An apparatus comprising: a receiver configured to: couple to an Ethernet Passive Optical network over Coaxial, EPoC, network; and receive an upstream Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM, signal comprising a plurality of OFDM Resource Elements, REs, wherein each OFDM RE corresponds to a time-frequency slot that comprises a frequency interval of one OFDM sub-carrier and a time interval of one OFDM symbol; and a processor coupled to the receiver and configured to: determine a presence of a burst marker sequence in the received signal, wherein the burst marker sequence comprises a pre-determined interlaced pattern between pilot symbols and null symbols, wherein the pilot symbols comprise non-zero transmission energy symbols, and wherein the null symbols comprise zero transmission energy symbols, and wherein determining the presence of the burst marker sequence comprises: computing a power ratio between a first set of the OFDM REs and a second set of the OFDM REs, wherein the first set of OFDM REs correspond to time-frequency slot positions of the pilot symbols, wherein the second set of OFDM REs correspond to time-frequency slot positions of the null symbols, and wherein computing the power ratio comprises: computing a first total received power for the first set of OFDM REs; computing a second total received power for the second set of OFDM REs; and computing a ratio between the first total received power and the second total received power; and determining that the burst marker sequence is found when the computed power ratio exceeds a pre-determined threshold. a receiver configured to: couple to an Ethernet Passive Optical network over Coaxial, EPoC, network; and receive an upstream Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM, signal comprising a plurality of OFDM Resource Elements, REs, wherein each OFDM RE corresponds to a time-frequency slot that comprises a frequency interval of one OFDM sub-carrier and a time interval of one OFDM symbol; and couple to an Ethernet Passive Optical network over Coaxial, EPoC, network; and receive an upstream Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM, signal comprising a plurality of OFDM Resource Elements, REs, wherein each OFDM RE corresponds to a time-frequency slot that comprises a frequency interval of one OFDM sub-carrier and a time interval of one OFDM symbol; and a processor coupled to the receiver and configured to: determine a presence of a burst marker sequence in the received signal, wherein the burst marker sequence comprises a pre-determined interlaced pattern between pilot symbols and null symbols, wherein the pilot symbols comprise non-zero transmission energy symbols, and wherein the null symbols comprise zero transmission energy symbols, and wherein determining the presence of the burst marker sequence comprises: computing a power ratio between a first set of the OFDM REs and a second set of the OFDM REs, wherein the first set of OFDM REs correspond to time-frequency slot positions of the pilot symbols, wherein the second set of OFDM REs correspond to time-frequency slot positions of the null symbols, and wherein computing the power ratio comprises: computing a first total received power for the first set of OFDM REs; computing a second total received power for the second set of OFDM REs; and computing a ratio between the first total received power and the second total received power; and determining that the burst marker sequence is found when the computed power ratio exceeds a pre-determined threshold. determine a presence of a burst marker sequence in the received signal, wherein the burst marker sequence comprises a pre-determined interlaced pattern between pilot symbols and null symbols, wherein the pilot symbols comprise non-zero transmission energy symbols, and wherein the null symbols comprise zero transmission energy symbols, and wherein determining the presence of the burst marker sequence comprises: computing a power ratio between a first set of the OFDM REs and a second set of the OFDM REs, wherein the first set of OFDM REs correspond to time-frequency slot positions of the pilot symbols, wherein the second set of OFDM REs correspond to time-frequency slot positions of the null symbols, and wherein computing the power ratio comprises: computing a first total received power for the first set of OFDM REs; computing a second total received power for the second set of OFDM REs; and computing a ratio between the first total received power and the second total received power; and determining that the burst marker sequence is found when the computed power ratio exceeds a pre-determined threshold. computing a power ratio between a first set of the OFDM REs and a second set of the OFDM REs, wherein the first set of OFDM REs correspond to time-frequency slot positions of the pilot symbols, wherein the second set of OFDM REs correspond to time-frequency slot positions of the null symbols, and wherein computing the power ratio comprises: computing a first total received power for the first set of OFDM REs; computing a second total received power for the second set of OFDM REs; and computing a ratio between the first total received power and the second total received power; and determining that the burst marker sequence is found when the computed power ratio exceeds a pre-determined threshold.