Multi-channel binding in data transmission

• US 20050100039A1
• Filed: 11/06/2003
• Published: 05/12/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Atheros Incorporated
• Inventors: Gilbert, Jeffrey M., Husted, Paul, McFarland, William John
• Granted Patent: US 7,620,028 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/445
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/20 Negotiating bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/00 Wireless channel access

Abstract

A system and method are described for binding together a plurality of wireless data communications channels, whereby an aggregate throughput improvement is realized. A master channel amongst the channels to be bound is compatible with existing standards-based wireless data communications equipment. The master channel serves to perform MAC association and flow control. Aggregate throughput is improved by sending and receiving either multiple sets of separately encoded packets, commonly encoded packets or redundantly encoded packets.

Claims

1. A method of sending data over a wireless data channel including:

transmitting data over a master channel wherein the master channel corresponds to a standard channel; and

transmitting data over a secondary channel that is bound to the master channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitted master channel and the secondary channel are combined at a baseband frequency.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the master channel and the secondary channel are adjacent in frequency.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the master channel and the secondary channel are on different frequency bands.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the number of secondary channels is even.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the separation of the secondary channels spans an odd number of unused channels.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein only the master channel negotiates MAC association.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein only the master channel transmits a beacon signal.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein only the master channel responds to a probe signal to initiate a MAC negotiation.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the master channel provides flow control for the master channel and the secondary channel.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the master channel provides flow control for the master channel and the secondary channel and wherein the flow control is CSMA.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein CSMA carrier sense is sensed on the master channel and the secondary channel. 13. The method of claim 1 wherein the master channel provides flow control for the master channel and the secondary channel and wherein the flow control is RTS/CTS.

13. The method claim 1 wherein the master channel and the secondary channel carry independent data packets.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the master channel and the secondary channel carry independent data packets and wherein transmitting of the independent data packets results in substantially the same transmit duration on the master channel and the secondary channel.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the master channel and the secondary channel carry independent data packets and wherein transmitting of the independent data packets results in the transmit duration on the master channel exceeding that of the secondary channel.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the master channel and the secondary channel carry common-coded data packets.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the master channel and the secondary channel carry common-coded data packets and wherein transmitting of the common-coded data packets results in the transmit duration on the master channel exceeding that of the secondary channel.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the master channel and the secondary channel carry common-coded data packets and wherein encoding of the common-coded data packets is performed by the same convolutional encoder.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the master channel and the secondary channel carry redundant data packets.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the master channel and the secondary channel carry redundant data packets and wherein the redundant data packets are combined to minimize an estimate of decoded bit error.

21. A method of receiving data over a wireless data channel including:

receiving data over a master channel wherein the master channel corresponds to a standard channel; and

receiving data over a secondary channel that is bound to the master channel.

22. A wireless data transmitter including:

a source of data to be transmitted;

a data distributor connected to the data source wherein the data distributor splits the data into a plurality of stream outputs; and

a plurality of data output channels connected to the plurality of stream outputs wherein one of the data channels is a master channel that corresponds to a standard channel and one of the data channels is a secondary channel that is bound to the master channel.

23. A wireless data transmitter as recited in claim 23 wherein the data distributor distributes copies of the data from the data source to the plurality of stream outputs.

24. A wireless data transmitter as recited in claim 23 wherein the data distributor distributes different portions of the data from the data source to the plurality of stream outputs.

25. A wireless data transmitter as recited in claim 23 further including a plurality of IFFT processors wherein each IFFT processor processes one of the stream outputs.

26. A wireless data transmitter as recited in claim 23 further including single IFFT processor that handles a plurality of the stream outputs.

27. A wireless data receiver including:

a plurality of data channel processors; and

a data combiner connected to the plurality of data channel processors configured to combine data from the data channels to recover a data stream transmitted over the channels wherein one of the data channels is a master channel that corresponds to a standard channel and one of the data channels is a secondary channel that is bound to the master channel.