Scalable wireless network topology systems and methods
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A wireless communications network comprising:
- a plurality of locations;
a transceiver coupled to each of the locations and adapted to transmit or receive a radio frequency signal by selecting a channel from at least two non-conflicting channels, the transceiver further adapted to connect to two distinct antennas;
wherein one of the locations is designated a root node and the other locations are designated as non-root nodes, with each non-root node within radio frequency range of either the root node or another non-root node and forming a tree structure originating at the root node and branching out from the root node to one or more of the non-root nodes, the locations not within radio frequency range of the root node communicating with the root node through non-root nodes that function as repeaters, with the repeaters designated as parents and the non-root nodes that communicate with the repeaters designated as children for each level of the tree structure;
a broadbeam antenna coupled to the transceiver of the root node to transmit or receive wireless communications with the non-root nodes that are within radio frequency range of the root node; and
a directional antenna coupled to the transceivers of the non-root nodes that are within radio frequency range of the root node to transmit or receive wireless communications with the root node.
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Abstract
Wireless broadband data access is provided to and from a plurality of locations distributed randomly over a large geographic area. The network can be deployed one node at a time, with a new node incorporated into the network if within radio frequency range of any existing node in the network. The newly incorporated node can then be the attaching point for another new node that requires incorporation into the network. Data can be forwarded over multiple hops to reach its destination in the network, with the data-polling scheme self-synchronizing with minimal transmission overhead.
216 Citations
34 Claims
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1. A wireless communications network comprising:
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a plurality of locations;
a transceiver coupled to each of the locations and adapted to transmit or receive a radio frequency signal by selecting a channel from at least two non-conflicting channels, the transceiver further adapted to connect to two distinct antennas;
wherein one of the locations is designated a root node and the other locations are designated as non-root nodes, with each non-root node within radio frequency range of either the root node or another non-root node and forming a tree structure originating at the root node and branching out from the root node to one or more of the non-root nodes, the locations not within radio frequency range of the root node communicating with the root node through non-root nodes that function as repeaters, with the repeaters designated as parents and the non-root nodes that communicate with the repeaters designated as children for each level of the tree structure;
a broadbeam antenna coupled to the transceiver of the root node to transmit or receive wireless communications with the non-root nodes that are within radio frequency range of the root node; and
a directional antenna coupled to the transceivers of the non-root nodes that are within radio frequency range of the root node to transmit or receive wireless communications with the root node. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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19. A wireless communications network comprising:
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a root node;
a broadbeam antenna coupled to the root node;
at least one non-root node;
a directional antenna coupled to each of the non-root nodes and directed at the broadbeam antenna of the root node to exchange wireless communications with the root node, wherein at least one of said non-root nodes functions as a repeater node, with the repeater node further having a broadbeam antenna;
at least one child node of the repeater node; and
a directional antenna coupled to each of the child nodes of the repeater node and directed at the broadbeam antenna of the repeater node to exchange wireless communications with the repeater node, wherein the broadbeam antennas in the network are adapted to provide wireless communications with downstream nodes in the network and the directional antennas in the network are adapted to provide wireless communications with upstream nodes in the network.
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27. A method of communicating in a wireless communications network, the network comprised of a root node and at least one repeater node and one leaf node, the root node having an antenna for wireless communication with its slaves, the repeater nodes and the leaf nodes having only one master and having a directional antenna pointed at the respective master, the repeater nodes having an additional antenna for wireless communication with their slaves for when the repeater nodes are functioning as masters, the method performed by each root, repeater, and leaf node comprising:
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determining the node type;
performing a master cycle repeatedly if the node is the root node;
performing an attach cycle if unattached or becomes detached from the network and if the node is not the root; and
performing a slave cycle followed by the master cycle, repeatedly, if the node is not the root.
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Specification