KEEP-ALIVE FOR WIRELESS NETWORK

摘要

A transmitting device transmits data to one or more receiving devices. At least one of the receiving devices transmits a keep-alive to the transmitting device. The keep-alive is transmitted at a reduced rate relative to the data transmission rate. In some implementations multiple receiving devices may transmit keep-alives. In these cases, each receiving device may transmit its keep-alives according to a schedule to prevent or reduce the likelihood of overlapping keep-alives. In some implementations a receiving device may be selected to transmit keep-alives. Here, if the selected receiving device stops transmitting keep-alives another receiving device is selected to transmit keep-alives. Through the use of the above techniques, the transmitting device need not keep track of which receiving devices are listening to the data transmission. Rather, the transmitting device may simply stop transmitting in the event that it no longer receives keep-alives.