Wireless broadband communications network using message diffusion architecture

• US 7,920,543 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2007
• Issued: 04/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Chakravarty, Sumantra, Miller, David S., Schiff, Leonard N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu; Jinsong
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Michael
• Application Number:
  US11/620,630
• Publication Number:
  US 20070232310A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,551 Days
• Field of Search: 455/7, 455/16, 455/507, 455/517, 455 111- 133, 455/41.1, 455/41.2, 455/63.4, 370/349, 370242-246, 370/253, 370315-326, 370328-330, 370335-338
• US Class Current: 370/349
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/46 in multi hop networks, e.g. wireless relay networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

A broadband terrestrial message delivery system includes a plurality of wireless communication devices (WCDs), each including a receiver and transmitter, the WCDs capable of not only receiving messages destined for a subscriber associated with a particular WCD, but further capable of acting as a relay point to move messages to and from other subscribers. Message diffusion includes relaying the messages in accordance with all earmark that specifies both the total number of times (N) a message is to be repeated, and the number of times (i) the received message has already been repeated. Methods of improving the spectral efficiency of such a message diffusion architecture include adding a propagation ring width control parameter (J) to the earmark such that a WCD acting in relay mode transmits no more than J repetitions of the message; and providing sectorization such that several sectorized message pathways in a cell may be simultaneously active.

Claims

1. A communication method, comprising:

transmitting a message in a wide spectrum format signal format allowing reception of signals with multiple time delays, wherein the message comprises parameters including at least an iteration count (i), an iteration limit (J), a network iteration limit (N), a destination address, and a content portion, wherein;

the iteration count (i) is updated at each occurrence of a relaying of the message,

the iteration limit (J) is a maximum number of times that a single node can relay the message,

the network iteration limit (N) is a maximum number of relay occurrences in a continuous series of relaying of the message amongst a plurality of nodes; and

selectively iteratively relaying the message with an updated iteration count (i), the iteration limit (J), the network iteration limit (N), the destination address, and the content portion, wherein selectively iteratively relaying the message further comprises;

(a) receiving the message at a wireless communication device (WCD);

(b) processing the message if the destination address matches an address for the WCD, if not, then performing (c);

(c) setting a temporary variable (J_int) equal to the iteration limit (J);

(d) determining whether the iteration count (i) reached the network iteration limit (N), and if yes, then ignoring the message, if no, then performing (e);

(e) determining whether J_int has reached zero, if yes, then ignoring the message, if no, then decrementing J_int to indicate one additional relaying of the message and updating i to indicate one additional relaying of the message and performing (f);

(f) transmitting a message from the WCD that includes the updated i, the J, the N, the destination address, and the content portion; and

(g) repeating (d) through (f).

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) signal as the communication signal.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) signal as the communication signal, whereby the OFDM signal provides a semi-blind diffusion protocol, whereby

determining a sector for the destination address of the message;

wherein the semi-blind diffusion protocol comprises forming a quiet zone in the sector, wherein nodes in the sector are added to the quiet zone based on message error rate for each node indicating the node is near the boundary of the sector, nodes in the quiet zone employ quasi-static zone based routing to relay the message to the destination address, nodes of the sector that are not in the quiet zone employ blind diffusion to relay the message.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

monitoring a signal error rate at each of the nodes in the sector; and

adding and deleting nodes to the quiet zone according to the monitored signal error rate.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising coupling a first station to one or more further transmitter hubs to concurrently initiate diffusion of different communications.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing communication propagation of messages by diffusion, including broadcasting from a low-power transmitter of a first WCD, and relaying to additional WCDs for iteratively relaying to an intended destination receiver associated with the destination address.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameters further comprise a zone (Z) that indicates the zone in which a device that is the intended recipient of the message having the destination address is located, the zone is one of a plurality of zones, at least one sectorized antenna is employed to relay the message to the zone.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameters further comprise a message identification code (ID) that identifies the message, wherein a device that receives the message compares the message identification code (ID) against a stored list of message identification codes for messages that the device has relayed, the device will not relay the message if the message identification code (ID) matches a message identification code in the stored list.

9. A machine readable medium comprising instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

10. A communication method, comprising:

receiving, at a wireless communication device (WCD), a message, the message comprises parameters including at least an iteration count (i), an iteration limit (J), a network iteration limit (N), a destination address, and a content portion, wherein;

the iteration count (i) is updated at each occurrence of a relaying of the message,

the iteration limit (J) is a maximum number of times that a single node can relay the message,

the network iteration limit (N) is a maximum number of relay occurrences in a continuous series of relaying of the message amongst a plurality of nodes; and

selectively iteratively relaying the message with an updated iteration count (i), the iteration limit (J), the network iteration limit (N), the destination address, and the content portion, wherein selectively iteratively relaying the message further comprises;

(a) processing the message if the destination address matches an address for the WCD, if not, then performing (b);

(b) setting a temporary variable (J_int) to indicate a number times that the message can be relayed by the WCD equivalent to the iteration limit (J);

(c) determining whether the iteration count (i) reached the network iteration limit (N), and if yes, then ignoring the message, if no, then performing (d);

(d) determining whether J_int indicates that the WCD does not have any remaining times for relaying the message, if yes, then ignoring the message, if no, then adjusting J_int to indicate one additional relaying of the message and updating i to indicate one additional relaying of the message and performing (e);

(e) transmitting a message from the WCD that includes the updated i, the J, the N, the destination address, and the content portion; and

(f) repeating (c) through (e).

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising transmitting the communication signal in an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) format.

12. The method of claim 11, whereby:

the OFDM signal provides a semi-blind diffusion protocol; and

determining a sector for the destination address of the message;

wherein the semi-blind diffusion protocol comprises forming a quiet zone in the sector, wherein nodes in the sector are added to the quiet zone based on message error rate for each node indicating the node is near the boundary of the sector, nodes in the quiet zone employ quasi-static zone based routing to relay the message to the destination address, nodes of the sector that are not in the quiet zone employ blind diffusion to relay the message.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the parameters further comprise a zone (Z) that indicates the zone in which a device that is the intended recipient of the message having the destination address is located, the zone is one of a plurality of zones, at least one sectorized antenna is employed to relay the message to the zone.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the parameters further comprise a message identification code (ID) that identifies the message, wherein the WCD compares the message identification code (ID) against a stored list of message identification codes for messages that the WCD has relayed, the WCD does not relay the message if the message identification code (ID) matches a message identification code in the stored list.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining whether the destination address of the received message is an address associated with the WCD.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein said determining whether J_int indicates that the WCD does not have any remaining times for relaying the message comprises performing an operation on J_int and evaluating the result of the operation.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the performing an operation on J_int comprises determining whether J_int has reached zero or determining whether J_int has reached J.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein determining whether the iteration count (i) reached the network iteration limit (N) comprises determining a relative magnitude of the iteration count (i) parameter and the network iteration limit (N) parameter.

19. The method of claim 13, further includes determining whether to relay the message based upon determining whether the zone (Z) parameter in the message matches a zone parameter in a stored list of parameters at the WCD.

20. The method of claim 10, wherein the message parameters further comprises a plurality of data rate control parameters that indicate at least two distinct data transmission rates, one for each of two different iteration count (i) values, wherein the message is relayed at the indicated data transmission rate for corresponding iteration count (i) value.

21. The method of claim 10, wherein updating i to indicate one additional relaying of the message comprises incrementing a value of i.

22. The method of claim 10, wherein adjusting J_int to indicate one additional relaying of the message comprises decrementing a value of J_int.

23. The method of claim 10, wherein adjusting J_int to indicate one additional relaying of the message comprises incrementing a value of J_int.

24. A method of operating a wireless communication device (WCD) as part of a relay network, comprising:

(a) receiving, at a wireless communication device (WCD), a message including an iteration count (i), an iteration limit (J), a network iteration limit (N), a destination address, and a content portion, wherein;

the iteration count (i) is updated at each occurrence of a relaying of the message,

the iteration limit (J) is a maximum number of times that a single node can relay the message,

the network iteration limit (N) is a maximum number of relay occurrences in a continuous series of relaying of the message amongst a plurality of nodes;

(b) processing the message if the destination address matches an address for the WCD, if not, then perform (c);

(c) setting a temporary variable (J_int) equal to the iteration limit (J);

(d) determining whether the iteration count (i) reached the network iteration limit (N), and if yes, then ignoring message, if no, then performing (e);

(e) determining whether J_int has reached zero, if yes, then ignoring the message, if no, then decrementing J_int to indicate one additional relaying of the message and updating i to indicate one additional relaying of the message and performing (f);

(f) transmitting a message from the WCD that includes the updated i, the J, the N, the destination address, and the content portion; and

(g) repeating (d) through (f).

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising transmitting the message by transmitting a signal in an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) format.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

waiting a predetermined amount of time prior to (f);

waiting to receive a second message if the network iteration limit (N) has been reached;

waiting to receive a second message if the iteration limit (J) has been reached;

determining whether a message ID code received in the message matches at least one message ID code stored in a list of message ID codes, the stored list of message ID codes indicative of messages previously relayed by the WCD;

in the case of the message ID code not matching a message ID code in the stored list, performing the transmitting of step (f); and

in the case of the message ID code matching a message ID code in the stored list, waiting to receive a second message.

27. A wireless communication device (WCD) for use in network communications, the WCD comprising:

means for receiving a message comprising parameters including at least an iteration count (i), an iteration limit (J), a network iteration limit (N), a destination address, and a content portion, wherein;

the iteration count (i) is updated at each occurrence of a relaying of the message,

the iteration limit (J) is a maximum number of times that a single node can relay the message,

the network iteration limit (N) is a maximum number of relay occurrences in a continuous series of relaying of the message amongst a plurality of nodes; and

means for selectively relaying the message with an updated iteration count (i), the iteration limit (J), the network iteration limit (N), the destination address, and the content portion, wherein the means for selectively relaying the message further comprises;

(a) means for processing the message if the destination address matches an address for the WCD, if not, then perform (b);

(b) means for setting a temporary variable (J_int) to indicate a number times that the message can be relayed by the WCD equivalent to the iteration limit (J);

(c) means for determining whether the iteration count (i) reached the network iteration limit (N), and if yes, then ignore message, if not, then perform (d);

(d) means for determining whether J_int indicates that the WCD does not have any remaining times for relaying the message, if yes, then the message is ignored, if no, then adjusting J_int to indicate one additional relaying of the message and updating i to indicate one additional relaying of the message and perform (e);

(e) means for transmitting a message from the WCD that includes the updated i, the J, the N, the destination address, and the content portion; and

(f) means for repeating (c) through (e).

28. The WCD of claim 27, wherein the means for selectively relaying the message further includes means for providing an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) signal as a transmitted signal for the message.

29. The WCD of claim 27, wherein the means for selectively relaying the message further determines a sector location of the message;

wherein the means for selectively relaying the message comprises means for relaying the message to the sector location, wherein the sector location includes a quiet zone, wherein nodes in the sector location are added to the quiet zone based on message error rate for each node indicating the node is near the boundary of the sector, nodes in the quiet zone employ quasi-static zone based routing to relay the message to the destination address, nodes of the sector location that are not in the quiet zone employ blind diffusion to relay the message.

30. The WCD of claim 27, wherein the parameters further comprise a message identification code (ID) that identifies the message, wherein the means for selectively relaying the message further comprises means for comparing the message identification code (ID) against a stored list of message identification codes for messages that the WCD has relayed, the means for selectively relaying the message not relaying the message if the message identification code (ID) matches a message identification code in the stored list.

31. A communications system, comprising:

a message originating transmitter operable to transmit a message, wherein the message comprises parameters including at least an iteration count (i), an iteration limit (J), a network iteration limit (N), a destination address, and a content portion, wherein;

the iteration count (i) is updated at each occurrence of a relaying of the message,

the iteration limit (J) is a maximum number of times that a single node can relay the message,

the network iteration limit (N) is a maximum number of relay occurrences in a continuous series of relaying of the message amongst a plurality of nodes;

a first plurality of wireless communication devices (WCDs), each of the first plurality of WCDs operable to receive the message and selectively update the iteration count (i) parameter to have a second value, and selectively relay the message including the updated iteration count (i) with the second value, the iteration limit (J), the network iteration limit (N), the destination address, and the content portion; and

a second plurality of WCDs, each of the second plurality of WCDs operable to receive the relayed message and selectively update the iteration count (i) parameter to have a third value, and selectively relay the message including the updated iteration count (i) with the third value, the iteration limit (J), the network iteration limit (N), the destination address, and the content portion; and

wherein each of the first plurality of WCDs and the second plurality of WCDs selectively update the iteration count (i) and selectively relay the message in accordance with operation that;

(a) process the message if the destination address matches an address for the WCD, if not, then performing (b),

(b) set a temporary variable (J_int) to indicate a number times that the message is relayable by the WCD equivalent to the iteration limit (J),

(c) determine whether the iteration count (i) reached the network iteration limit (N), and if yes, then ignore the message, if no, then perform (d),

(d) determine whether J_int indicates that the WCD does not have any remaining times for relaying the message, if yes, then ignore the message, if no, then adjust J_int to indicate one additional relaying of the message and update i to indicate one additional relaying of the message and perform (e),

(e) transmit a message from the WCD that includes the updated i, the J, the N, the destination address, and the content portion, and

(f) repeat (c) through (e); and

a message destination receiver operable to receive at least one of the relayed messages.

32. The communications system of claim 31, wherein the message originating transmitter is adapted to produce the message as an OFDM transmission.

33. The communications system of claim 32, wherein the message originating transmitter is adapted to produce a sectorized beam.

34. A chipset including at least one semiconductor integrated circuit chip, for use in a wireless communication device (WCD), the chipset comprising:

a receiver circuit that receives a message comprising parameters including at least an iteration count (i), an iteration limit (J), a network iteration limit (N), a destination address, and a content portion, wherein;

the iteration count (i) is updated at each occurrence of a relaying of the message,

the iteration limit (J) is a maximum number of times that a single node can relay the message,

the network iteration limit (N) is a maximum number of relay occurrences in a continuous series of relaying of the message amongst a plurality of nodes; and

a processor circuit that selectively relays the message with an updated iteration count (i), the iteration limit (J), the network iteration limit (N), the destination address, and the content portion, wherein the processor circuit selectively relays the message to;

(a) process the message if the destination address matches an address for the WCD, if not, then perform (b);

(b) set a temporary variable (J_int) to indicate a number times that the message can be relayed by the WCD equivalent to the iteration limit (J);

(c) determine whether the iteration count (i) reached the network iteration limit (N), and if yes, then ignore the message, if no, then perform (d);

(d) determine whether J_int indicates that the WCD does not have any remaining times for relaying the message, if yes, then ignore the message, if no, then adjust J_int to indicate one additional relaying of the message and update i to indicate one additional relaying of the message and perform (e);

(e) transmit the message from the WCD that includes the updated i, the J, the N, the destination address, and the content portion; and

(f) repeat (c) through (e); and

a transmitter circuit that transmits the selectively relayed message.

35. The WCD of claim 34, wherein the transmitter circuit provides an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) signal as the transmitted signal.

36. The WCD of claim 34, wherein the parameters further comprise a message identification code (ID) that identifies the message, wherein the processor circuit compares the message identification code (ID) against a stored list of message identification codes for messages that the WCD has relayed, the processor circuit does not relay the message if the message identification code (ID) matches a message identification code in the stored list.

37. A wireless communication device (WCD), comprising:

a receiver and transmitter, each coupled to an antenna;

a buffer memory coupled to both the receiver and the transmitter;

a computational resource coupled to the buffer memory;

a first memory, suitable for storing data and software program instructions, coupled to the computational resource; and

wherein the receiver receives a message comprising parameters including at least an iteration count (i), an iteration limit (J), a network iteration limit (N), a destination address, and a content portion, wherein;

the iteration count (i) is updated at each occurrence of a relaying of the message,

the iteration limit (J) is a maximum number of times that a single node can relay the message,

the network iteration limit (N) is a maximum number of relay occurrences in a continuous series of relaying of the message amongst a plurality of nodes; and

wherein the computational resource selectively relays the message via the transmitter with an updated iteration count (i), the iteration limit (J), the network iteration limit (N), the destination address, and the content portion, wherein, to selectively relay the message, the computational resource;

(a) processes the message if the destination address matches an address for the WCD, if not, then performs (b);

(b) sets a temporary variable (J_int) to indicate a number times that the message is relayable by the WCD equivalent to the iteration limit (J);

(c) determines whether the iteration count (i) reached the network iteration limit (N), and if yes, then ignores the message, if no, then performs (d);

(d) determines whether J_int indicates that the WCD does not have any remaining times for relaying the message, if yes, then ignores the message, if no, then adjusts J_int to indicate one additional relaying of the message and updates i to indicate one additional relaying of the message and performs (e);

(e) transmits the message from the WCD that includes the updated i, the J, the N, the destination address, and the content portion; and

(f) repeating (c) through (e).

38. The WCD of claim 37, wherein:

the computational resource further determines a sector location of the message; and

wherein, to selectively relay the message, the computational resource relays the message to the sector location, wherein the sector location includes a quiet zone, wherein nodes in the sector location are added to the quiet zone based on message error rate for each node indicating the node is near the boundary of the sector, nodes in the quiet zone employ quasi-static zone based routing to relay the message to the destination address, nodes of the sector location that are not in the quiet zone employ blind diffusion to relay the message.

39. The WCD of claim 37, wherein the buffer memory comprises a portion of the first memory.

40. The WCD of claim 37, wherein the receiver is adapted to receive orthogonal frequency division multiplexed signals.

41. The WCD of claim 37, wherein the parameters further comprise a message identification code (ID) that identifies the message, wherein the computational resource compares the message identification code (ID) against a stored list of message identification codes for messages that the WCD has relayed, the computational resource does not relay the message if the message identification code (ID) matches a message identification code in the stored list.

42. The WCD of claim 37, wherein the parameters further comprise a zone (Z) that indicates the zone in which a device that is the intended recipient of the message having the destination address is located, the zone is one of a plurality of zones, the transmitter employs at least one sectorized antenna to relay the message to the zone, the first memory further storing a list of zones associated with the WCD.

43. The WCD of claim 37, wherein the message parameters further comprise a plurality of data rate control parameters that indicate at least two distinct data transmission rates, one for each of two different iteration count (i) values, wherein the message is relayed at the indicated data transmission rate for the corresponding iteration count (i) value.