The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications; more particularly, the present invention relates to reconfiguration of a wireless communications system.
More recently, Wireless LANs (WLANs) are being installed. Many of the recently implemented WLANs operate according to the protocol set forth in the 802.11 Standard, particularly as more enterprises are adopting the 802.11 Standard. ISO|IEC DIS 8802.11
There are a number of problems associated with the current implementations of 802.11 networks. For example, there are a number of mobility problems associated with the current 802.11 network deployments. For example, the 802.11 standard sets forth a number of solutions to handle the issue of mobility of mobile stations between the 802.11 cells. However, these schemes do not work effectively as there is no standard solution in place and users haven't indicated a desire for long-term proprietary solutions.
Furthermore, in order to set up an 802.11 network such as shown in
A communication system and method are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises a switch receiving information from at least one repeater for each packet received without errors by the at least one repeater, the switch, in response to the information, determining an amount of wireless communication activity each of the at least one repeater is experiencing, the switch determining whether to cause one or more repeaters to change status regarding wireless reception and transmission of packets from other devices in the network based on repeater location and repeater density and the information received from the at least one repeater, and the switch causing a change in the status for at least one of the one or more repeaters by signaling to the at least one of the one or more repeaters.
The present invention will be understood more fully from the detailed description given below and from the accompanying drawings of various embodiments of the invention, which, however, should not be taken to limit the invention to the specific embodiments, but are for explanation and understanding only.
A communication system is described. In one embodiment, the communication system comprises a mobile station having a transmitter to transmit packets wirelessly according to a protocol and multiple repeaters communicably coupled with the mobile station. Each of the plurality of repeaters receives one or more packets of the wirelessly transmitted packets from the mobile station. Each of the repeaters receives an indication of which of the wirelessly transmitted packets were received without errors by other repeaters and a received signal strength for those packets. The communication system also includes a switch coupled to the repeaters. Each of the repeaters forwards to the switch each packet of the wirelessly transmitted packets that each repeater had received at a received signal strength higher than any other repeater.
In the following description, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.
Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to a computer system bus.
The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description below. In addition, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the invention as described herein.
A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable medium includes read only memory (“ROM”); random access memory (“RAM”); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; flash memory devices; electrical, optical, acoustical or other form of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.); etc.
Exemplary Network Architecture
Similar to
Each of the repeaters 3021-3023 receives wireless communications from devices (e.g., mobile stations such as, for example, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a headset, a voice-enabled mobile station, a laptop computer system, a personal digital assistant, a computer-data-enabled mobile station, a speakerphone, video game controller, a DVD controller, a stereo controller, a TV controller, etc.) in the coverage areas of the repeaters. In one embodiment, these wireless communications are performed according to the 802.11 protocol. That is, each of the mobile stations in each of cells 3101-310n exchanges packets with the repeaters 3021-3023 using the 802.11 protocol.
In one embodiment, switch 301 includes 802.11 MAC protocol software that allows switch 301 to communicate with repeaters 3021-3023. Different from the prior art, many of the 802.11 MAC functionality typically associated with the access points, as described above in the Background section, are taken out of the repeaters 3021-302n and centralized in switch 301. More specifically, the MAC layer is split to enable transfer of messages over wiring (e.g., CAT5 cabling). As such, repeaters 3021-3023 and switch 301 are interfaced at the inside the 802.11 MAC layer as described below.
In one embodiment, switch 301 includes one or more Ethernet connectors (e.g., external Ethernet connector) so that a computer system, such as desktop computer system 303, or other device, has an Ethernet connection to LAN backbone 102 via switch 301. Similarly, in one embodiment, one or more of repeaters 3021-3023 includes an Ethernet connector to enable a device (e.g., computer system, such as desktop computer system 304) to gain access, via a repeater, such as repeater 3023, to switch 301 and the rest of the communication system. In such a case, the wiring coupling switch 301 to repeaters 3021-3023 may combine 802.11 information including management and control (as opposed to solely data) information with traditional Ethernet packets on the same wiring (e.g., CAT5).
Distributed Receiver Diversity Approach
The network architecture described above allows for overlapping coverage between cells supported by the repeaters. This overlapping coverage allows for receiver diversity.
The packets from the mobile stations in each of the cells are broadcast and may be received by multiple repeaters. By allowing multiple repeaters to receive packets from one of the mobile stations, collisions and dropped packets may be reduced or avoided. For example, if a collision occurs or if a packet is dropped by one of the repeaters, then a particular packet can still be received by other repeaters. In this manner, the use of repeaters described herein provides for higher reliability.
In an embodiment in which mobile stations exchange packets with repeaters using the 802.11 protocol, each packet from a mobile station includes an Ethernet MAC address, which is embedded in the packet. Each packet may be received by one or more repeaters. Each repeater that receives a packet from a mobile station without errors (i.e., cleanly) determines the received signal strength of the packet in a manner well-known in the art. The received signal strength is converted into an indication, such as a received signal strength indicator (RSSI). The repeater forwards the packet, along with the RSSI. In one embodiment, the repeater encapsulates the packet into an Ethernet packet with the RSSI in a header and forwards the Ethernet packet to switch 301. In one embodiment, the RSSI is specified in a value from 1 to 127. These 128 discrete values can be mapped to dB signal strength values based on the particular implementation being used. Thus, all packets received from mobile stations by a repeater without errors are forwarded to switch 301. Switch 301 knows which repeater sent the packet(s) because it is received on its preassigned port.
In one embodiment, the fact that a particular repeater received a packet without errors is communicated to all other repeaters. In one embodiment, this is accomplished by having the repeater send each encapsulated packet and its RSSI as a broadcast packet to switch 301. This broadcast packet is similar to those broadcast packets used in Ethernet and includes a special broadcast address, which is recognized by switch 301. In another embodiment, only the header of the packet, which includes the RSSI and uniquely identifies the packet, is encapsulated and sent as a broadcast packet to the other repeaters. In this case, the data portion of the packet is not forwarded.
In response to receiving the broadcast packet with the specific broadcast address, switch 301 broadcasts the packet on all of the other ports used for communication between switch 301 and the other repeaters.
In one embodiment, upon receiving a packet without error from a particular mobile station, the repeater sets a timer within which it is to receive packets received by other repeaters that are duplicates to the packet it has already received. When the timer expires, the repeater examines the RSSI of the packet it received (without error) with the RSSI values of duplicate packets received by other repeaters. Based on that information, the repeater determines if it is to send the acknowledgement packet. Thus, if the time expires without receiving a duplicate packet, the repeater sends the acknowledgement. If the timer expires and the repeater receives a duplicate packet, thereafter, it is treated as a new packet. To avoid this, the timer time out value is set to handle the worst case time delay that a repeater may face in receiving duplicate packets.
Note that switch 301 forwards each packet received from repeaters (note duplicates) to the rest of the communication system (e.g., LAN backbone, other mobile stations, the Internet, etc.). In one embodiment, this occurs after de-duplication of packets so that only one copy of each packet is forwarded.
Once the broadcast packets have been received, all the repeaters know what packets were received cleanly by the others and at what RSSI the packets were received by the other repeaters. Thereafter, each repeater selects the packet with the highest RSSI and determines the repeater that received it. In other words, each repeater performs a comparison on the received signal strength of the packets it received that were also received by one or more other repeaters. For each of the packets that a repeater receives at a power level higher than any of the other repeaters that received that packet, that repeater sends an acknowledgement back to the mobile station acknowledging that the packet was received without errors. This prevents all the repeaters that receive the packet cleanly from sending multiple acknowledgements to mobile station.
In one embodiment, if two repeaters have the same receive signal strength for a packet, the repeater with the lower port number (the port number by which switch 301 is coupled to the repeater) is the repeater that is elected to send the acknowledgement to the mobile station. In this manner, only one repeater is selected to send the acknowledgement to the mobile station and, thus, the receiver diversity is handled in the network architecture in a distributed fashion. In one embodiment, to enable the repeaters to determine which is to send the acknowledgement in case of a packet received with the same received signal strength by multiple repeaters, each packet includes identification information, such as its switch port number, to enable the determination of which has the lowest port number. Note, in an alternative embodiment, the repeater with the highest port number may be the one to send the acknowledgement or other pre-assigned priority information may be used by the repeaters in such situations.
Referring to
Thereafter, processing logic encapsulates 802.11 packet and RSSI in an Ethernet packet (processing block 403) and sends the Ethernet packet to the switch (processing block 404). In one embodiment, a baseband processor (e.g., baseband processor 1001 in
Later in time, processing logic receives one or more packets from the switch that are duplicates of the 802.11 packet. These duplicate packets are transmitted by other repeaters and encapsulated by those repeaters, along with their RSSIs (processing block 405). Processing logic in the repeater compares RSSIs for the duplicate packets (processing block 406). In one embodiment, a baseband processor (e.g., baseband processor 1001 in
Referring to
Token-Based Receiver Diversity Approach
Note that the above receiver diversity procedure is particularly useful when gigabit or faster Ethernet communication exists between switch 301 and repeaters 3021-302n. However, if such is not the case, another technique for receiver diversity may be utilized. For example, a token-based receiver diversity procedure may be used. In this case, switch 301 has a token for every mobile station on the 802.11 network and it gives the token to one of the repeaters. In other words, switch 301 pre-assigns the token before a packet is even transmitted by a mobile station. The repeater stores the token in a table that lists all mobile stations for which it has a token. The repeater with the token sends the acknowledgement packet to the mobile stations listed in the table when those mobile stations send packets that are received by the repeater. Therefore, a comparison of received signal strengths for duplicate packets is not necessary. Note that this token based mechanism, if the repeater with the token does not receive a packet cleanly, but another repeater does, that packet will be forwarded to the switch and not acknowledged to the mobile client. However, the switch moves the token before a subsequent packet is sent by mobile station. Therefore, this will only occur for one packet.
In one embodiment, switch 301 includes a database with a listing of mobile stations and repeater numbers corresponding to the repeater that has been designated to acknowledge packets received from the mobile station and, thus, has the token. The table may also include additional information describing the repeater itself.
Since switch 301 receives all packets and their received signal strength, switch 301 can determine the closest repeater to a particular mobile station. If the repeater determined to be closest to the particular mobile station is different than the one previously identified as closest, then switch 301 moves the token to a new repeater, i.e. the one that is closer to the mobile station. The token may be moved on a packet-by-packet basis or every predetermined number of the packets (e.g., 10 packets, 100 packets, etc.).
Switch 301 may employ a timer to indicate the time during which duplicate packets may be received in much the same manner the timer is used by the repeaters in the distributed approach described above.
Referring to
In one embodiment, the switch assigns a token by sending an Add Token command to the repeater, which causes the repeater to add a new mobile station to its table of mobile devices that the repeater supports. This command includes the MAC address of the mobile station.
Subsequently, processing logic periodically tests whether the repeater assigned the token for a particular mobile station is still the closest repeater to that mobile station (processing block 454). If so, then the processing is complete. If not, then processing logic moves the token to the closest repeater (processing block 455) and updates the table to reflect the new repeater that is closest to the mobile station (processing block 456). Processing logic also updates the switch port to reflect the new repeater for use when sending packets to the mobile station from the switch.
In one embodiment, the switch moves the token by sending a Delete Token command to the repeater that currently has it, causing the repeater to delete the token (and assorted MAC Address) from its list of supported mobile stations, and by sending an Add Token command to the repeater that is currently closest to the mobile station.
Referring to
Subsequently, when processing logic receives a packet from mobile station (processing block 472), processing logic compares the MAC address of the 802.11 packet from the mobile station with the address in the table (processing block 473). At this time, processing logic tests whether the MAC address of a packet equals an address in the table (processing block 474). If so, processing logic provides an acknowledgment (ACK) packet to the mobile station (processing block 475). If not, processing logic ignores the packet.
Note that since all repeaters communicate the fact that they received a packet from a mobile station along with the received signal strength to switch 301, switch 301 is able to determine the coverage area of the transmission of the mobile station. In one embodiment, each packet received by the switch 301 from the repeaters terminates in a network processor in switch 301 (e.g., network processor 1206 of
Downstream Communication Scheduling
For communications in the reverse direction (e.g., in the downstream direction), in one embodiment, the repeater transmitters are scheduled to reduce collisions. This scheduling is useful because repeaters can be close enough to interfere with one another. Because of this, switch 301 schedules the transmissions to prevent the collisions when the repeaters are actually transmitting.
For example, if a packet is destined for a particular IP address, then switch 301 performs an address translation to translate, for example, the IP address into an Ethernet MAC address. Switch 301 uses the Ethernet MAC address to search in a location tracking database to determine which repeater is closest to the mobile station having the Ethernet MAC address. Once the repeater is identified by switch 301, then switch 301 knows the switch port on which the packet should be sent so that it is sent to the repeater listed in the location tracking database (for forwarding by the repeater to the mobile station).
Once the repeater (and the port number) has been identified, switch 301 checks whether an interference problem would be created if the packet is sent by switch 301 to the mobile station at that time. An interference problem would be created if there are other transmissions that would be occurring when the packet is forwarded onto its destination mobile station. If no interference problem would exist, switch 301 sends the packet through the identified port to the repeater most recently determined to be closest to the mobile station. However, if an interference problem would be created by sending the packet immediately, then switch 301 delays sending the packet through the identified port to the repeater most recently determined to be closest to the mobile station.
In one embodiment, to determine if an interference problem would exist if a packet is sent immediately upon determining the switch port number on which the packet is to be sent, switch 301 maintains and uses two databases. One of the databases indicates which of the repeaters interfere with each other during their transmissions. This database is examined for every downstream packet that is to be sent and switch 301 schedules the transmission of downstream packets so that repeaters that interfere with each other when they transmit at the same time do not transmit at the same time. The other database is a listing of mobile stations and the corresponding set of repeaters that last received the transmissions. If two mobile stations have overlapping sets, then it is possible for their acknowledgement packets to interfere when they simultaneously receive non-interfering data packets from different repeaters. Because mobile stations send acknowledge packets upon receiving downstream packets, there is a possibility that mobile stations will interfere with each other when sending their acknowledgement packets. Switch 301 takes this information into account during scheduling and schedules downstream packets to the mobile stations to reduce the occurrence of mobile stations interfering with other when sending acknowledgment packets.
The information in these two databases may be collected by sending out test packets to the WLAN to determine which repeaters and mobile devices cause the interference described above.
Location-Tracking by Received Signal Strength (RSSI)
Referring to
In one embodiment, the location tracking table may include a listing of mobile stations and their individually assigned repeaters. This table may also include, or include instead of the assigned repeater, an indication of the switch port by which the switch is to communicate with the repeater assigned to each mobile station.
Mobility Supported by Routing
In one embodiment, switch 301 determines that a particular mobile station is closer to a different repeater (by monitoring the received signal strength of duplicate packets). As described above, switch 301 maintains a table (e.g., database) of all mobile stations in the 802.11 network and includes an indication of the repeater closest to each mobile station. Switch 301 performs port-based routing and may use the table in the same manner an IP routing table is used. Switch 301 has an Ethernet port for each repeater. When switch 301 determines that a mobile station is closer to a repeater that is different than the one listed in the database (based on the received signal strength of duplicate packets among multiple repeaters), then switch 301 updates the database. Thereafter, if a packet is received by switch 301 for that mobile station, switch 301 merely sends it out on the Ethernet port assigned to the repeater that was most recently determined to be the closest to that mobile station.
Multi-Switch System
Protocol Architecture
In one embodiment, the repeater MAC sublayer is responsible for performing portions of the 802.11 protocol including handling CSMA/CA, DIFS/EIFS interframe spacing (IFS) timing, SIFS timing and control, beacon frames (during transmit only), generating acknowledgement (of ACK) frames (during transmit only) on data packets received, such as 802.11 data frames and generating CTS (clear-to-send) frames in response to RTS (request-to-send) frames. The repeater MAC sublayer may also respond to the resetting of internal network allocation vectors (NAVs) which are embedded into (e.g., RTS and CTS frames). Each of the above repeater MAC functions may be implemented in a manner that is well-known is the art.
In addition to the MAC sublayer, each of repeaters 8021-802N includes an 802.11 physical layer or other wireless physical layer.
The switch MAC sublayer is responsible for handling multiple frame types during reception from the repeaters. In one embodiment, the MAC frame types the switch is capable of handling include an association request, reassociation request, probe request, ATIM, disassociation, authentication, deauthentication, PS-Pol, CTS (updates NAV in repeaters), ACK (in response to data frames), data and Null.
The switch MAC frame types that are accommodated during transmission include an association response, a reassociation response, probe response, ATIM, disassociation, deauthentication, PS-Pole, data, Null and RTS (updates NAV in repeater). It should be noted that the MAC frame types that the switch accommodates during receive and transmit are well known in the arts and part of the 802.11 standard. Each of the above switch MAC functions may be implemented in a manner that is well-known is the art
Baseband processor 1001 is a digital chip that performs the reduced MAC functions as described above. The repeater also includes a port for coupling to switch, port 1007. Baseband processor 1001 handles communication with switch 301 using this port. In one embodiment, this port also transfers information through the port at 100 Mb/s bits per second. Port 107 may also provide power to baseband processor 1001.
A desktop port 1006 may be included to allow desktop or other systems to plug into the repeater. Also, in one embodiment, an LEDs 1005, such as an activity LED, power LED, and/or link LED, may be included in the repeater as well.
HyperTransport controller 1203 is coupled to switching processor 1202 and provides a gigabit ethernet interface to the rest of the switch architecture. In one embodiment, the HyperTransport controller 1203 includes a diagnostic porthole 1204 and another ethernet port 1205 for use, for example, coupled to a corporate LAN.
In one embodiment, HyperTransport controller 1203 comprises a Galaileo HyperTransport controller sold by Marvell.
A network processor 1206 is coupled to HyperTransport controller 1203 and performs the majority of the functions of the switch, including the receiver diversity functions and location-tracking functions described above, with the exception of the rebroadcast of the broadcast packets received by the switch, which is handled by switching processor 1202. In one embodiment, network processor 1206 is coupled to a boot memory 1209, a DRAM 1207 and one or more LED's 1208. In one embodiment, network processor 1206 comprises a PMC-Sierra RM9000X2 sold by PMC-Sierra, boot memory 1209 comprises an MB boot flash AMD AM29LV640D boot flash memory and DRAM 1207 comprises 64 MB synchronous DRAM (SDRAM).
In one embodiment, the network processor 1206 includes a PCI interface to a processor 1210. Processor 1210 may host certain applications, such as, for example, firewall applications. Processor 1210 may perform these functions with the use of hard disk 1211, DRAM 1213 and console port 1211. Console port 1211 may provide access to a monitor or keyboard or other peripheral device. In one embodiment, processor 1210 comprises a pentium processor manufactured by Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif.
In one embodiment, network processor 1206 executes software instructions, which performs the 802.11 MAC layer. Network processor 1206 may also execute a wireless LAN configuration module to configure the wireless LAN network, a priority traffic administration (e.g., traffic shaping) module, a management software (e.g., Cisco IOS), a security protocol (e.g., 802.1x) module, and a VPN/firewall module. Processor 1210 executes a location tracking module to perform the location tracking. Processor 1210 may also execute one or more of the following software modules: clustering/HA, RADIUS/DHCP, session mobility, third party applications, XML Web services, user administration software, and network management software.
Reconfiguration of the Communication System
A technique described herein allows for the performance of an automatic site survey to reconfigure the wireless communication network. As part of the process, the repeaters in essence cause their own reconfiguration by providing information to the switch that the switch uses to determine whether reconfiguration is necessary. In one embodiment, as a result of performing the reconfiguration process, one or more repeaters may change their state from activated, deactivated, or hot standby to another state and/or change their transmitter power level and/or receiver sensitivity. When in the activated state, a repeater is able to receive packets from sending devices (e.g., mobile devices in the network) and transmit packets to those devices. When in the deactivated state, a repeater is not able to receive packets from nor transmit packets to other devices (e.g., mobile devices in the network). When in the hot standby state, a repeater is able to receive packets from sending devices but not transmit packets to those devices. It is possible that a repeater may not change its state as part of the reconfiguration process, but may change its transmit power level and/or its receiver sensitivity.
The reconfiguration of the network includes turning on and off repeaters and adjusting transmitter power levels and receiver sensitivity. The reconfiguration occurs periodically. Reconfiguration may occur after a predetermined period of time (e.g., an hour) or a predetermined amount of activity. The reconfiguration may occur in response to an event. For example, if the activity of a repeater receives a predetermined number of packets within a predetermined period of time or the rate of packet reception increases by a predetermined amount, then the reconfiguration may be performed. For another example, the event may comprise a mobile station entering a particular location (e.g., a conference room) where a repeater is located and not on (thereby causing the system to be reconfigured to have the repeater activated). When the event occurs, an alarm in the switch is triggered, causing the switch to run the reconfiguration process.
In response to sending the packet(s), the switch receives the packet(s) (processing block 1302) and determines the amount of wireless communication activity each repeater is experiencing (processing block 1303).
More specifically, the repeater receives a packet and embedded in the packet header is the Ethernet MAC address of the sending device. When the repeater forwards that packet to the switch, it attaches the received signal strength and SNR values. In response to the packet, the switch is able to open up the packet and determine that the packet is from another unique IP address and, thus, another unique user. Based on this, the switch determines the density of unique users on a particular repeater. In other words, the switch determines the number of unique users (mobile stations) sending packets that are being received by an individual repeater. The switch may use a database to maintain this information. This database may be the location tracking database described above.
Based on the location and density of the repeaters as tracked by the switch, using the information sent with the packet(s) from the repeater(s), the switch determines which repeaters to activate, deactivate, or move to the hot standby state (processing block 1304). The switch also determines the transmitter power levels for the repeaters that are activated (processing block 1305). The transmitter power levels are the power levels used by the repeaters when transmitting packets wirelessly to other devices in the network. The switch may also adjust the receive sensitivity of one or more of the repeaters (processing block 1306). In one embodiment, the switch causes these changes to be made by sending control commands to the repeater over a wired connection (e.g., the Ethernet connection).
Thus, if the switch determines that a particular repeater is to be activated (the repeater can receive and transmit), deactivated (the repeater cannot receive nor transmit), or placed in hot standby mode (the repeater can receive but cannot transmit) or that changes to repeater's transmitters power level and/or the repeater's receiver sensitivity are necessary, then the switch sends a command to the repeater specifying the desired action.
In one embodiment, if the number of unique users being received cleanly by a repeater in a hot standby state is above a threshold, then the switch activates the repeater.
This reconfiguration process has a number of advantages over the prior art. For example, as part of the reconfiguration process in the prior art, an access point may have to be moved. This is because there are typically no additional access points in the area that are not already being used because of their expense. In contrast, because repeaters are generally cheaper devices, many more of them may be distributed throughout the network, even though they are not going to be used all the time. Thus, when there is a need for additional capacity, one of the repeaters that is not currently activated can be activated.
In one embodiment, the reconfiguration of the wireless communication system may include changing the transmit power levels of the mobile stations. As with the reconfiguration described above, the purpose of this reconfiguration of the mobile station is to improve network capacity. The improvement to network capacity may be due to a reduced interference to repeaters and other mobile stations in adjacent coverage cells that a mobile station causes because its transmit power level is changed.
The reconfiguration of the mobile stations may occur in response to the switch examining the interference in a particular area and comparing this interference with a predetermined amount of interference (e.g., a threshold). The predetermined amount of interference may be based on an allowable amount of interference for the wireless communication system or an allowable amount of variance from the allowable amount of interference.
The switch (or other control entity) determines the amount to change the transmit power level. In order to determine the amount of change to a particular transmit power level, the switch initially determines what the current transmit power level is. In one embodiment, the switch sends a query as a control message to the mobile station to obtain the transmit power level of the mobile station. Alternatively, the switch maintains a list (e.g., a database) of the transmit power levels of the mobile stations and accesses the list to obtain the transmit power level for a particular mobile station. The switch may obtain this information from the mobile stations. In addition, the switch might also send a command to the mobile station to modify its power level on a percentage basis. This would not require the knowledge of a specific power level. For example, in one embodiment, the mobile stations send a control message to the switch at bootup indicating their transmit power level.
Once the current transmit power level has been obtained, the switch determines the amount to change the transmit power level. This may be based on the received signal strength (e.g., RSSI) of the packets received by the repeater currently assigned to the mobile station. For example, if the received signal strength is very high, yet the mobile station is causing interference (e.g., its packets are being received by one or more other repeaters), the switch may cause the mobile station to reduce its transmit power level to a predetermined level or by a predetermined amount (e.g., a percentage of its current transmit power level) because the effect of such a reduction would not prevent its packets from being received by its assigned repeater.
The change in the transmit power level may be performed in a number of ways. For example, in one embodiment, the switch controls the transmit power level of the mobile station(s). In such a case, the switch may send a command message to the mobile station, via a repeater, to cause the mobile station to adjust its transmit power level. The command could indicate that the mobile station should increase or decrease its transmit power level. Alternatively, such a command could come from a repeater or a control entity in the communication system other than the switch.
Whereas many alterations and modifications of the present invention will no doubt become apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art after having read the foregoing description, it is to be understood that any particular embodiment shown and described by way of illustration is in no way intended to be considered limiting. Therefore, references to details of various embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claims which in themselves recite only those features regarded as essential to the invention.
The present patent application is a continuation-in-part of, and claims priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/044,480, titled, “Receiver Diversity In A Communication System” filed on Jan. 11, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,760,318, issued Jul. 6, 2004.
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Number | Date | Country |
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WO 9622636 | Jul 1996 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | 10044480 | Jan 2002 | US |
Child | 10133804 | US |