Atmel Corporation

Ozmo, Inc.

Nils Bunger

Katelijn Vleugels

Ilya Minkin

Barry Thompson

In a communication system wherein a plurality of electronic devices connect and disconnect from communication over a medium and wherein the communication system has a protocol such that it is followed by the plurality of electronic devices when using the communication system, a probing device attempts to detect presence of a listening device and parameters associated with a connection to be set up between the probing device and the listening device by sending a probe request packet directed to the listening device and sending, from the listening device, a probe response packet in response to the probe request packet, wherein the listening device bypasses at least one step of the protocol when sending the probe response packet. The bypassed step might be medium arbitration, the communication system might be a wireless network fully or partially based on an 802.11x specification, or a wireless network that uses 802.11x frame formatting and/or modifications/extensions thereof.

Method and apparatus for scanning and device detection in a communication system

In a communication system wherein a plurality of electronic devices connect and disconnect from communication over a medium and wherein the communication system has a protocol such that it is followed by the plurality of electronic devices when using the communication system, a probing device attempts to detect presence of a listening device and parameters associated with a connection to be set up between the probing device and the listening device by sending a probe request packet directed to the listening device and sending, from the listening device, a probe response packet in response to the probe request packet, wherein the listening device bypasses at least one step of the protocol when sending the probe response packet.

In a communication system comprising one master device and one or more slave devices, the slave devices synchronize to a common timebase maintained at the master device, independently of a wireless module timebase, without requiring transmission of accurate and real time master timer information from the master device. In one approach, a slave device sends timing information to the master device, the timing information representing the slave device timebase, and the master device sends back correction information to the slave device, the correction information representing a difference between the slave device timebase and the master device timebase, the correction information being usable independent of the timing of sending back the correction information. The master timebase might be a system master timer of an accurate timer based on a timer interrupt and a high resolution timer having a resolution greater than a timer interrupt resolution.

Method and apparatus for generation of a system master timebase of a computing device using indirect signalling of timing information

In a communication system comprising one master device and one or more slave devices, the slave devices synchronize to a common timebase maintained at the master device without requiring transmission of accurate and real time master timer information from the master device. In one approach, a slave device sends timing information to the master device, the timing information representing the slave device timebase, and the master device sends back correction information to the slave device, the correction information representing a difference between the slave device timebase and the master device timebase, the correction information being usable independent of the timing of sending back the correction information.

Method and apparatus for synchronization of a master timebase with one or more slave timebases using indirect signalling of timing information

In a network environment, a wireless medium is reserved for transmissions. Medium reservation modifications can be requested and granted wherein a master device allocates a medium using reservations that are observed by other devices sharing the medium and a slave device complies with reservations by holding data for transmission until its reservation in time arrives by determining a reserved length of an upcoming transmitting opportunity reserved for a slave device, determining a desired length for transmitting data from the slave device over the medium, comparing the reserved length and the desired length to determine if a medium reservation modification is warranted, if the medium reservation modification is warranted, requesting, during the reserved time covered by the medium reservation, the medium reservation modification, and determining whether to grant or deny the medium reservation modification and conveying the determination to the slave device.

Method and apparatus for medium reservation and medium reservation modification in a communication system

Medium reservation modifications can be requested and granted wherein a master device allocates a medium using reservations that are observed by other devices sharing the medium and a slave device complies with reservations by holding data for transmission until its reservation in time arrives by determining a reserved length of an upcoming transmitting opportunity reserved for a slave device, determining, at the slave device, a desired length for transmitting data from the slave device over the medium, comparing the reserved length and the desired length to determine if a medium reservation modification is warranted, if the medium reservation modification is warranted, requesting, using the slave device and the medium, during the reserved time covered by the medium reservation, the medium reservation modification, and determining, at the master device, whether to grant or deny the medium reservation modification and conveying the determination to the slave device.

Method and apparatus for medium reservation and medium reservation modification in a communication system with medium reservation modification granted without requiring additional medium arbitration

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Nils Bunger