Architecture for High-Speed Internet Access Over CATV Networks in the Residential Area

The Segmented Subnetwork Architecture (SSA) for high speed internet access using the CATV (Community Antenna TV) networks and the traditional IEEE 802.3 medium access protocol is described in this paper. The proposed architecture is attractive in its advantages of using the existing infrastructure in the residential area and thus it is cost effective and well suited for home internet access. However, the traditional CSMA/CD protocol is not fit for the cable TV network due to its long propagation delay. Thus, we propose to combine the existing IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD MAC with the segmented cable subnetworks so that a home user can get access to the internet just like using the Ethernet at 10Mbps. Only three subcarriers in the passband cable is used and therefore it will not interfere with the traditional broadcasting channels and the future digital video channels. The segmented cable are interconnected by the defined Cable Bridge (CB) and a simple flow control mechanism is proposed among the CBs. Functional components and operations of each CB will also be described.