Mia Colabrese, Author at Volpe Firm

7 09, 2022

Got a DBC to Change Your Cable Modem’s OUDP IUC? I thought so.

Mia Colabrese2022-09-07T14:31:24-04:00September 7th, 2022|

What is a cable modem’s OUDP? What’s an IUC? What’s a DBC? If you already know these initialisms that is awesome. If you don’t, that is fine too. DOCSIS 3.1 introduced OFDMA for more efficient upstream data transfer. In this article, I’ll cover how an impairment will cause the CMTS to change a single CM’s OUDP IUC using a DBC transaction. I will also hopefully help you understand what the heck I just said.What are cable modem profiles?Let us start the discussion with orthogonal frequency division multiple access

17 08, 2022

Understanding Cable Network RF Return Path Signal Levels and Balancing

Mia Colabrese2022-08-17T12:43:19-04:00August 17th, 2022|

Brady Volpe and John Downey discuss the theory of operation of return path signal levels in the return path. Why does the transmit power increase, rather than decrease like the downstream? How do two way splitters impact upstream and downstream signal levels? Why is the return always higher than the value the of tap +20? And more examples and discussion on the impact of RF in the cable network and troubleshooting. Here is a link to the SCTE Document: https://www.scte.org/standards/library/catalog/scte-280-understanding-and-troubleshooting-cable-rf-spectrum/ 0:00 Intro 1:00 Understanding FBC doc

19 07, 2022

Full Band Capture Troubleshooting by Impairment Type

Mia Colabrese2022-07-20T14:29:56-04:00July 19th, 2022|

In this episode Brady Volpe of Nimble This and The Volpe Firm, and John Downey (of Cisco) discuss portions of the document "Understanding Cable Network RF Spectrum Displays". This document, created by CableLabs and SCTE Working Group 7 (WG7) is a masterpiece of understanding full band capture (FBC) and the impairments found with FBC. We have covered FBC before, but we have not gotten deep into each impairment type. We go much further in this episode and give you a preview into the soon to be release WG7 document.

6 06, 2022

OFDMA — It’s Trending

Mia Colabrese2022-06-06T09:14:00-04:00June 6th, 2022|

OFDMA — It’s Trending What’s trending in cable? It’s OFDMA or orthogonal frequency division multiple access. OFDMA is the upstream counterpart to OFDM, which stands for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. Both are part of the DOCSIS 3.1 specification and are intended to increase speed over the DOCSIS network far beyond what can be achieved using legacy SC-QAM channels. Most cable operators deployed OFDM first because the downstream had already reached data capacity limits. OFDM enabled expanded data capacity without node splits. Now that OFDM has been successfully deployed,

6 06, 2022

Technology Questions Answered SNR, OFDMA and more

Mia Colabrese2022-07-01T10:42:53-04:00June 6th, 2022|

In this episode Brady Volpe of Nimble This and The Volpe Firm, and John Downey (of Cisco) answer viewers questions about upstream SNR / Diplex filters / OFDMA / ICFR Want to know what might be interesting and useful to you? Join in on the discussion and ask questions in the chat in another power hour of cable and the discussion on all things DOCSIS and beyond. Give us a thumbs up if you like her content. The discussion is on all things DOCSIS. Tips, suggestions and recommendations. Another

14 04, 2022

Cable Next Gen Highlights, DOCSIS 3.1, DOCSIS 4.0 Roadmap

Mia Colabrese2022-06-06T08:49:12-04:00April 14th, 2022|

In this episode Brady Volpe of Nimble This and The Volpe Firm, and John Downey (of Cisco) talk the latest technologies and trends in the Cable industry, especially around DOCSIS 3.1 and 4.0. We will be focused on key topics from Light Readings Next-Gen Technologies & Strategies. Want to know what might be interesting and useful to you? Join in on the discussion and ask questions in the chat in another power hour of cable and the discussion on all things DOCSIS and beyond. Give us a thumbs up

14 03, 2022

Upstream Transmit Power with OFDMA

Mia Colabrese2022-06-06T08:49:58-04:00March 14th, 2022|

In this episode Brady Volpe of Nimble This and The Volpe Firm, and John Downey (of Cisco) discuss Upstream Transmit Power with OFDMA and elaborate why a cable modem’s transmit power is extremely important. It not only determines if the cable modem will be able to come online and register with the CMTS (cable modem termination system) but obtaining the optimal transmit power will make or break the subscriber’s quality of experience (QoE). A DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem’s transmit power introduces some new considerations which are discussed in this

22 02, 2022

DOCSIS 3.1 Cable Modem Transmit Power

Mia Colabrese2022-06-06T08:57:26-04:00February 22nd, 2022|

A cable modem’s transmit power is extremely important. It not only determines if the cable modem will be able to come online and register with the CMTS (cable modem termination system) but obtaining the optimal transmit power will make or break the subscriber’s quality of experience (QoE). A DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem’s transmit power introduces some new considerations which are discussed in this article. Why is DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem transmit power important? Transmit power per channel is defined as the average RF (radio frequency) power in the

28 12, 2021

House amps, Cable Modems with filter issues

Mia Colabrese2022-03-14T13:42:30-04:00December 28th, 2021|

In this episode Brady Volpe of Nimble This and The Volpe Firm, and John Downey (of Cisco) elaborate on how to use PNM tools to identify house amps, Cable Modems with filter issues, etc. So houses can be identified with incompatible filters for intended UpStream spectrum deployments. Want to know what might be interesting and useful to you? Join in on the discussion and ask questions in the chat for another power hour of cable and the discussion on all things DOCSIS and beyond. Give us a thumbs

23 11, 2021

Why RxMER?

Mia Colabrese2021-11-23T16:42:11-05:00November 23rd, 2021|

The DOCSIS 3.1 PHY specification includes several PNM parameters and tests. One of the most useful downstream tests for OFDM is called receive modulation error ratio (RxMER) per subcarrier. RxMER per subcarrier provides an MER measurement for each subcarrier in the OFDM (downstream) or OFDMA (upstream) channel. This means if an OFDM channel has 7600 subcarriers, the RxMER per subcarrier data will provide 7600 MER results, one corresponding to each subcarrier. When plotted, it looks like a spectrum analyzer chart, but has different meanings. See Figure 1 for

About Mia Colabrese