Apparatus and Method for Load Balancing in a Cable Network
First Claim
1. A method of load balancing cable modems across channels of a load balancing group on a Data Over Cable System Interface Specification (DOCSIS) network, comprising the steps of:
- collecting at least one Quality of Service (QoS) parameter for each service flow from a plurality of cable modems actively passing traffic across one channel of the load balancing group;
using the at least one QoS parameter collected during said collecting step for each service flow to identify at least one cable modem having a service flow with an inferior grade of the at least one QoS parameter relative to a pre-defined threshold; and
selecting the at least one cable modem having the service flow with the inferior grade of the at least one QoS parameter relative to the pre-defined threshold for being moved from the one channel of the load balancing group to a different channel of the load balancing group for balancing load of active service flows across the channels of the load balancing group;
said steps of collecting, using and selecting being performed automatically by an electronic communication device at a headend of the DOCSIS network communicating with the plurality of cable modems.
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Abstract
Apparatus and method for load balancing cable modems across channels of a load balancing group on a DOCSIS network are described. At least one Quality of Service (QoS) parameter is collected for each service flow from cable modems actively passing traffic across one channel of the load balancing group. The QoS parameter collected is used to identify at least one cable modem having a service flow with an inferior grade of the QoS parameter relative to a pre-defined threshold of the QoS parameter. The cable modem having service flows with the inferior grade of the QoS parameter is selected first from the cable modems of the load balancing group for being moved from the one channel to a different channel of the load balancing group for purposes of balancing load of active service flows across the channels.
30 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of load balancing cable modems across channels of a load balancing group on a Data Over Cable System Interface Specification (DOCSIS) network, comprising the steps of:
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collecting at least one Quality of Service (QoS) parameter for each service flow from a plurality of cable modems actively passing traffic across one channel of the load balancing group; using the at least one QoS parameter collected during said collecting step for each service flow to identify at least one cable modem having a service flow with an inferior grade of the at least one QoS parameter relative to a pre-defined threshold; and selecting the at least one cable modem having the service flow with the inferior grade of the at least one QoS parameter relative to the pre-defined threshold for being moved from the one channel of the load balancing group to a different channel of the load balancing group for balancing load of active service flows across the channels of the load balancing group; said steps of collecting, using and selecting being performed automatically by an electronic communication device at a headend of the DOCSIS network communicating with the plurality of cable modems. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A signal processing electronic device for communicating with cable modems across channels of a load balancing group on a Data Over Cable System Interface Specification (DOCSIS) network, comprising:
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a processing unit configurable to run an algorithm for performing a load balancing operation for the cable modems across the channels of the load balancing group; said processing unit being configured to collect at least one Quality of Service (QoS) parameter for each service flow from the cable modems that are actively passing traffic across one channel of the load balancing group; said processing unit being configured to identify at least one cable modem having a service flow with an inferior grade of the at least one QoS parameter relative to a pre-defined threshold; and said processing unit being configured to select the at least one cable modem having the service flow with the inferior grade of the at least one QoS parameter relative to the pre-defined threshold from the cable modems of the load balancing group for being moved from the one channel to a different channel of the load balancing group for balancing load of active service flows across the channels of the load balancing group. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon that are arranged to perform the following operations:
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collecting at least one Quality of Service (QoS) parameter for each service flow from cable modems of a load balancing group actively passing traffic across one channel of a pre-defined set of channels of the load balancing group; using the at least one QoS parameter collected during said collecting step for each service flow to identify at least one cable modem having a service flow with an inferior grade of the at least one QoS parameter relative to a pre-defined threshold; and selecting the at least one cable modem having the service flow with the inferior grade of the at least one QoS parameter relative to the pre-defined threshold from the cable modems of the load balancing group for being moved from the one channel to a different channel of the load balancing group for balancing load of active service flows across the pre-defined set of channels of the load balancing group.
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Specification