System and method for high speed data communications

• US 9,391,723 B2
• Filed: 11/27/2006
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Matthews, Adrian S.
• Primary Examiner(s): LIAO, HSINCHUN
• Application Number:
  US11/604,667
• Publication Number:
  US 20080124086A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,515 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01P 3/16 Dielectric waveguides, i.e. without a longitudinal conductor
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/542 the information being in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/61 for local area broadcast, e.g. instore broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/69 Optical systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/84 combined with power distribution network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2814 Exchanging control software or macros for controlling appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving configuration of the network and network elements H04L41/08

Abstract

A method is disclosed for delivering data to an end user device, the method including receiving an optical signal containing broadband digital data; converting the optical signal to a first radio frequency signal; transmitting the first radio frequency (RF) signal from an RF transmitter to a first RF receiver in a first local region associated with the end user device; and converting the received radio frequency signal to a digital data signal. A system and computer program for performing the method are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for delivering broadband video data to an end user device comprising:

selecting a plurality of end user devices in a home for receiving broad band video data;

transmitting the broadband video data from a television distribution network over fiber optic cable to a digital distribution node near the home;

selecting a home radio frequency for transmitting the video data to the home, wherein the home radio frequency is unique to the home in a region served by the digital distribution node;

transmitting the broadband video data from the digital distribution node on the selected home radio frequency via a radio frequency transmitter to a home radio frequency receiver located at a residential power transformer providing electrical power to the home;

coupling the broad band data from the home radio frequency receiver to a first modem onto a residential voltage copper power line electrically coupled to the resident power transformer;

receiving the broadband data on a second modem from the residential voltage copper power lines; and

sending from the second modem different portions of the broadband data to each of a plurality of end user devices in the home.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the modem sends the broadband data to the end user device in a unicast.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the broad band data is multicast from the modem to a plurality of end user devices and wherein the plurality of RF signals comprises a band of RF frequencies and wherein a first subset of the band of RF frequencies is associated with a first end user device and a second subset of the band of RF frequencies is associated with a second end user device, wherein the first subset of frequencies and the second subset of frequencies do not overlap.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first subset of RF frequencies are encrypted using a first encryption key associated with the first end user device and the second subset of RF frequencies are encrypted using a second encryption key associated with the second end user device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a second plurality of RF signals to a second plurality of RF receivers in a second local region, wherein the first plurality of RF signals and the second plurality of RF signals do not interfere with each other in their local regions.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first and second plurality of RF signals share the same frequency band.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the broadband data as an optical signal; and

converting the optical signal using a uni-traveling carrier photodiode.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising;

using a phase of a carrier signal for one of link management and enhanced power when link degradation occurs.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

converting the received radio frequency signal further comprises sampling the received signal using electro optic sampling.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the RF transmitter is placed in a location selected from the group consisting of an electric power distribution substation, a residence and a triple play network node.

11. A system for delivering data to a plurality of end user device comprising:

an RF receiver at a residential power transformer that receives video data from a television distribution node, wherein the RF receiver is in a first local region associated with a plurality of end user devices, wherein an optical converter transmits a first plurality of RF signals from the RF receiver and the RF receiver converts the received RF signal to a digital data signal;

a first modem in electrical communication with a lower residential voltage power line that couples the video data to the lower residential power line; and

a second that receives the video data from the first modem, for sending different portions of the broadband television data to each of a plurality of end user devices.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the

first modem places the converted radio frequency digital data signal on electrical power wiring associated with the end user device.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of RF signals comprises a band of RF frequencies and wherein a first subset of the band of RF frequencies is associated with a first end user device and a second subset of the band of RF frequencies is associated with a second end user device, wherein the first subset of frequencies and the second subset of frequencies do not overlap.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first subset of RF frequencies are encrypted using a first encryption key associated with the first end user device and the second subset of RF frequencies are encrypted using a second encryption key associated with the second end user device.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the transmitter transmits a second plurality of RF signals to a second plurality of RF receivers in a second local region, wherein the first plurality of RF signals and the second plurality of RF signals do not interfere with each other in their respective local regions.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first and second plurality of RF signals share the same frequency band.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the optical converter further comprises a uni-traveling carrier photodiode that converts the optical signal the optical signal using the uni-traveling carrier photodiode.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the optical converter uses a phase of the carrier signal for one of the group consisting of link management and enhanced power when link degradation occurs.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the receiver further comprises an electro optic sampling device for converting the received radio frequency using electro optic sampling.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the RF transmitter is placed at a location selected from the group consisting of an electric power distribution substation, a residence and a triple play network node.

21. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing a computer program of executable instructions, the computer program performing functions that delivering data to an end user device, the computer program comprising:

instructions to receive video data for a selected end user from a video distribution network node on a fiber optic cable;

instructions to transmit the video data as a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals at a plurality of different frequencies to a plurality of receivers coupled to a plurality of residential voltage power lines, wherein one of the plurality of frequencies is selected for the selected end user and one of the plurality of residential power lines provides power for the selected end user;

instructions to receive the television broadband data on a modem from the one of the plurality of residential power lines for the selected end user; and

instructions to send from the modem different portions of the video data to each of a plurality of end user devices over a low voltage residential power line, wherein the modem is directly coupled to the low voltage residential power line for the end user devices.

22. The medium of claim 21, wherein the RF signal comprises a band of RF frequencies and wherein a first subset of the band of RF frequencies is associated with a first end user device and a second subset of the band of RF frequencies is associated with a second end user device, wherein the first subset of frequencies and the second subset of frequencies do not overlap.

23. The medium of claim 22, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions to encrypt the first subset of RF frequencies using a first encryption key associated with the first end user device and encrypt the second subset of RF frequencies using a second encryption key associated with the second end user device.

24. The medium of claim 21, the computer program further comprising:

instructions to transmit a second 21, plurality of RF signals to a second plurality of RF receivers in a second local region, wherein the first plurality of RF signals and the second plurality of RF signals do not interfere with each other in their local regions.

25. The medium of claim 24, wherein the first and second plurality of RF signals share the same frequency band.

26. The medium of claim 21, wherein the instructions to convert the optical signal further comprises instructions to convert the optical signal using a uni-traveling carrier photodiode.

27. The medium of claim 26, the computer program further comprising instructions to use a phase of the carrier signal for one of the group consisting of link management and enhanced power when link degradation occurs.

28. The medium of claim 21, wherein converting the received radio frequency signal further comprises sampling the received signal using electro optic sampling.

29. The medium of claim 21, wherein the RF transmitter is placed at a location selected from an electric power distribution substation, a residence and a triple play network node.