Patent Publication Number: US-2004057563-A1

Title: TCP/IP network system constructing by power lines

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] 1. Field of the Invention  
       [0002] The present invention relates to local network system, and particularly to a TCP/IP network system constructing by power lines.  
       [0003] 2. Background of the Invention  
       [0004] With the advance of computer industry, the computer and other related devices are widely and massively used at homes or offices. Thus, there are many signal lines (such as network lines or telephone lines) distributed indoors so that the larger space is necessary to accommodate the lines.  
       [0005] In general, power lines are widely used in home and offices. Thereby, the power lines and network lines are massively used indoors. Thereby, there is a demand for combining the use of the power lines and network lines so as to save the space occupied.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0006] Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a TCP/IP network system constructing by power lines, wherein power lines are used to replace network lines and telephone lines to construct a local network.  
       [0007] Another object of the present invention is to provide a TCP/IP network system constructing by power lines, wherein the local network is formed without changing the indoor line structure.  
       [0008] To achieve above objects, the present invention provide a TCP/IP network system constructing by power lines, which comprises: a plurality of embedded data processors, wherein one of which is used as a central processing node connected to an external broadband network for processing network packages from the external broadband network, and the other embedded data processors are used as network nodes, each connected to a computer device or a speech device for processing data packages from the computer device or speech package from the speech device; and a plurality of modems, each connected to one embedded data processor and a power line, wherein the embedded data processor is connected through power lines so as to form an local network, and the packages from the embedded data processor is modulated and demodulated for being transferred through the power lines.  
       [0009] The various objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the appended drawing. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0010]FIG. 1 shows a systematic structure of the present invention.  
     [0011]FIG. 2 is a function block diagram of the network nodes of the embedded data processor of the present invention.  
     [0012]FIG. 3 shows the function block diagram of the central control node of the embedded data processor of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
     [0013] One preferred embodiment of the TCP/IP network system constructing by power lines in accordance with the present invention will be described hereinafter, in which an Ethernet constructed from power lines is used as an example. Referring to FIG. 1, the TCP/IP network system constructing by power lines of the present invention is formed by a plurality of embedded data processor  1 , and a plurality of modems  21 ,  22  and  23 , power lines  3 , computer devices  41 ,  42  and speech devices  51  and  52 . The embedded data processor  1  has two types, one is a central processing node  11  and the other is a network node  12  and  13 .  
     [0014] The central processing node  11  is externally connected to an external broadband network  6  and internally connected other Ethernet device through the modem  21  by a power line  3  so that the center control node  21  is used as a communication device between the external broadband network  6  and Ethernet. The external broadband network  6  may be one of public switching telephone network (PSTN), integrated service digital network (ISDN), broadband cable network, digital service loop (xDSL), or optical fiber communication network.  
     [0015] Other network nodes  12  and  13  serve to connect the computer devices  41 ,  42  or the speech devices  51 ,  52 . The computer devices  41 ,  42  or the speech devices  51 ,  52  can be connected to the computer devices or speech devices in Ethernet through the network nodes  12  and  13  and the modems  22  and  23  or connected to the external broadband network  6  or the speech device through the center control node  21 . In this embodiment, the speech devices  51  and  52  are preferably IP phones.  
     [0016] The modems  21 ,  22  and  23  have plugs for being inserted into the receptacle so as to be connected to the power line  3 . The central processing node  21  has a broadband network unit and speech processing unit  111  for processing the network packages (data or speech package, or package containing data and speech) through the external broadband network  6  for processing signals demodulated from the modem  21  by using network protocol.  
     [0017] Referring to FIG. 2, the structure of the network node  12  is illustrated. The network node  12  has a network protocol processing unit  123 , a speech processing unit  124 , and a control unit  121 . The control unit  121  further includes a digital signal processor  1222  and a microprocessor  1211 . The microprocessor  1211  serves for controlling the network protocol processing unit  123  and the speech processing unit  124  so that the network protocol processing unit  123  processes the signals from the computer device  41  by using Ethernet protocol and encodes the speech from the speech device  52  by using speech processing unit  124 . The processed data packages and speech packages are sent to the control unit  121  for being converted to Ethernet packages. The processed speech packages are sent to the control unit  121 . The digital signal processor  1222  serves to process the signals to have a preset format.  
     [0018] Then, the Ethernet packages are sent to the modem  22  for demodulation. Thereby, the packages are sent to other device of the Ethernet through the power line  3  or sent to the central processing node  11  through the power line  3 , and then is sent to the external broadband network  6 . FIG. 3 shows the structure of the central processing node  11 , which has a structure similar as the network node  12 . The central processing node  11  further has a broadband network accessing unit  31  which is connected to the external broadband network  6  for processing the network packages transferred to the external broadband network  6 .  
     [0019] Besides, the network node  12  can process the Ethernet packages from the power line  3 . The Ethernet network package is sent to the modem  22  through the power line  3  for demodulating, and then is sent to the network node  12  for classifying the packages into speech packages or data packages. Next, the speech packages are processed through the digital signal processor  1222  and the speech processing unit  124  to be transformed into speech signals. Then, the signal is sent to the speech device  51 . The data package is sent to the network protocol processing unit  123  for processing and then is sent to the computer device  41 .  
     [0020] The present invention is thus described. It will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the present invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.