Alignment of packets for implementing coexistence of multiple homogeneous radios in a network device

Network device for realizing packet alignment in which multiple homogenous radios coexist

Alignment of packets for implementing coexistence of multiple homogeneous radios in a network device

Right to cross-reference related applications and actual filing dates

This application is entitled to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/835,488 (titled "WLAN SENSOR GATEWAY WITH COEXISTENCE SOLUTION") filed on June 14, 2013; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61, filed on June 18, 2013 /836,571 (titled "COEXISTENCE AND TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT FOR USING MULTIPLE WLAN RADIOS IN A SYSTEM"); and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/870,762 (titled "COEXISTENCE AND TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT WITH ALIGNMENT OF PACKETS AND CHANNEL STEERING"), all the aforementioned US provisional patent applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Therefore, this application has a valid application date on August 27, 2013.

This application and the U.S. Patent Application No. 14/089,651 (titled "WIRELESS SENSOR BASE STATION WITH COEXISTENCE OF MULTIPLE" HOMOGENEOUS RADIOS", filed on November 25, 2013); U.S. Patent Application No. 14/089,671 (titled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING COEXISTENCE OF MULTIPLE HOMOGENEOUS RADIOS AND TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT THEREIN", filed on November 25, 2013) ; And US Patent Application No. 14/089,680 (titled "CHANNEL STEERING FOR IMPLEMENTING COEXISTENCE OF MULTIPLE HOMOGENEOUS RADIOS", filed on November 25, 2013), all aforementioned US patent applications are incorporated by reference in their entirety This article.

The present disclosure generally relates to electronic communication, and more specifically relates to controlling multiple radio circuits in a wireless computer network system.

With the emerging technologies of wireless networks, embedded systems, and the Internet, electronic devices used in various settings (from computing and managing data to online shopping and social networks) have a greater network bandwidth and There is a growing demand for higher network speeds. Especially with regard to electronic and digital content that has been widely used in shared and network environments compared to traditional stand-alone personal computers and mobile devices. Therefore, data traffic, especially wireless data traffic, has experienced tremendous growth.

At the same time, more and more wireless devices are used in these electronic devices. Wire technology occupies the same or similar radio frequency bands (for example, 2.4GHz, 3.6GHz, 5GHz or 60GHz), which may cause mutual interference and adversely affect the network transmission and reception of the wireless network circuit carried on the electronic device. Moreover, many of these electronic devices are mobile or portable devices that rely on limited power sources for operation, and typically sending or receiving data traffic in a noisy environment will have a negative impact on power consumption.

Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method and device for increasing the bandwidth of a wireless network, reducing wireless network interference, and reducing power consumption of mobile devices.

<p>100Computer network environment</p><p>110Base station</p><p>120Internet</p><p>130aUser device</p><p>130bUser device</p><p>130cUser device</p><p>130nUser device</p><p>200Function block diagram</p><p>210Base station</p><p>220aWireless network circuit</p><p>220bWireless network circuit</p><p>220cWireless network circuit</p><p>230Coexistence Controller</p><p>240Coexistence bus</p><p>400Layered Model</p><p>420Media access control layer and physical layer</p><p>500Timing diagram</p><p>502 icon</p><p>504 icon</p><p>506 icon</p><p>600 icon</p><p>700Function chart</p><p>800 icon</p><p>900 icon</p><p>1000Function chart</p><p>1010Base station</p><p>1020aWireless network circuit</p><p>1020bWireless network circuit</p><p>1030Coexistence Controller</p><p>1040Coexistence Bus</p><p>1050Gateway</p><p>1060Wireless network circuit</p><p>1070aWireless Sensor</p><p>1070bWireless Sensor</p><p>1070nWireless Sensor</p><p>1100Timing diagram</p><p>1200Timing diagram</p><p>1300Overview</p><p>1400Method</p><p>1410Distribution steps</p><p>1420Decision Steps</p><p>1430Control steps</p><p>1500Method</p><p>1510Decision Steps</p><p>1520Suppression step</p><p>1522Operation and collocation conditions</p><p>1524Distribution conditions</p>

This embodiment is described by way of example, and is not intended to be limited by the drawings in the drawings. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a representative computer network environment in which some embodiments can be implemented; Figure 2A is a schematic functional block diagram showing a radio base station equipped with a coexistence controller according to some embodiments; Figure 2B is The table shows an example situation where the coexistence controller can provide improvement; Fig. 2C is a table showing the upper, middle and lower frequencies of different wireless local area network (WLAN) channels in a typical 2.4GHz frequency band; Fig. 2D is a table, Shown are example frequencies of different wireless local area network (WLAN) channels available in a typical 5GHz frequency band (for example, in the United States); FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing some examples according to Some implementation details of the specific example of the coexistence controller of FIG. 2A; FIGS. 4A and 4B are schematic diagrams using a hierarchical model to show the example hierarchy between the coexistence controller and other components in the base station of FIG. 2A Fig. 5A is a timing diagram showing an example of the synchronization operation of multiple radio circuits coordinated by the coexistence controller according to some embodiments; Figs. 5B-5D further show the synchronization of Fig. 5A according to some embodiments Additional details of operation; Fig. 6 is a timing diagram showing an example of asynchronous operation of multiple radio circuits coordinated by a coexistence controller according to some embodiments; Fig. 7A is a functional diagram showing according to some embodiments, This embodiment can operate in additional modes; Figures 7B-7D are functional diagrams, showing some specific example scenarios in which the WLAN access point and WLAN station of Figure 7A can be operated; Figure 8 is a diagram showing according to some embodiments, A probe request procedure on a preferred channel that can be implemented by the coexistence controller; FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a probe request procedure on a non-optimal channel that can be implemented by the coexistence controller according to some embodiments; Figure 10 It is a schematic functional block diagram showing a wireless base station equipped with a coexistence controller implemented in an environment with a plurality of wireless sensors according to some embodiments; FIG. 11 is a timing diagram for processing according to some embodiments Downlink traffic from the base station of FIG. 10 to the wireless sensor; FIG. 12 is a timing diagram for processing the uplink traffic from the wireless sensor of FIG. 10 to the base station according to some embodiments; FIG. 13 It is a schematic diagram showing an asymmetric buffering structure or mechanism that can be adopted or controlled by the coexistence controller according to some embodiments; FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the control and control that can be implemented by the coexistence controller according to some embodiments. A method of coordinating multiple radio circuits; and FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing a method of reducing interference between multiple radio circuits that can be implemented by a coexistence controller according to some embodiments.

The same reference numerals refer to the corresponding parts in the drawings and the description.

[Content and Implementation of the Invention]

A technique for reducing interference between multiple radio circuits in a network device is disclosed, and the radio circuits physically operate in the same or similar frequency bands in close proximity. In some embodiments, the network device includes first and second wireless network circuits. These network circuits operate on the same radio frequency band and are placed together. The second network circuit is assigned a priority higher than or equal to the first network circuit. The device further includes a coexistence controller, which is coupled to the network circuits through the communication bus, and is configured to selectively inhibit the first network circuit during the receiving operation of the second network circuit The transmission operation of the circuit.

In addition to other benefits, the embodiments disclosed herein can increase wireless network bandwidth and reduce power consumption of mobile devices by providing coordination between radio circuits so that they can perform transmission and reception in a way that they do not interfere with their respective antennas. Receive operation.

In the following description, many specific details are explained, such as examples of specific components, circuits, and processes, in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. Moreover, in the following description and for ease of explanation, specific terms are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of this embodiment. However, for those skilled in the art, it will be obvious that these specific details are not required to implement this embodiment. In other examples, conventional circuits and devices are shown in block diagrams to avoid obscuring the present disclosure.

The term "coupled" as used herein refers to directly connected or connected via one or more intermediate elements or circuits. Any signal provided through various buses described in this article can be time-multiplexed with other signals and provided through one or more public buses. In addition, the interconnection between circuit elements or between software blocks can be shown as a bus or as a single signal line. Each of the buses may also be a single signal line, and each of the single signal lines may also be a bus, and a single wire or a single bus may be used for communication between components (for example, a network) One or more of countless entities or logical organizations. This embodiment should not be construed as limited to the specific examples described herein, but includes all embodiments defined by the attached patent application within its scope.

To facilitate discussion, here, "heterogeneous radio" refers to It is a radio or wireless network circuit of a plurality of different network technologies; for example, IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (for example, WiFi), Bluetooth, 2G, 3G, Long Range Evolution Project (LTE) and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) They are all different network technologies. Conversely, "homogeneous radio" refers to multiple radios or wireless network circuits of the same network technology; for example, multiple wireless local area network (WLAN) circuits (although one of them may be on channel 1 of the 2.4GHz band) Operate and use the IEEE 802.11n protocol, while others may operate on channel 6 of the 2.4GHz frequency band and use the IEEE 802.11g protocol) are the same family of WLAN technology, so they are homogeneous radios. Some examples of radios that are common on the 2.4 GHz band may include IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, or IEEE 802.11n.

<b>System Overview</b>

Figure 1 is a representative computer network environment 100 in which some embodiments can be implemented. The environment 100 includes a base station 110, a network 120, and a plurality of user devices 130a-130n.

The base station 110 (which is shown as operating in an "access point (AP)" mode) is coupled to the network 120 so that the base station 110 can enable the user device 130 to exchange data to and from the network 120. For example, the base station 110 and the network 120 may be connected through a twisted pair cable network, a coaxial cable network, a telephone network, or any suitable type of connection network. In some embodiments, the base station 110 and the network 120 may be connected wirelessly (for example, it may include the use of an IEEE 802.11 wireless network, or be based on a wireless network such as 3G, 3.5G, Data streaming network for wireless phone services such as 4G LTE). The technology supporting the communication between the base station 110 and the network 120 may include Ethernet (for example, described in the IEEE 802.3 family of standards) and/or other appropriate types of local area network technologies. Examples of different wireless protocols in the IEEE 802.11 family of standards may include IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11af, IEEE 802.11ah, and IEEE 802.11ad.

Although not shown for the sake of simplicity, the base station 110 may include one or more processors, which may be general-purpose processors, or may be application-specific integrated circuits that provide arithmetic and control functions for the base station 110 Implementation of the technology disclosed in this article. The processor(s) may include cache memory (not shown for simplicity) and other memories (for example, main memory and/or non-volatile memory such as hard disk drives or solid state drives). In some examples, SRAM is used to implement cache memory, DRAM is used to implement main memory, and flash memory or one or more disk drives are used to implement non-volatile memory. According to some embodiments, the memories may include one or more memory chips or modules, and the processor(s) on the base station 110 can execute a plurality of instructions or program codes stored in its memory .

The user device 130 may wirelessly, for example, use IEEE 802.11 family standards (eg, wireless local area network) to connect and communicate with the base station 110, and may include any suitable intermediate wireless network devices, including, for example, the base station, Router, gateway, hub or similar. Depending on the embodiment, the connection between the user device 130 and the base station 110 The network technology of may include other suitable wireless standards, such as the conventional Bluetooth protocol or Near Field Communication (NFC) protocol. In some embodiments, the network technology between the device 130 and the station 110 may include a customized version of WLAN, Bluetooth, or a customized version of other suitable wireless technologies. The user device 130 may be any suitable computing or mobile device, including, for example, a smart phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or the like. The user device 130 typically includes a display, and may include a suitable input device (not shown for simplicity) such as a keyboard, mouse, or keyboard. In some embodiments, the display may be a touch-sensitive screen that includes input functions. Other examples of the device 130 may include cameras connected to the Internet (or "IP cameras"), household sensors, and other home appliances (for example, "smart refrigerators" that can be connected to the Internet).

It should be noted that those skilled in the art will understand that the element of FIG. 1 is only an implementation of the computer network environment in which this embodiment can be implemented, and various alternative embodiments are within the scope of this embodiment. Inside. For example, the environment 100 may further include intermediate devices (eg, switches, routers, hubs, etc.) among the base station 110, the network 120, and the user device 130. In some examples, the network 120 includes the Internet.

<b>Coexistence Institution</b>

2A is a schematic functional block diagram 200 showing a radio base station 210 equipped with a coexistence controller 230 according to some embodiments. The base station 210 is an example of the base station 110 in FIG. 1. As shown in Figure 2A, no The base station 210 includes a plurality of wireless network circuits 220a-220c and a coexistence controller 230. According to one or more embodiments, the coexistence controller 230 is coupled to each of the network circuits 220a-220c through the coexistence bus 240.

As mentioned earlier, many wireless network technologies used in electronic devices occupy the same or similar frequency bands. An example of this frequency band is the well-known Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) radio frequency band. Take one of the most commonly used ISM bands (2.4GHz band) as an example. Technologies that use this band for various purposes include wireless local area network and Bluetooth. Some other common wireless communication technologies also operate in similar frequency bands (for example, the range of 2.3GHz to 2.7GHz); they include LTE band 40 (TDD-LTE), LTE UL band 7 (FDD-LTE), and LTE band 38 ( TDD-LTE) and LTE DL band 7 (FDD-LTE), to name just a few examples.

For ease of discussion, it is assumed here that the wireless network circuits 220a-220c are wireless local area network circuits operating in the main frequency band of 2.4 GHz.

FIG. 2C is a table 204 showing the upper, middle, and lower frequencies of different wireless local area network channels in a typical 2.4 GHz frequency band. 2D is a table 206 showing example frequencies of different wireless local area network (WLAN) channels available in a typical 5 GHz frequency band (for example, in the United States). As shown in Figure 2C, in the United States and Canada, there are 11 channels available for use in the 2.4GHz wireless local area network frequency band, as defined by the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. In particular, for wireless local area network access points located close to each other, in the IEEE 802.11 standard (for example, IEEE 802.11b), 3 non-overlapping channels (for example, channels 1, 6 and 11) can be selected from 11 channels. ). It is usually recommended for those skilled in the art One of the above non-overlapping channels should be used for each wireless network circuit operating in close proximity to minimize or reduce the negative impact of interference.

However, this embodiment recognizes that when the operating frequencies of different wireless network circuits are only separated by less than 20 MHz, typically 50 dB isolation may be required to completely or effectively avoid coexistence interference in the device. This is particularly the case for mobile handheld applications, where the device has a small form factor; devices in this application usually only provide 10-30dB isolation between different wireless network circuits. Therefore, in fact, even if transmitting and receiving on non-overlapping channels, and in some cases, a spectrum mask is used (for example, the transmission spectrum mask for 20MHz transmission in the 2.4GHz band, as defined by IEEE), noise and other Factors may still cause coexisting wireless network circuits to interfere with each other, especially on devices with small form factors such as mobile phones or wireless base stations.

As an example, it can be seen in this disclosure that at least in the LTE 2.4G ISM band, the lower part of the ISM band is very close to the LTE TDD band 40. Therefore, in the case of a single mobile device that uses LTE, WLAN and Bluetooth coexistence, the LTE transmitter may cause interference to the WLAN and/or BT receiver; and similarly, the BT/WLAN transmitter may cause interference to the LTE receiver. interference. As another example, in the case of a device in which an LTE phone and a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver circuit coexist, the uplink of LTE band 13 (e.g., 777-787MHz) and band 14 (e.g., 788-798MHz) The transmission will interrupt the operation of the GNSS receiver using the L1 frequency (for example, 1575.42 MHz). One reason for this is that the second harmonic of band 13 The wave (e.g., 1554-1574 MHz) and the second harmonic of band 14 (e.g., 1576-1596 MHz) are very close to the L1 frequency.

In addition, this embodiment recognizes that when two or more radio networks are physically very close and operate in the same or similar frequency bands at the same time, there are several situations that may cause interference. FIG. 2B is a table 202 showing an example situation where the coexistence controller can provide improvements. As shown in Table 202, when one radio is transmitting, the receiving performance of the other radio(s) will be desensitized. For the purpose of this article, radio circuits that are physically located very close or "collocated" refer to radio circuits that are located close enough to each other so that the transmission operation on one circuit will adversely affect the radio circuits on the other circuit. Receiving operation; some typical examples are that two radio circuits located on the same physical device (for example, a base station) or the same printed circuit board (PCB) are physically very close.

It should be noted that Fig. 2B is a general representation of the interference phenomenon that may be caused by the simultaneous operation of collocated radios; in some embodiments, those skilled in the art can also apply appropriate filtering, so that the interference caused by different radios can be reduced. The sensitivity loss caused by the simultaneous or nearly simultaneous transmission (TX) and reception (RX) of the collocated radio circuit. In particular, depending on the frequency band of the channel used and the type of filtering, the actual severity of the sensitivity loss shown in Figure 2B may be different.

Therefore, this embodiment provides an effective mechanism for coordinating the scheduling of the sending and receiving operations of the network circuit 220, so as to reduce the interference in the device caused by the coexistence of wireless network circuits operating in the same or similar frequency bands. Disturb. According to some embodiments, when two or more wireless radios may be used on the same device in the same frequency band (for example, the 2.4GHz band or the 5GHz band), the device may adopt a coexistence mechanism (hardware (HW) and/or Software (SW)), so that these radios can operate in the same frequency band without desensitizing each other's receiving operations. The HW mechanism for coexistence may include a digital hardware bus in some embodiments, and may include a radio frequency (RF) circuit in other embodiments; in some other embodiments, the HW mechanism may use a combination of digital and RF mechanisms. combination. Further, depending on the embodiment, the digital HW mechanism may include a direct hardware line connecting the access mechanisms of two chipsets, or may be a hardware connecting the access mechanisms of two hardware blocks inside a chipset Wire. The RF mechanism may include RF filters, RF switches, or other suitable RF filters.

More specifically, in one or more embodiments, each of the network circuits 220a-220c may be assigned a priority, and the coexistence controller 230 is coupled to the network circuits 220a-220c through the coexistence bus 240 to control Operation between two (or three) of the network circuits 220a-220c. It should be noted that in some embodiments, it is possible for one or more of the network circuits 220a-220c to be assigned the same priority.

The coexistence controller 230 can selectively adjust one or more transmission operating parameters of an individual network circuit (for example, circuit 220a) based on a plurality of operating criteria, the plurality of operating criteria including the comparison of the network circuit 220a with other circuits Priority of priority. The priority of each network circuit (for example, circuit 220a) may be predetermined (for example, by the manufacturer of the base station 210), or may be based on (for example, by the coexistence controller 230) It is dynamically allocated based on some priority allocation criteria. Priority assignment criteria may include traffic, traffic type (for example, data, voice, video, sensor application, etc.), wireless channel conditions experienced by each circuit, and/or other appropriate factors.

The operating criteria can reflect various considerations, such as the number of user devices handled by each network circuit (for example, device 130, Figure 1), the data flow seen by each network circuit, the data rate supported by each network circuit, and each network circuit The type of traffic allocated, the wireless channel conditions or noise experienced by each network circuit (for example, measured by RSSI or a known matrix rank), etc. According to this embodiment, the operating criterion is selected so that the coexistence controller controls the operation in a manner that reduces the probability of the network circuits 220a-220c desensitizing each other. In some embodiments, the coexistence controller 230 can use multiple wireless network circuits (for example, circuits 220a-220c) on the base station 210 to implement, for example, load balancing and/or frequency planning. .

It should be noted that in the embodiment of dynamically allocating the priority of the wireless network circuit, the priority allocation criterion can be determined in the same or similar manner as the operation criterion determined by the coexistence controller 230.

The sending operation parameter used for the wireless network circuit is the configuration used by the network circuit to send data. For example, in some embodiments, the coexistence controller 230 can reduce the transmit power on one wireless network circuit (for example, circuit 220a) when another wireless network circuit (for example, circuit 220b) is receiving. As mentioned earlier, the coexistence controller 230 selectively adjusts the transmission operating parameters of the circuit 220a, for example, because the circuit 220b has Higher priority. In another example, the operating parameters of the circuit 220a receive adjustments from the controller 230 because the operating criteria as determined by the controller 230 indicate that the circuit 220b is connected to (for example, and received from) a limited power supply device, such as a mobile phone . This operating criterion may also reflect that the circuit 220b is currently processing high-priority types of traffic (for example, such as an image sent from an anti-theft camera sensor), so the controller 230 adjusts (for example, suppresses) the sending operation parameters of the circuit 220a , So that the circuit 220a will not interfere with the reception of the circuit 220b.

In other or alternative embodiments, other transmission operating parameters that can be adjusted by the coexistence controller 230 may include the data rate (for example, 11Mbit/s or 54Mbit/s) and/or the network protocol used by the individual network circuits (for example, , IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11ah, etc.). In some examples, the transmission operating parameters may also include the channel on which the individual network circuit operates (for example, channel 1, channel 6, or channel 11 in the WLAN 2.4 GHz frequency band). As other examples, the channels available in the WLAN 5GHz frequency band may include channel 36, channel 100, or channel 161. In some embodiments, the sending operation parameter may also include the frequency band (for example, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, etc.) in which the individual network circuit operates. Other known configuration adjustments, such as modulation or phase adjustment, may also be included in the adjustable transmission operation parameter list of the coexistence controller 230. In some embodiments, appropriate RF filtering can also be applied to reduce the influence of interference. In some such embodiments, when the RF filter is applied, the software part of the coexistence mechanism can be used to complete the appropriate channel selection to make better use of the RF filter.

The coexistence bus 240 can be used by the coexistence controller 230 to schedule or coordinate transmission and reception to avoid reception desensitization. The coexistence bus 240 may be implemented in the form of a serial bus, a plurality of dedicated buses, or other suitable forms (such as a network). Specifically, depending on the embodiment, the coexistence mechanism may be software only, hardware only, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware-based coexistence mechanisms may include hardware buses, modified radio frequency (RF) front ends, and/or other appropriate implementations. Examples of software-based coexistence mechanisms can be located in different layers of the network, including, for example, the PHY layer, the MAC layer, and/or the IP layer.

In some specific implementations, the coexistence bus 240 together with the coexistence controller 230 may adopt a coexistence mechanism operating in the same or similar frequency band, which is similar to IEEE 802.15.2 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)-Bluetooth (which is a heterogeneous Radio (e.g., operation) coexistence mechanism for implementing/coordinating the coexistence of homogeneous radios (e.g., WLAN-WLAN); however, it should be noted that the standard IEEE 802.15.2 coexistence mechanism is dedicated to WLAN-Bluetooth coexistence applications, Therefore, appropriate modifications (e.g., such as those described herein) may be required for homogeneous radio applications. Fig. 3 is a functional block diagram showing some implementation details of a specific example of the coexistence controller of Fig. 2A according to some embodiments, the coexistence controller adopts a modified IEEE 802.15.2 coexistence mechanism.

Depending on the embodiment, either or both of cooperative or non-cooperative mechanisms (as specified in the IEEE 802.15.2 standard) may be suitable for use with the coexistence controller 230. As shown in FIG. 3, the cooperative coexistence mechanism of IEEE 802.15.2 is modified (for example, it can be implemented by the coexistence controller 230). Implementation, Figure 2A), to perform packet traffic arbitration for the coexistence of homogeneous radio (for example, WLAN-WLAN) applications. It should be noted that more details of the Packet Traffic Arbitration (PTA) mechanism can be found in Clause 6 (Clause 6) of the 802.15.2 Recommended Practices.

Of course, those skilled in the art will understand that other standard or non-standard coexistence mechanisms (for example, they can be developed for coexistence of heterogeneous radios such as WLAN, Bluetooth, and LTE) can also be used in the same manner as disclosed herein. Modification and application to homogeneous radio coexistence (e.g., WLAN to WLAN).

4A and 4B are schematic diagrams of using the hierarchical model 400 to show an exemplary hierarchical relationship between the coexistence controller 230 and other components in the base station 210 of FIG. 2A. The model 400 generally follows the naming convention of the conventional Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, as standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in ISO/IEC 7498-1. For the purpose of this article, the media access (MAC) layer is located between the network layer (layer 3 of the OSI model) and the physical (PHY) layer (layer 1), and is a sublayer of the data link layer (layer 2) , Which provides addressing, channel access control, and other appropriate functions. It should be noted that the model 400 is provided herein to further understand this embodiment; and other models (for example, TCP/IP model) can be used and/or modified to implement this embodiment.

As shown in FIGS. 4A-4B, according to one or more embodiments, the coexistence controller 230 (FIG. 2A) can function as an additional layer (labeled MAC2) on top of the MAC layer of the current wireless network circuit, so that the current Radio circuits that have been designed and available in the market can be used (for example, to base station 210, FIG. 2A) as modules to increase reusability and save design costs. In particular, Figure 4A shows a model that uses a coexistence bus to coordinate radios at the MAC layer; in contrast, the model shown in Figure 4B does not use a coexistence bus, but instead uses an RF filter to assist in the MAC2 layer. Coexistence institutions on the In some embodiments, the MAC2 layer may include a link aggregation mechanism to aggregate links in the lower layer (for example, two MAC layer links as shown in FIG. 4B).

The coexistence bus 240 (FIG. 2A) can act as a coordination mechanism coupled to the MAC layer of the network circuit. The bus 240 can be used by the coexistence controller 230 to communicate and control each of the network circuits 420. Therefore, each of the network circuits may include separate media access control (MAC) layer and physical (PHY) layer circuits, such as the MAC and PHY layer 420 shown in FIG. 4. In other words, in some embodiments of the base station 210, there may be separate and independent MAC engines for the network circuits 220a-220c (FIG. 2A), with the coexistence bus 230 and the above MAC2 layer (for example, the coexistence controller 240). Where) is used for management. In some embodiments, either or both of the MAC or MAC2 layers can perform aggregation, encryption, decryption, and/or other timing critical tasks. In some embodiments, the coexistence controller 230 can manage a selected number of network data traffic from the network circuits 220a-220c to aggregate the bandwidth of the selected number of network circuits (which are described in more detail below) ). Examples of aggregation may include aggregation of MAC protocol data units (AMPDU) and aggregation of MAC service data units (AMSDU). Examples of encryption may include Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), Temporary Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), and so on.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 2A, in some embodiments, operations controlled by the coexistence controller 230 (for example, operating parameter adjustment) are performed independently on each of the network circuits 220a-220c, so that each circuit (for example, circuit 220a) The operating parameters can be fine-tuned individually by the coexistence controller 230, and do not necessarily affect other network circuits coupled to the same coexistence bus 240.

In combination with the above, one or more embodiments of the coexistence controller 230 can implement interference reduction techniques, such as reducing transmission power, changing channels, or disabling transmission of selected networks, which are based on workload, traffic type, and network. The priority of the circuits and the users they are connected to (for example, are they sensitive to power consumption), the type of data traffic, the noise observed by the radio antenna, or other appropriate factors experienced by the network circuits 220a-220c. In some implementations, the operation between the network circuits 220a-220c is controlled by the coexistence controller 230 so that the network circuits 220a-220c can simultaneously or almost simultaneously send and receive data. For example, the wireless network circuit 220a can transmit on channel 6 of the 2.4 GHz frequency band with the attenuated power level, while the wireless network circuits 220b and 220c can receive on channel 1 and channel 11 of the 2.4 GHz frequency band, respectively. In some embodiments, and especially those equipped with radios operating in the 5 GHz band, the coexistence mechanism may also adjust the appropriate filtering. Some embodiments of the coexistence mechanism may adapt RF filtering or other front-end technologies to assist the coexistence mechanism in reducing interference and desensitization from one radio to the other.

The configuration of the base station 210 shown in FIG. 2A and the configuration shown in FIG. 4 The model 410 shown is only an example. The base station 210 may include any suitable number of network circuits 220a-220c, more than one coexistence controller 230, and/or other processing units coupled to the coexistence bus 240 to perform coordination/control operations. In addition, the coexistence controller 230 can be integrated into other suitable types of computing devices, including, for example, accelerated processing units (APUs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors (DSPs), or other types of microprocessors.installation. The device.

<b>Packet alignment</b>

FIG. 5A is a timing diagram 500 showing an example of synchronous operation of multiple radio circuits coordinated by a coexistence controller according to some embodiments, and FIG. 6 is a timing diagram 600 showing according to some embodiments, such as coexistence An example of asynchronous operation of multiple radio circuits coordinated by the controller. These coexistence mechanisms can be used by the coexistence controller 230 of FIG. 2A (for example, in cooperation with the coexistence bus 240) to implement the various homogeneous radio coexistence functions disclosed herein. In the following, we will continue to refer to FIG. 2A in fuller details. And be discussed.

As mentioned above, according to some embodiments, the management coexistence controller (e.g., controller 230) in the MAC2 layer (and in some embodiments in a higher layer) is connected to the coexistence bus ( For example, a combination of bus bars 240) can be configured to implement an embodiment of the present disclosure. Depending on the implementation, a radio circuit (e.g., circuit 220a) or a group of radio circuits can be given the highest priority and act as the master, or all radio circuits (e.g., circuit 220a- 220c) may have similar priority. Additionally or alternatively, the priority of such radios may be dynamically changed (for example, depending on workload and other operating criteria) or may change over time (for example, using a time-sharing mechanism, round robin, or other appropriate Multi-access protocol). Depending on the embodiment, the coexistence mechanism may involve only the MAC2 layer, only the upper MAC layer, or a suitable combination of both.

Although one benefit of this embodiment is to avoid reception desensitization, the coexistence controller 230 can also consider other operating criteria (for example, traffic type or fairness). In an example, the coexistence mechanism (for example, implemented by the coexistence controller 230 and the coexistence bus 240) can ensure that all wireless network circuits receive at least one transmission opportunity; other operating criteria can be included in all radios used for transmission The fairness, or operating guidelines, may include a hunger policy. In some embodiments, quality of service (QoS) may be taken into consideration when the coexistence mechanism decides which radio circuit to start transmitting. In some embodiments, even when the radio circuit is suppressed or deactivated by the coexistence mechanism, short transmission of some acknowledgment (ACK) packets may be allowed; this technique is helpful in some cases where channel coding is used.

Also, it should be noted that in some organizations, due to the use of other suitable software and hardware, it may not be necessary to send suppression or suspension.

Therefore, according to some embodiments, the coexistence mechanism can synchronize transmission and reception operations to increase or maximize the throughput (TPUT) or bandwidth of the entire wireless network. This synchronization operation is shown in FIG. 500. In Figure 500, all transmission operations and reception operations are synchronized among all wireless network circuits 220a-220c, so that the circuits 220a-220c are in any given position. Only one of sending or receiving is performed at a certain time. This technique can avoid desensitization caused by simultaneous transmission and reception of different homogeneous radios, as shown in Table 202 in FIG. 2B, for example. It should be noted that AMPDU, AMSDU or a combination of the two can be used in downlink data packets. For the example shown in diagram 500, a downlink (DL) data packet is shown as containing a DL AMPDU and a single MPDU. Optionally, before the data sending/receiving operation, request to send (RTS) and clear to send (CTS) handshake packets may be exchanged between the sender (for example, the user device 130, FIG. 1) and the base station 210. Additionally or as an alternative to increasing throughput, a coexistence mechanism can be used to coordinate the radios to achieve better delay requirements or other quality of service (QoS) metrics for one or more of the radios.

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 5A, the coexistence mechanism may align the downlink packet transmission (or reception operation) of some selected wireless network (for example, WLAN) circuits operating on different channels in the same frequency band, using For synchronized operations. In some embodiments, packets received by different radio circuits need to have the same duration in the downlink, and in this embodiment, the coexistence controller 230 can perform frame filling, so that the radio circuits 220a-220c Data packets in (e.g., received in the downlink) become the same size.

Figures 5B-5D further illustrate additional details of the synchronization operation of Figure 5A, according to some embodiments, including some examples of filling techniques that can be used by the coexistence mechanism.

Continuing to refer to the example of FIG. 5A, in this example AMPDU is used in a downlink (DL) data packet. The illustration 502 of FIG. 5B illustrates Typical structure of AMPDU subframe. According to one or more embodiments, each AMPDU subframe may include an MPDU delimiter, which may optionally follow the MPDU. In addition, zero length delimiters can also be used. Although not shown in FIG. 5B for simplicity, the "length" field of the MPDU delimiter may include a different number of bits based on the type of IEEE 802.11 packet, or it may require other appropriate requirements as the network technology is being used. .

In the example shown in the diagram 504 of FIG. 5C, one or more zero-length delimiters are added to make different homogeneous radio circuits (for example, IEEE 802.11n and IEEE 802.11ac, as shown in FIG. 5C) The multiple AMPDUs have the same size to align the packets. It should be noted that in the illustration 504, the delimiters are added at the end of the frame; however, other suitable positions can also be used. For example, in the diagram 506 of FIG. 5D, the zero-length delimiters are used in the middle of the packet.

In addition, the coexistence mechanism can also send uplink response packets at the same time or almost at the same time (for example, within the error tolerance defined by the IEEE 802.11 specification), such as shown in diagram 500 of FIG. 5A. Some embodiments of the coexistence mechanism may also use different modulations and/or may include different numbers of bits in the PHY or MAC payload to send and/or receive different packets on different channels.

As an additional or alternative embodiment of synchronous sending and receiving operations, the coexistence mechanism also adopts asynchronous operations. In an asynchronous operation, sending or receiving operations on different network circuits (and preferably on different channels) can be used by the coexistence controller 230 using the aforementioned operating criteria (for example, based on The nature of the data flow, fairness, hunger avoidance policies (which can be based on different levels of the payment plan, etc.) are prioritized in the above-mentioned manner. For example, as shown in the diagram 600 of FIG. 6, the transmission of the radio circuit 2 is delayed or delayed because the radio circuit 1 is already receiving (for example, because the radio circuit 1 has a higher priority). Especially in the example shown in the figure 600, the radio 1 can still send ACK packets during the receiving operation of the radio 3. This may be because the coexistence controller 230 determines that the interference caused by sending the ACK packet can be tolerated (for example, because the transmission is short, because the transmission can be successfully performed at the attenuated power level, or because of appropriate reasons such as those described above ), or just because radio 1 has a higher priority than radio 3.

FIG. 7A is a functional diagram 700 illustrating an additional mode in which the coexistence controller 210 (FIG. 2A) can be operated according to some embodiments. As shown in diagram 700, the coexistence controller 210 (for example, implemented in a base station such as the station 110, FIG. 1) can coordinate with users (for example, user devices 130a-130n) with a plurality of wireless network circuits. Each network circuit on the network device uses a uniquely designated channel to communicate with the corresponding network circuit on the client.

For example, if the wireless local area network access point is equipped with 3 wireless network circuits, and if the user device is also equipped with 3 wireless network circuits, the coexistence controller 230 can (for example, use an appropriate standard or custom Protocol) is coordinated with the user device, so that each radio circuit on the access point can communicate with the corresponding radio circuit on the user device, so that interference can be reduced when the bandwidth is increased. In other words, the first wireless network on the access point The circuit can use channel A to exchange data with the first wireless network circuit on the user device, and the second wireless network circuit on the access point can use channel B to exchange data with the second wireless network circuit on the user device Information and so on.

It should be noted that the user may also need to implement the coexistence mechanism disclosed in this article to perform such channel coordination/bandwidth aggregation/interference reduction technology with the base station.

In addition, in some cases where user devices that have multiple radios and implement a coexistence mechanism are connected to the base station 210, the coexistence controller 230 can rearrange the frames received from various connected user devices and arrange them in order. Send to a higher layer (for example, the IP layer), in addition to the functionality already mentioned above. In some embodiments, the coexistence controller 230 may be coupled to a rearrangement buffer (not shown for simplicity) to perform the rearrangement task.

And, because the embodiment of the coexistence controller 230 can individually control multiple wireless local area network radio circuits, in some implementations, a selected number of radio circuits can be operated to act as access points (APs), while other selected numbers The radio circuit can be operated to act as a user. This technique is useful for range expansion or other appropriate purposes.

Optionally, the coexistence controller 230 can use one or more radio circuits equipped on the base station 210 to implement WiFi Direct, Peer-to-Peer, or any other IEEE 802.11 or WiFi optional functions.

Figures 7B-7D are functional diagrams showing some specific example scenarios in which the WLAN access point and WLAN station of Figure 7A can be operated. In the picture In 7B-7D, the WLAN station connected to the WLAN access point itself can be used as an access point for other wireless stations.

<b>Channel turn</b>

In addition to the aforementioned functionality or as an alternative, some embodiments of the coexistence controller 230 can dynamically determine (for example, during the normal operation of the base station 210, and based on operating criteria) and distribute the connected user devices 130 to different wireless network circuits 220a-220c and/or different channels. For the purpose of the discussion in this section, it is assumed that each radio circuit operates on different channels in the same frequency band; however, different combinations of switching network circuits and/or channels can be implemented or executed by the coexistence mechanism disclosed herein.

More specifically, the coexistence mechanism (for example, implemented by the coexistence controller 230 and the coexistence bus 240) can associate the subscriber station to the base station 210 on different channels. Because the base station 210 includes a plurality of wireless network circuits, each of which can operate on a different channel, in one or more implementations, the multi-channel base station 210 can use a coexistence controller 230 to operate based on operating criteria (for example, , Such as those described above) direct the user device to a different channel. In other words, the coexistence controller 230 can determine which subscriber station will be connected to which network circuit (and its associated channel) based on the operating criteria.

In addition to or as an alternative to those aforementioned operating criteria, some examples of operating criteria may include: load distribution and balance between channels, any throughput requirements, any QoS requirements (e.g., delay, jitter, packet error rate, throughput Specifications, etc.), any interference from other radios in each channel, from other wireless local area networks or Any interference from other radios (e.g., operated by nearby base stations or users with overlapping basic service set identification (BSSID)), interference from non-WLAN related devices (e.g., microwave ovens), etc.

In some embodiments, the memory controller 230 is located on top of the MAC layer (for example, as the MAC2 layer, as shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B) for managing radio circuits, each of which may include their own MAC and PHY circuits . It should be noted that other layers in the network stack (for example, other layers in the OSI model) can also be used to manage multiple wireless network (for example, WLAN) circuits.

According to one or more embodiments, the coexistence controller 230 can also force selection by ensuring that the user device cannot be associated with itself on any other unauthorized channels. In some other embodiments, the coexistence controller 230 can make the communication interface to the upper layer (for example, the network layer or the IP layer in the OSI model) operate in the same manner. It should be noted that after the user device is associated with the base station 210, the coexistence controller 230 may need to transmit the data packet assigned to the user device to the MAC layer of the corresponding radio circuit, which serves the user device to be associated or assigned Channel.

In addition, after the user device is connected to the network circuit and associated with the channel, the coexistence controller 230 can move the user device from one channel to another channel, when such movement is desired. For example, if the data traffic workload aggregated from all devices connected to a network circuit exceeds or almost exceeds the service capacity of the network circuit, the coexistence controller 230 can select Sexually move some of the connected users to other wireless network circuits. As another example, if interference on a channel (e.g., as observed by a network circuit operating on that channel) increases to a level that exceeds a maximum threshold (e.g., so that the currently connected user device may not be properly served ), the coexistence controller 230 can selectively move some of the connected users to other wireless network circuits. For some embodiments, if the channel conditions on another channel become better than the current channel (for example, because the interference source is removed), the coexistence controller 230 may selectively select among the connected users Some moved to other wireless network circuits. In some embodiments, typical channel switching notifications can be used to move the user device from one channel to another. Specifically, in some embodiments, channel switching notifications in IEEE 802.11h or other methods may be used to move a station from one channel to another. It should be noted that technologies similar to those described in IEEE 802.11h can be adapted to solve the interference problem by some embodiments of the present disclosure due to the use of IEEE 802.11a/n/ac in certain locations, especially for military applications. Caused by other appropriate devices such as medical equipment, weather radar systems or other appropriate devices.

In addition, in some other embodiments, the AP can disassociate or de-authenticate selected users without using channel switching notifications on a channel. The reason for not using the channel switching notification may be, for example, lack of support on the user side. In some other examples, the AP may decide not to use the channel switching notification due to lack of time, because the AP may need to remove some users from certain channels as soon as possible.

And, when the user device switches from one channel to another When channeling, some embodiments of the base station 210 can retain/migrate all status information (for example, network settings, hardware configuration information, etc.) for the user device to minimize the switching time.

Fig. 8 is a diagram 800 showing a probe request procedure on a preferred channel that can be implemented by the coexistence controller 230 according to some embodiments, and Fig. 9 is a diagram 900 showing that, according to some embodiments, it can be The discovery request procedure on the non-optimal channel implemented by the coexistence controller 230.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 2A, some specific examples for implementing channel steering techniques will now be described. In these examples where the wireless network circuit is an IEEE 802.11 WLAN circuit, the following management frames are some examples between frames, which can be used by the coexistence controller 230 for the channel diversion technology: discovery request, discovery response, authentication, De-authentication, association request; association response, re-association request, re-association response, and disassociation. The following examples are described using IEEE 802.11 terms; however, it should be noted that this article provides these examples to provide a better understanding of the coexistence mechanism. When this embodiment is implemented, whether it is these IEEE 802.11 management frames or IEEE 802.11 None of the WLAN circuits are necessary.

As mentioned, the coexistence mechanism disclosed herein can redirect the connected user to a specific channel/network during association, and can also redirect the user to another specific channel/network circuit after the device has been connected.

Therefore, in some embodiments, when the user device attempts to connect to the base station 210, the coexistence organization may choose not to respond to the discovery request, verification request, or association request from the user device on the non-preferred channel. More specifically, assuming that channel B is a preferred channel and channel A is a non-preferred channel, when the user device sends a discovery request to the base station 210 on the non-preferred channel A, the coexistence controller 230 can make a judgment to ignore the Discovery request on non-preferred channel A. Conversely, when the user device sends a discovery request on the preferred channel B, the coexistence controller 230 can respond to the discovery request so that the user device can connect to the base station 210 on the preferred channel B. In addition, the coexistence controller 230 may choose to prevent the base station 210 from broadcasting the service set identification (SSID) on the channel that has reached its maximum capacity, so as to avoid the user device requesting to associate to a non-preferred channel. It should be noted that the similar institutions shown in Figures 8-9 can be applied to authentication requests, association requests, or other forms of known pre-association or post-association requests.

Additionally or alternatively, it should be recognized in the present disclosure that even if the user device does not receive a response, the user device may still attempt to associate with the radio base station 210 on the non-preferred channel instead of switching to another channel. Therefore, some embodiments of the wireless base station 210 may choose the largest number of requests to ignore; for example, the base station 210 may ignore the first M association requests on the non-preferred channel, but if the user device is on the same non-preferred channel The association continues and tries the (M+1)th time, then the base station 210 can associate the user device on the non-preferred channel to avoid complete rejection of the service of the user device. In this particular example, the coexistence controller 230 may choose to subsequently move the user device from the associated non-preferred channel to a preferred channel after connection.

Diagram 800 shows an example of the association procedure, in which the user device uses a wireless signal on a preferred communication channel (for example, such as Request) is associated with the base station 210. During normal operation, the user device can initiate a discovery request on one of the preferred channels of the base station 210 at time t0. Then, at time t1, the base station 210 receives the discovery request.

After receiving the discovery request at time t1, the base station 210 determines whether the discovery request is received on a preferred channel. In the illustrated example of Figure 800, because the discovery request is received on the preferred communication channel of the base station 210 (for example, determined by the coexistence controller 230), the base station 210 sends on the preferred communication channel at time t2 A response signal (for example, a search response). At time t3, the user device receives the discovery response on the preferred channel. Thereafter, the wireless local area network circuit located on the base station 210 becomes a candidate for association of the user device and can be used for data communication.

Diagram 900 shows an example of the association procedure, in which the user device is associated with the base station 210 through a wireless signal (for example, such as a discovery request) on a non-preferred communication channel. During normal operation, the user device can send a discovery request on a non-preferred communication channel of the base station 210 at time t0. At time t1, the base station 210 receives the discovery request from the user device on the non-preferred communication channel.

Then, according to some embodiments, the base station 210 may choose to ignore the discovery request, thereby triggering the user device to send another discovery request on another communication channel that may be the preferred channel of the base station 210. It should be noted that although many wireless local area network user devices currently available on the market, when they cannot hear the discovery request on one channel, they may try to sense the discovery request on another channel. The users disclosed in this article One of the devices Some embodiments may also implement a coexistence mechanism, so that the user device can switch the channel on which the user device sends the discovery request based on previous information. In some embodiments, the base station 210 may also choose to use an appropriate communication method to notify the user device of the current preferred channel(s) of the base station 210.

In the example shown in diagram 900, the user device switches channels twice, and sends a discovery request on the preferred communication channel of the base station 210 at time t4. This discovery request is received by the base station 210 at time t5. In response, at time t6, the base station 210 sends a discovery request to the user device on the preferred communication channel, and the discovery request is received by the user device at time t7. Thereafter, the wireless local area network circuit located on the base station 210 becomes a candidate for association of the user device and can be used for data communication.

In addition, when the communication channel to which the user device has been connected becomes a non-preferred channel, the coexistence controller 230 may redirect the user to another specific channel/network circuit. More specifically, in some examples, the base station 210 may send a de-authentication message at an appropriate time (for example, when there is or is expected to have time-considered traffic), and when the user device attempts to re-authenticate, the base station 210 will not Respond to the discovery request of the user device to access the base station 210. In this way, the user device may be triggered to try to re-authenticate on another channel that may be the preferred channel of the base station 210.

In other or alternative embodiments, the coexistence controller can also use one or more appropriate communication protocols (for example, channel switching procedures as defined in IEEE 802.11h and/or IEEE 802.11v directional roaming protocols) to transfer users The device moves from a non-preferred channel to a preferred channel. and Also, in some embodiments, the existing connection between the user device and the base station 210 can be maintained (for example, not terminated), and the user device can be moved to a preferred channel when it connects to the base station 210 next time.

The following are some examples of how the coexistence controller 230 can group user devices. In all examples, the base station 210 is equipped with three wireless network circuits, one operation on channel A, another operation on channel B, and a third operation on channel C. And, in these examples, all wireless network circuits operate in the same frequency band.

In one example, channel C has the best conditions, and channel B has the worst conditions. Therefore, because channel B has experienced a lot of noise, the coexistence controller 230 may choose to move all user devices without delay or performance requirements to channel B. Channel C is the best channel, so the coexistence controller 230 can move those traffic types with the most stringent performance requirements (for example, VoIP or video conferencing applications) to channel C. Depending on the conditions of channel A, channel A can also maintain some devices with stringent performance requirements.

In another example, the coexistence controller 230 may group user devices according to their traffic types (for example, such as VoIP, video-on-demand, or other applications that only request best effort).

In yet another example, if the channels have similar capabilities and similar conditions, the coexistence controller 230 can combine and mix user devices with different traffic types into each channel for load balancing.

In another example, the coexistence controller 230 can group user devices based on their individual power requirements, so that those user devices that are limited by power resources (for example, running on batteries) can be It is different from the power level (e.g., at a lower data rate) of devices that are not limited by power resources (e.g., plugged into a power outlet).

In other examples, the coexistence controller 230 may group the user devices based on the similarity in capabilities of the user devices. For example, devices with multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) capability on a channel, unlike other devices, can be grouped together.

<b>Home wireless sensor application</b>

10 is a schematic functional block diagram 1000 showing a wireless base station 1010 equipped with a coexistence controller 1030 implemented in an environment with a plurality of wireless sensors 1070a-1070n according to some embodiments. The base station 1010 includes wireless network circuits 1020a and 1020b, both of which are coupled to the coexistence controller 1030 through the coexistence bus 1040. In some embodiments, the wireless circuits 1020a and 1020b may be different separate components, or they may be integrated into one or more chipsets.

The residential gateway 1050 is coupled to the base station 1010 to provide data communication services (for example, to the Internet) to the base station 1010 and its users (for example, the sensor 1070). The gateway 1050 may, for example, be coupled to the base station 1010 through the wireless network circuit 1060 of the gateway 1050. For the purpose of discussion in this article, it is assumed that the network circuit 1060 is connected to the base station 1010 through the network circuit 1020a. Examples of residential gateway 1050 may include cable modems, digital subscriber line (DSL) modems, satellite modems, and so on. Although not shown for the sake of simplicity, the gateway 1050 may also be based on wireless phone services (e.g., such as 3G, 3.5G, 4G LTE and The similar) is coupled to the data traffic network to provide data services to the base station 1010.

The wireless sensors 1070a-1070n are sensors usually placed in a residential or office environment. The sensors 1070a-1070n include wireless network capabilities for coupling to and communicating with the base station 1010. For the purpose of discussion in this article, it is assumed that the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n are connected to the base station 1010 through the network circuit 1020b. Some examples of wireless sensors 1070a-1070n include door sensors, motion sensors, surveillance cameras, fire/smoke detectors, carbon monoxide (CO) detectors, garage door openers, thermostats, cable television Control box, gas meter, etc. Although not required, one or more of the sensors 1070a-1070n may typically have limited power resources (e.g., run only on batteries).

The base station 1010 is similar to the base station 210 of FIG. 2A, and in this specific setting, it can be a base station designated for wireless sensors, including, for example, home security provided by companies such as Comcast, ADT, or AT&amp;T. Console device. As shown in figure 1000, the base station 1010 includes at least two wireless network circuits 1020a and 1020b. The circuit 1020a is coupled to the gateway 1050, and the circuit 1020b is coupled to the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n. In one or more embodiments, the base station 1010 functions as a relay station, which can transmit data traffic (for example, control commands) received from the gateway 1050 to the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n, and can receive data from the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n. The data traffic received by the sensors 1070a-1070n (for example, the captured images or alarm signals are sent to the gateway 1050). Among other reasons, because of power limitations and other wireless-specific With the characteristics of the sensors 1070a-1070n, it would be beneficial to connect the sensors 1070a-1070n to separate wireless network circuits, rather than using them to connect to a residential gateway 1050.

However, as mentioned above, it should be recognized that interference and desensitization may occur in settings where more than one wireless network circuit transmits and receives in the same frequency band and is physically very close. Specifically, when the base station 1010 uses the circuit 1020b to send data to the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n (which will cause the reception of the circuit 1020a to become desensitized), if the gateway 1050 tries to communicate with the base station 1010 during the transmission period of the circuit 1020b For communication, the base station 1010 may miss the data sent from the gateway 1050, so the gateway 1050 may need to retransmit. Fortunately, the gateway 1050 usually has no concerns about power resources.

A similar situation can occur when the base station 1010 uses the circuit 1020a to transmit data to the gateway 1050 (which can cause the reception of the circuit 1020b to become insensitive), and if the gateway 1050 tries to communicate with the base station 1010 during the transmission of the circuit 1020a , The base station 1010 may miss the data sent from the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n, so the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n may need to be retransmitted. However, this may be undesirable because the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n may have power resource considerations, and retransmissions may adversely affect the operating life cycle of the sensors 1070a-1070n.

Existing solutions may include the use of sectional antennas and the establishment of adequate shielding between the radio circuits. However, because wireless sensors can be deployed anywhere around the physical environment, It is desirable to have an omnidirectional antenna so that the wireless communication coverage of the base station can be maximized.

Therefore, in some embodiments, the coexistence controller 1030 can cause the wireless circuits 1020a and 1020b to operate in a manner that does not cause interference and desensitization to each other. More specifically, the coexistence controller 1030 can utilize the aforementioned coexistence mechanism, for example, by selectively inhibiting the transmission operation of the wireless network circuit 1020a during the receiving operation of the wireless network circuit 1020b, and give the wireless sensor Priority for data communication of devices 1070a-1070n. For example, the coexistence controller 1030 can apply to the transmission operation by disabling the transmission operation, delaying the transmission operation, attenuating the power level used for the transmission operation, reducing the transmission rate of the transmission operation, or applying any of the other operating parameter adjustment techniques discussed herein. , To suppress sending communication. In this way, the coexistence controller 1010 can suppress the sending operation of the network circuit 1020a by maintaining the integrity of the receiving operation of the network circuit 1020b (for example, so that the receiving is not interrupted or damaged). It should be noted that some embodiments of wireless network circuits 1020a-1020b operate on different channels (e.g., channels 1 and 6).

In some other embodiments, the coexistence controller 1030 is configured to allow the network circuit being suppressed to respond to high-priority communications after every predetermined period of time during the suppression period. For example, the wireless LAN circuit that is being suppressed can still respond to management packets.

In some embodiments, the coexistence controller 1030 can also reduce the power consumption of the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n to operate the wireless network circuit 1020b. For example, the operation of the wireless network circuit 1020a is guaranteed While being unaffected (for example, it can be optimized for speed performance or other considerations), the operation of the wireless network circuit 1020b can utilize various parameters and operations available in the IEEE 802.11 standard to operate on the sensor 1070a- Power saving on 1070n.

Specifically, there are two examples of power saving technologies in the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which can be adapted by the coexistence controller 1030 to reduce power consumption on the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n. One example is called power saving polling (PS-Poll); the other example is called unscheduled automatic power saving (UAPSD).

In other embodiments, the coexistence controller 1030 can also use a customized protocol or a modified version of the standard protocol to communicate with the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n to help the sensors 1070a-1070n reduce power consumption. For example, the coexistence controller 1030 can enable the wireless network circuit 1020b to operate on a modified version of the wireless network protocol, which has a loose link maintenance standard, for example, the response time of the ACK packet is relaxed from 1 millisecond to 2 second.

In another example, the wireless network circuit(s) (for example, circuit 1020b) connected to the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n can be used in various frequency bands (for example, 2.4GHz, 5GHz or other frequency bands). Electrical mechanisms, such as those described in the IEEE 802.11ah standard. One or more embodiments can support user devices or sensors capable of sending traffic indication maps (TIM), and the coexistence controller 1030 can arrange traffic scheduling and give individual wireless signals based on the received TIM information. Circuit priority.

In addition, for user devices or wireless sensors that do not have TIM capabilities, when the base station 1010 schedules or reserves target wake time (TWT) for non-TIM capable users, the coexistence controller 1030 can also protect the non-TIM capabilities. The scheduled TWT of the TIM-capable user avoids being occupied by the TIM-capable user. In particular, in order to implement this technique, the coexistence controller 1030 can instruct the TIM-capable user to limit the access window (RAW) information during the period when the user with no TIM capability can occupy the wireless network circuit. In some embodiments, the RAW information is included in the RPS element in the beacon sent from the base station 1030. In some embodiments, if the RPS element indicates that RAW is only allocated to non-TIM capable users, confirm that any TIM capable user of the beacon is indicated by the "RAW duration (Duration)" field in the RAW information in the RPS element. The duration should not access the wireless network circuit. In another example, if the scheduled TWT for non-TIM capable users is periodic, the base station 1030 can set up a periodic RAW operation, such as in Article 9.19.4a.6 of the IEEE 802.11 standard Defined.

In some embodiments, the coexistence controller 1030 can use the well-known time division multiplexing (TDM) technology to manage the wireless network circuits 1020a-1020b, and in some embodiments, a specific duration can be assigned to a specific type of Data flow.

FIG. 11 is a timing diagram 1100 for processing downlink traffic from the base station 1010 of FIG. 10 to the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n according to some embodiments. As shown in diagram 1100, once the base station 1010 knows that a wireless sensor (for example, sensor 1070a) wakes up, the base station The coexistence mechanism in 1010 will give priority to the downlink traffic of the wireless sensor 1070a. One or more methods may be used to transmit or broadcast the sleep schedule of the wireless sensor 1070a. These methods include, for example, using a beacon to transmit a traffic indicator map (TIM), as described in the IEEE 802.11 standard. Therefore, in some embodiments, the coexistence controller 1030 may determine the reservation schedule based on the status signals received from one or more wireless sensors to selectively suppress the sending operation.

FIG. 12 is a timing diagram 1200 for processing uplink traffic from the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n of FIG. 10 to the base station 1010 according to some embodiments. Similar to the illustration 1100, once the base station 1010 knows that a wireless sensor (for example, the sensor 1070a) starts to send data, the coexistence mechanism in the base station 1010 can give priority to the uplink from the wireless sensor 1070a flow.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram 1300 illustrating an asymmetric buffering structure or mechanism that can be adopted or controlled by the coexistence controller according to some embodiments. More specifically, among other reasons, because of the suppression of wireless network circuits, and because some wireless network circuits have higher priority than other wireless network circuits, one or more buffers may be included in the base station 1010 (Figure 10), and is coupled to wireless network circuits 1020a-1020b for temporary storage of data. In some of these embodiments, the coexistence controller 1030 (FIG. 10) can be configured to allocate more resources in the buffer to a higher priority network circuit (eg, circuit 1020b). Such an example is shown in diagram 1300. In some embodiments, the coexistence controller 1030 may also be based on the network circuits 1020a-1020b Workload to adjust the buffer rate of the buffer.

In some embodiments, the coexistence controller 1030 may also coordinate among the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n, so that the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n do not interfere with each other's data transmission. In some embodiments, the wireless sensors 1070a-1070n can transmit to the coexistence controller 1030 according to their respective battery or other power status, and the coexistence controller 1030 can prioritize one or more of them according to their respective power supply status. Transmission between two wireless sensors 1070a-1070n. For example, the coexistence controller 1030 can selectively send acknowledgment (ACK) packets to those wireless sensors with low power among the sensors 1070a-1070n to prevent them from resending data.

<b>Methodology</b>

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method 1400 for controlling and coordinating multiple radio circuits that may be implemented by a coexistence controller (eg, controller 230, FIG. 2) according to some embodiments. The method 1400 is implemented in, for example, a base station (e.g., station 210, FIG. 2).

In one or more embodiments, each of the plurality of network circuits (eg, circuits 220a-220c) located on the station 210 may be assigned (1410) a priority. In some embodiments, the coexistence controller 230 is coupled to the network circuits 220a-220c through a coexistence bus (for example, the bus 240, FIG. 2) to control two (or three) of the network circuits 220a-220c Between operations. More specifically, the priority of each network circuit can be determined in advance by the manufacturer of the base station 210, or the priority can be selectively and/or selected by the coexistence controller 230 according to a specific priority allocation criterion. Or dynamically allocated (1410). Priority allocation criteria may include traffic volume, traffic type (for example, data, voice, video, sensor application, etc.), wireless channel conditions experienced by each circuit, and/or other appropriate factors. As explained above, the priority assignment criterion may be similar to the operation criterion.

Then, the coexistence controller 230 may determine (1420) a plurality of operating criteria according to the priority assigned to each network circuit and other factors. The operating criteria can reflect various considerations, such as the number of user devices (for example, device 130, Figure 1) handled by each network circuit, the data flow seen by each network circuit, the data rate supported by each network circuit, and each network circuit The type of traffic allocated, the wireless channel conditions or noise experienced by each network circuit (for example, measured by RSSI or a known matrix rank), etc. According to this embodiment, the operating criterion is selected so that the coexistence controller controls the operation in a manner that reduces the probability of the network circuits 220a-220c desensitizing each other. In some embodiments, the coexistence controller 230 can use multiple wireless network circuits (for example, circuits 220a-220c) on the base station 210 to implement, for example, load balancing and/or frequency planning. .

Next, the coexistence controller 230 can control (1430) operations between network circuits by selectively adjusting one or more sending operations of individual network circuits (for example, circuit 220a) according to a plurality of operating criteria Parameter, the operating criterion includes the priority of the network circuit 220a compared to the priority of other circuits.

The sending operation parameter for the wireless network circuit is the configuration in which the network circuit is used to send data. For example, in some embodiments, when When receiving by another wireless network circuit (for example, circuit 220b), the coexistence controller 230 can reduce the transmission power on a wireless network circuit (for example, circuit 220a). In other or alternative embodiments, other transmission operating parameters that can be adjusted by the coexistence controller 230 may include the data rate (for example, 11Mbit/s or 54Mbit/s) and/or the network protocol ( For example, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11n, etc.). In some examples, the sending operation parameters may also include the channel on which the individual network circuit operates (for example, channel 1, channel 6, or channel 11 in the WLAN 2.4GHz frequency band; or channel 36, channel 100 in the WLAN 5GHz frequency band. Or channel 161). In some embodiments, the sending operation parameter may also include the frequency band (for example, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, etc.) in which the individual network circuit operates. Other known configuration adjustments, such as modulation or phase adjustment, may also be included in the adjustable transmission operation parameter list of the coexistence controller 230.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a method 1500 that can be implemented by a coexistence controller (eg, controller 1030, FIG. 10) to reduce interference between multiple radio circuits according to some embodiments. The method 1500 is, for example, implemented in a base station (e.g., station 1010, FIG. 10).

First of all, in some alternative embodiments, the controller 1030 can support user devices or sensors that can send traffic indication maps (TIM), and the coexistence controller 1030 can arrange or determine (1510) the traffic schedule and according to all The received TIM information is used to give priority to individual wireless circuits. For user devices or wireless sensors that do not have TIM capabilities, when the base station 1010 schedules or schedules target wake-up time (TWT) for non-TIM-capable users, the coexistence controller 1030 can also protect non-TIM-capable users. The scheduled TWT of the TIM-capable user avoids being occupied by the TIM-capable user. In particular, in order to implement this technique, the coexistence controller 1030 can instruct the TIM-capable user to limit the access window (RAW) information during the period when the user with no TIM capability can occupy the wireless network circuit.

According to some embodiments, the coexistence controller 1030 may cause the wireless circuits (for example, 1020a and 1020b) coupled to the station 1030 to operate in a manner that does not cause interference and desensitization to each other. More specifically, when the network circuit 1020b is assigned (1524) to have a higher priority than the network circuit 1020a, the coexistence controller 1030 can utilize the coexistence mechanism (for example, as described above), by using the wireless network During the receiving operation of the circuit 1020b, the transmitting operation of the wireless network circuit 1020a is selectively suppressed (1520), and priority is given to those data communications from the respective wireless sensors 1070a-1070n. Multiple network circuits operate in the same radio frequency band (1522) and are collocated (1522).

For example, the coexistence controller 1030 can apply to the transmission operation by disabling the transmission operation, delaying the transmission operation, attenuating the power level used for the transmission operation, reducing the transmission rate of the transmission operation, or applying any of the other operating parameter adjustment techniques discussed herein. , To suppress sending communication. In this way, the coexistence controller 1010 can suppress (1520) the sending operation of the network circuit 1020a by maintaining the integrity of the receiving operation of the network circuit 1020b (for example, so that the receiving is not interrupted or damaged). It should be noted that some embodiments of wireless network circuits 1020a-1020b operate on different channels (e.g., channels 1 and 6).

<b>in conclusion</b>

In the foregoing specification, this embodiment has been described with reference to its specific exemplary embodiment. However, it is obvious that various modifications and changes can be made to the present invention without departing from the broader scope of the disclosure as described in the scope of the attached patent application. Therefore, the description and drawings should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

It should also be understood that all the block diagrams in the drawings are for illustrative purposes only, and should not exclude the scope of the present invention to include any logical equivalents or combinations thereof, including removal, substitution or addition to achieve the same as the present invention. Other logic gates with the same or similar functions with the same characteristics.

In addition, it should be noted that the various circuits disclosed herein can be described using computer-aided design tools, and as data and/or instructions embodied in various computer-readable media, with their behavior, register transmission, and logic Components, transistors, layout geometry and/or other characteristics are expressed (or represented). The file and other object formats that can be implemented for this circuit expression include, but are not limited to, formats that support behavioral languages such as C, Verilog, and VHDL, formats that support register-level description languages such as RTL, and support formats such as GDSII, GDSIII , GDSIV, CIF, MEBES geometric description language formats, and any other suitable formats and languages. The computer-readable media in which such formatted data and/or instructions can be realized include, but are not limited to, non-volatile storage media in various forms (for example, optical, magnetic, or semiconductor storage media).