Synchronized, semi-dynamic frequency hopping method for WRAN and other wireless networks
First Claim
1. A communication system for managing use of channels in a frequency spectrum having available channels and unavailable channels in use by incumbent services, comprising:
- a base station wirelessly communicating with a first plurality of consumer premise equipment sites and functioning as a leader of a frequency hopping community; and
a set of base stations each wirelessly communicating with a second plurality of consumer premise equipment sites and each functioning as a member base station of the frequency hopping community,wherein the leader base station generates a hopping pattern defining a dwell time for data transmissions operation periods and start times for the operation periods on each one of a working set of channels for the leader base station and for the member base stations and defining when each of the leader base station and the member base stations switch to another one of the channels in the working set, whereby only one of the set of base stations operates on one of the channels in the working set at a timewherein the base station functioning as the leader receives an identification of the available channels from the base stations functioning as members,wherein the leader base station transmits the hopping pattern to each of the member base stations, andwherein the leader base station and the member base stations communicate with the consumer premise equipment sites according to the hopping pattern.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method for creating and maintaining semi-dynamic frequency hopping communities. Each community is a set of neighboring cells, such as wireless regional area networks (WRANs) according to IEEE 802.22, that follow a protocol defining coordinated frequency hopping operations, e.g., hopping is performed by community members according to a leader-defined hopping pattern rather than to channels selected in the prior operation period. Each community has one leader base station and one or more community member base stations. The leader determines membership, calculates hopping patterns for all members, and distributes the hopping information to the community members. Members provide their neighborhood and channel availability information, e.g., information about their sensing results and channel usage of neighboring WRANs. In exemplary communities, the community members are one-hop neighbors, each community member is configured to perform sensing concurrently with data transmissions, and the number of available channels is greater than the number of members.
33 Citations
34 Claims
-
1. A communication system for managing use of channels in a frequency spectrum having available channels and unavailable channels in use by incumbent services, comprising:
-
a base station wirelessly communicating with a first plurality of consumer premise equipment sites and functioning as a leader of a frequency hopping community; and a set of base stations each wirelessly communicating with a second plurality of consumer premise equipment sites and each functioning as a member base station of the frequency hopping community, wherein the leader base station generates a hopping pattern defining a dwell time for data transmissions operation periods and start times for the operation periods on each one of a working set of channels for the leader base station and for the member base stations and defining when each of the leader base station and the member base stations switch to another one of the channels in the working set, whereby only one of the set of base stations operates on one of the channels in the working set at a time wherein the base station functioning as the leader receives an identification of the available channels from the base stations functioning as members, wherein the leader base station transmits the hopping pattern to each of the member base stations, and wherein the leader base station and the member base stations communicate with the consumer premise equipment sites according to the hopping pattern. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A base station functioning as a leader of a frequency hopping community to manage operations of base stations wirelessly communicating with end users in cells over available channels, comprising:
-
memory storing a set of available channels determined to be vacant and a list of base stations including the leader base station that are members of the frequency hopping community; a processor managing the memory and executing one or more software modules; a community manager software module executed by the processor selecting a subset of the available channels as a working set and generating a hopping pattern for the frequency hopping community; and a communication software module executed by the processor transmitting a message to other ones of the member base stations including the generated hopping pattern wherein the communication software module operates to receive messages from the other ones of the member base stations including sensing information for available channels, the community manager software module responding by updating the stored set of available channels, choosing a new working set of the available channels, and repeating the hopping pattern generated using the new working set. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A semi-dynamic frequency hopping method for use in wireless regional area network (WRAN) systems, comprising:
-
providing two or more WRANs each operated by base stations to wirelessly communicate with consumer premise equipment (CPE); electing one of the base stations as a leader of a frequency hopping community having the base stations as members; and operating the leader base station to receive a message from other member base stations indicating available channels and to determine a set of channels available for use by the frequency hopping community, and with the leader base station, selecting a subset of the available channels as a working set of channels and generating a hopping sequence. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. A method for managing operations of a community of frequency hopping base stations in wireless regional area network (WRAN) systems by an elected leader base station, the method comprising:
-
receiving an identification of the available channels from members of the community of frequency hopping base stations; selecting a subset of available channels as a working set of channels; generating a frequency hopping sequence defining for each of the members of the community of frequency hopping base stations a next one of the channels in the working set to operate upon, a time to make a switch to the next one of the channels, and an operational period on the next one of the channels after the switch; and notifying member base stations of the community of frequency hopping base stations of the frequency hopping sequence for performing frequency hopping according to the frequency hopping sequence. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
-
-
33. A base station functioning as a member in a community of frequency hopping base stations in wireless regional area network (WRAN) communicating with end users in cells over available channels, comprising:
-
memory storing a set of available channels determined to be vacant and a list of base stations that are members of the frequency hopping community; a processor managing the memory and executing one or more software modules; a communication software module executed by the processor receiving a message wherein the message includes a hopping pattern and a subset of the available channels designated as a working set and wherein the communication software module operates to transmit a message to a leader base station including sensing information for identification of available channels; and a software module executed by the processor executing the hopping pattern for the frequency hopping community. - View Dependent Claims (34)
-
Specification