Channel selection for a hybrid fiber coax network

Abstract

A method for monitoring at least one telephony communication n-bit channel, wherein one of the bits is a parity bit, includes sampling the parity bit of the n-bit channel. A probable bit error rate is derived from the sampling of the parity bit. The probable bit error rate can be compared to a pre-determined bit error rate value to determine if the at least one telephony communication n-bit channel is corrupted. If the at least one telephony communication n-bit channel is corrupted, the at least one telephony communication n-bit channel is re-allocated to an uncorrupted and unallocated telephony communication n-bit channel. Further, at least one unallocated telephony communication channel can be periodically monitored and error data accumulated to indicate the quality thereof.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.