System and method for pulsed cable telephony
First Claim
1. A cable telephony network interface unit (NIU), said NIU comprising:
- a radio frequency (RF) cable input for receiving RF telephony signals, wherein said telephony signals comprise a time division multiplexed (TDM) RF signal having a frame rate and a corresponding frame period;
an RF tuner for processing said TDM RF signal, wherein said tuner has an acquisition time of less than half of said frame period, whereby said tuner is pulsed on for signal acquisitions, and pulsed off between signal acquisitions, and wherein said acquisition time is a time to lock on to a desired frequency; and
a voice telephony device compatible output for providing an output from said tuner to a telephony device,wherein said RF telephony signals further comprise a continuous wave (CW) signal, and said tuner is capable of processing said CW signal, and wherein said NIU receives electrical power via said cable input when said tuner is processing said TDM RF signal and receives electrical power from a different source when processing said CW signal.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A cable receiver system and method which utilizes the combination of time-division multiplexing (“TDM”) and a fast-acquisition-time tuner to enable on/off pulsing of the tuner, thereby resulting in substantially reduced power consumption by the tuner. The tuner may be pulsed on during the allocated time slot to receive the allocated portion of the signal, and then pulsed off the remainder of the time. The tuner generally requires a fast signal acquisition time compared to the received signal'"'"'s frame rate so that the tuner does not use up an excess amount of the frame outside of the proper time slot when locking in the received signal. The TDM technique permits more efficient use of the high bandwidth network by multiplexing the relatively low bandwidth voice signals. In addition, the implementation of a fast-acquisition-time tuner in the NIU of a cable system permits the tuner to be pulsed off for a substantial amount of the time between the allocated time slots. Finally, the pulsing of the tuner substantially reduces power consumption by the receiver in an NIU, thus economically enabling the use of a telephony cable system that can operate during a power outage.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. A cable telephony network interface unit (NIU), said NIU comprising:
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a radio frequency (RF) cable input for receiving RF telephony signals, wherein said telephony signals comprise a time division multiplexed (TDM) RF signal having a frame rate and a corresponding frame period; an RF tuner for processing said TDM RF signal, wherein said tuner has an acquisition time of less than half of said frame period, whereby said tuner is pulsed on for signal acquisitions, and pulsed off between signal acquisitions, and wherein said acquisition time is a time to lock on to a desired frequency; and a voice telephony device compatible output for providing an output from said tuner to a telephony device, wherein said RF telephony signals further comprise a continuous wave (CW) signal, and said tuner is capable of processing said CW signal, and wherein said NIU receives electrical power via said cable input when said tuner is processing said TDM RF signal and receives electrical power from a different source when processing said CW signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for processing cable telephony signals, said method comprising:
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receiving a time division multiplexed (TDM) RF cable signal from a cable input, said TDM RF signal comprising frames having time slots; pulsing on a fast acquisition time tuner for an allocated time slot in each of said frames, said tuner for processing said TDM RF signal, and wherein said acquisition time is a time to lock on to a desired frequency; pulsing off said tuner for substantially the remainder of time in each of said frames, said frames having a frame period, wherein said acquisition time is less than one-fourth of said frame period, and wherein said frame period is equal to the time between the beginning of a first allocated time slot and the beginning of a second allocated time slot; wherein said TDM RF signal is received during a loss of a power from an external source; and receiving power from said cable input during said loss of power from said external source. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A cable telephony tuner, said tuner comprising:
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means for receiving a time division multiplexed (TDM) RF cable signal from a cable input, said TDM RF signal comprising frames having time slots; means for pulsing on a fast acquisition time tuner for an allocated time slot in each of said frames, said tuner for processing said TDM RF signal wherein said acquisition time is a time to lock on to a desired frequency; means for pulsing off said tuner for substantially the remainder of time in each of said frames, said frames having a frame period, wherein said fast acquisition time tuner is operable to lock on to said TDM RF signal in a time equal to or less than a quarter of a time period between consecutive said allocated time slots; and means for receiving power from said cable input during a loss of power from an external source, wherein said TDM RF signal is received during said loss of power from said external source. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A method for providing lifeline support in cable telephony, said method comprising:
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receiving electrical power from an external power source; receiving a continuous wave (CW) RF cable signal from a cable input; processing said CW RF signal with an RF tuner; losing power from said external power source; switching to receive said electrical power from said cable input; receiving a TDM RF telephony signal in place of said CW RF signal, said TDM RF signal comprising frames have time slots; and pulsing said tuner on during an allocated time slot in each of said frames and off for substantially the remainder of each of said frames, whereby power consumption by said tuner is significantly reduced when said external power is lost. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40)
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Specification