[189325] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Perspectives about customer M/A/C in triple play environments
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Adams)
Mon May 16 20:19:23 2016
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
In-Reply-To: <E7A8E402-2837-4915-AC02-12172D11D372@lixfeld.ca>
Date: Mon, 16 May 2016 17:18:11 -0700
From: John Adams <jna@retina.net>
To: Jason Lixfeld <jason+nanog@lixfeld.ca>
Cc: NANOG <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
I have never seen this level of segmentation in any customer premises I
have worked on. Even in "triple-play" environments the handoff is nearly
always untagged ethernet and the downstream devices just work.
-j
On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 5:09 PM, Jason Lixfeld <jason+nanog@lixfeld.ca>
wrote:
> 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 th=
ey
> want to move their wired Internet device from one room or another in thei=
r
> house.
>
> Maybe to keep things simple, let=E2=80=99s assume that we=E2=80=99re talk=
ing 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 numbe=
r
> 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=99=
s embedded
> switch, or maybe both. For the sake of argument, let=E2=80=99s assume th=
e 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 shoul=
d
> 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 devi=
ce
> 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 t=
o
> 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 custom=
er
> 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 maki=
ng
> silent sacrifices for the sake of all this new fangled technology?
>
