Patent ID: 6970537

Claim:
A method for communicating via a set of frequency bands, comprising: obtaining a first electrical signal that encodes a first information stream, wherein: the energy of said first electrical signal is concentrated within a plurality of frequency bands that comprises substantially non-overlapping frequency bands; and said first information stream can be recovered from any subset of said plurality of frequency bands that is one less, in number, than said plurality of frequency bands, transmitting said first electrical signal onto a conductive path; receiving energy within a first frequency band from, said conductive path, wherein: a highest frequency of said first frequency band is lower than a lowest frequency of said plurality of frequency bands, a lowest frequency of said first frequency band is higher than a highest frequency used in a second frequency band, at least a portion of said first electrical signal is transmitted simultaneously with receiving said energy within said first frequency band; and transmitting and receiving voiceband signals within said second frequency band onto said conductive path, wherein at least part of said transmitting and receiving of voiceband signals is conducted simultaneously with said transmitting of said first electrical signal.