Relays (54) are set dynamically and automatically in response to subscriber bandwidth demands placed on HFC fiber nodes. Demand is periodically measured for each node served by a CMTS to generate information corresponding to that node's demands. This information is fed back to the CMTS, or a computing system, where it is synthesized with information corresponding to the usage demands of the other nodes. Control signals based on the synthesized information determine the relay settings, thus facilitating the steering of bandwidth to nodes serving subscribers that are collectively demanding higher usage levels than others. Bandwidth being steered is provided by extra MAC domains not dedicated to a particular fiber node. Combiners combine the extra bandwidth with bandwidth dedicated to a given node; the combined downstream bandwidth is provided to the nodes. Upstream bandwidth is similarly steered so that upstream and downstream channels associated with the same MAC domain are steered together.
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