AT&T Broadband

by Leslie Ellis // July 09 2012

More than a decade ago, an MSO exec halted a staff meeting to make this exasperated observation: “Tools, tools, tools – can we just have one meeting where I’m not being asked for more tools? How many tools do we really need?”

At the time, Comcast was AT&T Broadband, and the tool in question related to the monitoring of an “open access” (remember that?) trial.

But the question – how many tools do we really need? – is decidedly evergreen.

The latest case in point is the home network, itself an extension of the HFC plant, with gadgets and screens that live better with signal. And they’re all cross-linked.

Today’s home networks make mixed use of MoCA (Multimedia Over Coax Alliance), Ethernet, and Wi-Fi to move stuff around. On top of that, there’s DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance),  poised to let us share component resources – tuners, hard drives – amongst screens. And that’s just the IP (Internet Protocol) side of the equation.

Here’s how one engine-room guy put it, over a fish taco last week: “So in the home you have a QAM set-top that’s pulling video into the home network. And an advanced wireless gateway, handling data and voice. And lets throw in an IP set-top.

“The IP set-top gets video from the QAM box, but it gets its user interface through the data side.

“A customer calls: Something’s wrong with my set-top. We say, is it a video problem, or a data problem?” (At which point he made the “d’oh!” face.)

Which brings us back to tools. And silos of people — video people, data people, voice people.

One answer getting a lot of play in tech circles is TR-069, where the “TR” stands for “Technical Report.” It’s an outgrowth of what’s now called the Broadband Forum (formerly the DSL Forum; DSL is a telco thing, which might explain why cable’s coming around to it only now.)

TR-69 is sort of like an IP-based SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), in that it provides ways to move data back and forth, for purposes of troubleshooting, say, a home network. Or, as the Broadband Forum itself puts it: “The TR-069 standard was developed for automatic configuration of modems, routers, gateways, set-top boxes and VoIP phones.”

Great, right? Yes, if you’re ok with devils and details. While TR-69 can fetch data from different networked devices –assuming they’re plumbed with the right client profile – it lacks the job-specific tools to make diagnostic sense of that data.

What tools are needed? One for bridging into workforce management. One for customer care reps. Engineering tools, to see what’s going on. And some kind of blended video/data tool, because how things work for QAM-based video are vastly different than how they work on IP-based video.

So. How many tools? I’d go with “lots.” (And good luck with that.)

This column originally appeared in the Platforms section of Multichannel News.

It was in 2000 that Tony Werner made The Big Shift — from the operator side of the business, as CTO of AT&T Broadband, to the vendor side, signing on as CEO of Aurora Networks.  In Part 1 of this interview, we cover what Aurora does (optical networking equipment for cable operators), why he moved to the vendor side (liked the people, product, niche), and whether the cable industry will ever get to the place where “fiber-deep” means to the home (“not in this decade.”)

Video courtesy The Cable Channel.

In Part 3 of this Western Show 2000 panel, panelists recap the top technology stories of the year. Schwartz: Meeting the July 200 FCC deadline; OCAP. Stump: The beginning of apps and services on set-tops like the DCT-2000 vs. DCT-5000. Baumie: Deployments of advanced services. Me: DOCSIS 1.1-based modem rollouts; the Open Access work in Boulder (AT&T) and Columbus (Time Warner).

Video courtesy The Cable Channel.

In advance of the 2000 Western Show, I interviewed CableLabs Senior VP of Communication Mike Schwartz, and tech editors Jeff Baumgartner and Matt Stump, to discuss the goings on at CableNet 2000. Schwartz reminisces back to the first CableNet; Stump’s looking for TV applications, photo related services, and streaming; Baumie’s looking for in home networking technology.

Video courtesy The Cable Channel.

In Part 2 of this Western Show 2000 panel, CableLabs’ Mike Schwartz provides the lay of the land in navigating the CableNET area; Baumie and Stump chew on the top tech issues currently facing the industry. (Software integration and the impacts of consolidation, like AOL/Time Warner and AT&T/TCI.)

Video courtesy The Cable Channel.

Interactive TV was the buzz, going into the 1999 Western Show. In the final segment of this panel, featuring Time Warner Cable’s Michael Adams, AT&T Broadband’s David Rudnick, and CableLabs’ Don Dulchinos, we discuss what consumers see on the first screen of interactive boxes (last channel, plus email, services, customer care). The resounding theme: TV-centric is the way.

Video courtesy The Cable Channel.

Interactive TV was the buzz going into the 1999 Western Show. In part 5 of this panel, featuring Time Warner Cable’s Michael Adams, AT&T Broadband’s David Rudnick, and CableLabs’ Don Dulchinos, we get into “what the heck is middleware, and how is it different from an operating system?” Also: Why downloadable software into set-tops isn’t scary.

Video courtesy The Cable Channel.

Interactive TV was the buzz going into the 1999 Western Show. In part 4 of this panel, featuring Time Warner Cable’s Michael Adams, AT&T Broadband’s David Rudnick, and CableLabs’ Don Dulchinos, we review what the consumer landscape will look like for TVs with built-in set-tops, after the July 2000 removable security deadline imposed on cable (but not satellite!) by the FCC.

Video courtesy The Cable Channel.

Interactive TV was the buz, going into the 1999 Western Show. In part 3 of this panel, featuring Time Warner Cable’s Michael Adams, AT&T Broadband’s David Rudnick, and CableLabs’ Don Dulchinos, we review what’s happening with OpenCable, separable security and PODs.

Video courtesy The Cable Channel.

Interactive TV was the buzz going into the 1999 Western Show. In part 2 of this panel, featuring Time Warner Cable’s Michael Adams, AT&T Broadband’s David Rudnick, and CableLabs’ Don Dulchinos, we discuss the state of deployments (we were on the cusp of the DCT-5000 at the time, LOL), apps (email, chat, a wallet), and the complexity of the Internet.

Video courtesy The Cable Channel.