Apparatus and methods for incorporating bandwidth forecasting and dynamic bandwidth allocation into a broadband communication system
First Claim
1. A cable modem, comprising:
- a media access control (MAC) layer;
communication components coupled to the MAC layer operative for communicating digital data over a shared access communication medium;
a statistics collector coupled to the MAC layer for collecting statistical information relating to traffic in the media access control (MAC) layer;
a lookahead scheduler coupled to the MAC layer operative for forecasting schedule transmission opportunities on a given channel, wherein the lookahead scheduler is configured to assign a forecasting function to a user based on whether or not a cycle has been detected via an autocorrelation function and a identifier function, and wherein the autocorrelation function identifies elements in a time series which are influential on a current observation of that same series and the identifier function identifies possible cycles of the time series by identifying local maxima output by the autocorrelation function; and
a predictor responsive to the statistical information collected by the statistics collector, for generating prediction signals representative of future bandwidth requirements.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for providing network access to a shared access communications medium for a plurality of users includes the steps of conducting predictive admission control by arbitrating user requests for access to the shared medium based on predicted aggregate demands, conducting lookahead scheduling for use in making user channel assignments by forecasting schedule transmission opportunities one or more channels of the shared medium, and balancing load by making channel assignments such that a plurality users are each assigned a respective channel of the shared medium based upon a predicted need. Congestion parameters can predicted for each channel of the shared medium and mapped to a congestion measure using a mathematical function that takes into account packet loss rate, packet delay, packet delay jitter, and available capacity.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A cable modem, comprising:
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a media access control (MAC) layer; communication components coupled to the MAC layer operative for communicating digital data over a shared access communication medium; a statistics collector coupled to the MAC layer for collecting statistical information relating to traffic in the media access control (MAC) layer; a lookahead scheduler coupled to the MAC layer operative for forecasting schedule transmission opportunities on a given channel, wherein the lookahead scheduler is configured to assign a forecasting function to a user based on whether or not a cycle has been detected via an autocorrelation function and a identifier function, and wherein the autocorrelation function identifies elements in a time series which are influential on a current observation of that same series and the identifier function identifies possible cycles of the time series by identifying local maxima output by the autocorrelation function; and a predictor responsive to the statistical information collected by the statistics collector, for generating prediction signals representative of future bandwidth requirements. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A cable modem termination system (CMTS) configured to making channel assignments to users and to load-balance a plurality of channels on a shared access communications medium comprising:
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a prediction filter for receiving prediction signals representative of future bandwidth requirements of users on the shared medium; a prediction cache coupled to the prediction filter for storing prediction signals received by the prediction filter; a media access control (MAC) layer coupled to the prediction cache; a load balancer coupled to the MAC layer for making channel assignments such that a plurality users are each assigned a respective channel of the shared medium based upon the prediction signals and one or more rules for bandwidth allocation; a lookahead scheduler coupled to the MAC layer operative for forecasting schedule transmission opportunities on a given channel, wherein the lookahead scheduler is configured to assign a forecasting function to a user based on whether or not a cycle has been detected via an autocorrelation function and a identifier function, and wherein the autocorrelation function identifies elements in a time series which are influential on a current observation of that same series and the identifier function identifies possible cycles of the time series by identifying local maxima output by the autocorrelation function; and a rule storage element coupled to the MAC layer for storing the one or more rules for bandwidth allocation. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A data communications system for controlling network access of a plurality of users to a shared access communications medium, the system comprising:
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one or more cable modems coupled to the shared medium; a cable modem termination system (CMTS) coupled to the shared medium, the CMTS having a media access control (MAC) layer; a statistics collector coupled to the MAC layer for collecting statistical flow information relating to service flows on the shared medium; a lookahead scheduler coupled to the MAC layer operative for forecasting schedule transmission opportunities on a given channel, wherein the lookahead scheduler is configured to assign a forecasting function to a user based on whether or not a cycle has been detected via an autocorrelation function and a identifier function, and wherein the autocorrelation function identifies elements in a time series which are influential on a current observation of that same series and the identifier function identifies possible cycles of the time series by identifying local maxima output by the autocorrelation function; a statistics cache coupled to the statistics collector for storing the statistical flow information; a prediction filter coupled to the shared medium for receiving prediction signals from the one or more cable modems, the prediction signals representative of future bandwidth requirements of users of the shared medium; a prediction cache coupled to the prediction filter for storing prediction signal information; a service flow manager coupled to the statistics cache and to the prediction cache for dynamically adjusting quality of service (QoS) parameters of service flows responsively to each of the statistical flow information, the prediction signal information, and rules relating to control of access to the shared medium; a load balancer coupled to the statistics cache and to the prediction cache for dynamically making channel assignments such that one or more users are each assigned a respective channel of the shared medium responsively to each of the statistical flow information, the prediction signal information, and rules relating to control of access to the shared medium; and a rule base coupled to the service flow manager and to the load balancer for storing the rules relating to control of access to the shared medium and providing the rules to the service flow manager and load balancer. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification