Allocation of signal-to-noise ratio margin in multi-carrier systems

• US 8,630,249 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2012
• Issued: 01/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxlinear Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Lantiq Deutschland GMBH (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Thyagarajan, Umashankar, Rudi, Frenzel, Heise, Bernd, Clausen, Axel
• Primary Examiner(s): WASHINGTON, ERIKA ALISE
• Application Number:
  US13/447,332
• Publication Number:
  US 20120201178A1
• Time in Patent Office: 638 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0046 Determination of how many bits are transmitted on different sub-channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0064 Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority

Abstract

Allocation of different signal-to-noise margins to different carriers in a multi-carrier system is described. A preferred embodiment comprises assigning signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) margins to carriers in a multi-carrier system, comprises assigning a first SNR margin to a first data service based upon a first service characteristic, assigning a second SNR margin to a second data service based upon a second service characteristic, transmitting data associated with the first data service using the first signal-to-noise margin, and transmitting data associated with the second data service using the second signal-to-noise margin.

Claims

1. A method for assigning signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) margins to carriers defined by a multi-carrier telecommunication protocol, comprising:

assigning a first SNR margin to a first group of carriers of the multi-carrier telecommunication protocol corresponding to voice data;

assigning a second SNR margin to a second group of carriers of the multi-carrier telecommunication protocol corresponding to non-voice data;

modulating the first and second groups of carriers for transmission over a telecommunication network as prescribed by the telecommunication protocol; and

transmitting the first and second group of carriers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first group of carriers and the second group of carriers are transmitted on the same physical medium.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the physical medium is a wireline connection.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the physical medium is a wireless connection.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first group of carriers are assigned to a first set of sequential frequencies, and the second group of carriers are assigned to a second set of sequential frequencies.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first group of carriers and the second group of carriers are assigned to non-subsequent frequencies.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second groups of carriers are modulated using a trellis coder.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first SNR margin is higher than the second SNR margin.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first group of carriers and the second group of carriers are assigned to non-subsequent frequencies and wherein the carriers are reordered for trellis code modulation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the multi-carrier system is an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) system or a Very high speed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) system.

11. An apparatus for assigning signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) margins to carriers defined by a multi-carrier telecommunication protocol, comprising:

a transceiver that is configured to assign a first SNR margin to a first group of carriers of the multi-carrier telecommunication protocol corresponding to voice data;

wherein the transceiver is configured to assign a second SNR margin to a second group of carriers of the multi-carrier telecommunication protocol corresponding to non-voice data;

a modulator that is configured to modulate the first and second groups of carriers for transmission over a telecommunication network as prescribed by the telecommunication protocol.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first group of carriers and the second group of carriers are transmitted on the same physical medium.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the physical medium is a wireline connection.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the physical medium is a wireless connection.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first group of carriers are assigned to a first set of sequential frequencies, and the second group of carriers are assigned to a second set of sequential frequencies.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first group of carriers and the second group of carriers are assigned to non-subsequent frequencies.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first and second groups of carriers are modulated using a trellis coder.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first SNR margin is higher than the second SNR margin.

19. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the first group of carriers and the second group of carriers are assigned to non-subsequent frequencies and wherein the carriers are reordered for trellis code modulation.

20. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the multi-carrier system is an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) system or a Very high speed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) system.