Apparatus and method for symbol alignment in a multi-point ofdm/dmt digital communications system

A method for processing OFDM/DMT data, the method comprising:

• transposing OFDM/DMT analog data, received from a head-end unit through a communication path in a first number of bins, to an intermediate frequency (IF) signal;
• band pass filtering the IF signal and under-sampling the IF signal filtered resulting in OFDM/DMT digital data over a second number of bins, the second number of bins being smaller than the first number of bins;
• processing the OFDM/DMT digital data in the second number of bins to extract features including frequency, amplitude, or phase information from the OFDM/DMT digital data;
• and
• reporting the features to a module configured to reconstruct the analog data as a function of the features.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable program codes embodied therein for processing OFDM/DMT data, the computer readable medium program codes including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• transpose OFDM/DMT analog data, received from a head-end unit through a communication path in a first number of bins, to an intermediate frequency (IF) signal;
• band pass filter the IF signal and under-sample the IF signal filtered resulting in OFDM/DMT digital data over a second number of bins, the second number of bins being smaller than the first number of bins;
• process the OFDM/DMT digital data in the second number of bins to extract features including frequency, amplitude, or phase information from the OFDM/DMT digital data;
• and
• report the features to a module configured to reconstruct the analog data as a function of the features.