The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 30, 1986
Filed:
Dec. 24, 1984
Philip C Basile, Gloucester County, NJ (US);
Eugene J Kennedy, Lower Bucks County, PA (US);
RCA Corporation, Princeton, NJ (US);
Abstract
A passive, single cable, local area network system includes two directional couplers at each cable tap to provide bi-directional communications for each communications terminal. Each coupler introduces some amount of signal power loss through the cable such that the signal power level between any two communicating terminals depends on the cable distance between them, measured in number of intervening cable taps. Selectable attenuators are provided between the directional couplers and the corresponding communications terminals to virtually equalize the signal power level between any two terminals. The value of attenuation is selected according to a relationship including the number of cable taps in the system, the signal power loss along the cable introduced by each directional coupler, and the ordinal number of the corresponding terminal from the cable termination in the direction toward which the terminal's directional coupler communicates.