System and method for distributing information via a communication network

Abstract

A communication system for distributing information via a network to one or more subscribers includes a multi-port switch, one or more radio frequency (RF) modems coupled to respective ports of the switch, a combiner and a transmitter. The switch forwards source information to the RF modems based on address information. Each RF modem modulates and up converts information from the switch to an RF signal within a respective subscriber channel of the television broadcast spectrum. Each channel is assigned to one or more subscribers, and each subscriber is allocated unshared bandwidth. Each channel may be further divided into unshared bandwidth increments, so that multiple subscribers may share a single channel. The combiner combines modulated information from each RF modem into a combined signal and the transmitter transmits the combined signal to the subscribers via the network. An HFC network including a distribution point and one or more optical nodes is contemplated, each optical node serving a particular geographic area via a corresponding coaxial cable. Each subscriber destination includes a gateway device or the like that is tuned to a corresponding channel to retrieve source information from that channel, and to deliver the information to one or more local subscriber devices. The gateway further includes converters, a modulator and an up converter to receive and transmit subscriber information upstream to the distribution point. The gateways and an address resolution server enforce point to point communications. A bandwidth manager allocates bandwidth and monitors bandwidth usage.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)[0001] The present application is based on U.S. Provisional Application entitled "Switched Ethernet Communication network Utilizing Hybrid Fiber Coax Delivery Plant", Application No. 60 / 184,362 filed Feb. 23, 2000, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.[0002] The present invention relates to information delivery and distribution, and more particularly, to a system and method for allocating unshared, bidirectional and deterministic bandwidth to subscribers in a network.DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART[0003] The demand for broadband content by business and residential subscribers is continually increasing. Broadband content includes multiple types of entertainment programming, communications and data, such as broadcast television channels, video on demand, streaming video, multimedia data, internet access, voice-over-IP, etc. To meet the increasing demand, it is necessary to increase bandwidth to each subscriber and to improve qua...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

The existing legacy technology for providing broadband content is becoming increasingly inadequate to meet the demand.

There are several major problems with provisioning video services over the existing PSTN and twisted pair cables (network plant).

The existing network plant is not uniform and most of the plant is old with poor copper conditions that causes signal loss and line noise.

In fact, ADSL cannot be provisioned for a large portion of the population over the existing plant because of significant distances to the closest switch and poor conditions of the existing plants.

In addition, ADSL currently has a limited downstream bandwidth, and inherently provides a very limited return bandwidth.

ADSL is not adequate for many types of content originating at a subscriber destination, such as video conferencing and the like because of its bandwidth limitations and characteristics.

One problem with delivery of broadband data (video on demand, streaming video, etc.) using existing HFC networks is the limitation on available delivery spectrum.

The quality of service is particularly low during popular usage time periods.

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