Upstream channel bonding in a cable communications system
AssigneeBroadcom Corporation
InventorsLisa Voigt Denney, Niki Roberta Pantelias, A. Scott Hollums, Victor T. Hou, John Daniel Horton, Jr., David Michael Pullen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for increasing upstream bandwidth per cable modem user in a cable communications system that includes a cable modem termination system (CMTS) and a plurality of cable modems is provided. The method permits a cable modem to transmit data to the CMTS on multiple upstream channels simultaneously using a technique called “channel bonding.” Channel bonding allows smaller bandwidth upstream channels to be bonded together to create a larger bandwidth pipe.
Claims26
A method in a cable modem for high-throughput transmission in a cable network, comprising:
- requesting bandwidth to transmit packets in an upstream queue;
- receiving a multichannel grant from a cable modem termination system (CMTS), wherein the multichannel grant allocates the requested bandwidth as a plurality of minislots across a plurality of bonded upstream channels;
- concatenating the packets in the upstream queue;
- filling the multichannel grant by dividing the concatenated packets into a plurality of segments, wherein a size of each segment corresponds to a contiguous subset of the allocated minislots in one of the upstream channels;
- and
- transmitting the segments to the CMTS.
A method in a cable modem termination system (CMTS) for high-throughput bandwidth allocation in a cable network, comprising:
- receiving from a cable modem a bandwidth request to transmit packets in an upstream queue;
- issuing a multichannel grant that allocates the requested bandwidth as a plurality of minislots across a plurality of bonded upstream channels;
- receiving from the cable modem a plurality of segments comprising a concatenation of the packets in the upstream queue, wherein a size of each segment corresponds to a contiguous subset of the allocated minislots in one of the bonded upstream channels;
- and
- reconstructing the upstream queue of packets from the received segments.
A high throughput cable network, comprising:
- a cable modem termination system (CMTS);
- and
- one or more cable modems residing on the cable network,
- wherein the CMTS issues a multichannel grant responsive to a bandwidth request from a cable modem of the one or more cable modems to transmit packets in an upstream queue, the multichannel grant allocating the requested bandwidth as a plurality of minislots across a plurality of bonded upstream channels, and
- wherein the cable modem transmits to the CMTS a plurality of segments comprising a concatenation of the packets in the upstream queue, wherein a size of each segment corresponds to a contiguous subset of the allocated minislots in one of the bonded upstream channels.
A cable modem termination system (CMTS), comprising:
- a bandwidth allocation controller configured to allocate bandwidth to a cable modem as a plurality of minislots across a plurality of bonded upstream channels in response to a bandwidth request from the cable modem;
- a downstream physical layer modulator (DS PHY) configured to issue a multichannel grant to the cable modem, wherein the multichannel grant assigns the allocated bandwidth across the plurality of bonded upstream channels;
- and
- an upstream physical layer demodulator (US PHY) configured to receive from the cable modem a plurality of segments comprising a concatenation of packets, wherein a size of each segment corresponds to a contiguous subset of the allocated minislots in one of the bonded upstream channels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.