System and method for phase matching control in plural transmission channels

A phase matching system, comprising:

• a transmitter for transmitting data including phase information in plural transmission channels that comprises a plurality of transmitting units that transmit identical data to the plural channels, wherein each of said transmitting units comprises a frame generating and transmitting unit for generating and transmitting a frame having a cycle that is not less than twice the maximum predicted delay amount that may occur in the plural transmission channels, and a phase information inserting unit for inserting the phase information that indicates a phase of said frame into said frame;
• and a frame counter that is shared by said plurality of transmitting units, wherein said frame generating and transmitting unit in each of said plurality of transmitting units comprises:
• a first input and output unit for inputting write data and a write frame pulse of a predetermined cycle that indicates a phase of said write data in response to a write address and for outputting read data and a read frame pulse that correspond to said write data and said write frame pulse, respectively in response to a read clock signal having a frequency higher than a write clock signal to generate said write address, and
• a frame generating unit for generating an output frame including said read data in cooperation with said frame counter in response to said read clock signal, and
• and wherein said phase information inserting unit comprises a pointer value generating unit for inserting a pointer value indicating phase information of said read frame pulse corresponding to identical data that is output from all of said transmitting units into an output frame that is output from said frame generating unit at a timing that is common to said output frame output from all of said transmitting units;
• and
• a receiver for receiving data including phase information from plural transmission channels that comprises a plurality of receiving units that receive identical data from the plural channels, wherein each of said receiving units comprises a frame synchronization unit for receiving a frame having a cycle that is not less than twice the maximum predicted delay amount that may occur in the plural transmission channels and the phase information that indicates a phase of said frame included in said frame, and a phase matching unit for matching the phase of the corresponding frame on said plural transmission channels based upon said phase information output from said frame synchronization unit and outputting the frame, and a pointer value comparing unit and a write address comparing unit that are shared by said plurality of receiving units, wherein said phase matching unit in each of said plurality of receiving units comprises:
• a frame synchronization unit for extracting and outputting said read data, said pointer value, a write enabling signal including phase information of said pointer value, and said frame pulse of the predetermined cycle for each frame of the input data from a transmitting unit, in response to a receiving clock signal extracted from said read data;
• a write address counter for generating a write address in response to said receiving clock signal, the write address being generated according to a phase difference of the write data corresponding to a same frame pulse between said plural transmission channels, based upon difference between a plurality of pointer values from said plural transmission channels that are calculated by said pointer value comparing unit;
• and
• a second input and output unit for inputting said data and said frame pulse in response to said write address and for outputting said data and said frame pulse in response to a read address having frequency lower than said receiving clock signal, and the read address of said data and said frame pulse output from said second input and output unit is formed so that the read address coincides with a value that is not less than the maximum value of the write address having an identical phase from said write address counter of said plurality of receiving units.

A phase matching control method comprising:

• a data transmission method for transmitting data including phase information to plural transmission channels to transmit identical data to the plural channels by a plurality of transmitting units, wherein each of said transmitting units generates a frame having a cycle that is not less than twice the maximum predicted delay amount that may occur in the plural transmission channels and inserts the phase information that indicates a phase of said frame into said frame to transmit said frame, in said frame generating and transmitting unit in each of said plurality of transmitting units, comprising the steps of:
• inputting write data and a write frame pulse having a predetermined cycle that indicates a phase of said write data to a first input and output unit, and outputting read data and a read frame pulse that correspond to said write data and said write frame pulse, respectively, in response to a read clock signal having frequency that is higher than a write clock signal to generate said write address;
• generating an output frame including said read data in cooperation with a frame counter that is shared by said plurality of transmitting units in response to said read clock signal;
• and
• inserting a pointer value indicating phase information of said read frame pulse corresponding to identical data that is output from all of said transmitting units into an output frame that is output from said frame generating unit at a timing that is common to said output frame output from all of said transmitting units;
• and
• a data reception method for receiving data including phase information from plural transmission channels to receive identical data from the plural channels by a plurality of receiving units, wherein each of said receiving units receives a frame having a cycle that is not less than twice the maximum predicted delay amount that may occur in the plural transmission channels and phase information that indicates a phase of said frame included in said frame in synchronization with said phase information, and outputs corresponding frames in said plural transmission channels with matched phases based upon said phase information, in said phase matching unit in each of said plurality of receiving units, comprising the steps of:
• extracting said read data, said pointer value, a write enabling signal including phase information of said pointer value, and a frame pulse of said predetermined cycle for each frame of the input data from a transmitting unit, in response to a receiving clock signal extracted said read data;
• generating a write address in response to said receiving clock signal, the write address being generated according to phase difference of the write data corresponding to a same frame pulse between said plural transmission channels, based upon difference between a plurality of pointer values from said plural transmission channels that are calculated by the pointer value comparing unit that is shared by said plurality of receiving units;
• and
• inputting said data and said frame pulse to the second input and output unit in response to said write address and outputting said data and said frame pulse from said second input and output unit in response to a read address having a frequency lower than the frequency of said receiving clock signal, and wherein
• the read address of said data and said frame pulse output from said second input and output unit is formed so that the read address coincides with a value that is not less than the maximum value of the write address having an identical phase from said write address counter of said plurality of receiving units.