Communications protocol in a wireless personal area network

• US 6,351,468 B1
• Filed: 07/02/1998
• Issued: 02/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Raytheon BBN Technlogies Corp. (Rtx Corporation), Verizon Corporate Services Group Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: GTE Service Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Brand, Thomas, LaRowe, Richard P. Jr., Wacker, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Olms, Douglas
• Assistant Examiner(s): VANDERPUYE, KENNETH N
• Application Number:
  US09/109,878
• Time in Patent Office: 1,335 Days
• Field of Search: 370/449, 370/450, 370/451, 370/346, 370/350, 370/503, 370/509, 370/514, 370/277, 370/280, 370/238, 370/443, 340/825.08
• US Class Current: 370/449
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0652 Synchronisation among time division multiple access [TDMA] nodes, e.g. time triggered protocol [TTP] bus network with centralized control in which slots are of a TDMA packet structure H04L12/4035
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/00 Synchronisation arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/00 Wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks

Abstract

A communications protocol that is used in a network having a hub device connected to a plurality of peripheral devices includes a synchronization beacon frame that is broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for permitting the peripheral devices to synchronize to the network, a token frame that is broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for allocating network bandwidth among the peripheral devices, a status response frame that is transmitted by the peripheral devices to the hub device for indicating whether the peripheral devices have data to transmit to the hub device, and a data frame. The synchronization beacon frame includes a beacon identifier that identifies a frame as the synchronization beacon frame, and a hub identifier that identifies an address of the hub device. The token frame includes a data portion that schedules a data transmission on the network, and a status response portion that schedules a status response transmission on the network. The status response frame includes a data transmission field that indicates whether a corresponding one of the peripheral devices has data to transmit to the hub device. The data frame includes data transmitted between the hub device and the peripheral devices.

Claims

1. A communications protocol used in a network having a hub device connected to a plurality of peripheral devices, comprising:

a synchronization beacon frame, broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for permitting the peripheral devices to synchronize to the network, including;

an attach field that indicates whether the hub device is permitting new peripheral devices to attach to the network,

a beacon identifier that identifies a frame as the synchronization beacon frame, and

a hub identifier that identifies an address of the hub device;

a token frame, broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for allocating network bandwidth among the peripheral devices, including;

a data portion that schedules a data transmission on the network, and

a status response portion that schedules a status response transmission on the network;

a status response frame, transmitted by the peripheral devices to the hub device for indicating whether the peripheral devices have data to transmit to the hub device, including;

a data transmission field that indicates whether a corresponding one of the peripheral devices has data to transmit to the hub device; and

a data frame including data transmitted between the hub device and the peripheral devices.

2. The communications protocol of claim 1, further comprising:

an acknowledge frame, transmitted in an opposite direction to the data transmission of the data frame for acknowledging receipt of the data transmission, including

a data identifier that identifies the data transmitted in a previous data frame, and

a power control field used to control transmit power of the data transmissions in the data frame.

3. The communications protocol of claim 2, wherein the acknowledge frame has a length of approximately 0.2 ms.

4. The communications protocol of claim 1, wherein the data portion of the token frame includes:

an attach mode field that indicates whether a subsequent data transmission is directed to a peripheral device already attached to the network,

a target address field that identifies a target one of the peripheral devices for the subsequent data transmission, and

a send/receive field that determines whether the hub device will transmit or receive the subsequent data transmission.

5. The communications protocol of claim 4, wherein the data portion of the token frame further includes:

a burst field that indicates whether the subsequent data transmission will be a burst transmission.

6. The communications protocol of claim 1, wherein the status response portion of the token frame includes:

an attach mode field that indicates whether a subsequent status response transmission is from a peripheral device already attached to the network, and

a target address field that identifies a target one of the peripheral devices to respond in the subsequent status response transmission.

7. The communications protocol of claim 1, wherein the token frame further includes:

an error detection field that facilitates detection of errors in the token frame.

8. The communications protocol of claim 1, wherein the data frame includes:

a header field,

a data field that contains the data transmitted between the hub device and the peripheral devices, and

an error detection field that facilitates detection of errors in the data frame.

9. The communications protocol of claim 8, wherein the header field of the data frame includes:

a more-to-send field that indicates whether an additional data frame will be transmitted, and

a length field that indicates a number of bytes of data contained in the data field.

10. The communications protocol of claim 8, wherein the data in the data field comprises one of a control message and a data message.

11. The communications protocol of claim 1, wherein the communications protocol is a TDMA frame structure.

12. The communications protocol of claim 1, wherein the synchronization beacon frame has a length of approximately 0.4 ms.

13. The communications protocol of claim 1, wherein the token frame has a length of approximately 0.8 ms.

14. The communications protocol of claim 1, wherein the data frame has a length of approximately 13.5 ms.

15. The communications protocol of claim 1, wherein the status response frame has a length of approximately 0.2 ms.

16. A communications protocol used in a personal area network having a hub device connected to a plurality of peripheral devices, comprising:

a synchronization beacon frame for broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for permitting the peripheral devices to synchronize to the network and including;

an attach portion that indicates whether the hub device is permitting new peripheral devices to attach to the network;

a token frame for broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for allocating network bandwidth among the peripheral devices and including;

a data portion for scheduling a data transmission on the network, and

a status response portion for scheduling a status response transmission on the network;

a status response frame for transmission by the peripheral devices to the hub device for indicating whether the peripheral devices have data to transmit to the hub device; and

a data frame including data for transmission between the hub device and the peripheral devices.

17. The communications protocol of claim 16, further comprising:

an acknowledge frame transmitted in an opposite direction to the data transmission of the data frame for acknowledging receipt of the data transmission.

18. The communications protocol of claim 17, wherein the acknowledge frame includes:

a data identifier that identifies the data transmitted in a previous data frame, and

a power control field used to control transmit power of the data transmissions in the data frame.

19. The communications protocol of claim 16, wherein the synchronization beacon frame includes:

a beacon identifier that identifies a frame as the synchronization beacon frame, and

a hub identifier that identifies an address of the hub device.

20. The communications protocol of claim 16, wherein the data portion includes:

an attach mode field that indicates whether a subsequent data transmission is directed to a peripheral device already attached to the network,

a target address field that identifies a target one of the peripheral devices for the subsequent data transmission, and

a send/receive field that determines whether the hub device will transmit or receive the subsequent data transmission.

21. The communications protocol of claim 20, wherein the data portion further includes:

a burst field that indicates whether the subsequent data transmission will be a burst transmission.

22. The communications protocol of claim 16, wherein the status response portion includes:

an attach mode field that indicates whether a subsequent status response transmission is from a peripheral device already attached to the network, and

a target address field that identifies a target one of the peripheral devices to respond in the subsequent status response transmission.

23. The communications protocol of claim 16, wherein the token frame further includes:

an error detection field that facilitates detection of errors in the token frame.

24. The communications protocol of claim 16, wherein the status response frame includes:

a data transmission field that indicates whether a corresponding one of the peripheral devices has data to transmit to the hub device.

25. The communications protocol of claim 16, wherein the data frame includes:

a header field,

a data field that contains the data transmitted between the hub device and the peripheral devices, and

an error detection field that facilitates detection of errors in the data frame.

26. The communications protocol of claim 25, wherein the header field includes:

a more-to-send field that indicates whether an additional data frame will be transmitted, and

a length field that indicates a number of bytes of data contained in the data field.

27. The communications protocol of claim 25, wherein the data in the data field comprises one of a control message and a data message.

28. The communications protocol of claim 16, wherein the communications protocol is a TDMA frame structure.

29. A communications protocol used in a personal area network having a hub device connected to a plurality of peripheral devices, comprising:

a synchronization beacon frame for broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for permitting the peripheral devices to synchronize to the network and including;

an attach portion that indicates whether the hub device is permitting new peripheral devices to attach to the network;

a token frame for broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for allocating network bandwidth among the peripheral devices;

a status response frame for transmission by the peripheral devices to the hub device for indicating whether the peripheral devices have data to transmit to the hub device; and

a data frame including data for transmission between the hub device and the peripheral devices.

30. A communications protocol used in a personal area network having a hub device connected to a plurality of peripheral devices, comprising:

a synchronization beacon frame for broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for permitting the peripheral devices to synchronize to the network;

a token frame for broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for allocating network bandwidth among the peripheral devices and including;

an attach mode field that indicates whether a subsequent data transmission is directed to a peripheral device already attached to the network,

a target address field that identifies a target one of the peripheral devices for the subsequent data transmission, and

a send/receive field that determines whether the hub device will transmit or receive the subsequent data transmission;

a status response frame for transmission by the peripheral devices to the hub device for indicating whether the peripheral devices have data to transmit to the hub device; and

a data frame including data for transmission between the hub device and the peripheral devices.

31. A communications protocol used in a personal area network having a hub device connected to a plurality of peripheral devices, comprising:

a synchronization beacon frame for broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for permitting the peripheral devices to synchronize to the network;

a token frame for broadcast by the hub device to the peripheral devices for allocating network bandwidth among the peripheral devices;

a status response frame for transmission by the peripheral devices to the hub device for indicating whether the peripheral devices have data to transmit to the hub device and including;

an attach mode field that indicates whether a subsequent status response transmission is from a peripheral device already attached to the network, and

a target address field that identifies a target one of the peripheral devices to respond in the subsequent status response transmission; and

a data frame including data for transmission between the hub device and the peripheral devices.