TW201724892A - Methods and apparatuses for contention-based communication and associated communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatuses for contention-based communication and an associated communication System. In a method of contention-based communication, a message is transmitted to a network node in a first contention frame at a first contention layer. The method further includes receiving first feedback information for the first contention frame from the network node indicating the number of frames which indicates an accumulative number of frames determined by the network node at the first contention frame as to be allocated to a second contention layer following the first contention layer; in response to a failure of the transmission of the message, determining, at least based on the first feedback information, positions of a second contention frame and an end frame at the second contention layer; and switching, based on the positions of the second contention frame and the end frame, to a sleep mode in a duration of frames at the second contention layer other than the second contention frame and the end frame.

Description

Competition-based communication method and device and corresponding communication system

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the field of communications and, more particularly, to a contention-based communication method and apparatus and corresponding communication system.

In the recent development of communications, the deployment of machine-to-machine (M2M) networks is being studied. One goal of the M2M network is to interconnect a large number of terminal devices. These devices can work autonomously for long periods of time (for example, years or decades) to perform tasks such as message collection, message processing, and message reporting. This requires these devices to consume less energy. The M2M network is characterized in that a large number of terminal devices may simultaneously send data to an upper layer network node, and usually each device sends a small amount of data. However, this feature can cause devices in the M2M network to consume a large amount of energy due to data transmission conflicts and signaling overhead.

In a communication system, there are usually two ways to get a terminal device to obtain resources for data transmission. In current communication systems such as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, a reservation based scheme is employed. Reservation-based solutions require network nodes, For example, the base station knows the network topology in advance to establish a scheduling mechanism to allow each device of the service to transmit data without conflict. However, because of the limited nature of schedulable resources, reservation-based schemes are not suitable for M2M networks that are deployed in a high-density manner. In addition, the M2M network generates small data transmissions at a high frequency in a short time. If resources are scheduled in a reserved manner, a large amount of signaling overhead is generated.

Another way is based on a competitive approach. A contention-based approach does not require prior knowledge of the network topology. In this scenario, the terminal device is allowed to send data directly instead of wasting time and energy on additional scheduling signaling. Specifically, multiple devices transmit data directly in each contention period, and if there is no conflict in the contention period (ie, only one device competes for the time period), the data can be successfully transmitted. Otherwise, devices that have not successfully transmitted data continue to compete in the next competitive period.

However, the conflict caused by the competition of a large number of devices will make the terminal device take a long time to successfully transmit the data, which makes the energy efficiency of the device low, which seriously affects the system performance, especially for the service of low power consumption and small data transmission. The network of the device.

It is noted that the issues discussed above are not limited to any particular communication environment and equipment, but may occur in any suitable system.

It is an object of embodiments of the present invention to provide a solution for contention based communication.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a contention based communication is provided method. The method can be performed at the terminal device. The method includes transmitting a message to a network node in a first contention box of a first contention layer. The method also includes receiving, from the network node, a first feedback message for the first contention frame. The feedback message includes the number of blocks indicating the cumulative number of frames that the network node determines at the first contention frame to be allocated for the second contention layer after the first contention layer. The method also includes determining a location of the second contention frame and the end frame in the second contention layer based on at least the first feedback message in response to the unsuccessfully transmitting the message. The method further includes switching to a sleep mode for a duration of a frame other than the second contention box and the end frame in the second contention layer based on the locations of the second contention box and the end frame.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a contention based communication method is provided. The method can be performed at a network node. The method includes determining a contention status for a first contention box of a first contention layer, wherein at least one terminal device transmits a message in a first contention box. The method also includes determining a number of blocks for the first contention box based on the contention status, wherein the number of blocks indicates a cumulative number of blocks that are determined at the first contention box to be allocated for the second contention layer after the first contention layer. The method further includes transmitting a feedback message for the first contention box, wherein the feedback message includes the determined number of frames.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a contention based communication device is provided. The apparatus includes a message transmitter configured to transmit a message to a network node in a first contention box of a first contention layer. The apparatus also includes a feedback receiver configured to receive a first feedback message for the first contention frame from the network node, wherein the first feedback message includes a number of blocks indicating a determination by the network node at the first contention frame Will be the second after the first competition layer The cumulative number of boxes allocated by the competition layer. The apparatus also includes a contention determiner configured to determine a location of the second contention frame and the end frame in the second contention layer based on at least the first feedback message in response to the unsuccessfully transmitting the message. The apparatus further includes a mode switch configured to switch to a sleep mode for a duration of a frame other than the second contention frame and the end frame in the second contention layer based on the locations of the second contention frame and the end frame.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a contention based communication device is provided. The apparatus includes a contention status determiner configured to determine a contention status for a first contention box of a first contention layer, wherein at least one of the terminal devices transmits a message in the first contention box. The apparatus also includes a frame number determiner configured to determine a number of frames for the first contention frame based on a race condition, wherein the number of blocks indicates a second competition determined at the first contention frame that will be after the first contention layer The cumulative number of boxes allocated by the layer. The apparatus further includes a feedback transmitter configured to transmit a feedback message for the first contention frame, wherein the feedback message includes the determined number of frames.

According to a fifth aspect of the invention, a communication system is provided. The communication system comprises at least one terminal device, each terminal device according to the device of the above third aspect. The communication system also includes a network node comprising the apparatus according to the above fourth aspect.

As will be understood from the following description, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when determining a feedback message of a contention layer of a contention layer, the network node not only determines the contention status of the frame, but also determines that the current content frame will be the next competition layer. The cumulative number of boxes allocated. As the cumulative number increases, the network device can only listen to the feedback message of a smaller number of frames to determine the competition in the next layer. The position of the frame. In a box other than the contention box (and the end box that needs to be monitored to determine the contention of the contention box) in the next layer, the terminal device can switch to the sleep mode. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the terminal device only needs to consume energy in a small frame for data transmission and monitoring of feedback messages, and in other boxes can switch to an energy-saving sleep mode. Therefore, the energy efficiency of the terminal device is significantly improved, and the performance of the entire system is improved. Other benefits brought about by the exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be apparent from the following description.

100‧‧‧ Environment

110‧‧‧Network node

121, 122, 123, 124‧‧‧ Terminal equipment

210, 510‧‧‧ Box 1

211,221,223,225,231,233,235,237,239,241,511,521,523,525,531,533,535,537,539,541,835,857, ‧‧

220, 520‧‧‧ Box 2

222, 522‧‧‧Box 3

224, 524‧‧‧Box 4

230, 530‧‧‧Box 5

232, 532‧‧‧Box 6

234, 534‧‧‧ Box 7

236, 536‧‧‧ Box 8

238, 538‧‧‧ Box 9

240‧‧‧Box 10

310, 320, 710, 720, 910, 920‧‧‧ curves

400, 1000‧‧‧ method

410, 420, 430, 440, 1010, 1020, 1030‧ ‧ steps

540‧‧‧Box 18

830-832, 840-856, 860-862‧‧‧ data frame

834‧‧‧Box 12

856‧‧‧Box 22

1100, 1200‧‧‧ devices

1110‧‧‧Message transmitter

1120‧‧‧Feedback Receiver

1130‧‧‧Competition determiner

1140‧‧‧ mode switcher

1210‧‧‧Competitive state determiner

1220‧‧‧Box number determiner

1230‧‧‧Feedback transmitter

12‧‧‧Computer System/Server

14‧‧‧External equipment

16‧‧‧Processing unit

18‧‧‧ Busbar

20‧‧‧Network adapter

22‧‧‧Input/Output (I/O) Interface

24‧‧‧Display equipment

28‧‧‧System Memory

30‧‧‧ memory

32‧‧‧Scratch

40‧‧‧Utilities

42‧‧‧Program module

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention will become < In the figures, several embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example and not limitation, in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example environment in which the devices and/or methods described herein may be implemented; 2 shows a schematic diagram of an example contention transmission according to a current contention tree based scheme; FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a comparison of a contention box and a listening frame according to a current contention tree based scheme; FIG. 4 shows Schematic diagram of a contention-based communication method in a terminal device of an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example contention communication of a contention-based process according to an embodiment of the present invention; 6 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a feedback message according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 7 shows a comparison between a current contention tree based scheme and a contention based communication scheme according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing an exemplary contention communication of a contention-based process according to another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 9 illustrates a contention competition and usage request message competition according to an embodiment of the present invention. Schematic diagram of a comparison; FIG. 10 shows a schematic diagram of a contention-based communication method in a network node according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 11 shows a terminal device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Block diagram of a communication device; Figure 12 shows a block diagram of a communication device in a network node in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; and Figure 13 is a diagram showing an example of an embodiment suitable for implementing the present invention. A block diagram of a computer system/server.

The principles and spirit of the present invention are described below with reference to a few exemplary embodiments illustrated in the drawings. It is to be understood that the description of the embodiments is merely intended to provide a better understanding of the invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, the term "comprises" and the like are to be understood as an open inclusion, that is, "including but not limited to". the term "Based on" should be understood to mean "based at least in part." The term "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" should be taken to mean "at least one embodiment." The terms "first," "second," and the like may refer to different or identical objects. Other explicit and implicit definitions may also be included below.

In the description of an embodiment of the present invention, a terminal device may refer to a mobile terminal (MT), a subscriber station (SS), a portable subscriber station (PSS), a mobile station (MS), or an access terminal (AT), and a UE Some or all of the functions of the terminal, MT, SS, PSS, MS or AT may be included. The terminal device can be any type of mobile terminal, fixed terminal or portable terminal, including a mobile phone, a site, a unit, a device, a multimedia computer, a multimedia tablet, an internet node, a communicator, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, Notebook computer, netbook computer, tablet computer, personal communication system (PCS) device, personal navigation device, personal digital assistant (PDA), audio/video player, digital camera/camera, positioning device, television receiver, radio receiver Other smart appliances connected to the e-book device, gaming device, smart meter, meter, or machine-to-machine (M2M) network, or any combination of the above, including accessories and peripherals of the devices, or any combination thereof.

In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, the term "network node" is sometimes referred to as "base station (BS)", "BS/point", "wireless access node", or "transport point" to The 3GPP terminology is consistent. It should be noted that the terms "BS/point", "node", "transfer point" and "BS" have the same meaning in the context of the present invention, and each of them may represent, for example, a Node B (NodeB or NB), Evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), radio head (RH), remote radio head (RRH), relay, low power nodes such as femto base stations, pico base stations, and the like. The coverage of the base station, that is, the geographical area in which the service can be provided, is called a cell.

In dense networks, such as machine-to-machine (M2M) networks, a large number of devices are typically deployed in a geographic area. Multiple devices often transmit data to service network nodes in the range at the same time or almost simultaneously. FIG. 1 depicts such a network environment 100. In this environment 100, the terminal devices 121 to 124 are each served by the network node 110. The terminal devices 121 to 124 may simultaneously transmit data to the network node 110. As previously discussed, in order to save energy in the device, a contention based data transmission method can be employed. The terminal devices 121 to 124 can directly transmit data to the network node 110. The network node 110 can determine whether the data was successfully transmitted according to the contention status of a certain resource.

It should be appreciated that although four terminal devices are shown in FIG. 1, network node 110 may serve more or fewer terminal devices. The types of terminal devices served may be the same or different.

A simple competition-based scheme is a box-slot based contention scheme. The network node allocates a series of boxes for competition of multiple terminal devices. Each box is divided into a plurality of time slots. In each box, each terminal device randomly selects one of the plurality of time slots of the box for attempting to transmit data. The network node determines the feedback message of the box according to the competition condition, and the feedback message includes the contention status of each time slot. The competition status can be divided into three types: (1) no transmission status, that is, there is no equipment competition in the time slot; (2) a state of success, that is, only one terminal device attempts to transmit data in the time slot, and the data is successfully received by the network node; and (3) a collision state, that is, two or more terminal devices attempt to transmit in the time slot Information, which leads to conflicts.

The network node feeds back the contention status of all time slots of each box. Each terminal device receives a contention status corresponding to each box, and determines whether the data is successfully transmitted based on the contention status. If the contention status corresponding to the time slot in which a terminal device contends is a successful state, the terminal device determines that the material has been successfully transmitted, and may stop the contention process. If it is determined that the corresponding contention status is a conflict status, the terminal device continues the contention process in the next box until the data is successfully transmitted. That is, as long as the terminal device does not successfully transmit the data, the subsequent frame is still the contention box of the terminal device.

The above contention-based scheme will result in the terminal device being able to successfully transmit data after multiple rounds of competition. The time of competition will also increase with the number of devices competing at the same time at each moment. Therefore, each device will waste a lot of time and energy on the failed transmission.

Another contention-based approach is based on a competitive tree approach. In this scheme, each box is also divided into a plurality of time slots. A device desiring to transmit data may first compete in multiple time slots of a block allocated by the network node. If there is a collision in a certain time slot, that is, multiple devices compete for the time slot at the same time, the network node generates a next contention frame for the time slot for the devices to compete again. This contention scheme is shown schematically in Figure 2.

In the example of Figure 2, each block for data transmission is divided into 3 time slots, and it is assumed that at some point there are 14 terminal devices expected to simultaneously Transfer data to a network device. In a first block 1 210 at which the contention process begins, 14 terminal devices randomly select the time slot of block 1 210 for attempting data transmission. As shown, the number of devices competing in each time slot is represented by a number in that time slot. The network node finds that there are collisions in all three time slots of block 1 210, so each of the time slots is indicated to be in a collision state in the feedback message 211. At the same time, based on the contention state, the network node will allocate a new frame for each of the three time slots of block 1 210, namely, block 2 220, block 3 222, and block 4 224, such that in the corresponding time slot. Competing devices can continue to compete for data transmission in new boxes. Block 1 210 may be referred to as a first contention layer, layer 1. The new box 2 220, box 3 222 and box 4 224 will form the second competing layer, layer 2.

The feedback message 211 of block 1 210 is broadcast and received by all 14 terminal devices. These terminal devices determine whether the data transmission is successful based on the feedback message 211 and determine in which box the next competition should continue in the next time if it is not successful. It is assumed that one of the 14 terminal devices competes in the second time slot in block 210. Due to the conflict, the device A determines the conflict status corresponding to the second time slot in the received feedback message 211, thereby judging that the contention data transmission should continue. Based on the feedback message 211, the device A can also determine that the three time slots of block 211 correspond to the conflicting state, and thereby determine that it should continue to compete in block 3 222 between the three blocks of layer 2. That is, block 3 222 is the contention box for device A at layer 2.

Next, device A randomly selects a third time slot in its contention block 3 222 to attempt data transmission, and listens to feedback message 223 of block 3 to A new box assigned to box 3 is determined. For the box that is not the contention box of device A, device A does not attempt to transmit data. However, in order to prevent contention in layer 2 from continuing to be transmitted in the next layer of layer 2, that is, layer 3, since it still cannot successfully transmit data, device A also needs to listen to the feedback messages of these frames to determine that the network nodes are respectively for each How many new boxes are allocated again in the box. The feedback message that is monitored is used by device A to determine the location of the next contention box. Only when it is determined in the feedback message corresponding to the contention box, for example, the feedback message 241 corresponding to the block 10 240 in FIG. 2, the device A will end the competition process.

It can be seen from the above process that although the contention tree-based method may reduce the competition time compared to the simple box-slot-based contention method, the terminal device still needs to remain active in each frame in the competition process. Status to monitor the feedback message corresponding to each box to determine the location of the next contention box. As can be seen from the example of FIG. 2, for a device, the boxes allocated during the contention process can be divided into a contention box set and a listening frame set. The competition box refers to the box that the device actually uses for competing data transmission, and the listening box refers to the box that the device needs to monitor the feedback message in order to determine the location of the next contention box.

For example, for device A in the above example, blocks 1, 3, 7, and 10 in FIG. 2 are its contention boxes, while the remaining blocks 2, 4, 5-6, and 8-9 are listening frames. If there are more terminal devices competing for resources at the same time, the number of listening frames will be much larger than the number of contention boxes. That is to say, the terminal device needs to spend more energy for detecting the feedback message of the monitor frame. For example, Figure 3 shows that each frame is divided into m = 20 time slots. In the case, the average cumulative number of contention boxes and listening frames corresponding to each device when data is transmitted simultaneously by different numbers of devices. In this example, it is assumed that the device successfully transmits data until the last competing layer. It can be seen that as the number of devices transmitting data simultaneously increases, curve 320 shows a significant increase in the cumulative number of listening frames per device, while curve 310 shows the cumulative number of contention boxes per device. Substantial growth. This is because each device usually only has one contention box in a competition layer, and the number of contention boxes is only related to the number of layers of the competition layer. Therefore, as the number of competing devices increases, the energy efficiency of each device decreases and affects the performance of the entire system.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below. Embodiments of the present invention provide a solution for contention based communication. In this solution, when determining the feedback message of the contention layer of the contention layer, the network node not only determines the contention status of the box, but also determines the cumulative number of frames to be allocated for the next contention layer at the current frame. As the cumulative number increases, the network device can only determine the content of the contention frame in the next layer by listening to a feedback message of a smaller number of frames. In a box other than the contention box (and the end box that needs to be monitored to determine the contention of the contention box) in the next layer, the terminal device can switch to the sleep mode. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the terminal device only needs to consume energy in a small frame for data transmission and monitoring of feedback messages, and in other boxes can switch to an energy-saving sleep mode. Therefore, the energy efficiency of the terminal device is significantly improved, and the performance of the entire system is improved.

FIG. 4 shows a contention-based communication method in a terminal device Flow chart of 400. Although FIG. 4 illustrates an example block of method 400, in some embodiments, method 400 can include additional blocks, fewer blocks, different blocks, or frames that are arranged differently than those depicted in FIG. . Additionally or alternatively, two or more blocks of method 400 may be performed in parallel. In some embodiments, method 400 can be performed by, for example, any of terminal devices 121-124 in FIG.

In step 410, the terminal device transmits a message to the network node in a first contention box of the first contention layer. Typically, a network node allocates a box for transmission of multiple terminal devices. The box in which each terminal device contends for message transmission may be referred to as the contention box of the device. Each box can be divided into a predetermined number of time slots. The predetermined number may be, for example, 3, 10, 20, or any other number, and each time slot size may be equal or unequal. In some embodiments, the terminal device may randomly select one of the time slots of the contention block to attempt transmission. In other embodiments, the terminal device can select a certain fixed time slot. For example, the terminal device selects the first time slot of the contention box each time for attempting transmission. In addition, the terminal device can also select two or more time slots for transmitting different messages. The scope of the invention is not limited in this respect.

There may be multiple devices simultaneously expecting to transfer data. According to an embodiment of the invention, the network node allocates a frame to a plurality of terminal devices that simultaneously transmit messages in a contention tree-based manner. In a contention tree based approach, whenever a network node detects a collision in a certain time slot of a frame of the contention layer, a new frame is allocated for multiple devices competing in the time slot. The newly allocated boxes together form the next competition layer. These devices can be in the next competitive layer box Continue to compete until they successfully transmit the message or abandon the transmission.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram of an example competition process based on a competition tree, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. In the example of Figure 5, each box is divided into 3 time slots. Assume that at the time of block 1 510, there are 14 terminal devices that simultaneously expect to transmit data. In layer 1, block 510 is a contention box for each of these devices. In the example of Figure 5, the number of devices competing in each time slot of the block is represented by the number in the time slot.

Typically, when a contention process begins, a collection of devices including multiple terminal devices is assigned a box for contention. In this case, the first competing layer includes only one frame, such as layer 1 and its block 510 shown in FIG. If two different sets of devices compete in two boxes, the network node can also merge the two sets of devices into one contention process. That is, for the two sets of devices, the first contention layer can include two boxes. The same is true for more groups of devices.

After the attempt to transmit, in step 420, the terminal device receives a feedback message for the first contention frame from the network node. It can be understood that the transmission of the contention box of the terminal device belongs to the uplink transmission, that is, the transmission from the terminal device to the network node, and the feedback message belongs to the downlink transmission, that is, the transmission from the network node to the terminal device. After each contention box, the network node determines the feedback message according to the contention condition in the box, and broadcasts the feedback message to the terminal device.

In some embodiments, the feedback message includes a race condition for each time slot of the first contention box. In one example, the race condition may include: (1) no transmission state, ie no device competition in the time slot; (2) success State, that is, only one terminal device attempts to transmit data in the time slot, and the data is successfully received by the network node; and (3) a collision state, that is, two or more terminal devices attempt to transmit data in the time slot , which leads to conflicts. In one embodiment, 2 bits may be employed to represent the contention state of a time slot. For example, "00" can be used to indicate a no-transmission state, "01" to indicate a successful state, and "11" to indicate a conflicting state. In other embodiments, other contention states may be determined, and thus more bits may be used to distinguish these race conditions.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in order to reduce the time when the terminal device listens for the feedback message and enables the terminal device to still determine the location of the next contention frame, in addition to the contention state, the network node determines the number of frames and includes the number of frames in the feedback. In the message. The number of blocks indicates the cumulative number of frames that the network node determines at the first contention frame to be allocated for the second contention layer after the first contention layer. The number of boxes may be determined based on the contention status of the first contention box.

With continued reference to the example of FIG. 5, after block 510, the network node determines and broadcasts the feedback message 511. The feedback message 511 can include the contention status of each time slot of block 510 and the corresponding number of frames. Since there is a collision in each time slot of block 510, the contention status in the feedback message 511 can be, for example, "11", "11", and "11". In addition, due to collisions, the network node will allocate a new box for each slot in the next contention layer 2 for contention transmission. Therefore, the number of frames in the network node based on the contention determination feedback message 511 is determined to be three.

Figure 6 illustrates a feedback message in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Schematic diagram of the structure. As shown, the feedback message includes the contention status of each time slot. If each box is divided into m time slots and the contention state of each time slot is represented by 2 bits, then the contention state of the feedback message will occupy m x 2 bits. The feedback message also includes additional fields for the number of transmission frames. In one embodiment, the length of the field used to represent the number of frames may depend on the number of devices in the network that may be competing for transmission at the same time. Therefore, depending on the system, fields of different lengths can be added to the feedback message for carrying the number of frames. The scope of the invention is not limited in this respect. It should be understood that FIG. 6 only shows an example of the structure of the feedback message. In other examples, the relative position between the number of boxes and the field of the competing state may vary. For example, the number of boxes of fields can be placed before the field of the race condition, or can be inserted between the fields of the race condition.

After obtaining the feedback message of the first contention box, in step 430 of the method 400, in response to the unsuccessfully transmitting the message, the terminal device determines, based at least on the feedback message, a second contention frame for retransmitting the message in the second contention layer and The position of the end box of the second competition layer. In some embodiments, whether the message was successfully transmitted may be determined based on the contention status in the feedback message. Specifically, it may refer to a contention state corresponding to a time slot in which the terminal device attempts to transmit a message. For example, in the example of FIG. 5, device A attempts to transmit a message in the second time slot of block 510. Based on the contention status corresponding to the second time slot in the feedback message 511 is a conflict status indicated as "11", the device A can determine that the previous message transmission was unsuccessful.

If the message is not successfully transmitted, the terminal device can determine the next competition. The position of the contention box to continue to attempt to transmit the message at the determined contention box. According to an embodiment of the invention, the location of the contention box in the next contention layer may be determined based at least on the feedback message. The method of determining the location of the next contention box may be different depending on the different conditions of the first contention box. Moreover, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, in order for the terminal device to continue to determine the contention frame during subsequent contention, it is also necessary to determine the end frame in the next contention layer based on the feedback message. The determination of the competition box and the end box will be discussed in detail below.

In step 440, based on the determined positions of the second contention frame and the end frame, the sleep mode is switched to the duration of the frame other than the second contention frame and the end frame in the second competition layer.

After the completion of the first contention layer, for example after the end of the first contention layer, the contention process of the terminal device enters the second contention layer. In the second competition layer, the terminal device does not need to listen to the feedback message of each box. Therefore, in addition to the second contention box and the end frame, other frames of the terminal device can be switched to the sleep mode. In sleep mode, the terminal equipment typically operates at low power to save energy. In the second contention box, the terminal device can switch back to the awake mode to select a time slot in the box for retransmitting the previously unsuccessfully transmitted message and listening for the corresponding feedback message. In the end box, the terminal device can also switch back to the awake mode to listen to the feedback message of the box. The feedback message of the second contention box and the last frame in the second contention layer may be used to continue to determine the contention position of the next layer if the terminal device does not successfully transmit the message.

Thus, according to an embodiment of the present invention, due to the feedback message The message of the number of frames is added so that the terminal device can remain active only in a smaller number of frames of each contention layer, and switch to an energy-saving sleep mode in other frames. For example, the terminal device can remain active in the most contention and end boxes of each competition layer, while sleeping in other frames. In particular, if the determined contention box is also the end box of the contention layer, the terminal device can maintain the active mode in only one box. This is particularly advantageous for terminal devices that are limited in power and that need to operate in an energy efficient manner, such as terminal devices in an M2M network. Further, since the competition position of the contention frame and the end frame can be maintained at most in each competition layer to determine the competition position of the next competition layer, the storage space of the terminal device can be saved.

Next, it is discussed in detail how to determine the position of the second contention frame and the end frame of the second competition layer based on the feedback message of the first contention frame.

In some embodiments, depending on the location of the first contention frame in the first contention layer, the message to be considered in determining the second contention box and the end frame of the second contention layer may also be different. In one embodiment, if the first contention box is the end box (the determination of the end box is discussed later), it may be determined based on the location of the first contention box (eg, the frame number of the first contention box) and the feedback message. The second competition box in the second competition layer. The number of blocks in the feedback message may indicate that at the first contention frame (ie, at the end of the first contention layer) the network node will determine how many boxes to allocate for the second contention layer. Therefore, based on the frame number of the first contention frame and the cumulative number of frames of the second competition layer, the position of the end frame of the second competition layer can be determined.

Further, a determination may be made based on the contention status in the feedback message. The amount of adjustment used to adjust from the position of the end frame. For example, based on the race condition of each time slot, it can be determined how many new boxes will be generated at the second competition layer for the first contention box. As discussed above, when the contention state of a time slot is a collision state, the network node will allocate a new frame for multiple devices competing in the time slot. If the race condition is a successful state or no transfer state, no new box is assigned. Therefore, it can be distinguished based on the contention state which block in the frame that has been determined to be allocated is a block generated for the time slot in which the terminal device transmits the message, that is, the second contention frame. Specifically, it is possible to determine a value that should be adjusted forward at the position of the current end frame based on the contention state of the time slot after the time slot in which the message is transmitted.

For example, assume that in the example of FIG. 5, device A contends for the transmission of the message in the second time slot of block 510. Since block 510 is the end frame of layer 1, device A can determine the position of the end frame of layer 2 based on the frame number of block 510 and the number of frames in feedback message 511. Specifically, the device A determines that the frame number of the end frame of the layer 2 is equal to 1+3=4, that is, the block 4524, according to the frame number 1 of the block 510 and the frame number 3 of the feedback message 511. Based on the contention status in the feedback message 511, device A may determine that 3 new boxes will be generated for block 510. Furthermore, the contention state of the third time slot after the second time slot based on the transmission of the message by the device A is a collision state, and the device A determines the frame generated for the time slot 2 in which it competes (ie its next one) The competition box is located in the first box before the end of the layer 2 of the layer 2 (that is, the adjustment amount is 1). Therefore, the device A can determine that the frame number of the contention frame of the layer 2 is the frame number 4 of the end frame of the layer 2 minus the adjustment amount 1 determined based on the competition state, that is, the frame 3 522.

The above discusses how to determine the contention box and the end frame of the terminal device at the second contention layer in the case where the first contention frame is at the end of the first contention layer. It can be understood that in this case, the terminal device only needs to remain active in the first contention frame in the first contention layer in order to contend for the message and listen for subsequent feedback messages. In other boxes of the first contention layer, the terminal device can also be switched to the sleep mode.

In some embodiments, if the first contention frame is not the end frame of the first contention layer, the terminal device may further receive a feedback message of the end frame of the first contention layer, and then based on the feedback message of the first contention frame and the end frame The feedback message is used to determine the second contention box and the end frame of the second competition layer. As shown above, when the first contention layer is the first layer of the contention process, the terminal frame of the terminal device also belongs to its contention frame. This situation can be operated in accordance with the embodiments discussed above. If the first contention layer is another layer of the contention process, the location of the end frame of the first contention layer has typically been determined in the competition layer before the first contention layer. Therefore, the terminal device can monitor the feedback message of the last frame according to the previously determined position of the last frame. The feedback message at the end frame includes the number of boxes, where the number of boxes may indicate the cumulative number of frames that the network node determines at the end frame that will be allocated for the second contention layer. The feedback message at the end box can also be the same as the feedback message of the contention box, and also includes the contention status, indicating the contention of each time slot in the end frame.

In some embodiments, similar to the situation discussed above, the terminal device may determine the location of the end frame of the second contention layer based on the location of the end frame of the first contention layer and the number of frames in the feedback message of the end frame. In some real In an embodiment, the terminal device may determine the location of the second contention frame based on the location of the end frame of the first contention layer, the number of frames in the feedback message of the first contention box, and the contention status. Specifically, according to the number of frames in the feedback message of the first contention box, the terminal device may determine how many frames are allocated by the network node in the second contention layer until the first contention frame. As discussed above, according to the contention status, the terminal device may determine an adjustment amount adjusted based on the currently accumulated number of blocks to distinguish which frame in the allocated frame is generated for the time slot in which the terminal device competes for transmission. Box. Based on these messages, the terminal device can finally determine the location of the second contention frame.

In the example of FIG. 5, it is assumed that the first contention layer is layer 2, and the first contention box of device A is box 3. Device A selects the first time slot in block 3 for transmitting the message. Device A desires to determine the position of the contention box in the subsequent layer 3 and the position of the end frame of layer 3. Since box 3 is not the end box of layer 2, device A will continue to listen for the feedback message 525 at the end of layer 2 of layer 2. It should be understood here that the position of the end frame 4 of layer 2 is determined by device A after the end frame 1 of the upper layer 1 based on the feedback message 511. Device A may determine that the frame number of the end frame of layer 3 is 4+5=9, i.e., block 9 538, based on the frame number of the end frame 4 of layer 2 and the number of frames 5 in the feedback message 525 of the last frame 4. Device A can determine that block 3 will be assigned 4 new boxes based on the number of frames 4 in the feedback message 523 of block 3. Based on the frame number 4 of the end frame of layer 2 and the number of frames 4 in the feedback message, device A determines that the maximum frame number of the frame allocated in layer 3 up to block 3 is 4+4=8. Further, the device A further determines, according to the contention status in the feedback message 523, that the third time slot after the second time slot of the frame 3 corresponds to the conflict state, and thus The last box in the 8 boxes in the decision layer 3 is generated for the third time slot. Based on this, device A can determine that block 7 before block 8 is its contention box.

In some embodiments, after determining the contention box and the end frame of the next contention layer, as discussed above, the terminal device can switch to sleep in a frame other than the contention box and the end frame in the next contention layer. mode. In addition, the terminal device can switch to the active mode in the contention box to select one of the time slots for attempting to transmit the message and to listen to the feedback message of the contention box. The terminal device also switches back to active mode in the end box and listens for feedback messages at the end frame. These feedback messages can be used to determine the position of the competition box and the end frame of the next layer.

The contention process described above may continue until the terminal device determines that the message has been successfully transmitted according to the contention status in the feedback message of the contention box. For example, if the terminal device determines that the contention state of the time slot in which the attempt to transmit the message is a successful state, it is determined that the message has been successfully transmitted to the network node. At this point, the terminal device can stop the contention process.

In the example of FIG. 5, device A may continue to attempt to transmit a message in the second time slot of contention block 7 of layer 3, and listen for feedback message 535 of block 7 and feedback message 539 of end frame 9 of layer 3. Device A determines that the contention box in the next competition layer 4 is block 10 and the end box is also block 10. Device A then continues to select a time slot, such as a second time slot, at block 10 to attempt to transmit data. Based on the subsequently received feedback message 541, device A determines that the contention status of the second time slot of block 10 is a successful state, thereby knowing that the message has been successfully transmitted.

In some embodiments, the terminal device tastes in the time slot of each contention box The message transmitted by the test can carry the data to be transmitted by the terminal device. If the message is successfully transmitted, it means that the terminal device has completed the data transmission of this time. For example, in the example described above with respect to FIG. 5, the terminal devices directly compete for the transmission of data.

The contention scheme according to an embodiment of the present invention can save more power of the terminal device than the current competition tree based contention scheme, because the terminal device can be in an energy-saving sleep mode in most of the boxes. Figure 7 illustrates a comparison between a current contention based tree based scheme as shown in Figure 2 and a contention based communication scheme in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, curve 710 shows the average energy consumed by each device according to the current contention tree based approach, while curve 720 shows the energy consumed by each device on average according to an embodiment of the invention. . It can be seen that as the number of devices increases or decreases, curve 710 shows that the average energy consumption of each device is increasing. As previously discussed, this is because the user device will consume more energy for receiving more feedback messages from the monitor frame (as shown in Figure 3). However, curve 720 shows that as the number of devices increases and decreases, the average energy consumption of each device is at a lower level and remains almost unchanged. This is because, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the device can be in an active mode in a small number of boxes (competition box and end box) in each contention layer, and can switch to a sleep mode in other boxes.

The transmission of data usually requires more energy because the payload of the data is larger. Therefore, in some other embodiments of the present invention, the terminal device does not attempt to directly transmit data in the contention box during the contention process, but attempts to transmit the request message. The request message is used to request a score from a network node. One or more boxes are used for the transmission of data. Therefore, the payload of the request message can be less than the payload of the material to be transmitted. For example, in some examples, the payload of the data to be transmitted by the terminal device each time may be 200 bytes, and the request message may occupy only 10 bytes. Since only a request message with a small payload needs to be transmitted in each round of competition, the energy consumption of the terminal device can be further reduced. In these embodiments, the transmission of the request message may employ a contention process as described above in connection with FIG.

In some embodiments, if the request message of the terminal device is successfully transmitted, for example, the contention status corresponding to the time slot for transmitting the request message is a successful state, the network node will allocate a data frame for the terminal device in the next contention layer. For the transmission of data. For example, if the terminal device attempts to transmit a request message in the first contention frame of the first contention layer and successfully transmits, the data may be transmitted in the data frame allocated for the request message in the second contention layer. The data frame may or may not be divided into time slots. The terminal device can carry the message to be transmitted in the data frame for transmission to the network node. Since the data frame is dedicated to the transmission of the device, the terminal device will not need to compete with other devices in the data frame.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may further determine the location of the data frame based on at least the feedback message of the contention frame, and then transmit the data in the data frame based on the location of the data frame. The determination of the location of the data frame in the next competition layer is similar to the determination of the location of the competition box in the next competition layer. This is because the allocation of the data frame is similar to the allocation of the contention box and is also performed for the race condition of a certain time slot. For the sake of brevity, the process of determining the position of the data frame will not be repeated here. It should be recognized that In the competition process of the request message, a data frame will be allocated for the time slot in which the competition status is the success status. Therefore, this situation needs to be taken into account when determining the adjustment based on the race condition to determine the position of the data frame.

In an embodiment of competing based on the request message, it can be understood that the network node not only allocates a contention frame for the terminal device that has not successfully transmitted the request message in the next contention layer for retransmitting the request message based on the contention status, but also A data frame is allocated in the layer for the terminal device that successfully transmits the request message for data transmission. Regardless of whether the contention box is assigned or the data frame is allocated, for the feedback message discussed above, the number of frames allocated by the network node for the next layer is considered in the number of frames counted.

In some embodiments, when the number of frames is accumulated, the contention state for the time slot is a success state, and the network node will also increase the value of the number of frames, because for this state, a new frame will also be generated in the next layer for data transmission. . It will be appreciated that the network node can allocate more than one data frame per terminal device. This situation can also be considered when accumulating the number of frames.

In still other embodiments, since both the box for data transfer and the box for requesting messages are arranged in the next contention layer, the data frame may be located at the end of the contention layer. In this case, the network node also determines a feedback message for the data frame, and the feedback message may include determining the number of frames to be allocated for the next competition layer up to the data frame. The terminal device can detect the feedback message of the end frame of the competition layer to determine the position of its contention frame and end frame in the next competition layer. In some embodiments, the feedback message of the data frame and the feedback message of the contention frame may be the same size, even if the feedback message of the data frame does not carry a competitive state. In this way, you can Synchronization between the network node and the terminal device is implemented, so that the terminal device can receive and transmit at the correct time.

8 shows a schematic diagram of an example contention communication based on a contention process of a request message in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. Unlike the example of FIG. 5, 14 terminal devices transmit request messages in respective contention boxes. Each time the request message is successfully transmitted, the terminal device can transmit the data in the next corresponding location.

Assuming that terminal device A has undergone the required operation, it begins to attempt to transmit a request message in the first time slot of contention block 3 522 of contention layer 2, and then receives feedback message 523. Since in block 2 520, for the first time slot and the second time slot, the network node will respectively generate two new boxes in the next layer 3 for the devices competing in the two time slots; For the success status of the third time slot, the network node will allocate a data frame in layer 3 for data transmission of the devices in the time slot. Furthermore, since the contention states of both time slots are in a collision state in block 3 522, the network node will generate two new boxes in layer 3 for the devices competing in the two time slots, respectively. Therefore, to block 3 of layer 2, the network node can determine that 5 new boxes are to be cumulatively generated in layer 3, including 4 contention boxes and 1 data frame. Similarly, device A listens for feedback message 525 in end block 4 524 of layer 2, and the feedback message indicates at block 4 that the network node is to allocate 8 frames for layer 3.

Based on its feedback message 523 at the contention box of layer 2, device A can determine its position of the contention box in layer 3, which is equal to frame number 4 of the end frame of layer 2 plus the number of frames in feedback message 523. And based on competition The adjustment amount of the state 1 (the competition state corresponding to the second and third time slots outside the first time slot of the contention transmission is a collision state and a non-transmission state, so only one frame is adjusted forward), and the competition of layer 3 is obtained. The position of the box, box 8. Based on the feedback message 525 of the end box of layer 2, device A can determine the position of the end frame of layer 3, which is equal to the frame number 4 of the end frame of layer 2 plus the number of frames 8 of the feedback message 525, resulting in the end of layer 3. The position of the box, box 12 834.

It can be seen that in layer 3, device A listens for the feedback message at the end block 12 834 of layer 3 in addition to transmitting the request message in the contention block 8 and listening to the corresponding feedback message 535. It can be seen that block 12 834 is a data frame allocated for devices that successfully compete in the third time slot in the upper layer 2, but the network node also broadcasts a feedback message 835 after the data frame, including the network. The node has decided at block 12 that the number of frames allocated for the next layer 4 is 10. Based on the feedback messages 835 and 535, and the box number of the end box of layer 3, device A can determine its position in the contention box of layer 4 (ie, box 18 540) and the position of the end box of layer 4 (ie, box 22 856). ).

In layer 4, device A selects the second time slot in contention block 18 540 to attempt the transmission of the request message again, and then listens to the feedback message 541 of block 18 and the feedback message 857 of the last frame 22. Based on the contention status in the feedback message 541, device A can determine that the request message was successfully transmitted, so it will determine the data frame for data transfer in the next layer. Device A can determine its position in the next layer 5 based on the feedback message 541 and the position of the end frame of layer 4 that has been previously determined. Specifically, based on The frame number 22 at the end of layer 4 and the number of frames 2 in the feedback message 541, as well as the amount of adjustment 0 based on the race condition, can determine the position of the data frame, block 24. Device A can transmit the material in block 24 and end the contention process.

Although in the example of FIG. 8, the network node is shown to broadcast feedback messages after each of the data frames (eg, data frames 830-832, 840-856, and 860-862), the network node may not be in some cases. Broadcast feedback for all data frames. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the terminal device only listens to the feedback message of the data frame when the data frame is at the end of the competition layer. Therefore, the network node can determine whether the allocated data frame will be located at the end of a certain competition layer according to the overall competition condition, and if not, the feedback message of the data will not be determined and broadcasted. When it is determined that the data frame is at the end of the competition layer, its feedback message (ie, the number of frames) is determined for the terminal device to listen.

Figure 9 illustrates the average energy consumed by each terminal device in the previously described data-based direct contention and request message based competition (indicated by curves 910 and 920, respectively). It can be seen that if the request message of the small load is used to compete for resources, and the data is transmitted in the dedicated data frame after the competition is successful, the energy consumption of the terminal device can be further reduced.

FIG. 10 shows a schematic diagram of a contention-based communication method 1000 in a network node, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Method 1000 embodies some example operations in the course of communication method 400 of a network node in a terminal device as shown in FIG. Although FIG. 10 illustrates an example block of method 1000, in some embodiments, method 1000 can include additional blocks, more There are fewer boxes, different boxes, or boxes that are arranged differently than those depicted in FIG. Additionally or alternatively, two or more blocks of method 1000 may be performed in parallel. In some embodiments, method 1000 can be performed by, for example, network node 110 in FIG.

At step 1010, the network node determines a contention status for the first contention box of the first contention layer, wherein at least one of the terminal devices transmits the message in the first contention box. At step 1020, the network node determines a number of frames for the first contention frame based on the contention status, wherein the number of blocks indicates a frame determined at the first contention frame that will be assigned to the second contention layer after the first contention layer The cumulative number. Next, at step 1030, the network node transmits a feedback message for the first contention box, the feedback message including the determined contention status and number of frames. The terminal device interested in the feedback message (eg, the terminal device transmitting the message in the first contention box) can receive the feedback message.

In some embodiments, in response to the terminal device not successfully transmitting the message in the first contention box, the second contention layer is allocated at least one contention frame for the terminal device to transmit the message again.

In some embodiments, the transmitted message can be a request message. Therefore, in response to the terminal device successfully transmitting the request message in the first contention frame, the second contention layer is allocated at least one data frame for the terminal device to transmit the data to be transmitted.

In some embodiments, the material may be received from the terminal device in the assigned data frame, and then a feedback message including the number of frames for the data frame may be determined. Here, the number of boxes indicates that the second match will be determined at the data frame. The cumulative number of frames allocated by the layer. The feedback message can be transmitted to the terminal device.

Figure 11 shows a block diagram of a communication device 1100 in a terminal device in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The device 1100 may be, for example, any of the terminal devices 121 to 124 as shown in FIG. 1, or may be included therein.

As shown in FIG. 11, apparatus 1100 includes a message transmitter 1110 configured to transmit a message to a network node in a first contention box of a first contention layer. Apparatus 1100 also includes a feedback receiver 1120 configured to receive a first feedback message for the first contention frame from the network node. The first feedback message includes a number of blocks indicating a cumulative number of frames that the network node determines at the first contention frame to be allocated for the second contention layer after the first contention layer. Apparatus 1100 also includes a contention determiner 1130 configured to determine a location of a second contention frame and a last frame in the second contention layer based on at least the first feedback message in response to the unsuccessfully transmitting the message. The apparatus 1100 further includes a mode switcher 1140 configured to switch to a sleep mode for a duration of a frame other than the second contention frame and the end frame in the second contention layer based on the positions of the second contention frame and the end frame.

In some embodiments, the contention determiner 1130 is configured to: in response to the first contention frame being the last frame in the first contention layer, determining the second based on the location of the first contention frame and the number of frames in the first feedback message Positioning the end frame in the competition layer; and determining the location of the second contention frame in the second contention layer based on the location of the end frame in the first contention layer and the contention state in the first feedback message.

In some embodiments, the feedback receiver 1120 is further configured to: in response to the first contention frame not being the last frame in the first contention layer, receiving a second feedback message for the last frame in the first contention layer, wherein the second The feedback message includes the number of frames, and the number of frames of the second feedback message indicates the cumulative number of frames that the network node determines at the end frame that will be allocated for the second contention layer. In these embodiments, the contention determiner 1130 is configured to determine the locations of the second contention box and the end frame in the second contention layer based on the first feedback message and the second feedback message.

In some embodiments, the contention determiner 1130 is configured to determine the location of the second contention frame in the second contention layer based on the location of the last frame in the first contention layer and the number of frames and the contention status of the first feedback message. And determining a location of the end frame in the second contention layer based on the location of the end frame in the first contention layer and the second feedback message.

In some embodiments, the message transmitter 1110 is further configured to: retransmit the message to the network node in the second contention box. In these embodiments, the feedback receiver 1120 is further configured to receive a feedback message for the second contention box and a feedback message for the last frame from the network node.

In some embodiments, the first contention box includes a plurality of time slots. In these embodiments, the message transmitter 1110 is configured to select at least one time slot from among a plurality of time slots of the first contention frame for transmitting a message.

In some embodiments, the first feedback message further includes a contention status, and the contention status includes a success status, a collision status, or a no transmission status for each time slot. Apparatus 1100 can further include a transmission determiner, It is configured to determine whether the message was successfully transmitted based on the contention status of the time slot in which the message was transmitted.

In some embodiments, the message is a request message. In these embodiments, the apparatus 1100 further includes: a data frame determiner configured to determine a location of the data frame allocated for the request message in the second contention layer based on at least the first feedback message in response to the successful transmission request message; And a data transmitter configured to transmit the data to be transmitted in the data frame based on the determined location of the data frame.

In some embodiments, the feedback receiver 1120 is further configured to: in response to the data frame being the end frame of the second contention layer, receiving a feedback message for the data frame, wherein the feedback message of the data frame includes indicating the network node in the data frame The cumulative number of boxes determined to be assigned to the second competition layer.

Figure 12 shows a block diagram of a communication device 1200 in a network node in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The apparatus 1200 can be, for example, the network node 110 as shown in FIG. 1, or can be included therein.

As shown in FIG. 12, apparatus 1200 includes a contention state determiner 1210 configured to determine a contention status for a first contention frame of a first contention layer, wherein at least one terminal device transmits a message in a first contention box. The apparatus 1200 further includes a frame number determiner 1220 configured to determine a number of frames for the first contention frame based on the contention status, wherein the number of blocks indicates a second after the first contention layer determined at the first contention frame The cumulative number of boxes allocated by the competition layer. Apparatus 1200 further includes a feedback transmitter 1230 configured to transmit a feedback message for the first contention frame, wherein The feed message includes the determined number of frames.

In some embodiments, apparatus 1200 further includes a box allocator configured to allocate at least one contention frame for the second contention layer for the terminal device to retransmit the message in response to the terminal device not successfully transmitting the message in the first contention frame.

In some embodiments, the message is a request message. The apparatus 1200 further includes a box allocator configured to allocate at least one data frame for the second contention layer for the terminal device to transmit the data to be transmitted in response to the terminal device successfully transmitting the request message in the first contention frame.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 1200 further includes: a data receiver configured to receive data from the terminal device in the allocated data frame; a data feedback determiner configured to determine a feedback message for the data frame, the data frame The feedback message includes a cumulative number of frames indicating that the network node is determined at the data frame to be allocated for the second contention layer; and a data feedback transmitter configured to transmit feedback messages for the data frame.

It can be seen that the apparatus 1100 of FIG. 11 can implement the operations described above with respect to the terminal device in the process illustrated in any of FIGS. 4-9, and the apparatus 1200 of FIG. 12 can be implemented as described above with respect to FIG. The operations described in relation to the network node in the process illustrated in any of the Figures 10. Although not further illustrated, device 1100 or 1200 can include more functional units to implement the various embodiments described in connection with Figures 4-10.

Embodiments of the present invention may also provide a communication system. The communication system may include at least one terminal device, each terminal device including the above Regarding the device 1100 depicted in FIG. The communication system can also include a network node that includes the apparatus 1200 described above with respect to FIG.

FIG. 13 shows a block diagram of an exemplary computer system/server 12 suitable for use in implementing embodiments of the present invention. In some embodiments, any one of the terminal devices 121-124 or the network node 110 may include one or more of one or more computer systems/servers 12, and/or computer systems/servers 12. Component. The computer system/server 12 shown in FIG. 13 is merely an example and should not impose any limitation on the function and scope of use of the embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in Figure 13, computer system/server 12 is embodied in the form of a general purpose computing device. The components of computer system/server 12 may include, but are not limited to, one or more processors or processing units 16, system memory 28, and busbars 18 that connect different system components, including system memory 28 and processing unit 16.

The bus bar 18 represents one or more of several types of bus bar structures, including a memory bus bar or a memory controller, a peripheral bus bar, a graphics acceleration port, a processor, or a bureau using any bus bar structure in a plurality of bus bar structures. Domain bus. For example, these architectures include, but are not limited to, Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MAC) bus, Enhanced ISA bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and peripherals. Component Interconnect (PCI) bus.

Computer system/server 12 typically includes a variety of computer system readable media. These media can be anything that can be used by a computer system/server 12 accessible media, including volatile and non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media.

System memory 28 may include computer system readable media in the form of volatile memory, such as memory 30 and/or scratchpad 32. Computer system/server 12 may further include other removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storage media. Although not shown in FIG. 13, a disk drive for reading and writing to a removable non-volatile disk such as a "floppy disk", and a removable non-volatile disk (for example, a CD-ROM, a DVD-) may be provided. ROM or other optical media) read and write optical drive. In these cases, each drive can be connected to busbar 18 via one or more data media interfaces. Memory 28 can include at least one program product having a set (e.g., at least one) of program modules configured to perform the functions of various embodiments of the present invention.

A program/utility 40 having a set of (at least one) program modules 42 may be stored, for example, in memory 28. Such program modules 42 include one-to-one, but not limited to, one-to-one operating system, one or more applications. , other program modules, and program materials, each of these or some combination of these examples may include the implementation of the network environment. Program module 42 typically performs the functions and/or methods of the described embodiments of the present invention.

The computer system/server 12 may also be in communication with one or more external devices (e.g., display device 24, storage device 14, etc.) as desired, and may also be associated with one or more such users to interact with the computer system/server 12. Interactive device communication, and/or with the computer system/server 12 Any device (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) capable of communicating with one or more other computing devices. This communication can take place via an input/output (I/O) interface 22. Also, computer system/server 12 can communicate with one or more networks (e.g., a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network, such as the Internet) via network adapter 20. As shown, network adapter 20 communicates with other modules of computer system/server 12 via busbar 18. It should be understood that although not shown in the figures, other hardware and/or software modules may be utilized in conjunction with computer system/server 12, including but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays. , RAID systems, tape drives, and data backup storage systems.

It should be noted that embodiments of the invention may be implemented by hardware, software or a combination of soft and hard materials. The hardware portion can be implemented using dedicated logic; the software portion can be stored in memory and executed by a suitable instruction execution system, such as a microprocessor or dedicated design hardware. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the apparatus and methods described above can be implemented using computer-executable instructions and/or embodied in processor control code, such as carrier media such as a magnetic disk, CD or DVD-ROM, such as read-only. Such code is provided on a programmable memory of a memory (solid) or on a data carrier such as an optical or electronic signal carrier. The apparatus and apparatus of the present invention may be comprised of a semiconductor such as an ultra-large integrated circuit or gate array, a semiconductor such as a logic die, a transistor, or the like, or a programmable hardware such as a field programmable gate array, a programmable logic device, or the like. The hardware implementation of the device can also be implemented with software implemented by various types of processors. It can also be realized by a combination of the above-described hardware circuit and software such as a solid.

It should be noted that although several units or subunits of the device are mentioned in the detailed description above, such division is merely not mandatory. Indeed, in accordance with embodiments of the present invention, the features and functions of the two or more devices described above may be embodied in one device. Conversely, the features and functions of one of the devices described above can be further divided into multiple devices.

Furthermore, although the operation of the method of the present invention is described in a particular order in the figures, this is not a requirement or implied that the operations must be performed in the specific order, or all the operations shown must be performed to achieve the desired results. Instead, the steps depicted in the flowcharts can change the order of execution. Additionally or alternatively, certain steps may be omitted, multiple steps being performed in one step, and/or one step being broken down into multiple steps.

Although the invention has been described with reference to a particular embodiment, it is understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed. The invention is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements of the invention The scope of the appended claims is intended to cover the invention

400‧‧‧ method

410, 420, 430, 440‧ ‧ steps

Claims (15)

A contention-based communication method includes: transmitting a message to a network node in a first contention box of a first contention layer; receiving a first feedback message for the first contention frame from the network node, wherein the first feedback The message includes a number of blocks indicating a cumulative number of frames determined by the network node at the first contention frame to be allocated for the second contention layer after the first contention layer; the message is not successfully transmitted in response to the message Determining a location of a second contention frame and a last frame in the second contention layer based on the first feedback message; and selecting, in the second contention layer, based on the location of the second contention frame and the end frame The second contention box and the frame outside the last frame switch to the sleep mode for the duration of time. The method of claim 1, wherein the first feedback message further includes a contention status, and wherein determining the location of the second contention frame and the end frame in the second contention layer comprises: responding to the first competition a frame is a last frame in the first contention layer, determining a location of a last frame in the second contention layer based on a location of the first contention frame and the number of the frames in the first feedback message; and based on the first The location of the end frame in the competition layer and the contention status in the first feedback message determine the location of the second contention frame in the second contention layer. The method of claim 1, further comprising: Receiving, in response to the first contention frame being the end frame in the first contention layer, receiving a second feedback message for the last frame in the first contention layer, where the second feedback message includes a frame number, the second feedback message The number of blocks indicates the cumulative number of frames that the network node determines at the end frame that will be allocated for the second contention layer, and wherein determining the locations of the second contention frame and the last frame in the second contention layer includes And determining a location of the second contention frame and the end frame in the second contention layer based on the first feedback message and the second feedback message. The method of claim 3, wherein the first feedback message further includes a contention status, and wherein the second contention frame in the second contention layer is determined based on the first feedback message and the second feedback message. And the location of the end frame includes: determining a location of the second contention frame in the second contention layer based on a location of the last frame in the first contention layer and a frame number and a contention state of the first feedback message; The position of the end frame in the first competition layer and the second feedback message determine the position of the end frame in the second competition layer. The method of claim 1, further comprising: retransmitting the message to the network node in the second contention box; and receiving, from the network node, a feedback message for the second contention box and The feedback message at the end of the box. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is a request message, the method further comprising: determining, at the a location of a data frame allocated for the request message in the second contention layer; and transmitting the data to be transmitted in the data frame based on the determined location of the data frame. A competition-based communication method, comprising: determining a contention status of a first contention frame for a first contention layer, wherein at least one terminal device transmits a message in the first contention box; and determining, according to the contention status, a number of frames of a contention box, wherein the number of blocks indicates a cumulative number of frames determined at the first contention frame to be allocated for a second contention layer after the first contention layer; and transmission for the first contention box Feedback message, wherein the feedback message includes the determined number of frames. The method of claim 7, further comprising: in response to the terminal device not successfully transmitting the message in the first contention frame, assigning at least one contention frame to the second contention layer for the terminal device again Transmit the message. A contention-based communication device, comprising: a message transmitter configured to transmit a message to a network node in a first contention box of a first contention layer; a feedback receiver configured to receive from the network node for the One a first feedback message of the contention frame, where the first feedback message includes a number of frames indicating that the network node determines at the first contention frame that the second contention layer after the first contention layer is to be allocated a cumulative number of blocks; a contention determiner configured to determine a location of a second contention frame and a last frame in the second contention layer based on the first feedback message in response to the unsuccessfully transmitting the message; and a mode The switch is configured to switch to the sleep mode for a duration of the frame other than the second contention box and the end frame in the second contention layer based on the positions of the second contention frame and the end frame. The device of claim 9, wherein the contention determiner is configured to: responsive to the first contention frame being a last frame in the first contention layer, based on a location of the first contention frame and the first Determining the position of the end frame in the second competition layer by the number of the frames in the feedback message; and determining the number based on the location of the end frame in the first competition layer and the contention status in the first feedback message The location of the second contention box in the second competition layer. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the feedback receiver is further configured to: receive, in response to the first contention frame, not the end frame in the first contention layer, for the end in the first contention layer a second feedback message of the frame, where the second feedback message includes a number of frames, where the number of frames of the second feedback message indicates that the network node determines at the end frame that the second contention layer is to be a cumulative number of allocated frames, and wherein the contention determiner is configured to determine a location of the second contention frame and the last frame in the second contention layer based on the first feedback message and the second feedback message. The device of claim 11, wherein the first feedback message further includes a contention status, and wherein the contention determiner is configured to: based on a location of a last frame in the first contention layer and the first feedback Determining the location of the second contention frame in the second contention layer, and determining the location of the second contention frame in the second contention layer; and determining the second contention layer based on the location of the last frame in the first contention layer and the second feedback message The position of the end of the box. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the message transmitter is further configured to: retransmit the message to the network node in the second contention box, and wherein the feedback receiver is further configured to: A feedback message for the second contention box and a feedback message for the last frame are received from the network node. A contention-based communication device, comprising: a contention status determiner configured to determine a contention status of a first contention box for a first contention layer, wherein at least one terminal device transmits a message in the first contention box; a number determiner configured to determine a number of frames for the first contention box based on the contention status, wherein the number of blocks indicates the first contention a cumulative number of frames determined at the frame that will be allocated for the second contention layer after the first contention layer; and a feedback transmitter configured to transmit a feedback message for the first contention box, wherein the feedback message includes Determine the number of boxes. The device of claim 14, further comprising: a box allocator configured to allocate at least one contention to the second contention layer in response to the terminal device not successfully transmitting the message in the first contention frame The box is used by the terminal device to transmit the message again.