Patent ID: 7801119

Claim:
A method of providing bi-directional communication in a cable transmission network between a first device and a second device, the method comprising the steps of: allocating a first downstream bandwidth having a downstream frequency channel via a controller based on a first non-shared time slot assignment in a downstream packet, and a first upstream bandwidth having a first non-shared upstream frequency channel for a first full duplex point-to-point channel between the first device and the second device via the controller; conveying high priority data traffic over the first full duplex point-to-point channel between the first device and the second device, wherein the high priority data traffic between the first device and the second device communicates Ethernet/802.3 frames; converting the Ethernet/802.3 frames to frame management sublayer (FMS) frames; multiplexing the FMS frames to provide MPEG frames; and modulating the MPEG frames to provide RF data, wherein the RF data is transmitted in the downstream frequency channel.