Patent ID: 8351321

Claim:
A remote service unit synchronized within a multipoint-to-point communication system, the remote service unit comprising: a transceiver communicatively coupled with a host unit in a multipoint-to-point configuration, the transceiver configured to communicate with the host unit via an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) waveform comprising a frequency guard band; a multi-carrier modulator coupled to the transceiver and configured to modulate upstream information onto the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing waveform; wherein the multi-carrier modulator modulates upstream information onto a plurality of distinct OFDM subcarriers of the OFDM waveform, frequencies of the subcarriers being corrected according to an estimated frequency error; wherein transmissions on the distinct OFDM subcarriers are synchronized to orthogonally overlap with distinct transmissions from at least one other remote service unit to form the OFDM waveform.