Self-coexistence of devices in a flexible wireless system including two or more wireless networks that share a frequency band

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10939299-B2
Application number	US-200913141495-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2009
Priority date	Dec 23, 2008
Publication date	Mar 2, 2021
Grant date	Mar 2, 2021

Abstract

A method ( 300 ) for enabling self-coexistence of devices in a flexible wireless system ( 200 ) that includes first and second wireless networks sharing a frequency band. The method includes discovering a second device operable in the second wireless network that overlaps with the first wireless network (S 310 ); reporting the discovered second device to a first device operable in the first wireless network (S 320 ); determining if an adjustment is needed between a first beacon period of the first device and a second beacon period of the second device (S 330 ); and adjusting a first beacon period start time (BPST) of the first device with a second BPST of the second device (S 370 ) if the adjustment is needed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for enabling self-coexistence of devices in a flexible wireless system that includes a first wireless network and a second wireless network, wherein the first wireless network and the second wireless network share a frequency band, the method comprising:
discovering, at a discovering device in the first wireless network, a second device operable in the second wireless network that overlaps with the first wireless network;
reporting, by the discovering device, an identification of the discovered second network to one or more devices operable in the first wireless network;
determining whether a difference exists between a first beacon period of the first network and a second beacon period of the second network; and
adjusting a beacon period start time (BPST) of selected devices in the first network and/or in the second network when the difference is detected;
wherein reporting the second network to the devices of the first network comprises:
reporting the identification of the second wireless network in a beacon period of a superframe of the discovering device when the discovering device is a beaconing device; and
reporting the identification of the second wireless network in a signaling window of the superframe of the discovering device when the discovering device is a non-beaconing device;

wherein when the difference is detected, the method comprises determining whether each device in the first wireless network should join a group that includes devices that should not adjust their BPST based on at least a configuration of the flexible wireless system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first wireless network has a first network identifier (NetID) of a Flex-MAC protocol, and wherein the detection circuit detects the second network device operable in the second wireless network by determining that a beacon received from the second device includes a second NetID of the Flex-MAC protocol that differs from the first NetID.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein reporting the discovered second device comprises reporting an information element (IE) that includes the NetID of the second wireless network.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a configuration of the first wireless network and the second wireless network comprises one of distributed-distributed, centralized-distributed, distributed-centralized, and centralized-centralized.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein when the configuration of the flexible wireless system is distributed-distributed, the group is defined to include devices having a largest number of reserved slots, a largest beacon period length, or a largest superframe number.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein when the configuration of the flexible wireless system is centralized-centralized, the group is defined to include a master device with a largest number of slave devices with active reservations or a master device with a largest number of reserved slots, and wherein when such master device is not found, including in the group devices with a largest overall number of reserved slots, a largest beacon period length, or a largest superframe number.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein when the configuration of the flexible wireless system is centralized-distributed or distributed-centralized, the group is defined to include at least one slave device operating in a centralized mode with active reservation, and wherein when such slave device is not found, including in the group devices with a largest overall number of reserved slots, a largest beacon period length, or a largest superframe number.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein devices that are not included in the group are added to another group, wherein the devices in the another group adjust their BPST.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the BPST of a select device further comprises:
determining whether the select device is a master device;
setting a beacon slot number of the select device to a new beacon slot number when the select device is not a master device; and
adjusting the select BPST of the select device and its slave device to a new BPST when the select device is a master device.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein adjusting the first BPST of the first device and its slave device to a new BPST further comprises:
setting the new BPST value by the master device;
reporting to the slave device the new BPST value using a beacon;
starting a timer to count a time for switching to the new BPST; and
switching to the new BPST upon receiving an acknowledgment (ACK) message from each slave device, or when the timer expires.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising promoting, by a master device, a non-beaconing discovering device to function as a beaconing device.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein promoting the non-beaconing discovering device is performed when: a promotion request is received by the master device; or the discovered second device belongs to a newly discovered group that includes devices that are neighbors of the non-beaconing discovering device but not of other beaconing devices in a network.

13. A method for enabling self-coexistence of devices in a flexible wireless system that includes first and second wireless networks sharing a frequency band, the method comprising:
discovering a second device operable in the second wireless network that overlaps with the first wireless network;
reporting an identifier of the discovered second wireless network to each device operable in the first wireless network;
determining whether a difference exists between a first beacon period of the first wireless network and a second beacon period of the second wireless network;
adjusting a beacon period start time (BPST) of at least one select device in the first network or the second network when the difference exists;
wherein when the difference is detected, the method comprises determining whether each device in the first wireless network should join a group that includes devices that should not adjust their BPST based on at least a configuration of the flexible wireless system; and

setting a beacon slot number of the select device to a new beacon slot number when the select device is not a master device;
wherein setting the beacon slot number to the new beacon slot number comprises computing the new beacon slot number by adding to an old beacon slot number a highest occupied beacon slot number plus one and subtracting a signal slot count; and
wherein the number of the highest occupied beacon slot is indicated in a received beacon and the signal slot count is a number of signaling slots in a superframe.

14. A network device operable in self-coexistence with network devices in a flexible wireless system that includes a first wireless network and a second wireless network, wherein the first wireless network and the second wireless network share a frequency band, the network device comprising:
a detection circuit that detects a second network device operable in the second wireless network that overlaps with the first wireless network;
an information element generator circuit that reports an identifier of the discovered second wireless network to other network devices in the first wireless network;
a decision circuit that determines when a difference exists between a beacon period of the first wireless network and a second beacon period of the second wireless network;
wherein when the difference is detected, the decision circuit determines whether the network device should join a group that includes devices that should not adjust their beacon period start time (BPST) based on at least a configuration of

Assignees

• Cavalcanti Dave Alberto Tavares
• Wang Jianfeng
• Koninklijke Philips Nv

Inventors

• Cavalcanti Dave Alberto Tavares
• Wang Jianfeng

Classifications

• H04W88/085

  Access point devices with remote components · CPC title

• H04W16/14 Primary

  Spectrum sharing arrangements {between different networks} · CPC title