ACCESS AND POWER MANAGEMENT FOR CENTRALIZED NETWORKS

摘要

A system and method for managing power in a subnet having a hub in communication with one or more nodes is disclosed. The hub and nodes communicate using one or more non-contention access methods, such as scheduled, polled or posted access. The node may enter a sleep or hibernation state while no scheduled, polled or posted allocation interval is pending. The hibernation state allows the node to hibernate through one or more entire beacon periods. In the sleep state, the node may be asleep between any scheduled, polled and posted allocation intervals for the node or during another node's scheduled allocation interval in a current beacon period. By selecting which access scheme is in use, the node and hub can increase the node's chances to be in hibernation or sleep state and minimize power consumption.

主权项

1. A method for managing power in a device, comprising:
operating the device in a low-power state in which the device is not required to transmit or receive frames during certain intervals of a beacon period; maintaining a list of allocation intervals designated for the device, the allocation intervals including scheduled allocations, polled allocations, and posted allocations; determining when a beacon frame transmission is scheduled to occur in the beacon period; operating the device in an active state in which the device is capable of transmitting and receiving frames during the allocation intervals and the beacon transmission period; identifying a polled allocation interval from a poll frame addressed to the device; maintaining the device in the active state after the poll frame until an end of the polled allocation interval; receiving a frame from a hub designating a future poll for the device; and maintaining the device in the active state at a time scheduled for the future poll frame.