Catv hybrid fiber-coaxial network headend virtual gateway
AssigneeApplied Optoelectronics, Inc.
InventorsBao KIEN, Mark SIEJKA, Rafael CELEDON, Ramesh NALLUR
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Abstract
The present disclosure provides a computer-implemented method for communication with radio frequency (RF) amplifiers in a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network, the computer-implemented method including: providing, by one or more computer processors, return communications from one or more RF amplifiers to a headend; and providing, by the one or more computer processors, forward communications from the headend to the one or more RF amplifiers, wherein: the return communications and the forward communications use out of band (OOB) communication protocols.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method for communicating between a network management system and at least one network device in a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network, the computer-implemented method comprising:
- providing forward communications to the at least one network device, wherein providing the forward communications includes modulating forward data received from the network management system to produce modulated forward data in Narrowband Digital Forward (NDF) data packets for transmission to the at least one network device, wherein the forward data is modulated using software-implemented frequency shift keying (FSK) modulation;
- and
- providing return communications from the at least one network device, wherein providing the return communications includes demodulating modulated return data in Narrowband Digital Return (NDR) data packets received from the at least one network device to produce return data for transmission to the network management system, wherein the modulated return data is demodulated using software-implemented FSK demodulation.
A software virtual gateway between a network management system and at least one network device of a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) network, the software virtual gateway comprising:
- at least one processor;
- and
- at least one computer readable storage media medium comprising computer readable instructions which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the following operations comprising:
- providing forward communications to the at least one network device, wherein providing the forward communications includes modulating forward data received from the network management system to produce modulated forward data in Narrowband Digital Forward (NDF) data packets for transmission to the at least one network device, wherein the forward data is modulated using software-implemented frequency shift keying (FSK) modulation;
- and
- providing return communications from the at least one network device, wherein providing the return communications includes demodulating modulated return data in Narrowband Digital Return (NDR) data packets received from the at least one network device to produce return data for transmission to the network management system, wherein the modulated return data is demodulated using software-implemented FSK demodulation.
A hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) network comprising:
- at least one node coupled between at least one optical fiber trunk line and at least one coaxial cable, wherein the node is configured to provide an optical-to-electrical interface between the at least one optical fiber trunk line and the at least one coaxial cable;
- at least one RF amplifier coupled to the at least one node via the at least one coaxial cable, wherein the at least one RF amplifier supports low data rate, low power, bi-directional transmissions over the at least one coaxial cable together with primary signals carried on the at least one coaxial cable with a higher bandwidth and power, and wherein the node includes a remote PHY device (RPD) configured to handle digital communications to and from the at least one amplifier;
- and
- a virtual gateway interfacing digitally between the at least one RF amplifier and a network management system, the virtual gateway being configured to provide forward communications from the network management system to the at least one RF amplifier and to provide return communications from the at least one RF amplifier to the network management system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.