Systems and methods for a configurable communication device

• US 8,509,101 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2009
• Issued: 08/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Incorporated
• Inventors: Hilton, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): ROBERTS, BRIAN S
• Application Number:
  US12/578,814
• Publication Number:
  US 20110085468A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,399 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/40 Transceivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for configuring a communication device based, at least in part, on a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceiver. An SFP transceiver may be utilized in connection with a communication device that transmits data according to a variety of communication protocols. In various embodiments, the configuration may be based upon an SFP configuration value stored in a machine-readable storage medium in the SFP transceiver. In certain embodiments, the SFP configuration value may be an input, together with other values associated with the SFP transceiver and a secret key, to an algorithm for generating a license entitlement key. Certain embodiments may allow for the configuration of a communication device and/or distribution of license entitlement keys in the field.

Claims

1. A configurable communication system comprising:

a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceiver comprising,

an SFP configuration value,

a device communication port, and

a network communication port configured to communicatively couple the SFP transceiver to a network; and

a communication device configurable in at least one of a first mode and a second mode based on a license entitlement key, the communication device comprising,

a processor,

a secret key,

an SFP transceiver interface configured to communicatively couple the SFP transceiver to the communication device,

a first machine-readable storage medium comprising,

a configuration module executable by the processor, the configuration module configured to select a configuration setting based at least in part on the SFP configuration value,

a license entitlement key generation module executable on the processor and configured to generate a license entitlement key based on the SFP configuration value and the secret key;

wherein upon communicatively coupling the SFP transceiver to the communication device, the license entitlement key generation module generates the license entitlement key and the configuration module configures the communication device in one of the first mode and the second mode based on the generated license entitlement key, and

wherein the communication device is configured in the first mode to process communications received via the network communication port according to a first communications protocol and is configured in the second mode to process communications received via the network communication port according to a second communications protocol.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first communications protocol comprises Ethernet, and the second communications protocol comprises at least one of synchronized optical networking (SONET) and synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH).

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the network communications port is configured to communicate using at least one of 100BASE-T, 100BASE-FX, 100BASE-SX, 100BASE-BX, 1000BASE-X, 1000BASE-T, and 1000BASE-CX.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the network communications port is configured to communicate using at least one of OC-1, OC-3, OC-12, OC-24, OC-48, OC 192, STM-1, STM-4, STM-16 and STM-64.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor comprises a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), and wherein a configuration setting of the FPGA is selected based at least in part on the SFP configuration value.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the configuration setting in the first mode configures the FPGA to process Ethernet communications, and the configuration setting in a second mode configures the FPGA to process synchronized optical network communications.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the SFP transceiver comprises a second machine-readable storage medium, and wherein the SFP configuration value comprises a value stored on the second machine-readable storage medium.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the value stored on the second machine-readable storage medium comprises at least one of an identifier of a manufacturer of the SFP transceiver and a serial number of the SFP transceiver.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration value comprises a hardware value of the SFP transceiver.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the SFP transceiver communication interface comprises an I2C interface.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication device is configured to operate as an Ethernet switch in the first mode and is configured to operate as a SONET multiplexor in the second mode.

12. A method for configuring a communication device, the method comprising:

communicatively coupling a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceiver with a communication device, the SFP transceiver comprising a network communication port configured to communicatively couple the SFP transceiver to a network;

accessing an SFP configuration value stored on the SFP transceiver;

accessing a secret key stored on the communication device;

generating a license entitlement key using the SFP configuration value and the secret key using a license entitlement key generation module operating on the communication device;

configuring the communication device in one of the first mode and the second mode based on the license entitlement key; and

processing communications received via the network communication port according to a first communications protocol in the first mode and according to a second communications protocol in the second mode.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first communications protocol comprises Ethernet, and the second communications protocol comprises at least one of synchronized optical networking (SONET) and synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH).

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

selecting a configuration setting based at least in part on the SFP configuration value;

wherein the configuration setting comprises a setting of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

15. The method of claim 14, wherein configuring the communication device comprises selecting code executable on the FPGA based at least in part on the SFP configuration value.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising configuring the communication device to operate as a synchronized optical network multiplexer in the first mode.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising configuring the communication device to operate as an Ethernet switch in the second mode.

18. A communication device configured to receive a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceiver, the SFP transceiver comprising an SFP configuration value, the communication device comprising:

a processor;

a secret key,

an SFP transceiver interface configured to communicatively couple the SFP transceiver to the communication device; and

a first machine-readable storage medium comprising,

a configuration module executable by the processor, the configuration module configured to select a configuration setting of the communication device based at least in part on the SFP configuration value,

a license entitlement key generation module executable on the processor and configured to generate a license entitlement key based on the SFP configuration value and the secret key;

wherein upon communicatively coupling the SFP transceiver to the communication device, the license entitlement key generation module generates the license entitlement key and the configuration module configures the communication device in one of the first mode and the second mode based on the generated license entitlement key,

wherein the communication device is configured in the first mode to process communications received via a network communication port according to a first communications protocol and is configured in the second mode to process communications received via the network communication port according to a second communications protocol.