Systems and methods for energy-conscious communication in wireless ad-hoc networks

• US 7,924,728 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2007
• Issued: 04/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon BBN Technlogies Corp. (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon BBN Technlogies Corp. (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Redi, Jason Keith, Medina, Alberto Antonio, Matta, Abraham I., Riga, Niky, Castineyra, Isidro Marcos, Partridge, Craig
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahmed; Salman
• Assistant Examiner(s): HALIYUR, VENKATESH N
• Application Number:
  US11/895,608
• Publication Number:
  US 20080049620A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,327 Days
• Field of Search: 370203-503, 709/235, 455/455, 455/7, 455/11, 455/1, 455/15, 455/73
• US Class Current: 370/238
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 21/00 Measuring or testing not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 9/005 Solid-state data loggers
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0652 Synchronisation among time division multiple access [TDMA] nodes, e.g. time triggered protocol [TTP] bus network with centralized control in which slots are of a TDMA packet structure H04L12/4035
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0679 by determining clock distribution path in a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/10 based on available power or energy
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/12 based on transmission quality or channel quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/003 Arrangements to increase tolerance to errors in transmission or reception timing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/004 compensating for timing error of reception due to propagation delay

Abstract

The invention relates to a transport protocol and associated methods and stack architectures for improving the energy efficiency of transmitting packets through an ad hoc network. The protocol controls transmissions by taking into account per-packet energy limits, per-node loss tolerances, and/or minimum availability rates determined based on path quality measurements collected by packets traversing the network and application reliability requirements associated with various applications.

Claims

1. A transport protocol of an ad-hoc network, comprising:

at least one module implemented on intermediate nodes of the network configured to;

forward received packets having a per-node loss tolerance, limit retransmissions of the received packets failing to reach their destination according to the per-node loss tolerance of the respective packets, and update forwarded packets to reflect an amount of energy expended by the respective intermediate node in forwarding the respective packets; and

at least one module implemented on end nodes of the network configured to;

set per-node loss tolerances for transmitted packets based on reliability requirements of an application associated with the respective transmitted packets, and transmit path characteristic messages to other end nodes of the network indicating characteristics of paths through the network derived from data obtained from headers of packets received from the respective other end nodes.

2. The transport protocol of claim 1, wherein the path characteristic messages include a transmission sending rate for another node to use in transmitting packets to the end node transmitting the path characteristic message based on availability data aggregated in headers of packets received by the end node.

3. The transport protocol of claim 1, wherein the at least one module implemented on intermediate nodes is configured to limit retransmissions of the received packets failing to reach their destination according to per-packet energy budgets of the respective packets.

4. The transport protocol of claim 1, wherein the at least one module implemented on intermediate nodes is configured to update per-node loss tolerances of respective packets.

5. The transport protocol of claim 1, wherein the at least one module implemented on end nodes of the network is configured to set the per-node loss tolerances of respective packets based on reliability requirements of applications associated with respective packets.

6. The transport protocol of claim 1, wherein the at least one module implemented on intermediate nodes is configured to cache a received packet until receipt of the packet by a destination nodes is acknowledged, the energy budget for the packet is expended, or a cache replacement policy implemented on the intermediate node requires the packets deletion from the cache to make room for other received packets.