One other thing you should be doing... you should also implement an aggressive drop certification program, whereby all personnel are required to disconnect the drop from the tap to measure ingress (Even on Services Calls) and ALL OUTLETS. The idea is that if they could reduce the amount of noise coming from the house into the return path, they would improve the performance of all upstream technologies (VoIP, web surfing, online gaming, etc)
The tech would monitor any and all RF “Noise” emanating from the house when no signal was applied to the home network. Each time this certification is performed, a spectral signature is recorded on the meter using the return spectrum feature of the CM3 Series.
No noise should be present when proper steps are taken to use STB, Cable Modems, MTAs, and converters with high return loss specifications as well as to terminate open splitter ports, and minimize the number of un-used connections. Overall reducing the number of “Noise Antenna” available for problems to get into the network improves the experience for all customers.
The result of this aggressive noise mitigation program has been a drop in repeat service calls. The principle of the return path is just a great big funnel, the size of the funnel at the CMTS being the number of customers connected to a certain node in the field. If one thinks of the customer connection as an antenna, then you would surmise that any and all noise penetrating the return network can be amplified by the number of antenna available. If consistent practices in the field can eliminate or greatly reduce the chances of noise infiltrating the network, improvements in the network’s performance are a given.
This simple exercise is proven to show results, and when applied in each and every CATV system the results will show benefit of the work.
Re: Managers And Supes
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