Patent Grant
8565692
Home, business and commercial networks are becoming increasingly diverse and more often involve the interaction of both wireless local area networks (WLAN) and wired networks. A typical infrastructure for a home or business network includes one or more wireless or wired gateways, such as a modem or set-top box, to service one or more client applications or stations. As the client stations and applications in home and business networks become more diverse, the traditional gateway devices are unable to provide interfaces for all of the applications.
The gateway may, for example, be required to provide interfaces to mobile devices, such as laptops and personal digital assistants, and to provide interfaces to stationary devices, such as personal computers and consumer electronics. Each of the various devices and client applications may use different communication standards, protocols, frequencies or technology, such as, for example, wireless networks complying with the 802.11 standards and wired networks using twisted pair, cable or power line communication media. Accordingly, the known gateway devices may not support all of the client applications that a user desires to add to a home or business network.
Embodiments of the present invention include, for example, an access point or gateway for a data network. The access point comprises a plurality of front-end circuits coupled to MAC circuitry and a plurality of local oscillators (LOs). Each of the plurality of local oscillators may be selectively coupled to the front-end circuits. A particular LO signal is selected for each front-end circuit based upon a network to which that front-end circuit is to be coupled.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The present invention provides many applicable inventive concepts that can be embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts. The specific embodiments discussed are merely illustrative of specific ways to make and use the invention, and do not limit the scope of the invention. The following detailed description explains exemplary embodiments of the present invention. The description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made only for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of embodiments of the invention. In the various figures, identical or similar entities, modules, devices etc. may have assigned the same reference number.
In the following, various embodiments will be described wherein analog front-ends of an access point may independently and concurrently service two or more client applications via two or more channels, frequencies, bands and/or networks. As will be described later in more detail, the independent and concurrent operation of the front-ends allow for flexible and dynamic configuration of the access point which may, for example, be used to optimize the data traffic to and from the various client applications by the access point.
Access point 105 performs media access control and baseband (MAC/BB) processing of the received digital data packets on connection 102. The data must then be converted to a format specific to the desired home network application or component. Access point 105 also includes one or more analog front-ends that provide the interface to the home network applications. The analog front-ends may be designed specifically for a particular type of application. For example, a Wi-Fi or 802.11 front-end may provide an interface to WLAN applications, a separate coax front-end may provide an interface to television or cable set-top box applications, and separate twisted pair or power line front-ends may provide an interface to a desktop PC application.
Each of the front-end circuits 207, 212, 215, 218 and MAC/BB processors 206, 211, 216, 219 illustrated in the exemplary configuration of access point 201 are specific to the particular type of network to which they are attached and are typically on separate chips. For example, RF front-end 207 may be designed to interface with a WLAN network, such as an 802.11n network operating at 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz. Because of the network-specific design of RF front-end 207, it would not work with coax 210, which operates at approximately 800-900 MHz, or twisted pair 214 or power line network 217, which operate below 20 MHz. Accordingly, front-ends 207, 212, 214, and 218 are not interchangeable in known systems. The selection of specific types of front-ends limits the type and number of networks that can be connected to access point 201 in known systems.
Analog baseband signals 324-327 are up-converted by mixers 328-331 to analog signals 306-309. Local oscillator (LO) 332 provides LO signals to mixers 328-331 that are used in the up-conversion. In one embodiment, LO 332 may be one or more phase locked loops that selectively produce LO frequencies of 10 MHz, 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, and/or 5 GHz. Depending upon the programming of the associated network 310-313, mixers 328-331 use or select the appropriate LO frequency to generate front-end input signals 306-309 at the desired frequency. Signals 306-309 are then amplified and/or filtered in circuits 302-305 and provided to applications in networks 310-313.
The embodiment shown in
According to one embodiment, the LO frequencies may be changed or selected during the operation of the access point, for example when the access point changes from a WLAN multi-stream operation with 4 channels at one band to a WLAN multi-stream operation with 3 channels at one band and 1 channel at another band.
Front end 32 may be programmed to interface with a wired network via coax 311, which may be coupled to one or more televisions, set-top boxes, or other applications. Mixer 329 may select an LO of 900 MHz to mix analog baseband signal 325 to the appropriate frequency for coax network 311. Power amplifier 303 couples the signal to the coax cable so the signals can be transmitted.
Furthermore, front end 33 may be programmed to interface with a wired network, such as a telephone network using twisted pair wires 312. Mixer 330 may select an LO of 10 MHz to mix with analog baseband signal 326 or mixer 330 may simply pass signal 326 to line driver circuit 304. In one embodiment, the signals transmitted to twisted pair 312 are at 20 MHz. Line driver 304 couples the analog signal to twisted pair 312 for transmission to telephone, modems, set-top boxes, or other applications.
It will be understood, that the front-end circuits described above with respect to
In one embodiment, each analog front-end 31-34 may be assigned to a different channel complying with the 802.11 standards. The channels assigned to each front-end 31-34 may be within a same frequency band, for example the 2.4 GHz band or the 5-5.8 GHz band. According to IEEE standards 802.11, the 2.4 GHz band ranges from 2.412 GHz to 2.462 GHz and is separated into eleven channels. In other standards, for example ITU standards, the 2.4 GHz band from 2.412 to 2.472 GHz is divided into thirteen channels. Channels are selected from the available channels and assigned to each front-end 31-34. Selection of the channels may take into account a separation of the channels to avoid interference, which may limits the number of channels available for front-ends 31-34.
In other embodiments, the channels assigned to front-ends 31-34 are selected from different bands. For example, one or more of the channels is selected from the 2.4 GHz band channels, while the other channels are selected from the 5 GHZ band channels. Selecting the channels from different bands provides an extended frequency separation and may release constraints in the RF processing due to closely located RF frequencies and interference caused thereby.
The operation illustrated in
It is to be noted that the usage of the same front end for multiple operation modes allows a flexible usage of the access point which may be in compliance with existing standards such as the IEEE 802.11n WLAN standard. According to this standard, the above multi-channel operations can be used to individually tailor usage of the access point in any of the 5 GHz band or a 2.4 GHz band according to all the variety which is offered by the standard. For example, in a first operation mode, four RF chains may be used for providing a MIMO operation with 4 channels (for example 4×4 MIMO) while in a second operation mode, the same four RF chains may be used such that three of the RF chains are used for a MIMO operation with three spatial streams in one band and one RF chain is used for an additional operation of a single WLAN channel in another band. Furthermore, the same access point, may then be used such that the three RF chains provide the MIMO operation with three spatial streams and the one RF chain provides a wired communication channel. It is to be understood that the above operations are only exemplary and that the analog front end may be programmed to allow any of the above mentioned multi-stream operation techniques with any number n of multi-streams.
Switch 507 receives digital signals from MAC/BB processors and routes the digital signals to channels 31-34 as transmit I and Q signals. The digital transmit I and Q signals are received by D/A converters 508 and converted to analog baseband signals for further processing by up-conversion circuitry 519. The analog baseband signals in channel are filtered by low pass filter 509 and then up-converted to an RF frequency in mixer 510. Local oscillators 511-513 provide LO frequencies to channels 31-34. Depending upon the frequency of the WLAN or coax channel assigned to front-end channels 31-34, switches 514 and 515 are used to select the appropriate LO frequency. It will be understood that any LO signal may be selected for each mixer 510 so that each channel 31-34 may operate on any desired frequency, channel or band.
Local oscillators 511-513 may be phase locked loops (PLL) in one embodiment. PLL 511 is configured to provide an LO frequency of 2.4 GHz, and PLL 512 is configured to provide an LO frequency of 5 GHz. The LO signals from PLLs 511 and 512 may be used, for example, to up-convert signals for use in a WLAN based upon the 802.11 standards. The up-converted signals output from mixers 510 are then amplified in programmable gain amplifiers (PGA) 516. The output of amplifiers 516 may be further amplified by power amplifiers 517 before being transmitted via antennae 502-505 to client applications.
Switches 518 may be used to selectively couple antennae 502-505 to transmit circuitry 519 or receive circuitry 520 in front-end channels 31-34. Signals received from client applications at antennae 502-505 are routed to receive circuitry 520 via switch 518. The received signals pass for each channel through low noise amplifier (LNA) 521 and are then down-converted in mixer 522. In the illustrated embodiment, switches 514 and 515 provide the same LO signals to down-conversion mixers 522 that are selected for up-conversion mixers 510 since the transmit and receive signals are expected to be in the same frequency band for each channel. In other embodiments, switches 514 and 515 may be used to provide different LO frequencies for the transmitted and received signals if, for example, the signals were in different frequency bands or channels.
The down-converted signals, which are at baseband, pass through programmable gain control (PGC) circuitry 523 and are filtered in low pass filter 524. The analog baseband signals are converted to digital signal samples in A/D converters 525. The digitized signals are routed to the MAC/BB processors via switch 507.
In the embodiment illustrated in
In one embodiment, control processor 529 is coupled to channels 31-34, PLLs 511-513, and switch 507 to perform control and management functions for the front-end channels. If required, the control processor may provide coordination for multiple front-end components as well as for multiple MAC/BB entities. As used herein, control provided by control processor 529 is to be interpreted in a broad sense and may include managing functionalities for the different front-end components and data streams, such as assigning and dynamically reassigning frequencies, bands, or networks to the multiple front-ends in the access point. Control processor 529 may also control the physical transmission modes and RF bandwidths of front-end 501. Control processor 529 may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware or a combination of two or more of these components.
It will be understood that front-end channels 31-34 may be assigned to any combination for WLAN or cable networks. For example, in one embodiment, front-end channels 31-34 may all be assigned to a single WLAN network complying with 802.11n such that each channel is operating in a MIMO transmission mode to communicate with one or more client applications. In an alternative embodiment, two channels, such as channels 31 and 32, may be operating in an 802.11n MIMO transmission mode, while channel 33 operates in a legacy mode, such as one complying with 802.11 a/b/g, and channel 34 provides a front-end interface
Although channel 34 has been described as capable of operating with either a wired or cable network, it will be understood that in other embodiments channel 34 may be configured to operate with any combination of two or more wireless and wired networks, including, without limitation, 802.11 networks, cable networks, twisted pair networks, and power line networks. Moreover, although
In various embodiments, the components of the analog front-end circuits described herein may be constructed on the same or separate silicon. For example, the power amplifiers and line drivers that are coupled to the antennae, twisted pair, coax or power lines may be integrated on the same silicon as the mixers and AD/DA converters. Alternatively, the AD/DA converters may be constructed on separate silicon from the mixers and power amplifiers/line drivers. The AD/DA converters may be constructed on the same silicon as the MAC/BB processors in one embodiment. Alternatively, the AD/DA converters, the mixers and the power amplifiers/line drivers may all be constructed on separate silicon.
Embodiments of the present invention allows a user to select which media will be used for data transmission/reception, such as WLAN, coax, twisted pair, or power line. Depending upon the selected media, one the mixing frequency needs to be changed to modify the analog front-end's ability to interface with the selected media. The selection of which media to use may be made dynamically by the user during operation in one embodiment, such as selecting media based upon channel quality. The media selection may also be made automatically by the access point to switch from one client application to another.
In the above description, embodiments have been shown and described herein enabling those skilled in the art in sufficient detail to practice the teachings disclosed herein. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived there from, such that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. This Detailed Description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of various embodiments is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
Such embodiments of the inventive subject matter may be referred to herein, individually and/or collectively, by the term “invention” merely for convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application to any single invention or inventive concept if more than one is in fact disclosed. Thus, although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, it should be appreciated that any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any and all adaptations or variations of various embodiments. Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments not specifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description.
It is further to be noted that specific terms used in the description and claims may be interpreted in a very broad sense. For example the term “data” may be interpreted to include every form of representing the data, such as an encrypted form of the data, an analog or digital representation, a modulated signal representing the data etc. Furthermore, the terms “circuit” or “circuitry” used herein are to be interpreted in a sense not only including hardware but also software, firmware or any combinations thereof. Furthermore the terms “coupled” or “connected” may be interpreted in a broad sense not only covering direct but also indirect coupling.
The accompanying drawings that form a part hereof show by way of illustration, and not of limitation, specific embodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced.
The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.
Although the present invention and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from the disclosure of the present invention, processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed, that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6275990 | Dapper et al. | Aug 2001 | B1 |
| 7310522 | Geile | Dec 2007 | B2 |
| 7330740 | Bennett et al. | Feb 2008 | B2 |
| 7385916 | Geile et al. | Jun 2008 | B2 |
| 7400572 | Geile et al. | Jul 2008 | B2 |
| 7414960 | Geile et al. | Aug 2008 | B2 |
| 7414961 | Geile et al. | Aug 2008 | B2 |
| 7417944 | Geile | Aug 2008 | B2 |
| 7420913 | Geile et al. | Sep 2008 | B2 |
| 7420914 | Geile et al. | Sep 2008 | B2 |
| 7426177 | Geile et al. | Sep 2008 | B2 |
| 7539208 | Chapman et al. | May 2009 | B2 |
| 7623440 | Geile et al. | Nov 2009 | B2 |
| 7630361 | Chapman et al. | Dec 2009 | B2 |
| 7647035 | Rofougaran | Jan 2010 | B2 |
| 7675843 | Geile | Mar 2010 | B2 |
| 7680227 | Kavadias et al. | Mar 2010 | B2 |
| 7710319 | Nassiri-Toussi et al. | May 2010 | B2 |
| 7831220 | Hammerschmidt et al. | Nov 2010 | B2 |
| 7864686 | Chapman et al. | Jan 2011 | B2 |
| 7881180 | Geile et al. | Feb 2011 | B2 |
| 7881181 | Dapper et al. | Feb 2011 | B2 |
| 7983141 | Geile | Jul 2011 | B2 |
| 7995454 | Geile et al. | Aug 2011 | B2 |
| 20040125787 | May et al. | Jul 2004 | A1 |
| 20040172658 | Rakib et al. | Sep 2004 | A1 |
| 20050186958 | Hansen et al. | Aug 2005 | A1 |
| 20050286557 | Sung et al. | Dec 2005 | A1 |
| 20060193271 | Proctor et al. | Aug 2006 | A1 |
| 20090041004 | Emmanuel | Feb 2009 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1722723 | Jan 2006 | CN |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20090110088 A1 | Apr 2009 | US |
