Patent ID: 8073015
Filing Date: 2011-12-06
Classification: H04B

Abstract:
1. A communication method for a power line communication system comprising a first network including first devices employing a first PHY for power line communication and a second network including second devices employing a second PHY for power line communication, said first and second PHYs being different from each other so as to cause said first devices to be non-interoperable with said second devices with respect to full power line communication, said first and second devices employing a common signaling scheme (CSS) to enable exchange of information therebetween regarding their presence in said power line communication system to allow resource sharing, said method comprising: (a) detecting at least one common signal transmitted in accordance with said CSS scheme from at least one first device of said first devices in a first time window; and (b) determining a specific TDMA structure which defines respective allocation of said PHYs to respective time slots, wherein the respective PHY's are configured to establish communication during the respective time slots based on the common signals detected in step (a), in a manner to allow at least partial overlap of the respective time slots allocated to the first PHY with the respective time slots allocated to the second PHY in the event that a signal level of the common signal is less than a given signal level, and to prevent overlap of the respective time slots allocated to the first PHY with the respective time slots allocated to the second PHY in the event that a signal level of the common signal is equal to or more than the given signal level.