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[WWWombat]

Are these in use yet  , About a month ago when I went to Chester I was walking down this road and I said look the PCP it's got a 'Baby on the side',

Some PCPs do indeed have a baby on the side - as an extension for additional cable connectors (eg more tie pairs).

The ones I have seen tend to have two small rectangular conduits between mother and daughter; Looking closely at the pods, it appears they don't touch the ground whereas I *think* the wiring daughter cabinets do.

[WWWombat]

The 400m seems promising if its using current hardware as there should be a revision to the spec that allows a higher power level which should boost range.

There's mention of this in a gfastnews article; to quote:

Everything changed when BT decided not to go to distribution points (50-150 meters, fewer than 16 lines) and instead are reusing existing cabinets at 300 and 500 meters. There's an amendment to the standard coming to allow higher power for the longer reach. England is demanding the best possible performance at longer distances and the vendors are finding ways.

and a little on current speeds:

Swisscom and Telecom Austria presented data that confirmed the BT data. Results for 80% and 90% are as predicted and outstanding. The 500-800 megabits at 100 meters is generally solid. 300 megabits at 300 meters is a little bit optimistic but not that far off. Perhaps 10% of lines are getting far lower speeds than hoped.

What we can't tell, from these quotes, is whether the chipsets are running in a pre-standardised mode, already trying to use the extra power.

I don't think the ANFP has been changed to allow the higher power ... so BT will be free to try things in trials where they deploy separate cables (like they did in Huntingdon) but won't have that freedom in the pilots where they will use current access network cabling.

[ktz392837]

My PCP is on a corner so a child attached on the side may be  quite an obstruction sticking out to far unless it can pivot. I hope this doesn't mean its not included in the rollout due to the PCP cab being inappropriately sited.  My typical luck. 

Are all cabinets going to get a child so if you are within 400m of your cab you should get faster speeds (mainly faster upload would be great)?

[gt94sss2]

All in all Id hope that the 160mbps should reach 400-500m when the changes are made.

I almost hope this doesn't happen - as it would encourage Openreach to run fibre/nodes deeper into the network - meaning those at 400-500 meters would then be able to get 300MB+

[skyeci]

Be interested to see if we get this eventually in frome? I am about 320 from my cabinet according to past engineers visit and its in a perfect place with plenty of space either side  for the additional cabinet.
Probably years away??

[S.Stephenson]

Well from http://gfastnews.com/index.php/90-r/230-tno-ultrabroadband

June 29, Frank Van der Putten will provide an update on standards. ITU is about to raise the power level permitted, which will help FT deliver 200 megabits 300 meters and more. BT's data suggest power can go higher without causing too much interference. Rob van den Brink will discuss "The relevance of advanced FEXT models for G.fast and VDSL/35b." Rob is one of the best informed experts in broadband and the leading consultant on technical planning.

So we will probably see some data on what effects this will have soon after.

[WWWombat]

So we will probably see some data on what effects this will have soon after.

Unfortunately, the details from last year's TNO conference haven't escaped into the wild yet, and Rob hasn't put his recent presentations on his own website either, so don't be too sure that we'll hear things in a hurry.

It'd be nice to hear, though...

[niemand]

In the BT Community forums, an Openreach employee - while being careful what he says because of the same rules that will apply to BS - is adamant that:

initially the G.fast node will be attached to the cabinet to serve customers within 350 mtrs. That will not cover 10m homes passed by 2020. To enable Openreach to pass 10m homes then the additional G.fast nodes must be erxtended from the cabinet to the dp thereby pushing fibre further into the network.

That employee is wrong. Andrew at Think Broadband will have more on this tomorrow.

[WWWombat]

A further thought on this part ...

a solution to use a 48 port G.FAST MA5818 chassis unit
a) at a PCP side pod, or
b) in a standalone G.FAST cabinet, or
c) in the existing NGA DSLAM cabinets

The second and third deployment variants suggest that deployments are indeed envisaged that won't involve a side-pod.

Obviously that includes those cases where someone inconveniently bricks-in the PCP, and places where a side-pod becomes a safety hazard for drivers or pedestrians. I wonder if it also suggests that deeper deployments are on the cards from nearer the beginning?

The 3rd option sounds really interesting. I wonder how many current NGA cabinets have room and infrastructure (like a beefy enough power supply) to fit an extra 2U DSLAM into place? I can't think of any pictures where there is enough space ... so I wonder if they mean they will swap out the entire DSLAM instead?

[gt94sss2]

That employee is wrong. Andrew at Think Broadband will have more on this tomorrow.

I thought so too - at least in that they can easily reach their 10million target from cabinets alone..

[S.Stephenson]

Unfortunately, the details from last year's TNO conference haven't escaped into the wild yet, and Rob hasn't put his recent presentations on his own website either, so don't be too sure that we'll hear things in a hurry.

It'd be nice to hear, though...

As it will be an new ITU standard it has to be put somewhere surely?

[WWWombat]

As it will be an new ITU standard it has to be put somewhere surely?

Think of the standard as a dry sets of facts that equate to the output of a few man-years of research. The standard says "Do A or B" without saying much about the circumstances you should take into account when choosing. Nor does it say much about the C, D, E, F or G that were rejected during discussions in the committee stages. Nor anything about options H-Z that were investigated and discarded in the labs beforehand.

Rob, on the other hand, *will* talk about those details.

This is an example of the kind of document the researchers take to ITU working groups
This is the kind of document he'd be presenting

ITU standards are strange beasts anyway. They aren't free initially - you have to be some sort of member - but you end up being able to download PDFs after perhaps a year.

[Black Sheep]

Well, the way forward is definitely pods attached to Copper Cabs ............... from Kim Mears.

Infrastructure Delivery are at the heart of delivering Openreach’s big bold plan. We’re the ones who are going to deliver the broader coverage and faster speeds to customers nationwide, with the help of the chief engineer’s office. 

We are hearing the `have nots’ and doing something about it. So, let’s talk about how we’re going faster – from superfast to ultrafast using both G.fast (which makes the copper connection from the cab go faster) and FTTP (replacing copper with fibre to the home from the exchange). You’ll start to see side pods which hold the G.fast electronics attached to our copper cabinets which will enable a faster signal to go further.

Following 566 successful G.Fast trials we’re preparing to go large. The first 80 G.Fast ‘sidepods’ – or as I fondly call them ‘pregnant cabs’ - will be deployed in Q3 across Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire and Gillingham, Kent. It’s then a steady ramp up in Q4, accelerating significantly the following year.

To get to our Ultrafast commitment of 12 million premises by 2020 our skilled teams of engineers and planners will be upskilled in order to deliver the Ultrafast challenge.

Kim
 

[WWWombat]

Following 566 successful G.Fast trials we’re preparing to go large. The first 80 G.Fast ‘sidepods’ – or as I fondly call them ‘pregnant cabs’ - will be deployed in Q3 across Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire and Gillingham, Kent. It’s then a steady ramp up in Q4, accelerating significantly the following year.

I'm surprised no-one picked up on this nugget so far...

Unless I miscounted, Codelook reports that Cherry Hinton and Gillingham currently have exactly 80 FTTC cabs live ... so Kim appears to be telling us that every single one will get a G.Fast pod on the associated PCP. Two cabs are being added to Cherry Hinton, so maybe a hint of cherry-picking going on there

[gt94sss2]

It will be interesting to see what Openreach do with cabinets where space is at a premium - such as here

I am pretty sure it was going to be recased a few months ago based on roadworks.org but nothing happened in the end. I assume they PCPs will need 'modern' casing for this to work.

An old thread but an update.

Openreach have left the old PCP in place but built a new one (with the same PCP number) a few meters away - I can't think of any reason why they would have done this, apart from some forward thinking re: space for g.fast pods..

The area has Virgin Media so I don't think they would have needed to do it to find more space for FTTC cable ties.