Voice and data wireless communications network and method

• US 8,189,542 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2005
• Issued: 05/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Extreme Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Symbol Technologies, Inc. (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: Beach, Robert E., Harris, Jason T., Montgomery, Richard C., Sealander, Wanda
• Primary Examiner(s): Ton, Dang
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mansoury, Nourali
• Application Number:
  US11/192,574
• Publication Number:
  US 20050281252A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,496 Days
• Field of Search: 370/229, 370/235, 370/236, 370/328, 370/338
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/521 Static queue service slot or fixed bandwidth allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/56 implementing delay-aware scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/621 Individual queue per connection or flow, e.g. per VC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6225 Fixed service order, e.g. Round Robin
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/623 Weighted service order
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/569 of the traffic information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

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.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

selecting a first packet of a plurality of packets, the selection being based on a destination address priority and a packet priority;

transmitting the first packet;

determining that an acknowledgement packet was not received in response to transmitting the first packet; and

retransmitting the first selected packet, wherein the determining and retransmitting steps are repeated a predetermined first number of times dependant on the packet priority;

wherein when the predetermined first number of times is reached, further retry transmissions are halted until after a frequency hop in modulation, after which the unacknowledged packet is further retransmitted until a predetermined second number of times.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined first number of times is lower for high priority packets and higher for low priority packets.

3. A method, comprising:

selecting one of a plurality of transmission queues, each queue including at least one packet, the selection being based on a destination address priority and a packet priority, wherein each of the transmission queues corresponds to a destination address of the at least one packet in the queue;

transmitting the at least one packet from the selected transmission queue, wherein the at least one packet of the selected transmission queue is a plurality of packets, each packet having a priority level, and the transmitted packet being the packet having a highest priority level, wherein a management packet is prioritized highest, a voice packet is prioritized second highest, and other communications packets are prioritized third highest;

determining that an acknowledgement packet was not received in response to transmitting the at least one packet; and

retransmitting the at least one packet, wherein the determining and retransmitting steps are repeated a predetermined first number of times dependant on the packet priority;

wherein when the predetermined first number of times is reached, further retry transmissions are halted until after a frequency hop in modulation, after which the unacknowledged packet is further retransmitted until a predetermined second number of times.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the predetermined first number of times is lower for high priority packets and higher for low priority packets.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one packet includes more than one packet for transmission.

6. An access point, comprising:

a memory;

a processor defining a plurality of transmission queues in the memory, each transmission queue including at least one packet, the each transmission queue corresponding to a remote terminal, the processor selecting one of the transmission queues, the selection being based on a destination address priority and a packet priority; and

a transmitter transmitting the at least one packet from the selected transmission queue to the remote terminal corresponding to the selected transmission queue, wherein the at least one packet of the selected transmission queue is a plurality of packets, each packet having a priority level, and the transmitted packet being the packet having a highest priority level, wherein a management packet is prioritized highest, a voice packet is prioritized second highest, and other communications packets are prioritized third highest;

wherein the processor determining that an acknowledgement packet was not received in response to transmitting the at least one packet, and the transmitter retransmitting the at least one packet, wherein the determining and retransmitting steps are repeated a predetermined first number of times dependant on the packet priority;

wherein when the predetermined first number of times is reached, further retry transmissions are halted until after a frequency hop in modulation, after which the unacknowledged packet is further retransmitted until a predetermined second number of times.

7. The access point of claim 6, wherein the predetermined first number of times is lower for high priority packets and higher for low priority packets.

8. The access point of claim 6, wherein the at least one packet for transmitting is more than one packet.

9. The access point of claim 6, wherein the memory is included in the processor.

10. A computer readable memory storing a set of instructions executable by a processor, the set of instructions being operable to:

define a plurality of transmission queues, each transmission queue corresponding to a remote terminal;

store at least one packet in each transmission queue;

select one of the transmission queues, the selection being based on a destination address priority and a packet priority;

transmit the at least one packet from the selected transmission queue to the remote terminal corresponding to the selected transmission queue, wherein the at least one packet of the selected transmission queue is a plurality of packets, the transmitted packet being the packet having a highest priority level, wherein a management packet is prioritized highest, a voice packet is prioritized second highest, and other communications packets are prioritized third highest

determine that an acknowledgement packet was not received in response to transmitting the at least one packet; and

retransmit the at least one selected packet a predetermined number of times dependant on the packet priority;

wherein when the predetermined first number of times is reached, further retry transmissions are halted until after a frequency hop in modulation, after which the unacknowledged packet is further retransmitted until a predetermined second number of times.