By Ron Hranac – At some point in the future FTTH will be ubiquitous. I’ll defer to the finance folks to sort out when it makes sense dollar-wise to jump to all-fiber operation. In the meantime, HFC networks will be here for the foreseeable future.
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By Ron Hranac – RF technology is, without a doubt, the foundation of our HFC networks. Many of us learned and continue to learn about RF on the job, from SCTE, publications such as Broadband Library, NCTI courses, vendor and in-house training, and community colleges and universities. I’ll add amateur (“ham”) radio to the list.
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By Ron Hranac – As much fun as the technology part of our industry has been, the people I’ve known and worked with have without a doubt been the best part of the last 50 years.
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By Ron Hranac – When we measure the level of an analog TV signal’s visual carrier, we are measuring its peak envelope power. For a legacy SC-QAM signal, we measure the entire haystack’s average power. And for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals, we also measure average power.
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By Ron Hranac – It’s been said that the only constant in the cable industry is change, and that’s certainly true when it comes to technology and the terminology associated with that technology. Hopefully this introduction helps to clarify some of the often confusing terminology used by the cable industry.
Read MoreBy Ron Hranac – Frequency response is one of several metrics that can be used to determine the performance of a component, device, system, or network. The term frequency response is more accurately called complex frequency response, the latter a measure of magnitude- and phase-versus-frequency.
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By Ron Hranac – Today’s DC-based taps support much wider RF bandwidths, higher through-current capacity, the ability to condition drop levels, and more.
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By Ron Hranac – As we started work on the draft math operational practice, NCTA’s Andy Scott commented that the challenge would be figuring out “when to put the pencil down.” He was right.
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By Ron Hranac – Coaxial cable attenuation increases approximately as the square root of frequency. In other words, if you know the attenuation at one frequency, the attenuation in decibels at four times that frequency will be approximately double the lower frequency’s attenuation.
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By Ron Hranac – DOCSIS 3.1 technology has enabled cable operators to provide gigabit-class data speeds in today’s HFC networks, and serves as one of the key foundational elements of the industry’s 10G platform.
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