Method and apparatus for dynamic media access control in a multiple access system
First Claim
1. A system comprising:
- an electronic device operable to control access to a physical medium utilizing carrier sense multiple access (CSMA), wherein the amount of time that said electronic device must sense said physical medium as being inactive before said electronic device permits transmission onto said physical medium is dynamically determined based on;
the size of any given message to be transmitted, such that said amount of time is a first amount for a first message of a first size and a second amount for a second message of a second size; and
one or more other parameters, the one or more other parameters comprising at least one parameter relating to characteristics of the message that is to be transmitted, other than message size, or to characteristics of a channel onto which the message is to be transmitted, other than channel quality; and
wherein said electronic device comprises memory and a receiver, and said electronic device is operable to;
read a series of n-tuples from said memory, each of said n-tuple comprising a channel identifier, a scan duration value, and a time-to-next-scan value; and
for each of said read n-tuples;
configure said receiver to receive on the channel associated with said channel identifier for an amount of time equal to said scan duration value; and
power-down said receiver for an amount of time equal to said time-to-next-scan value minus said scan duration value.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic device may be operable to control access to a physical medium (e.g., airwaves, a copper cable, or an optical fiber) utilizing carrier sense multiple access (CSMA). The amount of time that the electronic device must sense the physical medium as being inactive before it permits transmission of a message onto the physical medium may be determined based on: the size of the message, the type of the message, the symbol rate at which the message is to be transmitted, and/or a channel onto which the message is to be transmitted. Similarly, other aspects of how and when electronic device transmits and/or receives on the physical medium may be controlled via one or more dynamically configurable parameters which may be configured based on characteristics of received and/or to-be-transmitted messages.
148 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A system comprising:
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an electronic device operable to control access to a physical medium utilizing carrier sense multiple access (CSMA), wherein the amount of time that said electronic device must sense said physical medium as being inactive before said electronic device permits transmission onto said physical medium is dynamically determined based on; the size of any given message to be transmitted, such that said amount of time is a first amount for a first message of a first size and a second amount for a second message of a second size; and one or more other parameters, the one or more other parameters comprising at least one parameter relating to characteristics of the message that is to be transmitted, other than message size, or to characteristics of a channel onto which the message is to be transmitted, other than channel quality; and wherein said electronic device comprises memory and a receiver, and said electronic device is operable to; read a series of n-tuples from said memory, each of said n-tuple comprising a channel identifier, a scan duration value, and a time-to-next-scan value; and for each of said read n-tuples; configure said receiver to receive on the channel associated with said channel identifier for an amount of time equal to said scan duration value; and power-down said receiver for an amount of time equal to said time-to-next-scan value minus said scan duration value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system comprising:
an electronic device comprising memory, a transmitter, and a receiver, wherein said electronic device is operable to; read a series of n-tuples from said memory, each of said n-tuple comprising a channel identifier, a contention period value, and a time-to-next-scan value; and for each of said read n-tuples; configure said transmitter to transmit a beacon on the channel associated with said channel identifier; configure said receiver to listen for a response to said beacon for an amount of time equal to said contention period value; and wait a period of time equal to said time-to-next-scan value minus said contention period value before operating based on the next n-tuple in said series of n-tuples.
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11. A method comprising:
in an electronic device which utilizes carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) for communicating over a physical medium; dynamically determining the amount of time that said electronic device must sense said physical medium as being inactive before permitting transmission of onto said physical medium based on; the size of any given message to be transmitted, such that said amount of time is a first amount for a first message of a first size and a second amount for a second message of a second size; and one or more other parameters, the one or more other parameters comprising at least one parameter relating to characteristics of the message that is to be transmitted, other than message size, or to characteristics of a channel onto which the message is to be transmitted, other than channel quality; and reading a series of n-tuples from memory, each of said n-tuple comprising a channel identifier, a scan duration value, and a time-to-next-scan value; for each of said read n-tuples; configuring said receiver to receive on the channel associated with said channel identifier for an amount of time equal to said scan duration value; and powering-down said receiver for an amount of time equal to said time-to-next-scan value. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method comprising:
in an electronic device which utilizes carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) for communicating over a physical medium; dynamically determining the amount of time that said electronic device must sense said physical medium as being inactive before permitting transmission of onto said physical medium based on; the size of any given message to be transmitted, such that said amount of time is a first amount for a first message of a first size and a second amount for a second message of a second size; and one or more other parameters, the one or more other parameters comprising at least one parameter relating to characteristics of the message that is to be transmitted, other than message size, or to characteristics of a channel onto which the message is to be transmitted, other than channel quality; reading a series of n-tuples from said memory, each of said n-tuple comprising a channel identifier, a contention period value, and a time-to-next-scan value; and for each of said read n-tuples; configuring said transmitter to transmit a beacon on the channel associated with said channel identifier; configuring said receiver to listen for a response to said beacon for an amount of time equal to said contention period value; and waiting a period of time equal to said time-to-next-scan value minus said contention period value before operating based on the next n-tuple in said series of n-tuples. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
Specification