Dynamic frequency passband switching in home phone-line networks

• US 7,154,996 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2002
• Issued: 12/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Agere Systems Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Strauss, Steven E.
• Primary Examiner(s): WOO, STELLA L
• Application Number:
  US10/282,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20040081298A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,519 Days
• Field of Search: 379/90.01, 379/93.08, 379/93.01, 379/93.28, 379/93.31, 379/93.09, 375/222
• US Class Current: 379/93.08
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/062 using different frequency bands for speech and other data

Abstract

A method of dynamic spectral bandwidth allocation in home phone-line networking (HPN). An HPN terminal is configured to sense transmission activity in a frequency sub-band corresponding to a broad-band high-speed service, such as ADSL. If no activity is detected, the HPN terminal uses the sub-band for communication with other HPN terminals. As a result, major impediments to HPN networking, such as crosstalk from neighboring home networks and signal attenuation due to the unpredictable topology of the in-home wiring, are minimized or possibly mitigated. In addition, the capacity accessible to HPN terminals may be increased. Consequently, the robustness of HPN networking is improved and higher data throughput rates may be supported.

Claims

1. In a home phone-line network (HPN) having two or more HPN terminals connected via telephone wiring, a method of data transmission between the terminals comprising the steps of:

(A) partitioning the spectral bandwidth available to the HPN network into a plain-old-telephone-service (POTS) band, a first data communication band, and a second data communication band such that said POTS band and said first and second data communication bands do not overlap with one another, wherein;

a voice communication service supported by the HPN network is adapted to use the POTS band;

at least one HPN terminal is adapted to communicate with a communication device located outside of the HPN network using a data communication service that is designed to use the first data communication band, but not the second data communication band; and

the HPN terminals are adapted to communicate with one another using the second data communication band;

(B) determining whether transmission activity exists within a frequency sub-band of the first data communication band; and

(C) allocating the sub-band for the HPN terminals to communicate with one another, if no transmission activity is detected within the sub-band in step (B).

2. The invention of claim 1, wherein:

the HPN terminals are adapted to communicate with one another using the second data communication band as a default band; and

step (B) comprises sensing transmission activity outside of the default band.

3. The invention of claim 1, wherein:

the second data communication band is located between about 4 MHz and about 10 MHz; and

the first data communication band has frequencies lower than the second data communication band.

4. The invention of claim 1, wherein:

the first data communication service is a DSL service; and

the HPN terminals are adapted to comply with a Home Phone-Line Networking Alliance (HPNA) standard.

5. The invention of claim 1, wherein step (C) comprises abandoning at least a portion of available bandwidth of the second data communication band, wherein the abandoned portion has no detected transmission activity.

6. The invention of claim 1, wherein step (C) comprises expanding the second data communication band to include at least a portion of the sub-band.

7. The invention of claim 1, further comprising the step of transmitting data between the HPN terminals using the second data communication band, if transmission activity is detected within the sub-band in step (B).

8. The invention of claim 1, wherein step (C) comprises transmitting at least a portion of data between the HPN terminals using at least a portion of the sub-band.

9. The invention of claim 1, wherein the sub-band corresponds to a broad-band service provided by a discrete multi-tone communication system and step (B) comprises detecting a busy tone corresponding to said system.

10. The invention of claim 1, wherein step (B) comprises:

determining power spectral density (PSD) within the sub-band; and

comparing the determined PSD with a threshold value.

11. The invention of claim 1, further comprising the step of repeating steps (B) and (C) for a different frequency sub-band of the first data communication band.

12. The invention of claim 1, wherein the sub-band includes a first frequency sub-band and a second frequency sub-band, the first and second sub-bands separated by a frequency interval, and step (C) comprises transmitting at least a portion of data between the terminals using at least a portion of the first and second sub-bands.

13. A networking device for use with a communication terminal, the terminal configurable for data transmission via a home phone-line network (HPN), the device comprising:

(i) a sensor adapted to sense transmission activity within a frequency sub-band of a first data communication band; and

(ii) a processor connected to the sensor and adapted to allocate the sub-band for data communication with another communication terminal of the HPN network, if no transmission activity is detected by the sensor within the sub-band, wherein the spectral bandwidth available to the HPN network is partitioned into a plain-old-telephone-service (POTS) band, the first data communication band, and a second data communication band such that said POTS band and said first and second data communication bands do not overlap with one another, wherein;

a voice communication service supported by the HPN network is adapted to use the POTS band;

at least one communication terminal of the HPN network is adapted to communicate with a communication device located outside of the HPN network using a data communication service that is designed to use the first data communication band, but not the second data communication band; and

the communication terminals of the HPN network are adapted to communicate with one another using the second data communication band.

14. The invention of claim 13, wherein:

the communication terminals of the HPN network are adapted to communicate with one another using the second data communication band as a default band; and

the sensor is adapted to sense transmission activity outside of the default band.

15. The invention of claim 13, wherein:

the second data communication band is located between about 4 MHz and about 10 MHz; and

the first data communication band has frequencies lower than the second data communication band.

16. The invention of claim 13, wherein:

the data communication service is a DSL service; and

the communication terminals of the HPN network are adapted to comply with a Home Phone-Line Networking Alliance (HPNA) standard.

17. The invention of claim 13, further comprising a transceiver coupled to the HPN network, wherein the processor configures the transceiver to:

transmit data to another communication terminal of the HPN network using the second data communication band, if transmission activity is detected by the sensor within the sub-band; and

transmit at least a portion of data to another communication terminal of the HPN network using at least a portion of the sub-band, if no transmission activity is detected by the sensor within the sub-band.

18. The invention of claim 17, wherein the transceiver is adapted to abandon at least a portion of available bandwidth of the second data communication band, wherein the abandoned portion has no detected transmission activity.

19. The invention of claim 17, wherein the transceiver is adapted to expand the second data communication band to include at least a portion of the sub-band.

20. The invention of claim 17, wherein:

the transceiver comprises;

(i) a medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) signal processing module configured to implement encoding and decoding of data and manage network access for the networking device; and

(ii) an analog front end (AFE) module designed to handle signals transmitted over the HPN network for the networking device; and

the networking device conforms to an HPNA standard.

21. The invention of claim 13, wherein the sub-band corresponds to a broad-band service provided by a discrete multi-tone communication system and the sensor is configured to detect a busy tone corresponding to said system.

22. The invention of claim 13, wherein:

the sensor is configured to determine power spectral density (PSD) within the sub-band; and

the processor is configured to compare the determined PSD with a threshold value.