Method of creating, controlling, and maintaining a wireless communication mesh of piconets
First Claim
1. A method for managing a wireless network of piconets, comprising the steps of:
- adding together two networks of piconets;
removing a piconet from the network; and
accommodating movement of a piconet within a network.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of controlling and sharing access to a wireless network wherein some stations of the network may be out of range of other stations of the network. The method includes the steps of: first, each station periodically transmits a beacon containing a bit map having a bit location for every station on the network and monitoring the beacons of stations within its range; second, in response to a beacon being no longer detected, each station transmits a bit map containing an indication of only the stations that it can still receive; third, on receiving a bit map with not all stations indicated, each station responds by adding stations that it can receive to the received bit map and transmitting the updated bit map; fourth, each station repeats the third step until the updated bit map indicates that all stations are still in the network or that a station is missing from the network; and finally, if a station is indicated to be missing from the network, each station updates the bit map. Through the application of these steps, the invention controls access to the network without a global master. The present invention has the advantage of controlling a network without the need for a central master station, and does not require continuous global knowledge of the topology of the network.
68 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A method for managing a wireless network of piconets, comprising the steps of:
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adding together two networks of piconets;
removing a piconet from the network; and
accommodating movement of a piconet within a network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for a piconet to use unused time slots in a piconet beacon cycle, comprising the steps of:
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having each first piconet keep a table of piconets in network that the first piconet cannot hear;
the first piconet selecting a slot from the table;
the first piconet marking the slot as taken;
the first piconet transmitting the marked slot to the other piconets in the network to notify them of its use;
the first piconet using the slot to transmit data;
the first piconet marking the slot as no longer in use; and
the first piconet transmitting the marked slot to the other piconets in the network to notify them of its release.
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7. A method of controlling and sharing access to a wireless network wherein some stations of the network may be out of range of other stations of the network, comprising the steps of:
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a) each station periodically transmitting a beacon containing a bit map having a bit location for every station on the network and monitoring the beacons of stations within its range;
b) in response to a beacon being no longer detected, a station transmitting a bit map containing an indication of only the stations that it can still receive;
c) in response to a station receiving a bit map with not all stations indicated, adding stations that it can receive to the received bit map and transmitting the updated bit map;
d) repeating step c) until the updated bit map indicates that all stations are still in the network or that a station is missing from the network; and
e) if a station is indicated to be missing from the network, updating the bit map, whereby the access to the network is controlled without a global master.
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8. A method of controlling and sharing access by an unjoined piconet to a wireless communication mesh of joined piconets, comprising the steps of:
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a) providing a plurality of piconets having one or more stations, one of the stations in each piconet being designated a master station and emitting a beacon containing fields for a Beacon Cycle Number (BCN), a mesh ID Number (MID), a piconet index Number (PIN), the total number of joined piconets in the mesh (TMM), a Change Effect Beacon Cycle (CEC), a New Mesh Flag (NMF) to indicate an impending join to the mesh, a New Mesh Size, (NMS) the number of piconets in the joining mesh, a No Beacon Detect (NBD) indication, and a Beacon Detect Bitmap Flag (BDBF) having a bit for each joined piconet master (with the order of the bits being the order of the ID'"'"'s of the joined piconet master stations), each joined piconet master in the mesh transmitting its beacon once during each beacon cycle in order according to its PIN, and a variable length field consisting of a Data Type Field (DTF), a Data Length Field (DLF), and the Data Field (DF);
b) the unjoined piconet master station receiving the beacons of each joined piconet'"'"'s master station that is within range, selecting one of the joined piconet master stations to act as a Facilitator for joining the mesh, and replying to the selected Facilitator'"'"'s beacon with a request to join the mesh, which includes a JMS set to the value 1;
c) in response to the request to join the mesh from the unjoined master station, the Facilitator calculating and transmitting in its beacon a CEC equal to BCN+M−
N−
1 (where N is the number of joined piconet master beacons heard by the Facilitator), MIN, an assigned PIN for the unjoined piconet, the PIN of the Facilitator, the Facilitator'"'"'s BCN, M, and an NNF set to indicate an impending join to the mesh;
d) the unjoined piconet master station receiving the beacon from the Facilitator, becoming a joined piconet of the mesh, and transmitting a beacon when BCN equals CEC and each beacon cycle thereafter according to its assigned PIN, each joined piconet master receiving a Beacon Cycle Count Number, BCN, from the join facilitator JPM and all other JPM'"'"'s within range, and transmitting a BCN in the current beacon that is one greater than the BCN transmitted in the previous beacon;
e) one of the joined piconet master stations stopping transmission of its beacon;
f) one of the remaining joined piconet master stations detecting the stopping of transmission;
g) the remaining joined piconet master station transmitting in its own beacon, a No Beacon Detect (NBD) indication and a Change Effect Cycle Count (CEC) value equal to current BCN+M−
N, where M is the total number of joined piconet masters before any master went off-line and N is the number of joined piconet masters whose beacons are now heard by the remaining joined piconet master station;
h) each joined piconet master that has not already transmitted an NBD, but has received an NBD in the beacon from any other joined piconet master, transmitting (thus repeating) an NBD and the smallest CEC received from any master station in its own next beacon;
i) every joined piconet master that has transmitted a beacon with an NBD transmitting in its next beacon a Beacon Detect Bitmap Flag (BDBF) having non zero values in locations representing piconet masters that can be heard by that piconet master station;
j) every joined piconet master station receiving the BDBFs, logically OR-ing all of the BDBFs together to produce an ORed BDBF, and storing and transmitting in its next beacon the ORed BDBF; and
k) every joined piconet master station receiving the ORed BDBFs, logically OR-ing the ORed BDBFs with its stored BDBF to produce and updated BDBF, and storing and transmitting the updated BDBF; and
repeating the steps of recieveing, OR-ing storing and transmitting until the cycle count BCN is equal to the value CEC. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
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Specification