Wireless communication apparatus and wireless communication method

• US 20070086471A1
• Filed: 09/18/2006
• Published: 04/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamada, Akira, Fujiwara, Atsushi, Igarashi, Kei
• Granted Patent: US 7,697,457 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/412
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/56 based on priority criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A wireless communication apparatus comprises a transmission buffer configured to store packets addressed to one or more communication nodes in the network until a transmission timing; a requesting interval determination unit configured to determine a listen interval for each of the communication nodes based on the amount and/or the priority of packets accumulated in the transmission buffer; and a transmission unit configured to transmit a request frame to each of the communication nodes to request the communication nodes to receive a beacon from the wireless communication apparatus at the determined listen interval.

Claims

1. A wireless communication apparatus comprising:

a transmission buffer configured to store packets addressed to one or more communication nodes in the network until a transmission timing;

a requesting interval determination unit configured to determine a listen interval for each of the communication nodes based on an amount and/or a priority of packets accumulated in the transmission buffer; and

a transmission unit configured to transmit a request frame to each of the communication nodes to request said each of the communication nodes to receive a beacon from the wireless communication apparatus at the determined listen interval.

2. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transmission unit transmits the beacon to report the determined listen interval to each of the communication nodes.

3. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transmission buffer categorizes and stores the packets according to priority levels.

4. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the listen interval is expressed as a product of a reference interval and an interval factor, and the interval factor is determined as a function of the amount of the packets accumulated in the transmission buffer and the priority level of the packets.

5. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 4, wherein the interval factor is expressed as a power of 2.

6. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a request frame generating unit configured to generate the request frame for each of the communication nodes independently from the beacon to report the determined listen interval.

7. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an interval determination unit configured to determine a second listen interval for the wireless communication apparatus itself when a request for changing a currently used listen interval is transmitted from at least one of the communication nodes to the wireless communication apparatus.

8. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 7, wherein if the determined second listen interval is shorter than the currently used listen interval, the transmission unit transmits a response frame to the request immediately after the reception of the request, independently from the beacon.

9. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 7, wherein if the determined second listen interval is longer than the currently used listen interval, a beacon transmission queue time is reduced and the transmission unit reports the determined second listen interval to at least one of the communication nodes using the beacon.

10. A wireless communication method comprising the steps of:

storing packets addressed to one or more communication nodes in a transmission buffer;

determining a listen interval for each of the communication nodes based on an amount and/or a priority of the packets accumulated in the transmission buffer; and

requesting each of the communication nodes to receive a beacon at the determined listen interval.