Methods and apparatus for providing cloud services to customer premise devices

1. A method of providing cloud services to at least a first customer premise device, the method comprising:

determining a first signal to noise ratio (SNR), at a first time, on a first communications channel between a first network node and a first interface of the first customer premise device;

selecting based on the first signal to noise ratio a first selected one of a plurality of cluster nodes to use to provide at least a first cloud service via a second interface of the first customer premise device using a second communications channel, at least a first cluster node and a second cluster node in the plurality of cluster nodes using different Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) levels to communicate with customer premise devices, said first cloud service including at least one of a program guide service, video on demand service, or a call identification service; and

using the first selected one of the plurality of cluster nodes to provide the first cloud service to the first customer premise device;

determining a second signal to noise ratio on the first communications channel, at a second time, said second time following said first time;

making a decision whether or not to switch from the first selected one of the plurality of cluster nodes to another one of the plurality of cluster nodes based on the second signal to noise ratio on the first communications channel, the another one of the plurality of cluster nodes using a different quadrature amplitude modulation level to communicate with customer premise devices than the first selected one of the plurality of cluster nodes; and

wherein said step of making a decision whether or not to switch includes deciding to switch to a second one of the cluster nodes which uses a low QAM level when said second signal to noise ratio on the first communications channel is below a first signal to noise threshold used to control switching to a cluster node using a low QAM level.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of making a decision whether or not to switch includes deciding to switch to one of the cluster nodes which uses a high QAM level when said second signal to noise ratio on the first communications channel is above a second signal to noise threshold used to control switching to a cluster node using a high QAM level.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second communications channels share a physical link for at least a portion of said first and second communications channels.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first communications channel is a downlink communications channel to the first customer premise device, said first customer premise device being a set-top box, the method further comprising:

using Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) polling of the set-top box to obtain the downlink SNR from the set-top box;

and wherein determining the first signal to noise ratio includes accessing the SNR obtained from the set-top box.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first communications channel is an uplink communications channel between the first communications device and the first network node, said first network node being a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS), the first customer premise device being a set-top box, the method further comprising:

obtaining the uplink SNR for the first communications channel from the CMTS;

and wherein determining the first signal to noise ratio includes accessing the SNR obtained from the CMTS.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein each cluster node in the plurality of cluster nodes supports no more than a single QAM level for communicating with customer premise devices.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said selecting is performed by a cluster controller used to control which cluster nodes provide service to individual customer premise devices.

8. A system of providing cloud services to at least a first customer premise device, the system comprising:

a first network node;

a first customer premise device having a first and second interface;

a plurality of cluster nodes, said plurality of cluster nodes including at least a first cluster node and a second cluster node using different Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) levels to communicate with customer premise devices; and

a cluster controller including:

memory; and

a processor that is configured to control the operation of the cluster controller to:

determine a first signal to noise ratio, at a first time, on a first communications channel between the first network node and the first interface of the first customer premise device, and

select based on the first signal to noise ratio a first selected one of the plurality of cluster nodes to use to provide at least a first cloud service via the second interface of the first customer premise device using a second communications channel, said first cloud service including at least one of a program guide service, video on demand service, or a call identification service;

determine a second signal to noise ratio on the first communications channel, at a second time, said second time following said first time; and

make a decision whether or not to switch from the first selected one of the plurality of cluster nodes to another one of the plurality of cluster nodes based on the second signal to noise ratio on the first communications channel, the another one of the plurality of cluster nodes using a different quadrature amplitude modulation level to communicate with customer premise devices than the first selected one of the plurality of cluster nodes;

wherein making a decision whether or not to switch includes deciding to switch to a second one of the cluster nodes which uses a low QAM level when said second signal to noise ratio on the first communications channel is below a first signal to noise threshold used to control switching to a cluster node using a low QAM level; and

wherein said first selected one of the plurality of cluster nodes provides the first cloud service to the first customer premise device.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the first customer premise device is a set-top box including a cable modem.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein said to make a decision whether or not to switch includes deciding to switch to one of the cluster nodes which uses a high QAM level when said second signal to noise ratio on the first communications channel is above a second signal to noise threshold used to control switching to a cluster node using a high QAM level.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the first and second communications channels share a physical link for at least a portion of said first and second communications channels.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first communications channel is a downlink communications channel to the first customer premise device, said first customer premise device being a set-top box, the system further comprising:

a network monitoring device that uses Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) polling of the set-top box to obtain the downlink SNR from the set-top box; and

wherein said to determine the first signal to noise ratio includes accessing the SNR obtained from the set-top box.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first communications channel is an uplink communications channel between the first communications device and the first network node, said first network node being a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS), the first customer premise device being a set-top box, the system further comprising:

a network monitoring device that obtains the uplink SNR for the first communications channel from the CMTS; and

wherein said to determine the first signal to noise ratio includes accessing the SNR obtained from the CMTS.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein each cluster node in the plurality of cluster nodes supports no more than a single QAM level for communicating with customer premise devices.

15. The system of claim 8 , wherein said cluster controller controls which cluster nodes provide service to individual customer premise devices.

16. The system of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of cluster nodes includes at least one cluster node including a 256 QAM modulator and at least one cluster node including a 64 QAM modulator.