COMPUTER RADIO WITH PRE-DEFINED CONFIGURATION SET

• US 20090154432A1
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wu, Deyun, Kuehnel, Thomas W., Shen, Hui, Hassan, Amer A., Sapek, Adam
• Granted Patent: US 8,891,499 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/26 by agreed or negotiated communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal

Abstract

A computer with a software defined radio that can be configured based on a wireless technology specification. The computer may negotiate with a second computer that also includes a software defined radio to define a set of wireless technology specifications and trigger events indicating when each of the wireless technology specifications is to be used. As the computers communicate, if a trigger event occurs, both computers may reconfigure their software defined radios using a different specification in the set. By appropriately defining the wireless technology specifications in the set and the trigger events, the computers can operate with configurations that allow communication despite events that might otherwise disrupt communication between the computers.

Claims

1. A method of operating a first computer having a configurable radio, the method comprising:

defining a plurality of configurations for communicating with a second computer;

communicating with the second computer using the configurable radio while the configurable radio is configured with a first configuration of the plurality of configurations;

in response to an event associated with communication between the first computer and the second computer, configuring the configurable radio with a second configuration of the plurality of configurations; and

communicating with the second computer using the configurable radio while the configurable radio is configured with the second configuration.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a plurality of configurations comprises communicating with the second computer, the communicating comprising transmitting configurations of the plurality of configurations.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the communicating with the second computer comprises negotiating a set of configurations.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a plurality of configurations comprises defining a trigger event associated with each of a plurality of predefined configurations.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a plurality of configurations comprises downloading the plurality of configurations from a server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a plurality of configurations comprises receiving a file containing the plurality of configurations from the second computer.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting the event, the detecting comprising detecting an error rate above a threshold, the error rate being associated with communication between the first computer and the second computer.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting the event, the detecting comprising receiving an indication of a charge level of a battery of the first computer or the second computer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating with the second computer while the configurable radio is configured with the second configuration comprises communicating with a different technology than used during the communicating with the second computer using the configurable radio while the configurable radio is configured with the first configuration.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating with the second computer while the configurable radio is configured with the second configuration comprises communicating with the same technology with a different data rate than used during the communicating with the second computer using the configurable radio while the configurable radio is configured with the first configuration.

11. A computer storage medium comprising:

a data structure comprising a plurality of configurations for the radio and configuration transition information; and

computer-executable instructions that, when executed on a first computer having a configurable radio, control the computer to perform a method comprising;

communicating with a second computer using the configurable radio;

detecting a trigger event;

in response to the detected trigger event, selecting a configuration from the data structure based on the configuration transition information; and

applying the selected configuration to the configurable radio; and

further communicating with the second computer using the configurable radio configured with the selected configuration.

12. The computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise computer-executable instructions for maintaining the data structure by communicating with the second computer to define the contents of the data structure.

13. The computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise computer-executable instructions for maintaining the data structure by storing, for each of the plurality of configurations, computer-executable instructions that, when executed, configure a component of the configurable radio.

14. The computer storage medium of claim 13, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise computer-executable instructions for maintaining the data structure by storing, for each of the plurality of configurations, a value of a parameter of operation of a component of the configurable radio.

15. The computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein:

the configuration transition information comprises an identification of a trigger event associated with each of the plurality of configurations; and

the computer-executable instructions selecting a configuration from the data structure comprises selecting a configuration having configuration transition information associated therewith that identifies the detected trigger event.

16. A method of operating a first computer having a configurable radio, the method comprising:

while the configurable radio is configured with a first configuration, establishing a connection between a data generating or consuming component on the first computer and a data generating or consuming component on a second computer, the connection using the configurable radio to transmit and receive data in packets formatted for the connection;

in response to an event recognized on the first computer and the second computer, reconfiguring the configurable radio with a second configuration, the second configuration conforming with a configuration to be used on the second computer in response to the event; and

while the configurable radio is configured with the second configuration, continuing to communicate data over the connection.

17. The method of claim 16,

further comprising pre-negotiating with the second computer at least one configuration for use in response to an event;

and

wherein reconfiguring the configurable radio with the second configuration comprises reconfiguring the configurable radio with a configuration of the at least one pre-negotiated configuration.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the configurable radio comprises a software defined radio having a packet processing component implemented as a plurality of computer-executable instructions, and

reconfiguring the configurable radio with the second configuration comprises reconfiguring portions of the configurable radio without altering the function of the packet processing component.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein establishing the connection comprises establishing a TCP connection over a first wireless technology and the continuing to communicate data over the connection comprises communicating using a TCP protocol over a second wireless technology.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first wireless technology is Wi-Fi and the second wireless technology is WiMAX.