System and method for reliable multicast transmissions over shared wireless media for spectrum efficiency and battery power conservation

• US 20080062948A1
• Filed: 10/24/2006
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Aruba Networks Incorporated (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Ponnuswamy, Subbu
• Granted Patent: US 8,731,594 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/342
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/02 Power saving arrangements in wired systems H04L12/12; signaling of mobile application services, e.g. low battery notifications H04W4/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

According to one embodiment of the invention, wireless spectrum and battery power conservation is achieved through an adaptable multicast group communication scheme. This involves a method for controlling the multicast transmission rate based on a first operation of receiving information from a multicast receiving device that is a member of a multicast group. Based on this information and potentially other information from other member devices, the modulation and coding rate for the multicast group is altered.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving information from a first multicast receiving device; and

setting a modulation and coding rate for use by a multicast group including the first multicast receiving device based on the information provided by the first multicast receiving device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the setting of the modulation and coding rate includes adjusting the modulation and coding rate continuously based on the information provided by the first multicast receiving device and other member devices of the multicast group.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the setting of the modulation and coding rate for use by the multicast group is also based on information provided by a second multicast receiving device being a member of the first multicast group.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the information from the first multicast receiving device includes receiving a total number of multicast frames that was received by the first multicast receiving device during a predetermined period of time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the information from the first multicast receiving device includes receiving a plurality of sequence numbers within medium access control (MAC) headers of a first multicast frame and a last multicast frame received during a predetermined period of time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving of the information includes receiving a multicast status report message from the first multicast receiving device, the multicast status report message including a measurement start time, a measurement duration, and a multicast count field to contain a total number of frames received for a selected multicast MAC address during the measurement duration.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving of the information includes receiving a multicast status report message from the first multicast receiving device, the multicast status report message including (1) a first sequence number being a sequence number of a first multicast frame received during a measurement period and (2) a last sequence number received during the measurement period.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving of the information includes receiving a multicast status report message from the first multicast receiving device, the multicast status report message including a multicast rate field to specify a highest or most desired data rate at which the multicast receiving device can reliably receive multicast frames.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving of the information includes receiving a multicast status report message from the first multicast receiving device, the multicast status report message including a multicast medium access control (MAC) address of the multicast group and a multicast reporting reason field to identify a reason that the multicast receiving device transmitted the multicast status report message.

10. A method comprising:

monitoring for feedback information from devices being members of a first multicast group; and

setting a transmission rate for messages transmitted for receipt by the devices based on the feedback information received from the devices.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein monitoring the feedback information includes determining a total number of multicast frames that was received by each of the devices of the multicast group during a predetermined period of time.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein setting of the transmission rate includes reducing the transmission rate upon detecting the total number of multicast frames received by each of the devices is lower than a predetermined threshold.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein setting of the transmission rate includes increasing the transmission rate upon detecting the total number of multicast frames received by each of the devices is substantially consistent with a number of multicast frames transmitted for receipt by members of the multicast group.

14. A method comprising:

receiving a first request message from a first multicast receiving device to join a primary multicast group, the first request message including one of (i) a requested multicast transmission rate identifying a rate of modulation coding that can be supported by the first multicast receiving device and (ii) a first value representative of a requested beacon or Delivery Traffic Indicator Map (DTIM) interval; and

assigning the first multicast receiving device to a secondary multicast group that is a subset of the primary multicast group.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

receiving a second request message from a second multicast receiving device to join the primary multicast group, the second request message including a multicast transmission rate differing from the multicast transmission rate requested by the first multicast receiving device; and

assigning the multicast receiving device to another secondary multicast group that is a subset of the primary multicast group and differs from the secondary multicast group by having a lower multicast transmission rate than selected for the secondary multicast group.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

receiving a second request message from a second multicast receiving device to join the primary multicast group, the second request message including a second value representative of a beacon or DTIM interval; and

assigning the multicast receiving device to another secondary multicast group that is a subset of the primary multicast group and differs from the secondary multicast group when either the first value or the second value is not divisible by the other.

17. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

receiving a second request message from a second multicast receiving device to join the primary multicast group, the second request message including a second value representative of a beacon or DTIM interval; and

assigning the multicast receiving device to another secondary multicast group that is a subset of the primary multicast group and differs from the secondary multicast group based on the first and second values provided by the first and second multicast receiving devices.