Patent ID: 7573828

Claim:
A system for isolating a fault in a cable network comprising: a correlator, wherein the correlator comprises instructions for: identifying non-responsive subscriber devices connected to the network through an active device; obtaining a device identifier of the last active device through which each non-responsive subscriber device connects to the network, wherein the device identifier comprises: a first character field comprising a hub identifier; a second character field concatenated with the first character field, wherein the second character field comprises a node identifier; subsequent character fields concatenated with the second character field, wherein a subsequent character field comprises a cascade number and wherein the value of the cascade number identifies a branch of the network relative to a device from which the branch emanates; a first separator interposed into the device identifier before a subsequent character field indicative of a branch from a first level active device that terminates at a second level active device; and a second separator interposed into the device identifier before a subsequent character field indicative of a branch from an active device that terminates at a passive device; correlating the last active device identifiers associated with the non- responsive subscriber devices to identify a furthest upstream active device as a likely common cause of the non-responsiveness of the non-responsive subscriber devices.