TECHNIQUES ENABLING NEIGHBOR LOCATION DISCOVERY FOR MMWAVE WPAN WITH AN OUT OF BAND CONTROL CHANNEL

• US 20090225730A1
• Filed: 03/07/2008
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Li, Guoqing, Kesselman, Alex
• Granted Patent: US 8,379,560 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method of neighbor discovery in a wireless personal area network, comprising coordinating communications in the WPAN by a WPAN coordinator, and transmitting beacons by the WPAN coordinator on a control channel of the WPAN that specifies the time slots and the order in which devices operating in the WPAN transmit their omni-directional training sequences on a data channel at the beginning of the next super-frame.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver operable in a wireless personal area network (WPAN) that coordinates communications by a WPAN coordinator and is capable of neighbor discovery; and

wherein beacons transmitted by said WPAN coordinator on a control channel of said WPAN specifies the time slots and the order in which devices transmit their omni-directional training sequences on a data channel at the beginning of the next super-frame.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said devices map the neighbors'"'"' locations by listening to said training sequence transmissions.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein a device is capable of associating a transmission with a specific neighbor device using the order specified in a beacon frame.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein if there is no coordinator, then devices may agree on a specific order of training sequence transmissions in a distributed way by negotiating it on the out of band (OOB) control channel.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein at least one beacon is also transmitted on said data channel before the training sequence transmissions.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said WPAN is a 60 GHz WPAN.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein said WPAN is a 60 GHz WPAN.

7. An apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver operable in a wireless personal area network (WPAN) that coordinates communications by a WPAN coordinator and is capable of dynamic neighbor location update and beam re-steering; and

wherein either a sender or receiver ask their counterparts to perform location update using a frame sent through an out of band (OOB) control channel.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said sender stops the data transmission and both devices transmit omni-directional training sequences in a pre-defined order.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein said sender and said receiver also negotiate on said OOB channel to set up a pre-determined or periodic schedule for location update on a data channel where they send training sequences in a pre-defined order and thus data transmissions can be resumed with updated beam steering parameters.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said WPAN is a 60 GHz WPAN.

11. A method of neighbor discovery in a wireless personal area network, comprising:

coordinating communications in said WPAN by a WPAN coordinator; and

transmitting beacons by said WPAN coordinator on a control channel of said WPAN that specifies the time slots and the order in which devices operating in said WPAN transmit their omni-directional training sequences on a data channel at the beginning of the next super-frame.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising mapping by said devices the neighbors'"'"' locations by listening to said training sequence transmissions.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising using the order specified in a beacon frame to associate a transmission with a specific neighbor device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein if there is no coordinator, then devices may agree on a specific order of training sequence transmissions in a distributed way by negotiating it on the out of band (OOB) control channel.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising transmitting at least one beacon on said data channel before the training sequence transmissions.

17. A method of dynamic neighbor location update and beam re-steering in a wireless personal area network (WPAN), comprising:

coordinating communications by a WPAN coordinator; and

asking their counterparts, by either a sender or receiver, to perform location update using a frame sent through an out of band (OOB) control channel.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising said sender stopping the data transmission and both devices transmitting omni-directional training sequences in a pre-defined order.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising said sender and said receiver also negotiating on said OOB channel to set up a pre-determined or periodic schedule for location update on a data channel where they send training sequences in a pre-defined order and thus data transmission can be resumed with updated beam steering parameters.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein said WPAN is a 60 GHz WPAN.