~ Why Monitor & Measure
Cable Leakage?
Control of Cable Leakage in 2000
The Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) in the United
States and the CENELEC in Europe
are two government agencies respon-
sible for regulating the cable industry
and enforcing technical standards
regarding cable system leakage in
their respective countries. Each regu-
latory body closely monitors the cable
industry in order to protect the public
from radio frequency (RF) signal leak-
age escaping out of cable systems.
For example, unmanaged signal leak-
age can have a dramatic effect on
external radio signals critical for air
traffic control. In order to insure
public safety, the FCC and CENELEC
require that cable systems maintain
their signal leakage levels within
acceptable limits or face the conse-
quences of extensive fines and/or loss
of the use of certain channels. For
more information regarding govern-
ment regulations, please refer to
Appendix A and B.
There are two types of leakage, egress
and ingress. Egress is RF signals that
escape out of the cable system into
the environment. Ingress is RF sig-
nals, noise or interference that get
into the cable system causing prob-
lems related to customer service.
Controlling signal leakage out of the
system has a beneficial two-fold
effect. As we discussed, control of
leakage out of the system will reduce
potential hazards to public safety.
Consequently, a second benefit
results, when signal leakage out of the
cable system is controlled, the poten-
tial for signal leakage into the cable
system is also reduced. By prevent-
ing leakage into the cable system, we
are preventing signal interference,
which can disrupt service to cus-
tomers using advanced cable modem,
digital TV set-tops, and telephony-on-
cable. Cable operators agree that
future labor costs spent on finding
leakage and internal interference
sources can be reduced by as much as
20%-30% if signal leakage could be
detected and repaired more efficient-
ly. To assist field technicians combat
service interrupted by ingress, ACTER-
NA provides leakage meters equipped
with ingress measurement functions.
Government Regulation of System
Leakage
In order to enforce government cable
leakage regulations, the FCC conducts
random bi-annual fly-overs using a
sensitive airborne measurement sys-
tem designed to map the overall leak-
age of the cable system in a designat-
ed area. Results of these inspections
are taken very seriously by the cable
industry. Recent research shows that
preventing ingress improves the over-
all quality of cable service. All cable
plant services, including analog TV,
improve. Cable systems should con-
sider the benefits of implementing an
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