Apparatus and method for wired data communication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10148284-B2
Application number	US-201615189696-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 22, 2016
Priority date	Jun 25, 2015
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

The present disclosure describes a wired communication device having media access control (MAC) circuitry and physical layer (PHY) circuitry. The MAC circuitry frames one or more data packets in accordance with a wired communication standard or protocol to provide one or more data frames. The one or more data frames include one or more packets that are separated by interpacket gaps (IPGs). The MAC circuitry selectively choses a duration of the IPGs to maintain an average IPG duration. The PHY circuitry encodes the one or more data frames in accordance with a line coding scheme that is efficiently represents different possible combinations for types of characters present in the one or more data frames.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wired communication device, comprising:
media access control (MAC) circuitry configured to:
frame a plurality of data packets to provide a plurality of framed data packets, each data packet of the plurality of data packets being separated from an adjacent data packet of the plurality of data packets by a corresponding interpacket gap (IPG) of a plurality of IPGs,
determine a first IPG duration from among a plurality of IPG durations corresponding to a first IPG of the plurality of IPGs, and
selectively choose a second IPG duration of the plurality of IPG durations corresponding to a second IPG of the plurality of IPGs to be greater than the first IPG duration when the first IPG duration is less than an average IPG duration or to be less than the first IPG duration when the first IPG duration is greater than the average IPG duration to maintain the average IPG duration over the plurality of framed data packets; and

physical layer (PHY) circuitry, coupled to the MAC circuitry, configured to encode the plurality of framed data packets in accordance with a line coding scheme to provide a plurality of encoded data packets.

2. The wired communication device of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of framed data packets includes a plurality of characters, the plurality of characters of a framed data packet of the plurality of framed data packets selected from a plurality of possible combinations for the framed data packet, and
wherein the PHY circuitry is further configured to:
encode the framed data packet from a first number of characters to a second number of characters to provide an encoded data packet, and
append a Block Type Field to the encoded data packet.

3. The wired communication device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of data packets do not include ‘start’ characters.

4. The wired communication device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of data packets do not include a Block Type Field having an alternating pattern of logical zeros and logical ones.

5. The wired communication device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of data packets do not include a start of packet delimiter (SFD) Field to indicate a start of a payload.

6. The wired communication device of claim 1 , wherein the average IPG duration is four-bytes.

7. The wired communication device of claim 1 , wherein the line coding scheme comprises:
an 8b/10b line code;
a 64b/66b line code;
a 128b/130b line code; or
a 128b/132b line code.

8. The wired communication device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of data packets comprises:
a plurality of ‘data-type’ characters,
wherein the plurality of IPGs comprises:
a plurality of ‘control-type’ characters,

wherein transitions from the plurality of ‘data-type’ characters to the plurality of ‘control-type ’ characters within the plurality of framed data packets indicate start positions of the plurality of IPGs, and
wherein transitions from the plurality of ‘control-type’ characters to the plurality of ‘data-type ’ characters within the plurality of framed data packets indicate start positions of the plurality of data packets.

9. A method of operating a wired communication device, the method comprising:
framing a plurality of data packets to provide a plurality of framed data packets, each data packet of the plurality of data packets being separated from an adjacent data packet of the plurality of data packets by a corresponding interpacket gap (IPG) of a plurality of IPGs;
determining a first IPG duration from among a plurality of IPG durations corresponding to a first IPG of the plurality of IPGs,
selectively choosing a second IPG duration of the plurality of IPG durations corresponding to a second IPG of the plurality of IPGs to be greater than the first IPG duration when the first IPG duration is less than an average IPG duration or to be less than the first IPG duration when the first IPG duration is greater than the average IPG duration to maintain the average IPG duration over the plurality of framed data packets; and
encoding the plurality of framed data packets in accordance with a line coding scheme to provide a plurality of encoded data packets.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein each of the plurality of framed data packets includes a plurality of characters, the plurality of characters of a framed data packet of the framed data packets being recognized as being from a plurality of possible combinations for the framed data packet, and
the method further comprising:
encoding the framed data packet from a first number of characters to a second number of characters to provide an encoded data packet, and
appending a Block Type Field to the encoded data packet.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of data packets do not include ‘start’ characters.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of data packets do not include a Block Type Field having an alternating pattern of logical zeros and logical ones.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of data packets do not include a start of packet delimiter (SFD) Field to indicate a start of a payload.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the average IPG duration is four-bytes.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the line coding scheme comprises:
an 8b/10b line code;
a 64b/66b line code;
a 128b/130b line code; or
a 128b/132b line code.

16. A wired communication device, comprising:
media access control (MAC) circuitry configured to separate a plurality of data packets by a plurality of interpacket gaps (IPGs) to provide a plurality of framed data packets, wherein a first IPG duration of a first IPG of the plurality of IPGs is greater than a second IPG duration of a second IPG of the plurality of IPGs when the second IPG duration is less than an average IPG duration or less than the second IPG duration when the second IPG duration is greater than the average IPG duration; and
physical layer (PHY) circuitry, coupled to the MAC circuitry, configured to encode the plurality of framed data packets in accordance with a line coding scheme to provide a plurality of encoded data packets,
wherein each of the plurality of framed data packets includes a plurality of characters, the plurality of characters of a framed data packet of the plurality of framed data packets being selected from a plurality of possible combinations for the framed data packet, and
wherein the PHY circuitry is further configured to encode the framed data packet from a first number of characters to a second number of characters to provide an encoded data packet.

17. The wired communication device of claim 16 , wherein the framed data packet comprises:
a plurality of ‘control-type’ characters; or
a combination of ‘control-type’ characters and ‘data-type’ characters.

18. The wired communication device of claim 16 , wherein the framed data packet comprises eight successive characters, and
wherein the eight successive characters comprises:
an ‘Ordered Set’ character within the second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh, or eighth character of the eight successive characters.

19. The wired communication device of claim 16 , wherein the PHY circuitry is further configured to append a Block Type Field to the encoded data packet.

20. The wired communication device of claim 19 , wherein a length of the Block Type Field is four-bits to accommodate fifteen possible combinations.

Assignees

• Avago Tech Int Sales Pte Lid

Inventors

• Bansal Ankit Sajjan Kumar
• Baden Eric A

Classifications

• H03M5/145 Primary

  Conversion to or from block codes or representations thereof · CPC title

• H04L2012/5652

  Cell construction, e.g. including header, packetisation, depacketisation, assembly, reassembly · CPC title

• H04L12/413

  with random access, e.g. carrier-sense multiple-access with collision detection [CSMA-CD] · CPC title

• H03M7/30 Primary

  Compression (speech analysis-synthesis for redundancy reduction G10L19/00; for image communication H04N); Expansion; Suppression of unnecessary data, e.g. redundancy reduction · CPC title