Patent ID: 6973096

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a downstream management message at a client termination device, the client termination device comprising a data buffer, the downstream management message comprising one or more bandwidth allocation elements and a cyclic redundancy code (CRC); storing bandwidth allocation information based upon selected ones of the bandwidth allocation elements in the data buffer; outputting the stored bandwidth allocation information from the data buffer in response to detecting a validation of the CRC; storing message header data in one or more first locations in a first-in-first-out (FIFO) data buffer, the message header data being based upon a message header in the downstream management message; storing the bandwidth allocation information in subsequent locations in the FIFO data buffer; storing the message header data in the FIFO data buffer at locations indicated by a write pointer; advancing the write pointer to one or more of the subsequent locations; storing the bandwidth allocation information in the subsequent locations; and upon completion of storing the bandwidth information in the subsequent locations, storing data in the FIFO data buffer between the first locations and the subsequent locations.