Understanding and Troubleshooting Linear Distortions: Micro-reflections, Amplitude Ripple/Tilt and Group Delay

RON HRANAC

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005

2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

A Clean Upstream: Or Is It?

Graphic courtesy of Sunrise Telecom

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transmission Line Theory 101

Source Transmission Medium Load

ZS = ZT = ZL
Source Transmission Medium Load

ZS ? ZT ? ZL
Source Transmission Medium Load

ZS ? ZT ? ZL
SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Impedance Mismatches
Source (7 dB return loss)
+31 dBmV at time T 0 +22 dBmV +15 dBmV

Transmission Medium (1 dB attenuation)

Load (7 dB return loss)

+30 dBmV at time T 1 +23 dBmV +14 dBmV (-16 dBc) at time T 2

23

100 ft

20

+30

+30 dBmV

Amplitude (dBmV)

+25 +20 +15 +10 +5 Incident signal (T 1) Echo (T 2) 234 ns +14 dBmV

Time (T)
SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Micro-reflectionsThe Big Picture

+30 +25 +20 +15 +10 +5

Amplitude (dBmV)

Amplitude (dBmV)

+30 dBmV

~4.27 MHz

234 ns
Incident signal (T1)

+14 dBmV (-16 dBc)

Peak (+31.28 dBmV)

Null (+28.5 dBmV)

Echo (T2)

Frequency (F)

Time (T)

Amplitude

Time (T)

Echo calculation courtesy of Holtzman, Inc.

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Micro-reflections
Causes:
Damaged or missing end-of-line terminators Damaged or missing chassis terminators on directional coupler, splitter, or multipleoutput amplifier unused ports Loose center conductor seizure screws Unused tap ports not terminated; this is especially critical on low value taps, but all unused tap ports should be terminated with 75-ohm terminations (locking terminators without resistors or stingers do not terminate the tap port) Poor isolation in splitters, taps and directional couplers Unused customer premises splitter and directional coupler ports not terminated Use of so-called self-terminating taps at feeder ends-of-line; these are the equivalent of splitters, and do not terminate the feeder cable unless all tap ports are terminated Kinked or damaged cable (includes cracked cable, which causes a reflection and ingress) Defective or damaged actives or passives (water-damaged, water-filled, cold solder joint, corrosion, loose circuit board screws, etc.) Cable-ready TVs and VCRs connected directly to the drop (return loss on most cableready devices is poor) Some traps and filters have been found to have poor return loss in the upstream, especially those used for data-only service
SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Amplitude Ripple/Tilt
Amplitude ripple and tilt are known in cable industry vernacular as frequency response, and can refer to in-channel frequency response or the frequency response across a specified RF bandwidth such as 5-42 MHz The causes include gremlins such as improper network alignment and impedance mismatches (micro-reflections!)
Amplitude tilt Combination of amplitude ripple and tilt Amplitude tilt, slight amount of ripple

Graphics courtesy of Acterna and Sunrise Telecom

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Amplitude Ripple/Tilt
Adaptive equalization
This 6.4 MHz bandwidth A-TDMA digitally modulated signal exhibits severe in-channel amplitude tilt at the CMTS upstream input Adaptive equalization (preequalization) in the cable modem is able to compensate for nearly all of the amplitude tilt

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005

2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Group Delay
Group delay is said to exist when signals at some frequencies take longer to travel through a circuit, amplifier or network than signals at other frequencies Group delay, like other linear impairments, causes intersymbol interference, which degrades MER
Graphic courtesy of Holtzman, Inc.
SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Linear Distortions in the Real World

In this example, an echo at ~485 ns causes visible amplitude ripple across the 5-42 MHz spectrum Group delay ripple also is present

Echo

Amplitude ripple

Group delay ripple

Graphic courtesy of Holtzman, Inc.

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

10

Linear Distortions in the Real World

Heres another example: An approx. -33 dBc echo at just over 1 s This echo meets the DOCSIS upstream 30 dBc at >1.0 sec parameter Here, too, the echo is sufficient to cause some amplitude and group delay ripple

Graphic courtesy of Sunrise Telecom

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

11

A Clean Upstream: Or Is It?

Remember the upstream slide at the beginning of this presentation? Heres why 16-QAM wouldnt work

Graphic courtesy of Sunrise Telecom

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

12

A Clean Upstream: Or Is It?

This upstream constellation shows a not-sogood 16-QAM signal Unequalized MER is 21.3 dB, close to the failure threshold for 16-QAM
Graphic courtesy of Sunrise Telecom
SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

13

A Clean Upstream

From a linear distortion perspective, this is what a relatively unimpaired upstream looks like
Graphics courtesy of Sunrise Telecom
SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Wrapping Up
Linear distortions are real problems in cable networks, and can seriously affect downstream and upstream data transmission Among the tools available to troubleshoot linear distortions are
Forward and reverse sweep, set to the maximum supported resolution Adaptive equalization (DOCSIS 1.1 and 2.0 modems) CMTS tools such as per-modem SNR (MER), FEC error information Avoid upstream frequencies above about 35 MHz to minimize diplex filter-related group delay Use of specialized test equipment to characterize and troubleshoot micro-reflections, amplitude and group delay ripple

An understanding of linear distortions is critical to achieving the reliability necessary for new services being deployed on todays cable networks
SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2005
2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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