1. A method for operating a remote control system, the method comprising the steps of:
transmitting a signal from a remote control device having a unique code, the signal selected from the group consisting of an initiation signal, a signal comprising said unique code, and combinations thereof;
receiving the signal by a remotely-controlled device in communication with the remote control device, the remotely-controlled device having a unique address and being configured to selectively react to the signal by sending said unique address to the remote control device to receive the signal comprising said unique code from the remote control device and store said unique code in a code storage in case said signal is an initiation signal and said code storage is void of a code, and to await a command signal from the remote control device in case said code storage contains a code;
transmitting a command signal from the remote control device to the reactive remotely-controlled device, said command signal comprising the unique address;
selectively transmitting an authorization request signal from the reactive remotely-controlled device responsive to the command signal of the remote control device;
transmitting a response signal from the remote control device in response to the authorization request signal of the remotely-controlled device, said response signal being generated using said unique code; and
verifying the response signal from the remote control device by the remotely-controlled device to drive a controllable unit by the remotely-controlled device, said response signal being verified by generating a further coded signal using said unique code and by carrying out a comparative procedure of the response signal and said further coded signal.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing a unique address of the remotely-controlled device in the remote control device.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of transmitting the authorization request signal from the remotely-controlled device when the command signal is a critical command.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of producing random digits to define the authorization request signal.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step by the remote control device of defining the response signal by recoding at least a portion of the authorization request signal.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step by the remotely-controlled device of driving the controllable unit, the controllable unit selected from the group consisting of a door, a gate, a window, a blind, a shutter, a curtain, an awning, and combinations thereof.
7. A method for operating a remote control system for moving a moveable part, the method comprising an initial configuration procedure comprising the steps of:
providing a remotely-controlled device having a unique address; providing a remote control device having a unique code;
initiating an initiation command from the remote control device; and selectively transmitting the unique address from the remotely-controlled device to the remote control device, when the remotely-controlled device defines no stored code;
receiving and storing in the remote control device the unique address transmitted by the remotely-controlled device;
transmitting the unique code from the remote control device to the remotely-controlled device; and
storing the unique code in the remotely-controlled device.
8. The method as in claim 7, wherein the remotely-controlled device is a plurality of remotely-controlled units and further comprising the steps of dividing the plurality of remotely-controlled units into a plurality of groups, storing respective unique addresses for each group in the remote control device, and selectively programming at least one of the groups by the remote control device.
9. The method as in claim 7, further comprising the step of preventing the code stored by the remotely-controlled device from being overwritten by a new configuration.
10. The method as in claim 7, further comprising the step of resetting the code stored in the remotely-controlled device.
11. The method as in claim 7, further comprising the step of transmitting the code and the unique address by one of infrared communication, ultrasonic communication, electromagnetic communication and combinations thereof.
12. A remote control system for operating a drive unit, the remote control system comprising:
a remote control device having a unique code, the remote control device configured to transmit a signal selected from the group consisting of an initiation signal, a signal comprising said unique code, and combinations thereof;
a remotely-controlled device in communication with the remote control device, the remotely-controlled device having a unique address and being configured to receive and react to the signal by transmitting a unique address to receive the signal comprising said unique code from the remote control device and store said unique code in a code storage means, in case said signal is an initiation signal and said code storage means is void of a code, and to await a command signal from the remote control device, in case said code storage means contains a code, said command signal comprising the unique address;
the remotely-controlled device further including means for selectively generating and transmitting an authorization request signal based on the command signal;
the remote control device further including means for generating and transmitting a response signal in response to the authorization request signal, said response signal being generated using said unique code; and
the remotely-controlled device further including means for verifying the response signal such that a controllable unit is moved by the remote-controlled unit, said means for verifying the response signal being adapted for generating a further coded signal using said unique code and for carrying out a comparative procedure of the response signal and said further coded signal.
13. The remote control system of claim 12, wherein the remote control device is a plurality of remote control units each comprising said unique code and having the same signal.
14. The remote control system of claim 12, wherein the remotely-controlled device is a plurality of remotely-controlled units each having a unique address selectively responsive to the signal of the remote control device.
15. The remote control system of claim 12, wherein the command signal is a critical command.
16. The remote control system of claim 15, wherein the remotely-controlled device includes means for detecting whether the command signal is critical and further configured to comply with a non-critical command signal without generating and transmitting the authorization request signal.
17. A remote control system for operating a drive unit, the remote control system comprising:
a remote control device having a unique code, the remote control device configured to transmit a signal selected from the group consisting of an initiation signal, a signal comprising said unique code, and combinations thereof; and
a remotely-controlled device in communication with the remote control device, the remotely-controlled device having a unique address and being configured to react to the initiation signal by transmitting said unique address to receive the signal comprising said unique code from the remote control device and store said unique code in a code storage means, in case said signal is an initiation signal and said code storage means is void of a code, and to await a command signal from the remote control device in case said code storage means contains a code, said command signal comprising the unique address, the remotely-controlled device further configured to selectively generate and transmit an authorization request signal in response to the command signal, the remote control device configured to transmit a response signal in response to the authorization request signal, said response signal being generated using said unique code, the remotely-controlled device further configured to verify the response signal by generating a further coded signal using said unique code and for carrying out a comparative procedure of the response signal and said further coded signal to move a controllable unit.
18. The remote control system of claim 17, wherein the remote control device is a plurality of remote control units each comprising said unique code, which is unique to said remote control device, and configured with the same signal.
19. The remote control system of claim 17, wherein the remotely-controlled device is a plurality of remotely-controlled units each having a unique address selectively responsive to the signal of the remote control device.
20. The remote control system of claim 17, wherein the remote control device includes a key configured for coding the signal comprising said unique code.
21. The remote control system of claim 17, wherein the command signal is a critical command prompting the authorization request signal before the controllable unit is moved.
22. The remote control system of claim 17, wherein the remotely-controlled device is further configured to detect whether the command signal is critical and further configured to comply with a non-critical command signal without generating and transmitting the authorization signal.
23. The remote control system of claim 17, further including a random generator configured to produce random digits in the authorization request signal.
24. The remote control system of claim 17, wherein the remotely-controlled device further includes a verification unit for verifying the response signal.
25. A method for operating a remote control system, the method comprising the steps of:
transmitting a signal from a remote control device having a unique code, the signal selected from the group consisting of an initiation signal, a signal comprising said unique code, and combinations thereof;
receiving the signal by a remotely-controlled device in communication with the remote control device, the remotely-controlled device having a unique address and being configured to selectively react to the signal by sending said unique address to the remote control device to receive the signal comprising said unique code from the remote control device and store said unique code in a code storage in case said signal is an initiation signal and said code storage is void of a code, wherein when void said unique code is received and stored without any additional manipulation of the remotely-controlled unit, and to await a command signal from the remote control device in case said code storage contains a code;
transmitting a command signal from the remote control device to the reactive remotely-controlled device, said command signal comprising the unique address;
selectively transmitting an authorization request signal from the reactive remotely-controlled device responsive to the command signal of the remote control device;
transmitting a response signal from the remote control device in response to the authorization request signal of the remotely-controlled device, said response signal being generated using said unique code; and
verifying the response signal from the remote control device by the remotely-controlled device to drive a controllable unit by the remotely-controlled device, said response signal being verified by generating a further coded signal using said unique code and by carrying out a comparative procedure of the response signal and said further coded signal.
26. The method according to claim 25, wherein said unique code is unique in that at any time only a single code can be actively used by the remote control device.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A digital communications system comprising a transport fabric, access devices having ports for permitting access to said transport fabric, and means for transmitting data including errors from a port to be monitored over said transport fabric to a remote monitoring site to replicate the data from said monitored port at said remote monitoring site, and wherein said remote monitoring site is configured to perform tests on said replicated data at said remote site so that said monitored port can be monitored remotely as if the monitoring were performed on site at said monitored port.
2. A digital communications system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a centralized route server for distributing topology information to said access devices.
3. A digital communications system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising means for tagging monitored data packets to prevent them from being treated as normally received packets by the receiving interface means.
4. A digital communications system comprising a connection-oriented transport network comprising at least one packet switch having ports providing access thereto, a centralized OAM (Operations and Maintenance) resource for providing OAM support to all said ports, and means for extracting ingress OAM packets from a packet stream at said ports and redirecting said ingress OAM packets through the transport network to said centralized OAM resource for processing using a preconfigured internal switch address, said centralized OAM resource processing said ingress OAM packets and generating egress OAM packets, whereby all processing of said OAM packets takes place at said centralized OAM resource.
5. A digital communications system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said connection-oriented transport network is an ATM network and said packets are ATM cells.
6. In a digital communications system, an interface between a connectionless and connection-oriented network, comprising a reassembler for reassembling packets received from the connection-oriented network; an extractor for extracting a packet header from the reassembled packets, and a lookup engine for deriving the destination address from the extracted packet header, and a framer for appending the thus-derived address to outgoing frames on the connectionless network.
7. A digital communications system as claimed in claim 6, wherein said destination address is the MAC address.
8. An interface device for establishing communication between a connection-oriented transport fabric and a connectionless fabric in a digital communications system having a centralized route server that stores routing information for access devices connected to the transport fabric and periodically distributing said routing information thereto, said interface device comprising first port means for connection to said connection-oriented fabric, second port means for connection to the connectionless fabric, translation means for translating data between formats adapted for said connection-oriented and connectionless networks, a memory for receiving and storing information from said centralized route server pertaining to the location of devices attached to the system, and a transfer engine for forwarding data received at a said interface device toward its destination using said stored information.
9. A method of controlling a digital communications system with a connection-oriented transport network comprising the steps of extracting OAM (Operation and Maintenance) packets from a packet stream at ingress ports in a packet processing engine, redirecting said OAM packets through the transport network to a centralized OAM processing resource using a preconfigured internal switch address; processing said redirected packets at said centralized OAM resource, and generating egress OAM packets at said centralized OAM resource, whereby all processing of said OAM packets takes place at said centralized OAM resource.
10. A method of processing packets entry into a connection-oriented transport fabric, comprising the steps of:
(a) periodically distributing routing information for devices connection to the transport fabric to access devices connected thereto from a centralized route server over said transport fabric;
(b) receiving an incoming packet at said access device;
(c) determining the destination address of said packet at said access device;
(d) looking up said destination address in said access device to identify the route of the destination address; and
(i) if said destination address is stored in said access device, forwarding said incoming packet to the destination in accordance with information stored in said access device; or
(ii) if said destination address is not stored in said access device, forwarding said incoming packet to said centralized route server for further processing.