Use of group poll scheduling for broadband communication systems
AssigneeJuniper Networks, Inc.
InventorNurettin Burcak Beser
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A group poll mechanism (GPM) that schedules upstream bandwidth for cable modems by pointing a request opportunity normally reserved for a single service flow to more than one service flow. Essentially, instead of using the seldom-used poll requests one per service flow, this same request opportunity is pointed to multiple service flows. In such kind of a scheme the GPM gives the same mini-slot to multiple service flows. The GPM implements the use of place-holder SIDs and novel mapping of information elements in MAP messages.
Claims51
A method of scheduling upstream bandwidth, comprising:
- defining a plurality of groups of cable modems, wherein each group will share a unicast transmission opportunity that is polled;
- and
- generating one or more MAPs which characterize said group poll definition.
An article comprising a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which when executed cause:
- defining a plurality of groups of cable modems, wherein each group will share a unicast transmission opportunity that is polled;
- and
- generating one or more MAPs which characterize said group poll definition.
A system for scheduling upstream bandwidth on a network, comprising:
- a plurality of groups of network devices;
- a scheduler configured to forward packets to and from said network device, said scheduler coupled to said network device such that said network device interposes said application and said scheduler, said scheduler configured to poll said cable modems according to group, the cable modems in a given one of said groups sharing unicast transmission opportunities.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.