Synchronization of devices in a peer-to-peer network environment

摘要

A system, apparatus and method for synchronizing devices in a peer-to-peer communication environment. Devices select a master to facilitate their synchronization, and rendezvous according to a schedule of availability windows broadcast by the master. Devices may attend some or all of the availability windows, during which they may send and receive unicast and/or multicast messages. Individual devices conserve power by being automatically synchronized instead of having to individually discover other devices and services, and can power off their radios without sacrificing discoverability. Synchronization and peer-to-peer communication as provided herein coexists with other device demands, such as Bluetooth® operations, infrastructure-based communications and so on.

主权项

1. An apparatus for synchronizing with multiple peer devices in a peer-to-peer communication environment, the apparatus comprising:
a hardware processor; a communication module for communicating wirelessly, coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to:
identify a sequence of availability windows having associated communication channels and associated times, wherein to identify the sequence of availability windows, the processor is configured to:
receive, from a first master peer device, a synchronization frame, the synchronization frame comprising:
synchronization parameters comprising a channel, a time, and a duration for each availability window in the sequence of availability windows; andselection metrics of a second master peer device to which the first master peer device is synchronized; andidentify the sequence of availability windows based at least in part on the synchronization parameters; anddiscover the multiple peer devices during one or more of the availability windows.