Method and apparatus for rapid group synchronization

• US 8,774,096 B2
• Filed: 02/29/2012
• Issued: 07/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Multi-Flex Circuits Pty., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Blackbird Technology Holdings, Inc (Haystack Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Norair, John Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Jiang, Charles C
• Assistant Examiner(s): KAMARA, MOHAMED A
• Application Number:
  US13/408,457
• Publication Number:
  US 20120224530A1
• Time in Patent Office: 860 Days
• Field of Search: 370/254, 370/329, 370/345, 370/468, 370229-230, 370235-236, 370/324, 370310-312, 370/338, 370390-392, 709/242, 709/244, 709/224, 726 22- 24
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0061 Error detection codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0083 Formatting with frames or packets; Protocol or part of protocol for error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0847 Transmission error
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/555 Error detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0205 at the air interface dynamic wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/04 Error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/023 Limited or focused flooding to selected areas of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0235 where the received signal is a power saving command
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/06 TPC algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/242 taking into account path loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/243 taking into account interferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/245 taking into account received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/36 : with a discrete range or set of values, e.g. step size, ramping or offsets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/54 : Signalisation aspects of the TPC commands, e.g. frame structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/001 : Synchronization between nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/002 : Mutual synchronization
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0025 : synchronizing potentially movable access points
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 : Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0473 : the resource being transmission power
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0808 : using carrier sensing, e.g. carrier sense multiple access [CSMA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0816 : with collision avoidance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/085 : collision avoidance
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A first device of a network may decide to transmit a flood of packets that is longer in duration than the maximum amount of time that the first device can continuously transmit. The first device may coordinate with one or more second devices of the network such that each of the one or more second devices transmits a respective second portion of the flood of packets following transmission of a first portion of the flood of packets by the first network device. The packets may advertise a pending network event that is to occur at a time indicated by the contents of the packets. The first device may select the one or more second devices from a plurality of devices based on a location of the one or more second devices and/or how many third devices are in the network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

in a first device of a network;

determining a duration for which a flood of packets is to be transmitted, wherein said determining is based on a quantity of third devices to be synchronized in said network;

determining whether said duration is greater than a maximum amount of time that said first device is permitted to continuously transmit;

if said duration is less than said maximum amount of time, transmitting said flood of packets; and

if said duration is greater than said maximum amount of time that said first device is permitted to continuously transmit;

coordinating with one or more second devices of said network such that each of said one or more second devices is configured to transmit a respective second portion of said flood of packets following transmission of a first portion of said flood of packets by said first device of said network; and

transmitting said first portion of said flood of packets.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said packets advertise a pending network event that is to occur at a time indicated by the contents of said packets.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said network event comprises transmission of a search request.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said packets contain a channel identifier field that indicates a channel on which said search request will be transmitted.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising selecting said one or more second devices from a plurality of devices based on a location of said one or more second devices.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising selecting said one or more second devices from a plurality of devices based on said quantity of said third devices to be synchronized.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said one or more second devices is a plurality of second devices; and

said plurality of second devices concurrently transmit their said respective portions of said flood of packets.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a transmit power utilized by each of said one or more second devices for transmitting its said respective portion of said flood of packets is controlled to avoid collisions between packets of said flood of packets.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein each one of said plurality of second devices transmits its said respective portion of said flood of packets on a channel that is different than a channel utilized by each other one of said plurality of second devices for transmitting their said respective portions of said flood of packets.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said packets are background frames comprising a subnet field, a background protocol identifier field, a channel identifier field, and an event time field.

11. A system comprising:

a first device of a network, said first device being operable to;

decide to transmit, at a first time, a flood of packets having a duration that is longer than a maximum amount of time that said first device can continuously transmit;

determine a second device of said network to transmit a second portion of said flood of packets;

determine a second time at which said second device is to transmit said second portion of said flood of packets;

coordinate with said second device of said network such that said second device is configured to transmit said second portion of said flood of packets at said second time; and

transmit a first portion of said flood of packets at said first time, wherein said second time is after said first time and is determined such that said flood of packets will jam, for at least said duration, a channel on which it is transmitted by said first device and said second device.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein said packets are background frames comprising a subnet field, a background protocol identifier field, a channel identifier field, and an event time field.

12. A system comprising:

a first device of a network, said first device being operable to;

decide to transmit a flood of packets that is longer in duration than the maximum amount of time that said first device can continuously transmit; and

coordinate with one or more second devices of said network such that each of said one or more second devices transmits a respective second portion of said flood of packets following transmission of a first portion of said flood of packets by said first device of said network, wherein said packets advertise a pending network event that is to occur at a time indicated by the contents of said packets.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein said network event comprises the transmission of a search request.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said packets contain a channel identifier field that indicates a channel on which said search request will be transmitted.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein said first device is operable to select said one or more second devices from a plurality of devices based on a location of said one or more second devices.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein said first device of said network is operable to select said one or more second devices from a plurality of devices based on how many third devices are in said network.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein:

said one or more second devices is a plurality of second devices; and

said plurality of second devices concurrently transmit their said respective portions of said flood of packets.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein a transmit power utilized by each of said one or more second devices for transmitting its said respective portion of said flood of packets is controlled to avoid collisions between packets of said flood of packets.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein each one of said plurality of second devices transmits its said respective portion of said flood of packets on a channel that is different than a channel utilized by each other one of said plurality of second devices for transmitting their said respective portions of said flood of packets.