Contents

Abstract Different Types of Internet Access Cable TV Networks Working of Cable Internet Cable Modem Cable Modem Terminating System DSL vs Cable Internet Advantages Disadvantages Conclusion

Synopsis:
Internet Access through Cable TV Network is a form of broadband Internet access that uses the cable television infrastructure. Like digital subscriber lines and Fibre to the premises ,cable Internet access provides network edge connectivity (Last mile access) from the Internet s e r v i c e p r o v i d e r t o a n e n d u s e r .I t i s i n t e g r a t e d i n t o t h e c a b l e t e l e v i s i o n i n f r a s t r u c t u r e analogously to DSL which uses the existing telephone network. The cable TV signals are often removed by filtering at the line tap outside the customer's premises. Cable TV networks and t e l e c o m mu n i c a t i o n s

n e t wo r k s a r e t h e t wo p r e d o m i n a n t f o r ms o f r e s i d e n t i a l I n t e r n e t access. Recently, both have seen increased competition from fibre deployments, wireless, and mobile networks.
Cable Internet access is the principal competitor to DSL and is offered at a range of pricesand speeds overlapping that of DSL, but tends to concentrate more on the high end of themarket. Broadband cable Internet access requires a cable modem at the customer's premises and acable modem termination system at a cable operator facility, typically a cable television headend. The two are connected via coaxial cable or a Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) plant. While access networks are sometimes referred to as last -mile technologies, cable Internet systems can typically operate where the distance between the modem and the termination system is upto 100 miles (160 km). If the HFC network is large, the cable modem termination system canbe grouped into hubs for efficient management.Downstream traffic, the direction toward the user, bit rates can be as much as 400 megabitsper second for business connections, and 100Mbit/s for residential service in some countries.Upstream traffic, originating at the user, ranges from 384Kbit/s to more than 20Mbit/s. Onedownstream channel can handle hundreds of cable modems. As the system grows, the cablemodem termination system (CMTS) can be upgraded with more downstream and upstreamports, and grouped into CMTS hubs for efficient management.M o s t D a t a O v e r C a b l e 2

S e r v i c e I n t e r f a c e S p e c i f i c a t i o n ( D O C S I S ) c a b l e m o d e m s r e s t r i c t upload and download rates, with customizable limits. These limits are set in configuration

files which are downloaded to the modem using the Trivial File Transfer Protocol, when themodem first establishes a connection to the provider's equipment.
In Cable Internet Access, like any other residential broadband technology, a population of users share the available bandwidth. Some technologies share only their core network, whilesome including Cable Internet and PON also share the access network. This arrangement allows the network operator to take advantage of statistical multiplexing, a bandwidth sharingtechnique which is employed to distribute bandwidth fairly, in order to provide an adequatelevel of service at an acceptable price. However, the operator has to monitor usage patternsand scale the network appropriately, to ensure that customers receive ade quate service evenduring peak-usage times. If the network operator does not provide enough bandwidth for aparticular neighbourhood, the service can become sluggish if many people are using thes e r v i c e a t t h e s a m e t i m e . O p e r a t o r s h a v e b e e n k n o w n t o u s e a b a n d w i d t h c a p , o r o t h e r bandwidth throttling technique. Users' download speed is limited durin g peak times, if theyhave downloaded a large amount of data that day. Different ways of Internet Access:

Dial-up connection: Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses thefacilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a dialed connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) via telephone lines. The user's computer or router uses anattached modem to encode and decode Internet Protocol packets and control information intoand from analogue audio frequency signals, respectively. ISDN:

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communications standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the traditional circuits of the public switched telephone network. The key feature of ISDN is that it integrates speech and data on the same lines, adding features that were not available in the classic telephone system.

DSL: Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is a family of technologies that provides

digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. DSL originally stood for digital subscriber loop. In telecommunications marketing, the term Digital Subscriber Line is widely understood to mean Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), the most commonly installed technical variety of DSL. DSL service is delivered simultaneously with regular telephone on the same telephone line. This is possible because DSL uses a higher frequency. These frequency bands are subsequently separated by filtering. The data throughput of consumer DSL services typically ranges from 256 Kb/s to 20 Mbit/s in the direction to the customer (downstream), depending on DSL technology, line conditions, and service-level implementation. In ADSL, the data throughput in the upstream direction, (i.e. in the direction to the service provider) is lower, hence the designation of asymmetric service. In Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL) service, the downstream and upstream data rates are equal.
Cable TV Network: Cable Internet access is a form of broadband Internet access thatuses the cable television infrastructure. This seminar report will cover this part in detail.

Wi-Fi: A Wi-Fi enabled device such as a personal computer, video game console,smartphone or digital audio player can connect to the Internet when within range of awireless network connected to the Internet. The coverage of one or more (interconnected)access points called hotspots can comprise an area as small as a few rooms or as largeas many square miles. Coverage in the larger area may depend on a group of access pointswith overlapping coverage. In addition to private use in homes and offices, Wi-Fi can providepublic access at Wi-Fi hotspots provided either free-of-charge or to subscribers to variouscommercial services. Organizations and businesses - such as those running airports, hotelsand restaurants - often provide free-use hotspots to attract or assist clients. Enthusiasts or authorities who wish to provide services or even to promote business in selected areassometimes provide free Wi-Fi access. Routers that incorporate a digital subscriber linemodem or a cable modem and a Wi-Fi access point, often set up in
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homes and other premises, can provide Internet access and internetworking to all devices connected(wirelessly or by cable) to them. With the emergence of MiFi and WiBro (a portable Wi-Firouter) people can easily create their own Wi-Fi hotspots that connect to Internet via cellular networks. Now many mobile phones can also create wireless connections via tethering oniPhone, Android, Symbian, and WinMo. One can also connect Wi-Fi devices in ad-hoc modefor client-toclient connections without a router. Wi-Fi also connects places that wouldtraditionally not have network access, for example bathrooms, kitchens and garden sheds. Wi-Max: WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is atelecommunications protocol that provides fixed and fully mobile Internet access. WiMAX isa standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access asan alternative to cable and DSL. The current WiMAX revision provides up to 40 Mbit/s withthe IEEE 802.16m update expected to offer up to 1 Gbit/s fixed speeds. GPRS and EDGE: General packet radio service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile dataservice on the 2G and 3G cellular communication systems global system for mobilecommunications (GSM). GPRS networks evolved to EDGE networks with the introductionof 8PSK encoding. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Enhanced GPRS(EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC) is a backward-compatible digital mobile phonetechnology that allows improved data transmission rates, as an extension on top of standardGSM. EDGE was deployed on GSM networks beginning in 2003. 3G: 3G or 3rd Generation is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobiletelecommunications services fulfilling specifications by the International TelecommunicationUnion. Application services include wide-area wireless voice telephone, mobile Internetaccess, video calls and mobile TV, all in a mobile environment. Compared to the older 2Gand 2.5G standards, a 3G system must allow simultaneous use of speech and data services,and provide peak data rates of at least 200 kbit/s according to the IMT-2000 specification.Recent 3G releases, often denoted 3.5G and 3.75G, also provide mobile broadband access of several Mbit/s to laptop computers and smartphones.

Leased Line: A leased line is a service contract between a provider and a customer,whereby the provider agrees to deliver a symmetric telecommunications line connecting twoor more locations in exchange for a monthly rent (hence the term lease). Fibre to the premises: Fibre to the premises is a form of fibre-optic communicationdelivery in which an optical fibre is run from the central office all the way to the premisesoccupied by the subscriber. Satellite: Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through satellites. The servicecan be provided to users world-wide through Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Geostationarysatellites can offer higher data speeds, but their signals can not reach some polar regions of the world. Different types of satellite systems have a wide range of different features andtechnical limitations, which can greatly affect their usefulness and performance in specificapplications.
Cable TV Network:

Cable TV Network is made up of coaxial cable lines that bring television signals to TV. Eachtelevision channel is given a 6-megahertz channel on the cable. Cable TV Networks are highbandwidth networks i.e. 550 to 750 MHz by their very nature of design. These networks weretraditionally built as one way networks carrying 60100 Cable TV channels downstream i.e.from Headend to the Subscriber. Photo
Working of Cable Internet: The television and the Internet transmission take place simultaneously on the same cable butat different frequencies. This allows the user to view TV and access Internet at the sametime Photo When a cable company offers Internet access over the cable, Internet information can use thesame cables because the cable modem system puts downstream data (data sent from theInternet to an individual computer) into a 6-MHz channel. On the cable, the data looks justlike a TV channel. So Internet downstream data takes up the same amount of cable space asany single channel of programming.One downstream channel can handle hundreds of cable modems. Upstream data (informationsent from an individual back to the Internet) requires even less of the cable's bandwidth, just

2 MHz, since the assumption is that most people download far more information than theyupload.Hence setting up of a robust two-way Cable TV network is the first requisite beforedeploying Cable Modems on a Cable TV network. This is done by upgrades to the amplifiersin the cable distribution network etc.

Cable network photo

Subscriber end
Putting both upstream and downstream data on the cable television system requires two typesof equipment: 1. A cable modem at the customer end 2. A cable modem termination system (CMTS) at the cable provider's end Photo
Cable Modem:

For Cable Internet access on PC, a Cable Modem is required at users end. A cable modem isan external device that connects to the computer to provide high-speed data access via cableTV networks. It has two connections; one to the TV cable wire and the other to a computer. ACable Modem sends and receives data to and from the Internet by using the existing coaxialcable network. Photo
The modem translates cable signals the same way a telephone modem translates signals froma telephone line. Cable modems translate radio frequency (RF) signals to and from the cableplant into Internet Protocol (IP), the communications protocol spoken by all computersconnected to the Internet. At the customer premise, a high quality two way splitter is installedon the Cable TV line, with one output connected to the Cable Modem and the second outputconnected to the TV. Photo

Tuner: The tuner will contain a diplexer, which allows the tuner to make use of one set of frequencies (generally between 42 and 850 MHz) for downstream traffic, and another set of frequencies (between 5 and 42 MHz) for the upstream data.

Demodulator: The most common demodulators have four functions. A Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) demodulator takes a radio-frequency signal that has had information encoded in it by varying both theamplitude and phase of the wave, and turns it into a simple signal that can beprocessed by the analog-to-digital (A/D) converter. The A/D converter

takes the signal, which varies in voltage, and turns it into aseries of digital 1s and 0s. An Error correction module then checks the received information against aknown standard, so that problems in transmission can be found and fixed. MPEG Synchroniser: The network frames, or groups of data, are in MPEGformat, so an MPEG synchronizer is used to make sure the data groups stay in lineand in order.

Modulator: In cable modems that use the cable system for upstream traffic, a modulator isused to convert the digital computer network data into radio-frequency signals for transmission. It consists of: 1. A section to insert information used for error correction on the receiving end. 2. A QAM modulator .3. A digital-to-analog (D/A) converter

MAC: The MAC sits between the upstream and downstream portions of the cable modem,and acts as the interface between the hardware and software portions of the various network protocols. All computer network devices have MACs. CPU: In the case of a cable modem the tasks are more complex than those of a normalnetwork interface card. For this reason, in most cases, some of the MAC functions will beassigned to central processing unit (CPU). Cable Modem Terminating System: The Internet signals are in the digital domain and these need to be interfaced to the AnalogCable TV Network. This interface is termed Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) and
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typically serves 2000 3000 Cable Modems and is connected to a high-speed data link. Atypical CMTS consists of an Input interface, Router, Cable Modem card and a powerfulMicroprocessor. At the cable provider's head-end, the CMTS provides many of the samefunctions provided by the DSLAM in a DSL system. The CMTS takes the traffic coming in from a group of customers on a single channel androutes it to an Internet service provider (ISP) for connection to the Internet. At the head-end,the cable providers will have, or lease space for a third-party ISP to have, servers for accounting and logging, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) for assigning andadministering the IP addresses of all the cable system's users. The downstream informationflows to all connected users, just like in an Ethernet network -- it's up to the individualnetwork connection to decide whether a particular block of data is intended for it or not.On the upstream side, information is sent from the user to the CMTS -- other users don't seethat data at all. The narrower upstream bandwidth is divided into slices of time, measured inmilliseconds, in which users can transmit one "burst" at a time to the Internet. The division bytime works well for the very short commands, queries and addresses that form the bulk of most users' traffic back to the Internet. A CMTS will enable as many as 1,000 users toconnect to the Internet through a single 6-MHz channel. Since a single channel is capable of 30 to 40 megabits per second (Mbps) of total throughput, this means that users may see far better performance than is available with standard dial-up

modems. As the system grows, theCMTS can be upgraded with more downstream and upstream ports.

DSL vs Cable:

Speed (advantage - Cable): Cable boasts faster speed than DSL Internet in theory. However,cable does not always deliver on the promise in everyday practical use. Popularity (advantage - Both): In the US, cable Internet enjoys significantly greater popularity than DSL, although DSL has been closing the gap recently. Outside the US, DSLcontinues to hold the edge. Customer Satisfaction (advantage - DSL): US cable services generally rate lower thanDSL in customer surveys. Security (advantage - Both): Cable and DSL implement different network security models.Historically, more concerns have existed with cable security, although cable providers havedefinitely taken steps to improve security over the past few years. It's likely both DSL andcable are "secure enough" for most people's needs.
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Advantages of Cable Internet: 1. High connection speed 2. Convenient you are always connected to the internet 3. Does not affect your phone line. You dont need to switch your local phone serviceprovider. 4. Unlike ADSL, its performance doesn't depend on distance from the central cableoffice. Disadvantages of Cable Intenet: 1. Bandwidth is shared over the same cable line. Connection speed is affected by thenumber of people using the internet at the same time in your neighborhood. 2. Higher security risk than dialup (personal firewall is needed). 3. Not available to all cable TV networks. 4. Usually tied with cable TV subscription.

Conclusion: Cable Internet access is the principal competitor to DSL and is offered at a range of prices and speeds overlapping that of DSL. Cable TV has a strong reach to the homes and therefore offering the Internet throughcable is a scope for furthering the growth of internet usage in the homes. The cable is an alternative medium for delivering the Internet Services in the US,there are millions of homes with cable modems, enabling the high-speed internetaccess over cable. References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_Internet_access http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_modem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Access http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_modem_termination_system http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cable-modem.htm
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http://www.hathway.com/brodband/prod_broadband_faq3.asp

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