METHOD, WIRELESS TRANSMIT/RECEIVE UNIT (WTRU) AND BASE STATION FOR TRANSFERRING SMALL PACKETS

• US 20140071873A1
• Filed: 09/12/2013
• Published: 03/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Xiaofei, Zhang, Guodong
• Granted Patent: US 9,504,032 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0083 Formatting with frames or packets; Protocol or part of protocol for error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1607 Details of the supervisory signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0235 where the received signal is a power saving command
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/08 Non-scheduled access, e.g. ALOHA hybrid access H04W74/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method, a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) and a base station for transferring small packets are described. The WTRU generates a packet that has one or more of a medium access control (MAC) or a physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) header, the one or more of the MAC or the PLCP header including a field. On a condition that the WTRU has data buffered for transmission, the WTRU includes in the field information that indicates a time or a transmission opportunity (TXOP) needed to transmit at least one packet of data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission. The WTRU transmits the packet to another WTRU in the wireless network. The WTRU receives another packet from the other WTRU with a granted TXO) based on the time needed to transmit the at least one packet of the data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission.

Claims

1. A method of transferring small packets in a wireless network, the method comprising:

a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) generating a packet that has one or more of a medium access control (MAC) or a physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) header, the one or more of the MAC or the PLCP header including a field;

on a condition that the WTRU has data buffered for transmission, the WTRU including in the field information that indicates at least one of a time or a transmission opportunity (TXOP) needed to transmit the at least one packet of the data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission;

the WTRU transmitting the packet to another WTRU in the wireless network; and

the WTRU receiving another packet from the other WTRU with a granted TXOP based on the one of the time or the TXOP needed to transmit the at least one packet of the data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the WTRU including 0 in the field on a condition that the WTRU has no data buffered for transmission.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the WTRU transmitting the at least one packet using the granted TXOP.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the time needed to transmit the at least one packet of the data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission is one of a time needed for the WTRU to transmit each packet of the data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission or a total time needed for the WTRU to transmit all of the packets of the data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the field is a buffered traffic indication field.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the WTRU generating the packet further comprises:

the WTRU waking up from a sleep state; and

in response to the WTRU waking up from the sleep state, the WTRU transmitting a power-save poll (PS-Poll) frame including the buffered traffic indication field, which indicates at least one of a time needed to transmit the at least one packet of the data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission, a TXOP needed to transmit the at least one packet of the data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission or 0 on a condition that the WTRU has no data buffered for transmission.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the granted TXOP has a duration that is based on the time provided in the field.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the wireless network is a wireless local area network (WLAN),

the WTRU is a non-access point (non-AP) station (STA) in the WLAN, and

the other WTRU is an access point (AP) in the WLAN.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet is one of a power-save poll (PS-Poll) frame, an acknowledgement (ACK) frame, a data frame and a block acknowledgement (BA) frame.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more of the MAC or the PLCP header of the packet further includes a field that indicates a length of a dynamic frame check sequence (FCS) field that is included in the packet.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the FCS field has a length that is less than 4 bytes.

12. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) comprising:

a processing unit configured to;

generate a packet that has one or more of a medium access control (MAC) or a physical convergence protocol (PLCP) header, the one or more of the MAC or the PLCP header including a field, and

on a condition that the WTRU has data buffered for transmission, include in the field information that indicates at least one of a time or a transmission opportunity (TXOP) needed to transmit the at least one packet of the data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission;

a transmit unit configured to transmit the packet to another WTRU in a wireless network; and

a receive unit configured to receive another packet from the other WTRU with a TXOP based on the time needed to transmit the at least one packet of the data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission.

13. The WTRU of claim 12, wherein the processing unit is further configured to include 0 in the field on a condition that the WTRU has no data buffered for transmission.

14. The WTRU of claim 12, wherein the transmit unit is further configured to transmit the at least one packet using the granted TXOP.

15. The WTRU of claim 12, wherein:

the wireless network is a wireless local area network (WLAN),

the WTRU is a non-access point station (non-AP STA) in the WLAN, and

the other WTRU is an access point (AP) in the WLAN.

16. The WTRU of claim 12, wherein the field is a buffered traffic indication field.

17. A base station comprising:

a receive unit configured to receive a packet from a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) in a wireless network, the packet including one or more of a medium access control (MAC) or a physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) header, the one or more of the MAC or the PLCP header including a field that indicates at least one of a time or a TXOP needed to transmit the at least one packet of the data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission;

a processing unit configured to generate a transmission opportunity (TXOP) for the WTRU based on the time needed to transmit the at least one packet of the data that the WTRU has buffered for transmission; and

a transmit unit configured to transmit another packet to the WTRU with the generated TXOP.

18. The base station of claim 17, wherein the base station is an access point (AP) for the wireless network, the wireless network being a wireless local area network (WLAN).

19. The base station of claim 17, wherein:

the frame further includes a frame check sequence (FCS) field, and

the MAC header further includes an indication of a length of the FCS field, the length of the FCS field being variable.

20. The base station of claim 19, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

obtain the FCS field from the frame using the length of the FCS indicated in the MAC header,

check a correctness of the frame using the FCS field obtained from the frame,

on a condition that the processing unit determines that the frame is correct, relay the frame to higher layers, and

on a condition that the processing unit determines that the frame is not correct, discard the frame as incorrect.

21. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) comprising:

a processing unit configured to generate a packet that has a medium access control (MAC) header with a field that indicates a time needed to transmit each packet that the WTRU has buffered for transmission;

a transmit unit configured to transmit the packet to another WTRU in a wireless network; and

a receive unit configured to receive another packet from the other WTRU with a granted transmission opportunity (TXOP) based on the time needed to transmit each packet that the WTRU has buffered for transmission.