BDS Customer Premises Equipment and Installation

Question 1

What is the purpose of the ground block at a subscriber's home entry point?

Accepted Answer

To connect the coaxial shield to the home's grounding electrode system, protecting equipment from lightning and electrical surges

Answer

To amplify the signal entering the home

Answer

To provide a weatherproof connector for outdoor cable

Answer

To split the signal to multiple rooms

Question 2

What is a cable modem's downstream receive power operating range per DOCSIS specification?

Accepted Answer

–15 to +15 dBmV

Answer

0 to +10 dBmV

Answer

–7 to +7 dBmV

Answer

+10 to +30 dBmV

Question 3

What is a MoCA adapter and what problem does it solve?

Accepted Answer

A device that uses existing coaxial cable in the home to create a home network, avoiding the need to run new Ethernet wiring

Answer

A modem-over-coax adapter that replaces the cable modem

Answer

A coaxial cable amplifier for whole-home distribution

Answer

A mesh Wi-Fi node that connects to the headend via coax

Question 4

What does a cable technician check when a subscriber reports slow internet speeds but the modem appears online?

Accepted Answer

Check downstream receive power, upstream transmit power, SNR/MER, uncorrectables, and T3/T4 timeout counts in the modem's diagnostic page or CMTS

Answer

Replace the modem immediately

Answer

Verify the subscriber's credit card is on file

Answer

Reboot the headend CMTS

Question 5

What is the maximum recommended length for a standard RG-6 subscriber drop to maintain acceptable signal levels?

Accepted Answer

300 feet

Answer

150 feet

Answer

500 feet

Answer

1,000 feet

Question 6

What is the function of a PoE (Point of Entry) filter installed at the ground block?

Accepted Answer

It prevents upstream ingress noise generated inside the home from entering the cable plant, while passing downstream signals unaffected

Answer

It blocks all signals above 1 GHz from entering the home

Answer

It amplifies the downstream signal to compensate for the ground block insertion loss

Answer

It separates the MoCA home network signal from the DOCSIS upstream signal