Patent ID: 7023871

Claim:
A process for performing downstream DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) in a point-to-multipoint environment comprising a cable modem termination system (CMTS) which includes one or more CMTS transmitters coupled to a plurality of cable modems (CMs) by a shared transmission medium, the process comprising: determining which of the plurality of cable modems is wideband capable and how many downstream channels each wideband capable cable modem can simultaneously use; sending an extended channel enable message to each wideband capable cable modem, said extended channel enable message identifying one or more downstream channels to which said wideband-capable cable modem should tune for reception of wideband downstream DOCSIS transmissions; processing, in a frame distributor, distribution of frames to CMTS transmitters transmitting on downstream channels to which a CM has been instructed to tune so as to schedule the frames in a manner facilitating the reassembly of the frames into proper order as necessary to meet quality of service requirements, including adding sequence numbers; and distributing the frames to the transmitters; transmitting the distributed frames addressed to a wideband capable cable modem on the one or more downstream channels to which said wideband capable cable modem has been instructed to tune; and in each cable modem: powering up or rebooting and searching for and locking onto a DOCSIS downstream; ranging using a DOCSIS upstream associated with a DOCSIS downstream to which the cable modem locked, and registering with the CMTS as a CM on the system; sending information to the CMTS indicating how many tuners the CM has which are capable of use in downstream wideband DOCSIS; receiving an ECE (Extended Channel Enable) message from the CMTS indicating how many and which downstream channels will be used for wideband DOCSIS transmissions to the CM and responding thereto by tuning a tuner of the CM to each of the downstream channels designated in the ECE message; receiving wideband downstream DOCSIS frames simultaneously transmitted on two or more downstream channels designated by the ECE message and verifying that all frames have been received; and putting said received wideband downstream DOCSIS frames into the proper order, and delivering same to a peripheral device coupled to the CM for further processing.