Optimized recovery of DOCSIS networks using reserved persistent ranging

Abstract

Power outage events can severely disrupt the digital services over Community Antenna Television (CATV) networks. This paper proposes two schemes for reserved persistent initial ranging of the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) protocol, namely priority and cluster ranging. Both schemes restrain the number of CMs that can compete simultaneously for the acquisition of the upstream channel and minimize the number of idle opportunities leading to faster recovery of the network. Their employment involves the introduction of a new field in the MAP message and a new Cable Modem (CM) parameter in the configuration file downloaded from the Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS). Our results show an absolute reduction in the network's recovery time of up to 42% with an average of 38%.