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 <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > > I think it’s fair to say that most broadband/FTTx customers don’t 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. > > Maybe to keep things simple, let’s assume that we’re 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’ 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’s 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’s embedded > switch, or maybe both. For the sake of argument, let’s 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? >
