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Content List of abbreviations .................................................................................................................. 4 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 6 2 Network of the Cable operator ........................................................................................ 6 2.1 History of the CATV network ............................................................................................ 6 2.2 HFC network ..................................................................................................................... 7
2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4 Architecture........................................................................................................................................................... 7 Components .......................................................................................................................................................... 8 Tree-and-branch topology.................................................................................................................................... 9 Star topology ....................................................................................................................................................... 10
3.3 Digital transmission based on QAM modulation .......................................................... 17 3.4 Noise and interference .................................................................................................. 18
3.4.1 3.4.2 Upstream noise and interference ...................................................................................................................... 18 Downstream noise and interference ................................................................................................................. 20
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4.3.7
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 31
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Listofabbreviations
AM ANC ANP ANS AS ATV CA CATV CM CMS CMTS CSA CPE DC DHCP DNS DOCSIS DS DTV DVB ETSI EuroDOCSIS FA FDM FDMA FM GA Gbps GC GHz HDTV HE HFC HTTP IP IPTV ISO kbps KDC kHz LC 2009 = Excentis Amplitude Modulation Announcement Controller Announcement Player Announcement Server Authorization Server Analogue TeleVision Call Agent or Conditional Access CAble TeleVision / Community Antenna TeleVision Cable Modem Call Management Server Cable Modem Termination System Common Scrambling Algorithm Customer Premise Equipment District Center Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Domain Name Server Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification DownStream Digital TeleVision Digital Video Broadcasting European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute European Data over Cable System Interface Specification Final Amplifier Frequency Domain Multiplexing Frequency Division Multiple Access Frequency Modulation Group Amplifier Gigabit per second Gate Controller Giga Hertz High-Definition Television HeadEnd Hybrid Fibre Coax HyperText Transfer Protocol Internet Protocol IP Television International Standardisation Organisation kilobit per second Key Distribution Center kilo Hertz Local Center
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Mbps MG MGC MHz MPEG MPLS MTA MTP NIU NOC NTU ON OSS PAL PSI PSTN QAM QoS RC RF SDH SDTV SECAM SONET SG SI SS7 STB TDMA TFTP TGS ToIP US UTP VoD
Megabit per second Media Gateway Media Gateway Controller Mega Hertz Moving Pictures Expert Group Multi Protocol Label Switching Multimedia Terminal Adapter Multi-TaP Network Interface Unit Network Operating Center Network Termination Unit Optical Node Operating Support System Phase Alternating Line Program Specific Information Public Switched Telephone Network Quadrature Amplitude Modulation Quality of Service Regional Center RadioFrequency Synchronous Digital Hierarchy Standard-definition Television SEquentiel Couleur A Mmoire Synchronous Optical NETwork Signalling Gateway Service Information Signalling System 7 Set-Top Box Time Division Multiple Access Trivial File Transfer Protocol Ticket Granting Server Telephony over IP UpStream Unshielded Twisted Pair Video on Demand
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Figure 1: The CATV network (HE=headend) Signals were captured using terrestrial and satellite antennas and distributed using a coaxial network within the local community. The earliest deployments started in the thirties. Until the nineties, there were thousands of small networks all over Europe most of these are now consolidated into larger cable operators. Amplifiers are used to compensate for the attenuation of the coaxial cables. Although the attenuation for two types of cable for in-home use is depicted in Figure 2, it shows the general frequency-dependent trend of the attenuation of coaxial cables. This frequency dependency is normally compensated for by equalisation filters in the amplifiers. However the length of the cables between the amplifiers may not be too long in order that the input signal at the amplifier is above the noise level. This shows that extending the frequency spectrum above 1 GHz would necessitate the reduction of the distance between the amplifiers which would require a complete re-implementation of 2009 = Excentis
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the CATV/HFC network. This brings us to the conclusion that the frequency spectrum of the CATV and HFC network is limited at present to below 1 GHz. The amplifiers and tap values were chosen such that each house gets an equal TV signal. A huge number of houses (e.g. between 50.000 and 1.6 million) can be served by one headend.
30 25 Attenuation [dB/100m] 20 15 10 5 0 0 200 400 600 Frequency [MHz] 800 1000 1200 RG-59 RG-6
Figure 2: Frequency dependence of the attenuation of two types of coaxial cables Since the end of the nineties, most of the CATV networks have been converted for bidirectional operation into a Hybrid Fibre - Coax (HFC) architecture.
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CM
NIU
Fiber Ring
ON n
Residential Customer
Coax part
Figure 3: HFC network 2.2.2 Components
Fiber part
If we have a closer look at the HFC network from the optical node to the home, we can distinguish different components (cf. Figure 5). Two optical fibres arrive in the optical node (in practice 4 for redundancy reasons), one with the upstream signal and one with the downstream signal. In the fibres, digital and analogue information is transmitted over the optical fibre through modulation of a sine carrier. Simply said, light is sent all the time and it is the fluctuation of the light that tells the receiver what information the sender is transmitting. In the optical node two conversions are executed: the optical signal is converted to an electrical signal by a photodetector (o/e conversion) and the diplex filter only puts the downstream signal on the coaxial cable; the upstream signal on the coaxial input of the optical node is also filtered by the other part of the diplex filter and is sent as input to the laser (electrical to optical e/o conversion) to modulate the light signal in the upstream fibre. Behind the optical node towards the homes, the coaxial distribution plant delivers all downstream signals to the homes and transports the upstream signals coming from the homes back to the optical node. 2009 = Excentis
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Coaxial cable
Fibre
Splitter
Amplifier
Tap
Figure 4: HFC network components Two topologies for the coaxial part of the HFC network are in use in Europe: the treeand-branch and the star architecture. 2.2.3 Tree-and-branch topology Tree-and-branch is the most typical architecture for the coaxial distribution plant (Figure 5). The main trunk cable is split in branches though splitters. Splitters are bidirectional passive components used to split and combine signals over different paths.
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