Motorola Corporation

Other

Motorola Solutions, Inc.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Intel Corporation

Nxp B.v.

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.

Vernon Anthony Allen

Robert J O'Dea

Matthew R Perkins

Priscilla L Chen

Lance Eric Hester

Oleg Andric

Richard Herrera

Ralph L D'Souza

Minh T Pham

Edgar Herbert Callaway, Jr

Wayne W Chiou

Neal K Patwari

Monique J Bourgeois

Juan Carlos Palacios

Stephen Raphael Korfhage

Philip Orlik

Robert E Stengel

Zafer Sahinoglu

Lakshman Krishnamurthy

Qicai Shi

Ralph Michael Kling

Jasmeet Chhabra

Yong Liu

Spyros Kyperountas

Jian C Huang

John B Preston

Neiyer S Correal

Feng Niu

Chunhui Zhu

Kenneth David Cornett

Yan Huang

Myung Jong Lee

Xuhui Hu

Chung-Chieh Lee

Monique Bourgeois Brown

Phil A Jamieson

Ali Almutairi

Phil Rudland

Zachary Smith

Robert J O'Shea

Saritha Sivapuram

A metal detection system for a portable radio is provided. The metal detection system comprises a magnet coupled to a substrate, such as a belt, the magnet generating a magnetic field. The system further comprises a magnetometer coupled to the substrate, the magnetometer measuring changes in the magnet's magnetic field strength indicative of metal accessories being within a predetermined proximity of the magnet. The removal of accessories, such as law enforcement accessories (for example handcuffs) can be detected. The portable radio detects changes to the magnetic field in response to changes in location of the metal accessories. The portable radio can transmit a signal in response to accessories being removed from the substrate.

Communication system having proximity detector of ferrous materials

A communication system () provides a wearable firearm detection system comprising a first body area network (BAN) node () coupled to the firearm, a second BAN node () coupled to a body wearable apparatus, such as a holster, and a third BAN node () coupled to a portable radio (). The first BAN node detects the presence or absence of the firearm in and out of the holster and communicates the presence or absence of the firearm to the third BAN node coupled to the radio. In response to the firearm being withdrawn from the holster, the radio can enable one or more actions such as an alert to the user, an alert to a dispatch center (), or enabling a recording () of firearm movement.

Apparatus and method for detecting a firearm in a communication system

A security system () protects a secured item by a lock which is under the control of a lock control unit (). Predetermined parameters associated with various users and user equipment are stored in the lock control unit (). The predetermined parameters are weighted to provide different levels of lock access. When a user () makes contact with the secured item through a BAN device, a user configuration database is transmitted from a user's PAN device to the controller for comparison with the predetermined parameters. Lock () access can be modified for different authorized users.

Enhanced security system

During operation a node () that has associated with a network () will periodically broadcast a beacon () during a beacon interval as part of a superframe. The beacon will be periodically broadcast for a first period of time, based on a time it takes for nodes to associate with the network. After the first period of time has passed, the beacon will be switched off for a second period of time, after which, the beacon will again be periodically broadcast.

Method and apparatus for operating a node in a beacon based ad hoc network

The disclosure is a routing method for data in a personal area network. The personal area network includes a plurality of nodes. The method includes receiving a frame at a node, determining whether the node contains a routing table entry for the frame destination, and when the node contains a routing table entry, determining a route for the frame based on a first routing protocol. The method further includes, when the node does not contain a routing table entry for the frame destination, determining whether a route should be discovered for the frame destination, and when a route should not be discovered, determining a route for the frame based on a second routing protocol.

Methods and apparatuses for routing data in a personal area network

An adaptive channel access scheme allows for statistics that are collected to be used to group radio users into subgroups according to the desired statistic. The subgroups then utilize channels, separated by time or frequency, to access the communication system (). The sub-grouping of the radio users is designed to help minimize the chances of channel-access collisions from occurring.

Adaptive channel access scheme

To reduce interference and increase battery life, a method and apparatus for transmitting location data within an ad-hoc communication system is provided herein. During operation, a portion of a beacon payload is reserved to broadcast location information (coordinates) for a node as well as other parameters that may be needed for location estimation. In addition to a node's location, an accuracy of the nodes location is also included within the beacon field. Because nodes will no longer have to awake outside their beacon transmit times to broadcast location information, battery life is extended. In addition, because nodes will no longer be transmitting location information outside their guaranteed time slot, system interference is also reduced.

Method and apparatus for transmitting location data within an ad-hoc communication system

In order to set up efficient routes between two closely-located nodes an optimized route for two nodes within a hybrid-cellular network (HCN) is achieved by converting an HCN route to an ad-hoc route. Thus, a node within the communication system may originally be communicating with another node via an HCN route and then instructed to switch to a more efficient ad-hoc route for communication with the node.

Routing protocol within hybrid-cellular networks

A communication access protocol improves the accessibility of devices operating on an asynchronous network (), while supporting reduced power consumption. The network () includes a mediation device () for facilitating communications among network devices. Generally, each network device periodically transmits beacon signals to advertise its presence, and listens for communication signals targeted at the network device (). A device initiating communication with another operates in one of at least two operating modes in order to establish communications (). In one mode, the initiating device communicates with the mediation device in order to derive timing information for the other device (). In another mode, the initiating device listens to receive beacon signals directly from the target device in order to synchronize communications with the device (). The selection of one of the two operating modes depends on a control parameter established for the initiating device, which in one embodiment is dependent on the urgency of communication, a maximum number of retries for using the mediation device, or the like.

System and method for asynchronous communications employing direct and indirect access protocols

When a requesting node () has routing capabilities and attempts to join a network and there are no association slots available, the requesting node () will send an association message to a potential root node (). If the root node () has reached the maximum number of links, and has a non-routing capable node () associated with it, the root node () will send a message to the non-routing capable node (), instructing it to disassociate and attempt to re-associate at a later time. A message is then sent to the requesting node () for it to associate with the root node ().

Method and apparatus for network formation

A network protocol for low-cost, low-power devices coupled to a self-organizing wireless network using a spanning tree backbone architecture is described. In this protocol, physical and logical network construction and maintenance operations, which supports efficient data routing in the network, are performed. The construction phase in conjunction with the maintenance phase insures the self-organizing capability of the network. At the same time, the maintenance operations provide a self-healing mechanism so that the network can recover from node failures and a self-updating mechanism so that the network can expand as more nodes enter the system. Also, the logical backbone hierarchy will facilitate multi-hop communication. The construction of a logical layered spanning tree backbone architecture from an underlying physical topology allows seamless data communication routing between all nodes in the network.

Protocol for self-organizing network using a logical spanning tree backbone

The invention provides methods ( ) for organizing and assigning network address to network nodes in clusters ( ), and forming new clusters and also provides a method for routing messages in clusters. According to the invention, clusters are organized into hierarchical tree arrangements, with addresses assigned in a manner that facilitates routing messages.

Network architecture, addressing and routing

A method is provided for estimating relative location information for wireless devices. Individual estimates are obtained from two or more alternative means that determining the relative location, such as range information, of first and second wireless devices with respect to each other ( ). At least one of these estimates involves an estimate of relative location between one of the first and second devices and a third device. These estimates are combined to provide a new estimate that is statistically more accurate than any one of the individual estimates ( ).

Method for determining location information

A beacon assisted asynchronous method of wireless communication according to the present invention enables initiating and target devices ( ) to remain in sleep mode most of the time and to periodically wake up to asynchronously, and directly, communicate with one another. Specifically, each of the initiating and target devices ( ) transmits a beacon while operating in a default transmit/receive mode ( ) and subsequently listens for a response. Alternatively, the initiating device ( ) may enter a data packet message mode to receive a beacon from the target device ( ) and to subsequently transmit a data packet message to the target device ( ) after receiving the first beacon. The initiating device ( ) minimizes the length of time in which it must wait to receive the target device beacon by timing a corresponding target beacon receive period based on stored data such as information based on previous communication with the target device ( ).

Beacon assisted hybrid asynchronous wireless communications protocol

A contention resolution method includes the steps of determining a contention has occurred and requesting contention resolution from radios in the system ( ). Radios in the system receive the request and do not transmit in the next control frame ( ). Group leader radios ( and ) transmit the identification code they were able to demodulate in the previous frame to the master radio ( ). The master radio ( ) receives the information from the group leaders and transmits a control-channel access message to one of the contending radios ( ).

Neighbor-assisted contention resolution for multi-user communication

Growing community of inventors

Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States of America

Vernon Anthony Allen