Frequency-Block Hopping Guide for Wireless Channel Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wireless communication systems operating in unlicensed spectra face inefficiencies in receiver usage and synchronization complexity, particularly in low-power, low-bandwidth devices, leading to higher costs and operational overheads in both hardware and complexity.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a partial hopping-synchronization scheme that uses fewer physical receivers and employs frequency-block hopping guides to determine available channels for transmission, allowing for efficient channel selection and reduced synchronization complexity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional hopping schemes are used in unlicensed spectrum wireless communication, then communication coverage and reliability are improved, but hardware cost and device complexity increase due to requiring multiple physical receivers and full synchronization
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the frequency spectrum into multiple blocks and divides the receivers into groups, where each receiver group monitors a subset of frequency blocks. This segmentation allows the system to achieve comprehensive frequency monitoring without requiring a receiver for every single frequency, thus reducing hardware complexity while maintaining communication reliability through distributed frequency block hopping across multiple receivers.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a universal frequency-block hopping guide that is shared across all receivers and end nodes. This guide enables each receiver to efficiently determine which frequency blocks to monitor based on its group assignment, allowing the same hardware configuration to serve multiple communication purposes and reducing the need for specialized hardware for each frequency channel.
2Reliability
If full synchronization is implemented in frequency hopping schemes, then communication reliability is improved, but operational overhead and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements partial synchronization by synchronizing only the frequency-block hopping patterns rather than complete frequency-by-frequency synchronization. Receivers synchronize to the hopping guide structure and use their group assignments to determine specific frequency blocks to monitor, achieving adequate synchronization for reliable communication without the time overhead of full synchronization across all frequencies.
Solution Approach 2:
The frequency-block hopping guide is established and distributed to all receivers and end nodes before communication begins. This preliminary setup allows all devices to independently determine their frequency monitoring schedules without requiring real-time synchronization handshaking, thereby reducing synchronization time while maintaining reliability through pre-coordinated frequency block assignments.
3Reliability
If multiple physical receivers are deployed to monitor all frequency channels, then communication reliability is improved, but hardware cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the frequency spectrum into multiple blocks and assigns different receiver groups to monitor different blocks. This segmentation allows the system to achieve comprehensive frequency coverage with fewer receivers than would be needed to monitor every frequency individually, as multiple receivers can efficiently monitor multiple blocks through the coordinated frequency-block hopping mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the monitoring functions of multiple receivers into coordinated groups that share information about which frequency blocks contain active transmissions. By combining the capabilities of fewer receivers with intelligent frequency block assignment and hopping coordination, the system achieves reliable frequency monitoring without deploying a receiver for every possible frequency channel.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method (of operating an end node) includes: wirelessly receiving an instance of a non-hopping beacon signal, B, periodically-transmitted from a central node; interpreting a frequency-block hopping guide (FBHG) according to FN(i) and IDCN thereby to determine a corresponding set, CSET(i), of at least two channels available to the end node for transmission, respectively, during frame FN(i); selecting, at least pseudo-randomly, at least one channel amongst the corresponding set CSET(i); and wirelessly transmitting at least one message from the end node using the at least one selected channel, respectively. Each instance B(i) includes: a corresponding frame number, FN(i); and an identification, IDCN, of the central node. The FBHG establishes: a total of L frames; a set of channels CSET for each frame, respectively; and that, for any two consecutive ones of the L frames, FN(j) and FN(j+1), the corresponding sets CSET(j) and CSET(j+1) will be different, CSET(j) ≠ CSET(j+1).