Patent ID: 8913557

Claim:
A system comprising: a controller configured with a coaxial cable to operate as an access point for transmission and reception of wireless signals with one or more station devices at selected points along the coaxial cable; and a plurality of extender devices, having wireless communication circuitry, distributed along the coaxial cable at the selected points along the coaxial cable, in which the plurality of extender devices communicate with the controller and operate under management control of the controller to provide wireless termination point connections at the selected points along the coaxial cable for the controller to communicate wirelessly with the one or more station devices and in which communication links between the one or more station devices and one or more extender devices of the plurality of extender devices, use a Media Access Control (MAC) address of the controller for the one or more station devices to communicate with the controller, wherein the controller and plurality of extender devices are configured to support a split mode of operation in which MAC layer operations are divided between the plurality of extender devices and the controller.