ACCESS AND POWER MANAGEMENT FOR CENTRALIZED NETWORKS
First Claim
1. A method for managing power in a device, comprising:
- operating the device in a low-power state in which the device is not required to transmit or receive frames during certain intervals of a beacon period;
maintaining a list of allocation intervals designated for the device, the allocation intervals including scheduled allocations, polled allocations, and posted allocations;
determining when a beacon frame transmission is scheduled to occur in the beacon period;
operating the device in an active state in which the device is capable of transmitting and receiving frames during the allocation intervals and the beacon transmission period;
identifying a polled allocation interval from a poll frame addressed to the device;
maintaining the device in the active state after the poll frame until an end of the polled allocation interval;
receiving a frame from a hub designating a future poll for the device; and
maintaining the device in the active state at a time scheduled for the future poll frame.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for managing power in a subnet having a hub in communication with one or more nodes is disclosed. The hub and nodes communicate using one or more non-contention access methods, such as scheduled, polled or posted access. The node may enter a sleep or hibernation state while no scheduled, polled or posted allocation interval is pending. The hibernation state allows the node to hibernate through one or more entire beacon periods. In the sleep state, the node may be asleep between any scheduled, polled and posted allocation intervals for the node or during another node'"'"'s scheduled allocation interval in a current beacon period. By selecting which access scheme is in use, the node and hub can increase the node'"'"'s chances to be in hibernation or sleep state and minimize power consumption.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for managing power in a device, comprising:
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operating the device in a low-power state in which the device is not required to transmit or receive frames during certain intervals of a beacon period; maintaining a list of allocation intervals designated for the device, the allocation intervals including scheduled allocations, polled allocations, and posted allocations; determining when a beacon frame transmission is scheduled to occur in the beacon period; operating the device in an active state in which the device is capable of transmitting and receiving frames during the allocation intervals and the beacon transmission period; identifying a polled allocation interval from a poll frame addressed to the device; maintaining the device in the active state after the poll frame until an end of the polled allocation interval; receiving a frame from a hub designating a future poll for the device; and maintaining the device in the active state at a time scheduled for the future poll frame. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of controlling communications between devices in a network, comprising:
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receiving a beacon frame from a network hub during a beacon frame interval, the beacon frame identifying a beacon shift sequence and a current beacon period; transmitting a connection request frame to the network hub, the connection request frame comprising a list of one or more scheduled allocation requests; receiving a connection assignment frame from the network hub, the connection assignment designating one or more allocation intervals in a beacon period in response to the scheduled allocation requests; and identifying wakeup intervals during times inside the designated allocation intervals and the beacon frame interval, wherein the connection request frame further comprises a next wakeup field that identifies a sequence number of a beacon frame associated with a beacon period in which a node will wake up for frame reception and transmission, wherein the beacon frame is transmitted in the beacon period, wherein the beacon frame is not transmitted in the beacon period, and wherein the connection request frame further comprises a wakeup interval field that identifies a duration between a start of successive wakeups for a node sending the request. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for power management in a device, comprising:
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identifying non-contended access allocation intervals designated for the device from received frames, the non-contended access allocation intervals occurring during a beacon period; and placing the device in a wakeup mode during the beacon period at times during the non-contended access allocation intervals. sending a connection request frame including a next wakeup field that identifies a sequence number of a beacon frame associated with a beacon period in which the device will wake up for frame reception and transmission. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. A network node, comprising:
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a transceiver circuit for transmitting frames to and receiving frames from a network hub; a memory for storing allocation intervals designated for the node, the allocation intervals identified from the frames received from the network hub, and corresponding to at least one of a scheduled allocation interval, polled allocation interval, posted allocation interval, or contended allocation interval; a power management circuit for controlling power consumed by the node, the power management circuit not enabling the transceiver circuit to transmit or receive frames during sleep intervals, the sleep intervals identified as time during a beacon period between the allocation interval; and a processor adapted to generate frames to be sent to the network hub, the frames including a connection request frame having a next wakeup field that identifies a sequence number of a beacon frame associated with a beacon period in which a node will wake up for frame reception and transmission, wherein the beacon frame is transmitted in the beacon period, and wherein the beacon frame is not transmitted in the beacon period. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification