U.S. patent application number 12/703903 was filed with the patent office on 2010-06-10 for locally adminstered mac address based method for selectively and efficiently identifying enhanced version nodes of standards.
This patent application is currently assigned to TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED. Invention is credited to Harshal S. Chhaya, Shantanu Kangude.
Application Number | 20100142450 12/703903 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 38179864 |
Filed Date | 2010-06-10 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100142450 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Kangude; Shantanu ; et
al. |
June 10, 2010 |
LOCALLY ADMINSTERED MAC ADDRESS BASED METHOD FOR SELECTIVELY AND
EFFICIENTLY IDENTIFYING ENHANCED VERSION NODES OF STANDARDS
Abstract
Embodiments of the invention provide a method for selectively
identifying nodes implemented enhanced version of a protocol
standard by creating a random locally administered MAC address and
advertising said random locally administered MAC address as the
address that implies a particular protocol amendment of a protocol
standard.
Inventors: |
Kangude; Shantanu; (Dallas,
TX) ; Chhaya; Harshal S.; (Plano, TX) |
Correspondence
Address: |
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
P O BOX 655474, M/S 3999
DALLAS
TX
75265
US
|
Assignee: |
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS
INCORPORATED
Dallas
TX
|
Family ID: |
38179864 |
Appl. No.: |
12/703903 |
Filed: |
February 11, 2010 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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11565921 |
Dec 1, 2006 |
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12703903 |
|
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60741928 |
Dec 2, 2005 |
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60742246 |
Dec 5, 2005 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
370/328 ;
370/392 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 29/12783 20130101;
H04W 8/24 20130101; H04W 8/26 20130101; H04L 61/6022 20130101; H04L
61/35 20130101; H04W 40/24 20130101; H04W 80/02 20130101; H04W
8/205 20130101; H04L 29/12839 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
370/328 ;
370/392 |
International
Class: |
H04W 4/00 20090101
H04W004/00; H04L 12/56 20060101 H04L012/56 |
Claims
1-12. (canceled)
13. A method for selectively identifying nodes implementing
enhanced version of a protocol standard, said method comprising:
creating a random locally administered MAC address; advertising to
a network said random locally administered MAC address as the
address that implies a particular protocol amendment of the
protocol standard.
14. The method of claim 13, further comprising: propagating said
random locally administered MAC address across a network using a
plurality of beacons, in an Information Element.
15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: reserving said
random locally administered MAC address to mean those nodes which
are capable of said particular protocol amendment.
16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: sending, via a
transceiver, a packet addressed to at least a one of the reserved
addresses to indicate that the packet has special significance
related to said particular protocol amendment.
17. The method of claim 15, further comprising: receiving a packet
at a receiver; comparing the address of the packet with the
receivers address and that of the specially reserved addressed;
determining if the receiver needs to process the packet or not.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: checking the
address of the packet against a list of reserved addresses to
determine if the packet has special meaning for nodes capable of
one of the protocol enhancements; and treating the packet as if it
was addressed to all nodes capable of the specific protocol
amendment, or as per the enhanced protocol in the protocol
amendment, If the destination address in the received packet
matches one of the reserved addresses.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims priority to and incorporates by
reference U.S. application Ser. No. 11/565,921 filed on Dec. 1,
2006 said application claims priority to and incorporates by
reference U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/741,928, filed Dec.
2, 2005, entitled "Locally administered MAC address based method
for selectively and efficiently identifying enhanced version nodes
of Institute of IEEE 802 standards," Shantanu Kangude and Harshal
Chhaya inventors and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/742,246,
filed Dec. 5, 2005, entitled "Methods for silencing all 802.11 WLAN
nodes in a neighborhood but selectively excluding those belonging
to a particular amendment enhancement," Shantanu Kangude and
Harshal Chhaya inventors.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
[0002] Not applicable.
REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX
[0003] Not applicable.
BACKGROUND
[0004] Embodiments of the invention are directed, in general, to
communication systems and, more specifically, to identifying
enhanced version nodes in communication systems.
[0005] As newer and newer amendments of standards (like Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n high
throughput and 802.11s mesh networking, for example) are
standardized, network scenarios with such enhanced nodes
co-existing with legacy nodes will be abundant. Newer amendments of
standardized protocols can usually operate significantly more
efficiently in the absence of legacy nodes. Also, newer amendments
can employ advanced mechanisms if they can identify nodes that
support the techniques defined in the amendments. Thus, identifying
legacy nodes and nodes supporting various different amendments is
important to ensure optimum performance in a network. Additionally,
newer amendments like 802.11s mesh can employ advanced mechanisms
such as congestion control or reservations if they can silence
legacy STAtions (STA)s selectively for a certain duration in time.
Selectively silencing or selectively excluding the silencing of a
particular class of nodes may be useful in other cases as well. For
example, to ensure access or no access for a particular class for
fairness policies etc.
[0006] In IEEE 802.11 protocol, Silencing of nodes is achieved by
setting their Network Allocation Vector (NAV)s to certain duration.
The challenge is to set the NAV of a particular group/class of
nodes. Even if a packet achieves such selective silencing, a
further issue is that the nodes that are not silenced can update
the NAVs of the silenced nodes and get them out of their silence
mode. Such a behavior is prescribed in 802.11e as NAV may be
shorted by transmitting nodes when they end their transmission
opportunity (TXOP)s. A TXOP is defined by the start time and a
maximum duration.
[0007] Thus, there is a need to identify legacy nodes and
selectively silencing these nodes.
SUMMARY
[0008] Embodiments of the invention provide a method for
selectively identifying nodes implementing enhanced version of a
standard by creating a random locally administered MAC address and
advertising the said random locally administered MAC address as the
address that implies a particular amendment of a standard.
[0009] Also provided is a method to achieve selective silencing of
a particular class of nodes and continued contention based access
by the remaining nodes for the period of selective silencing.
[0010] These and other features and advantages will be more clearly
understood from the following detailed description taken in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] For a more complete understanding of the disclosure and the
advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following brief
description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and
detailed description, wherein like reference numerals represent
like parts.
[0012] FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram generally illustrative
of a wireless system which may use an embodiment of the
invention.
[0013] FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrative of an
exemplary data packet used for wireless data transmission.
[0014] FIG. 3 is method for method for identifying enhanced version
nodes in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
[0015] FIG. 4 is method for selectively silencing nodes or causing
a control frame induced action in accordance with an embodiment of
the invention.
[0016] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a representative example of a
mobile device employing principles of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0017] It should be understood at the outset that although an
exemplary implementation of one embodiment of the disclosure is
illustrated below, the system may be implemented using any number
of techniques, whether currently known or in existence. The
disclosure should in no way be limited to the exemplary
implementations, drawings, and techniques illustrated below,
including the exemplary design and implementation illustrated and
described herein, but may be modified within the scope of the
appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents.
[0018] System may include many more components than those shown.
Generally, nodes may include any device capable of connecting to a
wired or wireless network. Such devices include cellular
telephones, smart phones, pagers, radio frequency (RF) devices,
infrared (IR) devices, integrated devices combining one or more of
the preceding devices, and the like. Nodes may also include other
devices that have a wireless interface, such as Personal Digital
Assistants (PDAs), handheld computers, personal computers,
multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable
consumer electronics, network PCs, wearable computers, and the
like.
[0019] LANs can employ any form of computer readable media for
communicating information from one electronic device to another.
LANs can include direct connections, such as through a universal
serial bus (USB) port, other forms of computer-readable media, or
any combination thereof. Links within LANs typically include fiber,
twisted wire pair or coaxial cable, while links between networks
may utilize analog telephone lines, full or fractional dedicated
digital lines including T1, T2, T3, and T4, Integrated Services
Digital Networks (ISDNs), Digital Subscriber Lines (DSLs), wireless
links including satellite links, fiber, Asymmetric Digital
Subscriber Lines (ADSL), Video Digital Subscriber Lines (VDSL), or
other link known to those skilled in the art. Furthermore, remote
computers and other related electronic devices can be remotely
connected to either LANs or Wide Area Networks (WANs) via a modem
and temporary telephone link.
[0020] The media used to transmit information in the links
illustrates one type of computer-readable media, namely
communication media. Generally, computer-readable media includes
any media that can be accessed by a computing device. Communication
media typically embodies computer-readable instructions, data
structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data
signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and
includes any information delivery media. The term "modulated data
signal" means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics
set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the
signal. By way of example, communication media includes wired media
such as twisted pair, coaxial cable, fiber optics, wave guides, and
other wired media and wireless media such as acoustic, RF,
infrared, and other wireless media.
[0021] Router is typically point of attachment devices on a
communications network providing IP (packet-based) connectivity
between node and other nodes on a network. On a single network
linking many computers through an ad-hoc network of possible
connections, router receives transmitted messages and forwards them
to their correct destinations over available routes. On an
interconnected set of LANs, including those of differing
architectures and protocols. A router may act as a bridge or link
within LANs, enabling messages to be sent from one to another.
[0022] FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram generally illustrative
of a wireless system 100 which may use an embodiment of the
invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the wireless system may comprise the
devices 102, 110A, and 110B. The device 102 may comprise a
transceiver 104 having a data link layer 106 and a physical (PHY)
layer 108. In at least some embodiments, the device 102 may
implement a first wireless protocol (e.g., 802.11g). Similarly,
each of the devices 110A and 110B also may comprise a transceiver
112A, 112B having a data link layer 114A, 114B and a PHY layer
116A, 116B. In at least some embodiments, the devices 110A and 110B
may be implement a second wireless protocol (e.g., 802.11n).
[0023] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary data packet 200 used for
wireless data transmission. As shown in FIG. 2, the data packet 200
may comprise a preamble 202, a header field 204, a Medium Access
Control MAC address field 206, a data field 208, and a CRC field
210. The preamble 202 may be used for synchronization and channel
estimation. The header field 204 may provide modulation
information, convolution coding rate information, and data length
(i.e., number of octets) information. The MAC address field 206 may
comprise a hardware address that identifies a node of a network.
The data field 208 may comprise a variable amount of scrambled
data. The CRC field 210 may comprise information for detecting data
transmission errors.
[0024] In accordance with at least some embodiments of the
invention, one or more fields of a data packet 200 may be added
and/or modified in order to permit the devices 110A, 1108 to
transmit data to each other according to the second protocol, and
permit the devices 110A, 1108 to transmit data to the device 102
using the first protocol and vice versa as previously described.
Additionally, adding and/or modifying fields of a data packet 200
may permit the devices 102, 110A, and 1108 to estimate the duration
of data transfers (used for CCA) according to data rates supported
by either the first protocol or the second protocol.
[0025] One method to identify all nodes that support the protocol
enhancements is to use a special Medium Access Control (MAC)
address 206 to refer to all such nodes. Nodes that recognize this
special address may take special action on the frame while the
legacy nodes may ignore the packet. Once a MAC address based method
is used, it is important to design the mechanism such that it does
not cause protocol inefficiency due to a large number of amendments
for a particular technology. Efficient address matching for nodes
that are enhanced with multiple amendments is also addressed.
[0026] Using IEEE 802 as an example, transmissions by 802 based
nodes usually include one or more 6 byte MAC addresses identifying
the immediate transmitter or receiver or previous or later
transmitter/receivers etc. The impact of a received frame at a node
also depends on the addresses carried in the frames. The 802 MAC
address of 0xffffffffffff is well known to mean a broadcast
address. Similarly multicast group addresses may be used to
identify a group of nodes. Logically, all nodes supporting a
particular amendment/enhancement of a particular 802 standard may
be identified by a multicast group address. However, most 802
protocols define a subset of addresses as multicast group addresses
and define a specific behavior for packets to/from such addresses.
Also, such reserved multicast addresses may require group
management to recognize group membership. Unicast addresses in
frames are capable of causing the most impact on receiving nodes in
most protocols. Embodiments of the invention use locally
administered unicast addresses to identify all nodes that belong to
a particular amendment of a technology.
[0027] Depending on the centralized or distributed nature of a
given 802 technology, the central co-ordinator or any individual
node randomly chooses a locally administered unicast address to
identify a particular amendment of the technology. For example,
choose a locally administered MAC address for 11s in an 802.11
network.
[0028] If the network is distributed, the chosen address is
propagated across the network by whatever mechanism the protocol
chooses. If multiple such choices are propagated, the largest value
is adopted and propagated.
[0029] Nodes use the chosen address to imply all nodes that are
capable of the particular amendment. This address may be
transmitted in the transmitter or received address or wherever else
such address is used. For a particular network, this locally
administered address is now reserved to mean all nodes capable of a
particular amendment of the base technology.
[0030] A transmitter would send the packet to one of these reserved
addresses to indicate that the packet has special significance
related to a particular enhancement/amendment. A device receiving a
packet compares the receiver address of the packet with its own to
determine if it needs to process the packet or not. A device
supporting newer amendments would also check the packet against a
list of reserved addresses to determine if the packet corresponds
to one of the enhancements. If the destination address in the
received packet matches one of the reserved addresses, the receiver
treats the packet as per the enhanced protocol in the
amendment.
[0031] This reserved address may be used as the transmitter address
also. This may imply special meaning for nodes capable of the
specific amendment.
[0032] Nodes that are enhanced with multiple amendments of an 802
protocol may check for each of their amendments while address
matching. For example, a WLAN node that is 11s, 11n, 11k, and 11w
capable may have to do address checking for 4 different
addresses.
[0033] Efficient coding schemes may be used in the last three bytes
to identify the amendments so that one address matching operation
may identify if the address implies any of a "n" number of
amendments of any of "k" number of technologies. One specific
method of doing this is to use a method similar to Hamming
codes.
[0034] Once a random address is chosen for a particular amendment,
the last three bytes of the address are set to all zeros, before it
is propagated in the network. This address becomes the reserved
address for the particular amendment and is propagated in the
network.
[0035] Addresses set for newer amendments are built on top of the
first address set in the network. The last three bytes of any new
addresses set to imply all nodes capable of particular amendments
are set as follows: [0036] The first "F" bits are reserved to
increase the number of amendments that can be covered in the 24
bits space. [0037] The last "L" bits identify the amendment to the
technology. This is done via a bit mapping so that "L" amendments
may be identified. [0038] If "L" is not enough to cover all
amendments to a particular technology, multiple codes in the first
"F" bits may be used to increase the space. For each such code, the
last "L" bits are bit mapped to identify the amendment.
[0039] For most nodes, the scheme defined above may lead to only a
single address mapping operation. In severe cases, the number of
address matching operations might increase to a couple of times.
However, it will still be efficient.
[0040] With legacy nodes identified, it may be desirable to silence
selective nodes. Any packet whose duration field is required to be
interpreted by nodes may be used to silence them for certain
duration by setting their NAV. In order to selectively change the
NAV for nodes belonging to particular amendments, those amendments
may need to understand a new behavior that over-rides the usual NAV
setting behavior. Such behavior may be specified in all new
amendments. A method by which a plurality of nodes except those
belonging to a particular amendment may be silenced for a time
duration is provided.
[0041] Selectively silencing using control frames will now be
described. Any control frame that does not carry the Basic Service
Set (BSS) ID can set the NAV of all 802.11 nodes that hear it.
Specifically a Clear To Send (CTS) frame with any receiver MAC
address may be used for silencing nodes. CTS-to-self is an example
of one mechanism that uses such approach. However, in order to
selectively exclude the silencing of nodes capable of a particular
amendment, such nodes need to interpret resetting of the NAV. This
involves identification of an indication that a particular
amendment is referred.
[0042] A method in accordance with an embodiment of the invention
is described by FIG. 4.
[0043] 802.11 nodes create a random locally administered MAC
address and advertise it as the address that implies a particular
amendment. In an infrastructure BSS, the Access Point (AP) would
choose this address. This address is advertised and propagated
cross the network in beacons in an Information Element (IE) with
the following information: [0044] ID [0045] Length [0046] Number of
Amendments identified "n" [0047] Amendment identifier 1 [0048]
Locally administered MAC address for Amendment 1 [0049] Amendment
identifier 2 [0050] Locally administered MAC address for Amendment
2 [0051] . . . [0052] Amendment identifier n [0053] Locally
administered MAC address for Amendment n
[0054] Amendment identifier is a number or ASCII text that
identifies which amendment is being identified with the MAC address
that follows it. If multiple addresses are advertised for a
particular amendment, the larger value is accepted and further
propagated.
[0055] In order to selectively exclude silencing of nodes of a
particular amendment, a transmitter sends a CTS frame (or any other
control flame) to the MAC address chosen for a particular
amendment.
[0056] All legacy nodes will reject this frame since it does not
match their address. They will also set their NAV to the value
specified in the `Duration` field of the frame. All nodes that
previously decoded the IE, and are capable of the amendment
identified by this special address will treat the frame as if it
was unicast to their address. Their NAVs won't be updated and they
will be free to access the medium using contention-based or
contention free mechanisms.
[0057] Selectively silencing within a BSS using management frames
will now be described. Any action frame may be used to set the NAV
of an entire BSS and silence them. In order to selectively cause
nodes capable of a particular amendment to not be silenced, an IE
in the action frame can be used to indicate that. The IE format may
be as follows: [0058] ID [0059] Length [0060] Amendment identifier
Amendment identifier indicates nodes capable of which amendment are
supposed to ignore the NAV setting.
[0061] This action frame would be addressed to the same MAC address
as the control frame, or be broadcast.
[0062] The difference in the two approaches is that the control
frame would impact all the nodes in the neighborhood, irrespective
of the BSS they belong to. The management frame would affect only
the nodes in the same BSS as the transmitter. So the control frame
could be used to silence all legacy nodes in a neighborhood,
irrespective of their BSS and the action frame would be used to
silence only the nodes within a particular BSS. The former method
would be used to ensure priority of Wireless Distribution System
(WDS) traffic over BSS traffic and the latter to implement
congestion control.
[0063] After the transmission of any of the above two frame types,
the nodes that are not silenced may access the channel and begin a
TXOP. The duration field of such packets may sometimes cause the
NAVs of all nodes to be changed (except legacy nodes that are
previous to 11e). If such a TXOP ends before the time till which
nodes were previously selectively silenced, the previously silenced
nodes may become active right away. In order to silence the nodes
again, the previously transmitted packets used for selective
silencing may be transmitted as the last packets of such TXOPs.
[0064] Hardware, firmware, software or a combination thereof may be
used to perform the functions and operations at the mobile devices
in accordance with the invention. The mobile devices in accordance
with the invention include communication devices capable of
engaging in at least one default radio connection, and at least one
auxiliary radio connection. These devices include, for example,
mobile phones, PDAs, and other wireless communication devices, as
well as landline computing systems and communication systems also
capable of over-the-air (OTA) communication. A representative
example of a mobile device employing principles of the invention is
illustrated in FIG. 5.
[0065] The representative mobile device 800 utilizes computing
circuitry to control and manage the conventional device activity as
well as the functionality provided by embodiments of the invention.
For example, the illustrated mobile device 800 includes a
processing/control unit 802, such as a Digital Signal Processor
(DSP), a microprocessor, reduced instruction set computer (RISC),
or other central processing module. The processing unit 802 need
not be a single device, and may include one or more processors. For
example, the processing unit may include a master processor and
associated slave processors coupled to communicate with the master
processor.
[0066] The processing unit 802 controls the basic functions of the
mobile device 800 as dictated by programs available in the program
storage/memory 804. The storage/memory 804 may include an operating
system and various program and data modules associated with the
invention. In one embodiment of the invention, the; programs are
stored in non-volatile electrically-erasable, programmable
read-only memory (EEPROM), flash ROM, etc., so that the programs
are not lost upon power down of the mobile device. The storage 804
may also include one or more of other types of read-only memory
(ROM) and programmable and/or erasable MOM, random access memory
(RAM), subscriber interface module (SIM), wireless interface module
(WIM), smart card, or other fixed or removable memory device. The
relevant software for carrying out mobile device operations in
accordance with the invention may also be transmitted to the mobile
device 800 via data signals, such as being downloaded
electronically via one or more networks, such as the Internet and
an intermediate wireless network(s).
[0067] For performing other standard mobile device functions, the
processor 802 is also coupled to user-interface 806 associated with
the mobile device 800. The user interface (UI) 806 may include, for
example, a display 808 such as a liquid crystal display, a keypad
810, speaker 812, and microphone 814. These and other UI components
are coupled to the processor 502 as is known in the art. The keypad
810 may include alpha numeric keys for performing a variety of
functions, including dialing numbers for I conventional, default
cellular communication, and/or effecting auxiliary radio
communication. Other UI mechanisms may be employed, such as voice
commands, I switches, touch pad/screen, graphical user interface
using a pointing device, trackball, joystick, or any other user
interface mechanism.
[0068] The wireless device 800 may also include conventional
circuitry for performing wireless transmissions over the mobile
network. A DSP 816 may be employed to perform a variety of
functions, including analog-to-digital (ND) conversion,
digital-to-analog (D/A) conversion, speech coding/decoding,
encryption/decryption, error detection and correction, bit stream
translation, filtering, etc.
[0069] In accordance with the invention, the methods of the
embodiments of the invention may be implemented in a silencing
interface 835. Additionally, the communicating mobile devices may
include at least one radio communication interface that may operate
separately or in conjunction with the silencing interface 835. The
illustrated embodiment includes a Bluetooth transceiver 830 for
communicating via Bluetooth standards. A wireless LAN (WLAN)
transceiver 832 provides for wireless communication via a local
wireless network, such as in accordance with IEEE 802 standards.
Any other auxiliary, radio communication interface may instead, or
in addition, be used in accordance with the present invention, as
depicted by the respective transceiver 834.
[0070] In accordance with the invention, the communicating mobile
devices include at least one auxiliary radio communication
interface that may operate separately or in conjunction with a
silencing interface 835. The illustrated embodiment includes a
Bluetooth transceiver 830 for communicating via Bluetooth
standards. A wireless LAN (WLAN) transceiver 832 provides for
wireless communication via a local wireless network, such as in
accordance with IEEE 802 standards. Messages exchange to silence
nodes in accordance with the invention may be provided by WLAN
transceiver 832. Any other auxiliary; radio communication interface
may instead, or in addition, be used in accordance with the
invention, as depicted by the respective transceiver 834.
[0071] A transceiver for cellular communication may also be used.
Transceiver 818, generally coupled to an antenna 820, transmits the
outgoing radio signals 822 and receives the incoming radio signals
824 associated with the mobile device 800. For example, signals
822, 824 may represent the message exchange to silence nodes in
accordance with the invention. This message exchange may be
conducted via a Radio Access Network (RAN) associated with a
cellular network, such as Global System for Mobile communications
(GSM), Universal Mobile; Telecommunications System (UMTS), Personal
Communications Service (PCS), Time I Division Multiple Access
(TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), or other mobile
network transmission technology.
[0072] It should be noted that any of the transceivers illustrated
in FIG. 5 may be implemented as a modular transceiver including
both transmitting and receiving circuitry, or any of such
transceivers may alternatively be implemented as discrete
transmitter and receiver circuits. As used herein, a "transceiver"
is intended to describe circuits or other modules for wirelessly
transmitting and receiving information, regardless of whether the
transmitter and receiver circuits are discrete components or
collectively provided in a single package. I In the illustrated
embodiment, the storage/memory 804 stores the various client
programs and data associated with the present invention. For
example, the storage 804 includes an auxiliary interface enable
module 836, which may include program instructions for enabling
power to a particular one or more of the auxiliary radio
communication interfaces. The auxiliary interface enable module 836
recognizes that Bluetooth is the desired auxiliary radio interface,
and together with the processing unit 802 may power on, or
otherwise enable for communication, the Bluetooth-related circuitry
such as the Bluetooth transceiver 830 to enable its operation. It
should be recognized that additional hardware (not shown) to enable
power to such transceivers 830, 832, 834 may also be
implemented.
[0073] In addition to the various transceiver circuits 830, 832,
834, associated software modules may be provided to assist in the
operation of the particular auxiliary radio communication
methodology employed. For example, where Bluetooth is the desired
auxiliary radio interface, a Bluetooth program module 838 may
include software operable via the processing unit 802 and operable
to communicate information via the Bluetooth transceiver 530.
Similarly, a WLAN module 840 may include program instructions
operable via the processing unit 802 and operable to communication
information via the WLAN transceiver 832. The storage/memory 804
may also include a policy processing module 842 for processing
policies 844. A parameter processing module 846 may be provided to
process parameters 848 that may be received via the messages and/or
stored at the storage/memory 804.
[0074] Communication information may be sent from one communication
device to another communication device(s) via a communication
interface 835. The silencing interface 835 may be configured to
implement embodiments of the invention. This includes, for example,
sending the information via a GSM/GPRS, TDMA, CDMA, PCS, or any
other cellular network infrastructure.
[0075] The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiment of the
invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and
description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the
invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and
variations are possible in light of the above teaching. It is
intended that the scope of the invention be limited not with this
detailed description, but rather determined by the claims appended
hereto.
* * * * *