When services are combined together and take rates grow, unacceptable ingress could affect a number of serving areas making it critical to be able to go into the headend or hub and monitor that signal, looking for noisy nodes and noisy serving areas. No one knows for sure where today s networks are heading. What is known is that modular platforms that allow flexible network reconfiguration will be essential in supporting the expanded services and growth, along with different testing and troubleshooting functions unique to interactive, two-way networks. Without building flexibility into the design, today s new headends could turn into tomorrow s expensive nightmare. Ross Ruschmeyer is ADC s senior project systems engineer.
Nobody really knows where today s networks are heading.
They are, however, certain to be vastly different from the networks of old, thanks to the ongoing rush by broadband operators and a slew of new competitors to launch the latest and greatest in interactive services. What is known is that flexibility will be the key to quick, manageable reconfiguration when subscriber take-rates fluctuate or service offerings expand. For that reason, headend design must focus on modular platforms that allow flexible network configuration. Without building flexibility into the design, today s headends could turn into tomorrow s expensive nightmare. All rights reserved.