Priority packet transmission system for telephony, latency-sensitive data, best-effort data and video streams in a shared transmission media such as passive coax distribution

摘要

In a shared transmission media communication system with an upstream frequency and a downstream frequency carrying telephony such as TDM PCM data in addition to other data types, it is useful to use a master frame format that sends downstream the TDM PCM data sub-packets to a set of downstream modem devices and to provide the downstream modem devices with staggered times to respond. The master frame then continues to send downstream data types such as video that do not trigger a response from the downstream modems during a period of time allocated for the downstream modems to send upstream transmissions of TDM PCM. A set of rules can be implemented within this system to favor the transmission of higher priority data types while preventing any data type from taking too much of the downstream bandwidth.