Power save delivery mechanism for wireless communication traffic
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving, at an access point, an uplink data packet from a wireless local area network (WLAN) device, wherein uplink data is data that is received by the access point from the WLAN device;
determining, based on a first indicator in the uplink data packet, whether the WLAN device has an additional uplink data packet to transmit to the access point;
determining, in response to receiving a second indicator in the uplink data packet, whether the access point has a downlink data packet to transmit to the WLAN device, wherein downlink data is data that is transmitted by the access point to the WLAN device; and
suppressing creating a service period at the access point and suppressing transmitting an indication of an end of the service period from the access point, in response to determining that the WLAN device has an additional uplink data packet to transmit to the access point and in response to determining that the access point does not have a downlink data packet to transmit to the WLAN device.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In accordance with unscheduled automatic power save delivery (U-APSD) mechanisms, an access point typically creates an unscheduled service period irrespective of availability of downlink data packets for a WLAN device. This can result in a large overhead that can limit the performance and throughput of the WLAN device. Functionality can be implemented on the access point and/or on the WLAN device so that the access point suppresses creating the service period (and transmitting an indication of an end of the service period) when there are no downlink data packets for the WLAN device. In some implementations, configuring the access point to defer creating the service period until it is determined that the WLAN device has transmitted all scheduled uplink data packets, or until the access point has available downlink data, can facilitate conservation of radio resources, and reduce power consumption.
-
Citations
28 Claims
-
1. A method comprising:
-
receiving, at an access point, an uplink data packet from a wireless local area network (WLAN) device, wherein uplink data is data that is received by the access point from the WLAN device; determining, based on a first indicator in the uplink data packet, whether the WLAN device has an additional uplink data packet to transmit to the access point; determining, in response to receiving a second indicator in the uplink data packet, whether the access point has a downlink data packet to transmit to the WLAN device, wherein downlink data is data that is transmitted by the access point to the WLAN device; and suppressing creating a service period at the access point and suppressing transmitting an indication of an end of the service period from the access point, in response to determining that the WLAN device has an additional uplink data packet to transmit to the access point and in response to determining that the access point does not have a downlink data packet to transmit to the WLAN device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A method comprising:
-
transmitting, from a WLAN device, an uplink data packet to an access point, wherein uplink data is data that is transmitted by the WLAN device to the access point; determining whether the uplink data packet is a last uplink data packet for the access point; indicating in the uplink data packet whether or not the uplink data packet is the last uplink data packet for the access point; indicating in the uplink data packet whether or not the access point should determine and indicate availability of downlink data packets for the WLAN device; determining whether an acknowledgement for the uplink data packet, received from the access point, indicates an availability of a downlink data packet in response to indicating in the uplink data packet that the access point should determine and indicate availability of downlink data packets for the WLAN device, wherein downlink data is data that is received by the WLAN device from the access point; in response to determining that the uplink data packet is not the last uplink data packet of the WLAN device for the access point and in response to determining that the access point has one or more downlink data packets for the WLAN device, deferring transmission of subsequent uplink data packets to the access point; receiving the one or more downlink data packets from the access point in response to determining that the acknowledgement for the uplink data packet indicates the availability of the downlink data packet; determining that the access point does not have additional downlink data packets for the WLAN device; resuming transmission of the subsequent uplink data packets to the access point; and causing the WLAN device to enter an inactive state in response to determining that the uplink data packet is the last uplink data packet for the access point and determining that the acknowledgement for the uplink data packet indicates that the access point does not have an available downlink data packet. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. An access point comprising:
-
an access point processing unit configured to receive an uplink data packet from a wireless local area network (WLAN) device, wherein uplink data is data that is received by the access point from the WLAN device; a power saving unit operable to; determine, based on a first indicator in the uplink data packet, whether the WLAN device has an additional uplink data packet to transmit to the access point; determine, in response to receiving a second indicator in the uplink data packet, whether the access point has a downlink data packet to transmit to the WLAN device, wherein downlink data is data that is transmitted by the access point to the WLAN device; and suppress creating a service period and suppress transmitting an indication of an end of the service period in response to the power saving unit determining that the WLAN device has an additional uplink data packet to transmit to the access point and in response to the power saving unit determining that the access point does not have a downlink data packet to transmit to the WLAN device. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media having instructions stored therein, which when executed by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform operations that comprise:
-
determining, based on a first indicator in an uplink data packet received at an access point from a wireless local area network (WLAN) device, whether the WLAN device has an additional uplink data packet to transmit to the access point, wherein uplink data is data that is received by the access point from the WLAN device; determining, in response to receiving a second indicator in the uplink data packet, whether the access point has a downlink data packet to transmit to the WLAN device, wherein downlink data is data that is transmitted by the access point to the WLAN device; and suppressing creating a service period and suppressing transmitting an indication of an end of the service period in response to determining that the WLAN device has an additional uplink data packet to transmit to the access point and in response to determining that the access point does not have a downlink data packet to transmit to the WLAN device. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
-
-
27. A method comprising:
-
receiving, at an access point, an uplink data packet from a wireless local area network (WLAN) device, wherein uplink data is data that is received by the access point from the WLAN device; determining, based on information included in the uplink data packet, whether the WLAN device has one or more additional uplink data packets to transmit to the access point; determining whether the access point has one or more downlink data packets to transmit to the WLAN device, wherein downlink data is data that is transmitted by the access point to the WLAN device; in response to determining that the access point has one or more downlink data packets to transmit to the WLAN device, notifying the WLAN device to cease transmission of one or more uplink data packets; transmitting the one or more downlink data packets to the WLAN device; and notifying the WLAN device to resume transmission of the one or more uplink data packets after said transmitting the one or more downlink data packets to the WLAN device; and in response to determining that the access point does not have one or more downlink data packets to transmit to the WLAN device, suppressing creating a service period at the access point and suppressing transmitting an indication of an end of the service period from the access point, in response to determining that the WLAN device has one or more additional uplink data packets to transmit to the access point. - View Dependent Claims (28)
-
Specification