Abstract:
There is provided a DSL modem for integrating an analog voice band with DSL bands over a telephone line, where the analog voice band consists of 0-4 kHz frequency range, and the DSL bands consist of frequencies beyond 4 kHz. The DSL modem comprises a splitter configured to receive a telephone line signal from the telephone line and split the telephone line signal into an analog voice band signal and a DSL bands signal; a voice module configured to receive the analog voice band signal, digitize the analog voice band signal to generate digitized voice band signal and packetize digitized voice band signal into packetized voice band signal; a DSL module configured to receive the DSL bands signal and retrieve packetized DSL bands signal from DSL bands signal; and a multiplexer configured to multiplex packetized voice band signal and packetized DSL bands signal to generate multiplexed voice-DSL packets.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates generally to data and voice communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to DSL modems. 
         [0003]    2. Background Art 
         [0004]    Over the last several years, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service has experienced ever-increasing demand from the subscriber community. In addition, the need to support higher-bandwidth solutions such as on-demand video services has driven the need for the DSL technology to even a higher level of demand. 
         [0005]    By way of introduction, DSL technology is a copper loop transmission technology that converts existing copper telephone wire into a high-speed data highway with broadband speeds. xDSL is a generic name for the various versions of DSL technologies, such as ADSL (Asymmetric DSL), HDSL (High bit-rate DSL), RADSL (Rate Adaptive DSL), etc. DSL technology achieves broadband speeds over the ordinary phone wire. Although traditional analog telephone conversations, faxes and modem transmissions are limited to a 3,400 hz analog voice channel with a maximum possible modem speed of 56 kbps, DSL transmits a broader range of frequencies over existing copper telephone wire to achieve speeds over 30 times faster than a 56k modem. This significant increase in speed is possible because DSL uses a dedicated secure copper wire circuit that does not go through analog telephone switching equipment and because digital data (not an analog signal) is being transmitted. 
         [0006]    Traditional phone service, namely “Plain Old Telephone Service” or “POTS” connects a home or small business to a telephone company office over copper wires that are wound around each other and called twisted pair. Regular voice signals travel over phone lines at frequencies ranging from 0 kHz to 4 kHz. Standard modems or analog modems use the same range of frequencies as voice, and communicate data in analog form over phone lines. 
         [0007]    In contrast, DSL uses frequencies between 25 kHz and 1 MHz. DSL is a technology that assumes digital data does not require change into analog form and back. Digital data is transmitted to a host computer directly as digital data and this allows the phone company to use a much wider bandwidth for transmitting data to the host computer. Meanwhile, the telephone signal can be separated into voice band frequencies of 0-4 kHz and DSL bands frequencies of higher than 4 kHz using a filter that is typically referred to as a splitter, so that the voice band may still be used to transmit an analog signal concurrently with using DSL bands. 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  illustrates conventional DSL system  100  for installation at homes or offices. As shown, DSL system  100  includes splitter  105  that receives telephone line signal  102 . Splitter  105  is a filter that splits telephone line signal  102  into voice band signal  107  that carries frequencies of 0-4 kHz and DSL bands signal  109  that carries DSL bands frequencies of higher than 4 kHz. As further shown in  FIG. 1 , voice band signal  107  is communicated between splitter  105  and telephone  115 , and DSL bands signal  109  is communicated between splitter  105  and DSL modem  110 . 
         [0009]    A great drawback of conventional DSL system  100  is that it fails to integrate analog voice and DSL communications, so that it can support analog voice and DSL communications in a single device. Rather, conventional DSL system  100  requires the user to use telephone  115  in addition to computer  120  for answering incoming calls via voice band  107 . 
         [0010]    A solution that present systems offer for having a fully integrated telephone usage from computer  120  is to include a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone system in computer  120 . In other words, in addition to data, voice communication is also supported through DSL bands  109 . However, such solution requires expensive infrastructures, such as routers, cabling, VoIP phone equipment, VoIP-enabled APBX, etc., which are not economical for home and small office applications that already have conventional telephone equipment that utilize regular phone lines. 
         [0011]    Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing methods and systems that can offer more affordable and less complicated alternatives to conventional solutions for integrating analog voice communications and DSL modems. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0012]    There are provided systems and methods for providing DSL modems with analog voice band support, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims. 
     
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0013]    The features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, wherein: 
           [0014]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a conventional DSL system; 
           [0015]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating a DSL system, according to one embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0016]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating a DSL system, according to another embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0017]      FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating an analog voice and DSL communication method for processing information received from the telephone, according to one embodiment of the present invention; and 
           [0018]      FIG. 5  is a flow diagram illustrating an analog voice and DSL communication method for processing information to be transmitted over the telephone, according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0019]    Although the invention is described with respect to specific embodiments, the principles of the invention, as defined by the claims appended herein, can obviously be applied beyond the specifically described embodiments of the invention described herein. Moreover, in the description of the present invention, certain details have been left out in order to not obscure the inventive aspects of the invention. The details left out are within the knowledge of a person of ordinary skill in the art. 
         [0020]    The drawings in the present application and their accompanying detailed description are directed to merely example embodiments of the invention. To maintain brevity, other embodiments of the invention which use the principles of the present invention are not specifically described in the present application and are not specifically illustrated by the present drawings. It should be borne in mind that, unless noted otherwise, like or corresponding elements among the figures may be indicated by like or corresponding reference numerals. 
         [0021]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating DSL system  200 , according to one embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment of  FIG. 2 , splitter  205  is a filter located outside of DSL modem  210  for splitting telephone line signal  202  into voice band signal  207  that carries frequencies of 0-4 kHz and DSL bands signal  209  that carries DSL bands frequencies of higher than 4 kHz. As further shown in  FIG. 2 , voice band signal  207  is communicated between splitter  205  and telephone  215 , and DSL bands signal  209  is communicated between splitter  205  and DSL modem  210 . Also, voice band signal  207  is communicated between splitter  205  and voice module  230  of DSL modem  210 . In operation, splitter  205  receives telephone line signal  202  over the twisted pair of copper wires (not shown) from the Central Office (CO) via RJ-11 connection  203  or phone line jack. After splitting telephone line signal  202  into voice band signal  207  and DSL bands signal  209 , voice band signal  207  is communicated to telephone  215  via RJ-11 connection  206  and DSL bands signal  209  is communicated to DSL modem  210  via RJ-11 connection  204  and RJ-11 connection  241 . In contrast to conventional DSL systems, voice band signal  207  is also communicated to DSL modem  210  via RJ-11 connection  204  and RJ-11 connection  208 . 
         [0022]    As shown in  FIG. 2 , DSL modem  210  includes voice module  230 , DSL module  240  and multiplexer/demultiplexer  250 . DSL module  240  operates similar to conventional DSL modem  110  for processing DSL bands signal  209  to retrieve the data embedded in DSL bands signal  209 , e.g. data packetized according to Internet Protocol (IP) format, and to send the IP DSL data packets to multiplexer/demultiplexer  250 . Voice module  230  also receives voice band signal  207  and digitizes voice band signal  207  using a codec or analog-to-digital converter (not shown) to generate digital samples of voice band signal  207 . Voice module  230  then packetizes digital samples of voice band signal  207  using the IP format and transmits IP voice packets to multiplexer/demultiplexer  250 . Multiplexer/demultiplexer  250  multiplexes IP DSL data packets and IP voice packets and sends multiplexed IP voice-DSL packets to host or computer  220  over communication line  212  via RJ-45 connection  213  or computer line jack. Computer  220  includes application software or hardware modules (not shown) that can demultiplex IP voice-DSL packets to separate IP voice packets and IP DSL data packets. Computer  220  is also capable of processing the IP voice packets to extract caller identification information from the IP voice packets, as known in the art, and further convert the IP voice packets to an analog voice signal using a codec or digital-to-analog converter (not shown) for playing by a speaker. According to this embodiment, computer  220  may alert the user about the incoming call and/or display the caller identification number of the incoming call and determine whether the user would like to answer or reject the incoming call. For example, computer  220  may include a look-up table including caller identification numbers, names, photos, etc., such that when the caller identification number is extracted from the voice signal, it can be displayed on the screen in a pop-up window. Further, if the user is unavailable or rejects the incoming call, computer  220  may function as an answering machine and record a message. Generally, computer  220  may also function as a recording device and record voice communications in the voice band. The incoming call may be answered by telephone  215 , or voice module  230  may include additional data access arrangement (DAA) circuitry for answering the incoming call by taking the telephone line off-hook. 
         [0023]    If the incoming call is answered, computer  220  also receives user&#39;s analog voice signal via a computer microphone and digitizes user&#39;s analog voice signal using a codec or analog-to-digital converter (not shown) to generate digital samples of user&#39;s analog voice signal. Computer  220  then packetizes digital samples of user&#39;s analog voice signal using the IP format and multiplexes IP voice packets with user&#39;s IP DSL data packets and sends multiplexed IP voice-DSL packets to DSL modem  210  over communication line  212  via RJ-45 connection  213 . Multiplexer/demultiplexer  250  of DSL modem  210  receives the multiplexed IP voice-DSL packets over communication line  212  and demultiplexes IP voice-DSL packets to separate IP voice packets and IP DSL data packets. Multiplexer/demultiplexer  250  then routs IP voice packets to voice modules  230  and routs IP DSL data packets to DSL module  240  for further processing. Next, voice module  230  depacketizes IP voice packets to obtain digitized voice samples and converts the digitized voice samples to an analog voice signal using a codec or digital-to-analog converter (not shown) for transmission over telephone line signal  202  through voice band signal  207  via RJ-11 connection  208  and RJ-11 connection  206 . Also, DSL module  240  processes data within the IP DSL data packets similar to conventional DSL modem  110  and transmits the DSL data over telephone line signal  202  through DSL bands signal  209  via RJ-11 connection  241  and RJ-11 connection  204 . 
         [0024]    Turning to  FIG. 3 , a block diagram of DSL system  300  is illustrated, according to another embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment of  FIG. 3 , splitter  305  is a filter located inside of DSL modem  310  for splitting telephone line signal  302  into voice band signal  307  that carries frequencies of 0-4 kHz and DSL bands signal  309  that carries DSL bands frequencies of higher than 4 kHz. As further shown in  FIG. 3 , voice band signal  307  is communicated between splitter  305  and telephone  315 , and DSL bands signal  309  is communicated between splitter  305  and DSL module  340 . Also, voice band signal  307  is communicated between splitter  305  and voice module  330 . 
         [0025]    The operation of DSL modem  310  is now described in conjunction with  FIG. 4 , which illustrates communication method  400  for communicating information by DSL modem  310  to computer  320 , according to one embodiment of the present invention. At step  405 , DSL modem  310  receives telephone line signal  302  over the twisted pair of copper wires (not shown) from the CO via RJ-11 connection  303 . At step  410 , splitter  305  receives telephone line signal  302  and splits telephone line signal  302  into voice band signal  307  and DSL bands signal  309 , where voice band signal  307  is communicated to telephone  315  via RJ-11 connection  308  and to voice module  330 . Next, at step  415 , DSL module  340  operates similar to conventional DSL modem  110  and processes DSL bands signal  309  to retrieve the data embedded in DSL bands signal  309 , e.g. data packetized according to Internet Protocol (IP) format, and to send the IP DSL data packets to multiplexer/demultiplexer  350 . 
         [0026]    At step  420 , voice module  330  receives voice band signal  307  and digitizes voice band signal  307  using a codec or analog-to-digital converter (not shown) to generate digital samples of voice band signal  307 . Voice module  330  then packetizes digital samples of voice band signal  307  using the IP format and transmits IP voice packets to multiplexer/demultiplexer  350 . At this point, in step  425 , multiplexer/demultiplexer  350  multiplexes IP DSL data packets and IP voice packets. Next, at step  430 , multiplexer/demultiplexer  350  sends multiplexed IP voice-DSL packets to host or computer  320  over communication line  312  via RJ-45 connection  313 . At step  435 , computer  320  demultiplexes IP voice-DSL packets to separate IP voice packets and IP DSL data packets. In one embodiment, computer  220  processes the IP voice packets and extracts caller identification information from the IP voice packets, as known in the art. Further, at step  440 , computer  320  converts the IP voice packets to an analog voice signal using a codec or digital-to-analog converter (not shown) for playing by a speaker. For example, computer  320  may alert the user about the incoming call and/or display the caller identification number of the incoming call to determine whether the user would like to answer or reject the incoming call. Also, computer  320  may include a look-up table including caller identification numbers, names, photos, etc., such that when the caller identification is extracted from the voice signal, it can be displayed on the screen in a pop-up window. Further, if the user is unavailable or rejects the incoming call, computer  320  may function as an answering machine and record a message. Generally, computer  320  may also function as a recording device and record voice communications in the voice band. The incoming call may be answered by telephone  315 , or voice module  330  may include additional data access arrangement (DAA) circuitry for answering the incoming call by taking the telephone line off-hook. 
         [0027]    Now, turning to  FIG. 5 , it illustrates communication method  500  for communicating information from computer  320  to DSL modem  310 , and processing by DSL modem  310 , according to one embodiment of the present invention. If computer  320  answers the incoming call, at step  505 , computer  320  receives user&#39;s analog voice signal via a computer microphone and, at step  510 , computer  320  digitizes user&#39;s analog voice signal using a codec or analog-to-digital converter (not shown) to generate digital samples of user&#39;s analog voice signal. Next, at step  515 , computer  320  packetizes digital samples of user&#39;s analog voice signal using the IP format. At step  520 , computer  320  multiplexes IP voice packets with user&#39;s IP DSL data packets and sends multiplexed IP voice-DSL packets to DSL modem  310  over communication line  312  via RJ-45 connection  313 . At step  525 , multiplexer/demultiplexer  350  of DSL modem  310  receives the multiplexed IP voice-DSL packets over communication line  312  and, at step  530 , demultiplexes IP voice-DSL packets to separate IP voice packets and IP DSL data packets and routs IP voice packets to voice modules  330  and IP DSL data packets to DSL module  340  for further processing. At step  535 , voice module  330  depacketizes IP voice packets to obtain digitized voice samples and converts the digitized voice samples to an analog voice signal using a codec or digital-to-analog converter (not shown) for transmission over telephone line signal  302  through voice band signal  307  via RJ-11 connection  303 , at step  540 . Also, at step  545 , DSL module  340  processes data within the IP DSL data packets similar to conventional DSL modem  110  and, at step  550 , transmits the DSL data over telephone line signal  302  through DSL bands signal  309  via RJ-11 connection  303 . 
         [0028]    Thus, various embodiments of the present invention, as described above, can integrate analog voice communications and DSL modems, and offer many advantages and applications. For example, in a small office environment, an insurance agent may receive analog voice calls via its broadband DSL modem and obtain caller identification information to access internal or online database based on caller identification information to provide faster quotes and improve customer service. Similarly, stock broker terminals may receive analog voice calls via their broadband DSL modems and obtain caller identification information to access customer records based on caller identification information for stock transactions. Also, an application for the integrated analog voice line and DSL modems may be found in the medical industry, where a nurse help line may receive analog voice calls via a broadband DSL modem and obtain caller identification information to access patient&#39;s records based on caller identification information to provide medical assistance. 
         [0029]    From the above description of the invention it is manifest that various techniques can be used for implementing the concepts of the present invention without departing from its scope. Moreover, while the invention has been described with specific reference to certain embodiments, a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that changes can be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention. For example, it is contemplated that the circuitry disclosed herein can be implemented in software, or vice versa. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. It should also be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein, but is capable of many rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions without departing from the scope of the invention.