Method and apparatus for communicating transmission requests to members of a group and/or making group related transmission decisions
First Claim
1. A method of operating a first peer-to-peer communications device to implement group communications, comprising:
- transmitting a first plurality of transmission requests corresponding to multiple connections, said first plurality of transmission requests corresponding to a first data transmission block comprising a traffic segment configured to carry traffic signals including group-cast traffic signals for a communications group, individual ones of said multiple connections being between said first peer to peer communications device and other peer-to-peer communications devices in the communications group; and
transmitting data to said other peer-to-peer communications devices in said first data transmission block based in part on signals received from at least one of the other peer-to-peer communications devices in the communications group.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus supporting group communications in a peer to peer wireless network are described. Methods and apparatus are directed to implementations with closed groups, e.g., where the number of group members are fixed at a given time and known to one or more members of the group. Various embodiments are well suited to decentralized peer to peer wireless networks including a plurality of individual traffic resources, e.g., traffic slots and/or traffic segments, which may be independently scheduled. Approaches for implementing distributed scheduling for traffic air link resources which may carry group traffic signals and/or peer to peer traffic signals are described. Various aspects are directed to the transmitter side including: group traffic transmission request transmissions, reception of request response signaling, transmitter yielding decisions, group rate determination and/or group traffic data signaling. Other aspects are directed to the receiver side including: reception of group traffic transmission request signals, receiver yielding decisions, transmitting group request responses signals, and/or receiving group traffic signaling.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method of operating a first peer-to-peer communications device to implement group communications, comprising:
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transmitting a first plurality of transmission requests corresponding to multiple connections, said first plurality of transmission requests corresponding to a first data transmission block comprising a traffic segment configured to carry traffic signals including group-cast traffic signals for a communications group, individual ones of said multiple connections being between said first peer to peer communications device and other peer-to-peer communications devices in the communications group; and transmitting data to said other peer-to-peer communications devices in said first data transmission block based in part on signals received from at least one of the other peer-to-peer communications devices in the communications group. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A peer-to-peer communications device supporting group communications, the first communications device comprising:
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a wireless transmitter; a transmission request control module configured to control said wireless transmitter to transmit a plurality of transmission requests corresponding to multiple connections, said plurality of transmission requests corresponding to a data transmission block comprising a traffic segment configured to carry traffic signals including group-cast traffic signals for a communications group, individual ones of said multiple connections being between said peer to peer communications device and other peer-to-peer communications devices in the communications group; and a data transmission control module configured to control said wireless transmitter to transmit data to said other peer-to-peer communications devices in said data transmission block based in part on signals received from at least one of the other peer-to-peer communications devices in the communications group. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A peer-to-peer communications device supporting group communications, the first communications device comprising:
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means for transmitting signals; means for controlling said means for transmitting signals to transmit a plurality of transmission requests corresponding to multiple connections, said plurality of transmission requests corresponding to a data transmission block comprising a traffic segment configured to carry traffic signals including group-cast traffic signals for a communications group, individual ones of said multiple connections being between said first peer to peer communications device and other peer-to-peer communications devices in the communications group; and means for controlling said means for transmitting signals to transmit data to said other peer-to-peer communications devices in said data transmission block based in part on signals received from at least one of the other peer-to-peer communications devices in the communications group. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. A computer program product for use in a first peer-to-peer communications device to implement group communications, the computer program product comprising:
non-transitory computer readable medium comprising; code for causing a computer to transmit a first plurality of transmission requests corresponding to multiple connections, said first plurality of transmission requests corresponding to a first data transmission block comprising a traffic segment configured to carry traffic signals including group-cast traffic signals for a communications group, individual ones of said multiple connections being between said first peer to peer communications device and other peer-to-peer communications devices in the communications group; and code for causing a computer to transmit data to said other peer-to-peer communications devices in said first data transmission block based in part on signals received from at least one of the other peer-to-peer communications devices in the communications group.
Specification