Multi-hop communication method, a multi-hop communication terminal and communication program

• US 8,165,059 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2007
• Issued: 04/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The University of Electro-Communications
• Original Assignee: The University of Electro-Communications
• Inventors: Fujii, Takeo, Uchiyama, Hiromasa
• Primary Examiner(s): Banks Harold, Marsha D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sol, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US12/223,260
• Publication Number:
  US 20100232436A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,911 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15592 Adapting at the relay station communication parameters for supporting cooperative relaying, i.e. transmission of the same data via direct - and relayed path cooperative diversity H04B7/024
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0643 block codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/189 Transmission or retransmission of more than one copy of a message
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0097 Relays
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

The degradation of the communication characteristics and the throughput of the entire network can be improved. The failures of sending and receiving are reduced and the transmission time is reduced. In a multi-hop communication method how the source terminal 11 transmits and receives the packets with destination terminal 12 through at least one relay terminal 13, the relay terminal 13 and/or the destination terminal 12 includes a table TBL of use channel candidates that is issued by the source terminal 11, and the relay terminal 13 and/or the destination terminal 12 selects a use channel for sending the data packets from the channel candidates registered in the table and sends the data packets.

Claims

1. A multi-hop communication method wherein a source terminal transmits and receives packets with a destination terminal through at least one relay terminal,

wherein the source terminal scans receiving radio waves and detects channels which surrounding systems use and determines use channel candidates based on scan results and a table is made to refer to the use channel candidates and the table is implanted in a packet and transmitted to the relay terminal and the destination terminal,

wherein the relay terminal and the destination terminal includes a table of use channel candidates extracted from the packet that is made and sent by the source terminal, wherein the relay terminal and the destination terminal selects a use channel for sending data packets from the channel candidates registered in the table and sends the data packets,

wherein the destination terminal has a table for sending an ACK (Acknowledgement) packet or a NACK (Negative Acknowledgement) packet to the source terminal through the relay terminal, and

wherein the destination terminal selects a use channel from the use channel candidates registered in the table and sends a confirmation packet, and the relay terminal selects a use channel from the channel candidates registered in the table and sends the confirmation packet.

2. A multi-hop communication method according to claim 1, wherein the packets are retransmitted repeatedly from the source terminal to the destination terminal via the relay terminal by a distributed Automatic Repeat request method, and wherein the relay terminal autonomously forms a transmission route and retransmits in response to a packet retransmission from the source terminal.

3. A multi-hop communication method according to claim 2, wherein the packets are sent by a space time block coding method.

4. A multi-hop communication method according to claim 1, wherein the source terminal selects the use channel from the channel candidates registered in the table, and sends the data packets.

5. A multi-hop communication method according to claim 1, wherein the use channel candidates are frequency candidates, candidates of sub-carrier pattern and candidates of time slot, used for data transmission.

6. A multi-hop communication method according to claim 1, wherein a predetermined number of the relay terminals work as branches for cooperative diversity by a space time block coding.

7. A multi-hop communication method according to claim 1, wherein the table is included in the packets and sent from the source terminal to the relay terminals and the destination terminal.

8. A multi-hop communication method according to claim 1, wherein an adoption rank order of the use channel candidates is included in the table, and the relay terminals, the destination terminal or the source terminal selects a channel from the use channel candidates according to the adoption rank order.

9. A multi-hop communication terminal used as a source terminal, a destination terminal or a relay terminal, comprising:

a channel scanning section,

a use channel candidate determining section,

a table framing section,

a table memory,

a table implanting section,

a table extracting section,

a use channel selecting section,

a transmitter section, and

a receive section, wherein

the channel scanning section scans a receiving radio wave and detects a channel which a surrounding system uses when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the source terminal, the destination terminal or the relay terminal,

the use channel candidate determining section determines use channel candidates based on a scan result of the channel scanning section when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the source terminal,

the table framing section makes a table to refer to the channel determined by the use channel candidate determining section when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the source terminal or the destination terminal,

a table memory stores the table made by the table framing section when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the source terminal, while the table memory stores a table extracted by the table extracting section when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the relay terminal or the destination terminal,

the table implanting section implants the table made by the table framing section in a packet when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the source terminal and transmits the packet to another multi-hop communication terminal functioning as the relay terminal or the destination terminal,

the table extracting section extracts the table from the packet received from the another multi-hop communication terminal functioning as the source terminal when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the relay terminal or the destination terminal, and

the use channel selecting section selects a use channel from the table stored in the table memory when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the source terminal, the relay terminal or the destination terminal.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a multi-hop communication program, loaded in a multi-hop communication terminal used as a source terminal, a relay terminal or a destination terminal, the multi-hop communication program causing the multi-hop communication terminal to execute:

a channel scanning step,

a use channel candidate determining step,

a table framing step,

a table storage step,

a table implanting step,

a table extracting step,

a use channel selecting step,

a transmitting step, and

a receiving step, wherein

in the channel scanning step, a receiving radio wave is scanned and a channel which a surrounding system uses is detected when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the source terminal, the destination terminal or the relay terminal,

in the use channel candidate determining step, the use channel candidate is determined based on a scan result of the channel scanning step when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the source terminal,

in the table framing step, making a table for referring to the channel determined by the use channel candidate determining step when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the source terminal or the destination terminal,

in the table storage step, storing the table made by the table framing step in a table memory when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the source terminal and storing a table extracted by the table extracting step when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the relay terminal or the destination terminal,

in the table implanting step, implanting the table made by the table framing step in a packet when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the source terminal and transmitting the packet to another multi-hop communication terminal functioning as the relay terminal or the destination terminal,

in the table extracting step, extracting the table from the packet received from the another multi-hop communication terminal functioning as the source terminal when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the relay terminal or the destination terminal, and

in the use channel selecting step, selecting a use channel from the table stored in the table memory when the multi-hop communication terminal functions as the source terminal, the relay terminal or the destination terminal.

11. A multi-hop communication method wherein a source terminal transmits and receives packets with a destination terminal through at least one relay terminal, comprising:

a channel scanning step,

a use channel candidate determining step,

a table framing step,

a table storage step,

a table implanting step,

a table extracting step,

a use channel selecting step,

a transmitting step, and

a receiving step, wherein

in the channel scanning step, a receiving radio wave is scanned and a channel which a surrounding system uses is detected by the source terminal, the destination terminal or the relay terminal,

in the use channel candidate determining step, the use channel candidate is determined by the source terminal, based on a scan result of the channel scanning step,

in the table framing step, the source terminal or the destination terminal makes a table for referring to the channel determined by the use channel candidate determining step;

in the table storage step, the source terminal stores the table made by the table framing step, while the relay terminal or the destination terminal stores a table extracted by the table extracting step,

in the table implanting step, the source terminal implants the table made by the table framing step in a packet and transmits the packet to the relay terminal or the destination terminal,

in the table extracting step, the relay terminal or the destination terminal extracts the table from the packet received from the source terminal, and

in the use channel selecting step, the source terminal, the relay terminal or the destination terminal selects a use channel from the table.