No ports available?

Shyboy

Hi All,

I wonder if anyone can solve a strange problem for a neighbour of mine? My area has had FTTH for the past 18 months and myself and many others have it.

Another neighbour next door wants it now but they are being told that there are no ports available at the moment? They confirmed this by using an eircode checker on a FTTH reseller and their eircode says "no ports available".

I tried my Eircode (even though I have FTTH) and yes, no ports available. But if I check a number of other houses in the area, FTTH is showing as available. These are houses literally two and three houses away.

Are ports on the DP boxes (on the poles) themselves? I think the houses that are showing as available are connected to other DP's in the area?

Could anyone shed any light as to why one DP would be showing as no ports available but the others are ok?

ED E

Shyboy wrote: »

Could anyone shed any light

How houses are there per optical split? Should be capacity for 8 iirc.

Shyboy

ED E wrote: »

How houses are there per optical split? Should be capacity for 8 iirc.

Thanks for that, Ed E. When you say optical split, do you mean that each DP box should have capacity for 8 houses?

Hmm...if that's the case, this particular DP is right outside my house and I would be very surprised if 8 houses are currently connected to it. There are only 4 houses within reasonable distance from it (and I don't think all of them have FTTH). There are much nearer DP's to the next houses along.

tsue921i8wljb3

Shyboy wrote: »

Thanks for that, Ed E. When you say optical split, do you mean that each DP box should have capacity for 8 houses?

Hmm...if that's the case, this particular DP is right outside my house and I would be very surprised if 8 houses are currently connected to it. There are only 4 houses within reasonable distance from it (and I don't think all of them have FTTH). There are much nearer DP's to the next houses along.

There may be a potential that only four premises could be served from the DP. Can you get a good quality picture of the DP in question?

Airwire: MartinL

Hi,

it's safe to assume, that it's our broadband checker you've been on, when you got the "No ports available" prompt. I haven't seen any of the other ones displaying this sort of detail yet.

What "No ports availble" in fact means is either:

- the cluster you are in is fully subscribed and no ports are available. Not the most common thing with FTTH at the moment. But these clusters exist.

or:

- your exchange recently got enabled, but OpenEIR have run into a problem with the exchange (or cluster) and flagged all ports unavailble until the problem is resolved.

We update our broadband checker weekly. Normally late Tuesday / early Wednesday. You can see the date we've updated it in the product box. So check it weekly and you'll see when it clears.

I hope this helps.

ED E

Airwire: MartinL wrote: »

- the cluster you are in is fully subscribed and no ports are available. Not the most common thing with FTTH at the moment. But these clusters exist.

I assume you mean the 32(31) sub run in this case and not the OLT generally?

Shyboy

Airwire: MartinL wrote: »

Hi,

it's safe to assume, that it's our broadband checker you've been on, when you got the "No ports available" prompt. I haven't seen any of the other ones displaying this sort of detail yet.

What "No ports availble" in fact means is either:

- the cluster you are in is fully subscribed and no ports are available. Not the most common thing with FTTH at the moment. But these clusters exist.

or:

- your exchange recently got enabled, but OpenEIR have run into a problem with the exchange (or cluster) and flagged all ports unavailble until the problem is resolved.

We update our broadband checker weekly. Normally late Tuesday / early Wednesday. You can see the date we've updated it in the product box. So check it weekly and you'll see when it clears.

I hope this helps.

Yes, Martin, it is in fact your line checker that I am using as it is the only one that give direct availability information (that I've found).

Would a cluster be just one DP box or a few? The exchange has been live for over 18 months now and the DP box outside my house, that we are on, has maximum 4 houses connected to it, including us.

There are about 3 more DP boxes near to us (within sight) and I tried the checker for houses next to them, and they all show as available. So the problem seems to be just with the box outside of us, which I am sure would serve my neighbour next door, who wants to order it.

If the capacity of this DP is only 4 houses, maybe it is full?

tsue921i8wljb3

Shyboy wrote: »

Yes, Martin, it is in fact your line checker that I am using as it is the only one that give direct availability information (that I've found).

Would a cluster be just one DP box or a few? The exchange has been live for over 18 months now and the DP box outside my house, that we are on, has maximum 4 houses connected to it, including us.

There are about 3 more DP boxes near to us (within sight) and I tried the checker for houses next to them, and they all show as available. So the problem seems to be just with the box outside of us, which I am sure would serve my neighbour next door, who wants to order it.

If the capacity of this DP is only 4 houses, maybe it is full?

That is possible. It is why I asked for the picture. You should be able to count the number of thin drop cables coming from the DP. If there are four it could be that the DP only has one secondary splitter in it and all four ports are taken.

However it is unlikely, though possible, that all your neighbouring DPs are also full but I am unsure if the checkers can deal with that. It may require Openeir to reassign your neighbour to another DP.

Airwire: MartinL

ED E wrote: »

I assume you mean the 32(31) sub run in this case and not the OLT generally?

Correct.

Shyboy wrote: »

Would a cluster be just one DP box or a few? The exchange has been live for over 18 months now and the DP box outside my house, that we are on, has maximum 4 houses connected to it, including us.

It would be a cluster of DPs (32 subs). Basically a single fibre from the OLT in the exchange. But that can be fixed by utilizing another fibre. It just takes a bit time to build. OpenEIR has build in reserves.

tsue921i8wljb3

Airwire: MartinL wrote: »

Correct.

As each Eircode is assigned to a specific DP, is there a process in place to move a premises to another DP when a particular DP is full? Does the system even recognise situations such as this?

Obviously the new DP is going to have to be close enough to make running cable viable for the installer.

tsue921i8wljb3

Airwire: MartinL wrote: »

Correct.



It would be a cluster of DPs (32 subs). Basically a single fibre from the OLT in the exchange. But that can be fixed by utilizing another fibre. It just takes a bit time to build. OpenEIR has build in reserves.

How likely is it in this case that a full 32 spaces are taken if the neighbouring DPs are showing as available? They are likely on the same split.

Airwire: MartinL

Alberto Crooked Sobriety wrote: »

As each Eircode is assigned to a specific DP, is there a process in place to move a premises to another DP when a particular DP is full? Does the system even recognise situations such as this?

Obviously the new DP is going to have to be close enough to make running cable viable for the installer.

Alberto Crooked Sobriety wrote: »

How likely is it in this case that a full 32 spaces are taken if the neighbouring DPs are showing as available? They are likely on the same split.

A DP being full can happen, when multiple customers order multiple lines to the same eircode.

There is no process to reassign an eircode to a different DP. None that's straight forward anyhow. OpenEir will need to expand the DP or splice a second cluster for the area.

OpenEIR simply marks the DP as full until they get around to do that.

Now, we've only seen this in maybe 4 places on the westcoast and midlands so far. Most of the time, it's a problem with the entire build to the exchange, like the delays on re-homing newly build exchange like Bernaderg, Corrandulla, Cloghan and Calverstown from the July announcement, that took another 3-4 weeks to finally go live. They were listed as unavailable in the meanwhile.

tsue921i8wljb3

In this particular case though Shyboy says:

My area has had FTTH for the past 18 months and myself and many others have it.

so it's unlikely to be a build issue.

But if I check a number of other houses in the area, FTTH is showing as available. These are houses literally two and three houses away.

So Shyboy's DP is likely full but there is capacity on neighbouring DP(s). Surely the simplest approach would be to get Openeir to reassign the neighbour to a nearby DP. No building involved.

If that can't be easily done it seems like a flaw in the system. They are literally turning away paying customers.

Airwire: MartinL

Alberto Crooked Sobriety wrote: »

So Shyboy's DP is likely full but there is capacity on neighbouring DP(s). Surely the simplest approach would be to get Openeir to reassign the neighbour to a nearby DP. No building involved.

If that can't be easily done it seems like a flaw in the system. They are literally turning away paying customers.

It will take an intervention with OpenEIR of whichever provider the customer goes with. In theory, it can be fixed. But it's far from straight forward.

Shyboy

Alberto Crooked Sobriety wrote: »

That is possible. It is why I asked for the picture. You should be able to count the number of thin drop cables coming from the DP. If there are four it could be that the DP only has one secondary splitter in it and all four ports are taken.

However it is unlikely, though possible, that all your neighbouring DPs are also full but I am unsure if the checkers can deal with that. It may require Openeir to reassign your neighbour to another DP.

Apologies Navi, I have been away for the weekend. Here is the best photo that I can get of the DP in question. It is hard to tell from the photo, but I can count either 3 or 4 cables coming out of it, definitely no more than that.

Marlow

Shyboy wrote: »

Apologies Navi, I have been away for the weekend. Here is the best photo that I can get of the DP in question. It is hard to tell from the photo, but I can count either 3 or 4 cables coming out of it, definitely no more than that.

If it's 4 cables, then it would be full, unless they expanded it to 8.

/M

tsue921i8wljb3

Shyboy wrote: »

Apologies Navi, I have been away for the weekend. Here is the best photo that I can get of the DP in question. It is hard to tell from the photo, but I can count either 3 or 4 cables coming out of it, definitely no more than that.

I can't tell from that photo but as Marlow says it's likely to be full. Is it the last DP on the line? The main distribution cable only seems to be coming from one direction. They must have only put one 1:4 splitter in it.

I don't know how keen your neighbour is to get connected but if it were me I'd take a note of the serial number on the full DP (usually on a yellow sticker) then get the serial numbers of the nearest DPs and email fibrepower@openeir.ie asking if it is possible to be switched to another DP. Give some sob story about how the internet is needed for work or whatever. They will probably be ignored but it may have some effect.

Shyboy

Alberto Crooked Sobriety wrote: »

I can't tell from that photo but as Marlow says it's likely to be full. Is it the last DP on the line? The main distribution cable only seems to be coming from one direction. They must have only put one 1:4 splitter in it.

I don't know how keen your neighbour is to get connected but if it were me I'd take a note of the serial number on the full DP (usually on a yellow sticker) then get the serial numbers of the nearest DPs and email fibrepower@openeir.ie asking if it is possible to be switched to another DP. Give some sob story about how the internet is needed for work or whatever. They will probably be ignored but it may have some effect.

Thanks Navi, I will tell my neighbour that. There are 2 more DP's a little bit further up the line just before the fibre line stops (we are almost at the end of it). The funny thing is both those DP's only have one house each within connecting distance and I don't think either house is connected, so both are not being used. Doesn't seem like great planning from Open Eir/KN?

tsue921i8wljb3

Shyboy wrote: »

Thanks Navi, I will tell my neighbour that. There are 2 more DP's a little bit further up the line just before the fibre line stops (we are almost at the end of it). The funny thing is both those DP's only have one house each within connecting distance and I don't think either house is connected, so both are not being used. Doesn't seem like great planning from Open Eir/KN?

Without knowing exactly how it's cabled it would seem at first glance to be poor planning. Turning away paying custom is not good for any business. It would be down to Openeir as the designers of the network not KN.

ED E

Alberto Crooked Sobriety wrote: »

Without knowing exactly how it's cabled it would seem at first glance to be poor planning. Turning away paying custom is not good for any business. It would be down to Openeir as the designers of the network not KN.

To be fair the network is hundreds of thousands of metallic paths with at least a million(?) poles and probably at least 300k drops (urban can be 5:1, rural is usually 1:1), Im sure the numbers have come out during NBP talks but be sure its large. Getting a 100% hit rate in mapping the DPs was never going to happen.

Sure look how sloppy Eircode was and that was a much simpler task.