Network interface device and broadband local area network using coaxial cable

• US 7,594,249 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2001
• Issued: 09/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Entropic Communications, LLC (FIG LLC (d/b/a Fortress Investment Group LLC))
• Original Assignee: Entropic Communications Incorporated (Maxlinear Incorporated)
• Inventors: Berggren, Magnus, ElWardani, Ladd, Gurantz, Itzhak, Monk, Anton, Bernath, Brett
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller; John W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chowdhury; Sumaiya A
• Application Number:
  US09/910,412
• Publication Number:
  US 20020166124A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,985 Days
• Field of Search: 725/51, 725/54, 725/80, 725/74, 725/78, 725/85, 725/125, 725/119, 725/127
• US Class Current: 725/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/615 Signal processing at physical level signal processing in analog two-way television systems H04N7/173
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/102 Circuits therefor, e.g. noise reducers, equalisers, amplifiers H04N7/108 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/104 Switchers or splitters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A local area network uses coaxial cable wiring for interconnection of terminal devices. A frequency selective network interface device is placed at the building point of entry or another point in the wiring to reflect network signals transmitted by terminal devices back into the building distribution to be received by other terminal devices. By reflecting network upstream signals back into the building as downstream signals, the network interface provides a path for terminal devices to transmit to and receive from other terminal devices.

Claims

1. A signal distribution network comprising:

a filter located at the point of entry of a building tuned to reject network signals originating in the building, such that the network signals originating in the building do not pass through the filter, but rather are reflected back into the building;

at least one signal splitter, the signal splitter having a common port and a plurality of tap ports, the common port of the signal splitter being coupled to the filter; and

a plurality of terminal devices, each terminal device being coupled to a tap port of at least one signal splitter, at least one of the terminal devices providing frequency bins with more transmit bits which occupy parts of the channel where the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is high;

wherein the reflections from the filter provide a path for terminal devices back through the tap port of the signal splitter and out each other tap port to transmit signals to other terminal devices thus allowing terminal devices to communicate directly with each other to form the signal distribution network.

2. The signal distribution network of claim 1, wherein at least one of the communication channels between terminal devices uses time division duplex protocol for communications and the communications are synchronized by broadcasting a beacon message on the network.

3. The signal distribution network of claim 2, wherein the power level of each OFDM carrier is adjusted according to the signal loss at each OFDM carrier frequency to overcome frequency selective channel impairments caused by the reflections from the filter.

4. The signal distribution network of claim 1, wherein the signal modulation used by the terminal devices is orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and the modulation order of each OFDM carrier is adjusted according to the signal to noise ratio (SNR) at each OFDM carrier frequency to overcome frequency selective channel impairments caused by the reflections from the filter.

5. A broadband local area network using coaxial cable building wiring as a communication channel, the network comprising:

a plurality of terminal devices, each terminal device communicating with other terminal devices using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation, at least one of the terminal devices providing frequency bins with more transmit bits which occupy parts of the channel where the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is high;

a network of building cables coupled to the plurality of terminal devices; and

a filter having a first and second port, the first port connected to a building point of entry and the second port connected to the plurality of terminal devices via the network of building cables, wherein signals transmitted by any of the terminal devices and received at the second port of the filter are rejected by the filter such that such signals do not pass through the filter, but rather are reflected back into the network of building cables in order to create a communication path between the transmitting terminal device and at least one other terminal device coupled to the network of building cables.

6. The broadband local area network of claim 5 wherein the modulation order of each OFDM carrier is adjusted according to the signal to noise ratio (SNR) at each OFDM carrier frequency to overcome frequency selective channel impairments present in the coaxial building wiring caused by the reflections from the filter.

7. The broadband local area network of claim 5, wherein the power level of each OFDM carrier is adjusted according to the signal loss at each OFDM carrier frequency to overcome frequency selective channel impairments present in the coaxial building wiring caused by the reflections from the filter.

8. The broadband local area network of claim 5 wherein the frequency used for communicating is above the cable television band.

9. The broadband local area network of claim 5, wherein at least one of the communication channels between terminal devices uses time division duplex protocol for communications and the communications are synchronized by broadcasting a beacon message on the network.

10. A broadband local area network for transmitting modulated signals using coaxial cable building wiring containing a plurality of branches comprising:

a filter located at the point of entry of the building wiring that rejects network signals originating in the building wiring such that the rejected network signals do not pass through the filter, but rather are reflected by the filter back into all branches of the building wiring;

at least one signal splitter;

a plurality of terminal devices connected to the wiring branches, each terminal device capable of communicating with other terminal devices the reflected signal path created by the filter, wherein the terminal devices perform equalization on the received signal that restores a flat frequency response to overcome communication channel impairments caused by the reflected signals.

11. The network of claim 10 wherein the equalization is frequency domain equalization.

12. The network of claim 10 wherein the equalization is time domain equalization.

13. The network of claim 10 wherein the equalization is adaptive.

14. The network of claim 13 wherein the terminal devices use orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation to overcome the communication channel impairments caused by the reflected signals.

15. The network of claim 14 wherein the terminal devices use forward error correction to recover the transmitted signals without errors.

16. The network of claim 10 wherein the terminal devices use orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation to overcome the communication channel impairments caused by the reflected signals.

17. The broadband local area network of claim 10, wherein at least one of the communication channels between terminal devices uses time division duplex protocol for communications and the communications are synchronized by broadcasting a beacon message on the network.