METHODS AND ARRANGEMENTS TO COORDINATE COMMUNICATIONS IN A WIRELESS NETWORK

• US 20130279382A1
• Filed: 12/29/2012
• Published: 10/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adrian P. Stephens, Emily H. Qi, Minyoung Park, Thomas A. Tetzlaff
• Original Assignee: Adrian P. Stephens, Emily H. Qi, Minyoung Park, Thomas A. Tetzlaff
• Inventors: Park, Minyoung, Stephens, Adrian P., Tetzlaff, Thomas A., Qi, Emily H.
• Granted Patent: US 9,426,832 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/085 collision avoidance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0891 for synchronized access
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Logic to coordinate communications of wireless communications devices to attenuate collisions, such as through coordination of communications by implementing slot logic in an access point. The slot logic may determine a time slot schedule for beacon intervals and may further transmit a synch frame at the time slot boundaries. If the channel is busy, the slot logic may not send the synch frame. The slot logic may also comprise distribution logic to determine a probability of collisions and to instruct one or more of the devices to spread out their channel accesses across beacons intervals to reduce the chance of collisions. A station associated with the access point may comprise synch logic to wake up at a slot boundary and wait for a synch frame or any other packets to synch to the medium.

Claims

1. A method to coordinate transmissions of devices on a wireless network, the method comprising:

determining, by a first communications device, a time slot schedule between beacon frame transmissions;

generating, by the first communications device, a first beacon frame indicating the time slot schedule;

transmitting, by the first communications device, the first beacon frame;

generating, by the first communications device, a first synch frame unless a communications channel is busy; and

transmitting, by the first communications device, the synch frame at a slot boundary between beacon frame transmissions unless the communications channel is busy.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a significant probability of collisions between two or more other communications devices;

determining a distribution of accesses by the two or more other communications devices;

generating a second beacon frame indicating the distribution of accesses; and

transmitting the frame.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining a significant probability of collisions comprises detecting a collision with a transmission from at least one of the other communications devices.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the time slot schedule between beacon frame transmissions comprises determining the time slot schedule with time slots, wherein each time slot may be a time duration of at least a duration for transmission of a physical layer convergence procedure protocol data unit plus a short interframe space.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the time slot schedule between beacon frame transmissions comprises dividing the beacon interval into more than one time slots, wherein each time slot may be a time duration of at least a duration for transmission of a physical layer convergence procedure protocol data unit plus a short interframe space plus a duration for transmission of an acknowledgement frame.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the first synch frame unless a communications channel is busy comprises generating a physical layer frame with six or more orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols.

7. An apparatus to coordinate transmissions of devices on a wireless network, the apparatus comprising:

a medium access control logic to determine a time slot schedule between beacon frame transmissions and to generate a first beacon frame indicating the time slot schedule; and

a physical layer logic coupled with the medium access control logic to generate and transmit a first synch frame unless a communications channel is busy and to encapsulate and transmit the first beacon frame.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising an antenna to transmit the frame encapsulated by the preamble.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising memory coupled with the medium access control logic to store the time slot schedule.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the medium access control logic comprises logic to determine a significant probability of collisions between two or more other communications devices;

determine a distribution of accesses by the two or more other communications devices;

generate a frame indicating the distribution of accesses; and

to instruct the physical layer logic transmit the frame.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the medium access control logic comprises logic to determine the time slot schedule with time slots, wherein each time slot may be a time duration of at least a duration for transmission of a physical layer convergence procedure protocol data unit plus a short interframe space plus a duration for transmission of an acknowledgement frame.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the medium access control logic comprises logic to divide the beacon interval into more than one time slots, wherein each time slot may be a time duration of at least a duration for transmission of a physical layer convergence procedure protocol data unit plus a short interframe space.

13. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the physical layer logic comprises logic to generate the synch frame with six or more orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols.

18. The machine accessible product of claim 13, wherein determining the time slot schedule between beacon frame transmissions comprises dividing the beacon interval into more than one time slots, wherein each time slot may be a time duration of at least a duration for transmission of a physical layer convergence procedure protocol data unit plus a short interframe space plus a duration for transmission of an acknowledgement frame.

19. The machine accessible product of claim 13, generating the first synch frame unless a communications channel is busy comprises generating a physical layer frame with six or more orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols.

14. A program product t to coordinate transmissions of devices on a wireless network, the program product comprising:

a storage medium comprising instructions to be executed by a processor-based device, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor-based device, perform operations, the operations comprising;

determining, by a first communications device, a time slot schedule between beacon frame transmissions;

generating, by the first communications device, a first beacon frame indicating the time slot schedule;

transmitting, by the first communications device, the first beacon frame;

generating, by the first communications device, a first synch frame unless a communications channel is busy; and

transmitting, by the first communications device, the synch frame at a slot boundary between beacon frame transmissions unless the communications channel is busy.

15. The machine accessible product of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a significant probability of collisions between two or more other communications devices;

determining a distribution of accesses by the two or more other communications devices;

generating a second beacon frame indicating the distribution of accesses; and

transmitting the frame.

16. The machine accessible product of claim 15, wherein determining a significant probability of collisions comprises detecting a collision with a transmission from at least one of the other communications devices.

17. The machine accessible product of claim 14, wherein determining the time slot schedule between beacon frame transmissions comprises determining the time slot schedule with time slots, wherein each time slot may be a time duration of at least a duration for transmission of a physical layer convergence procedure protocol data unit plus a short interframe space.

20. A method to coordinate transmissions of devices on a wireless network, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first communications device, a first beacon frame indicating a time slot schedule, wherein the time slot schedule indicates one or more time slots between beacon frame transmissions;

waking, by the first communications device, from a doze state to an awake state to receive a first synch frame at a boundary of a time slot; and

receiving the first synch frame to synch with a channel; and

transmitting a communication to an access point after synching with the channel.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising

receiving a second beacon frame indicating the distribution of accesses;

storing a time slot access based upon the distribution of accesses in memory; and

waking from the doze state at the time slot access to receive another synch frame.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising

receiving, by the first communications device, a second beacon frame;

waking, by the first communications device, from the doze state to the awake state to receive another synch frame at a boundary of a time slot; and

waiting for a packet to synch with the channel after failing to detect the other synch frame.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein receiving the first synch frame comprises synching with the channel in response to receiving a physical layer frame with six or more orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols.

24. An apparatus to coordinate transmissions of devices on a wireless network, the apparatus comprising:

a medium access control logic to receive a first beacon frame indicating a time slot schedule, wherein the time slot schedule indicates one or more time slots between beacon frame transmissions;

wake from a doze state to an awake state to receive a first synch frame at a boundary of a time slot; and

a physical layer logic coupled with the medium access control logic to receive the first synch frame to synch with a channel;

inform the medium access control logic of receipt of the first synch frame; and

transmit a communication to an access point after synching with the channel.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising an antenna coupled with the physical layer logic to transmit the communication.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the medium access control logic comprises logic to receive a second beacon frame indicating the distribution of accesses;

store a time slot access based upon the distribution of accesses in memory; and

wake from the doze state at the time slot access to receive another synch frame.

27. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the medium access control logic comprises logic to receive a second beacon frame;

wake from the doze state to the awake state to receive another synch frame at a boundary of a time slot; and

wait for a packet to synch with the channel after failing to detect the other synch frame.

28. A program product to coordinate transmissions of devices on a wireless network, the program product comprising:

a storage medium comprising instructions to be executed by a processor-based device, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor-based device, perform operations, the operations comprising;

receiving, by a first communications device, a first beacon frame indicating a time slot schedule, wherein the time slot schedule indicates one or more time slots between beacon frame transmissions;

waking, by the first communications device, from a doze state to an awake state to receive a first synch frame at a boundary of a time slot; and

receiving the first synch frame to synch with a channel; and

transmitting a communication to an access point after synching with the channel.

29. The machine accessible product of claim 28, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a second beacon frame indicating the distribution of accesses;

storing a time slot access based upon the distribution of accesses in memory; and

waking from the doze state at the time slot access to receive another synch frame.

30. The machine accessible product of claim 28, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, by the first communications device, a second beacon frame;

waking, by the first communications device, from the doze state to the awake state to receive another synch frame at a boundary of a time slot; and

waiting for a packet to synch with the channel after failing to detect the other synch frame.