273 results about "Media access controller" patented technology

Multi-mode WLAN / PAN MAC. A novel solution is presented in which a MAC (Medium Access Controller) is implemented that includes multiple functionality types. This MAC may include functionality supporting communication according to one or more of the IEEE 802.11 WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) related standards and also to one or more of the standards generated by the IEEE 802.15.3 PAN (Personal Area Network) working group. By providing this dual functionality of a multi-mode WLAN / PAN MAC, a communication device may adaptively change the manner in which it communicates with other communication devices. For example, in an effort to maximize throughput and overall efficiency of communication within a communication system, certain of the various devices may change from using the WLAN related standards to using the PAN related standards, and vice versa, based on any one or more of a variety of operational parameters including system configuration.

A network device includes a base band processor (BBP) receiver to detect a frame in a signal. A media access controller (MAC) receiver identifies a destination address in the frame. A power management module transitions the BBP receiver to an active mode based on an estimated energy level of the signal before transitioning the MAC receiver, a processor, a MAC transmitter, and a BBP transmitter to the active mode; transitions the MAC receiver to the active mode when the frame is present after transitioning the BBP receiver to the active mode and before transitioning the processor, the MAC transmitter, and the BBP transmitter to the active mode; and transitions the processor to the active mode based on the destination address after transitioning the BBP receiver and the MAC receiver to the active mode and before transitioning the MAC transmitter and the BBP transmitter to the active mode.

A Pseudo-Ethernet switch has a routing table that uses Ethernet media-access controller (MAC) addresses to route Ethernet packets through a switch fabric between an input port and an output port. However, the input port and output port have Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIE) interfaces that read and write PCI-Express packets to and from host-processor memories. When used in a blade system, host processor boards have PCIE physical links that connect to the PCIE ports on the Pseudo-Ethernet switch. The Pseudo-Ethernet switch does not have Ethernet MAC and Ethernet physical layers, saving considerable hardware. The switch fabric can be a cross-bar switch or can be a shared memory that stores Ethernet packet data embedded in the PCIE packets. Write and read pointers for a buffer storing an Ethernet packet in the shared memory can be passed from input to output port to perform packet switching.

A medium access controller for a multi-user network that assigns or changes the operating protocol of multiple upstream channels according to user loading, user status, and / or type of payload data transfers requested by the user or detected by the controller. One group of upstream channels utilizes a contention-only protocol for non-responding or off-line users, a second group utilizes a limited type polling protocol for users requiring only brief transfers of payload data, and a third group utilizes an exhaustive polling protocol user requiring large amounts of payload data transfers. Limited type polling provides low latency for quick response to accommodate multiple users, while exhaustive polling provides large data throughput at the expense of latency. Additional levels of limited or exhaustive polling may be employed to accommodate a larger variety of users needs. In addition, the channels themselves may be dynamically reclassified between and among contention and first and / or other level polling modes based on user loading and / or the nature and character of on-going data transfers in order to achieve maximum utilization of shared resources. After initiating a data transmission, the controller may also dynamically assign channels to a user based on detected changes in actual data transmissions. Thus, rules based on user activity level may be implemented to determine when a user is switched between channel groups. Essentially, the controller may effect switching of the users' upstream channels dynamically and intelligently on a packet-by-packet basis. Users may include modems and / or other terminal devices in a client-server or other data communication network.

A single integrated circuit is provided to enable the distribution of voice, video, and / or data services throughout a multimedia distribution network, such as a cable communications network. The single integrated circuit supports both digital and analog television services (e.g., PVR, pay-for-view, EPG, e-commerce, etc.) and computer data services (e.g., telephony, Internet browsing, facsimile, messaging, videoconferencing, etc.). In an embodiment, the single integrated circuit includes three components that constitute a DOCSIS™ compliant cable modem, namely an inband demodulator, an upstream burst modulator, a media access controller, and a microprocessor. In an embodiment, a digital out-of-band demodulator is also included. In another embodiment, the single integrated circuit integrates front-end and backend set-top box functionality in addition to DOCSIS™ cable modem functionality.

An apparatus comprising a media access controller (MAC), a configurable packet switch, and a network protocol stack in silicon. The network protocol stack may be configured to couple the media access controller to the configurable packet switch.

A network interface configures a plurality of physical layer devices and a corresponding plurality of network interface devices to allow for the communication of network data between the physical layer devices and corresponding link partners. At least one of the network interface devices is configured as a master device that communicates management information and autonegotiation results with the physical layer devices, while the other network interface devices do not. A configuration source, such as a central processing unit (CPU) or electronic erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), receives the autonegotiation results from the physical layer devices, through the master device, and configures the media access controllers (MACs) of each of the network interface devices in accordance with the autonegotiation results. This forces the MACs into their respective proper configurations even though the network interface devices that are not master devices do not receive the autonegotiation results directly from their corresponding physical layer devices.

The invention provides apparatus methods for avoiding channel collisions in Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRAN), A medium access controller (MAC) for switching a base station (BS) of a WRAN from a first channel to a second channel at a time t is provided. The MAC includes a switch time delay circuit for delaying said switching with respect to time t by a random delay time.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for a multi-entity wireless communication adapter, including at least a first connection module to communicate a first signal traffic corresponding to a basic service set station entity, a second connection module to communicate a second signal traffic corresponding to an entity that is not a basic service set station, a shared physical layer to process both the first and the second signal traffics, and a media access controller to control communication of the first and second signal traffics via first and second communication channels, respectively, according to a channel management scheme. Additional features are described and claimed.

A system and method for MAC-PHY rate matching combines carrier sense signal and rate matching techniques to implement close loop rate matching. An adapter entity responds to each carrier sense deferral to throttle the MAC until rate matching is achieved.

A device for connecting networks includes at least two communication channels, a first and a second medium access controller, a bus, and a configurable switch. Each of the communication channels is configured to support a transfer of data packets. The first and second medium access controller is configured to transmit and receive data packets. A data packet received by one of the medium access controllers is transmitted by the other of the medium access controllers. The configurable switch connects the first and second medium access controllers to one of the communication channels and the second medium access controller to the other of the communication channels. The connections between the medium access controllers and the communicatoin channels can be reconfigured statically or dynamically by the configurable switch. The communication channels may operate on different physical protocols. A conversion unit is provided to convert a packet received by one medium access controller in a first protocol to a second physical protocol. A packet processor is provided to extract a destination header from a data packet, append a destination header, and pass the destination header and data packet to the second medium access controller. The present invention can also be characterized as a method for statically and dynamically altering the connections of a medium access controller to one of at least two communication channels.

A method is provided for a remote device to monitor and communicate with a wireless network using cyclic beacons. The remote device receives a beacon, which beacon includes beacon information that defines a superframe. From the beacon information, the remote device determines whether the received beacon and the associated superframe are assigned to a network device or are unassigned. By receiving as many beacons as there are allowable devices in the network, the remote device can determine if the network is full. If the remote device runs through all of the beacons and all indicate that their associated superframes are assigned, then the remote device determines that the network is full and performs a network-full function. If the remote device receives a beacon that indicates that its associated superframe is unassigned, it determines that the network is not full and performs an association request during the unassigned superframe.

An access control method for a medium, a media access controller and a wireless communication system incorporating the method or the controller. In one embodiment, the method includes: (1) allowing first and second devices to employ a control channel defined in the medium to identify mutually available ones of a plurality of time and frequency dependent data communication elements defined in the medium and (2) thereafter granting the first and second devices access to the mutually available ones to enable data communication therebetween.

A method and system for maintaining synchronization in a home network is disclosed. The home network includes a host ethernet media access controller and an HPNA chip, where control frame and data frame pairs are transferred between the host ethernet media access controller (MAC) and the HPNA chip. The method and system include sending a null frame from the host ethernet MAC to the HPNA chip prior to the data frame, and recognizing the null frame on the HPNA chip as an indication that a next received frame will be the data frame, thereby maintaining synchronization between the control frame and the data frame pairs.

A method and system for accessing a remote real communication port (“COM port”) from a server blade in a server blade chassis by creating a virtual COM port in the server blade. A basic input / output system (BIOS) controller monitors an internal COM port in the server blade for communication traffic. Upon detecting the communication traffic, the BIOS controller reroutes the traffic to a virtual USB COM port created by the BIOS controller chipset. The virtual USB COM port directs the communication traffic to an internal universal serial bus (USB) device in the server blade. The USB device then forwards the traffic to an Ethernet media access controller (MAC) input / output (I / O) on a sideband channel to a remote system, which passes the communication traffic to a real COM port in the remote system.

The method includes that: obtains the local sending and receiving time stamp of the first data pack between the medium access controller and the physical layer receiver-sender; according to this local sending and receiving time stamp, calculates the error of the counting value of the clock counter and corrects this error. The invention also offers a device, system and distributed system to realize the clock synchronization. In this invention, the point to obtain the time stamp is between the medium access controller and the physical layer receiver-sender. This time stamp presents a more accurate parameter for the late process. The error is corrected more appropriately and the precision of the clock synchronization is raised.

The detection of devices with duplicate media access controller (MAC) addresses in a cable network. A cable modem (CM) having a MAC address is connected by the cable network to a cable modem termination system (CMTS) having a gateway interface address. A centralized storage of historical cable modem MAC address / giaddr pair data is used to identify cable modems (CM's) that report duplicate MAC addresses. A server tracks the CM MAC address / giaddr pair data of all CM requests that it receives and stores the MAC address / giaddr pair data into a datastore (such as a database). When a CM seeks to access the network, the server looks into the datastore to determine whether the CM MAC address of the CM has previously been stored with a different associated giaddr, which would imply that there are multiple CMs attached to different CMTSs where the CMs share the same MAC address. If such duplication is detected, appropriate remedial response is taken.

The detection of devices with duplicate media access controller (MAC) addresses in a cable network. A cable modem (CM) having a MAC address is connected by the cable network to a cable modem termination system (CMTS) having a gateway interface address. A centralized storage of historical cable modem MAC address / giaddr pair data is used to identify cable modems (CM's) that report duplicate MAC addresses. A server tracks the CM MAC address / giaddr pair data of all CM requests that it receives and stores the MAC address / giaddr pair data into a datastore (such as a database). When a CM seeks to access the network, the server looks into the datastore to determine whether the CM MAC address of the CM has previously been stored with a different associated giaddr, which would imply that there are multiple CMs attached to different CMTSs where the CMs share the same MAC address. If such duplication is detected, a appropriate remedial response is taken.

The detection of devices with duplicate media access controller (MAC) addresses in a cable network. A cable network device (CND) having a MAC address is connected by the cable network to a cable modem termination system (CMTS) having a gateway interface address. A centralized storage of historical cable modem MAC address / giaddr tuple data is used to identify CNDs that report duplicate MAC addresses. The cable network tracks the CND MAC address / giaddr tuple data of all CND requests that it receives and stores the MAC address / giaddr tuple data into a datastore (such as a database). When a CND seeks to access the network, the cable network looks into the datastore to determine whether the CND MAC address of the CND has previously been stored with a different associated giaddr, which would imply that there are multiple CNDs attached to different CMTSs where the CNDs share the same MAC address. If such duplication is detected, an appropriate remedial response is taken.

The present invention discloses a method and an apparatus for reducing power consumption in a network linking system. The apparatus comprises: a network linking interface device, including a media access controller (MAC), a gigabit physical layer (gigabit PHY), and a connector, through which the network linking interface device is coupled to an Ethernet by a network cable; a driving device, for driving and controlling the network linking interface device; and a load monitoring module, for monitoring the load for the network interface device so as to adjust the link speed according to the load. The method comprises steps of: determining the network linking interface device to be in an autonegotiation mode; performing autonegotiation; obtaining settings of a remote-end network linking interface device; linking at the highest usable link speed; enabling the load monitoring module; adjusting the settings of the network linking interface device according to the load of the network linking interface device; and performing autonegotiation again and linking at a proper link speed.

A system and method for processing wake-up signals during a sleep mode of a computer in a communications network to wake up sleeping components of the computer. The system includes an extended PHY (physical layer) device for receiving wake-up signals from a network medium, converting the wake-up signals into an additionally-encoded data packet, and generating a standardized wake-up packet based on the additionally-encoded data packet. The system also includes a MAC (media access controller) device, coupled to the extended PHY device, for receiving the standardized wake-up packet and generating a wake-up notification signal in response to the standardized wake-up packet to wake up the sleeping to components of the computer.

A single integrated circuit includes logic that supports 10BASE-T, 100BASE-T and 1000BASE-T transceiver functionality. The invention implements power management techniques by placing unused functionality in sleep mode. When the functionality is required later, then that functionality may be awakened again and used as required for the particular situation. A processor is able to interact with the media access controller (MAC), and the MAC then communicates with the physical layer (PHY). The invention is adaptable to various devices that are capable to operating using 10BASE-T, 100BASE-T and 1000BASE-T, even those the PHY of these devices may be somewhat different.

A cable modem termination system including a media access controller, at least one physical layer transceiver in connection with the media access controller for receiving and transmitting data, a CPU interface configured to communicate with a CPU, and a network functions module in communication with the media access controller and the CPU interface. The network functions module is configured to conduct flow management and classification functions upon packets traveling through the media access controller.

There is provided a media access controller with a power-save mode. Particularly, the media access controller of the present invention minimizes power loss by disabling clocks applied to all blocks, including CPU, of the media access controller during the power-save mode. The media access controller of the present invention includes: a power-save master for securing stable transmission / reception of data through bus by respective processors contained in the controller; a wake-up timer for noticing that the power-save mode is expired; a power control unit for determining whether to supply a power to a phase-locked loop, and a timing when clocks for the media access controller are applied and disabled; and a locktime register for storing a locktime when an output of the phase-locked loop is settled. Additionally, there is provided a method of efficiently changing the media access controller from the active mode to the power-save mode, and vice versa.

The present invention provides an application specific integrated circuit and a method of operation thereof. In one advantageous embodiment, the application specific integrated circuit includes a programmable logic core having an array of dynamically configurable arithmetic logic units. This particular embodiment further includes a network interface subsystem that includes a media access controller. The network interface is configured to employ a first portion of the programmable logic core that interfaces with the media access controller and that is configurable to process control data. This embodiment further includes a data transmission subsystem associated with a memory device, and configured to employ a second portion of the programmable logic core that stores received data from the network interface subsystem to the memory device and sends transmission data from the memory device to the network interface subsystem in response to an instruction from a host system.

A wireless access point with a centralized media access controller MAC (402) that enables multiple radios (404, 412, 408) to share MAC resources and implement load balancing and frequency control.

A wireless network is provided that uses pseudo-static time slots. These time slots remain fixed in time unless and until a network controller specifically changes them and the network controller subsequently receives confirmation of the change. Times and durations of the pseudo-static time slots are only changed in small steps as each relevant device in the network acknowledges the step. To aid in allowing full coverage even during a change of active devices, when a transmitter and receiver are moved to a new time slot, the receiver is set to listen to both the old and the new time slots until the transmitter confirms that it has made the switch.

A multi-mode handset apparatus may incorporate a radio element that is operative in accordance with a plurality of communication standards. A coexistence engine may arbitrate access to resources of the radio element by media access controllers and baseband components.

A network controller having a multiprotocol bus interface adapter coupled between a communication network and a computer bus, the adapter including a predictive time base generator; and a management bus controller adapted to monitor and manage preselected components coupled with one of the communication network and the computer bus. The management bus controller is adapted to employ an Alert Standard Format (ASF) specification protocol, a System Management Bus (SMBus) specification protocol, an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) specification protocol, a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), or a combination thereof. The network controller also includes a 10 / 100 / 1000BASE-T IEEE Std. 802.3-compliant transceiver and media access controller coupled with the communication network; a buffer memory coupled with the MAC, wherein the buffer memory includes one of a packet buffer memory, a frame buffer memory, a queue memory, and a combination thereof; and a transmit CPU and a receive CPU coupled with the multiprotocol bus interface adapter and the management bus controller. The network controller can be a single-chip VLSI device in an 0.18 micron CMOS VLSI implementation.