WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM WITH COORDINATED MULTIPOINT OPERATION AND METHODS FOR USE THEREWITH

• US 20150009966A1
• Filed: 04/25/2014
• Published: 01/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ariyavisitakul, Sirikiat Lek, Lee, Dae Won
• Granted Patent: US 9,455,808 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/336
• 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 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0689 using different transmission schemes, at least one of them being a diversity transmission scheme
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1685 the supervisory signal being transmitted in response to a specific request, e.g. to a polling signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0093 Point-to-multipoint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0035 Resource allocation in a cooperative multipoint environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/29 between an access point and the access point controlling device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A wireless access point includes a wireless transceiver configured to provide coordinated multipoint communications with at least one non-legacy device of a plurality of remote devices via a wireless local area network protocol. The coordinated multipoint communications are coordinated with at least one other wireless access point in accordance with coordination data.

Claims

1. A wireless access point, comprising:

a processing module configured to operate in conjunction with a memory; and

a wireless transceiver, coupled to the processing module, configured to provide coordinated multipoint communications with at least one non-legacy device of a plurality of remote devices via a wireless local area network protocol, wherein the coordinated multipoint communications are coordinated with at least one other wireless access point in accordance with coordination data.

2. The wireless access point of claim 1 wherein the wireless transceiver contemporaneously provides single point communications with at least one legacy device of the plurality of remote devices.

3. The wireless access point of claim 1 wherein the coordinated multipoint communications are coordinated with the at least one other wireless access point to include transmission of a plurality of simultaneous data frames by the wireless transceiver at the at least one other wireless access point, wherein the simultaneous data frames are synchronized to include at least one non-beamformed transmission during a non-beamformed portion and a plurality of simultaneous beamformed transmission during a beamformed portion.

4. The wireless access point of claim 1 wherein the coordinated multipoint communications include simultaneous transmission of a first communication by the wireless transceiver to the at least one non-legacy device and by the at least one other wireless access point to the at least one non-legacy device of the plurality of remote devices.

5. The wireless access point of claim 1 wherein the coordination data is received from an access point controller to synchronize the coordinated multipoint communications.

6. The wireless access point of claim 1 further comprising:

an access point controller, coupled to the wireless transceiver, configured to generate the coordination data, wherein the coordination data is transmitted to the at least one other wireless access point to synchronize the coordinated multipoint communications.

7. The wireless access point of claim 1 wherein the coordinated multipoint communications include at least one of:

a downlink communication, a sounding communication, an acknowledgement transmission and an acknowledgement reception.

8. The wireless access point of claim 1 wherein the coordination data synchronizes beamforming transmissions by the wireless transceiver and the at least one other wireless access point.

9. The wireless access point of claim 1 wherein the at least one non-legacy device includes a plurality of non-legacy devices;

and

wherein the coordination data triggers a sequence of acknowledgement polling transmissions to successive ones of the plurality of non-legacy devices.

10. The wireless access point of claim 1 wherein the coordinated multipoint communications include beamforming transmissions by the wireless transceiver, and wherein the beamforming transmissions are generated in response to distress sounding transmissions generated by at least one of the plurality of remote devices.

11. A method comprising:

receiving coordination data at a wireless access point from an access point controller;

generating, via a wireless transceiver of the wireless access point, coordinated multipoint communications with at least one non-legacy device of a plurality of remote devices via a wireless local area network protocol, wherein the coordinated multipoint communications are coordinated with at least one other wireless access point in accordance with coordination data.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the wireless transceiver contemporaneously generates single point communications with at least one legacy device of the plurality of remote devices.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the coordinated multipoint communications are coordinated with the at least one other wireless access point to include transmission of a plurality of simultaneous data frames by the wireless transceiver at the at least one other wireless access point, wherein the simultaneous data frames are synchronized to include at least one non-beamformed transmission during a non-beamformed portion and a plurality of simultaneous beamformed transmission during a beamformed portion.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the coordinated multipoint communications include simultaneous transmission of a first communication by the wireless transceiver to the at least one non-legacy device and by the at least one other wireless access point to the at least one non-legacy device of the plurality of remote devices.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the coordinated multipoint communications include at least one of:

a downlink communication, a sounding communication, an acknowledgement transmission and an acknowledgement reception.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one non-legacy device includes a plurality of non-legacy devices;

and

wherein the coordination data triggers the wireless transceiver to generate a sequence of acknowledgement polling transmissions to successive ones of the plurality of non-legacy devices.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the coordinated multipoint communications include beamforming transmissions by the wireless transceiver, wherein the beamforming transmissions are generated in response to distress sounding transmissions generated by at least one of the plurality of remote devices.

18. An access point controller, comprising:

a processing module configured to operate in conjunction with a memory; and

a communication interface, coupled to the processing module, configured to provide coordination data to a plurality of access point, wherein the coordination data facilitates coordinated multipoint communications of the plurality of access points with at least one non-legacy device of a plurality of remote devices via a wireless local area network protocol,

wherein at least one of the plurality of access points contemporaneously provides single point communications with at least one legacy device of the plurality of remote devices.

19. The access point controller of claim 18, wherein the at least one non-legacy device includes a plurality of non-legacy devices;

and

wherein the coordination data triggers a sequence of acknowledgement polling transmissions to successive ones of the plurality of non-legacy devices.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the coordinated multipoint communications include simultaneous transmission of a first communication by a first access point of the plurality of access points to a first non-legacy device of the plurality of remote devices and a second communication by a second access point of the plurality of access points to a second non-legacy device of the plurality of remote devices.