Abstract:
The disclosed embodiments relate to an apparatus and method for performing frequency translation. The apparatus includes a receiver for receiving and digitizing a plurality of first signals, each signal containing channels and for simultaneously recovering a set of selected channels from the plurality of first signals. The apparatus also includes a transmitter for combining the set of selected channels to produce a second signal. The method of the present invention includes receiving a first signal containing a plurality of different channels, selecting a set of selected channels from the plurality of different channels, combining the set of selected channels to form a second signal and transmitting the second signal

Description:
[0001]    This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C.§ 119 of a provisional application 60/677563 filed in the United States on May 4, 2005. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention generally relates to communications systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to the receiving and retransmission of content within a communications system. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be related to various aspects of the present invention that are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art. 
         [0004]    In today&#39;s data communication systems such as used in satellite TV, data of different types often reside in what are known as virtual channels. The data from these virtual channels is separately disassembled into data packets, aggregated within and across different data types into bit streams and conveyed by packet delivery systems. Data consumer appliances, such as satellite receivers, select from physical channels available to. them, convert the signals on these channels to digital form (packets) and collect the data packets required to re-assemble the desired virtual channels of information (e.g., audio, video, program guide, transactional data, etc.). At different points along the data path between a content provider and a content consumer data management opportunities occur. A piece of data may come from one of many sources, be routed through one of many satellites, pass through several of many transponders aboard the satellite, be received by a consumer antenna, and be distributed to places of consumption. 
         [0005]    Consumer receivers are often capable of receiving only one of the physical channels from the satellite at a time for display. However, new receivers may contain advanced features the consumer can use. For instance, a receiving device may contain more than one tuner for use in either two picture simultaneous display systems or content recording. Additionally, consumer households often include multiple receivers, each receiver requiring the tuning of one or more channels for use. 
         [0006]    The ever-expanding amount of content for delivery has made it very difficult to deliver that content to all places at all times. Systems receiving data from up to four separate satellites to deliver programming to the home can no longer deliver all of the content on one coaxial cable connection. Various approaches have been adapted including the use of multiple cables or complex switching arrangements. Many of these approaches are in some manner suboptimal for a home installation due to high cost or high complexity. 
         [0007]    Another solution may be to employ a system of preselecting, combining, and redistributing the incoming content based on the physical channels requested by the user(s) using analog signal processing. As a result, only the channels required for delivery to the receivers in a household are selected from the initial available content. The desired channels may then be provided on a single cable that is relatively easy to distribute around the household. The solution relies on coarse analog signal tuning and re-mixing to move channels or frequency regions of signals from an original spectral location in frequency at the input to another spectral location in frequency on a common signal at the output. Further, channels or signal regions at the same frequency but on different satellites may be combined by moving one or both of the original channels or regions. These relocated signals containing the desired channels are then provided on the single cable, eliminating the need for any additional switching and multiple cable connections. 
         [0008]    The analog solution involving preselection, combination, and redistribution remains limited in the number of channels that can be provided due to the inherent shortcomings of performing the processing in the analog domain. Narrow band filters used to select individual physical channels while rejecting others are impractical at frequencies above the range of one gigahertz (GHz). Available filters having a practical bandwidth require additional channel separation in order to prevent undesired interferences in the output signal. Additionally as the desire to deliver more requested channels to the home increases, the subsequent increase in analog circuit complexity results in an expensive and inefficient design with potential problems due to analog crosstalk. Therefore there is a desire to have a solution providing receiving and re-synthesizing of channels for distribution in a more optimal manner. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for performing frequency translation. The apparatus includes a receiver for receiving and digitizing a plurality of first signals, each signal containing channels and for simultaneously recovering a set of selected channels from the plurality of first signals. The apparatus also includes a transmitter for combining the set of selected channels to produce a second signal. 
         [0010]    The method of the present invention includes receiving a first signal containing a plurality of different channels, selecting a set of selected channels from the plurality of different channels, combining the set of selected channels to form a second signal and transmitting the second signal. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
         [0011]    In the drawings: 
           [0012]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an exemplary system using the present invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention  FIG. 3  is a block diagram of another embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram of yet another embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0015]      FIG. 5  is a block diagram of a further embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0016]      FIG. 6  is a flow chart illustrating a method of the present invention. 
       
    
    
       [0017]    The characteristics and advantages of the present invention may become more apparent from the following description, given by way of example. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0018]    One or more specific embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, not all features of an actual implementation are described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers&#39; specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure. 
         [0019]    It is noted that familiarity with television broadcasting and receivers is assumed and is not described in detail herein. For example, other than the inventive concept, familiarity with current and proposed recommendations for TV standards such as National Television Systems Committee (NTSC), Phase Alternation Lines (PAL), Sequential Couleur Avec Memoire (SECAM), Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), and Direct Broadcast Satellite. (DBS) is assumed. Likewise, other than the inventive concept, transmission concepts such as satellite transponders, down-link signals, eight-level vestigial sideband (8-VSB), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation. (QAM), and receiver components such as a radio-frequency (RF) front-end, or receiver section, such as a low noise block, tuners, and demodulators is assumed. Similarly, formatting and encoding methods (such as Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG)-2 Systems Standard (ISO/IEC 13818-1)) for generating transport bit streams are well-known and not described herein. In addition, the inventive concept may be implemented using conventional programming techniques which, as such, will not be described herein. 
         [0020]    The following describes a circuit used for processing satellite signals. Other systems utilized to receive other types of signals where the signal input may be supplied by some other means may include very similar structures. Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the embodiment of the circuits described herein is merely one potential embodiment. As such, in alternate embodiments, the components of the circuit may be rearranged or omitted, or additional components may be added. For example, with minor modifications, the circuits described may be configured to for use in non-satellite video and audio services such as those delivered from a cable network. Further, the invention described could be used in conjunction with a home networking system. The device may receive inputs from a satellite or cable network, process them, and provide them as an output to the home network system. The output may in the form of a wired or wireless transmission. 
         [0021]    Turning now to the drawings and referring initially to  FIG. 1 , an overall block diagram  100  of a system using the present invention is shown.  FIG. 1  represents a typical satellite system installation at a customer home. A similar installation may also exist at an apartment complex or hotel where the system may be augmented with additional equipment often incorporated in multi-dwelling unit applications. Satellite transponders located on satellites  102   a - c  transmit satellite signals to satellite dishes  104   a - c . Each satellite. dish contains a reflector, a feed horn and a low noise block converter (LNB). 
         [0022]    Each of the satellite signals may represent one or more individual physical channels. Each of the physical channels may in turn represent one or more preferably digital data streams of information combined together, encoded, and modulated using various analog and/or digital modulation techniques. The physical channels are often grouped to cover a limited frequency range such as 500 to 1000 MHz of bandwidth. The satellite signals are often located in the microwave frequency range, for instance 11-13 Gigahertz (GHz). The LNBs in the satellite dishes  104   a - c  will amplify and convert the satellite signal in the 11-13 GHz range to an L-band signal in the 1-2 GHz frequency range. Although three satellite dishes are shown, the orbital locations of the satellites  102   a - c  may permit using one satellite dish containing one reflector and three feed horns and LNBs. Also, systems may utilize more or fewer than the three satellites signals illustrated here. The systems may additionally use techniques such as polarization diversity to increase the number of satellite signals delivered from each satellite. 
         [0023]    Each of the three L-band signals from the satellite dishes  104   a - c  are provided through separate coaxial cables to a frequency translation module (FTM)  110 . The three L-band signals in their entirety cannot be supplied through a single coaxial cable for delivery into the customer home, because the L-band signals occupy too much frequency bandwidth. As previously described, each L-band signal may occupy 1 GHz of bandwidth, and a typical customer premises cable installation may only support less than 2 GHz of total signal bandwidth. The FTM  110  extracts certain ranges of frequencies containing selected physical channels as portions of the three L-band signals provided. The FTM  110  also frequency translates the extracted ranges as needed and re-combines them to form a new single selected L-band signal. The process used by the FTM  110  may be described as a preselection of certain physical channels. However, the process used by the FTM  110  is different from a direct tuning of those certain physical channels since other energy besides the selected channel may be present, and the channels are then recombined to form a new signal for further distribution. Note that the FTM  110  may reside physically outside the customer home as shown, or may reside very near to the entry point into the customer home. 
         [0024]    Once the FTM  110  has preselected the physical channels for use, the selected signal is provided over a single coaxial cable to the customer&#39;s premises  120 . The selected signal may pass through a set of signal splitters  122   a - c , as needed, to supply each of the locations for the premises installation. The splitters  122   a - c  may contain passive circuits such as transformers and resistors or may also contain amplifiers in order to increase the signal level at the installation location. 
         [0025]    At each installation location in the premises  120 , the selected signal is provided to a standalone terminal  130  or to a combination settop box  140   a - c  and display device  150   a - c . The terminal  130  and settop box  140   a - c  operate in a similar manner. Each of them receive the selected signal, tune to the desired physical channel within the selected signal, demodulate the physical channel to produce a transport stream, and extract the desired bit stream(s) from the transport stream. The terminal  130  may be used for local storage of various bit streams or for distribution of these bitstreams over a different network such as a wireless network or an Ethernet connection. The settop box  140   a - c  converts the desired bitstream(s) into video and audio signals for display on the display device  150   a - c.    
         [0026]    The terminal  130  and settop boxes  140   a - c  may provide one or more control signals back onto the cable to the FTM  110 . The control signal is generated based on inputs provided, for instance by a customer. The control signal sent to FTM  110  contains information necessary to perform the preselection of frequency ranges and physical channels from each of the L-band signals. The communication protocol to the FTM  110  may be done in a manner suitable for delivery as is known in the art, such as frequency shift keying FSK protocol. The control signal may alternately be supplied through a wireless link. Electrical power may also be passed through the coaxial cable to the FTM  110  and further on to the satellite dishes  104   a - c.    
         [0027]    As described earlier, a conventional FTM contains analog signal processing used for the filtering, mixing, and recombining of the L-band signals. Analog signal processing contains limitations when operating at high frequencies in the 1 GHz range, and the complexity of the analog signal processor increases significantly with an increase of the number of selected physical channels. The utilization of digital signal processing within the FTM structure permits greater flexibility and removes some of the limitations of analog signal processing. 
         [0028]    Turning now to  FIG. 2  a block diagram  200  of an embodiment of the present invention is shown. The diagram shows an implementation of the FTM  110  that includes digital signal processing in order to increase the performance and available bandwidth for selected channels. In order to facilitate a further understanding of the invention, an FTM  110  will be described here using only a single L-band signal as an input. The single L-band signal, as an analog input, is processed through an RF processing block  210 . The RF processing block  210  may contain circuitry for filtering undesired energy outside the signal frequency range, may correct for any frequency response errors introduced, and may amplify the signal to a level necessary for input to the analog to digital (A/D) converter  220 . The input RF processing block  210  may also contain any mixing circuits necessary to position the L-band signal in the correct frequency range for operation of the A/D converter  220 . 
         [0029]    The A/D converter  220  digitizes the processed L-band signal into a series of samples, each sample containing a group of bits. In an exemplary embodiment, the processed satellite signal Is located between the frequencies of 975 and 1425 MHz. The A/D converter  220  samples the processed L-band signal at a rate of 933 megasamples per second (MSPS) generating a digital signal containing a series of samples, each sample represented by 8 bits. The A/D converter  220  may also generate a translated frequency image of the L-band signal essentially translating the signal from an initial frequency range in the analog domain to a different frequency range based on sampling principles. A clock signal, not shown, is supplied to the A/D converter for performing the sampling. The clock signal may be generated by a crystal or as part of a voltage controlled oscillator. The clock signal may also directly, or through additional multipliers and dividers, supply signals to other blocks within the FTM  110 . 
         [0030]    The digital channel selector  230  receives the sampled signal and proceeds to select and down-convert each of the individual physical channels that have been selected. After processing, each of the selected individual channels are located within the same frequency range at or near to baseband, but are contained as individual signals on separate signal lines. The number of bits representing each selected individual channel may be different from the original sampled signal based on the processing method employed. The use of digital signal processing and processing of the signal in parallel permits narrower filtering constraints and more efficient channel selection within the FTM  110 . 
         [0031]    Each of the individual selected channels is provided to the digital channel re-combiner  240 . The digital channel re-combiner  240  frequency translates the individual selected channels each to a different and separate frequency range and combines these signals together to form a single selected digital signal. The selected digital signal is supplied to a digital to analog, (D/A) converter  250 . The D/A converter  250  converts the selected digital signal to a selected analog signal. In a preferred embodiment, the selected digital signal provided to the D/A converter  250  is a series of 10 bit samples at a rate of 950 MSPS. The D/A converter  250  outputs a selected analog signal within a frequency range of DC to 475 MHz. 
         [0032]    The selected analog signal is passed to the RF processing block  260 . The RF processing block  260  provides any analog signal processing necessary to properly send the selected analog signal on the coaxial cable to the customer home. The RF processing block  260  may contain circuitry for filtering undesired signal energy outside the signal frequency range, such as the images produced by the sampling process in D/A converter  250 . The RF processing block  260  may also correct for any other frequency response errors introduced, and may amplify the signal as necessary to provide the signal onto a coaxial cable. The RF processing block  260  may also contain a mixing circuit necessary to position the selected analog signal in the correct L-band frequency range, for instance 975-1425 MHz. 
         [0033]    Some additional circuitry may also be included such as circuitry for controlling the blocks, receiving and processing user inputs, and additional signal processing, although this circuitry is not shown here. 
         [0034]    Turning now to  FIG. 3 , an illustrative block diagram of a circuit  300  of an embodiment of a portion of the present invention is shown. Circuit  300  represents circuitry contained with the digital channel converter block  230 . A sampled signal, converted from an L-band signal by A/D converter  220 , is provided to the sample demultiplexer  310 . Sample demultiplexer  310  resamples at a demultiplexer sampling rate, F F , (or post-decimation sampling rate) to provide a number of decimated sample streams in parallel. 
         [0035]    Each of the decimated sample streams represents a sampled and time shifted version of the original signal with each of the folded spectra, from the decimation, aliased into the same decimated frequency space. The number of decimated sample streams, N, may be integrally related to the number of virtual channels in the original signal. In a preferred embodiment, the number of physical channels is sixteen. Further, the sample demulitplexer  310  sampling rate is preferably two times the data rate of one of the physical channels, or F F =2F S  where F S  is the data rate of the physical channel. Each of the decimated sample streams passes through a sampling interface block  320 . The sampling interface block  320  provides any sampling domain adjustments necessary in moving the signal from the A/D converter  220  and sample demulitplexer  310  to the filter bank  330   a -N, connected to the sampling interface block  320 . The filter bank  330   a -N may provide a number of process steps including filtering the physical channels that are distributed within the decimated sample streams prior to the physical channels being separated. The filtering provides rejection of any energy not within a physical channel while generating a reconstructive set of base signals for selecting out the physical channels in further downstream processing. The filter bank  330   a -N may also provide a time realignment of each of the decimated sample streams. In a preferred embodiment, the filter bank  330   a -N consists of a bank of bifurcated filters that collectively generate a filtered signal vector. Since all the bifurcated filters have a similar structure, only one bifurcated filter is described in detail herein. 
         [0036]    A bifurcated filter may typically consist of two parallel branches of coefficient multiply and delay operations with the operations in each of the branches separately summed together. Each branch is designated as either an even output signal or an odd output signal. The number of multiply and delay operations in each branch may vary based on design criteria. For instance, sixteen weighted multiply and a number of coefficient multipliers may be used in each bifurcated filter. The delay element is controlled by a decimated sample clock signal, not shown, at a frequency F f . The summing node separately adds together the values from each of the odd weighted multipliers and even weighted multipliers to form the odd and even output signal. The orientation of the filter branches and operations within the branches allows special properties to exist. These properties include amplitude inversion of the signal or time reversing the signal within the branch. As noted, other filter structures may be used, as known by those skilled in the art, in conjunction with the various techniques of simultaneous channel reception techniques. 
         [0037]    The output signal, a filter signal vector containing 2N signal streams, from the filter bank  330   a -N connects to a bank of summing nodes  340   a -N. Referring to the preferred embodiment, the even and odd outputs from each of the different bifurcated filters may be combined in a cross-coupling pattern. The even output of filter 0 is summed with the odd output of filter N-1, even output of filter 1 with the odd output of filter N-2, and so on as shown. The summing nodes  340   a -N generate a set of filtered sample streams. 
         [0038]    The filtered sample streams at the output of summing nodes  340   a -N connect to a distributor block  350 . The main purpose of the distributor, block  350  is to process the filtered sample streams generated by the filter block  330   a -N and summing nodes  340   a -N to reconstruct the set of physical channels, originally provided in the L-band signal, from the decimated and filtered sample streams. The processing may include recombining the streams in a manner using mathematical operations. In a preferred embodiment the distributor block  350  uses a type IV Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) for processing the filtered sample streams. The bifurcated filter structure described previously further permits a small DCT structure in implementation by making use of the inversion and time reversal properties of the filter. The bifurcated filter structure may also permit use of a DCT employing a sparse matrix decomposition structure. 
         [0039]    The combination of the filter bank  330   a -N, summing node  340   a -N, and distributor  350  results in generating a set of output streams, each representing the separated data content from a physical channel. The set of individual physical channels from the distributor  350  are generated from the set of decimated sample streams where each stream contains content from each of the physical channels. in a sample aliased condition. It should be noted that other methods may be employed for accomplishing recovery of separate physical channels simultaneously from a single signal. 
         [0040]    The output of distributor block.  350  represents N individual physical channels positioned at or near to baseband frequency. Each physical channel, in digital signal form, may be located on a separate signal line at the output of distributor block  350 . Each of the separate signal lines connect to a channel selector block  360 . The channel selector block  360  may select a set of physical channels from the original N input channels provided. Any number of channels up to the full number N may be selected. For instance, four channels may be selected. The number of channels permitted for selection in channel selector block  360  is a design choice, and the full number of permitted channels for selection does not have to be selected at any one time. Additionally, any further physical channel separation may be performed, such as removing any aliasing components present due to the complex form of the signal as a result of the previously described processing. 
         [0041]    The channel selector block  360  receives inputs from a controller  370  regarding which, if any, of the originally received physical channels is currently requested by the customer. The controller  370  may connect to the sample demultiplexer  310 , interface  320 , filter bank  330   a -N, and distributor  350  in addition to connecting to channel selector  360 . The controller  370  may also provide an interface for user inputs or a communications input in order to receive and convey the user requested channel information from multiple locations. As described previously, the user inputs may be supplied through the signal cable or through some other communications means. Also, as described previously, a home or customer premises may supply more than one customer input. In addition, controller  370  may provide additional functions for operation of the demultiplexer  310 , interface  320 , filter bank  330   a -N, and assembler  350 , such as clock functions, as necessary. The controller  370  may also be embodied as a portion of a larger controller function responsible for controlling and managing, for instance, the entire FTM device. 
         [0042]    Turning now to  FIG. 4 , a block diagram  400  of a further embodiment of the present invention is shown.  FIG. 4  illustrates an implementation of the digital channel re-combiner  240 . The M outputs, representing a set of selected physical channels, of channel selector  360  are provided to the assembler  410 . As described previously, the M outputs of the channel selector  360  may be equal to or less than the N physical channels present in the original L-band signal.. In a preferred embodiment, the assembler  410  may receive up to N inputs. If the number of signals provided from channel selector  360  is less than N, the remaining inputs of channel assembler  410  are placed in a condition of “null” or no input. Additionally, the assembler  410  may also provide the ability to re-order the M input signals. For instance, if the M signals provided to the assembler  410  are physical channels in positions 1, 2, 3, and 4 from selection of the original N channels, the assembler  410  may re-position the M signals by addressing them as inputs 1, 5, 9, and N- 1 . In this manner, further processing, including internal or external filtering may be simplified. Also, the re-positioning permits re-spacing of the M signals. 
         [0043]    The assembler  410  provides processing for converting the  selected channels into a set of signals forming a base set of parallel data streams that can then be filtered prior to remultiplexing and converting to an analog signal. The channel re-combiner  410  provides N outputs as a set of converted sample streams to inverse filter bank  420   a -N. The inverse filter bank  420   a -N provides filtering and/or time delay operations necessary to permit signal remultiplexing. The output of the inverse filter bank  420   a -N provides a set of inverse filtered sample streams. 
         [0044]    The inverse filtered sample streams at the output of the inverse filter bank  420   a -N are provided to the sample multiplexer  430 . The sample multiplexer  430  re-combines the samples, in a time multiplexing fashion, into a single sample stream. The sampling rate of the new single sample stream is preferably. 2NF S  (F S  is the data rate of one channel). Clock signals representing both the input parallel sample stream rate and the new sampling rate at the output of the sample multiplexer  430  are also provided. 
         [0045]    In a preferred embodiment, the assembler  410  is realized as an inverse type IV DCT, and the filter bank  420   a -N is realized as an effective inverse bifurcated filter-bank with respect to filter bank  330   a -N as previously described. In this and other possible approaches, advantages exist due to the sparse matrix factorization stages containing a defined sparse inverse as well as the complementary form of the filtering stages. For example, the Type IV DCT is its own inverse i.e., (DCT IV) 2 =I (identity matrix), and the bifurcated filters work with the transform elements to shape the bands of independent physical channels. Also, the inverse filter bank  420   a -N, shown as a bifurcated filter structure has a signal splitting at its input for providing a cross coupling of signals to the even and odd branches of the individual filters. After each branch in the individual filters has completed processing, the even and odd branches of each individual filter are summed together to form the individual output signal. 
         [0046]    Alternatively, since the type IV DCT function in both the distributor  350  and assembler  410  may be the same, only one block for both operations may be used. For example, a single block may, in conjunction with a signal multiplexer (not shown), provide either an output signal representing the set of individual physical channels or the base set of parallel data streams in alternating operations. 
         [0047]    A controller  470  may connect to the assembler  410 , filter bank  420   a -N, and sample multiplexer  430 . The controller  470  may control the final selection process and ordering of selected physical channels in assembler  410 . The controller  470  may follow a pre-programmed allocation and ordering algorithm, or may process user inputs to determine the allocation and ordering. The controller  470  may also provide an interface for user inputs or a communications input in order to receive and convey the user requested channel information from multiple locations. As described earlier, a home or customer premises may supply more than one customer input. In addition, controller  470  may provide additional functions for. operation of the assembler  410 , filter bank  420   a -N, and multiplexer  430  such as clock functions, as necessary. The controller  470  may also be embodied as a portion of a larger controller function responsible for controlling and managing, for instance, the entire FTM device. 
         [0048]    Additionally, if the M signals at the input to the assembler  410  are less than the N original channels, the channel re-combiner may also change the overall sampling rate. The assembler  410  may be reconfigured to process the M signals in an M point transform, producing M parallel data streams. The filter bank may subsequently contain only M branches and the sample multiplexer process only M inputs. The clocks, supplied to the D/A converter as well as other blocks with diagram  400  may also be a scaled version of the clock used for digital channel selector  230 . For instance, if M is one half the number N, then the clock signal for the digital channel re-combiner  240  may be one half the frequency of the clock signal for the digital channel selector  230 . Note that the clock signal supplied to the other blocks working on parallel data streams may remain unaffected. 
         [0049]    Further, the choice of value of M may be chosen to permit a maximum of allowable channels at any time. However, in actual operation, a number less than M channels may actually be in use. 
         [0050]    Turning now to  FIG. 5 , a block diagram of another embodiment of the present invention is shown.  FIG. 5  illustrates a three L-band signal input FTM utilizing the inventive concept described herein. Each L-band input signal is processed through RF input processing, not shown. Each L-band signal is further processed in A/D converter  520   a - c , and digital channel selectors  530   a - c  as described previously. Also, D/A converter  550  and output RF processing block  560  operate as described previously. 
         [0051]    Each digital channel selector  530   a - c  is capable of producing M outputs representing M physical channels where M is less than or equal to the N original physical channels from an L-band signal. Each L-band signal may provide a different number of physical channels. 
         [0052]    The digital channel re-combiner  540  may process up to N channels in its assembler block as described above. The assembler in the digital channel re-combiner  540  also includes switching and selection circuits to manage which of the M inputs from each of the digital channel selectors  530   a - c  are processed in the digital channel re-combiner  540 . The management and switching function is controlled by the controller  570 . 
         [0053]    The controller  570  provides functions to ensure that a selected combination of the M outputs from the selectors  530   a - c  does not exceed the N inputs for selected channels possible for processing in digital channel re-combiner  540 . The controller  570  receives inputs from the one or more users and processes the inputs to determine the correct combination of inputs. In a preferred embodiment, each of the digital channel selectors  530   a - c  may provide up to six signals to the digital channel re-combiner. The digital channel re-combiner  540  may accept only sixteen signals. The controller  570  may determine, for instance based on inputs from users, that only five inputs will be used from digital channel selectors  530   a  and  530   b,  and all six will be used from digital channel selector  530   c.  Additional user inputs may then require a change to this apportionment. The controller  570  may also provide control or other necessary signals such as clock signals to A/D converters  520   a - c , digital channel selectors  530   a - c  and D/A converter  550 . 
         [0054]    The digital channel re-combiner  540  may also contain signal processing such as digital signal level adjustment applied to each of the selected channels. Level adjustment may allow all selected channels to be delivered at approximately the same signal level improving the operation of home equipment such as settop boxes. 
         [0055]    Block diagram  500  forms a multi-input, single output channel selection, translation, and distribution device. The device produces an output of up to N channels in a single signal for delivery over a single coaxial cable, from an input containing up to three times N possible input channels presented in three separate signals. The use of three inputs is illustrative, and a greater or fewer number of inputs containing a greater or fewer number of possible input channels may be used. 
         [0056]    Turning now to  FIG. 6 , a flow chart  600  showing an embodiment of the method of the present invention is shown. At step  602 , one or more incoming satellite signals are received by a device, such as the FTM device described previously in block diagram  500 . Next, at  604 , the incoming satellite signals are converted to digital signals. The conversion is preferably performed by A/D converters  530   a - c , and may further include a processing means for separating the individual physical channels after the conversion such as described in digital channel selectors  530   a - c . 
         [0057]    Next, at step  606 , the desired physical channels are selected to form a group of selected physical digital channels in parallel. The selected physical channels are selected in the digital channel selectors  530   a - c  based on requests by the customer&#39;s home equipment processes and managed by, for instance, controller  570 . The.controller  570  may be responsible for receiving and managing multiple requests and providing the proper information to the digital channel selectors  530   a - c  as well as the digital channel re-combiner  540 . 
         [0058]    The group of selected digital channels, at step  608 , are re-combined in a frequency diverse manner to form a signal occupying a range of frequencies and containing the selected digital channels at separate frequencies. The recombination may include a means for processing the group of selected digital channels such as described for digital channel re-combiner  540 . At step  610 , the recombined frequency diverse signals are converted back into an analog signal containing the selected channels at separate. frequencies. The conversion may be done using a D/A converter  550  and may also include any additional processing as described for output.RF processing block  560 . Finally, at step  612 , the analog signal is sent or transmitted to additional devices, for instance devices found in customer premises connected by a single coaxial cable. 
         [0059]    While the invention may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and have been described in detail herein. The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the invention and it will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise numerous alternative arrangements which, although not explicitly described herein, embody the principles of the invention and are within its spirit and scope. For example, although illustrated in the context of separate functional elements, these functional elements may be embodied on one or more integrated circuits (ICs). Similarly, although shown as separate elements, any or all of the elements of may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both. It is therefore to be understood that numerous modifications may be made to the illustrative embodiments and that other arrangements may be devised without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.