Telecommunication system, method and subscriber unit for use therein Number:7,187,686 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) owispatent A telecommunication system includes a digital switch, a local loop coupling the digital switch to a subscriber location, wherein a segment of the local loop includes copper twisted pair and wherein an asymmetrical digital subscriber line is carried by the local loop, the asymmetrical digital subscriber line including a plurality of data packets capable of carrying a plurality of derived digital telephone lines. The telecommunication system further includes a subscriber unit coupled to the asymmetrical digital subscriber line. The subscriber unit monitors the content of at least one of the plurality of data packets, receives an off-hook signal in response to an action of a user, and initiates a first derived digital telephone line of the plurality of derived digital telephone lines in response to the off-hook signal.A telephone communication system including an analog telephone providing a plain old telephone service (POTS) analog voice channel on a subscriber loop with a digital data line sharing the same subscriber loop. In addition to the analog voice line, the digital data line provides an additional digital voice channel for placing telephone voice calls.<H Telecommunication, subscriber, Telecommunicati, 7187686.html, Patent, pto, 7187686

Title: Telecommunication system, method and subscriber unit for use therein

Abstract: A telecommunication system includes a digital switch, a local loop coupling the digital switch to a subscriber location, wherein a segment of the local loop includes copper twisted pair and wherein an asymmetrical digital subscriber line is carried by the local loop, the asymmetrical digital subscriber line including a plurality of data packets capable of carrying a plurality of derived digital telephone lines. The telecommunication system further includes a subscriber unit coupled to the asymmetrical digital subscriber line. The subscriber unit monitors the content of at least one of the plurality of data packets, receives an off-hook signal in response to an action of a user, and initiates a first derived digital telephone line of the plurality of derived digital telephone lines in response to the off-hook signal.A telephone communication system including an analog telephone providing a plain old telephone service (POTS) analog voice channel on a subscriber loop with a digital data line sharing the same subscriber loop. In addition to the analog voice line, the digital data line provides an additional digital voice channel for placing telephone voice calls.

Patent Number: 7,187,686 Issued on 03/06/2007 to Walkoe, Jr., et al.

Inventors: Walkoe, Jr.; Wilbur John (Overland Park, KS), Barber; James Stewart (La Jolla, CA), Gorman; Michael George (Schaumburg, IL), Bossemeyer, Jr.; Robert Wesley (St. Charles, IL), Pickard; Michael Steven (Highland Park, IL), Kagan; Denise Violetta (Riverwoods, IL), Goering; Scott Christopher (Naperville, IL), Stuckman; Bruce Edward (Austin, TX), Tisiker; Michael (Westland, MI), Neumann; Jeffrey (Hoffman Estates, IL), Orwick; David Anthony (Nixa, MO)
Assignee: SBC Properties, B.P. (Reno, NV)

Appl. No.: 09/533,263

Filed: March 17, 2000

Related U.S. Patent Documents


Application Number	Filing Date	Patent Number	Issue Date
09119094	Jul., 1998	6370149
08742164	Nov., 1996

Current U.S. Class: 370/419 ; 370/352

Current International Class: H04L 12/28 (20060101)

Field of Search: 370/419,420,421,271,352,351,264,273,463,465 379/93.23,93.28,93.06

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Primary Examiner: Kizou; Hassan
Assistant Examiner: Pizarro; Ricardo
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione

Parent Case Text

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/742,164 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Providing a Derived Digital Telephone Voice Channel" filed Nov. 1, 1996, abandoned, and of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/119,094 entitled "Telecommunication System, Method and Subscriber Unit for Use Therein" filed Jul. 20, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,149. The subject matter of each of these applications is incorporated herein by reference.

Claims

We claim:

1. A method of placing a telephone voice call over a public switched telephone network (PSTN) comprising the steps of: providing a subscriber loop in communication with the PSTN, the subscriber loop having an analog telephone voice line and a digital data line, wherein the digital data line comprises a digital telephone voice line; and placing a telephone voice call from a digital telephone in communication with the digital telephone voice line; and sending the telephone voice call on the subscriber loop to the PSTN, wherein sending the telephone voice call from the digital telephone comprises converting an analog voice signal into a packetized digital data stream, sending the packetized digital data stream over a subscriber data network to the digital telephone voice line, removing the packetized digital data stream from the subscriber loop and transmitting the packetized digital data stream to a switch in communication with the PSTN via a data network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of converting the analog voice signal comprises converting the analog voice signal into a packetized digital data stream having an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) format.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the comprises transmitting the packetized digital data stream to a data access tandem switch, and converting a protocol of the packetized digital data stream to a protocol of the switch in communication with the PSTN, whereby the telephone voice call placed on the digital telephone is transmitted over the PSTN.

4. A telephone communication system comprising: at least one digital telephone in communication with a digital telephone voice line on a digital data line; and at least one POTS telephone in communication with an analog telephone line; a network interface device connected to a subscriber loop, wherein the network interface device comprises a signal splitter configured to combine telephone voice signals received from the analog telephone line and digital data line onto the subscriber loop and separate telephone voice signals received from the subscriber loop onto an appropriate one of the analog telephone line and digital data line; the subscriber loop carrying the digital data line and the analog telephone line on a common communication medium; and a central office switch configured to communicate with the subscriber loop, the central office switch comprising: a splitter for separating signals on the subscriber loop into analog telephone line telephone voice signals and digital data line signals, wherein the digital data line signals comprise digital telephone voice line voice signals; a local telephone switching device in communication with the splitter, the local telephone switching device configured to receive the analog telephone line voice signals for transmission over a public switched telephone network (PSTN); and a digital subscriber line access multiplexer in communication with the splitter for multiplexing the digital data line signals into a format for transport over a data network; and a tandem location in communication with the data network, the tandem location having an interworking unit comprising a protocol switch configured to convert digital telephone line voice signals from the format for transport over the data network into a format for transport over the PSTN.

5. The invention of claim 4, wherein the format for transport over the PSTN comprises TR-303.

6. The invention of claim 4, wherein the common communication medium comprises a copper twisted pair.

7. The invention of claim 4, wherein the signal splitter of the network interface device comprises a low pass filter connected to the analog telephone line and a high pass filter connected to the digital data line, whereby the high pass filter is configured to pass an asymmetric digital subscriber line digital signal carrying a telephone voice call to the digital telephone and the low pass filter is configured to pass a POTS telephone call to the POTS telephone.

8. A telephone communication system comprising: at least one digital telephone in communication with a digital telephone voice line on a digital data line, wherein the digital data line comprises an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) having an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) transmission protocol; and at least one POTS telephone in communication with an analog telephone line; a network interface device connected to a subscriber loop, wherein the network interface device comprises a signal splitter configured to combine telephone voice signals received from the analog telephone line and digital data line onto the subscriber loop and separate telephone voice signals received from the subscriber loop onto an appropriate one of the analog telephone line and digital data line; the subscriber loop carrying the digital data line and the analog telephone line on a common communication medium comprising a copper twisted pair; and a central office switch configured to communicate with the subscriber loop, the central office switch having a splitter for separating signals on the subscriber loop into analog telephone line telephone voice signals and digital data line signals, wherein the digital data line signals comprise digital telephone voice line voice signals.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to telecommunication systems, and in particular to subscriber units and methods for interfacing with digital lines.

BACKGROUND

Most telephone service subscribers today use familiar analog Plain Old Telephone Service ("POTS") for placing ordinary voice telephone calls. POTS is typically delivered over a subscriber loop of copper wires installed between each subscriber location, such as a home or office, and the local telephone company ("telco") central office. Over the pair of copper wires, voice signals are transmitted between subscribers and the telco central office. The central office then provides circuit-switching equipment to establish connections between subscribers. In such a circuit-switched system, a circuit connection is established for each call and is maintained for the duration of the call.

Recently, on-line computer services, such as the Internet, have changed the way subscribers use their telephones. On-line computer services typically make a dial-up telephone number available for users with a modem to access the service. Many users of on-line computer services now spend several hours each day on the telephone connected to services such as the Internet. Such a usage pattern ties up the telephone for incoming calls and causes a strain for other members of the household who wish to place calls. In response, households have added a second telephone line for computer data traffic. To provide a second telephone line, a second pair of copper wires is usually provided between the subscriber's location and the telco central office. In addition to more copper wiring, a second telephone line also requires additional central office connection and transmission equipment.

Recently, higher capacity data transmission services have become available to carry a subscriber's computer data to remote computer systems. Such data transmission services often carry data on the same copper pair utilized by POTS. To allow simultaneous data and POTS service and provide greater bandwidth, higher capacity data services operate at frequencies above the 1 KHz to 4 KHz voice frequency band used by POTS. For example, such data services may operate in the frequency range around 80 KHz or higher.

The growing popularity of on-line computer services has also challenged the assumptions upon which the telephone network was constructed. The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is designed with the assumption that only about 10% of residential users and 20% of business users are using the telephone at any given time. The PSTN telephone line and associated circuit-switching equipment are thus designed to be shared by only the fraction of subscribers actually using the telephone at any time. Now, many households use the telephone for several hours each day to carry data traffic to computer services. Using a POTS circuit-switched telephone call to carry data traffic inefficiently consumes hardware resources, since a dedicated circuit connection is consumed for the entire duration of the call.

More recently, packet-switched data networks have been established to carry high-speed data traffic between distributed computer systems. In addition to providing higher data rates, packet-switched networks are more hardware efficient than circuit-switched networks for carrying data. A packet-switched network establishes a virtual circuit connection which uses transmission resources only when data is actually transmitted. Such a virtual connection is well suited for users of computer services who are connected for long periods of time and spend a relatively small proportion of time actually transmitting and receiving data.

Despite the change in communication needs and usage patterns, most data traffic from homes or small offices is carried by POTS voice lines.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is pointed out with particularity in the appended claims. However, other features of the invention will become apparent and the invention will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a telephone network in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the telco central office 20 of FIG. 1 in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a telephone subscriber location 10 such as a typical home or small office in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a tandem location in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 5 presents a block diagram representation of an example interworking unit in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 6 presents a block diagram of a subscriber unit in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 7 presents a block diagram representation of an user interface unit in accordance the present invention.

FIG. 8 presents a perspective view of a subscriber unit in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 9 presents a perspective view of a subscriber interface unit in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 10 presents a block diagram representation of a converter in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 11 presents a block diagram representation of an interface unit in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 12 presents a block diagram representation of an interface unit in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 13 presents a flowchart representation of a method in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 14 presents a flowchart representation o