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 aleader station that coordinates communication among a plurality of remote stations that arein the cell. The method applies to systems that use slow frequency-hopping radios and aCarrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) type protocol. In this context, the method allows aremote station to initially acquire the frequency-hopping pattern and time base of the leaderstation and to maintain frequency synchronization in the face of control information loss dueto radio transmission effects (e.g., interference, noise or multipath fading). In the acquisitionphase, the remote station actively generates probe messages that are sent to the leader stationso as to rapidly achieve frequency synchronization with the leader station.