Patent ID: 8085802
Filing Date: 2011-12-27
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
1. A Broadband Cable Network (BCN) modem having a transmitter that transmits packets to a plurality of nodes in a broadband cable network, the transmitter comprising: a MAC subsystem that provides the packets for transmission within the broadband cable network; a Modem subsystem in signal communication with the MAC subsystem, the Modem subsystem receiving the packets from the MAC subsystem and appending information to the packets; and a RF subsystem in signal communication with the Modem subsystem, that receives the packets from the Modem subsystem and upconverting the packets received from the Modem subsystem; wherein at least one of the packets is a beacon packet that has a channel number field, change field, sequence number field, network coordinator ID field, next beacon index field, admission frame length field, admission window, asynchronous MAP length field and a beacon Cyclic Redundancy Checking (CRC) field; and wherein at least one of the packets is a data and control packet having a header and a variable length payload and wherein the header has at least five fields selected from the group consisting of a transmit clock field, packet type field, packet subtype field, version field, source node ID field, destination node ID field, and header check sequence field.