Systems and methods for reducing latency and reservation request overhead in a communications network

1. A method for managing transmission of data over a MoCA network, the method comprising:

monitoring data transmission characteristics at a node on the network;

generating a plurality of statistics of the data transmission characteristics; said statistics comprising at least one of average rate of ingress data into the node, average rate of the data transmission, standard deviation of ingress data into the node, standard deviation of data transmission at the node, average latency of ingress data into the node, average latency of the data transmission characteristics;

predicting transmission characteristics from the statistics; and

reserving, in view of the predicted transmission characteristics, transmission opportunities for data that has not yet arrived at the node.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the reservation is made in a forward reservation request packet.

3. The method of claim 1 further wherein reserving comprises transmitting a reservation in a forward reservation request packet.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving permission to send future data.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising aggregating data packets when using the future transmission opportunity.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the data transmission requirements comprise transmission characteristics set by the ingress data rate to the node.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

receiving a permission to transmit data at a future time;

concatenating multiple data packets into a single packet; and

transmitting the concatenated packet at the future time.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the future reservation opportunity comprises an opportunity in the next Media Access Plan (“MAP”) cycle.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the statistics comprise statistics gathered over a plurality of Media Access Plan (“MAP”) cycles.

10. A method for managing transmission of data over a MoCA network via a network controller, the method comprising:

receiving a request to transmit data at future time, said data not received by a transmitting node;

allocating a future time for transmission of data; and

sending a permission to transmit data at the future time,

wherein the network controller allocates a future time only if the aggregate rate of all of the nodes in the network does not exceed a threshold rate.

11. A network over coaxial cable, the network comprising a node that is configurable to request a future data transmission opportunities wherein the node:

monitors data transmission characteristics;

generates statistics of the data transmission characteristics; said statistics comprising at least one of average rate of ingress data into the node, average rate of the data transmission, standard deviation of ingress data into the node, standard deviation of data transmission at the node, average latency of ingress data into the node, average latency of the data transmission characteristics;

predicts transmission characteristics from the statistics; and

reserves future transmission opportunities in view of the predicted transmission characteristics.

12. The network of claim 11 wherein the node reserves the future transmission opportunity in a Forward Reservation Request packet.

13. The network of claim 11 further wherein node transmits a reservation in a Forward Reservation Request packet.

14. The network of claim 11 further comprising the node receiving permission to send future data.

15. The network of claim 14 further comprising the aggregation of data packets when using the future transmission opportunity.

16. The network of claim 14 wherein the data transmission requirements are set by the rate ingress data to the node.

17. The network of claim 14 wherein the node:

receives a permission to transmit data at a future time;

concatenates multiple data packets into a single packet; and

transmits the concatenated packet at the future time.

18. The network of claim 11 wherein the future reservation opportunity comprises a future reservation opportunity in the next Media Access Plan (“MAP”) cycle.

19. The network of claim 11 wherein the statistics are gathered over a plurality of Media Access Plan (“MAP”) cycles.

20. A method for managing transmission of data over a MoCA network, the method reducing latency of data not received by a node, said method further for increasing throughput of a data protocol, said data protocol which requires acknowledgement from a receiving node, said method comprising:

monitoring data transmission characteristics at a node on the network;

generating statistics of the data transmission characteristics; said statistics comprising at least one of average rate of ingress data into the node, average rate of the data transmission, standard deviation of ingress data into the node, standard deviation of data transmission at the node, average latency of ingress data into the node, average latency of the data transmission characteristics;

predicting transmission characteristics from the statistics; and

reserving future transmission opportunities in view of the predicted transmission characteristics.