Patent ID: 6944881

Claim:
A method of non-contention ranging for re-registering a cable modem with a cable modem termination system on a cable television network following the failure of a communications channel between the cable modem and the cable modem termination system, comprising the steps of: (a) storing in the cable modem a first identifier for the cable modem; (b) determining that a timeout value for the cable modem has been exceeded; (c) reinitializing the cable modem on the cable television network; (d) transmitting from the cable modem termination system to the cable modem a data packet containing at least one initial maintenance opportunity having an associated second identifier; (e) reading by the cable modem the first of the at least one initial maintenance opportunities; (f) determining by the cable modem if the first of the at least one initial maintenance opportunities contains a unicast associated second identifier; (g) determining whether the initial maintenance opportunity having the unicast associated second identifier is available for use by the cable modem; and (h) when the initial maintenance opportunity having the unicast associated second identifier is available for use by the cable modem, using the initial maintenance opportunity having the unicast associated second identifier for non-contention ranging by the cable modem; wherein if associated second identifier of the first of the at least one initial maintenance opportunities is not unicast, the cable modem uses the first of the at least one initial maintenance opportunities for standard contention ranging.