Impulse Noise: Nothing New, But More Critical than Ever Before!

Impulse noise, which is a type of electromagnetic interference (EMI) typically emanating from power transmission, radio, TV, electronics, and cell phones, presents a host of challenges for today’s broadband service providers.

Intermittent by nature, it has the tendency to defy traditional plant troubleshooting methods, making it more difficult to detect and analyze. And, while it is not new to the outside plant (OSP) and customer premises, it has become more prevalent with the rise of the latest high-speed DSL technologies (including VDSL2). That’s because these technologies typically operate at critical SNR margins and use a much broader part of the frequency spectrum—making them more vulnerable to impulse noise than legacy voice or ADSL.

Because impulse noise and EMI are often the source of chronic troubles that go undetected, broadband service providers must first succeed in detecting, capturing and analyzing impulse noise before they can mitigate its effects.

However, isolating impulse noise and EMI requires a different approach to testing and different mitigation techniques. For all the details, read the Capturing and Analyzing Impulse Noise application note.