Back to results
US 7,248,573 B2Granted
Interface system for wireless node and network node
Assignee3Com Corporation
InventorsLee C Harrison, Edward Turner, Bryan J Donoghue, Tin Lam, Benjamin J O Kerr
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An interface between a wireless node and a network node includes an encapsulator for temporarily converting data frames into Ethernet frames for the link between the two nodes and de-encapsulating the Ethernet frames before the data is processed at the network node.
Claims4
A system for receiving data signals and coupling data signals to an Ethernet network, said system comprising:
- a plurality of dumb nodes, each dumb node comprising a radio receiver and an encapsulator, said radio receiver including a baseband processor for providing serial data signals composed of data frames each including a packet payload, and said encapsulator including means for encapsulating said data frames within temporary Ethernet frames, and wherein each dumb node includes a multiplexer for multiplexing host controller interface data with pulse-code modulated voice data into said data frames;
- an intelligent node comprising a de-encapsulator, and a protocol processor for providing addressed Ethernet packets for transmission in said network;
- and
- a plurality of physical links, each physical link coupling one of said dumb nodes with said intelligent node;
- wherein:
- said encapsulator is coupled to said physical link to send said temporary Ethernet frames across the physical link only to said de-encapsulator;
- said de-encapsulator includes means for receiving temporary Ethernet frames from said link and de-encapsulating said temporary Ethernet frames to recover said data frames;
- and
- said protocol processor includes means for converting said data frames into said addressed Ethernet packets.
6 more elements
A method of receiving signals and transmitting signals over a local area network, comprising:
- receiving, at one of a plurality of dumb nodes, a spread-spectrum signal containing message data and converting said spread-spectrum signal into serial data frames conforming to a host controller interface format;
- encapsulating said serial data frames into Ethernet frames;
- conveying said Ethernet frames over one of a plurality of physical links only, each of said plurality of physical links coupling one of said plurality of dumb nodes to an intelligent node;
- receiving, at said intelligent node, said Ethernet frames from said physical link;
- de-encapsulating, at said intelligent node, said Ethernet data frames to provide recovered serial data frames;
- developing, by means of a protocol processor at said intelligent node, addressed Ethernet data packets from said recovered serial data frames;
- and
- forwarding, from said intelligent node, said addressed Ethernet data packets to said local area network.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.