Broadband system with intelligent network devices

• US 7,146,630 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2001
• Issued: 12/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ciena Corporation
• Original Assignee: PhyFlex Networks, Inc. (Ciena Corporation)
• Inventors: Gupta, Dev V., Dravida, Subrahmanyam, Dorbala, Prasad, Gupta, Satya V.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, HAI V
• Application Number:
  US09/952,374
• Publication Number:
  US 20020078464A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,909 Days
• Field of Search: 370/430, 370478-480, 370/490, 370351-356, 370235-229, 375219-222, 375229-235, 375/430, 725/127, 725/129, 725/143, 725/147, 725/149, 725/111, 725/117, 725/119, 398/71
• US Class Current: 725/111
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2859 Point-to-point connection between the data network and the subscribers encapsulation H04L12/4633; virtual LANs H04L12/4641; routing of packets H04L45/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2874 Processing of data for distribution to the subscribers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2876 Handling of subscriber policies group policies management H04L41/0893
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5605 Fibre
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5606 Metallic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/561 Star, e.g. cross-connect, concentrator, subscriber group equipment, remote electronics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5651 Priority, marking, classes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5679 Arbitration or scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5022 by giving priorities, e.g. assigning classes of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/509 wherein the managed service relates to media content delivery, e.g. audio, video or TV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/15 in relation to multipoint traffic arrangements for broadcast or multicast in data networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 : Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2416 : Real-time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2425 : for supporting services specification, e.g. SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 : Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 : relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2491 : Mapping quality of service [QoS] requirements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/32 : by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 : Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/724 : at intermediate nodes, e.g. resource reservation protocol [RSVP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/788 : Autonomous allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/801 : Real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/805 : QOS or priority aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 : Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/829 : Topology based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 : Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5014 : using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 : for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 : involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6168 : involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/10 : Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable H04N7/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 : Transmission or handling of upstream communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0045 : involving hybrid, i.e. a mixture of public and private, or multi-vendor systems

Abstract

Hybrid fiber/coax networks employ the existing cable plant used for cable TV and transmit data signals in a frequency bandwidth above that which is used for cable TV. As this cable plant was deployed in a tree and branch topology, data transmissions may be susceptible to noise, variable transmission loss and frequency dispersion, particularly in the upstream direction. Further, due to the tree and branch topology, homes at the far end of the network experience much greater loss than do the homes that are near to the headend/ONU. The present system, which uses point-to-point data links between intelligent network elements located in the feeder/distribution network to provide reliable, secure, bi-directional broadband access. Digital signals are terminated at the intelligent network elements, switched and regenerated for transmission across additional upstream or downstream data links as needed to connect a home to a headend or router. The intelligent network elements can be co-located with or replace the standard network elements to take advantage of existing network configurations. The standard network elements can be selectively replaced by the intelligent network elements in an incremental approach. In this manner, the data links are made over relatively short runs of coax cable, which can provide greater bandwidth than the typical end-to-end feeder/distribution connection between a home and the headend or optical network unit.

Claims

1. A communications device in a cable network comprising:

a plurality of coaxial input ports for receiving a signal having legacy signal components and incoming high-frequency signal components at frequencies greater than 860 MHz;

a plurality of coaxial output ports for combining outgoing high-frequency signal components with legacy signal components and transmitting the combined signal over a coaxial cable;

a legacy signal component passthrough electrically coupled to at least one coaxial input port and to at least one coaxial output port and configured to filter out the incoming high-frequency signal components from the legacy signal and to forward the legacy signal components to the coaxial output ports;

a plurality of modems within the communications device in communication with the plurality of coaxial input ports and the plurality of coaxial output ports, each modem configured to convert incoming high-frequency signal components into packets of data and outgoing packets of data into outgoing high-frequency signal components;

a processor within the communications device in communication with each modem for

determining an intended destination of the outgoing packets of data and for selecting one of the plurality of coaxial output ports based on the determined intended destination of the outgoing packets of data;

a switch within the communications device responsive to the processor for directing the outgoing packets of data to one of the plurality of modems associated with the selected one of the plurality of coaxial output ports;

wherein at least one coaxial input port and at least one coaxial output port are the same coaxial port.

2. The communications device of claim 1 wherein at least one coaxial input port and at least one coaxial output port share a common modem.

3. The communications device of claim 1 wherein the communications device has an assigned address representative of the location of the device.

4. The communications device of claim 1 wherein the communications device further comprises a network interface with a local area network.

5. The communications device of claim 1 further comprising a priority level queuing processor for bandwidth management.

6. The communications device of claim 1 wherein the communications device is in communication with a topology server to enable discovery of a network topology of a network on which the communications device resides.

7. The communications device of claim 6 further comprising a processor for sending information to the topology server indicating the identity of neighboring communications devices.

8. The communications device of claim 1 wherein the switch comprises a layer 2 data switch.

9. The communications device of claim 1 wherein the communications device can transmit up to about 100 Mbps of data encoded in the high-frequency signal components.

10. A method of transmitting data using a communication device in a cable network comprising:

connecting a plurality of coaxial input ports and a plurality of coaxial output ports of the communication device to the cable network;

receiving via at least one input port of the plurality of coaxial input ports a signal having legacy signal components and incoming high-frequency signal components at frequencies over 860 MHz;

filtering out the incoming high frequency signal components and forwarding the legacy signal components to one of the plurality of coaxial output ports;

connecting a plurality of modems within the communication device to the plurality of coaxial input ports and plurality of coaxial output ports;

converting, at the modems, the incoming high-frequency signal components into packets of data and converting outgoing packets of data into outgoing high-frequency signal components;

determining the intended destination of the outgoing high-frequency signal components;

switching the outgoing packets of data to one of the plurality of modems associated with the one of the plurality of coaxial output ports based on the determined intended destination;

transmitting via coaxial cable from the one of the plurality of coaxial output ports the legacy signal components combined with any outgoing high-frequency signal components switched to the one of the plurality of coaxial output ports;

wherein at least one coaxial input port and at least one coaxial output port are the same coaxial port.

11. The method of claim 10 comprising determining a topology of the coaxial cable network by determining the locations and interconnections of other plurality of the communication devices connected to the cable network.

12. The method of claim 11 comprising routing the transmitted data from the communication device to a second of the other plurality of communication devices according to the determined network topology.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the communication device has a unique routing ID.

14. The method of claim 13 comprising forwarding the unique routing ID of the communication device to a topology server.

15. The method of claim 10 comprising transmitting and receiving using the same coaxial port.