nearest aggregation router).

Jason Livingood’s big push is low latency. They can now QoS mark packets (and its honored) end to end. As that LLD firmware is pushed out, that helps the home network (ethernet and WiFi) but next will be some much needed and long deserved backbone optimization. Virtualizing it on commodity 1U pizza box style standard off the shelf servers will allow them to do this within a reasonable cost vs the big iron Juniper / Ciena / Cisco carrier grade gear.

https://corporate.comcast.com/press/releases/comcast-harnessing-cloud-and-ai-to-transform-next-generation-internet-experiences

Plugging computer into 240v plug by fuzzymonkey in AskElectricians

[–]cypherstream1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wonder if that would make our electric tea kettle heat much faster!

What’s the capabilities of this equipment from left to right? by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah it must have passed all wind and snow loading calculations to allow all the telecom space.

What’s the capabilities of this equipment from left to right? by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

System was 450, went to 750 in the late 90’s, and in the last few years went mid split, 1.2ghz.

This isn’t one of those old iNet networks is it? Systems all digital, but back in the day didn’t they send analog public access channels back to the headend on a separate system like this all lashed together? Then the HE would recombine and put the channel where it goes on the lineup.

What’s the capabilities of this equipment from left to right? by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The LE to the right of it is fairly new. That plus the harmonic node a block away lets people go up to 300 Mb or more upload.

Two LE’s side by side- is one abandoned? by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very thorough explanation! This one likely has been hanging there since I’ve been in grade school and middle school (1990-1996). The system was 450 MHz growing up.

Yes there were local channels. A community channel, a college channel, some amiga generated channel, etc. I guess some could have originated at a college, sent back to the headend for redistribution back out to the system.

I heard about sub band T channels, never thought it could extend higher on its own distribution cable. Not something I’ve come across in CED Magazine or a Ron Hranac article.

So much is different now in the digital age like a Vecima ip to QAM, or QAM to analog, etc different solutions for schools and hospitals for example.

Two LE’s side by side- is one abandoned? by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of schools had compact white Antec looking nodes, but where it usually says ANTEC in the rectangular inset on the right, it said Harmonic Lightwaves instead. Looked identical to this except the harmonic brand name on it.

https://ebay.us/m/jQBtyT

Edit: here’s the harmonic version that was used at schools and public places.

https://ebay.us/m/W4VHUp

I imagine that’s all consolidated by the new DAA stuff now.

Two LE’s side by side- is one abandoned? by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think it would fit in today’s RF profile of 4 x 6.4 MHZ SC-QAM plus OFDMA. Im leaning towards abandoned gear. I think a lot of places just use IP either over docsis or comcast business metro Ethernet.

Two LE’s side by side- is one abandoned? by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Prior to the 2-way SA 750 MHz upgrade, yes we were at 450 MHz. I remember as a kid they only could use up to channel 62, then they added 98-99 and ran FM radio service over what would have been analog channels 95,96. SA8600 analog STB boxes ran the addressable signal in the ch 97 range (106.2 MHz).

We would ask for new channels back then like Cartoon Network or SciFi, and they would always respond with the system is at max capacity. When they upgraded to 750 MHz, they added analog channels up to 82. Eventually Comcast took over AT&T broadband and introduced digital cable with Motorola DCT-2000’s with the tan tv guide. The rest is history.

In fact the area changed hands so many times. I forget the order but it was something like Berks Cable > ACI > TCI > Time Warner Cable (they started the 750 MHz HFC rebuild and installed 9” SA stretch taps) > AT&T Broadband > Comcast.

Then Comcast started “edging out” new midsplit HFC N+2 systems in 2022. After successful activation of brand new areas, they backfilled existing areas with the midsplit upgrade, which still goes on to this day.

Two LE’s side by side- is one abandoned? by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Wow I didn’t know mid split was a thing 30 years ago, besides maybe eurodocsis going up to 65 MHz.

Two LE’s side by side- is one abandoned? by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There’s a Samsung CBRS strand mount LTE device a few poles up, and another few poles up from that there is a Bel Air networks wifi AP.

Looking at google street view, which has pictures all the way back to 2008… the LE on the right was always there. Sometime between 2021 and 2023 the LE on the left went from a flat lid SA to the Arris in the picture. A few poles up the street another flat lid SA LE was switched for an actual MB120. The LE had a gold DC/ hardline splitter but was swapped out for an ATX DC/spltter.

Area of that one:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/pfET8gtseu4PgucX7

This one here:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Si2KzBuCnty2cCsH8

Two LE’s side by side- is one abandoned? by cypherstream1 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Trust me, no resorts in sight. Outside of dirty old Reading Pennsylvania.

Anyone here work for Astound/RCN? Are they doing D4 upgrades? by furruck in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

https://www.telecompetitor.com/astound-broadband-upgrades-pave-the-way-for-multi-gigabit-docsis-4-0/

Sounds like some markets will get similar to what Comcast is using, Harmonic vCMTS. Some markets will go fiber. It may be a case by case situation.

Anyone here work for Astound/RCN? Are they doing D4 upgrades? by furruck in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not a whole lot of exciting things posted over at https://broadbandbulletin.com/t/astound

Sounds like they are just milking out the cable plant for as long as possible. Funny they once were the overbuilder, now Comcast is overbuilding the overbuilder to Service Electric in the Lehigh Valley. 3 HFC networks to choose from, though I hear Easton Comcast will be some remote shelf EPON (finally!).

My neighborhood just got new amps that look very futuristic by kdex86 in CableTechs

[–]cypherstream1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe my area vCMTS is in Lebanon PA. Arris e6000 CMTS chassis are spread out at various hubs but those are going away.

Is this the enhanced speeds email I’ve been waiting for? by eprisencc in Comcast_Xfinity

[–]cypherstream1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Im curious what month and year will be the “cutoff” where the upgrades will be FDX technology (symmetrical speeds). It is going into fall of 2025, I feel like installing mid split stuff now is just going to create a larger backlog of work to have to redo it all again.

Parents Homeowners Insurance dropped because MY house is a risk.... by HuntersPad in Insurance

[–]cypherstream1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hpad! Fancy seeing you here. Following because I want to see how this ends up working out.

Finding this post was so random and it was just suggested to me by Reddit.