Cable modem analysis system and method therefor for an HFC cable network

A method for evaluating the operational status of cable modems (CMs) connected to a hybrid-fiber-coax (HFC) cable network comprising:

• generating at a query checker processor an interactive graphical display that accepts a client query from a CM checker client, wherein the interactive graphical display comprises a MAC address field and wherein the client query identifies queried CM state data elements to be obtained for the CM;
• receiving a MAC address associated with the CM that is entered into the MAC address field;
• generating the subscriber query using a subscriber query library, wherein the subscriber query library comprises instructions for inclusion in the subscriber query for acquiring and reporting subscriber information from a billing datastore;
• generating the CCS query using a CCS query library, wherein the CCS query library comprises instructions for inclusion in the CCS query for determining and reporting whether a CM MAC address is known to the network and instructions for inclusion in a DNS query for determining and reporting in response to the DNS query whether the CM is enabled and online;
• sending the subscriber query and the CCS query:
• determining from a response to the CCS query whether the entered MAC address is valid;
• when the entered MAC address is valid, then generating and sending the DNS query for status data in a CCS datastore;
• determining from the status data whether the CM associated with the entered MAC address is enabled and online;
• and
• when the entered MAC address is enabled and online, then generating and sending a simple network management protocol (SNMP) query for CM state data elements of the CM associated with the entered MAC address and responsive to the SNMP query, wherein the SNMP query is generated by reference to the queried CM state data elements and an SNMP query library, and wherein the SNMP query library comprises instructions for inclusion in the SNMP query for acquiring and reporting CM state data elements indicative of a state of a CM from the CM;
• and
• sending the subscriber information, the CM state data elements responsive to the SNMP query, the CM state data elements responsive to the CLI query, and the status data to a results analyzer;
• receiving the subscriber information, the CM state data elements responsive to the SNMP query, the CM state data elements responsive to the CLI query, and the status data at the results analyzer;
• determining at the results analyzer whether a CM state data element is within a predetermined range;
• assigning a first graphical attribute to each CM state data elements that is outside the predetermined range;
• sending the subscriber information, the CM state data elements responsive to the SNMP query, the CM state data elements responsive to the CLI query, the status data, and the first graphical attribute to a display server;
• receiving the subscriber information, the CM state data elements responsive to the SNMP query, the CM state data elements responsive to the CLI query, the status data and the first graphical attribute at the display server;
• creating a CM analytical record from the subscriber information, the CM state data elements responsive to the SNMP query, the CM state data elements responsive to the CLI query, the status data and the first graphical attribute;
• and
• sending the CM analytical record to the CM checker client for display.