Intel Corporation

Mandayam Krishnan

Wesley Hamilton Smith

Sigang Qiu

Vedavalli Gomatam Krishnan

Prashant Pratap Tawade

Bo A Zhang

Karl I Nordling

Vedavalli G Krishna

Fred Schuckert

Don Carmon

Embodiments of the invention provide methods for determining the characteristics of a local loop using the multi-carrier tones of a DSL activation process. For one embodiment, one or more sets of downstream multi-carrier tones of a digital subscriber line activation process are received at an extended voice-band modem and are capable of transmitting upstream multi-carrier tones of the digital subscriber line activation process over a local loop. The downstream carrier tones and the upstream carrier tones are folded into a first multi-tone signal and a second multi-tone signal, respectively, each having a plurality of component signals within the spectrum band of the extended voice-based modem. The total signal power of the first multi-tone signal is divided by the power of one of the plurality of component signals of the second multi-tone signal to determine a ratio value. The ratio value is used to determine a characteristic of the local loop.

Methods and apparatuses for determining loop characteristics using an extended voice-band modem

Lower bandwidth technology is used to determine whether a communication channel can support higher bandwidth technology. A signal generator generates a series of test signals that are associated with the higher bandwidth technology. The test signals are sampled to produce aliases that can be analyzed with lower bandwidth technology. Modem parameters are accessed from a modem's memory. The modem parameters are compared with a database containing information about whether a set of modem parameters indicates that a telephone local can support broadband devices.

Use of lower bandwidth technology to determine channel capability for supporting higher bandwidth technology

Embodiments of the invention provide methods and apparatuses to determine the characteristics of a local loop using the multi-tone line-probing signals of a standard voice-based modem. For one embodiment, the multi-tone, line-probing signals of a voice-band modem are transmitted over a local loop and received at a standard voice band modem. Discrete Fourier transform values are determined for each of two or more frequencies of the plurality of frequencies of the multi-tone signals. A set of discrete Fourier transform values corresponding to a set of high frequencies is summed to obtain a first value and a set of discrete Fourier transform values corresponding to a set of low frequencies is summed to obtain a second value. A power ratio is determined by dividing the first value by the second value. The power ratio is then used to determine a characteristic of the local loop.

Methods and apparatuses for determining loop characteristics using standard voice-band modem

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Raleigh, NC, United States of America

Mandayam Krishnan