Wireless probe
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A traffic analysis system for providing at least one performance value for a wireless LAN, the traffic analysis system comprising:
- a receiver for receiving a sequence of frames, beginning with a first frame, transmitted over the wireless LAN, the frames including packets and headers,a frame parser for selectively extracting frame information from the packets and headers of the received frames, andan analyser for analysing the frame information over a predetermined interval to provide the at least one performance value, wherein the at least one performance value comprises a contention value to minimize collisions upon entry onto the wireless LAN when transmissions are sent from a plurality of individual stations, wherein the predetermined interval begins upon receipt of the first frame, and wherein each performance value comprises a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer bandwidth component, and wherein the analyser provides each performance value by calculating the fraction of the predetermined interval occupied by the respective MAC layer bandwidth component.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications and more particularly to systems and methods for monitoring wireless traffic in wireless local area networks. The present invention addresses shortcomings of the prior art by providing methods and apparatus for the calculation of more meaningful performance values for a wireless network reflective of the consumption of time on the wireless medium. These performance values may then, for example, be used to control access to the network or displayed graphically to show a user the performance of the network.
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Citations
58 Claims
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1. A traffic analysis system for providing at least one performance value for a wireless LAN, the traffic analysis system comprising:
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a receiver for receiving a sequence of frames, beginning with a first frame, transmitted over the wireless LAN, the frames including packets and headers, a frame parser for selectively extracting frame information from the packets and headers of the received frames, and an analyser for analysing the frame information over a predetermined interval to provide the at least one performance value, wherein the at least one performance value comprises a contention value to minimize collisions upon entry onto the wireless LAN when transmissions are sent from a plurality of individual stations, wherein the predetermined interval begins upon receipt of the first frame, and wherein each performance value comprises a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer bandwidth component, and wherein the analyser provides each performance value by calculating the fraction of the predetermined interval occupied by the respective MAC layer bandwidth component. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A traffic analysis system for a wireless LAN for providing at least one performance value comprising:
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a receiver for receiving a sequence of frames, including a first frame, transmitted over the wireless LAN, the frames including packets and headers, a frame parser for selectively extracting frame information from the packets and headers of individual frames received, the frame information including a station identifier for each individual frame and a time stamp, the station identifier identifying the station which transmitted the frame, and an analyser for analysing the extracted station identifiers, the analyser being adapted to determine the at least one performance value, wherein each performance value comprises a contention value for an individual station to minimize collisions upon entry onto the wireless LAN when transmissions are sent from a plurality of individual stations, wherein the analyser determines each performance value by counting the number of other individual stations identified in frames after the receipt of the first frame from the individual station and within a predefined time to live period beginning with receipt of the first frame from the individual station, and wherein the predefined time to live period is calculated with respect to inter-frame time durations. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A traffic analysis system for providing at least one performance value for a wireless LAN, comprising:
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a receiver for receiving a sequence of frames, including a first frame, transmitted over the wireless LAN, the frames including packets and headers, a frame parser for selectively extracting frame information from the packets and headers of individual frames received during a predetermined period beginning with receipt of the first frame, the frame information including a sender identifier for each individual frame and a retry flag indicating whether the individual frame was being retransmitted because of a previous transmission failure, and an analyser for identifying types of transmission failure, the analyser being adapted to distinguish between failures arising from transmission errors and failures arising from collision errors by reference to the degree of correlation between retransmitted frames, wherein an identification of transmission failures is used to provide the performance value, and wherein the performance value further comprises a contention value to minimize collisions upon entry onto the wireless LAN when transmissions are sent from a plurality of individual stations. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method of determining at least one performance value for a wireless LAN, comprising the steps of:
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receiving a sequence of frames, including a first frame, transmitted over the wireless LAN, the frames including packets and headers, selectively extracting frame information from the packets and headers of the received frames, and analysing the frame information over a predetermined interval to provide the at least one performance value, wherein the predetermined interval begins with receipt of the first frame, wherein each performance value comprises a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer bandwidth component, wherein each performance value further comprises a contention value to minimize collisions upon entry onto the wireless LAN when transmissions are sent from a plurality of individual stations, and wherein each performance value is provided by calculating the fraction of the predetermined interval occupied by the respective bandwidth component. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. A method for determining at least one performance value for a wireless LAN comprising the steps of:
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receiving a sequence of frames, including a first frame, transmitted over the wireless LAN, the frames including packets and headers, selectively extracting frame information from the packets and headers of individual frames received, the frame information including a station identifier for each individual frame, the station identifier identifying the station which transmitted the frame, and analysing the extracted station identifiers to determine the at least one performance value, wherein each performance value comprises a contention value for an individual station to minimize collisions upon entry onto the wireless LAN when transmissions are sent from a plurality of individual stations, wherein the analyser determines each performance value by counting the number of other stations identified in frames within a predefined time to live period, wherein the predefined time to live period begins with receipt of the first frame from the individual station. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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56. A method for determining at least one performance value for a wireless LAN, comprising the steps of:
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receiving a sequence of frames, including a first frame, transmitted over the wireless LAN, the frames including packets and headers, selectively extracting frame information from the packets and headers of individual frames received during a predetermined period beginning with receipt of the first frame, the frame information including a sender identifier for each individual frame and a retry flag indicating whether the individual frame was being retransmitted because of a previous transmission failure, and identifying types of transmission failure by distinguishing between failures arising from transmission errors and failures arising from collision errors by reference to the degree of correlation between retransmitted frames, using an identification of transmission failures to provide the performance value, and wherein the performance value further comprises a contention value to minimize collisions upon entry onto the wireless LAN when transmissions are sent from a plurality of individual stations. - View Dependent Claims (57, 58)
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Specification