Scientific-atlanta, Inc.

Roy A Bowcutt

Scott E Hrastar

Todd A Merrill

Mark E Schutte

David A Sedacca

Jeffery L Thompson

James E Barker

Scott E Hraster

Brett Black

Apparatus for a cable television subscriber to log onto a computer network with a modem over an upstream path using a USERID and password. The network validates the subscriber USERID and subscriber password with a stored database of valid USERIDs and associated passwords. After the USERID and password are validated, the modem then provides it electronic serial number to the network for validation against a stored database of authorized serial numbers. Upon additional validation of the modem's serial number, the subscriber is authorized to use the network.

Two-tiered authorization and authentication for a cable data delivery system

An asymmetrical network is disclosed for coupling customer-premises Internet hosts such as personal computers to the Internet. The head end of a CATV system has a high-bandwidth connection to the Internet. The CATV system supports a plurality of concurrent channels to which an RF modem is capable of tuning. The RE modem is capable of receiving information from the head end that specifies the channel to which the RF modem should tune. Once tuned to the specified channel, the RF modem is capable of utilizing the CATV system for carrying high-speed data traffic. The high-speed data traffic can support Internet access using the Internet Protocol (IP).

Router for use with a link that has a set of concurrent channels

An asymmetrical network for coupling customer-premises Internet hosts such as personal computers to the Internet. The head end of a CATV system has a high-bandwidth connection to the Internet. The down link connecting the personal computers to the Internet is the cables provided by the CATV system; the up link is a telephone connection to the head end. A router is connected to the down link by means of an RF modem, to the up link by means of an analog modem, and to a LAN which is connected to the Pcs. The router routes IP packets for the hosts that are received on the CATV cable to the hosts via the LAN; it routes IP packets from the hosts that are destined for the Internet to the head end via the telephone line. The asymmetrical network conserves IP addresses and addresses on the CATV cable by dynamically allocating the IP addresses for an RF modem's hosts and an address on the CATV cable for the RF modem in response to a request made by the RF modem via the telephone line. It further saves IP addresses by assigning a non-unique IP address to the router for use inside the LAN. When the CATV system fails, the asymmetrical network automatically begins to use the telephone line as both the up link and the down link, and when the CATV system is restored, the asymmetrical network automatically returns to using the CATV cable as the down link and the telephone line as the up link. A further feature of the asymmetrical network is that the head end components and the RF modem have IP addresses, so that standard TCP/IP protocols can be used to control the asymmetrical network.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention is a cable modem apparatus for reliably providing a personal computer access to the Internet through a cable television link and a public switched telephone network link. The invention includes: a cable television link failure detector connected to the cable television link; a message generator connected to the cable television link failure detector, where the message generator is configured to generate at least one message responsive to the cable television link failure detector; and a message transmitter connected to the message generator, where the message transmitter is configured to transmit the at least one message through the public switched telephone network link to cause Internet communications to be communicated to the personal computer through the public switch telephone network link.

Method of using routing protocols to reroute packets during a link failure

Apparatus for a cable television subscriber to log onto a computer network with a modem over an upstream path using a USERID and password. The network validates the subscriber USERID and subscriber password with a stored database of valid USERIDs and associated passwords. After the USERID and password are validated, the modem then provides its electronic serial number to the network for validation against a stored database of authorized serial numbers. Upon additional validation of the modem's serial number, the subscriber is authorized to use the network.

Apparatus for recording and collecting usage and other statistical data from components of a cable data network comprises a network manager for maintaining and collecting the statistics. Internet protocol addresses are associated with components of the network. The component maintains a software agent that manages a statistics database. Responsive to a manager request generated at a service provider defined time interval, the component software agent provides the usage statistics to the network manager in real-time during an Internet session with a host. When the host to Internet or other data connection is torn down due to failure, disconnect or inactivity time-out, remaining usage statistics data is collected and the session duration updated with the time of tear down. Usage statistics collected include the amount of data transferred to/from a host, the amount of data that is discarded due to insufficient resource capacity and amount of data that cannot be corrected despite forward error correction used in a downstream high capacity channel to the host. Data traps may be defined and downloaded to components of the network for implementation. As a result, billing of users of the cable data network can be usage sensitive and determined based on actual data transferred (including credit given for errored data) and/or time sensitive based on session duration.

Usage statistics collection for a cable data delivery system

Apparatus and methods for automatically rerouting packets in the event of a link failure

Method and apparatus for monitoring data traffic through a cable data network in order to guarantee a minimum and maximum bandwidth and burst length. Traffic statistics are kept as credits that are only updated as needed. Each cable modem in the network is assigned a limit on the maximum amount of traffic that it may transmit and receive depending on the service level that the subscriber has purchased. When that limit is exceeded, traffic for that modem will no longer allowed to pass through the system.

Data traffic control in a data modem system

A method for transporting digital data from a sender to a receiver in a system where the digital data is broken into data packets for transmission over radio frequency channels, each data packet including forward error-correcting code, the method comprising the steps of receiving the data packets at the receiver; reconstructing the data packets to the digital data, the forward error-correcting code for fixing corrupted data packets; and halting the data packet reconstructing step if a data packet is uncorrectable.

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Alpharetta, GA, United States of America

Roy A Bowcutt