Patent ID: 7948897

Claim:
A method for managing delay between nodes in a network having a plurality of nodes coupled together by a plurality of links, the method comprising: discovering a transport delay value for each of the plurality of links; at a first one of the plurality of nodes, generating a signal path delay value for each of a first subset of nodes of the plurality of nodes coupled to and adjacent to the first one of the plurality of nodes, in at least one of a downstream direction or an upstream direction, using the discovered transport delay value associated with a link of the plurality of links that couples each of the first subset of nodes to the first one of the plurality of nodes; passing the generated signal path delay values over the links to the first subset of nodes coupled to and adjacent to the first one of the plurality of nodes; and at each additional node of the plurality of nodes, receiving the signal path delay value corresponding to the additional node from one of the plurality of nodes, storing the received signal path delay value corresponding to the additional node to enable management of the delay for the additional node, generating an additional signal path delay value for each of an additional subset of nodes of the plurality of nodes coupled to and adjacent to the additional node using the received signal path delay value and the discovered transport delay value associated with a link of the plurality of links that couples each of the additional subset of nodes to the additional node, and passing the additional generated signal path delay values over the additional links to the adjacent nodes.