Method and apparatus for providing low power basic telephony type service over a twisted pair ethernet physical layer
First Claim
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1. A method of providing a low power digital communication protocol between first and second communication endpoints over an ethernet physical layer, said method comprising the steps of:
- generating digital data at said first endpoint, said digital data comprising a plurality of bit groups representing a communication signal at an instant in time, each of said bit groups comprising a plurality of bits;
periodically organizing each of said bit groups into a serial bit stream;
periodically converting each of said organized bit groups into a repeating frame template, said frame template comprising a bit slot corresponding to each bit of said organized bit group, in which each bit of said organized bit group is represented by the presence or absence of an ethernet link pulse in said corresponding bit slot; and
periodically transmitting said frame template from said first endpoint to said second endpoint.
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Abstract
A network communication system having at least two communication protocol modes, namely, a full power communication mode and a low power, limited communication mode. In the low power mode, the link is line powered and utilizes link pulses to represent binary 1s and idle line states to represent binary 0s so that low power mode communication is entirely compatible with all 10BASE T equipment on the network.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method of providing a low power digital communication protocol between first and second communication endpoints over an ethernet physical layer, said method comprising the steps of:
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generating digital data at said first endpoint, said digital data comprising a plurality of bit groups representing a communication signal at an instant in time, each of said bit groups comprising a plurality of bits; periodically organizing each of said bit groups into a serial bit stream; periodically converting each of said organized bit groups into a repeating frame template, said frame template comprising a bit slot corresponding to each bit of said organized bit group, in which each bit of said organized bit group is represented by the presence or absence of an ethernet link pulse in said corresponding bit slot; and periodically transmitting said frame template from said first endpoint to said second endpoint. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A network apparatus for providing a low power digital communication protocol between multiple communication endpoints over an ethernet physical layer comprising:
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first and second communication endpoints; an ethernet physical layer interconnecting said first and second communication endpoints; a data source coupled to said first endpoint for generating digital data, said digital data comprising a plurality of bit groups representing a communication signal at an instant in time, each of said bit groups comprising a plurality of bits; an encoder/serializer, coupled to receive said data from said data source, for organizing each of said bit groups into a serial bit stream; a link pulse generator, coupled to receive said bit stream, for converting each of said organized bit groups into a frame template, said frame template comprising a bit slot corresponding to each bit of said organized bit group, in which each bit of said organized bit group is represented by the presence or absence of an ethernet link pulse in said corresponding bit slot; and a transmitter for transmitting said frame template from said first endpoint to said second endpoint. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A network endpoint capable of communicating in a low power digital communication protocol over an ethernet physical layer comprising:
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a data source coupled to said endpoint for generating digital data, said digital data comprising a plurality of bit groups representing a communication signal at an instant in time, each of said bit groups comprising a plurality of bits; an encoder/serializer, coupled to receive said data from said data source, for organizing each of said bit groups into a serial bit stream; a link pulse generator, coupled to receive said bit stream, for converting each of said organized bit groups into a frame template, said frame template comprising a bit slot corresponding to each bit of said organized bit group, in which each bit of said organized bit group is represented by the presence or absence of an ethernet link pulse in said corresponding bit slot; and a transmitter for transmitting said frame template from said first endpoint to said second endpoint. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification