WO2006088263A2

WO2006088263A2 - Interfacing wireless broadband network and ip based set top boxes

Info

Publication number: WO2006088263A2
Application number: PCT/KE2005/000011
Authority: WO
Inventors: Nadav Sivan
Original assignee: Rockwell Trading Co. Ltd.
Priority date: 2005-01-12
Filing date: 2005-04-05
Publication date: 2006-08-24
Also published as: WO2006088263A3

Abstract

This invention is a method and apparatus to achieve Wireless Broadband Network for use in telephony, Internet, security and Entertainment amongst others. The invention aims at using wireless communication as WIMAX technology for Wireless Broadband Network as a means to interface with the IP bases set top boxes (decoders). In other words bring the wireless system in and out (receiving and transmitting) to and from TV decoder and therefore use the TV with the IP box for internet eliminating the use of a computer.

Description

DESCRIPTION

TITLE: " INTERFACING WIRELESS BROADBAND NETWORK AND

IP BASED SET TOP BOXES"

1. FIELD OF INVENTION:

At present there is an advancement of IP based systems i.e. ISP over IP,

Voice over IP, Wireless Voice over IP, Radio over IP, TV over IP, well

virtually everything over IP. Rockwell Communications Company

Limited intends to come up with an interface between the IP based set

top boxes and the highly acclaimed WIMAX technology defined under

802.1.6 IEEE standards for WMAN (Wireless Metropolitan Area

Network). .

2. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:

Most set top boxes that are IP based use an RJ 45 port for

communication. The present invention puts to practical use of enabling

wireless broadband technology on WIMAX (802.16 IEEE standards) to

communicate with IP based set top boxes with RJ 45 ports. The

invention is an actual interface of the wireless or radio part of the system

and' the IP based section. The interpretation of the RF signal from the Originator/Sender of the wireless system in this case adopting the

OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) or its other

variants such as the COFDM (Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division

Multiplexing) at its transceiver is manipulated by the interface to IP

based bit stream suitable for manipulation for the IP based Set To Boxes.

The invention mainly uses the WIMAX standards for wireless network

as opposed to the WI-FI (802.11 IEEE standards) because of the

favourable network coverage up to a radius of about 30 miles.

Definitions

802.11 Standards: This is a series of standards developed by the IEEE,

commonly known as Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity)

802.16 standards: This is a group of broadband wireless

communications standards for metropolitan area networks (MANs)

developed by a working group of the IEEE.

Bandwidth: The amount of data a network can carry, i.e., how much

and how fast data flows on a given transmission path. It is measured in

bits or bytes per second. Base Station (BS): the central radio transmitter/receiver that maintains

communications with the mobile radiotelephone sets or radio equipment

within a given range.

Consumer Premise Equipment (CPE): Devices located at home or

office such as telephones, PBXs, and other communicating devices.

Ethernet: Also known as lOBase T, Ethernet is an international standard

for wired networks and can offer a bandwidth of from lOMbps,

lOOMbps up to lOOOMbps or lGbps

Internet Protocol (IP): a set of rules used to send and receive messages

at Internet address level.

IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, is an organization

composed of engineers, scientists, students and is best known for

developing standards for the computer and electronics industry.

MAC (Media Access Control): A unique identifier that can be used to

provide security for wireless networks.

OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing): This is a

digital and encoding method or technique.

RF (Radio Frequency): Any frequency within the electromagnetic

spectrum associated with the radio wave propagation. WMAN (Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks): This is a kind of a

wireless broadband network, which allows areas the size of cities to be

connected. Connects devices up to an approximate size of 30-mile

radius.

WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network): A kind of wireless network

that connects devices up to approximately 300-foot radius.

3. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:

The present invention will be illustrated in block and schematics where

applicable with brief descriptions.

Figure No. 1 is a summarized schematic of the system. The RF signal

from a BS is captured by a high gain Wi-max aerial to the Wi-max

transceiver. The RF component is processed i.e. demodulated and

digitized into IP bit stream for the STB (decoder) which in turn provides

an easy access for VoIP, Broadband internet and TV applications like

live digital TV Broadcast, video on demand among other features of the

STB.

Figure No. 2 is an illustration of the WIMAX transceiver in block

schematics earlier depicted in fig no 1 as wimax transceiver, which will

be deployed in the invention. A brief explanation is as follows, The Modulated carrier waves i.e. OFDMA, COFDMA techniques used

are transmitted at the BS on either a WMAN; WLAN is received by the

High gain Broadband antennas at the CPE Front. The Wimax transceiver

is basically an OFDM Modulator/Demodulator. In principle when the

device is receiving an OFDM carrier signal from a wimax BS tower, the

demodulated carrier signal, which can be OFDM, OFDMA, COFDMA

or any other modulation technique deployed is demodulated and passed

onto an RF amplifier which in turn amplifies the demodulated signal. If

OFDM modulation technique is adopted which uses sub carriers

optimization and assigns it to users based on RF conditions, the

frequencies into which the carrier is divided are selected such that the

peak of one frequency coincides with the nulls of the adjacent frequency.

The amplified demodulated signal at the receiving end is converted by an

RF to ADC block to digital signals and passed on to a forward FFT (Fast

Fourier Transforms) Block to convert the received signal back into

frequency domain carrier and consequently to a Diversity Combining

Block which processes it enabling IP based STB working on the PHY

layer on MAC (Media Access Control). In Figure No. 3 from the Transceiver, the RF component is digitized and

Transformed from the PHY layer to MAC (Media Access Controller).

This is passed through to the RJ 45 port of the IP based Set Top Boxes. It

can be observed that the actual interface is a combination of two layers

responsible for actual digitizing of the RF component from the wimax

transceiver to Ethernet port at the front end of the IP based STB.

Fig no 4 show an illustration of the communication of data flow in the

MAC portion of the invention. Data from the OFDMA modem I in this

case the wimax Tran receiver is demonstrated by the air

Detailed Description and preferred embodiments

The present invention comprises of an efficient way of providing an

effective interface of wireless means to an STB for the purpose of

Internet, TV and telephony at users end of the network. The invention

encompasses a PHY layer section comprising circuits which are

compliant with the IEEE 802.16-2004 WirelesssMAN-ofdm PHY layer

protocol, IEEE 802.16-2004 Wireless HUMAN-OFDM PHY layer

protocol and as well as the ETSI HIPERMAN. The MAC layer of the

invention as depicted in fig no 3 consists of hardware which constitutes

the hardware portion of the Medium Access Controller (MAC) functionality based on IEEE 802.16-2004 specifications. The MAC

portion of the invention can be software controlled with such programs as

SAR (Segmentation and Re-Assembly) or any suitable or preferred

communication program written in C language. Through system

integration the two layers i.e. the PHY and MAC layers can be fabricated

to work as a full SOC (System on Chip).

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

(1 Process and method of performing interpretation of digital wireless

RF signals to IP ready for STB

(2 Process of providing adequate throughput for video on demand, live

digital TV broadcast, broadband wireless Internet connection,

Telephony based on voice over IP applications.

(3 Process of deploying effectively WIMAX technology for wireless

Broadband applications i.e. set TV surveillance, internet,

Security systems amongst others.

(4) Operating between 3.5Ghz To 7.5Ghz enabling a high bandwidth

to make it capable of full wimax bandwidth ideally about 69 Mbps

(coded) in a 14MHz channel and 52 Mbps (uncoded) of usable

data.

(5) The invention claims an inherent property of point to multipoint

(PMP) on its MAC section.