Full duplex bidirectional transmission on coaxial cable in CATV network

1. An Optical Network Unit (ONU) comprising:

a first input receiving a downstream optical signal from a head end;

a plurality of high isolation ports where high isolation is provided to each port by at least one isolation amplifier, each high isolation port:

receiving a respective upstream radio frequency (RF) coaxial signal from, and transmitting a respective downstream RF coaxial signal to, a respective one of a plurality of subscribers, where;

the respective RF upstream signals received by the plurality of high isolation ports are output to, and combined at, an upstream combiner, and transmitted in an upstream direction towards the headend, and

wherein a second high isolation port is operable for attenuating a downstream reflection of an RF upstream signal output from a first high isolation port, said RF upstream signal reflected at the upstream combiner or elsewhere in a signal path of the combined upstream signal,

wherein the second high isolation port attenuates the reflected RF upstream signal more than the second high isolation port attenuates the upstream signals transmitted by the second high isolation port in the upstream direction and more than the second high isolation port attenuates the downstream signals transmitted by the second high isolation port in the downstream direction.

2. The ONU of claim 1 having an RF splitter different than the RF combiner and an isolation amplifier interposed between the RF splitter and each high isolation port, the isolation amplifier amplifying signals in the downstream direction.

3. The ONU of claim 2 including a directional coupler between each isolation amplifier and its associated high isolation port.

4. The ONU of claim 1 including at least one switched filter with an input connected to at least one of a directional coupler or an upstream amplifier output, with the switched filter output connected to the upstream combiner, and the ONU including a splitter connected to at least one of the directional coupler or a downstream amplifier input, where the upstream amplifier amplifies an upstream RF signal received by the ONU and the downstream amplifier outputs a downstream signal to the ONU.

5. The ONU of claim 4 where at least one of the at least one switched filters rejects RF reflections below at least one of 250 MHz, 108 MHz, and/or 55 MHz.

6. The ONU of claim 1 operatively connected to:

a head end; and

a plurality of cable modems each connected to a respective one of the plurality of high isolation ports, where the ONU via at least one of the plurality of high isolation ports attenuates RF reflections caused by at least one of the plurality of cable modems while remaining operational to receive or transmit signals.

7. The system of claim 6 where at least one cable modem echo cancels RF reflections.

8. The system of claim 6 further comprising a cable modem termination system (CMTS) in the head end, where the cable modem termination system (CMTS) echo cancels RF reflections.

9. The system of claim 6 where at least one cable modem discards a range of frequencies in the downstream signal and uses that range to transmit an upstream signal.

10. The system of claim 9 where the range of frequencies is between 100-200 MHz.

11. The system of claim 6 where at least one cable modem transmits an upstream signal at a frequency range above that of the downstream signal.

12. The system of claim 6 where the ONU attenuates RF reflections using at least one of: (i) an active amplifier; and (2) a switched filter.

13. The ONU of claim 1 where each high isolation port isolates a reflected upstream signal from a downstream signal having a frequency range that at least partially overlaps that of the reflected upstream signal.