Methods and apparatus for providing information indicative of traffic delay of a wireless link

• US 8,488,563 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2010
• Issued: 07/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Qi, Emily H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rinehart, Mark
• Assistant Examiner(s): ANWAR, MOHAMMAD S
• Application Number:
  US12/971,424
• Publication Number:
  US 20110085462A1
• Time in Patent Office: 942 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328, 370/332, 370/333
• US Class Current: 370/332
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports

Abstract

Embodiments of methods and apparatus for providing information indicative of traffic delay of a wireless link are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

wirelessly receiving a measurement request message from a remote station (STA), said measurement request message indicating a plurality of bins corresponding to a plurality of exponentially distributed traffic delay intervals;

in response to the measurement request message, measuring the traffic delay intervals of communications traffic over a wireless link, wherein the traffic delay intervals are based at least in part on a measurement of a time interval associated with data transmission;

based on said measuring, generating histogram information, the histogram information including a count corresponding to each of said traffic delay intervals; and

wirelessly transmitting a measurement report message to the remote STA, the measurement report message including the histogram information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein communications traffic is of a particular traffic type, and wherein the measurement request message indicates the particular traffic type.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the measurement request message indicates the particular traffic type as voice traffic.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the measurement request message indicates the particular traffic type as video traffic.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said measuring comprises monitoring a plurality of transmit time intervals, and wherein each of the plurality of transmit time intervals is associated with one of a frame or a packet.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote STA is an access point.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote STA is a mesh point.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the measurement request message further comprises information indicative of one or more of a measurement duration, a bin offset, or a bin duration.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a receiver to wirelessly receive a measurement request message from a remote station (STA), said measurement request message indicating a plurality of bins corresponding to a plurality of exponentially distributed traffic delay intervals;

a monitor to, in response to the received measurement request message, generate traffic delay measurements of communications traffic over a wireless link, wherein the delay measurements are based at least in part on a measurement of a time interval associated with data transmissions; and

a generator to, based on said measuring, generate histogram information, the histogram information including a count corresponding to each of said traffic delay intervals.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a transmitter to wirelessly send the histogram information to the remote STA.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein communications traffic is of a particular traffic type, and wherein the measurement request message indicates the particular traffic type.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the measurement request message indicates the particular traffic type as voice traffic.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the measurement request message indicates the particular traffic type as video traffic.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the measurement request message further comprises information indicative of one or more of a measurement duration, a bin offset, or a bin duration.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein apparatus comprises one or more of a laptop computer, a handheld computer, a tablet computer, a personal data assistant, a wireless telephone, a pager, an audio/video player, a game device, a navigation device, an access point, or a mesh point.

16. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein said generating measurements comprises monitoring a plurality of transmit time intervals, and wherein each of the plurality of transmit time intervals is associated with one of a frame or a packet.

17. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the generator is configured to generate information indicative of one of a maximum delay, a minimum delay, a mode delay, an average delay, or jitter associated with the wireless link.

18. An article comprising a non-transitory machine-accessible medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

in response to a measurement request message received from a remote station (STA), measure traffic delay intervals of communications traffic over a wireless link, wherein the traffic delay intervals are based at least in part on a measurement of a time interval associated with data transmission; and

based on said measuring, generate histogram information, the histogram information including a count corresponding to each of said traffic delay intervals, wherein the measurement request message indicates a plurality of bins corresponding to a plurality of exponentially distributed traffic delay intervals.

19. The article of claim 18, wherein the instructions, when executed by the machine, further cause the machine to wirelessly transmit a measurement report message to the remote STA, the measurement report message including the histogram information.

20. The article of claim 18, wherein the communications traffic is of a particular traffic type, and wherein the measurement request message indicates the particular traffic type.