WO2001061935B1 - Cable modem having a programmable media access controller - Google Patents

Cable modem having a programmable media access controller

Info

Publication number
WO2001061935B1
WO2001061935B1 PCT/US2001/005028 US0105028W WO0161935B1 WO 2001061935 B1 WO2001061935 B1 WO 2001061935B1 US 0105028 W US0105028 W US 0105028W WO 0161935 B1 WO0161935 B1 WO 0161935B1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
cable
processors
cancelled
media
processing
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US2001/005028
Other languages
French (fr)
Other versions
WO2001061935A1 (en
Inventor
John M Brooks
Brett A Bernath
Original Assignee
Conexant Systems Inc
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Conexant Systems Inc filed Critical Conexant Systems Inc
Priority to EP01910824A priority Critical patent/EP1256206A1/en
Publication of WO2001061935A1 publication Critical patent/WO2001061935A1/en
Publication of WO2001061935B1 publication Critical patent/WO2001061935B1/en

Links

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L12/00—Data switching networks
    • H04L12/28—Data switching networks characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]
    • H04L12/2801—Broadband local area networks

Abstract

A cable modem having a programmable media access controller (MAC). A single cable modem device includes all necessary MAC functions. The invention allows programmable MAC functions to support evolving standards (e.g., DOCSIS) without requiring expensive hardware upgrades. Bifurcated microprocessor architecture, in which first processing circuitry is programmed to implement MAC functionality for processing information flowing to and from cable media interface circuitry, and second embedded processor core or host system processor provides operating system functionality are used. Alternatively, separate processor cores provide MAC functionality for downstream and upstream data paths, respectively. Cable media interface circuitry, and other peripheral circuitry, are coupled to a peripheral bus that is linked by a bridge circuit to a system bus. The processing circuitry MAC is communicatively coupled to the system bus. Centralized DMA control directs data transfer between the peripheral and system buses as determined, at least in part, by the programmable MAC.

Claims

AMENDED CLAIMS
[received by the International Bureau on 12 September 2001 ( 12.09.01 ): original claim 17 amended: original claims 6 and 8-16 cancelled: remaining claims unchanged (3 pages)] . A cable modem having a programmable media access controller, comprising: a system bus; a plurality of processors, each of tbe plurality of processors is communicatively coupled to the system bus, that perform a plurality of processing functions, the plurality of processing functions are partitioned, at least in part, between at least two of the plurality of processors; a peripheral bus that is operable to perform transfer of cable media; a bridge that cornmunicatively couples the system bαs and the peripheral bus; and a peripheral processing device, cormnivnicatively coupled to the peripheral bus, that is operable to perform processing of a selectively off-loaded portion of the cable media.
2. The cable modem of claim 1 , wherein one of the plurahty of processors supports upstream data transfer of cable media received by the cable modem; and at least one other of the plurality of processors supports downstream data transfer of the cable media transmitted by the cable modem.
3. The cable modem of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of processors is operable to perform at least one of message processing and scheduling.
4. The cable modem of claim 1, wherein the bridge comprises a direct memory access controller that is operable selectively to provide a portion of the cable media to one of the plurahty of processors and to provide the off-loaded portion of the cable media to the peripheral processing device.
5. The cable modem of claim 1, further comprising at least one additional peripheral processing device, communicatively coupled to the peripheral bus, that is operable to perform processing of at least one additional selectively off-loaded portion of the cable media.
6. (Cancelled)
19
7. The cable modem of claim 1, wherein the plurality of processing functions comprises media access control functionality.
8. (Cancelled)
9. (Cancelled)
10. (Cancelled)
11. (Cancelled)
12. (Cancelled)
13. (Cancelled)
14. (Cancelled)
15. (Cancelled)
16. (Cancelled)
17. A method to perform processing within a cable modem, the method comprising: perforating cable media processing using a plurality of processors, the cable media processing is partitioned, at least in part, between at least two of the plurality of processors, wherein each of the plurality of processors is communicatively coupled to a system bus; selectively off-loading a portion of the cable media from at least one of the plurality of processors to a co-processor coramunicauvely coupled to a peripheral bus; and processing the off-loaded portion of the cable media using the co-processor.
20
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the method is performed within an integrated circuit.
19. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one of the plurality of processors comprises embedded code that is substantially operable for media access control functionality.
20. The method of claim 17, further comprising directing upstream and downstream communications of cable media using at least two of the plurality of processors.
21
STATEMENT UNDER ARTICLE 19 (1)
In accordance with PCT Rule 46.5, please substitute enclosed replacement pages 16-18 containing amended claims for original sheets 16-18. No new matter is being added.
22
PCT/US2001/005028 2000-02-17 2001-02-16 Cable modem having a programmable media access controller WO2001061935A1 (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP01910824A EP1256206A1 (en) 2000-02-17 2001-02-16 Modem cable avec un controleur d'acces au media programmable

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US18313000P 2000-02-17 2000-02-17
US60/183,130 2000-02-17
US09/785,035 US6816940B2 (en) 2000-02-17 2001-02-16 Cable modem having a programmable media access controller
US09/785,035 2001-02-16

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2001061935A1 WO2001061935A1 (en) 2001-08-23
WO2001061935B1 true WO2001061935B1 (en) 2002-01-17

Family

ID=26878789

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/US2001/005028 WO2001061935A1 (en) 2000-02-17 2001-02-16 Cable modem having a programmable media access controller

Country Status (3)

Country Link
US (1) US6816940B2 (en)
EP (1) EP1256206A1 (en)
WO (1) WO2001061935A1 (en)

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US7110398B2 (en) * 2001-01-12 2006-09-19 Broadcom Corporation Packet tag for support of remote network function/packet classification
US7016376B1 (en) * 2001-06-26 2006-03-21 Conexant Systems, Inc. Method and apparatus for scheduling upsteam data packets in a broadband communication system
US7586914B2 (en) * 2001-09-27 2009-09-08 Broadcom Corporation Apparatus and method for hardware creation of a DOCSIS header
CN100417151C (en) * 2001-11-30 2008-09-03 中兴通讯股份有限公司 Method and apparatus for realizing support circuit business in wireless access system
US20030140168A1 (en) * 2002-01-22 2003-07-24 Conexant Systems, Inc. Assigning addresses to packet-network devices and booting multi-channel devices
US20040004974A1 (en) * 2002-07-02 2004-01-08 Harand Gaspar Method and system for optimizing the design of a network controller
US7738596B2 (en) * 2002-09-13 2010-06-15 Broadcom Corporation High speed data service via satellite modem termination system and satellite modems
US7171452B1 (en) * 2002-10-31 2007-01-30 Network Appliance, Inc. System and method for monitoring cluster partner boot status over a cluster interconnect
WO2004091104A2 (en) * 2003-03-31 2004-10-21 Arris International, Inc. Broadband multi-interface media module
US8949548B2 (en) * 2003-09-12 2015-02-03 Broadcom Corporation System and method of sharing memory by arbitrating through an internal data bus
US7711948B2 (en) * 2003-09-30 2010-05-04 Cisco Technology, Inc. Method and apparatus of communicating security/encryption information to a physical layer transceiver
US8223775B2 (en) * 2003-09-30 2012-07-17 Entropic Communications, Inc. Architecture for a flexible and high-performance gateway cable modem
US8856401B2 (en) * 2003-11-25 2014-10-07 Lsi Corporation Universal controller for peripheral devices in a computing system
US20060146861A1 (en) * 2004-12-20 2006-07-06 Ryuji Maeda System and Method for Communication over a Network with Extended Frequency Range
US7489641B2 (en) * 2005-04-25 2009-02-10 Acterna Data connection quality analysis apparatus and methods
KR20060133410A (en) * 2005-06-20 2006-12-26 엘지전자 주식회사 Method for managing file database and searching file in multimedia device
US7428603B2 (en) * 2005-06-30 2008-09-23 Sigmatel, Inc. System and method for communicating with memory devices via plurality of state machines and a DMA controller
DE102006055514A1 (en) * 2006-05-24 2007-11-29 Robert Bosch Gmbh Gateway for data transfer between serial buses
WO2014120113A1 (en) * 2013-01-29 2014-08-07 Hewlett-Packard Development Company Assigning processors to memory mapped configuration

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US4872197A (en) * 1986-10-02 1989-10-03 Dti Peripherals, Inc. Dynamically configurable communications network
JPH0844649A (en) * 1994-07-26 1996-02-16 Hitachi Ltd Data processor
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US6421728B1 (en) * 1997-12-31 2002-07-16 Intel Corporation Architecture for communicating with and controlling separate upstream and downstream devices
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Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
US6816940B2 (en) 2004-11-09
EP1256206A1 (en) 2002-11-13
US20010039600A1 (en) 2001-11-08
WO2001061935A1 (en) 2001-08-23

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