Cable Television Design

BigTwiV

Companys Mission
Vision
Company
BigTwiV Mission
Cable Company is committed to provide its
subscribers with quality entertainment through its diverse
program listing applicable to a wide range demographic.

Company Vision
BigTwiV Cable Company envisions itself as one of the
leading cable television distribution companies in the
country providing to its subscribers quality programs
offering its viewers with quality entertainment.

Design Objective
The main objective of this study is to design a cable television
company for a subdivision using the hybrid fiber optic coaxial
cable connection from the headend to its subscribers. To achieve
this, specific objectives were also formulated:

0to establish key concepts in designing a cable television

company,
0to determine the needed parameters and requirement in
accordance to Philippine KBP and NTC standards in designing
the head end office of the cable television company,
0to design the architecture and framework of the cable
television operation and distribution using the hybrid fiber
optic coaxial cable connection,
0to understand the operations of the different equipment
used in signal distribution.

Significance / Importance of the Design

The study deals with the design of a headend office

for cable television distribution in a certain subdivision.
With this, the following are the benefactors of the study.
For the Subscribers
With this design, the cable television distribution
company will be able to distribute diverse quality
program channels to all audiences using the one of the
most efficient ways in distributing cable television to
households which will satisfy the entertainment
demands of the people. They will also be up-to-date
with the latest news and public affairs and general
media on the happenings the country.

Significance / Importance of the Design

For the Cable Program Supplier

With the use development of this
design, they will generate income from their
service of distributing program listings to
cable television distribution companies. They
will also improve their performance in
providing quality program channels for the
cable television companys subscribers.

Scope and Limitations

The study encompasses the design and development of
a cable television distribution company implemented at a
certain subdivision. NTC and KBP standards are highly
taken into consideration in designing the cable television
distribution design. With this taken into consideration, the
system will be designing a distribution architecture using
the Fiber Optic Coaxial Cable Network to have a
more efficient signal distribution to households with the
channel capacity taken into consideration for frequency
allocation and projected number of receivers. Also,
considerations in designing such architecture will be taken
into perspective like antenna parameters, system
distribution specification requirements to ultimately come
up with the design of the headend office.

Scope and Limitations

However, certain limitations were applied
to the design, cost of implementation is not
included the design proper to focus mainly on
the technical aspect of the design. Moreover,
the in depth discussion of the distribution
equipment used is not included because the
design focuses on the architectural design and
framework of the whole cable television
distribution network.

Technical Design

Frequency Allocation Plan

Frequency Allocation

According to the figure shown above, there are different divisions of

frequency bands depending on their values. These divisions are upstream
band, FM band, mid band channels, super band channels and hyperband
channels. Each division has its different frequency range. Among the
frequency band allocation, super band channels have the greater range as
compared to other divisions.

Broadcast channels 2 through 13 are not

in a continuous band. Other radio services
occupy the gaps. Cable can re-use these
frequencies because its spectrum is selfcontained within the coaxial environment. The
cable converter has a high-quality broadband
tuner and output circuitry that puts the desired
cable channel on a low-band channel not
occupied in the local offthe-air spectrum.
Typically this is channel 2, 3, 4, or 5. The TV or
VCR is tuned to this channel and behaves as a
monitor. If programming of interest to the
subscriber is scrambled, a descrambler is
required. It is usually placed in the converter.

Terminal Equipment
and Cable Drop
Figure 2. Cable TV system with the use of
Coaxial Cables

The figure shown above illustrates the different

parts of the coaxial cable system. There are five major
parts to a traditional coaxial cable system:

Distribution Plan
Tree and Branch
Distribution

The figure shows the distribution plan for the design. The tree
and branch distribution is chosen for the design since this type of
distribution is adapted by the Hybrid-Fiber Coax Network Architecture
of CATV. In this type of cable loop, If optical cable is damaged it
needs to be joined together by splicing. The splicing process requires
an extra length of cable to make the splice.

Cable System
Headend
Headend Representation

According to Satellite and Cable TV, a Cable TV headend is the

heart of the network and the source of all signals.
A headend in a small town may be content with an initial outlay
for 12 channels, with a future plan to upgrade it to 24 or maximum
36 channels. For a cable network in a metropolitan area, 36 would
probably be the minimum number of channels required at start-up
with a capability to increase it to almost 60 channels. Thus, headend
channels depend mainly on the type of areas in which signal will be
propagated.

Cable Television System

Architecture
System Architecture

Using HFC, a local CATV company installs fiber optic cable from the
cable head-end (distribution center) to serving nodes located close to
business and residential users and from these nodes uses coaxial cable
to individual businesses and homes.
An advantage of HFC is that some of the characteristics of fiber optic
cable (high bandwidth and low noise and interference susceptibility) can
be brought close to the user without having to replace the existing
coaxial cable that is installed all the way to the home and business.

Cable Television System

Architecture

Top View of the Designed

Architecture

Top Side View of the Designed

Architecture View of the
Designed Architecture

Program Listing with

Frequency Allocation

System Configuration
Configuration of the system is based on the number
of channels in which channel capacity and channelization
are thoroughly discussed. The two concepts: channel
capacity and channelization helped in building up
economical, fast and high-quality networks.
If a specific channel Combiner is not available,
channels can be combined equally well using regular
CATV Splitters in reverse. The key considerations are that
all channels must be mixed or combined so that the
output level is the same for all channels. There is no
specific or universal optimum level of signal output
either for the Headend or each modulator. This would
depend largely on the output level capabilities of the
specific modulators used.

Channel Capacity

Channel carriage capacity is based on radio frequency (RF)

bandwidth. It is a useful characteristic for classifying cable systems.
Systems are categorized by their highest operating frequency.
Downstream signals are transmitted to the customers homes.

Channelization
Three channelization plans to standardize
the frequencies of channels:
The first plan has evolved from the
frequency assignments that the FCC issued to
VHF television broadcast stations. This plan is
called the standard assignment plan.
The second channelization plan is achieved
by phase locking the television channel carriers.
It is called the IRC plan (incrementally related
carriers).

Channelization
The third channelization type is the HRC
plan (harmonically related carriers). It differs
from the standard and IRC plan by lowering
carrier frequencies by 1.25 MHz. With HRC,
carriers are phase locked and fall on integer
multiples of 6 MHz starting with channel 2 at
54 MHz. This plan was created to further
reduce the visible impact of amplifier
distortions.

Signal Transportation
Systems
Cable Television in United States by
Walter S. Ciciora, Ph.D. (n.d.) discussed the
transportation systems which were developed
to deliver high-quality signals from the central
headend to remote headend or hub locations
where cable signals are injected into cable
trunking systems. The increase in channel
capacity and subsequent need to decrease
amplifier cascades directly affected the
development of transportation systems

Signal Transportation
Systems
Several transportation methods have
become popular over the last 10 years:
amplitude modulated microwave link (AML),
frequency modulated microwave link (FML),
frequency modulated coaxial link (FMCL),
amplitude modulated coaxial supertrunks,
and fiber interconnects.
0

Increasing Channel
Capacity
There are several ways to increase channel capacity. If the
actual cable is in good condition, channel capacity is upgraded
by modifying or replacing the trunk and distribution amplifiers. If
the cable has seriously deteriorated, the cable plant is
completely rebuilt.
0 Upgrades (Retrofitting) and Rebuilds
An upgrade is defined as a plant rehabilitation process that
results in the exchange or modification of amplifiers and passive
devices (such as line splitters, directional couplers, and
customer multitaps). Nearly all upgrades involve adding (or
increasing the amount of) fiber from the headend to the
neighborhood. A simple upgrade requires new amplifier circuit
units called hybrids. A full upgrade replaces all devices in the
system.

Signal Security
System
An operating CATV system can transmit TV signals
from the head end to and also transmit the system
status monitored at the head end and images
recorded in the service area back to the studio.
Channel frequency assignments vary between 70 MHz
and 452 MHz for downward transmission with a unique
frequency allocated to each channel at 6 MHz
intervals and between 10 MHz and 50 MHz for upward
transmission at 5 MHz intervals. Also, the input/output
impedance of the system equipment is set at 75 ,
equal to that for the TV set, to ensure impedancematched transmission of TV signals.

The Signal and the

Customers Equipment
According to WhatIs.com (2015) signal is
special data that is used to set up or control
communication when it comes to telephony
while equipment is defined as
thepersonalqualitiesthat youneedinorderto
beableto do something .

The Signal and the

Customers Equipment
1. Signal Splitting at the Customers Premises
A wide range of Tapoff and Splitters are
available for RF Coaxial cable distribution. In
general, a splitter divides the incoming signal
into approximately equal outputs. On the other
hand a Tapoff passes most of the signal
unhindered from input to output. The Tapoff
branch provides a substantially attenuated
output typically -10dB to -20 dB.

The Signal and the

Customers Equipment
2. Consumer Electronics Compatibility
A Joint Engineering Committee (JEC) was formed under the
sponsorship of the EIA and the NCTA. The purpose of the JEC
was to bring together technical representatives from the cable
and the consumer-electronics industries to attempt to find ways
to make cable service and consumer-electronics products more
compatible. It was soon recognized that the cable subscriber
and the consumer-electronics customer were one and the same.
In order to better serve that customer, cooperation between the
two industries was necessary. The two industries had, for
decades, evolved slowly, but without coordination. As
technology began to accelerate, a serious divergence became
apparent.

High Capacity Cable

Systems
CATV Implementation
Representation

High Capacity Cable

Systems
An HFC network typically uses coaxial cable for short runs
between peripheral equipment and the transmitter or cable receiver
at the user end. At the same time, optical transmission links
between headends use single mode fiber to greatly extend the
transmission distance. This combination allows the system designed
to maximize cost-effectiveness when selecting the system
components. With this, the cable distribution network is patterned
after a tree and branch architecture using a combination of fiber
optic and coaxial cable. The headend point is the cable system's
master receiving site for all incoming broadcast and satellite fed
programming . The cable operator uses both over-the-air television
antennas and satellite earth stations to receive, and process all
incoming signals. The signals from the headend point are
distributed to population centers (or neighborhoods) on heavy duty
cable called trunk lines. The trunk lines are generally attached to
utility poles.

High Capacity Cable

Systems
The HFC architecture has made it possible to cost effectively
increase bandwidth, signal quality, and reliability, while
reducing maintenance costs and retaining a craft-friendly plant.
It makes two-way service practical. The bandwidth of coaxial
cable has no sharp cutoff. It is the cascade of amplifiers that
limits the bandwidth. Overlaying low-loss fiber over the trunk
portion of the plant eliminates the trunk amplifiers. This in turn
leaves only the distribution portion of the plant with its
relatively short distances and only two or three ampli- fiers.
Wider bandwidth is thus facilitated. Two-way operation becomes
practical for two reasons. First, the fiber itself is not subject to
ingress of interfering signals. Secondly, the cable system is
broken up into a large number of small cable systems, each
isolated from the others by its own fiber link to the headend.

Video Services
According to Ciciaro, W. (n.d.), video services
appeared to be in three kinds: Video Electronic
Publisher, Video Common Carrier and Video
Internet.
0 Video Electronic Publisher
The Video Electronic Publisher is the model of traditional cable
television. A selection of local off-air channels, satellite delivered
programming, and local origination is divided into tiers. If the cable
operator selects and packages programming that interest the
subscriber, the reward is acceptance and profits. If the programming
does not please the subscriber, the result will be financial difficulties.
This service is a broadcast service in that all subscribers get
essentially the same programming

Video Services
0 The Video Common Carrier
The Video Common Carrier model is sometimes called video
dialtone. As can be assumed from its name, this is the kind of
service proposed by many telephone operators. While originally
fiber to the home was proposed, all such projects now involve
an HFC architecture. This model has a portion of its programming
that is essentially a broadcast service. Everyone gets the same
signals in this part of the Video Common Carrier service.
The main difference is that the video dialtone provider does not
have any editorial control over what is presented. In principle,
enough capacity is provided so that any programmer who wishes
carriage can have it on a non-discriminatory basis. The Video
Common Carrier model is mostly one-way downstream signaling
with a small upstream capacity for ordering programming. The
second portion of the Video Common Carrier model includes
subscriber selection of programming either through a NVOD or a
VOD approach.

Conclusion
0

The proponents established the key concepts in

designing cable television system by considering
frequency allocation plan, terminal equipment and
cable drop, distribution plant, cable system headend,
cable television system architecture, channel capacity
and channelization, signal transportation systems,
increasing channel capacity, signal security systems,
signal and equipment, high-capacity cable systems,
and video services.
0
The Philippine KBP (Kapisanan ng mga
Broadkaster ng Pilipinas) and the NTC (National
Telecommunications Standard) contained the different
parameters considered in designing the cable
television system. The standards focused on headend
design which is the main office of the system in where
the signals are coming from.

Conclusion
0 The architecture and distribution network of the design used the

hybrid-fiber coax network in which the medium for transmission

are coaxial cables and fiber optic cables. This hybrid-fiber coax
is based on the tree and branch topology which is applicable in
transmitting television signals in small subdivision.
0
The different components of the network used for the system
have each function. The headend facilitates the communication
between cable TV services and cable modem services to
subscribers, trunk lines transmit voice and data in formats such
as analog, cable distribution enables the delivery of broadcast
programming to multiple users over a single coaxial cable, drop
cable connects individual subscribers to cable system and
terminal equipment that ends telecommunication link.

Recommendations
0

After conducting the review of related studies, literatures

and doing the design, the proponents recommended the
following for the improvement of the design:

0 The equipment and components to be used must be taken into

consideration in order to have basis on how the system will

work out.
0 Listing of the scheduled slot of each channel must be analyzed

and settled as basis or organizing the system.

0 Must have log for monitoring the programs and the error

occurrence in order to verify if the system is running accurately

and effectively.