US Patent 10237587 Transporting out-of-band signals in distributed cable systems

A distributed CATV system that transports out-of-band signals between the cable headend and the set-top boxes is described. A video engine in the headend of the distributed CATV system converts downstream video channel RF (radio frequency) signals and downstream out-of-band RF signals respectively into video downstream packets and out-of-band downstream packets for a set of distribution nodes to transmit to the set-top boxes via CATV cables. The video engine also receives upstream packets from the distribution nodes that contain data based on upstream out-of-band RF signals transmitted by the set-top boxes via CATV cables.