ASYMMETRICAL HAIL TIMING

• US 20180014248A1
• Filed: 07/11/2016
• Published: 01/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mueller International LLC (Mueller Water Products Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: LLC Mueller International
• Inventors: Splitz, David Edwin
• Granted Patent: US 10,200,947 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/02 Power saving arrangements in wired systems H04L12/12; signaling of mobile application services, e.g. low battery notifications H04W4/20
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method of communicating hail messages comprises repeatedly transmitting first hail messages from a device at a first hailing rate in which time between beginnings of each consecutive first hail message is a first period, a length of time each first hail message is transmitted is a first length, and a first quantity of time extending between an end of each first hail message and a start of a next first hail message is a first gap; and listening at the device for a second hail message being repeatedly transmitted to the device at a second hailing rate in which time between beginnings of each consecutive second hail message is a second period, a length of time each second hail message is transmitted is a second length and a second quantity of time extending between an end of each second hail message and a start of a next second hail message is a second gap. Each of the first time periods and lengths is greater than the corresponding second time periods and lengths.

Claims

1. A method of communicating hail messages, comprising:

repeatedly transmitting first hail messages from a first device at a first hailing rate in which time between beginnings of each consecutive first hail message is a first period, a length of time each first hail message is transmitted is a first length, and a first quantity of time extending between an end of each first hail message and a start of a next first hail message is a first gap; and

listening at the first device for a second hail message being repeatedly transmitted to the first device at a second hailing rate in which time between beginnings of each consecutive second hail message is a second period, a length of time each second hail message is transmitted is a second length, and a second quantity of time extending between an end of each second hail message and a start of a next second hail message is a second gap length of time;

wherein the first period is greater than the second period, the first length is greater than the second length, and the first gap is greater than the second gap; and

wherein the first device listens for the second hail message at a first listening rate that is less than a second listening rate of a second device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second hailing rate is about five (5) hail messages per second, and the first hailing rate is about two (2) hail messages per second.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the first hailing rate is asynchronous with respect to the second listening rate, and

wherein the second hailing rate is asynchronous with respect to the first listening rate.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein during transmission of the first hail message, the first device is in a first transmitting mode for a first transmitting percentage of the first period,

wherein during transmission of the second hail message, the second device is in a second transmitting mode for a second transmitting percentage of the second period, and

wherein the second transmitting percentage is between three (3) and four (4) times larger than the first transmitting percentage.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second transmitting percentage is about 89%, and the first transmitting percentage is about 28%.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second hailing rate is about five (5) times the first hailing rate.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the second hailing rate is about five (5) hail messages per second, and the first hailing rate is about one (1) hail message per second.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first listening rate is about 25% of the second listening rate.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein three (3) seconds separate each consecutive instance of listening by the node, and wherein 750 milliseconds separate each consecutive instance of listening by the DC repeater.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first length is about 1.5 times as long as the second length.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first length is about 276 milliseconds, and the second length is about 180 milliseconds.

12. A node, comprising:

a processor; and

logic processed by the processor to

repeatedly transmit first hail messages from the node at a first hailing rate in which time between beginnings of each consecutive first hail message is a first period, a length of time each first hail message is transmitted is a first length, and a first quantity of time extending between an end of each first hail message and a start of a next first hail message is a first gap, and

listen for a second hail message being repeatedly transmitted to the node at a second hailing rate in which time between beginnings of each consecutive second hail message is a second period, a length of time each second hail message is transmitted is a second length, and a second quantity of time extending between an end of each second hail message and a start of a next second hail message is a second gap,

wherein the first period is greater than the second period, the first length is greater than the second length, and the first gap is greater than the second gap,

wherein the logic is processed by the processor to listen for the second hail message at a first listening rate that is less than a second listening rate of a network device.

13. The node of claim 12, wherein the logic is further processed by the processor to set the first hailing rate at about two (2) hail messages per second.

14. The node of claim 12,

wherein during transmission of the first hail message, the node is in a first transmitting mode for a first transmitting percentage of the first period,

wherein during transmission of the second hail message, the network device is in a second transmitting mode for a second transmitting percentage of the second period, and

wherein the logic is further processed by the processor to set the first transmitting percentage between about 25% and 33% of the second transmitting percentage.

15. The node of claim 12, wherein the logic is further processed by the processor to listen at the first listening rate of about 25% of the second listening rate.

16. The node of claim 15, wherein three (3) seconds separate each consecutive instance of listening by the node.

17. The node of claim 12, wherein the logic is further processed by the processor to set the first length at about 1.5 times the second length.

18. The node of claim 17, wherein the first hail length is about 276 milliseconds.

19. The node of claim 12, wherein the logic is further processed by the processor to set the first hailing rate to about one-fifth of the second hailing rate.

20. The node of claim 19, wherein the first hailing rate is about one (1) hail message per second.