Communications Techniques For Bursty Noise Environments

• US 20120140647A1
• Filed: 12/06/2010
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Gao, Jie, Li, Qinghua, Lin, Xintian, Liu, Hsin-Yuo
• Granted Patent: US 8,824,288 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/22 Traffic shaping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/263 Rate modification at the source after receiving feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0236 radio quality, e.g. interference, losses or delay
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed that involve communicating in bursty noise environments. For instance, a source device may send a probing packet to a destination device. This probing packet is for determining whether the communications medium (e.g., one or more frequency channels) is currently exhibiting a busy or jammed (e.g., due to bursty noise) condition. More particularly, based on whether an acknowledgment of the probing packet is received, the source device determines whether the channel is jammed (or busy) or clear. For example, an unacknowledged probing packet indicates that the channel is jammed or busy, while an acknowledged probing packet indicates that the channel is clear. If the channel is determined to be clear, then the source device may transmit one or more data packets to the destination device. Such data packet transmissions may be in accordance with a non rate-adaptive technique.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

transmitting one or more probing packets from a source device to a destination device;

based on a responsive outcome to the one or more probing packets, selecting between a rate-adaptive transmission technique and a non rate-adaptive transmission technique; and

transmitting one or more data packets from the source device to the destination device in accordance with the selected transmission technique.

2. The method of claim 1:

wherein the rate-adaptive transmission technique is selected when a predetermined number of failed non rate-adaptive retransmissions occurs.

3. The method of claim 1:

wherein a data rate of the one or more probing packets and a data rate of the non rate-adaptive transmission technique are determined in accordance with the rate-adaptive transmission technique.

4. The method of claim 1:

wherein said transmitting comprises transmitting one or more probing packet retransmissions; and

wherein said selecting comprises selecting the rate-adaptive transmission technique when a number of the probing packet retransmissions reaches a threshold value, and otherwise selecting the non rate-adaptive transmission technique.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said rate-adaptive transmission technique adjusts a data rate of the one or more data packets based on an occurrence of one or more packet failures.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said non rate-adaptive transmission technique employs a fixed data rate.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more probing packets is a ready to send (RTS) packet.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said source device and said destination device are included in an IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN).

9. A method, comprising:

determining whether a wireless communications medium is currently clear; and

when said determining indicates that the wireless communications medium is currently clear, transmitting one or more data packets from a source device to a destination device;

wherein said transmitting is in accordance with a non rate-adaptive technique.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said determining comprises:

transmitting one or more probing packets to the destination device; and

for each of the one or more probing packets, waiting for a corresponding probing response packet from the destination device.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said determining comprises concluding the wireless communications medium is unclear when an unreceived probing response packet count reaches a threshold value.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the one or more probing packets is a ready to send (RTS) packet, and each corresponding probing response packet is a clear to send (CTS) packet.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising waiting for an acknowledgement from the destination device for each of the one or more data packets.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising, when a number of unreceived acknowledgments reaches a threshold value, transmitting a probing packet to the destination device;

and waiting for a probing response packet from the destination device.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein said source and destination device are included in an IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN).

16. An apparatus, comprising:

a status determination module to make a determination regarding whether a wireless communications medium is currently clear; and

a transceiver module to transmit one or more data packets to a destination device in accordance with a non rate-adaptive technique when the status determination module determines that the wireless communications medium is currently clear.

17. The apparatus of claim 16:

wherein the transceiver module is to transmit one or more probing packets; and

wherein the status determination module is to make said determination based on a responsive outcome to the one or more probing packets.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the status determination module is to determine that the wireless communications medium is unclear when an unreceived probing response packet count reaches a threshold value.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein each of the one or more probing packets is a ready-to-send (RTS) packet.

20. An article comprising a machine-accessible medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

transmit one or more probing packets from a source device to a destination device;

based on a responsive outcome to the one or more probing packets, select between a rate-adaptive transmission technique and a non rate-adaptive transmission technique; and

transmit one or more data packets from the source device to the destination device in accordance with the selected transmission technique.