Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A communication node comprising: an encoder configured to encode a first frame, a basic idle sequence, and a second frame, wherein the first frame, the basic idle sequence, and the second frame comprise code words; and an idle sequence modifier configured to produce an idle sequence by replacing certain M code words of the basic idle sequence with M alternative code words; wherein each one of the M alternative code word appears in the basic idle sequence; and a second communication node, which is unable to determine a starting point of the second frame based only on the idle sequence, is able to determine the starting point of the second frame based on a difference between the idle sequence and the basic idle sequence.
2. The communication node of claim 1 , wherein the difference between the idle sequence and the basic idle sequence is measured using Hamming distance.
3. The communication node of claim 2 , wherein the Hamming distance between the idle sequence and the basic idle sequence is equal to or higher than D_idle, and the second communication node is able to determine the start of the second frame as long as a number of channel errors in a received idle sequence is lower than D_idle/2.
4. The communication node of claim 3 , wherein D_idle is equal to or higher than 3.
5. The communication node of claim 3 , wherein the code words have length N_idle, and D_idle is higher than or equal to N_idle−2.
6. The communication node of claim 1 , wherein the M alternative code words are located at M predetermined locations relative to end of the idle sequence.
7. The communication node of claim 1 , wherein the encoder is further configured to utilize a line-code having a binary code word length N_idle for encoding the idle sequence.
8. The communication node of claim 1 , wherein the encoder is configured to maintain over the idle sequence absolute value of running disparity lower than or equal to K, which is lower than N_idle/2.
9. The communication node of claim 8 , wherein the running disparity at a certain symbol is a difference between number of ones and number of zeroes encoded up to and including the certain symbol.
10. The communication node of claim 8 , wherein K is lower than N_idle/4.
11. The communication node of claim 8 , wherein K is lower than 3.
12. A method for indicating an end of an idle sequence, comprising: encoding a first frame; encoding a basic idle sequence comprising code words; producing an idle sequence by replacing certain M code words of the idle sequence with M alternative code words, wherein each one of the M alternative code words appears in the basic idle sequence; and encoding a second frame; wherein a second communication node, which is unable to determine a starting point of the second frame based only on a received idle sequence, is able to determine the starting point of the second frame based on a difference between the received idle sequence and the basic idle sequence.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the difference between the idle sequence and the basic idle sequence is measured using Hamming distance.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the Hamming distance between the idle sequence and the basic idle sequence is equal to or higher than D_idle, and the second communication node is able to determine the start of the second frame as long as a number of channel errors in the received idle sequence is lower than D_idle/2.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein D_idle is equal to or higher than 3.
16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the code words have length N_idle, and D_idle is higher than or equal to N_idle−2.
17. The method of claim 12 , wherein the M alternative code words are located at M predetermined locations relative to the end of the idle sequence.
18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the encoder is further configured to utilize a line-code having a binary code word length N_idle for encoding the idle sequence.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the encoder is configured to maintain over the idle sequence absolute value of running disparity lower than or equal to K, which is lower than N_idle/2.
20. The method of claim 19 , wherein K is lower than N_idle/4.
21. The method of claim 19 , wherein K is lower than 3.
22. A communication node comprising: an encoder configured to encode a first frame, a basic idle sequence, and a second frame; wherein the first frame, the basic idle sequence, and the second frame comprise symbols; and an idle sequence modifier configured to produce an idle sequence by replacing M certain symbols of the basic idle sequence with M alternative symbols; wherein each one of the M alternative symbols appears in the basic idle sequence; and a second communication node, which is unable to determine a starting point of the second frame based only on a received idle sequence, is able to determine the starting point of the second frame based on a difference between the received idle sequence and the basic idle sequence.
23. The communication node of claim 22 , wherein the symbols are binary symbols.
24. The communication node of claim 22 , wherein the difference is determined by a detector configured to identify a synchronization sequence.
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February 23, 2016
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