Method and apparatus for associating a media terminal adapter with a cable modem in an HFC network

摘要

A method is provided for determining a network address for an Media Terminal Adapter (MTA) associated with a given Cable Modem (CM) in a cable data network. The CM is embedded in the MTA. The method begins by providing a network address for the CM and identifying a first Management Information Base (MIB) table for the CM and MTA that includes information pertaining to interfaces of the CM and the MTA. Next, a first entry is located in the first MIB table, which first entry denotes an MTA-type interface. Based on the first entry, a second entry is located in the first MIB table associated with the MTA. The second entry uniquely identifies an interface of the MTA. A second MIB table is identified for the CM and MTA that includes addressing information pertaining to network addresses of the CM and MTA. A third entry is located in the second MIB table that is equal in value to the second entry in the MIB table. Based on the third entry, a fourth entry is located in the second MIB table. The fourth entry is the network address of the MTA associated with the CM.