System and method for a dynamic beacon period in a MAC distributed reservation protocol
First Claim
1. A method of decentralized medium access control in a communications network including at least one wireless device, comprising:
- dividing time into a sequence of at least one superframe comprising at least one dynamic beacon period and at least one data transmission period, said dynamic beacon period having a predetermined maximum length and including a variable plurality of beacon slots;
beaconing by transmission of a beacon frame in a unique one of said plurality of beacon slots by every device in an awake state, said beacon frame including information; and
grouping said plurality of beacon slots into at least one contiguous dynamic beacon period, wherein at least one free beacon slot of said at least one contiguous dynamic beacon period is determined based on beacons received from other devices and information included in said received beacons.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system (400), device (401), and method are provided for decentralized medium access control comprising periodic beacon (600) transmissions of all active devices in beacon slots (204) (302) (303), grouping such beacon slots (204) (302) (303) in at least one contiguous dynamic beacon period (301), and expanding or shrinking this at least one contiguous dynamic beacon period (301) depending on the number of occupied beacon slots (204) (302) (303). The dynamic beacon period (301) adapts to devices (401) joining and leaving the network (400) as well as to collisions of beacon frames (600) on the medium (410).
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method of decentralized medium access control in a communications network including at least one wireless device, comprising:
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dividing time into a sequence of at least one superframe comprising at least one dynamic beacon period and at least one data transmission period, said dynamic beacon period having a predetermined maximum length and including a variable plurality of beacon slots; beaconing by transmission of a beacon frame in a unique one of said plurality of beacon slots by every device in an awake state, said beacon frame including information; and grouping said plurality of beacon slots into at least one contiguous dynamic beacon period, wherein at least one free beacon slot of said at least one contiguous dynamic beacon period is determined based on beacons received from other devices and information included in said received beacons. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A wireless device that manages beaconing over a wireless medium in a distributed manner, comprising:
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an antenna for sending and receiving beacons over the wireless medium; a receiver coupled to the antenna to receive beacons transmitted over the wireless medium; a transmitter coupled to the antenna to transmit beacons over the wireless medium; a beacon processing module to process sent and received beacons for distributed beaconing management over the medium; a processor to divide time into a sequence of at least one superframe, each said superframe having at least one dynamic beacon period having a dynamic length with a pre-determined upper bound and that includes a plurality of beacon slots, and coupled to; i. the transmitter and the receiver to send and receive, respectively, beacon frames during said at least one dynamic beacon period of the at least one superframe, ii. the beacon processing module to— manage dynamic beacon period format and length including dynamic determination of dynamic beacon period length, inclusion of a predetermined plurality of beacon slot types, recordation of beacon slot occupancy and implementation of beacon slot switches, format beacon frames for transmission comprising each of the beacon slot types, such that the beacon frame announces a length of the beacon frame dynamically determined by the device, and format a beacon frame for transmission in the at least one beacon slot, that includes beacon slot occupancy information and beacon slot switch information. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification