Channel access method for powerline carrier based media access control protocol
First Claim
1. A method of accessing a channel in a communication transceiver coupled to a communications channel, the transceiver adapted to provide carrier sense signals including a fast carrier detect (FCD) signal to predict the early start of transmission on said channel and having a high false alarm rate and a carrier detect (CD) signal having a low false alarm rate and indicating that a transmission is starting, said method comprising the steps of:
- establishing a channel contention period divided into a plurality of time slots, the width of each time slot substantially equal to the time of said FCD signal;
initializing a backoff counter with a backoff count equal to a random number of time slots;
decrementing said backoff counter while said medium is idle;
suspending said backoff counter upon receipt of a FCD signal;
resuming decrementing said backoff counter upon failure of a CD signal to arrive within a CD time, said CD time proportional to a time period during which the arrival of a CD signal is expected in the event a transmission is received;
deferring transmission until a next contention period upon receipt of a CD signal; and
starting transmission upon expiration of said backoff counter.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A novel and useful media access control (MAC) protocol that is intended for use over noisy shared media channels. The MAC protocol provides layer 2 functionality over a network using a shared medium including a backoff mechanism for CSMA/CA channel access, link addressing that reduces the overhead of long MAC addresses, a flooding scheme having controlled exposure for broadcast transmissions, multicast transmissions using selective ACKs, implementation of traffic prioritization using an adaptive backoff scheme, a second layer repeater establishment process and multi-packet transport for short packets and fragmentation for long packet transport.
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Citations
90 Claims
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1. A method of accessing a channel in a communication transceiver coupled to a communications channel, the transceiver adapted to provide carrier sense signals including a fast carrier detect (FCD) signal to predict the early start of transmission on said channel and having a high false alarm rate and a carrier detect (CD) signal having a low false alarm rate and indicating that a transmission is starting, said method comprising the steps of:
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establishing a channel contention period divided into a plurality of time slots, the width of each time slot substantially equal to the time of said FCD signal; initializing a backoff counter with a backoff count equal to a random number of time slots; decrementing said backoff counter while said medium is idle; suspending said backoff counter upon receipt of a FCD signal; resuming decrementing said backoff counter upon failure of a CD signal to arrive within a CD time, said CD time proportional to a time period during which the arrival of a CD signal is expected in the event a transmission is received; deferring transmission until a next contention period upon receipt of a CD signal; and starting transmission upon expiration of said backoff counter. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method of accessing a channel in a communication transceiver coupled to a communications channel in a network including a plurality of stations, said method comprising the steps of:
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dividing contention for access to said channel into one or more contention windows each contention window assigned a priority and subdivided into a plurality of backoff time slots; deferring zero or more contention windows until arrival of a contention window whose priority corresponds to the priority of a particular transmission; each station wishing to transmit, initializing a backoff counter with a backoff count equal to a random number of backoff time slots; decrementing said backoff counter while said channel is idle; and attempting to reserve said channel upon expiration of said backoff counter. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) based communications system wherein transmissions are preceded by a contention phase during which one or more transmitters compete for access to a channel, comprising:
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means for establishing one or more contention windows, each contention window assigned a priority; means for dividing each contention window into a plurality of backoff time slots wherein detection of a carrier sense signal during a time slot potentially indicates that said channel is busy; backoff means adapted to count using a backoff timer a randomly selected backoff time equal to a multiple of said backoff time slots; and reservation means adapted to attempt reservation of said channel upon expiration of said backoff timer and to enable transmission upon successful reservation of said channel. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. A communications transceiver for transmitting and receiving over a carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) frame based communications network wherein frame transmissions are separated by a contention interframe space (CIFS) during which one or more nodes compete for access to said network, comprising:
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a coupling circuit for generating a receive signal received over said network and for outputting a transmit signal onto said network; a transmitter adapted to modulate data to be transmitted in accordance with a modulation scheme so as to generate said transmit signal therefrom; a receiver adapted to demodulate said receive signal in accordance with said modulation scheme so as to generate a receive data signal therefrom and adapted to generate carrier sense signals including a fast carrier detect (FCD) signal having a high false alarm rate and predicting early on when a transmission may be starting and a carrier detect (CD) signal having a low false alarm rate and indicating that a transmission is starting; a media access control (MAC) comprising means adapted to; establish one or more contention windows wherein each contention window is assigned a priority and subdivided into a plurality of backoff time slots; defer zero or more contention windows until arrival of a contention window whose priority corresponds to the priority of a particular transmission; initialize a backoff counter with a backoff count equal to a random number of backoff time slots; decrement said backoff counter while said channel is idle; attempt to reserve said channel upon expiration of said backoff counter; transmit onto said channel upon successfully reserving said channel; and a processor adapted to control the operation of said transmitter, receiver and MAC and to provide an interface between said MAC and an external host. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57)
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58. A computer readable storage medium having a computer program embodied thereon for causing a suitably programmed system to access a channel in a carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) frame based communications system wherein frame transmissions are separated by a contention interframe space (CIFS) during which one or more transmitters compete for access to said channel by performing the following steps when such program is executed on said system:
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establishing one or more contention windows, wherein each contention window is assigned a priority and subdivided into a plurality of backoff time slots; deferring zero or more contention windows until arrival of a contention window whose priority corresponds to the priority of a particular transmission; initializing a backoff counter with a backoff count equal to a random number of backoff time slots; decrementing said backoff counter while said channel is idle; attempting to reserve said channel upon expiration of said backoff counter; and transmitting onto said channel upon successful reservation of said channel. - View Dependent Claims (59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77)
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78. A method of accessing a communications channel in a network including a plurality of stations, said method comprising the steps of:
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establishing one or more contention windows in which said plurality of stations compete for access to said communications channel; assigning a different priority to each of said one or more contention windows; each station wishing to transmit, initializing a backoff counter with a backoff count equal to a random number of backoff time slots; waiting until the arrival of a contention window having a priority corresponding to the priority of transmission of a particular station and upon the arrival thereof decrementing said backoff counter while said channel is idle; and attempting to reserve said communications channel upon expiration of said backoff counter. - View Dependent Claims (79, 80)
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81. A method of accessing a communications channel in a network including a plurality of stations, said method comprising the steps of:
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establishing one or more contention windows during which said plurality of stations compete for access to said communications channel; assigning a priority to each of said one or more contention windows; each station wishing to transmit, initializing a backoff counter with a backoff count equal to a random number of backoff time slots; waiting until the arrival of a contention window having a priority corresponding to the priority of transmission of a particular station and upon the arrival thereof decrementing said backoff counter while said channel is idle; attempting to reserve said channel upon expiration of said backoff counter; and
adjusting the size of a contention window as a function of a number of said plurality of stations contending for said communications channel in said contention window. - View Dependent Claims (82, 83, 84)
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85. A method of accessing a communications channel in a power line carrier based network including a plurality of stations, said method comprising the steps of:
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establishing one or more contention windows in which said plurality of stations compete for access to said communications channel; assigning a different priority to each of said one or more contention windows; each station sensing said communication channel for the presence of carrier signal; each station wishing to transmit, selecting a random backoff time and initializing a backoff counter with said backoff time; each station waiting until the arrival of a contention window having a priority associated therewith corresponding to the priority of transmission of a particular station; within the contention window having matching priority, waiting a random backoff time; upon expiration of said backoff counter, attempting to reserve said communications channel; and suspending countdown of said backoff counter if presence of carrier signal is detected.
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86. A method of accessing a communications channel in a network including a plurality of stations, said method comprising the steps of:
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establishing one or more contention windows in which said plurality of stations compete for access to said communications channel, each contention window corresponding to a different priority level; each station wishing to transmit, initializing a backoff counter with a backoff count equal to a random number of backoff time slots; waiting until the arrival of a contention window corresponding to a particular transmission priority, and upon the arrival thereof˜
decrementing said backoff counter while said channel is idle;attempting to reserve said channel upon expiration of said backoff counter; declaring the existence of a hidden station after a predetermined number of failed attempts to reserve said communications channel; and
in accordance therewith, increasing the width of said backoff time slot and repeating said steps of initializing, waiting and attempting to reserve said communications channel.
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87. A method of accessing a communications channel in a network including a plurality of stations, said method comprising the steps of:
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segmenting a transmission session into a plurality of frames; establishing one or more contention windows in which said plurality of stations compete for access to said communications channel, each contention window corresponding to a different priority level; initializing a backoff counter with a backoff count equal to a random number of backoff time slots; waiting until the arrival of a contention window corresponding to a particular transmission priority and, upon the arrival thereof, decrementing said backoff counter while said channel is idle; attempting to reserve said channel, upon expiration of said backoff counter, for a duration sufficient to transmit said plurality of frames; transmitting said plurality of frames from a transmitting station to a receiving station; and said receiving station transmitting an acknowledgement (ACK) reply to said transmitting station containing a plurality of ACK bits, each ACK bit indicating whether one of said frames is to be retransmitted.
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88. A method of accessing a network channel by a station, said method comprising the steps of:
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providing a fast carrier detect (FCD) signal generated by a receive circuit, said FCD signal having a high false alarm rate to predict the staff of packet transmissions from other stations on said channel; dividing contention for channel access into a plurality of N windows, each window corresponding to one of N priority levels, wherein N is a positive integer greater than zero, and wherein each window is further divided into a plurality of time slots, each time slot having a width of said FCD signal; and contending for access to said channel only during a window whose priority is less than or equal to that of a packet awaiting transmission. - View Dependent Claims (89, 90)
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Specification