Systems and methods for wireless load balancing and channel selection for a wireless device using WLAN modules operating simultaneously in different wireless bands

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9402199-B2
Application number	US-201314109868-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 17, 2013
Priority date	Oct 14, 2013
Publication date	Jul 26, 2016
Grant date	Jul 26, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods for enabling a WLAN client to communicate simultaneously over more than one band at a time are described, where each client has at least one radio that is operational in each supported band. Load balancing based on traffic requirements optimizes the use of the multiple bands.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by a first wireless device comprising:
determining multiband communication capabilities of a second wireless device, wherein the capabilities includes wireless channels and bands supported by the second wireless device;
upon determining that the second wireless device is capable of multiband communication, determining the plurality of wireless channels and bands for communicating based on at least wireless channels and bands supported by the first wireless device and the second wireless device;
sending information to the second device regarding the plurality of wireless channels and bands to be used for communicating; and
communicating with the second wireless device simultaneously over the plurality of wireless channels and bands using a local area network protocol;
wherein determining the plurality of wireless channels and bands for communicating is further based on specific requirements for traffic to be communicated, and further wherein the specific requirements include ensuring a number of retries for retransmitting unacknowledged packets is less than a specific number, and further wherein communicating with the second wireless device comprises channel coding across selected wireless channels.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
upon determining that the second wireless device is not capable of multiband communication, communicating with the second device using a single channel and band supported by the second wireless device.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
communicating with the second device using multipath TCP (transmission control protocol).

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the specific requirements include maintaining or exceeding a target throughput.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein communicating with the second wireless device comprises sending a first portion of the traffic to be communicated over a first wireless channel and sending a second portion of the traffic to be communicated over a second wireless channel to maintain or exceed the target throughput.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the specific requirements include meeting a delay specification.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein communicating with the second wireless device comprises sending multiple copies of each packet over two or more wireless channels simultaneously.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the plurality of wireless channels and bands for communicating is further based on specific requirements for traffic to be communicated, and further wherein the specific requirements include meeting a delay variation specification.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the specific requirements include meeting an overall rate versus range specification.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the specific requirements include meeting a quality of service requirement.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the plurality of wireless channels and bands for communicating is further based on a received signal strength indicator of the plurality of wireless channels and bands.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the plurality of wireless channels and bands for communicating is further based on a matrix rank for multiple input multiple output devices for each device in each band the device supports.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the plurality of wireless channels and bands for communicating is further based on path loss for the wireless channels.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the plurality of wireless channels and bands for communicating is further based on a socket-based band selection.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the plurality of wireless channels and bands for communicating is further based on a range of the supported wireless bands.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein communicating with the second wireless device simultaneously over the plurality of wireless channels and bands comprises:
receiving and buffering a plurality of packets from the second wireless device, wherein the plurality of packets are received over the plurality of wireless channels, and further wherein the receiving takes place at a first layer of the network;
reading a sequence number in a header of each of the plurality of packets;
ordering the buffered packets according to the sequence numbers;
passing the ordered packets to a next higher layer of the network.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein communicating with the second wireless device simultaneously over the plurality of wireless channels and bands comprises:
inserting a sequencing number in a header of each packet in a plurality of packets to be transmitted;
transmitting a first subset of the plurality of packets over a first one of the plurality of wireless channels to a second wireless device;
transmitting a second subset of the plurality of packets over a second one of the plurality of wireless channels to the second wireless device.

18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
upon determining a problem with transmitting or receiving traffic over one of the plurality of wireless channels, moving the traffic from the one of the plurality of wireless channels to a different one of the plurality of wireless channels.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting and monitoring a level of interference on the plurality of wireless channels;
determining whether an alternate channel of the plurality of wireless channels is available with a lower level of interference for an identified channel of the plurality of channels;
moving the traffic to the alternate channel if an improvement in the level of interference between the identified channel and the alternate channel is greater than a margin, wherein the margin is based on retransmission time on the alternate channel of previously transmitted and buffered traffic on the identified channel.

20. A method performed by a first wireless device comprising:
determining multiband communication capabilities of a second wireless device, wherein the capabilities includes wireless channels and bands supported by the second wireless device;
upon determining that the second wireless device is capable of multiband communication, determining the plurality of wireless channels and bands for communicating based on at least wireless channels and bands supported by the first wireless device and the second wireless device;
sending information to the second device regarding the plurality of wireless channels and bands to be used for communicating;
communicating with the second wireless device simultaneously over the plurality of wireless channels and bands using a local area network protocol;
detecting and monitoring a level of interference on the plurality of wireless channels;
determining whether an alternate channel of the plurality of wireless channels is available with a lower level of interference for an identified channel of the plurality of channels; and
moving the traffic to the alternate channel if an improvement in the level of interference between the identified channel and the alternate channel is greater than a margin, wherein the margin is based on retransmission time on the alternate channel of previously transmitted and buffered traffic on the identified channel.

Assignees

• Netgear Inc

Inventors

• Amini Peiman
• Emmanuel Joseph Amalan Arul
• Liu Chia-Wei

Classifications

• H04W72/52 Primary

  based on load · CPC title

• H04W80/02

  Data link layer protocols · CPC title

• H04B1/005

  adapting radio receivers, transmitters andtransceivers for operation on two or more bands, i.e. frequency ranges · CPC title

• H04L47/34

  ensuring sequence integrity, e.g. using sequence numbers · CPC title

• H04W72/0486

  Electricity · mapped topic