Patent ID: 7716712

Claim:
A method for eliminating unwanted interference in a digital return path of a cable television network comprising: receiving an incoming data stream transmitted from a network element, the incoming data stream being configured to provide communications between the cable television network and the network element; splitting the incoming data stream into two paths; performing a Fast Fourier Transform on the incoming data stream in a first path to determine characteristics of interference in the incoming data stream; calculating an adaptable interference threshold based on the determined characteristics, the calculated adaptable interference threshold not being selected from a preset value; identifying any spectral components of the incoming data stream that exceed the adaptable interference threshold; creating an adaptive filter to filter any identified spectral components based on the identified spectral components; and filtering the incoming data stream with the adaptive filter to thereby filter ingress noise, and loading a first plurality of filter coefficients into a first data stream filter while a second data stream filter is used to filter the data stream; and upon calculating a second plurality of filter coefficients loading the second plurality of filter coefficients into the second data stream filter while the first data stream filter is used to filter the data stream, wherein the step of creating an adaptive filter includes creating a plurality of filter coefficients based on the identified spectral components; and using the newly created plurality of filter coefficients in a next clock cycle when filtering the incoming data stream with the adaptive filter, wherein the adaptable interference threshold is determined from a running average of accumulated array samples from the result of the Fast Fourier Transform, a database of channel characteristics, learned channel characteristics, a duration and dynamics of any observed interference.