Prioritizing repair of signal leakage in an HFC network

• US 9,565,580 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2015
• Issued: 02/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arcom Digital Patent, LLC
• Original Assignee: Arcom Digital, LLC
• Inventors: Zinevich, Victor M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Kevin
• Application Number:
  US14/930,539
• Publication Number:
  US 20160057638A1
• Time in Patent Office: 463 Days
• Field of Search: 375/227, 375/257, 375/346, 455/423, 455/424, 348/192
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/002 where the device under test is an electronic circuit
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/50 Testing of electric apparatus, lines, cables or components for short-circuits, continuity, leakage current or incorrect line connections testing of sparking plugs H01T13/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/345 Interference values signal-to-interference ratio [SIR] or carrier-to-interference ratio [CIR] H04B17/336
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0023 Interference mitigation or co-ordination direct sequence spread spectrum [DSSS] systems H04B1/7097; frequency hopping H04B1/713; allocation criteria for ingress interference avoidance H04L5/0062; frequency allocation criteria for requirements on out-of-channel emissions H04L5/0066; arrangements for removing intersymbol interference or baseband equalisers H04L25/03006; peak power aspects in multicarrier modulation H04L27/2614; power management H04W52/00; traffic scheduling H04W72/54, H04W72/541
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0609 based on severity or priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0618 based on the physical or logical position
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0823 Errors, e.g. transmission errors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2383 Channel coding or modulation of digital bit-stream, e.g. QPSK modulation arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by adapting the channel coding H04L1/0009; analogue front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4382 Demodulation or channel decoding, e.g. QPSK demodulation analog front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition

Abstract

A method or apparatus of identifying for repair a signal leak in an HFC network, wherein a base transceiver station in the vicinity of the HFC network transmits a BTS signal over-the-air. The method comprises or apparatus performs the steps of: (a) identifying a location of the signal leak; (b) in the vicinity of the signal leak, detecting the BTS signal; (c) determining a level of the BTS signal; (d) defining a threshold level; (e) with the use of a processor, determining whether the level of the BTS signal meets or exceeds the threshold level; and (f) indicating for repair the signal leak if the level of the BTS signal meets or exceeds the threshold level.

Claims

1. A method of using a leakage detector to measure a level of a leak signal leaked from an HFC network and to measure levels of a first plurality of BTS signals transmitted from a base transceiver station in the vicinity of the HFC network, the first plurality of BTS signals being transmitted in a first plurality of BTS channels, respectively, and the leakage detector being tunable over a number of network channels including a first plurality of network channels, the first plurality of BTS channels substantially corresponding in frequency to the first plurality of network channels, respectively, the leakage detector measuring the level of the leak signal and the levels of the first plurality of BTS signals during a detection interval, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) tuning the leakage detector to a high network channel of the number of network channels, to receive the leak signal in the high network channel;

(b) at the high network channel and during a first portion of the detection interval, measuring the level of the leak signal;

(c) tuning the leakage detector to a first-plurality network channel of the first plurality of network channels, to receive a first-plurality BTS signal of the first plurality of BTS signals, the first-plurality BTS signal being transmitted in a first-plurality BTS channel of the first plurality of BTS channels, the first-plurality BTS channel substantially corresponding in frequency to the first-plurality network channel;

(d) at the first-plurality network channel and during the first portion of the detection interval, measuring the level of the first-plurality BTS signal; and

(e) repeating steps (c) and (d) for each of the first plurality of network channels, such that a level is measured of each of the first plurality of BTS signals and a first plurality of BTS signal levels is obtained.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the leak signal is leaked from a leak in the HFC network, said method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

(f) prioritizing the repair of the leak based on the first plurality of BTS signal levels.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein step (f) includes prioritizing the repair of the leak based further on the level of the leak signal measured in step (b).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of BTS channels are downlink channels of the base transceiver station.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first plurality of BTS channels are LTE downlink channels.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first plurality of network channels is a cable television channel.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the high network channel is located in frequency at or near one of the first plurality of BTS channels.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the first plurality of BTS channels is an LTE channel, and wherein the high network channel is located in frequency at or near one of the LTE channels.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the detection interval is the first half of the detection interval.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the detection interval has a duration of one second.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a second plurality of BTS signals are transmitted from the base transceiver station in a second plurality of BTS channels, respectively, the number of network channels further including a second plurality of network channels, substantially corresponding in frequency to the second plurality of BTS channels, respectively, said method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

(f) tuning the leakage detector to a low network channel of the number of network channels, to receive the leak signal in the low network channel;

(g) at the low network channel and during a second portion of the detection interval, measuring the level of the leak signal;

(h) tuning the leakage detector to a second-plurality network channel of the second plurality of network channels, to receive a second-plurality BTS signal of the second plurality of BTS signals, the second-plurality BTS signal being transmitted in a second-plurality BTS channel of the second plurality of BTS channels, the second-plurality BTS channel substantially corresponding in frequency to the second-plurality network channel;

(i) at the second-plurality network channel and during the second portion of the detection interval, measuring the level of the second-plurality BTS signal; and

(j) repeating steps (h) and (i) for each of the second plurality of network channels, such that a level is measured of each of the second plurality of BTS signals and a second plurality of BTS signal levels is obtained.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the leak signal is leaked from a leak in the HFC network, said method of claim 11 further comprising the step of:

(k) prioritizing the repair of the leak based on the first and the second pluralities of BTS signal levels.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein step (k) includes prioritizing the repair of the leak based further on the level of the leak signal measured in step (b) at the high network channel.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the low network channel is located in frequency at or near an aeronautical frequency channel.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and the second portions of the detection interval are first and second halves of the detection interval.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the detection interval has a duration of one second.