Device, system and method of simultaneously communicating with a group of wireless communication devices

• US 10,447,364 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2016
• Issued: 10/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Gong, Michelle X., Stacey, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Phuc H
• Application Number:
  US15/281,088
• Publication Number:
  US 20170019926A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,110 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0421 utilizing implicit feedback, e.g. steered pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0626 Channel coefficients, e.g. channel state information [CSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0816 with collision avoidance

Abstract

Some demonstrative embodiments include devices, systems and/or methods of simultaneously communicating with a group of wireless communication devices. For example, a device may include a wireless communication unit to communicate with at least one group of a plurality of wireless communication devices over a wireless communication medium, wherein the wireless communication unit is to reserve the wireless communication medium for a time period, during which the wireless communication unit is to simultaneously transmit two or more different wireless communication transmissions to two or more wireless communication devices of the group, respectively. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising a memory and a processor configured to cause an Access Point (AP) to:

transmit a Request to Send (RTS) addressed to a plurality of wireless communication devices, the RTS comprising a duration value to reserve a wireless medium for a reserved time period;

process a plurality of simultaneous Clear to Send (CTS) responses from the plurality of wireless communication devices, a CTS response of the plurality of CTS responses is based on scrambling information of the RTS; and

subsequent to the CTS responses, transmit a downlink transmission addressed to the plurality of wireless communication devices during the reserved time period.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 configured to cause the AP to process acknowledgement responses from the plurality of wireless communication devices subsequent to the downlink transmission.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the reserved time period comprises at least a duration of the downlink transmission and a duration of the acknowledgement responses.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the RTS comprises an address field to address the plurality of wireless communication devices.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the downlink transmission comprises simultaneous transmission of a plurality of different downlink data frames to respective ones of the plurality of wireless communication devices.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising a radio to transmit the RTS, receive the CTS responses, and transmit the downlink transmission.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising one or more antennas.

8. A product comprising one or more tangible computer-readable non-transitory storage media comprising computer-executable instructions operable to, when executed by at least one processor, enable the at least one processor to cause an Access Point (AP) to:

transmit a Request to Send (RTS) addressed to a plurality of wireless communication devices, the RTS comprising a duration value to reserve a wireless medium for a reserved time period;

process a plurality of simultaneous Clear to Send (CTS) responses from the plurality of wireless communication devices, a CTS response of the plurality of CTS responses is based on scrambling information of the RTS; and

subsequent to the CTS responses, transmit a downlink transmission addressed to the plurality of wireless communication devices during the reserved time period.

9. The product of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the AP to process acknowledgement responses from the plurality of wireless communication devices subsequent to the downlink transmission.

10. The product of claim 9, wherein the reserved time period comprises at least a duration of the downlink transmission and a duration of the acknowledgement responses.

11. The product of claim 8, wherein the RTS comprises an address field to address the plurality of wireless communication devices.

12. The product of claim 8, wherein the downlink transmission comprises simultaneous transmission of a plurality of different downlink data frames to respective ones of the plurality of wireless communication devices.

13. An apparatus comprising a memory and a processor configured to cause a wireless communication device to:

process a Request to Send (RTS) from an Access Point (AP), the RTS addressed to a plurality of wireless communication devices comprising the wireless communication device, the RTS comprising a duration value to reserve a wireless medium for a reserved time period;

transmit a Clear to Send (CTS) response to the AP, the CTS response is based on scrambling information of the RTS; and

subsequent to the CTS response, process a downlink transmission from the AP, the downlink transmission comprises a transmission from the AP addressed to the plurality of wireless communication devices during the reserved time period.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 configured to cause the wireless communication device to transmit the CTS response simultaneously with CTS responses from other wireless communication devices of said plurality of wireless communication devices.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 configured to cause the wireless communication device to transmit an acknowledgement response to the AP subsequent to the downlink transmission.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the reserved time period comprises at least a duration of the downlink transmission and a duration of the acknowledgement response.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the RTS comprises an address field to address the plurality of wireless communication devices.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the downlink transmission comprises simultaneous transmission of a plurality of different downlink data frames to respective ones of the plurality of wireless communication devices.

19. The apparatus of claim 13 comprising a radio.

20. The apparatus of claim 13 comprising one or more antennas.

21. A product comprising one or more tangible computer-readable non-transitory storage media comprising computer-executable instructions operable to, when executed by at least one processor, enable the at least one processor to cause a wireless communication device to:

process a Request to Send (RTS) from an Access Point (AP), the RTS addressed to a plurality of wireless communication devices comprising the wireless communication device, the RTS comprising a duration value to reserve a wireless medium for a reserved time period;

transmit a Clear to Send (CTS) response to the AP, the CTS response is based on scrambling information of the RTS; and

subsequent to the CTS response, process a downlink transmission from the AP, the downlink transmission comprises a transmission from the AP addressed to the plurality of wireless communication devices during the reserved time period.

22. The product of claim 21, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the wireless communication device to transmit the CTS response simultaneously with CTS responses from other wireless communication devices of said plurality of wireless communication devices.

23. The product of claim 21, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the wireless communication device to transmit an acknowledgement response to the AP subsequent to the downlink transmission.

24. The product of claim 23, wherein the reserved time period comprises at least a duration of the downlink transmission and a duration of the acknowledgement response.

25. The product of claim 21, wherein the RTS comprises an address field to address the plurality of wireless communication devices.

26. The product of claim 21, wherein the downlink transmission comprises simultaneous transmission of a plurality of different downlink data frames to respective ones of the plurality of wireless communication devices.