System and Method for Transmitting Multi-Octave Telecommunication Signals by Up-Shifting into a Sub-Octave Bandwidth

A system for transporting a plurality of digital data streams, the system comprising:

• a plurality of upstream quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) modems, each upstream QAM modem receiving a digital data stream and outputting a QAM output signal having a frequency within a single sub-octave frequency band;
• an electrical-optical (EO) converter receiving the QAM signals and converting the QAM signals into an optical signal and directing the optical signal into an optical fiber;
• an optical receiver downstream of the optical fiber converting the optical signal into a plurality RF signals;
• and
• a plurality of downstream QAM modems, each downstream QAM modem receiving an RF signal downstream of the optical receiver, demodulating and down-shifting the received signal, and outputting a digital data stream.

A method for transporting a plurality of digital data streams, the method comprising the steps of:

• modulating each digital data stream to output a respective quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal with each output QAM signal having a frequency within a single sub-octave frequency band;
• converting the QAM signals into an optical signal and directing the optical signal into an optical fiber;
• receiving the optical signal at a downstream end of the optical fiber and converting the optical signal into a plurality RF signals;
• and
• demodulating and down-shifting the frequency of each RF signal downstream of the optical receiver to output a respective digital data stream.