Patent application number | Description | Published |
20130235730 | PATH SELECTION FOR ROUTING TRAFFIC IN A NETWORK - Methods, systems, and apparatuses are described for communicating among stations in a network. A station in the network can determine costs between that station and a headend through a number of other stations. The station can select a low cost path from among the possible paths. Cost data from the determination can be transmitted from the station to other stations in the network for use in selecting low cost paths at those stations. | 09-12-2013 |
20130272315 | CONTENTION GROUPS FOR HIDDEN NODES - Communicating among stations in a network includes, from each of multiple stations in the network, transmitting information indicating which other stations from which that station is able to reliably receive transmissions. A schedule for communicating among the stations is determined based on the information from the stations and transmitting the schedule over the network. The schedule includes a plurality of time slots during which respective contention groups of stations are assigned to communicate using a contention-based protocol. | 10-17-2013 |
20130279621 | CHANNEL REUSE IN COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS - A method includes determining a signal strength value for a first received signal received from a first station in a first network. The first received signal is received in the first network through a shared communication medium that is shared with a second network. The method includes receiving an indicator of a signal strength value determined for a second received signal from a second station in the second network. Based on the signal strength value for the first received signal and based on the indicator of the signal strength value determined for the second received signal, a detection threshold is selected such that, in response to a third received signal having a signal strength in excess of the detection threshold, the third received signal is processed according to a protocol of the first network and is not processed according to a protocol of the second network. | 10-24-2013 |
20130287040 | MANAGING DISTRIBUTED ACCESS TO A SHARED MEDIUM - A method includes determining that a first station has been allocated a first time period to transmit over a shared medium in a network. The method includes transmitting, from the first station to a second station over the shared medium during the first time period, wherein stations other than the first station and the second station refrain from transmitting over the shared medium during the first time period. The method includes receiving, from the second station, a request message to allow the second station to transmit during the first time period and a requested amount of time to transmit. The method includes, in response to allowing the second station to transmit during the first time period, determining an authorized amount of time for the second station to transmit during the first time period, and transmitting an authorization message for the second station to transmit and the authorized amount of time. | 10-31-2013 |
20130287041 | MANAGING COMMUNICATIONS OVER A SHARED MEDIUM - Systems and methods for allocating network bandwidth between a plurality of networks. Requests for bandwidth allocation from other networks can be received. A coexistence frame requesting an allocation of bandwidth for a local network can be generated based upon the bandwidth allocation requests received from other networks. The coexistence frame can be transmitted, and utilization of the requested allocation can be delayed by a reservation period. | 10-31-2013 |
20130315286 | INFERRING PRESENCE AND IDENTITY OF NON-LINEAR DEVICES ON A POWERLINE COMMUNICATION NETWORK - A non-liner device (NLD) between powerline communication (PLC) devices can introduce significant distortion into the channel being utilized by the PLC devices. This distortion can create errors and corrupt data transmitted by the PLC devices. When trying to mitigate the effects of the distortion introduced by NLDs, PLC devices conform their mitigating actions to effectively satisfy a limit(s) set by a regulation and/or a standard. A PLC device implemented in accordance with this disclosure can mitigate the distortion effects with deference to regulatory/standard limits without knowledge of what types of NLDs and how many NLDs are coupled to the power line. A PLC device can use different techniques to infer the presence of an NLD in a PLC network. A PLC device can infer the presence of the NLD using a passive technique or one or more active techniques. | 11-28-2013 |
20140029645 | CHANNEL ESTIMATION FOR LOW-OVERHEAD COMMUNICATION IN A NETWORK - A receiving station receives an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol via a shared medium, the OFDM symbol comprising a first set of frequency components modulated with preamble information and a second set of frequency components modulated with information. The receiving station processes sampled values of the received OFDM symbol based on channel characteristics estimated from the first set of frequency components to decode information encoded on a first subset of the second set of frequency components. The receiving station processes sampled values from the first symbol based on channel characteristics estimated from the first set of frequency components and the first subset of the second set of frequency components to decode information encoded on a second subset of the second set of frequency components. | 01-30-2014 |
20140119351 | DETECTING DELIMITERS FOR LOW-OVERHEAD COMMUNICATION IN A NETWORK - A waveform communicated from a first station to a second station over a shared medium may include at least the first symbol comprising a first set of frequency components at predetermined carrier frequencies modulated with preamble information and a second set of frequency components at predetermined carrier frequencies modulated with frame control information. The first symbol may comprise a single symbol delimiter. | 05-01-2014 |
20140192641 | MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL LAYER THAT ENCAPSULATES DATA FROM A PLURALITY OF RECEIVED DATA UNITS INTO A PLURALITY OF INDEPENDENTLY TRANSMITTABLE BLOCKS - A method of operating in a network in which a plurality of stations communicate over a shared medium, comprising providing a physical layer (e.g., PHY) for handling physical communication over the shared medium; providing a high level layer (e.g., PAL) that receives data from the station and supplies high level data units (e.g., MSDUs) for transmission over the medium; providing a MAC layer that receives the high level data units from the high level layer and supplies low level data units (e.g., MPDUs) to the physical layer; at the MAC layer, encapsulating content from a plurality of the high level data units; dividing the encapsulated content into a plurality of pieces (e.g., segments) with each piece capable of being independently retransmitted; and supplying low level data units containing one or more of the plurality of pieces. | 07-10-2014 |
20140328268 | TRANSMIT OPPORTUNITY (TXOP) BASED CHANNEL REUSE - A method includes determining, at a first transmitter, whether to permit reuse of a first transmit opportunity (TXOP) associated with a message. The method further includes sending a portion of the message from the first transmitter to a first receiver. The portion of the message indicates whether reuse, by a reuse transmitter, of the first TXOP is permitted. When reuse of the first TXOP is permitted, the reuse transmitter is permitted to send a second message while the first transmitter sends a second portion of the message to the first receiver during the first TXOP. | 11-06-2014 |
20140328269 | TRANSMIT OPPORTUNITY (TXOP) BASED CHANNEL REUSE - A method includes sending, from a first transmitter to a first receiver, a request to send (RTS) message associated with a first transmit opportunity (TXOP). The RTS message requests the first receiver to indicate whether reuse of the first TXOP is permitted. The method further includes receiving, at the first transmitter from the first receiver, a clear to send (CTS) message responsive to the RTS message. | 11-06-2014 |
20140328270 | TRANSMIT OPPORTUNITY (TXOP) BASED CHANNEL REUSE - A method includes determining, at a first transmitter, a clear channel access (CCA) threshold associated with reuse of a first transmit opportunity (TXOP) of a message. The method further includes sending, from the first transmitter to a first receiver, at least a portion of the message, wherein the portion of the message indicates the CCA threshold. | 11-06-2014 |
20140328416 | SELECTION DIVERSITY IN A POWERLINE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM - A network device can be configured to dynamically adapt its current primary receiver coupling to channel conditions. For each of a plurality of transmitting network devices, the network device can determine a potential primary receiver coupling of the first network device for receiving communications from the transmitting network device based, at least in part, on a performance measurement associated with each of the plurality of communication channels between the network device and the transmitting device. The network device can select its current primary receiver coupling based, at least in part, on the potential primary receiver couplings determined for the plurality of transmitting network devices. In addition, the network device can also determine how to communicate with a receiving network device based, at least in part, on a preferred communication channel between the two network devices and a current primary receiver coupling of the receiving network device. | 11-06-2014 |
20140355621 | CHANNEL ADAPTATION TO COMPENSATE FOR INTERFERENCE FROM NEIGHBOR POWERLINE COMMUNICATION NETWORKS - A first powerline communication device, associated with a first powerline communication network, determines a plurality of time intervals in a beacon period of the first powerline communication network based, at least in part, on variations in levels of interference from a second powerline communication network which shares a powerline communication medium with the first powerline communication network. The first powerline communication device determines at least one channel adaptation parameter for each of the plurality of time intervals in the beacon period to compensate for effects of the variations in the levels of interference from the second powerline communication network. The first powerline communication device applies the at least one channel adaptation parameter corresponding to one or more of the plurality of time intervals in the beacon period when transmitting data via the powerline communication medium. | 12-04-2014 |
20140355697 | EXTRACTING ZERO CROSS INFORMATION IN A POWERLINE COMMUNICATION DEVICE - A powerline communication (PLC) device can be configured to execute functionality for zero cross sampling and detection. When the PLC device is directly coupled to a high-voltage PLC network, the PLC device can comprise printed safety capacitors in series with a high-voltage input AC powerline signal to safely couple the high-voltage AC powerline signal to the low-voltage processing circuit. The PLC device can also comprise an ADC to sample a scaled AC powerline signal and to obtain zero cross information. When the PLC device is part of an embedded PLC application, dynamic loading can affect the integrity of a low voltage zero cross signal that is used to extract zero cross information. After digitizing the zero cross signal, the PLC device can execute functionality to minimize/eliminate voltage drops caused by dynamic loading and obtain the zero cross information. | 12-04-2014 |
20150055563 | ADAPTIVE TRANSMIT POWER CONTROL IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK - Network devices can be configured to implement adaptive power control functionality in a communication network. A power control requestor of a local communication network can calculate a link margin between a neighbor network device of a neighbor communication network and a local network device associated with a least preferred performance measurement. The power control requestor can transmit a power control message including the link margin to request the neighbor network device to vary the transmit power of the neighbor network device. In response to receiving a power control message, a power control responder can use a link margin indicated in the power control message to evaluate the feasibility of reducing the transmit power of the power control responder. The power control responder can transmit a power control response indicating whether it will vary the transmit power. | 02-26-2015 |
20150078299 | DEFERRAL BASED ON BSSID INFORMATION - Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques and apparatus for deferral based on basic service set identification (BSSID) information. According to certain aspects, a method for wireless communications is provided. The method generally includes receiving, on a shared access medium, a packet having at least one deferral-related parameter and deciding whether to defer transmission on the shared access medium based, at least in part, on the deferral-related parameter. Another method may generally include generating a packet comprising at least one deferral-related parameter to be used by another apparatus for deciding whether or not the other apparatus should defer transmitting on a shared access medium and providing the packet to the other apparatus. | 03-19-2015 |