Broadband communications access device

• US 20050089052A1
• Filed: 08/12/2004
• Published: 04/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: 3e Technologies International, Inc. (Ultra Electronics Holdings PLC)
• Inventors: Wang, Ray, Coleman, Ryon K., Chen, Steven Chien-Young
• Granted Patent: US 7,424,024 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2834 Switching of information between an external network and a home network access arrangements H04L12/2856
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5615 Network termination, e.g. NT1, NT2, PBX
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5663 Support of N-ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/725 Cordless telephones user interfaces specially adapted therefor H04M1/724
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0478 Provisions for broadband connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements

Abstract

A broadband communications access device. The broadband communications access devices includes a gateway interface, wired interface, wireless interface and security interface for proving secure wired and wireless broadband communications access.

Claims

1. An integrated secure gateway system, comprising in combination:

a gateway interface for initializing wireless and wired broadband communications, for providing gateway, routing and bridging for wireless and wired broadband networking communications and for automatic service provisioning for allocating, configuring and maintaining multiple transmission channels and virtual communications paths used for wired and wireless broadband communications;

a wired communications interface for connecting to external wired devices, for connecting to one or more wired broadband communications networks and for providing wired broadband communications;

a wireless communications interface for connecting to external wireless devices, for connecting to one or more wireless broadband communications networks, for providing wireless broadband communications;

a security interface for providing secure communications via the wired communications interface and via the wireless communications interface; and

a network power module for providing power to the integrated secure gateway system, wherein the network power module obtains power from a communications wire connected between the integrated gateway system and a wired communications network.

2. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 wherein the gateway interface further includes a provisioning manager module for automatic service provisioning for wired and wireless broadband communications.

3. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 wherein the gateway interface further includes a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) module for dynamically allocating Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and passing configuration information to hosts on an network using IP addresses.

4. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 wherein the wired communications interface includes a copper wire, coaxial cable, or fiber-optic cable interface.

5. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 wherein the wired communications interface includes one or more transmission channels and virtual communications paths for voice communications and for Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications automatically provisioned by the gateway interface.

6. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1, wherein the wireless communications interface includes an 802.11a 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.16a, 802.16e, 802.16g interface or X10 protocol interface.

7. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1, wherein the wireless security interface includes a Wi-Fi Protected Access interface (WPA), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES), RSA encryption, Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange, Secure Hash Method-1 (SHA-1), Keyed Hashing for Message Authentication Codes (HMAC), Message Digest-5 (MD-5), Electronic Code Book (ECB), Internet Protocol Security (IPsec), Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPs) or a Transport Layer Security (TLS) wireless security interface.

8. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 wherein the wireless security interface includes a firewall.

9. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 wherein the wireless security interface includes Media Access Control address filtering.

10. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1, wherein the wireless security interface includes a software cryptographic engine including a plurality of cryptographic methods.

11. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1, wherein the wireless security interface includes a hardware cryptographic accelerator.

12. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 wherein the network power module include a Power over the Ethernet (“

PoE”

) module that obtains direct current (“

DC”

) voltage for the integrated gateway system via unused wires on an Ethernet cable connection.

13. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 further comprising an alternating current (“

AC”

) power module that is as a backup power source for network power module.

14. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 wherein the wireless communications interface includes a short-range wireless communications interface for connecting to external wireless network devices on a wireless piconet.

15. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 wherein the wireless communications interface includes a long-range wireless communications interface for connecting to external wireless network devices on a wireless wide area network.

16. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 further comprising a home phone line network adapter (HPNA).

17. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 further comprising two or more removable radio frequency (RF) antennas.

18. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) indicating status information about the integrated secure gateway system.

19. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 further comprising a radio frequency (RF) manager for remotely managing radio frequency power levels.

20. The integrated secure gateway system of claim 1 wherein the security interface further includes a security server.

21. The integrated secure gateway system of Clam. 1 wherein the gateway interface comprises a secure wireless access point for initializing wireless and wired broadband communications, and for automatic service provisioning for allocating, configuring and maintaining multiple transmission channels and virtual communications paths used for wired and wireless broadband communications.

22. A wireless integrated gateway system, comprising in combination:

a gateway interface for initializing wireless broadband communications, for providing gateway, routing and bridging for wireless broadband networking communications;

a wireless communications interface for connecting to external wireless devices, for connecting to one or more wireless broadband communications networks, for providing wireless broadband communications;

a security interface for providing secure communications via the wireless communications interface; and

a network power module for providing power to the integrated gateway system, wherein the network power module obtains power from a communications wire connected between the integrated gateway system and a wired communications network.

23. The wireless integrated gateway system of claim 22, wherein the wireless security interface includes an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES), RSA encryption, Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange, Secure Hash Method-1 (SHA-1), Keyed Hashing for Message Authentication Codes (HMAC), Message Digest-5 (MD-5), Electronic Code Book (ECB), Internet Protocol Security (IPsec), Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPs) or a Transport Layer Security (TLS) security interface.

24. The wireless integrated gateway system of claim 22 wherein the wireless communications interface includes an 802.16a, 802.16e, 802.16g interface or X10 protocol interface.

25. An integrated gateway system, comprising in combination:

a gateway interface for initializing wireless and wired broadband communications, for providing gateway, routing and bridging for wireless and wired broadband networking communications;

a wired communications interface for connecting to external wired devices, for connecting to one or more wired broadband communications networks and for providing wired broadband communications;

a WiMAX or HIPERMAN wireless communications interface for connecting to external wireless devices, for connecting to one or more wireless broadband communications networks, for providing wireless broadband communications and for providing a wireless local loop; and

a security interface for providing secure communications via the wired communications interface and via the wireless communications interface.