Hardware control interface for IEEE standard 802.11 including transmission control interface component

• US 20080270630A1
• Filed: 04/26/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kuehnel, Thomas W., Ruan, Jiandong
• Granted Patent: US 7,716,379 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/250
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/387 for adaptation of different data processing systems to different peripheral devices, e.g. protocol converters for incompatible systems, open system
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/22 Negotiating communication rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/08 Non-scheduled access, e.g. ALOHA hybrid access H04W74/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A standardized 802.11 hardware control interface may be provided such that a driver may communicate with any one or more of a variety of network adapters.

Claims

1. A computer, comprising:

a processing unit comprising at least one processor;

a driver module that executes on the processing unit, the driver module comprising a hardware control interface having at least a transmission control interface component configured to provide transmission control information to a network adapter to control the network adapter to communicate in accordance with IEEE standard 802.11, the transmission control information comprising;

a first field comprising at least one flag, each one of the at least one flag representing transmission-related information;

a second field comprising transmission rate information;

a third field comprising arbitration inter-frame space number information; and

a fourth field comprising contention window information.

2. The computer of claim 1, wherein the transmission control information further comprises:

a fifth field comprising table index information.

3. The computer of claim 1, wherein the transmission control information further comprises:

a sixth field comprising information related to a time at which transmission occurs.

4. The computer of claim 1, wherein a first one of the at least one flag indicates whether acknowledgement of a wireless transmission is required.

5. The computer of claim 1, wherein a second one of the at least one flag indicates whether the packet should be encrypted by the network adapter.

6. The computer of claim 1, wherein the contention window information comprises a maximum contention window size and a minimum contention window size.

7. The computer of claim 1, wherein the transmission control information is provided such that the first field precedes the second field, the second field precedes the third field, and the third field precedes the fourth field.

8. The computer of claim 1, wherein the at least one flag comprises at least seven flags.

9. In a computer system comprising a driver module that at least partially controls a network adapter to engage in wireless communication in accordance with IEEE standard 802.11, a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions, which, when executed, perform a method comprising an act of:

(A) providing transmission control information to the network adapter via a transmission control interface component, the transmission control information comprising;

a first field comprising at least one flags, each one of the at least one flags representing transmission-related information;

a second field comprising transmission rate information;

a third field comprising arbitration inter-frame space number information; and

a fourth field comprising contention window information.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the transmission control information further comprises:

a fifth field comprising table index information.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the transmission control information further comprises:

a sixth field comprising information related to a time at which transmission occurs.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein a first one of the at least one flag indicates whether acknowledgement of a wireless transmission is required.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein a second one of the at least one flag indicates whether the packet should be encrypted by the network adapter.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the contention window information comprises a maximum contention window size and a minimum contention window size.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the transmission control information is provided such that the first field precedes the second field, the second field precedes the third field, and the third field precedes the fourth field.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the at least one flag comprises at least seven flags.

17. A method of developing a driver, the method comprising:

(A) analyzing a hardware control interface developed by a first developer entity that is independent of second developer entity which is developing the driver module, the hardware control interface being configured to provide transmission control information to a network adapter to control the network adapter to engage in IEEE 802.11 communication, wherein the transmission control information comprises;

a first field comprising at least one flag, each one of the at least one flag representing transmission-related information;

a second field comprising transmission rate information;

a third field comprising arbitration inter-frame space number information; and

a fourth field comprising contention window information; and

(B) designing a driver to at least partially control the network adapter via the hardware control interface to engage in communication in accordance with IEEE standard 802.11.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

(C) designing a network adapter to exchange information via the hardware control interface.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the transmission control information further comprises:

a fifth field comprising table index information.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the transmission control information further comprises:

a sixth field comprising information related to a time at which transmission occurs.