DENSE MESH NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20090310516A1
• Filed: 06/03/2009
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXP USA, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: Marvell World Trade Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Inventors: Goel, Sandesh, Shukla, Ashish Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 8,787,330 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/16 Multipoint routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0294 forcing collision non-scheduled or contention based wireless access channel H04W74/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/24 Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/02 Hybrid access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0808 using carrier sensing, e.g. carrier sense multiple access [CSMA]

Abstract

A frame groupcast system for a mesh node in a mesh network having a plurality of mesh nodes includes a transceiver that receives a groupcast frame and a groupcast determination module that determines whether to forward the received groupcast frame based on at least one measurement.

Claims

1. A frame groupcast system for a mesh node in a mesh network having a plurality of mesh nodes, comprising:

a transceiver that receives a groupcast frame; and

a groupcast determination module that determines whether to forward the received groupcast frame based on at least one measurement.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one measurement is indicative of a groupcast range of the received groupcast frame.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one measurement comprises at least one of signal power attenuation associated with the received groupcast frame, path loss associated with the received groupcast frame, or a distance measurement.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the path loss is measured based on at least one of transmission power data within the received groupcast frame, a measurement of signal strength of the received groupcast frame determined at the mesh node, or processing link measurement frames.

5. The system of claim 3 further comprising a forwarding module that forwards the received groupcast frame when a signal power attenuation value meets or exceeds a measured signal power attenuation.

6. The system of claim 3 wherein the groupcast determination module determines a plurality of distance values;

and

wherein each distance value is based on a distance from the mesh node to other mesh nodes within the mesh network.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein a largest distance value is determined among the plurality of distance values;

and

further comprising a forwarding module that forwards the received groupcast frame when a sum of the largest distance value with a distance between a farthest other mesh node from the mesh node and a transmitter of the received groupcast frame meets or exceeds a distance threshold.

8. A channel access system that determines a maximum contention window for use in a wireless mesh network, comprising:

a node discovery module of a first mesh node of the wireless mesh network that determines a number of other mesh nodes of the wireless mesh network within communication range of the first mesh node; and

a contention window determination module of the first mesh node that determines the maximum contention window based on the number of other mesh nodes within communication range of the first mesh mode.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the node discovery module determines the number of other mesh nodes based on processing transmission frames received from each of the other mesh nodes.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the contention window determination module is configured to determine the maximum contention window based on a respective signal power attenuation associated with transmissions between the first mesh node and each of the other mesh nodes.

11. A frame groupcast method for a mesh node in a mesh network having a plurality of mesh nodes, comprising:

receiving a groupcast frame; and

determining whether to groupcast the received groupcast frame based on at least one measurement.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one measurement is indicative of a broadcast range of the received groupcast frame.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one measurement comprises signal power attenuation of the received groupcast frame, the method further comprising forwarding the received groupcast frame when a signal power attenuation value exceeds a measured signal power attenuation.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one measurement comprises a distance measurement, the method further comprising determining a plurality of distance values, and

wherein each distance value is based on a distance from the mesh node to other mesh nodes within the mesh network.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein a largest distance value is determined among the plurality of distance values;

and

further comprising forwarding the received groupcast frame when a sum of the largest distance value with a distance between itself and a transmitter of the received groupcast frame meets or exceeds a distance threshold.

16. A channel access method that determines a maximum contention window for a first mesh node of a wireless mesh network, comprising:

determining a number of other mesh nodes of the wireless mesh network within communication range of the first mesh node; and

determining the maximum contention window based on the number of other mesh nodes within communication range of the first mesh mode.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising determining the number of other mesh nodes based on processing transmission frames received from each of the other mesh nodes.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising enabling the determination of the maximum contention window based on a number of mesh nodes that are in the same communication range.

19. The method of claim 16 further comprising computing a product value based on the number of other mesh nodes and a scaling factor.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising generating the maximum contention window based on a determination of the lowest exponential value of a base value that exceeds the product value.