Distributed multichannel wireless communication

• US 7,852,796 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2006
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommWorks Solutions, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Misonimo Chi Acquisitions LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Rollinger, Victor, Nova, Michael, Gui, Chao, Wang, Weilin, Patil, Abhishek, Wang, Xudong
• Primary Examiner(s): Appiah; Charles N
• Assistant Examiner(s): AJIBADE AKONAI, OLUMIDE
• Application Number:
  US11/420,668
• Publication Number:
  US 20060215593A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,663 Days
• Field of Search: 370/338, 370/351, 370/389, 370/392, 370412-418, 370/458, 370/328, 370/329, 370/401, 370/254, 370/352, 370/356, 370/314, 370/321, 370/337, 370/347, 370/431, 370/442, 370/443, 370/315, 370/390, 370/445, 370/448, 370/462, 455/450.451, 455/452.1, 455/452.2, 455/450, 455/451, 709/238, 709/239, 709/240, 709/241, 709/242
• US Class Current: 370/314
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0002 by adapting the transmission rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/18 Automatic repetition systems, e.g. Van Duuren systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1874 Buffer management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/02 Resource partitioning among network components, e.g. reuse partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/246 Connectivity information discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/00 Wireless channel access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/04 Scheduled access hybrid access H04W74/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/02 Data link layer protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided that facilitate distributed multichannel wireless communication and provide the highest level quality of service (“QoS”) guarantee and support extremely high bandwidth applications such as voice over internet protocol (“VOIP”) streaming audio and video content (including high definition), and multicast applications and also supports convergent networks, ad hoc networks, and the like. A modular MAC architecture provides a group of nodes with the ability to simultaneously communicate with each other using multiple separate communication channels during the same timeslots. The additional throughput gained by employing multiple communication channels is amplified by dynamically mapping the communication channels and timeslots in a network so that multiple channels can be reused simultaneously throughout the network during the same timeslot in a fashion that does not create collisions.

Claims

1. A wireless communication device for distributed multichannel time division multiple access communication over a wireless medium in a wireless communication network, comprising:

a topology module configured to determine a network topology for the wireless communication network;

a timeslot and channel allocation module configured to (i) dynamically identify and assign a non-overlapping wireless communication channel out of a plurality of available non-overlapping wireless communication channels for transmission of packets over the wireless medium to each neighboring wireless device identified by the topology module and (ii) dynamically identify and assign each non-overlapping wireless communication channel to a timeslot selected out of a plurality of available timeslots for transmission of packets over the wireless medium to each neighboring wireless device identified by the topology module;

a packet queuing module configured to provide a plurality of first queues, each first queue corresponding to and queuing packets only for a particular one of the non-overlapping wireless communication channels, the packet queuing module further configured to route packets to a proper first queue for transmission to a target neighboring wireless device over the wireless medium based on the non-overlapping wireless communication channel currently assigned to the target neighboring wireless device by the channel allocation module;

a channel switching module configured to switch wireless communication channels between the plurality of available wireless communication channels in accordance with the non-overlapping wireless communication channel assigned to a current timeslot; and

a transmit module for transmitting queued packets from respective first queues during corresponding timeslots.

2. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication network supports a communication protocol selected from the group consisting of an IEEE 802.11 communication protocol, an IEEE 802.15 communication protocol, and an IEEE 802.16 communication protocol.

3. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication network comprises a network selected from the group consisting of an ultra wide band network, a cellular telephone network, and a WiMAX network.

4. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication network comprises a network selected from the group consisting of a WiFi network and a ZigBee network.

5. The wireless communication device of claim 1, further comprising a broadcast queue for queuing packets destined for broadcast during a broadcast time period on a common channel.

6. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of first queues comprise regular data slot queues.

7. The wireless communication device of claim 1, further comprising a special slot data queue for holding packets having a destination that has not yet been assigned a corresponding timeslot or wireless communications channel.

8. The wireless communication device of claim 7, wherein packets from the special slot data queue are sent over a common channel during a special time slot period.

9. The wireless communication device of claim 8, wherein the common channel is a predetermined channel accessible by all devices that are a part of the wireless communication network.

10. The wireless communication device of claim 8, wherein the common channel is a dynamically determined channel that is accessible by all devices that are a part of the wireless communication network, and an identity of the common channel is provided to said all devices that are a part of the wireless network.

11. A method for multichannel time division multiple access (TDMA) communication between a plurality of nodes in a wireless communication network, comprising:

determining a network topology for the wireless communication network, the network topology identifying a number of neighboring nodes for each node in the wireless communication network, wherein each node and identified neighboring node pair represents a discrete link in the network topology;

dynamically identifying and assigning a non-overlapping wireless communication channel selected from a plurality of available non-overlapping wireless communication channels to each discrete link in the network topology for transmission of packets between the neighboring nodes in the wireless communication network determined by the network topology;

dynamically identifying and assigning each non-overlapping wireless communication channel to a timeslot selected out of a plurality of available timeslots for transmission of packets between the neighboring nodes in the wireless communication network determined by the network topology; and

transmitting packets to one or more of the identified neighboring nodes on the assigned non-overlapping wireless communication channels during respectively assigned timeslots.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising providing at least one transmission queue at a first node of the plurality of nodes for each non-overlapping wireless communication channel assigned to the discrete links in the wireless communication network.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising mapping each of the at least one transmission queues to the corresponding non-overlapping wireless communication channel associated with the queue.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting packets from the at least one transmission queue during the timeslot assigned to the non-overlapping wireless communication channel associated with the queue in accordance with said mapping.

15. A method for managing transmission rates during multichannel time division multiple access communication over a wireless communication network comprising:

identifying a plurality of nodes in the wireless communication network and identifying neighboring nodes among the plurality of nodes;

dynamically identifying and assigning a non-overlapping communication channel out of a plurality of available non-overlapping communication channels for transmission of packets between each pair of said neighboring nodes in the wireless communication network;

dynamically identifying and assigning each non-overlapping communication channel a time slot selected out of a plurality of available timeslots for transmission of packets between each pair of said neighboring nodes in the wireless communication network;

identifying at a first neighboring node a packet for transmission to a second neighboring node;

determining a communication channel assigned for transmitting packets between the first and second neighboring nodes and a timeslot assigned for transmitting packets between the first and second neighboring nodes on the assigned communication channel;

identifying a transmission rate associated with the communication channel; and

transmitting the packet from the first neighboring node to the second neighboring node at the identified transmission rate, on the assigned communication channel, and during the assigned timeslot.

16. A wireless communication device for managing transmission rates during multichannel time division multiple access communication over a wireless communication network comprising:

a topology module configured to identify a plurality of nodes in the wireless communication network and to identify neighboring nodes among the plurality of nodes;

a channel and timeslot allocation module configured to (i) dynamically identify and assign a non-overlapping wireless communication channel out of a plurality of available non-overlapping wireless communication channels for transmission of packets over a wireless medium to each neighboring wireless device identified by the topology module and (ii) dynamically identify and assign each non-overlapping wireless communication channel to a timeslot selected out of a plurality of available timeslots for transmission of packets over the wireless medium to each neighboring wireless device identified by the topology module;

a packet queuing module configured to receive a first packet from a higher layer in a communication stack, identify a first neighboring node destination of the first packet, and to place the first packet in a first queue corresponding to a first non-overlapping wireless communication channel assigned for transmission of packets to the first neighboring node; and

a transmit module configured to identify a transmission rate associated with the first non-overlapping wireless communication channel and transmit the queued first packet from the first queue to the first neighboring node destination on the first non-overlapping wireless communication channel during a timeslot assigned to the first non-overlapping wireless communication channel.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein each node and identified neighboring node pair represents a discrete link in the network topology;

and

wherein the packet queuing module includes at least one transmission queue for each non-overlapping wireless communication channel assigned to the discrete links in the wireless communication network to which the wireless communication device is connected.

20. The device of claim 16, wherein the means for routing includes at least one transmission queue for each non-overlapping wireless communication channel assigned to the discrete links in the wireless communication network to which the wireless communication device is connected.

18. A computer readable medium having stored thereon, computer executable instructions that, if executed by a device, cause the device to perform a method in a wireless communication network comprising:

determining a network topology for the wireless communication network including identifying neighboring wireless devices;

dynamically identifying and assigning a non-overlapping wireless communication channel out of a plurality of available non-overlapping wireless communication channels for wireless transmission of packets to each identified neighboring wireless device;

dynamically identifying and assigning each non-overlapping wireless communication channel to a timeslot selected out of a plurality of available timeslots for wireless transmission of packets to each identified neighboring wireless device;

routing a packet for wireless transmission to a queue associated with a target neighboring wireless device based on a first non-overlapping wireless communication channel currently assigned to the target neighboring wireless device;

switching a transmitter to the first non-overlapping wireless communication channel upon arrival of a first timeslot assigned to the first non-overlapping wireless communication channel; and

wirelessly transmitting the packet from the queue to the target neighboring wireless device.

19. A wireless communication device for distributed multichannel time division multiple access communication over a wireless medium in a wireless communication network, comprising:

means for determining a network topology for the wireless communication network including identifying neighboring wireless devices;

means for dynamically identifying and assigning a non-overlapping wireless communication channel out of a plurality of available non-overlapping wireless communication channels for transmission of packets over the wireless medium to each identified neighboring wireless device;

means for dynamically identifying and assigning each non-overlapping wireless communication channel to a timeslot selected out of a plurality of available timeslots for transmission of packets over the wireless medium to each identified neighboring wireless device;

means for routing a packet for transmission to a queue associated with a target neighboring wireless device over the wireless medium based on a first non-overlapping wireless communication channel currently assigned to the target neighboring wireless device;

means for switching a transmitter to the first non-overlapping wireless communication channel upon arrival of a first timeslot assigned to the first non-overlapping wireless communication channel and for transmitting the packet from the queue to the target neighboring wireless device over the wireless medium during the first timeslot.