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Visitor

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4 Messages

Wednesday, July 9th, 2025 11:19 PM

Upstream OFDMA Causing T3/T4 Timeouts – Need CMTS Provisioning Fix (Netgear CM3000, 2 Gbps Plan)

After countless hours today with several virtual chats, live on the phone support, and “Tier 2” transfers i’m trying this as a last hopeful resort.

Hi Xfinity Support,

I'm having persistent internet drops that appear directly tied to upstream OFDMA instability. I’ve already had a technician visit, and phone support has stated OFDMA was disabled — but my modem logs and status page show otherwise.


📦 Setup:

  • Modem: Netgear CM3000 (DOCSIS 3.1, Xfinity-approved)

  • Plan: 2 Gbps

  • Connection: Wired and wireless drops

  • Symptoms:

    • Frequent disconnections

    • Event logs full of T3 timeouts, T4 timeouts, and no unicast ranging opportunities

    • Drops correlate with OFDMA Channel locking or flapping


Key Log Indicators:

  • Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out

  • 16 consecutive T3 timeouts

  • Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out

  • OFDMA Channel 1 = Locked

  • OFDMA Channel 2 = Not Locked

  • Profile IDs: 12, 13

  • Power levels around 37.3 dBmV


What I've Tried:

  • Power-cycled modem

  • Factory reset modem

  • Tech visit (confirmed signals look clean)

  • Xfinity phone support says they "disabled OFDMA", but modem is still receiving OFDMA provisioning from CMTS


Request:

I’m requesting that upstream OFDMA be fully disabled at the CMTS level:

  • A new provisioning config file pushed to my modem that excludes OFDMA upstream channels

  • Verification that Profiles 12/13 are no longer being assigned

  • Confirmation from engineering that the CMTS override is in place

Visitor

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4 Messages

2 days ago

Hi all, just wanted to follow up with today’s logs — unfortunately, the issue with upstream OFDMA is still ongoing.

I’m continuing to see repeated T3 and T4 timeouts, and my modem log confirms that Channel ID 41 (OFDMA) is still active:

CM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 8; Chan ID: 41

These errors continue to appear:

  • 16 consecutive T3 timeouts while trying to range on upstream channel 8

  • Unicast Maintenance Ranging attempted – No response – Retries exhausted

  • Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging – No Response received – T3 time-out

  • Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received – T4 time-out

All of these point to upstream OFDMA remaining enabled and unstable.

To Xfinity reps or engineers monitoring this thread — could you please verify that the CMTS config for my modem has actually been updated to remove OFDMA (Channel ID 41) from the upstream bonding group?

I’m on a Netgear CM3000 modem with a 2 Gbps plan, and based on everything I’ve researched (and others have confirmed), this model often needs OFDMA disabled to maintain a stable upstream connection.

Really hoping this can be escalated to Tier 3 or engineering if it hasn’t already. Happy to provide any more logs or details you need.

Thanks again for your time and help.

Official Employee

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1.7K Messages

 

user_amantenick916 My team can further help you with your timeout concerns today.  To send a direct message, please click on the chat icon in the top-right corner of the screen, and select "Xfinity Support" to initiate a Direct Message. 
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Expert

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111.6K Messages

7 hours ago

@user_amantenick916 

As an FYI, in case you are not aware, you won't be able to get your 2 gig download speeds if there is no OFDM channel.

Visitor

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4 Messages

Thanks for the input — that’s a helpful clarification. Just to be clear, I’m not asking to disable downstream OFDM, which I know is essential for my 2 Gbps download speeds. My downstream OFDM channels (193 and 194) are locked, healthy, and delivering high throughput.

The issue is with upstream OFDMA, specifically Channel ID 41, which is triggering T3 and T4 timeouts and causing connectivity drops. This has been reported across various DOCSIS 3.1 modems, including the Netgear CM3000, when OFDMA upstream is provisioned but unstable due to CMTS-side config or signal compatibility.

Others have had success by requesting their ISP (in this case, Xfinity) disable upstream OFDMA via CMTS provisioning — which does not affect downstream OFDM or download speeds, but often stabilizes the connection.

So just to reiterate: this is about upstream OFDMA only, not disabling any part of the download path.

Thanks again for the discussion — hoping Tier 3 or engineering can take a deeper look soon.

Expert

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111.6K Messages

6 hours ago

Ok, sorry for the confusion. So likewise, without an upstream OFDMA channel, you won't get your rated upload speed.

Visitor

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4 Messages

Not a problem at all!  At this point I’m so frustrated with the overall instability that I’ll take a reduction of upload speed.  It’s been extremely frustrating as a remote worker from home.

Expert

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111.6K Messages

5 hours ago

Be advised that you may get slower default upload and download speeds (typically 30-5) if they can't push the correct config file to the modem. The root cause of the problem should be addressed (typically noise ingress somewhere) rather than resorting to a workaround. Good luck !

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