A communication system includes: a first node; and a second node that is located at a lower level of the first node and connected to the first node. The second node includes a transmitter that transmits, when the second node is connected to the first node, function identification information for identifying functions installed in the second node, and the first node includes a receiver that receives the function identification information transmitted from the second node, and a processor that is connected to the receiver. The processor executes a process including deciding, based on the function identification information, a function to be enabled or disabled out of the functions installed in the second node, and selecting at least a test item used for verifying the function that is decided to be enabled.

A system for transacting in an environment with intermittent connectivity via a network backbone to a blockchain. A merchant device transmits a set of credentials for an ad hoc network to a buyer device and establishes a private peer-to-peer ad hoc network connection with the buyer device. It then conducts a transaction with the buyer device via the private peer-to-peer ad hoc network. If no network connection is available to a transaction blockchain, the merchant device stores a record of the transaction until such network becomes available and later sends the record of the transaction to the transaction blockchain.

This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for implementing multi-user (MU) communication in a wireless mesh network. A first mesh node or a network management unit may collect information from various mesh nodes and form MU association groups based on the information. An MU association group may include an MU group head that coordinates MU group communication to or from member mesh nodes that are in the MU association group. For example, the MU group head may coordinate orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) resource unit allocations, or MU multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MEMO) spatial stream configurations, among other examples. Different MU association groups may be formed for uplink or downlink traffic. The creation of MU association groups may enable a wireless mesh network to realize the advantages of MU group communication within the flexible topology of a mesh environment.

This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for implementing multi-user (MU) communication in a wireless mesh network. A first mesh node or a network management unit may collect information from various mesh nodes and form MU association groups based on the information. An MU association group may include an MU group head that coordinates MU group communication to or from member mesh nodes that are in the MU association group. For example, the MU group head may coordinate orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) resource unit allocations, or MU multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MEMO) spatial stream configurations, among other examples. Different MU association groups may be formed for uplink or downlink traffic. The creation of MU association groups may enable a wireless mesh network to realize the advantages of MU group communication within the flexible topology of a mesh environment.

Methods and apparatus relating to use of actual and/or virtual beacons are described. Virtual beacons are virtual in that an actual beacon need not be transmitted but a rather a virtual beacon transmitter at a desired location maybe considered to transmit virtual beacons. In some embodiments a set of beacon transmitter information for one or more beacons is supplied to devices in a communications system. The beacon transmitter information indicates transmission power and location of actual and virtual beacon transmitters as well as information to be communicated by virtual beacons. Devices with access to beacon information can determine based on the location of a wireless terminal whether the wireless terminal is within coverage area of a virtual beacon and report reception of the virtual beacon to the wireless terminal or a component of the wireless terminal which acts upon receiving an indication of beacon reception.

A method for energy efficient routing in wireless sensor network based on multi-agent deep reinforcement learning, predefines a to-be-deployed wireless sensor network and creates a cooperative routing decision system including A decision networks and one sink module, A decision networks deployed on the agents a.sup.i, i=1, 2, . . . , A, of the sensor nodes, the sink module deployed on the sink node n.sup.0. The decision network obtains a probability vector according to its local observation and position vectors. The sink module calculates a routing for each sensor node according the probability vectors of A decision networks and sends the routings to corresponding sensor nodes. A multi-agent deep reinforcement learning algorithm is adopted to train the decision networks of A agents a.sup.i, i=1, 2, . . . , A of the cooperative routing decision system, deploys the to-be-deployed wireless sensor network into an environment and updates the routing policy of the deployed wireless sensor network at each update cycle of routing.

A method for energy efficient routing in wireless sensor network based on multi-agent deep reinforcement learning, predefines a to-be-deployed wireless sensor network and creates a cooperative routing decision system including A decision networks and one sink module, A decision networks deployed on the agents a.sup.i, i=1, 2, . . . , A, of the sensor nodes, the sink module deployed on the sink node n.sup.0. The decision network obtains a probability vector according to its local observation and position vectors. The sink module calculates a routing for each sensor node according the probability vectors of A decision networks and sends the routings to corresponding sensor nodes. A multi-agent deep reinforcement learning algorithm is adopted to train the decision networks of A agents a.sup.i, i=1, 2, . . . , A of the cooperative routing decision system, deploys the to-be-deployed wireless sensor network into an environment and updates the routing policy of the deployed wireless sensor network at each update cycle of routing.

A communication device determines whether a PHY data unit is to be transmitted in a first frequency band from among multiple frequency bands in which a WLAN communication protocol permits operation. The multiple frequency bands also include a second frequency band. The communication device determines whether the PHY data unit is to include a PS-Poll frame, and whether a BSS color is currently disabled for the WLAN. In response to i) determining that the PHY data unit is to be transmitted in the first frequency band, ii) determining that the PHY data unit is not to include a PS-Poll frame, and iii) determining that the BSS color is not currently disabled for the WLAN: the communication device determines that a TXOP duration subfield in a PHY preamble of the PHY data unit cannot be set to a value defined by the WLAN communication protocol for indicating a TXOP duration that is unspecified.

Embodiments of a system and method for providing DRX enhancements in LTE systems are generally described herein. In some embodiments, a system control module is provided for controlling communications via a communications interface. A processor is coupled to the system control module and is arranged to implement an inactivity timer and an on-duration timer for determining an active time for monitoring subframes on the physical downlink control channel for control signals, the processor further monitoring subframes after the active time.

The invention relates to the field of wireless mesh communication networks and in particular to methods, networks and nodes (101) for use in such a wireless mesh network (100) for establishing routes in the wireless mesh network (100) by pro-actively regularly sending many-to-one route requests at randomized intervals by wireless network nodes (101) that can operate as a proxy nodes for a mobile wireless device (104) communicating using a first wireless communication protocol and further nodes (102, 103) in the wireless mesh network (100) communicating using a second wireless communication protocol.