Telenor upgraded to the latest edge QAM technology

Telenor Sweden is the second largest provider of Cable TV services to the consumer market in Sweden. The company delivers analogue and digital TV services over its CATV networks to around 250,000 households and it targets at providing its subscribers with a great customer experience through seamless and engaging services.

Customer need

Following the end-of-life of the company’s previous edge QAM platform, Telenor needed a future-proof digital headend for the delivery of broadcast TV throughout its nationwide network.

The upgrade was preceded by a deep testing of edge QAM solutions in the market, and the Teleste Luminato 4X4 platform was selected for the deployment for its versatile features and ensured continuity of the platform. Teleste was also able to meet Telenor’s specific requirements for a 28 QAM DVB-C QAM module and 24/7 technical support during and after the installation.

Solution to customer’s need

Luminato 4X4 is the newest headend in the market, providing cable TV operators with a compact and ultra-dense edge QAM platform. The future-proof platform ensures availability of high-performance broadcast TV services for years to come and allows operators to freely scale up their video services when the need for channels such as high quality 4K increases.

The platform enables operators to manage all their TV channels in one rack unit. Combined with proven reliability and features such as reduced power consumption, this makes the platform an ideal choice for operators that are looking for a high-performance, sustainable solution for TV delivery.

Telenor’s edge QAM application in detail:

• All the required 28 QAMs are modulated by a single Dense QAM module with flexible frequency selection
• Receiving IP signals as Single Program Transport Streams (SPTS) as well as multiplexing and DVB-C modulation are performed inside the same chassis
• Using Luminato’s internal PSI/SI proxy designed for Edge QAM applications for a more reliable table transmission in case of network or source failures
• Possibility to Use Command line interface (CLI) for managing devices centrally
• Possibility to monitor devices centrally using SNMP or API
• LDAP used for secure user validation
• Flexibility of configurations through possibility to remux local channels in several different locations
• Generating centrally PSI/SI tables to all Edge QAMs with Teleste Broadcast Manager

Installation of the edge QAMs in Telenor’s network was carried out quickly and easily as the devices were partially preconfigured by Telenor before delivering those to separate locations. After installation, final tuning of the devices was done remotely, thus avoiding time-consuming on-site visits and unnecessary truck roll.

Benefits achieved

Luminato 4X4 provides Telenor with long product lifecycle and continuous feature development in the future. With its 1G and 10G ports the platform is easily adopted to both current and future needs, and its 4+4 Ethernet ports allow various configurations for redundant network architectures. Uninterrupted services are also supported by redundant power supplies.

In addition, the platform enables several development paths for future broadcast TV distribution needs, including:

• Deeper integration with Teleste’s CATVisor Argus management tool, allowing more advanced management features
• Readiness for distributed access networks through Video Core and Video Engine capability
• Possibility to use different redundancy mechanisms including IP stream redundancy on input signals, 1+1 chassis redundancy, module redundancy within single chassis
• Possibility to extend the edge QAM system from 28 QAMs to 32 QAMs per single module

Teleste also provided comprehensive training to Telenor prior to the rollout to ensure that possible technical, operating, maintenance and troubleshooting aspects were covered well in advance of field deployments. Continuous availability of software updates and improvements as well as immediate support in technical issues are guaranteed by Teleste’s 24/7 technical support, backed up by Teleste’s own R&D.

Customer comments / quotation

The cooperation between Telenor and Teleste has been superb throughout the whole journey. Really good support and training. The project proceeds well and goes beyond our expectations. We have had minimal customer impact, in principle none at all. The fact that we have had the project planned, procured, trained, configured, rolled out, and migrated under just one year is amazing.

Thomas Nordh, Project leader TV services at Telenor