Claims
- 1. In an distributed communications network having at least one remote node and one or more local nodes, each local node providing one or more services and at least one local node having a local scheduler, a method for managing upstream communications from the local scheduler, comprising the steps of:
(a) sending a request to transmit data related to a requesting service; (b) receiving a grant specification from a remote node, said grant specification providing authorization to transmit data related to the requesting service; (c) considering the needs of a plurality of services, said plurality of services including the requesting service and at least one other service; (d) scheduling packets for said plurality of services in response to said considering step; and (e) transmitting a burst based on the scheduled packets to the remote node.
- 2. A method of claim 1, further comprising the step of evaluating the current state of queues for each of said plurality of services.
- 3. A method of claim 1, further comprising the step of evaluating at least one of throughput and latency to consider the needs of said plurality of services.
- 4. A method of claim 1, further comprising the step of drawing data from a higher priority queue prior to drawing data from a lower priority queue to implement said scheduling packets.
- 5. A method of claim 1, further comprising the step of sending a piggyback bandwidth request with the burst.
- 6. A method of claim 5, further comprising the step of appending said piggyback bandwidth request to the burst.
- 7. A method of claim 6, further comprising the step of appending said piggyback bandwidth request to a voice packet.
- 8. A method of claim 5, further comprising the step of sending said piggyback bandwidth request as a message.
- 9. A method of claim 5, further comprising the step of sending said piggyback bandwidth request in a header frame.
- 10. A method of claim 1, further comprising the step of sending multiple piggyback bandwidth requests with the burst.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims benefit of U.S. patent Ser. No. 09/427,792, entitled “System and Method for Multiplexing Data from Multiple Sources,” filed Oct. 27, 1999, by Limb et al., (still pending), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety; and benefit of the following United States provisional applications:
[0002] U.S. Patent Serial No. 60/182,470, entitled “Intelligent Silence Suppression,” filed Feb. 15, 2000, by Gummalla et al., (still pending), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety;
[0003] U.S. Patent Serial No. 60/247,188 (Attorney Docket No. CPH40892 (BP 1560)), entitled “A Local Scheduling Mechanism for Cable Modems,” filed Nov. 9, 2000, by Sala et al., (still pending), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety;
[0004] U.S. Patent Serial No. 60/254,415 (Attorney Docket No. CPH 40892 (BP 1560.1)), entitled “A Local Scheduling Mechanism for Cable Modems,” filed Dec. 8, 2000, by Sala et al. (still pending), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety;
[0005] U.S. Patent Serial No. 60/262,201 (Attorney Docket No. CPH 41359 (BP 1702)), entitled “Voice Scheduling Algorithms,” filed Jan. 17, 2001, by Sala et al. (still pending), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety; and
[0006] U.S. Patent Serial No. 60/262,203 (Attorney Docket No. CPH 41362 (BP 1705)), entitled “Concatenation of Requests at CMTS,” filed Jan. 17, 2001, by Sala et al. (still pending),which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Provisional Applications (5)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60182470 |
Feb 2000 |
US |
|
60247188 |
Nov 2000 |
US |
|
60254415 |
Dec 2000 |
US |
|
60262201 |
Jan 2001 |
US |
|
60262203 |
Jan 2001 |
US |