Thanks Peter. Re: who needs simulators, first I'd like to say that there are two different flavors of emulation that I'd consider. The first is a physical approach, where the simulator actually presents itself as a fabric against which modems actually plug into and do their thing as though they were on a live network. This box supposedly would be able to mimic line conditions in the presence of other modems contending for resources within definable bandwidth constraints. A cmts head end would be required for this approach, as well, as you noted above.
The second approach is purely software based, allowing one to do modeling by plugging in numbers in a system in order to achieve the same ends.
This subject was raised on the above referenced SCTE list discussion, but from earlier experiences I'd had times when I thought of it, as well.
I once worked closely with Frank Bradley (Bradley Telecom Corp of Leonia) before he sold his company, and one of their cornerstone products was a full-blown pstn line simulator capable of mimicking time-varying phenomena, impairments, properties, etc., but that was from another era. Also, it simulated dedicated facilities, so contention was a no-brainer. Call it an interest of mine, more than anything else, except that when exploring disparate forms of last mile delivery platforms it's something good to know.
Along the same lines, would you happen to know of a software-based modeling tool for HFC/DOCSIS/CM delivery systems?
FAC |
