System and method for simultaneously transporting different types of information over a power line

• US 20030088706A1
• Filed: 08/30/2002
• Published: 05/08/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (Analog Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Valence Semiconductor, Inc.
• Inventors: Razazian, Kaveh, Chan, Christina K., Meshkinpour, Farshad
• Granted Patent: US 7,447,200 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/250
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2203/5408 using protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2203/545 Audio/video application, e.g. interphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/54 Systems for transmission via power distribution lines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/26 Special purpose or proprietary protocols or architectures network applications for proprietary or special purpose networking environments H04L67/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

In one embodiment, an adapter is configured for coupling to a power line to receive and propagate multiple types of information including voice and video. In general, the adapter comprises (i) a physical layer adapter including a plug for coupling to the power line and logic to support electrical and mechanical connections to the power line, and (ii) logic to process information contained in HomePlug frames received over the physical layer and to route the processed information to one of a plurality of peripheral devices including a telephone, a monitor and a video recorder.

Claims

1. An adapter for coupling to a power line, comprising:

a physical layer;

a medium access control (MAC) layer in communication with the physical layer;

an interface block in communication with the MAC layer;

a data clarification block in communication with the interface block;

processing logic to receive information from the data clarification block for processing and routing to one of a plurality of peripheral devices including a telephone, a computer, a monitor and a video recorder.

2. The adapter of claim 1 being coupled to a power line carrying alternating current.

3. The adapter of claim 2 wherein the physical layer includes a plug adapted for coupling to the power line via a wall outlet and logic to support electrical and mechanical connections to the power line.

4. The adapter of claim 3, wherein the MAC layer to receive a frame from the physical layer, segment the frame into at least one MAC Service Data Units and to insert a value into a field of the at least one MAC Service Data Unit to indicate a type of information being contained in the frame.

5. The adapter of claim 4, wherein the frame received by the MAC layer is a HomePlug frame.

6. The adapter of claim 5, wherein the field is a type/length field of the MAC Service Data Unit.

7. The adapter of claim 6, wherein a first value indicates that the information contained in the HomePlug frame is data, a second value indicates that the information contained in the HomePlug frame is video, and a third value indicates that the information contained in the HomePlug frame is voice.

8. The adapter of claim 7, wherein a fourth value indicates that the information contained in the HomePlug frame is management control information.

9. The adapter of claim 4, wherein the interface block identifies the type of information contained on the frame.

10. The adapter of claim 4, wherein the data clarification block to route (i) voice to a packetized voice/call processing engine for transfer to the telephone, (ii) data to Ethernet Driver to produce an Ethernet frame to send to the computer, and (iii) to a video processing unit to send to one of the monitor and the video recorder.

11. The adapter of claim 10, wherein the voice/call processing engine, the Ethernet Driver and the video processing unit are contained within the adapter.

12. A system comprising:

a power line;

an adapter coupled to the power line, the adapter including (i) a physical layer adapter including a plug for coupling to the power line and logic to support electrical and mechanical connections to the power line, and (ii) logic to process information contained in HomePlug frames received over the physical layer and to route the processed information to one of a plurality of peripheral devices including a telephone, a monitor and a video recorder.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the power line carries alternating current.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the logic of the adapter includes a MAC layer to receive the HomePlug frame from the physical layer, segment the HomePlug frame to produce at least one MAC Service Data Units and to insert a value into a field of the at least one MAC Service Data Unit to indicate the information being either voice or video.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the field of the at least one MAC Service Data Unit is a type/length field.

16. A method for transferring information from a power line to one of a plurality of peripheral devices, the method comprising:

receiving a HomePlug frame by an adapter coupled to the power line, the HomePlug frame including one of a plurality of information types including video, voice and data;

detecting an information type contained in the HomePlug frame;

inserting a value indicating the information type into a field of a grouping of bits recovered by the adapter; and

directing the grouping of bits to one of the peripheral devices.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the inserting of a first value into the field of the grouping of bits indicates that the information contained in the HomePlug frame is data for routing to a computer coupled to an assigned port of the adapter.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the inserting of a first value into the field of the grouping of bits indicates that the information contained in the HomePlug frame is voice for routing to a telephone coupled to an assigned port of the adapter.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the inserting of a second value into the field of the grouping of bits indicates that the information contained in the HomePlug frame is video for routing to one of the peripheral devices coupled to an assigned port of the adapter.