FDX/Unified DOCSIS

fmd · 2025-02-13T20:05:09+00:00

While we wait for the announcement that N+X deployment has officially begun... Unified is the new version of FDX that has downstream going all the way to 1.8 GHz (currently limited by old taps). The return still stops at 684 MHz. Comcast has presented this spectrum layout to begin with: This is sufficient to offer symmetrical 2 Gbps. When more of the legacy channels go away, higher speeds can be offered. 3.1 modems that get FDX-L (limited) firmware can use the FDX channels.

crucialcolin

fmd Could they be big enough for FDX amps/nodes?

Maybe that has something to do with it. Currently the nodes in the neighborhood are in larger Amphenol enclosures like these.

Suppose we will find out soon enough 🤞

crucialcolin

Well it looks like the contractor for Xfinity didn’t come out to our neighborhood this morning. Also the planned outage for tomorrow has been cancelled.

This week would have been good time for crews get their work done too with nice weather in the 80s. In a few weeks time those 100+ summer temps will be hitting hard.

So it’s back to waiting for FDX I guess.

cypherstream

On a local Facebook group for Berks County, Reading PA and surrounding areas, someone posted an xfinity planned outage notice and the link said “multi gigabit upload and download speeds”. So this is an area that was recently upgraded from SA 750 MHz gear to mid split Arris / Harmonic nodes. After running this mid split gear for about a year, sounds like they are going to swap some lids and mods for FDX. Gotta keep competing with Fastbridge Fiber, SECV fiber, and Kinetic fiber in appropriate neighborhoods.

Now only if they could better optimize their routing…

“Hi, it’s Xfinity Assistant.

We wanted to let you know that we’re scheduled to do work to enhance the Xfinity network in your neighborhood, starting on 06/17. You can expect service outages starting early in the morning while our teams work as quickly as possible to finish within the day. We’ll text you a reminder the day before work begins. We appreciate your patience and thank you for being an Xfinity customer.”
Link:
https://www.xfinity.com/network

crucialcolin

bigcoda I noticed they seemingly were back out today in my neighborhood marking some of the vertical housings now.

From the looks of thing it would appear they are relocating a couple of them about 50-100 ft in either direction along the roadway.

I feel sorry for the house who’s likely to end up with a larger horizontal enclosure literally right in line with their front door at the corner of their lawn though. Also the homeowners are liable to run it over while backing their vehicle out of the driveway. It’s essential the worst possible spot to put one.

This all has me wondering if they decided to replace the majority of the currently installed mid-split amps with nodes in the neighborhood bringing them closer to achieving a node+0 FDX setup?

bigcoda

crucialcolin I noticed they seemingly were back out today in my neighborhood marking some of the vertical housings now.

At least your seeing some action in your neighborhood. I haven’t seen any new markings in my neighborhood. They don’t use those vertical housings in my neighborhood. Are those for your amps or your taps? Our amp housing are all horizontal, our new nodes use the same larger Amphenol enclosure you posted above. Our taps are underground, inside a utility box.

crucialcolin

bigcoda At least your seeing some action in your neighborhood. I haven’t seen any new markings in my neighborhood. They don’t use those vertical housings in my neighborhood. Are those for your amps or your taps? Our amp housing are all horizontal, our new nodes use the same larger Amphenol enclosure you posted above. Our taps are underground, inside a utility box.

Those vertical ones are for amps. They also seem to have been a vanity thing for awhile allowing for smaller footprint. They’re more common in upper middle class neighborhoods built around the early 2000s. Someone probably thought they would either be less noticable or more architecturally pleasing design wise back then.

Our taps are a mix of being inside underground utility boxes and small green cylindrical pedestals similar to these.

bigcoda

crucialcolin I saw a group of Comcast contractors about four blocks away from my street today. They had the lids off the all the enclosures, they were installing brand new CommScope amps, and Harmonic Ripple Nodes. The strange thing is those nodes were replaced about three years ago, when we went Mid-Split, with brand new Harmonic Ripple nodes, and with the larger Amphenol enclosure. I thought they were able to swap the Pebble 1 module, with a Pebble 2 module on these Harmonic Ripple nodes? I definitely saw them swapping the whole node out, brand new out of the box and plastic. Maybe they don’t have the module on hand to swap in?

hitherelolz

Today in my neighborhood I noticed a few workers checking out each pole. One had a measuring stick and the other had a camera and possibly a GIS/GPS device. There are other lines on the poles both above and below, but they were particularly measuring just the height of Comcast’s lines and house drop cables. They measured my drop cable too, completely ignoring the power lines. I think I also saw one worker measuring the circumference of the poles.

Definitely seems like something is going on here. But I don’t know how I’d figure out if this was just a general inspection, FDX prep, or maybe other prep for a new pole attachment. I am on the “coming soon” list for another fiber provider as well. Comcast is the only attachment with drop cables as well. The other lines on the poles are just fiber transport of some sort.

cypherstream

hitherelolz Who’s the other fiber provider coming your way? It sounds like prep for new pole attachment. Comcast typically lashes new lines to existing strand using the same pole attachment.

retnbmn

hitherelolz This could also be prep for pole replacement. I had people in my backyard in summer 2025 and again earlier this year with measuring sticks. Then they replaced the pole two months ago and moved electrical to the new pole. The new pole is almost twice as tall as the old pole. Comcast and a newly installed fiber run (Quantum/Lumen/ATT) are still on the old pole. There is a definite need for the taller poles as I can reach up and touch the fiber run at its lowest point. I was told that all the poles on my block will be replaced. In addition to the need for greater height a card I was given indicated that the upgrade was to increase electrical capacity. The electrical infrastructure is 60 years old with no upgrades that I know of during that time, so it is likely that there are capacity issues.

hitherelolz

cypherstream
They’re known as Omni Fiber, I’m in one of the PA towns.
https://www.omnifiber.com

They seem like a relatively new provider. I can’t find much about them (like, how their network is set up, if they use cgnat or not, etc.).

cypherstream

hitherelolz Oh yeah they seem new. Interesting they have a wireless bundle as well. I wonder who’s network they ride on? Broadband facts card states 4ms typical latency. I’m getting 4ms ping to 1.1.1.1 with SECV fiber. I get 3 to 4 ms pings to my servers at work after I’m VPN’d in. Fibers great, keep an eye out.

We have a local anti-fiber guy in our community threads (Facebook and Nextdoor) that just puts laughing face reactions to anyone suggesting fiber or saying good things about fiber. I looked up the persons name on Linked in… sure enough a local Comcast Technical Operations Supervisor for the past 32 years, so maybe stuck in their own ways. Sure DOCSIS, HFC, all that engineering that goes into it to make it work is very interesting. Fiber “just works” and maybe because of that is boring? I guess.

cypherstream

Ah AI says omni mobile MVNO uses the AT&T network for 4G/5G. Not sure what you have but seems their fiber has a promo for 1 free unlimited mobile line with fiber internet, but it claims that offer expires on 6/30/2026 and your not even wired up yet. Oh well…

hitherelolz

cypherstream omni mobile MVNO uses the AT&T network for 4G/5G

Yeah, I’d probably jump on that deal if I could. Right now I have basic T-mobile, but I used to have AT&T, and around here they’re not bad at all. Oh well. Maybe by the time I’m wired up there will be some new promo. I also did already put in a pre order earlier this year, not sure if that will help me get it faster once (if) construction starts.

hitherelolz

retnbmn I didn’t consider that. Yeah, could also be a pole replacement. I’m not sure how far they inspected though, I could only see my block.

The electric grid around here is also pretty old, but the poles themselves visually look to be in good condition (to me at least) and are more than tall enough. There’s tons of unused space in the telecom area, and lines aren’t anywhere near the ground.

cypherstream

hitherelolz Fastbridge fiber here is opening up preorders to areas they are planning. Maybe it does help. A coworker had a door tag saying coming soon. He put in his 1/1gig preorder and excited to get off of Comcast. They are high latency here 30ms to Google. I’m only 7-8ms to Google. He thinks he’ll go to the cheapest Comcast and have it as the failover wan / IPv6, since we don’t think Fastbridge does IPv6.

crucialcolin

bigcoda I saw a group of Comcast contractors about four blocks away from my street today. They had the lids off the all the enclosures, they were installing brand new CommScope amps, and Harmonic Ripple Nodes. The strange thing is those nodes were replaced about three years ago, when we went Mid-Split, with brand new Harmonic Ripple nodes, and with the larger Amphenol enclosure. I thought they were able to swap the Pebble 1 module, with a Pebble 2 module on these Harmonic Ripple nodes? I definitely saw them swapping the whole node out, brand new out of the box and plastic. Maybe they don’t have the module on hand to swap in?

I was wondering which one of us might see activity first.

I don’t know it sure does wasteful to cut and replace everything again especially when Mid-split can be easily upgraded by changing out the modules after only a few years.

I’m assuming someone did a long term cost benefit analysis that determined labor costs would be lower to just replace everything a second time. Maybe the contractor crews only have minimal training necessary to cut and replace but nothing further. Or maybe Xfinity wants all nodes & amps in the field to be as uniform as possible for later serviceability (That is established neighborhoods will now have exactly the same equipment as new builds).

It is definitely an odd choice.

cypherstream

crucialcolin mods should be replaceable for less cost and less downtime.

Maybe this requires less technical ability and those nodes go back to be refurbished with ripple 2 FDX gear for reuse in other markets.

Heck everyone made mid split drop ins for all the old stuff… GI/Moto, SA, CCOR…. Comcast still cut it all out to put the arris stuff in.

My cable co went from Magnavox 750 to Phillips 860 to Arris/ccor 1gig mid split in all the same hosings. Why? It was faster and cheaper to replace mods.

Now they did an xgs-PON system so I’ve moved on. Waiting to see if the new mid split Comcast system here will retaliate and swap this new stuff for FDX. They did in a county over, but still not offering FDX speeds yet.

bigcoda

crucialcolin Still waiting for a crew to come down my street to replace the three amps they have marked for replacement. I’m assuming it will be in the near future, since there only about four blocks away.

crucialcolin

cypherstream mods should be replaceable for less cost and less downtime.

Maybe this requires less technical ability and those nodes go back to be refurbished with ripple 2 FDX gear for reuse in other markets.

Yeah I wonder where that old equipment is going myself. That is besides being a potential technical ability reason. Maybe they are sending it to another provider like Rogers cable in Canada (since the two have a partnership). I can’t really think of any smaller cable providers in the US who might benefit since much of those have already converted to FTTH. Locally Astound/Wave broadband was an example.

Moffetts

Comcast’s lack of efficiency when it comes to hardware replacement is kind of impressive to behold.

Zenit_IIfx

Moffetts It really is something. They re-replace gear in areas already upgraded, while there is tons of territory that has not been touched at all in years yet! In my area there is an oddball mix of mid-split built over the past 2 years and legacy split with segments that have not been touched in possibly decades. There is no real pattern to which sections of plant get the upgrade first that can be discerned outside looking in. It isn’t based on age, from what I can tell.

The only way this makes sense is if this new-ish gear goes back for refurb. Hopefully they are not throwing out otherwise good gear!

crucialcolin

bigcoda Still waiting for a crew to come down my street to replace the three amps they have marked for replacement. I’m assuming it will be in the near future, since there only about four blocks away

Same. It was weird I got that daytime service outage noticed the other week but nothing came of it. All I have now is 1am routine maintenance scheduled overnight tomorrow 6/26.

I have noticed they aren’t really sending out network upgrade notices in our region lately with the contractor more often than not just going ahead and doing the work. Stumbled into a fair share by seeing people moaning on FB/Nextdoor that their Xfinity seevice has been out most of the morning into the afternoon lol

We’ll see what happens…

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