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:
Jul. 27, 2004
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1999
Duke Kamstra, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
Arthur J. Bonaker, Jr., Placentia, CA (US);
Conexant Systems, Inc., Newport Beach, CA (US);
Abstract
A home network controller provides a user-visible indication of the integrity of a physical connection to a home network. The home network controller periodically checks an interrupt status register for receipt of a physical-layer packet. Receipt of a physical-layer packet serves as a proxy for a functional physical connection, and non-receipt of a packet serves as a proxy for a non-functional physical connection. To avoid race conditions, the controller will indicate failure of a previously functional physical connection if no packet was received during the period but a packet was transmitted during the period and a packet was transmitted during the immediately previous period. A heartbeat signal avoids deadlocks by transmitting a packet if the interrupt status register indicates no packets were received or transmitted during the period.