Time division multiplexing over broadband modulation method and apparatus

Claim 3

The method of claim 1 , prior to said forwarding, further comprising: receiving digital information; and processing the digital information into data packet information.

Claim 4

The method of claim 1 , wherein said framing each data packet comprises appending a packet header including a length value indicative of the size of the data packet.

Claim 5

The method of claim 3 , wherein said segmenting includes incorporating the packet header in a first segment for each segmented data packet.

Claim 6

The method of claim 4 , wherein said encapsulating data segments comprises appending a cell header to each data segment, the cell header including an offset value indicating a beginning of a next segmented data packet in the multiplexed cell stream.

Claim 7

The method of claim 5 , further comprising: verifying that each offset value is compatible with a length value for a corresponding segmented data packet.

Claim 8

The method of claim 5 , wherein said cell header includes a synchronization value.

Claim 9

The method of claim 5 , wherein said encapsulating data segments further comprises: padding incomplete data cells with null values to achieve equal-sized data cells in the multiplexed cell stream.

Claim 10

The method of claim 1 , wherein said multiplexing the plurality of cell streams comprises: inserting data cells from each of the plurality of cell streams into the multiplexed cell stream in a round-robin manner.

Claim 11

The method of claim 1 , further comprising: assigning at least one transport channel to each data stream, each transport channel comprising a series of corresponding time slots; and said inserting comprising inserting data cells from each of the plurality of cell streams into corresponding time slots of assigned transport channels.

Claim 12

The method of claim 1 , further comprising: sending the multiplexed cell stream as a synchronous cell stream to a modulator.

Claim 13

The method of claim 11 , further comprising: inserting null cells to maintain a continuous synchronized cell stream.

Claim 14

The method of claim 11 , further comprising: inserting a delay between each data cell of the multiplexed cell stream.

Claim 15

The method of claim 1 , wherein said encapsulating data segments includes appending a cell header to each data cell, the cell header including a synchronization value.

Claim 16

The method of claim 14 , wherein said synchronization value is in accordance with MPEG-2 format.

Claim 17

The method of claim 14 , after said multiplexing and prior to said modulating, further comprising: modifying periodic synchronization values within cell headers that are appended to each data cell; scrambling a payload of each data cell within the multiplexed cell stream; and encoding data cells in the multiplexed cell stream.

Claim 18

The method of claim 16 , wherein said encoding is according to the Reed-Solomon encoding scheme.

Claim 19

The method of claim 1 , wherein said modulating is according to quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).

Claim 20

The method of claim 18 , wherein said modulating is according to QAM256 modulation.

Claim 21

The method of claim 1 , further comprising: said multiplexing comprising multiplexing the plurality of cell streams into a plurality of multiplexed cell streams; modulating each multiplexed cell stream into a corresponding modulated signal within a corresponding one of a plurality of frequency channels; and combining the plurality of frequency channels into a single electrical signal.

Claim 22

The method of claim 20 , further comprising: converting the electrical signal into an optical signal for transmission to an optical node.

Claim 25

The method of claim 22 , prior to said forwarding digital information, further comprising: receiving data packets at a distribution hub; decapsulating the data packets to obtain packet data in an original packet format; and re-assembling the packet data into packets of the original packet format.

Claim 26

The method of claim 23 , wherein the original packet format is an IP packet format.

Claim 27

The method of claim 23 , prior to said receiving data packets, comprising: receiving an optical signal from a headend; and converting the optical signal into the data packets.

Claim 28

The method of claim 22 , further comprising: said forwarding digital information including determining digital addresses associated with the plurality of subscriber destinations.

Claim 29

The method of claim 22 , prior to said forwarding, further comprising: converting the digital information into data packets.

Claim 30

The method of claim 27 , wherein said encapsulating further comprises: segmenting the data packets in each data stream into packet segments; framing the packet segments with frame headers; and encapsulating framed packet segments into the data cells, each data cell including a cell header.

Claim 31

The method of claim 28 , further comprising: said framing including appending a frame header with a length value indicative of the length of a data packet; and said encapsulating including appending a cell header with a pointer value indicative of the start of an encapsulated data packet.

Claim 32

The method of claim 29 , further comprising: verifying a pointer value with a length value to ensure data integrity.

Claim 33

The method of claim 29 , wherein said encapsulating includes inserting a synchronization value according to MPEG-2 format in the cell header.

Claim 34

The method of claim 22 , wherein said multiplexing further comprises: inserting data cells from each of the plurality of data streams in a round-robin manner to form the multiplexed cell stream.

Claim 35

The method of claim 22 , wherein said multiplexing further comprises: assigning each of the plurality of data streams to at least one of a predetermined number of transport channels of the multiplexed cell stream; and inserting data cells from the plurality of data streams into assigned transport channels of the multiplexed cell stream.

Claim 36

The method of claim 22 , prior to said modulating the multiplexed cell stream, further comprising: encoding each data cell of the multiplexed cell stream.

Claim 37

The method of claim 34 , wherein said encoding comprises encoding each data cell according to a Reed-Solomon encoding scheme.

Claim 38

The method of claim 34 , prior to said encoding each data cell of the multiplexed cell stream, further comprising: scrambling each data cell of the multiplexed cell stream.

Claim 39

The method of claim 22 , wherein said modulating comprises modulating the multiplexed cell stream according to quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).

Claim 40

The method of claim 22 , further comprising: said multiplexing comprising multiplexing the data cells of the multiple data streams into a plurality of multiplexed cell streams; said modulating comprising modulating each of the plurality of multiplexed cell streams into a corresponding plurality of analog signals; up converting each of the plurality of analog signals into a corresponding one of a plurality of frequency channels; and combining the plurality of frequency channels into an electrical signal.

Claim 41

The method of claim 38 , further comprising: converting the electrical signal to an optical signal.

Claim 42

The method of claim 22 , wherein said transmitting further comprises: transmitting the optical signal to an optical node; converting by the optical node, the optical signal to an electrical signal; and transmitting, by the optical node, the electrical signal to the plurality of subscriber destinations via a coaxial cable.

Claim 43

A channel module that processes downstream digital information at a point of distribution to provide dedicated bandwidth for each of a plurality of subscriber destinations in an Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) network, comprising: an interface that receives packetized data; a cell processing engine, coupled to the interface, comprising: a switch that forwards the packetized data into a plurality of data streams; an encapsulator that encapsulates the packetized data in each data stream into data cells; and a channelizer that multiplexes the data cells of the plurality of data streams into a multiplexed stream of data cells, wherein the channelizer organizes the multiplexed stream of data cells into cell groups, each cell group including a plurality of time slots, and inserts data cells from each of the plurality of data streams according to assigned time slots; a modulator, coupled to the cell processing engine, that modulates the multiplexed stream of data cells into an analog signal; and a radio frequency (RF) transmitter network that up converts the analog signal into a frequency channel.

Claim 44

A channel module that processes downstream digital information at a point of distribution to provide dedicated bandwidth for each of a plurality of subscriber destinations in an Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) network, comprising: an interface that receives packetized data; a cell processing engine, coupled to the interface, comprising: a switch that forwards the packetized data into a plurality of data streams; an encapsulator that encapsulates the packetized data in each data stream into data cells; and a channelizer that multiplexes the data cells of the plurality of data streams into a multiplexed stream of data cells, wherein the channelizer organizes the multiplexed stream of data cells into cell groups, each cell group including a plurality of time slots, and inserts data cells from each of the plurality of data streams according to assigned time slots; a modulator, coupled to the cell processing engine, that modulates the multiplexed stream of data cells into an analog signal; and a radio frequency (RF) transmitter network that up converts the analog signal into a frequency channel.

Claim 45

The channel module of claim 41 , wherein the cell processing engine further comprises: a frame processor, coupled to the interface and the switch, that decapsulates the packetized data and re-assembles IP packets.

Claim 46

The channel module of claim 42 , wherein the encapsulator further comprises: a packet adaptation procedure (PAP) processor, coupled to the switch, that frames IP packets in each data stream with a frame header which includes a length value indicative of the size of each IP packet.

Claim 47

The channel module of claim 43 , wherein the encapsulator further comprises: a cell convergence procedure (CCP) processor, coupled to the PAP processor and the channelizer, that generates the data cells by segmenting framed IP packets and encapsulating each segment with a CCP header that includes a pointer value indicative of the location of a next frame header in a stream of data cells.

Claim 48

The channel module of claim 44 , wherein the CCP processor pads partial segments with at least one null value to create equal-sized data cells.

Claim 49

The channel module of claim 45 , wherein the CCP processor further generates null data cells if input packetized data is not available.

Claim 50

The channel module of claim 44 , wherein the CCP processor adds a synchronization value in accordance with MPEG-2 to the CCP header.

Claim 51

The channel module of claim 41 , further comprising: a memory, coupled to the channelizer, that stores a lookup table that maps each time slot to an address of a corresponding subscriber destination.

Claim 52

The channel module of claim 41 , wherein the cell processing engine inserts a delay between each data cell of the multiplexed stream of data cells while transmitting to the modulator.

Claim 53

The channel module of claim 41 , wherein the modulator further comprises: a randomizer; an encoder; and a quadrature amplitude modulator (QAM).

Claim 54

The channel module of claim 50 , wherein the encoder comprises a Reed-Solomon encoder.

Claim 55

The channel module of claim 50 , wherein the QAM performs QAM-256 modulation.

Claim 56

The channel module of claim 41 , further comprising: the cell processing engine providing a plurality of multiplexed data cell streams; a plurality of modulators, each receiving a corresponding one of the plurality of multiplexed data cell streams; and the RF transmitter network including a combiner that combines a plurality of frequency channels into a single electrical signal.

Claim 57

A packet switch router channel module that processes downstream digital information at a point of distribution to provide dedicated bandwidth for each of a plurality of subscriber destinations in an Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) network, comprising: a network interface module that terminates a network connection; a switch, that forwards packetized data from the network interface module; and at least one channel module, coupled to the switch, comprising: a switch interface that receives packetized data from the switch; a cell processing engine, coupled to the switch interface, that forwards the packetized data into a plurality of data streams, that encapsulates the packetized data in each data stream into data cells, and that multiplexes the data cells of the plurality of data streams into at least one multiplexed stream of data cells; wherein a channelizer organizes the multiplexed stream of data cells into cell groups, each cell group including a plurality of time slots, and inserts data cells from each of the plurality of data streams according to assigned time slots; a plurality of modulators, each coupled to the cell processing engine and each configured to modulate a corresponding multiplexed stream of data cells into an analog signal; and a radio frequency (RF) transmitter network, coupled to plurality of modulators, that up converts and combines a plurality of analog signals into a combined electrical signal for transmission.

Claim 58

A packet switch router channel module that processes downstream digital information at a point of distribution to provide dedicated bandwidth for each of a plurality of subscriber destinations in an Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) network, comprising: a network interface module that terminates a network connection; a switch, that forwards packetized data from the network interface module; and at least one channel module, coupled to the switch, comprising: a switch interface that receives packetized data from the switch; a cell processing engine, coupled to the switch interface, that forwards the packetized data into a plurality of data streams, that encapsulates the packetized data in each data stream into data cells, and that multiplexes the data cells of the plurality of data streams into at least one multiplexed stream of data cells; wherein a channelizer organizes the multiplexed stream of data cells into cell groups, each cell group including a plurality of time slots, and inserts data cells from each of the plurality of data streams according to assigned time slots; a plurality of modulators, each coupled to the cell processing engine and each configured to modulate a corresponding multiplexed stream of data cells into an analog signal; and a radio frequency (RF) transmitter network, coupled to plurality of modulators, that up converts and combines a plurality of analog signals into a combined electrical signal for transmission.