Patent ID: 8537861

Claim:
A device for stacking signals in an expanded frequency range for transmitting upstream signals, the device comprising: an upconverter configured to: receive upstream signals from each of a plurality of coaxial lines in a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network that are in a first frequency range; upconvert a first group of the upstream signals from the first frequency range to one or more upconverted frequency ranges, wherein the one or more upconverted frequency ranges are higher than the first frequency range and higher than a downstream frequency range used for downstream communication, wherein a first upconverted frequency range of the one or more upconverted frequency ranges is different in bandwidth size from a second upconverted frequency range of the one or more upconverted frequency ranges, the first upconverted frequency range having a bandwidth size for communicating with a smaller number of allocated customer premises than a number of customer premises allocated to the second upconverted frequency range, pass a second group of the upstream signals that are in the first frequency range without performing the upconversion to the one or more upconverted frequency ranges, wherein the first frequency range is lower than said downstream frequency range used for downstream communication; a multiplexer configured to: stack, in the expanded frequency range, the upconverted first group of upstream signals and the second group of upstream signals, and output the stacked upstream signals.