MoCA multicast handling

• US 8,867,355 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2010
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Klein, Philippe, Kliger, Avraham, Ohana, Yitshak
• Primary Examiner(s): Hsu, Alpus H
• Assistant Examiner(s): LAM, YEE F
• Application Number:
  US12/835,959
• Publication Number:
  US 20110013633A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,560 Days
• Field of Search: 370/235, 370/390, 370/395.32, 370/432, 711/216, 725/118, 725/97, 725/98
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2861 Point-to-multipoint connection from the data network to the subscribers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00

Abstract

An apparatus and methods for transmitting information over a home coax network are provided. A method according to the invention for transmitting information over a home coax network preferably includes adding a multicast transmission mode to a system that previously only had unicast transmission mode and broadcast mode. The method preferably includes broadcasting multicast (“MC”) traffic. The MC traffic may be directed to a predetermined MC group. The MC traffic may be transmitted from an ingress node to a plurality of egress nodes. A portion of the plurality of egress nodes may belong to the MC group. Upon receipt by at least one of the egress nodes of the MC traffic, the method may further include using the at least one egress node to filter the received MC traffic to determine whether the MC traffic is directed to a group for which the egress node is a member.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting information over a home coax network, the method for adding a multicast transmission mode to a system that previously only had unicast transmission mode and broadcast transmission mode, the method comprising:

mapping, by an ingress node that is distinct from a network controller that coordinates transmissions over the home coax network, a multicast address associated with multicast traffic to a destination identifier associated with a multicast group, wherein the destination identifier is distinct from the multicast address;

transmitting the multicast traffic with the destination identifier, the multicast traffic being directed to the multicast group, by the ingress node to a plurality of egress nodes, wherein a first portion of the plurality of egress nodes are registered as members to the multicast group and a second portion of the plurality of egress nodes are not registered as the members to the multicast group;

upon receipt by an egress node of the plurality of egress nodes of the multicast traffic, determining, by the egress node, whether to process and store the multicast traffic based at least on whether the egress node is a member of the multicast group that is associated with the destination identifier of the multicast traffic; and

when the egress node transitions to a standby mode, the egress node is configured to receive a flow of broadcast traffic and a flow of unicast traffic, and to not receive a flow of multicast traffic.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the ingress node to the network controller, a reservation request for transmitting the multicast traffic over the network, wherein a first destination field of the reservation request comprises the destination identifier.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving, by the ingress node and the plurality of egress nodes from the network controller, a data allocation unit granting the reservation request, wherein a second destination field of the data allocation unit comprises the destination identifier.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein transmitting the multicast traffic with the destination identifier further comprises transmitting the multicast traffic with the destination identifier and exclusive of the multicast address.

5. A method for transmitting information over a network by a first node, the method comprising:

receiving a multicast data item that is associated with a multicast address that corresponds to a multicast group, wherein a first portion of a plurality of nodes of the network are members of the multicast group and a second portion of the plurality of nodes of the network are not members of the multicast group;

mapping, by the first node that is distinct from a network controller, the multicast address to a destination identifier;

transmitting, to the network controller that is distinct from the first node, a reservation request for transmitting the multicast data item over the network, wherein a first destination field of the reservation request comprises the destination identifier;

receiving, from the network controller, a media access plan (MAP) frame that comprises a data allocation unit granting the reservation request, wherein a second destination field of the data allocation unit comprises the destination identifier; and

transmitting the multicast data item with the destination identifier over the network directed to the multicast group based at least on the data allocation unit.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the multicast address is mapped to the destination identifier using a hash function and the network controller coordinates transmissions over the network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the reservation request and the data allocation unit exclude the multicast address, the multicast address being distinct from the destination identifier.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the transmitting the multicast data item with the destination identifier over the network directed to the multicast group based at least on the data allocation unit further comprises:

transmitting the multicast data item with the destination identifier, and exclusive of the multicast address, over the network, based at least on the data allocation unit, to a plurality of second nodes that are associated with the multicast address, wherein the plurality of second nodes are distinct from the network controller.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

transmitting a unicast frame over the network to a third node that is in a low power mode, wherein the third node is distinct from the first node, the plurality of second nodes and the network controller.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

transmitting a broadcast frame over the network to the third node that is in the low power mode.

11. An ingress node, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive a multicast data item that is associated with a multicast address that corresponds to a multicast group;

map the multicast address to a destination identifier, wherein the destination identifier is distinct from the multicast address;

transmit, to a network controller that is distinct from the ingress node, a reservation request for transmitting the multicast data item over a network, wherein a first destination field of the reservation request comprises the destination identifier and the reservation request excludes the multicast address;

receive, from the network controller, a media access plan (MAP) frame that comprises a data allocation unit granting the reservation request, wherein a second destination field of the data allocation unit comprises the destination identifier and the data allocation unit excludes the multicast address; and

transmit the multicast data item with the destination identifier over the network directed to the multicast group based at least on the data allocation unit, wherein a first portion of a plurality of egress nodes of the network are members of the multicast group and a second portion of the plurality of egress nodes of the network are not members of the multicast group.

12. The ingress node of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

map the multicast address to the destination identifier using a hash function.

13. The ingress node of claim 11, wherein the reservation request and the data allocation unit exclude the multicast address, the multicast address being distinct from the destination identifier.

14. A computer program product comprising instructions stored in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the instructions comprising:

instructions for receiving a multicast data item that is associated with a multicast address that corresponds to a multicast group, wherein a first portion of a plurality of nodes of a network are members of the multicast group and a second portion of the plurality of nodes of the network are not members of the multicast group;

instructions for mapping the multicast address to a destination identifier;

instructions for transmitting a reservation request for transmitting the multicast data item over the network, wherein the reservation request comprises the destination identifier;

instructions for receiving a media access plan (MAP) frame that comprises a data allocation unit granting the reservation request, wherein the data allocation unit comprises the destination identifier; and

instructions for transmitting the multicast data item with the destination identifier over the network directed to the multicast group based at least on the data allocation unit.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the instructions for mapping the multicast address to a destination identifier further comprise instructions for mapping the multicast address to a destination identifier using a hash function.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the reservation request and the data allocation unit exclude the multicast address, the multicast address being distinct from the destination identifier.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the instructions further comprise:

instructions for transmitting a unicast frame over the network to one of the plurality of nodes that is in a low power mode.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise:

instructions for transmitting a broadcast frame over the network to the one of the plurality of nodes that is in the low power mode.

19. A system comprising:

an ingress node configured to;

map a multicast address associated with multicast traffic to a destination identifier associated with a multicast group, wherein the destination identifier is distinct from the multicast address;

transmit a reservation request for transmitting the multicast traffic over a network, wherein a first destination field of the reservation request comprises the destination identifier;

receive a data allocation unit granting the reservation request, wherein a second destination field of the data allocation unit comprises the destination identifier; and

transmit the multicast traffic with the destination identifier directed to the multicast group over the network, wherein a first portion of a plurality of egress nodes of the network are members of the multicast group and a second portion of the plurality of egress nodes of the network are not members of the multicast group; and

at least one of the plurality of egress nodes configured to;

receive the multicast traffic; and

determine whether to process and store the multicast traffic based at least on whether the at least one of the plurality of egress nodes is a member of the multicast group associated with the destination identifier.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the ingress node is configured to:

map the multicast address associated with the multicast traffic to the destination identifier using a hash function.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the hash function comprises a cyclic redundancy check.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the ingress node is configured to:

transmit the multicast traffic with the destination identifier and exclusive of the multicast address.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the at least one of the plurality of egress nodes is configured to:

receive a flow of broadcast traffic and a flow of unicast traffic, and to not receive a flow of multicast traffic when the at least one of the plurality of egress nodes transitions to a standby mode.