A request cluster allocation method for DOCSIS CATV/HFC networks

As an access medium to the Internet, CATV/HFC networks have been widespread recently. In such networks, each station reserves its data PDU transmission during a request period called a request cluster. DOCKS, a de facto standard for the networks, employs the binary back-off method for request cluster allocation. Since that method normally allocates unnecessary large request cluster, the transmission delay increases under heavy load conditions. We propose a request cluster allocation method which dynamically changes the cluster size according to the load conditions. In order to evaluate performance of the proposed method, we build a queuing model and execute computer simulation. The simulation result shows that the proposed method provides smaller delay than the binary back-off method.