Enhancing Wi-Fi aware protocol and algorithms for drone cluster formation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10298674-B2
Application number	US-201615352847-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 16, 2016
Priority date	Nov 16, 2016
Publication date	May 21, 2019
Grant date	May 21, 2019

Abstract

At least three different techniques are presented that facilitate cluster formation in clusterable devices such as drones. The techniques facilitate power saving in the individual clusterable devise as well as for the entirety of the cluster. The first technique utilizes a NAN application based cluster formation decision. The second technique initiates a cluster grade merging evaluation based on a “merge allowed” field in a synchronization beacon set by the discovery engine. The third technique involves a discovery engine managing cluster formation with pre-set cluster grade information.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A clusterable wireless device comprising:
a discovery engine that disables cluster grade based merging on the device for cluster-to-cluster merging;
a merging manager connected to a processor to execute a process to determine whether to perform cluster grade based merging for the device to another device in a cluster of devices, the merging manager enabling cluster grade based merging allowing the device to merge to the another device in the cluster of devices; and
the merging manager disabling cluster grade merging and passive scanning when the device is merged to the cluster of devices.

2. The wireless communications device of claim 1 , wherein the process is based on whether an information matches a predefined mergeable drone.

3. The wireless communications device of claim 2 , wherein the process further comprises determining whether a service information matches a predefined configuration for enabling the cluster merging.

4. The wireless communications device of claim 2 , wherein a transmitter communicates service information to a server and a receiver receives a merging decision back from the server.

5. The wireless communications device of claim 1 , wherein the process is based on merge allowed information and/or attributes.

6. The wireless communications device of claim 5 , wherein the merge allowed information is a merge allowed bit in a synchronization beacon.

7. The wireless communications device of claim 1 , wherein the process includes using a specific service identification to activate the cluster grade based cluster merging.

8. The wireless communications device of claim 1 , wherein the clusterable wireless device is a clusterable drone, and the another device is another clusterable wireless device in the cluster of devices.

9. The wireless communications device of claim 7 , wherein the process causes to be initiated initiates a Peer-to-Peer connection with the another device and collects the service identification, or directly enables the cluster merging based on the cluster grade.

10. A non-transitory information storage media having stored thereon one or more instructions, that when executed by one or more processors, cause a clusterable wireless device to perform a method comprising:
disabling cluster grade based merging for the device for cluster-to-cluster merging;
executing a process to determine whether to perform cluster grade based merging for the device to another device in a cluster of devices;
enabling cluster grade based merging allowing the device to merge to the another device in the cluster of devices; and
disabling cluster grade merging and passive scanning when the device is merged to the cluster of devices.

11. The media of claim 10 , wherein the process is based on whether an information matches a predefined mergeable drone.

12. The media of claim 11 , wherein the process further comprises determining whether a service information matches a predefined configuration for enabling the cluster merging.

13. The media of claim 12 , wherein a transmitter communicates service information to a server and a receiver receives a merging decision from the server.

14. The media of claim 10 , wherein service information is communicated to a server and a merging decision is received back from the server.

15. The media of claim 10 , wherein the process is based on merge allowed information and/or attributes.

16. The media of claim 15 , wherein the merge allowed information is a merge allowed bit in a synchronization beacon and/or the attributes are in the synchronization beacon.

17. The media claim 10 , wherein the process includes using a specific service identification to activate the cluster grade based cluster merging.

18. The media claim 10 , wherein the process causes to be initiated a Peer-to-Peer connection with the another device and collects service information, or directly enables the cluster merging based on the cluster grade.

19. A clusterable wireless communications device, the device comprising:
memory and processor circuitry configured to:
disable cluster grade based merging of the device for cluster-to-cluster merging;
execute a process to determine whether to perform cluster grade based merging for the device to another device in a cluster of devices;
enable cluster grade based merging allowing the device to merge to the another device in the cluster of devices; and
disable cluster grade merging and passive scanning when the device is merged to the cluster of devices.

20. The device of claim 19 , wherein the process enhances power efficiency and power savings in drones, drone clusters, or clusterable devices.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Raghupathy Vishnusudhan
• Kalathil Rakesh

Classifications

• Y02D70/10

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D70/14

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H04W40/244

  using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing · CPC title

• Y02D70/142

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D70/00

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic