Managing bidirectional communication in constrained environments
AssigneeMarvell Asia Pte Ltd
InventorsDance Wu, Christopher Mash
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Bidirectionally transmitting data between a first transceiver and a second transceiver over a transmission line includes communicating between the first transceiver and the second transceiver during a bidirectional communication phase within time slots. The time slots include: a plurality of upstream time slots in which the first transceiver transmits data to the second transceiver, a plurality of downstream time slots in which second transceiver transmits data to the first transceiver, wherein the downstream time slots are shorter than the upstream time slots, and a plurality of idle time slots separating adjacent upstream and downstream time slots.
Claims27
A networking system for bidirectionally transmitting data, comprising:
- a communication medium comprising a transmission line having a first end and a second end;
- a first node comprising a first transceiver coupled to the transmission line in proximity to the first end through a first bidirectional interface that is configured to transmit electromagnetic signals to the transmission line and receive electromagnetic signals from the transmission line during a bidirectional communication phase, the first transceiver being coupled to the transmission line over a connection that does not include echo cancellation circuitry;
- and
- a second node comprising a second transceiver coupled to the transmission line in proximity to the second end through a second bidirectional interface that is configured to transmit electromagnetic signals to the transmission line and receive electromagnetic signals from the transmission line during the bidirectional communication phase, the second transceiver being coupled to the transmission line over a connection that does not include echo cancellation circuitry;
- wherein the first node and the second node are configured to communicate during the bidirectional communication phase such that:
- the first node is configured to control the first transceiver to transmit data to the second transceiver over the transmission line during a plurality of upstream time slots of a first length,
- the second node is configured to control the second transceiver to transmit data to the first transceiver over the transmission line during a plurality of downstream time slots of a second length shorter than the first length, and
- adjacent upstream and downstream timeslots are separated by respective idle time slots.
A method for bidirectionally transmitting data between a first transceiver and a second transceiver over a transmission line through respective bidirectional interfaces that transmit electromagnetic signals to the transmission line and receive electromagnetic signals from the transmission line, the method comprising:
- communicating between the first transceiver and the second transceiver during a setup phase in which information is exchanged between the first transceiver and the second transceiver, the information including a value indicating at least one of:
- a selected time duration of upstream time slots or downstream time slots, or a selected time slot ratio between upstream time slots and downstream time slots;
- and
- communicating between the first transceiver and the second transceiver during a bidirectional communication phase within time slots determined according to the value, the communicating during the bidirectional communication phase including:
- transmitting data from the first transceiver transmits to the second transceiver over the transmission line during a plurality of upstream time slots of a first length,
- transmitting data from second transceiver transmits to the first transceiver over the transmission line during a plurality of downstream time slots of a second length shorter than the first length, and
- waiting during a plurality of idle time slots separating adjacent upstream and downstream time slots without performing echo cancellation on electromagnetic signals at either end of the transmission line.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.