nbn HFC CMTS & RFB (RF Backhaul) deployment

During 2016 Telstra were engaged to deploy the CMTS and RFB solution for nbn, nationally. The deployment would be rapid and include works in metropolitan VIC, NSW, QLD (inc Gold Coast), SA & WA. The difficulty was that although all of the design work had been completed by nbn and their chosen technology partners, no one had actually deployed the solution yet.

TPS assisted Telstra to develop a pre-stage rack construction model, and to further conduct the very first deployment in Western Australia. In the second Quarter of 2016, TPS successfully deployed the first production CMTS in the nbn network at the Mullaloo telephone exchange in Western Australia, and constructed and commissioned a RF backhaul solution between Mullaloo and Ocean Reef. Once construction was completed, we activated and tested the very first NTD (cable modem), connecting it to a network tap in a roadside pit which was part of the then Telstra production HFC network.

All parties took learnings from the complicated deployment, which enabled refinement of the deployable solution. TPS then conducted further deployments in; Joondalup WA, Merrimac QLD, Ashmore QLD, Eight Mile Plains QLD, Edwardstown SA, St Marys SA, Unley SA, Carramar NSW, Liverpool NSW, Wetherill Park NSW, Miller NSW, Wheelers Hill VIC and Springvale VIC. As a result of these further deployments, we were able to standardize rack construction and configuration enabling volume contractors to take over and complete the deployment whilst TPS focused their specialized and skilled technicians on other more complicated work activities. We produced a series of instructional documents that detailed agreed power wiring, alarm wiring, sub-rack base configurations and associated activities which would allow for successful pre-staging to occur.