Monitor and troubleshoot HFC upstream with simultaneous return path monitoring, live remote spectrum and QAM views, smartphone applications, spectrum and data health reporting, DOCSIS carrier deep packet analysis, proactive notification of subscriber impacting problems, and node performance history and trends.
PathTrak™ is the most advanced and extensively deployed return path monitoring/analysis system available today. As HFC networks fill upstream bandwidth there is less empty spectrum to monitor for ingress, distortion and noise, while rapid new service deployment makes fast, accurate node evaluation even more critical. PathTrak continues evolving to better meet these needs, combining polled data from select CPE and CMTS equipment with exclusive spectrum and MACTrak data and displaying actionable results in an intuitive map-based interface.
In addition to essential return path spectrum monitoring and analysis, PathTrak provides unmatched insight into service impacting issues, such as codeword errors on live upstream DOCSIS carriers, in-band, without service disruption, even down to individual subscriber modems. The innovative MACTrak™ node performance index helps provide service prioritization by ranking the poorest performing nodes, with hard evidence that node and carrier health is improving or declining day to day. The system sends alerts in real-time via SNMP, email, or SMS when critical subscriber experience thresholds are crossed.
PathTrak PNM gives valuable insight harvested from customer modem pre-equalization coefficients (taps). The data is analyzed and the user is presented with simple, actionable information to enable quicker, proactive network maintenance to improve plant reliability and customer satisfaction.
Benefits
- Faster troubleshooting with spectrum and cable modem upstream analysis and monitoring in one solution
- Higher efficiency with a more accurate node health view – evaluate spectrum AND upstream DOCSIS carrier quality
- More effective service prioritizing customer affecting issues, using real-time RF and data metrics related to the subscribers’ DOCSIS packets, not near real-time CMTS data
- Fewer trouble tickets and lower customer churn with problem identification prior to customer experience impact
- Confidence – over 700,000 PathTrak monitored HFC nodes worldwide
Applications
- View in-band and in-service faults that standard spectrum analysis tools frequently miss
- Use MACTrak node performance index to prioritize service according to customer impact
- Easily and quickly detect impairments such as impulse noise, ingress, CPD, and laser clipping on all nodes 24/7
- Identify modems experiencing codeword errors in real time to verify faults (and the fix)
- Find plant weaknesses degrading cable modem service by uncovering impedance mismatches that cause micro-reflections and group delay
- Proactively detect and automatically localize impairments masked by DOCSIS pre-equalization
- Accurately discern in-home wiring vs plant as the source of an issue
- Proactively maintain your plant with a powerful tool based on CableLabs®technology
- Correlate, localize, and pinpoint impairments quickly with PathTrak PNM
Key Features
- Simplified system access, fully web based user interface, plus Android and iOS apps
- Effective alarming and intelligent alarm management
- Node ranking based on upstream health – spectral and data
- Demodulates and monitors live DOCSIS upstream carriers
- Remote MACTrak, QAMTrak and Spectrum displays
- Historical node performance data – spectrum and upstream DOCSIS carriers
- API and open MySQL database for creation of custom node certification and performance history reports
