Quote:
Originally Posted by Kushan
Would it need a separate DOCSIS service flow? Could it not just have one, provisioned at say 50Mbit above the customer's tier, then use some QoS/subnet routing/etc. to give the separate non-customer "wireless router" it's own IP address and bandwidth allocation separate from the customer's own? Isn't that basically what BT has done with theirs?
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No it isn't what BT has done. When a BT connection's guest network is being used it is using the same pool of bandwidth as the host. The QoS is done at the router to restrict the guest network but it can and does slow down the connection of the owner of the router by up to 2Mb.
The only viable way to deliver a separate pool of bandwidth is another service flow. A second IP address would mean allowing multiple IPs on the one service flow, meaning the CPE has to do some jiggery pokery else the owner of the hub can just take 2 sets of IP addresses in bridge mode.
Even if that jiggery pokery were done you then need to have a separate rate limiting scheme for that IP range - as you are using the same service flow this rate limiting has to be done on the IP side of the CMTS as the CMTS can't do per-flow limiting. It can and does handle shaping all traffic matching a particular parameter however it can't split that into individual flows - the Allot kit would have to come into play.
Now, bridge mode - this has to then be complicated by having a separate router instance running simultaneously with the bridge to allow for guest WiFi access whether in router or bridge, or deactivate the guest network if in bridge.
Other options on the WAN side are to have 2 different sets of config files, one with a single service flow and one with two, depending whether the customer consents to being used as an access point or not or to use PacketCable and dynamically add service flows to modems when a customer connects to the AP.
As far as the LAN side goes, the bridge mode option is to deactivate the guest network along with the rest of the routing functionality in bridge mode.
None of it trivial. As far as CPE goes VM would be needing a whole new CPE that already has guest network functionality to rebrand. I'm not sure if the Superhub 3 has this as I only know about what's on the cable side of that beast.