System and method for handling or avoiding disruptions in wireless communication
View Patent ↗A wireless communication method comprises selecting a cause of a disruption from two or more potential causes of disruptions by associating at least one characteristic of a communication with a device with the selected cause of a disruption and changing a data rate for the communication from an existing data rate to a new data rate based upon the at least one characteristic of the communication.
1. A wireless communication method, comprising:
detecting a disruption of a communication with a device;
selecting, by a processor, a cause of the disruption from two or more potential causes of disruptions by associating at least one characteristic of the communication with the selected cause of a disruption; and
changing a data rate for the communication from an existing data rate to a new data rate based upon the selected cause of the disruption.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one characteristic of a communication includes a frame error rate.
3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the selecting a cause comprises:
associating an increase in the frame error rate relative to a frame error rate corresponding to a previous higher data rate with interference from another device as the cause of the disruption.
4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the selecting a cause comprises:
associating a decrease in the frame error rate relative to a frame error rate corresponding to a previous higher data rate with a path loss to a receiving device as the cause of the disruption.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the communication is a wireless packet transfer communication.
6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the communication is in accordance with IEEE 802.11a, b or g.
7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein changing a data rate comprises:
selecting the new data rate from a list of available rates for use in the communication.
8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the list of available rates is stored in a table.
9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the table further includes threshold values for at least one characteristic, the threshold values being associated with the detection of a disruption.
10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the selecting a cause comprises:
making a hypothesis as to the cause of the disruption based on the current FER calculation being compared to the threshold values in the table.
11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the selecting a cause further comprises:
testing the hypothesis as to the cause of the disruption by transmitting the next frame at the rate as indicated by a criteria for adjusting the data rate, the criteria being based at least partly on the threshold values.
12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the selecting a cause further comprises:
feeding an outcome of the test of the hypothesis as to the cause of the disruption back into a rate decision algorithm in order to correct the hypothesis if necessary.
13. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
changing the data rate to a higher rate if the data rate does not change after a predetermined number of frames.
14. An apparatus, comprising:
a detector adapted to determine occurrence of a disruption of a communication with a device:
a disruption cause selection module adapted to select a cause of the disruption from two or more potential causes of disruptions by associating at least one characteristic of the communication with the selected cause of a disruption; and
a transmission rate selection module adapted to change a data rate for the communication from an existing data rate to a new data rate based upon the selected cause of the disruption.
15. The apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the at least one characteristic of a communication includes a frame error rate.
16. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein the disruption cause selection module is adapted to associate an increase in the frame error rate relative to a frame error rate corresponding to a previous higher data rate with interference from another device as the cause of the disruption.
17. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein the disruption cause selection module is adapted to associate a decrease in the frame error rate relative to a frame error rate corresponding to a previous higher data rate with a path loss to a receiving device as the cause of the disruption.
18. The apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the communication is a wireless packet transfer communication.
19. The apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the communication is in accordance with IEEE 802.11a, b or g.
20. A computer program product, embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising computer code configured to perform the following steps:
determining an occurrence of a disruption of a communication with a device;
selecting a cause of the disruption from two or more potential causes of disruptions by associating at least one characteristic of the communication with the selected cause of a disruption;
changing a data rate for the communication from an existing data rate to a new data rate based upon the selected cause of the disruption.