Inventors:
Donald C. Sorenson - Lawrenceville GA, US
Jiening Ao - Suwanee GA, US
Steven E. Blashewski - Duluth GA, US
John W. Brickell - Lawrenceville GA, US
Florin Farcas - Lawrenceville GA, US
Richard J. Futch - Lawrenceville GA, US
Joseph Graham Mobley - Dunwoody GA, US
Assignee:
Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. - Lawrenceville GA
International Classification:
H04J 3/16
US Classification:
370468, 370480, 370477, 370442, 375298, 725129
Abstract:
An architecture for providing high-speed access over frequency-division multiplexed (FDM) channels allows transmission of ethernet frames and/or other data across a cable transmission network or other form of FDM transport. The architecture involves downstream and upstream FDM multiplexing techniques to allow contemporaneous, parallel communications across a plurality of frequency channels. Furthermore, the architecture allows a central concentrator to support a plurality of remote devices that each have guaranteed bandwidth through connection-oriented allocations of bi-directional data flows. The upstream and downstream bandwidth allocation can support symmetrical bandwidth as well as asymmetrical bandwidth in either direction. The architecture generally can be used to support connection-oriented physical layer connectivity between a remote device and the central concentrator. Furthermore, the architecture may be integrated into other higher level devices such as, but not limited to, bridges, switches, routers, and/or gateways.