Volpe Firm | Technology Blog

2 04, 2021

The Road to DOCSIS 4.0

Mia Colabrese2021-08-15T11:49:09-04:00April 2nd, 2021|

The Road to DOCSIS 4.0. Another power hour of cable with Brady Volpe and John Downey CMTS Technical Leader at Cisco and special guest Jeff Finkelstein Executive Director of Advanced Technology of COX Communications. How to go from sub-split, to targeted mid-split or high-split, then finally to ultra-high-split and 1.8 GHz. Ask any questions you may have in our live chat. The discussion is on all things DOCSIS 4.0. The Road to DOCSIS 4.0: General intro General overview of the history of DOCSIS and the road to DOCSIS

3 03, 2021

Easy Transmission Line Theory

Mia Colabrese2021-03-03T10:27:53-05:00March 3rd, 2021|

A Lesson on Transmission Line Theory Transmission line theory can be intimidating, because of the complex mathematics involved. But I’m not going there. Transmission line theory is further complicated by modeling, say, coaxial cable (a transmission line) as a distributed circuit model, comprising series inductance, shunt capacitance, series resistance, and shunt conductance. But I’m not going there, either. Instead, I’m going to provide an analogy using a bucket of water and hose. Understanding the basic principles of transmission line theory is key to understanding how RF signals transporting

23 02, 2021

OFDMA Troubleshooting

Mia Colabrese2021-08-15T16:10:19-04:00February 23rd, 2021|

OFDMA Upstream Troubleshooting. Tips, suggestions and recommendations. Another power hour of cable with Brady Volpe and John Downey CMTS Technical Leader at Cisco. More and more operators are introducing OFDMA into their networks and experiencing a learning curve with its introduction. Find out ways to overcome these issues and ask any questions you may have. The discussion is on all things DOCSIS. OFDMA "UPSTREAM" Troubleshooting: General intro OFMDA Upstream. The A means upstream 50% increase in upstream traffic Noise in return Cable Modems locking up CM locking up

9 02, 2021

NanoVNA testing Taps, Coax, passives and more part two

Mia Colabrese2021-08-15T16:11:56-04:00February 9th, 2021|

Another power hour of cable with Brady Volpe and John Downey CMTS Technical Leader at Cisco, show real world examples of testing Coax, Taps and other passives. The discussion is on all things DOCSIS. NanoVNA (Vector Network Analyzer) testing: General intro Test equipment RF basics Test One Diplex filter explained active equipment has a diplex filter It enables the plant to be upstream and downstream capable 75 Ohm world Cross over Cold solder joints, fingers touching surface mount components issues with diplex filters The higher the split

27 01, 2021

NanoVNA testing Taps, Coax, passives and more part one

Mia Colabrese2021-08-15T16:12:51-04:00January 27th, 2021|

Another power hour of cable with Brady Volpe and John Downey CMTS Technical Leader at Cisco, show real world examples of testing Coax, Taps and other passives. The discussion is on all things DOCSIS. NanoVNA (Vector Network Analyzer) testing: General intro Test equipment Test for bad cable, passives and amps Test return loss, insertion loss, etc Why is it important to terminate Question of event error log Loss connectors impact return loss nanoVNA and VNA explained MainLine Tap You can see the entire cable spectrum Return Loss

7 01, 2021

NanoVNA Calibration to 75 Ohm for CATV

brady2022-07-04T19:38:55-04:00January 7th, 2021|

NanoVNA Calibration for CATV 75 Ohm This article focuses on calibration of the NanoVNA to a 75 ohm environment. There's a lot of talk about the NanoVNA with calibration, the NanoVNA come's standard with 50 ohm SMA connectors on it, but for CATV broadband networks we must calibrate to a 75 ohm standard and not the 50 ohm cal standards that come with the NanoVNA. There are a lot of discussions on the forms about calibrating and that's the proper way of calibrating nano VNAs for a 75

6 01, 2021

OFDMA 204 MHz Upstream

Mia Colabrese2021-08-15T16:13:35-04:00January 6th, 2021|

Another power hour of cable with Brady Volpe and John Downey CMTS Technical Leader at Cisco, explore 204 MHz in OFDMA deeper with a brief overview of the differences between OFDMA and OFDM. Also with a discussion on LEO satellites Starlink by SpaceX and answer more questions from our listeners. The discussion is on all things DOCSIS. OFDMA 204 MHz Upstream: General intro Low Earth Satellites and the internet Supports gaming Back scatter More satellites than since the dawn of satellites Do subscribe and hit the thumbs

16 12, 2020

Solarwinds

Mia Colabrese2020-12-16T08:50:44-05:00December 16th, 2020|

Watch our brief overview of Solarwinds security threat

8 12, 2020

Virtualization a Deeper Dive Special Series Part Three

Mia Colabrese2021-08-15T16:14:33-04:00December 8th, 2020|

Follow part 3 of this series on cloud native virtualization of DOCSIS and broadband networks? Brady Volpe and Asaf Matatyaou, Vice President, Solutions and Product Management, Cable Edge Business at Harmonic, explore this topic as it is becoming a big focus in the way we deploy and manage our networks through cloud native virtualization. In this second installment we focus more on practical applications of virtualized CMTSs and answer more questions from our listeners. Part 1 of this series: https://youtu.be/IKbVYHYvrEc Part 2 of this series: https://youtu.be/eJVy573ASyM and

24 11, 2020

OFDM and OFDMA

Mia Colabrese2020-11-25T08:36:22-05:00November 24th, 2020|

OFDM and OFDMA The value added and what it means to my network By now you have heard or have been exposed to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). It was the innovative technology introduced in Data-Over-Cable Service Interface Specifications (DOCSIS) 3.1 to increase the efficiency by which DOCSIS networks can transmit data in the downstream. Additionally, many cable operators are now actively deploying orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), which was also introduced in the DOCSIS 3.1 specification in order to increase upstream bandwidth efficiency. So just what