| 摘要 |
Information related to signal quality on the downstream and upstream paths ( 104 ) in a cable network may be monitored ( 116, 208 ) at selected ones of a plurality of set-top boxes ( 110 ) and sent by the set-top box to the headend ( 102 ) as it is collected, or when the set-top box is polled by the headend. The information may be collected with the set-top box is in an idle state ( 204 ), by the set-top box tuning through the channels in the channel map ( 206 ) and by applying a time stamp to the information ( 208 ). Ping messages may be transmitted from the set-top box to the headend and back to the set-top box. Methods and apparatus are disclosed.
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