Patent ID: 7765576

Claim:
In a cable distribution network environment that includes a cable hub and a cable node, a method for the cable node to configure the cable hub to operate in either a first communication mode or a second communication mode to avoid inconsistent communication with the cable hub, the method comprising the following: an act of the cable node transmitting a mute command in a first data stream to the cable hub using a first communication mode, the mute command causing the cable hub to abstain from recognizing any communications received from the cable node subsequent to the mute command until a switch command is received from the cable node; an act of the cable node transmitting the switch command to the cable hub; and an act of the cable node transmitting a second data stream to the cable hub using the second communication mode after transmitting the switch command, wherein RF data is transmitted without Ethernet data over a return path to the cable hub in one of the first and second communication modes and wherein RF data plus Ethernet data is transmitted over the return path in the other one of the first and second communication modes.