This non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) on Patent Application No(s). 095146756 filed in Taiwan, R.O.C. on Dec. 13, 2006, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a bandwidth reservation method, and more particularly, to a bandwidth reservation method for dynamically switching channels on an Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) network.
2. Related Art
Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) is a short-distance wireless communication technology with low power and high data transmission rate, and it is also a new wireless communication process using a bandwidth between 3.1 GHz and 10.6 GHz, which is mainly derived from the radar system technique used in the U.S. military laboratory in 1960s. The UWB is characterized in that, the emitted impulse is extremely narrow, and the band is up to 7500 MHz, and thus, it has advantages of high transmission rate, low power consumption, and high safety. As long as the width of the emitted impulse is controlled below 1 ns, a communication capability over 1 Gbps can be achieved theoretically, and the current UWB technology has supported a transmission rate of over 100 Mbps. The specification of the UWB is mainly instituted by two alliances, i.e., Multiband OFDM Alliance (WiMedia-MBOA) and UWB Forum, who respectively support different techniques. As for the MBOA UWB specification instituted by WiMedia-MBOA, the transmission rate is up to 480 Mbps, together with the Distributed Reservation Protocol (DRP), a user can reserve the bandwidth for a certain period of time in the channel, such that the distributed wireless network can ensure the Quality of Service (QoS) for transmission. Therefore, the MBOA UWB is applicable for the real-time service requiring a large bandwidth and a preferable QoS, such as interactive audio/videos, network televisions, or network telephones.
DRP protocol adopts a reservation manner, and the users respectively divide the required bandwidth and the interval according to their individual demands.
As the number of the devices increases, there are more and more intervals occupied by the reservation in the channel, which causes that there is no sufficient interval for the subsequently added device to reserve. As shown in
In view of the above problems, the present invention is directed to providing a bandwidth reservation system and method for dynamic channel switching, which can ensure that the data transmission is not interrupted through dynamically detecting and real-time switching, thereby solving the problem in the prior art that the QoS of data transmission for the real-time connection cannot be ensured once network congestion occurs.
In order to achieve the above objective, the present invention can be achieved in the forms of both system and method. The bandwidth reservation system for dynamic channel switching disclosed in the preset invention comprises: a transmitting terminal, for selecting a first channel from a plurality of channels to establish a connection for transmitting data, wherein the transmitting terminal reserves bandwidth through a first bandwidth reservation record in a first beacon of the first channel; and a receiving terminal, for establishing the connection with the transmitting terminal in the first channel and receiving the data.
If it is determined that an available bandwidth in the first bandwidth reservation record is not sufficient for the reservation of the transmitting terminal, the transmitting terminal sequentially scans a second beacon corresponding to the other channels, and if it is determined that there is sufficient bandwidth for the reservation of the transmitting terminal in a second bandwidth reservation record of a second channel of the channels, the transmitting terminal transmits a channel switching request to the receiving terminal, such that the transmitting terminal and the receiving terminal establish a new connection for transmitting data continuously after being switched to the second channel.
In the bandwidth reservation system for dynamic channel switching according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the transmitting terminal declares the bandwidth reservation in the first channel or the second channel through a Distributed Reservation Protocol (DRP).
In the bandwidth reservation system for dynamic channel switching according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the receiving terminal returns a channel switching response to the transmitting terminal upon receiving the channel switching request transmitted from the transmitting terminal, so as to inform the transmitting terminal to switch the channel, and the channel switching request and the channel switching response include fields, such as a transmitting terminal address, a receiving terminal address, a second channel (a channel to be switched), a countdown, a duration, and a state record.
The bandwidth reservation method for dynamic channel switching disclosed in the present invention is applicable for performing data transmission between a transmitting terminal and a receiving terminal over an ultra-wide band (UWB) wireless personal area network (WPAN), which at least comprises the following steps: first, the transmitting terminal and the receiving terminal select a first channel and establish a connection; next, the transmitting terminal determines whether the bandwidth of the first channel is sufficient for reservation through a first bandwidth reservation record of the first beacon; then, if the first available bandwidth is not sufficient for the reservation of the transmitting terminal, the transmitting terminal checks whether a second channel with sufficient bandwidth for the reservation of the transmitting terminal exists or not among other channels; then, the transmitting terminal determines the second channel to which a second available bandwidth sufficient for the reservation of the transmitting terminal belongs, and sends a channel switching request to the receiving terminal, so as to inform the receiving terminal to switch to the second channel; and finally, the transmitting terminal declares an interval to be reserved in the second channel, so as to perform data transmission.
In the bandwidth reservation method for dynamic channel switching according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the process for scanning the second beacon corresponding to other channels further comprises three modes.
(1) After transmitting a first beacon at the beginning of a beacon period in each super frame, the transmitting terminal is idled in the first channel, and turns to scan the second beacon of the other channels, and determines through the second bandwidth reservation record in the second beacon whether there is a sufficient space for the transmitting terminal to declare the interval to be reserved.
(2) After transmitting a first beacon, the transmitting terminal does not transmit the first beacon within a time period of a plurality of super frames (e.g., between 1 and 3 super frames), turns to scan the second beacon of the other channels, and determines through the second bandwidth reservation record in the second beacon whether there is a sufficient space for the transmitting terminal to declare the interval to be reserved.
(3) After transmitting a first beacon, the transmitting terminal declares entering into a hibernation mode, turns to scan the second beacon of the other channels, and determines through the second bandwidth reservation record in the second beacon whether there is a sufficient space for the transmitting terminal to declare the interval to be reserved.
In the bandwidth reservation method for dynamic channel switching according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the step of switching the transmitting terminal and the receiving terminal to the second channel to perform data transmission further comprises: first, the transmitting terminal and the receiving terminal leave the first channel; next, the transmitting terminal selects a second channel, determines and adds a beacon group of the second channel; then, a beacon group is established, if the transmitting terminal determines the beacon group does not exist; then, the receiving terminal enters into the second channel, and adds the beacon group to which the transmitting terminal belongs; and finally, the receiving terminal and the transmitting terminal establish the connection, and perform data transmission.
The bandwidth reservation method for dynamic channel switching also may be executed through a computer program code recorded in a computer readable recording medium.
Briefly, in the present invention, through the technique of dynamic channel switching, if the selected channel does not have sufficient bandwidth for the reservation of the transmitting terminal, the transmitting terminal and the receiving terminal are capable of being switched to a channel with sufficient bandwidth for the bandwidth reservation, so as to establish a connection for data transmission. Therefore, the problem that the QoS cannot be ensured once an over congestion occurs in a network with a single channel is solved, and the bandwidth utilization of each channel is increased, and thereby enhancing the performance of the whole network.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below for illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
The objectives and implementation of the present invention are illustrated below in detail through the following preferred embodiments. However, the concepts of the present invention also can be used in other scopes. The embodiments listed below are only used to illustrate the objective and implementation of the present invention, but not to limit the scope thereof.
Subsequently, the transmitting terminal 210 determines whether the bandwidth of the first channel is sufficient for the reservation of the transmitting terminal 210 through an available bandwidth in the first bandwidth reservation record. If the transmitting terminal 210 determines that the bandwidth is not sufficient for reservation, the transmitting terminal 210 sequentially scans a second beacon corresponding to the other channels, and when it determines that a second bandwidth reservation record in the second beacon of a second channel among the channels has sufficient bandwidth for the reservation of the transmitting terminal 210, the transmitting terminal 210 transmits a channel switching request to the receiving terminal 220, so as to be switched to the second channel. After being switched to the second channel, the transmitting terminal 210 and the receiving terminal 220 establish a connection for transmitting data in the second channel.
In addition, formats of the first beacon and the second beacon are shown in
The bandwidth reservation method for dynamic channel switching of this embodiment is illustrated below.
The above step that the transmitting terminal sequentially scans the second beacon corresponding to the other channels (S430) can be achieved through three modes listed in this embodiment, which are not intended to limit the scope thereof.
In the UWB network, it is allowable that one (or more) member in the beacon group does not transmit any beacon within a time period of a plurality of super frames, and the member is removed after exceeding a specific time period of super frames. Referring to
In addition, during the time period that one (or more) member in the beacon group declares entering into a hibernation mode, the beacon is not required to be transmitted, and after the hibernation mode is ended, the membership of the beacon group can be maintained without being removed from the beacon group. After the transmitting terminal and the receiving terminal declare entering into the hibernation mode, and switch to the second channel with sufficient bandwidth for reservation to finish the data transmission, the transmitting terminal and the receiving terminal will not be removed from the original beacon group due to leaving the first channel for an excessive long time, but instead, they can conveniently return to the original beacon group at any time.
Referring to
In order to illustrate the process for switching from the first channel to the second channel in an embodiment of the present invention more clearly, an example is recited as follows.
Then, the step of switching the transmission terminal and the receiving terminal to the second channel as mentioned in
By the way, in this embodiment, the transmitting terminal declares an interval to be reserved in the first channel or the second channel through, for example, DRP. The process for declaring the interval to be reserved is only illustrated as an example, which is not limited herein either.
To sum up, in the bandwidth reservation system and method for dynamic channel switching of the present invention, the transmitting terminal and the receiving terminal can dynamically switch the channels, and the system and method of the present invention at least has the following advantages.
(1) If it is detected that the currently available channel has no bandwidth for reservation, the transmitting terminal immediately detects the bandwidth of the other channels, so as to perform data transmission through another bandwidth, thereby avoiding waiting for the release of the network resources once network congestion occurs.
(2) Once network congestion occurs, the QoS of the connection between the transmitting terminal and the detecting terminal also can be ensured.
(3) The bandwidth utilization of the whole network is improved, and the data volume that can be transmitted by the connection is also enhanced.
The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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095146756 | Dec 2006 | TW | national |