Local thermal control of wireless access points

• US 10,379,584 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2017
• Issued: 08/13/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Plume Design, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Plume Design, Inc.
• Inventors: McFarland, William, Malkin, Yoseph, Chang, Richard, Hanley, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Tri H
• Application Number:
  US15/832,816
• Publication Number:
  US 20190171259A1
• Time in Patent Office: 615 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 1/024 for remote indication
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 13/00 Thermometers specially adapted for specific purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 3/005 Circuits arrangements for indicating a predetermined temperature fire detection G08B17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0413 MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/367 Power values between minimum and maximum limits, e.g. dynamic range
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/38 TPC being performed in particular situations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Systems and methods of local thermal control of an access point include determining temperature associated with the access point including one or more radio chips operating therein; responsive to the temperature exceeding a first threshold, performing one or more thermal mitigation techniques to modify operating conditions of the one or more radio chips; and, responsive to the temperature being lower than a second threshold, reverting back the one or more thermal mitigation techniques.

Claims

1. A method of thermal control of an access point, the method comprising:

in the access point that provides wireless networking connectivity, determining temperature associated with the access point comprising a plurality of radio chips operating therein;

responsive to the temperature exceeding a first threshold, performing one or more thermal mitigation techniques by the access point to modify operating conditions of one or more of the plurality of radio chips; and

responsive to the temperature being lower than a second threshold, reverting back the one or more thermal mitigation techniques by the access point.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more thermal mitigation techniques comprise reducing a Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) dimension on the plurality of radio chips.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the MIMO dimension is reduced only on transmissions and not on receptions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more thermal mitigation techniques comprise turning off any of the plurality of radio chips.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more thermal mitigation techniques comprise reducing power of a transmitter associated with the plurality of radio chips.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more thermal mitigation techniques comprise controlling a duty cycle of a transmitter associated with the plurality of radio chips.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the duty cycle is controlled through off-channel scans.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the duty cycle is controlled via one of software and low level hardware mechanisms.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the duty cycle is controlled between 100% to 0% in a feedback loop which continually adjusts the duty cycle based on the determining.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more thermal mitigation techniques comprise a control loop which operates in a continuous manner.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the second threshold is different from the first threshold for a hysteresis band to maintain stability in the thermal control.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the temperature is determined at a plurality of points in the access point and the one or more thermal mitigation techniques are selected based on which temperature is above the first threshold.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more thermal mitigation techniques comprise moving a client device from one radio to a different radio of the plurality of radios.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more thermal mitigation techniques comprise one of shutting down and rebooting the access point.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein there are multiple temperature thresholds and one of multiple thermal mitigation techniques is triggered depending on which threshold is crossed.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the temperature is based on observation of a duty cycle.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the access point is part of a distributed Wi-Fi system with one or more additional access points, and further comprising:

performing thermal mitigation for each of the one or more additional access points by the access point.

18. An access point configured for thermal control, the access point comprising:

a plurality of radios that provide wireless networking connectivity;

a processor communicatively coupled to the plurality of radios and configured to;

determine temperature associated with the plurality of radios operating therein;

responsive to the temperature exceeding a first threshold, perform one or more thermal mitigation techniques in the access point to modify operating conditions of one or more of the plurality of radios; and

responsive to the temperature being lower than a second threshold, revert back the one or more thermal mitigation techniques by the access point.

19. The access point of claim 18, wherein the temperature is determined at a plurality of points in the access point and the one or more thermal mitigation techniques are selected based on which temperature is above the first threshold.

20. A distributed Wi-Fi network configured to implement thermal control at various nodes therein, the distributed Wi-Fi network comprising:

a plurality of access points connected to one another forming the distributed Wi-Fi network that provides wireless networking connectivity;

wherein each of the plurality of access points is configured to;

determine temperature associated with a plurality of radios operating therein;

responsive to the temperature exceeding a first threshold, perform one or more thermal mitigation techniques by the corresponding access point to modify operating conditions of one or more the plurality of radios; and

responsive to the temperature being lower than a second threshold, revert back the one or more thermal mitigation techniques by the corresponding access point.