System and method for characterizing the quality of a link in a wireless network
First Claim
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1. A method for characterizing the quality of a link in a multi-hopping wireless communication network, the method comprising:
- calculating a link quality indicator of a link between a first node and a second node in the multi-hopping wireless communication network by;
maintaining a first link quality indicator at the first node using an assessed quality of the link;
maintaining a second link quality indicator at the second node using the assessed quality of the link;
converging the first link quality indicator and the second link quality indicator to calculate the link quality indicator for the link and thereby establish a symmetric view of the link quality at the first node and the second node located on each side of the link by;
communicating the first link quality indicator from the first node to the second node;
comparing the first link quality indicator and the second link quality indicator by the second node;
maintaining the second link quality indicator at the second node when the second link quality indicator is lower than the received first link quality indicator; and
adjusting the second link quality indicator at the second node when the second link quality indicator is higher than the received first link quality indicator, wherein the adjusting comprises calculating an adjusted link quality indicator as a weighted average of the second link quality indicator and the received first link quality indicator;
communicating the adjusted link quality indicator from the second node to the first node; and
re-adjusting at the first node, the first link quality indicator of the link using the received adjusted link quality indicator.
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Abstract
A system and method for characterizing the quality of a link, in particular, a bi-directional link, between nodes in a wireless communication network, such as a wireless ad-hoc peer-to-peer network, with minimum network overhead. The system and method determine the quality of link between two nodes by taking into consideration the view from both the nodes, and factors such as signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio or any statistic collected at the physical layer that is deemed representative of the quality of a link. The link quality can also be adjusted using a weighting factor.
141 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A method for characterizing the quality of a link in a multi-hopping wireless communication network, the method comprising:
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calculating a link quality indicator of a link between a first node and a second node in the multi-hopping wireless communication network by; maintaining a first link quality indicator at the first node using an assessed quality of the link; maintaining a second link quality indicator at the second node using the assessed quality of the link; converging the first link quality indicator and the second link quality indicator to calculate the link quality indicator for the link and thereby establish a symmetric view of the link quality at the first node and the second node located on each side of the link by; communicating the first link quality indicator from the first node to the second node; comparing the first link quality indicator and the second link quality indicator by the second node; maintaining the second link quality indicator at the second node when the second link quality indicator is lower than the received first link quality indicator; and adjusting the second link quality indicator at the second node when the second link quality indicator is higher than the received first link quality indicator, wherein the adjusting comprises calculating an adjusted link quality indicator as a weighted average of the second link quality indicator and the received first link quality indicator; communicating the adjusted link quality indicator from the second node to the first node; and re-adjusting at the first node, the first link quality indicator of the link using the received adjusted link quality indicator. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A multi-hopping wireless communication network for characterizing the quality of a link in the multi-hopping wireless communication network, comprising:
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a first node that comprises means to calculate the quality of the link in the multi-hopping wireless communication network; a second node communicatively coupled to the first node through the link; wherein the first node comprises means to; maintain a link quality indicator using an assessed quality of the link, and communicated the link quality indicator to the second node, and further wherein the second node comprises means to; calculate a locally calculated link quality indicator; and to converge the received link quality indicator and the locally calculated link quality indicator to calculate the link quality indicator for the link and thereby establish a symmetric view of the link quality at the first node and the second node located on each side of the link by; comparing the received link quality indicator and the locally calculated link quality indicator; maintaining the locally calculated link quality indicator when the locally calculated link quality indicator is less than the received link quality indicator; and when the locally calculated link quality indicator is greater than the received link quality indicator, calculating an adjusted link quality indicator comprising a weighted average of the locally calculated link quality indicator and the received link quality indicator; to communicate the adjusted link quality indicator to the first node; and wherein the first node comprises means to re-adjust the first link quality indicator of the link using the received adjusted link quality indicator. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification