Patent ID: 7599711

Claim:
A communications system, the system comprising: a host unit adapted to communicate with one or more service providers; at least one remote unit adapted to communicate with the host unit; and at least one communications medium coupled between the host unit and the at least one remote unit, wherein the host unit and the at least one remote unit are adapted to communicate analog RF signals via the at least one communications medium; wherein the host unit is adapted to receive a plurality of forward path RF signals from the one or more service providers as a first multiband RF signal including a first RF frequency band and one or more additional RF frequency bands; wherein the host unit is further adapted to separate the first RF frequency band from the first multi-band RF signal, vary a power level of the first RF frequency band, and recombine the first RF frequency band with the one or more additional RF frequency bands as a second multi-band RF signal; wherein the host unit further comprises a tone generator adapted to transmit a plurality of pilot tones onto the at least one communications medium; wherein the remote unit further comprises a tone receiver and a processor coupled to the tone receiver; wherein the tone receiver is adapted to receive the plurality of pilot tones from the at least one communications medium; wherein the processor is adapted to calculate a power loss for each of the plurality of pilot tones, determine a power loss versus RF frequency relationship for the at least one communications medium based on the calculated power loss of each of the plurality of pilot tones, and estimate a path loss for the first RF frequency band based on the power loss versus RF frequency relationship; and wherein the processor is further adapted to vary an attenuation of the first RF frequency band based on the estimated power loss for the first RF frequency band.