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Attenuation and noise margin query

Last post 24-02-2007, 11:58 AM by eelman. 3 replies.
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  •  22-02-2007, 7:06 PM 24768

    Attenuation and noise margin query

    Hi all,

     I've moved to a new house and despite the broadband connection taking longer than expected to transfer to the new place (many thanks to Alex in Customer Services for putting up with my frustrations after the two week mark) I am now up and running.

    Could someone in the know please offer feedback on the following values ?

    Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 11.5 / 12.0
    Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 5.0 / 6.0
    SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 28.0 / 30.0

    Now to the best of my knowledge the attenuation is good, signal to noise ratio looks ok too. TBH I'd welcome any feedback on what is considered a good (and realistic) value for the SN margin. What is the deal with output power though ? It's something I've not considered in the past, and want to know how important it is, what it relates to and so on.

     Thanks in advance for your feedback.

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  •  22-02-2007, 7:12 PM 24769 in reply to 24768

    Re: Attenuation and noise margin query

    You didn't say what speed you're syncing at, but with an attenuation as low as that you should get the maximum speed with ease (and I'm very jealous Crying )


    Eric 

  •  22-02-2007, 7:30 PM 24772 in reply to 24769

    Re: Attenuation and noise margin query

    Sorry to invoke envy, it wasn't my intention !

    I'm still on Home 2000 having never migrated to the Max DSL offerings. Seriously contemplating the 8000 Pro connection now since not only is it the same price as my current connection, I don't need to worry about bandwidth caps because in almost a year I've not exceeded 45 gig per month with typical usage being around 25 gig.

  •  24-02-2007, 11:58 AM 24801 in reply to 24768

    Re: Attenuation and noise margin query

    Agreed, your Up/Down SN margins are excellent -- you should experience no problems with values like these.

    However, the SN margin is frequency-dependent. The higher the Mbits/sec you connect at, the lowet the SN margin will go. Currently, you say, you are on Home 2000, so your SN margin is what you're getting for 2 Mbits/sec. If you move to a service which allows higher connection speeds, the SN margin will drop (until some sort of balance is attained between higher speed and higher fault rates).

    This is where my expertise stops. It would be good if someone, who knows how these things tend to depend on each other (and it's not a clear-cut relationship), would respond with an indication of what a Downstream SN margin of 30.0 would correspond to at connection speeds of 3Mbits/sec, 4Mbits/sec, ... , 8Mbits/sec. Then you would get an indication of what connection speeds you might expect if you "move up".

    As a rule of thumb, a Downstream SN margin of 12.0 shoujld be completely reliable, 10.0 probably reliable (though a bit vulnerable to spells of interference), 8.0 is getting unstable (distinctly vulnerable), and 6.0 is likely to give frequent trouble (disconnections, re-syncs, ... ).

    Hoping this helps! 

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