Personal area network with automatic attachment and detachment

• US 20070274309A1
• Filed: 03/23/2007
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: BBN Technologies (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Donaghey, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 7,756,129 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/10 Program control for peripheral devices G06F13/14 - G06F13/42 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/38 Information transfer, e.g. on bus G06F13/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2612 Arrangements for wireless medium access control, e.g. by allocating physical layer transmission capacity H04B7/2615 - H04B7/2643 take precedence; provision for broadband connection H04Q11/0478
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5069 for group communication, multicast communication or broadcast communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/00 Connection management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A network (100) includes a hub device (110) and at least one unattached peripheral device (120). The unattached peripheral device (120) transmits an attach request to the hub device (110) with a selected address, receives a new address from the hub device to identify the unattached peripheral device (120), and communicates with the hub device (110) using the new address.

Claims

1. A method of communicating between a first peripheral device and a hub device in a personal area network comprising:

broadcasting by the hub device, a signal to indicate availability of the hub device for peripheral attachment,

in response to the signal broadcast by the hub device, sending by the first peripheral device, a signal to indicate availability of the first peripheral device for communication with the hub device,

sending, by the hub device to the first peripheral device, a signal including a first peripheral device identifier,

subsequent to sending the signal including a first peripheral device identifier from the hub device, sending by the first peripheral device to the hub device a first peripheral response including the first peripheral device identifier,

subsequent to the receiving of the first peripheral response by the hub device, sending by the hub device to the first peripheral device a hub response, and

subsequent to the receiving of the hub response by the first peripheral device, sending by the first peripheral device to the hub device a second peripheral response including the first peripheral device identifier.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first peripheral device identifier is based at least in part on a MAC address of the first peripheral device.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the MAC address for the first peripheral device includes an AMAC address for the first peripheral device.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the MAC address for the first peripheral device is different from an AMAC address for the first peripheral device.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the hub device controls the allocation of communications channels among a plurality of peripheral devices with which the hub device is communicating.

6. The method according to claim 1 comprising communicating, by the hub device, with at least one additional peripheral device having a peripheral device identifier different from the first peripheral device identifier.

7. The method according to claim 1 comprising broadcasting a message from the hub device to a plurality of peripheral devices with which the hub device is attached, the message including a broadcast identifier.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the signal broadcast from the hub device includes a range of peripheral device identifiers, one of which being the first peripheral device identifier.

9. The method according to claim 8 comprising receiving at the hub device, identifiers within the range of the identifier of the peripheral device for a plurality of other peripheral devices indicating their availability for communication with the hub device in response to the signal broadcast by the hub device.

10. The method according to claim 1 comprising assigning, by the hub device to the first peripheral device, one or more additional identifiers to the first peripheral device, wherein the one or more additional identifiers are used to further identify communications between the hub device and the first peripheral device.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the one or more additional identifiers include a stream number for identifying a particular communication channel between the peripheral device and the hub device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more additional identifiers include a token that includes a stream number for identifying a particular communication channel between the first peripheral device and the hub device, and the first peripheral device identifier.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier is associated with a network address.

14. A hub device within a personal area network comprising:

a processor, and

a transceiver in communication with the processor, the transceiver configured to i) broadcast a message to indicate the availability of the hub device for peripheral device attachment, ii) receive, from a first peripheral device, a message indicating the availability of the first peripheral device for communication with the hub device, iii) send to the first peripheral device a signal including a first peripheral device identifier, iv) receive from the first peripheral device a response including the first peripheral device identifier, v) send a hub response to the first peripheral device, and vi) receive from the first peripheral device a second peripheral response including the first peripheral device identifier.

15. The device according to claim 14, wherein the first peripheral device identifier is based at least in part on a MAC address for the first peripheral device.

16. The device according to claim 15, wherein the MAC address for the first peripheral device includes an AMAC address for the first peripheral device.

17. The device according to claim 15, wherein the MAC address for the first peripheral device is different from an AMAC address for the first peripheral device.

18. The device according to claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to control the allocation of communication channels among a plurality of peripheral devices with which the hub device is communicating.

19. The device according to claim 14, wherein the transceiver is configured to communicate with at least one additional peripheral device having a peripheral device identifier different from the first peripheral device identifier.

20. The device according to claim 14, wherein the transceiver is configured to broadcast a signal from hub device to a plurality of peripheral devices with which the hub device is attached, the signal including a broadcast identifier.

21. The device according to claim 14, wherein the signal broadcast from the hub device includes a range of peripheral device identifiers, one of which being the first peripheral device identifier.

22. The device according to claim 21, wherein the transceiver is configured to receive identifiers within the range of the peripheral device identifiers for a plurality of other peripheral devices indicating their availability for communication with the hub device in response to the signal broadcast by the hub device.

23. The device according to claim 14, wherein the transceiver is configured to send one or more additional identifiers to the first peripheral device, wherein the one or more identifiers are used to further identify communications between the hub device and first the peripheral device.

24. The device according to claim 23, wherein the one or more additional identifiers include a stream number for identifying a particular communication channel between the first peripheral device and the hub device.

25. The device according to claim 23, wherein the one or more additional identifiers include a token that includes a stream number for identifying a particular communication channel between the first peripheral device and the hub device, and the first peripheral device identifier.

26. The device according to claim 14, wherein the identifier is associated with a network address.

27. A peripheral device within a personal area network comprising:

a processor, and

a transceiver in communication with the processor, the transceiver configured to i) receive a broadcast message from a hub device to indicate the availability of the hub device for peripheral device attachment, ii) send, to the hub device, a message indicating the availability of the peripheral device for communication with the hub device, iii) receive, from the hub device, a signal including a peripheral device identifier, iv) send a response to the hub device including the peripheral device identifier, v) receive from the hub device a hub response, and vi) send to the hub device a second peripheral response including the peripheral device identifier.

28. The device according to claim 27, wherein the peripheral device identifier is based at least in part on a MAC address for the peripheral device.

29. The device according to claim 28, wherein the MAC address for the peripheral device includes an AMAC address for the peripheral device.

30. The device according to claim 28, wherein the MAC address for the peripheral device is different from an AMAC address for the peripheral device.

31. The device according to claim 27, wherein the processor is configured to manage network timing with the hub device to enable the allocation of available bandwidth with other peripheral devices which the hub device is currently communicating.

32. The device according to claim 27, wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a signal broadcast from the hub device including a broadcast identifier.

33. The device according to claim 27, wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a broadcast signal from the hub device including a range of peripheral device identifiers, one of which being the peripheral device identifier.

34. The device according to claim 27, wherein the transceiver is configured to receive, from the hub device, one or more additional identifiers, wherein the one or more identifiers are used to further identify communications between the hub device and the peripheral device.

35. The device according to claim 34, wherein the one or more additional identifiers include a stream number for identifying a particular communication channel between the peripheral device and the hub device.

36. The device according to claim 34, wherein the one or more identifiers include a token that includes a stream number for identifying a particular communication channel between the peripheral device and the hub device, and the peripheral device identifier.

37. The device according to claim 27, wherein the identifier is associated with a network address.