Downstream external physical interface transport in DOCSIS 3.1 network environments

• US 9,692,564 B2
• Filed: 04/13/2015
• Issued: 06/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bresnahan, Brian Patrick, Sowinski, Pawel Piotr, Chapman, John T., Ao, Jiening, Su, Lin
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Chuong T
• Application Number:
  US14/685,452
• Publication Number:
  US 20150295746A1
• Time in Patent Office: 806 Days
• Field of Search: 370390, 370392, 370419
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/542 the information being in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0667 Bidirectional timestamps, e.g. NTP or PTP for compensation of clock drift and for compensation of propagation delays arrangements for monitoring round trip delays in packet switching networks H04L43/0864
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0673 using intermediate nodes, e.g. modification of a received timestamp before further transmission to the next packet node, e.g. including internal delay time or residence time into the packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2697 in combination with other modulation techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/3405 Modifications of the signal space to increase the efficiency of transmission, e.g. reduction of the bit error rate, bandwidth, or average power
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/345 Modifications of the signal space to allow the transmission of additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/27 Evaluation or update of window size, e.g. using information derived from acknowledged [ACK] packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling

Abstract

An example method for Downstream External Physical Interface (DEPI) in Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) 3.1 network environments is provided and includes generating, at a Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) core, a DEPI-Packet Streaming Protocol (PSP) pseudo-wire (PW) packet including a PSP sub-layer header having a same length for a Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) channel and an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) channel in the DOCSIS network environment, and transmitting the DEPI-PSP PW packet over a DEPI interface to a remote physical layer (R-PHY) entity.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating, at a Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) Core, a Downstream External Physical Interface (DEPI)-Packet Streaming Protocol (PSP) pseudo-wire (PW) packet comprising a PSP sub-layer header having a same length for a Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) channel and an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) channel in a Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) network environment, wherein the PSP sub-layer header includes a profile identifier (ID) corresponding to a particular profile for the OFDM channel; and

transmitting the DEPI-PSP PW packet over a DEPI interface to a remote physical layer (R-PHY) entity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the profile ID is ignored by the R-PHY entity for the QAM channel.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the profile ID comprises four bits.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the PSP sub-layer header includes a segment type bit indicative of a type of data in a segment portion of the DEPI-PSP PW packet.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the type of data comprises a Media Access Control (MAC) management message (MMM) or a PLC Message Block.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a value of 1 for the type bit indicates MMM in the segment portion of the DEPI-PSP PW packet, wherein a value of 0 for the type bit indicates PLC Message Block for the segment portion of the DEPI-PSP PW packet.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the PSP sub-layer header further includes a B bit indicative of a timestamp representing a future time for transmitting information in the DEPI-PSP PW packet by the R-PHY entity to a cable modem.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the timestamp is included if a type bit value indicates a PLC Message Block and a B bit value indicates presence of the timestamp.

9. Non-transitory tangible computer readable media that includes instructions for execution, which when executed by a processor, performs operations comprising:

generating, at a CCAP Core, a DEPI-PSP PW packet comprising a PSP sub-layer header having a same length for a QAM channel and an OFDM channel in a DOCSIS network environment, wherein the PSP sub-layer header includes a profile identifier (ID) corresponding to a particular profile for the OFDM channel; and

transmitting the DEPI-PSP PW packet over a DEPI interface to a R-PHY entity.

10. The media of claim 9, wherein the PSP sub-layer header includes a segment type bit indicative of a type of data in a segment portion of the DEPI-PSP PW packet.

11. The media of claim 10, wherein the PSP sub-layer header further includes a B bit indicative of a timestamp representing a future time for transmitting information in the DEPI-PSP PW packet by the R-PHY entity to a cable modem.

12. An apparatus, comprising:

a CCAP Core;

a memory element for storing data; and

a processor, wherein the processor executes instructions associated with the data, wherein the processor and the memory element cooperate, such that the apparatus is configured for;

generating, at the CCAP Core, a DEPI-PSP PW packet comprising a PSP sub-layer header having a same length for a QAM channel and an OFDM channel in a DOCSIS network environment, wherein the PSP sub-layer header includes a profile identifier (ID) corresponding to a particular profile for the OFDM channel; and

transmitting the DEPI-PSP PW packet over a DEPI interface to a R-PHY entity.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the PSP sub-layer header includes a segment type bit indicative of a type of data in a segment portion of the DEPI-PSP PW packet.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the PSP sub-layer header further includes a B bit indicative of a timestamp representing a future time for transmitting information in the DEPI-PSP PW packet by the R-PHY entity to a cable modem.