Abstract :
In this article we present a comprehensive survey on the architecture, protocol issues, and standard of the hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) networks which are evolving from the existing residential CATV networks. We first describe the HFC architecture and discuss the problems in providing two-way communication. Then, we identify three important medium access control (MAC) issues in designing the IEEE 802.14 standard; namely, synchronization, upstream channel access modes, and collision resolution. Resolutions adopted by the IEEE 802.14 Committee are illustrated after giving a protocol overview. Key resolutions include compensating round trip correction (RTC), interleaving minislots of data and request concurrently, and resolving collisions by multiple collision resolution engines, using the n-ary tree plus p-persistence algorithm with a first transmission rule. A comparative summary of some draft proposals that lead to the standard is given. Finally, we pinpoint two headend algorithms, minislot allocation and request scheduling, which are left open in the standard. They do not affect interoperability but may have a critical impact on performance.
Keywords :
IEEE standards; access protocols; cable television; hybrid fibre coax networks; telecommunication standards; HFC networks; IEEE 802.14 standard; MAC; collision resolution; first transmission rule; hybrid fiber coaxial networks; medium access control protocol; minislot allocation; multiple collision resolution engines; n-ary tree plus p-persistence algorithm; request scheduling; residential CATV networks; round trip correction; synchronization; two-way communication; upstream channel access modes; Access protocols; Broadcasting; Coaxial cables; Costs; Frequency; Hybrid fiber coaxial cables; Media Access Protocol; Optical fiber cables; Power cables; Radio spectrum management;
