Patent · US Expired

Apparatus and method for operating a wireless local area network having power conservation

US5465392A · kind A · utility

60Cited by
2References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 17, 1994
Grant dateNov 7, 1995
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 17, 2014

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY02D30/70
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In a wireless local area network system including a server and a plurality of mobile wireless stations, the server maintains a table of stations active in the network system and monitors the transmission activity of the stations. If no activity is detected from a station for a predetermined time, a series of watchdog messages is sent requesting a response from that station. The stations are battery powered and operate in an "AWAKE" state to receive or transmit messages or in a SLEEP state of low power consumption. The stations return from the SLEEP state to the AWAKE state in time to receive at least one watchdog message, thereby avoiding the stations being undesirably logged out from the table of active stations.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.