Patent ID: 8644706

Claim:
A remote CMTS fiber node (CMRTS) system for a Hybrid Fiber Cable (HFC) network, comprising: at least one software controllable RF modulator device capable of encoding selected portions of digitally encoded second optical fiber signals into a second set of RF waveforms; at least one software controllable switch that can be remotely directed to select at least some of said second optical fiber signals (selected second optical signals) and direct said at least one software controllable RF modulator device to encode said selected second optical signals into said second set of RF waveforms at a selected set of frequencies (remotely generated RF signals); at least one remotely software controllable RF packet processor capable of detecting upstream data carried by CATV RF upstream signals generated by at least one cable modem, digitally repackaging said upstream data, and retransmitting said upstream data as a third upstream digital optical fiber signal; wherein said at least one software controllable RF modulator device, and/or said software controllable RF packet processor comprise at least one FPGA and DSP devices that are capable of being remotely configured by software to implement MAC and PHY with additional non-DOCSIS functionality, a full set of DOCSIS functionality, or a subset of the standard DOCSIS upstream and downstream functions; in which the functioning of said at least one software controllable switch, the functioning of said RF modulator device and the functioning of said at least one remotely software controllable RF packet processor are controlled by a remote virtual shelf manager system; and in which the virtual shelf manager system comprises a device configuration database with at least CMRTS identifier fields, cable modem identification data fields, the privileges of users associated with said cable modem identification fields (user privilege fields), available DOCSIS channels, available IP addresses, instructions to configure said at least one software controllable switch, and, instructions to configure said remotely software controllable RF packet, processor; and at least one processor; and hardware and software capable of sending and receiving data packets to and from a plurality of remote CMRTS units.