Patent ID: 7804763

Claim:
A power line communication device for communicating data signals over a power line, comprising: a conditioning circuit configured to be coupled to the power line; a first modem integrated circuit communicatively coupled to said conditioning circuitry; wherein said first modem integrated circuit is configured to transmit and receive orthogonal frequency division multiplexed data signals that comprise a plurality of sub-carriers; wherein said first modem integrated circuit controls the transmit power of each sub-carrier of the plurality of sub-carriers on an individual basis from zero power to a plurality of increments above zero power for a particular data signal; wherein said first modem integrated circuit is configured to supply data signals with the transmit power to said conditioning circuitry; wherein said conditioning circuitry is configured to amplify the transmit power of the supplied data signals and to couple the amplified data signals to the power line; wherein said first modem integrated circuit is configured to output at least some data signals to said conditioning circuit having a first subset of the plurality of sub-carriers at a transmit power that is different than the transmit power for a second subset of the plurality of sub-carriers; wherein said conditioning circuit comprises a frequency translation circuit configured to downband the sub-carriers of the data signals received from said first modem integrated circuit; wherein said first modem integrated circuit is configured to process received data signals having a delay spread of ten microseconds; and wherein the data signals coupled to the power line by said conditioning circuit are compatible with an IEEE 802.16 (e) standard signal set.