Scalable media access control for multi-hop high bandwidth communications
First Claim
1. A medium access control communication module system configured to be deployed in a wireless communication device capable of communication over a wireless mesh communication network comprising:
- a topology module configured to parse a beacon signal to obtain information about nodes in the wireless mesh communication network, the topology module further configured to allocate timeslots for data communication;
a signaling module configured to send control messages to and receive control messages from one or more nodes in the wireless mesh communication network, the signaling module further configured to send routing messages to and receive routing messages from one or more nodes in the wireless mesh communication network; and
a resource allocation module configured to, responsive to receiving a request from a higher-layer protocol to establish a new connection, reserve data transmission resources in the wireless mesh communication network using fair resource allocation for any best effort traffic indicated in the request and using end-to-end admission control for any reliable transmission traffic indicated in the request.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A scalable medium access control (“MAC”) module is provided that avoids conflict resource reservation so that network performance does not degrade as the number of hops or nodes in a wireless network increases. The MAC also provides different access schemes for traffic with different quality of service (“QoS”) requirements such that QoS is guaranteed and network resources are efficiently utilized. Furthermore, the resource allocation scheme determines the routing path as resources is allocated for data traffic, thereby achieving more robust layer-2 routing at the MAC layer. Finally, the scalable MAC is compliant with both WiMedia MAC and IEEE 802.15.3 MAC.
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Citations
43 Claims
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1. A medium access control communication module system configured to be deployed in a wireless communication device capable of communication over a wireless mesh communication network comprising:
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a topology module configured to parse a beacon signal to obtain information about nodes in the wireless mesh communication network, the topology module further configured to allocate timeslots for data communication; a signaling module configured to send control messages to and receive control messages from one or more nodes in the wireless mesh communication network, the signaling module further configured to send routing messages to and receive routing messages from one or more nodes in the wireless mesh communication network; and a resource allocation module configured to, responsive to receiving a request from a higher-layer protocol to establish a new connection, reserve data transmission resources in the wireless mesh communication network using fair resource allocation for any best effort traffic indicated in the request and using end-to-end admission control for any reliable transmission traffic indicated in the request. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A wireless communication device for transmitting data to a second wireless communication device via a wireless communication network, the wireless communication device comprising:
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a radio configured to communicate with one or more intermediate wireless communication devices over the wireless communication network via MAC protocol superframes, each superframe comprising a beacon period in which network topology information and timeslot utilization information is broadcast, a contention access period during which access to the medium is provided via carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (“
CSMA/CA”
), and a contention free period during which access to the medium is provided via time division multiple access (TDMA);a media access control (MAC) module configured for multi-hop wireless communications with the one or more intermediate wireless communication devices using said radio, and configured to exchange and process routing information with wireless communication devices within communication range at the MAC layer; and a resource allocation module configured to, responsive to receiving a request from a higher-layer protocol to establish a new connection with the second wireless communication device, reserve data transmission resources with the one or more intermediate devices in the contention free period of one or more MAC protocol superframes using fair resource allocation for any best effort traffic indicated in the request and using end-to-end admission control for any reliable transmission traffic indicated in the request. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A medium access control communication module system configured to be deployed in a wireless mesh communication device capable of communication over a wireless mesh communication network, the module comprising:
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a beacon module configured to parse a beacon signal broadcast in a beacon period of a MAC protocol superframe to obtain information about nodes in the wireless mesh communication network and determine allocated timeslots in a contention free period of the MAC protocol superframe already in use by the nodes; a topology module configured to allocate an initial set of timeslots from currently un-allocated timeslots available in the contention free period for data communication with the nodes; a signaling module configured to send control messages to and receive control messages from one or more nodes in the wireless mesh communication network, the signaling module further configured to send routing messages to and receive routing messages from one or more nodes in the wireless mesh communication network at the MAC layer; and a resource allocation module configured to, responsive to receiving a request from a higher-layer protocol to establish a new connection, reserve data transmission resources not determined to already be allocated to other nodes in the wireless mesh communication network using fair resource allocation for any best effort traffic indicated in the request and using reserved end-to-end admission control for any reliable traffic indicated in the request. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A medium access control method in a wireless communication device capable of communication over a wireless mesh communication network, the method comprising:
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the wireless communication device parsing a beacon signal to obtain information about nodes in the wireless mesh communication network, and allocating timeslots for data communication; the wireless communication device sending control messages to and receiving control messages from one or more nodes in the wireless mesh communication network, and sending routing messages to and receiving routing messages from one or more nodes in the wireless mesh communication network; and the wireless communication device, responsive to receiving a request from a higher-layer protocol to establish a new connection, reserving data transmission resources in the wireless mesh communication network using fair resource allocation for any best effort traffic indicated in the request and using end-to-end admission control for any reliable transmission traffic indicated in the request. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. An article of manufacture including a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
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parsing a beacon signal to obtain information about nodes in the wireless mesh communication network, and allocating timeslots for data communication; sending control messages to and receiving control messages from one or more nodes in the wireless mesh communication network, and sending routing messages to and receiving routing messages from one or more nodes in the wireless mesh communication network; and responsive to receiving a request from a higher-layer protocol to establish a new connection, reserving data transmission resources in the wireless mesh communication network using fair resource allocation for any best effort traffic indicated in the request and using end-to-end admission control for any reliable transmission traffic indicated in the request. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43)
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Specification