Patent · US Active

Modem count based load balancing in a cable network

US8310926B1 · kind B1 · utility

7Cited by

0References

18Claims

0Family size

Assignee

Cisco Technology, Inc. · US

Inventors

Alon Bernstein · San Jose, US
Gitesh Shah · San Jose, US
Cindy Chan · San Jose, US
Hui Sun · Beijing, CN

Key dates

Filing date	Feb 18, 2010
Grant date	Nov 13, 2012
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Jan 9, 2031

Classification

Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
CPC primaryH04L12/2801
WIPO fieldDigital communication
WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Load balancing across RF channels in a cable plant is challenging where individual cable modems have multiple receive/transmit channels. Load balancing may be taken into account in the assignments of channels to requesting modems in a registration process. Requesting modems may be registered in a sequence of descending order defined by the number of channels requested. Channel sets may be selected to minimize a maximum delta metric of load balancing. It is preferred to normalize the “weight” of a modem on a channel based on the modem capabilities. The relative weight may be inversely related to the number of channels supported by the modem. Load balancing techniques disclosed may be applied to both upstream and downstream channels. Current load balance quality is estimated and reported to an operator.

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