Patent ID: 8184598
Filing Date: 2012-05-22
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: emitting by a low-cost Internet base station (LCIB) a pilot beacon that has an adjustable pilot-beacon transmission-power level; repeatedly wirelessly sending by the LCIB transmissions for receipt by each transceiver in a set of multiple stationary transceivers while increasing from a first value to a second value a transmission-sending power level at which the transmissions are sent, wherein the transceivers are arranged to wirelessly send acknowledgements to the LCIB upon successful receipt of the transmissions; receiving by the LCIB at least one acknowledgement from each transceiver in a subset of the set of transceivers, the subset consisting of some or all of the transceivers in the set of transceivers; sorting by the LCIB the transceivers in the subset in an ascending order of transmission-sending power needed to elicit at least one acknowledgement from the respective transceiver; identifying by the LCIB, when proceeding from transceiver to transceiver in the ascending order and from the beginning thereof, a first occurrence of a delta between the respective transmission-sending powers needed to elicit at least one acknowledgement from a first transceiver and a second transceiver listed consecutively in the ascending order exceeding a threshold power delta, and responsively modifying by the LCIB the subset by removing from the subset the second transceiver and any one or more additional transceivers appearing after the second transceiver in the ascending order; after the modifying of the subset, selecting by the LCIB an operating value based at least in part on a minimum transmission-sending power level needed to receive an acknowledgement from each transceiver in the subset, wherein the minimum transmission-sending power level is between the first and second values, inclusive; and setting by the LCIB the pilot-beacon transmission-power level equal to the selected operating value.