MoCA Testing for triple play and

Whole Home DVR

Jim Carvajal
Applications Specialist, Cable MSO
Caribbean & Latin America
Agenda

 What is MoCA?

 Home Troubleshooting

 JDSU troubleshooting

 SmartID

© 2012 JDS Uniphase Corporation | JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION 2

What is MoCA?
What is MoCA?

 Stands for: Multimedia over Coax

Alliance

 Main applications:
• Streaming high throughput
applications like HD Video
around a home on subscriber’s
existing coax cable (Whole
Home DVR)
• Connect IP enabled devices in
different locations throughout a
home (i.e.: Connect PC’s or
Home Servers)

 MoCA is very robust

The Multimedia over Coax Alliance
• 50-60dB of loss (MoCA®) is in use by all three pay TV
segments---cable, satellite and IPTV

© 2012 JDS Uniphase Corporation | JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION 4

MoCA Can Provide…

 High performance Networking

• Throughput > 135 Mbps box to box (MoCA 1.0)
• Throughput > 175 Mbps box to box (MoCA 1.1)
• Throughput > 400 Mbps box to box (MoCA 2.0)

 Multi-room DVR (aka Whole Home DVR)

• Centralized Premium / Pay TV content
- Reduce cost with a single Hard Drive-based STB
• Ability to view content in any room

 PC to STB/TV connectivity
• Consume home movies / pictures / music anywhere in the
home
• Personalized Applications running throughout the home

© 2012 JDS Uniphase Corporation | JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION 5

MoCA Evolution

 MoCA 1.0 (Productized 2005)

• Supported up to 8 MoCA devices (nodes)
• Throughput around home ~135 Mbps
• Operates between 850–1525MHz with 50MHz Channels
• Multiple MoCA networks can run on the same coax network
simultaneously
• Prioritized QoS – differentiated service for video, voice and gaming

 MoCA 1.1 (Productized 2007) - Similar to MoCA 1.0 but

with the following differences:
• Extended up to 16 MoCA devices (nodes)
• Throughput around home increased ~175 Mbps
• Added Parameterized QoS – bandwidth reservation per flows

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MoCA 2.0 Detailed

 MoCA 2.0 (June 15, 2010) - Similar to MoCA 1.1 but with the following
differences:
• Three new modes of operation: NOTE: MoCA 2.0 is different hardware
- Baseline Mode: than previous MoCA 1.1 HW versions
 400+ Mbps MAC throughput
 700 Mbps PHY Rate
 Single 100 MHz Channel
- Enhanced Mode
 800+ Mbps MAC throughput
 1.4 Gbps PHY Rate
 Two bonded 100 MHz Channels (“Channel Bonding”)
- “Turbo” mode for a point-to-point configuration that allows:
 500+ Mbps MAC throughput between two connected devices when operating in
Baseline mode
 1+ Gbps MAC throughput when operating in Enhanced mode
• All three modes now have an extended frequency range
- 500 MHz through 1650 MHz (center frequencies)
• Backward compatibility with MoCA 1.0 and 1.1 devices
- MoCA 2.0 devices can operate at MoCA 2.0 speeds while MoCA 1.x devices
are communicated to at their maximum respectable speeds on the same
network

© 2012 JDS Uniphase Corporation | JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION 7

 MoCA V2.0

MoCA 1.x Frequency View

Downstream MoCA 1.x
Upstream
Range
Range Range 850MHz and
1.525GHz
5 – 45 55 – 1000 MHz 850 – 1525 MHz 50MHz wide
MHz
‘channels’
Speeds up to
175Mbps
5 MHz 55 MHz 1 GHz 1.7 GHz
50 MHz

DIFFERENT
MoCA 2.0 Frequency View
HARDWARE
Downstream MoCA 2.0
Upstream
Range Range
Range

5 – 45 55 – 1000 MHz 500 – 1650 MHz 500MHz and

MHz
1.65GHz
100MHz wide
‘channels’
5 MHz 55 MHz 1 GHz 1.7 GHz
Speeds above
100 MHz
400Mbps
© 2012 JDS Uniphase Corporation | JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION 8
MoCA Network Configuration

Ground Block
Point Of Entry
 Attenuation between
NORMAL
2-WAY CATV
MoCA nodes can add
PATH
3:1 Splitter #1 up:
• Up to 50 to 60 dB of
SPLITTER loss between nodes
Cable
JUMPING can be tolerated
Modem

 Excess Attenuation is
3:1 Splitter #2 2:1 Splitter #3 the biggest factor in
MoCA service
SPLITTER disruptions
JUMPING

 Ingress is second
MoCA MoCA MoCA MoCA Analog most common MoCA
STB1 STB2 DVR STB3 TV disruptor

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MoCA Interferers different than QAM issues

 MoCA can have issues that QAM would not be affected by:
• High End roll off above 1GHz (underrated splitters, faulty coax,
home amplifiers, water in passives)
• High attenuation Wall plate to Wall plate (node-to-node)
- QAMs do not go output port to output port of splitters where
attenuation can be very high
• High Frequency ingress
- Ingress occurring in the higher MoCA frequency band
• CPE issues
- STB with a bad MoCA circuit but QAM demod is operational

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Solving Service Issues with Wiring Solutions

 Recommendation is to focus on insuring wiring is clean and

capable of handling RF and MoCA services
• In previous experience with home wiring we found that greater
than ~95% of homes pass all service tests when the home
wiring is tested/fixed prior to service operations

• Remaining <5% were CPE or Technician errors

• Estimated that 70-80% of homes connected need little to no

extra work needed for services to effectively operate

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Home Premise Wiring

 Majority of service issues inside the home are caused by

wiring faults.
 QAM video tiling and distortions usually due to coax
impairments and ingress
 MoCA has a high tolerance for problems, but also has a
dramatic cliff effect of operation

– >55dB of loss between nodes 220 Mbps

Throughput Rate
reduces effectiveness of
MoCA capable services 70-80 Mbps
– Jumping Out/Out ~30-40dB
0 Attenuation 50dB 60dB

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 Internal Testing of MoCA capabilities

 Output to Output testing

 Rates directly affected above
Ground Splitter
50dB of attenuation Block 18ft A
• 1 example below Term 15ft
B

• Results vary with configuration Term

8ft

Attenuation with cable loss MBS

100
80
60
MBS

40
20 35dB
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Attenuation 20 30 40 50 53 56
with cable
loss
87.6 88 87.6 85.6 67.3 0
Isolation RF frequency response between
MBS
A B worst cast ~ 1.15 GHz 35dB

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Typical problems “Shorts, opens, cuts, connectors, corrosion”

RG – 6 Loss at 1.2 GHz = 3.5 + 3.5 + 3.5 + 3.5 + 30? + 4.5 + 4.5 + 7 = 60

50ft Rg-6 cable Isolation of Splitter

loss input splitter loss
with reflection

50ft F81 barrel

STB with MoCA

Tap Splitter 50ft STB with MoCA

100ft
F81 barrel
50ft
Ground
STB with MoCA
Block
F81 barrel
50ft

Cable modem

Note: 28 cable connections

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Point of Entry (POE) Filter

 A MoCA filter (aka: POE filter) performs two

jobs.
• First it removes the MoCA signal from entering a
neighbors house
- Stops MoCA signal from leaving the home
• Second it gives MoCA a point of reflection for the
signal
- MoCA relies on the signals to “bounce” output to
output on splitters
MoCA/POE
Filter

POE

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Home Troubleshooting
Key Points

 MoCA is HERE and it is EVOLVING

 MoCA issues are almost always coax issues

 MoCA rate table information is available via STB diagnostics

screens

 JDSU’s plan is to focus on finding and fixing root cause of

physical layer issues that effect QAM, DOCSIS, AND MoCA

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MoCA CPE Diagnostics Information

 Good for verifying MoCA rates are acceptable or failing

 Troubleshooting problems with MoCA equipment
• Identifies which nodes it can not see
• Can identify a problem exists (Tiling, Rate issues, MER, BER,
etc…)
• Rate Table does not help identify root cause of problems but
identifies which leg problems may exist

MAC Addresses
Rate Table

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JDSU Experience with MoCA

 JDSU has been following MoCA for 6+ years

• Observed first roll-outs in many operators
• Initial roll-outs have seen MoCA to work with minimal tech
involvement
- This does evolve as more and more applications/services rely on
MoCA to carry larger amounts of information
- As MoCA capacity is reached smaller coax impairments have shown
to have greater impacts
 Many operators may not yet have extensive experience with the
MoCA technology
• Leads to fear of the unknown
• Decisions are made with little return on investment

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What and Why do techs troubleshoot?

 Estimated that between 90-95% of troubleshooting inside

a home is coax path related
• Replacing connectors, splitters, faulty coax, etc…
• This is consistent with both QAM and MoCA issues

 MoCA is robust - low bandwidth requirements means

MoCA service survives
• STB diagnostics available today for MoCA suffice
• Multi Room DVR not yet reaching capacity of MoCA capabilities

 QAM signals are more susceptible to issues

• Service level testing (MER, BER, DQI) is more helpful for QAM
issues
• QAM signals are maxed out and are more susceptible to issues

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JDSU Stance on MoCA emulation

 MoCA emulation is currently not solving service problems

• Rate Tables between MoCA devices are already available via
diagnostic pages on STB’s (CPE)
• Rate Tables only provide techs with information of whether the
MoCA problem still exists or not
- Does not provide root cause breakdown or fault identification
- Tech must guess as to what is causing the MoCA issue by visually
tracing the coax, making changes, then retesting
 Like DOCSIS – MoCA got revised – Latest is MoCA 2.0
(Released June 2010)
• All devices today are still on the MoCA 1.1 chipset hardware
• New Hardware will be required to go to MoCA 2.0 – NOT a
software upgrade
• Most Operators will want MoCA 2.0 hardware moving out of trials
into mass deployments
- No chipsets/hardware currently exists for MoCA 2.0

© 2012 JDS Uniphase Corporation | JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION 21

Find Root Cause of Service Issues

 JDSU’s Philosophy: Quickly find and fix the root cause of 80-
90% of in home coax related issues
• Help technicians find and fix the true physical issues
- Not just identify a service problem exists
- Save technician’s time

• Allow operators to determine all Triple-Play & MoCA services will

work before connecting any CPE devices!
- Certify the home’s coax plant over all frequencies is correct

• Physical testing is service agnostic

- It doesn’t matter what service is running on the coax
- Future proof for eventual service changes

© 2012 JDS Uniphase Corporation | JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION 22

JDSU Concept
JDSU Concept

 Create an method to more quickly diagnose issues on the

Home Wiring
• Identify root cause of the problem
• Locate the problem element more accurately
• Reduce ‘guess & check’ troubleshooting

Bad Splitter Faulty Cable

B B
A A
C C

D D

E E

Key: x = Coax Test Points = Splitter = Coax Cable

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Coax Wiring Testing

 Smart wiring probes used to find coax wiring issues

 JDSU wiring probes located at each CPE location
• Separate probes communicate with each other
- They identify connected locations
- Identify frequency response issues between 3MHz – 1.65GHz
- Locate faults in coax wiring
- Show loss between CPE locations

– Used in conjunction with DSAM

• Connected via USB on top of DSAM
• DSAM commands probes
• DSAM displays testing results

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JDSU Concept Con’t

 Save operators money over time

• Make techs more efficient
- Decrease troubleshooting time
- Eliminate tech frustrations
- Reduce guess work
- Reduce repeat truck rolls

• Combine new probes with existing equipment

- Combine with the DSAM for QAM/DOCSIS service
testing
- Allow the operator to test coax for all services in the
home
 Find all physical impairments for triple-play services
 Video, Voice, Data, MoCA

© 2012 JDS Uniphase Corporation | JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION 26

SmartID™ Setup

Splitter Attic
USB to
Mini-USB Point of Entry
or Main Split

Splitter

Crawl Space

 Put a SmartID at each location inside the home where a Set-

top-box or Cable Modem will be located (or is desired to be
tested)
 Connect one SmartID to the DSAM’s USB port
 Then Connect that SmartID to the POE looking into the
home toward CPE (i.e.: drop cable, ground block, or main
split)
POE = Point of Entry
CPE = Customer Premise Equipment
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SmartID – Typical Use

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SmartID™ Setup

Splitter Attic
USB to
Mini-USB Point of Entry
or Main Split

Splitter

Crawl Space

 Put a SmartID at each location inside the home where a Set-

top-box or Cable Modem will be located (or is desired to be
tested)
 Connect one SmartID to the DSAM’s USB port
 Then Connect that SmartID to the POE looking into the
home toward CPE (i.e.: drop cable, ground block, or main
split) POE = Point of Entry
CPE = Customer Premise Equipment
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SmartID Overview Training

 Enter the SmartID mode on the DSAM

• Measure button => Basic tab => SmartID

 Select a Service Plan - Defaults are:

• Voice-Video-Data-MoCA
• Voice-Video-Data
• Drop Check

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Performing the Test

 Once the test is initiated several things happen:

• All preconfigured SmartIDs are identified
• Low Battery and Firmware Incompatibilities are shown

 Building Network Map

• Sweep and FDR between 5 and 1.5GHz
• Upstream 250KHz Steps, Downstream is 5MHz Steps

 Qualifying MoCA
• 195KHz steps within the MoCA Channel at the subcarrier freqs

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Reading the Results

 Qualification Mode
• Overall Pass/Fail
• Upstream (at specified freqs)
• Downstream (at specified freqs)
• Ingress at POE and CPE locations

 Limits Determine Pass/Fail

• Set by TPP (or Defaults)

 Left Column of Pyramid is POE to CPE (i.e.: AtoB, AtoC, AtoD,

etc)
• Check Mark = Pass; X = Fail
• Moving up and down the limits column adjusts to each
individual path’s test results
POE = Point of Entry
CPE = Customer Premise Equipment 32
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| JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION
Certify each Coax Path Independently

 Qualification Screen shows Pass/Fail

• If all metrics pass the coax paths are good for the services its
was tested against
• If a failure exists then further action is required
- The columns on the left indicate which parameters failed for the
movable bold box – Different paths may have different results
- Additional detail about the failure can be collected from the Detail
and the Network Overview screens – Accessible by pressing View
- A frequency response graph can be used to help determine why the
result was failing the limits set by the test

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© 2012 JDS Uniphase Corporation | JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION 33
Reading the Results- Ambiguous Map Warning

 Occurs when a Filter or Amplifier are discovered

 Location of Coax Elements are determined by FDR
• Accuracy of FDR is increased by the freq range of the test
- 5 – 1500 MHz gets to ±0.5 Ft accuracy
- Filters and Amplifiers cut off some portion(s) of that frequency range
 No longer 5 – 1500MHz available
- Decreases accuracy of the location of elements
 Could decrease the accuracy to ±3 Feet based on how much frequency
is filtered out

 SmartID makes best guess at location

– Warns user that locations could be less
accurate
– Warns that some splitters may have been
combined into one splitter in the Details
and Network Overview modes
 Ambiguous elements are Highlighted
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Details View

 Shows all items in the path between the two SmartIDs

Shown – Arrow Left and Right to highlight different segments
 Each segment and element has additional information
available in the text box
 Swap will reverse the orientation from left to right to ease
understanding on distances to elements

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Deeper Dive into the Network

 Detail view shows additional information about the network

• Probe paths are isolated for a deeper view about the tested
coax network
• Individual coax segment information is shown – Lengths and
element information are indicated
• Additional text is presented to help indicate failed service tests
• Potential causes of the failures and impedance mismatches are
shown on the screen as faults (exclamation points) as well as
the distance from other elements to the potential faults are
shown
– Elements such as filters, amplifiers,
and splitters are also shown with more
detail in this view
– SmartIDs can be changed by arrowing
up/down while highlighting the probe

Two Splitter example 36

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Network Overview

 Shows all detected Elements and their connections

• SmartID’s Best Guess at where everything is located
• Typically 80-90% correct
• Filters and Amps can degrade accuracy
 Can scroll through the CPE location SmartIDs
• Pressing Enter will take user to Details view
 Exclamation Points = Identified reflections (Faults)
 S = Filter locations
 Triangle = Identified Amplifier
 Plus Signs mean multiple elements
• Filters, Faults, Amp
 Red SmartID Letters = Failed Ingress

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Seeing how everything is connected

 Network Overview shows what is connected

• The SmartIDs can determine what it believes is connected and
where those elements have common connections
• Each element is shown on the topology map including:
splitters, filters, amplifiers, and found mismatches
• Users can easily identify if unexpected elements are
discovered and trace where those elements are located before
beginning to troubleshoot the coax network

Note: Not every topology can be mapped with

100% accuracy though most common
configurations can. Filters and amplifiers in the
path can lead to inaccurate common points being
shown on the topology map and are highlighted
yellow when present. 38
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Sweep Trace – Freq Response

 Shows POE to CPE for Full and Upstream Sweeps

 User Arrow keys to See amplitude at a specific frequency
 Type in the specific freq on the keypad
 Press cancel button to go back

Upstream Freq Response Downstream Freq Response –

with MoCA filter in place
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See each path’s frequency response

 Sweep graphs can identify many issues in the coax network

• Relative levels are shown at multiple frequencies to give users
more information than words alone can express
- By looking at the sweep response users can identify why the test
failed the limits of the service plan:
 Too much overall loss, adjacent points’ difference too great, overall
highest loss to lowest loss (peak to valley) too great
• Users can see and interpret from the sweep response signal
degradation caused by:
- Frequency cut offs due to poor splitters or inline filters
- Amplifiers eliminating the return or MoCA bands
- Excessive attenuation
- Reoccurring standing waves
- Frequency suck outs

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CPE to CPE – Multi-room DVR

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Reading the Results - CPE to CPE

 Qualification Mode
• Overall Pass/Fail
• MQI score between both locations
• If a MoCA filter was present or not
- Filters can be set to not be required

 Limits Determine Pass/Fail

• Set by TPP (Default MQI = 7 or higher)
• Filter requirement set by TPP as well

 Right of Left most Column of Pyramid is CPE to CPE (this

case BtoC, BtoD, BtoE, BtoF, CtoD, CtoE, CtoF, DtoE, DtoF, EtoF)
• If Box is Green = Pass; Red = Fail; Yellow = Filter not required
• Moving up/down and left/right - Limits Column adjusts to each
individual path’s test results
POE = Point of Entry
CPE = Customer Premise Equipment42
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JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION
MQI Description

 MQI takes into account the entire 50MHz MoCA 1.x channel
 MoCA is made up of subcarriers that will adjust their
modulation based on if that specific frequency is suitable for
higher or lower orders of modulation (i.e.: 256QAM vs
4QAM)
 MQI evaluates each subcarrier individually and correlates if
it would be a higher or lower modulation
 All subcarriers are then evaluated as an overall “Score” to
produce the MQI score displayed
 MoCA is pretty robust but handles frequency response issue
better if there is a pattern than random freq responses – MQI
takes this into account too
MQI = 10 MQI = 9 MQI = 8 MQI = 7

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JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION 43
Save and report on the results

© 2012 JDS Uniphase Corporation | JDSU CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION 44

 Questions?

Jim Carvajal
jim.carvajal@jdsu.com
Thank You!

Jim Carvajal
jim.carvajal@jdsu.com