Network having bandwidth sharing

• US 7,177,324 B1
• Filed: 11/02/2001
• Issued: 02/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lai, Wai Sum, Lester, William G., Guha, Arunabha, Choudhury, Gagan Lal, Segal, Moshe
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo; Ricky Q.
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAILE, FEBEN
• Application Number:
  US10/003,636
• Time in Patent Office: 1,929 Days
• Field of Search: 370/395.4, 370/395.41, 370/468, 370/477, 370/493, 370/395.52, 370/494, 370/495, 725/111, 375/257
• US Class Current: 370/468
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76

Abstract

A communication system includes a plurality of devices, such as cable modems, in communication with a station, such as a cable modem termination system, that provides efficient upstream bandwidth sharing.

Claims

1. A method for sharing channel bandwidth, comprising:

generating a map interval defining channel transmissions for a period of time;

flexibly partitioning the map interval into a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval so as to optimize use of the channel bandwidth, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval; and

further including allowing a soft partition among voice and data in which data is allowed to utilize unused bandwidth in voice interval with lower priority.

2. A method for sharing channel bandwidth, comprising:

generating a map interval defining channel transmissions for a period of time;

flexibly partitioning the map interval into a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval so as to optimize use of the channel bandwidth; and

further including placing a request interval, management interval and voice unsolicited grants adjacent to each other at one end of the map interval so that a single contiguous interval is available for data+signaling, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval tacked away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval.

3. A method for sharing channel bandwidth, comprising:

generating a map interval defining channel transmissions for a period of time;

flexibly partitioning the map interval into a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval so as to optimize use of the channel bandwidth; and

further including placing a request+management interval and voice unsolicited grants on opposite ends of the map interval so that a single contiguous interval is available for data+signaling, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval.

4. A method for sharing channel bandwidth, comprising:

generating a map interval defining channel transmissions for a period of time;

flexibly partitioning the map interval into a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval so as to optimize use of the channel bandwidth;

further including placing voice unsolicited grants (UGs) contiguously within the voice interval,

a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval.

5. A method for sharing channel bandwidth, comprising:

generating a map interval defining channel transmissions for a period of time;

flexibly partitioning the map interval into a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval so as to optimize use of the channel bandwidth;

further including placing voice unsolicited grants (UGs) contiguously within the voice interval, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval.

6. A method for sharing channel bandwidth, comprising:

generating a map interval defining channel transmissions for a period of time;

flexibly partitioning the map interval into a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval so as to optimize use of the channel bandwidth;

further including placing voice unsolicited grants (UGs) contiguously within the voice interval, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval.

7. A method for sharing channel bandwidth, comprising:

generating a map interval defining channel transmissions for a period of time;

flexibly partitioning the map interval into a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval so as to optimize use of the channel bandwidth; and

further including placing unsolicited grants within the voice interval until a predetermined fraction of total bandwidth available for voice, data, and signaling is reached, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval.

8. A method for sharing channel bandwidth, comprising:

generating a map interval defining channel transmissions for a period of time;

flexibly partitioning the map interval into a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval so as to optimize use of the channel bandwidth, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval; and

further including maximizing contiguousness of the data+signaling interval.

9. A method for sharing channel bandwidth, comprising:

generating a map interval defining channel transmissions for a period of time;

flexibly partitioning the map interval into a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval so as to optimize use of the channel bandwidth, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval; and

further including assigning a higher priority to signaling packets than data packets within the data+signaling interval.

10. A method for sharing channel bandwidth, comprising:

generating a map interval defining channel transmissions for a period of time;

flexibly partitioning the map interval into a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval so as to optimize use of the channel bandwidth, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval;

further including assigning a higher priority to signaling packets than data packets within the data+signaling interval; and

further including assigning unique service flow identifications to each signaling and data stream.

11. A method for sharing channel bandwidth, comprising:

generating a map interval defining channel transmissions for a period of time;

flexibly partitioning the map interval into a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval so as to optimize use of the channel bandwidth, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval; and

further including generating a secondary request interval within the map interval if bandwidth is available.

12. A method for sharing upstream channel bandwidth in a Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) system, comprising:

transmitting map intervals from a cable modem termination system on a downstream channel to a plurality of cable modems, wherein the map intervals define upstream traffic for the plurality of cable modems for a period of time in the future; and

flexibly partitioning the map intervals into a plurality of sub intervals based upon bandwidth requirements of the sub intervals;

further including partitioning the map intervals into at least a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval;

further including placing the management interval and the request interval together to form a contiguous interval.

13. A method for sharing upstream channel bandwidth in a Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) system, comprising:

transmitting map intervals from a cable modem termination system on a downstream channel to a plurality of cable modems, wherein the map intervals define upstream traffic for the plurality of cable modems for a period of time in the future; and

flexibly partitioning the map intervals into a plurality of sub intervals based upon bandwidth requirements of the sub intervals;

further including partitioning the map intervals into at least a request interval, a management interval, a data+signaling interval, and a voice interval, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval;

further including placing the management interval and the request interval together to form a contiguous interval.

14. A method for sharing upstream channel bandwidth in a Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) system, comprising:

transmitting map intervals from a cable modem termination system on a downstream channel to a plurality of cable modems, wherein the map intervals define upstream traffic for the plurality of cable modems for a period of time in the future; and

flexibly partitioning the map intervals into a plurality of sub intervals based upon bandwidth requirements of the sub intervals, the sub intervals comprising at least a data+signaling interval and a voice interval, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval; and

further placing unsolicited grants within the voice interval up to a predetermined maximum bandwidth.

15. A method for sharing upstream channel bandwidth in a Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) system, comprising:

transmitting map intervals from a cable modem termination system on a downstream channel to a plurality of cable modems, wherein the map intervals define upstream traffic for the plurality of cable modems for a period of time in the future; and

flexibly partitioning the map intervals into a plurality of sub intervals based upon bandwidth requirements of the sub intervals, the sub intervals comprising at least a data+signaling interval and a voice interval, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval; and

further including minimizing fragmentation of the data+signaling interval.

16. A method for sharing upstream channel bandwidth in a Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) system, comprising:

transmitting map intervals from a cable modem termination system on a downstream channel to a plurality of cable modems, wherein the map intervals define upstream traffic for the plurality of cable modems for a period of time in the future; and

flexibly partitioning the map intervals into a plurality of sub intervals based upon bandwidth requirements of the sub intervals, said subintervals comprising a data+signaling interval and a voice interval, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval; and

further including assigning separate service flow identifications to data and signaling streams.

17. A method for sharing upstream channel bandwidth in a Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) system, comprising:

transmitting map intervals from a cable modem termination system on a downstream channel to a plurality of cable modems, wherein the map intervals define upstream traffic for the plurality of cable modems for a period of time in the future; and

flexibly partitioning the map intervals into a plurality of sub intervals based upon bandwidth requirements of the sub intervals, said subintervals comprising a data+signaling interval and a voice interval, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval; and

further including assigning a higher priority to signing packets than data packets.

18. A method for sharing upstream channel bandwidth in a Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) system, comprising:

transmitting map intervals from a cable modem termination system on a downstream channel to a plurality of cable modems, wherein the map intervals define upstream traffic for the plurality of cable modems for a period of time in the future; and

flexibly partitioning the map intervals into a plurality of sub intervals based upon bandwidth requirements of the sub intervals, said subintervals comprising a data+signaling interval and a voice interval, a plurality of unsolicited grants for said voice interval packed away from the data+signaling interval in order to form a single hole adjoining the data+signaling interval, wherein when a voice call termination leaves a gap among the plurality of unsolicited grants, the gap is closed by a movement of one or more of the plurality of unsolicited grants away from the data+signaling interval; and

further including forming a further request interval when bandwidth is available.