Method and apparatus for real-time transport of multi-media information in a network

• US 20040068535A1
• Filed: 05/30/2003
• Published: 04/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Chi-Lie, Mitchell, Scott W., Subbiah, Baranitharan, Jimenez, Lomberto P., Soh, Kap, Cherian, Shoby A., Katabathuni, Sanjay, Su, Raymond, Hu, Maria, Rao, Sudhakar
• Granted Patent: US 7,996,588 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/200
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/324 in the data link layer [OSI layer 2], e.g. HDLC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

In one embodiment of a networking module, a first block receives a serial digital media signal, and provides a parallel digital media signal based on the serial digital media signal. A second block, operative with the first block, stores the parallel digital media signal in a corresponding slot in an outgoing frame, and sends the outgoing frame in response to receiving an incoming frame.

Claims

1. A networking module comprising:

a first block to receive a serial digital media signal, and provide a parallel digital media signal based on the serial digital media signal; and

a second block, operative with the first block, to store the parallel digital media signal in a corresponding slot in an outgoing frame, and to send the outgoing frame in response to receiving an incoming frame.

2. The networking module of claim 1 wherein the incoming frame is one of a series of incoming frames, each frame being received at a predetermined interval, wherein the first block provides a new parallel digital media signal based on the serial digital media signal during the interval, and the second block sends a new outgoing frame with the new parallel digital media signal each time the incoming frame is received.

3. The networking module of claim 1 wherein the digital media signal is an audio signal.

4. The networking module of claim 1 wherein the digital media signal is a video signal.

5. The networking module of claim 1 wherein the first block comprises a first-block-input-output interface and the second block comprises a second-block-input-output interface, operatively coupled to the first-block-input-output interface, to provide the parallel digital media signal to the first block.

6. The networking module of claim 5 wherein the first-block-input-output interface is a general purpose input output interface.

7. The networking module of claim 5 wherein the first-block-input-output interface is a peripheral control interface.

8. The networking module of claim 1 wherein the second block comprises an interface block to interface to a computer, to receive control signals to include in the outgoing frame.

9. The networking module of claim 8 wherein the interface block provides an i2c interface.

10. The networking module of claim 9 wherein the interface block provides a pci interface.

11. The networking module of claim 8 wherein the second block comprises a processor and memory, the memory to store a first procedure to store the parallel digital media signal in the outgoing frame and to send the outgoing frame, wherein the first procedure is downloaded from a computer.

12. The networking module of claim 1 wherein the first block is a field programmable gate array, and the second block is an application specific integrated circuit.

13. The networking module of claim 1 further comprising an analog-to-digital converter to provide the serial digital media signal to the first block based on an analog media signal.

14. The networking module of claim 1 wherein the second block is coupled to first and second ports, the incoming and the outgoing frames are received and sent, respectively, via the first port, wherein when the second block determines that the first port has failed, the second block receives subsequent incoming frames from the second port and sends subsequent outgoing frames to the second port.

15. A networking module comprising:

a first block to receive an incoming frame having a plurality of slots, and to extract a parallel digital media signal from one of the slots; and

a second block, operative in response to the first block, to receive the parallel digital media signal, and provide a serial digital media signal based on the parallel digital media signal.

16. The networking module of claim 15 wherein the incoming frame is one of a series of incoming frames, each frame being received at a predetermined interval, wherein the first block provides a new parallel digital media signal during the interval, and the second block outputs a new serial digital media signal based on the new parallel digital media signal each time the incoming frame is received.

17. The networking module of claim 15 wherein the digital media signal is an audio signal.

18. The networking module of claim 15 wherein the digital media signal is a video signal.

19. The networking module of claim 15 wherein the first block comprises a first-block-input-output interface and the second block comprises a second-block-input-output interface, operatively coupled to the first-block-input-output interface, to provide the parallel digital media signal to the first block.

20. The networking module of claim 19 wherein the first-block-input-output interface is a general purpose input output interface.

21. The networking module of claim 19 wherein the first-block-input-output interface is a peripheral control interface.

22. The networking module of claim 15 wherein the first block comprises an interface block to communicate with a computer, to receive control signals to include into the frame.

23. The networking module of claim 22 wherein the interface block provides an i2c interface.

24. The networking module of claim 22 wherein the interface block provides a pci interface.

25. The networking module of claim 22 wherein the second block comprises a processor and memory, the memory to store a first procedure to receive the parallel digital media signal from the incoming frame and to provide the parallel digital media signal as the serial digital media signal.

26. The networking module of claim 15 wherein the first block is a field programmable gate array, and the second block is an application specific integrated circuit.

27. The networking module of claim 15 further comprising an digital-to-analog converter to provide an analog media signal based on the serial digital media signal.

28. The networking module of claim 15 wherein the first block is coupled to first and second ports, the incoming frame is received from the first port, wherein when the first block determines that the first port has failed, the first block receives subsequent incoming frames from the second port.

29. The networking module of claim 15 wherein the first block is coupled to a port to receive the incoming frame, and further comprising:

a power source block, coupled to the port, to supply power via the port.

30. A networking module comprising:

a first block to receive a serial digital media signal, and provide a parallel digital media signal based on the serial digital media signal, respectively, the first block being operatively coupled to a first port to receive a first incoming frame; and

a second block, operative with the first block, to store the parallel digital media signal in a slot in the first incoming frame to produce a combined frame, and to send the combined frame to a second port in response to receiving a timing frame from the second port.

31. The networking module of claim 30 wherein the timing frame is one of a series of timing frames, each timing frame being received at a predetermined interval, wherein the first block receives a new incoming frame and provides a new parallel digital media signal based on the serial digital media signal during the interval, and the second block to store the new parallel digital media signal in a slot in the new frame to produce a new combined frame, and to sends the new combined frame each time the timing frame is received.

32. The networking module of claim 30 wherein the serial digital media signal is an audio signal.

33. The networking module of claim 30 wherein the serial digital media signal is a video signal.

34. The networking module of claim 31 wherein the first block comprises a first-block-input-output interface and the second block comprises a second-block-input-output interface, operatively coupled to the first-block-input-output interface, to provide the parallel digital media signal to the first block.

35. The networking module of claim 34 wherein the first-block-input-output interface is a general purpose input output interface.

36. The networking module of claim 35 wherein the first-block-input-output interface is a peripheral control interface.

37. The networking module of claim 30 wherein the second, block comprises an interface block to interface to a personal computer, to receive control signals to include in the outgoing frame.

38. The networking module of claim 30 wherein the interface block provides an i2c interface.

39. The networking module of claim 30 wherein the interface block provides a pci interface.

40. The networking module of claim 30 wherein the second block comprises a processor and memory, the memory to store a first procedure to store the parallel digital media signal in the outgoing frame and to send the outgoing frame.

41. The networking module of claim 30 wherein the first block is a field programmable gate array, and the second block is an application specific integrated circuit.

42. The networking module of claim 30 further comprising an analog-to-digital converter to provide the serial digital media signal to the first block based on an analog media signal.

43. The networking module of claim 30 wherein the first block is also coupled to a third port, wherein when the first block determines that the first port failed, subsequent incoming frames are received from the third port.

44. The networking module of claim 30 wherein the second block is also coupled to a fourth port, wherein when the second block determines that the second port failed, subsequent timing frames are received from the fourth port and subsequent combined frames are transmitted to the fourth port.

45. The networking module of claim 30 further comprising:

a power source block, coupled to the first port, to supply power via the first port.

47. The networking module of claim 45 wherein the signal receiver block, and the first and second blocks are operatively coupled by a pci bus.

48. The networking module of claim 45 wherein the signal receiver block, and the first and second blocks are operatively coupled by a general purpose input-output bus.

50. The networking module of claim 48 further comprising a second block, operatively coupled with the first block, to communicate with an external computer and the first block.

46. A networking module comprising:

a signal receiver block to receive a serial digital media signal, and provide a parallel digital media signal based on the serial digital media signal; and

first and second blocks, each operatively coupled to a first and second ports, respectively, the first and second blocks also being operatively coupled to the signal receiver block, the first block to receive a first incoming frame from the first port, the second block to store the parallel digital media signal in a slot in the first incoming frame to provide a combined frame, and to send the combined frame to a second port in response to receiving a timing frame from the second port.

49. A networking module comprising:

a signal receiver block to receive a serial digital media signal, and provide a parallel digital media signal based on the serial digital media signal; and

a first block, operatively coupled to a first and second ports, the first also being operatively coupled to the signal receiver block, the first block to receive a first incoming frame from the first port, to store the parallel digital media signal in a slot in the first incoming frame to provide a combined frame, and to send the combined frame to a second port in response to receiving a timing frame from the second port.

51. A method of operating a networking module comprising:

receiving frames synchronously at a predetermined interval in accordance with a first protocol;

determining when the frames are not being received at the predetermined interval; and

receiving and transmitting frames in accordance with a second protocol when said determining determines that the frames are not being received at the predetermined interval.

52. The method of claim 51 wherein the first protocol is the Magic protocol and the second protocol is standard ethernet protocol.

53. The method of claim 51 further comprising:

determining that the frames received in accordance with the second protocol comprise software to download into a memory; and

storing the software in the memory.

54. The method of claim 53 wherein said storing is performed based on a user authorization.

55. A multi-media system comprising:

a plurality of networking modules, coupled to each other, at least a subset of the networking modules receiving control information in frames;

a computer coupled to at least one of the networking modules, the computer comprising a networking-module application program to control the networking modules by supplying control information to the at least one networking module, wherein the at least one networking module provides at least a subset of the control information in at least one frame.

56. The multi-media system of claim 55 wherein the control information comprises information to assign audio channels.

57. The multi-media system of claim 55 wherein the at least one networking module receives monitoring information from at least one other networking module, and provides the monitoring information to the networking-module application program.

58. The multi-media system of claim 55 wherein the networking-module also receives digital audio signals from the networking modules, mixes the audio signals, and transmits the mixed audio signals to the at least one networking module.