Vast amounts of money have been spent upgrading, refurbishing—and in some cases, building brand new networks in order to meet the demands of Triple Play deployments. Yet one area remains relatively untouched— the home network. This has traditionally been the domain of the consumer with the in-home network the responsibility of the consumer and considered out of bounds by the provider. The in-home network is considered one of the last major hurdles service providers will have to overcome to efficiently deliver Triple Play services to the consumer.

That approach is changing

It is now realised that should the delivery of a customer’s TV stream falter, for whatever reason, the customer will more than likely switch their provider—and probably move their voice and data plans also. Providers have spent billions of dollars on both network and access infrastructure. They now view the in-home network as a potential stumbling block which can mean keeping or losing subscribers.

Without the mindful eye of the provider watching over them, consumers have literally been left to their own devices when it comes to routing and expanding their wiring within the home. The high penetration of cable TV and satellite services has resulted in ready-to-use network installations of coaxial cabling within the subscriber home. The rise in popularity of the PC and other connected consumer devices has created a potential minefield over which the delivery of IP Video services has to happen trouble free. New technologies such as MoCA have been developed to operate on these networks and allow high-speed transfer of video between devices within the home.

In-Home combined with outside plant testing technology

So how does the service provider ensure the home network can be tackled quickly and efficiently to ensure a smooth delivery to the consumer? The answer is Tech-X Flex. Tech-X Flex provides the complete functionality required in order to install and troubleshoot in-home networks.

Tech-X Flex is Spirent’s new modular hand-held tester. Designed with both in-home and Outside Plant (OSP) testing in mind, Tech-X Flex is equally suited to testing in FTTN, FTTP and Cable networks.