ROBUST FREQUENCY MANAGEMENT AND ACQUISITION IN A WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK THAT USES FREQUENCY-HOPPING RADIOS

摘要

A method for use in a single cell of a wireless communication system of the type having a leader station (10) that coordinates communication among a plurality of remote stations (20) that are in the cell. The method applies to systems that use slow frequency-hopping radios and a Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) type protocol. In this context, the method allows a remote station to initially acquire the frequency-hopping pattern and time base of the leader station and to maintain frequency synchronization in the face of control information loss due to radio transmission effects (e.g., interference, noise or multipath fading). In the acquisition phase, the remote station actively generates probe messages (550) that are sent to the leader station so as to rapidly achieve frequency synchronization with the leader station.