Patent Application
20060198389
Ethernet is a local area network that is described by IEEE 802.3. Ethernet is a very widely used protocol for networking devices together. Typically, cabling between devices is point-to-point where only two devices can share a physical bus. Point-to-point configurations require the use of more hardware such as switches and hubs and are less expandable than a multi-drop network configuration. A prior method of multi-drop Ethernet cabling was called 10base2 where “10” represents 10 megabytes per second, “base” represents “base band”, and “2” represents a maximum single cable length of 200 meters. 10base2 was once an accepted form of networking where devices could be networked together using the same wires, creating a multi-drop network. Over time, 10baseT and 100baseT point-to-point wiring soon became favored for networks in general and 10base2 hardware became less common and more expensive. However, a multi-drop Ethernet is still useful in some cases, such as embedded networks.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate various example systems, methods, and other example embodiments of various aspects of the invention. It will be appreciated that the illustrated element boundaries (e.g., boxes, groups of boxes, or other shapes) in the figures represent one example of the boundaries. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that one element may be designed as multiple elements or that multiple elements may be designed as one element. An element shown as an internal component of another element may be implemented as an external component and vice versa. Furthermore, elements may not be drawn to scale.
Example systems, methods, media, network adapters, and other embodiments are described herein that relate to multi-drop networking of devices. With reference to
As will be described in various embodiments, a network adapter can be provided that converts Ethernet-based communications to non-Ethernet-based communications (and vice-versa) so that a transceiver can be used that is configurable into a multi-drop arrangement. In one example implementation, the Ethernet devices can be configured as a multi-drop network using RS-485 transceivers where a network adapter is configured to convert Ethernet-based communications to RS-485-based communications and vice-versa.
Using RS-485 transceivers to create a multi-drop network, up to 256 devices can be implemented in a similar manner and placed on the same multi-drop bus. Devices on the bus can be dynamically hot-swapped on or off the bus. RS-485 transceivers are inexpensive and can provide a cost effective solution to create a multi-drop Ethernet network.
RS-485, also referred to as EIA-485, is a communications standard created by the Electronics Industry Association (EIA). RS-485 is an EIA serial line standard that specifies 2-wire, half-duplex, differential line, multi-point communications. Currently defined maximum data rates are 10 Mbps at 1.2 m or 100 Kbps at 1200 m. EIA-485 can implement a truly multi-point communications network, and specifies up to 32 drivers and 32 receivers on a single (2-wire) bus. Full-duplex can also be implemented.
The following includes definitions of selected terms employed herein. The definitions include various examples and/or forms of components that fall within the scope of a term and that may be used for implementation. The examples are not intended to be limiting. Both singular and plural forms of terms may be within the definitions.
“Computer-readable medium”, as used herein, refers to a medium that participates in directly or indirectly providing signals, instructions and/or data. A computer-readable medium may take forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media may include, for example, optical or magnetic disks and so on. Volatile media may include, for example, semiconductor memories, dynamic memory and the like. Transmission media may include coaxial cables, copper wire, fiber optic cables, and the like. Transmission media can also take the form of electromagnetic radiation, like that generated during radio-wave and infra-red data communications, or take the form of one or more groups of signals. Common forms of a computer-readable medium include, but are not limited to, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape, other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a ROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, or other memory chip or card, a memory stick, a carrier wave/pulse, and other media from which a computer, a processor or other electronic device can read. Signals used to propagate instructions or other software over a network, like the Internet, can be considered a “computer-readable medium.”
“Logic”, as used herein, includes but is not limited to hardware, firmware, software and/or combinations of each to perform a function(s) or an action(s), and/or to cause a function or action from another logic, method, and/or system. For example, based on a desired application or needs, logic may include a software controlled microprocessor, discrete logic like an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an analog circuit, a digital circuit, a programmed logic device, a memory device containing instructions, or the like. Logic may include one or more gates, combinations of gates, or other circuit components. Logic may also be fully embodied as software. Where multiple logical logics are described, it may be possible to incorporate the multiple logical logics into one physical logic. Similarly, where a single logical logic is described, it may be possible to distribute that single logical logic between multiple physical logics.
An “operable connection”, or a connection by which entities are “operably connected”, is one in which signals, physical communications, and/or logical communications may be sent and/or received. Typically, an operable connection includes a physical interface, an electrical interface, and/or a data interface, but it is to be noted that an operable connection may include differing combinations of these or other types of connections sufficient to allow operable control. For example, two entities can be operably connected by being able to communicate signals to each other directly or through one or more intermediate entities like a processor, operating system, a logic, software, or other entity. Logical and/or physical communication channels can be used to create an operable connection.
“Signal”, as used herein, includes but is not limited to one or more electrical or optical signals, analog or digital signals, data signals, data packets or other network formatted signals, clock signals, one or more computer or processor instructions, messages, a bit or bit stream, combinations of the above, or other means that can be received, transmitted and/or detected.
“Software”, as used herein, includes but is not limited to, one or more computer or processor instructions that can be read, interpreted, compiled, and/or executed and that cause a computer, processor, or other electronic device to perform functions, actions and/or behave in a desired manner. The instructions may be embodied in various forms like routines, algorithms, modules, methods, threads, and/or programs including separate applications or code from dynamically linked libraries. Software may also be implemented in a variety of executable and/or loadable forms including, but not limited to, a stand-alone program, a function call (local and/or remote), a servelet, an applet, instructions stored in a memory, part of an operating system or other types of executable instructions. It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that the form of software may be dependent on, for example, requirements of a desired application, the environment in which it runs, and/or the desires of a designer/programmer or the like. It will also be appreciated that computer-readable and/or executable instructions can be located in one logic and/or distributed between two or more communicating, co-operating, and/or parallel processing logics and thus can be loaded and/or executed in serial, parallel, massively parallel and other manners.
“User”, as used herein, includes but is not limited to one or more persons, software, computers or other devices, or combinations of these.
Illustrated in
In one embodiment, the network adapter 200 can be configured with an Ethernet media access controller (MAC) 210. The Ethernet MAC 210 includes logic configured to implement a data link layer (layer 2) based on the seven layers of the networking framework defined by the OSI model (Open System Interconnection). In accordance with the OSI model, the data link layer is divided into two sub-layers including the media access control (MAC) layer and the logical link control (LLC) layer. The MAC sub-layer controls how a computer on the network gains access to data and controls permission rights to transmit the data. The LLC layer controls frame synchronization, flow control, and error checking. The data link layer is defined by IEEE 802.3.
In order to provide a physical connection to a network, a physical layer interface 215 is provided. A physical layer interface is also referred to as a PHY and includes logic that implements the physical layer (layer 1) of the OSI model. In particular, the physical layer interface 215 is a non-Ethernet physical layer interface in that it is configured to implement the physical layer in accordance with a protocol different from Ethernet. This configuration facilitates providing communication between the Ethernet media access controller 210 and a non-Ethernet transceiver 220. In this manner, the type of the non-Ethernet transceiver 220 can be selected that allows the host device 205 to be connected as a node in a multi-drop network, rather than a common Ethernet network.
Since the Ethernet media access controller 210 is configured based on Ethernet protocol, it processes data that is Ethernet-based or generically speaking, Ethernet-compatible data. The non-Ethernet transceiver 220, however, is not configured to interpret or process Ethernet-compatible data, but rather, processes data according to its own protocol. As such, the non-Ethernet physical layer interface 215 is configured with logic that converts data between the Ethernet-compatible data and data compatible with the non-Ethernet transceiver 220. It will be appreciated that the term “data” is intended to include the definitions of “signals” as previously defined.
In one embodiment, the non-Ethernet transceiver 220 can be a serial transceiver that can be based on various protocols such as RS-232, RS-422, RS-485, or other desired transceiver capable of being connected to a multi-drop network. For purposes of discussion, the following example embodiments will be described based on a transceiver that is an RS-485 transceiver. It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that the RS-485 transceiver can be substituted with other types of transceivers to implement similar configurations as described. Based on the type of transceiver used, appropriate modifications to the non-Ethernet physical layer interface 215 will be needed to properly convert data between the Ethernet protocol and the protocol of the selected transceiver.
Illustrated in
In general, the system 300 can be considered to include an Ethernet communication logic, an RS-485 communication logic, and a conversion logic that translates data between the Ethernet protocol and the RS-485 protocol. For example, system 300 can include a media access controller (MAC) 315 that is configured based on Ethernet specifications. For example, the Ethernet MAC 315 is defined by the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard and implements a data link layer (layer 2 of the OSI model). The Ethernet MAC 315 communicates data with a physical interface (PHY) 320 through a media independent interface (MII) 325.
The media independent interface is an Ethernet industry standard also defined in IEEE 802.3. The MII includes a data interface and a management interface between a MAC and a PHY. The data interface includes a channel for a transmitter and a separate channel for a receiver. Each channel has its own clock, data, and control signals. The MII data interface uses 16 signals and the management interface uses a 2-signal interface, where one signal is for clocking and the other signal is for data.
The PHY (PHYsical interface) 320 includes logic configured in accordance with the RS-485 specifications to communicate to the RS-485 transceiver 310. The PHY 320 can be configured with a conversion logic 330 for communicating data between the Ethernet MAC 315 and the RS-485 transceiver 310. As previously explained, the PHY 320 is not directly connected to the network bus as a typical Ethernet PHY would be, but rather, is connected to the RS-485 transceiver 310, which is the component that is directly connected to the network bus. Based on the RS-485 specification, the PHY 320 is configured with a transmit enable signal (TX_EN), a data transmission line (TX), and a data receive line (RX). The RS-485 transceiver 310 provides a 2-wire bus where one wire provides a signal high (SIG_H) and the other provides a signal low (SIG_L).
Since the RS-485 specification configures the data signal and the clock signal on the same differential wire pair, the conversion logic 330 will include an encoder to encode the separate clock signal and data signal from the MII 325 into a synchronous signal for transmission to the RS-485 transceiver 310. The conversion logic 330 will also include a decoder to decode the clock and data signals from the receive line (RX) into separate data and clock signals to function with the MII 325. A more detailed embodiment will be described with reference to
It will be appreciated that the conversion logic 330 may be configured differently. For example, the conversion logic 330 may be part of the Ethernet MAC 315, or may be between the Ethernet MAC 315 and the PHY 320. Furthermore, one or more of the components from system 300 may be configured on the same printed circuit board, configured as a network interface card (NIC), and/or may be on separate printed circuit boards. One or more of the components of system 300 may be directly attached to the Ethernet-based host device 305, attached to a separate device such as a system board, or combinations of these.
With reference to
With reference to
Components that may be part of the media independent interface (MII) can include a variety of registers such as an MII register 525, a transmit (TX) register 530, and a receive (RX) register 535. Of course, one or more registers can be used to implement the illustrated registers. In one embodiment, the registers 525, 530, and 535 are implemented based on IEEE 802.3 specifications for the media independent interface as previously described.
Components that may be part of the physical interface and conversion logic can include a state machine 540, an encoder 545, and a decoder 550. Physical connections can be provided for signal lines such as a signal transmission enable TX_EN signal, a data transmission TX signal, and a data reception RX signal. The state machine 540 can be implemented in logic that controls the signal processes for data transmission, reception, and collision detection. The encoder 545 is configured to receive data signals and clocking signals from the data transmit logic 515 and encode the signals together for transmission to the RS-485 transceiver 505.
Conversely, the decoder 550 receives data from the RS-485 transceiver 505 and decodes the signals into data signals 555 and clocking signals 560. In one embodiment, the encoder 545 and the decoder 550 can be configured based on Manchester encoding/decoding. Manchester encoding is a synchronous clock encoding technique used by the OSI physical layer to encode the clock and data of a synchronous bit stream. Of course, other types of encoding/decoding algorithms and/or logic can be used.
Illustrated in
The system board 605 can include one or more network adapters 1-N that are configured similar to the previously described network adapters that convert Ethernet-compatible signals to RS-485 compatible signals. The network adapters 1-N are connected to the multi-drop bus 610 through one or more RS-485 transceivers as previously explained. It will be appreciated that the network adapters 1-N can include adapters that connect multiple Ethernet devices to the multi-drop bus 610. By configuring the network adapters and RS-485 transceivers onto a common system board 605, a simplified system is provided for attaching Ethernet devices into a multi-drop network rather than having each Ethernet device be configured with an internal network adapter.
Example methods may be better appreciated with reference to flow diagrams. While for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the illustrated methodologies are shown and described as a series of blocks, it is to be appreciated that the methodologies are not limited by the order of the blocks, as some blocks can occur in different orders and/or concurrently with other blocks from that shown and described. Moreover, less than all the illustrated blocks may be required to implement an example methodology. Blocks may be combined or separated into multiple components. Furthermore, additional and/or alternative methodologies can employ additional, not illustrated blocks. While the figures illustrate various actions occurring in serial, it is to be appreciated that various actions could occur concurrently, substantially in parallel, and/or at substantially different points in time.
Illustrated in
Illustrated in
When transmitting signals to the multi-drop network (block 705), Ethernet based signals are converted from the Ethernet device into non-Ethernet based signals (block 7105). Then, the non-Ethernet based signals are communicated to a non-Ethernet transceiver where the non-Ethernet transceiver provides network connection to the multi-drop network (block 715).
When receiving signals from the multi-drop network (block 720), non-Ethernet based signals are converted to Ethernet based signals (block 725). Then, the Ethernet based signals are communicated to the Ethernet based device (block 730).
In one embodiment, the non-Ethernet transceiver is an RS-485 transceiver and the non-Ethernet based signals are RS-485 based signals. In another embodiment, the converting (blocks 710 and/or 725) can be performed in a physical layer interface that implements layer one of the Open System Interconnection model.
Generally describing an example configuration of the computer 800, the processor 802 can be a variety of various processors including dual microprocessor and other multi-processor architectures. The memory 804 can include volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory can include, but is not limited to, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, and the like. Volatile memory can include, for example, RAM, synchronous RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), and direct RAM bus RAM (DRRAM).
A disk 806 may be operably connected to the computer 800 via, for example, an input/output interface (e.g., card, device) 818 and an input/output port 810. The disk 806 can include, but is not limited to, devices like a magnetic disk drive, a solid state disk drive, a floppy disk drive, a tape drive, a Zip drive, a flash memory card, and/or a memory stick. Furthermore, the disk 806 can include optical drives like a CD-ROM, a CD recordable drive (CD-R drive), a CD rewriteable drive (CD-RW drive), and/or a digital video ROM drive (DVD ROM). The memory 804 can store processes 814 and/or data 816, for example. The disk 806 and/or memory 804 can store an operating system that controls and allocates resources of the computer 800.
The bus 808 can be a single internal bus interconnect architecture and/or other bus or mesh architectures. While a single bus is illustrated, it is to be appreciated that computer 800 may communicate with various devices, logics, and peripherals using other busses that are not illustrated (e.g., PCIE, SATA, Infiniband, 1394, USB, Ethernet). The bus 808 can be of a variety of types including, but not limited to, a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus or external bus, a crossbar switch, and/or a local bus. The local bus can be of varieties including, but not limited to, an industrial standard architecture (ISA) bus, a microchannel architecture (MSA) bus, an extended ISA (EISA) bus, a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus, a universal serial (USB) bus, and a small computer systems interface (SCSI) bus.
The computer 800 may interact with input/output devices via i/o interfaces 818 and input/output ports 810. Input/output devices can include, but are not limited to, a keyboard, a microphone, a pointing and selection device, cameras, video cards, displays, disk 806, network devices 820, and the like. The input/output ports 810 can include but are not limited to, serial ports, parallel ports, and USB ports.
The computer 800 can operate in a network environment and thus may be connected to network devices 820 via the i/o devices 818, and/or the i/o ports 810. Through the network devices 820, the computer 800 may interact with a network. Through the network, the computer 800 may be logically connected to remote computers. The networks with which the computer 800 may interact include, but are not limited to, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and other networks. The network devices 820 can connect to LAN technologies including, but not limited to, fiber distributed data interface (FDDI), copper distributed data interface (CDDI), Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), token ring (IEEE 802.5), wireless computer communication (IEEE 802.11), Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1), and the like. Similarly, the network devices 820 can connect to WAN technologies including, but not limited to, point to point links, circuit switching networks like integrated services digital networks (ISDN), packet switching networks, and digital subscriber lines (DSL).
In general, with the described systems, methods, and other embodiments, an Ethernet device can be connected as a node in a multi-point network. A cost effective solution includes configuring the devices to operate with an RS-485 transceiver, or other similar serial communication transceiver.
While example systems, methods, and so on have been illustrated by describing examples, and while the examples have been described in considerable detail, it is not the intention of the applicants to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the systems, methods, and so on described herein. Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention is not limited to the specific details, the representative apparatus, and illustrative examples shown and described. Thus, this application is intended to embrace alterations, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, the preceding description is not meant to limit the scope of the invention. Rather, the scope of the invention is to be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
To the extent that the term “includes” or “including” is employed in the detailed description or the claims, it is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as that term is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “or” is employed in the detailed description or claims (e.g., A or B) it is intended to mean “A or B or both”. When the applicants intend to indicate “only A or B but not both” then the term “only A or B but not both” will be employed. Thus, use of the term “or” herein is the inclusive, and not the exclusive use. See, Bryan A. Garner, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage 624 (2d. Ed. 1995).
