Flexible scheduling of resources in a noisy environment

US8553706B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• CopperGate Communications Ltd. · IL

Inventors

• Neal Riedel · Carlsbad, US
• Yiorgos M. Peponides · Encinitas, US
• James E. Petranovich · Encinitas, US
• Lawrence W. Yonge, III · Summerfield, US
• Srinivas Katar · Gainesville, US
• Deepak Ayyagari · Vancouver, US
• Sherman Gavette · Camas, US
• Wai-Chung Chan · Vancouver, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 24, 2006
• Grant date: Oct 8, 2013
• Expiry date: Dec 10, 2027

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04L5/0044
• WIPO field: Telecommunications
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

There is provided a powerline network that includes a number of stations including a central coordinator for coordinating transmissions of each of the stations. The central coordinator is configurable to transmit a beacon at an interval based on a phase of a powerline cycle. The interval of the beacon can be substantially equal to two periods of the powerline cycle. The interval of the beacon includes a reserved region including a persistent allocation region and a non-persistent allocation region. The beacon also includes a broadcast message including a persistent schedule and a non-persistent schedule. The persistent schedule is valid for a current beacon period and a number of subsequent beacon periods as indicated by the beacon, while the non-persistent schedule is valid for a single beacon period. The persistent allocation region and the non-persistent allocation region are determined based on the persistent schedule and the non-persistent schedule, respectively.