Multiplex communications – Channel assignment techniques – Details of circuit or interface for connecting user to the...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-08
2004-03-09
Olms, Douglas (Department: 2661)
Multiplex communications
Channel assignment techniques
Details of circuit or interface for connecting user to the...
C709S232000, C709S233000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06704323
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for configuring subscriber equipment with a network interface unit for adapting the subscriber equipment to a terminal unit of a digital network when the data rate of the terminal unit can be adaptively adjusted dependent on the actual transmission conditions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern telecommunications networks have digital extension networks at their disposal in the subscriber terminal region, which networks connect one or more local exchanges to subscriber equipment via subscriber lines with the aid of terminal units. From the standpoint of the extension network, such subscriber equipment is subscriber terminal equipment, though it can, for example, be realized at the subscriber side as a switching system or a multiplexer having several different terminal devices or terminal device applications, respectively. Such terminal device applications can be audio telephony, video telephony, data network applications or Internet applications, for example. They can also be a matter of what is known as a set top box for converting digital video or sound information, which can be connected to an extension line network either directly or via switching equipment. It is also possible to transmit both network data and packet data between the subscriber equipment and the extension line network as needed. Here, the transmission bandwidth demand—that is, the bitrate to be transmitted between the allocated terminal unit of the extension line network and the network interface unit of the subscriber equipment—is dependent on the bandwidth demand of the currently active terminal device applications, particularly on the type of these applications and the number of simultaneously active applications.
Extension line networks were originally designed for transmitting low-frequency information signals such as in analog telecommunications or when using narrowband services. The bitrate that is transmitted on the subscriber side in the extension line network is 2×64 kBit/s for 2 B channels (payload channels) plus 16 kBit/s for a D channel (control channel) for narrowband ISDN, for example, which is specified such that the longest available extension lines can still be used. But at the same time, with shorter extension lines a large part of the maximum allowably transmittable bitrate—that is, the maximum bandwidth in the extension line network region—goes unused. The damping factor for symmetric dual wires of copper extension lines, which limits the range of the digital signal transmission, rises with line length. In general, the shorter the length of a subscriber line, the higher the bitrate that can be transmitted thereover. Extension line networks designed for narrowband services are thus also suitable for transmitting broad band services. Methods have appeared in recent years with which the existing copper cables in the extension line network can be used for transmitting digital information signals. These include what is known as the ADSL method, (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line), and what is known as the HDSL method (High Bitrate Digital Subscriber Line).
German Patent Document DE 43 43 982 describes an extension line network with subscriber lines for transmitting digital information signals, in which bit patterns are sent via a subscriber line by a local exchange, and, after being reflected at the subscriber and sent back again, the bit patterns are evaluated, in order to establish the maximum possible bitrate per transmission line. The received bit patterns are then evaluated in the exchange. The maximum possible bitrate is then specified depending on the results. As a method for transmitting information at the subscriber side in such subscriber line networks, the article “Modelling of a Multi-Queue Polling System with Arbitrary Server Interrupts for the Idle-Slot-Concatenation Packet Switching Principle in a Hybrid CS/PS Node”(M. N. Huber and P. J. Kühn,
Proceedings of the
12
th
International Teletraffic Congress,
Torino, 1988) teaches the provision of an information transport frame that is divided into time slots of equal size. Each of these time slots is occupied:either by switching system data (CS data: Circuit Switching) or packet data (PS data: Packet Switching), all time slots that are not occupied by switching system data being combined into a residual packet data transport channel (Idle Slot Concatenation). The traffic type by which the residual packet data transport channel is occupied, for instance ATM or LAN/Ethernet, is determined by the network configuration, particularly by the packet data protocol that can be processed by the protocol evaluating equipment at the subscriber side.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to lay out how to configure subscriber equipment for a more flexible use of extension line networks.
This object and others are achieved by a method for automatically configuring subscriber equipment with a network interface unit for adapting the subscriber equipment to a terminal unit of a digital network, whose data rate can be adaptively adjusted dependent on the actual transmission conditions in the digital network, with the steps of:
determining the current maximum possible data rate between the network interface unit and terminal unit with the aid of an exchange of messages between these units;
comparing the determined current maximum possible data rate to a value, which is stored in the subscriber equipment, of a previously current maximum possible data rate;
storing the determined current maximum possible data rate in the subscriber equipment if this comparison reveals a deviation;
comparing the determined current maximum possible data rate to the data rate demand of currently existing connections of terminal device applications of the subscriber equipment; and
configuring the determined current maximum possible data rate as the maximum allowable data rate of the network interface unit if the; data rate demand of currently existing connections does not exceed the determined current maximum possible data rate. The objects of the invention are also achieved and by subscriber equipment with a data processing system that has a processing unit, a storage unit, and a system bus, for purposes of realizing a terminal device application, and that has a network interface unit for purposes of adapting the system bus to a terminal unit of a digital network, the data rate of which can be adaptively adjusted dependent on the actual transmission conditions; the subscriber equipment having means for determining the current maximum possible data rate between the network interface unit and the digital network terminal unit, means for storing a value of the maximum possible data rate, means for comparing the stored value of the maximum possible data rate to the value of the determined current maximum possible data rate, means for configuring a maximum allowable data rate of the network interface unit, and means for denying a connection set-up request of the terminal device application if the data rate demand of this connection that is to be set up exceeds the maximum allowable data rate.
An inventive method serves for the automatic configuring of subscriber equipment that has a network interface unit for adapting the subscriber equipment to a terminal unit of a digital network, whereby the data rate of this network interface unit is adaptively adjusted dependent on the actual transmission conditions. Such a method has the steps:
Determining the actual maximum possible data rate between network interface unit and terminal unit, or another unit of the extension line network, respectively, with the aid of a message exchange between network interface unit and terminal unit;
comparing the determined actual maximum possible data rate to a value, which is stored in the subscriber equipment, of a previously current maximum possible data rate;
storing the determined current maximum possible data rate in the subscriber equipment if this compariso
McCormick Paulding & Huber LLP
Olms Douglas
Pizarro Ricardo M.
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