General Instrument Corporation

Motorola Mobility LLC

Arris Technology, Inc.

Jay W Strater

Charles Anthony Eldering

Thomas L Du Breuil

M Lamine Sylla

Kevin T Chang

Marc W Kauffman

Gerald R Johnson

William H Blum

Peter Sherlock

Robert C Stein

David C Goodwin

Thomas L DuBreuil

Thomas J Doblmaier

Systems and methods are provided for minimizing cable and off-air signal detection on separate cable and off-air input jacks in a set-top terminal with two or more tuners. The systems and methods employ logic to progress through different scan configurations with different input jack/signal detection assignments to minimize signal detection delay. Tuners are pooled for a given input jack/signal assignment, scanned frequencies are queued and carried to the next scan configuration, and user input is employed, whenever possible. The systems and methods are of particular value for retail applications, where users may install cable, off-air, or both sources incorrectly to their set-top terminal's cable and off-air input jacks.

Method and apparatus for detection of cable and off-air signals in a dual or higher tuner set-top terminal

Method and apparatus for providing Mobile internet protocol (IP) service through a network address translation gateway. In one example, a gateway between a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN) is provided. A foreign agent (FA) module is configured to advertise a care-of address (CoA) on the LAN and process registration and mobile IP communication traffic on the LAN and the WAN side of the gateway. A control module is configured to identify the registration and the mobile IP communication traffic on the LAN and the WAN. The control module sends mobile IP traffic to the FA and other traffic to a network address translation (NAT) module. In this manner, network address translation of mobile IP traffic is advantageously omitted. This allows the IP-in-IP tunnels used by mobile IP to pass through the gateway.

Method and apparatus for providing mobile IP service through a network address translation gateway

Embodiments of the invention generally provide a method and apparatus for optimizing home networking interface selection in home networking applications. One embodiment of a method for selecting, at a set top box in a network, an active home networking interface from among a plurality of home networking interfaces includes activating the best performing home networking interface and deactivating the remainder of the home networking interfaces.

Method and apparatus for optimizing home network interface selection in home networking applications

Embodiments of the invention generally provide a method and apparatus for mitigating layer-2 loops in home networking applications. One embodiment of a method for mitigating layer-2 loops in a network includes detecting a loop between a first terminal in the network and a second terminal in the network, and deactivating at least one active home networking interface at the first terminal.

Method and apparatus for mitigating layer-2 looping in home networking applications

A dynamic arrangement for reducing the presence of ingress noise in the upstream signal path of a two-way cable system utilizes a variable attenuation element and amplifier disposed along the upstream signal path. The amplifier includes a bypass switch so that the amplifier may be switched in to or out of the upstream path. A signal processor associated with the communications gateway functions to calculate the upstream loss present at the gateway and control the operation of the attenuation element, amplifier and bypass switch accordingly. Upstream attenuation is selected to be as large as possible, yet still allow in-building cable devices to communicate with their associated head end (HE) receiver equipment, after accounting for maximum transmit limitations.

Dynamic upstream attenuation for ingress noise reduction

A method and an apparatus are provided for improving or optimizing the frequency at which the keep-alive messages are sent to a network device (e.g., an Internet service platform) from a set top box (STB) connected to a router or gateway. By improving or optimizing the frequency at which these messages are sent by the STB to the network device, the amount of network bandwidth that is consumed as a result of sending keep-alive messages can be reduced. This allows a network device to remotely and asynchronously access a STB in a very efficient manner in terms of bandwidth consumption.

Method and apparatus for enabling a network device to asynchronously access a set top box in a way that conserves network bandwidth

A method is provided for allocating bandwidth over a cable network to establish a packet-switched telephony connection between two endpoints. The method begins by authorizing and reserving an allocation of bandwidth at the time of a call origination sufficient to establish a voice-band data connection between the endpoints. Next, only a portion of the allocation of bandwidth is committed. This committed portion, which is sufficient to establish a compressed voice traffic connection between the endpoints, is a subset of the reserved allocation of bandwidth. The reserved but uncommitted portion of the allocation of bandwidth is released so that it is available for another connection if at least one of the endpoints determines that the connection is to support voice traffic and not voice-band data. This bandwidth portion may be released after a prescribed period of time has elapsed since the establishment of a full send/receive connection without the detection of voice-band data.

Method and apparatus for reserving and releasing bandwidth for a packet-switched telephony connection established over an HFC cable network

The present invention encompasses a method and apparatus for detecting and characterizing one or more ingress events in the return band and creating a time/frequency map based on the detection of the ingress events. The time/frequency map is further characterized by marking frequency bands with ingress level above a predetermined threshold with a '1'. The time/frequency time map may be used to determine when and which return frequency band has exceeded a predetermined threshold, and to distinguish between a narrowband ingress event and a wideband ingress event. When such characterization has been made, the return path may be attenuated or disconnected at a communications gateway device located at or substantially near the subscriber location. By disconnecting the return path or attenuating the return path signal at or near the subscriber location, the ingress may be reduced and locations which are the cause of severe ingress may be effectively isolated. This allows for a high degree of reliability to be maintained on the return path, and ensures that the critical services such cable telephony may be provided with increased customer satisfaction.

Ingress detection and characterization by time/frequency map

The present invention encompasses a method and apparatus for ingress detection and attenuation. When a determination is made that the level of ingress in a return frequency band has exceeded a predetermined threshold, the return path is attenuated or disconnected at a communications gateway device located at or substantially near the subscriber location. By disconnecting the return path or attenuating the return path signal at or near the subscriber location, ingress is reduced and locations which are the cause of severe ingress are effectively isolated. This allows for a high degree of reliability to be maintained on the return path, and insures that critical services like cable telephony can be provided.

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Jamison, PA, United States of America

Jay W Strater