Modem prioritization and registration

• US 20090094381A1
• Filed: 10/05/2007
• Published: 04/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shen, Cong, King, Patrick S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,962,649 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/240
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/173 using an interconnection network, e.g. matrix, shuffle, pyramid, star, snowflake

Abstract

In one embodiment, a flow control logic facilitates controlling modem prioritization and registration. The flow control logic controls an order in which stored DHCP requests are provided to a DHCP server. The DHCP requests may be stored in a plurality of groups in a data store. DHCP requests may be distinguishable based, at least in part, on priorities associated with cable modems from which DHCP requests are received. The priority may be determined by a value in the DHCP request. The flow control logic may control the rate and order at which stored DHCP requests are provided to the DHCP server.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a prioritizer to prioritize Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) requests received from a set of cable modems, the prioritizer being configured to;

parse a DHCP request to identify a cable modem characteristic in the DHCP request; and

assign a priority to the DHCP request based, at least in part, on the cable modem characteristic; and

a flow control logic to control an order in which DHCP requests are provided to a DHCP server, where the order is priority based.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, including a data store comprising:

a first queue to store DHCP requests having a first priority; and

a second queue to store DHCP requests having a second priority, the first priority being greater than the second priority, and

where the flow control logic is to provide DHCP requests from the first queue and the second queue in an order controlled by a priority schedule.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, the first priority being associated with cable modems supporting voice communications, the second priority being associated with cable modems supporting data-only communications.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, where the priority schedule is to control the flow control logic to provide a DHCP request from the second queue upon determining that the first queue is empty.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, where the priority schedule is to control the flow control logic to provide M DHCP requests from the second queue for each N DHCP requests provided from the first queue, M and N being user-configurable, dynamically updateable numbers.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, where the DHCP request is a DHCP discover request and the prioritizer is to examine a value in the DHCP discover request to determine the priority of a cable modem from which the DHCP discover request is received.

7. The apparatus of claim 2, where the prioritizer is to dynamically update the size of the first queue or the second queue based on a ratio of DHCP requests received from cable modems having the first priority and DHCP requests received from cable modems having the second priority.

8. The apparatus of claim 2, where the flow control logic is to control the rate at which DHCP requests stored in the data store are to be provided to the DHCP server, where the rate is based, at least in part, on a DHCP request processing time associated with the DHCP server.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, where the flow control logic is to manipulate the rate at which DHCP requests stored in the data store are to be provided to the DHCP server.

10. The apparatus of claim 2, where the prioritizer is to dynamically update the priority schedule based on a ratio of DHCP requests received from cable modems having the first priority and DHCP requests received from cable modems having the second priority.

11. The apparatus of claim 2, comprising:

a ranging control logic to hold cable modems in a non-contention ranging state by providing ranging messages to the cable modems, where the cable modems are associated with data stored in either the first queue or the second queue, and to hold a cable modem associated with a DHCP request provided from the first queue in a DHCP state for a pre-defined period of time.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, the apparatus being incorporated into a cable modem termination system (CMTS) apparatus.

13. Logic encoded in one or more tangible media for execution and when executed operable to:

receive a request for an IP (Internet Protocol) address from a cable modem;

inspect the request to determine a characteristic of the cable modem;

store the request in one of a plurality of logical groups based, at least in part, on the characteristic;

select a request to provide from one of the plurality of logical groups based, at least in part, on a group provision ratio; and

provide the request to an IP address provider.

14. The logic of claim 13, the group provision ratio being user-configurable.

15. The logic of claim 13, the group provision ratio being dynamically configurable based, at least in part, on a distribution of characteristics associated with cable modems from which requests for IP addresses are received.

16. The logic of claim 13, the logic when executed being operable to determine a rate at which the IP address provider responds to IP address requests, and where the group provision ratio is dynamically configurable based, at least in part, on the rate at which the IP address provider responds to IP address requests.

17. The logic of claim 13, the logic when executed being operable to hold a cable modem having a first characteristic in a non-contention ranging state by providing a ranging message to the cable modem having the first characteristic.

18. The logic of claim 17, the logic when executed being operable to hold a cable modem having a second characteristic in a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) state for a pre-determined period of time.

19. The logic of claim 13, the logic being incorporated in a cable modem termination system apparatus.

20. A system, comprising:

means for determining a priority of a cable modem from which a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) discover request is received;

means for storing a set of received DHCP discover requests, the set to be organized by priority; and

means for controlling an order in which and a rate at which requests from the set of stored DHCP discover requests are provided to a DHCP server based, at least in part, on the priority of the cable modems from which the DHCP discover requests are received.