Dedicated-Scan Radio Caching for Low-Latency Wireless Roaming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wireless communication devices experience increased latency and power consumption during scanning for nearby nodes, as they need to cease ongoing communications to perform scans, affecting connectivity and location-based functions.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a dedicated-scan radio to continuously or quasi-continuously collect and cache scan results in the background, allowing primary radios to utilize these results for efficient scanning and communication without interrupting ongoing operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a primary radio performs scanning for nearby nodes, then scanning accuracy and completeness are improved, but latency of ongoing traffic and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the scanning function into two separate radios: a primary radio that maintains ongoing communications and a dedicated-scan radio that performs scanning operations. This segmentation allows the primary radio to avoid interrupting traffic while the dedicated-scan radio collects scan results independently, resolving the contradiction between scanning accuracy and communication latency.
Solution Approach 2:
The dedicated-scan radio performs scanning operations in advance and caches scan results before they are needed by the primary radio. This preliminary action ensures that when the primary radio needs scan data, results are already available, eliminating latency without compromising scanning thoroughness.
2Measurement precision
If a primary radio performs scanning for nearby nodes, then scanning accuracy and completeness are improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent separates the power-intensive scanning function from the primary radio by implementing a dedicated-scan radio. This allows the primary radio to maintain lower power consumption while the dedicated-scan radio handles scanning operations, resolving the contradiction between scanning accuracy and power usage.
Solution Approach 2:
The dedicated-scan radio acts as an intermediary that performs scanning operations and provides results to the primary radio. This intermediary approach allows the primary radio to achieve accurate scan data without directly performing the power-intensive scanning itself, thus reducing overall power consumption.
3Measurement precision
If a radio ceases communicating on an operating channel to perform scanning, then scanning completeness is improved, but communication continuity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides communication and scanning functions into separate radios. The primary radio continues communicating on operating channels without interruption, while the dedicated-scan radio performs comprehensive scanning operations. This segmentation resolves the contradiction between scanning completeness and communication continuity.
Solution Approach 2:
The dedicated-scan radio serves as an intermediary that performs comprehensive scanning without requiring the primary radio to interrupt communications. The dedicated-scan radio collects complete scan results independently and provides them to the primary radio, maintaining both scanning completeness and communication reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are described for using a dedicated-scan radio to improve scanning and other radio operations performed during wireless communications. The techniques include configuring a dedicated-scan radio to collect and cache scan results without interfering with ongoing wireless communication tasks performed using primary radios. Based on the scan results cached by the dedicated-scan radio, the computing device improves other radio operations in furtherance of wireless communications. Cached scan results enable a primary radio to avoid, or to focus on, scanning certain channels or frequencies during discovering, positioning, or roaming operations. By using the dedicated-scan results as a starting point or seed for functions performed by a primary radio, the computing device may more quickly and more efficiently perform radio functions, minimizing latency to ongoing wireless communications.