Distributed medium access protocol for wireless mesh networks
First Claim
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1. A method of medium access control in a network, comprising a plurality of mesh nodes, the method, operable in a sending mesh node within the network, the method comprising:
- dividing a time interval into a first phase and a second phase, the second phase including a beacon period and the beacon period being divided into one or more slots, where the sending mesh node may use the slots to dynamically enlarge its corresponding beacon period, said enlarged beacon period including information about each slot and its occupancy by a corresponding one of a previous neighboring mesh node and a slot length for each of the slots in the beacon period is dynamically defined,transmitting the beacon period, every time interval, with information seen from the sending mesh node; and
transmitting the beacon period, every second time interval, with information seen from the mesh node and further information regarding planned transmissions from the sending mesh node.
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Abstract
This invention defines a medium access protocol for the support of mesh networking in wireless communications. It defines a phase for intra-cell and a phase for inter-cell traffic. During the inter-cell traffic a beacon phase is used for the reservation of transmissions. In this phase also information about the mesh topology is included and parallel transmission are supported. Even though this medium access protocol is intended to be proposed in standardization of IEEE 802.11 mesh networks (802.11) it could be used in any wireless mesh network.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of medium access control in a network, comprising a plurality of mesh nodes, the method, operable in a sending mesh node within the network, the method comprising:
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dividing a time interval into a first phase and a second phase, the second phase including a beacon period and the beacon period being divided into one or more slots, where the sending mesh node may use the slots to dynamically enlarge its corresponding beacon period, said enlarged beacon period including information about each slot and its occupancy by a corresponding one of a previous neighboring mesh node and a slot length for each of the slots in the beacon period is dynamically defined, transmitting the beacon period, every time interval, with information seen from the sending mesh node; and transmitting the beacon period, every second time interval, with information seen from the mesh node and further information regarding planned transmissions from the sending mesh node. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 19)
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13. A wireless network comprising:
- a plurality of master modules and a plurality of slave modules, said master modules and said slave modules communicating using a medium access point protocol (MAC) for a wireless distribution system;
said MAC comprising;dividing a time interval into a first phase for intra-basic service set (BSS) traffic and a second phase for intra distributed system (DS) traffic, said second phase comprising a beacon period;
the beacon period being divided into one or more slots that dynamically define a slot length for each of a plurality of slots in the beacon period, a duration of said plurality of slots being at least a portion of a beacon period duration, wherein said beacon period includes information about each slot and its occupancy by a corresponding one of a previous neighboring module and wherein a sending module transmits;a beacon period, every time interval, with information seen from the sending module; and the beacon period, every second time interval, with information seen from the sending module and further information regarding planned transmissions from the sending module. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20)
- a plurality of master modules and a plurality of slave modules, said master modules and said slave modules communicating using a medium access point protocol (MAC) for a wireless distribution system;
Specification