Patents by Inventor Robert Howald

Robert Howald has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 12627587
    Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are described for deploying upstream bandwidth upgrade of devices per home basis. The impact of the upstream bandwidth upgrade on the devices may be pre-estimated based on remotely monitoring and/or analyzing performance data of the devices collected during transmissions of test signals (e.g., a burst of upstream transmissions) in real-time from the devices operating under different modes of operations. The burst of upstream transmissions using a small bandwidth (e.g., 1.6 MHz) may be limited to a short duration of time (e.g., 5 seconds) so that on-going services provided by the devices are not substantially interrupted. The upstream bandwidth of the devices, based on the pre-estimated impact, may be upgraded, left unaltered, or downgraded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2024
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2026
    Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications, LLC
    Inventors: Robert Thompson, Robert Howald, Lei Zhou
  • Publication number: 20260039499
    Abstract: Methods and systems for estimating required transmit power are disclosed. First information indicative of a transmit power associated with upstream signals transmitted by a first device, located at a premises, to a network node via a first upstream frequency band may be received. Second information indicative of a frequency response and received signal levels associated with downstream signals received by the first device from the network node via a downstream frequency band may be received. A transmit power necessary for a second device located at the premises to transmit one or more upstream signals to the network node, via a second upstream frequency band, to achieve a threshold receive power at the network node may be estimated based on the first information and the second information. The second upstream frequency band may at least partially overlap the downstream frequency band.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 1, 2025
    Publication date: February 5, 2026
    Inventors: Robert HOWALD, Richard PRODAN, John CHROSTOWSKI, HsinChih LIN, Takashi HAYAKAWA
  • Publication number: 20250184254
    Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are described for deploying upstream bandwidth upgrade of devices per home basis. The impact of the upstream bandwidth upgrade on the devices may be pre-estimated based on remotely monitoring and/or analyzing performance data of the devices collected during transmissions of test signals (e.g., a burst of upstream transmissions) in real-time from the devices operating under different modes of operations. The burst of upstream transmissions using a small bandwidth (e.g., 1.6 MHz) may be limited to a short duration of time (e.g., 5 seconds) so that on-going services provided by the devices are not substantially interrupted. The upstream bandwidth of the devices, based on the pre-estimated impact, may be upgraded, left unaltered, or downgraded.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 8, 2024
    Publication date: June 5, 2025
    Inventors: Robert Thompson, Robert Howald, Lei Zhou
  • Patent number: 12088490
    Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are described for deploying upstream bandwidth upgrade of devices per home basis. The impact of the upstream bandwidth upgrade on the devices may be pre-estimated based on remotely monitoring and/or analyzing performance data of the devices collected during transmissions of test signals (e.g., a burst of upstream transmissions) in real-time from the devices operating under different modes of operations. The burst of upstream transmissions using a small bandwidth (e.g., 1.6 MHz) may be limited to a short duration of time (e.g., 5 seconds) so that on-going services provided by the devices are not substantially interrupted. The upstream bandwidth of the devices, based on the pre-estimated impact, may be upgraded, left unaltered, or downgraded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2024
    Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications, LLC
    Inventors: Robert Thompson, Robert Howald, Lei Zhou
  • Publication number: 20230090396
    Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are described for deploying upstream bandwidth upgrade of devices per home basis. The impact of the upstream bandwidth upgrade on the devices may be pre-estimated based on remotely monitoring and/or analyzing performance data of the devices collected during transmissions of test signals (e.g., a burst of upstream transmissions) in real-time from the devices operating under different modes of operations. The burst of upstream transmissions using a small bandwidth (e.g., 1.6 MHz) may be limited to a short duration of time (e.g., 5 seconds) so that on-going services provided by the devices are not substantially interrupted. The upstream bandwidth of the devices, based on the pre-estimated impact, may be upgraded, left unaltered, or downgraded.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2022
    Publication date: March 23, 2023
    Inventors: Robert Thompson, Robert Howald, Lei Zhou
  • Publication number: 20050166250
    Abstract: A method and system for multi-port aggregation in a digital return path CATV system digitizes each of a plurality of return path signals, splits each of the plurality of return path signals into a low band and an upper band (41), combines each of the plurality of low band signals to form a combined low band signal (43), downconverts each of the plurality of upper band signals from an original frequency range into a new downconverted frequency range (45) and time division multiplexes the plurality of downconverted upper band signals with the combined low band signal to form an aggregate data stream (46).
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2004
    Publication date: July 28, 2005
    Inventors: Erik Metz, Robert Howald