EFFICIENT UPLINK SDMA OPERATION

• US 20110158159A1
• Filed: 12/28/2009
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Stacey, Robert J., Gong, Michelle
• Granted Patent: US 8,687,546 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1621 Group acknowledgement, i.e. the acknowledgement message defining a range of identifiers, e.g. of sequence numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1671 the supervisory signal being transmitted together with control information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1685 the supervisory signal being transmitted in response to a specific request, e.g. to a polling signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/06 using polling

Abstract

According to various embodiments, a computer-implemented method is disclosed that allows an AP to efficiently poll various information from STAs belonging to a SDMA group. Each STA may transmit uplink frames using uplink SDMA mechanism.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a group polling frame including one or more group identifiers each of which identifies either one of one or more groups of wireless devices or one of the wireless devices from the one of one or more groups, the one or more group identifiers arranged in a particular order in the group polling frame; and

transmitting, in response to the group polling frame, a first acknowledgement frame at a timing determined based on the order of the one or more group identifiers.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

said one or more groups include a first group comprising at least a first and second wireless devices; and

the first acknowledgement frame is transmitted by the first wireless device simultaneously with a second acknowledgement frame transmitted by the second device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the first and second acknowledgement frames are transmitted using Spatial Division Multiple Access (SDMA).

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the timing for transmitting the first acknowledgement frame is determined further based on the length of the first acknowledgement frame.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the timing for transmitting the first acknowledgement frame is determined further based on the length of a predetermined interval period defined between the group polling frame and the first acknowledgement frame.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the first acknowledgement frame includes a transmission right request associated with a first set of buffered traffic.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the first acknowledgement frame includes a queue size of a first set of buffered traffic.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a polling frame including a particular transmission right indicative of a transmission duration granted to each of the wireless devices belonging to the first group, the transmission duration being determined based on the transmission right request.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

transmitting, by the first wireless device, the first set of buffered traffic during the transmission duration.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the first set of buffered traffic is transmitted simultaneously with a second set of buffered data transmitted by the second wireless device.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the first and second sets of buffered traffic are transmitted using Spatial Division Multiple Access (SDMA).

12. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a polling frame including a transmission right granted to each of the wireless devices belonging to a first group; and

transmitting a first acknowledgement frame during a period determined based on the transmission right.

13. A computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein:

the group includes g at least a first and second wireless devices; and

the first acknowledgement frame is transmitted by the first wireless device simultaneously with a second acknowledgement frame transmitted by the second device.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the first and second acknowledgement frames are transmitted using Spatial Division Multiple Access (SDMA).

15. A computer-implemented method comprising:

transmitting, to a group of wireless devices, a polling frame including a transmission right granted to each of the wireless devices belonging to the group; and

receiving frames transmitted using Spatial Division Multiple Access (SDMA) from at least one of the wireless devices belonging to the group.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the transmission right defines a period during which the wireless devices are allowed to transmit buffered traffic.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein receiving a plurality of frames from a plurality of wireless devices belonging to the group;

and

the method further comprising;

transmitting acknowledgement frames to the group of wireless devices in response to the receipt of the longest buffered traffic.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the acknowledgement frames are transmitted using downlink SDMA or downlink OFDMA.