SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MULTIPLE CONTENTION ACCESS PERIODS

• US 20090052389A1
• Filed: 08/11/2008
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Singh, Harkirat, Shao, Huai-Rong, Ngo, Chiu, Qin, Xiangping
• Granted Patent: US 8,917,675 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/08 Non-scheduled access, e.g. ALOHA hybrid access H04W74/02

Abstract

A system and method for multiple contention access periods is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system for wireless communication comprises a coordinator configured to schedule wireless transmissions among a plurality of wireless devices during a plurality of superframes, at least one of the superframes comprising a period during which the coordinator is configured to receive one or more data packets from the wireless devices via at least one random access scheme, the period being partitioned into a plurality of sub-periods which do not overlap with one another, wherein the coordinator is configured to receive at least a first data packet having a first value for a parameter during a first sub-period and a second data packet having a second value for the parameter during a second sub-period, and wherein the first and second values for the parameter are different from each other.

Claims

1. A system for wireless communication, the system comprising:

a coordinator configured to schedule wireless transmissions among a plurality of wireless devices during a plurality of superframes, at least one of the superframes comprising a period during which the coordinator is configured to receive one or more data packets from the wireless devices via at least one random access scheme, the period being partitioned into a plurality of sub-periods which do not overlap with one another,

wherein the coordinator is configured to receive at least a first data packet having a first value for a parameter during a first sub-period and a second data packet having a second value for the parameter during a second sub-period, and

wherein the first and second values for the parameter are different from each other.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the period is a contention access period (CAP), and wherein the plurality of sub-periods comprises first and second sub-contention access periods.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the parameter is indicative of a direction in which the coordinator receives the data packets.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the coordinator includes a sector antenna or antenna array.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the parameters comprise is indicative of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS).

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the first and second values of the parameter are respectively indicative of a first and second physical layer transmission scheme.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the first physical layer transmission scheme comprises a orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) mode, and wherein the second physical layer transmission scheme comprises a single-carrier mode.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein the parameters is indicative of comprise a random access scheme.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the first and second random access schemes comprise at least two of the following:

slotted Aloha, carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA), and preamble sense multiple access (PSMA).

10. The system of claim 2, wherein the contention access period is partitioned into a plurality of sub-contention access periods using a first partitioning, and wherein the superframe further comprises a beacon period during which the coordinator is configured to transmit one or more beacon frames to the wireless devices, and wherein the one or more beacon frames comprise information indicative of the first partitioning.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the coordinator is further configured to determine the probability of collision during at least one of the sub-periods of the first partitioning.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the coordinator is further configured to transmit information indicative of a second partitioning so that the probability of collision is reduced.

13. An electronic device for wireless communication, the device comprising:

a transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit a data packet to a coordinator during a contention access period of at least one of a plurality of superframes, the contention access period comprising a plurality of non-overlapping sub-contention access periods; and

a receiver configured to receive information on the plurality of sub-contention access periods,

wherein the transmitter is further configured to send the data packet during one or more of the plurality of sub-contention access periods based at least partly on the received information.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the receiver includes a memory to store and access the received information.

15. The device of claim 13, wherein the receiver is configured to receive a beacon from the coordinator, and wherein the received beacon comprises the received information.

16. A method of wireless communication in a wireless network, the method comprising:

receiving a first data packet having a first value for a parameter during a first sub-contention access period of a superframe, wherein the superframe comprises a contention access period, wherein the contention access period comprises the first sub-contention access period and at least a second sub-contention access period, the first and second sub-contention access periods being non-overlapping with each other; and

receiving a second data packet having a second value for the parameter during the second sub-contention access period,

wherein the first and second values for the parameter are different.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising transmitting information on the first and second sub-contention access periods.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the parameter is indicative of a direction in which the data packets are received, wherein the first data packet is received from a first direction, and wherein the second data packet is received from a second direction different from the first direction.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

prior to receiving the first data packet, configuring a directional antenna to receive information from the first direction; and

after receiving the first data packet, but prior to receiving the second data packet, configuring a directional antenna to receive information from the second direction.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the parameter is indicative of a modulation and coding scheme, wherein the first data packet is received encoded with a first modulation and coding scheme, and wherein the second data packet is received encoded with a second modulation and coding scheme.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

decoding the first data packet according to the first modulation and coding scheme, and

decoding the second data packet according to the second modulation and coding scheme.

22. A method for wirelessly communicating data, the method comprising:

transmitting a data packet to a coordinator during a contention access period of at least one of a plurality of superframes, the contention access period comprising a plurality of non-overlapping sub-contention access periods; and

receiving information on the plurality of sub-contention access periods,

wherein the data packet is transmitted during one or more of the plurality of sub-contention access periods based at least partly on the information on the plurality of sub-contention access periods.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein receiving information on the plurality of sub-contention access periods comprises accessing a memory.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein receiving information on the plurality of sub-contention access periods comprises receiving a beacon from the coordinator.