Patent ID: 8649421

Claim:
A measurement-capable cable modem (MCCM) comprising: a cable port for connecting to a cable network; a data port for connecting to a customer premises equipment (CPE) for providing customer services; a plurality of transmitters coupled to the cable port for transmitting upstream digital communication signals from the CPE over one or more upstream channels of the cable network; a plurality of receivers coupled to the cable port for receiving downstream digital communication signals over one or more downstream channels of the cable network for communicating to the CPE; and, a modem controller coupled to the transmitters and the receivers for controlling thereof, wherein the modem controller is configured for tunably allocating at least one of the receivers and at least one of the transmitters for data communications between the cable network and the CPE, while leaving at least another one of the receivers as a currently idle receiver that is not allocated for the data communications, or leaving at least another one of the transmitters as a currently idle transmitter that is not allocated for the data communications; wherein the modem controller further comprises a measurement controller for utilizing the currently idle receiver or the currently idle transmitter to perform a network measurement.