dataminer selected to manage network and service quality on tdc group’s docsis 3.1 cable plant (sqm)

Skyline Communications is proud to announce that Tele Danmark Communications Group (TDC Group), Denmark’s largest telecom operator, will deploy the award-winning DataMiner solution for the end-to-end management of its brand-new nationwide DOCSIS 3.1 cable network (“giga SPEED”).

TDC Group is upgrading its entire cable network to deliver broadband services of up to 1 gigabit/sec. Starting deployment in the second half of 2016, the network will probably be the first in Europe to upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1. Before the end of 2017 already, half of the 1.3 million households will have access to the super-speed broadband data and video services. As the new CableLabs DOCSIS 3.1 specifications increase transmission efficiency significantly compared to previous generations, DOCSIS 3.1 has already been endorsed by multiple leading cable MSOs around the world. However, delivering the super-speed requires a challenging network transformation, touching many points both in the network and in the customers’ homes. Moreover, DOCSIS 3.1 also drives significant operational transformations.

“A lot of fine-tuning is needed for the DOCSIS 3.1 configuration in order to achieve optimal performance for each type of service running over the gigabit pipe, be it broadcast TV, on-demand TV, OTT services, voice, or plain broadband connectivity. DataMiner’s Service Quality Management measures and monitors service quality around the clock by pulling data from the entire network, including millions of CPE devices. The big data storage and analytics engine of DataMiner calculates the complex service quality and network performance indexes continuously. And DataMiner also measures and predicts network utilization, which enables TDC Group to provision and deliver the required network capacity at all times,” commented Steven Soenens, Product Marketing Director at Skyline Communications.

The DOCSIS distributed network architecture gains momentum in the industry for several reasons. One such reason is that it brings digital feeds closer to the homes. DOCSIS 3.1 requires the HFC plant to be in the best possible shape. Bringing the digital feeds deep into the network also means that the tolerance towards analog impairments that may affect the broadband signals is lowered significantly. DOCSIS 3.1 comes with a rich set of monitoring and performance-oriented data embedded in the network and on the cable modems in the homes, facilitating network optimization on the one hand, and effective planning of proactive maintenance efforts on the other hand. DataMiner warns the maintenance planning team early about increasing noise levels, amplitude impairments, modulation error rates, micro-reflections, group delay variations and much more. As such, operations teams can correct impairments quickly and in the most cost-efficient manner, before the subscribers experience any service degradation or outages.

“DataMiner has become a very strategic asset to TDC Group and many other service providers, who recognize the pivotal role of an advanced end-to-end network management platform,” says Ben Vandenberghe, CEO of Skyline Communications. “Our market-leading platform provides end-to-end visibility on the quality of the network, the services and the user experience. TDC Group has the freedom to deploy any technology from any vendor in the network, now and in the future, as DataMiner is guaranteed to interoperate with any type of device regardless of protocol or supplier. The new DataMiner bi-directional OSS/BSS gateway also interacts with any OSS/BSS system, and is the foundation for any OSS transformation. DataMiner is guaranteed to lower operational expenses and enables operators to focus on getting the most out of next-generation technologies such as DOCSIS 3.1.”