Dynamic auto-reconfigurable time division multiple access

• US 7,796,536 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2006
• Issued: 09/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Roy, Aloke, Mahasenan, Arun V., Zeng, Dongsong, Kore, Vinayak S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ton; Dang T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zhao; Wei
• Application Number:
  US11/550,009
• Publication Number:
  US 20080089311A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,428 Days
• Field of Search: 370/316, 370/317, 370/331, 370/332, 370/254, 455/436, 455/437
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2612 Arrangements for wireless medium access control, e.g. by allocating physical layer transmission capacity H04B7/2615 - H04B7/2643 take precedence; provision for broadband connection H04Q11/0478
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0006 by adapting the transmission format
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0009 by adapting the channel coding H04L1/1812 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1867 Arrangements specially adapted for the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A method to dynamically reconfigure a network by receiving a data packet for transmission from a node in the network at a media access control layer of the node and determining a slot assignment for the data packet based on an application required quality of service. The application required quality of service is determined based on at least one of a number of slots required by the data packet, an application-specified data rate, an application-specified delay requirement and an application-specified number of reserved retries, and application-associated priority values for the data packet. The media access control layer is enabled for time division multiple access.

Claims

1. A method to dynamically reconfigure a network, the method comprising:

receiving a data packet for transmission from a node in the network at a media access control layer of the node, wherein the media access control layer is enabled for time division multiple access;

determining a slot assignment for the data packet based on an application required quality of service, wherein the application required quality of service is determined based on at least one of a number of slots required by the data packet, an application-specified data rate, an application-specified delay requirement and an application-specified number of reserved retries, and application-associated priority values for the data packet;

receiving a data packet at a current data rate from another node in the network;

determining if a transmitter of the received data packet is transmitting at maximum power;

determining if received signal power is lower than a reliable-detection-power threshold; and

transmitting a packet error to the transmitter of the received data packet based on positive determinations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitter does not retransmit the data packet at a data rate exceeding the current data rate based on the packet error.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

conducting an integrity test of the data packet based on a keyed-hashing for message authentication codes; and

encrypting the data packet based on an advanced encryption standard.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adaptively controlling the transmission power based on an exponentially weighted moving average calculation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitter does not retransmit the data packet at the current data rate based on the packet error, the method further comprising:

conducting an integrity test of the data packet based on a keyed-hashing for message authentication codes;

encrypting the data packet based on an advanced encryption standard; and

adaptively controlling the transmission power based on an exponentially weighted moving average calculation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a slot assignment comprises:

assigning the slot assignment based on a calculated data packet length and a data packet periodicity specified by the application.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a slot assignment comprises:

determining if sufficient bandwidth is available for a data rate;

determining a number of slots required per super-frame;

calculating a slot duration;

calculating a desired time epoch to determine a desired time slot;

searching for a time slot closest to the desired time slot; and

assigning the time slot based on the searching.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a slot assignment comprises:

determining a number of slots required per super-frame;

calculating a slot duration;

searching the time slots in the available time units in the super-frame;

determining if a slot position is located; and

assigning a time slot based on the determination the slot position is located.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a slot assignment for the data packet comprises:

prioritizing applications based on an application-associated priority value;

allocating a high quality of service when a number of slots reserved by the application exceeds a highest quality of service threshold and based on the application-associated priority value;

allocating a medium quality of service when the data packet includes information indicative of an application-specified data rate, application-specified delay requirements and an application-specified number of reserved retries;

allocating a low quality of service when the data packet includes information indicative of the application-specified maximum delay and the application-specified number of un-reserved retries; and

assigning slots to the data packets based on the allocated level of quality of service, wherein the data packet is transferred with guaranteed quality of service if a guarantee is required.

10. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

accessing a channel for the data packet according to one of IEEE 802.11 standards, IEEE 802.15.4 standards, and a combination of IEEE 802.11 standards and IEEE 802.15.4 standards.