Patent ID: 7594252
Filing Date: 2009-09-22
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
1. A method of determining an operational status of a segment of a hybrid fiber coax (HFC) cable network comprising: accessing a ping datastore to acquire ping data associated with a plurality of set top boxes (STBs) connected to the HFC network through a common node, wherein the ping data comprise for each STB of the plurality of STBs a ratio of a number of ping responses to a number of ping queries; selecting from the ping data associated with the plurality of STBs a primary STB, wherein the primary STB has the highest ratio of ping responses to ping queries and wherein the primary STB is associated with a primary STB IP address; and selecting from the ping data associated with the plurality of STBs a secondary STB, wherein the secondary STB has the second highest ratio of ping responses to ping queries and wherein the secondary STB is associated with a secondary STB IP address; pinging the primary STB IP address; determining whether a response from the ping is received from the primary STB; when the response from the ping is received from the primary STB, then setting a primary STB operational status of the primary STB to responsive; when the response from the ping is not received from the primary STB, pinging the secondary STB IP address; determining whether a response from the ping is received from the secondary STB; when the response from the ping is received from the secondary STB, then setting a secondary STB operational status of the secondary STB to responsive and setting a node operational status of the common node to responsive; when the response from the ping is not received from the secondary STB, then setting the secondary STB operational status of the secondary STB to non-responsive and setting the node operational status of the common node to non-responsive; and determining an operational status of a network component upstream from the common node based on the node operational status of all nodes serviced by the upstream network component.