Multi-user wireless access to a digital cable system

We describe a system, a wireless overlay on existing hybrid fiber/coax digital packet-based networks, for high-speed, short-range wireless access to video programming services, to the Internet, and to the telephone, cellular mobile, and other communication networks. Wireless access may be provided to both fixed (residential) users and to passersby with portable devices. Smart transponder nodes and antennas are densely distributed along the access cable line for wireless communication with user nodes. The antennas along a cable access line form an adaptive "superantenna" that is excited, for downstream transmission, by short sequences of vector signals that cancel radio interference. These excitations can be derived from a stable adaptive process. Upstream transmission from a subscriber node is designed so that the vector received by the superantenna can be used to separate this signal from that of other users' transmitters. Cooperation among end users is not necessary but is possible. Antenna excitation signals are controlled from the system headend, based on processing that uses measured channel parameters between the sets of access line and user antennas. A program controller in the headend, responding to end user requests, manages delivery of selected program streams and other customer services through generation of superimposed superantenna excitation signals that target multiple end users. This model offers opportunities for flexible capacity allocations and a wide range of programming and customized private.