CHANNEL ACCESS MECHANISM
First Claim
1. A method implemented by a network device, the method to improve efficiency for clear channel assessment (CCA) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) by adjusting a backoff counter to minimize delay caused by decoding a preamble of a received signal, the method comprising:
- detecting, on a wireless medium, a start of a frame;
decoding a preamble of the frame to determine a basic service set (BSS) associated with a transmitter of the frame; and
indicating that the wireless medium is busy while decoding the preamble of the frame.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system to improve backoff counter handling with relation to a clear channel assessment (CCA) process. The method and system improve a wireless medium availability by adjusting the backoff counter such that the processing of a preamble of a frame received during a backoff is taken into account. Received frames that fall between two CCA thresholds may require decoding of information in the preamble to assess whether the wireless medium is available. A portion of the preamble is decoded that identifies information utilized to determine whether the wireless medium may be considered to be busy. However, during this determination that requires the reading of the preamble of a received frame the backoff counter may be held or decremented even though the wireless medium status is unknown. The method and system provide a set of possible adjustments to the backoff counter to account for this uncertainty and the outcome of the CCA.
24 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method implemented by a network device, the method to improve efficiency for clear channel assessment (CCA) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) by adjusting a backoff counter to minimize delay caused by decoding a preamble of a received signal, the method comprising:
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detecting, on a wireless medium, a start of a frame; decoding a preamble of the frame to determine a basic service set (BSS) associated with a transmitter of the frame; and indicating that the wireless medium is busy while decoding the preamble of the frame. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method implemented by a network device, the method to improve efficiency for clear channel assessment (CCA) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) by adjusting a backoff counter to minimize delay caused by decoding a preamble of a received signal, the method comprising:
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determining whether the received signal is above a first threshold; determining whether the received signal is above a second threshold; starting a backoff counter adjustment in response to the received signal being above the first threshold and below the second threshold; comparing a COLOR value identified in the preamble of the received signal with a COLOR value of the network device; and completing the backoff counter adjustment based on the comparison of the COLOR value identified in the preamble of the received signal with the COLOR value of the network device. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A network device configured to implement a method to improve efficiency for clear channel assessment (CCA) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) by adjusting a backoff counter to minimize delay caused by decoding a preamble of a received signal, the method comprising:
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a physical processor to implement physical layer data processing; and an enhanced CCA module coupled to the physical processor, the enhanced CCA module configured to detect, on a wireless medium, a start of a frame, to decode a preamble of the frame to determine a basic service set (BSS) associated with a transmitter of the frame, and to indicate that the wireless medium is busy while decoding the preamble of the frame. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification