Communication system with synchronization alliances
AssigneeOki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
InventorsMasaaki Date, Yuki Kubo, Kosuke Sekiyama
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Abstract
In a communication system including nodes laid out in a grid, each node operates on a repetitive internal timing cycle, at certain phases in which the node transmits data and state variable signals. The state variable signals transmitted by a node indicate its internal phase and its position in the grid. The advance of the phase at each node is governed by a phase response function, which drives neighboring nodes whose data transmissions could collide out of phase with each other, and a synchronization alliance function, which brings certain nodes having positional relationships that preclude data collisions into phase with each other. A highly efficient data transmission timing pattern can thereby be established autonomously.
Claims16
A timing control apparatus installed in each of a plurality of nodes constituting a communication system, the nodes being arranged in a grid, the timing control apparatus including a communication timing calculator for determining timings of data transmission from its own node according to variations in a phase state internal to the node, the communication timing calculator comprising:
- a phase calculator for varying a phase state of its own node according to a time series rule based on a predetermined phase response function and a predetermined synchronization alliance function, according to reception of state variable signals from neighboring nodes, the state variable signals representing a phase indicating a timing of data transmission from the neighboring nodes;
- a collision rate calculator for observing phase differences between its own node and the neighboring nodes and calculating a collision rate representing a rate of collision between timings of data transmission from its own node and timing of data transmission from the neighboring nodes;
- a phase response function characteristic determiner for altering characteristics of the phase response function according to the collision rate and to positional information included in the state variable signals, the positional information indicating positions of the neighboring nodes;
- and
- a synchronization alliance unit for altering characteristics of the synchronization alliance function according to the positional information included in the state variable signals.
A communication control method employed in each of a plurality of nodes constituting a communication system to determine timings of data transmission from each node according to variations in a phase state internal to the node, the nodes being arranged in a grid, the method comprising:
- varying a phase state of a node of interest according to a time series rule based on a predetermined phase response function and a predetermined synchronization alliance function, according to reception of state variable signals from neighboring nodes, the state variables signals representing a phase indicating a timing of data transmission from the neighboring nodes;
- observing phase differences between the node of interest and the neighboring nodes and calculating a collision rate representing a rate of collision between timings of data transmission from the node of interest and timing of data transmission from the neighboring nodes;
- altering characteristics of the phase response function according to the collision rate and to positional information included in the state variable signals, the positional information indicating positions of the neighboring nodes;
- and
- altering characteristics of the synchronization alliance function according to the positional information included in the state variable signals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.