Interleaving low transmission power and medium transmission power channels in computer networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9559750-B2
Application number	US-201514791211-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 2, 2015
Priority date	Aug 6, 2013
Publication date	Jan 31, 2017
Grant date	Jan 31, 2017

Abstract

In a multiple interface, low power and lossy network comprising a plurality of nodes, a low transmission power and medium transmission power topology are defined for the network and a channel-hopping schedule is defined for the devices operating in each topology. A sender determines that data is capable of being transmitted via a link on the low transmission power topology. The sender determines the transmission parameters for the transmission of the data over the link on the low transmission power topology and determines a low transmission power channel for transmission of the data. The sender transmits the determined channel and the transmission parameters to the receiver. The sender transmits the data via the determined channel in the low transmission power topology.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
in a low power and lossy network (LLN) comprising a plurality of computing devices, generating, by a device, a mixed channel-hopping sequence comprising an interleaved low-power channel hopping sequence and a medium-power channel hopping sequence, such that neighboring devices in the network may use both low-power and medium-power channels to communicate with the device;
communicating, by the device, the mixed channel-hopping sequence to a neighboring device; and
communicating, between the device and the neighboring device, according to the mixed channel-hopping sequence.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mixed channel-hopping sequence is communicated by transmitting a control message to the neighboring device, the control message comprising a current time and slot index of the device.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the neighboring device uses the time and slot index as inputs to a channel-sequence function to generate the mixed channel-hopping sequence.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the channel-sequence function is provided by the device in the control message.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the channel-sequence function generates a channel-hopping sequence with a higher proportion of medium-power channel slots to low-power channel slots.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the device communicates the mixed channel-hopping sequence comprising a higher proportion of medium power channel slots to low-power channel slots to the neighboring device in response to an event.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the event comprises a power outage.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein the channel-sequence function generates a channel-hopping sequence with a higher proportion of low-power channel slots to medium power channel slots.

9. An apparatus, comprising:
one or more network interfaces to communicate with a low power and lossy network (LLN);
a processor coupled to the network interfaces and adapted to execute one or more processes; and
a memory configured to store a process executable by the processor, the process when executed operable to:
generate a mixed channel-hopping sequence comprising an interleaved low-power channel hopping sequence and a medium-power channel hopping sequence such that neighboring devices in the network may use both low-power and medium-power channels to communicate with the device;
communicate the mixed channel-hopping sequence to one or more neighboring devices; and
communicate between the device and the one or more neighboring devices, according to the mixed channel-hopping sequence.

10. The apparatus as in claim 9 , wherein the mixed channel-hopping sequence is communicated to each of the one or more neighboring devices by transmitting a control message to each neighboring device, the control message comprising a current time and slot index of the apparatus.

11. The apparatus as in claim 10 , wherein each neighboring device uses the time and slot index as inputs to a channel-sequence function to generate the mixed channel-hopping sequence.

12. The apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the channel-sequence function is provided by the device in the control message.

13. The apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the channel-sequence function generates a channel-hopping sequence with a higher proportion of medium-power channel slots to low-power channel slots.

14. The apparatus as in claim 13 , wherein the device communicates the mixed channel-hopping sequence comprising a higher proportion of medium-power channel slots to low-power channel slots to each neighboring device in response to an event.

15. The apparatus as in claim 14 , wherein the event comprises a power outage.

16. A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media having software encoded thereon, the software when executed by a processor operable to:
in a low power and lossy network (LLN) comprising a plurality of nodes, generate a mixed channel-hopping sequence comprising an interleaved low-power channel hopping sequence and a medium-power channel hopping sequence, such that a single device in the network may allow neighboring devices in the network to use both low-power and medium-power channels to communicate with the single device;
communicate the mixed channel-hopping sequence to a plurality of devices in the network; and
communicate between the single device at least one of the neighboring devices according to the mixed channel-hopping sequence.

17. The computer-readable medium as in claim 16 , wherein the software when executed is further operable to communicate a control message to the at least one of the neighboring devices, the control message comprising a current time and slot index, wherein each of the at least one of the neighboring devices uses the current time and slot index as inputs to a channel-sequence function to generate the mixed channel hopping sequence on each of the at least one of the neighboring devices.

18. The computer-readable medium as in claim 17 , wherein the control message is transmitted to at least one of the neighboring devices in response to detection of an event.

19. The apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the channel-sequence function generates a channel-hopping sequence with a higher proportion of low-power channel slots to medium power channel slots.

20. The computer-readable medium as in claim 18 , wherein the event comprises a power outage.

21. The apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the channel-sequence function generates a channel-hopping sequence with a higher proportion of medium-power channel slots to low-power channel slots.

22. The computer-readable medium as in claim 17 , wherein the channel-sequence function generates a channel-hopping sequence with a higher proportion of medium-power channel slots to low-power channel slots.

23. The computer-readable medium as in claim 17 , wherein the channel-sequence function generates a channel-hopping sequence with a higher proportion of low-power channel slots to medium power channel slots.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Hui Jonathan W
• Hong Wei
• Vasseur Jean-Philippe

Classifications

• H04W72/0453

  Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA · CPC title

• H04W84/18

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

• H04B1/7143 Primary

  Arrangements for generation of hop patterns · CPC title

• H04L7/027

  extracting the synchronising or clock signal from the received signal spectrum, e.g. by using a resonant or bandpass circuit · CPC title

• H04W72/0446

  Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames · CPC title