SELECTING FORWARDING DEVICES IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK
First Claim
1. A method comprisingdetermining a throughput associated with a direct communication link between a coordinating network device and each of a plurality of client stations associated with a wireless communication network;
- identifying an inaccessible client station from the plurality of client stations that is inaccessible to the coordinating network device via the direct communication link, and one or more accessible client stations from the plurality of client stations that are accessible to the coordinating network device via the direct communication link, based, at least in part, on the throughput associated with the direct communication link between the coordinating network device and each of the plurality of client stations;
identifying an accessible client station from the one or more accessible client stations to designate as a forwarding client station with respect to the coordinating network device and the inaccessible client station based, at least in part, on a cumulative throughput associated with a communication link between the coordinating network device and the inaccessible client station via the accessible client station; and
transmitting data from the coordinating network device to the inaccessible client station via the forwarding client station.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A forwarding device can establish a communication link with both a source device and a destination device to extend the communication range of the source device by forwarding data from the source device to the destination device. A coordinating device can be configured to identify a forwarding client through which to communicate with a client station that is inaccessible to the coordinating device via a direct communication link, based on the throughput achieved on communication links between the coordinating device, the inaccessible client, and accessible clients. The throughput achieved on the communication links can be determined by exchanging training packets, receiving acknowledgement messages in response to the training packets, and subsequently analyzing the received acknowledgement messages. Based on the calculated throughputs, one of the accessible clients can be designated as the forwarding client with respect to the coordinating device and the inaccessible client.
58 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method comprising
determining a throughput associated with a direct communication link between a coordinating network device and each of a plurality of client stations associated with a wireless communication network; -
identifying an inaccessible client station from the plurality of client stations that is inaccessible to the coordinating network device via the direct communication link, and one or more accessible client stations from the plurality of client stations that are accessible to the coordinating network device via the direct communication link, based, at least in part, on the throughput associated with the direct communication link between the coordinating network device and each of the plurality of client stations; identifying an accessible client station from the one or more accessible client stations to designate as a forwarding client station with respect to the coordinating network device and the inaccessible client station based, at least in part, on a cumulative throughput associated with a communication link between the coordinating network device and the inaccessible client station via the accessible client station; and transmitting data from the coordinating network device to the inaccessible client station via the forwarding client station. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A communication network device comprising:
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a processor; a network interface coupled with the processor; and a route identification unit coupled with the processor and the network interface, the route identification unit operable to; determine a throughput associated with a direct communication link between the communication network device and each of a plurality of client stations associated with a wireless communication network; identify an inaccessible client station from the plurality of client stations that is inaccessible to the communication network device via the direct communication link, and one or more accessible client stations from the plurality of client stations that are accessible to the communication network device via the direct communication link, based, at least in part, on the throughput associated with the direct communication link between the communication network device and each of the plurality of client stations; identify an accessible client station from the one or more accessible client stations to designate as a forwarding client station with respect to the communication network device and the inaccessible client station based, at least in part, on a cumulative throughput associated with a communication link between the communication network device and the inaccessible client station via the accessible client station; and transmit data from the communication network device to the inaccessible client station via the forwarding client station. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. One or more machine-readable storage media, having instructions stored therein, which, when executed by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform operations that comprise:
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determining a throughput associated with a direct communication link between a coordinating network device and each of a plurality of client stations associated with a wireless communication network; identifying an inaccessible client station from the plurality of client stations that is inaccessible to the coordinating network device via the direct communication link, and one or more accessible client stations from the plurality of client stations that are accessible to the coordinating network device via the direct communication link, based, at least in part, on the throughput associated with the direct communication link between the coordinating network device and each of the plurality of client stations; for each of the one or more accessible client stations associated with the wireless communication network, calculating a cumulative throughput associated with a communication link between the coordinating network device and the inaccessible client station via the accessible client station, based on the throughput associated with the communication link between the coordinating network device and the accessible client station, and based on a throughput associated with a communication link between the accessible client station and the inaccessible client station; identifying one of the one or more accessible client stations to designate as a forwarding client station with respect to the coordinating network device and the inaccessible client station based, at least in part, on said calculating the cumulative throughput of the communication link between the coordinating network device and the inaccessible client station via each of the one or more accessible client stations; and transmitting data from the coordinating network device to the inaccessible client station via the forwarding client station. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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Specification