Spatially aware wireless network

Abstract

Technology for a spatially aware wireless network is disclosed. One embodiment comprises a plurality of near field magnetic induction nodes. One or more nodes is configured to communicate a polarized spatial position signal using near field magnetic induction (NFMI) to determine one or more of a position and an orientation of one or more nodes in the spatially aware wireless network. A detection module is operable to configure the spatially aware wireless network based one or more of a position and an orientation of one or more nodes in the plurality of nodes.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A spatially aware wireless network comprising:
 a plurality of nodes, wherein one or more nodes in the plurality of nodes is configured to receive, via a physical layer, a polarized spatial position signal from a transmitting node in the plurality of nodes using near field magnetic induction (NFMI);   a spatial position module configured to determine an orientation and a position of the transmitting node in the spatially aware wireless network, based on the received polarized spatial positioning signal, to determine one or more of a position, and an orientation of the transmitting node relative to the one or more nodes; and   a network configuration module configured to define a network configuration using one or more of the plurality of nodes, wherein the network configuration is defined based on at least one of the position, and the orientation of the one or more nodes in the plurality of nodes identified using the spatial position module.   
     
     
         2 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , further comprising a function module configured perform a selected function using the defined network configuration. 
     
     
         3 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more nodes in the plurality of nodes is configured to:
 receive the polarized spatial position signal, that is transmitted on a single antenna from the transmitting node, at two or more substantially orthogonal antennas of each of the one or more nodes; or   receive the polarized spatial position signal, that is transmitted on two or more substantially orthogonal antennas from the transmitting node, at a single antenna on the one or more nodes; or   receive the polarized spatial position signal, that is transmitted on two or more substantially orthogonal antennas from the transmitting node, at two or more substantially orthogonal antennas of each of the one or more nodes.   
     
     
         4 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 2 , wherein each of the one or more nodes includes:
 the spatial positioning module;   the spatial positioning module and the network configuration module; or   the spatial positioning module, the network configuration module, and the function module.   
     
     
         5 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 2 , further comprising a server in communication with the spatially aware wireless network that is configured to include:
 the spatial positioning module;   the spatial positioning module and the network configuration module; or   the spatial positioning module, the network configuration module, and the function module.   
     
     
         6 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , wherein each node in the one or more nodes is configured to receive the polarized spatial position signal using NFMI with at least two substantially orthogonal antennas. 
     
     
         7 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , wherein the a spatial position module is further configured to determine a velocity of the one or more nodes based on a change of the determined position or a radial velocity of the one or more nodes based on a change of the determined orientation. 
     
     
         8 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , wherein the network configuration module is configured to define a network configuration based on the change of the determined position or the change of the determined orientation of the one or more nodes. 
     
     
         9 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , wherein the network configuration module is further configured to configure the network as one or more of:
 a data storage configuration to store data at one or more nodes in the plurality of nodes;   a data access configuration to access stored data at one or more nodes in the plurality of nodes; or   a data collection configuration to collect data from one or more nodes in the plurality of nodes.   
     
     
         10 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 2 , wherein the function module is further configured to perform a decision based on:
 data from one or more of the plurality of nodes; or   one or more of the position and the orientation of the one or more nodes in the plurality of nodes; or   trigger an action based on one or more of the position and the orientation of the one or more nodes in the plurality of nodes, the action comprising:   an action communicated to an electric device;   an action communicated to a physical device;   a communication of information within the spatially aware wireless network;   a communication of information external to the spatially aware wireless network;   a communication of a control signal within the spatially aware wireless network;   a communication of a permission within the spatially aware wireless network; or   a permission granted within the spatially aware wireless network.   
     
     
         11 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , wherein the network configuration module is configured to configure the network, using one or more of the plurality of nodes, wherein the network configuration is activated based on at least one of a relative position, and a relative orientation of one or more nodes in the plurality of nodes relative to another node in the plurality of nodes identified using the polarized spatial positioning signal. 
     
     
         12 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of nodes are configured to communicate the polarized spatial position signal using one or more of a near field magnetic induction (NFMI) physical layer or a near field magnetic induction data layer. 
     
     
         13 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more nodes of the plurality of nodes are further configured to communicate using one or more additional radio access technologies (RATs) comprising: a near field communication (NFC) RAT, a Bluetooth RAT, an Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 RAT, and a third generation partnership project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) Release 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12 RAT. 
     
     
         14 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , wherein plurality of nodes are configured to form a body area network. 
     
     
         15 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , wherein plurality of nodes are configured to form a personal area network. 
     
     
         16 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of nodes are configured to form a cognitive network or a context aware network. 
     
     
         17 . The spatially aware wireless network of  claim 1 , wherein the spatially aware wireless network is one of a personal area network and a body area network. 
     
     
         18 . A non-transitory machine readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon, the instructions which when executed by one or more processors perform the following operations to provide a spatially aware wireless network, the operations comprising:
 processing a polarized spatial position signal received at a first node from one of more nodes in a plurality of nodes to enable a position and an orientation of one or more nodes in the spatially aware cognitive wireless network to be determined relative to the first node;   performing a decision based on one or more of the position, and the orientations of the one or more nodes in the plurality of nodes; and   configuring the spatially aware cognitive wireless network based on one or more of the position, and the orientation of the one or more nodes in the plurality of nodes.   
     
     
         19 . The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of  claim 18 , further comprising instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processors perform the operation of processing the spatial position signal received at the first node using near field magnetic induction with three substantially orthogonal antennas, wherein the spatial position signal is communicated with the three substantially orthogonal antennas pulsed out of phase. 
     
     
         20 . The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of  claim 18 , further comprising instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processors perform the operations of:
 determining a node in the spatially aware wireless network is unauthorized;   identifying the position of the unauthorized node within the spatially aware wireless network; and