Monitoring leakage in aeronautical band of high split HFC

1. A method for monitoring leakage in the aeronautical band of a high split HFC comprising:

providing an apparatus for use in a patrol vehicle, the apparatus including a leak signal receiver coupled to a processor;

setting a plurality of coefficients for an OUDP matched filter for a current location of the patrol vehicle;

detecting peaks over a detection threshold at an output of said OUDP matched filter; and

determining a presence of a leak based on a time stamp and a level of each detected peak.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein after said step of providing and before said step of setting, further including the steps of:

sending GPS coordinates of a location of the patrol vehicle to a leakage data server;

receiving a plurality of coefficients for an OUDP matched filter for a current location of the patrol vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of determining the presence of the leak includes selecting dominant peaks from peaks of side lobes and calculating a number of dominant peaks.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein said step of determining the presence of the leak includes a calculation of an average or a maximum leak level by a measurement of said dominant peaks at the output of said OUDP matched filter.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein if said step of detecting peaks over a detection threshold yields no detected peaks over said detection threshold, sending a report to said leakage data server indicating no leaks near said current location of the patrol vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein if said step of detecting peaks over a detection threshold yields at least one detected peak over said detection threshold, sending a report to said leakage data server including a time stamp, a GPS coordinate, and a leak level.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said report further includes a number of dominant peaks detected.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein a display is operatively coupled to said processor and said step of determining the presence of the leak includes showing an indication of a detected leak on a map in a vicinity of said current location of the patrol vehicle.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of determining the presence of the leak further comprises determining if a detected leak signal is coming from a trunk line or from a drop line, based on dominant peaks of a cross-correlation process at the output of said OUDP matched filter.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein said step of determining the presence of the leak further comprises, if the detected leak signal is coming from the drop line, determining a MAC address of a cable modem associated with said drop line.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein said cross-correlation process provides a cancellation of false side lobes.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of receiving a plurality of coefficients comprises receiving a plurality of coefficients for an adaptive matched filter.

13. An upstream leak detection system comprising:

a leak detection apparatus configured for use in a mobile patrol vehicle, said leak detection apparatus comprising:

a processor,

a memory, wherein said memory is configured to store matched filter coefficients for a current detection profile;

a leakage receiver and matched filter for an OUDP burst, both operatively coupled to said processor; and

a leakage data server including a database with cable modems (CMs) physical and IP addresses and a core to stimulate an upstream traffic from a plurality of CM in a current vicinity of the mobile patrol vehicle.

14. The upstream leak detection system of claim 13 , further comprising a GPS receiver operatively coupled to said processor.

15. The upstream leak detection system of claim 13 , further comprising a wireless modem operatively coupled to said processor and where said leakage data server resides on a remote server communicatively coupled to said upstream leak detection system by said wireless modem.

16. The upstream leak detection system of claim 13 , further comprising a cross correlation process disposed between said matched filter for the OUDP burst and said processor.

17. The upstream leak detection system of claim 13 , wherein the memory is a flash memory operatively coupled to said matched filter, said flash memory to store matched filter coefficients for the current detection profile.