Interface Practices Subcommittee (IPS)
Tim Cooke
Director of Product Management, Amphenol Broadband Solutions
Subcommittee Chair
Charter: The Interface Practices Subcommittee (IPS) develops standards and operational practices for active and passive equipment, including cables and connectors, used in broadband communications systems. The focus of the work is in the access network, including headends, hubs, outside plant, and customer premises. The work includes standards for the physical construction and performance of the equipment, as well as test procedures for measuring the performance and compliance of the equipment. In general, the test procedures are designed to be lab-grade measurements. Standards and operational practices for in-service measurements of broadband communications systems are normally created and maintained in the Network Operations Subcommittee (NOS).
The IPS focus is hardware specifications and test procedures for equipment and cabling including standards for fiber to the premises such as RF over Glass (RFoG). IPS is responsible to create and maintain standards for physical interconnections and performance specifications for outside plant, including cables, connectors, passives, and actives. IPS also creates and maintains plant construction and maintenance operational practices for coax and fiber, including best practices and safety requirements.
IPS is updating a wide range of passive and active devices to meet the demands of DOCSIS® 3.1, tighter regulations, and MoCA® interoperability
Working Groups:
1 – Active devices
The IPS Actives working group creates standards and operational practices related to active equipment, excluding fiberoptic devices, that are used in the access network, including headends, hubs, outside plant, and customer premises. This working group is creating the Generic Access Platform (GAP) standards, which will serve as a set of physical, thermal, mechanical, electrical interfaces for the internals of a node housing and will allow equipment manufacturers to devote their value-adding efforts to the service-generating modules that reside inside the enclosure. Any module that is compliant with the GAP specification will be able to coexist with other GAP-compliant modules
2 – Passive devices
The IPS Passives working group creates standards and operational practices related to passive equipment, excluding cables and connectors, that are used in the access network, including headends, hubs, outside plant, and customer premises.
3 – Connector & Cable testing
The IPS Cables and Connectors working group creates standards and operational practices related to metallic cables and connectors, excluding fiberoptic components.
5 – Fiber Optic Interface
The IPS Fiber Optics working group creates standards and operational practices related to fiber optic equipment, including actives, passives, cables and connectors, that are used in the access network, including headends, hubs, outside plant, and customer premises.
6 – Construction & Maintenance
The IPS Construction and Maintenance working group creates standards and operational practices related to the construction and maintenance of the access network.