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US 6,785,564 B1Granted
Method and apparatus for latency reduction in low power two way communications equipment applications in hybrid fiber coax plants
AssigneeBroadcom Corporation
InventorsThomas J. Quigley, Ted Rabenko
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A two way communication system is adapted to reduce latency while the communications system is operating in a low power mode. The two way communication system includes a local host having a first primary communication channel and a secondary out of band transmitter; and customer premise equipment having a primary communication channel for communicating with the first primary communication channel of the local host and a secondary low power out of band receiver that receives out of band control signals from the out of band transmitter during low power operation of the customer premise equipment.
Claims16
A two way communication system comprising:
- a local host having a first primary broadband communication channel and a secondary out of band transmitter;
- and
- customer premises equipment having a primary communication channel for communicating with said first primary broadband communication channel of said local host and a secondary low power out of band receiver that receives out of band control signals from said out of band transmitter during low power operation of said customer premises equipment;
- wherein said customer premises equipment further comprises one or more peripherals that provide two way communication with one or more communication devices coupled to said customer premises equipment and a processor that monitors activity level of said customer premises equipment and requests a sleep command from said local host when said peripherals have been inactive for a predetermined duration;
- and
- wherein said local host further comprises a host processor that processes said request for sleep command and grants said request in absence of traffic for said customer premises equipment and wherein said host processor activates a downstream filter that buffers communications addressed to said customer premises equipment when said customer premises equipment has been placed in low power mode.
3 more elements
A two way communication system comprising:
- a local host having a first primary broadband communication channel and a secondary out of band transmitter;
- and
- customer premises equipment having a primary communication channel for communicating with said first primary broadband communication channel of said local host and a secondary low power out of band receiver that receives out of band control signals from said out of band transmitter during low power operation of said customer premises equipment;
- wherein said secondary low power out of band receiver comprises an out of band receiver PHY and an out of band receiver processor for receiving and processing asynchronous wake-up commands from the local host;
- and
- wherein said out of band receiver PHY comprises a frequency agile local oscillator for down converting channels within a predetermined bandwidth to an intermediate frequency signal.
3 more elements
A two way communication system comprising:
- a local host having a first primary broadband communication channel and a secondary out of band transmitter;
- and
- customer premises equipment having a primary communication channel for communicating with said first primary broadband communication channel of said local host and a secondary low power out of band receiver that receives out of band control signals from said out of band transmitter during low power operation of said customer premises equipment;
- wherein said secondary low power out of band receiver comprises an out of band receiver PHY and an out of band receiver processor for receiving and processing asynchronous wake-up commands from the local host;
- and
- wherein said out of band receiver PHY comprises a digital demodulator for demodulating said asynchronous wake-up commands.
3 more elements
A method for reducing latency in a communications system comprising:
- monitoring activity level of a first transceiver;
- disabling a high power channel of said first transceiver as a function of said activity level;
- activating a low power channel of said first transceiver to enable reception of control signals from a second transceiver;
- the first transceiver generating a request for a sleep command as a function of said activity level of said first transceiver;
- the second transceiver verifying a status of said first transceiver;
- and
- the second transceiver communicating an acknowledgement of said request to said first transceiver as a function of said status, wherein said high power channel of said first transceiver is disabled upon receipt of said acknowledgment.
4 more elements
A method for mitigating latency in a communications system while the communications system is operating at reduced power comprising:
- disabling a primary communication channel of a first transceiver;
- disabling one or more connected peripheral devices while the primary communication channel is disabled;
- and
- receiving messages from a second transceiver, transmitted on a secondary communication channel, wherein said messages arc used to restore normal operating conditions when an unscheduled, high priority message arrives;
- wherein a bandwidth of said secondary channel is less than a bandwidth of said primary communication channel, and wherein the step of communicating with the second transceiver via said secondary communication channel comprises the second transceiver transmitting an address of the first transceiver, and the first transceiver resuming operation of the primary communication channel upon receipt of said address via the secondary communication channel.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.