Customer premises equipment receives high-speed downstream data over a cable television system and transmits lower speed upstream signaling on a separate channel

Abstract From the Canadian patent

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention a home controller receives signals from the cable television system and utilizes a cable demodulator tuned to the RF frequency of the channel which carries the data information. The cable demodulator demodulates the RF encoded signals into conventional baseband digital form which are transmitted to a packet receiver which decodes packets addressed to individual users. If a packet is addressed to the user the packet receiver transmits the corresponding data such as by am ETHERNET transceiver to the user's personal computer. A communication controller may be utilized to provide an interface between the personal computer and the cable …