Adaptive polling of wireless devices

• US 20050272423A1
• Filed: 06/02/2004
• Published: 12/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Akhmetov, Dmitry, Stephens, Adrian P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,121,595 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/434
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/06 using polling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

In a wireless network, the decision of when and whether to send unsolicited polls to a particular mobile wireless device may be made by monitoring communications conditions affecting the ability of the particular device to gain channel access, and sending unsolicited polls if the ability to gain channel access is below a threshold value. Such conditions may include one or more of channel load, device transmission load, collision rate, and number of mobile wireless devices contending for access.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

monitoring channel availability for a mobile wireless device;

comparing the channel availability with a value; and

transmitting an unsolicited poll to the mobile wireless device resultant to the channel availability being less than the value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said monitoring comprises monitoring transmitted signals on the channel.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said monitoring comprises determining an indication of an amount of data in at least one transmit queue of the mobile wireless device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said channel availability is indicated by at least one of channel load, device transmission load, channel collision rate, and contention for channel access.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said channel availability is indicated by a combination of channel load and device transmission load.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said channel availability is indicated by at least one of a channel collision rate indicator and a contention for channel access indicator.

7. An article comprising

a machine-readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a computing platform, cause said computing platform to perform operations comprising:

monitoring channel availability for a mobile wireless device;

comparing the channel availability with a value; and

transmitting an unsolicited poll to the mobile wireless device resultant to the channel availability being less than the value.

8. The article of claim 7, wherein said monitoring comprises monitoring transmitted signals on the channel.

9. The article of claim 7, wherein said monitoring comprises monitoring transmit queues.

10. The article of claim 7, wherein said channel availability is indicated by at least one of channel load, device transmission load, channel collision rate, and contention for channel access.

11. The article of claim 7, wherein said channel availability is indicated by a combination of channel load and device transmission load.

12. The article of claim 7, wherein said channel availability is indicated by at least one of a channel collision rate indicator and a contention for channel access indicator.

13. An apparatus comprising

a wireless device to:

monitor at least one indicator of channel availability for a particular mobile wireless device;

determine at least one parameter based on said monitoring;

compare said at least one parameter with at least one threshold value; and

transmit an unsolicited poll to the particular mobile wireless device resultant to the comparison indicating that channel availability is less than a predetermined level of channel availability.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the at least one indicator includes at least one indicator selected from a list consisting of:

a channel load indicator;

a device transmission load indicator;

a channel collision rate indicator; and

a device contention indicator.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said monitoring comprises monitoring transmitted signals on the channel.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said monitoring comprises monitoring at least one transmit queue.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said d wireless device is a base station.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said wireless device is a device selected from a list consisting of:

the particular mobile wireless device; and

a mobile wireless device other than the particular mobile wireless device.

19. A system comprising

a wireless device comprising an omni-directional antenna, the wireless device to:

monitor at least one indicator of channel availability for a particular mobile wireless device;

determine at least one parameter based on said monitoring;

compare said at least one parameter with at least one threshold value; and

transmit an unsolicited poll to the particular mobile wireless device resultant to the comparison indicating that channel availability is less than a predetermined level of channel availability.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the at least one indicator includes at least one indicator selected from a list consisting of:

a channel load indicator;

a device transmission load indicator;

a channel collision rate indicator; and

a device contention indicator.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein said monitoring comprises monitoring transmitted signals on the channel.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein said monitoring comprises monitoring at least one transmit queue.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein said wireless device is a base station.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein said wireless device is a device selected from a list consisting of:

the particular mobile wireless device; and

a mobile wireless device other than the particular mobile wireless device.