Systems and methods are provided for reducing outage scope in cable networks with ideal taps. An ideal tap may have a plurality of ports that include at least an input port configured for receiving downstream (DS) signals from and transmitting upstream (US) signals to upstream nodes, an output port configured for transmitting downstream (DS) signals to and receiving upstream (US) signals from downstream nodes, and one or more drop ports for receiving signal from and transmitting signals to customer premise equipment (CPE) in the coaxial network. The ideal tap may further include one or more mitigation components configured for reducing scope of outage in the ideal tap, with the one or more mitigation components configured to, when an outage occurs in the ideal tap, provide or maintain inter-port connectivity within the ideal tap, the inter-port connectivity including at least connectivity between the input port and the output port.