DISTRIBUTED RATE ALLOCATION AND COLLISION DETECTION IN WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20130201857A1
• Filed: 07/29/2011
• Published: 08/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Board of Regents of the University of Texas System (University of Texas System)
• Original Assignee: Board of Regents of the University of Texas System (University of Texas System)
• Inventors: Bhargava, Vidur, Vishwanath, Sriram, Jose, Jubin
• Granted Patent: US 9,794,949 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 2203/16 for telephony
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 2203/18 for wireless local area networks or WLAN
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 3/222 wherein jamming detection includes detecting the absence or impossibility of intelligible communication on at least one channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 3/28 with jamming and anti-jamming mechanisms both included in a same device or system, e.g. wherein anti-jamming includes prevention of undesired self-jamming resulting from jamming
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 3/45 characterized by including monitoring of the target or target signal, e.g. in reactive jammers or follower jammers for example by means of an alternation of jamming phases and monitoring phases, called "look-through mode"
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/22 Negotiating communication rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A hybrid cellular and non-cellular multi-hop communication device, including a hand-held wireless device having one or more antennas, a cellular wireless interface connected to at least some of the one or more antennas, and a non-cellular wireless interface connected to at least some of the one or more antennas. The non-cellular wireless interface may include a rate allocator configured to select a physical-layer rate of transmission of data from the non-cellular wireless interface based on a queue length of data to be transmitted from the hand-held cellular device and a transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit data from the queue and adjust physical-layer transmission parameters based on a physical-layer rate selected by the rate allocator.

Claims

1. A hybrid cellular and non-cellular multi-hop communication device, comprising:

a hand-held wireless device comprising;

one or more antennas;

a cellular wireless interface connected to at least some of the one or more antennas; and

a non-cellular wireless interface connected to at least some of the one or more antennas, wherein the non-cellular wireless interface comprises;

a rate allocator configured to select a physical-layer rate of transmission of data from the non-cellular wireless interface based on a queue length of data to be transmitted from the hand-held cellular device; and

a transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit data from the queue and adjust physical-layer transmission parameters based on a physical-layer rate selected by the rate allocator.

2. The hybrid cellular and non-cellular multi-hop communication device of claim 1, wherein the rate allocator comprises a channel measurement module configured to determine the feasibility of transmitting at a proposed physical layer rate in parallel with another wireless device over wireless medium resources shared with the other wireless device such that the parallel transmissions interfere with one another.

3. The hybrid cellular and non-cellular multi-hop communication device of claim 2, wherein the channel measurement module is configured to receive feedback from the other wireless device and determine the feasibility of a physical-layer rate based, at least in part, on the feedback.

6. The hybrid cellular and non-cellular multi-hop communication device of claim 3, wherein the feedback includes a length of a frame transmitted by the other wireless device.

7. The hybrid cellular and non-cellular multi-hop communication device of claim 3, wherein the feedback includes a sequence identifier transmitted to or from the other wireless device.

8. The hybrid cellular and non-cellular multi-hop communication device of claim 3, wherein the non-cellular interface is configured to wait an inter-frame spacing duration before determining whether to transmit a data frame, and wherein the non-cellular interface is configured to sense the feedback during the inter-frame spacing duration.

9. The hybrid cellular and non-cellular multi-hop communication device of claim 3, wherein non-cellular interface of the wireless device is configured to simultaneously transmit data frames on one or more frequencies of the wireless medium and receive the feedback on the one or more frequencies of the wireless medium.

10. The hybrid cellular and non-cellular multi-hop communication device of claim 1, comprising memory coupled to the rate allocator, wherein the rate allocator is configured to store data indicative of the feasibility of a physical-layer rate in the memory.

11. The hybrid cellular and non-cellular multi-hop communication device of claim 10, wherein the rate allocator is configured to determine the feasibility of a physical-layer rate based on both the feedback and the stored data indicative of the feasibility of a physical-layer rate.

28. The wireless device of claim 10, comprising a full duplex transceiver, wherein the channel-measurement module is operable to use the full duplex transceiver to receive:

a wireless signal indicative of collisions caused by transmissions from the wireless device while the wireless device is transmitting data.

29. The wireless device of claim 10, comprising a scheduler operable to select:

a deterministic schedule based, at least in part, on the channel-measurement signal; and

a time slot in which to transmit in parallel with other wireless devices by estimating the feasibility of physical-layer rates of transmission during multiple time slots in the selected deterministic schedule and selecting the time slot with a highest estimated feasible physical-layer rate of transmission.

4-5. -5. (canceled)

12. A wireless device, comprising:

a queue-length monitor operable to quantify an amount of data to be transmitted or a change in an amount of data to be transmitted and output a queue-length signal indicative of the amount of data ready to be transmitted or the change in the amount of data ready to be transmitted;

a channel-measurement module operable to sense the channel-state of a wireless connection and output a channel-measurement signal indicative of a sensed channel-state; and

a distributed transmission-rate selector operable to receive the queue-length signal and the channel-measurement signal and select a physical-layer rate of transmission of data based on both the queue-length signal and the channel-measurement signal.

13. The wireless device of claim 12, wherein the queue-length monitor is operable to quantify an amount of data to be transmitted or a change in an amount of data to be transmitted by more than one wireless device in a multi-hop path to a cellular base station via a non-cellular network.

14. The wireless device of claim 12, wherein the channel-measurement module is operable to obtain feedback indicative of the feasibility of a physical-layer rate by snooping signals exchanged between other wireless devices.

15. The wireless device of claim 12, wherein the channel-measurement module is operable to receive feedback on the same wireless medium resources for which the physical-layer rate of transmission is selected.

16. The wireless device of claim 12, wherein the distributed transmission-rate selector is operable to select the physical-layer rate of transmission based on a function of a random input and the queue-length signal.

17. The wireless device of claim 16, wherein the function of the random input and the queue-length signal generally monotonically increases the probability of selecting a higher physical later rate of transmission as the queue length increases.

18-27. -27. (canceled)

30. A method of transmitting data from a wireless device sharing a wireless medium with another wireless device, the method comprising:

sensing a quantity of failed transmissions or a change in a quantity of failed transmissions from a wireless device;

determining whether the sensed quantity or change in quantity exceeds a threshold;

at least partially in response to a determination that the sensed quantity or change in quantity exceeds the threshold, transmitting a signal tending to prevent another wireless device from transmitting signals, wherein transmitting the signal tending to prevent another wireless device from transmitting signals comprises;

transmitting the signal during an inter-frame spacing duration that is shorter than an inter-frame spacing duration designated for data frames.