Time and Frequency Allocation for Concurrent Communications on a Shared Coaxial Cable

Abstract

Circuitry for use in a network controller comprises a processor and memory. The network controller is operable to control communications in a network comprising a plurality of devices connected via a shared coaxial cable. The circuitry is operable to maintain one or more data structures that hold per-sender-receiver-pair link parameters and per-sender-receiver-pair bandwidth grant status. The circuitry is operable to, in response to receipt of a reservation request on the shared coaxial cable, decide which one or more of a plurality of subbands and which one or more of a plurality timeslots to reserve for the transmission based, at least in part, on the per-sender-receiver-pair link parameters and the per-sender-receiver-pair bandwidth grant status in the one or more data structures. The circuitry is operable to generate a reservation grant message that indicates the decided one or more subbands and the decided one or more timeslots.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.