US 9,854,283 B2Granted

Distributed cable modem termination system with software reconfigurable MAC and PHY capability

AssigneeAlcatel-Lucent USA Inc.

InventorShlomo Selim Rakib

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Abstract

Distributed and highly software reconfigurable CMTS (CMRTS) device, based on MAC and PHY units with FPGA and DSP components, for a HFC CATV network. The various CATV RF modulators, such as QAM modulators, may be divided between QAM modulators located at the cable plant, and remote QAM modulators ideally located at the fiber nodes. A basic set of CATV QAM data waveforms may optionally be transmitted to the nodes using a first fiber, and a second set of IP/on-demand data may be transmitted to the nodes using an alternate fiber or alternate fiber frequency, and optionally using other protocols such as Ethernet protocols. The nodes will extract the data specific to each neighborhood and inject this data into unused QAM channels, thus achieving improved data transmission rates through finer granularity. A computerized “virtual shelf” control system for managing and reconfiguring the FPGA and DSP based CMTRS units is also disclosed.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A remote CMTS fiber node (CMRTS) system for a Hybrid Fiber Cable (HFC) network, comprising:

at least one radio frequency (RF) modulator device;
at least one switch remotely configurable to select a set of optical fiber signals from downstream optical fiber signals and to direct said at least one RF modulator device to encode said selected set of optical fiber signals into a set of RF waveforms at a selected set of frequencies;
at least one RF packet processor configured to (i) detect upstream data carried by cable television (CATV) RF upstream signals generated by at least one cable modem, (ii) digitally repackage said upstream data, and (iii) retransmit said upstream data as a third upstream digital optical fiber signal;
and
a virtual shelf manager system configured to generate commands to configure said at least one software controllable switch, said RF modulator device, and said at least one RF packet processor, wherein said RF packet processor is configured to identify newly initialized cable modems based on the detected upstream data and report a set of modem identification data associated with the newly initialized cable modems to the virtual shelf manager system, wherein the virtual shelf manager system comprises a device configuration database with at least one of:
a set of identifier fields, cable modem identification data fields, privileges of users associated with cable modem identification fields, available Data Over Cable Service interface Specification (DOCSIS) channels, or available Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

3 more elements

A method for enhancing the data carrying capacity operable in a node device connected to an optical fiber and a set of cable television (CATV) cables in a Hybrid Fiber Cable (HFC) network, the method comprising:

selecting a subset of a set of optical fiber signals from the optical fiber by the node;
and
receiving configuration data from a virtual shelf manager system for configuring the node for performing operations of Media Access Control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) units;
generating a set of radio frequency (RF) waveforms that are modulated according to the selected subset of the set of optical fiber signals, the generated set of RF waveforms for transmission over the set of CATV cables;
detecting upstream data carried by the set of CATV cables and identifying newly initialized cable modems based on the detected upstream data;
reporting a set of modem identification data associated with the newly initialized cable modems to the virtual shelf manager system;
digitally encoding the detected upstream data as an upstream digital optical fiber signal for transmission over the optical fiber;
receive a command for configuration of the node in response to the report of the set of modem identification data associated with the newly initialized cable modems to the virtual shelf manager system;
and
wherein a device configuration database is configured to store at least one of:
a set of identifier fields, cable modem identification data fields, privileges of users associated with cable modem identification fields, available Data Over Cable Service interface Specification (DOCSIS) channels, or available Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/170,579Filed 1 Feb 2014 · continuation
Priority: 22 Jan 2010
Published: US 2014/0150041 A129 May 2014
Granted: 26 Dec 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

H04N 21/2383
Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidth;…: channel…
H04B 10/25751
Radio-over-fibre, e.g. radio frequency signal modulated onto an optical carrier: optical arrangements for CATV or video distribution
H04N 7/10
Television systems: adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/22
Television systems: adaptations for optical transmission

Family

Application12/692,582Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 22 Jan 2010
Application61/385,125Us provisional application · filed 21 Sep 2010
Application12/907,970Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 19 Oct 2010
Application13/035,993Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 27 Feb 2011
Application61/511,395Us provisional application · filed 25 Jul 2011
Application13/346,709Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 9 Jan 2012
Application13/400,415Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 20 Feb 2012
Application61/622,132Us provisional application · filed 10 Apr 2012
Application13/478,461Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 23 May 2012
Application13/555,170Parent of this continuation · filed 22 Jul 2012
US 8,311,412 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 13 Nov 2012
US 8,365,237 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 29 Jan 2013
US 8,510,786 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 13 Aug 2013
US 2014/0150041 A1Pre-grant publication · published 29 May 2014
US 8,644,706 B2Parent of this continuation
US 8,826,359 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part
Application13/555,170Parent of this continuation-in-part
US 8,773,965 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part
US 8,863,213 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part
US 2011/0182583 A1Published application
US 2011/0185394 A1Published application
US 2011/0265140 A1Published application
US 2012/0110631 A1Published application
US 2012/0151548 A1Published application
US 2012/0291084 A1Published application
US 2013/0265864 A1Published application
US 9,854,283 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.