US 11,057,786 B2Granted

Directional beacon transmission and reception activity indication

AssigneeSony Corporation

InventorsMohamed Abouelseoud, Kazuyuki Sakoda

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

Wireless directional communication is performed in the millimeter wave (mmW) band by nodes in a wireless mesh network. Beacon frames are configured to incorporate an activity indicator that signals active and inactive communication directions on the mmW, with a flag for each respective direction of communication (transmit or receive). The activity indicator is utilized to enhance route and beam selection so as to obtain connections subject to less interference, and/or that create less interference to other stations. The activity indicator is also, or alternately, utilized for improving selections of a connection to an access point (AP) or station (STA) or mesh station (MSTA), toward reducing interference, or selecting which beam from a given AP, STA, or MSTA is to be utilized. Distributed interference and resource coordination can be initiated, and/or rerouting determined, based on the activity indicator.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An apparatus for wireless communication in a mesh network, comprising:

(a) a wireless communication circuit configured for wirelessly communicating with other wireless communication stations utilizing directional millimeter-wave (mmW) communications having a plurality of antenna pattern sectors each having different transmission directions;
(b) a processor coupled to said wireless communication circuit within a station configured for operating on the mesh network;
(c) a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor;
and
(d) wherein said instructions, when executed by the processor, perform steps comprising:
(i) maintaining statistics of transmission and reception on each direction and each peer station in that direction;
(ii) sending information on said statistics of transmission and reception to other stations in proximity to the station;
(iii) wherein said statistics of transmission are maintained per peer station, so that when a station changes its communicated beam with the station, then the statistics associated to this station is moved to the new beam, with the beam statistics representing an expected usage on that beam based on previously recorded usage information;
and
(iv) upon receiving a frame from another station indicating possible communication activity in the direction that the station is using, or planning to use, the station selects to either avoid using this direction for transmission or reception, or it can communicate with that station and coordinate the sharing of resources.

7 more elements

An apparatus for wireless communication in a mesh network, comprising:

(a) a wireless communication circuit configured for wirelessly communicating with other wireless communication stations utilizing directional millimeter-wave (mmW) communications having a plurality of antenna pattern sectors each having different transmission directions;
(b) a processor coupled to said wireless communication circuit within a station configured for operating on the mesh network;
(c) a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor;
and
(d) wherein said instructions, when executed by the processor, perform steps comprising:
(i) maintaining statistics of transmission and reception on each direction and each peer station in that direction, wherein said statistics of transmission and reception comprise an indication of communication activity;
(ii) wherein said maintaining of information on the statistics of transmission and reception is performed by collecting average statistics of the station's channel usage, transmission, and reception in each beam direction;
(iii) sending information on said statistics of transmission and reception to other stations in proximity to the station;
(iv) wherein said statistics of transmission are maintained per peer station, so that when a station changes its communicated beam with the station, then the statistics associated to this station is moved to the new beam, with the beam statistics representing an expected usage on that beam based on previously recorded usage information;
(v) wherein said information on the statistics of transmission and reception is utilized for selecting a connection that is subject to less interference, or that will induce less interference to other stations in the mesh network;
and
(vi) upon receiving a frame from another station indicating possible communication activity in the direction the station is using, or planning to use, the station selects to either avoid using this direction for transmission or reception, or it can communicate with that station and coordinate the sharing of resources.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/912,418Filed 25 Jun 2020 · continuation
Priority: 12 Dec 2017
Published: US 2020/0008082 A124 Dec 2020
Granted: 6 Jul 2021
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

H04W 24/02
Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements: arrangements for optimising operational condition
H04B 17/30
Monitoring; Testing: of propagation channels
H04W 40/16
Based on transmission quality or channel quality: based on interference
H04W 40/244
Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update: using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing

Family

Application62/597,484Us provisional application · filed 12 Dec 2017
Application15/921,397Parent of this continuation · filed 14 Mar 2018
Application16/457,180Parent of this continuation · filed 28 Jun 2019
US 10,382,983 B2Parent of this continuation · filed 13 Aug 2019
US 2020/0404514 A1Pre-grant publication · published 24 Dec 2020
US 10,721,636 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2019/0182685 A1Published application
US 2020/0008082 A1Published application
US 11,057,786 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.