Virtual streams for QoS-driven wireless LANs
First Claim
1. A virtual stream (VS) in a basic service set (BSS) in a wireless local area network, the virtual stream comprising:
- a unidirectional path in the wireless local area network between a station sourcing a quality of service (QoS) session and at least one station receiving the QoS session in the same BSS, the wireless local area network including a distributed contention scheme under control of a distributed coordination function contained in each said station;
wherein the VS is set up by a QoS management entity (QME) within a point coordinator (PC) station of the BSS to transport, under at least one predetermined QoS constraint, a traffic of the QoS session from a local logical link control (LLC) entity to at least one peer LLC entity in the same BSS, the PC station controlling a centralized contention scheme that functions in addition to the distributed contention scheme;
wherein the QME of the PC-station reserves an associated resource of the BSS for the VS set up for the QoS session;
wherein the reserved resource is a predetermined bandwidth of a communication link of the BSS; and
wherein the PC station announces multiple transmission opportunities in a single frame.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A virtual stream (VS) in a basic service set (BSS) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) that exists solely within the medium access control (MAC) sublayer of the WLAN. The VS includes a unidirectional path in the wireless network between a station sourcing a quality of service (QoS) session and at least one station receiving the QoS session in the same BSS. The VS is defined by a VS identifier (VSID) that is unique within and local to the BSS, an address of the sourcing station, and an address of the at least one receiving station. The VS can be a virtual down-stream (VDS), a virtual up-stream (VUS) or a virtual side-stream (VSS). The VS can be a unitcast or a multicast VS.
192 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A virtual stream (VS) in a basic service set (BSS) in a wireless local area network, the virtual stream comprising:
- a unidirectional path in the wireless local area network between a station sourcing a quality of service (QoS) session and at least one station receiving the QoS session in the same BSS, the wireless local area network including a distributed contention scheme under control of a distributed coordination function contained in each said station;
wherein the VS is set up by a QoS management entity (QME) within a point coordinator (PC) station of the BSS to transport, under at least one predetermined QoS constraint, a traffic of the QoS session from a local logical link control (LLC) entity to at least one peer LLC entity in the same BSS, the PC station controlling a centralized contention scheme that functions in addition to the distributed contention scheme; wherein the QME of the PC-station reserves an associated resource of the BSS for the VS set up for the QoS session; wherein the reserved resource is a predetermined bandwidth of a communication link of the BSS; and wherein the PC station announces multiple transmission opportunities in a single frame. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
- a unidirectional path in the wireless local area network between a station sourcing a quality of service (QoS) session and at least one station receiving the QoS session in the same BSS, the wireless local area network including a distributed contention scheme under control of a distributed coordination function contained in each said station;
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12. A virtual stream (VS) in a basic service set (BSS) in a wireless local area network, the virtual stream comprising:
- a unidirectional path in the wireless local area network between a station sourcing a quality of service (QoS) session and at least one station receiving the QoS session in the same BSS;
wherein the QoS session includes at least one data frame; wherein the station sourcing the QoS session includes a frame classification entity (FCE) that labels each data frame of the QoS session with a VSID, the VSID being associated with at least one QoS parameter value for the QoS session; wherein the at least one QoS parameter value is at least one of an acknowledgment policy, a flow type, a priority level, a privacy level, a delay bound, a jitter bound, a minimum data rate, a mean data rate, and a maximum data burst; and wherein the station sourcing the QoS session announces multiple transmission opportunities in a single frame. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
- a unidirectional path in the wireless local area network between a station sourcing a quality of service (QoS) session and at least one station receiving the QoS session in the same BSS;
Specification