How to Remove the Pain of CAF-II Monitoring and Reporting - A White Paper - National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC)
How to Remove the Pain of CAF-II Monitoring and Reporting – A White Paper

Overview

The FCC issued updated requirements for ISPs to measure and report on their ability to meet their advertised internet speeds last July. There are strict requirements for who, what and when to perform the testing and reporting. We provide a summary of these requirements and an overview of how ISPs can meet them with the least amount of pain possible.

Who, What and When?

WHO – ISPs who are Price-Cap, Rate-of-Return, Alaska Plan and CAF Phase II and Rural Broadband Experiment federal support recipients. If you have accepted federal funds in these programs, you are included.

WHAT – ISPs must perform FCC mandated speed and latency testing from active subscribers’ premises through FCC designated regional IXPs. All tests must terminate or pass through one of these 16 IXP cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Helena, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, St. Paul, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. These locations were selected to support a distance of not more than 500 air miles between the subscriber’s location and the regional IXP.

Any ISP with over 500 subscribers must select 50 locations per state per speed tier offered. The subscribers to be included in the tests must be randomly chosen from active subscribers at the beginning of the testing period and then every two years thereafter. Once chosen they cannot be excluded during or after the testing.

WHEN – Testing must start July 2019 covering Q3 and Q4 of 2019 with the first certification date of July 1, 2020. Testing for the full years of 2020 and 2021 will continue thereafter with the respective certification reports due July 1 of 2021 and 2022.

How to Do the Testing

  1. Measuring Broadband America (MBA) Testing Method
    This is a subscription-based, measuring service using third-party test clients and servers, using “white boxes” that are added in the subscribers’ homes.

    • Benefits
      • This is an existing service supporting compliance reporting.
    • Issues
      • Incremental costs for the subscription test service and to install and maintain the white boxes that provide no visible subscriber benefit, and may even incite digital privacy and security concerns.
      • It may require subscriber incentives for having an extra device in their home, and with these white boxes not present in all homes, you don’t get the benefit of the broader operations performance of your entire network.
      • The ISP may be testing performance in a non-managed household, which adds risk to test results.
  2. Testing Method Using Existing Network Management Systems
    For ISPs that use managed residential gateways or routers, for example with a TR-069 ACS, the testing can be done using the built-in speed and ping test diagnostics following the TR-143 standards

    • Benefits
      • No extra hardware needed in the subscriber home.
      • No extra costs or truck rolls for installation and support of extra boxes.
      • Nothing extra in the home to explain to subscribers nor incentives needed.
    • Issues
      • Some residential gateways may need to be upgraded to be capable of meeting the test performance needed for the fastest speed tiers, such as for 1G service. This can be planned as part of needed upgraded gateways (faster WiFi) and still avoid added boxes.
  3. ISP Developed Self-testing Method
    The FCC also permits self-managed testing and reporting. The ISP can choose their own generic test client box, such as a Raspberry Pi unit, and manage the test servers.

    • Benefits
      • No subscription cost as everything under control of the ISP.
    • Issues (The issues are the same as for the MBA testing method)
      • Incremental costs to install and maintain the white boxes that provide no visible subscriber benefit.
      • It may require subscriber incentives for having an extra device in their home. It is not feasible to monitor a larger percentage for better operations management.
      • There is added risk for the ISP to prepare and operate their own tests that must be very specific requirements. Also, the ISP may be testing performance in a non-managed household, which adds risk to test results.

The Best Way to Remove Pain and Provide Benefit to your Operations

Industry Standard Performance Diagnostics Tools using TR-069 / TR-143
We recommend that ISPs use method 2 by adopting fully manageable internet gateways with manageable WiFi, including speed and ping test diagnostics. These work with industry standard management systems based on the TR-069 from the Broadband Forum, such as NISC’s User Services System.

Features

  • Automated installation
  • Managed WiFi including WiFi connectivity diagnostics monitoring and customer support tools
  • Automated performance monitoring for FCC-mandated CAF-II reporting, and quality operations management based on the TR-143 standard that is widely supported by standard residential gateways and managed routers

Benefits

  • No extra hardware to install or added truck rolls as it uses the managed CPE you need to deliver the service
  • Nothing extra to explain to subscribers
  • Delivers improved management, monitoring, customer support and customer self-care tools in addition to the FCC required testing and reporting
  • Testing and reporting are based on widely adopted management standards from Broadband Forum and popular CPE and management systems

The Real Performance Challenge and Bottleneck  –  WiFi Inside the Home

Today’s growing demands for high-quality, high-performance video streaming are pushing the need for reliable, fast internet service inside the home to the WiFi that your subscribers are using to connect nearly all of their devices to your broadband service. While the FCC is mandating testing and compliance with the internet speed tiers that you advertise, your true support calls pain is moving inside the home to troubleshoot problems with slow WiFi, causing a true bottleneck to subscriber satisfaction. It has become critical to monitor and manage both the internet connections that you deliver outside of the home and within the home to the WiFi devices that your subscribers use. The best option is to address both WiFi speed bottlenecks and the CAF-II reporting requirements with one common solution – for which NISC’s User Services System is perfectly suited.

NISC’s User Services System Solution

Secure and Simplified Managed WiFi, Enabling Automated CAF-II Testing and Reporting

Key Features

  • Provides a turn-key testing and reporting service that meets the FCC mandated requirements for speed and latency testing and reporting as specified by DA-18-710A1.
  • Provides additional reporting and monitoring you need to ensure your services meet your performance offers to your subscribers, not just the reporting mandated by the FCC.
  • Works with standard WiFi managed CPE from popular vendors, such as Adtran, Arris, Calix, Comtrend, Technicolor, TP-Link, Zyxel and others that support the TR-143 standard.
  • Automates secure provisioning and remote management of broadband services spanning firmware management, bulk job orchestration, advanced connectivity and performance diagnostics, remote and self-care, and subscriber QoS insights.
  • Delivers high quality, managed WiFi services experience that helps you reach the full speed potential of your internet service to the devices your subscribers use.

Availability

  • The CAF-II Testing and Reporting Service is available from NISC for ISPs who use or adopt NISC’s User Services System.

Speed and Traffic Monitoring Examples with User Services System

This is an automated speed testing example for a 200 Meg service with a Zyxel EMG6726 gateway, measured with the NISC User Services System ACS and TR-143 automated diagnostics. Also shown is the total traffic monitoring that is available along with many other performance monitoring tools.

About NISC

National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC) is an information technology organization that develops, implements and supports software and hardware solutions for our Members. We deliver advanced solutions, services and support to 835 independent telecommunication companies, electric cooperatives and other public power entities. NISC is an industry leader providing information technology solutions including billing, accounting, operations, automated mailroom services, third-party integration as well as many other solutions. With facilities in Mandan, N.D., Lake Saint Louis, Mo., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Shawano, Wis., Blacksburg, Va., and now Austin, Texas, NISC and its subsidiaries employ more than 1,300 professionals between the six locations. Additional information about NISC can be found at nisc.coop. Click here to learn more about the NISC User Services System.