Systems and methods for duplex communication

• US 9,203,597 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2013
• Issued: 12/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Molex LLC (KOCH Industries Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Keyssa, Inc.
• Inventors: McCormack, Gary D., Kyles, Ian A., Wolcott, John Byren
• Primary Examiner(s): WILLIAMS, JENEE LAUREN
• Application Number:
  US13/784,396
• Publication Number:
  US 20130308501A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,002 Days
• Field of Search: 370/277
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4027 using bus bridges G06F13/4022 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/1407 Artificial lines or their setting for line transmission systems in general H04B3/40

Abstract

A communication device includes an EHF communication unit, a data signal line, and a protocol bridge element. The EHF communication unit includes a transceiver, and an antenna coupled to the transceiver. The data signal line carries a data signal conforming to a first communication protocol. The protocol bridge element is coupled to the data signal line and EHF communication unit, and configured to receive a first protocol-compliant data signal from the data signal line, translate the first protocol-compliant data signal to an outbound binary signal, time-compress the outbound binary signal, and transmit the outbound time-compressed signal to the transceiver. The protocol bridge element is further configured to receive an inbound time-compressed signal from the transceiver, time-decompress inbound time-compressed signal to an inbound binary signal, translate inbound binary signal to conform to a second communication protocol, and provide second protocol-compliant signal to the first data signal line.

Claims

1. A communication device comprising:

a first extremely high frequency (EHF) communication unit configured to transmit and receive EHF signals, wherein the first EHF communication unit comprises;

a transceiver configured to receive and demodulate an inbound EHF signal into an inbound time-compressed signal, and to receive and modulate an outbound time-compressed signal into an outbound EHF signal; and

an antenna coupled to the transceiver configured to receive the outbound EHF signal from the transceiver and transmit the outbound EHF signal, and to receive an inbound EHF signal and provide the inbound EHF signal to the transceiver;

a first data signal line configured to carry a data signal conforming to a first communication protocol; and

a first protocol bridge element coupled to both the first data signal line and the first EHF communication unit, and configured to;

receive a first protocol-compliant data signal from the first data signal line, translate the first protocol-compliant data signal to an outbound binary signal, time-compress the outbound binary signal, and transmit the outbound time compressed signal to the transceiver; and

receive the inbound time-compressed signal from the transceiver, time decompress the inbound time-compressed signal to an inbound binary signal, translate the inbound binary signal to conform to a second communication protocol, and provide a second protocol-compliant signal to the first data signal line.

2. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the transceiver includes a receiver configured to receive and demodulate the inbound EHF signal into the inbound time compressed signal;

and a transmitter configured to receive and modulate the outbound time-compressed signal into the outbound EHF signal; and

the antenna is coupled to both the receiver and the transmitter.

3. The communication device of claim 2, wherein the first protocol bridge element further comprises:

a protocol interface configured to transmit and receive the first and second protocol-compliant data signals to and from the first data signal line, and translate the first and second protocol-compliant data signals to outbound and inbound binary signals respectively, and vice versa;

a time-compression module coupled to the protocol interface, and configured to receive and time-compress the outbound binary signal, and transmit the outbound time-compressed signal to the transmitter; and

a time-decompression module coupled to the protocol interface, and configured to receive the inbound time-compressed signal from the receiver, decompress the inbound time-compressed signal to the inbound binary signal, and provide the inbound binary signal to the protocol interface.

4. The communication device of claim 3, further comprising a memory storage element coupled to the protocol interface, the time-compression module, and the time-decompression module.

5. The communication device of claim 3, wherein the time-compression module includes a rate multiplier to time-compress the outbound binary signal.

6. The communication device of claim 5, wherein the rate multiplier provides the outbound time-compressed signal to the transmitter using time-division multiplexing as time-spaced bursts.

7. The communication device of claim 6, wherein the rate multiplier provides a marker pattern in each burst to indicate a start and an end of each burst.

8. The communication device of claim 6, wherein the rate multiplier provides the outbound time-compressed signal as a series of time-spaced bursts alternating with intervals of blanking data.

9. The communication device of claim 6, wherein the first protocol bridge element distinguishes the outbound time-compressed signal from the inbound time-compressed signal by variation in time.

10. The communication device of claim 3, wherein the time-decompression module includes a deserializer to decompress and extract the inbound time-compressed signal.

11. The communication device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol includes one of a Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol, a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) protocol, an Ethernet protocol, an Integrated Interchip Sound (I2S) protocol (or Inter-IC Sound protocol), an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) protocol, a DisplayPort (DP) protocol, a Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) protocol, a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) protocol, a Fibre Channel (FC) protocol, a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) protocol, a Thunderbolt protocol, a HyperTransport (HT) protocol, a QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) protocol, a RapidlO (RIO) protocol, a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) protocol, a Serial Digital Interface (SDI) protocol, a Secure Digital (SD) protocol, a Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO) protocol, and a Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol.

12. The communication device of claim 11, wherein each of the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol includes one of a Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol, an Ethernet protocol, an Integrated Interchip Sound (I2S) protocol (or Inter-IC Sound protocol), a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) protocol, or a DisplayPort (DP) protocol.

13. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first communication and second communication protocol are same.

14. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first data signal line includes one or more communication channels provided over one or more signal paths.

15. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first protocol bridge element is configured to communicate with the first EHF communication unit through one or more communication channels provided over one or more signal paths.

16. The communication device of claim 1, further comprising:

a second EHF communication unit, which may be the same or different from the first EHF communication unit;

a second data signal line, which may be the same or different from the first data signal line, and which is configured to carry a data signal conforming to a second communication protocol; and

a second protocol bridge element, which may be the same or different from the first protocol bridge element, and which is coupled to the second data signal line and the second EHF communication unit,

wherein the first and second protocol bridge elements are configured to enable contactless EHF communication between the first and second data signal lines via the first and second EHF communication units.

17. A method for duplex communication, comprising:

receiving, by a first protocol bridge element, a first protocol-compliant data signal, from a first data signal line coupled to the first protocol bridge element;

translating, by the first protocol bridge element, the first protocol-compliant data signal to an outbound binary signal;

time-compressing, by the first protocol bridge element, the outbound binary signal to an outbound time-compressed signal;

transmitting, by the first protocol bridge element, the outbound time-compressed signal, to a transmitter of a first extremely high frequency (EHF) communication unit coupled to the first protocol bridge element;

modulating, by the transmitter, the outbound time-compressed signal to an outbound EHF signal;

transmitting, by an antenna of the first EHF communication unit, the outbound EHF signal;

receiving, by the antenna, an inbound EHF signal;

demodulating, by a receiver of the first EHF communication unit, the inbound EHF signal to an inbound time-compressed signal;

receiving, by the first protocol bridge element, the inbound time-compressed signal;

time-decompressing, by the first protocol bridge element, the inbound time compressed signal to an inbound binary signal; and

translating, by the first protocol bridge element, the inbound binary signal to a second protocol-compliant data signal for providing to the first data signal line.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

transmitting, by the first protocol bridge element, the outbound time-compressed signal in one or more outbound bursts;

receiving, by the first protocol bridge element, the inbound time-compressed signal in one or more inbound bursts; and

synchronizing, by the first protocol bridge element, the inbound bursts and the outbound bursts to substantially prevent overlap of the inbound and outbound time-compressed signals.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising separating the one or more outbound bursts with blanking data.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising distinguishing, by the first protocol bridge element, the outbound time-compressed signal from an inbound time-compressed signal time variation.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein synchronizing the inbound bursts and the outbound bursts includes providing a marker pattern in each burst to indicate a start and an end of each burst.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one of the first protocol-compliant data signal and second protocol-compliant data signal is compliant with a communication protocol that is a Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol, a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) protocol, an Ethernet protocol, an Integrated Interchip Sound (I2S) protocol (or Inter-IC Sound protocol), an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) protocol, a DisplayPort (DP) protocol, a Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) protocol, a HighDefinition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) protocol, a Fibre Channel (FC) protocol, a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) protocol, a Thunderbolt protocol, a HyperTransport (HT) protocol, a QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) protocol, a RapidlO (RIO) protocol, a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) protocol, a Serial Digital Interface (SDI) protocol,a Secure Digital (SD) protocol, a Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO) protocol, or a Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein each of the first protocol-compliant data signal and second protocol-compliant data signal is compliant with a communication protocol that is a Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol, an Ethernet protocol, an Integrated Interchip Sound (I2S) protocol (or Inter-IC Sound protocol), a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) protocol, or a DisplayPort (DP) protocol.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein a first communication protocol associated with the first protocol-compliant data signal and a second communication protocol associated with the second protocol-compliant data signal are the same.

25. The method of claim 17 further comprising communicating, by the first protocol bridge element, with the first EHF communication unit through one or more communication channels provided over one or more signal paths.