Customer premises equipment receives high-speed downstream data over a cable television system and transmits lower speed upstream signaling on a separate channel

A customer premises equipment which supports communications between a user and information providers, said equipment connected to a television system cable that supports high speed communication channels carrying information sent from the information providers and a lower speed transmission channel that carries user generated requests transmitted to the information providers, the lower speed transmission channel being a transmission medium physically separate from the transmission medium that transports the high speed cable transmission channel, the customer premises equipment comprising:

• a tunable demodulator that demodulates radio frequency (RF) signals carried by said high speed cable channel, said demodulator translating encoded packets of data carded as said RF signals into digitally formatted packets;
• receiver means coupled to said demodulator for identifying ones of said digitally formatted packets having a predetermined address associated with a user;
• a modem coupled to said lower speed transmission channel for transmitting requests and receiving control signals that identify one of said high speed channels which carry said ones of said digitally formatted packets;
• a personal computer means, coupled to said modem and operating under the control of a program, for effecting communications between the user and the information providers;
• means coupled to said receiver means for transmitting data derived from said ones of digitally formatted packets to said personal computer;
• said personal computer coupled to said demodulator and transmitting channel selection signals based on said control signals to said demodulator to control the RF channel to which said tunable demodulator is tuned, thus enabling reception of said ones of encoded packets over an RF channel determined by the control signals.

A method implemented by customer premises equipment for receiving packets of data transported via a cable that also carries cable television channels comprising the steps of:

• receiving control signals via a data channel that is not carried by said cable, said control signals identifying one high speed data channel transmitted on said cable;
• using a tunable demodulator to demodulate radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted on said high speed data channels, said demodulator translating encoded packets of data carded as said RF signals into digitally formatted packets;
• tuning the tunable demodulator to said one high speed data channel based on said received control signals;
• identifying ones of said digitally formatted packets having a predetermined address associated with the customer premises equipment;
• transmitting data derived from said ones of digitally formatted packets to a personal computer, thus enabling reception of said ones of encoded packets over an RF channel selected by the control signals.