Kitz Forum
Broadband Related => Broadband Technology => Topic started by: Black Sheep on February 27, 2015, 04:03:56 PM
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Just a heads up ...... a memo from our upper echelon.
The rate of deployment is now increasing. It is therefore more likely you will encounter the below scenario if you are repairing a fibre circuit and have to replace the Openreach modem.
What’s changing?
VDSL retransmission is now being deployed at a rate of around 45,000 circuits per day
It may not be obvious that you’re carrying out a repair on a fibre ReTX enabled circuit with a retransmission profile applied. And it only becomes important if you have to replace a faulty Openreach modem. If the replacement modem is ECI (indicated on the box or base of the modem) it’s likely the firmware is incompatible with ReTX and a workaround needs to be applied.
An ECI modem with old firmware will appear to be in sync (the DSL light will be on) but the customer will not be able to access the internet and this will also be reflected in your GEA service test result:
For example “VDSL modem is not in sync”.
What you need to do…
If you complete a DLM reset it will remove the ReTX profile and allow the modem to sync up and then the system will download the correct firmware before ReTX is reapplied. You do not need to wait for the download, it will happen overnight. As you will know, a DLM reset is only permissible when you have found and fixed a hard fault on the circuit - and a faulty modem is a hard fault.
It is important that you only use the DLM reset procedure, found here, when you clear a hard fault or experience a no sync situation after replacing a modem on a fibre repair task. The use of DLM resets will continue to be monitored.
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awesome news, thank you :)
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Very interesting news! Thank you for passing it on, B*Sheep. :)
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Welcome, sirs. :blush:
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Yes. Thanks for the info BS.
Do you have any idea why DLM resets are so frowned upon for VDSL2 connections?
From what I can gather, they were/are fairly common for ADSL connections.
Due to previous issues on my connection, DLM was reset a few times following engineer visits.
Some of these resets were literally done within a matter of minutes (so it can't really be an expensive/time-consuming process, can it?) & the engineer, whilst still on site, could actually see the difference it made in 'real time' via my unlocked HG612's GUI & my graphs etc.
Hmmm. Maybe I could sell BTOR a licence to use HG612 Modem Stats, so that every engineer could have a copy on his laptop, as I believe they do still use the far superior M$ Windows OS.
[BE now waits to see if BS takes the bait] ;)
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BS has …. and is taking his ball home !! ;D
I'll be honest, there's been no official statement given as to why we are heavily scrutinised on DLM resets. But, my own personal train of thought is …….. to halt the sometime-engineering practice of simply performing a DLM reset before arriving at an EU's for an appointment, and giving the impression that the circuit has miraculously repaired itself. A subsequent 'Repeat Report' (Not healthy for our stats) shortly follows.
Now can you leave me alone please, whilst I fawn over my i-Mac !! ;)
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Thanks for the info - most interesting. It looks like a DLM reset can be obtained by waiting to see G.INP implemented via an HG612 and then inserting an old un updated ECI prior to declaring a fault due to no connectivity. ::)
Edit Probably won't get more than a new modem and the chance of a DLM reset if the new modem is ECI and also not updated!!
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BS has …. and is taking his ball home !! ;D
But, my own personal train of thought is …….. to halt the sometime-engineering practice of simply performing a DLM reset before arriving at an EU's for an appointment, and giving the impression that the circuit has miraculously repaired itself.
Well BS I am very happy with my DLM reset by an OR visit to my premises :thumbs:
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Hmmm. 45,000 circuits per day. I estimate (*) that to be 1,000 cabinets per day, so we'll have switched over in the course of 2 months.
(*) Estimation: Current take-up is around 15% of properties passed; 90,000 cabinets and 27,000,000 properties makes for 300 properties per cabinet, on average. 15% of 300 would give an average of 45 circuits per cabinet. That means 1,000 cabs per day being converted; with a finger-in-the-air guess at 50,000-60,000 converted cabinets.
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Thank you BS for the info :)
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BS has …. and is taking his ball home !! ;D
I'll be honest, there's been no official statement given as to why we are heavily scrutinised on DLM resets. But, my own personal train of thought is …….. to halt the sometime-engineering practice of simply performing a DLM reset before arriving at an EU's for an appointment, and giving the impression that the circuit has miraculously repaired itself. A subsequent 'Repeat Report' (Not healthy for our stats) shortly follows.
Now can you leave me alone please, whilst I fawn over my i-Mac !! ;)
Yeah I can understand why its frowned upon, because if DLM is reset but the underlying reason for DLM still exists on the line, then its inevitable DLM will be enabled again so nothing is achieved but the end user who had the reset the first time will demand it a second time.
Whether I agree with this is moot, but just saying I can understand why the policy is in place.
But of course if an engineer removes DLM prior to visiting to aid in assessing the line, I see that as a valid reason (do openreach condone that tho?), but should probably be explained to the end user why it was done and DLM as such may come back if no fault is found and fixed.
--edit--
With the above said tho, now with g.inp been added to DLM profiles, there should be a valid reason to do a reset imo, as a line that previously needed normal interleaving may function ok with g.inp instead.
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"But of course if an engineer removes DLM prior to visiting to aid in assessing the line, I see that as a valid reason (do openreach condone that tho?), but should probably be explained to the end user why it was done and DLM as such may come back if no fault is found and fixed."
If you read back through my posts, you'll see I've commented numerous times that I perform a DLM reset before attending site ............ but only after I've looked at the 28-day history of the circuit to make the judgement.
To answer your question highlighted above, though. I have never, ever been questioned about doing this and would actually welcome the opportunity to explain to my bosses why I do, should the situation ever arise ?
So, they don't condone it as such, but they don't seem to follow up on instances where it has happened.
I wonder if they view our 'Repeat Report' stats, to determine whether follow-up action is needed against the engineer for performing the DLM reset prior to visit ??
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[wandering off topic]
I also wonder if the higher levels at Openreach ever take note of the reports from their own staff, highlighting the need for a follow-up visit to perform remedial action, subsequent to an "installation" by contractors from Kelly Communications or M J Quinn. >:(
[/wandering off topic]
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I understand what all you are saying yet their could be thousands of lines out there were the DLM has become stuck and the only way to improve the EU line is a reset.
For example myself who got FTTC installed 3 years ago by BT Oprenreach they did not change the sub standard incoming pair socket and had to replace that with BT80, the sub standard cable to master socket had to do that myself and they used the sub standard extension cable as data extension kit, again had to do this myself.
So all in all i've have made my line much better since the DLM was wide open after the initial install, yet i'm having to walk on egg shells let's hope G.INP gives me more room for error's ;)
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I just saw this https://aastatus.net/2127
Update
Wednesday 10:36:31 Apologise for the delay in updating this post. BT have confirmed that all trial lines have been loaded with the new profiles, further to this BT have confirmed that all other affected lines have now had the new profiles loaded. That is all lines across all providers.
Thank you Dray - moving your post to the main g.inp thread.
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Thanks