Signalling method and structure suitable for out-of-band information transfer in communication network

A signalling method comprising the step of producing a special bit sequence containing a plurality of 5-bit segments that occur timewise one after another, each bit in each sequence segment selectively being a first binary value or a second binary value opposite to the first binary value, each sequence segment being coded with a selected one of a plurality of different 5-bit code groups comprising a first code group and a set of second code groups, the five bits in the first code group all being the first binary value, no pair of non-contiguous bits of the second binary value occurring in any of the second code groups, and no pair of non-contiguous bits of the second binary value occurring in any ten consecutive bits in the special bit sequence.

Electronic communication apparatus comprising:

• state circuitry which produces a special bit sequence containing a plurality of n-bit sequence segments that occur timewise one after another where n is at least 3, each bit in each sequence segment selectively being a first binary value or a second binary value opposite to the first binary value, each sequence segment being coded with a selected one of a plurality of different n-bit code groups allocated into a first code group and a set of second code groups, the n bits in the first code group all being the first binary value, and no pair of non-contiguous bits of the second binary value occurring in any of the second code groups;
• and
• output circuitry which modifies the special bit sequence for cable transmission and then furnishes the so modified special bit sequence to an external cable.

A communication network comprising:

• a plurality of data-transferring communication stations, each capable of transmitting data to at least one other data-transferring communication station in the network;
• and
• a communication-management station that provides a bit stream representing a special bit sequence containing a plurality of n-bit sequence segments that occur timewise one after another where n is at least 3, each bit in each sequence segment selectively being a first binary value or a second binary value opposite to the first binary value, each sequence segment being coded with a selected one of a plurality of different n-bit code groups comprising a first code group and a set of second code groups, the n bits in the first code group all being the first binary value, and no pair of non-contiguous bits of the second binary value occurring in any of the second code groups, the bit stream being supplied to each of the data-transferring communication stations to establish communication priorities for transferring data among the data-transferring stations, the special bit sequence varying in content for each data-transferring station depending on its communication priority.