headend

English

Etymology

From head +‎ end.

Noun

headend (plural headends)

1. A cable TV control centre, at which terrestrial and satellite signals are received, monitored and injected into the cable network.
   • 1998, D. W. Faulkner, A. L. Harmer, Broadband Access and Network Management: NOC '98:

     The headend cable modem handles the medium access control (MAC) protocol which is necessary for point-to-multipoint operation on the tree-and-branch network.