This invention relates in general to broadband communications systems, and more particularly, to the field of a full duplex wideband communications system operating within a local coaxial network.
Subscriber premises receiving cable television or satellite service typically have a coaxial network for providing received signals to various rooms in the premises. The coaxial network typically connects set-top terminals (STT) for decoding the signals (e.g., cable or satellite television (CATV) signals) to a communications system. It will be appreciated that other equipment, such as cable modems and video recorders, to name a couple, can also be connected to the coaxial network. The transmitted signals may be, therefore, video/audio signal, telephony signals, or data signals.
Traditionally, an individual STT could not communicate with the other networked STTs; they were receiving devices that may have had the capability to transmit data to a headend facility in the system. As technology progressed, a server STT could communicate with a plurality of remote STTs in a network. This communication is desirable in that the server STT could share files or programs with the remote STTs upon command from the remote STT. By way of example, the server STT may contain storage media, such as hard disk drives, to store video programs. Accordingly, the networked remote STTs may want to view those stored programs. In this manner, upon request, the server STT can transmit a program to the requesting remote STT for viewing at that STT. Further information regarding a networked multimedia system that includes a server and remote STTs can be found in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/342,670 filed Jan. 15, 2003, the disclosure and teachings of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
A need exists, however, for systems and methods that improve upon communications among networked equipment in a subscriber premises.
The invention can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the invention. In the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.
Preferred embodiments of the invention can be understood in the context of a broadband communications system and a local network. Note, however, that the invention may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. For example, transmitted broadband signals include at least one of video/audio, telephony, data, or Internet Protocol (IP) signals, to name but a few. Devices included in the broadband communications system for receiving the transmitted broadband signals may include a set-top terminal (STT), a television, a consumer electronics device such as a DVD player/recorder, a computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or other type of electronics device. Furthermore, in accordance with the present invention all of these receiving devices may include a modem or be connected to a stand-alone modem for receiving high speed data. All examples given herein, therefore, are intended to be non-limiting and are provided in order to help clarify the description of the invention.
The present invention is directed towards a full duplex wideband communications device and system that are suitable for use in a coaxial network. The coaxial network is typically confined to a subscriber premises. It will be appreciated, however, that the network can also be used in a multi-unit dwelling, business, school, hotel, or hospital, among others. Advantageously, the present invention allows for full duplex wideband communications among STTs or modems that are connected in the coaxial network. The communications between any pair of STTs (e.g., a server STT and a remote STT or two remote STTs) are at data rates suitable for high definition video transmissions. The present invention also allows multiple STTs to share the network without interference with each other. Additionally, a STT, for example, the server STT, is capable of providing different content to different remote STTs concurrently. Furthermore, the communication between STTs and the reception of conventional CATV signals occur simultaneously without interference to the received CATV signals. As mentioned, the modem can be a standalone device that is connected to an STT and still utilize the full duplex wideband communications in accordance with the present invention.
The modems 205, 210 each include a wideband modem 220, 222 comprising transmitters 225, 226 and receivers 227, 228 for high data rate communications, such as transmitting and receiving stored video presentations, within the coaxial network 100. The preferred modulation method for the wideband data communications is QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), and typically the frequencies are above the forward band 219. The wideband modems 220, 222 also include a band-select switch 230, 232 and a duplexer 234, 236 for routing the wideband signals.
A medium access method is similar to frequency division multiple access with frequency division duplex (FDMA/FDD). FDMA/FDD is appropriate for systems having a base station and multiple users, such as cellular telephone. In the FDMA/FDD system, the base station transmits in a downlink band, and the users transmit in an uplink band. The receiver is isolated from the transmitter by a duplexer. In accordance with the present invention, however, coupled modems 205, 210, or STTs that include modems 205, 210, communicate directly with each other (e.g., from STT 110a to STT n) rather than the conventional method. In other words, there is no base station in the coaxial network 100. To allow any two wideband modems 205, 210 to communicate in this manner, however, the FDD scheme is no longer sufficient.
To allow the wideband modems 205, 210 to communicate in accordance with the present invention, the modems 205, 210 can transmit and receive in either of two bands (e.g., low band 216 and high band 217). The electronically-controlled band select switch 230, 232 allows reversing the connection of the transmitter 225, 226 and receiver 227, 228 to the duplexer 234, 236. As shown in
The modems 205, 210 also include a control modem 237, 238 comprising transmitters 240, 242 and receivers 245, 247 used for control communications among the modems 205, 210 within the coaxial network 100. More specifically, the control transmitter 240, 242 provides control information, such as an optimized transmitting frequency of the wideband modem, or requests, such as a request for a stored video presentation, to at least one control receiver 245, 247. The control receiver 245, 247 then receives the information or request and acts accordingly.
In contrast to the full duplex wideband modems 220, 222, the control modems 237, 238 operate on a single frequency and in half duplex mode. Additionally, the single frequency is separate from bands 216, 217 used by the wideband modems 220, 222. The control frequency 250 used by the control modem 237, 238 is typically below the reverse band 218, for example, at 4.5 MHz. The control signals and the wideband data communications signals are routed to the coaxial network 100 using the control channel diplexer 255, 257.
The control modems 237, 238 send and receive data packets as burst packages using a modulation scheme such as FSK (frequency shift keying). Each packet includes an error-detection code and a destination address. The control modems 237, 238 use a random access protocol similar to ALOHA in a known manner. A protocol for control communications from, for example, modem A 237 to modem B 238 may be summarized as follows:
Modem A 237 sends a packet to modem B 238 and then waits for acknowledgement;
assuming modem B 238 receives the packet with no errors and the address is that of modem B 238, modem B 238 sends a short acknowledgement;
if the acknowledgement signal is received by modem A 237, then modem A 237 sends the next packet. If the acknowledgement signal is not received within a specified time, modem A 237 waits a random time and resends the initial packet.
Returning to
Modem A 205 sets the band switch to Tx/Rx=low/high;
modem A 205 chooses from the unused frequencies low and high band frequencies (fL and fH);
modem A 205 uses the control transmitter 240 to send the chosen frequency information to modem B 210;
modem B 210 sends an acknowledgement using control transmitter 242 and, based on the frequency chosen by modem A 205, sets the band switch 232 to Tx/Rx=high/low and tunes the wideband receiver 228 to the frequency in the low band (fL);
modem A 205 then tunes its wideband receiver 227 to the frequency in the high band (fH) and begins transmitting data at fL;
modem B 210 begins transmitting at fH; and modem A 205 uses control transmitter 240 to send a message to any other modems on the network indicating that the two chosen frequencies (fL and fH) are currently in use.
Another embodiment of a full duplex communications modem for the coaxial network 100 is a client modem. A client modem includes a wideband receiver and a control transmitter. The client modem does not include a wideband transmitter or control receiver. In this manner, the client modem uses the control transmitter to request a wideband transmission from a server wideband modem and then receives the wideband transmission using its wideband receiver. A typical application for the client modem is to request and receive video programs stored in an STT that is connected to or containing the wideband communications modem 205.
As previously discussed, the modem signals are reflected and contained within the coaxial network 100 by filters within the reflector 120 (
The present invention includes methods to optimize communication between wideband modems in a multipath environment. The methods involve optimizing the QAM signal parameters based on RF center frequency; bandwidth; and QAM constellation. The last two parameters affect the maximum data rate of the channel. When two modems 205, 210 connect for the first time, a search algorithm can be used to determine the best signal parameters for each direction of communication. For example, using an FSK signal in the control channel, modem A 205 can request modem B 210 to transmit at a given frequency. Modem A 205 can then measure the signal quality at that frequency. This is repeated at several frequencies until the optimal frequency is found. An example of a possible search sequence is shown in Table 1. Once the optimal signal parameters are found, those parameters are stored by both modems 205, 210 so that the search algorithm need not be repeated. Signal quality is determined from measurements made by the receiving modem, including one or more of the following: signal amplitude, constellation SNR (signal to noise ratio); tap values of the adaptive equalizer, and bit error rate.
If there are several modems connected to the coaxial network 100, for example, one server modem and several client modems, the server modem may have to transmit to two or more client modems simultaneously. Considering a two-client example, it may happen that, due to multipath distortion, the frequency responses from server modem 110a to client modems 110b and 110d are not similar. In this case, the optimization of the signal parameters should take both frequency responses into account. On initial connection, each client modem performs the search algorithm described hereinabove. An integer quality score based on signal measurements is assigned to each parameter set of Table 1, with 7 equal to the highest quality. Any score above 0 indicates an acceptable quality. The signal parameter table for client modems 110b and 110d is stored in the server modem 110a. Therefore, the server modem 110a can sort the tables to find the highest scores for each client modem 110b-n. By way of example, the overall score could be calculated as: overall score=min(client 110b score, client 110d score). The result might appear as shown in Table 2. For this example, parameter set i is optimal.
It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of the invention are merely possible examples, among others, of the implementations, setting forth a clear understanding of the principles of the invention. Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-described embodiments of the invention without departing substantially from the principles of the invention. All such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of the disclosure and invention and protected by the following claims. In addition, the scope of the invention includes embodying the functionality of the preferred embodiments of the invention in logic embodied in hardware and/or software-configured mediums.
The present U.S. application is a divisional of copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/924,077, filed on Aug. 23, 2004, entitled “FULL DUPLEX WIDEBAND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM FOR A LOCAL COAXIAL NETWORK.” The patent application is a continuation-in-part of copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/342,670 filed Jan. 15, 2003, entitled “NETWORKED MULTIMEDIA SYSTEM.”
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Child | 10924077 | US |