Advance Notification of Transmit Opportunities on a Shared-Communications Channel
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Accused Products
Abstract
A technique is disclosed that enables both an IEEE 802.11 transceiver and a Bluetooth transceiver to be employed in a single wireless telecommunication station (e.g., a device supporting a wireless telephone, personal digital assistant, etc.) without interfering on each other. In particular, the illustrative embodiment enables standard “off-the-shelf” IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth transceivers to work in a coordinated fashion in a single telecommunications terminal. In the illustrative embodiment, an IEEE 802.11 transceiver that uses a shared-communications channel notifies a Bluetooth transceiver that a transmit opportunity exists and that the Bluetooth transceiver has permission to use the shared-communications channel. The technique disclosed is also applicable to communications protocols other than IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth.
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Citations
41 Claims
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1-21. -21. (canceled)
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22. An apparatus, comprising:
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means for receiving, via a shared-communications channel, a beacon frame in accordance with a first communications protocol, the beacon frame comprising a beacon interval; and means for sending a notification of a transmit opportunity for transmissions in accordance with a second communications protocol, wherein the transmit opportunity is based on the beacon interval and a time at which the beacon frame is received. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. An article of manufacture including a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
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receiving, at a transceiver via a shared-communications channel, a beacon frame in accordance with a first communications protocol, the beacon frame comprising a beacon interval; and sending a notification of a transmit opportunity in accordance with a second communications protocol, wherein the transmit opportunity is based on the beacon interval and a time at which the beacon frame is received. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. An apparatus, comprising:
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means for receiving, via a shared-communications channel, a first beacon frame in accordance with a first communications protocol, the first beacon frame comprising a beacon interval; and means for determining a transmit opportunity, wherein the transmit opportunity is based on the beacon interval and a time at which the beacon frame is received; means for sending, via the shared-communications channel, a frame in accordance with a second communications protocol during the transmit opportunity, wherein the first communications protocol is not the same as the second communications protocol. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. An article of manufacture including a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
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receiving, at a first transceiver via a shared-communications channel, a first beacon frame in accordance with a first communications protocol, the first beacon frame comprising a beacon interval; and determining a transmit opportunity, wherein the transmit opportunity is based on the beacon interval and a time at which the beacon frame is received; sending, at a second transceiver via the shared-communications channel, a frame in accordance with a second communications protocol during the transmit opportunity, wherein the first communications protocol is not the same as the second communications protocol. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41)
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Specification