Patent ID: 7707615

Claim:
A cable television testing environment with a return path comprising: a one-way RF matrix switch comprising: an input terminal, wherein the input terminal receives a high-band input signal from a head-end via a transmission path; and an output terminal, wherein the output terminal is assigned to a selected set top box and is connected to the selected set top box via an output module assigned to the selected set top box, and wherein the one-way RF matrix switch maps the high-band input signal from the head-end as received by the input terminal forward to the output terminal assigned to the selected set top box; and wherein the output module: passes the high band input signal to the selected set top box; passes a low band reverse signal from the selected set top box to a combining/splitting module; and wherein the combining/splitting module: combines the low band reverse signal from the selected set top box with one or more other low band reverse signals from other set top boxes to produce a composite signal; and splits the composite signal into a plurality of composite signal sources, wherein one of the plurality of composite signal sources is connected to the head-end via the transmission path thereby providing the return path from the selected set top box to the head-end, and wherein the return path does not pass through the one-way RF matrix switch.