June 20, 2008

Tutorial Tuesday

By Ron Hendrickson

If you're planning to take in any of Expo's many workshops, you'd be wise to attend Tutorial Tuesday first. The pre-show tutorials take place June 24 from 1-4:15 p.m. While they're not quite "back to basics," they do cover the underlying theory on which many of the show's workshops will expand later in the week.

Topics

Tutorial Tuesday topics include MER and BER Fundamentals Parts I and II, IP for Video Heads, and PacketCable 2.0 vs. IMS.

Ron Hranac of Cisco Systems will be presenting MER and BER Fundamentals, and the presentation will span the entire afternoon, whereas IP for Video Heads and PacketCable/IMS will occur twice in the same time frame. That should tell you something right there. According to the SCTE's Expo Web site, "This pre-conference tutorial explains what BER and MER are, how these parameters are measured, and how they can be used to troubleshoot various digitally modulated signal impairments in the outside plant." While that's true, it's also not nearly so innocuous as it sounds. Hranac's presentations tend to be excellent, but also mentally arduous. If you're afraid of math, this one is not for you. Even if you're not afraid of math, a really strong cup of coffee is a good idea.

IP for Video Heads will be presented by Cisco's Dave Brown. This one follows in the tradition of last year's Expo workshop Fundamental IP Principles for the RF Engineer. That is, it's designed to help old-school geeks get up to speed with this weird "IP" thing that all the hip kids are doing these days. Brown communicates clearly and well, though, so it should be relatively painless. Subjects to be covered include differences in bridged vs. routed networks, the ABCs of ARP and PING, and the pros and cons of UDP vs. RTP. It's becoming an IP world, guys - time to get with the program.

PacketCable 2.0 vs. IMS: Differentiation and Co-Existence in a Convergent World has two presenters, Pete Quigley of Cedar Point Communications and Richard Cardone of Camiant. This one is less a compare-and-contrast piece (though there is some of that) than a look into the future of increased service capabilities and how to make them work across different access methods. Subjects to be covered include new services, key characteristics of PacketCable 2.0 architecture and how they relate to IMS architecture, and specific service examples as illustrations.

Schedule

As noted earlier, IP for Video Heads and PacketCable Vs. IMS will each be presented twice, once during Session I and once during Session II, while MER and BER will consist of two parts, one in each session. Here is the actual schedule:

Tutorial Session 1: 1-2:30 p.m.

BER and MER Fundamentals, Part I
IP for Video Heads
PacketCable 2.0 vs. IMS

Tutorial Session 2: 2:45-4:15 p.m.

BER and MER Fundamentals, Part II
IP for Video Heads
PacketCable 2.0 vs. IMS

The Tutorial Tuesday sessions are covered under full Expo registration, but if you're only registered for the show floor, there's an additional fee to attend. Click here for details.

- Ron Hendrickson

Read more news and analysis on Communications Technology's Web site at http://www.cable360.net/ct/news/.