Patent ID: 7548696

Claim:
In a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) system for transmitting forward and reverse optical signals via optical fiber, the FTTH system including a plurality of home network units, the plurality of home network units including an optical receiver for receiving at least one of video, voice, and data signals, and for providing the at least one video, voice, and data signals to a connected device via coaxial cable, the optical receiver comprising: a photodiode for converting an optical signal into an RF signal; a plurality of gain stages for amplifying the RF signal throughout the optical receiver, wherein the plurality of gain stages comprises a preamplifier and a postamplifier stage and a first and second interstage amplifier coupled between the preamplifier and postamplifier stages, whereby positioning the plurality of gain stages throughout the optical receiver provides a postamplifier output signal having a desired level with a low output noise signal; an attenuator coupled between the first interstage amplifier and the second interstage amplifier, the attenuator configured to attenuate the RF signal from the first interstage amplifier based on an RF control signal; and a gain control network coupled to an output of the postamplifier stage, the gain control network providing the RF control signal that is indicative of a level associated with the postamplifier output signal.