Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Remote data accessing – Accessing a remote server
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-27
2001-09-25
Harrell, Robert B. (Department: 2152)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Remote data accessing
Accessing a remote server
Reexamination Certificate
active
06295554
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material, which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cable modems and, more particularly, with communicating with a cable modem with telephony return.
B. Description of Related Art and Advantages of the Invention
The growth of the cable television (CATV) industry has provided an infrastructure of high frequency coaxial (HFC) cables connected to the homes of subscribers. This availability and the high bandwidth offered by HFC cables make the cable infrastructure a desirable medium for data networks. Cable modems permit users of data networks to exploit the high-speed capabilities of HFC cables using data over cable services.
Cable modems may be bi-directional or telephony return (Telco-return) cable modems. Bi-directional modems connect to HFC networks with the capability of sending and receiving data over the coaxial cable. Because CATV has been implemented as a, uni-directional communication system, bi-directional cable modems are not widely available. Telco-return cable modems use the uni-directional communication as a downstream (data sent to the subscriber) connection, but add a telephone (PSTN) connection as an upstream (data sent from the subscriber) connection.
Telco-return cable modems provide a downstream connection with data rates as high as 30 MHz, which is much higher than the data rates available over the PSTN upstream connection. Many applications make advantageous use of telco-return cable modems. For example, web browsers, such as Netscape™, involve high-volume data transfers from the web site to the user and a low-volume data transfer from the user to the web site. Moreover, telco-return cable modem connections may be implemented easily using the present CATV cable infrastructure.
One problem with the telco-rectum cable modem is that the use of two different interfaces (a coaxial cable interface and a telephone interface) complicates the development of drivers and other software components that use the cable modems. Facilities are available in operating systems to implement drivers according to device type. The facilities typically use the same type of device for sending and receiving data and implement only one driver for each device. In applications that communicate over the Internet, only one IP address is needed for each driver. Because Telco-return cable modems use two types of devices, applications may have to set up two different drivers for one cable modem connection. This increases the complexity of applications because it requires applications to maintain two drivers for each cable modem connection. In addition, it makes it difficult to a single IP address for one cable modem connection.
It would be desirable to communicate with the cable modem as one driver. It would be further desirable to have the same IP address in the upstream and downstream directions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above, a system in a computer is provided for communicating with a cable modem having a radio frequency (RF) interface for receiving data and a public switched telephone network (PSTN) connection for sending data. The system includes a cable modem driver for receiving data from a computer application. The data received by the cable modem driver includes downstream data received from the RF interface and a upstream data for sending over said PSTN connection. A protocol driver is included for connecting the computer application to the cable modem driver. The protocol driver sends upstream and downstream data to the cable modem driver. A modem driver sends upstream data via the PSTN connection.
An inner protocol driver is connected to the cable modem driver. The inner protocol driver receives upstream data from the cable modem driver. The inner protocol driver is connected to the modem driver for sending the upstream data to the modem driver.
In another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for sending and receiving data over a cable modem having a radio frequency (RF) interface for receiving data and a public switched telephone network connection for transmitting data. The method includes the step of initializing a modem driver for communicating send commands to the PSTN connection. Upstream data is sent for transmission to the cable modem driver. The cable modem driver sends the upstream data to an inner protocol driver. The inner protocol driver sends the upstream data to the modem driver.
In another aspect of the present invention, a method is included for providing a program interface to a cable modem with telephony return. A protocol driver is provided for connecting an application to a network and a standard modem service for connecting the protocol driver to a public-switched telephone network (PSTN) interface. A modem driver is configured using the standard modem service. A cable modem driver is provided for communicating with a radio frequency interface for receiving downstream data from a high frequency coaxial cable (HFC) and for receiving upstream from the application. An inner protocol driver is provided for receiving upstream data from the cable modem driver and for sending the upstream data to the modem driver.
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“Baseline Pr
Karadogan Baris
Nunns Andrew
Robinson Philip Thomas
3Com Corporation
Harrell Robert B.
McDonnell & Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff
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