Method and system for providing bandwidth request opportunities for high priority service flows
View Patent ↗Different polling rates are applied to high priority BE service flows depending on whether the service flow contains, or is about to contain, traffic packets. A high priority service flow is identified upon boot-up of a user device, and defaults to a slow polling mode. A trigger causes the service flow to be serviced as a fast polling mode. The fast polling mode lasts for a predetermined period of time. If traffic continues at the end of the predetermined period of time, the predetermined period of time is reset so that the fast-polling mode continues until traffic flow on the high priority service flow ceases.
1. A method for providing bandwidth to high priority service flows, comprising:
configuring one or more pieces of network equipment to associate a high priority service flow with a predetermined type of traffic;
configuring the one or more pieces of network equipment to detect initiation of the high priority service flow;
configuring the one or more pieces of network equipment to detect imminent traffic flow within the high priority service flow;
configuring the one or more pieces of network equipment to transition from a slow polling mode to a fast polling mode upon detection of imminent traffic flow within the high priority service flow; and
configuring the one or more pieces of network equipment to monitor the traffic activity over the high priority service flow and transitioning from the fast polling mode to a slow polling mode after a predetermined timeout period has elapsed if traffic over the high priority service flow has ceased.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined type of traffic is voice traffic.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the associating of the high priority service flow with information corresponding to a predetermined type of traffic includes configuring a CMTS to recognize the high priority service flow and to recognize that this high priority service flow will be carrying the predetermined traffic type.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein imminent information transport within the high priority service flow is detected based on a trigger.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein the trigger includes a QoS Gate message.
6. The method of claim 4 wherein the trigger includes a DSx request.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the fast polling mode includes granting intervals during which to make unicast requests more frequently than a slow polling mode.
8. The method of claim 1 further comprising renewing the fast polling mode before transitioning from the fast polling mode to the slow polling mode occurs.