Voice and data wireless communications network and method
First Claim
1. An access point for use in a mixed traffic wireless local area network that includes a plurality of remote terminals that are associated with the access point with at least one of the remote terminals being voice-capable, where the access point and the remote terminals communicate by transmitting and receiving variable-size communications data packets and voice packets on a half-duplex communications medium that is shared between the access point and the remote terminals, said access point being configured to:
- determine which remote terminals are voice-capable remote terminals;
receive a plurality of variable size packets including voice packets and data packets from the half-duplex communications medium and from another communications medium with the packets each being addressed to a particular one of the remote terminals;
distribute the received packets by transmitting one packet at a time on the half-duplex communications medium when the half-duplex communications medium is available;
determine which one of the remote terminals to transmit to next based on maintaining fair packet distribution among the remote terminals where fairness is determined by the number of packets that have been transmitted to each remote terminal; and
determine which packet to transmit next from the received packets that are addressed to the remote terminal to which the access point is to transmit next based on;
for packets that are addressed to voice-capable terminals, giving priority to voice packets by transmitting received voice packets that are addressed to a particular voice-capable terminal before transmitting data packets that are addressed to that particular voice-capable terminal, and an order of reception of the packets that are addressed to the remote terminal to which the access point is to transmit to next, so that the access point treats all the remote terminals fairly while giving priority to voice packets that are for the voice-capable ones of the remote terminals.
12 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A wireless local area network that carries mixed traffic of voice and data communications may be provided. The wireless local area network may include an access point and a plurality of remote terminals that are associated with the access point. The access point may be operably coupled to a wireline network. The access point may receive voice and other communications packets from the remote terminals and the wireline network. Some of the packets may be for transmission to the remote terminals. The access point manages which packets to transmit and when to transmit packets. The access point may manage traffic to maintain a fair distribution of packets and to give priority to voice communications over other communications.
353 Citations
23 Claims
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1. An access point for use in a mixed traffic wireless local area network that includes a plurality of remote terminals that are associated with the access point with at least one of the remote terminals being voice-capable, where the access point and the remote terminals communicate by transmitting and receiving variable-size communications data packets and voice packets on a half-duplex communications medium that is shared between the access point and the remote terminals, said access point being configured to:
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determine which remote terminals are voice-capable remote terminals;
receive a plurality of variable size packets including voice packets and data packets from the half-duplex communications medium and from another communications medium with the packets each being addressed to a particular one of the remote terminals;
distribute the received packets by transmitting one packet at a time on the half-duplex communications medium when the half-duplex communications medium is available;
determine which one of the remote terminals to transmit to next based on maintaining fair packet distribution among the remote terminals where fairness is determined by the number of packets that have been transmitted to each remote terminal; and
determine which packet to transmit next from the received packets that are addressed to the remote terminal to which the access point is to transmit next based on;
for packets that are addressed to voice-capable terminals, giving priority to voice packets by transmitting received voice packets that are addressed to a particular voice-capable terminal before transmitting data packets that are addressed to that particular voice-capable terminal, and an order of reception of the packets that are addressed to the remote terminal to which the access point is to transmit to next, so that the access point treats all the remote terminals fairly while giving priority to voice packets that are for the voice-capable ones of the remote terminals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
use frequency hopping spread spectrum radio communications to communicate on the half-duplex communications medium; and
after a predetermined number of retransmissions, delay further retransmission until after a frequency hop.
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8. The access point of claim 1, being further configured to use a contention on window that is used to sense when the medium is available, said window having at least two different durations with one of the two being selected based on whether the next packet What is to be transmitted is for providing voice communications.
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9. The access point of claim 8, being further configured to determine which packets are voice packets for providing voice communications.
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10. The access point of claim 8, being further configured to use a contention window of a first duration for voice packets that are to be transmitted and use a contention window of a second duration that is longer than said first duration for other packets that are to be transmitted.
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11. The access point of claim 1, being further configured to have a plurality of separate queues, each respective queue including the received packets that are addressed to a respective one of the terminals.
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12. The access point claim 11, wherein the plurality of queues are of equal size.
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13. The access point of claim 1, being further configured to use a collision on sense multiple access communications protocol to communicate with the remote terminals on the half-duplex communications medium.
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14. The access point of claim 1 being further configured to receive information from the voice-capable terminal that indicates to the access point that the terminal is voice capable.
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15. The access point of claim 14, being further configured to determine which packets are voice packets based at least partly on which the packets are addressed to voice-capable terminals.
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16. The access point of claim 1, being further configured to:
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receive variable size packets from the half-duplex communications medium and from another communications medium in a plurality of communications protocols; and
determine the communications protocol of the packets.
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17. The access point of claim 16, being further configured to determine which packets are voice packets communications based at least partly on which protocol is determined.
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18. The access point claim 17, being further configured to determine which packets are for voice packets based at least partly on the determined communication protocol being user datagram protocol.
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19. The access point of claim 1, wherein, when the wireless local area network is a collision sense multiple access communications network, said access point being configured to use a collision sense window duration that is shorter in duration for voice packets than in duration for data and other packets.
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20. The access point of claim 1, being further configured to have a plurality of queues each queue being associated with one of the terminals and each queue storing the packets that are addressed for the terminal that is associated wile that queue.
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21. The access point of claim 20, being further configured to have queues of equal size.
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22. The access point of claim 4, being further configured to determine which packet to transmit next based on transmitting any voice packets that are addressed to the remote terminal to which the access point is to transmit to next before transmitting data packets that are being retransmitted for that remote terminal.
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23. A communication system comprising the access point defined in claim 1, further comprising:
a plurality of remote terminals that are associated with the access point.
Specification