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US 2012/0057506 A1Published application
Large network association procedure in power efficient manner
OwnerPraveen Kumarinventor
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Abstract
The embodiments herein generally relate to distributed systems and more particularly, to association procedure in a large network. In this invention time is divided into different zones each for specific task such as to wake-up dormant devices, to synchronize unassociated devices, to transmit identity frame and then to associate with network coordinator device. In each time zone plurality of nodes perform the specific task simultaneously. This improves the power efficiency and speeds up the association procedure. This technique also improves neighboring table information, which enables better localization.
Claims18
A method for associating an unassociated wireless devices in a wireless communication network by associated coordinator node, comprising steps of:
- creating wake-up frame sequence, which is repetition of wake-up frames based on configurable parameters i.e. configurable duration (TmixRx) for which unassociated dormant device attempts to listen to said wake-up frame sequence in each of its reception attempt, said unassociated dormant device's listening periodicity (PRx) and number of opportunities (NRx) said unassociated dormant device gets to listen to wake-up frame;
- transmitting said wake-up frame sequence on preconfigured wake-up frame frequency channel at wake-up frame zone specified by its parent;
- creating beacon frame comprising request to transmit identity frame, identity frame zone information, its operational frequency channel information and synchronization information;
- transmitting said beacon frame on said wake-up frame channel, at the specific time slot of beacon zone specified by its parent;
- listening to said wake-up frame frequency channel for identity frames and building neighbor table based on received identity frames content and its signal strength;
- transmitting beacon frame on said operational frequency channel, indicating that it is ready for association using association permit field of beacon frame;
- listening to said operational frequency channel for association requests and accumulating it;
- processing neighbor table information, said accumulated association requests and logical address availability for child end device and child network coordinators to calculate logical addresses for the unassociated devices;
- and
- allocating logical address to unassociated devices obtained after said processing of neighbor table information, said accumulated association requests and logical address availability for child end device and child network coordinators;
- whereby association procedure happens in time and power efficient manner and it also enables to build elaborate neighbor table which helps in allocating logical address in efficient manner and improvises localization procedure.
8 more elements
A method for associating to a wireless communication network by an unassociated device, comprising steps of:
- listening to wake-up frame channel for said configurable duration (TmixRx) at said configurable periodicity (PRX);
- decoding said wake-up frame on its successful reception and based on said wake-up frame content indicating the relative time at which beacon zone starts and its hardware capability, changing its mode to low power consumption mode till start of said beacon zone, otherwise on unsuccessful reception of wake-up frame said unassociated device continuing in dormant mode;
- activating transceiver in reception mode tuned to listen to said wake-up frame frequency channel at said start of beacon zone;
- listening to all the beacon frames transmitted in said beacon zone and based on received signal strength calculating the approximate distance and estimating the frequency channel quality of all the said beacon frame transmitting coordinators;
- creating an identity frame on receiving said beacon frame comprising request to transmit identity frame;
- transmitting said identity frame in beacon frame specified identity frame zone (IFZ) using transmission method specified in said beacon frame content i.e. either by using carrier sense access scheme (CSAS) method or by using time division access scheme (TDAS) method;
- listening to said wake-up frame frequency channel, in said identity frame zone (IFZ) when not transmitting its own said identity frame to listen to neighboring node's identity frames;
- building neighbor table based on received identity frames from neighboring nodes;
- finding out most suitable coordinator to associate with based on network policy, said signal strength, link quality and association permit value of received beacon frames from neighboring coordinators wherein network policy can be to choose the coordinator whose frequency channel is estimated best based on said signal strength and link quality values;
- tuning transceiver frequency to operational channel of chosen coordinator and listening to said coordinator's beacon frame;
- creating and transmitting association request on said operational channel of chosen coordinator;
- and
- listening to association response from said coordinator;
- whereby unassociated device helping coordinator to build extended neighbor table before allowing unassociated devices to associate with it and hence helping said coordinator node to use its available logical addresses efficiently, minimizing the chance of holes in region intended to cover through the network and associating the unassociated device.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.