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:
Mar. 14, 2006
Filed:
Mar. 29, 2005
Donald Pannell, Cupertino, CA (US);
William Lo, Cupertino, CA (US);
Yiqing Guo, Cupertino, CA (US);
Marvell International LTD, Hamilton, BM;
Abstract
A physical layer device is adapted to communicate with a cable medium and communicates with an indicator. The physical layer device includes a first input/output terminal, a first transceiver that communicates with the first input/output terminal that is adapted to be connected to a cable medium, and a cable tester that tests the cable medium and determines a cable status using a pretest module. The pretest module senses activity on the cable medium and enables testing if activity is not detected for a first period, and a test module that is enabled by said pretest module, transmits a test pilse on the cable medium, measures a reflection amplitude and calculates a cable length. The cable tester determines the cable status based on the measured amplitude and the calculated cable length, and the indicator indicates at least one of cable testing status during the test and the cable status after the trst. The indicator also inducates at least one of link presence, link absence, link acitivty, link duplex and link speed of the first input/output terminal during normal operation.