Architecture, protocols and frame formats for wireless multi-hop relay networks

• US 20080080436A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Sandhu, Sumeet, Oyman, Ozgur
• Granted Patent: US 8,457,674 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/143 Downlink power control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/241 taking into account channel quality metrics, e.g. SIR, SNR, CIR, Eb/lo
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Methods, protocols and systems for communicating in a multi-hop wireless mesh network may include explicitly providing information relating to backhaul wireless link qualities in multi-hop wireless mesh network to next generation subscriber stations in a first mode. In a second mode, embodiments are configured to implicitly provide indicia of multi-hop wireless link qualities to legacy subscriber stations by adjusting a transmit power of frames sent to the legacy subscriber stations. Other embodiments and variations are described in the detailed description.

Claims

1. A method for communicating in a wireless mesh network, the method comprising:

controlling a transmit power of a wireless node based, at least in part, on one or more backhaul link qualities in the wireless mesh network.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more backhaul link qualities comprise an end-to-end throughput quality of wireless links in a multi-hop path.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein controlling the transmit power is performed by a multi-hop relay station to implicitly assist subscriber stations to associate with a network station having a highest available throughput through the wireless mesh network.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending frames to one or more subscriber stations from the wireless node, the frames including explicit information regarding the one or more backhaul link qualities.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless mesh network utilizes protocols compatible with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.16-2005 standard.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein controlling the transmit power comprises reducing the transmit power for one or more frames in proportion to a ratio of a total end-to-end link quality with a mobile station over a last hop link quality with the mobile station.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein controlling the transmit power comprises reducing a normal transmit power for at least one of a ranging, a preamble or an association frame sent to a mobile station and resuming the normal transmit power for subsequent frames sent to the mobile station once the mobile station is associated with the wireless node.

8. A wireless device comprising:

a processing circuit including logic to explicitly provide indicia of multi-hop wireless link qualities to a first class of mobile stations in a first mode and to implicitly provide indicia of multi-hop wireless link qualities to a second class of mobile stations in a second mode by adjusting a transmit power for at least part of a transmission to the second class of mobile stations.

9. The wireless device of claim 8 wherein the indicia of multi-hop wireless link qualities pertains to a throughput between the wireless device and a wireless base station over one or more wireless backhaul links.

10. The wireless device of claim 8 wherein the logic to explicitly provide indicia of multi-hop link qualities comprises logic to include an information element (IE) in a portion of a physical layer (PHY) frame sent to the first class of mobile stations, wherein the IE pertains to one or more wireless backhaul link qualities of a multi-hop relay wireless mesh network.

11. The wireless device of claim 8 further comprising a radio frequency (RF) interface in communication with the processing circuit.

12. The wireless device of claim 8 wherein the wireless device comprises a wireless mesh relay station and wherein the relay station is adapted to use protocols compatible with one or more Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 or 802.16 standards.

13. The wireless device of claim 8 wherein in the second mode the transmit power of the at least part of the transmission sent to the second class of stations is adjusted to be substantially proportionate with a ratio of an end-to-end multi-hop link throughput over a last hop link throughput.

14. The wireless device of claim 11 wherein the RF interface includes at least two antennas and being adapted for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications.

15. An article of manufacture comprising a tangible medium storing readable code that, when executed by a processing device, causes the processing device to:

control a transmit power of a wireless node based, at least in part, on one or more backhaul link qualities in a wireless mesh network.

16. The article of claim 15 further comprising machine readable code that, when executed by a processing device, causes the processing device to:

send multi-hop link quality information in a portion of physical layer (PHY) frame to assist a mobile device receiving the PHY frame to associate with a wireless mesh node have substantially a highest throughput available to a core network.

17. The article of claim 15 wherein the transmit power is controlled to be proportional to a ratio of a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of an end-to-end multi-hop path over a SNR of a last hop link.

18. A wireless system comprising:

a processing circuit including logic to explicitly provide indicia of multi-hop wireless link qualities to subscriber stations in a first mode and to implicitly provide indicia of multi-hop wireless link qualities in a second mode to subscriber stations by adjusting a transmit power to a subscriber station;

a radio frequency (RF) interface communicatively coupled to the processing circuit; and

at least two antennas coupled to the RF interface for at least one of multiple-input or multiple-output (MIMO) communication.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein adjusting the transmit power to a subscriber station comprises reducing a transmit power by a fraction of a ratio of an end-to-end multi-hop wireless link throughput over a last hop wireless link throughput.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the system comprises a wireless mesh relay station and wherein the first mode is utilized for subscriber stations capable of reading a frame format which includes information elements pertaining to a multi-hop link quality and wherein the second mode is utilized for subscriber stations not capable of reading the frame format.