Patent ID: 7843145

Claim:
A method of communicating data on an AC power line carrying an AC power signal comprising: (a) in accordance with the data to be communicated, periodically injecting a high frequency signal on the AC power line so that high frequency tone bursts are superimposed on the AC power signal; (b) detecting the presence and absence of the tone bursts on the AC power line signal; (e) decoding the detected presence and absence of the tone bursts to extract the data; wherein the data communicated across the power line is represented by a sequence of first and second bit values; and wherein the step of decoding the detected presence and absence of the tone bursts to extract the data further comprises determining if a tone burst is present on the AC power signal, generating an indicator signal if the tone burst is present on the AC power signal, transmitting the indicator signal to a pulse generation circuit that generates electrical pulses, and modifying the electrical pulses when the indicator signal is received by the pulse generation circuit so that a modified pulse corresponds to the first bit value and an unmodified pulse corresponds to the second bit value.