Patent · US Expired

Apparatus, method and system for multimedia access network channel management

US6816500B1 · kind B1 · utility

100Cited by
153References
60Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 10, 2000
Grant dateNov 9, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 5, 2023

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L47/24
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An apparatus, method and system are provided for multimedia access network channel management, such as channel management in a hybrid fiber-coaxial cable network, for voice (telephony), video, fax and data transmission. The preferred system embodiment includes a plurality of cable telephony modems (CTMs), for such voice (telephony), video, fax and data transmission, and includes a cable modem termination system (CMTS). For upstream communication from the CTMs to the CMTS, the network provides a plurality of channels, formed by a combination of FDM and TDMA. When a CMTS receives an multimedia network access message having a comparative priority from a CTM, the CMTS determines whether there is a first channel which is available from the plurality of channels, and if so, assigns a first transmission corresponding to the multimedia network access message to the first channel. When there is no available first channel, the CMTS determines whether there is a second transmission on a second channel which is moveable to a third channel, and if so, reassigns the second transmission to the third channel and assigns the first transmission corresponding to the multimedia network access message …

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.