Broadband communications access device

• US 7,990,985 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2008
• Issued: 08/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: 3e Technologies International, Inc. (Ultra Electronics Holdings PLC)
• Inventors: Chen, Steven Chien-Young
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, Jr., Michael J
• Application Number:
  US12/168,425
• Publication Number:
  US 20090036159A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,121 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2812 describing content present in a home automation network, e.g. audio video content retrieval from the Internet G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2834 Switching of information between an external network and a home network access arrangements H04L12/2856
• 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 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2898 Subscriber equipments DSL modems H04M11/062; cable modems H04L12/2801
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2845 Telephone line
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5615 Network termination, e.g. NT1, NT2, PBX
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5663 Support of N-ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1026 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/725 Cordless telephones user interfaces specially adapted therefor H04M1/724
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/06 including a wireless LAN interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0478 Provisions for broadband connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/20 : Manipulation of established connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 : Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 : Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

A broadband communications access device with security features. The broadband communications access devices includes a wireless access point with a wireless interface, wired interface and security interface for providing secure wired and wireless broadband communications access for home entertainment, home security and home energy management devices.

Claims

1. An integrated phone-based home gateway system, comprising in combination:

a home gateway interface with one or more processors for initializing wireless and wired broadband communications for home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices in a home environment, for providing gateway, routing and bridging for wireless and wired broadband networking communications and for automatic service provisioning for allocating, configuring and maintaining multiple transmission channels and virtual communications paths used for wired and wireless broadband communications,

wherein initializing wireless and wired broadband communications includes initializing automatically wired and wireless broadband communications service configurations and provisions from the home gateway interface and initializing automatically one or more gateway, routing and bridging tables on the home gateway interface, and

wherein the home gateway interface further includes an automatic provisioning manager module for automatic service provisioning for wired and wireless broadband communications wherein the automatic provisioning manager module includes automatically initializing wired and wireless broadband communications service configurations and provisions and automatically establishing one or more wired and wireless broadband communications channels and one or more wired and wireless broadband virtual communications paths;

a wired communications interface for connecting to external wired devices, for connecting to one or more wired broadband communications networks and for providing wired broadband communications for the home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices;

a wireless communications interface for connecting to external wireless devices, for connecting to one or more wireless broadband communications networks, for providing wireless broadband communications for the home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices;

a security interface for providing secure wired and wireless communications for the home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices;

a removable display screen with a wireless interface for providing display information for the home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices, wherein the removable display screen can be used as a portable wireless hand-held device in the vicinity of the integrated phone-based home gateway system for remote monitoring; and

an integral video camera for providing video information for the home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices.

2. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 1 wherein the home energy management devices include heating, cooling, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) devices, solar panels, solar water heaters, wind energy devices.

3. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 1 wherein the home security devices include alarm systems and home video monitoring systems.

4. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 3 wherein the alarm systems include motion detectors, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) detectors, fire detectors, pool fall in detectors and home medical emergency detectors.

5. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 1 wherein the home security devices include electronic access control devices for controlling access to a home environment.

6. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 5 wherein the electronic access control devices include biometric readers comprising fingerprint readers, facial recognition readers and iris scan readers.

7. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 1 wherein the home security devices include monitoring devices for Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) agents to detect terrorist attacks.

8. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 1 wherein the home entertainment devices include portable hand held game playing devices, hand held audio/video devices, mobile phones, non-portable game playing devices, set-top boxes, video-on-demand (VoD) devices, digital video recorders (DVR), digital video disc (DVD) and home cinema systems.

9. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 1 wherein the wireless communications interface includes a 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, “

Wireless Fidelity”

(“

Wi-Fi”

), “

Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access”

(“

WiMAX”

), ETSI High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network (HIPERMAN), “

RF Home”

, Bluetooth and infrared wireless interfaces.

10. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 1 further comprising an X10 module, wherein the X10 module is used for communications between wireless transmitters and receivers by sending and receiving signals over existing alternating current (AC) power line wiring.

11. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 1 wherein the integrated phone-based home gateway system allows local and remote interactions with home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices via one or more different types of communications networks.

12. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 1 further comprising a Power over the Ethernet (“

PoE”

) power module to provide power for the integrated phone-based home gateway system.

13. An integrated phone-based home gateway system, comprising in combination:

means for providing a home gateway interface with one or more processors for a home environment for home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices, wherein

the home gateway interface provides a means for initializing wireless and wired broadband communications, for providing gateway, routing and bridging for wireless and wired broadband networking communications and for automatic service provisioning for allocating, configuring and maintaining multiple transmission channels and virtual communications paths used for wired and wireless broadband communications,

wherein initializing wireless and wired broadband communications includes initializing automatically wired and wireless broadband communications service configurations and provisions from the home gateway interface and initializing automatically one or more gateway, routing and bridging tables on the home gateway interface, and

wherein the home gateway interface further includes an automatic provisioning manager module for automatic service provisioning for wired and wireless broadband communications wherein the automatic provisioning manager module includes automatically initializing wired and wireless broadband communications service configurations and provisions and automatically establishing one or more wired and wireless broadband communications channels and one or more wired and wireless broadband virtual communications paths;

means for providing secure wireless communications for home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices;

means for providing secure wired communications for home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices;

means for providing a security interface for providing secure wired and wireless communications for the home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices;

means for providing a removable display screen with a wireless interface for providing display information for the home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices, wherein the removable display screen can be used as a portable wireless hand-held device in the vicinity of the integrated phone-based home gateway system for remote monitoring; and

means for providing an integral video camera for providing video information for the home energy management, home security and home entertainment devices.

14. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 13 wherein the home security devices include motion detectors, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) detectors, fire detectors, pool fall in detectors, home medical emergency detectors, biometric readers comprising fingerprint readers, facial recognition readers and iris scan readers and monitoring devices for Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) agents to detect terrorist attacks.

15. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 13 wherein the home entertainment devices include portable hand held game playing devices, hand held audio/video devices, mobile phones, non-portable game playing devices, set-top boxes, video-on-demand (VoD) devices, digital video recorders (DVR), digital video disc (DVD) and home cinema systems.

16. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 13 wherein the home energy management devices include heating, cooling, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) devices, solar panels, solar water heaters and wind energy devices.

17. The integrated phone-based home gateway system of claim 13 wherein the secure wireless communications includes a secure 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, “

Wireless Fidelity”

(“

Wi-Fi”

), “

Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access”

(“

WiMAX”

), ETSI High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network (HIPERMAN), “

RF Home”

, Bluetooth and infrared wireless communications.