REDUCING POWER CONSUMPTION IN WIRELESS STATIONS PROVIDING NETWORK CONNECTIVITY FOR EMBEDDED DEVICES

摘要

A system contains a wireless station connected to an embedded device by a wired path, with the wireless station being part of a wireless network. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, the wireless station places a receiver (communicating on the wireless network) in power savings mode upon occurrence of a first condition, and restores the receiver to active mode upon occurrence of a second condition. Such transitions between active and power savings modes are employed while receiving data units from a wireless network and providing the data units to the embedded device. In one embodiment, the first and second conditions correspond to a higher threshold and lower threshold for available data in the memory of the wireless station used for buffering not-yet-transferred data units. In alternative embodiments, the conditions are determined based on corresponding express indications by the embedded device.

主权项

1. A system comprising:
an embedded device; a wireless station connected to said embedded device by a wired path, said wireless station being part of a wireless network, said wireless station being operable to:
receive a sequence of data units from a wireless device in said wireless network, a receiver of said wireless station being used to perform said receiving;store said data unit in a memory comprised in said wireless station;determine, at a first time instance, whether a first condition is satisfied;if said first condition is determined to be satisfied:
setting said receiver in power savings mode;communicating with said embedded device on said wired path to send data units in said local memory to said embedded device until a second condition is satisfied; andswitching said receiver to active power mode upon said second condition being found to be satisfied.