Patent ID: 8705967

Claim:
An apparatus for serially-connected access points along a cable in a communication network, comprising: a fiber optic cable including network communication wires; a plurality of access points connected in series with the network communication wires along a length of the cable, including a passive optical splitter in the network communication wires at each access point; and a headend interface connected at one end of the cable and operable to provide a communication interface with the access points, wherein the cable includes power wires for powering the plurality of access points, and wherein the headend interface couples power from a power distribution module to the power wires without the need for a Power over Ethernet connection and couples the network communication wires to an Ethernet device, wherein each access point operates on one channel of a frequency band and access points of different channels have an interleaved position with one another on the cable such that access points operating on the same channel are not located next to each other.