White Paper:
Modernizing Headend Documentation For Advanced Services
Services such as high-speed Internet access, video-on-demand, digital TV, and telephony have exponentially increased the complexity of headend management. Headend wiring adjustments to accommodate hub additions, hub splits, and traffic balancing have become very complex tasks. Equally challenging is troubleshooting and repairing specific node and server problems. The reality is that we have reached a point where headend documentation on paper, spreadsheets, or simple CAD drawings has become inadequate and far too time consuming when dealing with numerous changes or the urgency of outages.
This white paper explores the many advantages and efficiencies that result from state-of-the-art headend documentation and management systems based on "intelligent" CAD drawings integrated with relational databases. Through examples of typical node trace reports, datagenerated path diagrams, and asset tracking and equipment summaries, it illustrates how these systems can transform equipment inventory, connection tracking