IPv6 uptake

Sun Feb 18 21:46:02 UTC 2024

Michael Thomas wrote on 18/02/2024 21:18:
> So it has its own wireless? I seem to recall that there were some 
> economic reasons to use their CPE as little as possible to avoid rent. 
> Has that changed? Or can I run down and just buy a Cablelabs certified 
> router/modem these days?

There's no short answer to this question. A third party cable modem will 
work with a basic CM config file if you can convince the cable operator 
to provision the device, but cable operators don't like running third 
party kit on their network for a lot of reasons. One of these reasons is 
bandwidth channel utilisation. Another is support. Another would be 
software upgrades, which can lead to issues with security. Also, if you 
use a vanilla cable modem config, you miss out on many of the more 
interesting configurable bits on cable modems.

The root issue here is that cable networks are shared resources, and the 
cable modem polices the customers' bandwidth utilisation on instruction 
from the CMTS (head-end cable router) and the provisioning system. The 
system works well from a technical perspective when the operator has 
full control of all modems and they're all relatively recent, properly 
supported units, fully managed by the cable operator. If you start 
adding poor quality cheap units into the mix, it can cause service problems.

For example, some cable modems provide basic spectrum analysers on the 
provider interface (yes, cable operators can remotely log in to cable 
modems) and good quality reporting about RF noise. If you get some 
hobbyist demanding to use their own modem, and then you run into an RF 
problem at their premises which could normally be diagnosed remotely 
using the internal cable modem diagnostics, but you can't do this 
because the customer has used their own kit which doesn't support this, 
then you've instantly driven up your cost of service because now you 
need to schedule a call-out for something which could previously have 
been diagnosed remotely. So you can see why this might be frustrating 
for the cable modem operator.

Cable modem rent is a political issue.

Nick