Wireless Mesh Data Polling via PHY Offload for Lower Power
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Solution Overview
Problem
End devices in wireless mesh networks consume significant battery power due to frequent data polling operations, which involve waking up to transmit data request messages and receive acknowledgments, even when there is no pending data.
Innovation Solution
Offload data poll message generation from the MAC layer to the PHY layer, allowing the MAC to remain in a low power state until data is pending, using a data poll accelerator to generate successive poll messages based on initial data poll messages.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If end devices wake up periodically to send data poll messages to check for pending data, then data communication reliability is improved, but battery power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the data poll message generation function from the MAC layer and relocates it to the PHY layer. This allows the MAC layer to remain in a low-power state while the PHY layer handles the minimal necessary wake-up operations for polling, thereby reducing overall power consumption while maintaining communication reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The PHY layer pre-generates data poll messages in advance using a data poll accelerator, so that when the device needs to wake up for polling, the messages are already prepared. This eliminates the need for the MAC layer to be fully active during polling operations, reducing power consumption while ensuring reliable data communication.
2Measurement precision
If the MAC layer generates data poll messages for each polling operation, then data polling accuracy is improved, but device complexity and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the repetitive data poll message generation task from the MAC layer and assigns it to the PHY layer's data poll accelerator. This reduces MAC layer complexity and power consumption while maintaining polling accuracy through dedicated PHY layer handling.
Solution Approach 2:
The PHY layer serves itself by generating data poll messages autonomously using the data poll accelerator, without requiring MAC layer intervention for each polling operation. This self-service approach reduces overall system complexity while maintaining accurate data polling.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and device architectures for improving the energy efficiency of end devices in a wireless mesh network. In an example, an end device of the network includes a wireless transceiver, a first processing core configured to implement a media access control layer (MAC), and a second processing core configured to implement a physical layer (PHY). The PHY operates to receive a first data poll message from the MAC and transmit the message to an external device via the wireless transceiver. The PHY further operates to receive an acknowledge message including a frame pending value. If the frame pending value indicates that the external device does not have buffered data for the end device, the PHY generates a second data poll message based on the first data poll message, including incrementing one or more of a sequence number field value, a frame counter field value, and a message integrity check field of the first data poll message, thereby enabling the MAC to remain in a low power state while the PHY transmits the second data poll message.