Claims
- 1. A method, comprising:
in response to a first transmission queue of a bi-directional communication device containing less than a threshold number of data packets, performing the steps of: transferring a data packet from a second transmission queue in said bi-directional communication device to said first transmission queue, said transferred data packet comprising at least two concatenated data packets; identifying said transferred data packet as a ready-to-send data packet in said first transmission queue; and indicating the presence of a subsequent ready-to-send data packet in a primary ready-to-send data packet, said primary ready-to-send data packet and said subsequent ready-to-send data packet existing in a sequence of ready-to-send data packets in said first transmission queue.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the presence of the subsequent ready-to-send data packet is inserted into a header of said primary ready-to-send data packet.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said indicating is performed prior to transmitting the primary ready-to-send data packet upstream.
- 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
transmitting said primary ready-to-send data packet upstream toward a control device adapted to identify the indication of the presence of the subsequent ready-to-send data packet in the the primary ready-to-send data packet; and receiving a grant for bandwidth for at least the subsequent ready-to-send data packet.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said transferring step is repeated until the number of ready-to-send data packets in said first transmission queue is equal to said threshold number.
- 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
verifying that at least two ready-to-send data packets exist in said first transmission queue prior to said indicating step.
- 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said ready-to-send data packets are data packets having respective ownership bits set to a first state.
- 8. The method of claim 1, wherein said bi-directional communication device is a cable modem.
- 9. The method of claim 8, wherein said cable modem comprises a cable modem IC.
- 10. The method of claim 9, wherein said cable modem IC is a Broadcom 3350 DOCSIS cable modem IC.
- 11. The method of claim 10, wherein said first transmission queue is a packet descriptor queue in said Broadcom 3350 DOCSIS cable modem IC.
- 12. The method of claim 8, wherein said second transmission queue is a software queue in said cable modem.
- 13. An apparatus, comprising:
a first transmission queue, for storing data packets and a first set of instructions; a second transmission queue for storing data packets over a predetermined threshold number of data packets to be stored in said first transmission queue and a second set of instructions; and a processor, upon executing said first set of instructions and said second set of instructions, configured to:
in response to a first transmission queue containing less than the threshold number of data packets, perform the steps of;
transfer a data packet from said second transmission queue to said first transmission queue, said transferred data packet comprising at least two concatenated data packets; identify said transferred data packet as a ready-to-send data packet in said first transmission queue; and indicate the presence of a subsequent ready-to-send data packet in a primary ready-to-send data packet, said primary ready-to-send data packet and said subsequent ready-to-send data packet existing in a sequence of ready-to-send data packets in said first transmission queue.
- 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the indication of the presence of the subsequent ready-to-send data packet is inserted into a header of said primary ready-to-send data packet.
- 15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said bi-directional communication device is a cable modem.
- 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said cable modem comprises a cable modem IC.
- 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein said cable modem IC is a Broadcom 3350 DOCSIS cable modem IC.
- 18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said first transmission queue is a packet descriptor queue in said Broadcom 3350 DOCSIS cable modem IC.
- 19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said second transmission queue is a software queue in said cable modem.
- 20. An apparatus, comprising:
a means for concatenating a plurality of data packets; and a means for piggybacking a plurality of said plurality of concatenated data packets.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application serial No. 60/355,637, filed Feb. 6, 2002, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60355637 |
Feb 2002 |
US |