Patent · US Active

Apparatus for and method of reducing power consumption in a cable modem

US7523329B2 · kind B2 · utility

13Cited by
9References
23Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 19, 2007
Grant dateApr 21, 2009
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 19, 2027

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L1/22
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A novel apparatus and method of reduced power consumption for battery backup operation of a communication device such as a cable modem. When the cable modem senses a failure of the external power source it requests from the cable head-end to switch from multi-channel DOCSIS 3.0 operation to single-channel DOCSIS 2.0 operation. In response to approval by the cable head-end, the cable modem shuts down multi-channel circuits in the PHY such as the wideband analog to digital converter (ADC) which is normally used during multi-channel operation. In its place, it activates narrowband circuitry such as a narrowband ADC which consumes far less power. Tuner filter circuits are also swapped to match the reduced bandwidth requirements of battery backup operation. To further reduce power, the narrower bandwidth requirements during battery backup operation permit the linearity of a programmable gain amplifier (PGA) in the upstream path to be reduced.

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