System and method for detecting and reporting cable modems with duplicate media access control addresses
US7272846B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 20, 2002 |
| Grant date | Sep 18, 2007 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 21, 2025 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L2101/622
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The detection of devices with duplicate media access controller (MAC) addresses in a cable network. A cable modem (CM) having a MAC address is connected by the cable network to a cable modem termination system (CMTS) having a gateway interface address. A centralized storage of historical cable modem MAC address/giaddr pair data is used to identify cable modems (CM's) that report duplicate MAC addresses. A server tracks the CM MAC address/giaddr pair data of all CM requests that it receives and stores the MAC address/giaddr pair data into a datastore (such as a database). When a CM seeks to access the network, the server looks into the datastore to determine whether the CM MAC address of the CM has previously been stored with a different associated giaddr, which would imply that there are multiple CMs attached to different CMTSs where the CMs share the same MAC address. If such duplication is detected, a appropriate remedial response is taken.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.