The CMS-02 was developed in conjunction with a major U.S.-based cable operator to help solve the challenge of identifying the source of return path noise ingress in the plant. Tools on the market today are located in the headend or hub. These include an expensive hardware-based spectral capture system and a lower-cost PNM return path monitoring system that uses the CMTS as the spectral capture hardware, Hitron says. With both, the operator can only tell that ingress noise has appeared and is impacting subscribers. They then have to identify the source of the ingress noise. A common method is disconnecting outputs at the fiber node and then at the amplifier. This process is time consuming and disruptive to subscribers involved.
The CMS-02 is used in conjunction with a headend monitoring system, like the PNM described earlier, that can use the CMTS in the headend for monitoring return path ingress. The CMS-02 modules are installed in the fiber node. Once the operator knows there is ingress, technicians can look at the return path noise individually from each port on the fiber node, using the CMS-02. Over time, the operator can deploy more CMS-02 modules in trunk and bridger amplifiers, which would allow the source of ingress to be narrowed down to a handful of subscribers within minutes. The process can be automated via software, alerting the cable operator to the problematic homes directly.