Managing coexistence among signaling protocols on a shared medium

US8295301B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• QUALCOMM ATHEROS INC. · US

Inventors

• Lawrence W. Yonge, III · Summerfield, US
• Srinivas Katar · Gainesville, US
• William E. Earnshaw · Ocala, US
• Stefano Galli · New York, US
• Akio Kurobe · Tondabayashi, JP
• Hisao Koga · Fukuoka, JP
• Nobutaka Kodama · Fukuoka, JP
• Jose Abad Molina · Rincón de la Victoria, ES
• Oleg Logvinov · East Brunswick Township, US
• Paul Dixon · Seattle, US
• Olivier Isson · Ramonville-Saint-Agne, FR

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 16, 2009
• Grant date: Oct 23, 2012
• Expiry date: Mar 27, 2031

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04B3/54
• WIPO field: Telecommunications
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Communication systems that use different physical layer (PHY) protocols can coexist on a communication medium (e.g., a powerline medium) by using an Inter-PHY Protocol (IPP). The different protocols may use different signal modulation schemes but still may have some features in common. The IPP includes a resource sharing mechanism that regulates access to the communication medium by devices functioning as communication devices (for example, devices communicating over a power line). A subset of devices that communicate among each other form a logical network that shares the medium with other logical networks that use either the same PHY protocol or a different PHY protocol.