Depends on your provider, how smart they are, what version of DOCSIS they are running, and much much more.
DOCSIS 1.0 was most likely one of the easiest to hack the firmware on. DOCSIS 1.1 and 2.0 has ServiceFlows/Multiple QoS's not to mention there is lots of players in the OSS Software field that sold firmware/qos checkers to major tier-1's.
I was an engineer for a cable provider for a few years, I can usually give you an answer on this one pretty quickly depending on the modem/provider.
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