WIRELESS COMMUNICATION APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME

• US 20090109886A1
• Filed: 10/16/2008
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Tetsuya
• Application Number:
  US12/252,880
• Publication Number:
  US 20090109886A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/028 switching on or off only a part of the equipment circuit blocks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A wireless communication apparatus in a MIMO communication system which simultaneously transfers different data at the same frequency using a plurality of antennas is provided. The apparatus includes a plurality of receiving units corresponding to the plurality of antennas, respectively. A control unit of the wireless communication apparatus acknowledges a communication protocol command. The control unit sets, in accordance with the acknowledged command, the power mode of the wireless communication apparatus to one of (1) a power saving off mode in which all the receiving units always operate, (2) a dynamic power saving mode in which only one receiving unit operates normally, and upon receiving a transfer request addressed to the apparatus, all the receiving units operate only during a predetermined period, and (3) a static power saving mode in which only one receiving unit always operates, and no MIMO communication is performed.

Claims

1. A wireless communication apparatus capable of performing MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output) communication using a plurality of antennas, comprising:

a plurality of receiving units corresponding to the plurality of antennas, respectively;

an acknowledge unit configured to acknowledge a communication protocol command; and

a setting unit configured to set, in accordance with the command acknowledged by said acknowledge unit, a power mode of the wireless communication apparatus to one of a power saving off mode in which all of said plurality of receiving units operate, a dynamic power saving mode in which only one receiving unit operates normally, and upon receiving a transfer request addressed to the apparatus, all of said plurality of receiving units operate only during a predetermined period, and a static power saving mode in which one receiving unit operates.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the wireless communication apparatus comprises an image output device, and

said setting unit sets the power saving off mode upon determining, based on the command, that image transfer from an image input deice by PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) is currently progressing.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein upon determining that image transfer is not progressing, said setting unit further determines, based on the command, whether printing is currently progressing, sets the dynamic power saving mode if printing is progressing, and sets the static power saving mode if printing is not progressing.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the command is a stream data transfer command, said setting unit sets one of the dynamic power saving mode and the static power saving mode depending on whether the wireless communication apparatus is executing block acknowledgement for returning responses to a plurality of data at once.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the command is a stream data transfer command, said setting unit sets one of the dynamic power saving mode and the static power saving mode depending on whether the wireless communication apparatus is executing aggregation for concatenating a plurality of transfer data to one frame.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said setting unit sets the static power saving mode when stream data transfer has finished.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the command is a file transfer command, said setting unit sets the power saving off mode.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said setting unit sets the static power saving mode when file transfer has finished.

9. A method of controlling a wireless communication apparatus capable of performing MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output) communication using a plurality of antennas, comprising the steps of:

acknowledging a communication protocol command; and

setting, in accordance with the command acknowledged in the acknowledging step, a power mode of a plurality of receiving units corresponding to the plurality of antennas, respectively, to one of a power saving off mode in which all of the plurality of receiving units operate, a dynamic power saving mode in which only one receiving unit operates normally, and upon receiving a transfer request addressed to the apparatus, all of the plurality of receiving units operate only during a predetermined period, and a static power saving mode in which one receiving unit operates.