PON WITH LEGACY CPE

1 . A communication device comprising:

(a) said communication device including an optical network terminal capable of receiving optical digital data from an optical line terminal from a first optical fiber connection and provide optical digital data to said optical line terminal;

(b) said communication device including a termination system capable of receiving coaxial digital data from a customer premise equipment based upon a DOCSIS protocol from a first coaxial connection and provide coaxial digital data to said customer premise equipment based upon said DOCSIS protocol;

(c) said optical network terminal receiving first optical digital data from said optical line terminal and said termination system providing first coaxial digital data to said customer premise equipment representative of said first optical digital data;

(d) said termination system receiving second coaxial digital data from said customer premise equipment and said optical network terminal providing second optical digital data to said optical line terminal representative of said first coaxial digital data;

(e) wherein said termination system is free from including at least one of:

(i) a capability of providing dynamic bandwidth allocation among a plurality of said consumer premise equipment devices each of which are associated with a different subscriber;

(ii) a capability of providing communication among a plurality of different said consumer premise equipment devices each of which are associated with a different subscriber for a single port of said termination system;

(iii) a capability of supporting time division multiple access among a plurality of said consumer premise equipment devices each of which are associated with a different subscriber;

(iv) a capability of supporting frequency division multiple access among a plurality of said consumer premise equipment devices each of which are associated with a different subscriber.

2 . The communication device of claim 1 wherein said termination system is free from including said capability of providing dynamic bandwidth allocation among said plurality of said consumer premise equipment devices.

3 . The communication device of claim 1 wherein said termination system is free from including said capability of providing communication among said plurality of different said consumer premise equipment devices for said single port of said termination system.

4 . The communication device of claim 1 wherein said termination system is free from including said capability of supporting time division multiple access among said plurality of said consumer premise equipment devices.

5 . The communication device of claim 1 wherein said termination system is free from including said of supporting frequency division multiple access among said plurality of said consumer premise equipment devices.

6 . The communication device of claim 1 wherein said termination system manages bandwidth of said consumer premise equipment device based upon a request-grant arbitration mechanism.

7 . The communication device of claim 6 wherein said termination system receives a request for an allocation of bandwidth from said consumer premise equipment device.

8 . The communication device of claim 7 wherein said termination system provides a grant of bandwidth to said consumer premise equipment device in response to said request for allocation of bandwidth based upon inspecting said request for allocation of bandwidth for an amount of bandwidth requested.

9 . The communication device of claim 8 wherein said grant is in the form of an upstream bandwidth allocation map message.

10 . The communication device of claim 7 wherein said termination system provides a grant of bandwidth to said consumer premise equipment device in response to receiving said request for allocation of bandwidth without inspecting said request for allocation of bandwidth for an amount of bandwidth requested.

11 . The communication device of claim 1 wherein said termination system manages bandwidth of said consumer premise equipment based upon providing an unsolicited data grant to said consumer premise equipment device.

12 . The communication device of claim 11 wherein said unsolicited data grant is an unsolicited grant synchronization to said consumer premise equipment device.