CA2085303A1 - Method and apparatus for contending for access to a communication channel - Google Patents
Method and apparatus for contending for access to a communication channelInfo
- Publication number
- CA2085303A1 CA2085303A1 CA002085303A CA2085303A CA2085303A1 CA 2085303 A1 CA2085303 A1 CA 2085303A1 CA 002085303 A CA002085303 A CA 002085303A CA 2085303 A CA2085303 A CA 2085303A CA 2085303 A1 CA2085303 A1 CA 2085303A1
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- Prior art keywords
- delay
- channel
- time
- command
- time delays
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- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 title claims abstract description 8
- 230000001934 delay Effects 0.000 claims abstract description 28
- 230000005540 biological transmission Effects 0.000 claims description 7
- 230000000977 initiatory effect Effects 0.000 claims description 3
- 230000003247 decreasing effect Effects 0.000 claims description 2
- 238000012544 monitoring process Methods 0.000 claims 2
- 238000001514 detection method Methods 0.000 claims 1
- 230000001105 regulatory effect Effects 0.000 abstract 1
- 241000269400 Sirenidae Species 0.000 description 7
- 230000004913 activation Effects 0.000 description 5
- 230000000694 effects Effects 0.000 description 5
- 241001163743 Perlodes Species 0.000 description 1
- 230000006870 function Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000007246 mechanism Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000004048 modification Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000012986 modification Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000004044 response Effects 0.000 description 1
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W28/00—Network traffic management; Network resource management
- H04W28/16—Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
- H04W28/18—Negotiating wireless communication parameters
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W72/00—Local resource management
- H04W72/02—Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W74/00—Wireless channel access, e.g. scheduled or random access
- H04W74/08—Non-scheduled or contention based access, e.g. random access, ALOHA, CSMA [Carrier Sense Multiple Access]
Abstract
Method and Apparatus for Contending for Access to a Communication Channel Abstract of the Disclosure A method of contending for access to a communication channel is described as well as communications apparatus for communication on the channel, such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) apparatus. Contention is regulated by time delays before requesting access to the channel. When a unit (16) contends successfully, a longer time delay (28) is introduced before the next contention and when it contends unsuccessfully, a shorter time delay is introduced.
Description
20853~3 Method and App~ratus for Contendina for Access to a Communication Çhannel Background of the Inventio~
This invention relates to a method of contending for access to a communication channel and communications apparatus for communication on the channel such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) apparatus.
Summary of the ~Lior Art In recent years, the radio channels have become very crowded for voice communication as well as for data communication.
In a communications system such as SCADA system, there may be a number of master control units located in different places, all trying to interrogate corresponding remote terminal units (RTUs) on the same radio frequency, frequently even using the same radio repeater. A typical application in which this situation is common is a siren control system.
Such a system is illustrated in Fig. 1. In this figure, there is one main controller 11 that sends a siren activation control signal to a number of RTUs 16 - each having a siren 17 associated with it - in a large area via a common repeater 12, and also to regional centers 13, 14 and 15. The regional centers have responsibility for gathering data from a group of sirens after control. Each regional center has to interrogate its sirens after activation, to find out if there are any problems with the activation, and they all have to do this via the same common repeater 12. Usually this situation has the potential of creating chaos on the radio channel, since all regional centers will start the interrogation at the same time, with the result that none of the regional centers is able to receive answers from its sirens in a reasonable time.
It would be possible to provide a fixed queue such that one of the regional centers is always the first to interrogate its RTUs, another regional center is always the - 2 - ~~ 3 second etc., but this possible solution has the disadvantage that the last regional center's operator always has to wait a long time between the siren activation control signal and the appearance of the results on a monitor screen. This delay is not acceptable. The absence of physical lines between the regional centers means that there is no simple way of synchronizing the centers to allow all operators of the regional centers to be up-dated in equal tlme.
There ls a need for a communlcation system whlch allows an orderly contentlon for access to the channel, wlthout lntroduclng undue delay for response from any partlcular unlt.
Summary of thç Inventlon Accordlng to the lnventlon, a method of contendlng for access to a communlcatlon channel ls provlded comprlslng the steps of recelvlng a command to lnltlate contentlon, selectlng a tlme delay from a set of tlme delays, transmlttlng a channel access request after the selected time delay, selecting the longest time delay for the next contention if a channel grant command is received and selecting a shorter time delay for the next contentlon lf no channel grant command ls recelved.
In thls way, a revolving tlme delay ls provlded, ln whlch a unlt that ls successful ln contentlon goes to the bottom of the queue by vlrtue of introducing the longest tlme delay before it is able to contend again and a unit that is unsuccessful in contentlon ralses lts place ln the queue by vlrtue of havlng a shorter tlme delay upon the next contentlon.
The length of delay is related to the position ln the queue because other unlts with shorter delays have the opportunlty to request access to the channel durlng the delay perlod.
In a further aspect of the lnventlon, a communlcatlon unlt ls provlded for communlcatlng wlth another unlt over a channel comprlslng means for contendlng for access to the channel, means for recelvlng a channel grant command and - 3 - 2~a3~3 means for transmitting to the other unit on receipt of the command, wherein the means for contending comprise delay means for delaying contention for a period of -tlme selected from a set time delays and wherein, immedia-tely following a successful conten-tion, -the time delay selected for the next contention is the longest of the set of time delays and wherein, following an unsuccessful contention, a shorter time delay is selected for the next contention.
Two or more such uni-ts (regional centers) may be provided in which the time delays of the set of time delays of one unit are offset from, and interspersed between, the time delays of the set(s) of time delays of the second (and further) unit(s).
The invention also provides a communication system as defined in the claims.
A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the drawings.
Brief Description of the Drawings Fig. 1 shows a general SCADA communication system in accordance with the prior art and suitable for modification in accordance with the invention.
Fig. 2 shows a central unit ("regional center") 13 of Fig. 1, incorporating improvements in accordance with the invention.
Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B show an algorithm for implementation in the central unit of Fig. 2.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment The operation of the system of Fig. 1 is as follows.
The main central unit 11 issues a command to all the RTUs 16 causing them to activate their sirens. This command is communicated via the repeater 12 and directly from the repeater to all the RTUs 16. On receipt of the command, the sirens 17 start up. At the same time, the regional centers 13, 14 and 15 receive the command via the repeater 12 and an - 9 - ~ ~853 ~3 interrogation cycle is initiatecl, in which the regional centrals 13 interrogate all the RT~s in their respective regions and take appropriate steps if there are sirens that have failed to start up. An appropriate step could, for example, be displaying at a monitor at the regional center 13 the fact that a siren has failecl, prompting the operator to dispatch a team to the location of that siren to manually alert people in that region of the warning in question. The regional centers 13 can report back to the main central unit 11 the results of their interrogation routines. The interrogation routine is described in greater detail below with reference to Fig. 3.
Referring to Fig. 2, there is shown a regional center 13 comprising a transmitter part 20, a receiver part 21, a microprocessor 22, RAM memory 23 and ROM memory 24. Data is transmitted from the microprocessor 22 through the transmitter part 20 to an antenna 25, is received through the antenna and the receiver part 21 to the remote processor 22.
The receiver part 21 has a channel monitor output 30, which passes to the microprocessor 22. The microprocessor 22 operates under control of a program stored in ROM memory 24 and reads data from and writes data to the RAM memory 23.
The RAM memory contains a number of registers, lists etc. Two of these lists are shown in the figure as RTU list 27 and delay selector 28. These are described in greater detail below with reference to Fig. 3.
RAM memory 23 also contains the following set up parameters, that are set at each individual regional center:
Interrogations window length - WWWW ~for example 10 seconds) Number of regional centers in the system: - CCCC ~for example 3).
The algorithm illustrated in Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B is initiated at step 201 by the siren activation command received from the main central unit 11 via the repeater 12.
An algorithm identical to that of Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B is initiated in all the regional centers 13, 14 and 15 simultaneously. Before describing the algorithm in detail, its overall operation is that each regional center has to - 5 - 2 08~3 0 ~
wait a different time delay of free RF channel (no transmission on the radio channel) before it can start its interrogation routine When the interrogation routine starts, each regional center interrogates only as many RTUs as it is able to interrogate in a predetermined time (referred to as an interrogation "window" - a cycle of interrogation of a few RTUs). While in the interrogation window period, each regional center contends for free channel before transmission by checking the channel monitor 30. When the channel is free, a regional center interrogates its RTUs one after the other without any delay. After the interrogation "window" time, a regional center will have to wait again for a minimum delay time of free RF channel before it can continue with another interrogation window. The total time to interrogate all the RTUs may take a few of these windows.
When a number of regional centers are operating on the same radio channel, the delay time of each given regional center changes dynamically after each interrogation window, so each unit's interrogation window alters.
As an example, a system will be described having three regional centers and a window time of 10 seconds (sufficient time to interrogate between 4 to 5 RTUs).
In order to eliminate as far as possible the likelihood of collisions between regional centers that might start with the same delay, the delay time before commencement of an interrogation cycle is, for the first regional center 13, selected from the set: 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 seconds; for the second regional center the set 1.1, 2.1 and 3.1 seconds; and 30 for the third regional center the set 1.2, 2.2 and 3.2 seconds. Fourth, fifth regional centers can have further sets of possible time delays following the same pattern.
These exact timing delays are given by way of example only.
It will, of course be understood by one skilled in the art that timing delays do not have to be "selected" from a table, but can be implemented by increasing and decreasing a value in appropriate steps. The principle of the preferred algorithm requires that there are at least "n" periods of the delay to each regional center, the number "n" equating to the 2~8~i~0~
number of regional centers on the same frequency. The corresponding delay steps in each regional center should be staggered vis-a-vis those in other regional centers.
These delays are illustrated in Table 1 as follows:
FUNCTION Regional Regional Regional center 13 center 14 center 15 STEP
._ _ _ (lst CENTRAL) (2nd CENTRAL) (3rd CENTRAL) Delay before 1.0 1.1 1.2 101 1st cycle_ OPeration INTERROGATION waitinq waitinq 102 Delay before 3.0 1.1 1.2 103 2nd cycle .. _ Operation waitinq INTERROGATION waitinq 104 Delay before 2.0 3.1 1.2 105 3rd cycle Operation waitinq waitinq INTERROGATION 106 Delay before 1.0 2.1 3.2 107 4th cvcle Operation INTERROGATION waitinq waitinq 108 Delay before 3.0 1.1 2.2 109 5th cycle Operation waitinq INTERROGATION waitinq 110 Delay before 2.0 3.1 1.2 111 6th cycle Operation waitinq waitinq INTERROGATION 112 Delay before 1.0 2.1 3.2 113 7th cycle OPeration INTERROGATION waiting waitinq 114 Delay before 3.0 1.1 2.2 115 9th cycle When the regional centers 13, 14 and 15 receive an interrogation start control command from the main central unit 11, all of them start their delay timer (step 101 in Table 1). The first regional center 13 having the one-second delay will be the first one to start the interrogation routine of its RTUs (step 102 and see below with reference to 2~81j~t~ ') Fig. 3). The second and third regional centers 14 and 15, detecting the activity on the radio channel will wait and will not start their interrogation routines. After 10 seconds (the time of the first regional center interrogation "window"), the first regional center 13 finishes its interrogation and changes its delay time (Table 28 in Fig. 2) to 3 seconds (step 103). The second delay period starts and after 1.1 seconds, the second regional center 14 will start its interrogation window (step 104). When this is finished, the second regional center 14 changes its own delay to the maximum - 3.1 seconds (step 105). Meanwhile, the delay of the first regional center 13 has changed to two seconds because of the fact that more than 0.7 of the window time has passed and the first regional center 13 has detected activity of other central units on the air, which prevented it from starting another interrogation window. After the second regional center 14 stops its interrogation, the delay of the third regional center 15 will be the shortest - 1.2 seconds (step 105), so that it will start its window of interrogation 20 (step 106). After the third regional center 15 has finished its interrogation window, it changes its own delay to 3.2 seconds (step 107) and in the meantime, the first regional center 13 has changed its delay to one second and the second regional center 14 has changed its delay to 2.1 seconds.
Thus, the first regional center 13 will be the next to start another interrogation routine (108) and so on.
If only one regional center out of the three wishes to start an interrogation routine, it will wait three seconds (i.e. the highest delay time) between every interrogation window and will continue to interrogate all its RTUs in consecutive windows.
Referring now to Fig. 3, the interrogation routine carried out in each of the regional centers 13, 14 and 15 is illustrated. The routine is initiated by reception at the regional center in question of the initiation command from the main central unit 11 (which is preferably the same command as causes the sirens to start up). In step 202, the RTU interrogation list 27 (Fig. 2) is reset and in step 203, the first delay is commenced, according to step 101 of Table - 8 - 2~
1. During this delay, the regional center's receiver 21 monitors the radio frequency for activity on the channel (204). If the channel is free, and the first delay is finished (205), the regional center starts its window time WWWW (206). It checks again for free channel monitor (step 207) and if the channel is free, the regional center 13 sends an interrogation request to the first RTU (step 208). The regional center waits for an answer (step 209) and after the reception of the answer from the first RTU (210) the regional center checks whether it was the last RTU on the list (step 212). If it does not receive an answer (step 210) the regional center goes through a RTU fail mechanism in steps 224, 223, 211 and 225. If an answer has been received at 210, and it is not the last RTU on the list (212), the regional center advances the pointer of the RTUs list 27 to the next RTU that has to be interrogated (step 213). The regional center checks if the "window" timer WWWW is finished (step 214) and if it is not, its starts to interrogate the next RTU on the list from step 207 without delay. After interrogating a number of RTUs, the "window" timer will have finished and the delay time of the regional center changes to its maximum ~step 215). This is also shown in Table 1 line 103 for the first regional center 13. The regional center starts the window timer (216) and the new delay timer (217).
The regional center checks if it receives anything on the channel during the new delay time and if it does receive activity, it checks the length of the activity. If this is more than 0.7 of the "window" time 218, it means that another regional center is performing its interrogation cycle, so the regional center 13 in question waits for the other regional center (e.g. 14) to finish a "window". Thereupon, the channel becomes free (221) and the regional center changes its own delay timer to one step shorter (222) as shown in Table 1 line 105). The regional center 13 starts another decision cycle from step 216, but this time its delay timer is shorter. If at step 217 with the new shorter delay, the regional center does not receive any other unit, it continues through steps 218 and 219 to 220 and starts a new interrogation cycle of its own.
- 9- ~8~
Thus an algorithm has been described, implemented in software routines in each regional center based on a revolvlng time delay in which the regional centers synchronize by interleaving the interrogation requests equally between them, so that of the central units are able to up-da-te their databases in equal time.
Moreover, a regional center can enter into contention at any time and "synchronize`' to the other units on the channel and avoid collisions by virtue of commencing its delay from the time the channel becomes free and initiating a delay that is at no time the same as the delay for any other unit. All units commence their delays at the same time and each unit has a delay that is variable but always unique.
This invention relates to a method of contending for access to a communication channel and communications apparatus for communication on the channel such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) apparatus.
Summary of the ~Lior Art In recent years, the radio channels have become very crowded for voice communication as well as for data communication.
In a communications system such as SCADA system, there may be a number of master control units located in different places, all trying to interrogate corresponding remote terminal units (RTUs) on the same radio frequency, frequently even using the same radio repeater. A typical application in which this situation is common is a siren control system.
Such a system is illustrated in Fig. 1. In this figure, there is one main controller 11 that sends a siren activation control signal to a number of RTUs 16 - each having a siren 17 associated with it - in a large area via a common repeater 12, and also to regional centers 13, 14 and 15. The regional centers have responsibility for gathering data from a group of sirens after control. Each regional center has to interrogate its sirens after activation, to find out if there are any problems with the activation, and they all have to do this via the same common repeater 12. Usually this situation has the potential of creating chaos on the radio channel, since all regional centers will start the interrogation at the same time, with the result that none of the regional centers is able to receive answers from its sirens in a reasonable time.
It would be possible to provide a fixed queue such that one of the regional centers is always the first to interrogate its RTUs, another regional center is always the - 2 - ~~ 3 second etc., but this possible solution has the disadvantage that the last regional center's operator always has to wait a long time between the siren activation control signal and the appearance of the results on a monitor screen. This delay is not acceptable. The absence of physical lines between the regional centers means that there is no simple way of synchronizing the centers to allow all operators of the regional centers to be up-dated in equal tlme.
There ls a need for a communlcation system whlch allows an orderly contentlon for access to the channel, wlthout lntroduclng undue delay for response from any partlcular unlt.
Summary of thç Inventlon Accordlng to the lnventlon, a method of contendlng for access to a communlcatlon channel ls provlded comprlslng the steps of recelvlng a command to lnltlate contentlon, selectlng a tlme delay from a set of tlme delays, transmlttlng a channel access request after the selected time delay, selecting the longest time delay for the next contention if a channel grant command is received and selecting a shorter time delay for the next contentlon lf no channel grant command ls recelved.
In thls way, a revolving tlme delay ls provlded, ln whlch a unlt that ls successful ln contentlon goes to the bottom of the queue by vlrtue of introducing the longest tlme delay before it is able to contend again and a unit that is unsuccessful in contentlon ralses lts place ln the queue by vlrtue of havlng a shorter tlme delay upon the next contentlon.
The length of delay is related to the position ln the queue because other unlts with shorter delays have the opportunlty to request access to the channel durlng the delay perlod.
In a further aspect of the lnventlon, a communlcatlon unlt ls provlded for communlcatlng wlth another unlt over a channel comprlslng means for contendlng for access to the channel, means for recelvlng a channel grant command and - 3 - 2~a3~3 means for transmitting to the other unit on receipt of the command, wherein the means for contending comprise delay means for delaying contention for a period of -tlme selected from a set time delays and wherein, immedia-tely following a successful conten-tion, -the time delay selected for the next contention is the longest of the set of time delays and wherein, following an unsuccessful contention, a shorter time delay is selected for the next contention.
Two or more such uni-ts (regional centers) may be provided in which the time delays of the set of time delays of one unit are offset from, and interspersed between, the time delays of the set(s) of time delays of the second (and further) unit(s).
The invention also provides a communication system as defined in the claims.
A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the drawings.
Brief Description of the Drawings Fig. 1 shows a general SCADA communication system in accordance with the prior art and suitable for modification in accordance with the invention.
Fig. 2 shows a central unit ("regional center") 13 of Fig. 1, incorporating improvements in accordance with the invention.
Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B show an algorithm for implementation in the central unit of Fig. 2.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment The operation of the system of Fig. 1 is as follows.
The main central unit 11 issues a command to all the RTUs 16 causing them to activate their sirens. This command is communicated via the repeater 12 and directly from the repeater to all the RTUs 16. On receipt of the command, the sirens 17 start up. At the same time, the regional centers 13, 14 and 15 receive the command via the repeater 12 and an - 9 - ~ ~853 ~3 interrogation cycle is initiatecl, in which the regional centrals 13 interrogate all the RT~s in their respective regions and take appropriate steps if there are sirens that have failed to start up. An appropriate step could, for example, be displaying at a monitor at the regional center 13 the fact that a siren has failecl, prompting the operator to dispatch a team to the location of that siren to manually alert people in that region of the warning in question. The regional centers 13 can report back to the main central unit 11 the results of their interrogation routines. The interrogation routine is described in greater detail below with reference to Fig. 3.
Referring to Fig. 2, there is shown a regional center 13 comprising a transmitter part 20, a receiver part 21, a microprocessor 22, RAM memory 23 and ROM memory 24. Data is transmitted from the microprocessor 22 through the transmitter part 20 to an antenna 25, is received through the antenna and the receiver part 21 to the remote processor 22.
The receiver part 21 has a channel monitor output 30, which passes to the microprocessor 22. The microprocessor 22 operates under control of a program stored in ROM memory 24 and reads data from and writes data to the RAM memory 23.
The RAM memory contains a number of registers, lists etc. Two of these lists are shown in the figure as RTU list 27 and delay selector 28. These are described in greater detail below with reference to Fig. 3.
RAM memory 23 also contains the following set up parameters, that are set at each individual regional center:
Interrogations window length - WWWW ~for example 10 seconds) Number of regional centers in the system: - CCCC ~for example 3).
The algorithm illustrated in Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B is initiated at step 201 by the siren activation command received from the main central unit 11 via the repeater 12.
An algorithm identical to that of Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B is initiated in all the regional centers 13, 14 and 15 simultaneously. Before describing the algorithm in detail, its overall operation is that each regional center has to - 5 - 2 08~3 0 ~
wait a different time delay of free RF channel (no transmission on the radio channel) before it can start its interrogation routine When the interrogation routine starts, each regional center interrogates only as many RTUs as it is able to interrogate in a predetermined time (referred to as an interrogation "window" - a cycle of interrogation of a few RTUs). While in the interrogation window period, each regional center contends for free channel before transmission by checking the channel monitor 30. When the channel is free, a regional center interrogates its RTUs one after the other without any delay. After the interrogation "window" time, a regional center will have to wait again for a minimum delay time of free RF channel before it can continue with another interrogation window. The total time to interrogate all the RTUs may take a few of these windows.
When a number of regional centers are operating on the same radio channel, the delay time of each given regional center changes dynamically after each interrogation window, so each unit's interrogation window alters.
As an example, a system will be described having three regional centers and a window time of 10 seconds (sufficient time to interrogate between 4 to 5 RTUs).
In order to eliminate as far as possible the likelihood of collisions between regional centers that might start with the same delay, the delay time before commencement of an interrogation cycle is, for the first regional center 13, selected from the set: 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 seconds; for the second regional center the set 1.1, 2.1 and 3.1 seconds; and 30 for the third regional center the set 1.2, 2.2 and 3.2 seconds. Fourth, fifth regional centers can have further sets of possible time delays following the same pattern.
These exact timing delays are given by way of example only.
It will, of course be understood by one skilled in the art that timing delays do not have to be "selected" from a table, but can be implemented by increasing and decreasing a value in appropriate steps. The principle of the preferred algorithm requires that there are at least "n" periods of the delay to each regional center, the number "n" equating to the 2~8~i~0~
number of regional centers on the same frequency. The corresponding delay steps in each regional center should be staggered vis-a-vis those in other regional centers.
These delays are illustrated in Table 1 as follows:
FUNCTION Regional Regional Regional center 13 center 14 center 15 STEP
._ _ _ (lst CENTRAL) (2nd CENTRAL) (3rd CENTRAL) Delay before 1.0 1.1 1.2 101 1st cycle_ OPeration INTERROGATION waitinq waitinq 102 Delay before 3.0 1.1 1.2 103 2nd cycle .. _ Operation waitinq INTERROGATION waitinq 104 Delay before 2.0 3.1 1.2 105 3rd cycle Operation waitinq waitinq INTERROGATION 106 Delay before 1.0 2.1 3.2 107 4th cvcle Operation INTERROGATION waitinq waitinq 108 Delay before 3.0 1.1 2.2 109 5th cycle Operation waitinq INTERROGATION waitinq 110 Delay before 2.0 3.1 1.2 111 6th cycle Operation waitinq waitinq INTERROGATION 112 Delay before 1.0 2.1 3.2 113 7th cycle OPeration INTERROGATION waiting waitinq 114 Delay before 3.0 1.1 2.2 115 9th cycle When the regional centers 13, 14 and 15 receive an interrogation start control command from the main central unit 11, all of them start their delay timer (step 101 in Table 1). The first regional center 13 having the one-second delay will be the first one to start the interrogation routine of its RTUs (step 102 and see below with reference to 2~81j~t~ ') Fig. 3). The second and third regional centers 14 and 15, detecting the activity on the radio channel will wait and will not start their interrogation routines. After 10 seconds (the time of the first regional center interrogation "window"), the first regional center 13 finishes its interrogation and changes its delay time (Table 28 in Fig. 2) to 3 seconds (step 103). The second delay period starts and after 1.1 seconds, the second regional center 14 will start its interrogation window (step 104). When this is finished, the second regional center 14 changes its own delay to the maximum - 3.1 seconds (step 105). Meanwhile, the delay of the first regional center 13 has changed to two seconds because of the fact that more than 0.7 of the window time has passed and the first regional center 13 has detected activity of other central units on the air, which prevented it from starting another interrogation window. After the second regional center 14 stops its interrogation, the delay of the third regional center 15 will be the shortest - 1.2 seconds (step 105), so that it will start its window of interrogation 20 (step 106). After the third regional center 15 has finished its interrogation window, it changes its own delay to 3.2 seconds (step 107) and in the meantime, the first regional center 13 has changed its delay to one second and the second regional center 14 has changed its delay to 2.1 seconds.
Thus, the first regional center 13 will be the next to start another interrogation routine (108) and so on.
If only one regional center out of the three wishes to start an interrogation routine, it will wait three seconds (i.e. the highest delay time) between every interrogation window and will continue to interrogate all its RTUs in consecutive windows.
Referring now to Fig. 3, the interrogation routine carried out in each of the regional centers 13, 14 and 15 is illustrated. The routine is initiated by reception at the regional center in question of the initiation command from the main central unit 11 (which is preferably the same command as causes the sirens to start up). In step 202, the RTU interrogation list 27 (Fig. 2) is reset and in step 203, the first delay is commenced, according to step 101 of Table - 8 - 2~
1. During this delay, the regional center's receiver 21 monitors the radio frequency for activity on the channel (204). If the channel is free, and the first delay is finished (205), the regional center starts its window time WWWW (206). It checks again for free channel monitor (step 207) and if the channel is free, the regional center 13 sends an interrogation request to the first RTU (step 208). The regional center waits for an answer (step 209) and after the reception of the answer from the first RTU (210) the regional center checks whether it was the last RTU on the list (step 212). If it does not receive an answer (step 210) the regional center goes through a RTU fail mechanism in steps 224, 223, 211 and 225. If an answer has been received at 210, and it is not the last RTU on the list (212), the regional center advances the pointer of the RTUs list 27 to the next RTU that has to be interrogated (step 213). The regional center checks if the "window" timer WWWW is finished (step 214) and if it is not, its starts to interrogate the next RTU on the list from step 207 without delay. After interrogating a number of RTUs, the "window" timer will have finished and the delay time of the regional center changes to its maximum ~step 215). This is also shown in Table 1 line 103 for the first regional center 13. The regional center starts the window timer (216) and the new delay timer (217).
The regional center checks if it receives anything on the channel during the new delay time and if it does receive activity, it checks the length of the activity. If this is more than 0.7 of the "window" time 218, it means that another regional center is performing its interrogation cycle, so the regional center 13 in question waits for the other regional center (e.g. 14) to finish a "window". Thereupon, the channel becomes free (221) and the regional center changes its own delay timer to one step shorter (222) as shown in Table 1 line 105). The regional center 13 starts another decision cycle from step 216, but this time its delay timer is shorter. If at step 217 with the new shorter delay, the regional center does not receive any other unit, it continues through steps 218 and 219 to 220 and starts a new interrogation cycle of its own.
- 9- ~8~
Thus an algorithm has been described, implemented in software routines in each regional center based on a revolvlng time delay in which the regional centers synchronize by interleaving the interrogation requests equally between them, so that of the central units are able to up-da-te their databases in equal time.
Moreover, a regional center can enter into contention at any time and "synchronize`' to the other units on the channel and avoid collisions by virtue of commencing its delay from the time the channel becomes free and initiating a delay that is at no time the same as the delay for any other unit. All units commence their delays at the same time and each unit has a delay that is variable but always unique.
Claims (7)
1. A method of contending for access to a communication channel, comprising the steps of:
receiving a command to initiate contention, selecting a time delay from a set of time delays, transmitting a channel access request after the selected time delay, selecting the longest time delay for the next contention if a channel grant command is received and selecting a shorter time delay for the next contention if no channel grant command is received.
receiving a command to initiate contention, selecting a time delay from a set of time delays, transmitting a channel access request after the selected time delay, selecting the longest time delay for the next contention if a channel grant command is received and selecting a shorter time delay for the next contention if no channel grant command is received.
2. A method according to claim 1, comprising the step of monitoring the channel, initiating a timer on detection of free channel and transmitting the channel access request after the timer has counted through the time delay.
3. A communication unit for communicating with another unit over a channel, comprising means for contending for access to the channel, means for receiving a channel grant command and means for transmitting to the other unit on receipt of the command, wherein the means for contending comprises delay means for delaying contention for a period of time selected from a set of time delays, wherein, immediately following a successful contention, the time delay selected for the next contention is the longest of the set of time delays and wherein, following an unsuccessful contention,a shorter time delay is selected for the next contention.
4. Two communication units each in accordance with claim 3, wherein the time delays of the set of time delays of one unit are offset from and interspersed between the time delays of the set of time delays of the second unit.
5. A communication system comprising a primary unit and first and second secondary units for communicating with the primary unit over a channel, wherein the primary unit comprises means for transmitting a command to initiate contention, and means for transmitting channel grant commands to selected secondary units, each secondary unit comprises means for receiving a command to initiate contention, delay means responsive to reception of the command for delaying for a period of time selected from a set of time delays, monitoring means for determining whether the channel is free, transmitting means for transmitting to the primary unit if the channel is still free at the end of the selected delay period delay increase means for increasing the delay for the next transmission when transmission takes place and delay decrease means for decreasing the delay for the next transmission when transmission does not take place and wherein the time delays of the set of time delays of the first and second units are different.
6. A system according to claim 5 wherein the time delays of the set of time delays of the first unit are staggered with respect to the time delays of the set of time delays of the second unit.
7. A system according to claim 5 further comprising a plurality of secondary units associated with each of the first and second primary units, each having means for communication with its respective associated primary unit and a main central transmitter for transmitting a command to the first and second primary units and to the plurality of secondary units to initiate an action at the secondary units, wherein each of the primary units has means responsive to said command for causing transmission of said command to initiate contention.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB9127291.4 | 1991-12-23 | ||
| GB9127291A GB2262862B (en) | 1991-12-23 | 1991-12-23 | Method and apparatus for contending for access to a communication channel |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA2085303A1 true CA2085303A1 (en) | 1993-06-24 |
Family
ID=10706749
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA002085303A Abandoned CA2085303A1 (en) | 1991-12-23 | 1992-12-11 | Method and apparatus for contending for access to a communication channel |
Country Status (6)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| US (1) | US5390360A (en) |
| AU (1) | AU661516B2 (en) |
| CA (1) | CA2085303A1 (en) |
| GB (1) | GB2262862B (en) |
| HK (1) | HK1001077A1 (en) |
| IL (1) | IL103780A (en) |
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-
1991
- 1991-12-23 GB GB9127291A patent/GB2262862B/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
-
1992
- 1992-11-17 US US07/977,361 patent/US5390360A/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 1992-11-18 IL IL10378092A patent/IL103780A/en not_active IP Right Cessation
- 1992-11-19 AU AU28463/92A patent/AU661516B2/en not_active Ceased
- 1992-12-11 CA CA002085303A patent/CA2085303A1/en not_active Abandoned
-
1998
- 1998-01-09 HK HK98100182A patent/HK1001077A1/en not_active IP Right Cessation
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| GB9127291D0 (en) | 1992-02-19 |
| AU2846392A (en) | 1993-06-24 |
| GB2262862A (en) | 1993-06-30 |
| GB2262862B (en) | 1996-05-22 |
| US5390360A (en) | 1995-02-14 |
| HK1001077A1 (en) | 1998-05-22 |
| IL103780A (en) | 1996-03-31 |
| IL103780A0 (en) | 1993-12-28 |
| AU661516B2 (en) | 1995-07-27 |
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