Method and system for video and auxiliary data transmission over a serial link

A communication system, including:

• a receiver;
• a transmitter;
• and
• a serial link comprising video channels between the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the transmitter is configured to generate encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data, to transmit the encoded video data to the receiver over the video channels during active video periods, and to transmit packets including the encoded auxiliary data to the receiver over the video channels during data islands, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods, and
• wherein each of the packets comprises a set of code words, and the transmitter is configured to transmit a different subset of the set of code words over each of at least two of the video channels.

A communication system, including:

• a receiver;
• a transmitter;
• and
• a serial link comprising video channels between the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the transmitter is coupled to receive video data and auxiliary data, and configured to operate in a data island mode in which it generates encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data by encrypting the video data and auxiliary data, generates encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data by encoding the encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data, transmits the encoded video data to the receiver over the video channels during active video periods, and transmits packets including the encoded auxiliary data to the receiver over the video channels during data islands, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods,
• wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit control data to the receiver over the video channels during control data periods in the data island mode, wherein the control data periods neither coincide with nor overlap any of the data islands and neither coincide with nor overlap any of the active video periods, and the control data include at least one island preamble word and at least one video preamble word,
• the transmitter is configured to transmit over each of the video channels in each of the data islands during the data island mode a non-encrypted island guard band followed by data of at least one of the packets, and to transmit over each of the video channels in each of the active video periods during the data island mode a non-encrypted video guard band followed by a burst of the encoded video data, and
• the transmitter is configured to transmit, during the data island mode, at least one said island preamble word over each of the video channels as a data island preamble to each of the data islands and at least one said video preamble word over each of the video channels as a video preamble to each of the active video periods.

A communication system, including:

• a receiver;
• a transmitter;
• and
• a serial link comprising video channels between the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the transmitter is configured to operate in a data island mode in which it generates encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data, transmits the encoded video data to the receiver over the video channels during active video periods, and transmits packets including the encoded auxiliary data to the receiver over the video channels during data islands, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods,
• wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit control data to the receiver over the video channels during control data periods in the data island mode, wherein the control data periods neither coincide with nor overlap any of the data islands and neither coincide with nor overlap any of the active video periods, and the control data include at least one island preamble word and at least one video preamble word,
• the transmitter is configured to transmit over each of the video channels in each of the data islands during the data island mode an island guard band followed by data of at least one of the packets, and to transmit over each of the video channels in each of the active video periods during the data island mode a video guard band followed by a burst of the encoded video data,
• the transmitter is configured to transmit, during the data island mode, at least one said island preamble word over each of the video channels as a data island preamble to each of the data islands and at least one said video preamble word over each of the video channels as a video preamble to each of the active video periods,
• the transmitter is configured to be operable in a second mode in which it generates and transmits encoded video data to the receiver over the video channels during active video periods without transmitting any island guard band or video guard band over any of the video channels, and the transmitter is configured to undergo a transition from operation in the second mode to operation in the data island mode,
• the receiver is configured to be operable in a second mode in which it identifies active video periods without identifying any video preamble-to-video guard band transition, and recovers video data from encoded video data received over the video channels during the active video periods, and
• the receiver is configured to undergo a transition from operation in the second mode to operation in the data island mode in response to detecting a data island preamble-to-island guard band transition on at least one of the video channels.

A communication system, including:

• a receiver;
• a transmitter;
• and
• a serial link comprising video channels between the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the transmitter is configured to operate in a mode in which it generates encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data by encrypting video data and auxiliary data, generates encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data by encoding the encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data, transmits the encoded video data to the receiver over the video channels during active video periods, and transmits packets indicative of the encoded auxiliary data to the receiver over the video channels during data islands, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods,
• the receiver is configured to recover encrypted data by decoding the encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data it receives over the video channels, and the receiver includes at least one receiver cipher engine coupled and configured to decrypt the recovered encrypted data, and
• wherein the transmitter and the receiver are configured to perform a link verification check to determine whether the receiver is properly decrypting the recovered encrypted data, the link verification check includes the steps of capturing a result value from the transmitter and a receiver result value from the receiver and determining whether the receiver result value matches the result value, the transmitter includes at least one transmitter cipher engine configured to generate the encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data by encrypting the video data and auxiliary data, wherein each said transmitter cipher engine operates in response to at least one control signal of a first control signal set, each said receiver cipher engine operates in response to at least one control signal of a second control signal set, and each control signal in the second control signal set is generated such that it is unlikely to have frequency at least substantially equal to that of a control signal in the first control signal set but phase significantly different from that of a control signal in the first control signal set.

A communication system, including:

• a receiver;
• a transmitter;
• and
• a serial link comprising video channels between the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the transmitter is configured to operate in a mode in which it generates encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data by encrypting video data and auxiliary data, generates encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data by encoding the encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data, transmits the encoded video data to the receiver over the video channels during active video periods, and transmits packets indicative of the encoded auxiliary data to the receiver over the video channels during data islands, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods,
• the receiver is configured to recover encrypted data by decoding the encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data it receives over the video channels, and the receiver includes at least one cipher engine coupled and configured to decrypt the recovered encrypted data, and
• wherein the transmitter and the receiver are configured to perform a link verification check to determine whether the receiver is properly decrypting the recovered encrypted data, the link verification check includes the steps of capturing a result value from the transmitter and a receiver result value from the receiver and determining whether the receiver result value matches the result value, the transmitter is configured to capture the result value in response to an external stimulus, and the receiver is configured to capture the receiver result value in response to the same external stimulus, whereby the transmitter and receiver always capture the result value and the receiver result value within a time window having duration less than a predetermined acceptable duration.

A communication system, including:

• a receiver;
• a transmitter, and
• a serial link comprising video channels between the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the transmitter is configured to operate in a mode in which it generates encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data by encrypting video data and auxiliary data, generates encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data by encoding the encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data, transmits the encoded video data to the receiver over the video channels during active video periods, and transmits packets indicative of the encoded auxiliary data to the receiver over the video channels during data islands, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods,
• the receiver is configured to recover encrypted data by decoding the encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data it receives over the video channels, and the receiver includes at least one cipher engine coupled and configured to decrypt the recovered encrypted data, and
• wherein the transmitter and the receiver are configured to perform a link verification check to determine whether the receiver is properly decrypting the recovered encrypted data, the link verification check includes the steps of periodically generating transmitter result values in the transmitter and corresponding receiver result values in the receiver within first time windows of a first duration that occur with a first period, sampling the transmitter result values in the transmitter and the corresponding receiver result values in the receiver within sampling time windows of a second duration that occur with a second period, and determining whether each most recently sampled receiver result value matches the most recently sampled transmitter result value, wherein none of the sampling windows coincides with or overlaps any of the first time windows.

A method for performing an encryption check on a communication system including a receiver, a transmitter, and a serial link comprising video channels between the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the transmitter configured to operate in a mode in which it generates encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data by encrypting video data and auxiliary data, generates encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data by encoding the encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data, transmits the encoded video data to the receiver over the video channels during active video periods, and transmits packets indicative of the encoded auxiliary data to the receiver over the video channels during data islands, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods, the receiver is configured to recover encrypted data by decoding the encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data it receives over the video channels, and the receiver includes at least one cipher engine coupled and configured to decrypt the recovered encrypted data, said method including the steps of:

• (a) from time to time, operating the transmitter to encrypt test data indicative of a known bit pattern to generate encrypted data, generate encoded test data by encoding the encrypted data, and transmitting the encoded test data over at least one of the video channels to the receiver;
• (b) operating the receiver to generate decrypted test data by decoding and decrypting the encoded test data;
• and (c) checking whether the decrypted test data matches the test data.

A transmitter configured to be coupled to a serial link comprising at least one video channel, said transmitter including:

• at least one input coupled to receive video data and at least one input coupled to receive auxiliary data;
• at least one output configured to be coupled to the link;
• and
• circuitry coupled between each said input and each said output, and configured to generate encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data by encoding the video data and auxiliary data, to assert the encoded video data to the at least one output during active video periods, and to assert packets including the encoded auxiliary data to the at least one output during data islands, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods,
• wherein the circuitry is also configured to assert control data to the at least one output during control data periods, wherein the control data periods neither coincide with nor overlap any of the data islands and neither coincide with nor overlap any of the active video periods.

A receiver configured to be coupled to a serial link comprising at least one video channel, said receiver including:

• at least one input configured to be coupled to the link;
• at least one video output for asserting video data recovered from the link and at least one audio output for asserting audio data recovered from the link;
• and
• circuitry coupled between each said input and each said output, and configured to generate recovered video data including by decoding encoded video data received at the at least one input during active video periods, to assert the recovered video data to the at least one video output, to recover packets of auxiliary data including by decoding code words indicative of said packets received at the at least one input during data islands, to generate at least one stream of audio data from data extracted from the recovered packets, and to assert each said stream of audio data to the at least one audio output, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods.

A communication system, including:

• a receiver;
• a transmitter;
• and
• a serial link between the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the transmitter is coupled to receive input data, configured to generate a sequence of selected code words by encoding the input data, and configured to transmit the sequence of selected code words to the receiver over the serial link, wherein each of the selected code words is a member of a robust subset of a full set of code words, the full set includes predetermined disjoint clusters of the code words, the input data can be encoded as a conventional sequence of code words of the full set, and the sequence of selected code words is less susceptible to inter-symbol interference during transmission over the link than would be the conventional sequence of code words,
• wherein the robust subset consists of preferred words of the full set, the code words of the full set that are not preferred words are non-preferred words, each of the preferred words is indicative of an input data value, each of the clusters includes a preferred word set consisting of at least one of the preferred words, at least one of the clusters also includes at least one of the non-preferred words, each said preferred word set is indicative of a different input data value, and the receiver includes logic circuitry coupled to receive the code words transmitted over the link and configured to map each received code word that is a member of one of the clusters to the input data value determined by the preferred word set of said one of the clusters.

A communication system, including:

• a receiver;
• a transmitter;
• and
• a serial link between the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the transmitter is coupled to receive input data, configured to generate a sequence of selected code words by encoding the input data, and configured to transmit the sequence of selected code words to the receiver over the serial link, wherein each of the selected code words is a member of a robust subset of a full set of code words, the full set includes predetermined disjoint clusters of the code words, the input data can be encoded as a conventional sequence of code words of the full set, and the sequence of selected code words is less susceptible to inter-symbol interference during transmission over the link than would be the conventional sequence of code words,
• wherein the robust subset consists of preferred words of the full set, the code words of the full set that are not preferred words are non-preferred words, each of the preferred words is indicative of an input data value, each of the clusters includes a preferred word set consisting of at least one of the preferred words, at least one of the clusters also includes at least one of the non-preferred words, each said preferred word set is indicative of a different input data value, and the receiver is configured to map each received code word that is a member of one of the clusters to the input data value determined by the preferred word set of said one of the clusters, wherein each said cluster includes at least a first non-preferred word, a second non-preferred word, and a third non-preferred word, wherein the Nth bit of the first non-preferred word differs from the Nth bit of one of the preferred words of the cluster, the second non-preferred word is a right-shifted version of the first non-preferred word, and the third non-preferred word is a left-shifted version of the first non-preferred word.

A communication system including:

• a transmitter;
• a receiver having at least one input and at least one output;
• and
• at least one serial link, having at least one video channel, coupled between the transmitter and at least one input of the receiver, wherein each of the transmitter and the receiver is operable in any selected one of a transmission state and a mute state, the transmitter in the transmission state is configured to generate encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data by encrypting and encoding video data and auxiliary data, to transmit the encoded video data to the receiver over the video channel during active video periods, and to transmit packets including the encoded auxiliary data to the receiver over the link during data islands, each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods, the transmitter in the mute state encrypts none of the video data and none of the auxiliary data, the transmitter is operable in the transmission state and the mute state to transmit control data to the receiver over the link during control data periods that neither coincide with nor overlap any of the data islands or any of the active video periods,
• the receiver is operable in the transmission state to generate recovered video data and recovered auxiliary data including by decoding and decrypting at least some of the encoded video data and the encoded auxiliary data received over the link, and to assert the recovered video data and recovered auxiliary data at the at least one output, the receiver in the mute state asserts at the at least one output neither useful auxiliary data nor useful video data determined by data received over the link, and the receiver is configured to undergo transitions between the mute state and the transmission state only during the control data periods in response to control signals received over the link.

A transmitter for use in a communication system including at least one serial link having at least one video channel and a receiver coupled to the serial link, wherein the transmitter is operable in any selected one of a transmission state and a mute state, said transmitter including:

• encryption circuitry operable in the transmission state to generate encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data by encrypting video data and auxiliary data, wherein the encryption circuitry in the mute state generates neither encrypted video data nor encrypted auxiliary data;
• and
• additional circuitry coupled to the encryption circuitry and having at least one output configured to be coupled to the link, wherein the additional circuitry is operable in the transmission state to generate encoded video data and encoded auxiliary data by encoding the encrypted video data and encrypted auxiliary data, to assert the encoded video data to at least one said output during active video periods, and to assert packets including the encoded auxiliary data to at least one said output during data islands, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods,
• wherein the additional circuitry is operable in the transmission state and the mute state to assert control data to the at least one output during control data periods that neither coincide with nor overlap any of the data islands or any of the active video periods, and the additional circuitry is configured to receive mute state warning signals and to cause the encryption circuitry to undergo transitions from the transmission state to the mute state only during the control data periods in response to the mute state warning signals.

A receiver for use in a communication system including a transmitter and at least one serial link coupled to the transmitter, wherein the receiver is operable in any selected one of a transmission state and a mute state, said receiver including:

• first circuitry having at least one input configured to be coupled to the link, wherein the first circuitry is operable in the transmission state to generate decoded video data and decoded auxiliary data by decoding encrypted video data received at the at least one input during active video periods and by decoding encrypted auxiliary data received at the at least one input during data islands, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods;
• decryption circuitry coupled to the first circuitry and operable in the transmission state to generate decrypted video data and decrypted auxiliary data by decrypting the decoded video data and the decoded auxiliary data, wherein the decryption circuitry in the mute state generates neither encrypted video data nor encrypted auxiliary data;
• and
• output circuitry, coupled to the decryption circuitry and having at least one output, wherein the output circuitry is operable in the transmission state to assert, at the at least one output, recovered auxiliary data and recovered video data determined by the decrypted auxiliary data and the decrypted video data, the output circuitry in the mute state asserts at the at least one output neither useful auxiliary data nor useful video data determined by data received by the output circuitry from the decryption circuitry, the decryption circuitry and at least one of the first circuitry and the output circuitry are configured to undergo transitions between the mute state and the transmission state only during control data periods in response to control signals received at the at least one input of the first circuitry, and the control data periods neither coincide with nor overlap any of the data islands or any of the active video periods.

A receiver, configured to be coupled to a serial link comprising at least one video channel, said receiver including:

• at least one input configured to be coupled to the link;
• at least one video output for asserting video data recovered from data received at the at least one input and at least one non-video output for asserting auxiliary data recovered from data received at the at least one input;
• and
• circuitry coupled between each said input and each said output, and configured to generate recovered video data including by decoding encoded video data received at the at least one input during active video periods, to assert the recovered video data to the at least one video output, to generate decoded words by decoding at least some code words of packets received at the at least one input during data islands, to generate at least one stream of auxiliary data from the decoded words, and to assert each said stream of auxiliary data to the at least one non-video output, wherein each of the data islands is a time interval that neither coincides with nor overlaps any of the active video periods, the circuitry includes decryption circuitry configured to decrypt at least some of the decoded words, and the circuitry is configured to determine from at least some of the decoded words and decrypted versions of at least some of the decoded words whether the decryption circuitry is operating in a properly synchronized manner.