COAXIAL-CABLE PASSIVE MESH NETWORKS

This paper presents a new type of fault-tolerant access network: an al l-passive coaxial cable mesh network, The passive mesh network could h ave any topology, with cycles allowed, A technique for calculating the multipath response of the passive mesh network is presented, Both the delay and attenuation of a coaxial cable are represented by a single transform variable, The mesh network is modeled as a linear system wit h a state space that represents signal propagation, The channel respon ses of the individual sections of cable define the entries of a state- transition matrix, Using this theory, expressions are given for the ov erall mesh-network channel response, These expressions are manipulated to derive equalizer structures, The equalizers are zero-forcing and u se decision feedback. It is shown that signals transmitted on any mesh network can be equalized, An example mesh topology, and equalizers fo r it, are presented, Signal and interference attenuation, and opposite -phase received carrier cancellation, are also discussed, The passive mesh network could be an inexpensive fault-tolerant architecture for r esidential access to telephony, cable TV, and future services.