Wireless Device Grouping With Distributed Wake-Up Times
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing communication systems with IoT devices face challenges in maintaining efficient communication with wireless devices that have long sleep times, leading to increased latency and power consumption.
Innovation Solution
A method and network node configuration that groups wireless devices into a mesh network, allowing them to communicate over short-range and long-range connections at predefined occasions, distributing wake-up times to reduce overall power consumption and extend battery life.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If long DRX cycles or power save mode are used to extend battery life, then power consumption is reduced, but latency to page a UE increases considerably
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network into two parts: a long-range network for power-saving communication and a short-range mesh network for low-latency communication. This segmentation allows devices to use long DRX cycles for most communication needs while having immediate access to a mesh network when low latency is required, thus resolving the contradiction between power saving and latency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a mesh network as an intermediary between the long-range network and the UE. When a UE needs low-latency communication, data is routed through the mesh network of neighboring UEs, which act as intermediaries to forward messages quickly without requiring the UE to wake up from sleep mode, thus reducing latency while maintaining power saving benefits.
2Use of energy by moving object
If long sleep times are used for battery life extension, then energy efficiency is improved, but communication reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments communication into two channels: long-range communication for power-efficient operations and short-range mesh communication for reliable, low-latency operations. This segmentation ensures that critical communications maintain reliability through the mesh network while non-critical communications benefit from the energy efficiency of long sleep times.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the communication parameter from single-mode long-range communication to dual-mode operation. By dynamically switching between long-range and short-range mesh communication based on needs, the system maintains communication reliability when required while achieving energy efficiency during normal operation, thus resolving the contradiction.
3Use of energy by moving object
If devices check for paging seldom to save power, then power consumption is reduced, but data collection resolution in time becomes low
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data collection into two pathways: periodic long-range paging for general updates and event-triggered short-range mesh communication for immediate data collection. This allows devices to maintain low power consumption by checking paging seldom while still achieving high time resolution for critical data through the mesh network's event-driven architecture.
Data Source
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AI summary
There is provided mechanisms for configuring a group of wireless devices capable of communicating with each other over a short-range connection and configured to communicate with a network node over a long-range wireless connection at respective predefined occasions. A method is performed by the network node. The method comprises obtaining information that the wireless devices are candidates for being grouped together. The method comprises grouping the wireless devices into the group of wireless devices by distributing the predefined occasions within the group of wireless devices such that all the predefined occasions, for all the wireless devices in the group of wireless devices, do not fully overlap in time. The method comprises transmitting information indicative of the distributed predefined occasions to the wireless devices in the group of wireless devices, thereby configuring the group of wireless devices.