TWI237962B - Time division multiple access over broadband modulation method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A communication system is disclosed for providing dedicated bandwidth to at least one subscriber location for transmitting to a common point of distribution via an HFC network. In an embodiment of the invention, the communication system includes a channel interface module and at least one gateway coupled across the HFC network. The channel interface module is located at the point of distribution and includes a transmitter that transmits a windowing signal via the HFC network. The gateway is located at a subscriber location and includes a processor that encapsulates subscriber data into data cells suitable for burst transmission, receive logic that receives the windowing signal, timing logic that indicates burst transmission times only at programmed time slots within each of repeating transmission windows based on the windowing signal and a predetermined transmission timing offset, and a burst transmitter that burst transmits subscriber data cells in a predetermined upstream frequency channel when indicated by the timing logic.

Description

fipiiUf 9 9 发明 Description of the invention (the description of the invention should state: the technical field to which the invention belongs, the prior art, the content, the embodiments, and a brief description of the drawings) I: the technical field to which the invention belongs 3 the field of invention 5 The invention is related to information Delivery and distribution, and more specifically, the present invention relates to a broadband time division multiple access modulation method and device with configuration, non-shared and determined bandwidth for providing users with uplink signal communication. L. jtyr background

Business and home users continue to increase demand for broadband content. Broadband content includes several entertainment programs, communications and data types such as radio and television channels, on-demand video, streaming video, 10 multimedia, Internet access, packet traffic, and more. To meet the increasing demand, it usually needs to increase the bandwidth of each user and improve the quality of services. Current delivery technologies include changes in several DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) technologies such as ADSL (Asymmetrical DSL) and other similar technologies15. DSL technology uses telephone technology; TV technology and HFC (Hybdd

Fiber Coax (Fiber Coax)) cable modem system; and a two-way wireless local loop (WLL) network that includes two-way satellite services. However, the existing technology for providing broadband content has gradually become insufficient to meet this demand. 20 DSL technology is a method of delivering data over twisted-pair copper or twisted-pair cable pairs, and usually uses the Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN). There are some major problems with the provision of video services over existing PSTN and twisted-pair cable pairs (network systems). For example, the existing network system is not uniform and the copper wire conditions of most systems are old. N and 'λ ”, the invention description (the description of the invention should state: the technical field to which the invention belongs, the content of the prior art, the implementation The method and diagram are explained briefly) Signal loss and line noise caused by old bad. In fact, due to the effective distance to the nearest DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) and the poor reporting conditions of existing systems, ADSL cannot be supplied to most humans on existing systems. In addition, ADSL currently only has a limited downlink signal bandwidth of 5 'and it can only provide very limited reply bandwidth in essence. Due to its bandwidth limitations and characteristics, ADSL is not appropriate for several types of content such as video conferencing and the like that begin at the user's location.

The cable modem system that uses the Data-Over-Cable Service Interface Specifications (DOCSIS) to deliver data services utilizes television broadcast spectrum and television technology to broadcast so-called broadcast data to users. One problem with using existing HFC networks to deliver broadband data is the limitation of available delivery spectrum. A television data delivery network has been established to deliver data to users in a television broadcast spectrum extending from about 15 megahertz (MHz) to about 860 MHz. To the user or the like, the downlink signal transmission takes up a frequency spectrum between about 54 MHz and 550 MHz, leaving only a relatively small spectrum range for digital data delivered by the HFC cable modem system. The same duplex splitter that separates the downlink signal from the uplink signal is located in the frequency range of about 42 to 54 MHz in the extended sub-separation frequency plane, which is 20 ordinary for customer-based HFC systems. Therefore, two effective delivery frequency ranges using a typical customer-based HFC system are between approximately 15 to 42 MHz (upstream signal) and approximately 550 to 860 MHz (downstream signal). DOCSIS is a standard that specifies a method for delivering data services in HFC systems. DOCSIS defines the cable modem terminal system (Cable 7 1237962 l i. 玖, description of the invention (the description of the invention should state: the technical field to which the invention belongs, 'previous technology, content, implementation, and schematic illustrations)

Modem Termination System (CMTS)), which is an entity used to deliver data from a central distribution point in an HFC network. These systems use shared frequency channels to broadcast all data to each downlink signal user. This shared channel is generally about 6MHz wide, providing a total data bandwidth of about 27 to 38 megabits (Mbps) every 5 seconds for digital information. However, this channel is shared by many users, causing the data rate to change drastically depending on the time of use and the number of simultaneous users. The quality of service is particularly poor during popular use. In addition, traditional systems usually allocate shared channels between at least 4 separate nodes, and each node serves about 500 users or more10, so the data rate of downlink signals is often quite low. Uplink signal sharing channels are usually small, such as 3.2 MHz or less, and a “Poll And Grant” system is used to identify data for uplink signal transmission. As a result, the uplink signal performance is often not better (and occasionally worse) than a standard 56Kbps computer. 15

8 1237962

A. Description of the invention [Summary of the invention] Summary of the invention With the & system and method for distributing information via existing and future communication networks to meet the increasing demand of broadband content, the present invention overcomes the related disadvantages of the conventional technology. In particular, the present invention relates to a wideband time-division multiple access (TDMA) modulation method and system for providing each of a plurality of user locations with transmission to a shared distribution via a fused fiber coaxial cable (HFC) network Dedicated bandwidth. In one embodiment of the invention, a method includes sending a 10-window signal to each of a plurality of user locations from a distribution point. Each user location encapsulates user data into a data cell, where each data cell is suitable for sending in a batch within a time slot of a predetermined period. The correlation timing of each predetermined number of time slots in the repeated transmission window is determined according to the window signal and the predetermined transmission offset value. The user f cell 15 in the program time slot is sent to the distribution point. The window signalling may include a retransmission indication of the synchronization mark at the beginning of each sending window. The steps of determining the relevant timing may include determining the receiving time for receiving the synchronization mark, increasing the transmission offset value to the receiving time to identify the start time of the -time slot, and increasing the pre-interval slot value to identify the mother-sending window. Within each—the start time of subsequent time slots. This method may further include determining a temple of each sending window according to a predetermined cycle period value] At the same time, this method may include shifting the slot bit field for each temple gate slot in each sending window and comparing the slot bit field. 〇 (Number Bn Field) and a predetermined slot mask field for each time slot (plus 62 kan, invention description k Field) to determine whether this time slot allows burst transmission. In an optional example, sending a window signal includes formulating a downlink signal into the data frame. Select the data cell stream, insert the synchronization mark into the data cell stream, and send the data cell stream to the user location in continuous mode. 5 The step of enclosing user data into a data cell may include

Knife. il is: shell material &, each frame is limited to a fixed size frame, and the fixed size frame is enclosed in a data cell. At the same time, this method can also include attaching bid-preface to each-data cell. In the embodiment, the uplink signal receiver uses a known preamble to measure the channel characteristics and determines the channel characteristic effect of the uplink 10 signal to more correctly perform the burst communication.

This method may further include measuring the propagation delay between the allocation point and each user location, calculating a transmission offset value for each user location, and transmitting a corresponding transmission offset value to each user location. The transmission offset value compensates the propagation delay difference between the user's locations and sends it in bursts in a synchronous ± line signal. Each time period of 15 slots can be scheduled and the uplink signal codewords and a predetermined guard band between each codeword can be sent in bursts according to the amount of time. Optionally, the distribution points can determine channel quality and adjust uplink signal timing, such as adjusting the guard band size to ensure robust communication. For example, the method may further include determining a time slot period value and transmitting the time slot period value to each user location 20. More specifically, the method may include allocating at least one time slot to each user location on a mutually exclusive basis (M exclusive price), and programming each user location with a time slot assignment value. In another embodiment, a method for providing dedicated bandwidth to a user location for transmission to a distribution point includes determining a propagation delay between the distribution point and the user location by 10 玖, a late description of the invention, and a window timing shift program based on the determined propagation delay. The user position is set, the user position is programmed in a predetermined number of time slot sub-groups of the repeated sending window of the frequency channel, the window synchronization signal is repeatedly sent to the user position, the start time of the first time slot of each sending window is calculated, and the Each time-each sending window-the start time of the remaining time slot, and sending only from the user's location during the stylized sub-group of the time slot of each sending window. The window synchronization signal indicates the timing of the retransmission window of the frequency channel. The start time of the first time slot of each transmission window depends on when the per-window synchronization signal is received and the window sequence offset. The step of determining the propagation delay may include sending a Hello Message from the distribution point to the subscriber location at a predeterminable time. For example, in one embodiment, the 'greeting message is repeatedly transmitted at least for a predetermined time slot in each of the downlink signal transmission windows of the predetermined downlink signal frequency channel. This method includes sending a response from the user location to the distribution point when the greeting message is detected, and detecting the reception time of the response at the distribution point. This method may further include deciding the start time of each-send window related to the allocation point. In this way, the start time of some user locations within the same uplink signal frequency channel ^ is the same. In this case, the method further includes calculating a time difference between the start time of the transmission window and the reception time of the window synchronization signal at the user position, and determining the window timing offset according to the calculated time difference. This method may further include determining the number of time slots per transmission window, determining the transmission period of each time slot including the transmission time of the user location burst and the appropriate guard band, and deciding to transmit the transmission time including the intermediate guard frequency f. Every 11 timeslots

玖. Description of the invention During the sending window. The method may further include inserting a synchronization mark into the selected codeword at the distribution point, so that each codeword with the synchronization mark is isolated from a predetermined number of non-synchronization mark codewords, and sending the codewords in a continuous mode through the distribution point. This step of calculating the start time of the -time slot may include determining the reception time of each window synchronization signal and adding the reception time to the window timing offset. The method may further include deciding a time slot period value indicating a period of each time slot and programming the user position with the time slot period value. The step of determining the start time of each-remaining time slot may include adding a time slot period value to a start time of a start time of a previous time slot starting at a start time of the W-th time slot. According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is used to provide The communication system that has a dedicated bandwidth to at least one subscriber location for transmission to a common distribution point via the HFC network includes a channel interface module and at least one gateway 15 coupled across the HFC network. The channel interface module is located at the distribution point and includes a transmitter that sends a window signal through the HFC network. This gate is set at a user location and includes a packet processor that encapsulates user data into a data cell suitable for burst sending, receiving logic for receiving this window signal, and instructing burst sending based on this window signal And a scheduled time slot that is scheduled to be shifted and is scheduled only at every 20 repeated sending windows, and sends user data cells in a series of predetermined uplink signal frequency channels when instructed by sequential logic. For example, the packet processor can be embedded in a general-purpose processor, network processor, Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or application specific integrated circuit (Application Specific 12 t . ia '发明 、 Explanation of the invention

Integrated Circuit (ASIC)) The channel interface module of this communication system may further include a receiver that detects burst transmission from the gateway in a predetermined frequency channel, and is configured to perform initialization processing for this gateway. Controller. This initialization process includes 5 orders for the sender to send a greeting message in at least one predetermined time slot in the downlink signal frequency channel, periodically suppressing the predetermined uplink signal frequency channel, detecting a burst response of the gateway of the predetermined uplink signal frequency channel, and determining the Gateway propagation delay. The controller can be further configured to program the gateway by sending timing offsets, slot duration values, and time slot assignment values. The transmitter of the channel interface module 10 can further include a data processing engine that encapsulates the downlink signal data into the data cell, an encoder that encodes the data cell into a codeword, and a codeword that modulates the codewords in a continuous mode. The modulator. The transmitter of this channel interface module can be further configured to insert a synchronization mark into the selection codeword to send a periodic window signal. The timing logic of the gateway may include a memory that stores the transmission timing 15 offset value, a time slot assignment value, and a slot period value. When this gate arrives, the logic can be further configured to detect a synchronization mark and add Φ. This sending sequence is biased to determine the start time of the first time slot of each sending window, and the value of this slot period can be added to determine The start time of each subsequent slot of each sending window, and the time slot assignment value can be compared with each-current_ to determine whether burst sending is allowed. The memory of the channel sequential logic can be more stored-sent window value. The channel processor can be further configured to divide user data into data segments, frame such data segments into frames, and encapsulate these frames into data cells suitable for mass transmission. The present invention also discloses an intermediary channel, which is installed to provide a dedicated line signal bandwidth to a distribution point via an HFC network to be sent to an HFC network. This distribution point sends a periodic synchronization signal through the HFC network of the predetermined downlink signal frequency channel to this closed channel. This gateway includes-a duplexer to consume this route, a 5 receiver tuned to this predetermined frequency channel to receive communication from the distribution point, frame logic installed to interpret the codewords of the downlink signal, and a Women's clothing is a general-purpose Λ processor that can convert user data into data suitable for batch transmission,-when it is installed to receive a transmission signal from the communication processor in a predetermined time slot of a predetermined uplink signal frequency channel The burst transmitter that sends a data cell is installed to detect a 10-cycle synchronization signal from the downlink signal word. The predetermined uplink signal frequency can be determined based on the synchronization signal, the timing offset value, and a slot period value. Each time slot in the channel = start time, and can be inserted indicated by a time slot assignment value: timing logic for sending signals for each time slot, and a pass through the duplexer and the HFC network Communication sends out RF circuits of transmitters and distribution points. 15 The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will be made clearer by the following description, especially by considering the description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention and the scope of the drawings and patent applications. Brief Description of the Drawings For a better understanding of the present invention, its features and advantages, please refer to the accompanying drawing 20 and the following text description, wherein: FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication network structure according to an embodiment of the present invention; The figure is a block diagram of a distribution hub according to one embodiment of the present invention; 14 123: 7962 发明, description of the invention FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a packet switch router according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is based on this Invention ^ ^ ^ Block diagram of the channel interface module of the potential $ domain; 5 Figure 5 is a block diagram illustrating the CCP cell by the example generated by the cell processing engine shown in Figure 4; Figure 6 FIG. 7 is a timing diagram for explaining time-division multiplexing (DMA) on a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 7 is an illustration for explaining an embodiment of the present invention The timing chart using the next 10 line step markers as the uplink timing reference and the corresponding timing relationship between the uplink signal and the downlink signal data stream; Figure 8 is a user modem device according to the embodiment of the present invention ( Gateway) block diagram; Figure 9 shows Fig. 8 is a flowchart of operations of a communication processor for closing the time slot and assigning 15 times for the deduction of money, and a closed-loop communication processor for controlling the timing of burst transmission, and the operation of the synchronization mark detection and burst timing logic; Figure 8B illustrates a block diagram of an example of uplink packet sending implemented by the communication processor of Figure 8 for uplink signal transmission; and Figure 10B is a block diagram illustrating the uplink signal 20 frame of the uplink signal frame type. . I: Detailed description of the preferred embodiment 3 The preferred embodiment of the present invention and its advantages can be better understood by referring to the drawings j to 10 of this plan, where the same element numbers represent the same 15 玖, description of the invention Component, and is used in the text of an information distribution system using a merged fiber coaxial network. In addition, the inventive concept can be applied to an optical fiber network, a coax cable network, a wireless network, or any combination thereof. 5 Figure 1 is a block diagram of an example communication system 100 with an example network architecture. One or more of the sources 101 are delivered via appropriate communication links 102 | to receive the source information to the head end 103 of the one or more distribution hubs 105 which are assigned the source information via individual communication links 104. Each distribution hub 105 further distributes source information to one or more nodes 10 107 via a communication link 106, and each node 007 in turn distributes source information to one or more user positions 109 via a user link 108 . In the embodiment shown, two-way communication is supported, in which uplink signal user information from one or more user locations 109 is delivered to the corresponding distribution hub 105 via the corresponding user link 1 Q8. According to the characteristics of user information and network architecture, user information can be delivered to the headend 103 by the corresponding distribution hub 105, or to the appropriate source 101. Again, according to the characteristics of the user information and network architecture, the user information can be delivered to the appropriate source 101 by the headend 103. It should be noted that the headend 103, distribution hub 105, and node 107 can be generally classified as distribution points for source and user information. Every 20 distribution points support successively smaller geographic areas. For example, the headend 103 may support a relatively large geographic area, such as an entire metropolitan area or the like, which is further divided into smaller areas, and each area is supported by the distribution hub 105. These areas supported by each distribution hub 105 are further divided into smaller areas, such as the neighborhood of a metropolitan area 16 _... J-·) A, —f, 玖, invention description area, each The neighboring areas are all supported by the corresponding node 107. Many different types of source 101 can be implemented, such as, but not limited to, one or more computer or data networks 1U, one or more telephone networks 113,-or multiple satellite communication systems 115,-or multiple non-playing antennas System 5 116 (e.g. microwave tower). Computer network can include areas, large areas

Or any type of global computer network, such as the Internet. The telephone network 113 may include a public switched telephone network (psw), a cellular network, or any other public or private telephone network. The satellite communication system 115 and / or the antenna system 116 may be used to receive and deliver any type of information, such as television broadcast content or the like. The headend 103 may also include video on demand (VOD) equipment (not shown). In an optional embodiment of the present invention, depending on the network architecture, in this alternative embodiment, in addition to being coupled to the headend 103, as shown in the communication link 102, any one or more of the sources 101 This type can be directly connected to the distribution hub 105. For example, one or more of the computer network 15 U1 and the telephone network 113 are shown as being coupled to the distribution hub 105. The headend 103 includes appropriate equipment for data transmission, such as, for example, internal servers, firewalls, IP routers, signal combiners, channel re-mappers, and so on. Each of the communication links (102, 102, 104, 106, 108) may use any suitable type of media, such as electrical cables, optical fibers, cables, wireless or the like, or Any combination of them and so on. For example, in one embodiment, each of the communication links 102 and 102, includes an optical medium used to communicate data and information between the headend 103 and the satellite communication system 115 or the antenna system 116, And / or the 1000-based Ethernet-X Ethernet network for the communication of digital information between the head end 17 12 ^ 7962 u = 玖, invention description 1 03 and any computer or job system 111, m. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the communication link 106 includes optical fibers or cables distributed between each node 107 and the corresponding distribution hub 105. This network architecture uses merging fiber with a 5-axis cable (HFC) distribution network, where the user link 108 includes coaxial cables that are distributed from each node 107 to individual user locations 109. In this configuration, node 107 converts the signal between optical and electrical formats. The communication link 104 may also include an optical link, such as, for example, a synchronous optical network (SONET) link or the like. In addition, those skilled in the art can also understand that any known or future research and development media can be implemented for each link. For example, in the HFC embodiment, each node 107 receives an optical signal from the assigned uplink signal point, converts the optical signal into a combined electrical signal, and allocates the combined electrical signal to the corresponding geographic service area on a coaxial line. Each of the plurality of user locations 109. The user information is in the electrical 15 direction and is combined with each node 107 that forwards the combined optical signal uplink signal through one of the communication links 106 to the corresponding one in the distribution hub 105. The parent-user location 109 includes customer premise equipment ((CPE) Customer Premise Equipment), which also includes 20 customer gates 801 (Figure 8), which are self-addressed or combined with electrical signals intended for a specific user location 1 09 Up and down signals, tuning, demodulation, decoding, and selection of source information. The gateway 801 may be included in or connected to other user devices, such as frequency converters (Set-Top Boxes), cable data machines, and so on. The gateway 80 for each user position 109 includes a modulation device or the like that encodes the user's data, a description of the invention, modulation, and up-conversion to an RF signal. The gateway 801 of each user location 109 combines the uplink signal RF signal in the user link 108 and delivers it to the corresponding node 107. A separate uplink signal channel of the uplink signal portion of the cable spectrum used for the uplink signal communication of the cable return path can be assigned to each user location 109 to prevent interference with the downlink signal communication. The uplink signal RF signal is provided to the node 107 and includes an uplink signal optical transceiver or the like which converts the user rf signal into an optical signal. For example, node 107 includes a laser to convert the reply signal into an optical signal for distribution hub 105 to send to an optical receiver. Source and user information may include any combination of video, audio, or other data signals and the like, which may be any of many different formats. Source information can be provided to the distribution hub as a fixed or variable-sized frame, packet, or cell, such as an Internet Protocol packet, an Ethernet frame, or an asynchronous transmission mode (ATM) cell. 105 . Any type of digital information in such fixed or variable-sized frames, packets, or cells is classified here as "packetized" data. This packetized data includes one or more destination locations or the like indicating one or more specific user devices of the user location 109. In the illustrated embodiment of the distribution hub 105 described herein, the cell-encapsulated data is transformed and delivered to a user location 109 that uses time division multiplexing (TDM) for broadband modulation, thereby activating distribution, non-shared, and Determine the delivery of the bandwidth to the users of the communication system 100. The gateway 801 of each user location 109 includes a TDM for tuning, demodulation, and decoding of broadband information to deliver the original content to one or more 7796 玖, invention description Appropriate communication equipment for each user device. Upstream signal user packetized data is converted into frames or codewords in a similar manner. This uplink signal data is transmitted in bursts using the time division multiple access (tdmA) using a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) architecture, as described below. 5 It should be noted that many different modulation frequencies and technologies can be used

Implement down-signal and up-signal communication. For example, among various modulation technologies, modulation technology may include Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (QPSK), and various Type of orthogonal two-dimensional amplitude modulation 10 (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)), such as QAM16, QAM64, QAM256, and so on. At the same time, each frequency channel can have any predetermined bandwidth, such as IMhz, 3MHz, 6MHz, 12MHz, and so on. Each user channel usually includes separate downlink and uplink channels with different frequencies. Among them, these corresponding downlink and uplink channels may have the same or different bandwidths. More specifically, the modulation technology used for each downstream signal channel may be the same or different from the modulation technology used for each upstream signal channel. In one embodiment, the communication system 100 is an HFC system that supports analog TV broadcast transmission, in which the broadcast TV channels are allocated to a specific frequency range of 20 available RF cable TV spectrum (5MHz to 1GHz). The remainder of the RF cable television spectrum is used to assign data channels including any combination of downlink and uplink channels. For example, some HFC systems use a recovery band extending from 5 to 42 MHz and extending the frequency band from 52 to 750 to 860 MHz.

_J_§J 玖, description of the invention Extension frequency separation frequency system. It should be understood that the specific frequency range described herein is for illustrative purposes only, and any frequency allocation architecture can be used depending on the desired configuration. In the illustrated embodiment, the specific HFC network operator divides the entire forward frequency band into 56 MHz channels according to the channel system implemented. For a general HFC system supporting analog television broadcasting, 80 analog channels are transmitted in a forward band between 53 and 55 MHz. In this type of HFC network, satellite signals and regional analogue stations are paired at the head end 103 with 6MHz broadcast channels in the forward frequency band. Each 6MHz forward band frequency can contain an analog channel or several digital channels encoded in 10 MPEG. Each 6MHz frequency band is up-converted to a frequency in the forward frequency band according to appropriate frequency control. The reply frequency band (5 to 42 MHz) and the remaining forward frequency band spectrum including the frequency range of 55 to 75 to 860 MHz are allocated to user digital channels and / or data transmission for a dedicated 15 frequency of each user bit 109 Wide use. For example, Lu Zhi, the frequency range of 55 to sub-z is allocated for the downlink signal channel, and the frequency range of 5 to 42 is allocated for the uplink signal channel. The frequency range of 42 to 5 planes is the position of the same duplex filter (Filter) that separates the downlink signal communication from the uplink signal communication. The same duplex filter can be used for two-way communication using frequency division multiplexing (DM) sharing HFC fiber and coaxial media. Basically the same as double; the wave filter is composed of parallel high-pass and low-pass filters driven by the same source with the accompanying amplifier. In optional examples of the Tong Λ system 100, such as the all-digital hfc system, physical blame or all available spectrum is used to assign channels 21), invention description to each user. For example, in an all-digital HFC network, it is not used to transmit using a non-playing frequency (ie, a 54MHz channel 2 based on a Harmonically Related Carder (HRC) frequency system) The broadcast frequency is the same as that of the broadcast channel, which is the requirement of the analog channel 5. Therefore, the filter frequency of the same duplex filter set in the all-digital network is allowed to increase the spectrum allocation for uplink signal communication. For example, it is suitable for For all-digital networks, the mid- and high-frequency systems individually allocate 5 to 86 MHz and 5 to 186 MHz ranges for uplink signal communication. Therefore, all digital networks allow more data for services such as cable 10, Upstream signal bandwidth for interactive services such as packet traffic, video conferencing, interactive games, etc. In these all-digital embodiments, the relatively large bandwidth consumed by television broadcast information is available for channel allocation. It is very clear The RF spectrum (for example, 50 to 300 MHz) can be used for data communication, so it provides quite obvious advantages. Each user can be allocated a larger amount of bandwidth or each coaxial Cables can serve a larger number of users. Different frequency spectrum separation can be used to increase the availability of uplink signal bandwidth, and the symmetrical configuration is actuated with the same downlink signal and uplink signal bandwidth allocation. Has a smaller geographic service area The embodiment relatively provides relatively small noise, so that each user location 109 can receive a clearer signal, usually without the need for amplification. The obvious advantages of this embodiment of the communication system 100 described herein The ability to allocate, non-share, and determine bandwidth to individual users for delivery. Therefore, 'information intended for a specific user location 109 is assigned a specific and non-shared bandwidth that is only available to this user. This is provided to use competition or Zhong 22 1237962 ... two ... 玖. Invented the ability to deliver data on timeliness or isochronous services to the user location 109, such as videoconferencing, which cannot be implemented by the traditional network of the traditional line delivery method of the invention to explain the bandwidth allocation architecture , Voice over IP, streaming media, two-way audio content (such as phone connections), etc. Bandwidth allocation can be made by the bandwidth manager of each distribution hub 105 5 or similar Control. The bandwidth manager allocates the unshared and determined bandwidth of the uplink signal and downlink signal direction to each user location 109. Figure 2 is an example implementation of any one or more of the distribution hub 105 in Figure 1 Simplified block diagram of this example. In this shown embodiment, allocating 10 hubs includes receiving via communication links 104 such as source and / or headend 103 and or more packet switching routers (PSRs) 203. And forward switch 201 that is digital information such as data and content between upstream signal sources. Switch 201 and each PSR203 may be installed to communicate via optical media, or switch 201 may include optical to electrical 15 (0 / E ) Conversion. In one embodiment, switch 201 is an Ethernet-type switch that can forward Ethernet packets. Each packet includes a source and destination address that forwards the packet from the source to the appropriate destination in both directions, above the line signal and the down signal that actuated the switch 201. In a more specific embodiment, the switch 201 includes one or more switches, each of which is a 20 Ethernet-based or 1000-based Ethernet base-X Ethernet network, with 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps individually. Data rate operation. Each PSR203 is interfaced with the switch 201 via a separate and individual optical or electrical 100 substrate or 1000 substrate Ethernet electrical or optical link 214. However, those skilled in the art should understand that the present invention is not limited to any particular architecture, communication 23 1237962, invention description protocol or technology, and other network technologies may be used, such as Asymmetric Transfer Mode (ATM) technology or analog.

As will be explained in more detail below, each PSR203 encodes, modulates, and upscales the source information received from switch 201 into one or more downlink 5 signal channels, and forwards the RF signal to one or more RF electrical signals Individual input for at least one of an optical (E / O) coupler and a transmitter 205. Each RF channel has a predetermined frequency bandwidth, such as the standard US configuration of 6 MHz, and therefore depends on the modulation technology used to support a specific amount of data transmission. In a specific embodiment using QAM-256 as the modulation technology, each 6MHz physical channel has a data throughput capacity of about 40Mbps. It should be understood that alternative modulation technologies other than QAM-256 can be used. PSR203 can be implemented in modules and adjustable formats to combine multiple downlink signal channels with at least one electrical signal distributed via a single RF connector. At the same time, each PSR203 can be implemented to provide multiple combined electrical signals via the corresponding RF connector, that is, each of the supported multiple downlink signal channels. Each combiner / TX205 combines RF signals from one or more combined electrical signals of one or more PSR203s to be a single combined optical signal sent to a corresponding one of the nodes 107 via an optical fiber cable or the like. It should be noted that each distribution hub 20 105 can be sent to one or more nodes 107, each serving a different geographic service area. The uplink signal user digital information is received through several RF optical-to-electrical (0 / E) receivers and splitters 207, which receive optical signals with user information via optical cables, and convert this combined optical signal to 24

发明, description of the invention Change to combine the user's electrical signal and separate or copy and forward this to combine the user's electrical signal to the corresponding one or more of PSR203. It should be noted that the uplink signal is usually received from a separate node and received on a different recovery path. In the embodiment described here, the uplink signal is combined into a single signal received by the common PSR input connector. Each PSR203 is tuned to one or more uplink signal channels and captures the corresponding reply RF signal. Each PSR203 decodes and decodes the reply RF signal into a corresponding user data packet for each uplink signal channel. These user data packets are then forwarded to switch 201 for processing and / or forwarding when needed. It should be noted that although each PSR203 user is shown as a split combiner / TX205 and a split / splitter / RX207 'plural coupler / TXs205 and plural splitters / RXs207 can be provided for a single PSR203 Alternatively, the multiple psR203 may use a single junction 15 coupler / TX205 and / or a single splitter RX207 depending on the specific configuration of the individual device and the data capabilities. The distribution hub 105 may include one or more regional content servers, such as source 10 and / or headend 1 between the distribution hub and the distribution hub 105 and the user location 109 and / or uplink signal sources. 〇3. For example, the distribution hub 105 may include one or more video servers 209 in a communication valley, one or more computer network servers that enable communication with the Internet and / or other computer networks. 211, and one or more telephone network servers 213 that enable communication with the PSTN and / or other traffic networks. Meanwhile, the distribution hub 105 may include one or more broadcast content servers 215 to 25 for receiving and forwarding broadcast content and information, an invention description, such as a television broadcast channel or the like. This broadcast content and information is optionally delivered to individual user channels or broadcast centrally with the user channels previously described. Each of the servers 209 to 215 represents one or more server computers and includes any required or desired additional functionality. For example, the video server 209 may include one or more video functions including on-demand video (VoD), and may further include encoding broadcast video content from analog to digital or converting video content from a digital format to digital. Another type of moving day expert group (MPEG) encoder or the like. The telephone network server 213 may include or include one or more telephone exchanges or the like. The explanation servers 209 to 215 are for illustrative purposes only, and other types of feeders and contents can be implemented. Optionally, the general data server used to exchange information with the head end 103 can replace the servers 209 to 215. In operation, the broadcast content is received from the uplink signal source via the communication link 104 and provided to 0 / E converter 217. The electric broadcast is then supplied to the splitter 219 and assigned to one or more individual inputs of the combiner / τχ205. Broadcast content can be in analog or digital format. Each coupler / TX205 is installed to receive broadcast and TV information and source information from one or more psR203 and forward to the assigned channel. In particular, each combiner / TX205 operates to superimpose broadcast content information such as a television broadcast channel or the like with a digital user channel to develop a combined optical signal for downlink signal transmission. Gateway 8G1 Pure Silk at all user locations 109 is capable of receiving, separating, and forwarding broadcast content information to appropriate user settings, such as a frequency converter or television or the like. Via 123, purchase 622 I · ·.) .- -.- ..-玖, this embodiment of the invention of the information system 100 is particularly applicable to consumer-based networks 'where' it wants cable TV channels or similar The system can be routed directly from the user media to the user location 109 without further conversion. In an alternative embodiment, the electrical broadcast content is delivered to the broadcast content server 215 via the optional connection 5 221, where the broadcast content server

The server 215 is coupled to one or more of the PSR203s via a separate connection 223 in a manner similar to the remaining area servers 209 to 213. In this way, the broadcast content and information are selectively delivered to the user location 109 via the corresponding user channel. This embodiment of the communication system 100 has a fully digital configuration, in which all available spectrum is available for digital communication via user channels. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating PSr203 according to an embodiment of the present invention. PSR203 is located at the target service insertion point, which is usually one or more of the distribution hubs 105 configured in the HFC. 15 Targeted services are services intended to be used by a subgroup of the entire HFC network user base, such as VOD services or the like. The target service is compared with the broadcast service φ, where a given signal is initially from an upstream signal source such as the headend 103 to potentially serve all user locations 109 in the general service area of the communication system 100. Analog and digital audio and video services are examples of broadcast services. It should be noted that many special details of cable transmission, such as MPEG (such as digital television or VOD service) on ATM over SONET transmission, are obvious to those skilled in the art, because the focus of attention is The components in the cable network of the packetized data transmission center are not shown. 27 1237962 玖, description of the invention

PSR203 includes one or more network interface modules (NIM) 301, all of which are installed to interface with and terminate a specific network communication architecture (104, 214). Both the links (104, 214) and NIM301 can be bidirectional, forward information to the upstream signal source or bidirectional, forward 5 direction information from the upstream signal source. As shown in the figure, NIM3 01a is connected to the communication key 104 to enable communication with an upstream signal source, such as any source 101 and / or headend 103, etc., directly or via the switch 201. For example, the NIM301a may include a physical interface such as a 1000-based Ethernet transceiver, which can convert optical fiber 10-dimensional Ethernet signals into electrical signals using a standard gigabit media independent interface (GMII). In an Ethernet embodiment, NIM301a terminates GMII with IEEE802.3 billion Ethernet media access control entity (MAC), which combines the Ethernet frame from GMII electrical signals. Another NIM30 lb is provided to interface one or more of the regional content servers 209 to 215 via a corresponding protocol such as the 100 or 1000 base-T Ethernet connection or link 214 described previously. CPSR203 It can be implemented in an adjustable manner to provide each additional NIM301 which is installed to interface with additional communication links such as 104 and 214. Generally speaking, NIM301 provides a network interface for high-speed regional, metropolitan or wide area networks (LANs, MANs, WANs, etc.). 20 Each NIM 301 includes a physical interface for network connectivity and may include an integrated IP forward engine for forward traffic between the network interface port and the supervisory switching module 303. NIM functionality also includes entity coding and a link layer framework. The supervisory switching module 303 is coupled to one or more channel interface modules (CIM) 305, where each CIM 305 interfaces with a corresponding junction 28 1237962 玖, invention description coupler / TX205. The supervising switching module 3403 forwards the signal information from the NIM3001 to the selected one in the CIM305, and upwards the signal information from the αM305 before the one or more of the NIM301. For the ιρ basic embodiment, each of the CIM35 is equipped with a 5 ip packet for synchronous downlink signal transmission and each IP packet CCIM305 is retrieved from the synchronous bit stream in the uplink signal direction. Forward to at least one combiner / TX205 and receive uplink signal data from at least one splitter / RX205. For sending in the downlink signal direction, each CIM305 performs packet encapsulation, forward wideband packet encapsulation, channelization coding, modulation, and additional RF functions. For uplink signal transmission, each CIM305 performs similar and opposite functions. One of the differences between the uplink signals is the #signal is not continuous ’, which requires the use of a burst mode demodulator to capture the uplink signal data. Each CIM305 supports combining and up-converting through a single connector. 15 is a multiple down-signal frequency channel of the common carrier signal provided to the corresponding coupler / TX205. For example, in one embodiment, the CIM305 provides 8QAM-256 modulation for a 6MHz channel, where the corresponding coupler / TX205 combines the output of one or more CIM305. In the illustrative embodiment of the communication system 100, it supports television broadcast content in the range of 54 to 55 MHz, and the output of each CIM305 exists in the range of 550 to 750 MHz or 550 to 860 MHz. Depending on the RF combination and the implementation of the up-conversion network, the combination of physical channels may or may not be continuous. In a specific example, if the QAM signal has a carrier frequency of 600, 606, 612, 618, 624, 630, 636, and 642MHZ, the output of CIM305 will occupy 29 years i. Description of the invention Use 597 to 645MHz spectrum. Adjacent CIM305 may have carrier frequencies of 648, 656, 662, 670, 678, 686, 694, and 702 MHz occupying the spectrum of 645 to 705 MHz. Therefore, the corresponding coupler / TX205 combines the broadcast spectrum of 51 to 537 MHz with one of the 597 to 645 MHz or 5 645 to 705 MHz CIM305 output or the 597 to 705 MHz

Output of two adjacent CIM305. As a result, the RF signal is converted into an optical signal and transmitted to the corresponding node 107 by an optical transmitter. It should be noted that since each PSR203 provides a target service with spectrum, it is only unique to a group of 10 points 107 served by an optical transmitter corresponding to the PSR output, and the same frequency can be used across Sending of multiple outputs for each hub. It should be noted that the CIM port can serve more than one physical node by copying and converting the optical signal to the intermediate transmission node.

The supervisory switching module 303 and its interface to NIM301 and CIM305 can be implemented according to any of a number of different configurations, where the 15 inventive concepts are not limited to any particular configuration. In an illustrative embodiment, the supervisory switching module 305 is implemented according to the Common Switching Interface (CSIX) specification, such as CSIX-L0, CSIX-L1, CSIX-L2, etc., which defines the interface for switching processing. The data transferred between NIM301 and CIM305 via exchange processing or the like using CF framework is defined by the available 20 CSIX specifications. The supervisory switching module 303 performs IP routing calculations and implements system management and control functions, either internally or via a separate IP routing block 307 and a separate management block 309. Supervisory switching module 303 is connected via instructions or via separate module buses or serial links or the like to assign routing tables 30-factory ... ίκ 作 〆 ， 崎 t. ",, 'u. _ 乂, .-., 1235962

Month-I Il I: Description of the invention

IP forward engines located in each NIM301 and CIM305. The supervisory switching module 303 also contains a switching process that provides universal connectivity between NIM301 and CIM305. The supervisory switching module 303 may include a 10/100 base-T Ethernet network for managing connectivity and an asymmetric interface. In one embodiment, the supervisory switching module 303 includes a high-speed, symmetrical, two-way, serial vertical and horizontal switch that implements the centralized switching function of PSR203. The supervisory switching module 303 includes a processing controller for scheduling and arbitration of the processing architecture of the switch. This processing controller manages connections through the use of an appropriate schedule designed to maximize the number of connections per exchange cycle. The management function can be controlled by the supervisory switching module 303 or by another management module 307 as shown in the figure. Each of NIM301 and CIM305 can be coupled to a management module 307 (not shown) via a separate management connection.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of an example of CIM305. 15 CIM305 forwards packets such as IP packets or the like, and performs packet framing and channelization. In addition, CIM305 performs related digital and RF signal processing for network architecture transmission. Each CIM 305 includes a data processing engine 405 that interfaces with the supervisory switching module 303 via a switch interface 409. The data processing engine 405 may include internal or external memory for table lookup, queue data 20 payload buffer descriptors, and data payload buffer storage. This memory may include any combination of read-only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM) devices. The data processing engine 405 processes each packet transmitted between the network interface and the switch interface 409 via the splitter / RX207. Data processing engine 31 12 ^ 7962 玖 The function of invention description 405 includes the forward direction, link layer framing, and physical layer for sending to the adapter / TX205 or to the switch interface 409 for sending to the supervisory switching module 303 coding. In addition, the data processing engine 405 performs entity and link layer framing. 5 CIM305 includes coupling to data processing engine via encoder 402

A complex modulator (MOD) 401 of 405 is transmitted by activating modulation of packetized data. The CIM 305 further includes a complex burst mode receiver 403 coupled to the data processing engine 405 via the synchronization detector 404. In one embodiment, the encoder 402 performs continuous pattern randomization, error coding and interleaving with separate data streams, and the modulator 401 executes QAM-256 for data transmission of each stream. The output from the modulator 401 is combined in a frequency domain via the RF transmitter network 411, which provides a single combined, up-converted, amplified, and filtered output via the corresponding transmitter RF link. Such analog RF processing includes filtering, frequency combining, and mixing. 15 Similarly, the burst receiver 403 receives the uplink signal information via the RF receiver network 413 through the corresponding splitter / RX207. The RF receiver network 413 processes analog RF signals, where such processing includes frequency tuning, filtering, and mixing. The burst receiver 403 performs a similar and opposite function to the modulator 401 and provides a non-modulated data separation stream to the synchronization detector 404. The synchronization detector 404 provides a separate uplink signal data stream to the data processing engine 405. The number of modulators 401 and burst receivers 403 can be the same for symmetrical embodiments. Furthermore, depending on the specific architecture and configuration, any number of transmitters and receivers can be implemented. 32 I2 ^ fe2 发明, description of the invention

In the direction of the downstream signal, the data processing engine 405 forwards the packet to the appropriate channel from the switch interface 409 according to the destination address. The data processing engine 405 uses a packet adapter (PAP) to perform data link layer encapsulation to encapsulate the packet into a frame. The data processing engine 405 is equipped with a framework for cell 5 transport and is suitable for coding using the cell convergence program (CCP). In one embodiment, such encoding is performed according to a Reed-Soloman (RS) encoding program. In a more specific embodiment, for example, (204, 188) RS codes are used for 188-bit cell transport, although there are other types such as (255, 239) RS codes and 10 Other changes can be implemented. The data processing engine 405 may also perform time division multiplexing (TDM) of a specific time slot in each physical downlink signal channel. Cell length is defined by the number of bytes sent during each TDM time slot. Pair-to-map mappings exist between cells, that is, fixed-length packets and Lee-Solomon codewords. A codeword is sent every 15 slots. The data processing engine 405 is matched with a packet for synchronous transmission, and retrieves the packet from the synchronous bit stream. Each user channel is a two-way data link layer communication channel between the PSR203 and the gateway of each user location 109 served by the PSR203. For downlink signal packet processing, CIM305 performs a series of communication protocol functions in the ingress frame, and matches the packet to the synchronous bit stream for transmission on the corresponding channel. The general processing described here is agnostic to the format of packets or frames such as Ethernet frames, ATM cells, CSIX frames, etc. The data processing engine 405 executes the decapsulation and / or recombination of the packets for each downlink signal frame, among which the specific processing method is dependent on the packet format. As a result, the packet is forwarded to the appropriate channel indicated by the relevant standard and corresponds to the destination address. In the embodiment, the 'data processing engine 4G5 includes separate channel processing modules or blocks for each channel. Optionally, the data processing engine milks the channels of its memory 5 body. The digital data output from the modulator 401 is provided to the RF transmitter network for RF processing and transmission. In particular, the light transmitter network maps data to codewords, converts the codewords into waveforms, and modulates the waveforms to intermediate frequencies (IF), such as between 1 Hz and 10 60 MHz. Then ㈣ is up-converted by an up-converter (not shown) into any of the 6 channels 2 in the applicable frequency range (550 to 860 MHz for the consumer broadcast television embodiment). In a consistent embodiment, the two stages of up-conversion are used to achieve the desired signal-to-noise λ level. The up-converted signal is amplified and equalized to be transmitted at τχ rf =,, '. The RF transmitter network 411 performs RF aggregation and provides the ability to operate anywhere in the frequency range of the applicable downlink signal according to the software configuration. The RF transmitter network 411 output includes a combination of 40% from each modulator RF signal for information. The RF receiver network 413 includes an analog front end (AFE) and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to provide each of a plurality of burst mode 20 receivers 403. The RF receiver network 413 includes an RF resonator, amplifiers, filters, and at least one frequency converter (not shown) that can be tuned to the corresponding upstream signal frequency for detection and decomposition of incoming signals. The RF receiver network 413 selects the available for uplink signal transmission. .R,:; 玖, invention description

In the frequency range (5 to 42 MHz for consumer radio and television embodiments; > RF channels. This RF receiver network 413 can be installed to have any function that can be used in the frequency range of the applicable downlink number. Capability at any or any desired frequency range. Each burst receiver 403 can be implemented in a standardized or 5 existing manner and is equipped to receive and demodulate data bursts that are opposed to continuous data streams. For example, The burst receiver 403 generates timing and carrier evaluation based on the preamble 1039 (Figure 10B), and jumps to the locked state to allow demodulation. Each burst receiver 403 demodulates a complex number A single frequency channel in a time slot. Each time slot meets or exceeds the minimum throughput requirement, such as 500 kilobits per second (Kbps) in a particular embodiment. Each burst receiver 403 is assigned any At least one time slot on a given carrier, and multiple time slots can be consumed to increase throughput.

Demodulation is implemented based on any of a number of different modulation architectures, such as QAM-16, QAM-64, QAM-256, or the like. This demodulation data is forwarded to the synchronization detector 404. The synchronization detector 404 includes a buffer such as a first-in-first-out (FIF) memory device or the like, and an appropriate interface circuit for interfacing with the data processing engine 405. This data processing engine 405 performs time division multiplexing corresponding to a specific time window of the uplink signal channel slot in each physical channel 20. The data processing engine 405 further performs anti-CCP and de-encapsulates the data link layer of the result framework using anti-pAp. As a result, the packet is forwarded to the supervisory switching module 303 via the switch interface 409. Between each user's location 109 and the corresponding distribution hub 35 1237962/1 t λ 1 、 Invention description

Communication delays are experienced via communication links 106 and 108. Generally, the optical fiber link length between each distribution hub 105 and the corresponding node 107 is less than 70 miles (140 miles back and forth). The worst-case propagation delay known to occur in 1 mile optical fiber is approximately 10 microseconds 5 (Microsecond, // s), and 70 miles of fiber links produce a round-trip time of 1.4 milliseconds (ms). Similarly, the user link length between each node 107 and the corresponding user location 109 is less than 10 miles (20 miles back and forth). The worst-case propagation delay that occurs in a 1-mile foam-filled coaxial is approximately 16.3 // s, and a 10-mile foam-filled coaxial generates a round-trip time of 163 // s. Therefore, the combined maximum propagation delay for theoretical HFC networks is equal to or less than 1.563ms. For a symbol period of about 390 nanoseconds (Nanosecond, ns) for the data flow rate of 2.56 Megabaud for uplink signal communication, as described in more detail below, this delay represents a period of about 4,000 symbols. These parameters and distances represent the worst-case estimates of signal propagation time on the cable, and do not take into account the effects of in-line equipment, signal attenuation, or frequency concomitant effects on the channel on the HFC network. The communication system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 is a simplified representation of the physical awareness of the communication system. In general, the electrical and physical separation between a given node and its user location 109 changes. It is more understandable that the physical and electrical distance between each assigned 20 hub 105 and its corresponding node 107 can also be significantly changed. Therefore, it should be understood that for each user location 109 assigned to the same channel, the propagation delay between the user location 109 and its individual CIM 305 is significantly different. For example, at a given point in time, the CIM305 from a given distribution hub 105 is sent to 36 1237962. 发明, each codeword of the corresponding user position 109 of the fixed frequency channel arrives at the user position 1 at a substantially different time. 9. Because of the gate 801 of each user's location, for the downlink signal communication, these propagation delay changes between the user's location 109 and 5 are not obvious problems for the symbols in the continuous downlink signal stream. Arriving at a specific user location 109, delays between user locations are often ignored. However, these propagation delays need to be resolved before uplink signal burst communications are synchronized with each other. Burst from each gateway 801 to CIM305 of each user location 109 of a given uplink frequency channel. • Experience different propagation delays with sfl. These propagation delay variations will cause interference or prevent synchronization of the gateway 801 between the same uplink frequency channels. CIM305 includes a general-purpose processor or microcontroller (# (:) 407 or the like coupled to the packet processing engine 405 to control management tasks and further initialize each gateway 15 801 for downstream signals and upstream signal communication The non-essential memory 408 can be provided and coupled to # C407 to store data, variables and parameters or the like φ for promoting its various functions. In the embodiment shown, # ¢ 407 performs a range processing, try Minimize the burst arrival time of the receiver of CIM305 used for each channel 801 of the fixed uplink signal frequency channel, regardless of the difference in propagation delay. The processing of this defined range is during the initialization period of each channel 801 This kind of initialization or "promotion" process introduces the new user position 1109 channel 1 801 into a new or established communication channel (including uplink and downlink) without significantly interrupting the service recently started on this channel (if (There is any service present). 37 1237962 ',; 0. Description of the invention In one embodiment of the present invention, the initialization process of the new gateway 801 includes three stages, Including launching, discovery and joining. In particular, the launching phase can be used to identify the new gateway 801 and record the identification in the system, which can occur before the gateway 801 is physically connected to the system. The main 5 series are launched Contains management tasks for entering configuration information for the new gateway 801 into a data store or database accessible by the CIM305. In particular, a given CIM305 of a given PSR203 of a given distribution hub 105 is selected to serve the new Gateway 801. For example, the configuration information can be stored in memory 408 of the CIM305. The discovery phase is classified 10 'after launch but before the new gateway 801 establishes two-way communication with CIM305. Join Phases include scoping (slot offset generation) and equalizers trained to assign uplink communications channels to actuate uplink communications without interfering with other gateways 801 within the same channel (if other channels exist). Add in After the completion of the phase, the gateway 801 can perform two-way communication. 15 The discovery phase includes the gateways for these processes, which are used to find and identify the downlink signal channels assigned to the gateway 801. The order can be 0. As mentioned earlier, the downlink signal spectrum can be divided into separate frequency channels (for example, 6MHz channels) and each channel can be further divided into time slots using TDM technology (for example, 8 time slots per channel). The configuration information of channel 801 is stylized. # C4〇7 instructs the data processing engine 405 to send a set of greeting messages containing or assigning uplink signal channels to at least one of the allocation time slots of the downlink signal channels. New gateway 8 〇1. In this way, the assembling or greeting message is sent periodically or continuously on the downstream channel δίΐ until the new gateway g01 is detected. New gateway 38, Jun Page 7. 〇2 J_g, invention description 801 may not be installed or connected for a substantial period of time, such as a few days or the like. Since the new gateway is assigned one or more of its own time slots-there is no interference with any other gateway on the same downlink signal channel. In one embodiment of the present invention, the new gateway 801 may be pre-programmed by assigning a downlink 5 signal channel and a time slot assignment. In this embodiment, the gateway 801 enables, initializes, synchronizes its assigned downlink signal channel and starts to detect the greeting message from the corresponding CIM305. In an optional embodiment, the gateway 801 is installed to be capable of performing a discovery process, wherein it scans one of each downlink signal channel at a time, and one or more time slots within each channel φ 10, Until it detects a greeting message. In either case, the new gateway 801 goes online and eventually synchronizes with the corresponding downlink channel and time slot corresponding to αM305. After the discovery phase of the new gateway 801 is completed, the gateway 801 and CIM305 are added. The joining phase is the last step in establishing a bidirectional communication path between CIM305 and gateway 801 with minimal disruption to the operation of other gateways 801 of uplink signal channel 15 or reducing their ability to control delay-sensitive data services. This joining phase is a sequence of obtaining the unique uplink signal timing characteristics of the new gateway 801 ^. The joining phase begins when CIM305 sends a range message to new gateway 20 801. The range message to the new gateway 801 indicates that the gateway 801 is ready to measure the round-trip delay of the transmission and reception time. After the range message is transmitted, the CIM305 sends a stop message to all the gateways 801 of the uplink signal channel to instruct the gateway 801 not to participate in the joining phase to disable its transmitter. The disabling or silence of such an uplink signal transmitter does not require extraordinary

f 9i2 page I? .- rJ 2; 玖, description of the invention is long, and it can be only for one or two cycles or sending window. This type of moon-loss dagger is performed relatively rarely, such as every one or two minutes or the like, and only when the new gateway 801 is considered, so that the upstream signal from the existing gateway 801 will not be affected by the flood. Significant impact. When CIM305 detects the silence of the 5 uplink signal channels, CIM305 sends a calibration send message to the new gateway 801. When receiving the calibration sending message, the uplink signal on the new channel 801 initialization channel is burst. When the uplink signal burst is detected or paused to wait for the uplink signal burst, CIM305 sends a resume message to all the gateways 80 # of the uplink flood channel to activate its transmitter and resume 10 uplink signal transmission. The new gateway 801 participating in the joining phase ignores the recovery message until the joining phase is successful. This process continues until the new gateway 丨 joins this channel or until a pause occurs. In one embodiment of the present invention, the CIM305 also sends a new gateway 801 in the downlink signal channel with a gateway ID or a gateway ID to a downlink signal channel that meets the silent uplink frequency of 15 channels to activate the new gateway. 801 response, if any and occurred. The gateway message can be sent continuously until the gateway φ 801 is added to the channel through the channel join process, or until a pause occurs. In an optional embodiment of the present invention, the gateway ID may be sent to the new gateway 801 in a greeting or configuration message during the discovery phase. This allows the new 20 lanes to be uniquely found to be installed in at least one of the downlink signal time slots for the new gateway 801 during the launch phase. The calibration sending message signals to the sync detector 404 that it is ready to align the uplink signal from the new gateway 801 to the uplink window in a single time slot or in multiple time slots. Since the calibration send message is 40 玖, the invention description can be transmitted in the downlink signal time slot at any time in the uplink signal sending window, so the timing of ClM305 and the gateway can be based on a unique and shared timing reference. 513 while driving. Once the calibration transmission message is received in the encoder 402, and the synchronization detector 404 receives the synchronization mark of the encoder 402, it is expected to send the uplink signal in the receive time slot burst window. The expected reception of the uplink signal burst can be after any predetermined synchronization mark that sends the message following the calibration. Individually, the gateway performs a similar process to initialize the burst of uplink signals. During the uplink signal burst detection, the synchronization detector 404 determines whether the reception of the uplink signal burst is within the expected burst window of the time slot. If not, the time change between the expected reception of the burst and the actual reception of the burst is calculated and used to calculate the new timing parameters for the new gateway 801. This information was reallocated from CIM305 to the new gateway 80 in the greeting or matching message]. The join phase is repeated until the calibration sends from the new gateway 801 to trigger the burst of uplink signals expected to be received in the expected burst window that meets the time slot selected by the join phase. In operation, the new gateway 801 detects a command to silence other uplink signal transmitters (ie, a multiplayer message or the like), and / or detects a group gateway message in the downlink signal, and immediately responds to the cluster. Send newsletters or the like. CIM305 determines the transmission time value indicating when each group of gateway messages is transmitted, and the reception time value of the response received from the target gateway 801. For example, # C407 includes a timer or counter or the like that measures the round-trip time of transmission and reception time. In this method, the difference between the transmitted and received time values indicates CIM305 and 1237 ^ 62.

Delay in back and forth propagation between the new gateways 801. CIM305 (aka # C407) measures the propagation delay for each gateway 801 in each channel during the join process in a similar manner. CIM305 then determines one or more timing parameters or the like based on the measurement of propagation delay to configure the uplink signal communication of the new gateway 8015, as described in more detail below. The CIM305 then configures the new gateway 801 by transmitting configuration parameters or values to the new gateway 801 during normal downlink signal communication. In one embodiment, the other gateways of the same uplink signal channel are not more obstructed, and normal operation resumes immediately after the silence of the uplink signal period. At the same time, the sequence of assembling gateways is terminated by 10 unless or until another new gateway 801 is provided to the same uplink signal channel, if other new gateways exist. Optionally, CIM305 is terminated or attempted to match the new gateway 801, and all remaining gateways on the channel return to normal operation. Once successful, CIM305 sends a message to the new gateway 801 indicating that successful join has taken place and the new gateway 801 can be opened to enable normal operation on the uplink signal channel. In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the traditional method for measuring or adding equipment to the network and determining the propagation timing is used, and its implementation and identification are obvious to those skilled in the art. FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the CCP cell 501 generated by the data processing engine 405. PAP forms a PAP frame by encapsulating each packet before sending it with a PAP header (not shown) of 20 packets (not shown). The CCP matches the resulting PAP frame for RS payload insertion by forming the PAP frame into segments and adding the CCP header 503 to each segment (forming a PAP capsule or segment 505). The CCP header 503 includes a synchronization field 507, a control field 509, and an index offset 42 for storing synchronization values.

Invention description

Field 511. The indicator offset field 511 identifies the beginning of the next PAP header in the current or subsequent CCP cell. The control field 507 further includes a synchronization identifier or mark classified as a sync mark 513 (Sync Mark). As will be described in more detail below, the data processing engine 405 uses the synchronization mark 513 in the downlink signal transmission 5 as a window synchronization signal to synchronize the uplink signal communication. In an embodiment using (204, 188) RS coding, each CCP cell 501 is a 188-byte length including a 3-byte CCP header 503 and a 185-byte segment 505. The control field 507 can be of any desired length and includes at least one bit which forms the synchronization mark 513.

Figure 6 is a TDMA timing diagram illustrating the FDMA architecture used by the communication system 100 for uplink signal communication. In contrast to RF transmitters, which transmit from the central area (ie, CIM305) to assign user locations 109, each CIM305 RF receiver supports master-slave, many-to-one TDMA on the FDMA transmission system 15. The gateway 801 of each user location 109 operates on a single frequency channel and sends data during the time slot allocated by the RF receiver of the CIM305. In this way, many transmitters, each set at the corresponding user position 109, operate in a burst mode to send frequency and time maps for receiving data for a given receiver corresponding to 20 CIM305 corresponding to PSR203 Burst. Each CIM305 receiver operates as the master of a single frequency channel, where it coordinates the TDMA transmitter and controls the configuration and maintenance of the link. Each user's gateway burst transmitter operates as a slave, waiting for the window signal to arrive at the autonomous receiver before sending on the upstream signal channel. In the illustrated embodiment and 43 mm, the invention is described here, the synchronization mark 513 is used to define the window signal used to synchronize the uplink signal communication. 10 15 20 The uplink signal bandwidth is divided into a plurality of channels, and each uplink signal channel is further divided into a predetermined number of time windows. As shown in the figure, the repeated patterns during the 11 time period are individually illustrated as w0 to Wm, where n = m + i, each forming a frame, denoted as F. The time period or burst time is defined as the amount of time allocated to each burst sender (located at the user's location 109) to transmit a predetermined or fixed amount of data. Each time period Wn includes a time slot and is individually displayed as SLOTO. To SLOTm, and a middle frame gap, denoted g, for body delivery. The guard band period per _intermediate frame gap g is denoted as tgb and the period per-time slot is denoted as ^. In this way, each-continuous time slot is separated from the previous time slot by a single intermediate frame gap g. It should be noted that, unless otherwise stated, subsequent time references herein generally include corresponding intermediate frame clearances. Each transmitter at the user's location is considered to be available to each of them for at least one or more time periods. This data is installed;: ^ inch *: wood or code, and includes the initial synchronization preface 1039 added to this codeword. Each time period w represents a specific portion of the overall bandwidth of the frequency channel. So-then, the bandwidth of the user location is determined for the number of time periods allocated to each user location 109 within the frequency channel. The time period is used as the sending window's loop time and is expressed as tRR. The cycle sequence during the period or still Figure 7 illustrates the use of the next tiger synchronization mark 513 as the window 44 miw 发明, invention description

The identifier mechanism provides a timing reference for the upstream signal and a timing diagram illustrating the corresponding timing relationship between the upstream signal and the downstream signal data stream. This uplink signal transmission is operated in a burst mode opposite to the continuous mode. Each burst transmission resynchronizes the corresponding burst receiver 403 for each burst window or cycle time period. To ensure relative synchronization among all TDMA transmitters of a given channel so that transmissions do not overlap, each burst transmitter 813 (Figure 8) is synchronized using a downlink signal transmission stream. In the particular embodiment shown, the timing synchronization of the uplink signals is obtained from the Spoofed MPEG framework. Since 10 has the same length as the MPEG frame, MPEG deception means that the CCP of the downlink signal transmitter inserts the synchronization byte into the first field of the CCP frame in the same way as the synchronization byte insertion of the MPEG frame. MPEG deception is implemented in downlink signal communication to utilize the HFC system transmission method recommended by the International Telecommunication Union J.83 Annex A. Since this transmission method 15 specifies MPEG as the transmission format, it actually only requires the MPEG synchronization field for proper operation. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to this MPEG deception technology and other synchronization methods can also be used. For those skilled in the art, its implementation and identification are clear. The start of each uplink signal cycle is based on the last downlink signal word 20 or a CCP cell with a synchronization mark 513, where having a synchronization mark 513 means that the synchronization mark bit is logically TRUE. It should be noted that the logical operation reference used here contains positive or negative logical conventions (Convention) or any combination thereof (for example, a bit set to logic 1 can be expressed as true for positive logic or false for negative logic (FALSE ) 45 玖, invention description, depends on the logical agreement used). The waveform 701 illustrates the downlink signal data cell 501 received at the user's location and separated by the corresponding sync field 507. The first and second CCP cells 703 of the stream have a synchronization mark 513 to thereby define a transmission window or burst cycle sequence as indicated by the waveform 705. Waveform 707 illustrates the result of the uplink signal TDMA burst for the n time slot allowed within the corresponding time slot SLOTO to SLOTm. The beginning of each sequence of the cyclic burst time is based on the end of the last downlink signal code word, which contains a synchronization flag 513 (meaning that the synchronization flag bit or value is logically true). The cyclic burst sequence is completed at or before the sequential downlink number containing the synchronization mark 513. Waveform 709 illustrates the value of the FrameCnt variable used to time the TDMA burst of the uplink signal based on the timing of the downlink signal. Each user position is assigned one or more of η time slots per cycle (0 time slot to disabled position), where each time slot represents 1 / η of all bandwidths. When the η time slot is When used for carriers. A plurality of time slots are allocated to the user position 1009 to increase the number of bandwidths. The assignment of specific time slots is variable, so the time slots assigned to a given user location need not be continuous or contiguous. For example, if the user position 109 is assigned four time slots, which is 4 / η of the total bandwidth, the user position 109 can be assigned any four time slots without paying attention to booking. Each user location 109 may send bursts only within its assigned time slot to prevent interference with other user locations 109 in the same frequency channel. In the specific illustrative embodiment, each frequency channel is 3.2MΗζ 9 mesh 〇, there is a 2.5 piping factor (R〇11_〇ff Fact〇r) to achieve the date, the invention description

2.56MHz effective channel bandwidth and 2.56Mbaud baud rate. Each frequency channel is further divided into 16 time windows and 16 corresponding time slots. QAM-16 modulation is used to achieve four bits per symbol generated at an unprocessed data rate of approximately 10.24 Mbps for each channel and approximately 640 kilobits per second for each time slot (Kbps) unprocessed data rate. For the uplink signal efficiency of about 86%, the actual throughput of each channel is about 8.8Mbps, and the actual throughput of each time slot is about 550Kbps. In this way, each user location 109 can be allocated a multiple of 550 Kbps of uplink signal bandwidth to a number of approximately 9 Mbps for a given channel. In a typical American configuration that uses a total of 11 channels with a frequency range of 5 to 42 MHz, the total uplink signal capacity is almost 97 Mbps. It should be noted that this particular embodiment represents a particular implementation and the invention is not limited to these parameters. As mentioned before, the propagation time is resolved during the initialization period of each gateway 801 of each user location 15 109 of each channel. Slot and spread

The order is measured in symbol unit time, where symbol time is the period of the symbol. For a specific example system using a 3.2MHz frequency channel and Qam_16 modulation with a symbol rate of 2.56Mbaud, the symbol time is approximately 390ns. CIM305 sends 20 certain variables to each gateway 801 during initialization and join processing as described above. These variables include the TXOff value of the transmission offset representing the number of uplink signal symbol periods from the reception of the sync mark to the beginning of SLOTO. This TXOff value compensates the position-related propagation delay relative to the gateway 801 of the CIM305. These variables include the η bit that indicates that the time slot that the gateway 801 can use for data transmission is 47

发明 、 Explanation of the invention SlotMask is assigned to the time slot of the mask. For example, for the 16-definition slot, the SlotMask value is a 16-bit field with a corresponding slot to identify the assigned slot. The time slot assignment value is a programmable sub-set of time slots used for each sending window of the fixed uplink signal frequency channel. The time slots for every 5 channels are allocated on a mutually exclusive basis to prevent interference between channels 801 within the same channel. These variables include identifying the time slot value including the guard band and the number of burst symbols in the preamble. Once the start time of the first time slot is determined, the start time of each subsequent time slot can be determined by adding the time slot period value to the start time of the previous time slot start time 10 starting from the first time slot. Finally, these variables include the cycle period value RRDur of the meaning of the cycle length of the symbolic uplink signal time. CIM305 monitors the uplink signal communication and can adjust these variables to improve communication, if necessary. This adjustment can be achieved by reprogramming each gateway 801 given the upward channel 15 Λ. All τχ⑽ values can be adjusted by a fixed amount to effectively locate each time φ in each cycle window. Given uplink signal frequency

Start the first slot, so that the TDYff of each gateway 801 in the first window (such as the sliding time window in advance or postponed), including + = of the 'this material_ rack gap can also be reduced to increase it can also be It is considered as desired to adjust the timing so as to get as early as possible during the first slot, only 48 1237962 which is the closest electrically, and the invention description gateway can be sent. In this case, the value of XOff for the farthest gate of the power supply can be negative, because when the synchronization mark is received, the first slot is ready to be performed or even completed. In one embodiment, a negative offset value is possible and is used to supply one or more than five given gateways in a fixed uplink signal channel. In an optional embodiment that only uses positive offset values to simplify calculations and digital circuits, the entire cycle time period is increased to a negative offset, so that the corresponding gateway can effectively communicate with the next% sequence. Although each gateway is adjusted to effectively lag one cycle behind, this is a relatively insignificant time delay. In any case, the cluster-to-gate communications are synchronized in this way to prevent or minimize interference. Figure 8 is a simplified block diagram of an example gateway 801 at each user location 109, which tunes, demodulates, and decodes the combined electrical signal source information from an address or attempted for a specific user location 109. This gateway 801 may be included in it, or coupled to other user devices, such as other gateways, frequency converters, cable modems, and so on. Gateway 801 includes a co-directional duplexer 803, such as an analog television broadcast transmission, coupled to the user media link 108 for capturing broadcast content. The remaining RF spectrum dedicated to the user channel is provided to the receiver 805. This receiver 805 may include an RF tuner (not shown) that can be programmed and finally tuned to the corresponding physical channel sent by the corresponding CIM305. The receiver 805 may further include an automatic gain control (AGC) circuit or the like (not shown) to control the gain of the incoming signal at a target power level. The filtered channel signal is supplied to a demodulator (not shown), which is roughly a demodulation program that executes the 401 modulation program corresponding to the uplink signal modulator, such as according to qam_256 49 玖, invention description

Modulation or the like. Then, the demodulated digital signal is provided to the frame logic 807, which is coupled to the receiver 805, detects the synchronization bytes in the data stream, and retrieves the data in each data group corresponding to its assigned transmission channel. One or more digital codewords. The frame logic 807 includes a decoder (not shown) that performs a deinterleave decoding process corresponding to the 5 encoder 402. The frame logic 807 also includes a reverse randomization process de-randomizer (not shown), a serializer (not shown), and frame deterministic logic that converts a digital codeword into a CCP cell sent by CIM305 ( Not shown). The CCP cell is then provided to a communication processor 809, which performs the inverse 10 CCP and PAP functions and combines the original packets sent via the corresponding PSR203. The communication processor 809 forwards the digitally packetized information to the appropriate user device, such as the one indicated by the destination address via the interface device 811, such as a MAC / PHY device. Packets received from one or more user devices are provided to the communication processor 809 via the interface device 15 811. The communication processor 809 executes

The PAP also generates a PAP encapsulation frame and performs a CCP to convert the PAP encapsulation frame into a CCP cell for encoding preparation. In order to remove the DC bias in the data stream and to ensure a fixed peak-to-average power ratio for this channel, the communication processor 809 can perform blending or randomization. This randomized system can be recommended in accordance with the ITU J.83 appendix. Then, the communication processor 809 provides the CCP cell to the burst transmitter 813. In one embodiment, the burst sender 813 performs Lee De-Solomon (RS) forward error correction (FEC) encoding on each block of uplink signal data, such as according to RS (204, 188). The burst sender 813 may further preface 1039 (p. 50

玖, description of invention 10B) Attached to the beginning of sending. In one embodiment, the foreword 1039 is 0 to 32 symbols of programmable content (0 to '16 -bit 70 groups for 4-bit symbols). Each of the uplink signal transmitters on a given carrier frequency channel typically uses a shared preamble assigned by the control channel. Burst 5 sends QAM_16 or QPSK modulation for 813, although other modulation techniques can be used. Burst H 813 can also perform filtering and forward equalization. The RF output of the burst transmitter 813 drives the uplink signal RF amplifier in the RF circuit 815. The burst transmitter 813 may also have an output to actuate and control the gain of the RF amplifier. The output signal is inserted into the user media link 108 via the co-directional 10 duplexer 803. The corresponding CIM305 can be installed to monitor the spectrum of the uplink signal and send control information to the gate 801 to adjust the equalizer coefficient. CIM305 can be installed to monitor the center frequency of the uplink signal and transmit control information to adjust the center frequency offset. 15 As mentioned earlier, the initialization process is performed to construct and establish a new gateway 801. The greeting message or the like is repeatedly sent a downlink signal, which is detected by the new gateway 801 after being connected and activated. The communication processor 809 or other control logic may be installed to control the receiver 805 and the frame logic 807 to tune to each channel and perform scanning processing. The 20-minute waiting message includes identifier information or the like of the new gateway, so that each new gateway can detect whether the greeting message is intended for its use or for other new gateways. When receiving a new gateway 801 range message, the communication processor 809 constructs a sync mark detection and bursts sequential logic 817 to prepare for calibration of the uplink signal to be sent. Once CIM305 has a silent uplink signal channel 51 | 1 sounds ν u Description

, It sends a calibration send message to the new gateway 801. When receiving the calibration transmission message in the new gateway 801, the synchronization mark detection and burst timing logic 817 is ready to transmit the uplink signal burst at a predetermined time slot at the same time as the scheduled synchronization mark detection. Once the synchronization mark detection and burst timing 5 logic 817 detects the synchronization mark, the synchronization mark detection and burst timing logic 817 triggers the uplink signal to be burst on the time slot according to the current timing logic. If the uplink signals are sent successfully, the new gateway 801 can be put into service. Otherwise, the new timing parameters based on the uplink signal burst result are reassigned to the new gateway 801 for a new greeting message or configuration message. 10 As mentioned previously, CIM305 detects the response and measures or determines its

Delay between channels 801. The CIM 305 then determines the timing parameters and transmits the timing parameters or slot timing variables to the gateway 801. The gateway 801 further includes a memory 819 coupled to the communication processor 809. The memory 819 can be installed in any desired manner, such as a read-only memory (ROM) with a random 15 access memory (RAM) device or a combination thereof, such as a non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) device. The communication processor 809 retrieves slot timing variables such as TXOff, SlotMask, SlotDur, and RRDur values sent by the CIM305, and stores these variables in the memory 819. The gateway 801 further includes a synchronization mark detection and a burst timing logic 817 coupled to the frame logic 807 20 and the burst transmitter 813, which detects a code word with a synchronization mark 513 from the downlink signal information and controls the burst Send timing. The burst transmission of the burst transmitter 813 is controlled by the communication processor 809 and the synchronization mark detection and burst timing logic 817 according to the slot timing. In the illustrated embodiment, 52 I pin 962 + 玖, description of the invention, synchronous mark detection and burst timing logic 817 includes one or more programmed by the communication processor 809 with values corresponding to these slot timing variables. Registers 818, such as TXOff, SlotMask, SlotDur, and RRDur. Once these values are stored in the register 818, the same 5-step mark detection and burst timing logic 817 is effectively programmed for uplink signal communication. In particular, the sync mark detection and burst timing logic 817 is installed to detect the reception of the sync mark sent by CIM305, and further includes a timer or counter or the like to determine the receiver time or time. The synchronization flag table 10 indicates the initialization of the new sending window. The synchronization mark detection and burst timing logic 817 adds the transmission offset value TXOff to the mark reception time to calculate the start time of the first time slot in the current transmission window. This synchronization mark detection and burst timing logic 817 increases the time slot period value SlotDur including the timing for the intermediate frame guard band to the start time of the first time slot 15 to identify the start of the second time slot. This sync mark detection and burst timing logic 817 repeatedly increases the time slot period value SlotDur to the start time of each time slot to identify the start time of the next time slot. FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the gateway 801, particularly the operations of the communication processor 20 809 and the synchronization mark detection and burst timing logic 817 to perform TDMA time slot allocation and control the burst transmission timing. At a first decision block 901, it questions whether the gateway 801 is disabled. If so, the slot timing routine is terminated. Otherwise, the operation continues to block 903, where TXOff, SlotMask, SlotDur, and RRDur, etc. 53 1 ^ 7962: 玖, description of the invention

The values programmed into memory 815 are retrieved. These values are questioned for correctness in the next decision block 905, and if not correct, operation continues to block 921 to indicate a memory error and the slot timing procedure is terminated. If the retrieved value is correct, as determined by block 905, this value can be programmed 5 in the register 818 to complete synchronization mark detection and the programming of the burst sequential logic 817. At the same time, operation continues to a wait state block 907, which inserts a predetermined incremental wait state amount of time into the process. After the wait state, the operation continues to the next decision block 909 to determine whether the next signal communication has been obtained. If not, the operation loop is in the waiting state 907 and block 10 909 to wait until the downlink signal communication is obtained.

When the downlink signal communication has been obtained, as determined by block 909, the operation continues to block 911, where certain variables are initialized. Specifically, the symbol count value SymCnt is initialized to zero. The SymCnt value is a counter that is incremented (block 923) during each uplink symbol period, and 15 is used as the timing basis for slot timing. The slot offset value SlotOff is initially set to be equal to the TXOff value. The TXOff value is the offset or number from the reception of the synchronization mark to the beginning of the first slot or SLOTO during the symbol period of the uplink signal, and is the compensation value of the propagation delay relative to the gateway 801 of the CIM305 corresponding to the distribution hub 105. The SlotOff 20 value corresponds to the value of SymCnt at the beginning of the next slot, which is the first repeated SLOT0. The slot number value SlotNum is set equal to one. This SlotNum value represents the n-bit field of all possible slots for the n-slot in the cycle, with the least significant bit (LSB) of the SlotNum variable representing the first slot SLOT0. For η = 16 slots, the SlotNum value package is 54

发明, Description of the invention Including 16 bits, each bit represents the corresponding slot. A SlotNum value of 1 indicates the first slot or SLOTO. The reset count value ResetCnt is set to zero. This ResetCnt value is a paused variable for the paused slot, if the synchronization mark is not received or detected after a predetermined time period. 5 From block 911, operation continues to block 913, here ResetCnt

The value is increased (indicated by ++ after this variable). Thereafter, operation continues to decision block 915, where it is questioned whether the synchronization mark has been received from the downstream signal. If not, the operation continues to decision block 917, where it is questioned whether the value of RestCnt is greater than or equal to the predetermined maximum reset counter value 10 MaxResetCnt, which represents the maximum allowable value of ResetCnt. If ResetCnt has been increased to be greater than or equal to MaxResetCnt, as determined in block 917, the operation continues to block 919, and the loss of synchronization value LossOfSync is displayed to indicate the loss between the downlink signal and the uplink signal communication. As mentioned earlier, the uplink signal communication is synchronized based on the synchronization flag. If synchronization is lost, the slot timing program is terminated. At block 917, it is determined that ResetCnt is less than MaxResetCnt, and the operation loop is between blocks 913, 915, and 917, or until the synchronization mark is received, as determined by block 915. Upon detection of the downlink signal synchronization mark 513 of block 915, the operation continues to block 923 to increment the SymCnt value, and then continues to block 925, which represents a waiting period of a symbol period. As described above, the symbol period of the illustrative embodiment is about 390 ns. After the symbol period, operation continues to decision block 927, where it is questioned whether the SymCnt value has been incremented to a value greater than or equal to the RRDur value. If yes, the current cycle period is

Completed and operation returns to block 911 to initialize variables for use during the next cycle. Otherwise, the operation continues to the next decision block 929, where it is questioned whether the SymCnt value is greater than or equal to the SlotOff value. If not, the operation returns to block 923 to increment the SymCnt value and to block 925 with 5 waiting for another symbol period. The operation loop is at blocks 923, 925, 927, and 929 until the beginning of the next slot, which is the first slot or SLOTO in the first repetition. Since this loop is initialized with the reception time of the synchronization mark 513, and because the SlotOff value is initially set equal to the transmission offset value TXOff, the loop is initially operated to increase TXOff by 10 to the reception time of the synchronization mark to determine the current The beginning of the first time slot of the send window. Subsequent iterations of this loop are used to identify the beginning of each time slot within the send window.

When the SymCnt value is incremented to SlotOff to indicate the beginning of the next slot, the operation continues to block 93 1, where the SlotDur value is added to 15 SlotOff to effectively increment the SlotOff value to indicate the next slot in the symbol period. Start. Thereafter, the operation continues to decision block 933, where it is determined whether the gateway 801 can be sent to the current slot. It is determined by performing a logical AND operation between SlotNum and SlotMask and determining whether this result is logically true. For example, if the current 20 SlotNum value is logically true, where the LSB of SlotNum is a true logical value (for example, 1 is positive logic) and the remaining bits are false (for example, 0 is positive logic), and if SlotMask The corresponding LSB is logically true, indicating that the gateway 801 is programmed to be sent during the first slot or SLOTO, and the result of the AND operation is true. If so, the operation continues to Fang 56 1237962. Run u L. 4 (, description of the invention

In block 935, the variable or signal indicates that the gateway 801 is authorized to send the burst data to the burst sender 813 during the current slot through the synchronization flag and the burst sequential logic 817. The burst sender 813 starts sending the next burst data. After the burst sending instruction is at block 935, the operation continues to block 5 at 937, where the DlotNum value is shifted left by one bit to increase the SlotNum value to indicate the next slot, where the next slot is the first slot SLOT1 during a repeat period. Refer to block 933 forward, if the result is false, only to show that the gateway 801 is not allowed to send during the current slot, then the operation continues directly to block 937 to increase SlotNum to the next slot, and send 10 to send the authorization Not instructed. After block 937, operation continues to block 923 to increment the SymCnt value.

It should be understood that the operating loop during each cycle or sending window is between blocks 923 to 937 for each time slot. Slot timing is controlled at blocks 923, 925, and 929, where SymCnt is regularly incremented by 15 and waits for one symbol period are inserted until SymCnt is incremented to the beginning of the next time slot, as shown by the SlotOff value. This SlotOff value is then incremented by the SlotDur value of block 931 to indicate the start of the next slot. The SlotNum value is shifted or incremented for each slot and compared with the SlotMask value to determine whether the gateway 801 is authorized to send to the current slot, as programmed by the SlotMask value. Operation continues in this manner until the SymCnt value is incremented to an RRDur value equal to or greater than block 927, and the time operation here returns to block 911 to initialize the indicator variable for use during the next cycle time. The operation sends user information to the corresponding CIM305 in this way indefinitely. The following will be detailed 57 1237962 玖, description of the invention The fixed size codeword is sent during each burst. Partial padding codewords can be padded with 0 or invalid values to maintain the codeword size for each burst. In the embodiment, the burst transmission through the gateway 801 is temporarily suspended, and no user data is transmitted. Operations can still be looped between blocks 913 to 937 to maintain synchronization. In an optional embodiment, the gateway 801 sends an invalid value codeword (for example, filled with 0 or an invalid value or the like) during each burst. The user data is not available for sending to the CIM305. Figure 10A is a block diagram illustrating the encapsulation for uplink signal communication performed by the communication processor 809. The communication processor 809 performs PAP to generate a PAP frame surface, wherein the pAp header is deleted and attached to the front end of the packet containing the user-generated packet payload 1005. This process is classified as framing or encapsulation. In one embodiment, the PAp header 1003 includes a control field 1007 and a length field 109. The control field 15 1007 further includes a packet type field 1011, an extended header field 1013, and a reserve field 1015. The length field 1009 specifies the number of bytes of the packet payload 1005. PAP achieves intermediate packet time filling by generating invalid packets with pattern field 1011 set to invalid value or 0 bits. Not only that, the intermediate packet time padding may further include nuli ^ 20 PAP or PAP designation which are all set to 0. More specifically, pAp can provide additional error correction by using simple parity on the PAp header 1003 with a reserve bit in control field 1007. In coding preparation, the communication processor 809 executes the CCP, which divides the PAP frame 1001 into N segments 1017, 1019, ..., 1021 58 1 玖, description of the invention

The segmentation processing is performed, where N is a positive integer and depends on the size of the PAP frame including the PAP header 1003 and the packet payload 1005. The PAP header 1003 is combined with the segment portion 1018 to form the first segment 1017. It should be noted that N may be 1. If the PAP frame 1001 is lower than a predetermined size and does not need to be divided for cell insertion, as will be described in more detail below. It should also be noted that the total length of the PAP frame 1001 is not usually an integer multiple of some unit size. Therefore, when the PAP frame 1001 is divided into segments, at least one segment is smaller (such as the remaining segment). The smaller sections can be made equal in size by using them with 0 or no 10 effective values for the pads intended for CCP. However, this segment size can be fixed or variable depending on the specific configuration. The CCP then attaches the CCP header 1023 to the beginning of each segment 1017 to 1021 to form corresponding CCP cells 1025, 1027, ..., 1029. If another PAP framework is not immediately available for segmentation, the remaining bytes of the smaller segment can then be padded with 0 or NULL values when they are ready for CCP 15. Otherwise, segmentation processing begins immediately with segmentation of a PAP frame relative to the remaining bytes in the cell. If this channel, or subchannel, receives bursts or appropriate PDU traffic, the segmentation process fully utilizes the available bandwidth by performing segmentation of the PAP framework, taking into account the available space in the cell.

20 In an embodiment using (204, 188) RS coding, the length of each CCP cell is 188 bytes. The relative sizes of the CCP header 1023 and the remaining segments can be changed, where the length of each segment can be 187 bytes. Each CCP header 1023 includes an index offset field 1031 identifying the beginning of the next PAP header. If the index offset value of the index offset field 1031 is 59, the description of the invention

The line is in the proper range, and the next packet starts at the current cell. In the configuration where the length of the remaining segment is 187 bytes, for (204, 188) RS codes, the appropriate range of the index offset value is a range including 0 to 186. If the indicator offset value is equal to the maximum value of 204, when the CCP header followed by 5 cells is pointed, the next packet does not start at the current CCP cell. Indicator offset values in the remaining range (including 187 to 203) are considered incorrect or unused. It should be noted that (255, 269) RS coding can be implemented, where the size of each CCP cell is 255 bytes, so that the effective capacity and the relative size of the field are changed accordingly. 10 Figure 10B illustrates the uplink signal in the uplink signal frame format.

Block diagram of frame 1033. Further processing can be performed in CCP cells 1025 to 1029, such as mixing or randomization and the like, and the result data is encoded to generate a frame payload of 1035 and forward error correction (FEC) and due to noise during the transmission Short bursts of error. The RS code 15 uses redundancy in an efficient manner, expanding each cell by adding redundant data or symbols. It should be noted that the FEC data 1037 does not need to be a separation field but may be a sum of the frame payload 1035. For (204, 188) RS codes, the FEC data 1037 includes 16 parity or EDC bytes to achieve (204, 188, 8) RS codes. The FEC data for (204, 188, 20 8) RS coding can correct eight error bytes per RS codeword. Predetermined code generator polynomials and field generator polynomials are used for RS encoding processing. It should be noted that by appending 51 bytes that are all set to 0 before the input information bytes of the (255, 239) RS code, shortening the RS codeword (204 bytes) can be implemented. After the processing of the code, £ 60, the section ^, the description of the invention, and the appended bytes are abolished. Accompanying the encoding process, the convolutional interleaving architecture can optionally be applied * to produce an interleaving frame (not shown). Then, a burst transmitter 813 modulation result frame is implemented based on QAM-16 modulation or QPSK. The qam 5 handles a sync mix bit stream that is patched for transmission on a channel for RF output. The Q AM process blocks consecutive bits from the data stream and then maps them to codewords using Gray Code or different codes or a combination of both. Then, QAM processing converts the resulting digital codeword into an analog waveform based on the amplitude and phase relationship | combined interaction diagram. Here 10, each unique code sequence corresponds to one of the interactions. The output of the burst transmitter 813 is provided to the RF circuit 8-5, which converts the waveform into an appropriate format for display on the user media link 108 through the duplexer 803. Although the present invention has been referred to certain preferred implementations For example, it is particularly shown and said that the 15 is as above. Those skilled in the art should understand that various format and details changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended patent scope. [Schematic diagram Cui * means L Ming] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication network structure according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a distribution hub according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 is a block diagram of a packet switch router according to an embodiment of the present invention; 61 9, a ~~ table, description of the invention Figure 4 is a block diagram of a channel interface module according to an embodiment of the present invention; t FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the CCP cell by the example generated by the cell processing engine shown in FIG. 4; FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating frequency division multiple access according to an embodiment of the present invention ( Timing diagram of time division multiplexing (FDMA) on the architecture; Figure 7 is a diagram illustrating the use of a downlink signal synchronization mark as an uplink signal timing reference and description of an uplink signal according to an embodiment of the present invention; and downlink signal data Timing diagram of the corresponding timing relationship between the streams; 10 FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a user modem device (gateway) according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the TDMA time of FIG. 8 Slot allocation and used to control burst transmission The flowchart of the communication processor of the sequence gateway and the operation of the synchronization mark detection and burst sequential logic; 5 Figure 10A is an example for uplink signal transmission implemented by the communication processor of Figure 8 A block diagram of a decapsulation packet; and FIG. 10B is a block diagram illustrating an uplink signal frame ^ illustrating an uplink signal frame format. 62 1237962 9n, *: = 玖 'Description of the invention [The main components of the diagram represent the symbol table] 100 communication system 101 source 102, 102, 104, 106, 108, 214 bond 105 points, set, cable 109 user location 113 telephone network 116 antenna system 203 packet switching router 103 head end ...- 5 107 node ...

111 Electricity Road 115 Communication System 201 Switch 205 Electrical to Optical Coupler and Transmitter 10 207 Optical to Electrical Receiver and Separator 209, 211, 213, 215 4 Division I / O Converter 217 O / E Converter 219 Separator 221, 223 Connected to 301, 301a, 301b Network interface module 15 303 Supervisor; Block 307, 309 Block 402 Stone Horse 404 Inspection J Device 407 Start controller 20 411 Transmitter Road 501 month packet grid 505 section 509 control field 513 synchronization mark 305 channel interface module 401 modulator 403 receiver 405 data processing engine 409 switch interface 413 receiver network 503 header 507 synchronization field 511 index offset j: storm 701, 705, 709 waveform

63 1237962 发明, description of the invention

703 month grid 801 gateway 803 duplexer 805 receiver 807 frame logic 809 communication tfL processor 811 interface device 813 transmitter 5 815, 819 words memory 817 Risi 818 register 901, 903, 905 > 907, 909 > 911 > 913, 915, 917 -919-921-923-925, 927 '929, 931, 933, 935, 937 Box 10 1001 Frame 1003 Header 1005 Payload 1007 Control field 1009 Length field 1011 pattern field 1013 extended header field 1015 reserve field 1017, 1019, 1021 segment 1018 segment part 15 1025 > 1027 > 1029 cell 1031 finger offset field 1033 frame 1035 effective planting amount 1037FEC data 1039 foreword 64

Claims (1)

4 Brother 91 1 19282 requested the amendment of the patent scope 纟 93 10 25 The method for providing dedicated uplink signal bandwidth is to provide dedicated uplink signal bandwidth to each of several user locations. Or sending to a common distribution point via a fused fiber coaxial cable (HF c) network, the method includes the following steps: by using the distribution point, a predetermined number of time slots for each of the repeating uplink signal transmission windows At least one of these is assigned to each of the plurality of user locations; 10 In addition, from the distribution point, a window signal is sent to each of the user locations; 15 By each user location, the 'parent-data grid' is suitable for sending in a predetermined period of time; by each The user position encapsulates the user data. ⑥ One of a time slot in the data cell. 'Based on the window signal and a predetermined sending offset value, determine the relative timing of each time slot in each of the repeated sending windows. ; And send a cluster of user data cells in the stylized time slot to the distribution point by each user location. 2. As described in item 1 of the scope of application for patents, where the sending-window signal includes repeatedly sending an instruction every-sending one of the windows 20 Beginning of synchronization mark. 3. The method as described in item 2 of the scope of patent application, wherein the relative timing of the decision includes: determining a receiving time when receiving a synchronization mark; adding the sending offset value to the receiving time to identify a 65th 10 15 20 days ί The start time of one of the time slots in the range δ 円; and a predetermined time slot period value to identify the start time of one of the subsequent time slots in each of the sending windows. 4. The method described in item 3 of the scope of patent application, further comprising: determining the __ end time of each window according to a predetermined cycle period value. 5. The method as described in item 3 of the scope of patent application, further comprising: offsetting a slot number for each mother-day interval slot in each sending window by a percentage; and comparing the slot bit field with a A predetermined slot cover for each slot is used to determine whether the time slot allows burst transmission. 6. As described in item 丨 of the patent application scope, < Heart strength, wherein the sending of a window signal includes: planning the downstream flood number data in a data cell stream; inserting a synchronization mark into these data cells A selection cell of each stream; and sending the data cell stream to the users in a continuous mode. 7. The method described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, wherein the data will be encapsulated in the data cell. Contains ... segmenting the user data into data segments; limiting each asset-material segment to a fixed-size frame ; And encapsulating the fixed-size frame in the data cell. 8. The method described in item 7 of the scope of patent application, further includes placing a prospective participant 66 and the scope of patent application · Predetermining the preface to each data cell in advance. 9. The method as described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, further comprising: / a quantity of a propagation delay between the distribution point and each user location; calculating a transmission offset value for each user location; and A corresponding transmission offset value is transmitted to each user location. The method according to claim 9 of the patent application scope further includes: determining a time slot period value; and transmitting the time slot period value to each user location. 11. The method as described in item 10 of the scope of patent application, wherein determining a time slot value includes adding an appropriate guard band. The method according to item 11 of the scope of patent application 1 further includes: adjusting the time slot period value to adjust the guard band between the time slots by using the allocation point. 13. The method as described in item 丨 of the scope of patent application, further comprising: assigning at least one of a predetermined number of time slots to each user location on a mutually exclusive basis; and the next day Gatekeeper dispatch values program each user location. Η-A method for providing a dedicated bandwidth, which is used to provide a dedicated bandwidth to a user's location for transmission to a distribution point. The method includes the following steps: Deciding between the distribution point and the user's location Propagation delay; According to the determined propagation delay, the user position is programmed with a sending timing offset of 67 m ^ and a patent application range; a predetermined number of times are programmed in a subgroup of one slot of a repeated sending window of a frequency channel The user position; repeatedly sending a window synchronization signal to the user position; the window synchronization signal indicates the timing of the repeated transmission windows of the frequency channel; and 'based on when each window synchronization signal is received and the The shipping timing offset calculates the _first time slot of each sending window—the start time; determines the start time of each of the remaining time slots of the sending window relative to each of the first time slot; and only for each One of the time slots in the send window stylized during the 'batch send' from that user location. 15. The method as described in claim 14 of the scope of patent application, wherein the decision-propagation delay includes: At a determinable time, a calibration message is sent from the distribution point to the user location; when the calibration message is detected, a burst of communication is sent from the user location to the distribution point; and the decision is made by the distribution point. The time period between the reception of the burst communication and the transmission of the calibration message. 16. The method described in item 14 of the patent scope of female 3 slasher τ% further includes: determining a start time for each sending window relative to the distribution point; 68 > · > * > -^ The calculation of the scope of the patent application-the synchronization of the window between the sending window and the door and the user's position, and the 5th of the tiger-the time difference between the receiving time is determined based on the calculated time difference Timing bias ^. 17. The method described in the extra eve of the scope of the patent application, further comprising: · determining the number of time slots per sending window; determining the sending time for each time slot; and-appropriate guard band period: = household location cluster At 10 o'clock, the number of sent-outs, including the number of intermediate guard bands, is determined by the mother-to-send window. The method as described in item 14 of the scope of patent application, further comprising: inserting a synchronization mark into the selected Shima word of the distribution point, so that each codeword of the 15-wide synchronization mark is not provided with a synchronization A predetermined number of codewords are then separated; and the codepoints are sent in a continuous mode through the distribution point. 19. The method according to item 14 of the scope of patent application, wherein the calculation of a start time of a first time slot includes: # 20 determining a reception time of each window synchronization signal; and shifting the transmission timing Increase in the reception time. 20. The method as described in item 14 of the scope of patent application, further comprising: determining a time slot period value, the indication of which includes a guard frequency for each time slot period; and programming the time period value with the time slot period value. User location. Decision 2] · The method as described in claim 20 of the patent scope, where the scope of the 69 patent application and the patent scope is increased to one of the gates. The start time includes the value of the time slot period two: gate two in the first —Of the start time of the time slot—the start time of the previous time slot. The 2β-type 5fL system is used to provide dedicated bandwidth to at least one user bit W and sends it to a ctl _ΤΤ γη ^ ^ I network to a common distribution point. The system includes: A channel interface module provided at the distribution point, including a transmitter for sending a window signal via the HFC network; and a gateway located at a user location and coupled to the distribution point through the HFC network Including: a processor that encapsulates user data in a data cell suitable for burst sending; receiving logic for receiving the window signal; face-to-face receiving logic and sequential logic for the processor, which Indicate deviation according to the window signal and a predetermined transmission timing Shift 'only at the burst sending time of the stylized time slot of each repeated sending window; and a burst sender coupled to the processors and the sequential logic, when the sequential logic instructs, the burst sending User data cell in the scheduled uplink signal frequency channel. 23. The communication system according to item 22 of the scope of patent application, wherein the channel interface module further comprises: a burst receiver that detects burst transmission from the gateway in a predetermined frequency channel; and 70 M. Patent Application Scope—The light-connected to the transmitter and the burst receiver are installed as a controller for the initial processing of the gateway. The initial b processing includes instructing the transmitter to transmit the frequency of the line signal. Channel ^ A greeting message in a predetermined time slot; periodically silent for at least ~ the predetermined uplink signal frequency channel for sending windows; detecting a burst response and decision from the gateway within the predetermined uplink signal frequency channel Delay in propagation to the gateway. M. The communication system as described in item 23 of the scope of the patent application, wherein the controller is further installed to program the gateway with the transmission timing shift, period value, and time slot assignment value. The communication system as described in item 22 of the scope of patent application, wherein the transmitter of the channel interface module includes a data processing engine that encapsulates downlink signal data in a data cell; a-an encoder coupled to the data processing engine that encodes data cells into codewords; and a modulator coupled to the encoder to modulate the codewords in a continuous mode. "26. The communication system described in item 25 of the patent scope of f, wherein the transmitter of the i-channel interface module is further installed to insert a synchronous 4 mark into the selection mark to send a periodic window signal. ^ 27. According to the communication system described in the scope of the application for patent (26 items, 1), the material sequence of the device includes-material-transmission timing offset value. -Memory for time slot assignment value and one slot period value. 7] i {$ j 2 6 p | i il, patent application scope 28. The communication system as described in item "Patent Application Scope Item", wherein the gateway's wording sequential logic is installed to detect a synchronization Mark, the transmission timing offset value can be increased to determine the start time of the first slot of each transmission window, the slot period value can be increased to determine the start time of each subsequent slot of each transmission window, and The time slot allocation value can be compared with each current slot to determine whether burst transmission is allowed. 29. The communication system described in item 27 of the scope of the patent application, wherein the memory of the gateway sequential logic is more stored A sending window value is 30. The communication system described in Item 22 of the declared patent scope, wherein the gateway processor is installed to segment the user data into data segments, and the data segment can be limited to The frame and the data cell which can be encapsulated in the data cell suitable for bulk transmission. 31 · —This type is configured to provide a dedicated uplink signal bandwidth for transmission via a fused fiber coaxial cable (HFC) network To one allocation The gateway is provided with a knife, and a periodic synchronization signal is developed from the HFC network in a predetermined downlink signal frequency channel to the gateway. The gateway includes a device for coupling to the gateway. HFC bidirectional multiplexer; a receiver coupled to the bidirectional multiplexer that is tuned to the predetermined downlink signal frequency channel to receive communication from the distribution point; and that is coupled to the receiver that is installed to resolve the downlink Frame logic for signal sending code words; Patent application scope-a communication processor coupled to the frame logic and installed to convert user data into a data cell suitable for mass transmission; a coupling to the communication The processor is installed to send a data cell from the communication processor in a predetermined time slot of a predetermined frequency channel of the uplink signal when receiving a transmission signal; coupled to the frame logic and the i-signal The processor and the burst transmitter are installed to detect the periodic synchronization signal from the downlink signal word, and are determined according to the synchronization signal, a timing offset value, and a -slot period value. A start time for each-time slot in the predetermined uplink signal frequency channel, and timing logic for displaying the transmission signal for each-time slot indicated by the _time slot assignment value; and a coupling to The burst transmitter and the radio frequency (RF) circuit of the duplexer for sending to the distribution point via the HFC network communication. 73