Patents by Inventor Bruce E. Edwards

Bruce E. Edwards has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9025582
    Abstract: A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) system based upon peer-to-peer communications. A wireless terminal for peer-to-peer communications acts either as a WLAN master or as a WLAN slave. When the wireless terminal acts a master, the wireless terminal undertakes mastering duties that include transmitting a beacon interval in the frame cycle. When the wireless terminal is not tethered to a power source, mastering duties alternate according to a round-robin WLAN mastering cycle, wherein the wireless terminal acts the WLAN master during at least one frame cycle and acts the WLAN slave during other frame cycles to conserve an untethered power source of the wireless terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Stephen Palm, Edward H. Frank, Bruce E. Edwards, Jason A. Trachewsky
  • Patent number: 8670427
    Abstract: Methods and systems that support, for example, canceling or trimming reservations of a shared communication medium are described. In one embodiment, a method that adapts a network time reservation in a communication network may include, for example, one or more of the following: transmitting a preamble field; transmitting a legacy signal field; transmitting at least one paired field, each paired field comprising a signal field and a protocol data unit; and generating an interframe gap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 11, 2014
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew J. Fischer, Bruce E. Edwards
  • Publication number: 20130286914
    Abstract: A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) system based upon peer-to-peer communications. A wireless terminal for peer-to-peer communications acts either as a WLAN master or as a WLAN slave. When the wireless terminal acts a master, the wireless terminal undertakes mastering duties that include transmitting a beacon interval in the frame cycle. When the wireless terminal is not tethered to a power source, mastering duties alternate according to a round-robin WLAN mastering cycle, wherein the wireless terminal acts the WLAN master during at least one frame cycle and acts the WLAN slave during other frame cycles to conserve an untethered power source of the wireless terminal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2013
    Publication date: October 31, 2013
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Stephen Palm, Edward H. Frank, Bruce E. Edwards, Jason A. Trachewsky
  • Patent number: 8553666
    Abstract: A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) system based upon peer-to-peer communications. A wireless terminal for peer-to-peer communications acts either as a WLAN master or as a WLAN slave. When the wireless terminal acts a master, the wireless terminal undertakes mastering duties that include transmitting a beacon interval in the frame cycle. When the wireless terminal is not tethered to a power source, mastering duties alternate according to a round-robin WLAN mastering cycle, wherein the wireless terminal acts the WLAN master during at least one frame cycle and acts the WLAN slave during other frame cycles to conserve an untethered power source of the wireless terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2013
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Stephen Palm, Edward H. Frank, Bruce E. Edwards, Jason A. Trachewsky
  • Publication number: 20130242961
    Abstract: Methods and systems that support, for example, canceling or trimming reservations of a shared communication medium are described. In one embodiment, a method that adapts a network time reservation in a communication network may include, for example, one or more of the following: transmitting a preamble field; transmitting a legacy signal field; transmitting at least one paired field, each paired field comprising a signal field and a protocol data unit; and generating an interframe gap.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 13, 2013
    Publication date: September 19, 2013
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew J. Fischer, Bruce E. Edwards
  • Patent number: 8467837
    Abstract: A power management scheme for a wireless communications device processor substantially implemented on a single CMOS integrated circuit is described. By incorporating controls for sleep and wake-up mode transitions in the processor's control logic, improved power savings with reduced latency is provided, obviating the need for hardware-focused solutions with elaborate signaling mechanisms. A fully integrated power management with staged wake-up operations controlled by the MAC solution consumes less power than the conventional wireless LAN solutions in standby mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2013
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Mark D. Matson, Bruce E. Edwards
  • Patent number: 8446889
    Abstract: Methods and systems that support, for example, canceling or trimming reservations of a shared communication medium are described. In one embodiment, a method that adapts a network time reservation in a communication network may include, for example, one or more of the following: transmitting a preamble field; transmitting a legacy signal field; transmitting at least one paired field, each paired field comprising a signal field and a protocol data unit; and generating an interframe gap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2013
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew J. Fischer, Bruce E. Edwards
  • Publication number: 20130017869
    Abstract: A power management scheme for a wireless communications device processor substantially implemented on a single CMOS integrated circuit is described. By incorporating controls for sleep and wake-up mode transitions in the processor's control logic, improved power savings with reduced latency is provided, obviating the need for hardware-focused solutions with elaborate signaling mechanisms. A fully integrated power management with staged wake-up operations controlled by the MAC solution consumes less power than the conventional wireless LAN solutions in standby mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Publication date: January 17, 2013
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mark D. Matson, Bruce E. Edwards
  • Publication number: 20120269107
    Abstract: A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) system based upon peer-to-peer communications. A wireless terminal for peer-to-peer communications acts either as a WLAN master or as a WLAN slave. When the wireless terminal acts a master, the wireless terminal undertakes mastering duties that include transmitting a beacon interval in the frame cycle. When the wireless terminal is not tethered to a power source, mastering duties alternate according to a round-robin WLAN mastering cycle, wherein the wireless terminal acts the WLAN master during at least one frame cycle and acts the WLAN slave during other frame cycles to conserve an untethered power source of the wireless terminal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Publication date: October 25, 2012
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Stephen Palm, Edward H. Frank, Bruce E. Edwards, Jason A. Trachewsky
  • Patent number: 8275423
    Abstract: A power management scheme for a wireless communications device processor substantially implemented on a single CMOS integrated circuit is described. By incorporating controls for sleep and wake-up mode transitions in the processor's control logic, improved power savings with reduced latency is provided, obviating the need for hardware-focused solutions with elaborate signaling mechanisms. A fully integrated power management with staged wake-up operations controlled by the MAC solution consumes less power than the conventional wireless LAN solutions in standby mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Mark D. Matson, Bruce E. Edwards
  • Patent number: 8243701
    Abstract: A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) system in which wireless terminals each operate upon battery power. One of the wireless terminals acts as a Master to coordinate the transmission and receptions of the Slaves so as to reduce the power consumed by all of the devices. The Slaves operate according to a power up and power down sequence to conserve battery power. Further, the terminals may alternate between being Slaves and being the Master to equalize battery consumption of the wireless terminals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Stephen Palm, Edward H. Frank, Bruce E. Edwards, Jason A. Trachewsky
  • Publication number: 20110310871
    Abstract: Methods and systems that support, for example, canceling or trimming reservations of a shared communication medium are described. In one embodiment, a method that adapts a network time reservation in a communication network may include, for example, one or more of the following: transmitting a preamble field; transmitting a legacy signal field; transmitting at least one paired field, each paired field comprising a signal field and a protocol data unit; and generating an interframe gap.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2011
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Matthew J. Fischer, Bruce E. Edwards
  • Patent number: 8009759
    Abstract: A programmable transmitter generates a frame in a frame format according to one of a plurality of operating modes using a frame structure table storing a respective frame format for each of the operating modes. The transmitter includes a frame structure engine that receives a mode selection signal indicative of a select operating mode, and accesses the frame structure table to determine the frame format of the select operating mode. The frame structure engine produces a control signal to a frame generator to control the generation of a frame in the frame format of the select operating mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2011
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Joachim S. Hammerschmidt, Bruce E. Edwards, Venkat Kodavati, Rajendra Tushar Moorti, Ling Su, Jason A. Trachewsky, Andrew Wagner
  • Patent number: 7965691
    Abstract: Methods and systems that support, for example, canceling or trimming reservations of a shared communication medium are described. In one embodiment, a method that adapts a network time reservation in a communication network may include, for example, one or more of the following: transmitting a preamble field; transmitting a legacy signal field; transmitting at least one paired field, each paired field comprising a signal field and a protocol data unit; and generating an interframe gap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew J. Fischer, Bruce E. Edwards
  • Patent number: 7881278
    Abstract: A method of combining multiple frames of data into a single access to a shared communications medium improves network efficiency transmitting in a fashion compatible with legacy network equipment. An increase in the efficiency of use of a shared communications medium is realized by amortizing the overhead of fixed elements of a communication protocol over multiple frames. The sharing of preamble signaling, elimination of multiple inter-frame gaps or spaces, and the use of a legacy signal field permits a representative embodiment of the present invention to more effectively use a shared communication medium, while in addition providing backward compatible support for legacy network stations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2011
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Bruce E. Edwards, Matthew J. Fischer
  • Patent number: 7706338
    Abstract: A method and system for a bandwidth efficient medium access control (MAC) protocol is provided, which may comprise communicating a request to transmit (RTS) signal to a receiving station to determine if a channel is available for transmission. A clear to send (CTS) acknowledgement signal may be received from the receiving station if the channel is available for transmission. A plurality of medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) fragments separated by a point coordination function (PCF) interframe space (PIFS) interval may be transmitted in response to the received CTS acknowledgement signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: George D. Kondylis, Ling Su, Neal Nuckolls, Bruce E. Edwards, Matthew J. Fischer, Jason Trachewsky, Stephen R. Palm
  • Patent number: 7702371
    Abstract: A power management scheme for a wireless communications device substantially implemented on a single CMOS integrated circuit is described. The present invention provides a method and apparatus for generating first and second clock signals for a wireless communication device, with the first and second clock signals corresponding first and second power levels, depending on the operating mode of the wireless communication unit. In the first operating state, the transceiver in the RF analog module is operational and the clock generator provides a first clock signal having the high-speed, high-accuracy characteristics necessary to maintain efficient operation of the transceiver. In a second operating state, the transceiver in the RF analog module is turned off. In this second operational state, the clock generator provides a second clock signal having a frequency and quality sufficient to maintain efficient operation of the digital modules in the wireless communication device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Bruce E. Edwards, Mark D. Matson
  • Publication number: 20090298555
    Abstract: A power management scheme for a wireless communications device processor substantially implemented on a single CMOS integrated circuit is described. By incorporating controls for sleep and wake-up mode transitions in the processor's control logic, improved power savings with reduced latency is provided, obviating the need for hardware-focused solutions with elaborate signaling mechanisms. A fully integrated power management with staged wake-up operations controlled by the MAC solution consumes less power than the conventional wireless LAN solutions in standby mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2009
    Publication date: December 3, 2009
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Mark D. Matson, Bruce E. Edwards
  • Publication number: 20090262721
    Abstract: A method of combining multiple frames of data into a single access to a shared communications medium improves network efficiency transmitting in a fashion compatible with legacy network equipment. An increase in the efficiency of use of a shared communications medium is realized by amortizing the overhead of fixed elements of a communication protocol over multiple frames. The sharing of preamble signaling, elimination of multiple inter-frame gaps or spaces, and the use of a legacy signal field permits a representative embodiment of the present invention to more effectively use a shared communication medium, while in addition providing backward compatible support for legacy network stations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2009
    Publication date: October 22, 2009
    Inventors: Bruce E. Edwards, Matthew J. Fischer
  • Patent number: 7583985
    Abstract: A power management scheme for a wireless communications device processor substantially implemented on a single CMOS integrated circuit is described. By incorporating controls for sleep and wake-up mode transitions in the processor's control logic, improved power savings with reduced latency is provided, obviating the need for hardware-focused solutions with elaborate signaling mechanisms. A fully integrated power management with staged wake-up operations controlled by the MAC solution consumes less power than the conventional wireless LAN solutions in standby mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2009
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Mark D. Matson, Bruce E. Edwards