Easy Peasy PNM

Let's face it, our networks run our lives. They fail, They get congested. A fiber is cut, a cable cracks, connectors corrode. Some nut decides that the gray box up there is worthy of target practice, or a disgruntled employee takes a pair of bolt cutters to a 244 count fiberoptic cable two hours before Superbowl.

Back a few years ago, CableLabs did something smart, real smart. They developed monitoring and messaging agents that are built into cable modems and their centralized control systems. This messaging and all the analysis of the data that goes along with it is called Proactive Network Maintenance, otherwise known as PNM.

If you are working for one of the major cable companies, you should have already been exposed to these tools. PNM helps technicians pinpoint the location of a fault that is causing impairments. PNM speeds up troubleshooting. PNM's best feature is in alerting the NOC about developing trends that are not yet service affecting. I say "YET" because, as we all know, these issues will eventually cause a service-affecting outage.

I say "YET" because the amazing superhighway we built and continue to build is getting old, like us. It leaks, like us. It can't handle the cold or the heat anymore without complaining. And, the people we depend on to build and maintain this infrastructure are being run ragged due to the lack of training and low pay (but that's another story worth telling).

MORE ABOUT "YET"

Yellow alarms, red alarms, pools of past pending PMs and SROs. These are the causes of "Yet." The biggest problem with PNM is its adoption.

Let's face it, our CATV business has 70 years of reacting to outages, we're just not programmed to believe in yellow alarms or even red alarms for that matter. And, we're just not staffed for it. Almost all of our processes and procedures are there for responding to outages. If you have a Quick Reference Guide on how to respond to a Yellow Alarm for failing DS-SNR, let me know.

A successful PNM launch requires realignment in your call and dispatch centers.

THE DEVIL IS IN YOUR PROCESSES

Let's face it, with every new service launch, your processes are quickly aging past their prime. Your people have been developing workarounds for years and you don't even know it. Your data collection tools are outdated, the databases are corrupted, and you still count on using Excel spreadsheets with two-week-old data to MAKE DECISIONS.

You need AI and Dashboards. Check out Network 360 from Profusion Analytics; they can help. They're experts in making sense of BIG DATA, especially for the players in the broadband space.

But, you'll still need to rework your processes. If you are adding new ones without any thought about your old ones, you are wasting a lot of shareholder's dollars. Lucky for you, opXL, the company I work with, is an expert on workflows and process optimization. They know broadband and telecom.

EASY PEASY PNM

Doug Marlowe is a Senior (only because he's been around) Consultant for opXL, LLC, a full-service broadband consultancy specializing in workforce performance. opXL has developed three cloud-based tools to speed up work (ForceSeer), accelerate troubleshooting (Network 360 partnered with Profusion Analytics), and Xpert World, a 3D virtual training and marketing space with a fairly complete simulation of a cable system.