Slotted seeded channel hopping for capacity improvement in wireless networks
First Claim
1. A method to partially synchronize a wireless node having a single wireless card participating in a network having a plurality of channels to an other node in the network comprising the steps of:
- receiving a channel hopping schedule for at least one slot of the other node;
determining from the channel hopping schedule if at least one slot of the other node overlaps with the wireless node'"'"'s channel hopping schedule; and
changing the wireless node'"'"'s channel hopping schedule to overlap with one of the at least one slot of the other node if there is no overlap.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method that increases the capacity of a wireless network using frequency diversity. A user switches between channels of a network using a single network interface card in such a manner that nodes desiring to communicate overlap while disjoint communications mostly do not overlap. A driver is inserted into a device'"'"'s networking stack and controls the network interface card using a plurality of virtual wireless network adapters. Packets for a recipient are queued when the recipient is not accessible on the node'"'"'s channel. In one embodiment where multiple nodes are switching in and out of channel, the method changes part of a nodes channel hopping schedule to ensure concurrent connectivity in a channel for at least a brief time period such that packets can be received/transmitted with desired nodes.
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Citations
42 Claims
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1. A method to partially synchronize a wireless node having a single wireless card participating in a network having a plurality of channels to an other node in the network comprising the steps of:
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receiving a channel hopping schedule for at least one slot of the other node;
determining from the channel hopping schedule if at least one slot of the other node overlaps with the wireless node'"'"'s channel hopping schedule; and
changing the wireless node'"'"'s channel hopping schedule to overlap with one of the at least one slot of the other node if there is no overlap. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method to transmit and receive packets in a node switching between a plurality of slots in a wireless network having a plurality of channels without requiring multiple radios, the method comprising the steps of:
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determining a channel hopping schedule such that the channel hopping schedule overlaps with at least one other node for which the node has a packet to send, the channel hopping schedule having a schedule for each slot;
broadcasting the channel hopping schedule;
switching the node to a channel specified for a previous slot of the plurality of slots;
switching the node from the channel in the previous slot to a channel specified for a next slot in the channel hopping schedule;
repeating the step of switching the node from the channel in the previous slot to a channel specified for a next slot in the channel hopping schedule until the channel hopping schedule for each slot has been completed;
incrementing each of the channels in the channel hopping schedule; and
if the node is switched to a channel in which the at least one other node is presently active, sending the packet to the at least one other node. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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Specification