Kitz Forum
Broadband Related => Broadband Technology => Topic started by: Black Sheep on March 21, 2015, 04:57:13 PM
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ECI Cabs
At the moment the ventilation of ECI cabinets allows in too much moisture which corrodes the electronics. So we’ve been looking at possible solutions for managing the temperature and humidity. One of these solutions is to provide heat to the DSLAM through a heat pad.
Following trails in Ipswich, and in partnership with ECI, we’re rolling out the heat pads and between February and June they’re being fitted to every ECI cabinet in the NGA estate. That’s just shy of 26,000 cabinets.
So what will the heat pads do?
They’ll automatically turn on when the ambient temperature within the DSLAM reaches less than 10 degrees Celsius. The heat will make sure that the temperature doesn’t drop too low and will prevent the electronics from degrading due to condensation.
Edit by Admin to change topic title
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Maybe they can fit G.INP at the same time? ;D
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Interesting stuff - thank you BS.
Are you privy as to whether this is pre-emptive, or have there been many circuits already affected?
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'Fraid all the info I have, is in the post above. Sorry. :)
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OK, ta.
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Don't cha wish your cabinet was hot like me :blush:
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;D ;D ;D
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So BT bought cabs with no G.INP support and let moisture in so over time your connection gets even worse. My cab was sat for years doing nothing letting the moisture in. Well done! The only good thing is at least they seem to be proactive and have come up with a fix. Hopefully they are working with ECI on G.INP also.
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Oh dear, this doesnt sound good for ECI does it?
No sign of vectoring or g.inp yet for those on ECI cabs and now the fact that their electronics have been degrading. :/
Thanks for the info BS - I'm not shooting the messenger, just wish I knew what the future held for those consumers on ECI's.
@NS :lol:
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It seems that not only ECI cabinets can suffer from damp. The Huawei cabinet opposite our local exchange is currently being worked on for the same reason. From roadworks.org:
Location : Side of Sellindge Primary School, Main Road (A20), Sellindge, Kent
Description : SELLINDGE (PCP5) - 266139 - BDUK - DSLAM REPLACEMENT - DAMP CAB DANGEROUS POWER
This is a cabinet which has been in operation for months, not just sitting there without power.
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This might be giving ideas to those that want to force a cabinet upgrade... :angel:
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Maybe this is why I saw an OR guy working in my fibre cab last week, definitely the shiny new ECI Fibre cab as I know they don't usually touch the fibre cabs when doing an install or fault work.
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Oh! :( I wonder how that will affect the northern parts of the country? It's damp here most of the time :D Sun lamps & umbrellas.....
Is there any reason why in one street they fit ECI cabs and in another street Huawei cabs?
Curious and please excuse if this has been asked before.
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The only reason I'm aware of is, they are fed from different Exchanges ..........as this is how FTTC operates.
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Ridiculously off topic I know BS.
Both from same exchange [WSLAK], My cab is ECI and a few hundred meters up the road there is another Huawei.
This is repeated a few times randomly!
Strange eh.
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Got a mix of various cabs around here.
First cabs installed in 2013 were ECI's. In fact all cabs down the main route out of town are all ECI's. ie anything installed in 2013.
Last year they extended the rollout to cover estates not served by cabs on the main road and these are a mix of Huawei 96 and 288's.
As you know Im on an ECI, but the nearest cab to me as the crow flies (but on the opposite side of the main road) is a Huawei 96 that they installed last year. Yet just a mile or so down the road they installed Huawei 288's - obviously no of lines dictate 96/128/288. All are on the same exchange.
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. . . All are on the same exchange.
I know what is meant by the above statement but read by a person uncertain of facts, and in haste, an incorrect interpretation could prevail. Perhaps we all should take care and add appropriate qualifying words --
"All are fed by the same head-end exchange." (Using the above purely as an example.) :-\
For example, I know that our Premier Eagle is fed from a 288-port Huawei cabinet, yet travel a few miles from the Eagle's Nest (still within the "Devil Worshiping" catchment area) and there are ECI cabinets deployed. I am fairly certain that both types of cabinets are fed from the same head-end. :)
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Derekdel …….. looks like you're bob-on with your observations, as Kitz has pointed out.
I have personally never, on all the patches I work, come across that situation. My only reckoning would be that the FTTC cabs missed on the initial install roll-out, have been provided via the BDUK programme and they use what the deem suitable at the time ???
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To clarify, I didnt just mean all fibre went to the same GEA headend, I meant that all the copper cabs also all belonged to the same exchange MDF.
I fully expect that most headend exchanges will have a mix of all types of cabs. Especially after the re-routing last year for MSE, its the beginning of the end for smaller exchanges.
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@ BS I suspect that timing may have a lot to do with it. BT's early roll outs tended to be Huawei. Then around late 2012-2013 they seemed to go for ECI in a big way.
The ECI's were a space (& likely cost) saver compared to the Huawei 288's. You could get 256 lines on an ECI M41 meaning future expansion compared to a MA5616 for practically the same footprint. The document also discussed power savings.
Towards the end of 2013 it perhaps seemed to strike a chord somewhere that the M41's werent going to be as easy upgrade for vectoring and suddenly they switched back to Huawei.
I saw some stats once showing the cabinets rolled out at a certain date and it was becoming clear that by the end of 2013 the number of ECI's were rapidly catching up Huawei cabs. Now I expect that the Huawei 288's will far out number all the others.
Around here they only installed fttc first to cabs which were near to the main road into town and those which followed what would be the backhaul path for those they used ECI. The exchange is about a mile from the end of town and they stopped at the exchange. It was only the following year that they branched off from the main road to install to certain estates and parts of the town centre and those all got Huawei.
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Our area was enabled last year for FTTC. What I did notice was when they installed the cab I use they were doing another fibre cab just up the road, one ECI and one Huawei. At the time I never knew there was a difference and curious of the fact about cabs matching modems chipsets or not matching. That's another story :)
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@ BS I suspect that timing may have a lot to do with it. BT's early roll outs tended to be Huawei. Then around late 2012-2013 they seemed to go for ECI in a big way.
The ECI's were a space (& likely cost) saver compared to the Huawei 288's. You could get 256 lines on an ECI M41 meaning future expansion compared to a MA5616 for practically the same footprint. The document also discussed power savings.
Towards the end of 2013 it perhaps seemed to strike a chord somewhere that the M41's werent going to be as easy upgrade for vectoring and suddenly they switched back to Huawei.
I saw some stats once showing the cabinets rolled out at a certain date and it was becoming clear that by the end of 2013 the number of ECI's were rapidly catching up Huawei cabs. Now I expect that the Huawei 288's will far out number all the others.
Around here they only installed fttc first to cabs which were near to the main road into town and those which followed what would be the backhaul path for those they used ECI. The exchange is about a mile from the end of town and they stopped at the exchange. It was only the following year that they branched off from the main road to install to certain estates and parts of the town centre and those all got Huawei.
yeah I posted this on plusnet's forum and andyh told me I am talking rubbish, yet I found out some cabinets in my exchange that were rolled out later are huawei. Its as you said once they started thinking of vectoring it seems they found out ECI isnt what they wanted and swapped back. So they were even mixing vendors on exchanges to avoid ECI late on.
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andyh told me I am talking rubbish
It most certainly appears to be the case. Definitely in the NW. Over the past week Ive also been using the magenta codelook a fair bit, and Ive seen exactly the same pattern in other area's. If the cab was 2012-2013 then the cabs are most likely to be ECI's. Prior to and after Huawei. I havent checked the S/SE though.
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Edited to add - out of curiousity - Ive just used Magenta to do a random check on each of the rollouts. To try and make it geographical Ive used a mix of Lancs for the NW, Sunderland for the NE, Devon for the SW & Kent for the SE. Choice was random, and I didnt set out to prove a point. It may not definitely prove a point anyhow because I am limited to a number of lookups that I can do.
Ive added some of the regional areas, but unfort forgot which was Devon (Plymouth) because I didnt think to record that until later and Im now out of my allowed lookups, but I think this gives a broad overview. There are a couple of exceptions but those all appear to be on cabs which are either delayed installs or infills of an odd cabinet where others in the immediate area were of a prominent type. This would make sense as no point installing a different element manger at the HeadEnd exchange for just a couple of cabs.
Eg
Phase 02 (2010-2011) - Huawei - NW
Phase 05a 2011 -Huawei - SE
Phase 06a (2011) - Huawei - NW
Phase 06b 2011 Planned early 2012 - ECI
Phase 08a 2012 - ECI - NE, NW
Phase 08b 2012 -ECI - NW
Phase 09a 2012-2013 - ECI
Phase 09b 2012-2013 - ECI & Huawei <--- Seems to be ECI's if earliest install to locality OR Huawei if an infill to an existing Huawei area. -NW
Phase 10b 2013 - ECI NE, NW, SE <------ but those delayed to 2014 got Huawei (ie Tunbridge Wells, Kent)
Phase 11a 2013-2014 - ECI - NW
Phase 11b 2013-2014 - ECI OR Planned FTTP NE
BDUK's - all seem to be Huawei
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Do we have confirmation that all these heat pads have now been installed?
The reason I ask is because my SNR margin as slowly been going lower on the dips (now its 5.9 don to 5.3 today.. it used to be 6.4 to 6.1).
This area is notoriously known for being a very humid place (the old cotton and wool mills were purposely situated in this town for the humid). I would have expected on a hot day like today that the SNR would have been better than 5.3. The only thing thats increased is the temperature.
Also if the temperature goes higher (its 21C at the moment) does these ECI cabinets have a fan in them to cool things down?
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There are cooling fans associated with the power supply, but these run continuously.
One model (ECI M41) includes a temperature controlled fan rated at up to 20W.
That quote is from BT's application for unmetered electricity supplies for the FTTC cabinets (which are available online at UMSUG 109 (https://www.elexon.co.uk/meeting/umsug-109/) and UMSUG 113 (https://www.elexon.co.uk/meeting/umsug-113/)).