Importance

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Abstract

A Synchronous Multiport Digital Communications Network (SMDCN) including a HEAD end Unit (HEADU) and SUBscriber Units (SUBU) providing a large number of simultaneous isolated two-way dial-up digital communications channels between a common head end facility and a large number of subscriber facilities over a broadband transmission medium such as coaxial cable or optical fiber arranged in a bus or tree topology, such as a local area network (LAN) or a cable television (CATV) network. The basic digital channel provided is a 64,000 bit per second data stream, the current standard of the digital telephone industry's T1 technology, and therefore readily accommodates voice telephone services. However, the network expressly accommodates higher bit rates up to 1.544 MB/s by combining basic channels. The SMDCN, through utilization of a novel system-wide synchronization technique, allows the provision of standard digital telephone T1 communications services with subscriber access available on an individual DSO channel basis to residential and business subscribers over such a network. This allows a CATV system operator to provide telephone and computer networking services and new pay-per-view entertainment services to his subcribers, in addition to the normal video entertainment services, over the same cable. The CATV network thereby becomes a 'local loop' providing all the services a local telephone company offers. In addition, in a Local Area Network (LAN) application, the SMDCN provides major improvement over current technologies in utilization of transmission medium bandwidth, accommodating a larger number of users over a significantly longer network.

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First Claim