The customer (operator) is experiencing multicast traffic drops after they have upgraded their cable plant from 4DS to 8DS channels. The issue seems to be cable modem firmware related (please see description below). The customer is offering IPTV services over multicast in their network and it is critical that the multicast service will work smoothly.
When they are running epc3825-v302r125555-121205c firmware the multicast will work smoothly but that firmware has other issues (like poor wifi
performance) that will enforce them to run newer firmware. When using newer CM firmware version (epc3825-v302r125574-140405c) the other features will work better but the multicast traffic is dropping and will disrupt IPTV service quality. Minor multicast drops were seen also with 4DS configuration but after the network was upgraded to 8DS the situation went a lot worse than with 4DS.
Are there known issues with EPC3825 Cable modem in multicast environment that could explain the behaviour with 8DS channels? And is there recommended modem firmware for multicast enabled environments that the customer should run in their modems?
Olli Hietarinta
