Flexible scheduling of resources in a noisy environment
First Claim
1. A method for coordinating transmissions on a centrally coordinated powerline network, said method comprising:
- transmitting beacons by a central coordinator to a plurality of stations to define beacon periods beginning at pre-defined phases of a powerline cycle, wherein said beacons contain at least transmission schedules for at least said beacon periods;
wherein said transmission schedules contain allocations fixed in phase relative to the powerline cycle;
wherein said beacon transmissions include a persistent schedule valid for a current beacon period and a number of subsequent beacon periods defining the schedule of transmissions said plurality of stations follow at least when one or more beacons of said subsequent beacon periods are not received by at least one of said plurality of stations.
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Accused Products
Abstract
There is provided a powerline network that includes a number of stations including a central coordinator for coordinating transmissions of each of the stations. The central coordinator is configurable to transmit a beacon at an interval based on a phase of a powerline cycle. The interval of the beacon can be substantially equal to two periods of the powerline cycle. The interval of the beacon includes a reserved region including a persistent allocation region and a non-persistent allocation region. The beacon also includes a broadcast message including a persistent schedule and a non-persistent schedule. The persistent schedule is valid for a current beacon period and a number of subsequent beacon periods as indicated by the beacon, while the non-persistent schedule is valid for a single beacon period. The persistent allocation region and the non-persistent allocation region are determined based on the persistent schedule and the non-persistent schedule, respectively.
48 Citations
7 Claims
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1. A method for coordinating transmissions on a centrally coordinated powerline network, said method comprising:
- transmitting beacons by a central coordinator to a plurality of stations to define beacon periods beginning at pre-defined phases of a powerline cycle, wherein said beacons contain at least transmission schedules for at least said beacon periods;
wherein said transmission schedules contain allocations fixed in phase relative to the powerline cycle;
wherein said beacon transmissions include a persistent schedule valid for a current beacon period and a number of subsequent beacon periods defining the schedule of transmissions said plurality of stations follow at least when one or more beacons of said subsequent beacon periods are not received by at least one of said plurality of stations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
- transmitting beacons by a central coordinator to a plurality of stations to define beacon periods beginning at pre-defined phases of a powerline cycle, wherein said beacons contain at least transmission schedules for at least said beacon periods;
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5. A device for coordinating transmissions by a plurality of network devices in a centrally coordinated powerline network, said device comprising:
- a configuring unit to configure said device to be a central coordinator capable of generating beacons, wherein said beacons define beacon periods beginning at pre-defined phases of a powerline cycle and contain at least transmission schedules for at least said beacon periods; and
a beacon transmitter to transmit said beacons to said plurality of network devices;
wherein said transmission schedules contain allocations fixed in phase relative to the powerline cycle;
wherein said beacon transmissions include a persistent schedule valid for a current beacon period and a number of subsequent beacon periods defining the schedule of transmissions said plurality of stations follow at least when one or more beacons of said subsequent beacon periods are not received by at least one of said plurality of stations. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
- a configuring unit to configure said device to be a central coordinator capable of generating beacons, wherein said beacons define beacon periods beginning at pre-defined phases of a powerline cycle and contain at least transmission schedules for at least said beacon periods; and
Specification