Patent ID: 7551606

Claim:
An apparatus for communicating isochronous and asynchronous data streams over an Internet protocol (IP) network, comprising: hardware coupled to a MAC and PHY layer of an IP protocol stack which is configured to directly packetize and depacketize isochronous streaming data without it passing through the layers above the MAC and PHY layers of the protocol stack, and configured with, a framing circuit configured for detecting beacon signals on the network in response to sequential communication cycles, an encoder configured for receiving streaming data from a source and encoding said streaming data into a digital packet-based format, an interface circuit configured for receiving encoded packets from said encoder and packetizing the data for isochronous transmission within a contention-free period within said communication cycles, said encoder configured for utilizing a MAC address to identify source and/or destination instead of an IP address; and a controller circuit configured for packetizing asynchronous data through the IP protocol stack in response to programming executing on a computer processor and which packetizes and depacketizes data for communication during contention periods which comprise remaining portions of said communication cycle that are not established in a contention-free period for communicating packets of isochronous streaming data; said controller circuit packetizes or depacketizes asynchronous data, wrapped with IP-based protocols, in response to executing an IP protocol stack comprising a physical layer and higher layers including at least the IP network layer; wherein both isochronous and asynchronous data are transmitted through the same physical transmitter interface.