At&t Intellectual Property I, L.p.

Darrell Taylor

Alfonso Jones

Steven L McDonald

A method includes receiving power via a communication line at a power coupling device of a removable module coupled to a connector of a network interface device. The communication line is coupled to a service provider system that provides multiple services to a customer residence associated with the network interface device. The communication line provides first data associated with a first service of the multiple services to the network interface device. The method includes receiving, at a first service module of the removable module, second data associated with a second service of the multiple services, generating second processed data from the second data, and sending the second processed data to a device coupled to the network interface device. The method also includes generating operation power from the power at the power coupling device and providing the operation power to the removable module and the network interface device.

Residential gateway

Network interface devices and methods are provided. A particular network interface device includes a first network interface adapted to terminate one or more communication lines and a second network interface to terminate at least one coaxial line. The network interface device also includes at least one interface connector adapted to receive a removable plug-in module. The removable plug-in module includes a video unit that is operable to receive video data from a network device via at least one of the one or more communication lines and to process the video data for communication via the at least one coaxial line or a twisted wire pair when the plug-in module is connected to the at least one interface connector. The removable plug-in module also includes a power coupling device to receive power via at least one of the one or more communication lines.

Network interface devices

A particular residential gateway includes a network interface, a connector interface to receive a signal via one or more communication lines, and a power coupling device to receive power from at least one of the one or more communication lines. The residential gateway includes a first module to receive first data via the signal and to route the first data to a first device coupled to the network interface. The first module is powered using the power received from the at least one communication line by the power coupling device.

A particular residential gateway includes a connector interface to receive a composite signal including voice data, video data, and network data via one or more communication lines and a power coupling device to receive power via the one or more communication lines. The residential gateway includes a voice module to route the voice data to a voice-enabled device coupled to a network interface, a video module to route the video data to a video-enabled device coupled to the network interface, and a network module to route the network data to a computing device coupled to the network interface. The residential gateway further includes a testing module to communicate test results to an external device via a data communication interface. At least one of the voice module, the video module, the network module, and the testing module is powered using the power received by the power coupling device.

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Lithonia, GA, United States of America

Darrell Taylor