Beaconing and superframe structure for millimeter wave wireless technologies

• US 8,711,784 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2009
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Cordeiro, Carlos, Trainin, Solomon
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, CHANDRAHAS B
• Application Number:
  US12/321,957
• Publication Number:
  US 20090232106A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,919 Days
• Field of Search: 370/338, 370/329, 370/235, 370/331, 370/254, 709/236, 455/3.01
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/26 varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture H01Q3/12, H01Q3/22, H01Q3/24 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/02 Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas RAKE receivers H04B1/7115
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0682 using phase diversity (e.g. phase sweeping)
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0689 using different transmission schemes, at least one of them being a diversity transmission scheme
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals

Abstract

According to aspects of the embodiments, there is provided a method and apparatus for communicating in a wireless network with a MAC layer that uses multi-level beacons, the multi-level beacons including a discovery beacon which is transmitted in an omni mode and an announcement beacon/frame transmitted in a beamformed mode.

Claims

1. A method for station discovery and information exchange in a millimeter-wave (mmW) communication system, comprising:

communicating in a wireless network implementing a superframe structure having multi-level beacons corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of data rates, said multi-level beacons including a Discovery beacon (DB) which is transmitted in an omni mode and an announcement beacon/frame (AB) transmitted in a beamformed mode;

wherein in the superframe structure said DB is transmitted during a Discovery Time (DT), while said AB is transmitted during an Announcement Time (AT) and wherein a Data Transfer Time (DTT) is used for actual data communications amongst networked STAs and Association Beamforming Training (A-BFT) is used for beamforming training of a new STA attempting association with said network, and Beamforming Training Time (BFTT) is for beamforming amongst STAs that are already associated with said network;

wherein in addition to serving currently associated stations (STAs) said DB is transmitted by a piconet coordinator (PNC) that allows new STAs to discover and potentially join said wireless network and wherein the AB is a unicast frame addressed to a particular station (STA).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said AB is transmitted to target stations (STAs) that are beamformed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein when in a power save mode said PNC does not send announcement beacon/frames to any STAs.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said communicating is within a wireless personal area network (WPAN).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said AB is a high-rate unicast frame and said DB is a low-rate broadcast frame.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein to improve efficiency, said DB may not be transmitted in every superframe and wherein if said PNC wants to serve multiple associated STAs in a superframe, said PNC can transmit multiple ABs on said superframe.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said ABs contains superframe time allocation including when said PNC will be ready to receive from and/or transmit to said STA which allows STAs who receive an announcement frame/beacon to synchronize their schedule with that of the PNC.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein to minimize overhead associated with omni transmissions, information carried in said DB is kept to a minimum and said AB contains all necessary information required to make said network function.

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

communicating in a wireless network implementing a superframe structure having multi-level beacons corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of data rates, said multi-level beacons including a Discovery beacon (DB) which is transmitted in an omni mode and an announcement beacon (AB) transmitted in a beamformed mode;

wherein in the superframe structure said DB is transmitted during a Discovery Time (DT), while said AB is transmitted during an Announcement Time (AT) and wherein a Data Transfer Time (DTT) is used for actual data communications amongst network STAs and Association Beamforming Training (A-BFT) is used for beamforming training of a new STA attempting association with said network, and Beamforming Training Time (BFTT) is for beamforming amongst STAs that are already associated with said network;

wherein said DB is transmitted by a piconet coordinator (PNC) that allows new STAs to discover and potentially join said wireless network and wherein the AB is a unicast frame addressed to a particular station (STA), in addition to serving currently associated STAs.

10. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 9, wherein said AB is a unicast frame addressed to a particular STA.

11. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 10, wherein said AB is a high-rate unicast frame and said DB is a low-rate broadcast frame.

12. An apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver adapted to communicate in a wireless network implementing a superframe structure having multi-level beacons corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of data rates, said multi-level beacons including a Discovery beacon (DB) which is transmitted in an omni mode and an announcement beacon (AB) transmitted in a beamformed mode;

wherein in the superframe structure said DB is transmitted during a Discovery Time (DT), while said AB is transmitted during an Announcement Time (AT) and wherein a Data Transfer Time (DTT) is used for actual data communications amongst network STAs and Association Beamforming Training (A-BFT) is used for beamforming training of a new STA attempting association with said network, and Beamforming Training Time (BFTT) is for beamforming amongst STAs that are already associated with said network;

wherein in addition to serving currently associated stations (STAs) said DB is transmitted by a piconet coordinator (PNC) that allows new STAs to discover and potentially join said wireless network and wherein the AB is a unicast frame addressed to a particular station (STA).

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said AB is transmitted to target stations (STAs) that are beamformed to said transceiver.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said communicating is within a wireless personal area network (WPAN).

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said AB is a high-rate unicast frame and said DB is a low-rate broadcast frame.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein when in a power save mode said PNC does not send announcement beacon/frames to any STAs.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein to minimize overhead associated with omni transmissions, information carried in said DB is kept to a minimum and said AB contains all necessary information required to make said network function.

18. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein to improve efficiency, said DB may not be present in every superframe and wherein if said PNC wants to serve multiple associated STAs in a superframe, said PNC can transmit multiple ABs on said superframe.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said ABs contains superframe time allocation including when said PNC will be ready to receive from and/or transmit to said STA which allows STAs who receive an announcement frame/beacon to synchronize their schedule with that of the PNC.