The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 01, 2000
Filed:
Aug. 04, 1997
Steven H Goody, Granite Bay, CA (US);
Next Level Communications, Rohnert Park, CA (US);
Abstract
The invention provides method and apparatus for identifying signals for a set of communication devices in a signal stream having signals for a number of different sets of communication devices. Some embodiments of the invention are methods and devices for extracting signals for a first set of communication devices from a signal stream having signals for a number of different sets of communication devices. Other embodiments of the invention are methods and devices for inserting into a signal stream signals from a first set of communication devices. Yet other embodiments of the invention are time division multiplexing and demultiplexing methods and apparatuses that use a content addressable memory to identify sets of signals for a particular set of communication devices. In addition, some embodiment of the invention are used in fiber optic telecommunication networks. These embodiments include an optical network unit that receives an integrated signal stream having signals for different types of applications. The optical network unit includes a content addressable memory that stores locations in the received signal stream of signals for a first type of communication application.