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Cable communication systems and methods employing 256-QAM upstream channels and having increased upstream capacity for supporting voice and/or data services

  • US 10,084,538 B2
  • Filed: 01/24/2014
  • Issued: 09/25/2018
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2011
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A cable communication system to provide voice and/or data services to a plurality of subscriber premises, the system comprising:

  • a cable plant to convey at least upstream information from the plurality of subscriber premises over an upstream path bandwidth including a range of frequencies; and

    a cable modem system coupled to the cable plant and including at least one demodulation tuner to receive and demodulate at least one upstream radio frequency (RF) signal, wherein the at least one upstream RF signal includes at least one encoded carrier wave having a carrier frequency in the upstream path bandwidth and being modulated, using quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), with voice and/or data information constituting at least some of the upstream information from at least some of the plurality of subscriber premises,wherein;

    the at least one upstream RF signal includes a first upstream RF signal having a first carrier frequency of between approximately 5 MHz and 25 MHz;

    a modulation order of the QAM for the first upstream RF signal is at least 256; and

    the at least one demodulation tuner includes a first demodulation tuner configured to receive and demodulate the first upstream RF signal,wherein;

    the cable plant includes a plurality of neighborhood nodes, a first neighborhood node of the plurality of neighborhood nodes conveying first upstream information, via the first upstream RF signal, from a first portion of the plurality of subscriber premises over the upstream path bandwidth assigned to the first neighborhood node;

    the first demodulation tuner of the cable modem system is coupled to the first neighborhood node to receive and decode the first upstream RF signal; and

    a highest value for an average noise power in the upstream path bandwidth assigned to the first neighborhood node, as measured over at least a 24 hour period at the cable modem system, is less than or equal to 10 decibels (dB) above a noise floor associated with the upstream path bandwidth assigned to the first neighborhood node, as measured over at least the 24 hour period at the cable modem system.

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