SIMPLIFIED BEACONING AND CHANNEL RESERVATION TECHNIQUES FOR SHORT RANGE WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20100272076A1
• Filed: 12/24/2008
• Published: 10/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Cavalcanti, Dave A.T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,402,269 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/336
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/004 in the uplink, i.e. towards network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/08 Non-scheduled access, e.g. ALOHA hybrid access H04W74/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0875 with assigned priorities based access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A system and method for wireless BANs and short-range wireless networks that support heterogeneous devices and applications are disclosed. In one example embodiment, a method of implementing a MAC superframe structure for short-range wireless networks includes transmitting multiple beacon slots (102) during a beacon period (404) wherein the multiple beacon slots (102) include one or more simplified beacon slots associated with one or more simple devices (102), and transmitting payload data during a data transfer period (410) substantially following the beacon period (404) and wherein the data transfer period (410) includes one or more RCA periods (412) associated with the one or more simple devices (102) for transmitting and/or receiving the payload data associated with the one or more simple devices (102) upon receipt of the indication that the RCA period (412) is present in the one or more simplified beacon slots associated with the simple devices (102).

Claims

1. A MAC superframe format for short-range wireless networks, comprising:

a beacon period (404) including multiple beacon slots (406), wherein the multiple beacon slots (406) include one or more beacon slots associated with one or more simple devices (102) within a beaconing group (101); and

a data transfer period (410) substantially following the beacon period (404) including one or more reserved channel access (RCA) periods (412) to be used by the one or more simple devices (102) upon a reservation indicated in the one or more beacon slots (406) associated with devices selected from the group consisting of the simple devices and complex devices.

2. The MAC superframe format of claim 1, wherein the one or more beacon slots (406) associated with the simple devices comprise one or more simplified beacon slots associated with the one or more simple devices (102).

3. The MAC superframe format of claim 1, wherein the beacon period (404) further comprises one or more beacon slots (406) associated with the complex devices within the beaconing group (101).

4. The MAC superframe format of claim 3, further comprises a simplified beacon slot associated with all of the one or more simple devices (102) or a subset of the one or more simple devices in the beaconing group (101).

5. The MAC superframe format of claim 4, wherein each RCA period (412) is used for data transmission between devices selected from the group consisting of the simple devices (102) and between the simple devices and the complex devices (102).

6. The MAC superframe format of claim 1, wherein the data transfer period (406) comprises periods selected from the group consisting of an RCA period (412), a distributed reservation protocol (DRP) period, and prioritized contention access (PCA) protocol period.

7. The MAC superframe format of claim 5, wherein the one or more simple and complex devices (102) receive payload data during the data transfer period (410) and process the payload data and wherein the processing include acts selected from the group consisting of buffering, decoding, and demodulating.

8. The MAC superframe format of claim 1, wherein the beacon period (404) is associated with a current MAC superframe and is used to coordinate operations in a MAC superframe selected from the group consisting of current superframe, next superframe, and substantially next superframe.

9. A method of implementing a MAC superframe for short-range wireless networks, wherein each of the short-range wireless networks includes multiple transceivers (208 and 210) that communicate via wireless links (220), and wherein the multiple transceivers (208 and 210) include one or more simple devices (102), comprising:

transmitting multiple beacon slots (406) during a beacon period (404) including multiple beacon slots (406) wherein the multiple beacon slots (406) include one or more simplified beacon slots associated with one or more simple devices (102); and

transmitting payload data during a data transfer period (410) substantially following the beacon period (404) and wherein the data transfer period (410) includes one or more RCA periods (412) associated with the one or more simple devices (102) for transmitting the payload data associated with the one or more simple devices (102) upon receipt of the indication that the RCA period (412) is present in the one or more simplified beacon slots associated with the simple devices (102).

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the multiple transceivers (208 and 210) further comprise one or more complex devices (102) and wherein the beacon period (404) to further include one or more beacon slots (406) associated with the one or more complex devices (102).

11. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the payload data during the data transfer period (410) substantially following the beacon period (404) comprises:

determining whether the beacon period (404) includes one or more simplified beacon slots (406);

if so, then transmitting the payload data during the data transfer period (410) substantially following the beacon period (404) and wherein the data transfer period (410) includes one or more RCA periods (412) associated with the one or more simple devices (102) for transmitting the payload data associated with the one or more simple devices (102) upon receipt of the indication that the RCA period (412) is present in the one or more simplified beacon slots (406) associated with the simple devices (102).

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

if not, then not transmitting the payload data during the one or more RCA periods (412) associated with the one or more simple devices (102).

13. The method of claim 11, wherein transmitting the payload data during the data transfer period (410) substantially following the beacon period (404) comprises:

transmitting a simplified beacon frame within a simplified beacon slot by a selected transceiver.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein, in transmitting, the selected transceiver (208 and 210) is a device selected from the group consisting of a simple device and a complex device (102).

15. The method of claim 13, wherein transmitting the simplified beacon frame within the simplified beacon slot by the selected transceiver (208 and 210) comprises:

transmitting the one or more simplified beacon frames using a physical layer (PHY) associated with devices selected from the group consisting of the one or more simple devices (102) and the one or more complex devices (102).

16. The method of claim 13, wherein each RCA period is used for data transmission between devices selected from the group consisting of the simple devices (102) and between the simple devices and the complex devices (102).

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the data transfer period (410) comprises periods selected from the group consisting of an RCA period (412), a distributed reservation protocol (DRP) period, and prioritized contention access (PCA) protocol period.

18. An apparatus, comprising:

multiple transceivers (208 and 210) that communicate via wireless links (220) in a short-range wireless network within a beaconing group (101) and wherein the multiple transceivers (208 and 210) include one or more simple devices (102), wherein each of the transceivers (208 and 210) operates according a MAC superframe structure, wherein the MAC superframe structure comprises a beacon period (404) including multiple beacon slots (406), wherein the multiple beacon slots (406) include one or more beacon slots (406) associated with one or more simple devices (102) within a beaconing group (101), and wherein the MAC superframe structure further comprise a data transfer period (410) substantially following the beacon period (404) including one or more reserved channel access (RCA) periods (412) to be used by the one or more simple devices (102) upon a reservation indicated in the one or more beacon slots (406) associated with the simple devices (102).

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the one or more beacon slots (406) associated with the simple devices (102) comprise one or more simplified beacon slots associated with the one or more simple devices (102).

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the beacon period (404) further comprises one or more beacon slots (406) associated with complex devices (102) within the beaconing group (101).

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the simplified beacon slot is associated with all of the one or more simple devices (102) or a subset of the one or more simple devices (102) in the beaconing group (101).