UTOPIC
A Tool for Cable Network Calculations and Design Evaluations
TNO’s Contribution to the Development of All-Digital Cable Networks
Marc van Dijk
Jan de Nijs
Tel.
E-mail:
Tel.
E-mail:
+31 (0) 8886 63627
marc.vandijk@tno.nl
Delft, February 2013
+31 (0) 8886 67206
jan.denijs@tno.nl
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February 2013
UTOPIC: TNO’s Contribution to the Cable
Cable Evolution toward Gbps services
The HFC network is a most crucial asset of a cable
operator. From the financial viewpoint it represents a
huge investment. Moreover, the development toward
a Gbps infrastructure for future premium television
and broadband services requires further network
investments. This year, next year and many years to
come*. Planning the investments in a most efficient
manner will yield millions of savings. This year, next
year and many …..
New modulation schemes, replacement of analogue by
digital services, segmentations, extensions and/or
rearrangement of the frequency plan, deep fibre etc. all
require a careful reconsideration of the RF design of the
cable network. From the business and technical
viewpoint, a satisfactory solution with a good balance
between network investments and network performance
has to be found.
*
“Evolution and prospects cable networks for broadband
services - A technical perspective of the European and
specifically the Dutch cable networks”, TNO, October 2012.
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February 2013
UTOPIC: TNO’s Contribution to the Cable
The Challenge of Cable Network Evolution
A compromise between business and technical requirements
From the business viewpoint, the design and
management of an HFC network is quite challenging. A
trade-off has to be made between:
• Customer satisfaction (service reliability & quality),
• Network investments and,
• Operational costs to solve network-related customer
complaints.
Business
balance
RF balance
From the RF engineering viewpoint, the design and
management of an HFC network is equally challenging.
A trade-off has to be made between:
• Signal quality (customer satisfaction),
• Network load and,
• Network power budget.
UTOPIC is an unique aid for HFC design challenges, to make a trade off between
technical requirements (signal quality) and business interests (investments)
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February 2013
UTOPIC: TNO’s Contribution to the Cable
What UTOPIC does?
UTOPIC is a tool for cable system calculations. For a given
cable network configuration and load, the signal level (S),
thermal noise level (N) and intermodulation signal level (I)
is calculated for each carrier at the system outlet.
For a good network performance, the signal level S, S/N ratio and S/I
ratio must be compliant with the signal requirements as given in the
IEC 60728-1.
Finalist SCTE 2009
Technological
Innovation of the
Year Award
UTOPIC has been developed with support of
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February 2013
UTOPIC: TNO’s Contribution to the Cable
UTOPIC: the business challenge
Save millions on investments and operational costs
Maximize the HFC network load (capacity) with minimum
investments and without dissatisfied customers or higher
operational costs.
UTOPIC helps addressing questions like:
Is it feasible to replace one or more analogue channels by digital
channels, or to add digital carriers?
Is it feasible to migrate from 64 QAM to 256 QAM?
What services can be delivered using spectrum beyond the
current frequency edge and/or using new 1024 QAM or higher
modulation schemes, for instance for DOCSIS 3.1 ?
Do we have a case to management to invest in new components
For replacement investments, UTOPIC makes it easy to compare
the network performance for different amplifiers or nodes. UTOPIC
is a convenient aid for component selection.
Harmonizing the network load and channel plan of
different networks offers interesting benefits, but
often such an harmonization is a difficult engineering
project because of the different network designs and
use of different components. UTOPIC is a tool that
relieves such design challenges. It helps identifying
the capacity bottle necks, and finding the cheapest
but appropriate solutions.
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February 2013
UTOPIC: TNO’s Contribution to the Cable
UTOPIC: the RF engineering challenge
Improve, accelerate and reduce costs of cable network engineering
In former (analogue only) times, CSO/CTB calculations were used for the cable
RF design. Today, with digital loads such calculations give much too optimistic
results.* For an accurate result 5th and even 7th order distortion signals have to
be included. UTOPIC is a unique software tool for cable performance calculation
that accurately and rapidly calculates these higher order distortion signals.
Cable engineering is a laborious work that as a rule involves extended tests and
measurements. UTOPIC can replace part of these tests. UTOPIC can be used to increase the
number network configurations or components to evaluate. UTOPIC gives a quick result in
contrast to time-consuming tests in an RF lab.
UTOPIC is validated:
• “A component model for cable system calculations”, Broadband, Vol 34, No 3,
September 2012
• “System Calculations for Cable Networks with digital Load”, Broadband, Vol 35, No
2, March 2013
For input standardised specification data (IEC 6078-3 and IEC 60728-3-1) are used.
It calculates the cable performance requirements for analogue and digital services
as specified in IEC 60728 – 1.
* Methodology for Specifying HFC Networks and Components, ReDeSign, Deliverable D10, 2009, www.ict-redesign.eu
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February 2013
UTOPIC: TNO’s Contribution to the Cable
UTOPIC Customer Testimonials
“For every new channel, UTOPIC can calculate quick
as lightning the impact it will have within the network
and, therefore, on the customer”
“With help of UTOPIC, it became visible that the - believed
15% unsuitable – trunk was still suitable. Thereby making
an alternative fibre investment of millions unnecessary.”
“We can really pinpoint the bottlenecks in our network with
the UTOPIC tool and upgrade the performance of the entire
network by upgrading only a few components, thereby
minimizing costs.”
“With help of UTOPIC all digital QAM-64 channels could be
adjusted to QAM-256, thereby increasing bandwidth from
40 to 50 Mbit/s per channel: 10 – 15% less network
investments were necessary (>> 1 M€).”
“UTOPIC is heavily used during vendor selection: the tool
provides information about how the performance of the
components of the specific vendor in our network will be.”
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February 2013
UTOPIC: TNO’s Contribution to the Cable
TNO Offer for European MSOs
A new approach to HFC engineering and
HFC business trade-offs
UTOPIC offers a new approach for HFC network engineering. To reap
the full benefits of an improved RF engineering and/or a more
efficient use and management of the HFC network, the method of
system calculations should be widely adopted. Therefore, TNO offers
European MSOs:
•
•
•
•
•
A 3 year contract for the use of UTOPIC R6.0 and maintenance upgrades, with annual opt out possibility
An on-site UTOPIC training (first year)
Back-office UTOPIC support
Specification of 2 cable amplifiers conform IEC 60728 part 3-1 Clause 4.2 (CINR curves at low, mid and
high frequency) in the first year,
Each year you may decide to terminate the contract without further costs.
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February 2013
UTOPIC: TNO’s Contribution to the Cable
TNO Offer for Vendors
A new approach for HFC engineering
UTOPIC offers a new approach for HFC network engineering. To reap the
full benefits of an improved RF engineering and/or a more efficient use
and management of the HFC network, the method of system calculations
should be widely adopted. Therefore, TNO offers vendors:
•
A 3 year contract for the use of UTOPIC R6.0 and maintenance upgrades, with annual opt out possibility
•
The obligation to deposit for UTOPIC relevant measured* component data of your amplifiers and nodes
of your current product portfolio in a database; MSOs can retrieve the component data from this
database for calculations that include your component. The data include all measured data of a IEC
60728 part 3 (CENELEC measurement) and IEC 60728 part 3-1 measurement.
•
The use of UTOPIC is limited to own projects and network design assignments of customers.
•
Each year you may decide to terminate the contract without further costs.
* All measured data refers to the 42 CSO and CTB figures of the IEC 60728-3 measurement (Clause 4.2) and the low, mid and
high frequency CINR curves of IEC 60728-3-1 (Clause 4.2).
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February 2013
UTOPIC: TNO’s Contribution to the Cable
For further information
Jan de Nijs
Tel.
Email:
xx31(0)88 86 67 206
jan.denijs@tno.nl
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February 2013
UTOPIC: TNO’s Contribution to the Cable
TNO: Mission and Organisation
TNO connects people and knowledge to create innovations that boost the sustainable competitive strength of
industry and well-being of society
Mission
TNO is a Dutch, independent and non for profit research organisation whose expertise and
research make an important contribution to the competitiveness of companies and organisations,
to the economy and to the quality of society as a whole. TNO’s unique position is attributable to
its versatility and capacity to integrate this knowledge.
Innovation with purpose is what TNO stands for. We develop knowledge not for its own sake but
for practical application. To create new products that make life more pleasant and valuable and
help companies innovate. To find creative answers to the questions posed by society
Organisation
Focus and mass are critical success factors, TNO concentrates on 7 closely related themes, each
of which has a prominent place in the national and European innovation agenda. The themes are
derived from a clustering (based on strong interrelationships) and refined focusing of the twelve
themes from the previous strategy period and are thus a logical extension.
• Built environment
• Industrial innovation
• Information society
• Healthy living
• Defense, Safety and Security
• Energy
• Mobility
Turnover
In 2011 the total consolidated income was 577 million euros a third of which - 189 million euros - was government funding for the
purpose of developing new knowledge.
Our employees
For a research organisation, employees are crucial, which is why TNO constantly invests in talent development, management
development and recruitment strategy. Of the more than 3,900 employees, almost 700 work at TNO Companies BV and 61
employees are engaged outside of the Netherlands
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February 2013
UTOPIC: TNO’s Contribution to the Cable
Basics calculation cable intermodulation
products in UTOPIC
Information on
UTOPIC can be found:
“UTOPIC a new RF
planning tool for cable
networks”
Broadband, Vol. 30, No
3, December 2008
“A component model
for cable system
calculations”,
Broadband, Vol. 34, No
3, September 2012
www.tno.nl/utopic
www.tno.nl/cable
For analogue signals, narrowband distortion
signals (CSO and CTB cluster beats) are
generated. Already the beats of 2nd and 3rd
order distortion signals yield a visible
degradation of the picture;
For digital loads, non-linear distortion signals
are spread out in the frequency domain. In
most cases, the 2nd and 3rd order distortion
signals remain below the thermal noise level.
If so, 5th and higher order distortion signals
dominate signal degradation of digital carriers.
UTOPIC calculated all analogue-analogue, analogue-digital and digital-digital intermodulation
products up to the 7th order. Next it calculated all signal performance requirements such as the
carrier-to-thermal noise ratio of PAL and DVB-C carries (IEC 60728-1, Clause 5.8), the multiple
frequency intermodulation interference for PAL carriers (IEC 60728-1, Clause 5.9.3), and the
carrier to intermodulation noise ratio for digital carriers (new IEC 60728-101).