Shared DSL network and deployment method

• US 8,170,004 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2006
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Genesis Technical Systems Corp.
• Original Assignee: Genesis Technical Systems Corp.
• Inventors: Zottola, Tino, Bruno, John, Cooke, Stephen P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jagannathan, Melanie
• Application Number:
  US11/463,240
• Publication Number:
  US 20070030856A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,093 Days
• Field of Search: 750/465, 750/474, 750/466, 750/412, 750/258, 750/389, 750/336, 750/352, 750/356, 750/535, 750/395, 750/353, 709/224, 370/237, 370/242, 370/216, 455/445, 455/517
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/062 using different frequency bands for speech and other data

Abstract

A DSL network topology is provided for the interconnections between a telecom carrier and households. Each household is provided with an HCC (Home Communications Centre) for facilitating digital communication. The digital communication includes DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) communication. A method of forming a DSL network such that existing copper pair wire is reused is also provided.

Claims

1. A wireline network comprising:

at least one network connection connecting at least one telephony network switching device to a respective first customer communications node;

a plurality of second customer communications nodes distributed amongst a plurality of customer premises;

a plurality of interconnections between the customer communications nodes, inclusive of the respective first customer communications node and the plurality of second customer communication nodes, such that all of the customer communications nodes are interconnected in a linear manner across the plurality of customer premises and have at least one communications path to the at least one telephony network switching device, each interconnection comprising an electrically conductive twisted wire pair; and

a traffic add/drop function in each customer communications node.

2. The wireline network of claim 1 further comprising:

a second plurality of customer communications nodes;

a plurality of interconnections between the second plurality of customer communications nodes such that all customer communications nodes of the second plurality are linearly connected, each interconnection comprising an electrically conductive twisted wire pair; and

at least one wireless connection connecting at least one of the second plurality of customer communications nodes to one of the first plurality of customer communications nodes; and

a traffic add/drop function in each of the second plurality of customer communications nodes.

3. The wireline network of claim 1, wherein the traffic add/drop function is configured to communicate digitized voice data as part of data packets communicated over the linear arrangement of interconnections between the customer communications nodes and the at least one telephony network switching device of the wireline network.

4. The wireline network of claim 1 wherein the traffic add/drop function comprises a packet add/drop function.

5. The wireline network of claim 4 wherein the at least one telephony network switching device is selected from a group consisting of central office, DLC (digital loop carrier) node, a network POP (point of presence).

6. The wireline network of claim 4 wherein the at least one telephony network switching device is a gateway node in a pedestal.

7. The wireline network of claim 6 wherein the at least one network connection connecting the at least one telephony network switching device to the respective first customer communications node comprises at least one connection between the gateway node and the respective first customer communications node.

8. The wireline network of claim 6 wherein:

the gateway node is connected to a plurality of network-side electrically conducting twisted wire pairs operable to pass traffic to and from the at least one connection between the gateway node and the respective first customer communications node.

9. The wireline network of claim 8 wherein the at least one connection between the gateway node and the respective first customer communications node comprises a respective network connection between the gateway node and each of two first customer communications nodes.

10. The wireline network of claim 4 wherein the interconnections form a ring topology.

11. The wireline network of claim 10 wherein traffic flows in both directions around the ring topology.

12. The wireline network of claim 4 wherein the interconnections form a linear ADM (add drop multiplexer).

13. The wireline network of claim 4 wherein the packet add/drop functionality in each customer communications node drops packets received on the network for the customer communications node, and adds packets to the network from the customer communications node.

14. The wireline network of claim 13 wherein the packet add/drop function is in respect of DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) communication.

15. The wireline network of claim 14 wherein the DSL communication is selected from a group consisting of ADSL (Asynchronous DSL), SDSL (Symmetric DSL), Uni-DSL (Universal DSL), VDSL (Very high bit rate DSL), and VDSL2 (Very high bit rate DSL version 2).

16. The wireline network of claim 13 wherein each customer communications node comprises:

circuitry for extracting power supply signals transmitted from the at least one telephony network switching device over the interconnections.

17. The wireline network of claim 13 wherein for each customer communications node:

the packet add/drop function extracts packets that are for the particular customer communications node, and regenerates all other packets and forwards them on;

each packet dropped is passed on digitally to a digital interface, or converted to analog form and passed on to an analog interface.

18. The wireline network of claim 13 wherein each customer communications node comprises:

a local source of power generated from electricity mains power.

19. The wireline network of claim 4 wherein at least some of the interconnections are formed of sections of electrically conducting twisted wire pairs of an existing star topology network.

20. The wireline network of claim 4 wherein each customer communications node comprises a transceiver configured to communicate with another of the customer communications nodes over a wireless connection to establish an alternative interconnection between the customer communications nodes for the packet add/drop functionality.

21. The wireline network of claim 20 wherein the wireless connection forms part of an alternative communication path to the at least one telephony network switching device in case an existing communication path to the at least one telephony network switching device via the interconnections becomes unavailable.

22. A method of forming a DSL network comprising:

employing an existing electrically conducting twisted wire pair connection from a network switching node to a first customer premises equipment;

disconnecting an existing electrically conducting twisted wire pair connection from the network switching node to second customer premises equipment;

re-connecting the existing electrically conducting twisted wire pair connection between the first customer premises equipment and the second customer premises equipment, such that the first customer premises equipment and the second customer premises equipment are interconnected; and

for other customer premises equipment, repeating the disconnecting and re-connecting for other existing electrically conducting twisted wire pair connections between the network switching node and the other customer premises equipment, such that the customer premises equipment, inclusive of the first customer premises equipment, the second customer premises equipment and the other customer premises equipment, are interconnected in a linear manner across a plurality of customer premises amongst which the customer premises equipment are distributed.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the disconnecting and re-connecting are performed in a patch panel in a pedestal.

24. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

employing another existing electrically conducting twisted wire pair connection from the network switching node to another first customer premises equipment;

wherein the connections form a ring topology for the DSL network.

25. The method of claim 22 wherein the connections form a linear ADM for the DSL network.

26. A customer communications node for use in a wireline network, the wireline network having electrically conducting twisted wire pair interconnections between a plurality of customer communications nodes distributed amongst a plurality of customer premises, such that the plurality of customer communications nodes are interconnected in a linear manner across the plurality of customer premises, the customer communications node being connectable to at least one communication device and comprising:

a first communication port for connection with a first electrically conducting twisted wire pair interconnection;

a second communication port for connection with a second electrically conducting twisted wire pair interconnection;

at least one device interface for connecting to the at least one communication device; and

an add/drop multiplexer configured to;

a) drop DSL packet data received via at least one of the first communication port and the second communication port if the packet data is in respect of communication to the at least one communication device and/or the customer communications node;

b) pass through, whether by terminating and re-transmitting or other method, received DSL packet data over at least one of the first communication port and the second communication port if the received packet data is not in respect of communication to the at least one communication device and/or the customer communications node; and

c) add DSL packet data via at least one of the first communication port and the second communication port, the packet data being in respect of communication from the at least one communication device and/or the customer communications node.

27. The customer communications node of claim 26 wherein:

the at least one communication device comprises at least one analogue device; and

the at least one device interface comprises A/D (analogue to digital) circuitry and D/A (digital to analogue) circuitry for converting signals between analogue form and digital form for the at least one analogue device.

28. The customer communications node of claim 26 further configured to:

extract power from at least one of the first communication port and the second communication port; and

provide at least some of the extracted power to the at least one device interface.

29. The customer communications node of claim 26 wherein the at least one communication device comprises a low current consumption user device, the customer communications node further comprising:

a power supply for supplying power to the customer communications node and to the low current consumption user device such that the low current consumption user device is operable notwithstanding an electricity mains power failure, the power supply being powered by at least one of the first communication port and the second communication port.

30. The customer communications node of claim 29 wherein the low current consumption user device is a telephone.

31. The customer communications node of claim 29 further comprising:

a wireless interface through which the reach of the wireline network can be extended to reach other devices not connected directly by wireline connections.

32. The customer communications node of claim 29 further comprising:

a wireless interface through which protection switching is performed in the event of failure of one or more wireline connections.

33. The customer communications node of claim 29 further comprising:

a wireless interface through which a ring topology connecting two linear ADM topologies can be completed.

34. The customer communications node of claim 26, wherein the add/drop multiplexer is further configured to communicate digitized voice data as part of data packets in the same data packet stream as DSL packet data communicated over the linear arrangement of interconnections between the customer communications nodes.