Back to results
US 8,134,921 B2Granted
CMTS upstream channel bandwidth scheduler
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorsRobert Goguen, De Fu Li, Pawel Sowinski, Nicos Achilleoudis
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In one embodiment, a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) generates a bandwidth grant message corresponding to a time segment. The CMTS identifies a portion of the time segment to be assigned according to received bandwidth request messages originating from downstream cable modems. The CMTS determines whether a remaining portion of the time segment can accommodate more than N broadcast contention slots, and if so, selects at least one of the cable modems for receiving an upstream bandwidth boost.
Claims19
An apparatus, comprising:
- one or more processors operable to:
- generate a bandwidth grant message corresponding to a time segment;
- identify a portion of the time segment to be formatted with first time slots for cable modems, the first time slots requested by received bandwidth request messages originating from the cable modems;
- determine whether a remaining portion of the time segment can accommodate more than a preset number of broadcast contention slots, the broadcast contention slots providing upstream bandwidth for signaling;
- if the remaining portion of the time segment can accommodate more than the preset number of broadcast contention slots, format the bandwidth grant message with an unsolicited second time slot for a selected one of the cable modems, the unsolicited time slot providing upstream bandwidth for uploading user data;
- and
- transmit the formatted bandwidth grant message, the transmitted bandwidth grant message including both the first requested time slot for the selected cable modem and the unsolicited second time slot for the selected cable modem.
4 more elements
A method, comprising:
- generating a bandwidth grant message corresponding to a time segment;
- identifying a portion of the time segment to be formatted with first time slots for cable modems, the first time slots requested by received bandwidth request messages originating from the cable modems;
- determining whether a remaining portion of the time segment can accommodate more than a preset number of broadcast contention slots, the broadcast contention slots providing upstream bandwidth for signaling;
- formatting the bandwidth grant message with an unsolicited second time slot for a selected one of the cable modems if the remaining portion of the time segment can accommodate more than the preset number of broadcast contention slots, the unsolicited second time slot providing upstream bandwidth for uploading user data;
- and
- transmitting the formatted bandwidth grant message.
3 more elements
A method, comprising:
- associating a plurality of cable modems associated with a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS);
- generating a tracking table with entries for at least some of the associated cable modems;
- continuously inspecting bandwidth requests from the tracked cable modems to determine whether each inspected bandwidth request is a standalone bandwidth request or a piggyback bandwidth request;
- updating the entries in the tracking table based on the determinations to specify a bandwidth-request-type history and, in association with the updating, dynamically enabling or disabling a bandwidth boost for each entry based on the respective bandwidth-request-type history;
- receiving a current bandwidth request and comparing the received current bandwidth request to the tracking table;
- generating a bandwidth grant message allocating upstream bandwidth for a time segment, the generated bandwidth grant message allocating a portion of the time segment for the received current bandwidth request;
- and
- only if the table contains an entry corresponding to the received current bandwidth request and only if that entry is designated as currently enabled for the bandwidth boost, then checking if an additional time slot in the bandwidth grant message can be assigned to a particular one of the cable modems corresponding to the received current bandwidth request.
5 more elements
A memory device encoded with instructions that, if executed, result in operations comprising:
- continuously inspecting bandwidth requests from cable modems to determine whether each inspected bandwidth request is a standalone bandwidth request or a piggyback bandwidth request;
- generating a tracking table with entries for the cable modems, each entry specifying, based on the determinations, a bandwidth-request-type history for a corresponding one of the cable modems;
- generating a bandwidth grant message allocating upstream bandwidth for a time segment, the generated bandwidth grant message allocating a portion of the time segment for a currently received bandwidth request;
- comparing the currently received bandwidth request to the entries in the table;
- and
- based on a result of the comparison, checking if an additional time slot in the bandwidth grant message can be assigned to the cable modem corresponding to the currently received bandwidth request.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.