Method and apparatus for reducing signal processing requirements for transmitting packet-based data with a modem

• US 6,304,596 B1
• Filed: 11/23/1999
• Issued: 10/16/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Homenetworking Inc (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Frank, Edward H., Forrest, Craig S., Snow, Dane, Mallory, Tracy D., Peterson, Kevin H., Corry, Alan G., Holloway, John T., Yamano, Larry C., Robinson, Timothy B.
• Primary Examiner(s): VO, DON NGUYEN
• Application Number:
  US09/448,221
• Time in Patent Office: 693 Days
• Field of Search: 375/222, 375/257, 375/200, 370/375, 370/376, 370/389, 370/395, 370/398, 370/351-357, 370/412, 370/378, 370/379, 370/428
• US Class Current: 375/222
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/06 Simultaneous speech and data transmission, e.g. telegraphic transmission over the same conductors
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0435 Details
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13034 A/D conversion, code compression/expansion
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13107 Control equipment for a part of the connection, distributed control, co-processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13174 Data transmission, file transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1319 Amplifier, attenuation circuit, echo suppressor
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13199 Modem, modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13204 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13209 ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13291 Frequency division multiplexing, FDM
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13292 Time division multiplexing, TDM
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13294 CDMA, code division multiplexing, i.e. combinations of H04Q2213/13291 and/or H04Q2213/13292 with space division
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13396 Signaling in general, in-band signalling

Abstract

A modem and method for operating same. A receiver circuit of the modem is coupled to receive a continuous analog signal from a communication channel. This analog signal includes both packet and idle information. The receiver circuit monitors the analog signal to detect the presence of idle information. Upon detecting idle information, the receiver circuit enters a standby mode in which the processing requirements of the receiver circuit are reduced. A burst mode protocol is also provided, in which packets of digital information are modulated by a transmitter circuit of the modem, thereby converting the packets of digital information into analog signal bursts of discrete duration. These analog signal bursts are transmitted from the transmitter circuit to a telephone line. However, the transmitter circuit does not generate any signals between the analog signal bursts. A receiver circuit monitors the telephone line to detect the analog signal bursts. Upon detecting the presence of the analog signal bursts on the telephone line, the receiver circuit demodulates the analog signal bursts using full processing capabilities of the receiver circuit. However, upon detecting the absence of the analog signal bursts on the telephone line, the demodulating function of the receiver circuit is disabled. The burst mode protocol enables multi-drop and multi-cast operation, as well as reducing required DSP resources.

Claims

1. A method of implementing a multi-line network access circuit, the method comprising the steps of:

transmitting a plurality of digital data packets from a plurality of sources to a multi-line network circuit, wherein the digital data packets do not include idle information;

identifying destination addresses associated with the digital data packets using an address monitor within the multi-line network access circuit;

multiplexing digital data packets from different sources to a common digital signal processing resource;

modulating digital data packets from different sources with the common digital signal processing resource; and

de-multiplexing the modulated digital data packets from the common digital signal processing resource onto telephone lines which are associated with the destination addresses.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating idle information for each of the telephone lines using a common idle generator.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the common idle generator generates the idle information by accessing a memory which stores the idle information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating non-idle state signalling for each of the telephone lines using a non-idle state signal generator.

5. A method of implementing a multi-cast network access circuit, the method comprising the steps of:

transmitting a digital data packet from a source to the multi-cast network access circuit, wherein the digital data packet does not include idle information;

identifying a plurality of destination addresses associated with the digital data packet;

routing the digital data packet to a digital signal processing resource;

modulating the digital data packet with the digital signal processing resource; and

de-multiplexing the modulated digital data packet from the common digital signal processing resource to a plurality of telephone lines associated with the destination addresses.