Patent ID: 8160093

Claim:
A modular Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS), comprising: a packet shelf including a Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) Media Access Controller (MAC) configured to frame received data with DOCSIS frames and mark the DOCSIS framed data with destination addresses corresponding to downstream cable modems; a physical interface (PHY) shelf configured to communicate with the packet shelf over a packet switched network, the PHY shelf to receive the DOCSIS framed data from the packet shelf; wherein the packet shelf and the PHY shelf are distributed across the packet switched network; and a timing system configured to synchronize DOCSIS timing between the packet shelf and the PHY shelf by dynamically adjusting timestamp values included in the received DOCSIS framed data on an individual basis according to the amount of delay experienced during the corresponding DOCSIS frame's traversal of the packet switched network.