Method and apparatus for data allocation in an overlapenable communication system

• US 20050058115A1
• Filed: 10/04/2004
• Published: 03/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Howard Earl Levin, Jeffrey P. Gleason, Kenneth J. Cavanaugh, Peter R. Molnar
• Inventors: Levin, Howard E., Molnar, Peter R., Gleason, Jeffrey P., Cavanaugh, Kenneth J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,830,855 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/344
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0046 Determination of how many bits are transmitted on different sub-channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0064 Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/06 the signals being represented by different frequencies combined with time-division multiplexing H04L5/26
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/143 for modulated signals H04L5/1469 takes precedence

Abstract

A communication system is dynamically configured to use some or all of the communication channel bandwidth. Regions of the communication channel are prioritized, and bandwidth is allocated in accordance with priorities and requested data rate.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

initiating detection of a characteristic of a communication channel;

using the characteristic of the communication channel within a processing unit to configure data transmission along the communication channel in one of a first mode wherein upstream data transmission and downstream data transmission are sent in substantially non-overlapping frequency domains, and a second mode wherein upstream data transmission and downstream data transmission are sent in substantially overlapping frequency domains.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first mode is a frequency division multiplexed mode (FDM) that uses at least one filter and the second mode is an echo cancellation mode that uses echo cancellation processing.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the characteristic is a data capacity of the communication channel.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the characteristic is a noise level of the communication channel.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the characteristic is a geographic location of circuits connected to the communication channel.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the characteristic is a user defined input.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the characteristic is a physical length of the communication channel.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the characteristic is an amount of power received across the communication channel.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication channel communicates discrete multi-tone (DMT) data.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the method of claim 1 is performed during a training period of a multi-carrier digital communication system.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication channel is processed occasionally during transmission to determine if the first and second modes should be changed between one another over time.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication channel communicates data via a plurality of frequency bins wherein the bins are segmented into a plurality of groups, the groups being prioritized so that bins associated with the first mode are utilized before the bins associated with the second mode.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein higher-frequency non-overlapped bins are used first, followed by overlapped frequency bins that accommodate both upstream and downstream data, followed by frequency bins that accommodate plain old telephone service (POTS) information.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein using the characteristic of the communication channel within a processing unit to configure data transmission along the communication channel comprises configuring the communication channel in the first mode for transmission in a frequency division multiplex manner the method of claim 1 further comprising:

communicating data for the transmission in the frequency division multiplex manner;

detecting changing line conditions of the communication channel;

reconfiguring the communication channel in the second mode for transmission in an echo cancellation manner; and

continuing to communicate data for the transmission in the echo cancellation manner.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the changing line conditions progress to a point where the step of reconfiguring must use POTS frequency spectrum to communicate data for the transmission.

14-19. -19. (Cancelled)

22-31. -31. (Cancelled)

32. An apparatus comprising:

a processing unit, the processing unit determining a channel characteristic of a communication channel;

a filter responsive to the processing unit; and

a line driver in communication with a communication channel;

wherein the filter and the line driver are dynamically configured by the processing unit to communicate over a particular set of frequency regions of the communication channel in response to the channel characteristic determined by the processing unit.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the characteristic is a channel length and the processor configures the filter and line driver to communicate in a non-overlapped region of the channel and where the filter and line driver are dynamically configured in response to input from an external source, the external source including user input and a far end transceiver message.

34. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the characteristic is a channel length and the processor configures the filter and line driver to communicate in an overlapped region or a plain old telephone service region of the channel.

35. Cancelled