Access networks · plant-fault response · edge inference
Deependra Singh Rawat
Works on how a broadband access network finds, locates, and contains a fault before a truck is rolled. Charter is the laboratory.
Denver, Colorado
A cable plant still learns about many of its failures from the customer. The customer-premises device already sits on the plant. It already sees interference, a dropped registration, a certificate about to expire, a modem that should not need a second box. The work is to make that seeing into a control: decide whether the fault is inside or outside the home, keep a standing password off the device, register more than one modem stack without two pieces of hardware, and shorten the diagnostic interval without sending a bad action into the network.
Four granted U.S. patents record parts of that control plane. Streaming telemetry from an OpenWrt access CPE recorded the measurement surface. What still has to be built is inference that holds on a constrained gateway: a diagnostic that is shorter than a truck roll and safer than an unsupervised model. Charter is where those objects have to survive production. It is not the name of the page.
Agenda
Three errors the access network still makes.
Not a list of platforms. One argument, in chapters. Each chapter is an error, a correction, and one object.
01The plant waits for a call
The error. Proactive network maintenance still arrives late. Impulse response and group delay are visible on the access device. They are not yet a decision about whether the fault is in the home or in the plant.
The correction. Put analysis on the CPE. Stream what it sees. Classify inside versus outside. Mitigate what can be mitigated at the edge before a truck is scheduled.
Artifact. GrantedUS 12,184,473 B2, cable-plant fault mitigation from the access CPE. Co-inventor. Assigned to Charter Communications Operating, LLC.
02The device is treated as furniture
The error. Access hardware is still provisioned as if one box were one modem, one password were durable, and in-band interference were someone else’s problem.
The correction. Treat the gateway as an instrument: a password that expires with the day, two modem stacks in one access device, interference handled at the CPE rather than absorbed by the customer.
Artifact. GrantedUS 12,388,634 B2, password-of-the-day access, first-named inventor. US 12,580,787 B2, multiple cable modems in one access device. US 12,261,684 B1, in-band interference at the CPE.
03Intelligence is added before the data can carry it
The error. Networks buy models before they can name a lineage for the telemetry those models would consume. A shorter diagnostic that cannot be audited is not an improvement.
The correction. Unify the stream first. Place inference only where the constraint is real: on the gateway, under a latency budget, with a human still in the restoration path.
Artifact. PaperSCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2020, streaming telemetry from OpenWrt access CPE. CommentaryTelecoms.com, 10 September 2026. ApplicationUS 2026/0057220 A1, generative AI for diagnostic interval. Published, not granted.
Selected work
Objects in service of the claim.
Ranked as proof. Headcount is not listed. Vendor stacks are not the identity of the work.
01 / Plant
Fault mitigation from the access CPE
A field device that collects PNM MIB data, estimates OFDMA impulse response and group delay, streams to the operator platform, and distinguishes a fault inside the home from a fault in the plant. US 12,184,473 B2. Granted 31 December 2024.
02 / Access
A password that does not persist
Password-of-the-day generation from an encrypted seed on the main or security processor of the CPE. First-named inventor. US 12,388,634 B2. Granted 12 August 2025.
03 / Density
Two modem stacks, one access device
Registering a modem software stack with a registration server by MAC address so one box can carry more than one cable modem. US 12,580,787 B2. Granted 17 March 2026.
04 / Surface
Telemetry from the home network
Streaming telemetry off an OpenWrt access CPE. SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2020, with S. Ovadia and D. Lynch. The measurement surface the later patents assume.
All granted patents and published applications are listed on the full record.
Unfinished
What still has to be built.
Inference that shortens a diagnostic without unsupervised action in the plant. A published application on generative AI for diagnostic interval exists. It is not a granted patent, and it is not a deployed method until the network runs it.
A telemetry lineage good enough that a model can be blamed when it is wrong. Edge placement that respects a constrained gateway. Restoration that still has a human in the path. That is the agenda. It is not a completed résumé.
Writing
The record is not the pipeline.
Papers
Streaming Telemetry Data from the Home Network using OpenWrt Access CPE
SCTE Cable-Tec Expo · 2020 · S. Ovadia, D. Rawat, D. Lynch
SCTE Cable-Tec Expo · 2024 · S. Ozer, D. Rawat, P. Anderson, L. Zhou, et al.
Commentary, talks, applications
Why AI-Ready Telecom Networks Need Better Data Architecture Before Better Models
Guest commentary · Telecoms.com · 10 September 2026
From Endpoint to Control Point
SCTE TechExpo talk · Atlanta · 30 September 2026
Published applications
Network disconnection recovery; expiring code-verification certificates; generative AI for diagnostic interval. Published by the USPTO. Not granted.
Publication history: Google Scholar · ORCID · Patents, papers, and review service
Record
Roles, dates, places.
The work above is the argument. This is the spine it sits on.
Charter Communications
Principal Software Engineer II. Broadband access, CPE platforms, telemetry, plant-fault response. Denver, Colorado. Employee since March 2021; on Charter programs through Access Data Consulting from August 2018. Current laboratory.
Prior
Technical lead on the RDK-B CPE stack for Comcast at L&T Technology Services, 2012 to 2018. Networking and telecom software at Alcatel-Lucent India from 2007. The same access problem in earlier clothes.
Education
M.S., Artificial Intelligence, The Pennsylvania State University, 2024. B.E., Computer Science and Engineering, G.B. Pant Engineering College, 2007.
Membership
IEEE Senior Member. Computer Society and Communications Society.
Service
Technical program committee and reviewer service for IEEE and ACM venues, listed venue by venue on the full record.
