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INSIDE THIS ISSue ComSonics, JDSU, ....... page 3 Megger, Sencore, ......... page 4 Sunrise, Trilithic, ........... page 6 XFTP, VeEx, View TEQ, .. page 7

June 2008

T&M Today and Going Forward

By Ron Hendrickson, Managing Editor

Cable test and measurement over IP,” he says. “You can technicians now. ” face, or the three to interface, ”
(T&M) is a huge field to study. just look at packet jitter and all he says. “It’s not totally [ven-
Gone are the days when an that kind of stuff, and it’s not Fu Ture TrendS dor agnostic], but it’s kind of a
analog SLM and perhaps a sufficient any more when you Hayes, Pillai and Thomas all one-time translation effort.”
volt-ohmmeter were all a field deliver video.” lookk for increasing intelli-
tech needed. Today, the tests gence in the network itself. equipMenT
themselves and the equip- TraininG Probes in the network, either How to equip the field force
ment they require comprise Ray Thomas, principal engineer stand-aloneorpartofother plat- is a balance between “best
a vast array. This Tech Guide for Time Warner Cable, identifies forms, can report constantly and most” and the real world
is an attempt to help you find training as a challenge. rather than just raise alarms. of budgets. Thomas notes,
what your field force needs. “Each system has to have Hayes further sees test gear “Budgeting has become a year-
a training plan and ensure getting“smarter.” round sport that makes cage

The LaST 10 yearS that the plan is adhered “You can put in just whatev- matches look rather tame.”

T&M has become vastly to, ” he says. “When techs er level of code you want to equip It’s also a matter of getting the more complex in just the last are promoted, or transfer that technician with, and it’s flex- right tools into the right hands. 10 years, says Keith Hayes, to another area, or leave the ible, so if you want to do some Says Pillai, “There’s no VP Network Operations and company, their knowledge is sort of customization because point giving test equipment Engineering Services for lost and takes time to replace.” of technology differences in your to people that don’t know Charter Communications. Hayes also says training is network, it’spretty easy”, hesays. what to do with it.”

“Some years ago all that critical, but adds that there’s “The second trend is essentially Hayes likes one box that was likely done was mea- good news. Test gear now the Moore’s Law of technology can be set up differently via suring signal levels and oftencomeswithbuilt-in Web advancement—denser chips, eithersoftwareorfirmware. amplitude variations within browsersand help pages. And faster processors, lower price “You can have the same the QAM channel,” he says. today’s techs are savvy. points, which allows us to put meter,” he says, “but have “Now we’re digging deeper “They’ve grown up knowing much more capable test gear an installer view, a technician into modulation error ratio— what the Webis...they’reused in more and more of our techni- view, a system tech view, a we’ve got more equipment to touch-screens and graphical cians’[hands].” headend tech view that the that allows us to look at user interfaces”, Hayes says. Hayes also likes browser- operator has the discretion the constellation diagrams “Thetestequipmentmanufac- based test gear. It can be of toggling on and off as and gives us intelligence on turers are getting more savvy in used to upload test results, a technician gets the right what’s causing unwanted making their gear more intuitive establish baselines and is skill level, the right training to variations.” for today’s generation of techni- largely vendor-agnostic. be able to understand what