Mobile Node Group Formation And Management

• US 20130155925A1
• Filed: 12/15/2011
• Published: 06/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Priyantha, Nissanka Arachchige Bodhi, Liu, Jie, Purohit, Aveek Ravishekhar
• Granted Patent: US 8,693,453 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• 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 52/0245 according to signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0261 managing power supply demand, e.g. depending on battery level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

The subject disclosure is directed towards mobile network management by reducing energy consumption and increasing a lifetime of one or more nodes. By determining a beacon listening duration and a beacon listening period in response to an energy budget, each node may minimize or reduce latencies associated with node discovery and/or node group maintenance. The beacon listening duration and the beacon listening period is used to compute a beacon broadcasting duration and a beacon broadcasting period such that advertising beacon transmissions and advertising beacon receptions occur at substantially concurrent time slots between low power states. These advertising beacons are used to propagate and maintain group membership information amongst the one or more nodes.

Claims

1. In a computing environment, a method comprising, managing energy consumption of a node during discovery and group maintenance over wireless links, including, determining a beacon listening duration and a beacon listening period in response to an energy budget, determining a beacon broadcasting duration and a beacon broadcasting period based on the beacon listening period and the beacon listening duration, and between low power states, connecting to one or more other nodes within a mobile network at one or more time slots corresponding to at least one of the beacon listening duration and the beacon broadcasting duration.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the one or more other nodes further comprises communicating a plurality of frames within an advertising beacon transmission, wherein each frame comprises a copy of the membership information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the one or more other nodes further comprises establishing the beacon listening duration based on a Receive Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) response time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the one or more other nodes further comprises determining a beacon reception time slot for the beacon listening period based on frame offset associated with a received advertising beacon.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the one or more other nodes further comprises modifying at least one of the beacon broadcasting period and the beacon broadcasting duration.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the one or more other nodes further comprises determining a beacon transmission time slot based on the beacon listening period and a node identifier.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the one or more other nodes further comprises selectively turning off one or more advertising beacon receptions.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the one or more other nodes further comprises updating local membership information using advertising beacons from the one or more other nodes.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the one or more other nodes further comprises aligning the beacon broadcasting period and the beacon listening period.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the one or more other nodes further comprises partitioning a total duty cycle allocation into substantially equal shares for the beacon listening duration and the beacon broadcasting duration.

11. In a computing environment, a system, comprising, a plurality of nodes for a mobile network configured to coordinate advertising beacon transmissions and advertising beacon receptions at time slots between low power states, wherein each node is configured to partition an energy budget for the advertising beacon transmissions and the advertising beacon receptions, to propagate membership information during the advertising beacon transmissions, and to update the membership information during the advertising beacon receptions.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of nodes comprises a management mechanism configured to add a node identifier associated with a new node to the membership information.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of nodes comprises a management mechanism configured to remove a node identifier associated with a departed node to the membership information.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein a first portion of the plurality of nodes is configured to transmit an advertising beacon based on a start time of a beacon listening period and a second portion of the plurality of nodes is configured to transmit an advertising beacon based on an intermediate time of the beacon listening period.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of nodes is further configured to establish a schedule for at least one of advertising beacon transmissions and the advertising beacon receptions.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of nodes is further configured to synchronize a beacon listening period and to alternate beacon transmission time slots.

17. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform steps, comprising:

determining a beacon listening duration based on a Receive Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) response time;

computing a beacon listening period in response to on the beacon listening duration and an energy budget;

computing a beacon broadcasting duration to be a portion of the beacon listening duration;

computing a beacon broadcasting period using the beacon listening period and the beacon listening duration;

switching out of a low power state and into a receive state at one or more time slots corresponding to the beacon listening duration within the beacon listening period; and

switching out of the receive state and into a transmit state at one or more time slots corresponding to the beacon broadcasting duration within the beacon broadcasting period.

18. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17 having further computer-executable instructions comprising:

switching out of the low power state to perform an advertising beacon reception at the one or more time slots corresponding to the beacon listening duration within the beacon listening period and perform an advertising beacon transmission at the one or more time slots corresponding to the beacon broadcasting duration within the beacon broadcasting period; and

switching back to the low power state after the advertising beacon transmission and the advertising beacon reception.

19. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17 having further computer-executable instructions comprising:

receiving an advertising beacon within each beacon listening period; and

transmitting an advertising beacon within each beacon broadcasting period.

20. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17 having further computer-executable instructions comprising:

aligning the beacon broadcasting period and the beacon listening period; and

synchronizing the beacon listening duration and the beacon broadcasting duration at a start time slot of each beacon broadcasting period.