Patent ID: 7072360

Claim:
A communications system comprising: a plurality of communications devices for supporting additional data bandwidth to end users including: a coaxial input port for receiving a signal having legacy signal components and high-frequency signal components of data at frequencies greater than 860 MHz; one or more output ports for combining high-frequency signal components with legacy signal components and transmitting the combined signal over a coaxial cable; a legacy component passthrough electrically coupled to the coaxial input port and to the output ports and configured to separate out the high-frequency signal components from the signal and to forward the legacy signal components to the output ports; and a high-frequency signal component processor having: a modem in electrical communication with the input port and at least one of the output ports, the modem configured to convert incoming high-frequency signal components into packets of data and outgoing packets of data into high-frequency signal components; a processor in communication with the modem for determining an intended destination of the data and for selecting one of the output ports based on the determined intended destination of the data; and a switch responsive to the processor for directing data to the selected output port; and a plurality of coaxial cable connections coupling the output ports of communication devices to input ports of other communications devices.