Software rate adaptable modem with forward compatible and expandable functionality and method of operation
First Claim
1. A high speed communications transciever for communicating with an upstream transciever transmitting an analog signal using M data carrying signals within a bandwidth F through a channel to said system, said transceiver comprising:
- a channel interface circuit for coupling to and receiving said analog signal from the channel; and
a front end receiving circuit for sampling the analog signal and generating a digital signal based on such analog signal, the digital signal including data from a first frequency bandwidth portion f1 of said bandwidth F containing N data carrying signals, where N<
M; and
a front end transmitting circuit for transmitting control information to cause said upstream transceiver to transmit downstream data only using the N data carrying signals, said control information indicating to the upstream transceiver that;
(i) only N of the M data carrying signals are desirable for downstream data transmission, even if said channel is capable of supporting more than N data carrying signals; and
(ii) the system supports any transmission protocols used by said upstream transceiver; and
(iii) that they are connected through a channel which should be treated by said upstream transceiver as having substantial signal attenuation characteristics for data signals other than the N data carrying signals; and
a bus interface circuit for transmitting the digital signal to a host processing device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A high speed software modem is described which uses a selectable, desirable portion of the total available bandwidth of a transmission channel. In a preferred embodiment, the invention is implemented in a personal computer connected to an upstream transceiver through a channel supporting an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop (ADSL) standard. The achievable target data rate of the modem is based on the capabilities of an analog front end (AFE) used in the modem, and a host processor within such personal computer. In particular, the modem AFE contains subband filtering which causes an upstream transceiver to use only a selected number of available sub-channels for downstream data transmission. The data rate of the modem is increased by upgrading the AFE or the host processor in order to increase the number of processable transmitted downstream sub-channels.
59 Citations
52 Claims
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1. A high speed communications transciever for communicating with an upstream transciever transmitting an analog signal using M data carrying signals within a bandwidth F through a channel to said system, said transceiver comprising:
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a channel interface circuit for coupling to and receiving said analog signal from the channel; and a front end receiving circuit for sampling the analog signal and generating a digital signal based on such analog signal, the digital signal including data from a first frequency bandwidth portion f1 of said bandwidth F containing N data carrying signals, where N<
M; anda front end transmitting circuit for transmitting control information to cause said upstream transceiver to transmit downstream data only using the N data carrying signals, said control information indicating to the upstream transceiver that;
(i) only N of the M data carrying signals are desirable for downstream data transmission, even if said channel is capable of supporting more than N data carrying signals; and
(ii) the system supports any transmission protocols used by said upstream transceiver; and
(iii) that they are connected through a channel which should be treated by said upstream transceiver as having substantial signal attenuation characteristics for data signals other than the N data carrying signals; anda bus interface circuit for transmitting the digital signal to a host processing device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A high speed communications system for receiving selected data contained in a number of modulated sub-channels N from an upstream transceiver capable of transmitting a number of modulated sub-channels M through a channel to said system using an analog signal, said system comprising:
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a channel interface circuit for coupling to and receiving said analog signal from the channel; an analog front end circuit for sampling the analog signal and converting it to a digital signal, the front end circuit including an anti-aliasing filter and an analog to digital converter, and the digital signal including data only from said number of sub-channels N, where N<
=M,a bus interface circuit for transmitting the N sub-channels to a host processing device so that selected data can be demodulated from the N sub-channels; a front end transmitting circuit for transmitting control information to cause said upstream transceiver to transmit downstream data only using the N sub-channels, said control information being used for;
(i) permanently masking out all the available sub-channels except the N sub-channels for any subsequent downstream data transmission from said upstream transceiver; and
further indicating that;
(ii) the system supports any data transmission protocols used by the upstream transceiver; and
(iii) also indicating that the system and upstream transceiver are connected through a channel which should be treated as having substantial signal attenuation characteristics for sub-channels other than the N sub-channels. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A high speed communications data receiver for receiving data at a rate X through a channel from an upstream transceiver capable of transmitting a data stream at a rate Y, the receiver comprising:
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a channel interface circuit for coupling to and receiving said data stream having said rate Y; and an analog front end circuit for data sampling a portion of the analog signal and converting it to a digital signal having said data rate X; and a bus interface circuit for transmitting the digital signal at said rate X to a host processing device, and for receiving a transmission control signal from the host processing device to cause said upstream transmitter to transmit at a data rate substantially equal to said data rate X during any data stream transmission; and a transmitting circuit for transmitting control information to cause said upstream transceiver to transmit downstream data using a set of N data carrying signals, which N data carrying signals constitute a subset of M signals available for carrying data in the channel, said control information including feedback information from the host processing device indicating to the upstream transceiver that;
(i) only N of the M data carrying signals are desirable for downstream data transmission, even if said channel is capable of supporting more than N data carrying signals; and
(ii) the receiver supports any upstream transceiver data transmission protocols; and
(iii) that they are connected through a channel which should be treated by said upstream transceiver as having substantial signal attenuation characteristics for data signals other than the N data carrying signals; andwherein data sampling circuitry requirements of the analog front end are reduced because data sampling is only performed for a fractional portion k of the data stream, where k=M/N. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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28. A method of operating a high speed communications system that is coupled to a host processing device and an upstream transceiver through a channel capable of supporting an analog data transmission signal having a bandwidth F, said method comprising:
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(a) configuring said system to achieve a receive data rate X; and (b) receiving an analog initialization signal having a bandwidth F from the upstream transceiver through the channel; and (c) generating a digital signal based on sampling a portion of the analog initialization signal corresponding to a first frequency bandwidth portion f1 sufficient to meet receive data rate X; and (d) transmitting the digital signal to a signal processing circuit, so that characteristics of data carrying signals contained within first frequency bandwidth portion f1 can be determined; and (e) generating feedback information indicating to the upstream transceiver that bandwidth other than the first frequency bandwidth f1 should not be used for data transmission, said feedback information further indicating that;
(i) only N out of M available data carrying signals are desirable for downstream data transmission, where N<
M/k, and k is an integer, even if said channel is capable of supporting more than N data carrying signals; and
(ii) the system supports any transmission protocols used by the upstream transceiver; and
(iii) that they are connected through a channel which should be treated by said upstream transceiver as having substantial signal attenuation characteristics for data signals other than the N data carrying signals; and(f) receiving an analog data transmission signal having a bandwidth f1 from said upstream transceiver; and (g) generating a digital signal based on sampling the analog data transmission signal; and (h) transmitting the digital signal to the host processing device so that it can be processed to extract selected data from the data carrying signals. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A high speed communications system for processing an analog data signal from a channel capable of supporting M modulated sub-channels, said system comprising:
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a channel interface circuit for coupling to and receiving said analog data signal from the channel; an analog front end circuit for processing the analog data signal and converting it to a digital signal; a processing circuit for extracting data from the digital signal, the digital signal including data taken from a number N of said sub-channels, where N is intentionally selected to have a value less than M, and where N is negotiated with a remote transceiver during an initialization procedure; and further wherein during said initialization procedure, feedback information from the processing circuit indicates to said remote transceiver that;
(i) only N of the M data sub-channels are to be used for data transmission, even if said channel is capable of supporting more than N sub-channels; and
(ii) the system supports any data protocols used by the remote transceiver, including xDSL based protocols, so that a reduced rate but otherwise compatible version of such xDSL based protocols can be used in the channel; and
(iii) that they are connected through a channel which should be treated by said remote transceiver as having substantial signal attenuation characteristics for sub-channels other than the N sub-channels. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. A high speed communications system for processing an analog data signal from a channel capable of supporting M modulated sub-channels, said system comprising:
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a channel interface circuit for coupling to and receiving said analog data signal from the channel; an analog front end circuit for processing the analog data signal and converting it to a digital signal; a bus interface circuit for transmitting the digital signal to a host processing device, and for receiving a transmission control signal from the host processing device to cause a remote transmitter to transmit using only a number N of said sub-channels, where N is intentionally selected to have a value less than M, and where N is negotiated with an upstream transceiver during an initialization procedure; and wherein said transmission control signal further specifies that;
(i) only N of the M sub-channels are desirable for downstream data transmission, even if said channel is capable of supporting more than N sub-channels; and
(ii) the system supports any data protocols used by the remote transmitter for transmitting data in said channel, including xDSL based protocols, so that a reduced rate but otherwise compatible version of such xDSL based protocols can be used in the channel; and
(iii) that they are connected through a channel which should be treated by said remote transmitter as having substantial signal attenuation characteristics for sub-channels other than the N sub-channels. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44)
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45. A method of processing an xDSL signal from a digital subscriber loop, said method including the steps of:
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negotiating a reduced data rate R'"'"' for said signal between a downstream and an upstream transceiver; and processing feedback information from the downstream transceiver indicating that;
(i) only N out of M sub-channels available to the upstream transceiver are desirable for downstream data transmission, where N<
=M/k, and k is an integer, even if said channel is capable of supporting more than N sub-channels; and
(ii) the downstream transceiver supports any data protocols, including xDSL based protocols used for data transmission by the upstream transceiver, so that the upstream transceiver perceives that said downstream transceiver is fully compliant with T1.413 standards, but with a reduced number of sub-channels from that available using a full rate ADSL transceiver; and
(iii) they are connected through a channel which should be treated by said upstream transceiver as having substantial signal attenuation characteristics for sub-channels other than said N sub-channels; andthereafter transmitting said xDSL signal from the upstream transciever to the downstream transceiver utilizing said sub-channels N to effectuate the reduced data rate R'"'"', where N is intentionally selected to be less than a maximum number of said sub-channels M supported by said digital subscriber loop; wherein the number of sub-channels N is based on signal processing capability available to the downstream transceiver. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48)
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49. A method of processing an xDSL signal from a digital subscriber loop, said method including the steps of:
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negotiating a reduced data rate R'"'"' for said signal between a downstream and an upstream transceiver; and processing feedback information from the downstream transceiver indicating that;
(i) only N out of M sub-channels available to the upstream transceiver are desirable for downstream data transmission, where N<
=M/k, and k is an integer, even if said channel is capable of supporting more than N sub-channels; and
(ii) the downstream transceiver supports any data protocols including xDSL based protocols used for data transmission by the upstream transceiver so that the upstream transceiver perceives that said downstream transceiver is fully compliant with T1.413 standards, but with a reduced number of sub-channels from that available using a full rate ADSL transceiver; and
(iii) they are connected through a channel which should be treated by said upstream transceiver as having substantial signal attenuation characteristics for sub-channels other than said N sub-channels; andthereafter transmitting said xDSL signal from the upstream transciever to the downstream transceiver utilizing a frequency bandwidth f1 to carry said N sub-channels and to effectuate the reduced data rate R'"'"', where f1 is intentionally selected to be less than a maximum bandwidth F supported by said digital subscriber loop; and wherein the frequency bandwidth f1 is based on signal processing capability available to the downstream transceiver. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52)
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Specification