Systems and methods for communications across drop connections

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9503185-B2
Application number	US-201213397662-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 15, 2012
Priority date	Feb 15, 2011
Publication date	Nov 22, 2016
Grant date	Nov 22, 2016

Abstract

A controller at a distribution point (DP) of a communication system is coupled to a plurality of customer premises (CP) transceivers via drop connections in a point-to-multipoint architecture. Each drop connection is coupled to at least one switch that operates under the control of the controller for selectively isolating the drop connection from the controller, as well as the CP transceivers of other drop connections. In this regard, by controlling the states of the switches, the DP controller can control to which of the CP transceivers it is communicatively connected, and during operation the DP controller controls the switches such that it is communicatively connected only to the CP transceivers for which communication is desired or needed during a particular time interval.

First claim

Now, therefore, the following is claimed:

1. A distribution point, comprising:
a network transceiver configured to receive a data stream from a network;
a plurality of drop connections respectively coupled to a plurality of customer premises (CP) transceivers in a point-to-multipoint arrangement, the plurality of drop connections including at least a first drop connection and a second drop connection that is electrically coupled to the first drop connection;
a plurality of switches respectively coupled to the drop connections; and
a control system coupled to each of the switches, the control system configured to receive data from the data stream and to encapsulate the data into data packets, the control system further configured to simultaneously transmit a multicast message comprising at least one of the data packets across each of the drop connections to each of the CP transceivers, the control system further configured to control the switches such that the drop connections are selectively isolated from each other, wherein the control system is configured to schedule time periods for communication between the control system and one of the CP transceivers coupled to the first drop connection and for communication between the control system and one of the CP transceivers coupled to the second drop connection, and wherein the control system is configured to control a state of one of the switches coupled to the first drop connection and a state of one of the switches coupled to the second drop connection based on the scheduled time periods such that the first drop connection is temporarily isolated from at least the second drop connection during communication between the control system and one of the CP transceivers coupled to the first drop connection.

2. The distribution point of claim 1 , wherein the control system is configured to encapsulate the data into the data packets according to G.hn protocol.

3. The distribution point of claim 1 , further comprising an amplifier module coupled to the first drop connection, wherein the one switch is coupled between the amplifier module and the first drop connection.

4. The distribution point of claim 1 , further comprising a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter coupled to the first drop connection, wherein the one switch is coupled between the D/A converter and the first drop connection.

5. The distribution point of claim 1 , further comprising an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter coupled to the first drop connection, wherein the one switch is coupled between the A/D converter and the first drop connection.

6. The distribution point of claim 1 , further comprising a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter coupled to the first drop connection, wherein the one switch is coupled between the D/A converter and the control system.

7. The distribution point of claim 1 , further comprising an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter coupled to the first drop connection, wherein the one switch is coupled between the A/D converter and the control system.

8. The distribution point of claim 1 , further comprising:
a first amplifier module coupled to the first drop connection;
a second amplifier module coupled to the second drop connection,
wherein the control system is configured to cause a component of one of the amplifier modules to power down when the first drop connection is isolated from the second drop connection.

9. The distribution point of claim 1 , wherein the control system is configured to make a determination to transmit a heartbeat signal to the CP transceivers and to control the switches in response to the determination such that the heartbeat signal is simultaneously transmitted across each of the drop connections.

10. The distribution point of claim 1 , wherein the control system comprises:
a first digital signal processor coupled to each of the switches and configured to encapsulate the data into the data packets, the first digital signal processor further configured to simultaneously transmit the multicast message across each of the drop connections to each of the CP transceivers;
a second digital signal processor coupled to each of a plurality of switches that are respectively coupled to the drop connections; and
a controller configured to receive data frames and to switch the data frames among each of the digital signal processors, wherein the second digital signal processor is configured to encapsulate data from the data frames into data packets, and wherein the second digital signal processor is configured to simultaneously transmit a second multicast message comprising at least one of the data packets encapsulated by the second digital signal processor across each of the drop connections to each of the CP transceivers.

11. The distribution point of claim 1 , wherein the control system comprises a first digital signal processor having a first physical layer and a second digital signal processor having a second physical layer, wherein the distribution point further comprises an amplifier module coupled to the second drop connection, wherein the plurality of switches include at least a first switch coupled to the amplifier module and a second switch coupled to the amplifier module, wherein the first digital signal processor is coupled to the first switch, wherein the first physical layer is configured to transmit messages through the first switch and the amplifier module to the second drop connection, wherein the second digital signal processor is coupled to the second switch, and wherein the second physical layer is configured to transmit messages through the second switch and the amplifier module to the second drop connection.

12. The distribution point of claim 1 , wherein the control system comprises a controller configured to schedule the time periods and a vector engine configured to receive from the controller data that is based on the scheduled time periods, the vector engine further configured to perform vectoring for tones transmitted across the drop connections based on the data received from the controller, wherein the data received from the controller indicates which of the drop connections propagate messages during a particular time period.

13. The distribution point of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of switches comprises a first switch coupled to the first drop connection and a second switch coupled to the first drop connection, the first switch configured to control transmission of a data packet across the first drop connection to the one CP transceiver coupled to the first drop connection, and the second switch configured to control receipt of a data packet over the first drop connection from the one CP transceiver coupled to the first drop connection.

14. The distribution point of claim 1 , wherein the state of the one of the switches coupled to the second drop connection is different from the state of the one of the switches coupled to the first drop connection.

15. The distribution point of claim 1 , wherein the control system is configured to control a state of one of the switches coupled to the second drop connection based on the scheduled time periods such that the second drop connection is temporarily isolated from at least the first drop connection during communication between the control system and one of the CP transceivers coupled to the second drop connection.

16. The distribution point of claim 1 , wherein the communication between the control system and one of the CP transceivers coupled to the first drop connection is a unicast message from the control system.

17. A distribution point, comprising:
a control system

Assignees

• Joffe Daniel M
• Chu Fred
• Goodson Richard
• Adtran Inc

Inventors

• Joffe Daniel M
• Chu Fred
• Goodson Richard

Classifications

• H04M11/062 Primary

  using different frequency bands for speech and other data · CPC title

• H04B10/25891 Primary

  Transmission components (H04B10/40 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L12/18

  for broadcast or conference {, e.g. multicast} · CPC title

• H04L12/1881

  with schedule organisation, e.g. priority, sequence management · CPC title

• H04L45/16

  Multipoint routing · CPC title