Optimized eco-system design with thread devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12309859-B2
Application number	US-202217874020-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 26, 2022
Priority date	Sep 24, 2021
Publication date	May 20, 2025
Grant date	May 20, 2025

Abstract

Systems, methods, and mechanisms to enhance border router performance across Thread, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth protocols, including mechanisms for Thread network mesh reconfiguration for optimized/enhanced coexistence and frequency selection with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, co-located Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/Thread coexistence border router design, and dynamic adjustment for Thread energy detection (ED).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wireless station, comprising:
at least two radios; and
at least one processor in communication with the at least two radios and configured to cause the wireless station to:
receive, from a neighboring wireless station, a mesh link establishment request via a first radio of the at least two radios that is configured to operate according to a first radio access technology (RAT); and
determine, based on connection data for one or more additional radios of the of the at least two radios that are configured to operate according to one or more additional RATs, a response configuration in which the wireless station performs at least one of:
transmitting, to the neighboring wireless station, a confidence factor in a vendor time-length-value (TLV) associated with a mesh link establishment response;
waiting for a retransmission, from the neighboring wireless station, of the mesh link establishment request before transmitting a mesh link establishment response; or
transmitting, to the neighboring wireless station, an adjusted link quality metric in a mesh link establishment response.

2. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein the connection data for the one or more additional radios comprises one or more of:
a number of active services; or
a number of active connections.

3. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein the connection data comprises one or more of:
a number of devices connected to the wireless station;
a bandwidth key performance indicator (KPIS) for a device connected to the wireless station;
a latency KPIS for the device connected to the wireless station;
a dynamic Wi-Fi link quality measurement (LQM); or
a dynamic Bluetooth LQM.

4. The wireless station of claim 3 ,
wherein a connection to the device connected to the wireless station comprises:
a Thread connection;
a Wi-Fi connection; or
a Bluetooth connection.

5. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein the vendor TLV comprises a 16-bit vendor identifier and a 16-bit vendor data value.

6. The wireless station of claim 5 ,
wherein the 16-bit vendor data value comprises the confidence factor.

7. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein, when the response configuration includes the wireless station waiting for a retransmission of the mesh link establishment request from the neighboring wireless station before transmitting a mesh link establishment response, the at least one processor is further configured to cause the wireless station to:
receive, from the neighboring wireless station, the retransmission of the mesh link establishment request after a delay period; and
transmit, to the neighboring wireless station, a mesh link establishment response that initiates establishment of a mesh link connection with the neighboring wireless station.

8. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein, when the response configuration includes the wireless station transmitting, to the neighboring wireless station, the adjusted link quality metric in the mesh link establishment response, the at least one processor is further configured to cause the wireless station to:
determine, based on the connection data, to deter establishment of mesh links; and
adjust a link quality metric based at least in part on a link margin offset.

9. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the wireless station to:
establish a mesh link connection with the neighboring wireless station;
determine that a protected management frame, to be transmitted by at least one radio of the one or more additional radios, at least partially overlaps with a requested reception of data by the first radio via the mesh link connection; and
suppress transmission of the protected management frame by the at least one radio during a reception period of the data by the first radio.

10. The wireless station of claim 1
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the wireless station to:
establish a mesh link connection with the neighboring wireless station;
determine that a duration of time between transmission of protected management frames by at least one radio of the one or more additional radios has exceeded a threshold; and
suppress reception of data by the first radio via the mesh link connection for a period of time.

11. A non-transitory computer readable memory medium storing program instructions executable by processing circuitry to cause a wireless station to:
receive, from a neighboring wireless station, a mesh link establishment request via a first radio of at least two radios of the wireless station; and
determine, based on connection data for a second radio of the of the at least two radios, a response configuration in which the wireless station performs at least one of:
transmitting, to the neighboring wireless station, a confidence factor in a vendor time-length-value (TLV) in a mesh link establishment response;
waiting for a retransmission from the neighboring wireless station of the mesh link establishment request before transmitting a mesh link establishment response; or
transmitting, to the neighboring wireless station, an adjusted link quality metric in a mesh link establishment response.

12. The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 11 ,
wherein the program instructions are further executable by the processing circuitry to cause the wireless station to:
establish a mesh link connection with the neighboring wireless station;
determine that a duration of time between transmission of protected management frames by at least one radio of the at least two radios has exceeded a threshold; and
suppress reception of data by the first radio via the mesh link connection until the first radio indicates that a data packet intended for the first radio is being transmitted.

13. The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 12 ,
wherein the program instructions are further executable by the processing circuitry to cause the wireless station to:
confirm the data packet intended for the first radio is being transmitted; and
suppress transmission of the protected management frame by the at least one radio during a reception period of the data by the first radio.

14. The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 11 ,
wherein the program instructions are further executable by the processing circuitry to cause the wireless station to:
establish a mesh link connection with the neighboring wireless station;
deny reception requests for the mesh link connection based, at least in part, on determining that a mode of operation the second radio is a critical mode of operation; and
utilize a retry mechanism to maintain performance of the mesh link, wherein the retry mechanism requires a threshold number of reception requests for the wireless station to accept the reception request for the mesh link connection.

15. The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 11 ,
wherein the program instructions are further executable by the processing circuitry to cause the wireless station to:
establish a mesh link connection with the neighboring wireless station;
determine that the second radio has on-going traffic that interferes with the mesh link connection; and
periodically transmit, from the second radio, a clear-to-send-to-self (CTS2S) frame to allow the first radio to access the medium.

16. The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 11 ,
wherein the program instructions are further executable by the processing circuitry to cause the

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Dass Yaranama Venkata Ramana
• Chen Camille
• Chen Hsin-Yao
• Flynn Paul V
• Varatharajan Sarvesh Kumar
• Chen Ye

Classifications

• H04W76/19

  Connection re-establishment · CPC title

• H04W76/18

  Management of setup rejection or failure · CPC title

• H04W76/15

  Setup of multiple wireless link connections · CPC title

• H04W84/18 Primary

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title

• H04W76/14 Primary

  Direct-mode setup · CPC title