Low-Power Sleep Mode and Out-Of-Band Wake-Up for Indoor Access Points

The expected massive adoption of indoor access points requires specific solutions to meet requirements for eco-sustainability regarding consumed power and radio interferences. Since access points are unused the main part of the day, application of a sleep mode mechanism is a promising approach. However, its implementation represents a radical change in mobile networking paradigm and requires innovative mechanisms to wake up the access points and thus rapidly restore the connectivity. Our approach uses an auxiliary low-power radio to carry out-of-band control information to maintain connectivity and wake up the access points when necessary. The paper details the software and hardware architecture as well as the prototyping results on Wi-Fi technology.