Scalable media access control for multi-hop high bandwidth communications

• US 9,554,304 B2
• Filed: 11/26/2013
• Issued: 01/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommWorks Solutions, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: OL Security LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Wang, Xudong, Gui, Chao, Patil, Abhishek, Wang, Weilin, Nova, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): AJIBADE AKONAI, OLUMIDE
• Application Number:
  US14/090,760
• Publication Number:
  US 20140092766A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,155 Days
• Field of Search: 455/41.2, 455/502, 455/450
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/122 by minimising distances, e.g. by selecting a route with minimum of number of hops
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/302 Route determination based on requested QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/66 Layer 2 routing, e.g. in Ethernet based MAN's
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/724 at intermediate nodes, e.g. resource reservation protocol [RSVP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/762 triggered by the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/801 Real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/805 QOS or priority aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/824 Applicable to portable or mobile terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/829 Topology based
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/086 among access entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/24 Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 : Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 : using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0816 : with collision avoidance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/18 : Management of setup rejection or failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 : Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/02 : Data link layer protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A scalable medium access control (“MAC”) module is provided that avoids conflict resource reservation so that network performance does not degrade as the number of hops or nodes in a wireless network increases. The MAC also provides different access schemes for traffic with different quality of service (“QoS”) requirements such that QoS is guaranteed and network resources are efficiently utilized. Furthermore, the resource allocation scheme determines the routing path as resources is allocated for data traffic, thereby achieving more robust layer-2 routing at the MAC layer. Finally, the scalable MAC is compliant with both WiMedia MAC and IEEE 802.15.3 MAC.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a beacon signal from a wireless communication network, wherein the beacon signal includes information about a sender node and network synchronization information;

adding the sender node to a neighbor list;

determining a signal quality for the beacon signal from the sender node; and

establishing a wireless communication link with the sender node if the determined signal quality meets a predetermined threshold quality level.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising aligning a beacon period based on the network synchronization information.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising aligning a contention access period based on the network synchronization information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising aligning a contention free period with the wireless communication network based on the network synchronization information.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding information corresponding to the wireless communication link to the neighbor list.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating a plurality of initial timeslots for data communication over the wireless communication network and informing neighboring nodes about the allocated initial timeslots.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the neighbor list during the beacon period.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the neighbor list during a next beacon period.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising, for at least one respective sender node having a beacon signal quality that does not meet the predetermined threshold quality level, identifying an alternate route to the at least one respective sender node based, at least in part, on paths identified in the neighbor list.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a communication interface configured to receive a beacon signal from a wireless communication network, wherein the beacon signal includes information about a sender node and network synchronization information;

a processor configured to;

add the sender node to a neighbor list;

determine a signal quality for the beacon signal from the sender node; and

establish a wireless communication link with the sender node if the determined signal quality meets a predetermined threshold quality level.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to align a beacon period based on the network synchronization information.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to align a contention access period based on the network synchronization information.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to align a contention free period with the wireless communication network based on the network synchronization information.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to allocate a plurality of initial timeslots for data communication over the wireless communication network and informing neighboring nodes about the allocated initial timeslots.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit the neighbor list during the beacon period.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to, for at least one respective sender node having a beacon signal quality that does not meet the predetermined threshold quality level, identify an alternate route to the at least one respective sender node based, at least in part, on paths identified in the neighbor list.

17. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving a beacon signal from a wireless communication network, wherein the beacon signal includes information about a sender node and network synchronization information;

adding the sender node to a neighbor list;

determining a signal quality for the beacon signal from the sender node; and

establishing a wireless communication link with the sender node if the determined signal quality meets a predetermined threshold quality level.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17, the operations further comprising aligning a beacon period based on the network synchronization information.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 17, the operations further comprising aligning a contention access period based on the network synchronization information.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 17, the operations further comprising aligning a contention free period with the wireless communication network based on the network synchronization information.