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Apparatus and method for controlling slot usage

  • US 10,624,135 B2
  • Filed: 09/27/2017
  • Issued: 04/14/2020
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2012
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for controlling channel access by an access point (AP) in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the method comprising:

  • transmitting a synchronization frame that includes a receiver address (RA) field including an identification value indicating a first station (STA), wherein the synchronization frame is transmitted if a channel is in an idle state at a time point when the first STA wakes up, the time point corresponding to a target wake time (TWT) targeted to the first STA;

    configuring a response waiting time; and

    when a first contention free-End (CF-End) frame is received during the response waiting time, transmitting a second CF-End frame,wherein the first CF-End frame is transmitted by the first STA that has gained access to the channel and has no more data to transmit,wherein the synchronization frame is distinguished from a beacon frame, and is transmitted by the AP between beacon frames to allow the first STA to access the channel,wherein when a response frame in response to the synchronization frame is not received during the response waiting time, the AP transmits a third CF-End frame, andwherein the second and third CF-End frames are transmitted by the AP to reset a network allocation vector (NAV) of a STA receiving the second and third CF-End frames.

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