Power management method and apparatus of wireless local area network module in computer system
First Claim
1. A wireless communications device, comprising:
- a communication sensitivity checking portion of the wireless communications device configured to check a sensitivity of at least one communications channel used to communicate with an external access point and to provide a sensitivity signal based on the checked sensitivity; and
a power mode changing portion of the wireless communications device configured to receive the sensitivity signal from the communication sensitivity checking portion and to change a power mode of the wireless communications device between a working mode and at least one sleep mode based on the sensitivity signal received from the communication sensitivity checking portion, wherein the power mode changing portion is configured to switch the power mode into the working mode once a predetermined time period elapses after the power mode has been switched to the at least one sleep mode, and wherein a length of the predetermined time period varies based on a value of a predefined sensitivity value.
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Abstract
A power management method and apparatus for a wireless LAN module in a computer system may include a communication sensitivity checking unit for checking a communication sensitivity of a wireless communications channel. If a communications sensitivity is lower than a desired value, a power mode of the wireless LAN module is changed into a sleep mode for a predetermined period of time. After the delay period expires, the wireless LAN module is switched back into a normal mode, and the communications sensitivity is checked again. If the communications sensitivity is acceptable, a data checking unit checks to determine whether there is data to be transmitted/received by the wireless LAN module. If no data needs to be sent, at least the transmission block of the wireless LAN module can be set to the power down mode. Also, if an attempt to set up a communications channel is unsuccessful, the device can be set to the power down mode for a predetermined delay period. After the delay period expires, the wireless LAN module is returned to the normal mode for another setup attempt.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A wireless communications device, comprising:
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a communication sensitivity checking portion of the wireless communications device configured to check a sensitivity of at least one communications channel used to communicate with an external access point and to provide a sensitivity signal based on the checked sensitivity; and a power mode changing portion of the wireless communications device configured to receive the sensitivity signal from the communication sensitivity checking portion and to change a power mode of the wireless communications device between a working mode and at least one sleep mode based on the sensitivity signal received from the communication sensitivity checking portion, wherein the power mode changing portion is configured to switch the power mode into the working mode once a predetermined time period elapses after the power mode has been switched to the at least one sleep mode, and wherein a length of the predetermined time period varies based on a value of a predefined sensitivity value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A wireless LAN module, comprising:
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checking means for checking a communication sensitivity of at least one communications channel; switching means for switching a power mode of the wireless LAN module to a power down mode when the checking means determines that a communication sensitivity is less than a predefined sensitivity value, and wherein the switching means is also configured to switch the power mode of the wireless LAN module to a normal mode after a predetermined delay period elapses after the power mode has been set to the power down mode, when the checking means wherein determines that the communications sensitivity is less than a first predetermined sensitivity value, the switching means switches the power mode of the wireless LAN module to a normal mode after a first predetermined delay period elapses after the power mode has been set to the power down mode, and wherein when the checking means determines that the communications sensitivity is less than a second predetermined sensitivity valuer the switching means switches the power mode of the wireless LAN module to the normal mode after a second predetermined delay period elapses after the power mode has been set to the power down mode. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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12. A power management method of a wireless local area network (LAN) module, comprising:
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setting up a communications channel of a wireless LAN network; checking a communications sensitivity of the set channel; changing a power mode of the wireless LAN module to a sleep mode when a result of the checking indicates that the communications sensitivity is less than a predetermined sensitivity value; and changing a power mode of the wireless LAN module back to a working mode after a predetermined delay period expires after the wireless LAN module is set to the sleep mode, wherein when a result of the checking indicates that the communications sensitivity is less than a first predetermined sensitivity value, the power mode of the wireless LAN module is changed back to the working mode after a first predetermined delay period expires, and wherein when a result of the checking indicates that the communications sensitivity is less than a second predetermined sensitivity value, the power mode of the wireless LAN module is changed back to the working mode after a second predetermined delay period expires. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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14. A method of setting up a wireless LAN module to achieve power savings, comprising:
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attempting to set up a wireless communications channel; checking to determine if the channel was properly set up; changing a power mode of the wireless LAN module to a power down mode when a result of the checking indicates that the channel was not properly set up; and changing the power mode of the wireless LAN module to a normal mode after a predetermined delay period expires after the power mode of the wireless LAN module is set to the power down mode, wherein when a communication channel is not successfully set up after a predetermined number of setup attempts are made, the method further comprises; changing the power mode of the wireless LAN module to the power down mode, and changing the power mode of the wireless LAN module to a normal mode after a second predetermined delay period expires after the power mode of the wireless LAN module is set to the power down mode, wherein the second predetermined delay period is longer than the first predetermined delay period used after an unsuccessful setup attempt.
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Specification