Supporting isochronous ATM traffic over IEEE 802.14 based HFC access networks

We address the issue of supporting isochronous ATM traffic (e.g., real time (RT) voice traffic) over IEEE 802.14 based hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) access networks. We propose a network architecture for a multi-service HFC network that can be used to support multiple services such as voice telephony and Internet access. Also, we propose enhancements to the 802.14 medium access control (MAC) protocols to facilitate supporting isochronous asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) traffic over HFC networks. In particular, we propose enhancements to the constant bit rate (CBR) service of 802.14 MAC protocol. We show that good quality of service, and enhanced bandwidth utilization are achieved using the proposed scheme. Our proposal facilitates the migration towards end-to-end ATM networks.