Method for extended rate/range communication over a communication network

An apparatus for communicating multimedia data between nodes over coaxial cable, wherein the nodes are connected via a coaxial cable network, the apparatus comprising:

• an application processor capable of either exposing a generic network interface to an external device or serving as a source or sink for data to be transacted over the communications network;
• a media access control processor capable of independently and simultaneously controlling the primary and secondary channel physical layer processors;
• a memory unit used for storing packets;
• a primary physical-layer processor capable of transmitting and receiving a bit stream from the media access control processor an appropriate intermediate signal-type as input to a front-end device;
• a secondary physical-layer processor capable of transmitting and receiving a bit stream from the media access control processor an appropriate intermediate signal-type as input to a front-end device;
• a plurality of front-end devices each connected to its respective physical-layer processor, each capable of translating the intermediate signal-type of the physical-layer processor to the modulated waveform at the appropriate channel frequency, to be transmitted on the channel medium;
• a combining device capable of combining the outputs of the front-end devices into a single network interface;
• and
• a common clock source generating the clocks to the claimed media access control processor, physical-layer processors and front-end devices.

An apparatus for communicating multimedia data between nodes over coaxial cable, wherein the nodes are connected via a coaxial cable network, the apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of devices each capable of communications over a single communications channel, inter-connected in a manner, such that a device designated as primary interfaces to an application processor via one interface and to a device designated as secondary via another interface;
• network outputs of primary and secondary devices being interfaced to the network media by means of a combiner;
• and
• primary and secondary devices deriving their clocks from the same reference source.