SCHEDULER FOR POWER-EFFICIENT TIME SLOTTED PROTOCOL

• US 20160174192A1
• Filed: 08/03/2015
• Published: 06/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: RAGHU, ARVIND K., XHAFA, ARITON E., VEDANTHAM, RAMANUJA, LU, XIAOLIN
• Granted Patent: US 10,117,267 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1273 of downlink data flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A network includes a parent node and at least one child node that is configured to communicate with the parent node via a wireless network protocol. The parent node includes a broadcast coordinator to transmit a broadcast message from the parent node to the child node at predetermined time intervals according to the wireless network protocol. A scheduler generates a scheduling packet that is communicated in the broadcast message. The scheduling packet includes a data field to instruct each child node to activate and receive data communicated from the parent node in a prescribed time slot following the broadcast message that is defined by the scheduling packet.

Claims

1. A network comprising:

a parent node; and

at least one child node that is configured to communicate with the parent node via a wireless network protocol;

the parent node comprising;

a broadcast coordinator to transmit a broadcast message from the parent node to the child node at predetermined time intervals according to the wireless network protocol; and

a scheduler to generate a scheduling packet that is communicated in the broadcast message, the scheduling packet includes a data field to instruct each child node to activate and receive data communicated from the parent node in a prescribed time slot following the broadcast message that is defined by the scheduling packet.

2. The network of claim 1, wherein the broadcast message is a beacon that is periodically transmitted by the broadcast coordinator of the parent node.

3. The network of claim 2, wherein the broadcast message is transmitted from a media access control layer of the broadcast coordinator utilizing a time slotted channel hopping protocol as the wireless network protocol.

4. The network of claim 1, wherein the parent node and the at least one child node are configured as a destination oriented directed acyclic graph (DODAG) utilizing a routing for low power network protocol via the wireless network protocol.

5. The network of claim 4, wherein the parent node is a root node or an intermediate node of the DODAG.

6. The network of claim 1, wherein the data field of the scheduling packet includes at least one virtual node identifier to identify the at least one child node within a map of child nodes, the at least one virtual node identifier assigned to the at least one child node by the parent node when the child node joins the network.

7. The network of claim 6, wherein the map of child nodes includes at least one of a receive map to enable or disable a receive time slot in at least one of the child nodes, a shared map to enable or disable a shared time slot in at least one of the child nodes, and a mode map to enable or disable a selected mode of operation in at least one of the child nodes.

8. The network of claim 7, wherein the selected mode of operation specified by the mode map includes a normal mode to indicate to the at least one child node to utilize a dedicated receiver and transmitter slot assigned to the at least one child node for communications with the parent node.

9. The network of claim 7, wherein the selected mode of operation specified by the mode map includes an over the air programming mode to indicate to the at least one child node to utilize contiguous time slots for communications with the parent node.

10. The network of claim 7, wherein the selected mode of operation a high bandwidth mode to indicate to the at least one child node to send data at a higher data rate to the parent node.

11. The network of claim 1, wherein the at least one child node transmits an indication byte during a present time frame to indicate to the parent node that the child node will transmit data in at least one future time frame relative to the present time frame.

12. A method comprising:

transmitting a broadcast message from a parent node to at least one child node at predetermined time intervals according to a wireless network protocol;

generating a scheduling packet that includes a map to instruct each child node to activate and receive data communicated from the parent node in a prescribed time slot following the broadcast message that is defined by the scheduling packet; and

communicating the scheduling packet with the broadcast message to update each child node according to instructions specified in the map.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising transmitting the broadcast message via a beacon that is periodically transmitted by the parent node.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting the broadcast message from a media access control layer utilizing a time slotted channel hopping protocol as the wireless network protocol.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein a data field of the scheduling packet includes at least one virtual node identifier to identify the at least one child node within a map of child nodes, the at least one virtual node identifier assigned to the at least one child node by the parent node when the child node joins the network.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the map of child nodes includes at least one of a receive map to enable or disable a receive time slot in at least one of the child nodes, a shared map to enable or disable a shared time slot in at least one of the child nodes, and a mode map to enable or disable a selected mode of operation in at least one of the child nodes.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the selected mode of operation specified by the mode map includes an over the air programming mode to indicate to the at least one child node to utilize contiguous time slots for communications with the parent node.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising transmitting an indication byte during a present time frame from the at least one child node to indicate to the parent node that the child node will transmit data in at least one future time frame relative to the present time frame.

19. A system comprising:

a parent node; and

at least one child node that is configured to communicate with the parent node via a wireless network protocol;

the parent node comprising;

a broadcast coordinator to transmit a broadcast message from the parent node to the child node at predetermined time intervals according to the wireless network protocol; and

a scheduler to generate a scheduling packet that is communicated in the broadcast message, the scheduling packet includes a map to instruct each child node to activate and receive data communicated from the parent node in a prescribed time slot following the broadcast message that is defined by the scheduling packet, the scheduling packet includes at least one virtual node identifier to identify the at least one child node within the map, the at least one virtual node identifier assigned to the at least one child node by the parent node when the child node joins the network.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the at least one child node transmits an indication byte during a present time frame to indicate to the parent node that the child node will transmit data in at least one future time frame relative to the present time frame.