ENGERY EFFICIENT MAXIMIZATION OF NETWORK CONNECTIVITY

• US 20130223308A1
• Filed: 02/28/2012
• Published: 08/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chandra, Ranveer, Krumm, John C., Saroiu, Stefan, Zhou, Xia
• Granted Patent: US 9,756,571 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/028 switching on or off only a part of the equipment circuit blocks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

The minimization of the amount of power consumed by an electronic device in acquiring or maintaining network connectivity with a network may extend the battery life of the electronic device. When the electronic device has established a communication connection with a wireless access point, the electronic device cycles a network interface controller of the electronic device between a power on state and a power off state without terminating the communication connection. Accordingly, the electronic device powers on a main processor of the electronic device when the network interface controller detects a beacon during the power on state that indicates the wireless access point has a buffered data frame for the electronic device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

establishing a communication connection between an electronic device and a wireless access point;

cycling a network interface controller of the electronic device between a power on state and a power off state without terminating the communication connection; and

powering on a main processor of the electronic device to process a buffered data frame at least partly in response to the network interface controller detecting a beacon from the wireless access point during the power on state that indicates the wireless access point has the buffered data frame for the electronic device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a command to place the electronic device into a standby state, wherein the cycling includes cycling the network interface controller after the command is received.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising powering off the main processor after the command is received.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the buffered data frame is one of multiple retransmitted data frames transmitted to the wireless access point.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device includes a network stack that implements the communication connection, and wherein the cycling without terminating the communication connection includes blocking a media disconnect message from a physical layer of the network stack that includes the network interface controller from reaching at least one of a link layer or a higher layer of the network stack.

6. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

establishing a communication connection between an electronic device and a wireless access point;

calculating an adaptive sleep interval for a network interface controller of the electronic device based at least on robustness of the communication connection;

switching the network interface controller from a power saving state that lasts the adaptive sleep interval to a power on state to listen for beacons; and

powering on a main processor of the electronic device at least partly in response to the network interface controller detecting a beacon from the wireless access point during the power on state that indicates the wireless access point has a buffered data frame for the electronic device.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, further comprising, at least partly in response to the network interface controller detecting a beacon that indicates the wireless access point does not have a buffered data frame for the electronic device, calculating another adaptive sleep interval for the network interface controller based at least on the robustness of the communication connection.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, further comprising receiving a command to place the electronic device into a standby state, wherein the switching includes switching the network interface controller after the command is received.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising powering off the main processor after the command is received.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising selecting the switching the network interface controller rather than cycling the network interface controller between a power on state and a power off state when usage context data of the electronic device indicates the electronic device is to be powered on within a predetermined time period after the command is received.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, further comprising receiving the buffered data frame and using the main processor to process the buffered data frame at least partly in response to the network interface controller detecting the beacon that indicates that the wireless access point has the buffered data frame.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the calculating includes calculating the adaptive sleep interval based at least on a signal strength of the communication connection or a beacon loss rate associated with the communication connection.

13. An electronic device, comprising:

a main processor;

a network interface controller (NIC) that includes a NIC processor and NIC memory; and

main memory that includes a plurality of computer-executable modules, the plurality of computer-executable modules comprising;

a list selection module that uses the main processor to select at least one wireless access point identifier for inclusion in a list of wireless access point identifiers based at least on contextual data related the electronic device and populates the NIC memory with the list of wireless access point identifiers; and

a power management module that powers off the main processor following population of the NIC memory with the list of wireless access point identifiers.

14. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein each wireless access point identifier in the list is one of a Service Set Identifier (SSID) or a Basic Service Set Identifier (BSSID) of a corresponding wireless access point.

15. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the network interface controller further includes at least one of:

a period search component that periodically cycles the network interface controller between a power on state and a power saving state, the network interface controller to perform a scan for wireless access points that match the list of wireless access point identifiers in the NIC memory during the power on state;

a probabilistic match component that inserts a set of wireless access point identifiers into the NIC memory and determines a probable match between a wireless access point and one of the wireless access point identifiers in the set, wherein an amount of wireless access point identifiers in the set of wireless access point identifiers is greater than a number of identifier slots available in the NIC memory; and

a trigger component that powers on the main processor at least when the network interface controller detects a particular wireless access point that matches a corresponding wireless access point identifier in the NIC memory.

16. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the trigger component is to power on the main processor when (1) the network interface controller detects the particular wireless access point that matches the corresponding wireless access point identifier;

and (2) the network interface controller establishes a communication connection with the particular wireless access point.

17. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the triggering component further powers on the main processor to select another list of wireless access point identifiers based at least on additional contextual data related to the electronic device when a number of performed scans in which the network interface controller failed to detect a matching wireless access point reach a predetermined threshold.

18. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the contextual data includes at least one of locations of other wireless access points previously connected to by the electronic device, appointment or schedule data provided by an application on the electronic device, or global positioning system data for the electronic device.

19. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the list selection module predicts an expected location of the electronic device based at least on a conditional probability analysis of the contextual data, and selects the at least one wireless access point identifier from a master identifier database based at least on the expected location.

20. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the list selection module further populates the list of wireless access point identifiers with at least one of an identifier of a popular wireless access point, an identifier of a wireless access point that previously connected with the electronic device, or an identifier of a wireless access point that corresponds to an expected location of the electronic device.