US 2014/0233556 A1 · IMPLEMENTING AN ASSISTED CROSS-PROTOCOL ADAPTATION LAYER/CROSS-LAYER CLOCK SYNCHRONIZATION SCHEME

Abstract

A system and method are provided to streamline at least a clock synchronization process for subsequent WiGig PALs once clocks in a first WiGig PAL transmitter and a corresponding first WiGig PAL receiver are synchronized. The unique layering structure of the WiGig 60 GHz standard affords an opportunity to streamline the clock synchronization process based on relationships between individual WiGig PALs, and that the WiGig PALs are directly on top of the WiGig MAC and PHY layers. A process for assisted cross-PAL/cross-layer clock synchronization affords significant reductions in an amount of time required to synchronize the clocks of multiple WiGig PALs based on leveraging an already synchronized clock pair in a first WiGig PAL transmitter/receiver pair to facilitate the clock synchronization of one or more subsequent WiGig PAL transmitter/receiver pairs.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method for implementing a streamlined clock synchronization scheme for multiple wireless communication links, comprising:

synchronizing a first source device clock and a first sink device clock for a first wireless communication link between a source device and a sink device;
determining, with a processor, a relationship between a frequency of the first source device clock for the first communication link and a second source device clock for a second wireless communication link;
communicating information regarding the determined frequency relationship via the second wireless communication link between the source device and the sink device;
and
applying the information regarding the determined frequency relationship to frequency information derived from the first sink device clock to synchronize a second sink device clock to the second source device clock.

2 more elements

A system for implementing a streamlined clock synchronization scheme for multiple wireless communication links, comprising:

a source device that communicates on multiple PALs or multiple layers in a WiGig 60 GHz layered data structure, the source device comprising:
a first source device clock that supports communication on a first wireless communication link between the source device and a sink device;
and
a second source device clock that supports communication on a second wireless communication link between the source device and the sink device;
and
a sink device that communicates on the multiple PALs or the multiple layers in the WiGig 60 GHz layered data structure with the source device, the sink device comprising:
a first sink device clock that is synchronized with the first source device clock to support the communication on the first wireless communication link;
and
a second sink device clock that is synchronized with the second source device clock to support the communication on the second wireless communication link;
and
a processor in at least one of the source device and the sink device that is programmed to
determine that the first sink device clock is synchronized to the first source device clock;
determine a relationship between a frequency of the first source device clock and the second source device clock;
and
direct communicating information regarding the determined frequency relationship via the second wireless communication link between the source device and the sink device and applying the information regarding the determined frequency relationship to frequency information derived from the first sink device clock to synchronize the second sink device clock to the second source device clock.

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Implementing an assisted cross-protocol adaptation layer/cross-layer clock synchronization scheme

Life of this patent

Implementing an assisted cross-protocol adaptation layer/cross-layer clock synchronization scheme

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18