Wireless contention reduction

• US 10,555,341 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2017
• Issued: 02/04/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Barber, Simon
• Primary Examiner(s): Cunningham, Kevin M
• Application Number:
  US15/646,974
• Publication Number:
  US 20190021114A1
• Time in Patent Office: 938 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0816 with collision avoidance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

The subject disclosure relates to a computer-implemented method for reducing access contention in a wireless medium. In some aspects, a method of the technology includes steps for exchanging data packets with multiple client devices in a wireless network, and based on the data exchange, identifying a first device from among the multiple client devices for which one or more higher-layer (e.g., Layer 3 and/or Layer 4) packets are likely to be received. In some aspects, a method of the technology can further include steps for broadcasting a lower-layer (e.g., Layer 2) packet to the plurality of client devices, wherein the lower-layer packet includes an extended duration field to suppress transmission by one or more listening client devices until at least one subsequent higher-layer packet is received from the first device. Systems and machine-readable media are also provided.

Claims

1. A system for reducing access contention for data exchange in a wireless medium, comprising:

one or more processors;

a network interface coupled to the one or more processors; and

a transceiver coupled to the one or more processors, and wherein the processors are configured to perform operations comprising;

exchanging, via the transceiver, data packets with a plurality of client devices in a wireless network;

based on the exchanging of the data packets, identifying a first device from among the plurality of client devices from which one or more Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packets are likely to be received;

predicting that a TCP acknowledgement (ACK) packet will be received from the first device in response to a packet transmitted to the first device;

determining, based on predicting that a TCP ACK packet will be received, an extended duration field value which corresponds to a time duration from a time that the packet is transmitted until at least a time at which the TCP ACK packet is predicted to be received from the first device; and

transmitting, via the transceiver, the packet to the first device, wherein the packet transmitted to the first device comprises the extended duration field value, and wherein the packet transmitted to the first device is configured to be received by one or more of the plurality of devices and to suppress transmission by the one or more of the plurality of devices until at least the TCP ACK packet is received from the first device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the packet comprises a Request to Send (RTS) frame formatted based on an 802.11 wireless networking protocol, and

wherein the RTS frame contains the extended duration field value.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the packet comprising the extended duration field value is further configured to suppress transmission by one or more of the plurality of client devices until a time duration necessary to receive a Clear to Send (CTS) packet, transmit a plurality of data packets to the first device, and receive a plurality of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) acknowledgement (ACK) packets from the first device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the extended duration field value is determined based on a number of data packets to be transmitted to the first device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein, identifying a first device from among the plurality of client devices for which one or more higher-layer packets are likely to be received, further comprises:

identifying a traffic type for one or more packets previously received from the first device; and

determining a likelihood that future packets received from the first device will contain higher-layer traffic based on the traffic type for the one or more packets previously received from the first device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein, identifying a first device from among the plurality of client devices for which one or more higher-layer packets are likely to be received, further comprises:

identifying a traffic type for one or more packets previously received from the one or more of the plurality of client devices, wherein the one or more of the plurality of client devices are different from the first client device; and

determining a likelihood that future packets received from the first device will contain higher-layer traffic based on the traffic type for the one or more packets previously received from the one or more of the plurality of client devices.

7. A computer-implemented method for reducing access contention a wireless medium, comprising:

exchanging data packets with a plurality of client devices in a wireless network;

based on the exchanging of the data packets, identifying a first device from among the plurality of client devices from which one or more Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packets are likely to be received;

predicting that a TCP acknowledgement (ACK) packet will be received from the first device in response to a packet transmitted to the first device;

determining, based on predicting that a TCP ACK packet will be received, an extended duration field value which corresponds to a time duration from a time that the packet is transmitted until at least a time at which the TCP ACK packet is predicted to be received from the first device; and

transmitting, via the transceiver, the packet to the first device, wherein the packet transmitted to the first device comprises the extended duration field value, and wherein the packet transmitted to the first device is configured to be received by one or more of the plurality of devices and to suppress transmission by the one or more of the plurality of devices until at least the TCP ACK packet is received from the first device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the packet comprises a Request to Send (RTS) frame formatted based on an 802.11 wireless networking protocol, and

wherein the RTS frame contains the extended duration field value.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the packet comprising the extended duration field value is further configured to suppress transmission by one or more of the plurality of client devices until a time duration necessary to receive a Clear to Send (CTS) packet, transmit a plurality of data packets to the first device, and receive a plurality of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) acknowledgement (ACK) packets from the first device.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the extended duration field value is determined based on a number of data packets to be transmitted to the first device.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein, identifying a first device from among the plurality of client devices for which one or more higher-layer packets are likely to be received, further comprises:

identifying a traffic type for one or more packets previously received from the first device; and

determining a likelihood that future packets received from the first device will contain higher-layer traffic based on the traffic type for the one or more packets previously received from the first device.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein, identifying a first device from among the plurality of client devices for which one or more higher-layer packets are likely to be received, further comprises:

identifying a traffic type for one or more packets previously received from the one or more of the plurality of client devices, wherein the one or more of the plurality of client devices are different from the first client device; and

determining a likelihood that future packets received from the first client device will contain higher-layer traffic based on the traffic type for the one or more packets previously received from the one or more of the plurality of client devices.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising:

exchanging data packets with a plurality of client devices in a wireless network;

based on the exchanging of the data packets, identifying a first device from among the plurality of client devices from which one or more Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packets are likely to be received;

predicting that a TCP acknowledgement (ACK) packet will be received from the first device in response to a packet transmitted to the first device;

determining, based on predicting that a TCP ACK packet will be received, an extended duration field value which corresponds to a time duration from a time that the packet is transmitted until at least a time at which the TCP ACK packet is predicted to be received from the first device; and

transmitting, via the transceiver, the packet to the first device, wherein the packet transmitted to the first device comprises the extended duration field value, and wherein the packet transmitted to the first device is configured to be received by one or more of the plurality of devices and to suppress transmission by the one or more of the plurality of devices until at least the TCP ACK packet is received from the first device.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the packet comprises a Request to Send (RTS) frame formatted based on an 802.11 wireless networking protocol, and

wherein the RTS frame contains the extended duration field value.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the packet comprising the extended duration field value is further configured to suppress transmission by one or more of the plurality of client devices until a time duration necessary to receive a Clear to Send (CTS) packet, transmit a plurality of data packets to the first device, and receive a plurality of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) acknowledgement (ACK) packets from the first device.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the extended duration field value is determined based on a number of data packets to be transmitted to the first device.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein, identifying a first device from among the plurality of client devices for which one or more higher-layer packets are likely to be received, further comprises:

identifying a traffic type for one or more packets previously received from the first device; and

determining a likelihood that future packets received from the first device will contain higher-layer traffic based on the traffic type for the one or more packets previously received from the first device.