Town of Arlington
I-Net
Research
This page contains information on research in two areas, requirements for use and technical:
--- Contents ---
1. Requirements for use
1.1 Locations
1.2 Community Input
2. Technical
2.1 Prior to start of work
2.2 Initial Review
2.3 Investigation of Sites Served by RCN Fiber
2.4 Investigation of the 4 Locations to be served by Comcast
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1. Requirements for Use
1.1 Locations
The Exhibit from the most recent license between the town and Comcast (dated July 26, 2006) describes the locations required to be served by the Institutional Network:
Exhibit 3.2 (a)
Licensee Pre-Institutional Network Transition Date Locations
Town Hall
Arlington Center Fire Station
Highland Fire Station
Park Circle Fire Station
Community Safety Building
Town Yard
Robbins Library (Main)
Fox Brach Library
Central School/Senior Center
Arlington High School
Gibbs Junior High School/Center for the Arts
Ottoson Junior High School
Bishop School
Brackett School
Dallin School
Hardy School
Stratton School
Pierce School
Thompson School
Jarvis House
Arlington Boys & Girls Club
Veterans Sports Arena
Arlington Catholic High School
Robbins House
Water Department
Spy Pond Field House
Access Studio at Old Dallin Library
Exhibit 3.2 (b)
Licensee Post-Institutional Network Transition Date Locations
Gibbs Junior High School/Center for the Arts
Arlington Boys and Girls Club
Arlington Catholic High School
Spy Pond Field House
This means that, according to these documents, Comcast will continue to support I-Net service to the last four locations listed and we must utilize fiber optic lines provided by RCN for the rest.
Note that this is just a list of buildings. In some cases, the actual rooms from which programming may originate in a building are important.
So far, after a brief email survey, the following comments were sent in:
- Arlington Center for the Arts (3 people suggested this)
- Press box above bleachers at Pierce Field (behind Arlington High)
- Lowe Auditorium at Arlington High
- Cutter House in Arlington Center (for summer performances outdoors there)
- The 'wood gym' at the Ottoson Middle School
(this section is still under revision)
2 Technical Research
2.1 Prior to start of work
Fist some background. When Arlington first got cable TV, around 1981, American Cablesystems installed their head end and the local access studio in the building at 81 Mystic Street, which they leased. (That buiding, known previously as the "old Arlington Dye Works," was demolished in early 2006 and a new building has now been constructed in its place.) All signals cablecast to the subscribers in town originated there. Satellite dishes on the roof picked up satellite channels, a tower with antennae received broadcast channels, and a microwave dish at the top of Winslow Towers in Arlington Center brought in a few regional and New York channels by connecting with a series of relay stations that reached across New England.
When American licensed Cambridge for cable in 1985, the head end at 81 Mystic Street began to serve Cambridge as well, with a trunk line running down poles on Arlington's streets to their offices on Sherman Street in North Cambridge. After Continental acquired American and more towns came online, the head end was eventually moved to Zion Hill in Woburn. Trunk lines were rerouted to serve Arlington and subscribers in other towns from there.
In the late 1990s, two significant things happened. First, AT&T Broadband, successor Media One, (in turn, successor to Continental), closed the public access studio at 81 Mystic Street and later re-opened it at 85 Park Avenue after the town agreed to provide the use of the building. Around that time, RCN obtained an OVS license, and in 2002, converted to a conventional cable TV license with the town. As part of RCN's agreement, they installed a fiber optic network to serve the town government's telephone and data processing lines, for both town and school department offices.
After these changes, we were left with the following arrangement, confirmed in mid 2006: The I-Net carries signals from all the required town buildings & locations (see list, above) to a central point, in the basement of Arlington High School. From there, it is fed out to the to the head ends (Comcast at Zion Hill in Woburn and RCN on Mass. Ave., in Arlington). The signal from the public access studio at 85 Park Avenue is also fed to the basement of Arlington High. Switching modulators there normally carried the access studio's signal out to customers but if a modulator was powered up anywhere on the I-Net, that signal would override the one from the studio. RCN was only connected to the I-Net, not the output of this switching modulator, so RCN customers only received I-Net cablecasts. This was at the demand of Comcast, who, having funded the access studio, claimed it their right to reserve that signal for their customers only. As Arlington's license with Comcast (originally with Continental, in 1995) did not anticipate any more than one cable company operating in town, there was no legal way to change this.
By 2002, the I-Net had been reconnected to allow at least educational channel and live town (combined public and government channel) programming to subscribers of both companies.
2.2 Initial Review
28 Feb 2006: Meeting to discuss current I-Net configuration in Arlington Town Hall (yes, we did it standing up!). Phil McCarthy & Paul Berg of the CTAC, plus representatives of Comcast, RCN, and the Town and School's Data processing personnel were among those who attended. Immediately after that, Greg Hall and I briefly reviewed the equipment and connections in the Data Processing Department on the first floor of Arlington High School, where I-Net signals come in from other town buildings and then go out to both cable company head ends (with some restrictions, at the time).
2.3 Investigation of sites connected by RCN Fiber I-Net
29 June 2006: I prepare a database of all I-Net locations in order to organize information about the status of each one.
30 June 2006: Greg Hall and I visit as many locations as we can during the day and record our observations. We specifically focus on fiber optic connections present at each site - what kind of fiber is present, what location is it terminated, and how is it connected to the rest of the fiber system. The photo at left shows a room at the Arlington Town Yard where a large multi-fiber cable goes underground from there to Arlington High School. The photo at right shows the room on the first floor of Arlington High School where this multi fiber cable is terminated.
The main 'single mode' fiber network consists of three pairs of fibers, of which two pair are in use and the third pair is a spare. One pair is dedicated to the town's telephone system. The second pair is dedicated to the town's and school's data processing network. It is this pair on which we hope to add Video over IP for the I-Net, as the most cost effective solution. Some locations are not served by these single mode fibers, but rather are served by multi mode fiber 'sub networks' connected to the main network of single mode fiber.
After our tour, we updated the database I had just created to give details as to what is connected at each location. We did not visit the elementary schools at the time, as we were assured by school department personnel that RCN installed fiber was present at all locations. To review this database in detail, please contact me.
2.4 Investigation of the 4 Locations to be served by Comcast Coaxial feed
30 Oct 2006: Greg Hall (Integrisys), Jim Akimchuk (for ACMI) and I go out to review review the following locations:
• Gibbs Jr. High (incl. Arlington Center for the Arts) - Comcast I-Net is connected to the building from the Foster Street side. F connectors are mounted in the ceiling in the room immediately behind the back center of the stage. There are three connectors there, likely to include I-Net upstream and downstream and subscriber downstream feed. The photo at the left shows the numerous wires, fibers, and equipment present on poles in Arlington today. The photo at the right is Greg and Jim (and my shadow) on the street, looking up to discern which lines carry the I-Net and which are connected to the Gibbs building, visible further down the street on the right.
• Arlington Boys & Girls Club - The I-Net is run from a pole on the other side of the street, under the street, and into a basement room, terminated in a gray cabinet. Both I-Net and Comcast subscriber feed are run to this cabinet. The subscriber feed has been wired to other places in the buildingh; the I-Net terminates in the basement cabinet.
• Arlington Catholic - The I-Net terminates on a pole immediately behind the back of the building, near the gymnasium.
• Spy Pond Field - There does not seem to be any connection, aside from electric power, to the building.
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