General Instrument Corporation

Nicholas D Lee

Jonathan A Weinstock

Richard Dziekan

M Lamine Sylla

William H Blum

Clive Eric Holborow

Robert R Dziekan

A hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) access network manager is formed to include a mediated access system to control each service provider's ability to monitor, view and re-configure selected elements within the HFC access network. A database included within the manager contains a mapping between the information service providers and the various network elements for which each service provider is permitted access and/or control. With mediated access, an information service provider has the ability to monitor quality, perform diagnostic tests and configure that equipment which directly supports the provided services.

Arrangement for providing mediated access in an HFC access network

A hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) access network manager is formed to support a variety of functions related to the operation and management of an HCF access plant. The HFC access network manager allows for monitoring of the downstream and upstream transmission paths, and supports the sectionalization of faults. The monitoring can be achieved through a variety of techniques including, but not limited to, monitoring bit error rate (BER), frame error rate (FER), carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N), or any other suitable quality-related signal parameter.

HFC access network management system

A hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) access network manager is formed to support a variety of functions related to the operation and management of an HCF access plant. The network manager includes a topology discovery module that can function either automatically, or under control of a command from the access network manager, to poll individual network elements to identify their type and location, thus creating a topological map of the network. The polling can be accomplished in either the analog or digital domain.

Arrangement for discovering the topology of an HFC access network

A monitoring system for a HFC network includes a plurality of &ldquo;test points&rdquo; disposed at various locations throughout the network. Each test point is used to allow for the isolation of communication problems within the network (for example, ingress) and mitigation of the effects of the network problems. By distributing a plurality of test points throughout the topology of the network, only limited sections of the network need to be isolated at any point in time to address the particular communication problem.

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King of Prussia, PA, United States of America

Nicholas D Lee