Apparatus of automatically detecting type of cable connected to network and method thereof

• US 20060195286A1
• Filed: 02/01/2005
• Published: 08/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alpha Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Alpha Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Tsai, Wei-Hung
• Granted Patent: US 7,340,363 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/117
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/67 Testing the correctness of wire connections in electric apparatus or circuits

Abstract

The present invention is to provide an apparatus of automatically detecting the type of a cable connected to a network and method thereof, which comprising a memory having an automatic detection program, a switch, a network controller adapted to switch the state of the switch based on a predetermined switching order stored in the automatic detection program, a port having its state being detected by the network controller such that the automatic detection program is able to know the type of a compatible cable by connecting a connector at one end of the cable to the port, and a plurality of transmission interfaces interconnected the network controller and the switch wherein the network apparatus is adapted to receive network signals transmitted from the cable and maintain a connecting state of one transmission interface.

Claims

1. A method of automatically detecting the type of a cable connected to a network, the method implemented in a network apparatus comprising a memory having an automatic detection program, a switch, a network controller adapted to switch the state of the switch based on a predetermined switching order stored in the automatic detection program, a port having its state being detected by the network controller such that the automatic detection program is able to know the type of a compatible cable by connecting a connector at one end of the cable to the port, and a plurality of transmission interfaces interconnected the network controller and the switch wherein the network apparatus is adapted to receive network signals transmitted from the cable and maintain a connecting state of one transmission interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network controller is adapted to switch the state of the switch for signal transmission by performing the steps of:

(a) loading the automatic detection program into a register in the network apparatus;

(b) running the automatic detection program to access the transmission interfaces by means of the register such that the network apparatus is able to set the transmission interfaces sequentially;

(c) causing the running automatic detection program to command the network controller to switch the switch to connect to one of the transmission interfaces;

(d) sending a signal containing the current state of the port to the register such that the network controller is able to determine whether the signal is to be processed by the transmission interface connected to the switch by analyzing the signal transmitted to the register wherein the signal is transmitted from the cable by connecting the port to the connector;

(e) if the network controller determines that the signal is to be processed by the transmission interface connected to the switch, causing the network controller to maintain the connecting state of the transmission interface and the switch for receiving network signals from the cable; and

(f) continuously processing the signal by analyzing the signal transmitted to the register from the port.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein in the step (d) if the network controller determines that the signal is not to be processed by the transmission interface connected to the switch, further comprises the steps of:

(g) determining whether a predetermined period of waiting time set by the automatic detection program has been reached;

(h) if it is determined that the predetermined period of waiting time has been reached, commanding the network controller by the running automatic detection program to cause the switch to connect to another transmission interface; and

(i) continuously processing the signal by analyzing the signal transmitted to the register from the port.

4. An apparatus of automatically detecting the type of a cable connected to a network, comprising:

a plurality of transmission interfaces provided in a network apparatus;

a port provided on a surface of the network apparatus;

a switch provided between the port and the transmission interfaces;

a memory provided in the network apparatus and having an automatic detection program; and

a network controller provided in the network apparatus and connected to the switch, the memory, and each of the transmission interfaces respectively,

wherein in response to activating the network apparatus, the network controller is adapted to detect a network signal transmitted from the port connected to the connector at one end of the cable by running the automatic detection program, if the network signal is to be processed by one transmission interface connected to the switch the switch will not be switched, and the transmission interface is adapted to continuously process the network signal transmitted from the port via the connected connector.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the network controller is adapted to detect a network signal transmitted from the port connected to the connector at one end of the cable by running the automatic detection program, if the network signal is not to be processed by one transmission interface connected to the switch the switch will be switched to connect to another transmission interface, and it is adapted to determine whether the port is receiving a signal transmitted from the port via the connected connector at one end of another type of cable with the switch interconnected the port and another transmission interface.