Method and apparatus for scanning for an idle channel in a frequency environment

• US 8,238,296 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2008
• Issued: 08/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Sim, Dae-yong, Lee, Ho-seok, Kim, Si-hyung
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Chi H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOM, SHICK C
• Application Number:
  US12/121,905
• Publication Number:
  US 20080285515A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,544 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/24 with feedback of measurements to the transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information

Abstract

An idle channel scanning method and apparatus are provided. The method of scanning for an idle channel via a device communicating with a plurality of peripheral devices in the same frequency environment includes: allocating at least one of all frequency channels of the frequency environment to each peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices; requesting the plurality of peripheral devices a state of the frequency channels allocated to each peripheral device; and receiving information on the frequency channel state scanned by the plurality of peripheral devices in response to the request for the state of the frequency channels allocated.

Claims

1. A method of scanning a frequency environment for an idle channel comprising:

allocating a first frequency set, including at least a first frequency channel of the frequency channels, to be scanned, in the frequency environment, to a first peripheral device of a plurality of peripheral devices;

allocating a second frequency set, including at least a second frequency channel of the frequency channels, to be scanned, in the frequency environment, to a second peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices;

requesting the first and the second peripheral devices to scan states of frequency channels of the first and the second frequency sets, respectively; and

receiving information on the states scanned by the first and the second peripheral devices in response to the requesting,

wherein the first frequency set does not include a frequency channel included in the second frequency set and the second frequency set does not include a frequency channel included in the first frequency set, and

wherein frequency channels in the first frequency set and frequency channels in the second frequency set are simultaneously scanned by the first peripheral device and the second peripheral device, respectively.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating of the first frequency set comprises:

allocating at least one of a number and a band of the frequency channels of the frequency environment to the first frequency set.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the number of the frequency channels of the frequency environment is allocated to the first frequency set based on a number of the plurality of peripheral devices.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the number of the frequency channels of the frequency environment is allocated to the first frequency set based on performance characteristics of the first peripheral device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first peripheral device has better performance characteristics than the second peripheral device, and the allocating allocates the first frequency set so that the number of frequency channels allocated to the first frequency set is greater than a number of frequency channels allocated to the second frequency set.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the number of frequency channels of the frequency environment allocated to the first frequency set is based on information on the performance of at least one of the plurality of peripheral devices obtained from a database storing information on types and performances of the plurality of peripheral devices.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the number of the at least one frequency channels of the frequency environment allocated to the first frequency set is based on at least one current operation performed by at least one peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a frequency set including a smaller number of frequency channels is allocated to a peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices performing a relatively more important current operation than other peripheral devices.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein a frequency set including a greater number of frequency channels of the frequency environment is allocated to a peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices performing an operation having relatively fewer loads than other peripheral devices of the plurality of peripheral devices.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one current operation performed by at least one peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices includes at least one of outputting a predetermined data, transmitting another predetermined data, and performing a predetermined operation.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one of the number and band of the frequency channels of the frequency environment is allocated to the frequency set at regular predetermined periods by substituting at least one of the number and band of the frequency channels of the frequency environment previously allocated for at least a second of the number and band of the frequency channels of the frequency environment.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one of the number and band of the frequency channels of the frequency environment is allocated to the frequency set by determining a start channel and an end channel of the frequency channels that are to be scanned by the plurality of peripheral devices.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the information on the frequency channel state scanned includes at least information on communication quality of the frequency channels included in the frequency sets and information on whether the frequency channels included in the frequency sets are in use.

31. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method of claim 1.

14. A method of scanning a frequency environment for an idle channel from among frequency channels, the method comprising:

allocating, by a first device, a first frequency set, including at least a first frequency channel of the frequency channels, to be scanned, in the frequency environment to a first terminal of a plurality of terminals;

allocating, by the first device, a second frequency set, including at least a second frequency channel of the frequency channels, to be scanned, in the frequency environment to a second terminal of a plurality of terminals;

requesting, by the first device, the first and the second terminals to scan states of frequency channels of the first and the second frequency sets, respectively; and

receiving, by the first device, information on the states scanned by the first and the second terminals in response to the requesting,

wherein the first frequency set does not include a frequency channel included in the second frequency set and the second frequency set does not include a frequency channel included in the first frequency set, and

wherein frequency channels in the first frequency set and frequency channels in the second frequency set are simultaneously scanned by the first peripheral device and the second peripheral device, respectively.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the first device is a base station.

16. An apparatus scanning a frequency environment for an idle channel from among frequency channels, the apparatus comprising:

a scan channel allocation unit which allocates a plurality of frequency sets, each frequency set including at least one frequency channel of the frequency channels, to be scanned, in the frequency environment which is different from the frequency channels included in the other frequency sets of the plurality of frequency sets, to a plurality of peripheral devices;

a request transmission unit which requests the plurality of peripheral devices to scan states of frequency channels allocated to the plurality of frequency sets; and

a reception unit which receives information on the states scanned by the plurality of peripheral devices in response to the requesting,

wherein frequency channels in a first set of the plurality of frequency sets and frequency channels in a second set of the plurality of frequency sets are simultaneously scanned by a first peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices, to which the first set is allocated, and a second peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices, to which the second set is allocated, respectively.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the scan channel allocation unit allocates at least one of a number and a band of the frequency channels of the frequency environment to the frequency set which includes the at least one frequency channel.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the scan channel allocation unit allocates the number of the frequency channels of the frequency environment to the frequency set which includes the at least one frequency channel based on a number of peripheral devices in the plurality of peripheral devices.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the scan channel allocation unit allocates the number of the frequency channels of the frequency environment to the frequency set which includes the at least one frequency channel based on performance characteristics of the plurality of peripheral devices.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the scan channel allocation unit allocates a frequency set including a first number of frequency channels of the frequency environment to a peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices having relatively better performance characteristics than the other peripheral devices of the plurality of peripheral devices and the first number is greater than numbers of frequency channels allocated to the other peripheral devices.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the scan channel allocation unit allocates the number of frequency channels of the frequency environment to the frequency set which includes the at least one frequency channel based on information on the performance characteristics of the plurality of peripheral devices obtained from a database storing information on types and performances of the peripheral devices of the plurality of peripheral devices.

22. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the scan channel allocation unit allocates the number of the at least one frequency channel of the frequency environment to a frequency set based on at least one current operation performed by at least one peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the scan channel allocation unit allocates a frequency set including a smaller number of frequency channels of the frequency environment to a peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices that performs a relatively more important current operation than other peripheral devices.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the scan channel allocation unit allocates a frequency set including a greater number of frequency channels of the frequency environment to a peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices that performs an operation having relatively fewer loads than other peripheral devices.

25. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the at least one current operation performed by at least one peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices includes at least one of outputting a predetermined data, transmitting another predetermined data, and performing a predetermined operation.

26. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the scan channel allocation unit allocates at least one of the number and band of the frequency channels of the frequency environment to the frequency set at regular predetermined periods by substituting at least one of the number and band of the frequency channels of the frequency environment previously allocated for at least a second of the number and band of the frequency channels of the frequency environment.

27. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the scan channel allocation unit allocates the at least one of the number and band of the frequency channels of the frequency environment to the frequency set by determining a start channel and an end channel of the frequency channels that are to be scanned by the plurality of peripheral devices.

28. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the information on the frequency channel state scanned includes at least information on communication quality of the frequency channels included in the frequency sets and information on whether the frequency channels included in the frequency sets are in use.

29. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the idle channel scanning apparatus and the plurality of peripheral devices are wirelessly connected to each other.

30. An apparatus for scanning a frequency environment for an idle channel from among frequency channels via a base station communicating with a plurality of terminals in the same frequency environment, the apparatus comprising:

a scan channel allocation unit which allocates a plurality of frequency sets, each frequency set including at least one frequency channel of the frequency channels, to be scanned, in the frequency environment which is different from the frequency channels included in the other frequency sets of the plurality of frequency sets, to a plurality of terminals;

a request transmission unit which requests the plurality of terminals to scan states of frequency channels allocated to the plurality of frequency sets; and

a reception unit which receives information on the states scanned by the plurality of terminals in response to the requesting,

wherein frequency channels in a first set of the plurality of frequency sets and frequency channels in a second set of the plurality of frequency sets are simultaneously scanned by a first peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices, to which the first set is allocated, and a second peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices, to which the second set is allocated, respectively.