The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 15, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 23, 1999
Guenter E. Roeck, San Jose, CA (US);
Wei-Sing Chen, Fremont, CA (US);
Sunil Khaunte, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Mark E. Millet, Mountain View, CA (US);
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media are disclosed for performing diagnostic tests of a communication link between a headend and a cable modem without having to assign an IP address to the cable modem. The diagnostic tests are performed at the MAC layer and test the state of the hardware between and including the cable modem termination system (CMTS) and a selected cable modem. By doing so, a network operator is able to more easily focus in on a potential problem in cable RF/MAC connectivity between the two components by first eliminating (or identifying) a problem with hardware before focusing on problem-solving at the software level, typically at the Network layer, at which point the cable modem is assigned an IP address. A network command is received from a network operator causing the CMTS to place a service identifier corresponding to a cable modem in possible need of diagnosing into a poll list. The service identifier is placed in the poll list the number of times specified in the network command as the number of polls desired for the test. This causes the cable modem to receive a map message with a station maintenance time slot for itself from the CMTS the specified number of times. Periodic ranging is performed between the CMTS and the cable modem associated with the service identifier. If it is determined that the service identifier is in the poll list as a result of the network command, results are then evaluated from the periodic ranging and reported to the network operator as a DOCSIS ping success/failure. It is then determined whether the cable modem should remain on the poll list based on results from the periodic ranging.