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Feature
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To Catch a Thief
We all know about TV signals being illegally pirated,
but those amplifiers, nodes and other cable equipment
are like dangling pieces of meat in the lion cage to
some thieves.
Comcas t issued a press release late last
month that provided some insight into the arrest of
seven alleged thieves for stealing cable equipment
throughout South Florida. Comcast's Regional Security
Manager Michael Tamas estimated the crime spree in
Florida cost his company and other area companies in the
state millions of dollars.
Michael Tanck, Adelphia'sSE regional
director of government and community affairs, estimated
that for Adelphia alone, the cost to issue credits to
customers, replace stolen equipment and labor was almost
$2 million since 2002.
"It's a very significant problem, and we've been
trying to battle it for a long time," Tanck said.
"Comcast did a great job in (helping to make) some
arrests, but one of our biggest problems has been taking
these arrests and going up the food chain to find the
big guys. Hopefully, by coordinating the seven arrests,
it will point to a common denominator, and we can move
up the food chain to the big fish."
Working with police, Comcast used "advanced
techniques," stakeouts and monitors to catch the thieves
in the early morning hours, according to the press
release. Most of the thefts of amps and nodes occurred
in the evenings during prime time programming, which
resulted in a loss of service for customers in the
affected areas.
Like Comcast, Tanck believes the equipment is being
stolen by an organized ring for use in cable systems in
the Caribbean and South and Central America.
"It's the same people stealing from us that are also
stealing from Bright House, Comcast and
Atlantic Broadband," Tanck said. "One of the
things we've noticed through the Florida Cable
Telecommunications Association is that all of the
thefts occur on major interstates or highways so they
can make a quick getaway. Here in south Florida, they
have quick access to the port of Miami, and within a
matter of days they can have it on a cargo container and
out of the country."
A shopping list
Tanck said in addition to nodes and amps, the thieves
also targeted trunk amplifiers and power supplies.
"It's really interesting that there's not much theft
of passive devices in the field; it's more active
devices," he said. "However, early last month, we had
someone break into one of our warehouse and steal
equipment directly out of the warehouse. In looking at
what they took, it was almost like a shopping list to
get ready to build a cable system."
One way of combating the thefts is working with cable
associations at the state level. Tanck said working
closely with the FCTA's theft committee allows the cable
companies in Florida to pool their information on the
thefts. The FCTA is working with the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement, which consists of
state and district attorneys as well as prosecutors.
"We're trying to help law enforcement and prosecutors
understand the magnitude of this problem so it's not new
or foreign to them," Tanck said. "By doing this, the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement has a point person
on these cases, so they bring things together whether it
happens at Adelphia, Comcast or Bright House."
- Mike Robuck
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ANGA Show
Wrap | |
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European Cable Gears Up for Telco
Threat
The threat of IPTV was the main topic at the
ANGA trade show in Cologne, Germany, last week.
Whereas in previous years the competition focused on
cable vs. satellite, the shadow of IPTV very much hung
over ANGA.
Deutsche Telekom is building a new VDSL
network that is expected to permit bandwidth of up to 50
Mbps and is planned for launch starting from mid-2006 in
10 major German cities including Berlin, Hamburg,
Cologne and Munich. But the threat to cable players will
not just be coming from DT. Other telcos such as
HanseNet (owned by Telecom Italia) and
NetCologne are also planning to be aggressive in
the German market.
Werner Hanf, CEO of NetCologne, a telecom operator
that operates in the Cologne/Bonn region of Germany,
told the show that the operator wants to be a strong
player in the IPTV market with a service launch planned
soon. Hanf also told the show that the operator was
negotiating with Arena, the organization that
holds the all-important German national league soccer
rights.
Triple-play offence
For cable operators, the message was clear: The era
of triple-play competition has arrived, and they need to
get more innovative-and quickly. One speaker, Daniel
Etman, product manager at Cisco Systems Germany,
was particularly outspoken about the lack of innovation
on the part of cable operators. "Customers associate
broadband with Deutsche Telekom, not cable. They cannot
let the same happen with television services," Etman
said. "In Germany, cable operators are really in
defense. They need to go on offense. They need to attack
on what they are good at, and the starting point of this
is broadband."
While German-based and cable-oriented, ANGA cast a
wider net across both geography and technology
platforms. "It's really much more of a pan-European show
now," said Kevin Oliver, VP marketing for the cable
networks business unit at JDSU. "There were a lot
of Americans and multi-nationals staffing (the booths)
and walking around."
As for multiple platforms, ANGA is officially branded
a "Trade Fair for Cable, Satellite & Multimedia."
That partly reflects legal constraints in the German
market. "Cable operators can't actually do the
installations," Oliver said. "The contractors do
terrestrial, satellite and cable."
Oliver agreed on the new urgency in Europe to deliver
voice, video and data. "The triple play has really taken
off for the cable operators there," he said, "and what
we've noticed in our business is the rollout of VoIP has
made operators all over Europe much more scientific,
proactive about the way they monitor the networks."
- Mark Holmes and Jonathan Tombes
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Broadband
Soapbox | |
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Send CT your Expo Press
Releases
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We'll continue accepting releases up to and during the
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Please send releases to our Managing Editor Ron
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number!
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SCTE
Announcements | |
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Expo Savings End Friday!
Pre-register by this Friday, June 9, and save $100.
It's "All Engineering. All the Time" at SCTE's Cable-Tec
Expo 2006 happening in Denver, Tuesday through Friday,
June 20–23. Take advantage of these latest
developments:
- Pre-Opening General Session Breakfast (sponsored
by C-COR)
- TourDay Tuesday
- Power-packed CEO/CTO panels expand
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Get full show details and sign up today at http://expo.scte.org.
L&D Conference Draws Near
On Tuesday, June 20, SCTE will bring you the
Conference on Broadband Learning & Development. This
one-day conference will take place in Denver and will be
held in conjunction with SCTE's Cable-Tec Expo 2006.
Join keynote luncheon speaker Dr. Martha Soehren, chief
learning officer for Comcast Cable Communications.
Register today and save money by registering for the
L&D conference and Expo together. For L&D
conference details and to register, visit http://expo.scte.org/clbd.htm.
SCTE Mourns Sudden Passing of Veteran
Staff Member Pat Zelenka
SCTE sadly announces the unexpected death of one of
its longtime staff members. View
the SCTE obituary.
SCTE Live Learning Returns in July
After taking a month off in June for SCTE Cable-Tec
Expo, SCTE Live Learning returns Wednesday, July 19, at
2 p.m. Eastern time. The topic of the July session is
"Commercial Services-How to Ensure the Big One Doesn't
Get Away." Free to SCTE members. Registration is
required, and "seats" are limited. SCTE Live Learning is
sponsored by Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, Motorola, and
Scientific Atlanta, a Cisco Company. Archived recordings
include responses to questions that were posed during
the original presentation. Commercial Services, OCAP,
Optical Transport, PacketCable and Wireless Technology
are among the choices of archived topics. Archives are
for SCTE members only, and at no cost. Choose a topic to
watch at your convenience. http://www.scte.org/content/index.cfm?pID=940
Learn From the Latest SCTE Event
Recordings-Emerging Technologies and Network Management
Access the audio recordings of SCTE's
recent Network
Management Symposium sessions
to explore the end-to-end requirements for
complete network operations management. You can
also access the audio and view PowerPoint presentations
from SCTE's Conference on Emerging Technologies
2006 technical sessions as the cable
telecommunications industry's leading engineers and
technologists take a look at what lies ahead
three-to-five years into the future. Download
the recordings today!
Stand Out From the Crowd with SCTE
Certifications
Narrated by SCTE Director of Certification and
Program Development Joel Welch, SCTE
Certifications: Stand Out From the Crowd is a
new presentation that describes the SCTE Certification
Programs as well as exam preparation, costs and
procedures. This overview of the SCTE Certification
Programs is an easy way to learn how
certification can become an important part
of your plan for career advancement. View
it now by clicking on " SCTE
Certification Overview Video."
Purchase Understanding Voice over IP
Security by Alan B. Johnston and David M. Piscitello
(TR-114)
This authoritative and practical book offers a
current and comprehensive understanding of VoIP (Voice
over IP) security. Professionals learn how to design and
implement secure VoIP networks and services and how to
integrate VoIP securely in existing data networks. The
authors explain how IETF SIP and media security
standards affect VoIP deployment and how end-to-end
encryption can be deployed to protect all VoIP calls. In
addition, it covers security basics and attack types and
methods and details all the key security aspects of data
and VoIP systems and networks, including identity,
authentication, signaling and media encryption.
Available for purchase through the SCTE Bookstore.
Retail Price: $99; Member Price: $89. http://secure.scte.org/acb/stores/2/product1.asp?SID=2&Product_ID=336
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Pipeline
Profile | |
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Greg Tresness
SCTE Sustaining (corporate) Member
since 1984
Title: President, Arcom
Broadband background: In 1995, Tresness was
named president of Arcom, which produces test equipment
used to locate problems in cable plants. In 2001, he
formed Arcom Digital, the technology arm of Arcom, where
he also serves as president. He has been in cable
industry since 1983 and holds both a BSEE and an MBA.
Common path distortion (CPD) is a fact of life
in cable plants, isn't it? Are some operators in a sort
of denial on this problem?
I don't think anyone is in denial that CPD is a
problem. People in the field know how difficult,
frustrating and time consuming CPD can be to track
down-and how it can affect voice, data and video. When
CPD is viewed using traditional test equipment, the type
of CPD they are used to seeing is what we call
high-level CPD. At that point, it is most likely already
adversely affecting the network. Some question how often
this happens and whether it is worth investing to
address this issue.
In our system, we have the ability to look well below
the system noise floor-typically around -80dB. This adds
a whole new dimension to being able to see what is going
on in the plant. The operator now has the ability to see
problems early and fix them before they are
network-affecting. We call this "predictive
maintenance," which, prior to the invention of this, was
not even a possibility.
What do you mean by being able to get to "root
causes" of network problems?
In the many systems that we have installed, one of
the things that we have found is that frequently a CPD
source is also the cause of some other problem like
noise or ingress. Intuitively this makes sense. CPD
occurs when there is some deficiency in a connection
point within the network. Frequently, this deficiency is
caused by moisture getting into the connector or device
and then oxidizing. If moisture can get in, obviously
other problems like noise can be present.
We've also found that the level of CPD does not
necessarily correspond to the severity of the problem.
There have been cases where the source location of
low-level CPD was caused by water or a surface contact
issue, such as a missing seizure screw, creating major
system impairment. The deficient connection was the root
cause of the problem.
Could you explain how you use CPD against
itself, i.e., as a way to track CPD?
CPD is a nonlinear distortion. When there is a source
of CPD, as signals propagate through the source, beats
and intermodulation products are generated. Low-level
CPD sources generate little beats; high-level CPD
sources generate big beats. By knowing where to look for
these intermodulation products, and by having
information about when in time the source signal was
transmitted, we are able to calculate the time distance
to the source. We can then use this information and
compare it to a database containing all the devices in
the network, in order to tell the operator exactly which
device is having a problem.
Your new platform requires less dedicated
spectrum? How so?
The simple answer is that the system uses both analog
and digital channels themselves as the radar probing
signals. We look at these signals at the headend and
calculate what the spectral components of any CPD
occurring in the field would look like. We then compare
this to signals coming back in the return ... We then
use correlation processing to find at which point the
two signals are statistically the same.
As operators become more digital and less
analog, does this affect your ability to find
problems?
That doesn't affect how our CPD Hunter operates, as
the number and type of channels is not a factor; it
still pinpoints CPD, regardless. The same can't be said
for traditional CPD troubleshooting techniques. The
recurring 6 MHz (NTSC) pattern that can be viewed on a
spectrum analyzer when high-level CPD is present only
exists because of multiples of analog carriers. Without
these analog carriers, CPD will become indistinguishable
from noise-that doesn't mean it's not there, it just
appears in a different form.
How key is automation to network monitoring and
maintenance?
We have built a great deal of automation into our
system-our goal being to make it as easy to use as
possible, while providing useful information. This
automation allows easy viewing of which nodes are
currently having problems and provides a predictive
element in telling which nodes are most likely to have
problem at some point in the future. We then take this
one step further by integrating electronic maps of the
network into our system. This uniquely allows the
operation to not only know when they have a problem, but
also where in the network the problem is.
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