Patent ID: 9184967
Filing Date: 2015-11-10
Classification: H04B,H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) frame generation method operative in a power line communications (PLC) network including one or more MIMO PLC devices and one or more legacy PLC devices operating according to a legacy PLC data transmission standard using an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation scheme, the PLC network being operative to support a MIMO channel having N T transmit phases or ports and N R receive ports, the MIMO frame generation method comprising: generating at a first transmit port of a MIMO PLC device a legacy preamble (L-Preamble) portion compliant with the legacy PLC data transmission standard; providing a first Frame Control Header (FCH) portion following the L-Preamble portion, wherein the FCH portion includes legacy FCH data and MIMO-compliant FCH data; providing a first MIMO-compliant preamble (M-Preamble) portion following the FCH portion, the first M-Preamble portion comprising a plurality of components, wherein each component includes a SYNCM symbol and associated guard interval, collectively referred to as S providing a first payload data portion following the first M-Preamble portion; and at remaining transmit ports of the MIMO PLC device, generating L-Preamble portions and FCH portions that are cyclic-shifted by a select amount (CS-L), which are followed by corresponding M-Preamble portions and respective payload data portions that are cyclic-shifted by a select amount (CS-M), wherein operations at the transmit ports of the MIMO PLC device are substantially synchronized in time domain with respect to generating a MIMO frame.