Understanding and Troubleshooting

Linear Distortions: Micro-reflections,

Amplitude Ripple/Tilt and Group
Delay

RON HRANAC

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 A Clean Upstream: Or Is It?

Graphic courtesy of Sunrise Telecom

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 Transmission Line Theory 101
Source Transmission Load
Medium

ZS = ZT = ZL
Source Transmission Load
Medium

ZS ? ZT ? ZL
Source Transmission Load
Medium

ZS ? ZT ? ZL
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 Impedance Mismatches

Source Transmission Medium Load

(7 dB return loss) (1 dB attenuation) (7 dB return loss)
+31 dBmV +30 dBmV
at time T 0 at time T 1

+22 dBmV +23 dBmV

+15 dBmV +14 dBmV

(-16 dBc)
at time T 2
100 ft
23 20

+30 dBmV
+30
+25
Amplitude
(dBmV)

+20
+14 dBmV
+15
234 ns
+10
+5
Incident signal (T 1) Echo (T 2)

Time (T)
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 Micro-reflections—The Big Picture

+30 ~4.27 MHz Peak (+31.28 dBmV)

+30 dBmV
.

Amplitude
Amplitude

+25

(dBmV)
(dBmV)

+20
+15
+10
234 ns
+14 dBmV (-16 dBc) . Null (+28.5 dBmV)
+5
Incident signal (T1) Echo (T2)
Frequency (F)
Time (T)

Amplitude

Time (T)

Echo calculation courtesy of Holtzman, Inc.

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 Micro-reflections
Causes:
• Damaged or missing end-of-line terminators
• Damaged or missing chassis terminators on directional coupler, splitter, or multiple-
output amplifier unused ports
• Loose center conductor seizure screws
• Unused tap ports not terminated; this is especially critical on low value taps, but all
unused tap ports should be terminated with 75-ohm terminations (locking terminators
without resistors or stingers do not terminate the tap port)
• Poor isolation in splitters, taps and directional couplers
• Unused customer premises splitter and directional coupler ports not terminated
• Use of so-called self-terminating taps at feeder ends-of-line; these are the equivalent
of splitters, and do not terminate the feeder cable unless all tap ports are terminated
• Kinked or damaged cable (includes cracked cable, which causes a reflection and
ingress)
• Defective or damaged actives or passives (water-damaged, water-filled, cold solder
joint, corrosion, loose circuit board screws, etc.)
• Cable-ready TVs and VCRs connected directly to the drop (return loss on most cable-
ready devices is poor)
• Some traps and filters have been found to have poor return loss in the upstream,
especially those used for data-only service

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 Amplitude Ripple/Tilt

• Amplitude ripple and tilt are known in cable industry vernacular as

frequency response, and can refer to in-channel frequency response or
the frequency response across a specified RF bandwidth such as 5-42
MHz
• The causes include gremlins such as improper network alignment and
impedance mismatches (micro-reflections!)
Amplitude tilt
Combination of Amplitude tilt, slight
amplitude ripple and tilt amount of ripple

Graphics courtesy of Acterna and Sunrise Telecom

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 Amplitude Ripple/Tilt
Adaptive equalization

• This 6.4 MHz

bandwidth A-TDMA
digitally modulated
signal exhibits
severe in-channel
amplitude tilt at the
CMTS upstream
input

• Adaptive
equalization (pre-
equalization) in the
cable modem is able
to compensate for
nearly all of the
amplitude tilt

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 Group Delay

• Group delay is
said to exist when
signals at some
frequencies take
longer to travel
through a circuit,
amplifier or
network than
signals at other
frequencies
• Group delay, like
other linear
impairments,
causes inter-
symbol
interference,
which degrades
MER
Graphic courtesy of Holtzman, Inc.
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 Linear Distortions in the Real World

• In this example, an Echo

echo at ~485 ns
causes visible Amplitude ripple
amplitude ripple
across the 5-42
MHz spectrum
• Group delay ripple
also is present
Group delay ripple

Graphic courtesy of Holtzman, Inc.

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 Linear Distortions in the Real World

• Here’s another
example: An approx.
-33 dBc echo at just
over 1 µs
• This echo meets the
DOCSIS® upstream -
30 dBc at >1.0 µsec
parameter
• Here, too, the echo is
sufficient to cause
some amplitude and
group delay ripple

Graphic courtesy of Sunrise Telecom

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 A Clean Upstream: Or Is It?

• Remember the
upstream slide at the
beginning of this
presentation?
• Here’s why 16-QAM
wouldn’t work

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 A Clean Upstream: Or Is It?

• This upstream
constellation
shows a not-so-
good 16-QAM
signal
• Unequalized
MER is 21.3 dB,
close to the
failure threshold
for 16-QAM

Graphic courtesy of Sunrise Telecom

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 A Clean Upstream

From a linear distortion

perspective, this is what
a relatively unimpaired
upstream looks like

Graphics courtesy of Sunrise Telecom

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 Wrapping Up

• Linear distortions are real problems in cable networks, and

can seriously affect downstream and upstream data
transmission
• Among the tools available to troubleshoot linear distortions
are
Forward and reverse sweep, set to the maximum supported
resolution
Adaptive equalization (DOCSIS 1.1 and 2.0 modems)
CMTS tools such as per-modem SNR (MER), FEC error
information
Avoid upstream frequencies above about 35 MHz to minimize
diplex filter-related group delay
Use of specialized test equipment to characterize and
troubleshoot micro-reflections, amplitude and group delay ripple
• An understanding of linear distortions is critical to achieving
the reliability necessary for new services being deployed on
today’s cable networks
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