Home networking over phone lines

• US 6,732,315 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2001
• Issued: 05/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Yagil, Ariel, Shalvi, Ofir, Amit, Mati
• Primary Examiner(s): DILDINE JR, R STEPHEN
• Application Number:
  US09/774,543
• Publication Number:
  US 20020019966A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,189 Days
• Field of Search: 714/755, 379/93.06
• US Class Current: 714/755
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0045 Arrangements at the receiver end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0057 Block codes H04L1/0061, H04L1/0064 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/006 Trellis-coded modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0065 Serial concatenated codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0071 Use of interleaving interleaving per se H03M13/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• 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 12/403 with centralised control, e.g. polling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2845 Telephone line
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2425 for supporting services specification, e.g. SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/1438 Negotiation of transmission parameters prior to communication modified according to link quality H04L1/0001
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/062 using different frequency bands for speech and other data
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

A home networking transmitter (100), receiver (200), station (300), network manager (404), network (400) and method adapted to network devices (344/336/338/346) over phone lines (406) in a home. A bandwidth other than the 4 to 10 MHz band defined in the HomePNA 2.0× specification and a Baud rate higher than 4M baud may be used for communications between a plurality of devices (334/336/338/346). PHY and MAC layers are improved to increase the performance of home phone line networks. Advantages in the PHY layer include numerous higher symbol rates, higher constellations, variable power level, error correcting codes, byte interleaving, ISI-free pulse shape and pre-equalization. Advantages in the MAC layer include managed bandwidth resources allocation, guaranteed quality of service for latency sensitive applications, solicited grants, support to devices with low power consumption and support to device with low processing power.

Claims

1. A home networking station coupleable to a device, comprising:

a HomePN receiver;

a network manager for allocating channel resources to a device within the network; and

a HomePN transmitter coupled to the receiver, the home networking station networking the device to at least one device over phone lines in a home, the transmitter communicating with the network manager.

2. The home networking station according to claim 1, wherein the network manager resides in a residential gateway.

3. A transmitter coupleable to a device, comprising:

a HomePN transmitter adapted to network the device to at least one other device over phone lines in a home at greater than 4 Mbaud;

a modulator adapted to support the greater than 4 Mbaud rate;

an encoder coupled to the modulator;

the encoder comprise;

an outer encoder;

a pre-equalizer or precoder coupled to the modulator;

a constellation encoder coupled to the pre-equalizer or precoder;

a symbol interleaver coupled to the constellation encoder;

an inner encoder coupled to the symbol interleaver;

a byte interleaver coupled to the inner encoder, the byte interleaver coupled to the outer encoder;

a scrambler coupled to the outer encoder; and

a framer coupled to the scrambler.

4. A transmitter coupleable to a device, comprising:

a HomePN transmitter for networking the device to at least one other device over phone lines in a home, the HomePN transmitter including a concatenation of two error correction encoders;

a byte interleaver coupled between the two error correction encoders; and

a symbol interleaver coupled to the inner encoder.

5. The transmitter according to claim 4, further comprising a constellation encoder adapted to support constellations greater than 8 bits per symbol;

a modulator adapted to support the greater than 8 bits per symbol constellations coupled to the constellation encoder; and

a Reed-Solomon error-correcting encoder coupled to the modulator.

6. A receiver coupleable ot a device, comprising a HomePN receiver adapted t network the device to at least one other device over phone lines in the home at greater than 4 Mbaud rate;

the receiver further comprising;

a demodulator adapted to support the greater than 4 Mbaud rate;

an Reed-Solomon code error-correcting outer decoder;

an equalizer coupled to the demodulator;

a symbol de-interleaver coupled to the equalizer;

a slicer coupled to the symbol de-interleaver, the slicer coupled to the equalizer in a feedback loop;

an inner decoder coupled to the slicer;

a byte de-interleaver coupled to the slicer, the byte de-interleaver coupled to the outer decoder;

a descrambler coupled to the outer decoder; and

a de-framer coupled to the descrambler.

7. A home networking station coupleable to a device, comprising:

a HomePN transmitter; and

a HomePN receiver coupled to the HomePN transmitter, the Home PN transmitter and receiver being adapted to network the device to at least one other device over phone lines in a home at greater than 5 Mbaud;

the HomePN transmitter and receiver being further adapted to operate at a low power consumption mode by shutting down modules within the device by utilizing predetermined MAP message transmission times.

8. The station according to claim 7, wherein the predetermined times are periodical.

9. The station according to claim 8, wherein the predetermined periodical times comprise from 1-100 milliseconds.

10. A home networking station coupleable to a device, comprising:

a HomePN transmitter; and

a HomePN receiver coupled to the HomePN transmitter, the Home PN transmitter and receiver being adapted to network the device to at least one other device over phone lines in a home at greater than 5 Mbaud;

the HomePN transmitter and receiver being adapted to operate in a low processing power mode, wherein only a portion of the received transmissions are processed utilizing predetermined MAP message times.