System and method for scheduling burst profile changes based on minislot count
View Patent ↗A system and method are presented for changing physical layer (PHY) parameters in a PHY device of a communications system. New parameters are written to a first-in first-out queue in a serial interface, while the scheduled time for the changeover is written to a control register in the serial interface. When the time for the changeover occurs, the parameters are written to the PHY device via a port of the serial interface.
1. A system for changing one or more physical layer communications parameters as configured in a physical layer device, the system comprising:
a first interface for receiving the parameters; and
a serial interface that
stores the parameters in advance of sending the parameters to the physical layer device,
stores a predetermined changeover time; and
sends the parameters to the physical layer device at the predetermined changeover time.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein said first interface is a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) interface.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein said serial interface is a serial peripheral interface (SPI).
4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a central processing unit (CPU) that sends the parameters to said first interface.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein said serial interface comprises:
a transmit first-in first-out (FIFO) queue in which the parameters are stored;
a serial interface port through which the parameters are sent to the physical layer device; and
one or more control registers for storing said predetermined changeover time.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein said control registers further store a channel identifier, which corresponds to a communications channel to which the parameters pertain.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the physical layer communications parameters correspond to a burst profile.
8. A method of changing one or more physical layer communications parameters in a physical layer device, comprising the steps of:
(a) receiving the parameters;
(b) storing the parameters in a serial interface;
(c) receiving a point in time at which the parameters are to changeover;
(d) storing the changeover point in the serial interface; and
(e) at the changeover point, writing the parameters to the physical layer device.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the parameters correspond to a burst profile.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein said step (b) comprises the step of storing the parameters in a transmit first-in first-out (FIFO) queue in the serial interface.
11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the changeover point is expressed in terms of a minislot count.
12. The method of claim 8 , wherein said step (d) comprises storing an indication of the changeover point in one or more control registers of the serial interface.
13. The method of claim 8 , wherein said step (e) comprises writing the parameters to the physical layer device via a serial interface port in the serial interface.
14. The method of claim 8 , further comprising the step of:
(f) receiving periodic updates of the current time, performed before step(e).
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the periodic updates are minislot counts.