Patent ID: 7184272

Claim:
A modular RF terminal, comprising: a plurality of processing modules, at least one of the processing modules having an external connector for conveying an RF signal; and a segmented coaxial analog bus comprising a plurality of multi-conductor coaxial connectors, each of the multi-conductor coaxial connectors being integrated in or forming a portion of a corresponding one of the processing modules, wherein the segmented coaxial analog bus conveys RF signals between the at least one of the processing modules having the external connector and at least one other of the processing modules; and wherein each of the plurality of multi-conductor coaxial connectors is part of a segment of the segmented coaxial analog bus and is selectively configurable to pass or not pass an analog signal on a particular conductor of the multi-conductor coaxial connector on a processing module-by-processing module basis such that analog signals can selectively be sent over certain segments of the segmented coaxial analog bus to control which signals are available to which processing modules, and wherein each multi-conductor coaxial connector of a respective processing module is selectively configurable by being selectively populated with one or more conductors for selectively routing analog signals along segments of the segmented coaxial analog bus between adjacent processing modules.