Patent ID: 7039432

Claim:
An arrangement for reducing the presence of ingress noise from a communications gateway, including an embedded cable modem, at a subscriber location, said communications gateway comprising an RF module containing separate upstream and downstream signal paths, the arrangement comprising a variable attenuation element disposed in the upstream signal path in the RF module; a signal amplifier, exhibiting predetermined gain, disposed in said upstream signal path in said RE module; and a bypass switch disposed at the input of said signal amplifier, said bypass switch for controlling the presence of said signal amplifier in said upstream signal path such that when said bypass switch is in the “open” position said signal amplifier is removed from said upstream signal path and when said bypass switch is in the “closed” position said signal amplifier is inserted in said upstream signal path; and a signal processor for calculating the value of upstream loss as used in attenuation and amplifier settings, said signal processor for controlling the operation of said variable attenuation element, said signal amplifier and said bypass switch so as to reduce the presence of ingress noise in the upstream signal path; wherein the signal processor controls the attenuation level of said variable attenuation element such that when the calculated upstream loss is positive the attenuation is set to be essentially equal to said calculated upstream loss.