As we’ve discussed before, the growing digital footprint within consumer’s homes creates tremendous opportunities for broadband carriers. But with opportunities, come challenges as well and the Broadband Forum’s latest release, BroadbandSuite™ 4.1, aims to address some of them.
“This release looks at the ever expanding ecosystem of the Connected Home and addresses for the first time service requirements of triple play and beyond to include machine-to-machine applications including metering, monitoring as well as teleworking support,” states the Broadband Forum, a broadband industry trade group, in a news release explaining the digital home initiative.
With more of a focus on DSL, considering 60% of the world’s broadband connections are DSL according to the Broadband Forum, BroadbandSuite™ 4.1 provides a group of specifications referred to as the DSL Quality Management (DQM) Suite. The new suite aims to distinguish trouble or connectivity issues between the serving DSL circuit into the digital home versus all of the connected devices within that home.
In other words, with the plethora of connected devices in the digital home, a range of problems can arise — some of which are attributable to the broadband connection, and some of which are not. After all, all of those devices and the in-home network which connects them can create their own set of problems. More often than not, regardless of which issue is to blame, it generates contact with a carrier’s customer service center. BroadbandSuite 4.1 is a set of tools that will help broadband carriers identify the real culprit.
Topics covered in the BroadbandSuite 4.1 release include:
- DSL Quality Management (DQM) Suite of TRs
- Broadband Architecture recommendations
- ADSL2plus & Splitter functional measurements
- IPTV Performance Monitoring and Diagnostics
- BBF Value Proposition for Connected Home white paper
- BroadbandSuite 4.1 Release Companion Guide
Indeed, as more and more customers adopt the digital lifestyle and all of its tools, the accompanying support requirement of their digital lifestyle enablers, namely broadband carriers, increases as well. We’re on record as believing this challenge represents an opportunity. Customers will look for support from somewhere and will probably be willing to pay for it, assuming it meets their expectation and makes their digital lifestyle functional and enjoyable.
