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EP-4738064-A1 - WIRELESS ACCESS POINT DEVICE AND METHOD FOR POWER MANAGEMENT

EP4738064A1EP 4738064 A1EP4738064 A1EP 4738064A1EP-4738064-A1

Abstract

Disclosed is a wireless access point device, including one or more radio chips, configured to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves for wireless communication on one or more frequency bands, wherein the one or more radio chips correspond to different frequency bands respectively; a power supply module, configured to supply power to the one or more radio chips; and a control module, configured to disable, in response to at least one frequency band of the one or more frequency bands being turned-off, the power supplied by the power supply module the power supplied by to at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-off band.

Inventors

  • HU, Xinxin

Assignees

  • TP-Link Systems Inc.

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20251024

Claims (15)

  1. A wireless access point (AP) device (300), comprising: one or more radio chips (310), configured to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves for wireless communication on one or more frequency bands, wherein the one or more radio chips correspond to different frequency bands respectively; a power supply module (320), configured to supply power to the one or more radio chips; and a control module (330), configured to disable, in response to at least one frequency band of the one or more frequency bands being turned-off, the power supplied by the power supply module to at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-off band.
  2. The wireless AP device according to claim 1, wherein the power supply module comprises one or more IO interfaces connected with the control module; and the control module is further configured to associate the one or more IO interfaces with power supply states of the power supply module, and disable the power supplied by the power supply module to the at least one radio chips corresponding to the turned-off band by setting logic levels at the one or more IO interfaces.
  3. The wireless AP device according to claim 1, wherein to disable the power supplied by the power supply module to the at least one radio chip, the control module is configured to: perform, in response to a request to turn-off the one or more frequency bands, a first operation to unbind the at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-off band with a driver thereof; and after the first operation is performed, disable the power supplied by the power supply module to the at least one radio chip.
  4. The wireless AP device according to claim 3, wherein the first operation is performed by calling a script containing an unbind instruction.
  5. The wireless AP device according to claim 1, wherein the control module is further configured to: monitor client devices associated with a turned-on frequency band; and transmit a message to recommend turning-off the frequency band, in response to that the frequency band is not associated with any client device.
  6. The wireless AP device according to claim 1, wherein the control module is further configured to: enable, in response to at least one frequency band of the one or more frequency bands being turned-on, the power supply module to supply power to at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-on bands.
  7. The wireless AP device according to claim 1, wherein to enable the power supply module to supply power to at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-on bands, the control module is configured to: associate the one or more IO interfaces with power supply states of the power supply module; enable the power supplied by the power supply module to the at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-on bands by setting logic levels at the one or more IO interfaces, in response to a notification for a second operation to bind the at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-on band with a driver thereof.
  8. The wireless AP device according to claim 6, wherein the control module is further configured to: monitor a load condition corresponding to each of the turned-on bands, wherein the load condition includes one or more of a number of associated client devices, channel utilization rate or transmission rate; and configure the wireless AP device with an optimal configuration set for the each of the turned-on bands dynamically according to variation of the monitored load condition, wherein the optimal configuration set includes a set of configuration parameters corresponding to the minimum power consumption under a given load condition.
  9. The wireless AP device according to claim 8, wherein to configure the wireless AP device with the optimal configuration set, the control module is configured to: determine the optimal configuration parameter set to be used, based on a mapping table of load conditions and configuration parameters, wherein the mapping table includes a mapping relationship between different load conditions and respective optimal configuration sets.
  10. The wireless AP device according to claim 9, wherein the control module is further configured to: in response to the monitored load condition is lower than a load condition corresponding to a currently used optimal configuration set for a period of time, configure the wireless AP device with an updated optimal configuration set corresponding to the monitored load condition; and in response to the monitored load condition is close to the highest load condition to which the currently used optimal configuration set is applicable, configure the wireless AP device with an updated optimal configuration set corresponding to a next higher level of load condition in the mapping table.
  11. A method for power management of a wireless AP device, wherein the wireless AP device comprises one or more radio chips, configured to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves for wireless communication on one or more frequency bands, wherein the one or more radio chips correspond to different frequency bands respectively, the method comprises: disabling (S420), in response to at least one frequency band of the one or more frequency bands being turned-off, the power supplied by a power supply module to at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-off band.
  12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the power supply module comprises one or more IO interfaces connected with the control module, and the method comprises: associating the one or more IO interfaces with power supply states of the power supply module; and disabling the power supplied by the power supply module to the at least one radio chips corresponding to the turned-off band by setting logic levels at the one or more IO interfaces.
  13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the disabling the power supplied by the power supply module to at least one radio chip comprises: performing, in response to a request to turn-off the one or more frequency bands, a first operation to unbind the at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-off band with a driver thereof, wherein the first operation is performed by calling a script containing an unbind instruction in response to the request.
  14. The method according to claim 11, further comprising: monitoring client devices associated with a turned-on frequency band; transmitting a message to recommend turning-off the frequency band, in response to that the frequency band is not associated with any client device; and enabling, in response to at least one frequency band of the one or more frequency bands being turned-on, the power supply module to supply power to at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-on bands, wherein the enabling the power supplied by the power supply module to at least one radio chip comprises: associating the one or more IO interfaces with power supply states of the power supply module; enabling the power supplied by the power supply module to the at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-on bands by setting logic levels at the one or more IO interfaces, in response to a notification for a second operation to bind the at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-on band with a driver thereof.
  15. A computer program product for power management of a wireless AP device, wherein the wireless AP device comprises one or more radio chips, configured to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves for wireless communication on one or more frequency bands, wherein the one or more radio chips correspond to different frequency bands respectively, and a power supply module, configured to supply power to the one or more radio chips; and the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, and the program instructions executable by a processor of the wireless AP device to cause the wireless AP device to: disable, in response to at least one frequency band of the one or more frequency bands being turned-off, the power supplied by the power supply module to at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-off band.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application No. 18/931,668, filed on October 30, 2024 and titled "WIRELESS ACCESS POINT DEVICE AND METHOD FOR POWER MANAGEMENT." The entire disclosure of the aforementioned application is incorporated by reference as part of the disclosure of this application. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to wireless communication, and more specifically, to a wireless access point (AP) device and a method for power management of a wireless AP device. BACKGROUND In a wireless network, a wireless AP serves as a node for client devices (such as mobile phones, laptop computers, personal Digital Assistant (PDA), tablet computers, wearable devices, and any other equipment supporting wireless communication) to access wired networks, and provides a coverage of wireless signals to support wireless communication on one or more corresponding frequency bands. Such a coverage of wireless signals corresponds to a wireless Basic Service Set (BSS), in which the wireless AP is the central point (also called "hot spot") of the coverage, and all wireless signals in this coverage can be exchanged with each other via the wireless AP, so that the client devices are movable within the coverage of wireless signals provided by the wireless AP, without being limited a specific geographical location by a wired connection. Also, a plurality of BSSs can be jointly combined into an Extended Service Set (ESS), and thus achieving seamless roaming of the client devices across different BSSs. Due to these excellent characteristics, wireless AP devices can provide great convenience for people's production and living, and therefore have been widely used in both home network and public network. Nevertheless, there are still limitations to power management of such wireless AP devices. Specifically, a wireless AP device communicates with client devices by electromagnetic waves on one or more frequency bands as transmission medium. Typically, the most common frequency bands for the wireless AP device include, for example, 2.4G hertz (Hz) band, 5G1 Hz band (i.e., 5G lower frequency band), 5G2 Hz band (i.e., 5G higher frequency band) and 6G Hz band, and these electromagnetic waves on different frequency bands are transmitted and received by one or more wireless radio chips of the wireless AP device respectively, and thus causing a power consumption of the wireless AP device. Although in order to save power, some existing power management methods may involve turning-off an interface corresponding to an unused frequency band, by which the wireless AP device merely stops transmitting and receiving packets on the unused frequency band, while the corresponding radio chip is still powered, and thus the effect of power saving is limited. On the other hand, for frequency bands in use, regardless of the condition of network loads, a wireless AP device is configured with a fixed configuration for a maximum performance or an initial configuration, without employing a dynamic adjustment mechanism for the configuration of the wireless AP device, and thus resulting in a further power consumption. It follows that there is a need for an improved power management method of a wireless AP device. As used herein, the "wireless AP device" broadly refers to a variety of wireless AP-like products, including not only a simple wireless access point, but also a wireless router including wireless gateways and wireless bridges, a repeater, a base station, or the like. In some applications, AP is also referred to as range extender, mesh point or network node. SUMMARY In view of at least the above problems, the present disclosure provides embodiments of a wireless AP device and a method for power management of a wireless AP device. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a wireless AP device, comprising one or more radio chips, configured to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves for wireless communication on one or more frequency bands, wherein the one or more radio chips correspond to different frequency bands respectively; a power supply module, configured to supply power to the one or more radio chips; and a control module, configured to disable, in response to at least one frequency band of the one or more frequency bands being turned-off, the power supplied by the power supply module to at least one radio chip corresponding to the turned-off band. In some embodiments, the power supply module comprises one or more IO interfaces connected with the control module; and the control module is further configured to associate the one or more IO interfaces with power supply states of the power supply module, and disable the power supplied by the power supply module to the at least one radio chips corresponding to the turned-off band by setting logic levels at the one or more IO interfaces. In some embodiments, the control module is further con