Are DOCSIS Managment Features Used?
I asked a friend about his CableLabs DOCSIS cable modem high-speed Internet service. In particular, I was interested in how the cable company managed his service via DOCSIS. He responded (lightly edited):
My CATV service uses a Motorola SURFboard SB5100 DOCSIS 2.0 modem.
This modem has an “HTML diagnostic screen” (which the installation technician never used) and CPE management (also not used).
During the last three months the cable modem has been hit by 100 packets per second, which are ARP packets from within a VoIP component of the cable provider’s network (this is constant 7/24). The local cable company has not fixed their ARP problem — they did not even have trend line data (which I provided from CATI and NAGIOS) …
My experience indicates that CableLabs (DOCSIS) is asking for network management hooks, but those features are not being used intelligently in network management operational support systems (OSS) to support their users.
I just checked, and the ARPs still continue! It’s a good thing I have a 10 Mbps service with a 5 Mbps guarantee.