Patent ID: 9264141
Filing Date: 2016-02-16
CPC Classification: H04B,H04L

Claim Text:
1. A communication system operable to implement Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) Protocol over Coax (EPoC), the system comprising: an optical line terminal (OLT) configured to interface optical signals with a first network; a first fiber cable unit (FCU) configured to interface optical signals with the first network and non-optical signals with a second network; a second FCU configured to interface optical signals with the first network and non-optical signals with a third network; a first plurality of cable network units (CNUs) configured to interface non-optical signals with the second network; a second plurality of CNUs configured to interface non-optical signals with the third network; and a scheduler configured to schedule transmission of data from the first and second CNUs to the OLT as a function of gates and reports exchanged between the OLT and the first and second CNUs using pass-through reporting, the scheduler including a plurality of non-transitory computer-readable instructions operable with a processor thereof to facilitate scheduling the transmission of data, the non-transitory instructions being sufficient for: i) scheduling transmit of a first data from the first FCU to the OLT over the first network and transmit of a second data from the second FCU device to the OLT over the first network such that the first data is completely received before the OLT begins receiving the second data, the first data being transmitted to the first FCU from a first CNU of the first plurality of CNUs and the second data being transmitted to the second FCU from a second CNU of the second plurality of CNUs, including scheduling the transmit of the first data from the first FCU as a function of a first report transmitted from the first CNU and the transmit of the second data from the second FCU as a function of a second report transmitted from the second CNU, the first and second FCUs using pass-through reporting to respectively deliver the first and second reports from the first and second CNUs to the OLT; ii) issuing a first gate to the first FCU to schedule the transmit of the first data from the first FCU to the OLT at a first time, the first time occurring after the OLT receives the first report; iii) issuing a second gate to the second FCU to schedule the transmit of the second data from the second FCU to the OLT at a second time, the second time occurring after the OLT receives the second report; iv) issuing via a pass-through of the first FCU a third gate to the first CNU to schedule transmit of the first data from the first CNU to the first FCU at a third time, the third time occurring prior to the first time; and v) issuing via a pass-through of the second FCU a fourth gate to the second CNU to schedule transmit of the second data from the second CNU to the second FCU at a fourth time, the fourth time occurring prior to the second time.