POINT-TO-MULTIPOINT BROADBAND SERVICES DROP WITH MULTIPLE TIME SLOT RETURN CHANNEL FOR CUSTOMER PREMISES EQUIPMENT

摘要

Remote sites in a communication system are coupled over an unshielded twisted pair-configured, multi-drop communication link toan optical network unit, which is ported to the fiber optic link. In order to convey broadband information signals that have been downlinkedfrom a master site (10) to the optical network to the remote sites, and to provide for return messages from the remote sites, a point-to-multipointcommunication scheme is provided. Pursuant to this scheme, an upstream transceiver in the optical interface unit transmits STS-1frames, which contain broadband information signals, intended for one or more remote sites, and a return time slot-representative controlcode associated with each destination remote site, over the multi-drop communication to the remote sites. At a remote site, a downstreamtransceiver uses the return time slot-representative control code to control its time of transmission over an uplink slotted bus return channel.