Apparatus and method of determining a link status between network stations connected to a telephone line medium
US6292467A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 19, 1998 |
| Grant date | Sep 18, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 19, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L12/4612
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A local area network having a telephone line medium in a home network environment includes physical layer transceivers having transmit and receive state machines enabling each network station to determine a link status on the telephone line medium. The transmit state machine is configured for transmitting a link packet within a prescribed interval (T), less than a minimum packet length of a data packet, and having a preamble and a sufficient number of bytes to allow for transmission. Hence, the link packet will be detected by the other stations on the network, but will not be processed, since it is classified as a runt packet by the media access control layers. The receive state machine monitors the telephone line medium, and if after a prescribed interval (2T) the station has not detected a valid preamble from a data packet or a link packet, then the link status indicator for that station is set to an invalid condition, and subsequently supplied to the station operating system.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.