OSP Magazine, January 2007

Stop and Go Checklists for Migrating Customers to Digital Home Networks

A superior customer experience is the ultimate goal of every telecommunications service provider, especially as they migrate customers to IPTV and digital home networks. To do this, it is critical that field technicians have a step-by-step process to speed installation, while ensuring the highest quality of service (QoS) and reduce repeat truck rolls. While this seems straightforward, the complex and sophisticated technology required to deliver Triple Play (voice, video, and data) services from semiconductor components to network and premise equipment can present new and complicated challenges for technicians.

When designed correctly, test sets for even the most advanced technologies can be simple to use. Proper testing during installation saves time and money, and ensures the best customer experience possible. In fact, many service providers live and die by this equation: Time + Cost + Customer Experience = Success.

Benefits of Proper Test Approaches

Ultimately the goal of every service provider is to speed time-to-service: the moment at which a customer begins using their new broadband services, or the moment the service provider begins seeing a revenue stream from each new customer. Installing new Triple Play services while leveraging a range of wired and wireless technologies quickly is essential to recouping millions of dollars of investments.

Time, of course, is inextricably linked to cost. Shaving even 30 minutes off every installation can have a positive impact on bottom line profits.

For example, if a service provider has 10,000 installations scheduled for a single day, and each technician can complete only one, then 10,000 individual technicians, trucks, and test sets are required to keep the installations on time.

Due to the complex nature of Triple Play services, quite often there is a lot of work to be done. Customers may want outlets in different places, coax and copper pair wiring may need to be replaced or repaired, and new wiring may need to be installed. Even with these additional requests, proper verification and testing with advanced test sets can simplify the process allowing two or even three installations per technician per day, reducing time as well as personnel costs.

Increasing the number of installations performed per day has obvious benefits to service providers in terms of time and cost. It also goes a long way to improving the customer experience.

Traditionally, customers are given a window of time, often a third to a half of a day, during which they need to wait for and supervise technicians working in their home. This is one of the primary areas of customer dissatisfaction. Reducing the time customers have to wait improves their overall first impression and creates a foundation for a positive experience. While this is important for all services, it is essential for Triple Play deployment as most customers are still considered early adopters, and service providers will rely on them to help sell these services to their friends and neighbors.

In addition to time and cost, proper testing goes a long way toward ensuring the highest quality performance, a key metric that directly impacts cost and customer satisfaction. While service providers are intent on speeding installations to reduce costs, it is imperative that when the technician leaves, the service is delivered at peak performance levels, and that it doesn’t degrade or fail in a matter of days. With high quality installations, technicians rarely have to revisit a customer site – unless the customer has ordered additional services that require on-site installation.

Conversely, when service deteriorates or fails due to improper testing during installation, service providers incur the high cost of repeated truck rolls. Truck rolls actually have two costs: the cost of the truck roll which industry sources put at approximately $500 per trip, plus the frustration factor on the part of the customer.

Ensuring proper testing of the sophisticated and complex technologies integrated into a combined service offering can be overwhelming, not only to new technicians as well as seasoned professionals.

Triple Play service is taking installation teams from a customer environment with regular phone service (POTS) and perhaps a DSL line, and moving them to a home, which combines POTS, VDSL (Very High Bit Rate DSL), Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HPNA), Ethernet, Wireless 802.11, and RF signals connecting through a set-top box to a television. Many of these technologies have not been tested in a residential environment, and each has significant requirements that include inspecting equipment to taking measurements that ensure they work within the parameters needed to deliver high-performance services.

Topping this off, twisted pair and coaxial cabling are being used for extremely high-speed services, requiring an entirely new method of testing. Often technicians find wiring in homes with no clear clue about their destination or what is connected to the other end. In all, technicians face a constant learning curve, and must work with nearly 10 new technologies simultaneously in order to deliver the highest QoS.

Simplifying a Complex Process

There is a new approach providers can use called Red Light, Green Light. It can simplify and speed testing, saving time and money while improving service quality and the customer experience.

This kind of testing leverages service providers’ methods and procedures (M&P) and creates a step-by-step process for testing. Technicians must complete the steps in order with positive results or they will not be able to proceed. Once installation is underway, the Red Light, Gr een Light approach directs the technician to a particular test and provides details on how to proceed. Once the system is connected and tests are run, it generates a green light for a positive result and leads the technician to the next phase of testing through a precisely prescribed order.

A red light indicates that a test has failed. When this happens, the test set presents a series of checks to ensure the test was completed properly. If the result is still negative, the test set leads the technician through alternate tests to help identify the problem. Ultimately, the test succeeds or the technician seeks assistance from the home office.

In addition to successfully guiding and completing tests, the test set captures the data which can be downloaded to the service provider’s main database either from the truck upon the conclusion of each installation, or upon return to the main office. This ensures that a record of the tests and results is available and can be used as reference for future measurements if there is ever a problem.

Testing Checklists

When migrating customers toward the Triple Play, service providers must include fundamental steps in five areas in order to ensure the highest quality results:

1. VDSL service verification,
2. the gateway,
3. the set-top box,
4. the personal computer (PC), and
5. the home telephone.

VDSL Service Verification

Step 1. VDSL, which runs at 25-80 Mbps has nearly 20 parameters that must be tested and verified to specification to ensure the circuit operates properly.

The first task is to pick the location for the gateway. Once determined with the homeowner, the technician must check the wiring coming from the side of the house to the gateway location, as well as the wiring leading from the gateway to the other points in the house.

Step 2. Each set of wires must be tested. A technician must locate coaxial and twisted pair, check for splitters inside the home, and use toning and tracing features to speed connection and verification. Once that is achieved, the technician can connect the gateway to the VDSL signal coming from the side of the house, and test to ensure the VDSL service is functioning at the gateway, and that the additional services being delivered in the house beyond the gateway are running properly as well.

The Set-Top Box

Step 1. A typical home may have up to four television sets. Identifying the number of present and potential locations for these sets is the first priority once the residential gateway is ready.

Step 2. The technician must then identify and test the coaxial cabling leading from the location to the gateway for each television, using the test set’s cable location tools. While seemingly straightforward, the ability to identify these connections using a single process has proven to be a critical metric of customer satisfaction. Without this capability, installers must check every jack/cable in every room sequentially. Not only is this time consuming, but it frustrates customers to have technicians walking repeatedly in and out of every room of their home.

Step 3. Once the wiring has been located and verified as acceptable, the technician is ready to install the set-top boxes. Each unit is connected, and the HPNA networking is implemented and checked for functionality to be sure the home network is running properly from the set-top boxes to the residential gateway. This includes verifying the HPNA networking to ensure it is working properly and is operating at high enough speeds so there will not be trouble with the television reception down the road. Technicians must check for errors, check the bandwidth to be sure it is high enough to support HDTV or a whole house DVR. If the HPNA, for example, is operating at a much lower rate than what is needed inside the home (80 Mbps vs. 112 Mbps), problems may surface, and quality and function may deteriorate. As a result, the service provider may need to complete an expensive truck roll.

Step 4. Once HPNA is verified, the technician can check for interfering signals. While HPNA operates below television frequencies, it uses the frequency shared by most amateur radio transmissions (HAM radio). Any of these signals generated by common appliances such as walkie talkies, ham radios, or even military, police, fire or airport radios can potentially cause interference and disrupt service.

HPNA requires a clean set of wires that are properly set up and terminated so they don’t receive the spurious signal which causes interference. In the residence, if a coaxial cable runs directly from point A to point B, there is little chance of interference if the end connectors are tightened down properly. If however, a splitter or piece of cable that runs off has not been terminated properly or if an end connector is not tightened down, it acts like an antenna and picks up spurious signals. Depending on how leaky the cable is will determine how it will impact the primary HPNA signal.

Step 5. Newer set-top boxes, called multiple stream boxes, rebroadcast signals to multiple remote televisions from a single location, eliminating the need for individual set-top boxes at each TV. A family member downstairs can be watching channel 92, someone in the den can view channel 5, and another person can use the DVR, with each signal emanating from a single box. While this system is more efficient, it requires more sophisticated testing to ensure the cable TV signals are suitably transmitted around the house to deliver superior picture and sound for each remote TV. Technicians should first verify that the signal from the set-top box is operating with specified parameters, and second, measure the signal at each remote TV to be sure nothing is interfering such as a problem in the cabling, splitters, or other issues that can cause interference.

The PC

Step 1. In addition to multiple TVs, most homes today include several personal computers (PCs) spread out in various locations: the office, the children’s rooms, the den, the kitchen, etc. Typically these PCs are hard-wired using Ethernet connections or connected wirelessly using 802.11 technology.

Step 2. If the PCs are hardwired, technicians should check the cable connection, ensure the pins are linked, and confirm that all the wires are properly installed.

Step 3. The Ethernet connection over a twisted-pair cable (typically Cat3 or Cat5) must be tested to ensure data transmission is good.

Step 4. For wireless networks, testing is a bit less deterministic. The signal originates from the residential gateway, and can vary in strength depending on the walls, neighboring wireless networks, and distance. Technicians must determine the strength of the signal in various parts of the residence. If necessary, the installer can reposition the home gateway or install repeaters to make signals cleaner and strong enough to handle the network demands. As part of the process, the technician should also check to see what channel the wireless network is using. If the technician finds that a neighbor is using the same channel, then he or she can tune the system and change channels to ensure a cleaner and less-interfered-with signal.

The Home Telephone

Step 1. Despite all the new technology in Triple Play networks, POTS remains largely unchanged, and relies much more on traditional tests during installation. Installers must still check for DC voltage (48 volts) on each line, make sure dial tone is present, validate the phone number, and confirm special features such as caller ID.

Step Saver

Once all of these tests have been performed, the ideal approach is to save them in a database for future retrieval. Armed with that information, the technician will be able to upload all of their test results via a simple Bluetooth wireless connection to a PC, and then load them on to a database server maintaining a historical testing log for every customer.

If a customer does have a problem later with their service, the technician can access all of the stored test results from the time of installation. That will help to ensure all tests were performed properly at the time of installation, but can also help to troubleshoot and isolate a problem after testing is performed during the repair process. The technician will be able to compare the test results from the time of installation to the same parameters tested during the repair, and isolate down to what the problem is, and potentially why the problem occurred. This will help to avoid the same problem happening for future customers as well.

It is the role of test equipment vendors to partner with these communications providers to offer equipment that simplifies the process and delivers advanced tests and accurate results. However, this partnership can only succeed when the goals of reducing cost, speeding installation, and improving customer satisfaction are taken into account from the initial concept of the system. A sound testing approach ensures a superior customer experience and delivers tangible, bottom line improvements to Triple Play service providers.