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US-12619344-B2 - Graphical user interface for controlling extended spectrum DOCSIS amplifier

US12619344B2US 12619344 B2US12619344 B2US 12619344B2US-12619344-B2

Abstract

Devices and methods that present a graphical user interface (GUI) by which a user may manually adjust the level and tilt settings of an amplifier in a communications network. The GUI preferably includes a plurality of user-interactive icons for making the adjustments, where the effects of the adjustments on level and tilt are contemporaneously shown in the display.

Inventors

  • David B. Bowler
  • Jeffrey A. Boast
  • Michael R. MORISSEAU
  • Samuel D. FRANCOIS
  • Brent D. Arnold

Assignees

  • ARRIS ENTERPRISES LLC

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20240126

Claims (20)

  1. 1 . A computing device having a processor and memory, and configured to interact with a plurality of amplifiers in a communications network, wherein said communications network is capable of sending signals in an upstream direction and a downstream direction through said plurality of amplifiers, each of the respective amplifiers having configurable settings for level and tilt, said device comprising: (a) a communication interface to selectively enable interaction with one of said plurality of amplifiers; (b) when said device interacts with one of said plurality of amplifiers, the device being configured to display a graphical user interface that displays a visual representation of contemporaneous settings for level and tilt of said one of said plurality of amplifiers along with a plurality of user-interactive icons that together allow a user to manually adjust the contemporaneous settings for level and tilt, and such that the adjustments are reflected in the displayed visual representation; (c) said device being capable of manual adjustment of said contemporaneous settings for level and tilt of said one of said plurality of amplifiers in said upstream direction and independently of manual adjustment of said contemporaneous settings for level and tilt of said one of said amplifiers in said downstream direction; and (d) said device being capable of independent manual adjustment of said contemporaneous settings for level and tilt of said one of said plurality of amplifiers in said upstream direction and said device being capable of independent manual adjustment of said contemporaneous settings for level and tilt of said one of said plurality of amplifiers in said downstream direction.
  2. 2 . The computing device of claim 1 where the plurality of user-interactive icons enable at least two independent adjustments.
  3. 3 . The computing device of claim 2 where the at least two independent adjustments include: (a) fixing the level of said one of said plurality of amplifiers at a first frequency while allowing the level of said one of said plurality of amplifiers at a second frequency to be raised or lowered; and (b) fixing the level of said one of said plurality of amplifiers at the second frequency while allowing the level of said one of said plurality of amplifiers at the first frequency to be raised or lowered.
  4. 4 . The computing device of claim 3 including a third independent adjustment, the third independent adjustment selectively raising or lowering contemporaneous settings for level of said one of said plurality of amplifiers.
  5. 5 . The computing device of claim 1 including at least four of the user-interactive icons.
  6. 6 . The computing device of claim 5 including six user-interactive icons.
  7. 7 . The computing device of claim 1 including an interface that enables a user to enter at least two pilot frequencies at which the computing device may measure an output level of said one of said plurality of amplifiers.
  8. 8 . The computing device of claim 7 including a different user interactive icon, not included in said plurality of user-interactive icons, that causes the computing device to automatically maintain the output levels of said one of said plurality of amplifiers attained at the pilot frequencies during the manual adjustment of said one of said plurality of amplifiers.
  9. 9 . The computing device of claim 8 where the output levels of said one of said plurality of amplifiers at the pilot frequencies are automatically maintained by automatically adjusting the level and tilt of said one of said plurality of amplifiers from the settings made during the manual adjustment of said one of said plurality of amplifiers.
  10. 10 . The computing device of claim 1 having respective pluralities of the user-interactive icons, each plurality associated with a respective one of an upstream signal through the amplifier and a downstream signal through said one of said plurality of amplifiers.
  11. 11 . A method for configuring contemporaneous settings for level and tilt of an amplifier in a communications network, said communications network capable of sending signals in an upstream direction and a downstream direction through said amplifier, performed by a computing device having a processor and a memory, the method comprising: displaying a visual representation of the amplifier's contemporaneous settings for level and tilt along with a plurality of user-interactive icons; and accepting manual input via the plurality of user interactive icons, while simultaneously updating the displayed visual representation of the amplifier's contemporaneous settings for level and tilt to reflect the manual input; wherein the plurality of user interactive icons enable manual adjustment of said contemporaneous settings for level and tilt of said one of said plurality of amplifiers in said upstream direction and independently of manual adjustment of said contemporaneous settings for level and tilt of said one of said amplifiers in said downstream direction; and wherein the plurality of user interactive icons enable independent manual adjustment of said contemporaneous settings for level and tilt of said one of said plurality of amplifiers in said upstream direction and also enable independent manual adjustment of said contemporaneous settings for level and tilt of said one of said plurality of amplifiers in said downstream direction.
  12. 12 . The method of claim 11 where the plurality of user-interactive icons enable at least two independent manual adjustments.
  13. 13 . The method of claim 12 where the at least two independent adjustments include: (a) fixing the level of the amplifier at a first frequency while allowing the level of the amplifier at a second frequency to be raised or lowered; and (b) fixing the level of the amplifier at the second frequency while allowing the level of the amplifier at the first frequency to be raised or lowered.
  14. 14 . The method of claim 13 including a third independent adjustment, the third independent adjustment selectively raising or lowering the amplifier's contemporaneous settings for level.
  15. 15 . The method of claim 11 where there are at least four of the user-interactive icons displayed.
  16. 16 . The method of claim 15 where there are at least six of the user-interactive icons displayed.
  17. 17 . The method of claim 11 implemented on an interface that enables a user to enter at least two pilot frequencies at which the computing device may measure an output level of the amplifier.
  18. 18 . The method of claim 17 including displaying a different user interactive icon, not included in said plurality of user-interactive icons, that causes the computing device to automatically maintain the output levels of the amplifier attained at the pilot frequencies during manual adjustment of the amplifier.
  19. 19 . The method of claim 18 where the output levels of the amplifier at the pilot frequencies are automatically maintained by automatically adjusting the level and tilt of the amplifier from settings made during the manual adjustment of the amplifier.
  20. 20 . The method of claim 11 having respective pluralities of the user-interactive icons, each plurality associated with a respective one of an upstream signal through the amplifier and a downstream signal through the amplifier.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 (e) to prior U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/441,389 filed on Jan. 26, 2023, U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/441,416 filed on Jan. 26, 2023, prior U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/625,210 filed on Jan. 25, 2024, and prior U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/501,344 filed on May 10, 2023, the contents of each of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. BACKGROUND The subject matter of this application relates to improved systems and methods that deliver CATV, digital, and Internet services to customers. Cable Television (CATV) services historically have provided content to large groups of subscribers from a central delivery unit, called a “head end,” which distributes channels of content to its subscribers from this central unit through a branch network comprising a multitude of intermediate nodes. Modern Cable Television (CATV) service networks, however, not only provide media content such as television channels and music channels to a customer, but also provide a host of digital communication services such as Internet Service, Video-on-Demand, telephone service such as VoIP, and so forth. These digital communication services, in turn, require not only communication in a downstream direction from the head end, through the intermediate nodes and to a subscriber, but also require communication in an upstream direction from a subscriber and to the content provider through the branch network. To this end, such CATV head ends included a separate Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS), used to provide high speed data services, such as video, cable Internet, Voice over Internet Protocol, etc. to cable subscribers. Typically, a CMTS will include both Ethernet interfaces (or other more traditional high-speed data interfaces) as well as RF interfaces so that traffic coming from the Internet can be routed (or bridged) through the Ethernet interface, through the CMTS, and then onto the optical RF interfaces that are connected to the cable company's hybrid fiber coax (HFC) system. Downstream traffic is delivered from the CMTS to a cable modem in a subscriber's home, while upstream traffic is delivered from a cable modem in a subscriber's home back to the CMTS. Many modern CATV systems have combined the functionality of the CMTS with the video delivery system (EdgeQAM) in a single platform called the Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP). Still other modern CATV architectures (referred to as Distributed Access Architectures or DAA) relocate the physical layer (e.g., a Remote PHY or R-PHY architecture) and sometimes the MAC layer as well (e.g., a Remote MACPHY or R-MACPHY architecture) of a traditional CCAP by pushing it/them to the network's fiber nodes. Thus, while the core in the CCAP performs the higher layer processing, the remote device in the node converts the downstream data sent by the core from digital-to-analog to be transmitted on radio frequency, and converts the upstream RF data sent by cable modems from analog-to-digital format to be transmitted optically to the core. Regardless of which architectures were employed, historical implementations of CATV systems bifurcated available bandwidth into upstream and downstream transmissions i.e., data was only transmitted in one direction across any part of the spectrum. For example, early iterations of the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) specified assigned upstream transmissions to a frequency spectrum between 5 MHz and 42 MHz and assigned downstream transmissions to a frequency spectrum between 50 MHz and 750 MHz. Later iterations of the DOCSIS standard expanded the width of the spectrum reserved for each of the upstream and downstream transmission paths, the spectrum assigned to each respective direction did not overlap. Still later iterations of the DOCSIS standard utilized Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) as a cable data transmission format. The purpose of OFDM/OFDMA technology is to maximize the efficiency of data transmissions across a cable data network by optimizing the QAM modulation level used for each subcarrier of RF frequency bandwidth. Although originally defined for use directly in the downstream direction, OFDM technology was adapted for multiple access (Orthogonal Frequency Division with Multiple Access—OFDMA) for use in the upstream direction. In each direction, a relatively wide channel is subdivided into many small subcarriers. In the downstream direction, each of these subcarriers may use its own Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) level, which equates to a different bit capacity per subcarrier QAM symbol. In the upstream direction, groups of subcarriers are combined and, when time multiplexed, create the atomic unit of upstream bandwidth assignment known as a “minislot.” In the upstream direction, all subcarriers of a minislot are assigned the same QAM level and