Distributed multimedia and messaging router over layer 2

• US 7,668,180 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Issued: 02/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Shimon Ben-David
• Original Assignee: Shimon Ben-David
• Inventors: Ben-David, Shimon
• Primary Examiner(s): Duong, Frank
• Application Number:
  US11/363,623
• Publication Number:
  US 20090028181A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,456 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/400
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2898 Subscriber equipments DSL modems H04M11/062; cable modems H04L12/2801
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1053 IP private branch exchange [PBX] functionality entities or arrangements circuit switched PBXs H04M3/00

Abstract

A system and a method are disclosed which utilizes the standard communication devices at the users'"'"' premises and a standard LAN communication in order to enable utilization of IP communication possibilities such as V/FoIP calls, SMS and MMS messaging and video communication over IP network. The system includes a single Local Server and multiple Endpoint Interface Units. The Local Server connects the LAN to the external IP communication and each Endpoint Interface Units connects the communication devices to the LAN. According to the preferred embodiment all communication between the Local Server and the Endpoint Interface Units is established using a layer 2 communication protocol which improves the data transport capabilities of any given network and lowers the overall costs of the system'"'"'s implementation. In a second embodiment the data processing procedure is performed on an external server which establishes a VPN communication with each Local Server.

Claims

1. A communication system which provides multimedia and messaging communication services to local End point devices, over a Local Area Network (LAN) and an external Wide Area Network (WAN), said system comprising:

at least one Local Server, having at least one LAN interface and at least one WAN interface;

at least one End point Interface unit, having a unique Media Access Control (MAC) address,

wherein each of the End point Interface unit and the Local Server are arranged to communicate therebetween over a specified layer 2 communication protocol;

wherein the specified layer 2 communication protocol exhibits multimedia information combined with control signals associated with specified MAC addresses;

wherein the Local Server is arranged to attribute directly specific multimedia or control information to a specific End point device, by associating the specific multimedia or control information to the MAC address of the End point Interface unit associated with the specific End point device over the specified layer 2 communication protocol; and

wherein the specified layer 2 communication protocol establishes bidirectional multimedia and control communication over the LAN network between the local server and the END point devices and between each two END point devices.

2. The system of claim 1 the system is arranged to convert between analog and digital signals.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the LAN is a wired network, wherein the wired network is a single twisted pair wiring.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the LAN is a wireless network.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein more than one LAN is connected to the Local Server at the same time.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein each Endpoint Interface Unit comprises a controller, a memory, a Codec, a LAN interface section and a media terminal device interface section.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the Local Server comprises a Controller, a memory, a LAN interface section and a WAN interface section.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the communication between the units on the LAN is done in Ethernet Layer 2 packets.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the Endpoint Interface Unit implements a Voice-over-IP protocol stack.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the Local Server unit implements a Voice-over-IP protocol stack.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the signal processing is implemented centrally in the Local Server.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the signal processing is implemented locally at each Endpoint Interface Unit.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the control signals exchanged between the system'"'"'s units on the LAN are embedded within the digitally represented multimedia signals contained in the data payload of layer 2 packets.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one Endpoint Interface Unit is connected to an endpoint communication device for converting at least one of incoming communication signals to native signaling of endpoint communication device or outgoing communication signals from the native signaling of endpoint communication device.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one Endpoint Interface Unit periodically sample its endpoint communication device.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one Endpoint Interface Unit periodically samples al least one of its LAN interfaces.

17. The system according to claim 1 wherein the Endpoint Interface Unit receives at least one of incoming textual or Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages and outputs them to the endpoint communication device.

18. The system according to claim 1 wherein the Endpoint Interface Unit forwards at least one of outgoing textual or Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages, obtained from an attached device.

19. The system according to claim 1 wherein the Local Server transmits at least one of textual or Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages to a messaging server over the WAN.

20. The system according to claim 1 wherein the Local Server receives at least one of textual or Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages from a messaging server over the WAN.

21. The system according to claim 1 wherein the Endpoint Interface Unit implementing the Ethernet'"'"'s MAC function in software rutting on the internal controller.

22. The system according to claim 5 wherein the LAN interface section of an endpoint unit consists of a Physical interface device, a First In First Out (FIFO) buffer memory and a digital interface to the unit'"'"'s controller.

23. The system according to claim 21 wherein a First In First Out FIFO buffer memory is used to synchronize the rates of the Physical interface device and the multimedia stream, in at least one of the incoming or outgoing directions.

24. The system of claim 1 wherein a Local Server periodically aggregates digitally represented multimedia samples originating from several Endpoint Interface Units into packets forwarded over the WAN, and periodically de-aggregates incoming packets from the WAN into several layer 2 packets destined to different Endpoint Interface Units and forwards each said layer 2 packet to its destination Endpoint Interface over the LAN.

25. A method of providing multimedia and messaging communication services to local End point devices, over a Local Area Network (LAN) and an external Wide Area Network (WAN), said method comprising:

local network controlling and managing of layer 2 data packets received by a local server, said data includes multimedia and signaling information;

local endpoint controlling and managing of layer 2 data packets received by an End point Interface unit, said data includes multimedia and signaling information; and

converting between analog and digital signals wherein said data packets are used for bi-directional communication over the, LAN network between the local server and the END point device,

wherein the controlling and managing is performed over a specified layer 2 communication protocol that exhibits multimedia information combined with control signals associated with specified MAC addresses so that the specified protocol enables to attribute directly specific multimedia or control information to a specific End point device, by associating the specific multimedia or control information to the MAC address of the End point Interface unit associated with the specific End point device.

26. A method for of providing multimedia and messaging communication services to local End point devices, over a Local Area Network (LAN) and an external Wide Area Network (WAN), said method comprising:

local network controlling and managing of layer 2 data packets received by a local server, said data includes multimedia and signaling information;

local endpoint controlling and managing of layer 2 data packets received by an End point Interface unit, said data includes multimedia and signaling information; and

converting between analog and digital signals wherein said data packets are used for bi-directional communication over the, LAN network between the local server and the END point device;

periodically receiving digitized video packets over the LAN through the LAN interface by said Endpoint Interface Unit;

periodically converting the data to analog form;

periodically transmitting the analog signals to an attached device through an interface;

periodically constructing layer 2 packets carrying digital data; and

periodically transmitting said layer 2 packets to the Local Server.

27. A method for of providing multimedia and messaging communication services to local End point devices, over a Local Area Network (LAN) and an external Wide Area Network (WAN), said method comprising:

local network controlling and managing of layer 2 data packets received by a local server, said data includes multimedia and signaling information;

local endpoint controlling and managing of layer 2 data packets received by an End point Interface unit, said data includes multimedia and signaling information; and

converting between analog and digital signals wherein said data packets are used for bi-directional communication over the, LAN network between the local server and the END point device;

periodically sampling the Local Servers WAN interface; and

periodically constructing layer 2 packets from sampled data; and

periodically forwarding said layer 2 packets to the LAN; and

periodically receiving layer 2 packets from the LAN interface; and

separating the data from the layer 2 headers and constructing the data in new packets in a WAN compliant format; and

periodically forwarding formatted packets to their destinations over the WAN through a WAN interface.

28. A method for of providing multimedia and messaging communication services to local End point devices, over a Local Area Network (LAN) and an external Wide Area Network (WAN), said method comprising:

local network controlling and managing of layer 2 data packets received by a local server, said data includes multimedia and signaling information;

local endpoint controlling and managing of layer 2 data packets received by an End point Interface unit, said data includes multimedia and signaling information; and

converting between analog and digital signals wherein said data packets are used for bi-directional communication over the, LAN network between the local server and the END point device;

periodically sampling the local server'"'"'s LAN interface and collecting the digital data from the received layer 2 packets; and

aggregating the data from different layer 2 packets into larger packets in the appropriate WAN protocols, wherein said packets originate from different Endpoint Interface Units on the LAN; and

forwarding said packets through a WAN interface over the WAN to the remote server;

periodically sampling the local server WAN interface for packets coming from the remote server;

extracting the data payload from said sampled packets;

re-constructing said extracted data into layer 2 packets addressed to at least one destination Endpoint Interface Unit; and

periodically forwarding said layer 2 packets to their destinations over the LAN.