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.
Read MoreBy Ron Hranac – Anomaly detection and classification algorithms are available through CableLabs, and are built into commercially available PNM tools
Read MoreBy Ron Hranac – The cable industry has used RF in its networks for decades, but if someone were to ask you to explain RF, how would you answer?
Read MoreBy Ron Hranac – Skin effect in metallic conductors is an important part of the coaxial cable portions of our networks. Skin effect ensures our radio frequency (RF) signals stay inside of the cables and other components — assuming the shielding is intact, of course. Skin effect is also a major factor in coaxial cable attenuation and is a key reason why attenuation increases as the frequency increases.
Read MoreBy Ron Hranac — The earliest cable networks were one-way — that is, signals could be transmitted only from the cable operator’s headend to the subscriber. Those one-way networks worked well for delivering primarily video services. When two-way technology was developed to support interactive services.
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