Detecting interference between neighboring basic service sets (BSSs) in wireless local area network (WLAN) system

• US 20060079183A1
• Filed: 08/16/2005
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Yi, Sang-Kug, Song, Hak-Hoon
• Application Number:
  US11/203,991
• Publication Number:
  US 20060079183A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/63.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/10 Dynamic resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/16 for PBS [Private Base Station] arrangements

Abstract

Detecting interference between neighboring Basic Service Sets (BSSs) in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) system conforming to an IEEE 802.11 standard in which an arbitrary Access Point (AP) wirelessly transmits and receives frames to and from a station in a relevant BSS includes: receiving the frames; calculating an other-BSSID rate for the received frames; and determining whether interference has occurred, based on the other-BSSID rate.

Claims

1. An apparatus to detect interference between neighboring Basic Service Sets (BSSs) in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) system in which an arbitrary Access Point (AP) wirelessly transmits and receives frames to and from a station in a relevant BSS, the apparatus comprising:

an other-BSSID rate calculator adapted to calculate a rate of frames containing an IDentifier (ID) of the relevant BSS and other BSSID (BSS IDentifier) among all of the received frames; and

an interference detector adapted to determine whether interference between the BSSs has occurred, based on the other-BSSID rate calculated by the other-BSSID rate calculator.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the other-BSSID rate calculator is adapted to calculate the other-BSSID rate in accordance with the following equation:

R_OBSS=w₀Num(n)+w₁Num(n+1)+ +w<sub>L−

1</sub>Num(n+L−

1)

wherein, Num (n) is the number of other BSSIDs measured at each time interval, R_OBSS is the other-BSSID rate, and w is a weight of each time interval.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a storage area adapted to store the calculated other-BSSID rate.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the interference detector is adapted to determine that interference has occurred in response to the other-BSSID rate being more than a predetermined threshold value.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the BSSID comprises an identifier indicating a BSS in which an arbitrary station is being currently serviced.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the BSSID comprises a Medium Access Control (MAC) address of the AP.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a channel switch adapted to receive a signal notifying an occurrence of interference and to switch a channel assigned for frame transmission and reception in response to the interference detector determining that interference has occurred and to output the signal notifying the occurrence of interference.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an error rate calculator adapted to measure an error rate caused in receipt of the frame.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the error rate calculator is adapted to calculate the error rate in accordance with the following equation:

R_ERR=w₀Err(n)+w₁Err(n+1)+ +w<sub>L−

1</sub>Err(n+L−

1)

wherein, Err(n) is the number of errors measured during each time interval, Err(n) is the most recently created error, Err(n+L−

1) is the oldest created error, and w is a weight of each time interval.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein the interference detector is adapted to determine that interference has occurred in response to the other-BSSID rate being more than a first predetermined threshold value, upon the error rate being less than a predetermined threshold value, and

wherein the interference detector is adapted to determine that interference has occurred in response to the other-BSSID rate being more than a second threshold value smaller than the first threshold value, upon the error rate being more than the predetermined threshold value.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising a storage area adapted to store the calculated error rate.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a frame identifier adapted to determine whether the received frame is a frame allowing interference detection.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the frame identifier is adapted to determine that a frame containing the BSSID is the frame allowing the interference detection.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the frame containing the BSSID comprises at least one of a management frame and a data frame.

15. An apparatus adapted to detect interference in an Access Point (AP) wirelessly transmitting and receiving frames to and from a station in a Basic Service Set (BSS) in a Wireless Local Area Network (LAN) system conforming to an IEEE 802.11 standard, the apparatus comprising:

an other-BSSID rate calculator adapted to calculate a rate of frames containing an other-BSSID (BSS IDentifier) among all of the received frames;

an interference detector adapted to determine whether interference between the BSSs has occurred, based on the other-BSSID rate calculated by the other-BSSID rate calculator; and

a channel switch adapted to switch a channel assigned for frame transmission and reception in response to the interference detector determining that interference has occurred.

16. An apparatus adapted to detect interference in a station wirelessly transmitting and receiving frames to and from an Access Point (AP) in a Basic Service Set (BSS) of a Wireless Local Area Network (LAN) system conforming to an IEEE 802.11 standard, the apparatus comprising:

an other-BSSID rate calculator adapted to calculate a rate of frames containing an other-BSSID (BSS IDentifier) among all of the received frames;

an interference detector adapted to determine whether interference between the BSSs has occurred, based on the other-BSSID rate calculated by the other-BSSID rate calculator; and

a channel switch adapted to transmit a signal to the AP to request channel switching in response to the interference detector determining that interference has occurred.

17. A method of detecting interference between neighboring Basic Service Sets (BSSs) in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) system conforming to an IEEE 802.11 standard in which an arbitrary Access Point (AP) wirelessly transmits and receives frames to and from a station in a relevant BSS, the method comprising:

receiving the frames;

calculating an other-BSSID rate for the received frames; and

determining whether interference has occurred, based on the other-BSSID rate.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the other-BSSID rate is calculated in accordance with the following equation:

R_OBSS=w₀Num(n)+w₁Num(n+1)+ +w<sub>L−

1</sub>Num(n+L−

1)

wherein, Num (n) is the number of other BSSIDs measured at each time interval, R_OBSS is the other-BSSID rate, and w is a weight of each time interval.

19. The method according to claim 17, further comprising switching an assigned channel for frame transmission and reception in response to a determination that interference has occurred.