HDMI communication over twisted pairs

• US 9,398,240 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2009
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Valens Semiconductor Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Valens Semiconductor Ltd.
• Inventors: Lida, Eyran, Banet, Nadav, Cohen, Gaby Gur
• Primary Examiner(s): TAYONG, HELENE E
• Application Number:
  US12/348,313
• Publication Number:
  US 20090147864A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,753 Days
• Field of Search: 375/257, 375/140, 370/294
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/4919 using balanced multilevel codes H04L25/4927 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/0008 arrangements for allowing a transmitter or receiver to use more than one type of modulation negotiating modulation type for two-way transmission paths H04L5/1453
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/143 for modulated signals H04L5/1469 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43632 involving a wired protocol, e.g. IEEE 1394 high-speed IEEE 1394 serial bus H04L12/40052
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/38 Transmitter circuitry for the transmission of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence

Abstract

A method of transmitting a data stream over a communication channel, the method comprising: providing symbol sets having different numbers of symbols; modulating data in the data stream that warrant different degrees of protection against noise onto symbols from symbol sets having different numbers of symbols, wherein which symbol set given data in the stream is modulated onto is independent of symbol sets onto which other data in the data stream is modulated onto; and transmitting the symbols.

Claims

1. A link configured to connect between first and second ports, comprising:

a first port coupled to a Transition Minimized Differential Signaling (TMDS) source device configured to generate TMDS data that comprises uncompressed high definition video, and coupled to a first device configured to generate bidirectional data in source-to-sink direction;

the first port is configured to multiplex the TMDS data and the bidirectional data in source-to-sink direction into a multiplexed stream, and to transmit the multiplexed stream to a second port utilizing a first frequency band, over a cable having 8 wires, selected from a group of;

CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6, CAT6a, and CAT7;

a second port coupled to a TMDS sink device and coupled to a second device;

the second port is configured to generate a back-channel stream in sink-to-source direction, and to transmit the back-channel stream to the first port, over the cable, utilizing a second frequency band that at least partially overlaps with the first frequency band; and

wherein the first port is further configured to transmit and receive, in a full duplex mode, over each of at least one of the wires, both the multiplexed stream and the back-channel stream.

2. The link of claim 1, wherein the link provides better signal protection to the bidirectional data compared to the signal protection provided to the TMDS data.

3. The link of claim 2, wherein the bidirectional data is transmitted using a first modulation and the TMDS data is transmitted using a second modulation.

4. The link of claim 3, wherein the first and the second modulations are pulse amplitude modulations.

5. The link of claim 3, wherein the first and the second modulations are pulse amplitude modulations using at least partially overlapping subsets of same symbol set.

6. The link of claim 1, wherein the link is configured to transmit at least two data types using at least two different modulations providing different levels of protection against noise.

7. The link of claim 6, wherein the different modulations are pulse amplitude modulations.

8. The link of claim 7, wherein the different modulations use at least partially overlapping subsets of same symbol set.

9. The link of claim 1, wherein the TMDS source and sink devices are High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) source and sink devices.

10. The link of claim 9, wherein the link is further configured to transfer HDMI control data.

11. The link of claim 10, wherein the HDMI control data comprises one or more of the following:

I2C, Consumer Electronics Control (CEC), Hot Plug Detect (HPD), or 5V indication.

12. The link of claim 1, wherein the first port is further configured to couple a second TMDS source device.

13. The link of claim 12, wherein the second port is further configured to couple a second TMDS sink device.

14. The link of claim 1, wherein the bidirectional data comprises one or more of the following:

digital visual interface (DVI) control signal data, HDMI control signal data, I2C, Consumer Electronics Control (CEC), Hot Plug Detect (HPD), 5V indication, or a combination thereof.

15. The link of claim 1, wherein the bidirectional data comprises Ethernet data.

16. A method for operating a link, comprising:

receiving from a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) source, over a first set of wires, HDMI Transition Minimized Differential Signaling (HDMI TMDS) data that comprises uncompressed high definition video, and HDMI control data over a different set of wires;

modulating the HDMI TMDS data with a first modulation providing a first level of protection against noise, and modulating the HDMI control data with a second modulation providing a second level of protection against noise;

multiplexing the modulated HDMI TMDS data and the modulated HDMI control data; and

transmitting, using a first frequency band, the multiplexed data over a cable having 8 wires, selected from a group of;

CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6, CAT6a, and CAT7,

in a full duplex mode, while receiving simultaneously, using a second frequency band, a data channel over at least a subset of the 8 wires;

wherein the second frequency band at least partially overlaps with the first frequency band.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first and the second modulations are pulse amplitude modulations.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the first and second modulations use at least partially overlapping subsets of same symbol set.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the symbol set is PAM-16.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of receiving the multiplexed data and mapping symbols comprised in the multiplexed data to appropriate demodulators.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising transmitting the multiplexed data utilizing a link rate that is independent of HDMI TMDS clock.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of arranging the multiplexed data into packets, wherein the packets do not include additional data related to video format.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of arranging the multiplexed data into packets, wherein the packets do not include the following data:

picture line number, video frame number, sequence number of a frame.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the HDMI source signals comprise HDMI video, audio, and control signal data.

25. A communication link comprising:

a multiplexor configured to multiplex unidirectional Transition Minimized Differential Signaling (TMDS) source data and bidirectional data in a first direction into multiplexed data; and

a transceiver configured to transmit the multiplexed data, over a cable made of wires, in a full duplex mode, utilizing a first frequency band, while receiving bidirectional data in a second direction over at least a subset of the wires utilized for the transmission of the multiplexed data, wherein the received bidirectional data utilizes a second frequency band that at least partially overlaps with the first frequency band;

wherein the multiplexed data comprises at least two different modulations providing different levels of protection against noise, and the different modulations use at least partially overlapping subsets of the same symbol set.

26. The communication link of claim 25, wherein the different modulations are pulse amplitude modulations.

27. The communication link of claim 25, wherein the symbol set is PAM-16.

28. The communication link of claim 25, wherein the cable is selected from a group of:

CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6, CAT6a, and CAT7.

29. The communication link of claim 25, further comprising means for arranging the multiplexed data into packets, wherein the packets do not include additional data related to video format.

30. The communication link of claim 25, further comprising means for arranging the multiplexed data into packets, wherein the packets do not include at least one of the following data:

picture line number, video frame number, or sequence number of the frame.

31. The communication link of claim 25, wherein the bidirectional data comprises one or more of the following:

digital visual interface (DVI) control signal data, High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) control signal data, I2C, Consumer Electronics Control (CEC), Hot Plug Detect (HPD), 5V indication, or a combination thereof.

32. The communication link of claim 25, wherein the bidirectional data comprises Ethernet data.

33. The communication link of claim 25, wherein the communication link is agnostic to video format.