Contention based media access mechanism
First Claim
1. A master node device for a communication network including slave nodes, said slave nodes including a group of first slave nodes, said master node device comprising:
- a communication unit configured todetermine a number of contention participation messages which are to be sent by each first slave node,indicate the number of contention participation messages in a signal,receive two or more contention participation messages sent from one first slave node during a contention window associated with said one first slave node,select one of the received two or more contention participation messages for further processing and neglect the others, andrepeatedly send a beacon signal and receive contention participation messages during a beacon period and a following contention period, respectively.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to the field of contention in a network of communicating nodes. The present invention especially relates to a master node for a communication network, to a slave node device for a communication network, to a network comprising the master node device and at least one slave node device and to a method of contention in a network of nodes. The method of contention according to the present invention is method in a network comprising slave nodes, said slave nodes comprising a group of first slave nodes, the method comprising the step of sending, by every first slave node participating in a contention, a number of two or more contention participation messages during a contention window associated with the first slave node.
17 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A master node device for a communication network including slave nodes, said slave nodes including a group of first slave nodes, said master node device comprising:
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a communication unit configured to determine a number of contention participation messages which are to be sent by each first slave node, indicate the number of contention participation messages in a signal, receive two or more contention participation messages sent from one first slave node during a contention window associated with said one first slave node, select one of the received two or more contention participation messages for further processing and neglect the others, and repeatedly send a beacon signal and receive contention participation messages during a beacon period and a following contention period, respectively. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13)
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8. A slave node device for a communication network comprising slave nodes, said slave nodes comprising a group of first slave nodes, said slave node device being a member of said group of first slave nodes,
said slave node device comprising a communication unit adapted to determine a number of contention participation messages which are to be sent during a contention window, and repeatedly receive a beacon signal and send contention participation messages during a beacon period and a following contention period, respectively, and a control unit adapted to send two or more contention participation messages during the contention window associated with the slave node device, the number of contention participation messages is indicated in a signal received by the slave node device and the control unit is adapted to determine the number of contention participation messages based on the received signal.
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14. A method of contention in a network comprising slave nodes, said slave nodes comprising a group of first slave nodes, the method comprising:
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automatically determining a number of contention participation messages which are to be sent by each of the group of first slave nodes, repeatedly sending a beacon signal from a master node to said group of first slave nodes and the number of contention participation messages from said group of first slave nodes to a master node during a beacon period and a following contention period, respectively; in case the determined number is equal or more than two, sending, by every of the group of first slave nodes participating in a contention, the determined number of contention participation messages during a contention window associated with respective of the group of first slave nodes participating in the contention; and in case that the determined number of contention participation messages is one, sending, by every of the first slave nodes participating in the contention, one contention participation message during the contention window associated with a corresponding first slave node. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification