US 12,262,301 B2
Beaconing in small wavelength wireless networks
Mohamed Abouelseoud, Burlingame, CA (US); Ramy Abdallah, San Jose, CA (US); and Kazuyuki Sakoda, Campbell, CA (US)
Assigned to SONY GROUP CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP); and SONY CORPORATION OF AMERICA, New York, NY (US)
Filed by SONY GROUP CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP); and SONY CORPORATION OF AMERICA, New York, NY (US)
Filed on Dec. 22, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/558,709.
Application 17/558,709 is a continuation of application No. 16/562,668, filed on Sep. 6, 2019, granted, now 11,246,080.
Application 16/562,668 is a continuation of application No. 15/819,991, filed on Nov. 21, 2017, granted, now 10,433,236, issued on Oct. 1, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/550,028, filed on Aug. 25, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2022/0116851 A1, Apr. 14, 2022
Int. Cl. H04W 40/24 (2009.01); H04W 8/00 (2009.01); H04W 16/28 (2009.01); H04B 7/06 (2006.01); H04L 41/12 (2022.01); H04W 48/16 (2009.01); H04W 84/12 (2009.01); H04W 84/18 (2009.01)
CPC H04W 40/244 (2013.01) [H04W 8/005 (2013.01); H04W 16/28 (2013.01); H04B 7/0695 (2013.01); H04L 41/12 (2013.01); H04W 48/16 (2013.01); H04W 84/12 (2013.01); H04W 84/18 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus for wireless communication in a network, the apparatus comprising:
(a) a wireless communication circuit configured as a station, operating under an IEEE 802.11 protocol, for wirelessly communicating with other wireless communication stations on the network which are operating under the IEEE 802.11 protocol and utilizing directional transmission having a plurality of antenna pattern sectors each having different transmission directions;
(b) a processor coupled to said wireless communication circuit; and
(c) a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor;
(d) wherein said instructions, when executed by the processor, perform steps of a communications protocol toward setting up and maintaining a communications topology with reduced signaling overhead and delay, comprising:
(i) utilizing two different types of beacons (frames), (A) a network maintenance beacon, and (B) a discovery beacon, wherein dividing up the discovery functions and network maintenance function reduces signal overhead and delays;
(ii) wherein when the station is operating on the network as a beacon master (BM), or temporary BM, then it controls the sending of discovery beacons, detecting a new station or a connection attempt by a new station which is using either passive or active scanning, and assigning a station which is closer to the new station to be a new BM to enable efficient discovery of the new station;
(iii) responding to receipt of said discovery beacons when operating as the new station by connecting to one or more stations that transmitted discovery beacons to this new station;
(iv) transmitting network maintenance beacons independently of said discovery beacons, wherein said network maintenance beacons are only transmitted in the direction of known neighbor stations; and
(v) wherein said detecting that a new station is trying to connect to the network comprises receiving a signal from said new station of its intent to join the network, and instructions when executed by the processor further performs steps comprising transmitting a subset of information received from the new station sending said signal notifying its intent to join the network to a scheduling entity as either said BM, or a central entity of the network, wherein said scheduling entity collects information from stations in the network, determines the transmission time and at least one transmitting station to generate said discovery beacon, and transmits notifications to these stations of transmission time for said discovery beacon.