Dynamic Cable Assignment On Gigabit Infrastructure
First Claim
1. A method of communicating between first and second devices connected by a network media comprising a set of wires, the method comprising:
- attempting to communicate between the first and second network devices over a current subset of the network media wires;
responsive to determining that the attempted communication failed, selecting a subsequent subset of media wires wherein the network media wires within said subsequent subset and said current subset differ in at least one element; and
responsive to determining that the attempted communication succeeded, using at least the current subset of network media wires as the media over which subsequent network data is transmitted between the first and second devices.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and corresponding network interface device for communicating between devices connected to a LAN includes attempting to communicate between the network devices over an initial subset of the network media wires. If the communication fails, a subsequent subset of media wires is selected. The wires of this subsequent subset differ from the wires of the initial subset. If the attempted communication succeeds, the current subset of network media wires is used as the media over which subsequent network data is transmitted. Attempting to communicate over the media may include sending an initialization sequence such as an Ethernet Auto-negotiate sequence. In one embodiment, the network media is implemented as 8 wires of CAT 5 cabling suitable for use with a Gigabit Ethernet. In this embodiment, any subsequent subsets of the network media wires may consist of 4 of the 8 wires over which 100 Mbps Ethernet operation may occur.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method of communicating between first and second devices connected by a network media comprising a set of wires, the method comprising:
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attempting to communicate between the first and second network devices over a current subset of the network media wires;
responsive to determining that the attempted communication failed, selecting a subsequent subset of media wires wherein the network media wires within said subsequent subset and said current subset differ in at least one element; and
responsive to determining that the attempted communication succeeded, using at least the current subset of network media wires as the media over which subsequent network data is transmitted between the first and second devices. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A network interface device suitable for connecting a host device to a local area network (LAN), comprising:
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a processor having access to random access memory (RAM) and read only storage (ROS) and configured to produce a set of processor signals;
a host interface unit (HIFU) including buffers and logic enabling communication with the host device;
a media interface unit (MIFU) configured to receive the set of processor signals and to produce a set of output signals based thereon that are provided to a LAN media; and
means for rerouting at least a portion of the processor signals, responsive to determining that communication over the media has failed, wherein the rerouting causes a subset of the MIFU output signals to be provided to a functional subset of media wires. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A network interface device suitable for connecting a data processing system to a local area network (LAN), comprising:
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means for attempting to communicate with another device connected to the LAN over a current subset of the network media wires;
means for determining that the attempted communication failed and, responsive thereto, selecting a subsequent subset of media wires wherein the network media wires within said subsequent subset and said current subset differ in at least one element; and
means for determining that the attempted communication succeeded and, responsive thereto, using at least the current subset of network media wires as the media over which subsequent network data is transmitted between the first and second devices. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification