Patent ID: 8913629

Claim:
A method of managing coexistence of devices on a shared power line communications medium, the method comprising: determining a first signal detection window of a plurality of signal detection windows, the first signal detection window assigned to a first system category of a plurality of system categories, wherein the first signal detection window is a region of time that periodically occurs based on a given number of line cycles of the shared power line communications medium; transmitting, within a first field of the first signal detection window, a first signal with a first phase vector; transmitting, within a second field of the first signal detection window, a second signal with either the first phase vector or a second phase vector, wherein transmission of the first phase vector in both the first field and the second field of the first signal detection window is predefined to indicate presence of at least one device of the first system category and request for partial use of bandwidth of the shared power line communications medium, wherein transmission of the first phase vector in the first field of the first signal detection window and the second phase vector in the second field of the first signal detection window is predefined to indicate presence of at least one device of the first system category and request for full use of bandwidth of the shared power line communications medium; monitoring the plurality of signal detection windows; and determining a first network status based on said monitoring the plurality of signal detection windows, wherein the first network status is that at least one device of a second system category of the plurality of system categories is within interference range if a signal is detected within a second signal detection window and that at least one device of a third system category of the plurality of system categories is within interference range if a signal is detected within a third signal detection window of the plurality of signal detection windows.