US20130266324A1 - Method and System for Connector and/or Cable with Configurable Antenna for Ethernet and Wireless Applications - Google Patents
Method and System for Connector and/or Cable with Configurable Antenna for Ethernet and Wireless Applications Download PDFInfo
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- US20130266324A1 US20130266324A1 US13/866,541 US201313866541A US2013266324A1 US 20130266324 A1 US20130266324 A1 US 20130266324A1 US 201313866541 A US201313866541 A US 201313866541A US 2013266324 A1 US2013266324 A1 US 2013266324A1
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- Prior art keywords
- connector
- wireless
- message
- configurable
- interface
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B10/00—Transmission systems employing electromagnetic waves other than radio-waves, e.g. infrared, visible or ultraviolet light, or employing corpuscular radiation, e.g. quantum communication
- H04B10/27—Arrangements for networking
- H04B10/271—Combination of different networks, e.g. star and ring configuration in the same network or two ring networks interconnected
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L12/00—Data switching networks
- H04L12/28—Data switching networks characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]
- H04L12/46—Interconnection of networks
- H04L12/4604—LAN interconnection over a backbone network, e.g. Internet, Frame Relay
- H04L12/462—LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone
- H04L12/4625—Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
Definitions
- Certain embodiments of the invention relate to communication systems. More specifically, certain embodiments of the invention relate to a connector and/or cable with an antenna for Ethernet and wireless applications.
- communication devices may incorporate a plurality of features, for example, a mobile phone, a digital camera, an Internet browser, a gaming device, a Bluetooth headphone interface and/or a location device.
- the communication devices may be operable to communicate via various wire-line and/or wireless networks such as local and/or wide area networks, wireless local and/or wide area networks, cellular networks and wireless personal area networks, for example.
- endpoint devices may communicate via various wireless and/or wire-line switches, routers, hubs, access points and/or base stations.
- a system and/or method for a connector and/or cable with an antenna for Ethernet and wireless applications is disclosed.
- FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary connector and/or connection interface comprising a wireless access point or signal converter, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
- FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary wireless access point or signal converter, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
- FIG. 2 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary connector and/or connection interface comprising a wireless access point that may communicate via a wired network, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
- FIG. 3 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary connector and/or connection interface that comprises a coupled antenna, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
- FIG. 4 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary configurable connector and/or connection interface capable of wireless and/or wire-line communication via a plurality of types of PHY devices, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
- FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary steps for communicating via a connector and/or connection interface capable of wireless and/or wire-line communication, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
- one or more processors and/or circuits in a configurable Ethernet connector comprises a first interface and a second interface.
- the first interface may comprise a wired interface and a wireless interface that are configurable to communicate corresponding wired and wireless signals.
- the second interface may comprise a wired interface and an optical interface that are configurable to communicate corresponding wired and optical signals.
- a signal may be received via the first interface or the second interface. In instances when the received signal comprises a wireless signal that is received via the first interface, the received wireless signal may be converted to one of a wired Ethernet signal and an optical Ethernet signal, for communication by the second interface.
- the signal may be communicated by the second interface or may be converted to an optical signal for communication by the second interface.
- the received signal comprises a wired Ethernet signal that is received via the second interface
- the received wired Ethernet signal may be communicated via the first interface or may be converted to a wireless signal for communication by the first interface.
- the received optical Ethernet signal may be converted to one of a wireless signal and a wired signal for communication by the first interface. The conversion of the signal received via said first interface, and the conversion of the signal received via said second interface may occur concurrently.
- the Ethernet connector may comprise one or both of an antenna and a wireless access point.
- a cable that is coupled to the Ethernet connector may comprise an antenna.
- the Ethernet connector may provide at least a subset of antenna functionality to a communication device.
- the Ethernet connector may provide one or more of full antenna functionality, enhancement of antenna functionality and/or extension of antenna functionality to a communication device that is communicatively coupled to the Ethernet connector.
- the configurable Ethernet connector and/or a corresponding connector that may be coupled to the configurable Ethernet connector may comprise one or more of a plurality of Ethernet PHY devices, a plurality of types of Ethernet PHY devices, a plurality of optical PHY devices, and a plurality of types of optical PHY devices.
- the plurality of PHY devices and/or plurality of types of PHY devices may be integrated on a single chip.
- a corresponding connector that is coupled to the Ethernet connector may sense communication protocols and/or communication capabilities of the Ethernet connector.
- the corresponding connector may be configured based on communication protocols and/or communication capabilities of the Ethernet connector.
- the Ethernet connector may receive a wireless signal that comprises information for servicing and/or maintaining a communication device that is coupled to the Ethernet connector, and may transmit the signal to the communication device.
- FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary configurable connector and/or connection interface comprising a wireless access point or signal converter, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
- a communication system 100 comprising communication devices 110 , 140 and 150 and a wireless base station or access point 145 .
- a connector and/or connection interface 130 may comprise a configurable Ethernet connector 120 that comprises copper and/or optical connections 190 , a wireless access point or signal converter 122 , antenna circuitry 124 and a power source 128 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 130 may comprise a corresponding connector 112 , magnetics 114 and one or more PHYs 116 .
- the configurable Ethernet connector 120 and the corresponding connector 112 may comprise a plug and a receptacle, respectively.
- the configurable connector 120 and the corresponding connector 112 may comprise a receptacle and a plug, respectively.
- a receptacle may also be referred to as a socket.
- the configurable connector 120 may comprise a wireless dongle and may be referred to as the wireless dongle 120 .
- the configurable Ethernet connector 120 may be referred to as the connector 120 or the configurable connector 120 .
- the communication device 110 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to communicate via one or more of any suitable wireless and/or wire-line interface.
- An exemplary communication device 110 may comprise a router, a switch, a patch panel, a laptop, a portable phone, a media player, a location device, television, set-top-box, a camera and/or gaming device.
- the communication device 110 may be operable to communicate based on a plurality of communication interfaces, for example, via the corresponding connector 112 within the communication device 110 .
- the communication device 110 may be a switch in a data center and may be referred to as the switch 110 .
- the corresponding connector 112 may be utilized for maintenance of the switch and/or for servicing and/or managing other devices within the data center that may be accessible via the switch 110 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 130 may comprise a configurable connection platform that may be operable to support optical, wired and/or wireless communication.
- the connector and/or connection interface 130 may comprise a cable attached to the corresponding connector 112 and/or the configurable connector 120 .
- twisted pair cabling may be attached to the corresponding connector 112 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 130 may also comprise an antenna that may be integrated within a housing of the configurable connector 120 , the corresponding connector 112 and/or a within a cable that may be attached to the configurable connector 120 and/or the corresponding connector 112 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 130 may be configured for and/or may be operable to handle one or more functions and/or protocols, for example, wireless communication and/or wired or optical Ethernet communication.
- the configurable connector 120 may comprise the copper and/or optical connections 190 that may be operable to transmit and/or receive Ethernet signals to and/or from the corresponding connector 112 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 130 may be operable support a plurality of functions and/or communication protocols concurrently or as configured. In this regard, the connector and/or connection interface 130 may be operable to adjust to different functions and/or protocols.
- the corresponding connector 112 may be operable to detect when an antenna is coupled or when an Ethernet cable is coupled and may support communication in accordance with the type of connector that is present.
- the connector and/or connection interface 130 may be operable to support optical communication.
- the connector and/or connection interface 130 may convert between optical and wireless communication.
- the corresponding connector 112 may comprise an optical interface.
- the corresponding connector 112 may be a connector that may be integrated within the communication device 110 .
- the corresponding connector 112 may comprise the magnetics 114 that may comprise, for example, a transformer and copper connection.
- the corresponding connector 112 may comprise and optical connector.
- the PHY 116 may be operable to communicate via an optical or copper medium and may be integrated within the corresponding connector 112 .
- the PHY 116 may be separate from the corresponding connector 112 and may be integrated within the communication device 110 .
- U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket Number 20841 US01), filed on ______, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, may comprise additional information regarding a connector and/or connection interface comprising an integrated PHY.
- the corresponding connector 112 may be operable to couple to the configurable connector 120 based on standardized and/or non-standard specifications.
- the corresponding connector 112 and the configurable connector 120 may comprise Ethernet connectors.
- the corresponding connector 112 and/or the connector 120 may comprise a form factor similar to or the same as RJ45 connectors.
- dimensions of the corresponding connector 112 and/or the configurable connector 120 of the connector and/or connection interface 130 may comprise a form factor that may be scaled small enough to fit into a handheld device and/or small enough to enable greater than 48 jacks and/or plugs to fit into a one rack unit (1 RU) face plate, for example a 1 RU switch face plate.
- the small scaled connectors may be operable to communicate based on Ethernet standards such as IEEE 802.3 standards and/or variations thereof.
- the connector and/or connection interface 130 may comprise a plurality of connectors such as the corresponding connector 112 that may be ganged together.
- U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket Number 20745US01) filed on ______, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, may comprise additional information regarding such a connector and/or connection interface.
- the corresponding connector 112 may be operable to supply power to the configurable connector 120 , for example, via power over Ethernet.
- the corresponding connector 112 may be configurable or may be dedicated to a specific function.
- the corresponding connector 112 may comprise a service port in a device that may enable management of the device.
- the corresponding connector 112 may be utilized for data communication.
- the corresponding connector 112 may be configurable to receive wireless communication, for example, the corresponding connector 112 may function as an antenna port.
- the corresponding connector 112 may be multifunctional where a plurality of types of communication may operate concurrently.
- the corresponding connector 112 may receive data input as well as input from an antenna.
- the corresponding connector 112 may be configurable.
- the corresponding connector 112 may comprise an electrical or mechanical switch or detection mechanism to detect whether a cable or an antenna is plugged into the corresponding connector 112 .
- the configurable connector 120 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry interfaces and/or code that may be operable to communicate based on a plurality of communication interfaces.
- the configurable connector 120 may comprise the copper and/or optical connections 190 that may be operable to transmit and/or receive Ethernet signals to and/or from the corresponding connector 112 .
- the configurable connector 120 may be operable to communicate with the communication device 110 based on the IEEE 802.3 standard and/or extensions and/or variations thereof.
- the configurable connector 120 may be operable to communicate wirelessly with one or more of the communication devices 140 , 150 and/or with the base station or wireless access point 145 .
- the configurable connector 120 may be operable to communicate wirelessly via the antenna circuitry 124 based on one or more wireless protocols, such as, wireless LAN, wireless telephony and/or GNSS satellite wireless protocols.
- the configurable connector 120 may comprise a signal conversion module, such as the wireless access point or signal converter 122 .
- the wireless access point or signal converter 122 may be referred to as the wireless access point 122 or the signal converter 122 .
- the wireless access point or signal converter 122 may be operable to convert wireless signals to copper based Ethernet signals and vice versa.
- the wireless access point or signal converter 122 may be operable to convert wireless signals to optical Ethernet signals and vice versa.
- the configurable connector 120 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to receive wireless signals via the antenna 124 and convert the received signals to comply with Ethernet copper and/or Ethernet optical protocols for transmission to the communication device 110 via the corresponding connector 112 .
- the configurable connector 120 may be operable to receive signals via a copper or optical medium from the communication device 110 and may convert the signals to comply with a wireless protocol and may transmit the wireless signals via the antenna 124 .
- the wireless access point or signal converter 122 may be operable to receive signals that are formatted based on IEEE 802.3 standards and/or variations thereof from the corresponding connector 112 and may convert the received signals based on IEEE 802.11 standards and/or variations thereof, for example, WiFi, and transmit the converted wireless signals via the antenna circuitry 124 .
- the wireless access point or signal converter 122 may be operable to receive IEEE 802.11 compliant wireless signals via the antenna 124 and may convert the received wireless signals to IEEE 802.3 compliant signals for communication to the communication device 110 via the corresponding connector 112 .
- the described exemplary embodiment is operable to convert IEEE 802.11 wireless signals, the invention is not limited in this regard and may convert any suitable wireless signals, for example, Bluetooth, cellular and/or any personal area, local area and/or wide area network wireless signals to a signal formatted for electrical or optical transmission.
- the configurable connector 120 may be operable to provide rate matching between a wired protocol signal and a wireless protocol signal and/or between an optical protocol signal and a wireless protocol signal.
- one or both of the wireless access point or signal converter 122 and the antenna circuitry 124 may be integrated within housing of the configurable connector 120 .
- the housing of the configurable connector 120 may comprise the form factor of an RJ45 connector or a smaller scale Ethernet connector.
- the configurable connector 120 may comprise a wireless dongle that may extend beyond or may be larger than the RJ45 connector form factor or the smaller scale Ethernet connector form factor.
- the configurable connector or wireless dongle 120 may comprise wire and/or optical apparatus for mating with a corresponding Ethernet connector 112 , the wireless access point or signal converter 122 and the antenna circuitry 124 .
- the antenna circuitry 124 may comprise an antenna and/or may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to process signals that are received and/or transmitted via the antenna circuitry 124 .
- the antenna circuitry 124 may be operable to provide antenna functionality for the wireless access point or signal converter 122 in the configurable connector 120 .
- the configurable connector 120 and the antenna circuitry 124 may be operable to provide one or more antennas for use by the communication device 110 directly.
- the configurable connector 120 that may comprise a form factor similar to an RJ 45 connector or a smaller scaled form factor, may be configured as an attached antenna for the communication device 110 .
- the corresponding connector 112 may comprise an antenna port in the communication device 110 .
- the configurable connector 120 may be operable to provide antenna functionality, for example, when the communication device 110 does not have another antenna.
- the Ethernet configurable connector 120 and the antenna circuitry 124 may enhance functionality of other antennas (not shown) that may be available in the communication device 110 .
- the antenna circuitry 124 may be utilized in addition to and/or instead of the other antenna circuitry.
- the antenna circuitry 124 may be operable to improve the quality of received and/or transmitted wireless signals.
- the antenna circuitry 124 and the other antenna circuitry may provide spatial or phase diversity.
- the spatial diversity may enable the communication device 110 to utilize a plurality of multipath versions a signal or to select a preferred signal.
- the antenna circuitry 124 may provide polarization diversity, such as, orthogonal polarization.
- the antenna circuitry may provide pattern diversity, for example, for varied azimuth, varied antenna angle and/or varied gain.
- the antenna circuitry 124 may enable combining signals and/or selecting signals to improve signal to noise ratios (SNR) and/or to better utilize signals that are transmitted and/or received in a multipath environment. For example, when multiple received signals are aligned in phase, signals received via the antenna circuitry 124 may be constructively combined with signals received via another antenna. In other exemplary embodiments of the invention, when signals are received via the antenna circuitry 124 and another antenna utilized by the communication devices 110 , the best signal may be selected for use.
- SNR signal to noise ratios
- the Ethernet configurable connector 120 may provide an extension to other antennas (not shown) that may be integrated within and/or utilized by the communication device 110 .
- the antenna circuitry 124 may provide an extended antenna length that may improve absorption of certain wavelength signals.
- the antenna circuitry 124 may provide an antenna length greater than the length of the communication device 110 or greater than a reasonable length for another style of antenna attachment (not shown).
- the configurable connector 120 and/or the antenna circuitry 124 may provide an additional wireless link.
- An addition wireless link may be utilized to increase the number of simultaneous wireless connections and/or may be utilized to increase the bandwidth of frequencies that the communication device 110 may transmit and/or receive signals on.
- each configurable connector 120 may have its own antenna circuitry 124 or two or more configurable connector 120 units may share antenna circuitry.
- the configurable connector 120 may be operable to communicate with the communication device 110 based on Ethernet protocols and/or may communicate wirelessly with one or more of the communication devices 140 and 150 , for example.
- wireless communication with the communication devices 140 and/or 150 may be based on IEEE 802.11 and/or extensions and/or variations thereof, for example, based on WiFi.
- the configurable connector 120 may be operable to wirelessly communicate based on wireless technologies such as, for example, Bluetooth, cellular, satellite and/or Zigbee.
- the configurable connector 120 may convert wire-line signals to wireless signals and vice versa.
- the configurable connector 120 may be operable to receive power from the corresponding connector 112 , for example, via power over Ethernet.
- the configurable connector 120 may comprise the power source 128 .
- the communication devices 140 and 150 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to communicate wirelessly with the configurable connector 120 .
- the communication devices 140 and/or 150 may be stationary, portable and/or handheld devices.
- the communication devices 140 and/or 150 may comprise one or more of a mobile phone, a media player, a location device, a television, a set-top-box, a camera and/or a gaming device.
- the communication devices 140 and 150 may be a laptop and a handheld device respectively and may be referred to as the laptop 140 and the handheld device 150 .
- the laptop 140 and/or handheld device 150 may be operable to communicate wirelessly with the switch 110 .
- a user may be able to service and/or maintain the switch 110 and/or other devices that may be connected with the switch 110 utilizing the laptop 140 and/or the handheld device 150 .
- the communication device 110 may be, for example, a switch or a laptop, for example that may comprise the corresponding connector 112 .
- the configurable connector 120 comprising the wireless access point or signal converter 122 may be plugged into the corresponding connector 112 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 130 may comprise the configurable connector 120 and the corresponding connector 112 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 130 may be configured to communicate with the handheld device 150 via the wireless access point 122 and/or the antenna circuitry 124 based on IEEE 802.11 specifications, for example.
- the corresponding connector 112 and the configurable connector 120 may be configured to communicate based on IEEE 802.3 specifications for example.
- the wireless access point 122 may be operable to convert wireless signals received from the handheld device 150 to Ethernet signals.
- the wireless access point 122 may be operable to receive the wireless signals and format the received signals in compliance with IEEE 802.3 standards.
- the wireless access point 122 may communicate the formatted Ethernet signals to the communication device 110 via the corresponding connector 112 .
- the wireless access point 122 may receive Ethernet signals formatted in compliance with IEEE 802.3 standards from the communication device 110 , may strip the formatting from the signals and may communicate the signals via the antenna circuitry 124 to the communication device 150 for example.
- the communication device 110 may be a switch in a large data center that may comprise other interconnected communication equipment such as a plurality of interconnected switches, routers, patch panels and/or broadband modems.
- the corresponding connector 112 may be, for example, a dedicated service port that may enable a user to service the switch 110 and/or one or more other of the interconnected communication equipment in the data center.
- the servicing may comprise running tests and/or accessing operations, administration and/or maintenance utilities in the switch and/or other interconnected communication equipment.
- the configurable connector 120 may be plugged into the corresponding connector 112 .
- a user may utilize a wireless communication device, for example, the laptop 140 and/or the handheld device 150 for servicing the switch 110 and/or the other interconnected communication equipment in the data center via the wireless access point 122 in the configurable connector 120 .
- a connection may be made between the handheld device 150 and the wireless access point 122 .
- an Ethernet connection may be made between the wireless access point 122 and the switch 110 . In this manner, the user may access the service capabilities within the switch 110 and/or within the other interconnected communication equipment.
- FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary wireless access point or signal converter, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
- the wireless access point or signal converter 122 may comprise the Ethernet PHY device 160 , an OSI layer 2 device 162 , a higher OSI layer processor 164 , the wireless transceiver 166 and the memory 168 .
- FIG. 1A Various aspects of the wireless access point or signal converter 122 are described with respect to FIG. 1A .
- Ethernet PHY device 160 may comprise a twisted pair PHY capable of operating at one or more standard rates such as 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 10 Gbps (10 BASE-T, 100 GBASE-TX, 1 GBASE-T, and/or 10 GBASE-T); potentially standardized rates such as 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps; and/or non-standard rates such as 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps.
- standard rates such as 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 10 Gbps
- 10 Gbps 10 BASE-T, 100 GBASE-TX, 1 GBASE-T, and/or 10 GBASE-T
- non-standard rates such as 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps.
- the Ethernet PHY device 160 may comprise a backplane PHY capable of operating at one or more standard rates such as 10 Gbps (10 GBASE-KX4, 10 GBASE-KX and/or 10 GBASE-KR); and/or non-standard rates such as 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps.
- 10 Gbps 10 GBASE-KX4, 10 GBASE-KX and/or 10 GBASE-KR
- non-standard rates such as 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps.
- the Ethernet PHY device 160 may comprise an optical PHY capable of operating at one or more standard rates such as 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 10 Gbps; potentially standardized rates such as 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps; and/or non-standardized rates such as 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps.
- the optical PHY may be a passive optical network (PON) PHY.
- the communication device 110 may support multi-lane topologies such as 40 Gbps CR4, ER4, KR4; 100 Gbps CR10, SR10 and/or 10 Gbps LX4 and CX4.
- serial electrical and copper single channel technologies such as KX, KR, SR, LR, LRM, SX, LX, CX, BX10, and LX10 may be supported.
- Nonstandard speeds and non-standard technologies for example, single channel, two channel or four channels may also be supported.
- TDM technologies such as PON at various speeds may be supported by the communication device 110 .
- the PHY device 160 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, and/or code that may enable transmission and/or reception at a high(er) data in one direction and transmission and/or reception at a low(er) data rate in the other direction.
- the communication device 110 may comprise a multimedia server and the communication device 140 may comprise a multimedia client.
- the communication device 110 may transmit multimedia data, for example, to the communication device 140 at high(er) data rates while the communication device 140 may transmit control or auxiliary data associated with the multimedia content at low(er) data rates.
- Data transmitted and/or received by the PHY device 160 may be formatted in accordance with the well-known OSI protocol standard.
- the OSI model partitions operability and functionality into seven distinct and hierarchical layers. Generally, each layer in the OSI model is structured so that it may provide a service to the immediately higher interfacing layer. For example, layer 1, or physical layer, may provide services to layer 2 and layer 2 may provide services to layer 3.
- the data transmitted may comprise frames of Ethernet media independent interface (MII) data which may be delimited by start of stream and end of stream delimiters, for example.
- MII Ethernet media independent interface
- the higher layer processor 164 may implement OSI layer 3 and above, the OSI layer 2 device 162 may implement OSI layer 2 and above and the PHY device 160 may implement the operability and/or functionality of OSI layer 1 or the physical layer.
- the PHY device 160 may be referred to as physical layer transmitters and/or receivers, physical layer transceivers, PHY transceivers, PHYceivers, or PHY, for example.
- the OSI layer 2 device 162 may be referred to as a media access control device (MAC).
- MAC media access control device
- Various embodiments of the invention may comprise the higher OSI layer processor 164 in the wireless access point or signal converter 122 .
- the higher OSI layer processor 164 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, and/or code that may enable operability and/or functionality of the five highest functional OSI layers for data packets that are to be transmitted to the corresponding connector 112 and/or the communication device 110 . Since each layer in the OSI model provides a service to the immediately higher interfacing layer, the OSI layer 2 device 162 may provide the necessary services to the higher OSI layer processor 164 to ensure that packets are suitably formatted and communicated to the PHY device 160 . During transmission, each layer may add its own header to the data passed on from the interfacing layer above it. However, during reception, a compatible device having a similar OSI stack may strip off the headers as the message passes from the lower layers up to the higher layers.
- the PHY device 160 may be configured to handle physical layer requirements, which comprise, but are not limited to, packetization, data transfer and serialization/deserialization (SERDES), in instances where such an operation is required.
- Data packets received by the PHY device 160 from the OSI layer 2 device 162 may include data and header information for each of the above six functional layers that may be implemented in the wireless access point or signal converter 122 .
- the PHY device 160 may be configured to encode data packets that are to be transmitted to the corresponding connector 112 and/or to decode data packets received from the corresponding connector 112 .
- the OSI layer 2 device 162 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, and/or code that may enable handling of data link layer, layer 2, operability and/or functionality in the wireless access point or signal converter 122 .
- the MAC device 162 may be configured to implement Ethernet protocols, such as those based on the IEEE 802.3 standard and/or variations and/or extensions thereof, for example. Notwithstanding, the invention is not limited in this regard.
- the OSI layer 2 device 162 may communicate with the PHY device 160 based on protocol and/or link management signals via a multi-rate capable interface and/or a media independent interface (MII), for example.
- the OSI layer 2 device 162 may communicate with the PHY device 160 via parallel and/or serial links, for example, via an MII, XGMII, SGMII, XAUI or XFI interface.
- the OSI layer 2 device 162 may communicate with the higher OSI layer processing device 164 via a bus controller interface which may correspond to PCI or PCI-X interfaces. Notwithstanding, the invention is not limited in this regard.
- the higher OSI layer processor 164 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to manage and/or control operations of access point or signal converter 122 components, such as the Ethernet PHY device 160 , the OSI layer 2 device 162 and the wireless transceiver 166 , for example.
- the higher OSI layer processor 164 may be operable to activate or deactivate one or more radios in the wireless transceiver 166 as a needed for communicating information.
- the higher OSI layer processor 164 may be operable to manage execution of instructions that may be stored in the memory 168 .
- the higher OSI layer processor 164 may be operable to manage access to one or more wireless devices or to one or more wireless networks via the wireless transceiver 168 .
- the higher OSI layer processor 164 may manage cellular and/or WiFi access to the base station or access point 145 , a Bluetooth connection with the communication device 140 and/or a voice connection with the communication device 150 .
- the higher OSI layer processor 164 may be operable to access one or more wired or optical devices and/or networks via the Ethernet PHY 160 .
- the higher OSI layer processor 164 may be operable to store information regarding interactions with wireless, wired or optical devices in the memory 168 .
- the higher OSI layer processor 164 may be configured to manage power and/or power over Ethernet (POE) utilization in the access point or signal converter 122 and/or the configurable connector 120 .
- POE power over Ethernet
- the memory 168 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to store information such as executable instructions and data that may be utilized by the higher OSI layer processor 164 and/or other device components such as, for example, the wireless transceiver 166 , the Ethernet PHY 160 and/or the OSI layer 2 device 162 .
- the memory 168 may comprise RAM, ROM, low latency nonvolatile memory such as flash memory and/or other suitable electronic data storage.
- the wireless transceiver 166 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to communicate based on one or more radio access protocols, for example, CDMA, GSM, UMTS, LTE, WiMAX, WiFi, Bluetooth and/or Zigbee, although the invention is not limited in this regard.
- the wireless transceiver 166 may be operable to communicate with the communication devices 140 or 150 or the wireless base station 145 , for example.
- the wireless receiver 166 may be communicatively coupled with the antenna circuitry 124 and the higher OSI layer processor 164 .
- the configurable connector 120 may comprise a plurality of such wireless transceivers.
- the configurable connector 120 may comprise a GNSS receiver (not shown) that may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to detect and receive GNSS signals from GNSS satellites and may be operable to utilize the received GNSS signals to calculate location information for the configurable connector 120 and/or the communication device 110 , for example.
- GNSS receiver not shown
- suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code may be operable to detect and receive GNSS signals from GNSS satellites and may be operable to utilize the received GNSS signals to calculate location information for the configurable connector 120 and/or the communication device 110 , for example.
- the access point or signal converter 122 may be configured to communicate with one or more of the communication devices 140 , 150 and/or the base station or access point 145 via the wireless transceiver 166 and/or the antenna circuitry 124 .
- the access point or signal converter 122 may be configured to communicate with the communication device 110 via the layer 2 device 162 and the Ethernet PHY device 160 .
- the higher OSI layer processor 164 may be operable to control operations in the access point or signal converter 122 , for example, may control rate matching between the wireless transceiver 166 and the Ethernet PHY 160 .
- the OSI layer 2 device 162 may be operable to read signals that are received via the wireless transceiver 166 from one or more of the communication devices 140 , 150 and/or the wireless base station 145 , and may format the signals in compliance with IEEE 802.3 standards and/or variations thereof.
- the formatted signals may be communicated to the communication device 110 via the Ethernet PHY device 160 and the corresponding connector 112 .
- wired or optical Ethernet signals may be received from the communication device 110 via the corresponding connector 112 and the Ethernet PHY device 160 .
- the wired or optical signals may be received by the OSI layer 2 device 162 which may strip IEEE 802.3 standards compliant formatting from the signals.
- the higher OSI layer processor 160 may control communication of the signals to one or more of the communication devices 140 , 150 and/or the base station 145 via the wireless transceiver 166 in accordance with a suitable wireless communication protocol, for example, Bluetooth or an IEEE 802.11 standards protocol.
- a suitable wireless communication protocol for example, Bluetooth or an IEEE 802.11 standards protocol.
- the configurable connector 120 may be operable to convert signals formatted in accordance with IEEE 802.3 standards to signals formatted in accordance with IEEE 802.11 standards and vice versa from IEEE 802.11 to IEEE 802.3.
- FIG. 2 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary connector and/or connection interface comprising a wireless access point that may communicate via a wired network, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
- a communication system 200 that comprises a connector and/or connection interface 230 , a configurable Ethernet connector 220 , the copper and/or optical connections 190 , a wireless access point or signal converter 222 , antenna circuitry 224 , a power source 228 and a corresponding wall connector 212 .
- a broadband link 234 a broadband modem 210 and a communication link 232 .
- the communication devices 140 and 150 are also shown.
- the connector and/or connection interface 230 may be similar and/or substantially the same as the connector and/or connection interface 130 described with respect to FIG. 1 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 230 may comprise the connector 220 and/or the corresponding wall connector 212 .
- the configurable connector 220 , the wireless access point or signal converter 222 , the antenna circuitry 224 and the power source 228 may be similar and/or substantially the same as the configurable connector 120 , the wireless access point or signal converter 122 , the power source 128 and the antenna circuitry 124 described with respect to FIG. 1 .
- the configurable Ethernet connector 220 may be referred to as the connector 220 or the configurable connector 220 .
- the communication devices 140 and 150 are described with respect to FIG. 1 .
- the corresponding wall connector 212 may be similar and/or substantially the same as the corresponding connector 112 . Notwithstanding, the corresponding wall connector 212 may be installed in a wall and/or in a patch panel, for example.
- the corresponding wall connector 212 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that are operable to provide power over Ethernet to the connector 220 .
- the corresponding wall connector 112 may be operable to couple to the connector 220 based on standardized and/or non-standard specifications. For example, based on Ethernet standards and/or extensions and/or variations thereof.
- the corresponding wall connector 212 and the connector 220 may comprise Ethernet connectors in the connector and/or connection interface 230 .
- the dimensions of the corresponding wall connector 212 and/or the connector 220 may be on a scale that is small enough to enable greater than 48 jacks and/or plugs to fit into a one rack unit face plate.
- the connector and/or connection interface 220 may comprise a plurality of connectors such as the corresponding wall connector 212 that may be ganged together.
- the corresponding wall connector 212 may be operable to communicate via the link 232 .
- the link 232 may comprise a twisted pair cable.
- the link 232 may be an Ethernet link.
- the link 232 may comprise one or more patch panels between the corresponding wall connector 212 and the broadband modem 234 for example.
- the broadband modem 210 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to communicate information to the wireless access point or signal converter 222 via the corresponding wall connector 212 . Furthermore, the broadband modem 212 may be operable to provide Internet access via the broadband link 234 to one or more users of the communication devices 140 and 150 that may be communicatively coupled via the wireless access point or signal converter 222 .
- the communication system 200 comprises a broadband modem connected to the corresponding wall connector 212 , the invention is not so limited.
- the corresponding wall connector 212 may be connected to any suitable wire-line, optical and/or wireless network and/or network device.
- a user of the laptop 140 may wish to access the Internet and/or an intranet, for example, from a home, office and/or any other site or facility.
- the home, office and/or other site and/or facility may comprise Internet and/or intranet access, for example, may be communicatively coupled to the corresponding wall connector 212 and/or the modem 210 , for example.
- the connector 220 may be coupled to the corresponding wall connector 212 .
- the user may initiate access to the Internet, for example, and a wireless connection may be made between the laptop 140 and the wireless access point or signal converter 222 based on, for example, IEEE 802.11 standards.
- the laptop 140 may be operable to establish an IP connection to an Internet device via the antenna circuitry 234 and the wireless access point or signal converter 222 in the connector 220 , the corresponding wall connector 212 , the Ethernet link 232 , the broadband modem 210 and the broadband link 234 .
- FIG. 3 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary connector and/or connection interface that comprises a coupled antenna, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
- a communication system 300 may comprise a communication device 310 , an antenna 308 and a connector and/or connection interface 330 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 330 may comprise a configurable Ethernet connector 320 , the copper and/or optical connections 190 , an antenna circuitry 324 , a cable 326 , cable shielding 332 , antenna circuitry 340 , a wireless access point or signal converter 322 , an electrical or mechanical switch 328 and an non-conducting jacket 334 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 330 may comprise a corresponding connector 312 , magnetics 314 and one or more PHYs 316 .
- the configurable connector 320 may be similar and/or substantially the same as the connector and/or connection interface 130 , the configurable connector 120 , the wireless access point or signal converter 122 and/or the corresponding connector 112 , respectively.
- the configurable Ethernet connector 320 may be referred to as the connector 320 or the configurable connector 320 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 330 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or that may be operable to support wire-line and/or wireless communication between two or more communication devices, for example, comprising the communication device 310 .
- various aspects of the connector and/or connection interface 330 may be similar and/or substantially the same as the connector and/or connection interface 130 and/or the connector and/or connection interface 230 and/or a combination thereof.
- the connector and/or connection interface 330 may be operable to convert between wired and wireless communication protocols, between optical and wireless communication protocols and between optical and wired communication protocols.
- the connector and/or connection interface 330 may be operable to transmit and received wired Ethernet signals in both directions.
- the wireless access point or signal converter 322 in the connector 320 may be operable to convert signals formatted in accordance with IEEE 802.3 standards to signals formatted in accordance with IEEE 802.11 standards and vice versa from IEEE 802.11 to IEEE 802.3.
- the invention is not limited with regard to the type of signal protocols that may be handled by the connectors 120 , 220 and/or 320 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 330 shown in FIG. 3 comprises wired and/or wireless technologies, the invention is not so limited.
- various embodiments of the invention may support wired, wireless and/or optical technologies.
- the connector and/or connection interface 330 may comprise the corresponding connector 312 , the connector 320 , the cable 326 , the antenna circuitry 324 and/or the antenna circuitry 340 .
- the communication device 310 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may comprise and/or may be coupled to one or more connection interfaces 330 . Accordingly, the communication device 310 may comprise one or more corresponding connectors 312 and/or may be communicatively coupled to the connector 320 . In this regard, the communication device 310 may be operable to communicate via one or more wire-line and/or wireless interfaces. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the communication device 310 may be a wireless access point; however, the invention is not so limited.
- the communication device 310 may be operable to communicate wirelessly via the connector and/or connection interface 330 based on one or more variations and/or extensions of IEEE 802.11 and/or may be operable to communicate based on one or more other wireless technologies, for example, Bluetooth, cellular, satellite and/or Zigbee via the connector and/or connection interface 330 .
- the communication device 310 may be capable of wired communication via the connector and/or connection interface 330 , for example, Ethernet communication based on one or more variations and/or extensions of 802.3.
- the communication device may comprise the antenna 308 that may be utilized for wireless communications.
- corresponding connector 312 may be similar and/or substantially the same as the corresponding connector 112 and/or the corresponding wall connector 212 and/or a combination thereof.
- the corresponding connector 312 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to couple to the connector 320 and/or to support wireless and/or wire-line communication via the connector 320 .
- the corresponding connector 312 may comprise physical coupling for data communication, system management access and/or for an antenna port, for example.
- the connector 320 may be one or more of an Ethernet connector, a system management connector and/or may be an antenna connector.
- the corresponding connector 312 may comprise the magnetics 314 that may comprise a transducer.
- the corresponding connector 312 may comprise one or more PHYs, for example, the PHY 316 .
- the corresponding connector 312 may offload PHY functionality from the communication device 310 and may simplify electronic design, reduce noise and/or reduce complexity within the communication device 310 .
- the corresponding connector 312 may be configurable or may be dedicated to a specific function.
- the corresponding connector 312 may comprise a service port in a device that may enable management of the device.
- the corresponding connector 312 may be utilized for data communication.
- the corresponding connector 312 may be configurable to receive wireless communication, for example, the corresponding connector 312 may function as an antenna port.
- the corresponding connector 312 may be sequentially and/or concurrently multifunctional where a plurality of types of communication protocols may operate.
- the corresponding connector 312 may receive input via the twisted pair cabling 326 as well as input from an antenna circuitry 340 and/or 324 .
- the corresponding connector 312 may be configurable.
- the corresponding connector 312 may comprise a electrical or mechanical switch 328 or detection mechanism to detect whether a cable and/or an antenna is plugged into the corresponding connector, for example.
- the connector 320 may be similar and/or substantially the same as the connector 120 and/or the corresponding connector 112 and/or a combination thereof.
- the connector 320 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be operable to support wired and/or wireless communication.
- the connector 320 may be an Ethernet connector and may be coupled to the corresponding connector 312 .
- the connector 320 may support wired communication protocols, for example, Ethernet communication protocols.
- the connector 320 may be coupled to the cable 326 .
- the connector 320 may comprise the antenna circuitry 340 .
- the antenna circuitry 340 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to terminate an antenna and or improve characteristics of transmitted and/or received signals.
- the antenna circuitry 340 may comprise a transducer and or analog and/or digital signal processing (DSP) technology. Moreover, the antenna circuitry 340 that may be integrated within housing of the connector 320 , may comprise an antenna or may terminate the external antenna circuitry 324 that may be integrated within the cable 326 .
- DSP digital signal processing
- the connector 320 may be configurable to operate as an antenna for the communication device 310 and may transmit and/or receive wireless communication via the antenna circuitry 340 and/or via the antenna circuitry 324 .
- the connector 320 may be sequentially and/or concurrently multifunctional where a plurality of types of communication protocols may operate.
- the connector 320 may communicate via the twisted pair cabling 326 as well as via one or more of the antenna circuitry 340 and 324 .
- the connector 320 may be configurable.
- the connector 320 may comprise the electrical or mechanical switch 328 that may be configurable to select input and/or output via the antenna circuitry 340 , the antenna circuitry 340 and/or the twisted pair cabling 326 , for example.
- the switch 328 may comprise a detection mechanism to determine whether the twisted pair cabling 326 , the antenna 340 and/or the antenna circuitry 324 may be utilized for communication.
- the antenna circuitry 324 may comprise a specified length that may be operable to communicate suitable wireless signals.
- the antenna circuitry may comprise a length that is a fraction or a multiple of a wavelength of wireless signals such as Bluetooth, WLAN, cellular or PCS signals that may be communicated by the connector 320 .
- the connector 320 may be operable to provide a direct antenna connection from one or both of the antenna circuitry 324 and 340 to the communication device 110 via the corresponding connector 312 .
- the wireless access point or signal converter 322 may be operable to parse and/or format signals received via the antenna circuitry 324 or 340 to, for example, an Ethernet format prior to communicating the signals to the communication device 310 and vice versa.
- the cable 326 may be, for example, a twisted pair cable which may comprise the shielding 332 and/or the non-conducting jacket 334 .
- the cable 326 may comprise the antenna circuitry 324 which may run outside of the shielding 332 .
- the antenna circuitry 324 may be integrated within and/or without the non-conductive jacket 334 .
- the antenna circuitry may terminate in the connector 320 .
- the communication device 310 may not comprise any internal antenna and may utilize antenna circuitry 324 and/or antenna circuitry 340 in the connector 320 to provide antenna functionality.
- the antenna circuitry 324 and/or the antenna circuitry 340 may be utilized to extend and/or enhance signals that are communicated via the antenna 308 .
- the antenna circuitry 324 and/or the antenna circuitry 340 may handle receive and/or transmit diversity signals.
- the communication device 310 may comprise, for example, a wireless access point or a laptop.
- the communication device 310 may comprise one or more of corresponding connectors such as the corresponding connector 312 .
- the connector 320 may be coupled to the corresponding connector 312 .
- the connector 320 may comprise antenna circuitry 340 .
- the connector 320 may be coupled to the cable 326 and/or may be coupled to the antenna circuitry 324 .
- the communication device 310 may be operable to communicate with an upstream network device, for example, via the cable 326 and may communicate with a downstream wireless device, for example, the handheld device 150 shown in FIG. 1 , via the antenna circuitry 324 .
- the connector 320 may comprise an antenna integrated within a housing of the connector, for example, in the antenna circuitry 340 .
- the connector 320 may or may not comprise the cable 326 and/or the antenna circuitry 324 .
- the connector 320 with integrated antenna circuitry 324 may be coupled to the communication device 310 and may be utilized for wireless communication based on one or more wireless technologies, for example, based on cellular, Bluetooth and/or IEEE 802.11.
- FIG. 4 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary configurable connector and/or connection interface capable of wireless and/or wire-line communication via a plurality of types of PHY devices, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
- the communication system 400 may comprise a communication device 410 and a connector and/or connection interface 430 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 430 may comprise a configurable Ethernet connector 420 , the copper and/or optical connections 190 , antenna circuitry 424 , an wireless access point or signal converter 422 , an electrical or mechanical switch 428 , a cable 426 , a corresponding connector 412 , magnetics 414 and a plurality of PHY devices 416 .sub.
- PHY devices 416 .sub. 1 , 416 .sub. 2 , . . . , 416 .sub.N may be referred to as the PHY devices 416 .
- the communication device 410 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to communicate based one or more types of wireless and/or wire-line technology.
- the communication device 410 may be operable to communicate based on IEEE 802.3 and/or variations and extensions thereof.
- the communication device 410 may be operable to communicate based on, for example, one or more of IEEE 802.11, cellular, Bluetooth, satellite and Zigbee.
- the communication device 410 may comprise a laptop, a handheld phone, a media player, a camera, a gaming device, a location device and/or any suitable combination of devices.
- the communication device 410 may comprise the corresponding connector 412 and may utilize one or more PHY devices that may be integrated within the corresponding connector 412 .
- the communication device may be a laptop that may be operable to communicate based on a plurality of communication protocols via a plurality of corresponding PHY devices that may be integrated within the corresponding connector 412 .
- connectors similar to the corresponding connector 412 may be ganged within the communication device 410 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 430 may comprise aspects of all or a portion of the connector and/or connection interfaces 130 , 230 and 330 .
- the connector and/or connection interface 430 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or that may be operable to support communication based on a plurality of types of wire-line and/or wireless communication.
- the connector and/or connection interface 430 may be operable to convert between wired and wireless communication protocols, for example, 802.3 and 802.11.
- the corresponding connector 412 may comprise various aspects of the corresponding connectors 312 , 212 and 112 .
- the corresponding connector 412 may comprise the magnetics 416 .
- the corresponding connector 412 may comprise a plurality of PHY devices 416 .sub. 1 , 416 .sub. 2 , . . . , 416 .sub.N,
- the plurality of PHY devices 416 .sub. 1 , 416 .sub. 2 , . . . , 416 .sub.N may be integrated on a single chip within the corresponding connector.
- 416 .sub.N may comprise a single type of PHY device or may comprise a plurality of types.
- the PHY devices may be operable to support one or more of IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.11, cellular, Bluetooth, satellite communications, Zigbee and extensions and/or variations thereof.
- the corresponding connector 412 may be operable to couple to the configurable Ethernet connector 420 .
- the corresponding connector 412 may be a dedicated service port, which may be operable to support data communication and/or may terminate an antenna connection with the connector 420 which may comprise a wireless dongle.
- the corresponding connector 412 may be operable to sense the communication protocol and/or communication technology capabilities of the connector 420 .
- the corresponding connector 412 may be configured, may select a PHY device and/or may process signals in accordance with capabilities of the coupled connector 420 and/or based on signals received by the connector 420 .
- the configurable Ethernet connector 420 may comprise aspects that are similar and/or substantially the same as one or more of the configurable Ethernet connectors 320 , 220 and 120 .
- the configurable Ethernet connector 420 may be referred to as the connector 420 or the configurable connector 420 .
- the connector 420 may comprise a wireless dongle or may comprise an antenna within the housing of the connector 420 .
- the connector 420 may be an Ethernet connector and may be operable to communicate in accordance with one or more Ethernet communication protocols, for example, IEEE 802.3.
- the connector 420 may comprise a signal converter 428 for conversion of wireless signals to wire-line signals and/or for conversion from wire-line signals to wireless signals.
- the signal converter 428 in the connector 420 may be operable to convert signals received from the communication device 410 that may be formatted based on IEEE 802.3 standards and/or variations thereof, to signals formatted based on IEEE 802.11 standards and/or variations thereof.
- the converted wireless signals may be communicated via the antenna circuitry 424 .
- the signal converter 428 in the connector 420 may be operable to convert wireless signals received via the antenna 424 that may be communicated based on IEEE 802.11, cellular, Bluetooth and/or other wireless standards, to signals formatted in based on IEEE 802.3 standards and/or variations thereof.
- the connector 420 may be operable to communicate the converted signals to the communication device 410 via the corresponding connector 412 .
- the connector 420 may comprise a wireless access point.
- Various embodiments of the invention may comprise the cable 426 which may be coupled to the connector 420 .
- the cable 426 may comprise twisted pair wires and/or may be similar and/or substantially the same as the cable 326 .
- the cable 426 may comprise an antenna similar to the antenna 324 shown in FIG. 3 .
- the connector 420 and/or the cable 426 may support wireless and/or wire-line communication via one or more of the plurality of PHY devices 416 .sub. 1 , 416 .sub. 2 , . . . , 416 .sub.N.
- the connector 420 and/or the cable 426 may be operable to support one or more of IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.11, cellular, Bluetooth, satellite communications, Zigbee and extensions and/or variations thereof.
- the communication device 410 may be accessed based on a plurality of communication protocols via the corresponding connector 412 and/or via the plurality of PHY devices 416 .sub. 1 , 416 .sub. 2 , . . . , 416 .sub.N.
- the connector and/or connection interface 430 may be operable to communicatively couple a plurality of different types of wireless and/or wire-line devices that may be operable to communicate based on a plurality of different communication protocols with the communication device 410 .
- the communication device 410 may comprise one or more connectors such as the corresponding connector 412 that may be ganged together in some instances.
- the corresponding connectors 412 may be utilized interchangeably.
- a plurality of connectors similar to the connector 420 and/or to the connector 320 may be coupled to the communication device 410 concurrently or sequentially.
- a connector that may be attached to the Ethernet cable 426 may be connected to one of the corresponding connectors 412 and a connector comprising antenna circuitry 424 may be coupled to another one of the corresponding connectors 412 .
- the connector 320 that may be coupled to the cable 326 and the antenna circuitry 324 described with respect to FIG. 3 may also be coupled to one of the corresponding connectors 412 .
- the communication device 410 may be operable to communicate based on an Ethernet protocol via the cable 326 , for example, and may concurrently and/or sequentially communicate based on one or wireless protocols via the antenna circuitry 324 that may be integrated within the cable 326 .
- the connector 426 may also be connected to one of the corresponding connectors 412 that may comprise an antenna within the integrated antenna circuitry 424 .
- the corresponding connectors 412 may be operable to detect which type of signal protocol is utilized by the connector 420 or the connector 320 .
- the communication device 410 may be operable to communicate based on one or more communication technologies supported by the plurality of PHY devices 416 via the corresponding connector 412 and the connector 420 .
- FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary steps for communicating via a connector and/or connection interface capable of wireless and/or wire-line communication, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
- the exemplary steps may begin with step 510 .
- an Ethernet connector for example, the connector 420 may be coupled to the corresponding connector 412 that is integrated within the communication device 410 .
- the corresponding connector 412 may sense what type of wireless and/or wire-line communication interfaces are supported by the Ethernet connector 420 .
- a wireless and/or wire-line signal may be received by the Ethernet connector 420 .
- step 516 if the signal is received via a wireless medium, the exemplary steps may proceed to step 518 .
- the wireless signal may be converted to a wire-line signal in the Ethernet connector 420 .
- transmission of the wire-line signal may be enabled via the corresponding connector 412 and/or via an appropriate PHY 416 within and/or beyond the corresponding connector 416 .
- the wire-line signal may be converted to a wireless signal in the Ethernet connector 420 .
- the wireless signal may be transmitted by the Ethernet connector 420 .
- a configurable Ethernet connector for example, one of the Ethernet connectors 120 , 220 , 320 and 420 , comprises a first interface and a second interface.
- the first interface may comprise a wired interface and a wireless interface that are configurable to communicate corresponding wired and wireless signals.
- the second interface may comprise a wired interface and an optical interface that are configurable to communicate corresponding wired and optical signals.
- a signal may be received via the first interface or the second interface. In instances when the received signal comprises a wireless signal that is received via the first interface, the received wireless signal may be converted to one of a wired Ethernet signal and an optical Ethernet signal, for communication by the second interface.
- the signal may be communicated by the second interface or may be converted to an optical signal for communication by the second interface.
- the received signal comprises a wired Ethernet signal that is received via the second interface
- the received wired Ethernet signal may be communicated via the first interface or may be converted to a wireless signal for communication by the first interface.
- the received optical Ethernet signal may be converted to one of a wireless signal and a wired signal for communication by the first interface. The conversion of the signal received via said first interface, and the conversion of the signal received via said second interface may occur concurrently.
- the configurable Ethernet connector may comprise one or both of an antenna and a wireless access point, for example, one or more of the antenna circuitry 124 , 224 , 340 , 424 , and/or one or both of the wireless access points or signal converter 122 and 222 .
- a cable that is coupled to the configurable Ethernet connector for example, the twisted pair cabling 326 , may comprise an antenna, for example, the antenna circuitry 324 .
- the configurable Ethernet connector comprising an antenna may provide at least a subset of antenna functionality to a communication device, such as, to one of the communication devices 110 , 210 , 310 and/or 410 .
- the configurable Ethernet connector 320 and/or the antenna circuitry 324 within the cable 326 may provide at least a subset of antenna functionality to the communication device 310 .
- the communication device 310 may utilize the configurable Ethernet connector 320 for wired and/or wireline communication and may not need to have a built-in antenna or may not need a port dedicated for coupling an antenna.
- the configurable Ethernet connector 320 and the antenna circuitry 324 in the cable 326 may provide enhancement of antenna functionality to a communication device such as one of the communication devices 110 , 210 , 310 and/or 410 .
- the antenna circuitry 324 may be utilized with one or more other antennas (not shown) that may be utilized by the communication device 310 .
- the antenna circuitry 324 may provide spatial diversity to the device 310 to enhance transmitted or received signal quality.
- the configurable Ethernet connector 320 may provide extension of antenna functionality to a communication device by providing an extended antenna length or an additional antenna port.
- the antenna circuitry 324 may provide an antenna length greater than the length of the communication device 320 or greater than a reasonable length for another style of antenna attachment (not shown).
- the configurable Ethernet connector such as, for example, one of the configurable Ethernet connectors 120 , 220 , 320 and 420 and/or a corresponding connector, for example, one of the corresponding connectors 112 , 212 , 312 and 412 , that may be coupled to the configurable Ethernet connector and/or the corresponding connector, may comprise one or more of a plurality of Ethernet PHY devices, a plurality of types of Ethernet PHY devices, a plurality of optical PHY devices, and a plurality of types of optical PHY devices.
- the configurable Ethernet connector may comprise one or more of the PHY devices 116 , 316 and 416 .
- the plurality of PHY devices and/or plurality of types of PHY devices may be integrated on a single chip.
- a corresponding connector that is coupled to the configurable Ethernet connector may sense communication protocols and/or communication capabilities of the configurable Ethernet connector.
- the corresponding connector may be configured based on communication protocols and/or communication capabilities of the configurable Ethernet connector.
- the configurable Ethernet connector may receive a wireless signal that comprises information for servicing and/or maintaining a communication device that is coupled to the configurable Ethernet connector, for example, one of the communication devices 110 , 210 , 310 and/or 410 , and may transmit the signal to the communication device.
- inventions may provide a non-transitory computer readable medium and/or storage medium, and/or a non-transitory machine readable medium and/or storage medium, having stored thereon, a machine code and/or a computer program having at least one code section executable by a machine and/or a computer, thereby causing the machine and/or computer to perform the steps as described herein for a connector and/or cable with antenna for Ethernet and wireless applications.
- the present invention may be realized in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software.
- the present invention may be realized in a centralized fashion in at least one computer system or in a distributed fashion where different elements may be spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind of computer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein is suited.
- a typical combination of hardware and software may be a general-purpose computer system with a computer program that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out the methods described herein.
- the present invention may also be embedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer system is able to carry out these methods.
- Computer program in the present context means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either or both of the following: a) conversion to another language, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different material form.
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Abstract
Description
- This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 12/785,102 filed on May 21, 2010, which claims priority from provisional application Ser. No. 61/321,333 filed on Apr. 6, 2010, the contents of all of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
- Certain embodiments of the invention relate to communication systems. More specifically, certain embodiments of the invention relate to a connector and/or cable with an antenna for Ethernet and wireless applications.
- Nowadays, communication devices may incorporate a plurality of features, for example, a mobile phone, a digital camera, an Internet browser, a gaming device, a Bluetooth headphone interface and/or a location device. In this regard, the communication devices may be operable to communicate via various wire-line and/or wireless networks such as local and/or wide area networks, wireless local and/or wide area networks, cellular networks and wireless personal area networks, for example. In this regard, endpoint devices may communicate via various wireless and/or wire-line switches, routers, hubs, access points and/or base stations.
- Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.
- A system and/or method for a connector and/or cable with an antenna for Ethernet and wireless applications.
- Various advantages, aspects and novel features of the present invention, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof, will be more fully understood from the following description and drawings.
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FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary connector and/or connection interface comprising a wireless access point or signal converter, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. -
FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary wireless access point or signal converter, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. -
FIG. 2 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary connector and/or connection interface comprising a wireless access point that may communicate via a wired network, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. -
FIG. 3 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary connector and/or connection interface that comprises a coupled antenna, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. -
FIG. 4 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary configurable connector and/or connection interface capable of wireless and/or wire-line communication via a plurality of types of PHY devices, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. -
FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary steps for communicating via a connector and/or connection interface capable of wireless and/or wire-line communication, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. - Certain embodiments of the invention can be found in a method and system for a connector and/or cable with an antenna for Ethernet and wireless applications. In accordance with various embodiments of the invention, one or more processors and/or circuits in a configurable Ethernet connector comprises a first interface and a second interface. The first interface may comprise a wired interface and a wireless interface that are configurable to communicate corresponding wired and wireless signals. The second interface may comprise a wired interface and an optical interface that are configurable to communicate corresponding wired and optical signals. A signal may be received via the first interface or the second interface. In instances when the received signal comprises a wireless signal that is received via the first interface, the received wireless signal may be converted to one of a wired Ethernet signal and an optical Ethernet signal, for communication by the second interface. In instances when the received signal comprises a wired signal that is received via the first interface, the signal may be communicated by the second interface or may be converted to an optical signal for communication by the second interface. In instances when the received signal comprises a wired Ethernet signal that is received via the second interface, the received wired Ethernet signal may be communicated via the first interface or may be converted to a wireless signal for communication by the first interface. In instances when the received signal comprises an optical Ethernet signal that is received via the second interface, the received optical Ethernet signal may be converted to one of a wireless signal and a wired signal for communication by the first interface. The conversion of the signal received via said first interface, and the conversion of the signal received via said second interface may occur concurrently.
- The Ethernet connector may comprise one or both of an antenna and a wireless access point. In various exemplary embodiments of the invention, a cable that is coupled to the Ethernet connector may comprise an antenna. The Ethernet connector may provide at least a subset of antenna functionality to a communication device. The Ethernet connector may provide one or more of full antenna functionality, enhancement of antenna functionality and/or extension of antenna functionality to a communication device that is communicatively coupled to the Ethernet connector. The configurable Ethernet connector and/or a corresponding connector that may be coupled to the configurable Ethernet connector may comprise one or more of a plurality of Ethernet PHY devices, a plurality of types of Ethernet PHY devices, a plurality of optical PHY devices, and a plurality of types of optical PHY devices. The plurality of PHY devices and/or plurality of types of PHY devices may be integrated on a single chip. A corresponding connector that is coupled to the Ethernet connector may sense communication protocols and/or communication capabilities of the Ethernet connector. The corresponding connector may be configured based on communication protocols and/or communication capabilities of the Ethernet connector. The Ethernet connector may receive a wireless signal that comprises information for servicing and/or maintaining a communication device that is coupled to the Ethernet connector, and may transmit the signal to the communication device.
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FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary configurable connector and/or connection interface comprising a wireless access point or signal converter, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring toFIG. 1 , there is shown, acommunication system 100 comprisingcommunication devices access point 145. In addition, there is shown a connector and/orconnection interface 130 that may comprise aconfigurable Ethernet connector 120 that comprises copper and/oroptical connections 190, a wireless access point orsignal converter 122,antenna circuitry 124 and apower source 128. In addition, the connector and/orconnection interface 130 may comprise acorresponding connector 112,magnetics 114 and one ormore PHYs 116. - The
configurable Ethernet connector 120 and thecorresponding connector 112 may comprise a plug and a receptacle, respectively. Theconfigurable connector 120 and thecorresponding connector 112 may comprise a receptacle and a plug, respectively. A receptacle may also be referred to as a socket. Theconfigurable connector 120 may comprise a wireless dongle and may be referred to as thewireless dongle 120. Theconfigurable Ethernet connector 120 may be referred to as theconnector 120 or theconfigurable connector 120. - The
communication device 110 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to communicate via one or more of any suitable wireless and/or wire-line interface. Anexemplary communication device 110 may comprise a router, a switch, a patch panel, a laptop, a portable phone, a media player, a location device, television, set-top-box, a camera and/or gaming device. Thecommunication device 110 may be operable to communicate based on a plurality of communication interfaces, for example, via thecorresponding connector 112 within thecommunication device 110. - In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the
communication device 110 may be a switch in a data center and may be referred to as theswitch 110. In this regard, thecorresponding connector 112 may be utilized for maintenance of the switch and/or for servicing and/or managing other devices within the data center that may be accessible via theswitch 110. - The connector and/or
connection interface 130 may comprise a configurable connection platform that may be operable to support optical, wired and/or wireless communication. The connector and/orconnection interface 130 may comprise a cable attached to thecorresponding connector 112 and/or theconfigurable connector 120. For example, twisted pair cabling may be attached to thecorresponding connector 112. The connector and/orconnection interface 130 may also comprise an antenna that may be integrated within a housing of theconfigurable connector 120, thecorresponding connector 112 and/or a within a cable that may be attached to theconfigurable connector 120 and/or thecorresponding connector 112. The connector and/orconnection interface 130 may be configured for and/or may be operable to handle one or more functions and/or protocols, for example, wireless communication and/or wired or optical Ethernet communication. - The
configurable connector 120 may comprise the copper and/oroptical connections 190 that may be operable to transmit and/or receive Ethernet signals to and/or from thecorresponding connector 112. The connector and/orconnection interface 130 may be operable support a plurality of functions and/or communication protocols concurrently or as configured. In this regard, the connector and/orconnection interface 130 may be operable to adjust to different functions and/or protocols. For example, the correspondingconnector 112 may be operable to detect when an antenna is coupled or when an Ethernet cable is coupled and may support communication in accordance with the type of connector that is present. In other embodiments of the invention, the connector and/orconnection interface 130 may be operable to support optical communication. For example, the connector and/orconnection interface 130 may convert between optical and wireless communication. The correspondingconnector 112 may comprise an optical interface. - The corresponding
connector 112 may be a connector that may be integrated within thecommunication device 110. The correspondingconnector 112 may comprise themagnetics 114 that may comprise, for example, a transformer and copper connection. Alternatively, the correspondingconnector 112 may comprise and optical connector. In various embodiments of the invention, thePHY 116 may be operable to communicate via an optical or copper medium and may be integrated within the correspondingconnector 112. In other embodiments of the invention, thePHY 116 may be separate from the correspondingconnector 112 and may be integrated within thecommunication device 110. U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket Number 20841 US01), filed on ______, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, may comprise additional information regarding a connector and/or connection interface comprising an integrated PHY. - The corresponding
connector 112 may be operable to couple to theconfigurable connector 120 based on standardized and/or non-standard specifications. For example, the correspondingconnector 112 and theconfigurable connector 120 may comprise Ethernet connectors. The correspondingconnector 112 and/or theconnector 120 may comprise a form factor similar to or the same as RJ45 connectors. In various embodiments of the invention, dimensions of thecorresponding connector 112 and/or theconfigurable connector 120 of the connector and/orconnection interface 130 may comprise a form factor that may be scaled small enough to fit into a handheld device and/or small enough to enable greater than 48 jacks and/or plugs to fit into a one rack unit (1 RU) face plate, for example a 1 RU switch face plate. In this regard, the small scaled connectors may be operable to communicate based on Ethernet standards such as IEEE 802.3 standards and/or variations thereof. Furthermore, in various embodiments of the invention, the connector and/orconnection interface 130 may comprise a plurality of connectors such as the correspondingconnector 112 that may be ganged together. In this regard, U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket Number 20745US01) filed on ______, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, may comprise additional information regarding such a connector and/or connection interface. Moreover, in various embodiments of the invention, the correspondingconnector 112 may be operable to supply power to theconfigurable connector 120, for example, via power over Ethernet. - The corresponding
connector 112 may be configurable or may be dedicated to a specific function. For example, the correspondingconnector 112 may comprise a service port in a device that may enable management of the device. In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the correspondingconnector 112 may be utilized for data communication. Furthermore, the correspondingconnector 112 may be configurable to receive wireless communication, for example, the correspondingconnector 112 may function as an antenna port. The correspondingconnector 112 may be multifunctional where a plurality of types of communication may operate concurrently. For example, the correspondingconnector 112 may receive data input as well as input from an antenna. In various embodiments of the invention, the correspondingconnector 112 may be configurable. In this regard, the correspondingconnector 112 may comprise an electrical or mechanical switch or detection mechanism to detect whether a cable or an antenna is plugged into the correspondingconnector 112. - The
configurable connector 120 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry interfaces and/or code that may be operable to communicate based on a plurality of communication interfaces. Theconfigurable connector 120 may comprise the copper and/oroptical connections 190 that may be operable to transmit and/or receive Ethernet signals to and/or from the correspondingconnector 112. For example, theconfigurable connector 120 may be operable to communicate with thecommunication device 110 based on the IEEE 802.3 standard and/or extensions and/or variations thereof. Furthermore, theconfigurable connector 120 may be operable to communicate wirelessly with one or more of thecommunication devices wireless access point 145. Theconfigurable connector 120 may be operable to communicate wirelessly via theantenna circuitry 124 based on one or more wireless protocols, such as, wireless LAN, wireless telephony and/or GNSS satellite wireless protocols. - In various exemplary embodiments of the invention, the
configurable connector 120 may comprise a signal conversion module, such as the wireless access point orsignal converter 122. The wireless access point orsignal converter 122 may be referred to as thewireless access point 122 or thesignal converter 122. The wireless access point orsignal converter 122 may be operable to convert wireless signals to copper based Ethernet signals and vice versa. Alternatively, the wireless access point orsignal converter 122 may be operable to convert wireless signals to optical Ethernet signals and vice versa. For example, theconfigurable connector 120 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to receive wireless signals via theantenna 124 and convert the received signals to comply with Ethernet copper and/or Ethernet optical protocols for transmission to thecommunication device 110 via the correspondingconnector 112. In addition, theconfigurable connector 120 may be operable to receive signals via a copper or optical medium from thecommunication device 110 and may convert the signals to comply with a wireless protocol and may transmit the wireless signals via theantenna 124. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the wireless access point orsignal converter 122 may be operable to receive signals that are formatted based on IEEE 802.3 standards and/or variations thereof from the correspondingconnector 112 and may convert the received signals based on IEEE 802.11 standards and/or variations thereof, for example, WiFi, and transmit the converted wireless signals via theantenna circuitry 124. Similarly, the wireless access point orsignal converter 122 may be operable to receive IEEE 802.11 compliant wireless signals via theantenna 124 and may convert the received wireless signals to IEEE 802.3 compliant signals for communication to thecommunication device 110 via the correspondingconnector 112. Although the described exemplary embodiment is operable to convert IEEE 802.11 wireless signals, the invention is not limited in this regard and may convert any suitable wireless signals, for example, Bluetooth, cellular and/or any personal area, local area and/or wide area network wireless signals to a signal formatted for electrical or optical transmission. As such, theconfigurable connector 120 may be operable to provide rate matching between a wired protocol signal and a wireless protocol signal and/or between an optical protocol signal and a wireless protocol signal. - In various embodiments of the invention, one or both of the wireless access point or
signal converter 122 and theantenna circuitry 124 may be integrated within housing of theconfigurable connector 120. For example, the housing of theconfigurable connector 120 may comprise the form factor of an RJ45 connector or a smaller scale Ethernet connector. In other embodiments, theconfigurable connector 120 may comprise a wireless dongle that may extend beyond or may be larger than the RJ45 connector form factor or the smaller scale Ethernet connector form factor. In this regard, the configurable connector orwireless dongle 120 may comprise wire and/or optical apparatus for mating with a correspondingEthernet connector 112, the wireless access point orsignal converter 122 and theantenna circuitry 124. - The
antenna circuitry 124 may comprise an antenna and/or may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to process signals that are received and/or transmitted via theantenna circuitry 124. Theantenna circuitry 124 may be operable to provide antenna functionality for the wireless access point orsignal converter 122 in theconfigurable connector 120. - In other embodiments of the invention, the
configurable connector 120 and theantenna circuitry 124 may be operable to provide one or more antennas for use by thecommunication device 110 directly. For example, theconfigurable connector 120, that may comprise a form factor similar to an RJ 45 connector or a smaller scaled form factor, may be configured as an attached antenna for thecommunication device 110. In this regard, the correspondingconnector 112 may comprise an antenna port in thecommunication device 110. Theconfigurable connector 120 may be operable to provide antenna functionality, for example, when thecommunication device 110 does not have another antenna. In other exemplary embodiments of the invention, the Ethernetconfigurable connector 120 and theantenna circuitry 124 may enhance functionality of other antennas (not shown) that may be available in thecommunication device 110. For example, in instances when thecommunication device 110 utilizes other attached or integrated antenna circuitry, theantenna circuitry 124 may be utilized in addition to and/or instead of the other antenna circuitry. When other antenna circuitry is utilized with theantenna circuitry 124, theantenna circuitry 124 may be operable to improve the quality of received and/or transmitted wireless signals. For example, theantenna circuitry 124 and the other antenna circuitry may provide spatial or phase diversity. The spatial diversity may enable thecommunication device 110 to utilize a plurality of multipath versions a signal or to select a preferred signal. In addition, theantenna circuitry 124 may provide polarization diversity, such as, orthogonal polarization. Moreover, the antenna circuitry may provide pattern diversity, for example, for varied azimuth, varied antenna angle and/or varied gain. Theantenna circuitry 124 may enable combining signals and/or selecting signals to improve signal to noise ratios (SNR) and/or to better utilize signals that are transmitted and/or received in a multipath environment. For example, when multiple received signals are aligned in phase, signals received via theantenna circuitry 124 may be constructively combined with signals received via another antenna. In other exemplary embodiments of the invention, when signals are received via theantenna circuitry 124 and another antenna utilized by thecommunication devices 110, the best signal may be selected for use. - The Ethernet
configurable connector 120 may provide an extension to other antennas (not shown) that may be integrated within and/or utilized by thecommunication device 110. In this regard, theantenna circuitry 124 may provide an extended antenna length that may improve absorption of certain wavelength signals. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, theantenna circuitry 124 may provide an antenna length greater than the length of thecommunication device 110 or greater than a reasonable length for another style of antenna attachment (not shown). Furthermore, in instances when thecommunication device 110 comprises and/or utilizes other antennas, theconfigurable connector 120 and/or theantenna circuitry 124 may provide an additional wireless link. An addition wireless link may be utilized to increase the number of simultaneous wireless connections and/or may be utilized to increase the bandwidth of frequencies that thecommunication device 110 may transmit and/or receive signals on. - In instances when a plurality of the
configurable connector 120 units are ganged together, eachconfigurable connector 120 may have itsown antenna circuitry 124 or two or moreconfigurable connector 120 units may share antenna circuitry. Theconfigurable connector 120 may be operable to communicate with thecommunication device 110 based on Ethernet protocols and/or may communicate wirelessly with one or more of thecommunication devices communication devices 140 and/or 150 may be based on IEEE 802.11 and/or extensions and/or variations thereof, for example, based on WiFi. Moreover, theconfigurable connector 120 may be operable to wirelessly communicate based on wireless technologies such as, for example, Bluetooth, cellular, satellite and/or Zigbee. Theconfigurable connector 120 may convert wire-line signals to wireless signals and vice versa. In various embodiments of the invention, theconfigurable connector 120 may be operable to receive power from the correspondingconnector 112, for example, via power over Ethernet. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/752,065, filed on Mar. 31, 2010, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a connector and/or connection interface that may provide power over Ethernet functionality. Alternatively, in various embodiments of the invention, theconfigurable connector 120 may comprise thepower source 128. - The
communication devices configurable connector 120. Thecommunication devices 140 and/or 150 may be stationary, portable and/or handheld devices. For example, thecommunication devices 140 and/or 150 may comprise one or more of a mobile phone, a media player, a location device, a television, a set-top-box, a camera and/or a gaming device. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, thecommunication devices laptop 140 and thehandheld device 150. Thelaptop 140 and/orhandheld device 150 may be operable to communicate wirelessly with theswitch 110. For example, a user may be able to service and/or maintain theswitch 110 and/or other devices that may be connected with theswitch 110 utilizing thelaptop 140 and/or thehandheld device 150. - In operation, the
communication device 110 may be, for example, a switch or a laptop, for example that may comprise thecorresponding connector 112. Theconfigurable connector 120 comprising the wireless access point orsignal converter 122 may be plugged into the correspondingconnector 112. The connector and/orconnection interface 130 may comprise theconfigurable connector 120 and thecorresponding connector 112. The connector and/orconnection interface 130 may be configured to communicate with thehandheld device 150 via thewireless access point 122 and/or theantenna circuitry 124 based on IEEE 802.11 specifications, for example. The correspondingconnector 112 and theconfigurable connector 120 may be configured to communicate based on IEEE 802.3 specifications for example. Thewireless access point 122 may be operable to convert wireless signals received from thehandheld device 150 to Ethernet signals. For example, thewireless access point 122 may be operable to receive the wireless signals and format the received signals in compliance with IEEE 802.3 standards. Thewireless access point 122 may communicate the formatted Ethernet signals to thecommunication device 110 via the correspondingconnector 112. In addition, thewireless access point 122 may receive Ethernet signals formatted in compliance with IEEE 802.3 standards from thecommunication device 110, may strip the formatting from the signals and may communicate the signals via theantenna circuitry 124 to thecommunication device 150 for example. - In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the
communication device 110 may be a switch in a large data center that may comprise other interconnected communication equipment such as a plurality of interconnected switches, routers, patch panels and/or broadband modems. The correspondingconnector 112 may be, for example, a dedicated service port that may enable a user to service theswitch 110 and/or one or more other of the interconnected communication equipment in the data center. For example, the servicing may comprise running tests and/or accessing operations, administration and/or maintenance utilities in the switch and/or other interconnected communication equipment. Theconfigurable connector 120 may be plugged into the correspondingconnector 112. In this regard, a user may utilize a wireless communication device, for example, thelaptop 140 and/or thehandheld device 150 for servicing theswitch 110 and/or the other interconnected communication equipment in the data center via thewireless access point 122 in theconfigurable connector 120. For example, a connection may be made between thehandheld device 150 and thewireless access point 122. In addition, an Ethernet connection may be made between thewireless access point 122 and theswitch 110. In this manner, the user may access the service capabilities within theswitch 110 and/or within the other interconnected communication equipment. -
FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary wireless access point or signal converter, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring toFIG. 1B , there is shown the wireless access point orsignal converter 122 that may comprise theEthernet PHY device 160, anOSI layer 2device 162, a higherOSI layer processor 164, thewireless transceiver 166 and thememory 168. - Various aspects of the wireless access point or
signal converter 122 are described with respect toFIG. 1A . - In an exemplary embodiment of the invention,
Ethernet PHY device 160 may comprise a twisted pair PHY capable of operating at one or more standard rates such as 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 10 Gbps (10 BASE-T, 100 GBASE-TX, 1 GBASE-T, and/or 10 GBASE-T); potentially standardized rates such as 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps; and/or non-standard rates such as 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps. - In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the
Ethernet PHY device 160 may comprise a backplane PHY capable of operating at one or more standard rates such as 10 Gbps (10 GBASE-KX4, 10 GBASE-KX and/or 10 GBASE-KR); and/or non-standard rates such as 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps. - In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the
Ethernet PHY device 160 may comprise an optical PHY capable of operating at one or more standard rates such as 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 10 Gbps; potentially standardized rates such as 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps; and/or non-standardized rates such as 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps. In this regard, the optical PHY may be a passive optical network (PON) PHY. - In addition, the
communication device 110 may support multi-lane topologies such as 40 Gbps CR4, ER4, KR4; 100 Gbps CR10, SR10 and/or 10 Gbps LX4 and CX4. Also, serial electrical and copper single channel technologies such as KX, KR, SR, LR, LRM, SX, LX, CX, BX10, and LX10 may be supported. Nonstandard speeds and non-standard technologies, for example, single channel, two channel or four channels may also be supported. Moreover, TDM technologies such as PON at various speeds may be supported by thecommunication device 110. - In various embodiments of the invention, the
PHY device 160 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, and/or code that may enable transmission and/or reception at a high(er) data in one direction and transmission and/or reception at a low(er) data rate in the other direction. For example, thecommunication device 110 may comprise a multimedia server and thecommunication device 140 may comprise a multimedia client. In this regard, thecommunication device 110 may transmit multimedia data, for example, to thecommunication device 140 at high(er) data rates while thecommunication device 140 may transmit control or auxiliary data associated with the multimedia content at low(er) data rates. - Data transmitted and/or received by the
PHY device 160 may be formatted in accordance with the well-known OSI protocol standard. The OSI model partitions operability and functionality into seven distinct and hierarchical layers. Generally, each layer in the OSI model is structured so that it may provide a service to the immediately higher interfacing layer. For example,layer 1, or physical layer, may provide services tolayer 2 andlayer 2 may provide services to layer 3. The data transmitted may comprise frames of Ethernet media independent interface (MII) data which may be delimited by start of stream and end of stream delimiters, for example. - In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the
higher layer processor 164 may implement OSI layer 3 and above, theOSI layer 2device 162 may implementOSI layer 2 and above and thePHY device 160 may implement the operability and/or functionality ofOSI layer 1 or the physical layer. In this regard, thePHY device 160 may be referred to as physical layer transmitters and/or receivers, physical layer transceivers, PHY transceivers, PHYceivers, or PHY, for example. TheOSI layer 2device 162 may be referred to as a media access control device (MAC). - Various embodiments of the invention may comprise the higher
OSI layer processor 164 in the wireless access point orsignal converter 122. The higherOSI layer processor 164 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, and/or code that may enable operability and/or functionality of the five highest functional OSI layers for data packets that are to be transmitted to thecorresponding connector 112 and/or thecommunication device 110. Since each layer in the OSI model provides a service to the immediately higher interfacing layer, theOSI layer 2device 162 may provide the necessary services to the higherOSI layer processor 164 to ensure that packets are suitably formatted and communicated to thePHY device 160. During transmission, each layer may add its own header to the data passed on from the interfacing layer above it. However, during reception, a compatible device having a similar OSI stack may strip off the headers as the message passes from the lower layers up to the higher layers. - The
PHY device 160 may be configured to handle physical layer requirements, which comprise, but are not limited to, packetization, data transfer and serialization/deserialization (SERDES), in instances where such an operation is required. Data packets received by thePHY device 160 from theOSI layer 2device 162, may include data and header information for each of the above six functional layers that may be implemented in the wireless access point orsignal converter 122. ThePHY device 160 may be configured to encode data packets that are to be transmitted to thecorresponding connector 112 and/or to decode data packets received from the correspondingconnector 112. - The
OSI layer 2device 162 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, and/or code that may enable handling of data link layer,layer 2, operability and/or functionality in the wireless access point orsignal converter 122. TheMAC device 162 may be configured to implement Ethernet protocols, such as those based on the IEEE 802.3 standard and/or variations and/or extensions thereof, for example. Notwithstanding, the invention is not limited in this regard. - The
OSI layer 2device 162 may communicate with thePHY device 160 based on protocol and/or link management signals via a multi-rate capable interface and/or a media independent interface (MII), for example. TheOSI layer 2device 162 may communicate with thePHY device 160 via parallel and/or serial links, for example, via an MII, XGMII, SGMII, XAUI or XFI interface. TheOSI layer 2device 162 may communicate with the higher OSIlayer processing device 164 via a bus controller interface which may correspond to PCI or PCI-X interfaces. Notwithstanding, the invention is not limited in this regard. - The higher
OSI layer processor 164 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to manage and/or control operations of access point orsignal converter 122 components, such as theEthernet PHY device 160, theOSI layer 2device 162 and thewireless transceiver 166, for example. In addition, the higherOSI layer processor 164 may be operable to activate or deactivate one or more radios in thewireless transceiver 166 as a needed for communicating information. In various embodiments of the invention, the higherOSI layer processor 164 may be operable to manage execution of instructions that may be stored in thememory 168. The higherOSI layer processor 164 may be operable to manage access to one or more wireless devices or to one or more wireless networks via thewireless transceiver 168. For example, the higherOSI layer processor 164 may manage cellular and/or WiFi access to the base station oraccess point 145, a Bluetooth connection with thecommunication device 140 and/or a voice connection with thecommunication device 150. The higherOSI layer processor 164 may be operable to access one or more wired or optical devices and/or networks via theEthernet PHY 160. The higherOSI layer processor 164 may be operable to store information regarding interactions with wireless, wired or optical devices in thememory 168. In various embodiments of the invention, the higherOSI layer processor 164 may be configured to manage power and/or power over Ethernet (POE) utilization in the access point orsignal converter 122 and/or theconfigurable connector 120. - The
memory 168 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to store information such as executable instructions and data that may be utilized by the higherOSI layer processor 164 and/or other device components such as, for example, thewireless transceiver 166, theEthernet PHY 160 and/or theOSI layer 2device 162. Thememory 168 may comprise RAM, ROM, low latency nonvolatile memory such as flash memory and/or other suitable electronic data storage. - The
wireless transceiver 166 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to communicate based on one or more radio access protocols, for example, CDMA, GSM, UMTS, LTE, WiMAX, WiFi, Bluetooth and/or Zigbee, although the invention is not limited in this regard. For example, thewireless transceiver 166 may be operable to communicate with thecommunication devices wireless base station 145, for example. Thewireless receiver 166 may be communicatively coupled with theantenna circuitry 124 and the higherOSI layer processor 164. In various embodiments of the invention, theconfigurable connector 120 may comprise a plurality of such wireless transceivers. For example, theconfigurable connector 120 may comprise a GNSS receiver (not shown) that may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to detect and receive GNSS signals from GNSS satellites and may be operable to utilize the received GNSS signals to calculate location information for theconfigurable connector 120 and/or thecommunication device 110, for example. - In operation, the access point or
signal converter 122 may be configured to communicate with one or more of thecommunication devices access point 145 via thewireless transceiver 166 and/or theantenna circuitry 124. In addition, the access point orsignal converter 122 may be configured to communicate with thecommunication device 110 via thelayer 2device 162 and theEthernet PHY device 160. The higherOSI layer processor 164 may be operable to control operations in the access point orsignal converter 122, for example, may control rate matching between thewireless transceiver 166 and theEthernet PHY 160. TheOSI layer 2device 162 may be operable to read signals that are received via thewireless transceiver 166 from one or more of thecommunication devices wireless base station 145, and may format the signals in compliance with IEEE 802.3 standards and/or variations thereof. The formatted signals may be communicated to thecommunication device 110 via theEthernet PHY device 160 and thecorresponding connector 112. In addition, wired or optical Ethernet signals may be received from thecommunication device 110 via the correspondingconnector 112 and theEthernet PHY device 160. The wired or optical signals may be received by theOSI layer 2device 162 which may strip IEEE 802.3 standards compliant formatting from the signals. The higherOSI layer processor 160 may control communication of the signals to one or more of thecommunication devices base station 145 via thewireless transceiver 166 in accordance with a suitable wireless communication protocol, for example, Bluetooth or an IEEE 802.11 standards protocol. In instances when theconfigurable connector 120 may communicate with thecommunication devices base station 145 based on IEEE 802.11 standards, theconfigurable connector 120, may be operable to convert signals formatted in accordance with IEEE 802.3 standards to signals formatted in accordance with IEEE 802.11 standards and vice versa from IEEE 802.11 to IEEE 802.3. -
FIG. 2 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary connector and/or connection interface comprising a wireless access point that may communicate via a wired network, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring toFIG. 2 , there is shown, acommunication system 200 that comprises a connector and/orconnection interface 230, aconfigurable Ethernet connector 220, the copper and/oroptical connections 190, a wireless access point orsignal converter 222,antenna circuitry 224, apower source 228 and acorresponding wall connector 212. In addition, there is shown abroadband link 234, abroadband modem 210 and acommunication link 232. Thecommunication devices - The connector and/or
connection interface 230 may be similar and/or substantially the same as the connector and/orconnection interface 130 described with respect toFIG. 1 . The connector and/orconnection interface 230 may comprise theconnector 220 and/or thecorresponding wall connector 212. - The
configurable connector 220, the wireless access point orsignal converter 222, theantenna circuitry 224 and thepower source 228 may be similar and/or substantially the same as theconfigurable connector 120, the wireless access point orsignal converter 122, thepower source 128 and theantenna circuitry 124 described with respect toFIG. 1 . Theconfigurable Ethernet connector 220 may be referred to as theconnector 220 or theconfigurable connector 220. Furthermore, thecommunication devices FIG. 1 . - Various aspects of the
corresponding wall connector 212 may be similar and/or substantially the same as the correspondingconnector 112. Notwithstanding, thecorresponding wall connector 212 may be installed in a wall and/or in a patch panel, for example. Thecorresponding wall connector 212 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that are operable to provide power over Ethernet to theconnector 220. Furthermore, thecorresponding wall connector 112 may be operable to couple to theconnector 220 based on standardized and/or non-standard specifications. For example, based on Ethernet standards and/or extensions and/or variations thereof. In this regard, thecorresponding wall connector 212 and theconnector 220 may comprise Ethernet connectors in the connector and/orconnection interface 230. In various embodiments of the invention, the dimensions of thecorresponding wall connector 212 and/or theconnector 220 may be on a scale that is small enough to enable greater than 48 jacks and/or plugs to fit into a one rack unit face plate. Furthermore, in various embodiments of the invention, the connector and/orconnection interface 220 may comprise a plurality of connectors such as thecorresponding wall connector 212 that may be ganged together. Thecorresponding wall connector 212 may be operable to communicate via thelink 232. In this regard, thelink 232 may comprise a twisted pair cable. For example, thelink 232 may be an Ethernet link. In various embodiments of the invention, thelink 232 may comprise one or more patch panels between thecorresponding wall connector 212 and thebroadband modem 234 for example. - The
broadband modem 210 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to communicate information to the wireless access point orsignal converter 222 via thecorresponding wall connector 212. Furthermore, thebroadband modem 212 may be operable to provide Internet access via thebroadband link 234 to one or more users of thecommunication devices signal converter 222. Although thecommunication system 200 comprises a broadband modem connected to thecorresponding wall connector 212, the invention is not so limited. For example, thecorresponding wall connector 212 may be connected to any suitable wire-line, optical and/or wireless network and/or network device. - In operation, a user of the
laptop 140, for example, may wish to access the Internet and/or an intranet, for example, from a home, office and/or any other site or facility. In this regard, the home, office and/or other site and/or facility may comprise Internet and/or intranet access, for example, may be communicatively coupled to thecorresponding wall connector 212 and/or themodem 210, for example. Theconnector 220 may be coupled to thecorresponding wall connector 212. The user may initiate access to the Internet, for example, and a wireless connection may be made between thelaptop 140 and the wireless access point orsignal converter 222 based on, for example, IEEE 802.11 standards. Furthermore, thelaptop 140 may be operable to establish an IP connection to an Internet device via theantenna circuitry 234 and the wireless access point orsignal converter 222 in theconnector 220, thecorresponding wall connector 212, theEthernet link 232, thebroadband modem 210 and thebroadband link 234. -
FIG. 3 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary connector and/or connection interface that comprises a coupled antenna, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring toFIG. 3 , there is shown acommunication system 300 that may comprise acommunication device 310, anantenna 308 and a connector and/orconnection interface 330. The connector and/orconnection interface 330 may comprise aconfigurable Ethernet connector 320, the copper and/oroptical connections 190, anantenna circuitry 324, acable 326, cable shielding 332,antenna circuitry 340, a wireless access point orsignal converter 322, an electrical ormechanical switch 328 and annon-conducting jacket 334. In addition, the connector and/orconnection interface 330 may comprise acorresponding connector 312,magnetics 314 and one ormore PHYs 316. - Aspects of the connector and/or
connection interface 330, theconfigurable connector 320, the wireless access point orsignal converter 322 and/or thecorresponding connector 312 may be similar and/or substantially the same as the connector and/orconnection interface 130, theconfigurable connector 120, the wireless access point orsignal converter 122 and/or thecorresponding connector 112, respectively. Theconfigurable Ethernet connector 320 may be referred to as theconnector 320 or theconfigurable connector 320. - The connector and/or
connection interface 330 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or that may be operable to support wire-line and/or wireless communication between two or more communication devices, for example, comprising thecommunication device 310. In addition, various aspects of the connector and/orconnection interface 330 may be similar and/or substantially the same as the connector and/orconnection interface 130 and/or the connector and/orconnection interface 230 and/or a combination thereof. For example, the connector and/orconnection interface 330 may be operable to convert between wired and wireless communication protocols, between optical and wireless communication protocols and between optical and wired communication protocols. Furthermore the connector and/orconnection interface 330 may be operable to transmit and received wired Ethernet signals in both directions. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the wireless access point orsignal converter 322 in theconnector 320 may be operable to convert signals formatted in accordance with IEEE 802.3 standards to signals formatted in accordance with IEEE 802.11 standards and vice versa from IEEE 802.11 to IEEE 802.3. Notwithstanding, the invention is not limited with regard to the type of signal protocols that may be handled by theconnectors connection interface 330 shown inFIG. 3 comprises wired and/or wireless technologies, the invention is not so limited. For example, various embodiments of the invention may support wired, wireless and/or optical technologies. The connector and/orconnection interface 330 may comprise thecorresponding connector 312, theconnector 320, thecable 326, theantenna circuitry 324 and/or theantenna circuitry 340. - The
communication device 310 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may comprise and/or may be coupled to one or more connection interfaces 330. Accordingly, thecommunication device 310 may comprise one or morecorresponding connectors 312 and/or may be communicatively coupled to theconnector 320. In this regard, thecommunication device 310 may be operable to communicate via one or more wire-line and/or wireless interfaces. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, thecommunication device 310 may be a wireless access point; however, the invention is not so limited. For example, thecommunication device 310 may be operable to communicate wirelessly via the connector and/orconnection interface 330 based on one or more variations and/or extensions of IEEE 802.11 and/or may be operable to communicate based on one or more other wireless technologies, for example, Bluetooth, cellular, satellite and/or Zigbee via the connector and/orconnection interface 330. Moreover, thecommunication device 310 may be capable of wired communication via the connector and/orconnection interface 330, for example, Ethernet communication based on one or more variations and/or extensions of 802.3. In various embodiments of the invention, the communication device may comprise theantenna 308 that may be utilized for wireless communications. - Various aspects of the
corresponding connector 312 may be similar and/or substantially the same as the correspondingconnector 112 and/or thecorresponding wall connector 212 and/or a combination thereof. The correspondingconnector 312 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to couple to theconnector 320 and/or to support wireless and/or wire-line communication via theconnector 320. In this regard, the correspondingconnector 312 may comprise physical coupling for data communication, system management access and/or for an antenna port, for example. For example, theconnector 320 may be one or more of an Ethernet connector, a system management connector and/or may be an antenna connector. The correspondingconnector 312 may comprise themagnetics 314 that may comprise a transducer. In various embodiments of the invention, the correspondingconnector 312 may comprise one or more PHYs, for example, thePHY 316. In this regard, the correspondingconnector 312 may offload PHY functionality from thecommunication device 310 and may simplify electronic design, reduce noise and/or reduce complexity within thecommunication device 310. - The corresponding
connector 312 may be configurable or may be dedicated to a specific function. For example, the correspondingconnector 312 may comprise a service port in a device that may enable management of the device. In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the correspondingconnector 312 may be utilized for data communication. Furthermore, the correspondingconnector 312 may be configurable to receive wireless communication, for example, the correspondingconnector 312 may function as an antenna port. The correspondingconnector 312 may be sequentially and/or concurrently multifunctional where a plurality of types of communication protocols may operate. For example, the correspondingconnector 312 may receive input via the twisted pair cabling 326 as well as input from anantenna circuitry 340 and/or 324. In various embodiments of the invention, the correspondingconnector 312 may be configurable. The correspondingconnector 312 may comprise a electrical ormechanical switch 328 or detection mechanism to detect whether a cable and/or an antenna is plugged into the corresponding connector, for example. - Various aspects of the
connector 320 may be similar and/or substantially the same as theconnector 120 and/or thecorresponding connector 112 and/or a combination thereof. Theconnector 320 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be operable to support wired and/or wireless communication. Theconnector 320 may be an Ethernet connector and may be coupled to thecorresponding connector 312. In this regard, theconnector 320 may support wired communication protocols, for example, Ethernet communication protocols. In addition, theconnector 320 may be coupled to thecable 326. Theconnector 320 may comprise theantenna circuitry 340. Theantenna circuitry 340 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to terminate an antenna and or improve characteristics of transmitted and/or received signals. For example theantenna circuitry 340 may comprise a transducer and or analog and/or digital signal processing (DSP) technology. Moreover, theantenna circuitry 340 that may be integrated within housing of theconnector 320, may comprise an antenna or may terminate theexternal antenna circuitry 324 that may be integrated within thecable 326. - The
connector 320 may be configurable to operate as an antenna for thecommunication device 310 and may transmit and/or receive wireless communication via theantenna circuitry 340 and/or via theantenna circuitry 324. Theconnector 320 may be sequentially and/or concurrently multifunctional where a plurality of types of communication protocols may operate. For example, theconnector 320 may communicate via the twisted pair cabling 326 as well as via one or more of theantenna circuitry connector 320 may be configurable. Theconnector 320 may comprise the electrical ormechanical switch 328 that may be configurable to select input and/or output via theantenna circuitry 340, theantenna circuitry 340 and/or the twisted pair cabling 326, for example. Theswitch 328 may comprise a detection mechanism to determine whether the twisted pair cabling 326, theantenna 340 and/or theantenna circuitry 324 may be utilized for communication. Theantenna circuitry 324 may comprise a specified length that may be operable to communicate suitable wireless signals. For example, the antenna circuitry may comprise a length that is a fraction or a multiple of a wavelength of wireless signals such as Bluetooth, WLAN, cellular or PCS signals that may be communicated by theconnector 320. In various exemplary embodiments of the invention, theconnector 320 may be operable to provide a direct antenna connection from one or both of theantenna circuitry communication device 110 via the correspondingconnector 312. Alternatively, the wireless access point orsignal converter 322 may be operable to parse and/or format signals received via theantenna circuitry communication device 310 and vice versa. - The
cable 326 may be, for example, a twisted pair cable which may comprise the shielding 332 and/or thenon-conducting jacket 334. In various embodiments of the invention, thecable 326 may comprise theantenna circuitry 324 which may run outside of the shielding 332. Theantenna circuitry 324 may be integrated within and/or without thenon-conductive jacket 334. The antenna circuitry may terminate in theconnector 320. - In various embodiments of the invention, the
communication device 310 may not comprise any internal antenna and may utilizeantenna circuitry 324 and/orantenna circuitry 340 in theconnector 320 to provide antenna functionality. In instances when thecommunication device 310 comprises one or more antennas, for example, theantenna 308, theantenna circuitry 324 and/or theantenna circuitry 340 may be utilized to extend and/or enhance signals that are communicated via theantenna 308. For example, theantenna circuitry 324 and/or theantenna circuitry 340 may handle receive and/or transmit diversity signals. - In operation, the
communication device 310 may comprise, for example, a wireless access point or a laptop. Thecommunication device 310 may comprise one or more of corresponding connectors such as the correspondingconnector 312. Theconnector 320 may be coupled to thecorresponding connector 312. Theconnector 320 may compriseantenna circuitry 340. Theconnector 320 may be coupled to thecable 326 and/or may be coupled to theantenna circuitry 324. - In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the
communication device 310 may be operable to communicate with an upstream network device, for example, via thecable 326 and may communicate with a downstream wireless device, for example, thehandheld device 150 shown inFIG. 1 , via theantenna circuitry 324. - In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the
connector 320 may comprise an antenna integrated within a housing of the connector, for example, in theantenna circuitry 340. Theconnector 320 may or may not comprise thecable 326 and/or theantenna circuitry 324. In this instance theconnector 320 withintegrated antenna circuitry 324 may be coupled to thecommunication device 310 and may be utilized for wireless communication based on one or more wireless technologies, for example, based on cellular, Bluetooth and/or IEEE 802.11. -
FIG. 4 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary configurable connector and/or connection interface capable of wireless and/or wire-line communication via a plurality of types of PHY devices, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring toFIG. 4 , there is shown, thecommunication system 400 that may comprise acommunication device 410 and a connector and/orconnection interface 430. The connector and/orconnection interface 430 may comprise aconfigurable Ethernet connector 420, the copper and/oroptical connections 190,antenna circuitry 424, an wireless access point orsignal converter 422, an electrical ormechanical switch 428, acable 426, a correspondingconnector 412,magnetics 414 and a plurality of PHY devices 416.sub.1, 416.sub.2, . . . , 416.sub.N. One or more of the PHY devices 416.sub.1, 416.sub.2, . . . , 416.sub.N may be referred to as thePHY devices 416. - The
communication device 410 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or code that may be operable to communicate based one or more types of wireless and/or wire-line technology. For example, thecommunication device 410 may be operable to communicate based on IEEE 802.3 and/or variations and extensions thereof. Thecommunication device 410 may be operable to communicate based on, for example, one or more of IEEE 802.11, cellular, Bluetooth, satellite and Zigbee. In various exemplary embodiments of the invention, thecommunication device 410 may comprise a laptop, a handheld phone, a media player, a camera, a gaming device, a location device and/or any suitable combination of devices. Thecommunication device 410 may comprise thecorresponding connector 412 and may utilize one or more PHY devices that may be integrated within the correspondingconnector 412. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the communication device may be a laptop that may be operable to communicate based on a plurality of communication protocols via a plurality of corresponding PHY devices that may be integrated within the correspondingconnector 412. Moreover, connectors similar to thecorresponding connector 412 may be ganged within thecommunication device 410. - The connector and/or
connection interface 430 may comprise aspects of all or a portion of the connector and/orconnection interfaces connection interface 430 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces and/or that may be operable to support communication based on a plurality of types of wire-line and/or wireless communication. In addition, the connector and/orconnection interface 430 may be operable to convert between wired and wireless communication protocols, for example, 802.3 and 802.11. - The corresponding
connector 412 may comprise various aspects of the correspondingconnectors connector 412 may comprise themagnetics 416. Moreover, the correspondingconnector 412 may comprise a plurality of PHY devices 416.sub.1, 416.sub.2, . . . , 416.sub.N, In various embodiments of the invention, the plurality of PHY devices 416.sub.1, 416.sub.2, . . . , 416.sub.N may be integrated on a single chip within the corresponding connector. The PHY devices 416.sub.1, 416.sub.2, . . . , 416.sub.N may comprise a single type of PHY device or may comprise a plurality of types. For example, the PHY devices may be operable to support one or more of IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.11, cellular, Bluetooth, satellite communications, Zigbee and extensions and/or variations thereof. In addition, the correspondingconnector 412 may be operable to couple to theconfigurable Ethernet connector 420. In this regard, the correspondingconnector 412 may be a dedicated service port, which may be operable to support data communication and/or may terminate an antenna connection with theconnector 420 which may comprise a wireless dongle. In various embodiments of the invention, the correspondingconnector 412 may be operable to sense the communication protocol and/or communication technology capabilities of theconnector 420. In this regard, the correspondingconnector 412 may be configured, may select a PHY device and/or may process signals in accordance with capabilities of the coupledconnector 420 and/or based on signals received by theconnector 420. - The
configurable Ethernet connector 420 may comprise aspects that are similar and/or substantially the same as one or more of theconfigurable Ethernet connectors configurable Ethernet connector 420 may be referred to as theconnector 420 or theconfigurable connector 420. Theconnector 420 may comprise a wireless dongle or may comprise an antenna within the housing of theconnector 420. Theconnector 420 may be an Ethernet connector and may be operable to communicate in accordance with one or more Ethernet communication protocols, for example, IEEE 802.3. Theconnector 420 may comprise asignal converter 428 for conversion of wireless signals to wire-line signals and/or for conversion from wire-line signals to wireless signals. For example, thesignal converter 428 in theconnector 420 may be operable to convert signals received from thecommunication device 410 that may be formatted based on IEEE 802.3 standards and/or variations thereof, to signals formatted based on IEEE 802.11 standards and/or variations thereof. The converted wireless signals may be communicated via theantenna circuitry 424. Similarly, thesignal converter 428 in theconnector 420 may be operable to convert wireless signals received via theantenna 424 that may be communicated based on IEEE 802.11, cellular, Bluetooth and/or other wireless standards, to signals formatted in based on IEEE 802.3 standards and/or variations thereof. Theconnector 420 may be operable to communicate the converted signals to thecommunication device 410 via the correspondingconnector 412. Moreover, in various embodiments of the invention, theconnector 420 may comprise a wireless access point. - Various embodiments of the invention may comprise the
cable 426 which may be coupled to theconnector 420. Thecable 426 may comprise twisted pair wires and/or may be similar and/or substantially the same as thecable 326. In this regard, various embodiments of the invention thecable 426 may comprise an antenna similar to theantenna 324 shown inFIG. 3 . Theconnector 420 and/or thecable 426 may support wireless and/or wire-line communication via one or more of the plurality of PHY devices 416.sub.1, 416.sub.2, . . . , 416.sub.N. For example, theconnector 420 and/or thecable 426 may be operable to support one or more of IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.11, cellular, Bluetooth, satellite communications, Zigbee and extensions and/or variations thereof. - In operation, the
communication device 410 may be accessed based on a plurality of communication protocols via the correspondingconnector 412 and/or via the plurality of PHY devices 416.sub.1, 416.sub.2, . . . , 416.sub.N. In this regard, the connector and/orconnection interface 430 may be operable to communicatively couple a plurality of different types of wireless and/or wire-line devices that may be operable to communicate based on a plurality of different communication protocols with thecommunication device 410. Thecommunication device 410 may comprise one or more connectors such as the correspondingconnector 412 that may be ganged together in some instances. In instances when thecommunication device 410 comprises a plurality of connectors such as the correspondingconnector 412 that may have one or more types of PHY devices in common, the correspondingconnectors 412 may be utilized interchangeably. For example, a plurality of connectors similar to theconnector 420 and/or to theconnector 320 may be coupled to thecommunication device 410 concurrently or sequentially. A connector that may be attached to theEthernet cable 426 may be connected to one of the correspondingconnectors 412 and a connector comprisingantenna circuitry 424 may be coupled to another one of the correspondingconnectors 412. Theconnector 320 that may be coupled to thecable 326 and theantenna circuitry 324 described with respect toFIG. 3 , may also be coupled to one of the correspondingconnectors 412. In this manner, thecommunication device 410 may be operable to communicate based on an Ethernet protocol via thecable 326, for example, and may concurrently and/or sequentially communicate based on one or wireless protocols via theantenna circuitry 324 that may be integrated within thecable 326. Theconnector 426 may also be connected to one of the correspondingconnectors 412 that may comprise an antenna within theintegrated antenna circuitry 424. The correspondingconnectors 412 may be operable to detect which type of signal protocol is utilized by theconnector 420 or theconnector 320. In this manner, thecommunication device 410 may be operable to communicate based on one or more communication technologies supported by the plurality ofPHY devices 416 via the correspondingconnector 412 and theconnector 420. -
FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary steps for communicating via a connector and/or connection interface capable of wireless and/or wire-line communication, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring toFIG. 5 , the exemplary steps may begin withstep 510. Instep 512, an Ethernet connector, for example, theconnector 420 may be coupled to thecorresponding connector 412 that is integrated within thecommunication device 410. The correspondingconnector 412 may sense what type of wireless and/or wire-line communication interfaces are supported by theEthernet connector 420. Instep 514, a wireless and/or wire-line signal may be received by theEthernet connector 420. Instep 516, if the signal is received via a wireless medium, the exemplary steps may proceed to step 518. Instep 518, the wireless signal may be converted to a wire-line signal in theEthernet connector 420. Instep 520, transmission of the wire-line signal may be enabled via the correspondingconnector 412 and/or via anappropriate PHY 416 within and/or beyond the correspondingconnector 416. Instep 516, if the signal is received via a wire-line medium, proceed to step 524. Instep 524, the wire-line signal may be converted to a wireless signal in theEthernet connector 420. Instep 526, the wireless signal may be transmitted by theEthernet connector 420. - In an embodiment of the invention, a configurable Ethernet connector for example, one of the
Ethernet connectors - The configurable Ethernet connector may comprise one or both of an antenna and a wireless access point, for example, one or more of the
antenna circuitry signal converter antenna circuitry 324. The configurable Ethernet connector comprising an antenna, for example, theconfigurable Ethernet connectors antenna 326 may provide at least a subset of antenna functionality to a communication device, such as, to one of thecommunication devices configurable Ethernet connector 320 and/or theantenna circuitry 324 within thecable 326 may provide at least a subset of antenna functionality to thecommunication device 310. - The
communication device 310 may utilize theconfigurable Ethernet connector 320 for wired and/or wireline communication and may not need to have a built-in antenna or may not need a port dedicated for coupling an antenna. In addition, theconfigurable Ethernet connector 320 and theantenna circuitry 324 in thecable 326 may provide enhancement of antenna functionality to a communication device such as one of thecommunication devices antenna circuitry 324 may be utilized with one or more other antennas (not shown) that may be utilized by thecommunication device 310. For example, theantenna circuitry 324 may provide spatial diversity to thedevice 310 to enhance transmitted or received signal quality. Furthermore, theconfigurable Ethernet connector 320 may provide extension of antenna functionality to a communication device by providing an extended antenna length or an additional antenna port. For example, theantenna circuitry 324 may provide an antenna length greater than the length of thecommunication device 320 or greater than a reasonable length for another style of antenna attachment (not shown). - The configurable Ethernet connector, such as, for example, one of the
configurable Ethernet connectors connectors PHY devices connectors communication devices - Other embodiments of the invention may provide a non-transitory computer readable medium and/or storage medium, and/or a non-transitory machine readable medium and/or storage medium, having stored thereon, a machine code and/or a computer program having at least one code section executable by a machine and/or a computer, thereby causing the machine and/or computer to perform the steps as described herein for a connector and/or cable with antenna for Ethernet and wireless applications.
- Accordingly, the present invention may be realized in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. The present invention may be realized in a centralized fashion in at least one computer system or in a distributed fashion where different elements may be spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind of computer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware and software may be a general-purpose computer system with a computer program that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out the methods described herein.
- The present invention may also be embedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer system is able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the present context means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either or both of the following: a) conversion to another language, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different material form.
- While the present invention has been described with reference to certain embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted without departing from the scope of the present invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the present invention without departing from its scope. Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed, but that the present invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.
Claims (20)
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US9088343B2 (en) * | 2013-10-03 | 2015-07-21 | Echostar Technologies L.L.C. | Multi personal area network (PAN) radio with shared transmitter |
US20150303980A1 (en) * | 2013-10-03 | 2015-10-22 | Echostar Technologies L.L.C. | Multi network radio with shared transmitter |
US9813104B2 (en) * | 2013-10-03 | 2017-11-07 | Echostar Technologies Llc | Multi network radio with shared transmitter |
US20160301474A1 (en) * | 2015-04-08 | 2016-10-13 | Corning Optical Communications LLC | Fiber-wireless system and methods for simplified and flexible fttx deployment and installation |
US9787400B2 (en) * | 2015-04-08 | 2017-10-10 | Corning Optical Communications LLC | Fiber-wireless system and methods for simplified and flexible FTTX deployment and installation |
US10735838B2 (en) | 2016-11-14 | 2020-08-04 | Corning Optical Communications LLC | Transparent wireless bridges for optical fiber-wireless networks and related methods and systems |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
EP2375645B1 (en) | 2012-08-22 |
CN102215149B (en) | 2014-11-26 |
EP2375645A1 (en) | 2011-10-12 |
TW201215042A (en) | 2012-04-01 |
HK1161783A1 (en) | 2012-08-03 |
US8428081B2 (en) | 2013-04-23 |
TWI462531B (en) | 2014-11-21 |
US20110243151A1 (en) | 2011-10-06 |
CN102215149A (en) | 2011-10-12 |
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