Ingress-mitigated RF cable plants and ingress mitigation methods for same

摘要

An RF hardline coaxial cable plant to facilitate voice and/or data services to subscriber premises in one or more neighborhood nodes of a cable communication system by conveying upstream information over an upstream path bandwidth. One or more upstream radio frequency (RF) signals have a carrier frequency of between approximately 5 MHz and 19.6 MHz and are modulated using quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) with voice and/or data information constituting at least some of the upstream information. An example RF signal defines a channel having an average channel power, and a highest value for an average noise power between 5 MHz and 19.6 MHz in the upstream path bandwidth of a given neighborhood node, as measured over at least a 24 hour period, is at least 25 decibels (dB) below the average channel power and/or less than 20 decibels (dB) above a noise floor associated with the neighborhood node.

主权项

1. An RF hardline coaxial cable plant to facilitate voice and/or data services to a plurality of subscriber premises in a first neighborhood node of a cable communication system, the RF hardline coaxial cable plant communicatively coupled to the plurality of subscriber premises via a plurality of subscriber drops, the RF hardline coaxial cable plant conveying at least upstream information from the plurality of subscriber premises over an upstream path bandwidth assigned to the first neighborhood node, the RF hardline coaxial cable plant comprising:
a cascade of at least five (NODE+5); and at least one ingress-mitigated component including at least one of:
a repaired, replaced or adjusted coaxial cable;a repaired, replaced or adjusted fitting; anda repaired, replaced or adjusted electronics component, wherein: the upstream information is conveyed on the RF hardline coaxial cable plant via a plurality of upstream radio frequency (RF) signals, each upstream RF signal of the plurality of upstream RF signals including at least one encoded carrier wave having at least one carrier frequency in the upstream path bandwidth assigned to the first neighborhood node and being modulated, using quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), with voice and/or data information constituting at least some of the upstream information from at least some of the plurality of subscriber premises; the plurality of upstream RF signals includes a first upstream RF signal having at least one first carrier frequency of greater than or equal to approximately 5 MHz, and less than or equal to approximately 19.6 MHz, and a second upstream RF signal having a second carrier frequency of greater than or equal to approximately 5 MHz and less than 19.6 MHz; the first upstream RF signal defines a first upstream physical communication channel in the upstream path bandwidth assigned to the first neighborhood node, the first upstream physical communication channel having a first upstream average channel power, the second upstream RF signal defines a second upstream physical communication channel in the upstream path bandwidth assigned to the first neighborhood node, the second upstream physical communication channel having a second upstream average channel power; and a highest value for an average noise power on the RF hardline coaxial cable plant between 5 MHz and 19.6 MHz in the upstream path bandwidth assigned to the first neighborhood node, as measured over at least a 24 hour period at a headend or an optical/RF converter of the cable communication system to which the RF hardline coaxial cable plant is coupled, is at least 25 decibels (dB) below at least one of the first upstream average channel power and the second upstream average channel power.