Traffic Flow Scheduling Techniques Implemented on Bonded Channels of a Shared Access Cable Network

摘要

Various techniques are disclosed for managing traffic flow for transport over a plurality of communication channels of a shared access cable network. According to various embodiments, one or more devices of the cable network (such as, for example, a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS)), may be operable to implement at least a portion of the traffic flow management techniques. In at least one embodiment, one or more aspects of the traffic flow management techniques disclosed herein may be used for performing real-time shaping of traffic flows across multiple different channels of a DOCSIS channel bonding group. In some embodiments, various different traffic shaping and/or traffic scheduling techniques may be employed (e.g., in DOCSIS 3.0 compatible cable networks) to reduce and/or mitigate issues which, for example, may arise as a result of an inability to represent traffic schedulers as tree-based hierarchies. Other aspects are disclosed for implementing quality of service (QoS) procedures on shared access network(s), such as for example hybrid fiber/coaxial (HFC) cable networks.