WiFi Virtual Access Point Scheduling for Power Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current WiFi mobile devices face high energy consumption due to inefficient power management in wireless data communications, leading to reduced battery life, as existing scheduling strategies either waste energy or cause unfairness among connected devices.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of virtual access points (VAPs) managed by a connection controlling device, which virtualizes physical resources on an access point device to create independent VAPs with unique beacons, allowing for optimized scheduling of WiFi mobile devices based on signal strength and load information, thereby reducing simultaneous processing and power consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple PSM clients wake up at the same time for beacon with same beacon interval, then they can check for buffered data packets simultaneously, but data packets get queued in AP's transmission queue resulting in longer waiting times
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the single beacon transmission into multiple beacons sent at different time slots to different PSM clients. Each PSM client is assigned a specific time slot for beacon reception, preventing simultaneous wake-up and reducing queue waiting time while ensuring reliable data packet delivery.
2Device complexity
If normal scheduling queues all buffered data packets to tail of transmit queue, then queue management is simple, but PSM clients remain in high power consumption CAM mode longer wasting energy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic scheduling where PSM clients are assigned different time slots for beacon reception based on their wake-up patterns and data requirements. This dynamic approach allows clients to wake up less frequently and for shorter durations, reducing power consumption while maintaining manageable scheduling complexity through systematic time slot allocation.
3Use of energy by moving object
If high priority scheduling queues buffered data packets to higher priority queue, then power consumption is reduced when PSM client competes with CAM clients, but significant unfairness is caused to other CAM clients
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the wireless medium into dedicated time slots for PSM clients and CAM clients. PSM clients receive beacons and data in their assigned slots, while CAM clients access the medium in other slots. This segmentation reduces PSM client power consumption through efficient scheduling while maintaining fairness to CAM clients by guaranteeing them dedicated access periods.
4Productivity
If AP serves a certain PSM client, then data transmission is efficient, but other PSM clients still need to keep awakened state causing power consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic beacon transmissions to different PSM clients at different time intervals. Each PSM client wakes up periodically at its assigned time slot to receive beacons and data, then returns to sleep mode. This periodic action maintains efficient data transmission when clients are active while minimizing power consumption by keeping clients in sleep mode between their scheduled wake-up periods.
Data Source
AI summary
A connection controlling device obtains access-related information of the virtual access points based on one or more wireless connection requests from WiFi mobile devices, forwarded by an access point device, for virtual access points of the access point device, and determines scheduling information corresponding to the wireless connection request based on the access-related information; the virtual access points in the access point device perform corresponding scheduling based on the scheduling information.