Patent ID: 7180412

Claim:
A system for bi-directional power distribution line communication, the system configured for data communication with an endpoint transceiver located at a customer premise, the system comprising: a timer server configured to retrieve the time; and a substation controller in electrical communication with a power distribution line, the substation controller including a substation transceiver and substation programmable circuit, the substation programmable circuit including a substation clock, the substation programmable circuit programmed to, periodically retrieve the time from the time server to calibrate the substation clock to the retrieved time, and control the substation transceiver to transmit the time to the endpoint transceiver, the time being transmitted to the endpoint transceiver over the power distribution line including at least one transformer that steps down a power signal from a first voltage to a second voltage wherein the endpoint transceiver is configured to communicate with the substation controller over a first sub-sub-channel of a plurality of sub-sub-channels separated within a sub-channel on the power distribution line, each of the plurality of sub-sub-channels configured to be respectively assigned to different ones of a plurality of endpoint transceivers, each of the sub-sub-channel configured to have a predetermined bandwidth.