Wall plate having a built-in modem for performing electrical-to-optical conversion, optical-to-electrical conversion and protocol-to-protocol conversion

A wall plate comprising:

• a wall plate housing having a front face that faces an interior space of a customer premise to enable a customer to access the front face, the front face having at least a first electrical port therein that is adapted to mate with a first electrical connector disposed on an end of a first electrical communications cable, a backside of the faceplate having a compartment formed therein;
• a modem disposed inside of the compartment, the modem being electrically interconnected with said at least a first electrical port, the modem having a first optical port that is adapted to mate with an optical connector disposed on an end of an optical fiber cable;
• and
• a cover secured to a backside of the wall plate opposite the front face plate such that the modem is at least partially enclosed inside of the compartment, wherein the first optical port is at least partially exposed through the wall plate to allow the optical connector to be mated with the optical port.

A wall plate comprising:

• a wall plate housing having a front face that faces an interior space of a customer premise to enable a customer to access the front face, the front face having at least a first and second electrical ports therein that are adapted to mate with first and second electrical connectors, respectively, disposed on an ends of first and second electrical communications cables, respectively, a backside of the wall plate having a compartment formed therein;
• a modem disposed inside of the compartment, the modem being electrically interconnected with said at least a first electrical port, the modem being powered by electrical power delivered to the modem via the first or second electrical connector, the modem comprising:
• a first circuit board, wherein the first optical port is mechanically coupled with the first circuit board, and wherein said at least a first electrical port is electrically interconnected with the first circuit board;
• a first integrated circuit (IC) chip mounted on and electrically interconnected with the first circuit, the first IC being configured to perform signaling protocol conversion;
• and
• a bidirectional optical transceiver module mounted on and electrically interconnected with the first circuit board and optically coupled with the first optical port, the optical transceiver module being configured to perform optical-to-electrical conversion of optical signals and electrical-to-optical conversion of electrical signals. and
• a cover secured to a backside of the wall plate opposite the front face such that the modem is at least partially enclosed inside of the compartment, wherein the first optical port is at least partially exposed through the wall plate to allow the optical connector to be mated with the optical port.