WIRELESS NETWORK AND ACCESS POINT FOR A WIRELESS NETWORK

• US 20130142186A1
• Filed: 12/31/2012
• Published: 06/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxlinear Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Lantiq Deutschland GMBH (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Rohfleisch, Bernhard, Bry, Charles
• Granted Patent: US 8,811,245 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Embodiments related to Wireless Networks and access points for a Wireless Network are described and depicted.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver to simultaneously transceive

first data to a station associated with a first basic service set, the first basic service set configured to support a mix of contemporary wireless standards and legacy wireless standards,

and second data to a station associated with a second basic service set, the second basic service set configured to support only contemporary wireless standards and to operate at a greater data throughput than the first basic service set;

a first MAC entity to process the first data and a second MAC entity to process the second data; and

one or more first RF chains, the one or more first RF chains being coupled to the first MAC entity and one or more second RF chains, the one or more second RF chains being coupled to the second MAC entity.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a first MAC entity to process the first data and a second MAC entity to process the second data.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an entity coupled to the one or more first RF chains, the entity being controllable to process in a first operation mode only the first data according to MIMO and/or STBC and/or beamforming techniques and to process in a second operation mode the first and the second data according to MIMO and/or STBC and/or beamforming techniques.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a controller entity to control the data traffic to the first and second MAC entities, wherein the controller entity is configured to assign a first station to a first basic service set and a second station to a second basic service set.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the controller entity is further configured to reassign the second station to the first basic service set and to control the transceiver to transceive the second data.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the controller entity is further configured to coordinate processing of the first data by the first MAC entity with the processing of the second data by the second MAC entity.

7. An apparatus, comprising:

a first port to receive data traffic comprising first and second data;

a first MAC circuitry to process the first data, the first MAC circuitry configured to support a mix of contemporary wireless standards and legacy wireless standards;

a second MAC circuitry to process the second data, the second MAC circuitry configured to support only contemporary wireless standards;

a controller entity to control concurrent transferring of the first data to the first MAC circuitry and transferring of the second data to the second MAC circuitry,

wherein the controller entity is further configured to assign a first client station to a first basic service set and to assign a second client station to a second basic service set, wherein the first data is associated with the first basic service set and the second data is associated with the second basic service set, and wherein the controller entity is further configured to transfer the first and second data based on the determined first and second basic service set, the second basic service set configured to operate at a greater data throughput than the first basic service set;

one or more first RF chains, the one or more first RF chains being coupled to the first MAC circuitry; and

a second RF chain, the second RF chain being coupled to the second MAC circuitry.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising an entity coupled to the one or more first RF chains, the entity being controllable to provide MIMO and/or STBC and/or beamforming processing in a first operation mode only for the first data and to provide MIMO and/or STBC and/or beamforming processing in a second operation mode for the first and the second data.

9. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the controller entity is further configured to reassign the second station to the first basic service set and to transfer the second data to the first MAC circuitry.

10. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the controller entity is further configured to coordinate processing of the first data by the first MAC circuitry with the processing of the second data by the second MAC circuitry.

11. A system, comprising

an access point;

and

a first wireless basic service set providing data transfer and a second wireless basic service set providing data transfer, wherein the first and second wireless basic service sets are serviced by the access point concurrently and independent from the respective other wireless basic service set,

wherein the access point comprises a first MAC entity to process first data and a second MAC entity to process second data

and wherein the first basic service set is configured to support a mix of contemporary wireless standards and legacy wireless standards and the second basic service set is configured to support only contemporary wireless standards and to operate at a greater data throughput than the first basic service set.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the access point further comprises a controller entity to control the first and second MAC entities, wherein the controller entity is configured to assign and reassign client stations to the first or second basic service set.

13. A method comprising:

assigning a first client station to a first basic service set serviced by an access point, the first basic service set configured to support a mix of contemporary wireless standards and legacy wireless standards;

assigning a second client station to a second basic service set serviced by the access point, the second basic service set configured to support only contemporary wireless standards and to operate at a greater data throughput than the first basic service set;

concurrently transceiving first data between the access point and the first client station and second data between the access point and the second client station,

wherein concurrently transceiving the first and second data comprises;

processing the first data in a first medium access controller (MAC) entity of the access point and processing the second data in a second MAC entity of the access point, and

transferring the first data to at least one first radio frequency (RF) chain and transferring the second data to at least one second RF chain.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein transceiving the first data comprises using a multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) technique and/or a space time block coding (STBC) technique and/or a beamforming technique.

15. The method according to claim 13, further comprising reassigning the second client station to the first basic service set and, after reassigning the second client station, transceiving the second data to the second client station.

17. The method according to claim 17, further comprising switching to a coexistence transceiving mode, wherein transceiving the first and second data in the coexistence transceiving mode comprises coordinating the processing of the first data by the first MAC entity with the processing of the second data by the second MAC entity.

16. The method according to claim 17, further comprising

reassigning the second client station to the first basic service set,

wherein transceiving the first and second data after reassigning the second client station comprises transferring the first and second data to the plurality of first chains and the second RF chain for transmitting the first and second data using a MIMO technique and/or a STBC technique and/or a beamforming technique.