DYNAMICALLY CONTROLLING ACCESS METHODS IN A WIRELESS NETWORK

• US 20060239292A1
• Filed: 04/25/2006
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pandey, Aparna, Rotstein, Ron, Kahana, Emanuel
• Application Number:
  US11/380,046
• Publication Number:
  US 20060239292A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/437
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/02 Hybrid access

Abstract

A system (100) that includes a device (120), such as an access point, which is configured for: obtaining (210) a status of a busy channel indicator; and dynamically selecting (220) an access scheme within a contention free period interval based on the status of the busy channel indicator.

Claims

1. A method of controlling an access scheme within a contention free interval in a wireless communications network, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining a status of a busy channel indicator; and

selecting the access scheme within the contention free period interval based on the status of the busy channel indicator.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the access scheme is selected based on the busy channel indicator having the same status for a predetermined time interval.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the access scheme is one of a contention-based method, a polling-based method and a schedule-based method.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the contention-based method is a Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) and the polling-based method is a Point Coordination Function (PCF).

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of communicating the selected access scheme on the wireless communications network.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the selected access scheme is communicated in a beacon.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a Hybrid Control Channel Access scheme is used to communicate a schedule message after the beacon when the access scheme selected is a schedule-based method.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the busy channel indicator is a Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) indicator.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the status of the busy channel indicator is determined in an access point.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the status of the busy channel indicator is determined in a station and received in an access point from the station.

11. A device comprising:

a transceiver; and

a processor operatively coupled to the transceiver and configured for performing the steps of;

obtaining a status of a busy channel indicator; and

selecting an access scheme within a contention free period interval based on the status of the busy channel indicator.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the device is an access point.

13. The device of claim 11 further comprising a busy channel indicator operatively coupled to the transceiver and the processor and that is a Clear Channel Assessment indicator.

14. The device of claim 11, wherein the communication device is included in a system that is operated in accordance with an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.11 standard.

15. A system that includes a device comprising:

a transceiver; and

a processor operatively coupled to the transceiver and configured for performing the steps of;

obtaining a status of a busy channel indicator; and

selecting access scheme within a contention free period interval based on the status of the busy channel indicator.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the system is operated in accordance with an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.11 standard.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the device is an access point.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the device further comprises a busy channel indicator operatively coupled to the transceiver and the processor and that is a Clear Channel Assessment indicator.