Patent ID: 8149833

Claim:
A method of packet bonding, the method comprising: receiving data traffic over a first network at a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS); extracting a plurality of physical layer packets from the data traffic using the CMTS, the physical layer packets to be transmitted to a same cable modem in a second cable network, wherein the physical layer packets are part of a same bonded channel feeding data to a same physical destination address; attaching multilink headers to the physical layer packets; assigning a first one of the physical layer packets for transport over a first available Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) channel in the second cable network and a second one of the physical layer packets for transport over a second available QAM channel in the second cable network, wherein the physical layer packets are assigned to be distributed intact over different available QAM channels using the CMTS; wherein assigning the first physical layer packet for transport over the first available QAM channel further includes: selecting an initial packet/QAM association for the first physical layer packet using a Hierarchical Queuing Function (HQF) component of the CMTS; and selecting a final packet/QAM association using a Shortest Queue Function (SQF) component of the CMTS and the initial packet/QAM association, wherein said assigning the first physical layer packet is based on the final packet/QAM association; and transmitting the first physical layer packet over the first available QAM channel and the second physical layer packet over the second available QAM channel using the CMTS, wherein the first physical layer packet is transmitted according to the final packet/QAM association.