Media Access Control Scheme for a Multi-Frequency TDMA Network

• US 20110134878A1
• Filed: 05/06/2010
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Infrastructure Technology, LLC (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Mayo, Thomas Clavton, GEIGER, John Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,477,711 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/330
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/10 Dynamic resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference

Abstract

A system for managing element management in an ad-hoc network is disclosed. The system employs a TDD/FDD communication protocol to allocate assignment of time/frequency slots to individual system elements. Time/frequency assignment is based on desired communication standards in conjunction with geographic mapping of adjacent stations to prevent interference between stations.

Claims

1. A base station comprising:

a transceiving system for receiving information from, and transmitting information to, at least one other base station and a plurality of remote devices; and

an apparatus in communication with the transceiving system and configured for determining a communication allocation to select ones of the plurality of remote devices, the apparatus comprising;

a processor in communication with a memory, the memory including code which when accessed by the processor causes the processor to;

obtain an available communication allocation from a reservation map of communication allocations associated with the base station, wherein the communication allocation comprises allocation of at least one frequency and at least one associated time slot;

receive a communication allocation mapping of each of the least one other base stations operating in cooperation with the base station;

determine a suitability of the obtained available communication allocation in view of communication allocations among the received communication allocation mappings;

provide an indication within the reservation map for indicating an assignment of the available communication allocation when the obtained available communication is determined to be suitable; and

provide an updated reservation map to each of the cooperating base stations.

2. The base station of claim 1, wherein suitability is determined when the obtained available communication allocation is available in each of the received allocation mappings.

3. The base station of claim 1, wherein the reservation mapping comprises at least one frequency and one time slot allocation associated with the base station.

4. The base station of claim 1, wherein the processor further maintains a list of cooperating base stations from among the plurality of base stations.

5. The base station of claim 4, wherein the base stations contained within the list of cooperation base stations are determined based on at least one of:

the relative locations of potential remote terminals and the expected radio propagation from the potential remote terminals.

6. The base station of claim 1, wherein the processor associated an age counter for each of the assigned available communication allocations, the age counter expiring after a pre-determined period of time.

10. A network system comprising a plurality of base stations as set forth in claim 1 and further comprising at least one remote terminal, the at least one remote terminal comprising:

a transceiving system for receiving information from, and transmitting information to, at least one base station and a plurality of other remote terminals; and

an apparatus, in communication with the transceiving system and configured for selecting one of the plurality of base stations for registration therewith, the apparatus comprising;

a processor in communication with a memory, the memory including code which when accessed by the processor causes the processor to;

determine a signal quality of each of the plurality of base stations based upon at least one of a received signal strength, a percentage of expected messages received, and a signal to noise ratio;

determine a maximum signal quality from the signal qualities of each of the plurality of base stations;

register the remote terminal with, and request a communication allocation mapping from, the base station having the maximum signal quality.

11. The network system of claim 10, wherein the communication allocation mapping comprises at least one frequency and one time slot allocation.

7. A method, operable in a base station, for determining a communication allocation among a plurality of base stations and remote terminals, the method comprising:

receiving communication allocation information from cooperating ones of the plurality base stations;

obtaining an available communication allocation from a reservation map of communication allocations, wherein the communication allocation comprises allocation of at least one frequency and at least one associated time slot,

determining a suitability of the obtained available communication allocation in view of the received communication allocation information;

providing an indication in the reservation map indicating an assignment of the obtained available communication allocation when the obtained available communication is determined to be suitable; and

providing an updated reservation map to each of the cooperating base stations.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein suitability is determined when the obtained available communication allocation is available in each of the received allocations.

9. A method, operable in a processing system, for determining cooperating base stations among a plurality of base stations which are in communication with a plurality of remote terminals, the method comprising:

analyzing for each of the base stations a geometry of radio coverage and possible associated remote terminal locations; and

assigning the first and second base stations as cooperative when a known blocking avoidance criteria is not satisfied, wherein the known blocking avoidance criteria is represented as;

D1/D2>

10^(C/I)/K

wherein D1 represents the maximum distance from the first base to any remote terminal associated with the first base,

D2 represents the minimum distance from the first base to any remote terminal associated with the second base;

C/I represents a desired Carrier to Interference ratio; and

K represents an RF propagation constant.