Method and apparatus for controlling communication within a computer network

• US 20030219030A1
• Filed: 02/21/2003
• Published: 11/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cirrus Logic Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cirrus Logic Incorporated
• Inventors: Gubbi, Rajugopal R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,251,231 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/442
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station; in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/403 with centralised control, e.g. polling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2866 Architectures; Arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/02 Hierarchically pre-organised networks, e.g. paging networks, cellular networks, WLAN [Wireless Local Area Network] or WLL [Wireless Local Loop]

Abstract

A communication channel is controlled so as to dynamically accommodate network client requests for access thereto. The communication channel may be supported on a wireless link, such as a spread spectrum wireless link, and client requests for access thereto may be dynamically accommodated by allocating time slots for client transmissions on the wireless link. Providing a quiet time slot within which clients may request access to the communication channel may accommodate various client requests for access to the communication channel. These quiet slots may exist with other forward and reverse time slots which are superimposed on the communication channel, each forward and reverse time slot including one or more data frames. The forward and reverse time slots are preferably fixed, but negotiable, time periods. Each of the data frames may include a plurality of data packets, each of the data packets being variable in length. Preferably, each of the data packets includes error correction coding information as well as information which may be used to synchronize pseudo-random number generators of a transmitter and a receiver operating according to the communication protocol. Each of the data frames may further include link identification information that uniquely identifies a wireless link supporting the communication protocol.

Claims

1. A method, comprising controlling a computer network communication channel by dynamically accommodating or rejecting requests by one or more network components for access to the communication channel.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein dynamically accommodating the requests for access to the communication channel comprises allocating time slots for transmissions by the one or more network components within the communication channel.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein associated durations of the time slots are determined according to individual bandwidth requirements of the one or more network components.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the individual bandwidth requirements of one of the network components is determined at least in part according to whether the one of the network components is a video consumer or a video provider.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein dynamically accommodating the requests for access to the communication channel comprises providing at least one quiet time slot within frame periods of the communication channel to receive the requests.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the communication channel comprises forward and reverse time slots separated by the at least one quiet time slot.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein dynamically accommodating the requests comprises dynamically assigning transmission and reception periods to the one or more network components according to bandwidth requirements of each active one of the network components.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein dynamically rejecting one or more of the requests for access to the communication channel comprises determining that insufficient bandwidth is available within the communication channel to allow for transmission or reception periods for network components associated with the rejected requests for access.

9. A communication protocol, comprising an hierarchical arrangement of time slots within a communication channel for transmission and reception of real time multimedia data between components of a computer network.

10. The communication protocol of claim 9 wherein each of the time slots comprise dynamically negotiable time periods.

11. The communication protocol of claim 9 wherein the communication channel comprises a combination of a transmission frequency band and a pseudo-random (PN) code used in a spread spectrum communication scheme.

12. The communication protocol of claim 9 wherein the communication channel comprises a half duplex communication channel.

13. The communication protocol of claim 9 wherein at least one of the time slots comprises a quiet time slot during which no multimedia data is exchanged between the network components.

14. The communication protocol of claim 9 wherein the hierarchical arrangement of time slots includes a first level comprising a forward time slot and a reverse time slot which together define transmission and reception periods for a server component of the computer network and one or more client components of the computer network.

15. The communication protocol of claim 14 wherein the communication channel communicatively couples the server component with the one or more client components and comprises and operating frequency band that is dynamically changeable under the control of the server component according to operating conditions within the communication channel.

16. The communication protocol of claim 14 wherein the reverse time slot comprises a number of mini-time slots each allocated to one of the client components of the computer network.

17. The communication protocol of claim 16 wherein the reverse time slot further comprises a number of radio turn around time slots distributed between the mini-time slots so as to accommodate half duplex operations within the communication channel.

18. The communication protocol of claim 17 further comprising a quiet time slot separating the forward and reverse time slots.

19. The communication protocol of claim 18 wherein time durations of the mini-time slots are dynamically configurable according to information exchanged between the client components of the computer network and the server component of the computer network.

20. A communication protocol, comprising one or more forward and reverse time slots for each of a number of frame transmission periods, each forward and reverse time slot including one or more frames of data including audio and/or video information.

21. The communication protocol of claim 20 wherein the forward and reverse time slots comprise negotiable length time periods.

22. The communication protocol of claim 21 wherein each of the frames comprises a plurality of data packets.

23. The communication protocol of claim 22 wherein each of the plurality of data packets comprises a variable length data packet.

24. The communication protocol of claim 22 wherein each of the data packets includes error correction information.

25. The communication protocol of claim 24 wherein the error correction information for each of the data packets is a non-fixed length block of information.

26. The communication protocol of claim 24 wherein each of the frames includes information that is used to synchronize pseudo-random number generators of a transmitter and a receiver operating according to the communication protocol.

27. A network, comprising:

a server;

one or more clients; and

a wireless communication link communicatively coupling the server with the one or more clients according to a communication protocol that includes a number of transmission and reception time periods dynamically assigned by the server according to bandwidth requirements of the one or more clients.

28. The network of claim 27 further comprising one or more shadow clients, each of the shadow clients being associated with one or more of the clients and being configured to exchange information with the server independently of any communications between the server and any associated clients of the shadow clients.

29. The network of claim 28 wherein each shadow client is further configured to receive information from its one or more associated clients.

30. The network of claim 27 wherein the wireless link is a half-duplex wireless link.

31. The network of claim 27 wherein the communication protocol comprises a forward time slot to accommodate transmissions by the server to the one or more clients and one or more and reverse time slots to accommodate transmissions from each of the one or more clients to the server, each forward and reverse time slot including one or more frames of data including multimedia information.

32. The network of claim 31 wherein the forward and reverse time slots each comprise negotiable length time periods.

33. The network of claim 32 wherein each of the frames comprises a plurality of data packets.

34. The network of claim 33 wherein each of the plurality of data packets comprises a variable length data packet.

35. The network of claim 33 wherein each of the data packets includes error correction information.

36. The network of claim 35 wherein the error correction information for each of the data packets is a variable length block of information sized according to a relative importance of data included in the associated data packet.

37. The network of claim 31 wherein each of the frames includes information that is used to synchronize pseudo-random number generators of the clients and the server.

38. The network of claim 31 wherein the communication protocol further comprises one or more quiet time slots where no multimedia information is transmitted across the wireless link.

39. The network of claim 31 wherein each reverse time slot is subdivided into a number of mini-time slots, each mini-time slot accommodating transmissions of one of the clients to the server.

40. A method, comprising adding a network component to a computer network communicatively coupled via a wireless communication channel by dynamically accommodating a request for access to the communication channel transmitted by the network component.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the network component comprises a subclient of a client communicatively coupled with a server of the computer network via the wireless communication channel and wherein the request for access is first transmitted from the subclient to the client and second transmitted from the client to the server.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein the request for access is transmitted from the subclient to the client via a communication link separate from the wireless communication channel.

43. The method of claim 42 wherein the communication link between the subclient and the client comprises a second wireless communication link and the request for access is transmitted from the subclient to the client as a registration packet.

44. The method of claim 41 wherein the client authenticates the subclient prior to transmitting the request for access to the server.

45. The method of claim 41 wherein the server authenticates the subclient prior to authorizing the subclient to access the computer network.

46. The method of claim 45 wherein the server further determines whether sufficient bandwidth is available in the wireless communication link to accommodate transmissions to and from the subclient prior to authorizing the subclient to access the computer network.

47. The method of claim 46 wherein the server transmits a request rejection message to the subclient via the client is sufficient bandwidth is not available, otherwise the server transmits a request acknowledge message to the subclient via the client.

48. The method of claim 40 further comprising deleting the network component from the computer network by dynamically accommodating a request for disconnection transmitted by the network component.

49. A method comprising communicatively coupling two or more units of a computer network with a time division multiple access (TDMA) direct sequence spread spectrum (DS-SS) communication link.

50. The method of claim 49 wherein the TDMA DS-SS communication link includes dynamically allocable communication time slots for the two or more units of the computer network.