Shared DSL Network and Deployment Method

• US 20070030856A1
• Filed: 08/08/2006
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Genesis Technical Systems Corp.
• Original Assignee: Genesis Technical Systems Corp.
• Inventors: Zottola, Tino, Bruno, John, Cooke, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 8,170,004 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/062 using different frequency bands for speech and other data

Abstract

A DSL network topology is provided for the interconnections between a telecom carrier and households. Each household is provided with an HCC (Home Communications Centre) for facilitating digital communication. The digital communication includes DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) communication. A method of forming a DSL network such that existing copper pair wire is reused is also provided.

Claims

1. A wireline network comprising:

at least one network connection connecting at least one telephony network switching device to a respective first customer communications node;

a plurality of second customer communication nodes;

a plurality of interconnections between the communication nodes such that all communication nodes are interconnected in a linear manner and have at least one communications path to the network switching device, each interconnection comprising an electrically conductive twisted wire pair; and

a traffic add/drop function in each customer communications node.

2. The wireline network of claim 1 wherein the traffic add/drop function comprises a packet add/drop function.

3. The wireline network of claim 2 wherein the network switching device selected from a group consisting of central office, DLC (digital loop carrier) node, a network POP (point of presence).

4. The wireline network of claim 2 wherein the network switching device is a gateway node in a pedestal.

5. The wireline network of claim 4 wherein and the at least one network connection connecting the at least one telephony network switching device to the respective first customer communications node comprises at least one connection between the gateway node and the respective first customer communications node.

6. The wireline network of claim 4 wherein:

the gateway node is connected to a plurality of network-side electrically conducting twisted wire pairs operable to pass traffic to and from the at least one connection between the gateway node and the respective first customer communications node.

7. The wireline network of claim 6 wherein the at least one connection between the gateway node and the respective first customer communications node comprises a respective network connection between the gateway node and each of two first customer communications nodes.

8. The wireline network of claim 2 wherein the interconnections form a ring topology.

9. The wireline network of claim 8 wherein traffic flows in both directions around the ring topology.

10. The wireline network of claim 2 wherein the interconnections form a linear ADM (add drop multiplexer).

11. The wireline network of claim 2 wherein the packet add/drop functionality in each customer communications node drops packets received on the network for the customer communications node, and adds packets to the network from the customer communications node.

12. The wireline network of claim 11 wherein the packet add/drop function is in respect of DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) communication.

13. The wireline network of claim 12 wherein the DSL communication is selected from a group consisting of ADSL (Asynchronous DSL), SDSL (Symmetric DSL), Uni-DSL (Universal DSL), VDSL (Very high bit rate DSL), and VDSL2 (Very high bit rate DSL version 2).

14. The wireline network of claim 11 wherein each customer communications node comprises:

circuitry for extracting power supply signals transmitted from the network switching device over the interconnections.

15. The wireline network of claim 11 wherein for each customer communications node:

the packet add/drop function extracts packets that are for the particular customer communications node, and regenerates all other packets and forwards them on;

each packet dropped is passed on digitally to a digital interface, or converted to analog form and passed on to an analog interface.

16. The wireline network of claim 11 wherein each customer communications node comprises:

a local source of power.

17. The wireline network of claim 2 wherein at least some of the interconnections are formed of sections of electrically conducting twisted wire pairs of an existing star topology network.

18. The wireline network of claim 2 wherein each customer communications node comprises a transceiver adapted to communicate with another customer communications node over a wireless connection.

19. The wireline network of claim 18 wherein the wireless connection forms part of an alternative communication path to the network switching device in case an existing communication path to the network switching device via the interconnections becomes unavailable.

20. The wireline network of claim 1 further comprising:

a second plurality of customer communications nodes;

a plurality of interconnections between the second communication nodes such that all communication nodes of the second plurality are linearly connected, each interconnection comprising an electrically conductive twisted wire pair; and

at least one wireless connection connecting at least one of the second plurality of customer communications nodes to one of the first plurality of customer communications nodes; and

a traffic add/drop function in each of the second plurality of customer communications nodes.

21. A method of forming a DSL network comprising:

employing an existing electrically conducting twisted wire pair connection from a network switching node to a first customer premises equipment;

disconnecting a connection from the network switching node to second customer premises equipment and re-connecting the connection to the first customer premises equipment such that the first customer premises equipment and the second customer premises equipment are interconnected, and so on for other customer premises equipment.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the disconnecting and re-connecting are performed in a patch panel in a pedestal.

23. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

employing another existing electrically conducting twisted wire pair connection from the network switching node to another first customer premises equipment;

wherein the connections form a ring topology for the DSL network.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein the connections form a linear ADM for the DSL network.

25. A customer communications node for use in a wireline network, the wireline network having electrically conducting twisted wire pair interconnections between a plurality of customer communications nodes, the customer communications node being connectable to at least one communication device and comprising:

a first communication port for connection with a first electrically conducting twisted wire pair interconnection;

a second communication port for connection with a second electrically conducting twisted wire pair interconnection;

at least one device interface for connecting to the at least one communication device; and

an add/drop multiplexer adapted to;

a) drop DSL packet data received via at least one of the first communication port and the second communication port if the packet data is in respect of communication to the at least one communication device and/or the customer communications node;

b) pass through, whether by terminating and re-transmitting or other method, received DSL packet data over at least one of the first communication port and the second communication port if the received packet data is not in respect of communication to the at least one communication device and/or the customer communications node; and

c) add DSL packet data via at least one of the first communication port and the second communication port, the packet data being in respect of communication from the at least one communication device and/or the customer communications node.

26. The customer communications node of claim 25 wherein:

the at least one communication device comprises at least one analogue device; and

the at least one device interface comprises A/D (analogue to digital) circuitry and D/A (digital to analogue) circuitry for converting signals between analogue form and digital form for the at least one analogue device.

27. The customer communications node of claim 25 further adapted to:

extract power from at least one of the first communication port and the second communication port; and

provide at least some of the extracted power to the at least one device interface.

28. The customer communications node of claim 25 wherein the at least one communication device comprises a low current consumption user device, the customer communications node further comprising:

a power supply for supplying power to the customer communications node and to the low current consumption device user device such that the low current consumption device user device is operable notwithstanding a electricity mains power failure, the power supply being powered by at least one of the first communication port and the second communication port.

29. The customer communications node of claim 28 wherein the low current consumption device user device is a telephone.

30. The customer communications node of claim 28 further comprising:

a wireless interface through which the reach of the wireline network can be extended to reach other devices not connected directly by wireline connections.

31. The customer communications node of claim 28 further comprising:

a wireless interface through which protection switching is performed in the event of failure of one or more wireline connections.

32. The customer communications node of claim 28 further comprising:

a wireless interface through which a ring topology connecting two linear ADM topologies can be completed.

33. A method comprising:

at least one first customer communications node receiving DSL traffic; and

each of a plurality of customer communications nodes one of which is said first customer communications node performing packet add/drop functionality, and regenerating and sending DSL traffic over a direct connection to a next communications node.

34. The method of claim 33 further comprising:

aggregating traffic for the plurality of customer communications nodes onto a logical connection comprising a plurality of electrically conducting twisted wire pairs;

sending the traffic to a gateway node;

the gateway node sending the traffic to the at least one first customer communications node.