ARRANGEMENT FOR MANAGING MULTIPLE TELEPHONE LINES TERMINATING AT A SINGLE LOCATION

摘要

An arrangement for controlling multiple telephone lines terminating in a single residence uses a mutliplexer within a communications gateway and a plurality of demultiplexers, each demultiplexer coupled to a separate one of telephone lines. The communications gateway functions to convert all received analog telephony signals into a digital format and then multiplexes the digital signals onto a single telephone line connected to the residence. The various telephone lines in the residences are connected in series along the line, using a number of drop-off points. The demultiplexer on each telephone line is configured to recognize the time slots within the multiplexed signal destined for its associated telecommunications device. In a similar fashion, separate time slots are assigned for upstream transmission from each telecommunications device into the HFC network.