C4 Router Control Module

The Router Control Module (RCM) provides the forwarding capability for the C4 CMTS. Its centralized capabilities include: layer 3 routing, layer 2 switching, tunneling support, DOCSIS 3 functionality, and the Network Side Interfaces (NSIs). It is responsible for the control plane and for traffic management in the data plane. IPv4 and IPv6 are both supported. A duplex C4 CMTS chassis employs dual RCMs for full Control Complex Redundancy (CCR). High-speed backplane data links interconnect the RCMs with the client cards.
The primary software functions of the RCM include:
• Forwarding downstream packets to the 16D or XD CAMs and upstream
packets received from the 12U or 24U CAMs
• Priority-based output scheduling and congestion management using
the Quality of Service (QoS) parameter set.
• Bandwidth allocation to each client (CAM) card slot for subscriber,
management, video, and control traffic
• External I/O connectivity and bandwidth via one (1) ten-gigabit
Ethernet and ten (10) one-gigabit Ethernet interfaces.
• Support for multiple, simultaneous Ethernet interfaces when two
RCMs are configured
• Hardware support for Access Control Lists (ACLs)
• Supporting routing protocols and DHCP
• Supporting control plane software.