American Television and Communications Corporation

David Wreford-Howard

Robert M Rast

Wallace Sherwood Campbell

A system for controlling a cable television network includes a head end, a plurality of addressable external control units having subscriber converters located off the subscriber's premises, and one or more subscriber devices located on the subscriber premises for communicating with associated external control units. The head end can selectively and rapidly poll the external control units for information on a general or on a priority basis. Information is transmitted to the head end from the external control units on any of a plurality of reverse communication channels under control of the head end. External control units use a two-part polling scheme to poll a plurality of associated drop cables, and individual subscriber devices attached to the drop cables. The polling rapidly identifies subscriber devices desiring to communicate with the external control unit.

System for controlling communications on a cable television network

A system for controlling a cable television network includes a headend, a plurality of addressable external control units having subscriber converters located off the subscribers' premises, and one or more subscriber devices located on the subscriber premises for communicating with associated external control units. The headend can selectively and rapidly poll the external control units for information on a general or on a priority basis. Information is transmitted to the headend from the external control units on any of a plurality of reverse communication channels under control of the head end. External control units use a two-part polling scheme to poll a plurality of associated drop cables, and individual subscriber devices attached to the drop cables. The polling rapidly identifies subscriber devices desiring to communicate with the external control unit.

In a cable television system in which the individual subscriber's converter/tuner is located outside the subscriber's premises in an external control unit ('ECU') and controlled remotely via a subscriber processing unit ('SPU') connected to the ECU by a drop cable, data transmitted from the SPU to the ECU (e.g., channel selection data) is verified by transmitting similar echo back data from the ECU to the SPU. The SPU compares the original and echo back data to assure that the ECU correctly received the original data.

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Englewood, CO, United States of America

David Wreford-Howard