The Benefits and

Pitfalls of PNM
Adoption

Proactive Network Maintenance (PNM) is a three-letter acronym that has taken the cable
industry by storm over the past five years, and while nearly every operator agrees that
they would like to add these groundbreaking capabilities to their toolbox, the best path to
achieving a successful implementation are less clear. In this application note we will examine
this challenge and give real-life examples of the journey taken by a few companies in pursuit
of this goal.

Business Problems Driving PNM Interest Challenges to Achieving Desired Results

The majority of cable operators seeking PNM solutions had two
primary business objectives in common:
Customer Quality of Experience/Churn Reduction
• More difficult than ever to keep customers, poor quality of
experience is #1 reason for leaving
• Find HFC problems before customers are impacted
• Fix problems faster once customers are impacted
• Don’t unnecessarily visit a customer’s home or business
(even just once!)
Increased Return on OPEX Investment
• Too much waste in current plant maintenance and repair practices
• Too many unproductive truck rolls
• Too much time spent finding vs. fixing issues
• Targeted vs. scheduled preventative maintenance
On the surface the concept of using pre-equalization coefficients to
detect, correlate, and localize plant weaknesses otherwise invisible
to traditional techniques is solid, but as with most things in the
HFC world the devil is in the details. The mathematical equations to
convert pre-eq coefficients into frequency responses per-CPE and
correlation concepts provided to the industry by CableLabs are a
solid foundation, but getting from these building blocks to a usable
and sustainable tool has been the stumbling block. The following
challenges have been the most commonly observed:
• Processing, interpreting, and displaying results such that an average
tech can understand and act on
• Scaling from manual, single-use proof of concept tool to one
available to techs enterprise-wide
• Acquiring instantaneous feedback from the toolset to verify
effectiveness of fix before closing ticket
• Effectively training users, launching, supporting, evolving, and
maintaining the tool over the long run

Application Note
Examples of Operators Successfully Overcoming These Hurdles
Truck rolls are a fact of life in the cable industry. No matter what improvements are made in HFC maintenance tools, loose connectors aren’t
going to tighten themselves, cracked hardline won’t self-heal, etc. The goal expressed by many customers pursuing PathTrak™ PNM is to ensure
that when a truck is rolled that something productive results from it. A customer-impacting problem is resolved. An issue which would with high
certainty have soon caused a customer impact is fixed. No more driving around all day to find the real source of a problem, or worse yet not
find it.

Summary of OPEX-Based Benefits Customers Have Observed from PathTrak PNM Implementations:

Improved Home vs. Plant Dispatch Accuracy

yy Don’t dispatch multiple service techs to customer homes when root cause of all of their issues is a single impairment in the hard plant

Less Non-Productive Tweaking of the Plant

yy Identify, locate, and address true root cause of impairment instead of driving around and adjusting amps to mask symptoms of impairment

Proactively Fix Tomorrow’s Problems while Techs are in the Area

yy Service techs ensure home wiring is clean before leaving after a service call, maintenance techs address hidden plant weaknesses while
servicing other HFC issues in outside plant

One specific Latin American Cable MSO was looking for a solution to address unproductive truck rolls. Much of their field force was
subcontracted, and they were billed per truck roll regardless of whether an issue was addressed or not. Issues such as the example below found
in their plant frequently resulted in multiple truck rolls before the true root cause was found and fixed

. PNM Tool Displays Impacted CMs and Fault Diagram with Distance to Fault

Plant Map Used To Find Common Point Broken Pin Causing Intermittent Issues Identified
at Specified Distance from Common Point

The techs were clearly able to see where to roll a truck to, and once there the problem was found quickly. After replacing the broken pin they
were able to immediately refresh their display and verify effectiveness of fix before bucketing down and closing the ticket.

What are the potential savings if 10% of issues are similar to the one above for maintenance techs? Instead of rolling trucks three or four times
to fix “the tough ten percenters” they can kill them on the first shot with a PNM tool!

2 The Benefits and Pitfalls of PNM Adoption

Assumptions:

Maintenance Tech Service Tech Comment

Annual Cost/ Tech (Loaded) $100,000 $60,000 Salary, Benefits, Truck/Tools

Nodes/ Maint Tech 40 10 Global Averages

Maint $/Node $2,500 $6,000 Calcualted Value

Subs/Node 350 350 Global Averages

Maint $/Subs $7.14 $17.14 Calculated Value

% Efficiency Improvement 10% 5% Conservative Estimates

$ Savings (Annual/Subs) $0.71 $0.86 Total=$1.56

$ Savings (Annual, 300K Subs) $214,285.71 $257,142.86 Total=$471K

Result: The efficiency gains achieved by maintenance/service techs alone result in <1 year payback on PathTrak PNM investment.

Churn Reduction
Operators frequently pursue PNM systems to address clusters of customers canceling services due to poor broadband service resulting from a
shared but hard to find plant impairment. Most operators tend to have the “tough 10%” issues – small in number but would require weeks and
many truck rolls to finally find and fix true root cause.

Universally the troubleshooting process for these tough 10% problems tends to make a bad situation even worse for customers.

• Constantly tweaking amps to mask symptoms of these issues

usually resulted in even worse problems when the plant heated up
or cooled down

• Swapping tap face plates and amp modules resulted in sporadic

service outages while still not addressing the real root cause

Customers on these nodes would finally lose patience and switch providers in large numbers.

The example below from a North American Operator shows the type of issue which tend to contribute to intermittent performance issues.
Pre-equalization can generally compensate for most impedance mismatches, effectively hiding them until the issue worsens with temperature
changes or other issues emerge, the digital cliff is reached, and service is impacted.

The node below was frequently on the MSOs “Top 5 Worst Nodes List” but the source of the problem was not obvious using traditional tools
and methods.

Using their PNM tool the suspect span was quickly identified as
the source of the issue and the distance to fault calculated and
independently verified. Addressing this type of issue may not have
an immediate impact on common metrics such as MER or codeword
errors, but the extra pre-equalization margin provided will make the
plant more robust against environmental changes and the customer
impact (and churn!) that results.

PNM Identified Cluster of CM’s With Common Impairment, Diagram of What

To Look For, and Distance To Fault. TDR Validatd Distance Estimate

3 The Benefits and Pitfalls of PNM Adoption

Financial Impact:

Customer churn is typically in the 3-7% range for cable operators globally, with roughly half being avoidable (quality/performance driven) and
the rest purely cost/promotion-driven. PathTrak PNM is ideally suited to help quickly find and fix the true root cause of the issues causing the
avoidable churn such as the example above, often before the customer is even impacted.

Assumptions:

• 2% avoidable churn annually

• $1,000/customer churned
• 10% - conservative estimate of reduction in avoidable churn with PathTrak PNM
$1,000 x 2% Avoidable Churn x 10% Reduction = $2/Customer Annually

Assuming 300,000 Subs From Above Result = $600,000 Annual Savings

Result: Avoidable churn savings alone result in <1 year payback.

This analysis ignores a typical significant reduction in unnecessary CPE replacements customers may experience post-implementation. Aside
from CPE cost savings there is a significant customer satisfaction impact as well. Customers are never happy about technician visits, and when
they do disrupt their day and grant a stranger entry into their home and it does not address their problem, the dissatisfaction is multiplied.

Other Financial Considerations

While the initial purchase of a PNM system may appear to be the lion’s share of the overall investment, there are other hidden costs to consider
that will vary widely from system to system. Don’t underestimate the costs to train employees on each new application launched, the learning
curve that must be overcome for overly-complex tools before payback can be achieved, and the internal cost to administer yet another new
system, if not an extension to an existing toolset. Also be cognizant of how the tool will be supported. Who are you going to call when there are
questions about usage, when CMTS/CPE firmware changes break the tool, compatibility issues surface with new CPE introductions, or security
issues emerge? Think ahead about how the tool will be evolved to refine existing capabilities and introduce new ones. If a tool is successfully
launched but is not supported and a year later degrades to the point of being shelfware, your entire investment is wasted.

It is also critical to select a system which is and will continue to be vendor-neutral - one that will work equally well with data from all network
equipment vendors. As networks evolve and new technologies such as DOCSIS 3.1 and remote phy are deployed in a phased fashion, likely
from multiple vendors, having a system from a T&M vendor ensures consistency in physical and virtual test solutions. Another consideration
is optimization of your largest capital expenses, which are for network equipment and CPE. Dual-sourcing strategies for network equipment
become risky if locked into a PNM system from a specific NEM, but purchasing a vendor-neutral PNM solution from a T&M vendor alleviates
this risk. This flexibility offers savings in NEM and CPE much greater than the total cost of the PNM solutions.

Summary
PNM capabilities have gained acceptance globally as a mainstream addition to MSO toolsets for early adopters, and the process for selecting,
launching, and maintaining a system is not without risk. With careful selection of a PNM system best matching an MSOs need and proper
implementation and support, there is no doubt that this investment can result in superior payback financially and continue to provide both
tangible and intangible benefits for years to come.

Contact Us +1 844 GO VIAVI © 2017 Viavi Solutions Inc.

(+1 844 468 4284) Product specifications and descriptions in this
document are subject to change without notice.
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