docsis Documentation

# General Information

General questions about this software can be sent to docsis-users@sourceforge.net.

Visit http://docsis.sourceforge.net for the latest news on this program.

## Legal

Copyright (c) 1999,2000,2001,2002 Cornel Ciocirlan
Copyright (c) 2002,2003 Evvolve Media SRL

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.

DOCSIS is a registered trademark of CableLabs.

Portions of this program are derived from the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm.

# Description

This program encodes text configuration files which contain Configuration File Settings into binary configuration files, as specified by the DOCSIS RFI 1.1 Specification, Appendix C.

It supports most DOCSIS 1.1 Configuration Settings. Not supported (currently):

- Telephony Settings
- Modem Capabilities
- TFTP server timestamp
- TFTP server provisioned modem address
- SNMPv3 settings (partial support provided)

See DOCSIS 2.0 Radio Frequency Interface Specification, Appendix C for a description of these settings.

## Limitations

More than one (up to 16) ClassOfService statements can appear in the configuration file. Only one BaselinePrivacy (BPI) statement can appear. The program does not check for the number of ClassOfService statements that appear, you have to make sure not to include more than 16 or unexpected results will occur (modems /CMTSes may reset).

DOCSIS BPI Specification clearly states that the BPI settings MUST NOT be present if Privacy is not enabled in [at least one of] the ClassOfService parameters (for example if PrivacyEnable is 0 for all classes of service, BPI statement should not appear).

The program is not yet as "intelligent" as to detect these problems automatically.

# Usage

There are three modes of operation:

## Encoding CM configuration files

To encode a CM configuration file, run:
`$ docsis -e cm_config_file.cfg my_key_file cm_config_file.bin`

The format of the text configuration file is described here. As sometimes an example is more useful than a truckload of documentation, we've included a few configuration files (see examples/*.cfg).

In this mode of operation (triggered by the "-e" switch), the program will need a keyfile; this is the so-called "shared secret" or "authentication string". The program uses the string in the keyfile to calculate the CMTS MIC. This string has to be configured on the CMTS as well, otherwise the cable modem will not be able to register.

An example key is provided in file examples/keyfile. The key is only a string of characters. Any trailing newline (\n) or carriage return (\r) characters are chopped to avoid confusion.

## Encoding PacketCable MTA configuration files

To encode a CM configuration file, run:
`$ docsis -p mta_config_file.cfg mta_config_file.bin`

PacketCable MTA config files MUST start with the "MtaConfigDelimiter 1" configuration setting and MUST end with "MtaConfigDelimiter 255". All other configuration settings must be either SnmpMibObject or VendorSpecific. The program does not enforce this policy so you must make sure you abide by it or the MTA will reject the file.

## Decoding CM or MTA binary configuration files

To decode a binary file, run:
`$ docsis -d my_binary_file.bin`

# Adding new configuration settings

To add new configuration settings, in most cases the only thing you need to do is add them to the docsis_symtable.h (make sure you select the correct type-functions for encoding and decoding).

Because of the way the encoder works, the symbol_name must determine all other values in the table with the exception of id and parent. Thus if two symbols share the same name they must also share the same docsis_code, type-functions, limits etc. Only the id and parent can be different.