WIDEBAND FAULT CORRELATION SYSTEM

• US 20100223650A1
• Filed: 02/27/2009
• Published: 09/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Millet, Mark, Parandekar, Harshavardhan
• Granted Patent: US 8,830,843 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/111
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/238 Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidth; Processing of multiplex streams hybrid fiber coaxial [HFC] networks for downstream channel allocation for video distribution H04L12/2801; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2383 Channel coding or modulation of digital bit-stream, e.g. QPSK modulation arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by adapting the channel coding H04L1/0009; analogue front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2385 Channel allocation H04N21/266 takes precedence; Bandwidth allocation H04N21/24 takes precedence ; allocation of channels according to the instantaneous demands of the users in time-division multiplex systems H04J3/1682; admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896; negotiating bandwidth in wireless networks H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2404 Monitoring of server processing errors or hardware failure error or fault detection G06F11/07; monitoring in general G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/24 Systems for the transmission of television signals using pulse code modulation H04N21/00 takes precedence

Abstract

A wideband cable network system includes multiple wideband cable modems and a Wideband Cable Modem Termination System (WCMTS). The WCMTS operates a Media Access Control (MAC) layer that communicates with the cable modems over multiple different downstream Radio Frequency (RF) channels and upstream RF channels. A wideband failure analytic manager tracks fault indicators associated with the MAC layer communications. Separate failure analytics are then generated, indexed, and correlated for different cable modems and different upstream or downstream channels.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium encoded with instructions that, if executed, result in:

one or more processors monitoring a network for fault indicators associated with different remote devices and different network channels;

one or more of the processors generating entries that track the fault indicators and identify the different remote devices and the different network channels associated with the monitored fault indicators; and

one or more of the processors generating tables that are stored in a memory that contain the entries.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

one or more of the processors correlating the entries in the tables associated with the fault indicators over different remote devices and over different network channels; and

one or more of the processors identifying fault conditions associated with the correlated fault indicators obtained from the tables.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

one or more of the processors monitoring for periodic maintenance messages from different cable modems over different upstream channels in a Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) plant;

one or more of the processors tracking hits on the different upstream channels when the periodic messages are successfully received from the cable modems;

one or more of the processors tracking misses on the different upstream channels when the periodic messages are not successfully received from the cable modems; and

one or more of the processors updating the tables to identify the number of hits and misses for the different cable modems on the different upstream channels.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

one or more of the processors tracking the amount of corrupted or lost data received from different remote devices on different channels;

one or more of the processors updating the tables to identify the amount or percentage of corrupted or lost data received from the different remote devices on the different individual channels.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 4, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

one or more of the processors tracking an amount of correctable corrupted or lost data received from the different remote devices on the different channels;

one or more of the processors tracking an amount of uncorrectable corrupted or lost data received from the individual remote devices and the different channels; and

one or more of the processors updating the tables to identify the amount or percentage of correctable and uncorrectable corrupted or lost data received from the different remote devices on the different individual channels.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

one or more of the processors tracking modulation formats used for transmitting the fault indicators; and

one or more of the processors correlating at least some of the tracked fault indicators with the modulation formats.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

one or more of the processors tracking transitions of the remote devices between a wideband online mode and a narrowband online mode; and

one or more of the processors identifying in the tables how many of the transitions are made by the different remote devices.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

one or more of the processors preventing the remote devices from operating in the wideband online mode when the remote devices have a number of unexpected transitions above a threshold;

or

one or more of the processors reducing a Quality of Service (QoS) for the remote devices when the remote devices have a number of unexpected transitions above the threshold.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

one or more of the processors identifying similar fault indicators associated with the same channels and different remote devices; and

one or more of the processors assigning a same group identifier to the identified similar fault indicators.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

one or more of the processors identifying similar or dissimilar fault indicators associated with the same subscriber and different remote devices; and

one or more of the processors using a same customer identifier to differentiate if the fault is inside the house or outside the house.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the network is a Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) cable network, the processor operates in a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS), the devices are cable modems.

13. The apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the processor is further configured to correlate the fault analytics that occur at around the same time period over different devices and different upstream channels.

14. The apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the processor is further configured to extract the fault analytics for each of the different individual upstream channels from MAC maintenance messages received over the different individual upstream channels.

15. The apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the processor is further configured to:

identify different devices having related fault analytics; and

assign a same identifier to the related fault analytics.

16. The apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the processor is further configured to:

tally corrupted or lost data on each of the upstream channels; and

generate fault analytics for each of the upstream channels according to the tallied corrupted or lost data.

17. The apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the processor is further configured to:

tally unexpected device transitions between a multi-channel wideband mode and a single channel narrowband mode; and

generate fault analytics for the different devices according to the tallied unexpected device transitions.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor configured to;

monitor different individual upstream channels for messages or data received from different devices,

generate fault analytics from with the monitored messages or data, the fault analytics associated with possible fault conditions in a network, and

track the fault analytics for each of the different upstream channels; and

a memory configured to store tables that index the fault analytics to the different devices and to the different individual upstream channels.

18. A cable network system, comprising:

multiple cable modems; and

a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) operating a Media Access Control (MAC) layer and communicating with the cable modems over multiple different Radio Frequency (RF) downstream and upstream channels, wherein the CMTS operates a wideband failure analytic manager that tracks the MAC layer communications on each of the different upstream channels and generates fault indicators corresponding to the different cable modems and the different upstream channels.

19. The cable network system according to claim 19 wherein the wideband failure analytic manager is further configured to:

track MAC maintenance messages on each of the upstream channels;

track corrupted or lost data on each of the upstream channels;

track unexpected cable modem transitions between a wideband mode and a narrowband mode; and

generate fault indicators for the cable modems on each of the different upstream channels according to the tracked MAC maintenance messages, tracked corrupted or lost data, and tracked unexpected cable modem transitions.

20. The cable network system according to claim 19 wherein the failure analytic manager is further configured to correlate the fault indicators over the different cable modems and over the different upstream channels.