Patent ID: 7593639

Claim:
A return path of an optical network system comprising: a subscriber optical interface for receiving upstream and propagating downstream electrical radio-frequency signals, the subscriber optical interface comprising: an amplitude modulated optical transmitter; a signal state detector for sensing a state of the upstream electrical radio-frequency signals without tracking any bandwidth useage and physical address requests and activating the optical transmitter when a predetermined state is detected for propagating upstream optical signals over the return path; an analog optical receiver for converting downstream optical signals into downstream electrical radio-frequency signals; a bidirectional optical diplexer coupled to the amplitude modulated optical transmitter and the analog optical receiver, the bidirectional optical diplexer for receiving and propagating upstream optical signals from the amplitude modulated optical transmitter and for separating and propagating downstream optical signals to the analog optical receiver; and a radio-frequency diplexer coupled to at least one of the amplitude modulated optical transmitter and the signal state detector, for propagating upstream electrical radio-frequency signals destined for the amplitude modulated optical transmitter and signal state detector without any conditioning of the upstream electrical radio-frequency signals by a processor while propagating through the radio-frequency diplexer, and coupled to the analog optical receiver for propagating the downstream electrical radio-frequency signals produced by the analog optical receiver without any conditioning of the downstream electrical radio-frequency signals by a processor while propagating through the radio-frequency diplexer.