Terminal device, wireless base station wirelessly communicating with the same, and wireless communication system using terminal device and wireless base station

• US 9,374,784 B2
• Filed: 02/16/2012
• Issued: 06/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, NEC Communication Systems Limited (NEC Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, NEC Communication Systems Limited (NEC Corporation)
• Inventors: Kondo, Yoshihisa, Yomo, Hiroyuki, Tang, Suhua, Obana, Sadao, Ito, Tetsuya, Yoshimura, Koichi, Iwai, Masahito, Tanaka, Toshiyasu, Iizuka, Hiroyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Chuong T
• Application Number:
  US14/001,060
• Publication Number:
  US 20130329621A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,587 Days
• Field of Search: 370/311, 370/318
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0206 in access points, e.g. base stations access point devices per se H04W88/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0225 using monitoring of external events, e.g. the presence of a signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A terminal device 2 transmits a wireless frame having a frame length or amplitude that represents the ID of a wireless base station 1 to be woken up to the wireless base station 1. The wireless base station 1 detects the wakeup ID from the frame length or amplitude of the wireless frame from the terminal device 2, and, if the detected wakeup ID is identical with its own ID, transitions from a sleep mode to an operating mode. In this case, the wireless frame is the same wireless frame as that transmitted and received by the wireless communication module of the terminal device 2 to and from the wireless base station 1.

Claims

1. A terminal device comprising:

an antenna;

a wireless module performing wireless communication via the antenna; and

a wakeup transmitter transmitting, in response to a request for start of wireless communication, to a wireless device via the antenna, a wireless frame having a frame length representing identification information of the wireless device to be transitioned from a sleep mode to an operating mode,

wherein the wireless frame is the same wireless frame as that transmitted and received by the wireless module to and from the wireless device,

the sleep mode is a mode in which the wireless device is not capable of wirelessly communicating with the terminal device,

the operating mode is a mode in which the wireless device wirelessly communicates with the terminal device,

a cumulative value representing the frame length of the wireless frame is converted to a bit sequence based on a conversion table in the wireless device, and thereby the frame length of the wireless frame is converted to the bit sequence, and

the converted bit sequence is held on the wireless device and is detected as the identification information of the wireless device.

2. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the wireless frame is composed of a management frame or a data frame to be transmitted to a wireless device other than the wireless device or a terminal device other than the terminal device.

3. A wireless communication system comprising:

a terminal device according to claim 1; and

a wireless device comprising;

an antenna;

a main device regularly transmitting a second management frame for managing a terminal device, having an operating mode in which it wirelessly communicating with the terminal device and a sleep mode in which it is not capable of wirelessly communicating with the terminal device, and transitioning from the operating mode to the sleep mode when it has not communicated wirelessly with the terminal device in a certain period of time or no terminal device is assigned to the wireless device;

a receiving means receiving a wireless frame via the antenna when the main device is in the sleep mode;

a detecting means detecting a frame length of the wireless frame received by the receiving means;

an identifying means identifying identification information based on the frame length detected by the detecting means; and

an activating means generating, when the identification information identified by the identifying means is identical with identification information of the wireless device, a driving signal for causing the main device to transition from the sleep mode to the operating mode and outputting it to the main device,

wherein, in response to the driving signal, the main device transitions from the sleep mode to the operating mode,

the wireless frame is the same wireless frame as that transmitted and received by the main device to and from the terminal device,

the identifying means converts, upon receiving a cumulative value representing the frame length from the detecting means, the received cumulative value to a bit sequence referring to a conversion table, holds the converted bit sequence, and detects the held bit sequence as the identification information.

4. A wireless communication system comprising:

a terminal device according to claim 1; and

a wireless device comprising;

an antenna;

a main device having an operating mode in which it wirelessly communicating with a terminal device which is present in a communication area of the wireless device and a sleep mode in which it is not capable of wirelessly communicating with the terminal device, and transitioning from the operating mode to the sleep mode when it has not communicated wirelessly with the terminal device in a certain period of time or no terminal device is present in the communication area;

a receiving means receiving a wireless frame via the antenna when the main device is in the sleep mode;

a detecting means detecting a frame length of the wireless frame received by the receiving means;

an identifying means identifying identification information based on the frame length detected by the detecting means; and

an activating means generating, when the identification information identified by the identifying means is identical with identification information of the wireless device, a driving signal for causing the main device to transition from the sleep mode to the operating mode and outputting it to the main device,

wherein, in response to the driving signal, the main device transitions from the sleep mode to the operating mode,

the wireless frame is the same wireless frame as that transmitted and received by the main device to and from the terminal device,

the identifying means converts, upon receiving a cumulative value representing the frame length from the detecting means, the received cumulative value to a bit sequence referring to a conversion table, holds the converted bit sequence, and detects the held bit sequence as the identification information.

5. A wireless device comprising:

an antenna;

a main device regularly transmitting a management frame for managing a terminal device, having an operating mode in which it wirelessly communicating with the terminal device and a sleep mode in which it is not capable of wirelessly communicating with the terminal device, and transitioning from the operating mode to the sleep mode when it has not communicated wirelessly with the terminal device in a certain period of time or no terminal device is assigned to the wireless device;

a receiving means receiving a wireless frame via the antenna when the main device is in the sleep mode;

a detecting means detecting a frame length of the wireless frame received by the receiving means;

an identifying means identifying identification information based on the frame length detected by the detecting means; and

an activating means generating, when the identification information identified by the identifying means is identical with identification information of the wireless device, a driving signal for causing the main device to transition from the sleep mode to the operating mode and outputting it to the main device,

wherein, in response to the driving signal, the main device transitions from the sleep mode to the operating mode,

the wireless frame is the same wireless frame as that transmitted and received by the main device to and from the terminal device,

the identifying means converts, upon receiving a cumulative value representing the frame length from the detecting means, the received cumulative value to a bit sequence referring to a conversion table, holds the converted bit sequence, and detects the held bit sequence as the identification information.

6. The wireless device according to claim 5, wherein the cumulative value has a desired width.

7. The wireless device according to claim 5, wherein the wireless frame is composed of the management frame or a data frame to be transmitted to a wireless device other than the wireless device or a terminal device other than the terminal device.

8. The wireless device according to claim 5, wherein if the bit length of the held bit sequence exceeds the length of the identification information of the wireless device, the identifying means discards the oldest bit value in the bit sequence, one after another.

9. The wireless device according to claim 5, wherein if the identification information is represented by n (n is an integer not less than 2) frame lengths of n wireless frames, the detecting means detects n cumulative values c₁ to c_n representing the n frame lengths to detect the frame length, and

if the n cumulative values c₁ to c_n are input in succession, the identifying means determines that the identification information represented by the n frame lengths is identical with the identification information of the wireless device.

10. The wireless device according to claim 9, wherein if a first cumulative value of n cumulative values c₁ to c_n is input, the identifying means performs an operation for waiting a second cumulative value adjacent to the first cumulative value from the cumulative value c₁ to the cumulative value c_n, and waits, in the operation, the second cumulative value if the first cumulative value is input before a cumulative value other than the first cumulative value is input m (m is an integer not less than 2) times or more.

11. A wireless device comprising:

an antenna;

a main device having an operating mode in which it wirelessly communicating with a terminal device which is present in a communication area of the wireless device and a sleep mode in which it is not capable of wirelessly communicating with the terminal device, and transitioning from the operating mode to the sleep mode when it has not communicated wirelessly with the terminal device in a certain period of time or no terminal device is present in the communication area;

a receiving means receiving a wireless frame via the antenna when the main device is in the sleep mode;

a detecting means detecting a frame length of the wireless frame received by the receiving means;

an identifying means identifying identification information based on the frame length detected by the detecting means; and

an activating means generating, when the identification information identified by the identifying means is identical with identification information of the wireless device, a driving signal for causing the main device to transition from the sleep mode to the operating mode and outputting it to the main device,

wherein, in response to the driving signal, the main device transitions from the sleep mode to the operating mode,

the wireless frame is the same wireless frame as that transmitted and received by the main device to and from the terminal device,

the identifying means converts, upon receiving a cumulative value representing the frame length from the detecting means, the received cumulative value to a bit sequence referring to a conversion table, holds the converted bit sequence, and detects the held bit sequence as the identification information.

12. The wireless device according to claim 11, wherein the cumulative value has a desired width.

13. The wireless device according to claim 11, wherein the wireless frame is composed of a management frame for managing the terminal device or a data frame to be transmitted to a wireless device other than the wireless device or a terminal device other than the terminal device.

14. The wireless device according to claim 11, wherein if the bit length of the held bit sequence exceeds the length of the identification information of the wireless device, the identifying means discards the oldest bit value in the bit sequence, one after another.

15. The wireless device according to claim 11, wherein if the identification information is represented by n (n is an integer not less than 2) frame lengths of n wireless frames, the detecting means detects n cumulative values c₁ to c_n representing the n frame lengths to detect the frame length, and

if the n cumulative values c₁ to c_n are input in succession, the identifying means determines that the identification information represented by the n frame lengths is identical with the identification information of the wireless device.

16. The wireless device according to claim 15, wherein if a first cumulative value of n cumulative values c₁ to c_n is input, the identifying means performs an operation for waiting a second cumulative value adjacent to the first cumulative value from the cumulative value c₁ to the cumulative value c_n, and waits, in the operation, the second cumulative value if the first cumulative value is input before a cumulative value other than the first cumulative value is input m (m is an integer not less than 2) times or more.