System and method for handling asynchronous data in a wireless network

• US 20030152059A1
• Filed: 01/22/2003
• Published: 08/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: North Star Innovations Inc. (Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: Odman, Knut T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,684,380 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/69 Spread spectrum techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/02 Hybrid access

Abstract

A method is provided for transmitting wireless signals in a network comprising a network coordinator and one or more remote devices. The available transmission time is divided into a plurality of superframes, each of which is further divided up into a beacon duration, one or more management time slots, one or more guaranteed time slots, and one or more asynchronous time slots. Each of the management time slots, guaranteed time slots, and asynchronous time slots are assigned to one of the one or more remote devices. The network coordinator sends a beacon to the one or more remote devices during the beacon duration. The device or coordinator assigned to the current guaranteed time slot sends frames of isochronous data in the current guaranteed time slot. The device or coordinator assigned to the current asynchronous time slot sends frames of asynchronous data in the current asynchronous time slot.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting wireless signals in a network comprising a network coordinator and one or more remote devices, comprising

dividing up available transmission time into a plurality of superframes;

dividing each of the plurality of superframes into a beacon duration, one or more management time slots, one or more guaranteed time slots, and one or more asynchronous time slots;

assigning each management time slot to one of the one or more remote devices;

assigning each guaranteed time slot to one of the one or more remote devices or to the network coordinator;

assigning each asynchronous time slot to one of the one or more remote devices or to the network coordinator;

sending a beacon from the coordinator to the one or more remote devices during the beacon duration of each of the plurality of superframes;

sending one or more frames of isochronous data in a current guaranteed time slot from the one or more remote device or network coordinator assigned to the current guaranteed time slot; and

sending one or more frames of asynchronous data in a current asynchronous time slot from the one or more remote device or network coordinator assigned to the current asynchronous time slot.

2. A method of transmitting wireless signals in a network, as recited in claim 1, further comprising sending in a current management time slot a management frame from the one of the one or more remote devices assigned to the current management time slot to the network coordinator.

3. A method of transmitting wireless signals in a network, as recited in claim 1, further comprising sending in a current management time slot a management frame from the network coordinator to the one of the one or more remote devices assigned to the current management time slot.

4. A method of transmitting wireless signals in a network, as recited in claim 1, further comprising sending in a current management time slot a small asynchronous data frame from the one of the one or more remote devices assigned to the current management time slot to another of the one or more devices or the network coordinator.

5. A method of transmitting wireless signals in a network, as recited in claim 1, wherein a guaranteed time period assigned to the one or more guaranteed time slots is greater than an asynchronous time period assigned to the one or more asynchronous time slots.

6. A method of transmitting wireless signals in a network, as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more management time slots in each superframe includes at least

an uplink management time slot for transferring signals between the device assigned to the uplink management time slot and the network coordinator, and

a downlink management time slot for transferring signals between the network coordinator and the device assigned to the uplink management time slot.

7. A method of transmitting wireless signals in a network, as recited in claim 1, further comprising sending in a current uplink management time slot a small asynchronous data frame from the one of the one or more remote devices assigned to the current management time slot to another of the one or more devices or the network coordinator.

8. A method of transmitting wireless signals in a network, as recited in claim 1,

wherein the beacon duration is formed at the beginning of each of the superframes, and

wherein the one or more management time slots are formed directly after the beacon duration.