Adaptive MAC architecture for wireless networks

• US 20060045117A1
• Filed: 09/01/2004
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Qi, Emily H., Murty, Ravi, Tai, Tsung-Yuan
• Granted Patent: US 7,583,645 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/445
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/04 TPC
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/00 Wireless channel access

Abstract

Devices and methods for observing characteristics of a wireless communication network environment and adjusting at least two different communication configuration parameters substantially at a same time based on the observed characteristics. The devices and methods may monitor radio resource measurements and initiate adaptive smarts for adjusting communication parameters of various protocol layers as a combination. Various other embodiments and features are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method of communicating comprising:

observing characteristics of a wireless communication network environment; and

adjusting at least two different communication configuration parameters substantially at a same time based on the observed characteristics.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the at least two different communication configuration parameters are associated with a physical (PHY) layer and is selected from the group consisting of configuration parameters for modulation adaptation and transmit power control adaptation.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the at least two different communication configuration parameters are associated with a media access control (MAC) layer and is selected from the group consisting of configuration parameters for access point (AP) selection, fragmentation size adaptation, data rate adaptation, request-to-send (RTS) clear-to-send (CTS) threshold adaptation, collision avoidance adaptation, power management adaptation, dynamic channel allocation or spectral reuse.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the at least two different communication configuration parameters are associated with at least one of network or transport layers and is selected from the group consisting of configuration parameters for end-to-end protocol adaptation or congestion control adaptation.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the at least one of network or transport layers comprise a transmit control protocol (TCP) user datagram protocol (UDP) Internet protocol (IP) layer.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the at least two different communication configuration parameters is associated with an application layer to influence an application program for mobility awareness.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein observing characteristics of a wireless communication environment comprises collecting at least one of radio resource measurement data or wireless network information from a PHY or MAC layer and comparing the collected data or information with a plurality of predetermined thresholds.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein if one of the plurality of predetermined thresholds is met, a set of communication configuration parameters corresponding to the met threshold is adjusted.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the collected data or information comprises data or information at least partially provided by a peer network device.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless communication network environment comprises a wireless local area network (WLAN) environment.

11. A device for wireless communication, the device comprising:

a processing circuit configured to adjust at least two different communication configuration parameters substantially at a same time based on one or more observed characteristics of a wireless network environment.

12. The device of claim 11 wherein the at least two different communication configuration parameters are respectively associated with different protocol layers.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein the different protocol layers comprise two or more selected from the group consisting of a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, a network layer, a transport layer or an application layer.

14. The device of claim 11 further comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) interface communicatively coupled to the processing circuit.

15. The device of claim 11 wherein the device comprises at least a portion of a mobile station.

16. The device of claim 11 wherein the device comprises at least a portion of a network access station.

17. The device of claim 11 wherein the device comprises a network interface card (NIC).

18. The device of claim 11 wherein the at least two different communication configuration parameters are selected from a group consisting of parameters for modulation adaptation, transmit power control adaptation, access point (AP) selection adaptation, fragmentation size adaptation, data rate adaptation, request-to-send (RTS) clear-to-send (CTS) threshold adaptation, collision avoidance adaptation, power management adaptation, dynamic channel allocation, spectral reuse, end-to-end protocol adaptation or congestion control adaptation.

19. The device of claim 11 wherein the device comprises a wireless local area network (WLAN) device.

20. The device of claim 11 wherein the processing circuit is further configured to collect radio resource measurement data and compare the collected data with a plurality of thresholds to determine which communication configuration parameters to adjust.

21. A system comprising:

a processing circuit configured to adjust at least two different communication configuration parameters substantially at a same time based on observed characteristics of a wireless network environment; and

a radio frequency (RF) interface communicatively coupled to the processing circuit, the RF interface adapted to transmit or receive data using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM).

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least two different communication configuration parameters are respectively associated with different protocol layers.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the different protocol layers comprise at least two selected from the group consisting of a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, a transmit control protocol (TCP) user datagram protocol (UDP) Internet protocol (IP) layer or an application layer.

24. A memory having machine readable code stored thereon the machine readable code comprising:

code for adjusting a set of different communication configuration parameters at substantially a same time in response to changing channel conditions.

25. The memory of claim 24 wherein the communication configuration parameters comprise media access control (MAC) parameters and or physical (PHY) parameters.

26. The memory of claim 25 wherein the MAC parameters comprise one or more parameters for adapting fragmentation size, data rate, request-to-send (RTS) clear-to-send (CTS) threshold, collision avoidance, power management, dynamic channel allocation, or spectral reuse.

27. The memory of claim 25 wherein the PHY parameters comprise one or more parameters for adapting modulation or transmit power control.

28. A wireless communication device comprising:

a radio resource measurement circuit to collect radio resource measurement data;

a radio resource monitor circuit in communication with the measurement circuit to compare the measurement data with a plurality of thresholds; and

a communication configuration adaptation circuit to adapt two or more communication configuration parameters of the wireless communication device at a time based on the comparison from the radio resource monitor circuit.

29. The wireless communication device of claim 28 wherein the device comprises a wireless local area network (WLAN) device.

30. The wireless communication device of claim 28 wherein the device comprises at least a part of a mobile station.

31. The wireless communication device of claim 29 wherein the device comprises at least a part of an access point (AP).