Importance

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Abstract

A gateway for coupling a local area network coupled to a plurality of peripheral devices at a customer premises to one or more external networks that deliver analog signals bearing analog video such as regularly scheduled CATV, terrestial or satellite C-band broadcasts, or modulated with digital video-on-demand data, or IP packets bearing IP telephony data or data from the internet. The preferred construction is modular so that single expansion modules to interface only to DSL lines or only to a satellite dish or only to HFC, or some combination thereof may be added as needed. The gateway may be a standalone circuit also with hardwired interfaces to one or more external network types. The incoming analog signals are either digitized, compressed and distributed on the local area network or the digital data thereon is recovered and packetized as an IP packet if not already so packetized and distributed via a router process to the device that requested the data via the local area network.

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First Claim