Apparatus and method for remote wake-up in system having interlinked networks

Claim 2

In a communications system having a plurality of interlinked networks, each of said networks including a plurality of uniquely-addressed nodes, at least one of the nodes comprising a device configured for allowing a sleep mode, a method of remotely waking said device, said method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving in the at least one sleep-mode allowing node, an information packet sent over said communications system, where said information packet contains a destination address field identifying the at least one sleep-mode allowing node and a data field; (b) determining whether a wake-up subsequence corresponding to the unique node address of said sleep-mode allowing node occurs at least N consecutive times within said data field of the received information packet, where N is an integer greater than 1; and (c) initiating an awaking of said device in response to a finding by the determining step of said at least N consecutive occurrences of said wake-up subsequence.

Claim 3

The method of claim 1, wherein said step (b) of determining includes the step of: (b1) counting the number of consecutive occurrences of said wake-up subsequence within said data field of the received information packet.

Claim 4

The method of claim 1, wherein the value of N is at least 16.

Claim 5

The method of claim 1, wherein said wake-up subsequence is a 6-byte sequence corresponding to the unique node address of said sleep-mode allowing node.

Claim 6

The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of networks are local area networks.

Claim 7

The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of networks are wide area networks.

Claim 8

The method of claim 1, wherein said device is powered by a battery.

Claim 9

The method of claim 1, wherein said device includes a portable computer.

Claim 10

The method of claim 1, wherein said device includes at least one of a central processing unit (CPU), a memory unit, and a disk unit where said at least one unit is placed in a power-conserving mode when said device is placed in the sleep mode.

Claim 11

The method of claim 1, wherein: said step (a) of receiving an information packet that contains a destination address field identifying the at least one sleep-mode allowing node includes the step of: (a.1) using comparison circuitry for comparing contents of the destination address field with a predefined identification of the at least one sleep-mode allowing node; and said step (b) of determining includes the step of: (b.1) using at least part of said comparison circuitry for determining whether the wake-up subsequence corresponding to the unique node address of said sleep-mode allowing node occurs at least N consecutive times within said data field of the received information packet.

Claim 12

In a data exchange system having a plurality of individual nodes coupled to one another through a transmission medium having one or more routers, wherein at least one of the nodes includes a corresponding device that can be placed in a sleep mode of operation and thereafter awakened, a method of awakening the corresponding at least one device, said method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving at said at least one node, one or more information packets each having a frame data block containing sequential data, where the sequential data has been transferred through said transmission medium, and where the received one or more information packets each includes a destination field containing a unique physical address of said at least one node; (b) recovering the sequential data contained in the received one or more information packets; (c) determining whether said unique physical address repeats at least N consecutive times within said recovered sequential data, where N is an integer greater than 1; and (d) initiating an awakening of said device in response to a finding by said determining step of N consecutive repetitions of said unique physical address in said recovered sequential data.

Claim 13

In a data exchange system having a plurality of individual nodes coupled to one another through a transmission medium having one or more routers, wherein at least one of the nodes includes a corresponding device that can be placed in a sleep mode of operation and thereafter awakened, a method of awakening the corresponding at least one device, said method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving at said at least one node, one or more information packets each having a frame data block containing sequential data, where the sequential data has been transferred through said transmission medium, and where the received one or more information packets each includes a destination field containing a unique physical address of said at least one node; (b) recovering the sequential data contained in the received one or more information packets; (c) determining whether said unique physical address repeats at least N consecutive times within said recovered sequential data, where N is an integer greater than 1; and (d) initiating an awakening of said device in response to a finding by said determining step of N consecutive repetitions of said unique physical address in said recovered sequential data.

Claim 14

The method of claim 11, wherein the value of N is at least 16.

Claim 15

The method of claim 11, wherein said device is powered by a battery.

Claim 16

The method of claim 11, wherein said device includes at least one of a central processing unit (CPU), a memory unit, and a disk unit where said at least one unit is placed in a power-conserving mode when said device is placed in the sleep mode and said at least one unit is placed in a higher power mode when said device is awakened.

Claim 17

A data processing network comprising a plurality of linked and uniquely-identified data processing systems, wherein at least one of the data processing systems can be switched into a sleep mode of operation and thereafter awakened, and further wherein at least one of the data processing systems is linked to other portions of said data processing network by one or more routers, said data processing network having a special information packet wherein a frame data block of the special information packet travels through said data processing network by way of one or more of said routers and wherein said frame data block contains N consecutive repetitions of a wake-up subsequence, N being an integer greater than one, said subsequence corresponding to a unique network identifier of an awakenable one of said plurality of data processing systems, the N consecutive repetitions of the wake-up subsequence being operative to wake up the correspondingly-identified one of said plurality of data processing systems.

Claim 18

A data processing network comprising a plurality of linked and uniquely-identified data processing systems, wherein at least one of the data processing systems can be switched into a sleep mode of operation and thereafter awakened, and further wherein at least one of the data processing systems is linked to other portions of said data processing network by one or more routers, said data processing network having a special information packet wherein a frame data block of the special information packet travels through said data processing network by way of one or more of said routers and wherein said frame data block contains N consecutive repetitions of a wake-up subsequence, N being an integer greater than one, said subsequence corresponding to a unique network identifier of an awakenable one of said plurality of data processing systems, the N consecutive repetitions of the wake-up subsequence being operative to wake up the correspondingly-identified one of said plurality of data processing systems.

Claim 19

The data processing network of claim 15, wherein said unique network identifier comprises a physical address of a respective and awakenable one of said plurality of data processing systems.

Claim 20

The data processing network of claim 16, wherein an awakenable one of said plurality of data processing systems includes counting means for counting the number of consecutive repetitions of the wake-up subsequence.

Claim 21

The data processing network of claim 15, wherein an awakenable one of said plurality of systems includes a controller means which remains awake for receiving and evaluating packets to detect presence of N consecutive repetitions of the wake-up subsequence for that system when the awakenable one of said plurality of systems is in the sleep mode of operation.

Claim 22

The data processing network of claim 15, wherein said value of N is at least 16.

Claim 23

The data processing network of claim 15, wherein said at least one data processing system is powered by a battery.

Claim 24

The data processing network of claim 15, wherein said at least one data processing system includes at least one of a central processing unit (CPU), a memory unit, and a disk unit where said at least one unit is placed in a power-conserving mode when said at least one data processing system is placed in the sleep mode and said at least one unit is placed in a higher power mode when said at least one data processing system is awakened.

Claim 25

The data processing network of claim 15, wherein an awakenable one of said plurality of data processing systems includes: comparison means for comparing the N consecutive repetitions of the wake-up subsequence with the unique network identifier of said awakenable one of said plurality of data processing systems, wherein at least part of said comparison means is further for determining whether the special information packet is addressed to said awakenable one of said plurality of data processing systems.

Claim 26

A data processing network, comprising: a plurality of nodes, at least one of said plurality of nodes having an awakenable device coupled to receive network data, the awakenable device being switchable into a sleep mode; power management means for controlling provision of power within said awakenable device; and a router coupled to transmit information packets through said network, each of said information packets having a data carrying portion; said at least one of the nodes having receiving means, coupled to said network, for receiving said information packets, said receiving means including determining means for determining while the corresponding awakenable device is in the sleep mode, whether said data carrying portion of each received packet contains a unique physical address of said at least one node occurring at least N consecutive times, where N is an integer greater than 1; wherein upon detecting the N consecutive occurrences of said unique physical address, the receiving means initiates an awakening of the awakenable device.

Claim 27

A data processing network, comprising: a plurality of nodes, at least one of said plurality of nodes having an awakenable device coupled to receive network data, the awakenable device being switchable into a sleep mode; power management means for controlling provision of power within said awakenable device; and a router coupled to transmit information packets through said network, each of said information packets having a data carrying portion; said at least one of the nodes having receiving means, coupled to said network, for receiving said information packets, said receiving means including determining means for determining while the corresponding awakenable device is in the sleep mode, whether said data carrying portion of each received packet contains a unique physical address of said at least one node occurring at least N consecutive times, where N is an integer greater than 1; wherein upon detecting the N consecutive occurrences of said unique physical address, the receiving means initiates an awakening of the awakenable device.

Claim 28

The network of claim 23, wherein the value of N equals 16.

Claim 29

The network of claim 23, wherein said receiving means further includes a counter.

Claim 30

The network of claim 23, wherein said N consecutive occurrences of the physical address of said node can occur anywhere within said data carrying portion.

Claim 33

The system of claim 27, wherein the unique address of the first node is the physical address of the first node.

Claim 34

In a communications system having a plurality of interlinked networks, each of said networks including a plurality of nodes each having a unique address, at least one of the nodes being a sleep-mode allowing node having a device that may be placed in a sleep mode and thereafter awakened, a method of remotely awakening said device, said method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving in the at least one sleep-mode allowing node, one or more information packets sent over said communications system, where each such received information packet contains a destination address field identifying the receiving node and each such received information packet further contains a frame data field; (b) determining whether within the frame data fields of a logically consecutive one or more of the received information packets there extends a wake-up sequence including the unique address of the receiving node repeated at least N consecutive times, where N is an integer greater than one; and (c) initiating an awakening of said device in response to a finding by said determining step of said wake-up sequence.

Claim 35

In a communications system having a plurality of interlinked networks, each of said networks including a plurality of nodes each having a unique address, at least one of the nodes being a sleep-mode allowing node having a device that may be placed in a sleep mode and thereafter awakened, a method of remotely awakening said device, said method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving in the at least one sleep-mode allowing node, one or more information packets sent over said communications system, where each such received information packet contains a destination address field identifying the receiving node and each such received information packet further contains a frame data field; (b) determining whether within the frame data fields of a logically consecutive one or more of the received information packets there extends a wake-up sequence including the unique address of the receiving node repeated at least N consecutive times, where N is an integer greater than one; and (c) initiating an awakening of said device in response to a finding by said determining step of said wake-up sequence.

Claim 36

In a data exchange system having a plurality of individual nodes coupled to one another through a transmission medium having one or more routers, wherein at least one of the nodes is a switchable node that includes a corresponding device which can be placed in a first mode of operation and thereafter switched to a second mode of operation, a method of remotely switching the device from the first mode of operation to the second mode of operation, said remote switching method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving at a given, switchable node, one or more information packets each having a frame data block containing sequential data, where the sequential data has been transferred through said transmission medium, and where the received one or more information packets each includes a destination field containing a destination address referencing the switchable node; (b) recovering the sequential data contained in the received one or more information packets; (c) determining if the device is in said first mode of operation; (d) determining whether a unique subsequence repeats at least N consecutive times within said recovered sequential data, where N is an integer greater than 1, and where the unique subsequence corresponds to the node-referencing destination address; and (e) initiating a switching of said device to the second mode of operation in response to a finding by said determining steps that the device is in said first mode of operation and there are N consecutive repetitions of said unique subsequence in said recovered sequential data.

Claim 37

In a data exchange system having a plurality of individual nodes coupled to one another through a transmission medium having one or more routers, wherein at least one of the nodes is a switchable node that includes a corresponding device which can be placed in a first mode of operation and thereafter switched to a second mode of operation, a method of remotely switching the device from the first mode of operation to the second mode of operation, said remote switching method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving at a given, switchable node, one or more information packets each having a frame data block containing sequential data, where the sequential data has been transferred through said transmission medium, and where the received one or more information packets each includes a destination field containing a destination address referencing the switchable node; (b) recovering the sequential data contained in the received one or more information packets; (c) determining if the device is in said first mode of operation; (d) determining whether a unique subsequence repeats at least N consecutive times within said recovered sequential data, where N is an integer greater than 1, and where the unique subsequence corresponds to the node-referencing destination address; and (e) initiating a switching of said device to the second mode of operation in response to a finding by said determining steps that the device is in said first mode of operation and there are N consecutive repetitions of said unique subsequence in said recovered sequential data.

Claim 38

A remote switching method according to claim 30 wherein said device consumes a first amount of power when in the first mode of operation and said device consumes a greater, second amount of power when in the second mode of operation.

Claim 39

A remote switching method according to claim 30 wherein said corresponding device includes at least one of a central processing unit (CPU), a memory unit, and a disk unit where said at least one unit is placed in a power-conserving mode when said corresponding device is placed in the first mode of operation and said at least one unit is placed in a higher power mode when said device is switched to the second mode of operation.

Claim 40

In a data exchange system having a plurality of individual nodes coupled to one another through a transmission medium having one or more routers, wherein at least one of the nodes is a switchable node that includes a corresponding device which can be placed in a first mode of operation and thereafter switched to a second mode of operation, a method of remotely switching the device from the first mode of operation to the second mode of operation, said remote switching method comprising the steps of: (a) forming in a source node, a command packet having a destination field that contains a destination address referencing a switchable node, where the formed command packet further has a frame data block containing N consecutive repetitions of a unique subsequence, where the unique subsequence corresponds to the destination address of the switchable node; and (b) transmitting the command packet by way of said one or more routers.

Claim 41

In a data exchange system having a plurality of individual nodes coupled to one another through a transmission medium having one or more routers, wherein at least one of the nodes is a switchable node that includes a corresponding device which can be placed in a first mode of operation and thereafter switched to a second mode of operation, a method of remotely switching the device from the first mode of operation to the second mode of operation, said remote switching method comprising the steps of: (a) forming in a source node, a command packet having a destination field that contains a destination address referencing a switchable node, where the formed command packet further has a frame data block containing N consecutive repetitions of a unique subsequence, where the unique subsequence corresponds to the destination address of the switchable node; and (b) transmitting the command packet by way of said one or more routers.

Claim 42

A remote switching method according to claim 33 wherein said device of the switchable node referenced by the destination field consumes a first amount of power when in the first mode of operation and said device consumes a greater, second amount of power when in the second mode of operation.

Claim 43

A remote switching method according to claim 34 wherein said device of the switchable node referenced by the destination field switches to the second mode of operation if the device is in the first mode of operation and said device receives frame data containing N consecutive repetitions of said unique subsequence.

Claim 44

In switchable node of a data exchange system having a plurality of individual nodes coupled to one another through a transmission medium having one or more routers, wherein the switchable node includes a corresponding device which can be placed in a first mode of operation and thereafter switched to a second mode of operation, a method of responding to a remotely-sourced command that can switch the device from the first mode of operation to the second mode of operation, said method of responding to the remotely-sourced command comprising the steps of: (a) receiving at said switchable node, one or more information packets each having a frame data block containing sequential data, where the sequential data has been transferred through said transmission medium, and where the received one or more information packets each includes a destination field containing a destination address referencing the switchable node; (b) recovering the sequential data contained in the received one or more in formation packets; (c) determining if the device is in said first mode of operation; (d) determining whether a unique subsequence repeats at least N consecutive times within said recovered sequential data, where N is an integer greater than 1, and where the unique subsequence corresponds to the node-referencing destination address; (e) initiating a switching of said device to the second mode of operation in response to a finding by said determining steps that the device is in said first mode of operation and there are N consecutive repetitions of said unique subsequence in said recovered sequential data; and (f) refusing to initiate a switching of said device to the second mode of operation if there is a respective finding by either of said determining steps that the device is not in said first mode of operation and there are not N consecutive repetitions of said unique subsequence in said recovered sequential data.

Claim 45

In switchable node of a data exchange system having a plurality of individual nodes coupled to one another through a transmission medium having one or more routers, wherein the switchable node includes a corresponding device which can be placed in a first mode of operation and thereafter switched to a second mode of operation, a method of responding to a remotely-sourced command that can switch the device from the first mode of operation to the second mode of operation, said method of responding to the remotely-sourced command comprising the steps of: (a) receiving at said switchable node, one or more information packets each having a frame data block containing sequential data, where the sequential data has been transferred through said transmission medium, and where the received one or more information packets each includes a destination field containing a destination address referencing the switchable node; (b) recovering the sequential data contained in the received one or more in formation packets; (c) determining if the device is in said first mode of operation; (d) determining whether a unique subsequence repeats at least N consecutive times within said recovered sequential data, where N is an integer greater than 1, and where the unique subsequence corresponds to the node-referencing destination address; (e) initiating a switching of said device to the second mode of operation in response to a finding by said determining steps that the device is in said first mode of operation and there are N consecutive repetitions of said unique subsequence in said recovered sequential data; and (f) refusing to initiate a switching of said device to the second mode of operation if there is a respective finding by either of said determining steps that the device is not in said first mode of operation and there are not N consecutive repetitions of said unique subsequence in said recovered sequential data.

Claim 46

A method of responding to a remotely-sourced command according to claim 36 wherein said value of N is at least 16.

Claim 47

A method of responding to a remotely-sourced command according to claim 36 wherein said device consumes a first amount of power when in the first mode of operation and said device consumes a greater, second amount of power when in the second mode of operation.