Voice and data communications

Abstract

A method and apparatus for converting an analog voice channel signal and a 4-wire digital signal into a single 2-wire digital signal which can be transferred over a single twisted pair line. In one aspect, the method comprises the steps of converting the analog voice channel signal into a first binary signal, converting the 4-wire digital signal into a second binary signal, combining the first binary signal and the second binary signal into a higher rate binary signal, and converting the higher rate binary signal into a 2-wire digital signal which can be transmitted to another location over a single twisted pair line. In another aspect, the method comprises the steps of converting a 2-wire digital signal to a higher rate binary signal, separating a first binary signal and a second binary signal from the higher rate binary signal and converting the first binary signal into an analog voice channel signal, and converting the second binary signal into a 4-wire digital signal. The apparatus includes an easily installed voice plus digital data remote terminal and voice plus digital data remote terminal and voice plus digital data central office terminal. The apparatus can provide a 3-to-1 pair gain by multiplexing signals representing the analog voice telephone signals and 4-wire digital data signals.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.