Claims
- 1. A method in an addressable tap for receiving signals and for providing a portion of the signals to an appropriate receiving device, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving a plurality of signals, each of the plurality of signals including an address and a command that is associated with an attached receiving device; determining the correct attached receiving device by accessing a plurality of address stored in memory, wherein each address correlates with a port on the addressable tap; and routing the portion of the signals to the appropriate receiving device, wherein a first received command is processed and a second received command is buffered until the processing the first received command is complete.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing step of the received commands utilizes system spare time.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein a received command is one of a connect command, a disconnect command, and a refresh command.
- 4. An addressable tap coupled to a distribution system for controlling and splitting signals and providing that signal to receiving equipment, the addressable tap comprising:
ports for receiving an input signal and for providing outgoing signals to the receiving equipment; a faceplate assembly having a front-end board, a power supply board, and a switchboard; a controller for providing addressable per port switching, the controller adapted to communicate with multiple addressable ports, the controller for processing the signals and routing commands from the processed signals to an appropriate addressable port; and a memory for storing unprocessed commands, wherein the signals include an address that is associated with each addressable port, and wherein the unprocessed commands are processed subsequent to completion of previous commands.
- 5. The addressable tap of claim 4, wherein the controller is adapted to turn on or turn off a forward or reverse signal path on each port.
- 6. The addressable tap of claim 4, wherein a command is one of a connect command, a disconnect command, and a refresh command.
- 7. The addressable tap of claim 5, the addressable tap further comprising a relay for enabling or disabling signals to the addressable ports.
- 8. The addressable tap of claim 4, further comprising an LED status display that indicates conditions of power, receiving data, and output port status.
- 9. The addressable tap of claim 4, wherein the switchboard further comprises a splitter switch combination, port powering, and status indicators.
- 10. The addressable tap of claim 4, wherein the controller further comprises an address range stored in memory such that any individual addressable tap and addressable port can be remotely controlled.
- 11. The addressable tap of claim 6, wherein a connect command is processed by the controller when two consecutive transactions out of six match.
- 12. The addressable tap of claim 6, wherein a disconnect command is processed by the controller when four consecutive transactions out of twelve match.
- 13. The addressable tap of claim 4, wherein the controller receives and processes a continuous stream of commands without dropping any commands.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/443,231 entitled Systems and Methods of Decoding and Processing Transactions for an Addressable Cable Television Tap filed Nov. 18, 1999.
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09443231 |
Nov 1999 |
US |
Child |
10745452 |
Dec 2003 |
US |