Abstract: A system for increasing bandwidth to a communication device, comprising: a packet scheduler; and a transmitter; the system configured to operate the packet scheduler to schedule packets of a service flow onto multiple media access control (MAC) channels forming a MAC channel group before operating the transmitter to send the scheduled packets from an origination device toward a destination device, the packet scheduler waiting a maximum group cross channel skew time for an out-of sequence packet, the maximum group cross channel skew time a maximum of multiple pair cross channel skew times, one pair cross channel skew time associated with each pair grouping of MAC channels configured to be formed from the MAC channel group; and the system configured with a setting to allow only a single channel of the multiple channels of the MAC channel group to carry DOCSIS messages, and to override the setting to share at least some of the channels of the MAC channel group among multiple cable modems while the MAC channel gr

Abstract: A flow bonder at a CMTS and another at a cable modem distribute packets of a service flow over multiple channels and collect them in the downstream direction respectively; vice versa in the upstream direction. The collector uses a service flow identifier and a sequence number identifier inserted by the distributor into each packet of the flow to reassemble the packets into the order they left the distributor. Packets received at the collector are stored to a buffer. If a stored packet is the next to be transmitted, it is transmitted. If not, the collector waits a predetermined period until the next packet to be sent is received. If it is not received during the wait period, the previously stored packet is sent. The wait period is based on the maximum transmission time difference between any two of the multiple channels.

Abstract: Leaky bucket state machines police packets and throttle packets of a stream or streams that are flowing from hosts towards the processor of a switch or router of a network. The throttling is performed by measuring and analyzing the actual flow rate(s) of the streams' packets. The actual flow rate(s) is compared to a predetermined threshold, which may be based on historical or estimated normal traffic patterns. If the actual flow rate exceeds the threshold associated with characteristics that relate packets to certain streams, packets are discarded from the streams having excessive flow rates. By discarding excessive packets having characteristics that correspond to packet information that typically causes a switch/router's processor to execute operations, the effects of a DoS attack are minimized while also minimizing the discarding of legitimate traffic packets.