Implementation Scheme of the front-end controller of hfc-hpc

According to the specification for the management system of equipment in the HFCs, the communication physical layer of Class I responder is established on the RF channel, therefore, an Ethernet device manager needs a device that acts as a "Router" or "bridge" to forward SNMP management messages to the RF network channel. This converter is the front-end controller.

The front-end controller can be implemented in two ways:

1. As a "bridge" or "Router"

This implementation method is the most encouraging. It is completely transparent to the Device Manager if it includes the I-type responder into the network management system. That is to say, the Device Manager does not need to distinguish between different kinds of receivers, nor care about their network types. Instead, it uses IP address addressing to manage them. This makes it easier to expand other network management functions, such as HTTP management and upgrades. After our research, there are many specific implementation solutions for this method. Simply put, there are implementation methods for standard routers, ARP spoofing, and other implementation methods.

2. Serves as the SNMP proxy for all "I-class responder"

This method is relatively "method 1" for front-end controllers. However, the design of the device manager is more complex, and it is difficult for developers to unify. The SNMP protocol itself has some special modifications. For example, the group name must contain the MAC address of the I-class responder. In this way, the device manager needs to manage a variety of NE addressing solutions to make the design more complex. In addition, this method is very difficult for NE to expand other features.

I encourage developers to use method 1 to implement front-end controllers for long-term consideration!