In January 2010, Clearfield, Inc. hosted the first-ever Frozen Forum for cable TV professionals. Representatives from all around the country braved the harsh elements of a Minnesota winter to do a little ice fishing and a lot of brainstorming on the issues facing the industry today.

The key takeaway from the three-day event: clearly, fiber is emerging as a strategic initiative to maximize revenue potential. It was also clear that cable operators recognize that maintaining an HFC network requires tremendous resources. Many are not yet ready to make a full move to an all-IP network, which explains the appeal of RFOG: It allows them to deliver FTTH to the home while leveraging existing head-end and customer premises equipment.

A variety of issues were discussed at the forum, but 3 central discussion points emerged:

1. Cell Backhaul: How to best "haul" the voice and data from the wireless network to the wired network.

2. Node Segmentation: How to leverage the installed infrastructure while reducing the number of subscribers per node.

3. Business Class Services: How to hand off select optical frequencies and/or bandwidth at business locations, sometimes with redundancy to ensure uninterrupted service at times of maintenance or access operations.

Cell Backhaul
How to best "haul" the voice and data from the wireless network to the wired network.
The issue of cell backhaul resonated strongly with the group. It is recognized as a critical revenue-generating opportunity for the cable TV companies. Wireless service providers increasingly are bidding out services that take the backhaul traffic through local networks into their head-end or central office -- then handing it back to the long haul provider.

There was mounting concern attributed to bandwidth-intensive applications and smart devices, such as the iPHONE, "using up" bandwidth at an unexpected rate. Because these bandwidth "hogs" are said to be choking the network, service is affected and the need to offload this traffic onto faster pipes for long haul transport (fiber) is critical to maintaining the network speed.

It was generally agreed that cell backhaul is an efficient win-win for all concerned. One attendee noted, "It's a simple process of plowing the fiber into the ground and building up to the cell towers. Then the service provider plugs their equipment into our fiber and sends it around the ring. Basically, once you hook it up, you can just walk away."

Brian Hanson, Commercial Construction Manager from Midcontinent Communications in Sioux Falls, SD, said, "At the forum, one of the biggest areas of concern for cell backhaul was securing easements. Most cell towers have been leased from a third party."

The group also discussed, at length, the need for scalable optical components -- like coarse or dense wave products in a small dense package. To that end, the attendees got a special advanced peek at the not-yet-introduced Clearview xPAK cassette.

Beyond cell backhaul, other application environments for the xPAK include business class service delivery, node segmentation, fiber exhaust scenarios, utility sub-stations, or fiber-to-the-desk deployment. One construction supervisor from Florida commented, ""We run into the need for landing a couple of fibers almost daily. With this (xPAK) I can do it immediately and don't have to worry about splicing in a pigtail. Every splicer should have 2-3 in their trucks at all times."

Node Segmentation
How to leverage the installed infrastructure while reducing the number of subscribers per node.
With the now epic expansion of the HFC network, the need for node segmentation is growing exponentially. While previously it wasn't unusual for optical nodes to feed upwards of 2,000 or more homes, the advent of node segmentation is efficiently reducing those node pockets down to more manageable counts. Ultimately, the Forum attendees indicated a goal of reducing their optical nodes to feeding 100 to 200 homes resulting in much smaller home-served- networks.

An added benefit of node segmentation is easier troubleshooting -- especially when dealing with a broadcast shared network over a copper infrastructure that's affected by EMI, weather, and ingress/egress issues. Narrowing the potential problem from 2,000 to 200 homes makes life easier.

Midcontinent's Hanson says, "Fiber scarcity is a real issue these days. Others (at the Forum) indicated that they may have a more fiber available than we do. So we're muxing up to 8 nodes per fiber. We're doing a lot of node splits. As bandwidth increases, we have to split them down from whatever the node size is to about 300 homes per node."

He added, "We look at the usage daily, and if there's bandwidth contention, we look at performing a node split."

The HFC infrastructure, by the nature of its design, requires a great deal of maintenance of course. Forum attendees discussed the fact that a copper plant is affected by noise, and noise is generated from anything that is powering the signal. It's affected by EMI (Electromagnetic Interference). It's affected by electrical storms. It's also affected by return path traffic. Since cable TV has implemented two way service, like Video-on-Demand or interactive services, across their cable plant, the return path can cause a lot of problems.

Discussion also turned to the issue of leakage. If there's any kind of leakage on the cable plant, where off-air channels are leaking -- affecting everyone on the whole network --it's very difficult to troubleshoot when dealing with 1,000+ homes.

With cable companies embracing node segmentation -- resulting in segmenting their network into smaller, more manageable chunks -- it improves their troubleshooting speed and allows them to get to their root cause quicker. This is one of the big reasons why cable providers are considering fiber instead of copper. Fiber simply isn't affected by all the issues that have historically plagued copper. Fiber is a much easier plant to maintain, and it's much more stable.

Business Class Services
How to hand off select optical frequencies and/or bandwidth at business locations -- sometimes with redundancy -- to ensure uninterrupted service at times of maintenance or access operations.
Everyone was in accord that Business Class Services are the number one target and potentially biggest revenue-generating service that a cable TV can provide. In order to perform at expected levels, they know they have to provide a dedicated circuit to businesses to offer them more bandwidth and more speed.

With a dedicated business class circuit that is home-run all the way back to the head-end, the challenge is how to hand off dedicated fiber or shared fiber with select optical frequencies to ensure continuity of service during maintenance and/or access operations.

According to Forum attendee, Alan Shaw, the Commercial Construction Supervisor at Time Warner Cable Business Class in Overland Park, Kansas, Business Class Services are a cornerstone of their offering, so it's critical that they perform above expectations. "We kicked around a number of ideas. For example, we looked at using RFOG for the same high rises as a possible solution. But for a suburban setting, like Kansas City, I don't think RFOG is going to help us. There are a few specific applications where it can be a viable option."

"We also looked at incorporating Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) with our traditional broadband into places without having a fiber and coaxial distribution system."

The need for accelerated modem service is really picking up speed in certain parts of the country. "Everyone wants faster and faster modem services. That's really the trend we're seeing right now," one attendee said.

Conclusion
There were a lot of different ideas and opinions bandied about at Clearfield's first-ever Frozen Forum. While, the attendees didn't agree on every issue, they did agree on the merit of coming together to learn from one another.

Ultimately, we're one big community -- with great reception.

About the Author
Johnny Hill is the chief operating officer of Clearfield, Inc. Formerly the vice president of engineering and product management, Hill is considered a longstanding leader and a founding member of the company. Hill has approximately 15 years of strategic and hands-on experience in the telecommunications networking industry. He started his career at Americable Inc. in 1996. He was Americable's national sales manager when the company was acquired by Clearfield's precursor, APA Cables & Networks in 2003. Hill was promoted to Clearfield's vice president of product management and development in 2006, and vice president of engineering and product management the following year.

Hill's expertise in the telecommunications industry includes issues such as fiber management, harsh environments, network design and transport, fiber and copper assemblies, network security, premises network equipment, and structured wiring, among others. For more information, visit www.clearfieldconnection.com.

For more information about Clearfield's product line, including the xPAK cassette, and their line of WDM devices that utilize advanced thin-film filter and array wave guide grating (AWG) technologies, contact:

CLEARFIELD
5480 Nathan Lane
Plymouth MN 55442 USA
Tel: 763.476.6866
Fax: 763.475.8457
URL: www.clearfieldconnection.com

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