WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND ASSOCIATED WIRELESS COMMUNICATION METHOD

• US 20160128061A1
• Filed: 09/25/2015
• Published: 05/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
• Original Assignee: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
• Inventors: Coffey, John Timothy, Liu, Der-Zheng
• Granted Patent: US 10,390,341 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/06 using polling

Abstract

A wireless communication system includes an access point and at least one station, wherein when the access point operates in a setup mode, both the access point and station confirm a specific time slot for transmitting a packet from the station to the access point; and when the access point operates in a data mode following the setup mode, the station directly uses the specific time slot determined in the setup mode to transmit the packet to the access point.

Claims

1. A wireless communication system under a contention-based protocol, comprising:

an access point; and

at least one station, for wirelessly communicated with the access point under the contention-based protocol;

wherein both the access point and the at least one station confirm a specific time slot of a plurality of time slots in a roster for transmitting a packet from the station to the access point; and

the station subsequently uses the specific time slot to transmit the packet to the access point.

2. The wireless communication system of claim 1, wherein the access point broadcasts an initialization packet or sequence of packets to establish or update the roster, wherein the initialization packet comprises information of a roster number and a corresponding roster length.

3. The wireless communication system of claim 2, wherein the initialization packet or sequence further comprises information of initialization packet duration.

4. The wireless communication system of claim 1, wherein the at least one station selects a time slot within the plurality of time slots, and the access point marks the selected time slot as assigned within the roster.

5. The wireless communication system of claim 4, wherein the roster comprises available time slots and unavailable time slots within the roster length, and the station selects one of the available time slot times slot within the roster length as its selected time slot.

6. The wireless communication system of claim 1, wherein the specific time slot is confirmed using a RTS/CTS (Request to Send/Clear to Send) mechanism;

and transmission by a station of an RTS or CTS packet, followed by transmission by the AP of an RTS or CTS packet.

7. The wireless communication system of claim 1, wherein the access point broadcasts an invocation signal or sequence to initiate data packet transmission, wherein the invocation signal or sequence comprises information of the roster number and the roster length.

8. A wireless communication method of a wireless device using a contention-based protocol, comprising:

establishing/confirming a specific time slot of a plurality of time slots in a roster via a wireless medium; and

using the specific time slot to transmit a packet via the wireless medium.

9. The wireless communication method of claim 8, wherein the step of establishing/confirming the specific time slot further comprises:

using an initialization packet or sequence to enable the establishment of the specific time slot, wherein the initialization packet comprises information of a roster number and a corresponding roster length, and the roster length comprises the plurality of time slots.

10. The wireless communication method of claim 8, wherein the step of establishing/confirming the specific time slot further comprises:

selection by a station of a time slot within the plurality of time slots of the roster; and

using a predetermined mechanism to mark the selected time slot as the specific time slot.

11. The wireless communication method of claim 10, wherein the predetermined mechanism comprises a RTS/CTS (Request to Send/Clear to Send) mechanism;

and transmission by a station of an RTS or CTS packet, followed by transmission by the AP of an RTS or CTS packet.

12. The wireless communication method of claim 8, further comprising:

utilizing the initialization packet to update the roster.

13. The wireless communication method of claim 8, wherein the roster further comprises available time slots and unavailable time slots.

14. The wireless communication method of claim 8, wherein the step of using the specific time slot to transmit the packet comprises:

broadcasting an invocation signal or sequence to start data packet transmission, wherein the invocation signal or sequence comprises information of the roster number and the roster length.

15. A wireless device using a contention-based protocol, the wireless device comprising:

a circuitry configured to

confirm a specific time slot of a plurality of time slots in a roster via a wireless medium; and

utilize the confirmed specific time slot to transmit a packet via the wireless medium.

16. The wireless device of claim 15, wherein the circuitry configures to utilize an initialization packet to confirm the specific time slot, wherein the initialization packet comprises information of a roster number and a corresponding roster length, and the roster length comprises the plurality of time slots.

17. The wireless device of claim 15, wherein the circuitry configures to utilize an invocation signal or sequence to start data packet transmission, wherein the invoked signal comprises information of the roster number and the roster length.

18. The wireless device of claim 15, wherein the circuitry configures to:

select a time slot within the plurality of time slots of the roster; and

utilize a predetermined mechanism to book the selected time slot as the specific time slot.

19. The wireless device of claim 18, wherein the predetermined mechanism comprises a RTS/CTS (Request to Send/Clear to Send) mechanism.

20. The wireless device of claim 15, wherein the roster further comprises available time slots and unavailable time slots.