US 2019/0104046 A1 · ADAPTIVE TIME SLOT ALLOCATION TO REDUCE LATENCY AND POWER CONSUMPTION IN A TIME SLOTTED CHANNEL HOPPING WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK

Abstract

Excessive latencies and power consumption are avoided when a large number of leaf nodes (LNs) contend simultaneously to join a time slotted channel hopping wireless communication network having a root node (RN) interfaced to LNs by one or more intermediate nodes (INs). A first plurality of shared transmit/receive slots (STRSs) is allocated for at least one IN, and a second plurality of STRSs is advertised for use by contending LNs, where the first plurality is larger than the second plurality. When a LN joins, its STRSs are re-defined such that most become shared transmit-only slots (STOSs) and no STRSs remain. The numbers of STRSs allocated to INs may vary inversely with their hop counts from the RN. One or more STOSs may be added for each of one or more INs in response to a predetermined network condition.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method of allocating slots of time in a time slotted channel hopping (TSCH) wireless communication network, the method comprising:

advertising, by a root node (RN), a first plurality of shared transmit/receive slots (STRSs) allocated as contention slots, wherein a plurality of leaf nodes (LNs) may contend for association with the TSCH wireless communication network during the first plurality of STRSs;
and
setting, by the RN, a second plurality of STRSs for a first LN of the plurality of LNs, after the first LN associates with the TSCH wireless communication network, wherein at least one STRSs of the second plurality of STRSs is a shared receive-only slot (SROS) and at least some of the STRSs of the second plurality of STRSs are shared transmit-only slots (STOSs), and wherein the at least some of the plurality of STOSs is a majority of the STRSs.

A root node (RN), comprising:

a slot allocator configured to allocate slots of time;
a beacon generator coupled to the slot allocator, the beacon generator configured to broadcast a beacon message that advertises a first plurality of shared transmit/receive slots (STRSs) allocated as contention slots in which a plurality of leaf nodes (LNs) may contend for association with a time slotted channel hopping (TSCH) wireless communication network;
and
a node association interface coupled to the slot allocator, the node association interface configured to a message to a first LN of the plurality of LNs, the message indicating a second plurality of STRSs for the first LN, wherein at least one of the second plurality of STRSs is a shared receive-only slot (SROS) and at least some of the second plurality of STRSs are shared transmit-only slots (STOSs), wherein the at least some STOSs is a majority of the second plurality of STRSs.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Adaptive time slot allocation to reduce latency and power consumption in a time slotted channel hopping wireless communication network

Life of this patent

Adaptive time slot allocation to reduce latency and power consumption in a time slotted channel hopping wireless communication network

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20