Techniques for device and piconet controller availability notification in wireless personal area and wireless local area networks

• US 8,169,940 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2008
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Park, Minyoung, Cordeiro, Carlos
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smarth, Gerald
• Application Number:
  US12/290,967
• Publication Number:
  US 20100110951A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,274 Days
• Field of Search: 370/331, 370/311
• US Class Current: 370/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method, comprising notifying of device and piconet controller (PNC) availability in wireless personal area network (WPAN) and/or wireless local area networks (WLAN) at the start of a superframe, wherein whether the PNC will stay awake or go to sleep during a part of the superframe depends on whether or not there are any services to provide in the WPAN and/or WLAN during a given period of time, and wherein the PNC shall stay awake if there are services to provide in the WPAN and/or WLAN to maintain network performance, otherwise the PNC will go to sleep to minimize its energy consumption.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

notifying of device and piconet controller (PNC) availability in a network at the start of a superframe, wherein the network is at least one of wireless personal area network (WPN) or wireless local area networks (WLAN),

wherein whether said PNC will stay awake or go to sleep during a part of said superframe depends on whether or not there are any services to provide in said network during a given period of time; and

keeping said PNC awake when the PNC provides services to maintain network performance, otherwise said PNC will go to sleep to minimize its energy consumption, wherein said method is applied to channel time allocation (CTA) truncation and extension;

wherein when said devices expect their CTAs to be truncated or extended, this information is delivered to said PNC when said devices are requesting a CTA allocation, and when said devices send CTA requests with an indication that they plan to truncate or extend their allocated CTAs, said PNC shall stay awake during those CTAs and otherwise, said PNC can go to sleep.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein information on whether said PNC has to be involved in communications between devices in said network during a specific superframe is provided by said devices in said network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein after a CTA request, said PNC updates its scheduling information and transmits it in its next superframe, and wherein the frame format includes in its schedule the information on whether or not a given CTA is truncatable and/or extensible.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein once said truncatable and/or extensible information is provided by said devices to said PNC, said PNC provides said PNC availability information to said devices.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing availability information of said devices to said PNC so that said PNC knows which devices are available during contention access periods (CAPs) or polling periods.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein device availability information is conveyed in an information element (IE) and delivered from said devices to said PNC and the availability of said devices is specified either for all said CAPs in said superframe or for each CAP separately.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising specifying an index of said superframe in which a device will be available during CAPs or for polling by adding another field indicating the index of said superframe.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one mobile device operable to communicate with a piconet controller (PNC) in a network, wherein the network is at least one of wireless personal area network (WPN) or wireless local area networks (WLAN) and wherein said at least one mobile device and said PNC are adapted to notify of device and piconet controller (PNC) availability in said network at the start of a superframe,

wherein whether said PNC will stay awake or go to sleep during a part of said superframe depends on whether or not there are any services to provide in said network during a given period of time; and

keeping said PNC awake when there are services to provide in said network to maintain network performance, otherwise said PNC will go to sleep to minimize its energy consumption;

wherein said at least one device is adapted for channel time allocation (CTA) truncation and extension and operable to communicate such to said PNC;

wherein when said at least one device expects its CTA to be truncated or extended, this information is delivered to said PNC when said at least one device is requesting a CTA allocation, and when said at least one device sends CTA requests with an indication that it plans to truncate or extend its allocated CTAs, said PNC shall stay awake during those CTAs and otherwise, said PNC can go to sleep.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein information on whether said PNC has to be involved in communications between devices in said network during a specific superframe is provided by said devices in said network.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein after a CTA request, said PNC updates its scheduling information and transmits it in its next superframe, and wherein the frame format includes in its schedule the information on whether or not a given CTA is truncatable and/or extensible.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein once said truncatable and/or extensible information is provided by said at least one device to said PNC, said PNC provides said PNC availability information to said at least one device.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein said at least one device further provides availability information of said at least one device to said PNC so that said PNC knows this devices availability during contention access periods (CAPs) or polling periods.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein device availability information is conveyed in an information element (IE) and delivered from said at least one device to said PNC and the availability of said devices is specified either for all said CAPs in said superframe or for each CAP separately.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising specifying an index of said superframe in which said at least one device will be available during CAPs or for polling by adding another field indicating the index of said superframe.

15. A machine-accessible medium that provides instructions, which when accessed, cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

notifying of device and piconet controller (PNC) availability in a network local area networks (WLAN) at the start of a superframe, wherein the network is at least one of wireless personal area network (WPN) or wireless local area networks (WLAN),

wherein whether said PNC will stay awake or go to sleep during a part of said superframe depends on whether or not there are any services to provide in said network during a given period of time; and

keeping said PNC awake when there are services to provide in said network to maintain network performance, otherwise said PNC will go to sleep to minimize its energy consumption;

wherein said method is applied to channel time allocation (CTA) truncation and extension;

wherein when said devices expect their CTAs to be truncated or extended, this information is delivered to said PNC when said devices are requesting a CTA allocation, and when said devices send CTA requests with an indication that they plan to truncate or extend their allocated CTAs, said PNC shall stay awake during those CTAs and otherwise, said PNC can go to sleep.

16. The machine-accessible medium of claim 15, wherein information on whether said PNC has to be involved in communications between devices in said network during a specific superframe is provided by said devices in said network.

17. The machine-accessible medium of claim 15, wherein after a CTA request, said PNC updates its scheduling information and transmits it in its next superframe, and wherein the frame format includes in its schedule the information on whether or not a given CTA is truncatable and/or extensible.

18. The machine-accessible medium of claim 15, further comprising said instructions causing said machine to perform operations further comprising providing availability information of said devices to said PNC so that said PNC knows which devices are available during contention access periods (CAPs) or polling periods.

19. The machine-accessible medium of claim 18, wherein once said truncatable and/or extensible information is provided by said devices to said PNC, said PNC provides said PNC availability information to said devices.

20. The machine-accessible medium of claim 18, wherein device availability information is conveyed in an information element (IE) and delivered from said devices to said PNC and the availability of said devices is specified either for all said CAPs in said superframe or for each CAP separately.

21. The machine-accessible medium of claim 18, further comprising said instructions causing said machine to perform operations further comprising specifying an index of said superframe in which a device will be available during CAPs or for polling by adding another field indicating the index of said superframe.