Data Link for Multi-Player Game System Using Telephone Lines

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the xerographic reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure in exactly the form it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and more specifically, to a data link for communicating game data between two or more players over telephone lines.

A video game or computer game is a multi-player game when the progress of the game is determined by more than one player. The simplest implementation of such a game is to have a single computer system and inputs for the multiple players. The drawback of this system is that all the players must be physically nearby. Alternatively, a high-speed link between the players might by used to bring the various player inputs together. This, however, requires hardware which is not ordinarily available to the casual game player.

U.S. application Ser. No. 08/309,327, filed Sep. 19, 1994 and assigned to the assignee of the present application entitled "REAL-TIME AND NON-REAL-TIME DATA MULTIPLEXING OVER TELEPHONE LINES" discloses a data link wherein voice data and video game 35 control data are sent over a single telephone line. In a two-player embodiment of the system disclosed therein, the video game data comprises two unidirectional data streams which allow two game players to play a video game which responds to inputs from both players. The disclosure of that patent application is included herein by reference for all purposes.

The typical operation of a multi-game system uses one game console per player. Each game console is a special-purpose game device, a personal computer running a game program or a combination of each. The multi-player aspect of the game is handled by having each game console accept inputs directly from its local player and accept inputs remotely for the other players. For efficiency, the remote data is often summarized and/or compressed so that the remote data can be timely transmitted over telephone lines. For example, while local input might include each key press or input device movement of the local player, the remote data sent out from the local game is often limited to control information which affects the play of the game from the perspective of the remote players.

This remote data needs to be communicated quickly, so as not to confuse the remote players. For example, if the game character of the local player moves, the remote game console needs to be notified of the movement quickly so that the remote player is not reacting to the old location of the local game character.

One prior art method of transmitting game data over telephone lines is to transmit data packets between a local modem and a remote modem using the V.42 packet transfer protocol. Typically, the minimum delay between a game action being taken at a remote game console and that action being communicated to the local game console is 28 to 150 milliseconds. For some game information, this is acceptable. But for fast action scenes, such as where the game characters are each in separate racing vehicles, the game consoles must be quickly updated with the remote position data so that each layer is aware of the other's position.

An improved data link for game data is provided by virtue of the present invention, which allows game data to be transmitted over telephone lines with low delay, even while simultaneously transmitting voice over the telephone line. The simultaneous transmission is useful where the players which to communicate by voice with the other players and still use only one telephone line.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a local data plus voice (D+V) modem accepts digital data at a data port, accepts analog voice signals at a voice port, digitizes the voice signals, compresses them, packages the digital voice data into frames and inserts the game data into voice data frames as the game data arrives at the D+V modem. An escape sequence delimits game data from the voice data so that a remote D+V modem can extract the game data from the voice data.

More generally, the game data stream can be any nongame data which is of a low data rate relative to the voice data and which needs to be transmitted with low delay.

One advantage to the present invention is full use of the available bandwidth through the use of data framing without the delays which would occur if data of one type arrives at the D+V modem while a frame of a different type of data is being transmitted.

Herein, the term "modem" refers to conventional analog modems as well as ISDN serial interface devices which link to ISDN lines. Strictly speaking, an ISDN device is not a modem, since "modem" is short for modulator/demodulator used with analog lines, however "modem" has taken on a general meaning of a device which couples a computer communication line to a telephone line.

A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the inventions herein may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and the attached drawings.

FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram of a communication system which allows voice signals and data to be communicated between two stations;

FIG. 2 is a more detailed block diagram of one station in the communication system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a chart showing examples of the data transmittable over the D+V communications system and the protocols used at several network levels for these types of data;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an HDLC (High-level Data Link Control) frame, as used with the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a modified HDLC frame used to transmit video game control data or other low delay-tolerant data and voice data at the same time; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a PlayLink.TM. frame used for variable-length low delay data transmission over voice data.

FIG. 7 is a state diagram of a process for sending voice and game data over a single telephone line.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a specific embodiment of the present invention .

FIG. 1 shows a communication system 10 according to the present invention. Communication system 10 allows for the transfer of data from one site 12 to another site 12a through a public switched telephone line 16. Site 12, which is essentially similar to site 12a, is shown with a computer system 20, a data communication subsystem 22, a D+V (data+voice) modem 24 and a telephone handset 26. D+V modem 24 is coupled to subsystem 22 via a communications cable 28, and to handset 26 via a twisted pair 30. D+V modem 24 is also connected to line 16. Station 12a includes a computer system 20a, a data communications subsystem 22a, a D+V modem 24a, and a handset 26a.

It should be apparent that other variations are possible. For example, D+V modem 24 can be integral to subsystem 22 and/or system 20, as would be the case if system 20 is a lap-top computer and D+V modem 24 is an internal telephone/modem. Also, handset 26 need not be as depicted, but could be a headset or other microphone and/or earphone combination. For high performance game systems, a hands-free headset with earphones for stereo game sound combined with the remote player's voice and an attached microphone is typically used. For other applications, handset 26 is interchangeable with other devices which communicate real-time data. If D+V modem 24 is internal to subsystem 22, then cable 28 might be replaced by an internal bus with similar functionality.

In operation, computer system 20 transfers data between itself and system 20a over line 16, while voice communication occurs between handset 26 and handset 26a, all using only line 16. In many applications, computer systems 20, 20a and subsystems 22, 22a cannot be easily modified. With the D+V modem, such systems do not need to be modified, because the interface over cable 28 is transparent to voice traffic. This is possible since most modern communications subsystems are configured for handshaking with a modem which allows a modem to slow down the passage of data from the communications subsystem to the modem when the modem has difficulty keeping up. The effect of voice transmission on data transmission at cable 28 is only to create an apparent slowdown in the D+V modem's data transmission rate, and only when voice data is being transferred. Of course, in some embodiments, D+V modem 24 accepts configuration commands over cable 28 which are not found in a standard data communications interface.

As shown in FIG. 1, D+V modem 24 also accepts other data sources, which carry either non-real-time data 32 or real-time data 34. Each of these sources of data is multiplexed onto line 16 as explained below in connection with FIG. 3.

FIG. 2 is a more detailed block diagram of one site, 12, of communication system 10. Site 12 is shown with D+V modem 24 in greater detail, an image CODEC (analog coder/decoder) 40 and a CCD camera 41 as a typical source and destination of non-real-time data, and a MIDI instrument 42 as a typical source and destination of real-time data. D+V modem 24 is shown including a voice CODEC 50 which codes/decodes voice signals including compression/decompression, an HDLC (High-Level Data Link Control) framer/deframer 52 (HDLC controller, for short), which communicates with a modem module 54 using HDLC frames such as frame 56, and an analog front end (AFE) 58, which is coupled to modem module 54. An output of AFE 58 is coupled to a data access arrangement (DAA) 60, which is in turn coupled to line 16. Frame storage 62 is also provided for buffering frames where data is framed faster than the capacity of telephone line 16.

Except where noted otherwise, HDLC controller 52 operates per the HDLC protocol as defined in the ISO document numbered ISO-3309, "Data Communication--High-Level Data Link Control Procedure--Frame Structure".

Voice CODEC 50 is coupled to handset 26 via twisted pair 30, and is also coupled to HDLC controller 52 to provide digitized compressed voice data to HDLC controller 52. A data port of HDLC controller 52 is coupled to subsystem 22 (see FIG. 2) to receive data from computer system 20. This coupling, in one embodiment, is a standard RS-232 connection, while in another embodiment, it is a parallel data bus. HDLC controller 52 is also shown coupled to image CODEC 40 and MIDI instrument 42 using those devices' standard interfaces. In a video game application, voice might be obtained from a headset/microphone or a speakerphone.

HDLC controller 52 frames each of the data streams input thereto into frames, while multiplexing the frames at its output to modem module 54. HDLC controller 52 also de-packetizes received frames and directs them to the proper outputs. Because frames are only sent when data is presented to HDLC controller 52, the channel bandwidth provided by line 16 is used efficiently.

When a call waiting signal is received at a local site 12, for example, D+V modem 24 switches to an analog or digital voice-only mode. Typically, a call waiting signal is seen as a disturbance on the line. When D+V modem 24 detects the disturbance, it switches to a voice-only mode. D+V modem 24a at the remote site should also detect the disturbance and go into voice-only mode. At that point, the players can communicate by voice and the local player can proceed in a conventional manner to handle the waiting call, i.e., inform the remote player that the local player will be taking the call, "flash" the hook to switch to the waiting call, and then return to the first call when finished with the waiting call.

While the call waiting is being handled in voice-only mode, the modem modules 54 at the local and remote sites are not transmitting. To allow each player to control their D+V modem, a pop-up program is provided at computer system 20 and computer system 20a. Where the computer systems 20, 20a are DOS-based personal computers, the pop-up program is a terminate-and-stay resident (TSR) program. The TSR gives a player the option to pause the game or hang up the line and gives the local player the option to flash the hook to take the waiting call. If both players choose to pause the game, they can pick up the game where it left off.

Once the local player is finished with the waiting call, he or she can signal, via the TSR, that the waiting call should be dropped and D+V modem 24 should flash the hook to return to the original call. Then both players signal, via the TSR, that the two D+V modems should go into D+V mode and resync the modems. Since the TSR pauses the game, the game can continue where it left off. The TSR can also include the capability to pause a game, have the phone line dropped entirely, and then pick up where it left off by redialing to re-establish the connection, resync the modems and then unpause the game.

The analog call waiting bypass and digital call waiting bypass are illustrated in FIG. 2. Each call waiting bypass is a voice-only mode, since modem module 54 is bypassed. In the case of a digital bypass, AFE 58 reroutes all incoming data directly to voice CODEC 50 and the data is interpreted as voice data. In the case of an analog bypass, relays 64 and 66 switch the telephone line 16 directly to twisted pair 30. In either case, the voice communications have the use of the entire bandwidth of the telephone line.

If the local player chose to permanently switch to the waiting call, the local D+V modem drops the current (original) call and switches to the waiting call as described above. Once the call is over, the local modem hangs up the line altogether. This latter option is typically not needed for point-to-point connections, but is used in cases where the remote modem is part of a modem pool and the remote modem or computer system is programmed to drop a line after a set period of inactivity. In some embodiments, the TSR or pop-up will stay active (on-screen) for the duration of the waiting call and then give the user an opportunity to re-establish the connection to the remote D+V modem before handing control back to the communicating process. This is very useful if the user wants to restart a game with the same state as when the game was interrupted by the call waiting signal.

FIG. 3 is a chart showing several sources of data which are transferrable over a telephone line. For each of the data types, an exemplary application is shown, although other applications are possible. As indicated, all the various data types use the HDLC protocol at the link network layer (of the standardized seven layer network model).

As FIG. 3 illustrates, different error correcting schemes are used for real-time data and non-real-time data. Real-time data may be error-corrected using forward error correction (FEC), while non-real-time data may be corrected using the V.42 standard's protocols, wherein a block received in error results in the receiving modem requesting re-transmission. Although voice may use FEC, some voice frames might have too many errors and thus be unrecoverable. If the error is not recoverable, then the receiving modem replaces the signal which would have resulted from the frame with silence or the previous voice frame to avoid crackling and pops due to noise. The V.42 standard is defined in CCITT Recommendation V.42, "Error Correcting Procedures for DCEs Using Asynchronous to Synchronous Conversion".

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an HDLC frame, as used with the present invention. An HDLC frame comprises the fields shown in Table 1. The addresses that may be assigned in a typical implementation for several data stream types are shown in Table 2, below. As should be apparent, other assignments of values for data stream addresses are possible so long as the sender and the receiver of a data stream agree on the meaning of the addresses.

The Control field contains one or two bytes, per the V.42 specification. The FCS field is calculated by performing a check sum on the address, control and data fields.

Since each HDLC frame contains an address indicating its data stream type, and each frame contains only data from one type of data stream, HDLC controller 52 can easily separate received frames for each data stream multiplexed onto line 16. And since frames for the various data types can be freely intermixed, the full bandwidth of the channel is dynamically allocated to the various data streams.

If data from all data streams is presented to HDLC controller 52 faster than the channel can carry the data, some of the data is framed and bufferred into frame storage 62. Alternately, where provided, HDLC controller 52 will send control signals back to the source of a non-real-time data stream to indicate that modem 24 is temporarily busy (e.g., sending an XOFF byte or a CTS off signal back to subsystem 22 over an RS-232 line which uses software handshaking to hold up data at the sending end). When real-time data arrives fast enough to occupy the entire channel, the non-real-time data streams are held up or bufferred, so that the real-time data arrives at the remote site in real time.

The D+V modem at the remote site can be configured to ignore any unrecoverable packets which contain voice data and replace the voice data with voice data which would translate to silence or average the erred gap. This way, a listener is not subjected to noises and pops which might occur if errors in the voice frames were present in the voice signal presented to the listener.

Remote video game data is real-time data which presents particular problems, as remote video game data is extremely time-sensitive and once presented to a local modem such as modem 24 shown in FIG. 1, it must be quickly transported to the remote modem 240 and to the remote game system 20a. Fortunately, the bandwidth required for this data is relatively low. Game communication generally falls into one of two types: 1) input update and 2) state update. In an input update system, a remote machine sends a local machine data indicating the inputs (keyboard, joystick, mouse, etc.) the remote machine received and both the remote and local game machines calculate what the effect of those inputs is, be it character movement, scoring, option selection, or the like. In a state update system, the remote machine acts on the inputs to change the state of the game and the remote machine communicates the new state of the game. The advantage to an input update system is that very little data need be communicated in a given time period, but the advantage of state update systems is that each computer need only perform the input calculation for its local inputs. Typically, input update is used for fast action games and state update is used for real time games such as chess.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a modified HDLC frame used to transmit video game control data or other low delay data. The video game control data packets are of a pre-agreed size, such as N bytes, where each modem agrees on the value of N, so that no bandwidth need be used to signal the end of a video game control data packet. If regular HDLC frames were used, either the remote video game data would need to be accumulated into a frame, which causes an unacceptable delay, or each N-byte packet would be transmitted as a separate packet, which would also cause a delay, since the transmission of the data must wait at least until any packet transmission in progress when the video game data is presented to the modem has completed. The use of an entire frame for each N-byte packet is also very wasteful of bandwidth for low values of N, such as N=4 or N=5, since the other fields of the frame might be larger than the data field.

As shown in FIG. 5, the modified HDLC frame contains the same fields as an HDLC frame, except that the Address, Control, and FCS fields are optionally removed. The N-byte packet is simply placed between voice packets with an escape code. The escape code is known as an "Abort Flag", and is inserted in between the voice packet being transmitted by the local modem when the video game data is received by the local modem. That way, the remote video game data need not be delayed until the end of the frame. The Address and Control fields are not needed in this application, since all frames are addresses as voice packets. The FCS flag is eliminated, because otherwise the insertion of the N-byte data packet would cause a check sum error. The elimination of these various fields leads to more efficient use of bandwidth.

The insertion of the N-byte packet is detectable at the remote modem, since the Abort Flag is not a bit sequence which would occur within a voice packet. In one embodiment, the Abort Flag is the bit sequence "1111111." The end of the frame is still detectable because the End Flag is also a bit sequence which would not occur in a voice packet. If the value of N is fixed ahead of time, then the bytes in the N-byte packet can take on any possible bit sequence without ambiguity.

Where regularly spaced, fixed length packet transmissions are not suitable or appropriate for a pre-configured game, the PlayLink.TM. framing protocol can be used. An example of a PlayLink.TM. frame is shown in FIG. 6. In this protocol, the remote D+V modem and the local D+V modem perform a handshake after which it is agreed that all packets will be voice packets and that voice data and game data will not contain the bit sequences associated with the Abort Flag. Voice data is then sent delimited by frame flags and game data is sent by interrupting a voice frame, inserting an Abort Flag in the transmitting data stream, followed by game data and a second Abort Flag. If any voice data remains for the current frame, it is transmitted followed by the next frame flag. With this protocol, data delay can be as low as 17 msec.

In a first mode of operation described above with reference to FIG. 4, voice packets have priority and are sent if present and data is sent if no voice is present. The maximum size of a packet is 20-30 bytes and the modem checks for pending voice data between each packet.

In a second mode of operation, voice packets are sent until data is pending. Typically, the modem sends voice until at least 1 to 10 bytes of data are pending. Once data is ready to be sent, the data is inserted in the voice packet being sent at the time. In one variation, the data is sent in fixed length sub-packets preceded by an abort flag.

FIG. 7 is a state diagram of a third mode of operation for sending voice and game data over a single telephone line. One problem with using a single line is that both voice and game data have a high priority. Voice data has a high priority so that the voice data is not received with annoying gaps at the other end. Game data is high priority so that even fast action games can be played with the local and remote machine being substantially in sync. This state diagram describes the states of a state machine implemented in a D+V modem such as D+V modem 24.

In the first state (S1), the D+V modem is waiting for game data. If game data is sent to the D+V modem before a waiting period is over, the state machine transitions to state S2 and a game data packet is sent. If not, the state machine transitions to state S3, where the D+V modem checks for the presence of voice data. If no voice data is present, the state machine returns to state S1, but if voice data is present, the state machine transitions to state S4. Once a game packet has been sent at state S2, the state machine also transitions to state S4.

In state S4, the D+V modem pauses the game data source so no game data is lost. If the game data source is a game which expects to send data via a UART (universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter) port, which the D+V modem implements or emulates, then to pause the source the D+V modem simple sends a signal to indicate that the UART is busy sending a signal. This is especially useful for games which were not written to take into account the possibility of having a voice and data modem. The state machine then transitions to state S5, where the D+V modem sends voice packets over the line until silence is encountered.

While in state S5, if game data is received, the state machine transitions to state S6, where the game data is inserted into a voice packet using the escape sequence (abort flag) as shown in FIG. 6 and the state machine returns to state S5. If silence is encountered, the state machine returns to state S1. The game data is typically sent sixty times per second, to match the screen refresh rate. If four bytes of game data were send each time, the channel width between the two machines would be 1920 bits/second (4 bytes/period.times.60 periods/second.times.8 bits/byte).

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of one specific embodiment of a modem card 100 according to the present invention. Modem card 100 is shown combined with a headset 102, an analog mixer 104, a game computer 108, a DAA 110, which is in turn coupled to a telephone line 112. If game computer 108 is a general-purpose personal computer, modem card 100 could be a card designed to be inserted into the personal computer's add-on card slots.

Headset 102 provides a game player with the game's sound as well as the remote player's voice and headset 102 also receives the local player's voice for transmission to the remote player's D+V modem. Analog mixer 104 combines the voice from modem card 100 and the game sound from game computer 108. Analog mixer 104 might be included on modem card 100 or might be included as part of a sound card used with game computer 108.

Modem card 100 is shown comprising a coder-decoder (CODEC) 120 for converting digital compressed voice data into an analog voice signal, a digital signal processing (DSP) chip 122 which acts at the processor to control modem card 100 and perform the necessary computations, an AFE 124 to translate the digital signals coming from DSP chip 122 to analog signals suitable for transmission over telephone line 112 and to digitize incoming analog signals to digital signals which are provided to DSP chip 122. DSP chip 122 has interfaces to CODEC 120 and game computer 108, as well as to a ROM (readonly memory) 126, an SRAM (static random access memory) 128 and an EEPROM (electrically-erasable programmable ROM) 130. ROM 126 and EEPROM 130 together contain the instructions which tell DSP chip 122 how to combine the voice signal from CODEC 120 and the game data from game computer 108 and send it out as well as telling DSP chip 122 how to separate incoming game data from voice packets and convert the voice packets into a voice signal. The bulk of the program is found in EEPROM 130, which in one particular implementation is a 128K by 8 EEPROM. This allows the program used by DSP chip 122 to be updated over telephone line 112 by downloading new versions of the DSP software. ROM 126 need only contain the routines for handling the downloading process. SRAM 128, in the particular implementation, comprises three 3K by 8 RAM chips.

Variations of modem card 100 are possible to take advantage of the environment of modem card 100. For example, where most of the functions of modem card are implemented on an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), analog mixer 104 and CODEC 120 might be combined into a mixer/CODEC on a chip. Another environmental advantage is where the modem card 100 will be used with a personal computer of a known design and capacity. In such cases, ROM 126 and SRAM 128 need not actually be present on modem card 100. Instead, their functionality can be handled by the personal computer.

A detailed description of this particular implementation is set forth in the accompanying Appendix.

The operation of modem card 100 typically begins with a game player (referred to here as the "local" player) powering up the local game computer 108, putting on headset 102 and dialing the telephone number of the remote player. Dialing can be provided by either game computer 108 or an interface to DSP chip 122. The remote player will usually respond by answering the telephone manually. At this point, no game data is being transferred and modem card 100 is operating essentially as a conventional telephone, using headset 102 in place of the conventional handset.

If the remote player is agreeable, the remote player powers up the remote game computer and remote headset. Each player then initiates a handshake process in which both the local modem card and the remote modem card confirm that they both have the D+V capability. If the handshake is successful, the modem cards indicate to their respective game computers that transmission of game data is possible.

Game computer 108 could be configured to handle call-waiting. One way to implement this is to have a special purpose program running in the background with which modem card 100 can communicate. When one player (using the local players as an example) gets call a call waiting signal, the local DSP chip detects the signal and sends a message to the special purpose signaling program, which interrupts the game with a message to the screen that a call is waiting. The signaling program gives the local player the option of what to do about the waiting call. If the local player chooses to ignore the waiting call, the local DSP chip does nothing and the signaling program returns to the background. If the local player chooses to take the waiting call, the local player will inform the remote player that the remote player should indicate to the remote computer 20a that the game should be temporarily paused. Once the waiting call is complete, the local player tells to the remote player that game play should resume, and each player signals their respective TSR or pop-up that the data link should resume.

The above description is illustrative and not restrictive. Many variations of the invention will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon review of this disclosure. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined not with reference to the above description, but instead should be determined with reference to the appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents.

The attached Appendix A is a Design Reference Document entitled "Phylon PHY2000 PC Adapter Card Reference Design" which describes a specific embodiment of a modem programmed to perform dynamic voice and data (or other non-real-time and real-time data streams) multiplexing over telephone lines sold as a PC-compatible add-in card.

Appendix B is "Phylon PlayLink Talk `n` Play Interactive Games."

Appendix C is a Technical Data Manual for the PHY1412 Safari Chip-Set for Remote Gaming.

Appendix D is a Hardware & Software Installation Manual for PHY2000 PC.

Appendix E is a "Phylon PHY2000 MessageLink Software User's Manual."

Appendix F is a "Phylon PHY2000 PC PhyLink Software User's Manual." ##SPC1##