Associationless Overhead Mesh Access Point Collision Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless networking solutions in industrial settings, such as factories, face challenges with reliability due to potential errors in wireless communications, which can disrupt manufacturing processes, and require association exchanges between client devices and access points, slowing down roaming and preventing multi-point to multi-point radio connectivity.
Innovation Solution
An overhead mesh of access points that operates in an associationless manner, using a controller to manage communication schedules and client identifiers, allowing client devices to transmit best effort traffic without association, and adjusting identifier ranges to avoid collisions, ensuring reliable and efficient communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional wireless networking solutions are used in industrial settings, then client devices can establish connections through association exchanges, but communication reliability deteriorates due to potential errors disrupting manufacturing processes and roaming speed is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the association exchange mechanism from the wireless communication process. Client devices can transmit data directly to the overhead mesh of access points without establishing traditional associations, removing the source of roaming delays while maintaining communication reliability through the mesh architecture's inherent redundancy and error handling capabilities
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an overhead mesh of access points as an intermediary layer between client devices and the network. This mesh structure provides centralized coordination and error management, improving reliability by intercepting and managing communications before they reach client devices, while the associationless design allows direct client-to-mesh transmission that eliminates roaming delays
2Stability of the object's composition
If traditional association-based wireless networking is implemented, then client devices can establish stable connections, but device complexity increases due to association exchange protocols and multi-point to multi-point connectivity is prevented
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the association exchange protocol layer from the communication stack. Client devices transmit data directly to the overhead mesh without performing traditional association handshakes, significantly reducing protocol complexity while the mesh's centralized management maintains connection stability through alternative coordination mechanisms
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the fundamental parameter of connection establishment from association-based to identifier-based routing. By using client device identifiers directly in trigger frames without requiring association states, the system simplifies the connection model while maintaining stability through the mesh's ability to track and manage device identifiers centrally
3Ease of operation
If access points use fixed identifier ranges for client devices, then traffic coordination is simplified, but transmission efficiency deteriorates due to collisions between best effort transmissions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the identifier range assignment dynamic rather than fixed. The access point monitors transmission collisions and adjusts the identifier ranges assigned to different client devices in real-time, optimizing transmission efficiency by redistributing identifier spaces to minimize collisions while maintaining the simplicity of range-based trigger frame coordination
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the access point monitors transmission outcomes and uses this information to adjust identifier range assignments. When collisions are detected in best effort transmissions, the system feeds back by reassigning identifier ranges to reduce future collisions, improving transmission efficiency while keeping the coordination mechanism simple and range-based
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, an access point of an overhead mesh of access points in an area selects a range of client identifiers. The access point sends, via a beam cone transmitted in a substantially downward direction towards a floor of the area, a trigger signal that includes the range of client identifiers and prompts client devices having identifiers in that range to send best effort transmissions towards the overhead mesh. The access point detects a collision between the best effort transmissions of the client devices. The access point adjusts the range of client identifiers so as to avoid future collisions between the best effort transmissions of the client devices.