Patent · US Expired

Universal modem for digital video, audio and data communications

US5940438A · kind A · utility

138Cited by
8References
18Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 18, 1997
Grant dateAug 17, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 18, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L27/0008
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A universal modem has a software-configurable modulator/demodulator which commodates different modulation formats such as those associated with terrestrial, cable, phone line, satellite and wireless communications to be transmitted and received through a single device in which the modem has reconfigurable logic to accommodate the format of the signals being received or transmitted. Note that the modulator or demodulator can be used separately or the two units can be combined and used for transceivers, with either the same software configuring both the modulator and demodulator, or with different software used for the two units. In the receive mode, the universal modem detects the modulation format of the incoming signal and reconfigures the logic of its software-configurable demodulator to output demodulated digital data for further processing. In the transmit mode, information to be transmitted is provided with the appropriate modulation format by setting a software-configurable modulator in the universal modem to the particular format. In one embodiment, in the receive mode the incoming signal is A-D converted, with a host processor utilized to detect the type of modulation assoc…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.