Multi-Hop Relay Flooding with Sub-Slot Channel Hopping Sync
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In wireless communication systems using channel hopping, synchronization of frequency channels is necessary for packet transmission, which poses challenges when relay nodes are not time-synchronized or when data transmission involves variable packet lengths and unknown network topologies.
Innovation Solution
A communication apparatus and method that uses a multi-hop relay system with a flooding method, employing sub-slots in first and second flooding slots for channel switching and fixed channels within the second flooding slots, respectively, to maintain synchronization and resist interference.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If channel hopping is performed in each flooding slot to improve anti-interference performance, then frequency diversity is enhanced, but synchronization between transmitting and receiving nodes becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The flooding slot is divided into multiple sub-slots, with different channel hopping patterns applied to different sub-slots. This segmentation allows the system to achieve frequency diversity across sub-slots while maintaining synchronization within each sub-slot, resolving the contradiction between anti-interference performance and synchronization ease.
Solution Approach 2:
Different channel hopping strategies are applied locally to different sub-slots within the flooding slot. The first sub-slot uses one hopping pattern while the second sub-slot uses another, allowing each local region (sub-slot) to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining overall system synchronization.
2Reliability
If channel hopping is performed between flooding slots to improve anti-interference performance, then frequency diversity is enhanced, but communication efficiency decreases due to frequent channel switching
Solution Approach 1:
The flooding slot is segmented into multiple sub-slots, allowing channel hopping to occur between sub-slots rather than between entire flooding slots. This reduces the frequency of channel switching while still providing frequency diversity, thereby improving communication efficiency without sacrificing anti-interference performance.
Solution Approach 2:
Channel hopping is performed periodically between sub-slots within a flooding slot rather than between every flooding slot. This periodic action within a bounded time frame maintains frequency diversity benefits while reducing the overall channel switching frequency, thus improving communication efficiency.
3Adaptability or versatility
If relay nodes join the system dynamically to improve network adaptability, then network versatility is enhanced, but synchronization difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The channel hopping pattern is predetermined and established before relay nodes join the network. When new relay nodes join dynamically, they can acquire the predetermined hopping pattern information and synchronize with the network without causing disruption, thus maintaining both network adaptability and synchronization ease.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback mechanisms where relay nodes receive synchronization information from the network and adjust their channel hopping accordingly. This allows dynamically joining nodes to synchronize with the network by receiving feedback about the current hopping state, maintaining both adaptability and synchronization.
Data Source
AI summary
A communication apparatus in a multi-hop relay system in which a packet is transmitted and received using a flooding method in a first flooding slot and a second flooding slot each including a plurality of sub-slots, the communication apparatus performs: switching a frequency channel to be used to transmit and receive a packet between a first sub-slot and a second sub-slot in the first flooding slot; and not switching the frequency channel to be used to transmit and receive a packet within the second flooding slot, but switching the frequency channel to be used to transmit and receive a packet between a plurality of the second flooding slots.