Patent ID: 8199684

Claim:
A method for sharing an upstream radio-frequency spectrum and a downstream radio-frequency spectrum occupied by a plurality of downstream Cable TV channels and a plurality of downstream and upstream cable modem channels for operating a broadband coaxial local area network (LAN) comprising the steps of: (a) isolating said upstream radio-frequency spectrum for said cable modem channels by a high-pass filter; (b) identifying one or more downstream radio-frequency spectrum Cable TV channels to be used for LAN operation; (c) removing said downstream radio-frequency spectrum cable TV channels identified in step (b) by one or more notch filters; (d) inserting one or more LAN-generated downstream radio-frequency spectrum channels into said downstream radio-frequency spectrum by a combiner; (e) merging one or more LAN-generated upstream radio-frequency spectrum channels with one or more of said LAN-generated downstream radio-frequency spectrum channels by a diplexer; and (f) distributing said combined upstream radio-frequency spectrum channels and downstream radio-frequency spectrum channels from said diplexer to one or more broadband LAN coaxial cables by one or more splitters; thereby enabling a local modem termination system to communicate with a plurality of local modems utilizing said LAN-generated downstream and LAN-generated upstream channels; while sharing said downstream radio-frequency spectrum with remaining said cable TV channels.