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Method to support VLANs on a phoneline network

  • US 6,781,989 B1
  • Filed: 11/17/2000
  • Issued: 08/24/2004
  • Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2000
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A method of communicating within a local area network (LAN) which includes at least some nodes of a phone line LAN, the method comprising:

  • attaching, at a source node of a frame, a VLAN header containing VLAN identification information to each frame to be communicated within the VLAN, wherein the VLAN header is inserted by a device driver into a frame header;

    controlling communication at nodes of the VLAN by examining incoming frames for the presence or absence of the VLAN header; and

    stripping, at destination nodes of the VLAN, the VLAN header from the frame and passing a remaining part of the frame to a software device driver arrangement, wherein the attaching the VLAN header is accomplished by a network medium interface device including a first physical layer device and a second physical layer device, wherein the first physical layer device is configured to communicate in accordance with a first Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HPNA) specification, and wherein the second physical layer device is configured to communicate in accordance with a second HPNA specification.

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