COMMUNICATION DATA PROCESSING APPARATUS, INTEGRATED CIRCUIT APPARATUS, AND METHOD

• US 20100198978A1
• Filed: 07/11/2006
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Shioyama, Kenji, Kobayashi, Yuki, Saito, Kentaro, Matsuda, Taku
• Application Number:
  US11/911,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20100198978A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2838 Distribution of signals within a home automation network, e.g. involving splitting/multiplexing signals to/from different paths adaptations of television systems for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution H04N7/106; hybrid transport H04L12/6418; home network arrangements specially adapted for distribution of digital video signals H04N7/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/284 characterised by the type of medium used
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/20 Support for services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/351 for local area network [LAN], e.g. Ethernet switches

Abstract

A communication data processing apparatus which distributes streaming data and other general data other than the streaming data obtained via a network to a decoder and a CPU respectively, and which is configured to be independent from the CPU, includes: a communication data obtaining unit (31) which obtains communication data from a PHY (20) that transmits and receives a physical signal to and from the network; a frame sorting unit (33) which partitions the obtained communication data into frames and sorts specific frames which include streaming data, out of the respective partitioned frames; a streaming data output unit (35) which outputs the streaming data that is included in the sorted specific frames to a decoder (40); and a general frame output unit (36) which outputs general frames other than the sorted specific frames to a MAC (51) that performs data link processing.

Claims

1. An integrated circuit, for communication data processing, which processes communication data obtained via a network and which includes streaming data, said integrated circuit apparatus comprising:

a communication data obtaining circuit which obtains the communication data from a physical layer processing unit which transmits and receives a physical signal to and from the network;

a frame partitioning circuit which partitions, into frames, the communication data obtained by said communication data obtaining circuit;

a frame sorting circuit which sorts a streaming frame out of the respective partitioned frames, the streaming frame being a frame which includes streaming data;

a streaming data output circuit which outputs, to a decoder, the streaming data included in the sorted streaming frames; and

a general frame output circuit which outputs a general frame to a media access control unit which performs data link processing, the general frame being a frame other than the sorted streaming frame.

2. A communication data processing apparatus which processes communication data obtained via a network and which includes streaming data, said communication data processing apparatus comprising:

a communication data obtaining unit operable to obtain the communication data from a physical layer processing unit which transmits and receives a physical signal to and from the network;

a frame partitioning unit operable to partition, into frames, the communication data obtained by said communication data obtaining unit;

a frame sorting unit operable to sort a streaming frame out of the respective partitioned frames, the streaming frame being a frame which includes streaming data;

a streaming data output unit operable to output, to a decoder, the streaming data included in the sorted streaming frame; and

a general frame output unit operable to output a general frame to a media access control unit which performs data link processing, the general frame being a frame other than the sorted streaming frame.

3. The communication data processing apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein said general frame output unit is operable to output the general frame to the media access control unit in conformance to at least one of a media independent interface and a gigabit media independent interface which are defined by the ISO/IEC 8802-3 standard.

4. The communication data processing apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the communication data includes a plural of preambles each having a predetermined value and indicating a boundary between frames, and

said frame partitioning unit is operable to partition the communication data into the frames by detecting the preambles from the communication data.

5. The communication data processing apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein said communication data processing apparatus is provided with a reference IP address and a reference port number, and

said frame sorting unit is operable to sort the streaming frame from among frames having a frame type of IPv4 or IPv6 out of the respective partitioned frames, based on a comparison between a destination IP address of an IP header included in the frame and the comparison IP address, and a comparison between a destination port number of a UDP header included in the frame and the reference port number.

6. The communication data processing apparatus according to claim 2 comprising

the physical layer processing unit.

7. A communication data processing method which is for processing communication data obtained via a network and which includes streaming data, said communication data processing method comprising:

a communication data obtaining step of obtaining the communication data from a physical layer processing unit which transmits and receives a physical signal to and from the network;

a frame partitioning step of partitioning, into frames, the communication data obtained in said communication data obtaining step;

a frame sorting step of sorting a streaming frame out of the respective partitioned frames, the streaming frame being a frame which includes streaming data;

a streaming data outputting step of outputting, to the decoder, the streaming data included in the sorted streaming frame; and

a general frame output step of outputting a general frame to a media access control unit which performs data link processing, the general frame being a frame other than the sorted streaming frame.