Auto-discovery in a switch

• US 8,462,661 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2008
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Commscope DSL Systems LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ADC DSL Systems, Inc. (TE Connectivity Ltd. (United Kingdom))
• Inventors: Phillips, Melvin Richard, Holt, Jefferson Logan Sr., Meador, William C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Scheibel, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): CATTUNGAL, AJAY P
• Application Number:
  US12/027,617
• Publication Number:
  US 20090082047A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,951 Days
• Field of Search: 370/229, 370/236, 370/237, 370/241, 370/254, 370/255, 370/351, 370/352, 370/343, 370/465, 370/401, 709/209, 709/217, 709/218, 709/220, 709/222, 709/244
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/101 using crossbar or matrix
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/085 Access point devices with remote components

Abstract

A wireless communication system comprises a hub; a plurality of radio access nodes; a plurality of forward devices that produce digitized versions of downstream analog radio frequency signals; a plurality of reverse devices that produce reconstructed versions of upstream analog radio frequency signals; a plurality of transport interfaces to couple the hub to the plurality of communication links; and a switch having a plurality of ports. The plurality of ports comprises a plurality of input ports and plurality of output ports. The switch listens for a device identifier on at least one of the plurality of input ports to determine if a device is communicatively coupled to the input port. The switch transmits a port identifier over at least one of the plurality of output ports and searches a shared data structure to determine if a device is communicatively coupled to the output port.

Claims

1. A wireless communications system comprising:

a hub;

a plurality of radio access nodes, wherein each of the plurality of radio access nodes is coupled to the hub via a respective communication link;

wherein the hub comprises;

a plurality of forward devices that produce digitized versions of downstream analog radio frequency signals received from a plurality service provider interfaces;

a plurality of reverse devices that produce reconstructed versions of upstream analog radio frequency signals for transmission to the plurality of service provider interfaces based on digitized version of the upstream analog radio frequency signals received from the plurality of radio access nodes;

a plurality of transport interfaces to couple the hub to the plurality of communication links; and

a switch having a plurality of ports communicatively coupled to the hub forward devices, the hub reverse devices, and the transport interfaces, wherein the switch selectively routes the digitized versions of the downstream analog radio frequency signals and the digitized versions of the upstream analog radio frequency signals among the plurality of ports;

wherein the plurality of ports comprises a plurality of input ports and plurality of output ports;

wherein the switch listens for a device identifier on at least one of the plurality of input ports to determine if a device is communicatively coupled to the at least one of the plurality of input ports; and

wherein the switch transmits a respective port identifier over at least one of the plurality of output ports and, thereafter, searches a copy of a shared data structure maintained at the hub to determine if a device is communicatively coupled to the at least one of the plurality of output ports of the switch;

wherein the device is one of the plurality of radio access nodes, one of the plurality of forward devices, or one of the plurality of reverse devices;

wherein when the respective port identifier is received, the device which received the respective port identifier is configured to store the respective port identifier in a respective local copy of the shared data structure;

wherein the copy of the shared data structure maintained at the hub is updated based on information in the respective local copy of the shared data structure;

wherein the switch searches for the respective port identifier in the copy of the shared data structure maintained at the hub to determine which device received the respective port identifier.

2. The system of claim 1:

wherein the plurality of forward devices produce the digitized versions of the downstream analog radio frequency signals by downconverting the downstream analog radio frequency signals and digitizing the resulting downconverted downstream analog radio frequency signals; and

wherein each reverse device produces the respective reconstructed upstream analog radio frequency signals from the digitized versions of the upstream analog radio frequency signals that are received by the respective reverse device by digital-to-analog converting the digitized versions of the upstream analog radio frequency signals received by the respective reverse device and upconverting the resulting analog signals in order to produce the respective reconstructed upstream analog radio frequency signals.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein each radio access node comprises:

a RAN transport interface to couple the respective radio access node to a respective communication link;

a RAN forward device to produce reconstructed downstream analog radio frequency signals from the digitized versions of the downstream analog radio frequency signals received by the respective RAN transport interface; and

a reverse RAN device to produce digitized versions of the upstream analog radio frequency signals received at the radio access node for transmission by the respective RAN transport interface to the hub.

4. The system of claim 3:

wherein the forward RAN device produces the reconstructed downstream analog radio frequency signals from the digitized versions of the downstream analog radio frequency signals received by the respective RAN transport interface by digital-to-analog converting the digitized versions of the downstream analog radio frequency signals received by the respective RAN transport interface and upconverting the resulting respective analog signals in order to produce the reconstructed downstream analog radio frequency signals; and

wherein the reverse RAN device produces digitized versions of the upstream analog radio frequency signals received at the radio access node by downconverting the upstream analog radio frequency signals and digitizing the resulting downconverted upstream analog radio frequency signals.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the hub receives the downstream analog radio frequency signals from at least one service provider interface, wherein at least one service provider interface comprises one of an interface to one or more of a base transceiver station (BTS), a repeater, a bi-directional amplifier, and a base station hotel.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the device identifier comprises a pathtrace in a header of a received frame.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the switch associates a received device identifier with a port number associated with the input port on which the received device identifier was received.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the shared data structure is a shared MIB object.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the port identifier comprises at least:

a timestamp and a port number of the output port over which the port identifier is transmitted.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the switch listens for a device identifier on at least one of the plurality of input ports while substantially simultaneously transmitting a respective port identifier over at least one of the plurality of output ports.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the hub further comprises a hub master central processing unit (CPU), the hub master CPU is configured to query a tenant/RAN data object to identify out-of-service connections and to query the switch for knowledge of a plurality of devices for connecting a tenant interface and associated radio access node for each identified out-of-service connection.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the hub master CPU is further configured to select at least one possible connection path based on a response from the switch, instruct the switch to make the selected connection path, and query each device used in the connection to determine if the connection has been established successfully.

13. A hub for communicating with a plurality of radio access nodes over a plurality of communication links, the hub comprising:

a plurality of forward devices that produce digitized versions of downstream analog radio frequency signals received from a plurality service provider interfaces;

a plurality of reverse devices that produce reconstructed versions of upstream analog radio frequency signals for transmission to the plurality of service provider interfaces based on digitized versions of the upstream analog radio frequency signals received from the plurality of radio access nodes;

a plurality of transport interfaces to couple the hub to the plurality of communication links; and

a switch having a plurality of ports communicatively coupled to the hub forward devices, the hub reverse devices, and the transport interfaces, wherein the switch selectively routes the digitized versions of the downstream analog radio frequency signals and the digitized versions of the upstream analog radio frequency signals among the plurality of ports;

wherein the plurality of ports comprises a plurality of input ports and plurality of output ports;

wherein the switch listens for a device identifier on at least one of the plurality of input ports to determine if a device is communicatively coupled to the at least one of the plurality of input ports; and

wherein the switch transmits a respective port identifier over at least one of the plurality of output ports and, thereafter, searches a copy of a shared data structure maintained at the hub to determine if a device is communicatively coupled to the at least one of the plurality of output ports;

wherein the device is one of the plurality of radio access nodes, one of the plurality of forward devices, or one of the plurality of reverse devices;

wherein the copy of the shared data structure maintained at the hub is updated based on information in a respective local copy of the shared data structure maintained at the device which received the respective port identifier;

wherein the switch searches for the respective port identifier in the copy of the shared data structure maintained at the hub to determine which device received the respective port identifier.

14. A method comprising:

scanning an unconnected input port in a switch, wherein scanning the unconnected input port comprises;

listening for a device identifier on the unconnected input port; and

if the device identifier is detected on the unconnected input port, associating the device identifier with a port identifier associated with the unconnected input port; and

scanning an unconnected output port in the switch, wherein scanning the unconnected output port comprises;

transmitting on the unconnected output port a port identifier associated with the unconnected output port;

determining if a device received the port identifier by searching in a copy of a shared data structure maintained at a hub for the port identifier; and

if a device received the port identifier, associating the port identifier associated with the unconnected output port with a device identifier associated with the device that received the port identifier;

wherein the copy of the shared data structure maintained at the hub is updated based on information in a respective local copy of the shared data structure maintained at the device which received the respective port identifier.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein listening for a device identifier comprises listening for a pathtrace in a header of a received frame.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein listening for a device identifier comprises coupling the undiscovered input port to an internal digital intermediate frequency (DIF) sink.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein associating the device identifier with the port identifier associated with the unconnected input port comprises updating the shared data structure to indicate that the device identifier is associated with the port identifier associated with the unconnected input port.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein transmitting on the unconnected output port the port identifier associated with the unconnected output port comprises coupling the unconnected output port to an internal digital intermediate frequency (DIF) source.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein scanning the unconnected output port in the switch comprises scanning the unconnected output port substantially simultaneously with scanning the unconnected input port.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein scanning the unconnected output port comprises scanning the unconnected output port after scanning the unconnected input port.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein transmitting a port identifier comprises transmitting a pathtrace in a header of a frame transmitted from the switch.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein transmitting a pathtrace comprises transmitting a pathtrace containing a switch identifier, an output port number associated with the unconnected output port, and a timestamp.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein determining if a device received the port identifier associated with the unconnected output port comprises searching the shared data structure for the timestamp and the output port number.

24. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

querying a tenant/RAN data object to identify an out-of-service connection between a tenant interface and a radio access node (RAN);

if an out-of-service connection is identified, querying the switch for knowledge of a plurality of devices for connecting the tenant interface and the RAN; and

based on the response to the query of the switch, updating the tenant/RAN data object with one or more possible connection paths using the plurality of devices.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

selecting one of the one or more possible connection paths;

instructing the switch to connect the plurality of devices of the selected connection path;

querying each of the plurality of devices used in an upstream portion of the connection path to determine if a tenant identifier is being received;

querying each of the plurality of devices used in a downstream portion of the connection path to determine if the tenant identifier is being received;

if the tenant identifier is being received at each device in the upstream portion, updating the tenant/RAN data object to indicate that the upstream portion is connected;

if the tenant identifier is being received at each device in the downstream portion, updating the tenant/RAN data object to indicate that the downstream portion is connected;

if both the upstream and downstream portions are connected, updating the tenant/RAN data object to indicate that the connection path is in service.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein instructing the switch to connect the selected connection path comprises:

instructing the switch to connect a hub forward device corresponding to the tenant to a RAN forward device in the RAN; and

instructing the switch to connect a reverse device corresponding to the tenant to a RAN reverse device in the RAN.

27. A method comprising:

listening for a device identifier on an unconnected port;

if the device identifier is detected, storing the device identifier and a port number associated with the unconnected port in a data structure;

if the device identifier is not detected, transmitting a port identifier associated with the unconnected port over the unconnected port;

determining if a device received the port identifier by searching in a copy of a shared data structure maintained at a hub for the port identifier; and

if a device received the port identifier, storing a port number associated with the unconnected port and a device identifier associated the device that received the port identifier in the data structures;

wherein the copy of the shared data structure maintained at the hub is updated based on information in a respective local copy of the shared data structure maintained at the device which received the respective port identifier.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein listening for a device identifier comprises listening for a pathtrace in a header of a received frame.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein listening for a device identifier comprises coupling the unconnected port to an internal digital intermediate frequency (DIF) sink.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein storing the device identifier and the port number associated with the unconnected port in the data structure comprises storing the device identifier and the port number associated with the unconnected port in a shared MIB object.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein transmitting the port identifier associated with the unconnected port over the unconnected port comprises coupling the unconnected port to an internal digital intermediate frequency (DIF) source.

32. The method of claim 27, wherein transmitting the port identifier associated with the unconnected port over the unconnected port comprises transmitting a pathtrace in a header of a frame transmitted from the switch.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the pathtrace comprises an identifier associated with the switch, a port number associated with the unconnected port, and a timestamp.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein determining if a device received the port identifier comprises searching the shared data structure for the timestamp and the port number associated with the unconnected port.

35. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

querying a tenant/RAN data object to identify an out-of-service connection between a tenant interface and a radio access node (RAN);

if an out-of-service connection is identified, querying the switch for knowledge of a plurality of devices for connecting the tenant interface and RAN; and

based on the response to the query of the switch, updating the tenant/RAN data object with one or more possible connection paths using the plurality of devices.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising:

selecting one of the one or more possible connection paths;

instructing the switch to connect the plurality of devices of the selected connection path;

querying each of the plurality of devices used in an upstream portion of the connection path to determine if a tenant identifier is being received;

querying each of the plurality of devices used in a downstream portion of the connection path to determine if the tenant identifier is being received;

if the tenant identifier is being received at each device in the upstream portion, updating the tenant/RAN data object to indicate that the upstream portion is connected;

if the tenant identifier is being received at each device in the downstream portion, updating the tenant/RAN data object to indicate that the downstream portion is connected;

if both the upstream and downstream portions are connected, updating the tenant/RAN data object to indicate that the connection path is in service.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein instructing the switch to connect the selected connection path comprises:

instructing the switch to connect a forward device in the hub corresponding to the tenant to a forward device in the RAN; and

instructing the switch to connect a reverse simulcast transmission block corresponding to the tenant to a RAN down-converter in the RAN.

38. A switch comprising:

a plurality of input ports;

a plurality of output port; and

a programmable controller to;

initiate listening on at least one of the plurality of input ports for a device identifier to determine if a device is communicatively coupled to the at least one input port;

initiate transmitting a port identifier over at least one of the plurality of output ports; and

determine if a device is communicatively coupled to the at least one output port by searching for the port identifier in a copy of a shared data object maintained at a hub where the switch is located to identify if a device received the port identifier;

wherein the copy of the shared data structure maintained at the hub is updated based on information in a respective local copy of the shared data structure maintained at the device which received the respective port identifier.

39. The switch of claim 38, wherein the device identifier is a pathtrace in a header of a received frame.

40. The switch of claim 38, further comprising a memory block, wherein the programmable controller is configured to store in a data structure in the memory block the device identifier and a port number associated with the at least one input port.

41. The switch of claim 38, wherein the data structure is the shared data object.

42. The switch of claim 38, wherein the port identifier comprises at least the port number of the at least one output port over which the port identifier is transmitted and a timestamp.

43. The switch of claim 38, wherein the programmable controller is configured to initiate listening for a device identifier on at least one of the plurality of input ports while substantially simultaneously initiating transmitting a port identifier over at least one of the plurality of output ports.