Hybrid fiber coaxial node
AssigneeComcast Cable Communications, LLC
InventorsJorge Daniel Salinger, David Urban
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Digital information can be carried on the fiber leg of an access network using binary modulation. Binary modulated data received at an O/E node can then be modulated onto an analog waveform using quadrature amplitude modulation or some other technique for modulating an analog waveform and transmitted over, for example, the coaxial leg of the network. The O/E node may also receive an analog signal, over the coaxial leg, modulated to carry upstream data from subscriber devices. The O/E node may demodulate the upstream signal to recover the upstream data and forward that upstream data over the fiber leg using a binary modulated optical signal.
Claims30
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a node via a first network, a binary modulated optical signal comprising data blocks formatted in accordance with a first medium access control (MAC) protocol, wherein the data blocks encapsulate data blocks formatted in accordance with a second protocol that is different from the first MAC protocol;
- and
- sending, by the node via a second network and to at least one device, the data blocks formatted in accordance with the second protocol.
An apparatus comprising:
- circuitry configured to:
- receive, via a first network, a binary modulated optical signal comprising data blocks formatted in accordance with a first medium access control (MAC) protocol, wherein the data blocks encapsulate data blocks formatted in accordance with a second protocol that is different from the first protocol;
- and
- send, via a second network and to at least one device, the data blocks formatted in accordance with the second protocol.
A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause:
- receiving, based on a binary modulated optical signal received via a first network, a signal comprising data blocks formatted in accordance with a first medium access control (MAC) protocol, wherein the data blocks encapsulate data blocks formatted in accordance with a second protocol that is different from the first MAC protocol;
- and
- sending, via a second network and to at least one device, the data blocks formatted in accordance with the second protocol.
A system comprising:
- a node;
- and
- a computing device;
- wherein the node comprises:
- circuitry configured to:
- receive, via a first network, a binary modulated optical signal comprising data blocks formatted in accordance with a first medium access control (MAC) protocol, wherein the data blocks encapsulate data blocks formatted in accordance with a second protocol that is different from the first MAC protocol;
- and
- send, via a second network and to at least one device, the data blocks formatted in accordance with the second protocol;
- and
- wherein the computing device comprises:
- one or more processors;
- and
- memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to:
- receive the data blocks.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.