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Author Topic: Emulating OpenReach ADSL & VDSL  (Read 2374 times)

iamacarpet

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Emulating OpenReach ADSL & VDSL
« on: August 09, 2018, 11:54:42 AM »

Hello,

I work for a small re-seller ISP, who also own a chain of retail stores in the UK that use our broadband services.

As part of a project to refresh the networking hardware in the retail stores, I'm looking to set up a test environment for our support staff that emulates the (A/V)DSL connections that come from BT OpenReach.

My plan is to give them a Web UI to configure the ports with different sync speeds and PPPoE login details, so they can make it match the customers real connection, allowing them to test modem/router device configurations before they ship.

I'm looking to purchase a Huawei MA5616 DSLAM with two line cards:
    CALE: 32*ADSL2+ +32*POTS
    CVLC/CVLE: 32VDSL2+32POTS
While according to your main site, those aren't the ones in use by OpenReach (at least for VDSL), it should allow me to fully emulate a voice+data line on the same device, for both ADSL2+ and VDSL FTTC.

Does anyone have any idea what configuration and/or line profiles OpenReach are using on their Huawei MA5616 kit?

Regards,
iamacarpet
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Weaver

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Re: Emulating OpenReach ADSL & VDSL
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2018, 11:59:55 AM »

Welcome to the forum, Iamacarpet! I should think someone here will be able to help you.
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ejs

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Re: Emulating OpenReach ADSL & VDSL
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2018, 04:42:45 PM »

Some of the VDSL2 profiles are specified in BT SIN 498 and ND1436.

I suspect the retransmission profiles are more correct in ND1436 than SIN 498 (regarding INPMIN_REIN_RTX).
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iamacarpet

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Re: Emulating OpenReach ADSL & VDSL
« Reply #3 on: August 10, 2018, 09:59:30 AM »

Thanks guys,

ejs - brilliant, there's a LOT of information to sift through there, but a quick read looks like it has most of what I'll need, thank you!

If only they'd publish in the Huawei configuration language, as that's going to be one hell of a steep learning curve ???.
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j0hn

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Re: Emulating OpenReach ADSL & VDSL
« Reply #4 on: August 10, 2018, 11:10:48 AM »

I see absolutely no benefit on setting this up to be honest.

There is absolutely nothing user configurable that you can test on the Huawei DSLAM's that will also work in the live OpenReach network.
OpenReach have everything pretty locked down.

Quote
My plan is to give them a Web UI to configure the ports with different sync speeds and PPPoE login details, so they can make it match the customers real connection, allowing them to test modem/router device configurations before they ship.

I understand wishing to test the PPPoE login stuff but none of that comes from the DSLAM and can all be tested without 1.

Every single modem you ship for FTTC (VDSL2) needs to be configured the exact same way. This doesn't change between ISP's at all.

PTM
VDSL2
ANNEX B
Profile 17a
VLAN:
802.1q: 101
802.1p: 1

This is the only user configurable options (That work), and they need to be exactly this or you won't achieve sync.

Then there's the ADSL kit.
The settings for that will be completely different.
OpenReach don't run this from Huawei MA5616's.

I don't see the point in spending what I deem to be a lot of money on a very modern/expensive/capable DSLAM to try emulate a PPP connection.
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iamacarpet

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Re: Emulating OpenReach ADSL & VDSL
« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2018, 11:46:47 AM »

I understand to test PPP between two ethernet devices is straight forward without a DSLAM, but in our case most of the CPE devices they are configuring to ship to customers are integrated modems with the WAN port being ADSL/VDSL only, so without the DSLAM in the middle, you can't test, can you?

Quote
There is absolutely nothing user configurable that you can test on the Huawei DSLAM's that will also work in the live OpenReach network.
OpenReach have everything pretty locked down.

It isn't about playing with DSLAM settings to test that side of things, it's the CPEs we are concerned with.

The config on the Huawei is just about about getting close enough to what OpenReach use, without needing to be exactly the same (as you mentioned about the ADSL hardware), that we can do end-to-end testing on multiple CPEs without needing to have loads of actual OpenReach lines up to the office, with the added benefit of being able to test with the desired PPPoE login and force a slow sync speed if we want to test QoS, etc.

While those other configurable settings for the CPE are fairly straight forward, the CPEs we are shipping vary a lot between customers (no ideal, I know) and to have them arrive on site only to not work out of the box if our support engineers haven't set them up correctly is fairly embarrassing - arguably worth the investment in the DSLAM by itself, since centralized config generation doesn't seem like an option in all instances.

Having an environment for our engineers to learn on, end-to-end comfort test whole environments with before deployment and experiment with close emulations of real world scenarios has been invaluable in the past and it's something I'm confident that for the sake of a ~£600 investment will bring us a lot of benefits - although perhaps I am being naive, only time will tell  :P
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j0hn

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Re: Emulating OpenReach ADSL & VDSL
« Reply #6 on: August 10, 2018, 01:52:11 PM »

I understand it was for configuring the CPE and not the DSLAM.
My point was there are almost no DSL changes on your CPE you could get wrong.

Quote
PTM
VDSL2
ANNEX B
Profile 17a
VLAN:
802.1q: 101
802.1p: 1

This is all you can/need to configure on the DSL part of your CPE.
Things like SRA/PhyR can't be disabled or enabled, their selection in the CPE is irrelevant.
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ejs

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Re: Emulating OpenReach ADSL & VDSL
« Reply #7 on: August 10, 2018, 03:55:00 PM »

The ADSL equipment in the exchanges isn't actually operated by Openreach, it's BTWholesale, and LLU providers with their own equipment (such as Sky and TalkTalk).
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