Dynamic Load Balancing Under Partial Service Conditions

• US 20160050154A1
• Filed: 10/28/2015
• Published: 02/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ARRIS Technology, Inc. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Thibeault, Brian K., Carle, Andrew S., Mak, Sarah S.
• Granted Patent: US 10,027,588 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2863 Arrangements for combining access network resources elements, e.g. channel bonding modem pooling H04L25/14; routing of packets H04L45/00; multichannel or multilink protocols H04L69/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0044 allocation of payload
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for controlling load balancing of modems may include receiving an indication of impairment of a channel, placing modems using the impaired channel into a partial service mode and removing the impaired channel from a list of channels available for load balancing, monitoring the quality of the impaired channel, and, responsive to detection of acceptable quality on the impaired channel, removing the modems from partial service mode and adding the channel back to the list of channels available for load balancing. Another method includes, but is not limited to, receiving an indication of a partial service mode for a modem, incrementing a partial service mode counter for a channel associated with the partial service mode indication, computing a partial service mode metric based in part upon the partial service mode counter, and responsive to a determination that the partial service mode metric meets a threshold, determining an allocation of modems to channels.

Claims

1. A method of managing communication with a plurality of modems on a plurality of channels, said method comprising:

receiving an indication of a partial service mode for a first modem of said plurality of modems;

responsive to said indication of a partial service mode for said first modem, incrementing a first partial service mode counter for a first channel of said plurality of channels associated with said partial service mode indication;

computing a first partial service mode metric based in part upon said first partial service mode counter; and

responsive to a determination that said first partial service mode metric meets a threshold, determining an allocation of said plurality of modems to said plurality of channels, including said first channel.

13-20. -20. (canceled)

21. An apparatus for communicating with a plurality of modems on a plurality of channels comprising:

a plurality of receivers for receiving data transmitted from said plurality of modems on said plurality of channels or a plurality of transmitters for transmitting data to said plurality of modems on said plurality of channels;

a memory for storing a list of channels available for load balancing; and

a processor for;

receiving an indication of a partial service mode for a first modem of said plurality of modems;

responsive to said indication of a partial service mode for said first modem, incrementing a first partial service mode counter for a first channel of said plurality of channels associated with said partial service mode indication;

computing a first partial service mode metric based in part upon said first partial service mode counter; and

responsive to a determination that said first partial service mode metric meets a threshold, determining an allocation of said plurality of modems to said plurality of channels, including said first channel.