Residential Gateway

• US 20110044347A1
• Filed: 08/24/2009
• Published: 02/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Taylor, Darrell, McDonald, Steven, Jones, Alfonso
• Granted Patent: US 8,279,805 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2836 Protocol conversion between an external network and a home network controlling appliance services of a home automation network from a device located outside the home and the home network H04L12/2818; protocol conversion H04L69/08; adaptation of digital video signals for transport over a specific home network H04N7/24
• 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 65/1023 Media gateways

Abstract

A particular residential gateway includes a connector interface to receive a composite signal including voice data, video data, and network data via one or more communication lines and a power coupling device to receive power via the one or more communication lines. The residential gateway includes a voice module to route the voice data to a voice-enabled device coupled to a network interface, a video module to route the video data to a video-enabled device coupled to the network interface, and a network module to route the network data to a computing device coupled to the network interface. The residential gateway further includes a testing module to communicate test results to an external device via a data communication interface. At least one of the voice module, the video module, the network module, and the testing module is powered using the power received by the power coupling device.

Claims

1. A residential gateway, comprising:

a connector interface to receive a composite signal comprising voice data, video data, and network data via one or more communication lines;

a network interface;

a power coupling device to receive power via at least one of the one or more communication lines;

a voice module to route the voice data to a voice-enabled device coupled to the network interface;

a video module to route the video data to a video-enabled device coupled to the network interface;

a network module to route the network data to a computing device coupled to the network interface; and

a testing module to communicate test results to an external device via a data communication interface,

wherein at least one of the voice module, the video module, the network module, and the testing module is powered using the power received by the power coupling device.

2. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the connector interface is connected to an outdoor network interface device (NID) coupled to the one or more communication lines.

3. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the network interface is coupled to a local area network (LAN), and wherein the voice-enabled device, the video-enabled device, and the computing device are each coupled to the network interface via the LAN.

4. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the voice module converts the voice data to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) data and wherein the voice-enabled device is a VoIP device.

5. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the video module converts the video data to a Home Phone line Networking Alliance (HPNA) protocol and wherein the video-enabled device is an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) device.

6. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the network module converts the network data to an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) format, an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) format, a transmission control protocol (TCP) format, or any combination thereof.

7. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the composite signal includes at least one of a very high speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) signal, an asymmetric digital subscriber line 2 plus (ADSL2+) signal, a fiber optic communication signal, and an optical carrier (OC) signal.

8. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the testing module detects errors in the composite signal.

9. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the testing module detects errors in the voice module, the video module, the network module, or any combination thereof.

10. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the testing module detects errors in the voice-enabled device, the video-enabled device, the computing device, or any combination thereof.

11. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the testing module communicates test results to a provider of the composite signal.

12. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the provider is a triple play services provider.

13. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the data communication interface includes a universal serial bus (USB) interface, an Ethernet interface, a serial interface, or any combination thereof.

14. The residential gateway of claim 1, wherein the testing module controls one or more status indicators to indicate an operational status of the residential gateway.

15. The residential gateway of claim 14, wherein the one or more status indicators includes one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs).

16. The residential gateway of claim 14, wherein the operational status includes a normal status, a possible error status, an inoperational status, or any combination thereof.

17. A method comprising:

inserting a residential gateway into an outdoor network interface device (NID) coupled to one or more communication lines; and

coupling the NID to a communication network that transmits a composite signal comprising voice data, video data, and network data via the one or more communication lines,

wherein the residential gateway has an input to receive the composite signal from the NID and includes at least one module that is powered by power received via at least one of the one or more communication lines.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising automatically enabling access to one or more of voice services, video services, and data services provided by the communication network by sending a connection message to the residential gateway.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising automatically disabling access to one or more of voice services, video services, and data services provided by the communication network by sending a disconnection message to the residential gateway.

20. An apparatus comprising:

an outdoor housing;

a network interface device (NID) within the outdoor housing;

a residential gateway connected to the NID, the residential gateway comprising;

a connector interface to receive a very high speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) signal comprising voice data, video data, and network data from the NID via one or more communication lines;

a power coupling device to receive power via at least one of the one or more communication lines;

a voice module to route the voice data to a voice-enabled device;

a video module to route the video data to a video-enabled device;

a network module to route the network data to a computing device; and

a testing module to detect errors in at least one of the voice module, the video module, and the network module, to control one or more status indicators to indicate an operational status of the residential gateway, and to communicate test results to an external device,

wherein at least one of the voice module, the video module, the network module, and the testing module is powered by the power coupling device.