Abstract: System and method for providing a multi-frequency upstream transmission channel to a network device. When a headend network entity generates an upstream channel descriptor message, the descriptor message includes at least two upstream frequencies available for upstream transmission, and a frequency hopping descriptor with a frequency-hopping pattern associated with the available frequencies for determining an upstream frequency for upstream transmission. The headend provides a timing reference for determining upstream transmission periods on the frequencies available on the network device. When the headend receives upstream transmission on one of the available upstream frequencies, the headend network entity determines frequency distortions. If the distortions exceed a threshold level, the headend may send a new upstream channel descriptor message that excludes the upstream frequency associated with the high frequency distortions, add a new upstream frequency, or defines a new frequency-hopping pattern.

Abstract: Migration to a service management system (SMS) is facilitated using an SMS simulator. Each of a plurality of provisioning requests is directed to the SMS simulator rather than the SMS. For each of a plurality of syntactically correct requests, the SMS simulator assigns a provisioning component identifier associated with the request, stores a command associated with the request and its associated provisioning component identifier in a transaction file, and sends a provisioning response based on the request. The requests in the transaction file are replayed to provision the SMS.