WIDEBAND CABLE SYSTEM

• US 20110051753A1
• Filed: 08/10/2010
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Healy, Michael J., Prokopik, John P., Santarpio, Richard J., Dean, Alvar A., Chapman, John T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,457,156 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/503
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/79 using downlink of the CATV systems, e.g. audio broadcast via CATV network
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/97 using uplink of the CATV systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2381 Adapting the multiplex stream to a specific network, e.g. an Internet Protocol [IP] network transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/239 Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. prioritizing client content requests hybrid fiber coaxial [HFC] networks for upstream channel allocation for video distribution H04L12/2801; flow control in data 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 21/437 Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. for transmitting client requests to a VOD server flow control in data networks H04L47/10; streaming protocols, e.g. RTP or RTCP, H04L65/65; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests in data packet switching networks H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4381 Recovering the multiplex stream from a specific network, e.g. recovering MPEG packets from ATM cells transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6181 involving transmission via a mobile phone network arrangements for providing broadcast or conference services to substation in data switching networks in combination with wireless systems H04L12/189; wireless uplink channel access H04W74/004
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A wideband cable modem system increases available bandwidth of a single channel by encoding a data stream into wideband packets. The wideband packets are associated with a logical wideband channel that extends over multiple physical downstream cable channels.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a wideband cable modem configured to receive and decode a logical wideband channel received over a plurality of downstream Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) channels, wherein the logical wideband channel spans across a first combination of some of the QAM channels at a first time and a second different combination of some of the QAM channels at a second later time; and

the wideband cable modem configured to monitor all the QAM channels for packets having a particular packet identifier value that correlates said packets to the logical wideband channel, to track dynamic utilization of the QAM channels by the logical wideband channel over the different times according to the monitoring;

wherein the correlated packets include Vertical Alignment Indexes (VAIs) to identify temporal positions of said packets in the plurality of QAM channels, and wherein the wideband cable modem is configured to use the VAIs to temporally realign the packets received over the different QAM channels.