Isolating an upstream noise source in a cable television network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016112734-A1
Application number	US-201514864610-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 24, 2015
Priority date	Sep 24, 2014
Publication date	Apr 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods presented herein provide for isolating an upstream noise source in a cable television network. In one embodiment, a cable television network is communicatively coupled to a plurality of CPEs through a node. The cable television network comprises a CMTS with a CPE polling module and a noise monitor communicatively coupled to the CMTS through the node of the cable television network. The noise monitor is operable in a band of frequencies unused by the CPEs for upstream communications to determine when noise in the band breaches a threshold level, and to indicate when the noise breaches the threshold level to the CPE polling module. The CPE polling module then polls each of the CPEs to retrieve transmit power levels and locations of the CPEs, and identifies the first CPE with the intermittently noisy connection based on the retrieved transmit power level and location of the first CPE.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system operable in a in a cable television network communicatively coupled to a plurality of customer premise equipment (CPEs) through a node of the cable television network to identify a first of the CPEs with an intermittently noisy connection, the system comprising:
a cable modem termination system (CMTS) comprising a CPE polling module; and a noise monitor communicatively coupled to the CMTS through the node of the cable television network, the noise monitor being operable in a band of frequencies unused by the CPEs for upstream communications to determine when noise in the band breaches a threshold level, and to transmit a message at or about the same time the noise breaches the threshold level to the CPE polling module indicating the breach of the threshold level, wherein the CPE polling module, in response to the message, polls each of the CPEs to retrieve transmit power levels and locations of the CPEs, and identifies the first CPE with the intermittently noisy connection based on the retrieved transmit power level and location of the first CPE.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the message is formatted according to Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS).

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the noise monitor comprises a CPE being operable to transmit the message upstream in the band of frequencies unused by the other CPEs; and the CPE polling module is further operable to detect an unrecoverable error in the message, and to determine that the noise in the band has breached the threshold level based on the unrecoverable error.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the message comprises error correction coding; and CPE polling module is further operable to extract the message via the error correction coding to determine that the error is unrecoverable and that the noise in the band has breached the threshold level.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the CPE polling module, in response to the message, polls each of the CPEs to retrieve pre-equalizer values, and identifies the first CPE with the intermittently noisy connection based on the retrieved pre-equalizer values and the location of the first CPE.

6 . A method operable in a in a cable television network communicatively coupled to a plurality of customer premise equipment (CPEs) through a node of the cable television network to identify a first of the CPEs with an intermittently noisy connection, the method comprising:
determining at a node of the cable television network when noise in a band of frequencies unused by the CPEs for upstream communications breaches a threshold level; transmitting a message through the node to a cable modem termination system (CMTS) at or about the same time the noise breaches the threshold level to indicate the breach of the threshold level; and in response to the message, polling each of the CPEs to retrieve transmit power levels and locations of the CPEs; and identifying the first CPE with the intermittently noisy connection based on the retrieved transmit power level and location of the first CPE.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein:
the message is formatted according to Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS).

8 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
transmitting the message upstream in the band of frequencies unused by the other CPEs; detecting an unrecoverable error in the message; and determining that the noise in the band has breached the threshold level based on the unrecoverable error.

9 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
extracting the message via error correction coding of the message to determine that the error is unrecoverable and that the noise in the band has breached the threshold level.

10 . The method of claim 6 further comprising:
in response to the message, polling each of the CPEs to retrieve pre-equalizer values; and
identifying the first CPE with the intermittently noisy connection based on the retrieved pre-equalizer values and the location of the first CPE.

11 . A non-transitory computer readable medium which, when executed by one or more processors of a cable television network that is communicatively coupled to a plurality of customer premise equipment (CPEs) through a node of the cable television network, identifies a first of the CPEs with an intermittently noisy connection, the instructions directing the one or more processors to:
determine at a node of the cable television network when noise in a band of frequencies unused by the CPEs for upstream communications breaches a threshold level; transmit a message through the node to a cable modem termination system (CMTS) at or about the same time the noise breaches the threshold level to indicate the breach of the threshold level; and in response to the message, poll each of the CPEs to retrieve transmit power levels and locations of the CPEs; and identify the first CPE with the intermittently noisy connection based on the retrieved transmit power level and location of the first CPE.

12 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein:
the message is formatted according to Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS).

13 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further direct the one or more processors to:
transmit the message upstream in the band of frequencies unused by the other CPEs; detect an unrecoverable error in the message; and determine that the noise in the band has breached the threshold level based on the unrecoverable error.

14 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further direct the one or more processors to:
extract the message via error correction coding of the message to determine that the error is unrecoverable and that the noise in the band has breached the threshold level.

15 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further direct the one or more processors to:
in response to the message, poll each of the CPEs to retrieve pre-equalizer values; and identify the first CPE with the intermittently noisy connection based on the retrieved pre-equalizer values and the location of the first CPE.

Assignees

• Cable Television Lab Inc

Inventors

• Williams Thomas H
• Hunter David

Classifications

• H04N21/6473

  Monitoring network processes errors (for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40) · CPC title

• H04N21/2404 Primary

  Monitoring of server processing errors or hardware failure (error or fault detection G06F11/07; monitoring in general G06F11/30) · CPC title

• H04N21/4424

  Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used (error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04) · CPC title

• H04N21/6168

  involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem · CPC title

• H04N21/6118

  involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem · CPC title