Patent ID: 7596081

Claim:
A method for a remote unit of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) multipoint-to-point communications system, the method comprising: receiving communication at a first remote unit of a plurality of remote units from a host unit, the plurality of remote units communicatively coupled to the host unit in a multipoint-to-point configuration; transmitting up to a plurality of tones from the first remote unit, the up to a plurality of tones modulated with upstream information using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing such that when waveforms are transmitted from at least two of the plurality of remote units the waveforms combine to a unified OFDM waveform at the host unit; and transmitting a training pattern from the first remote unit to the host unit on at least one of the up to a plurality of tones, the training pattern providing for adjustment of multiple communication channels by a multi-channel equalizer at the host unit on a per OFDM channel basis.