ELi5: How do cable companies produce/provide internet service for customers?
In: Other
The very start of this is the cable companies head end office, where they will have a backbone fibre optic connection to one of the big players in internet backbone, Layer3 et al.
They feed this access into a type of large server called a CMTS. From the CMTS, they go to from the headend to a ‘node’ which is a large metal box that feeds individual neighborhoods.
In some systems this node will be fibre optic in, fibre optic out, in older areas it this might be the first point in the system that is actually coaxial cable.
From the node, you can then either feed ‘trunk’ amplifiers, which serve as smaller connection points for individual streets, or directly to ‘taps’; Taps are were individual houses and appartments are connected to.
Then your cable modem will sends modulated RF signal (called DOCSIS) back allll the way to the head end, where the CMTS will translate to regular IP out to the wider internet.
Source; cable tech
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