Managing communication in wireless networks
View Patent ↗In a channel hopping network, some channels are typically less reliable than others due to interference and multipath effects. It is beneficial to favour the more reliable channels. Examples of the present disclosure achieve this by (1) randomly or pseudorandomly allocating multiple channels to a transmitter-receiver pair; (2) adaptively determining, by the transmitter, relatively reliable channels which the transmitter-receiver pair should ideally use for communication; (3) transmitting this information to the receiver; and (4) comparing the allocated channels with the determined channels to enable both the transmitter and the receiver to select the best channel to communicate on.
1 . A system comprising:
a plurality of wireless devices comprising respective processors configured to pseudorandomly order a set of available channels of a wireless network into a first ordered set simultaneously, the first ordered set corresponding to a permutation of the set of available channels,
wherein the plurality of wireless devices comprises a first wireless device comprising a processor configured to:
generate, using the first ordered set, at least one subset of the set of available channels such that a first subset of the at least one subset comprises a first plurality of channels which are absent from other subsets of the set of available channels; and
allocate the first subset for use in communication by the first wireless device.
2 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the respective processors of the plurality of wireless devices are configured to pseudorandomly order the set of available channels by pseudorandomly ordering the set of available channels based on a network time associated with the wireless network.
3 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the respective processors of the plurality of wireless devices are configured to pseudorandomly order the set of available channels by pseudorandomly ordering the set of available channels based on a unique network identification of the wireless network.
4 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the respective processors of the plurality of wireless devices are configured to pseudorandomly order the set of available channels every time a first predefined time period elapses.
5 . The system according to claim 4 , wherein a duration of the first predefined time period is greater than a duration of a time slot of the wireless network.
6 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the respective processors are further configured to:
reorder the first ordered set by moving channels before a first point in the first ordered set to an end of the first ordered set, thereby forming a second ordered set,
wherein the respective processors of the plurality of wireless devices are further configured to generate the at least one subset of the set of available channels based on the second ordered set.
7 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein a number of channels in the first plurality of channels is determined based on an importance of the first wireless device relative to other wireless devices of the wireless network.
8 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the first wireless device comprises a transceiver and the processor is configured to:
determine that a first channel of the first plurality of channels is present in an allow list stored by the first wireless device; and
transmit data to a second wireless device via the transceiver using the first channel of the first plurality of channels.
9 . The system according to claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
transmit, via the transceiver, a plurality of data packets to the second wireless device over a second predefined time period, wherein each of the plurality of data packets includes data defining the allow list; and
in response to determining that the second predefined time period has elapsed, transmit, via the transceiver, the data to the second wireless device using the first channel of the first plurality of channels.
10 . The system according to claim 9 , wherein the first wireless device comprises:
one or more sensors configured to generate sensor data, wherein each of the plurality of data packets includes said sensor data.
11 . The system according to claim 10 , wherein the one or more sensors are vehicle sensors configured to sense attributes of a vehicle in which the one or more sensors are emplaced.
12 . A system comprising:
a plurality of processors configured to:
generate random or pseudorandom subsets of a set of available channels of a wireless network such that each channel of the set of available channels is present in no more than one of the subsets and at least one of the subsets comprises a first plurality of channels;
determine that a first channel of the first plurality of channels is present in an allow list including one or more channels preferred for use in communication; and
transmit or receive data using the first channel of the first plurality of channels,
wherein at least one processor of the plurality of processors is configured to randomly or pseudorandomly order the set of available channels every time a first predefined time period elapses.
13 . The system according to claim 12 , wherein a duration of the first predefined time period is greater than the duration of a time slot of the wireless network, optionally wherein the duration of the first predefined time period is equal to a length of a slotframe of the wireless network.
14 . The system according to claim 12 , wherein said data includes sensor data.
15 . A system comprising
a first wireless device; and
a second wireless device;
the first wireless device comprising:
a transceiver; and
one or more processors configured to,
transmit, via the transceiver, a plurality of data packets to the second wireless device over a predefined time period, wherein each packet of the plurality of data packets includes data defining an allow list including one or more channels preferred for use in communication;
determine that the predefined time period has elapsed; and
in response to determining that the predefined time period has elapsed, communicate with the second wireless device via the transceiver using a channel selected from the one or more channels,
wherein the first wireless device comprises one or more sensors configured to generate sensor data, wherein each packet of the plurality of data packets includes said sensor data.
16 . The system according to claim 15 , wherein the one or more sensors are vehicle sensors configured to sense attributes of a vehicle in which the one or more sensors are emplaced.
17 . A system comprising:
a network manager device comprising a first processor; and
a plurality of wireless devices comprising a first wireless device, wherein the first wireless device comprises a second processor,
wherein the first processor is configured to randomly order a set of available channels of a wireless network into a first ordered set corresponding to a permutation of the set of available channels, and to transmit the first ordered set to the first wireless device, and
wherein the second processor is configured to:
generate at least one subset of the set of available channels such that a first subset of the at least one subset comprises a first plurality of channels which are absent from other subsets of the set of available channels, and
allocate the first subset for use in communication by the first wireless device.
18 . The system according to claim 17 , wherein the first processor is configured to randomly order the set of available channels every time a first predefined time period elapses.
19 . The system according to claim 18 , wherein a duration of the first predefined time period is greater than a duration of a time slot of the wireless network.
20 . The system according to claim 17 , wherein the first wireless device of the plurality of wireless devices comprises a transceiver, and
wherein the second processor is configured to transmit data to a second wireless device of the plurality of wireless devices via the transceiver using a first channel of the first plurality of channels.