Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving data over a shared access carrier network

• US 20060280197A1
• Filed: 06/14/2005
• Published: 12/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Instrument Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Stone, Christopher J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,668,195 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/437
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/403 with centralised control, e.g. polling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2007/17381 the upstream transmission being initiated by the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4131 home appliance, e.g. lighting, air conditioning system, metering devices home automation data switching networks exchanging configuration information on appliance services H04L12/2807
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42646 for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/436 Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or one or more peripheral devices inside the home

Abstract

A method for transmitting and receiving data over a shared access carrier network with a plurality of user devices is provided. The user devices each have a modem associated therewith and a network interface for communicating over a local network. The method begins by transmitting a query from each one of the user devices over the local network requesting remaining ones of the plurality of user devices to specify available resources pertaining to shared access carrier network connectivity capabilities of the modem associated therewith. A reply is received over the local network in response to the query from each of the remaining user devices. Based on the replies from each of the remaining user devices, at least one of the user devices is selected to serve as a master device that provides connectivity to the shared access carrier system through which the other of the plurality of user devices transmit and receive data.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting and receiving data over a shared access carrier network with a plurality of user devices that each have a modem associated therewith and a network interface for communicating over a local network, comprising:

transmitting a query from each one of the user devices over the local network requesting remaining ones of the plurality of user devices to specify available resources pertaining to shared access carrier network connectivity capabilities of the modem associated therewith;

receiving a reply over the local network in response to the query from each of said remaining user devices; and

based on the replies from each of said remaining user devices, selecting at least one of the user devices to serve as a master device that provides connectivity to the shared access carrier system through which the other of the plurality of user devices transmit and receive data.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said shared access carrier network and said modems conform to an interface specification standard and said shared access carrier network connectivity capabilities of the modem are defined at least in part by the interface specification standard

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said interface specification standard is DOCSIS.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the selecting of the master device further comprises comparing versions of the interface specification standard employed by the user devices.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein at least two of the user devices have substantially the same available resources pertaining to the shared access carrier network connectivity capabilities and further comprising the step of performing a contention process between said at least two user devices to determine which of said at least two user devices is to serve as the master device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said user devices that are not serving as the master device disable their applicable resources that provide the shared access carrier network connectivity capabilities.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said query further requests each of the remaining ones of the plurality of user devices to also specify data throughput of the network interface associated therewith.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said local network is selected from the group consisting of but not limited to any combination of token ring, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, HomePNA, powerline networking, MoCA and IEEE 802.11.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said shared access carrier network is a cable modem system.

10. A method for transmitting and receiving data over a shared access carrier network, comprising:

establishing communications over a local network between a master device having a modem therein that provides connectivity to the shared access carrier system and a slave;

receiving over the local network from the master device downstream data received by the master device from the shared access carrier network, said downstream data to be directed to the slave; and

transmitting from the slave to the master device over the local network upstream data to be forwarded by the master device to the shared access carrier network.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said shared access carrier network and said modem conform to a DOCSIS interface specification standard.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the master device employs a version of the interface specification standard more current than the interface specification standard employed by the slave.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein said local network is selected from the group consisting of but not limited to any combination of token ring, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, HomePNA, powerline networking, MoCA and IEEE 802.11.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein said shared access carrier network is a cable system.

15. At least one computer-readable medium encoded with instructions which, when executed by a processor, perform a method including the steps of:

establishing communications over a local network between a master device having a modem therein that provides connectivity to the shared access carrier system and a slave;

receiving over the local network from the master device downstream data received by the master device from the shared access carrier network, said downstream data to be directed to the slave; and

transmitting from the slave to the master device over the local network upstream data to be forwarded by the master device to the shared access carrier network.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein said shared access carrier network and said modem conform to a DOCSIS interface specification standard.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the master device employs a version of the interface specification standard more current than the interface specification standard employed by the slave.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein said local network is selected from the group consisting of but not limited to any combination of token ring, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, HomePNA, powerline networking, MoCA and IEEE 802.11.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein said shared access carrier network is a cable system.