[189323] in North American Network Operators' Group
Perspectives about customer M/A/C in triple play environments
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jason Lixfeld)
Mon May 16 20:10:05 2016
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From: Jason Lixfeld <jason+nanog@lixfeld.ca>
Date: Mon, 16 May 2016 20:09:53 -0400
To: NANOG <nanog@nanog.org>
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Hello,
I think it=E2=80=99s fair to say that most broadband/FTTx customers =
don=E2=80=99t have to think very much or need to have a very high degree =
of understanding if they want to move their wired Internet device from =
one room or another in their house. =20
Maybe to keep things simple, let=E2=80=99s assume that we=E2=80=99re =
talking about a relatively modern MDU unit where a customer has some =
sort of provider CPE in their in-suite telecom demark closet/box/what =
have you with some number of switched 'LAN=E2=80=99 ports on it, and =
each of those LAN ports would be wired to a wall jack somewhere. Mr. or =
Ms. User can move their Internet device anywhere there is a wall jack =
and Bob=E2=80=99s your uncle.
My question is around how this landscape changes in triple play =
environments. As I understand it, most triple play deployments separate =
(in some cases VoIP,) TV and Internet traffic onto VLANs (Internet would =
be presented to the customer untagged). The CPE would then allow the =
ISP to switch the video traffic onto a coax port, or maybe onto the =
CPE=E2=80=99s embedded switch, or maybe both. For the sake of argument, =
let=E2=80=99s assume the provider is supplying an Ethernet based =
set-top-box, so customer should be able to connect the STB to any wall =
jack and it should just work. And they should be able to connect their =
provider supplied ATA to any wall jack, and it should just work. And =
they should be able to connect their Internet device to any wall jack =
and it should just work.
Or should it?
Are most CPEs that are provided by ISPs sophisticated enough to be able =
to put all service tags on all ports, and have those same ports act as =
untagged LAN ports as well? If not, how do providers deal with this? =
Do they dedicate one port for an IPTV STB? One port for an ATA =
(assuming no built-in POTS on the CPE)? And the rest of the ports for =
untagged Internet? What if the customer has 2+ TVs? Do they need to =
call in and have the provider remote in and provision another port for =
TV at the expense of some other service that might be running on that =
port already? Do they need to install a switch that does IGMP snooping?
I feel like this all has the potential to become very complicated for =
the customer, and maybe the provider and their installers. To me, the =
customer should continue to be dumb and unassuming. They should be able =
to put whatever they want wherever they want and have it just work. Is =
that how things actually are in the real world or are customers and =
providers making silent sacrifices for the sake of all this new fangled =
technology?
