Apple has been granted a patent for “Survival Time Communication Techniques.”
About the patent
In the patent Apple notes that (obviously) wireless communication systems are rapidly growing in usage. Further, wireless communication technology has evolved from voice-only communications to also include the transmission of data, such as Internet and multimedia content.
Mobile electronic devices may take the form of smart phones or tablets that a user typically carries. Wearable devices are a newer form of mobile electronic device, one example being smart watches. Additionally, low-cost, low-complexity wireless devices intended for stationary or nomadic deployment are also proliferating as part of the developing “Internet of Things”.
In other words, according to Apple, there’s an increasingly wide range of desired device complexities, capabilities, traffic patterns, and other characteristics.
In general, it would be desirable to recognize and provide improved support for a broad range of desired wireless communication characteristics, according to the tech giant. One characteristic may be that various applications, services, and/or devices may enter a failure state if expected communications don’t occur during a survival time period under various circumstances. Improvements in the field are desired. Apple wants to resolve such issues.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “This disclosure relates to techniques for performing wireless communications in a manner to provide enhanced reliability protections at certain times and/or for particular communications, e.g., to maintain or restore operation of an application following a communication failure. Among various possibilities, in order to enhance reliability any of the following actions may be taken: transmission power may be boosted, one or more timer duration may be adjusted, data may be recovered and/or duplicated using a different and/or additional entity, and/or grant selection may be adjusted.”
Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today