Method and multi-carrier transceiver with stored application profiles for supporting multiple applications
View Patent ↗In a multicarrier communication system having a plurality of subchannels, a method and apparatus for supporting at least two applications. For example, the method includes associating at least a first application in a set of currently active applications with a first latency path, allocating at least one subchannel to the first latency path, and in response to a change in the set of currently active applications, allocating the at least one subchannel to a second latency path associated with a second application in the set of currently active applications and different from the first latency path.
1. In a multicarrier communication system having a plurality of subchannels, a method for supporting at least two applications, the method comprising:
associating at least a first application in a set of currently active applications with a first latency path based on a first application profile that includes a first indication of latency paths and a first indication of subchannel allocation;
allocating, based on the first application profile, at least one subchannel of the plurality of subchannels to the first latency path; and
in response to a change in the set of currently active applications, identifying a second application profile that includes a second indication of latency paths and a second indication of subchannel allocation and allocating, based on the second application profile, the at least one subchannel to a second latency path associated with a second application in the set of currently active applications and different from the first latency path.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the change in the set of currently active applications is associated with a change in a communication condition.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the allocating the at least one subchannel to the second latency path includes switching from a first parameter set to a second parameter set.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first parameter set and the second parameter set are stored at a first and second transceiver.
5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first and the second parameter sets specify a data rate for each of the first and the second different latency paths in bits per Discrete Multitone Modulation (DMT) symbol.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first latency path has a higher latency than the second latency path.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first latency path includes an interleaved path.
8. The method of claim 3 , wherein allocating the at least one subchannel to the second different latency path includes setting a data rate for the first and the second different latency paths according to the stored second parameter set.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first application includes a voice application.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second application includes a video-on-demand application.
11. An apparatus, comprising:
a physical communications interface, and
a transceiver coupled to the physical communications interface, the apparatus configured to:
associate a first latency path with at least a first application in a set of currently active applications based on a first application profile that includes a first indication of latency paths and a first indication of subchannel allocation;
allocate, based on the first application profile, at least one subchannel of a plurality of subchannels to the first latency path; and
in response to a change in the set of currently active applications, identify a second application profile that includes a second indication of latency paths and a second indication of subchannel allocation and allocate, based on the second application profile, the at least one subchannel, to a second latency path associated with a second application and different from the first latency path.
12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the apparatus is configured to allocate the at least one subchannel to the second latency path according to a stored parameter set that specifies a number of bits allocated per subchannel and a data rate for the first and the second latency paths.
13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the apparatus is further configured to use a sync symbol or a phase-shifted sync symbol as a flag to signal a transition to use a new bit allocation table by the transceiver.
14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the sync symbol or the phase-shifted sync symbol comprises a predefined pseudorandom noise sequence modulated across a plurality of carriers of a communications system.
15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is configured to switch from a first parameter set to a second parameter set as part of the allocation of the at least one subchannel to the second latency path.
16. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the apparatus is configured to send a message to another transceiver that the second latency path will be used for the at least one subchannel.
17. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the set of currently active applications includes a fixed data rate application or a variable data rate application.
18. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the set of currently active applications includes a variable rate application including a digital data application such as internet access web browsing.
19. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the set of currently active applications includes a fixed data rate application including a voice telephony application.