Category Archives: Tech Reviews

Fresh Tech | Intraway Secures DOCSIS

Intraway DOCSIS Security and Fraud Detection

I first heard of Intraway’s products through a LinkedIn request to talk about DOCSIS security from Intraway’s CEO, Leandro Rzezak. This immediately peaked my interest becuase today our DOCSIS networks are inherently insecure and many are unaware of this. What do I mean by insecure? No, not crying and sniffling in a corner. They are open to theft of service, illegal intercept of the data transmitted, illegal wiretapping of phone calls, etc. Even with Baseline Privacy Interface Specification (BPI+) DOCSIS is quite hackable as evidenced on a number of well known hacking sites. The cool factor in the Fraud & Network Usage Control module offered by Intraway is that they have developed effective algorithms which sit on-top of the most used provisioning systems, Cisco’s CNR and Incognito’s BCC.

Fresh Tech | DOCSIS Protocol Analyzer – Can’t stop a good idea!

DOCSIS Xpert Protocol Analyzer

When I first heard rumor that a knew company had a DOCSIS protocol analyzer floating around I had to see it! With full disclosure, many of you know that after 10 years in RF and fiber-optic transport equipment, I spent a few years designing, marketing and selling DOCSIS protocol analyzers. More specifically I focused on making them available to cable operators because I knew they could detect really difficult to isolate problems. Averna know owns the technology from my Sigtek days, so it is nice to see a new competitor in the space. What’s more is that its nice to see this competitor at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo who is interested in cable operator’s issues.

Fresh Tech | Leakage Detection with Brains!

CPAT Flex Ingress Detection solution

I admit that while I help my clients better understand the sources and negative impacts of RF ingress on DOCSIS in a cable plant, I have never found leakage/ingress detection itself particularly high-tech. That was until Daniel Babeux of VGI Solutions gave me a demo of their CPAT Flex Platform. The live demo was straightforward which made it so convincing and intriguing. It consisted of a truck-mount magnetic antenna that connected into a little green box (the brains behind the operation), and a piece of coax cable seemingly chewed upon by a squirrel. The latter connected back into the CATV plant. The awesome part of the demonstration was seeing the location of the antenna appear on Google maps at the Georgia Convention Center in Atlanta, GA. Next when the damaged coax was replaced, the leakage point on the map disappeared along with magnitude of the leakage entering the plant.

Fresh Tech | Awesome Spectrum Analyzer at a Cool Price!

Televe's CATV Spectrum Analyzer

What first caught my eye by Televes H45 Spectrum Analyzer was the HDMI port feeding a flatscreen television. How cool is that? I also noticed the small unit was displaying a QAM “haystack” along with its power, MER, BER, and the demodulated picture just beside the measurements. The picture was on a high resolution display, not the low quality displays I’ve seen in the past, so tiling or macro-blocking would be apparent to the user. See the picture below:

Fresh Tech from Cable-Tec Expo 2011

Rohde & Schwarz Cable Load Generator

At this year’s Cable-Tec Expo, Rohde & Schwarz (www.rohde-schwarz.com) introduced a 1U Cable Load Generator (CLG) capable of simulating cable TV networks with full channel loading. This baby is not just limited to North America, but can do channel plans for the World over! Here are the highlights:

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