Methods and apparatus relating to wireless terminal beacon signal generation, transmission, and/or use
First Claim
1. A method of operating a first wireless terminal comprising:
- transmitting a beacon signal burst during a beacon transmission time period in accordance with a timing structure including said beacon transmission time period and a beacon receive time period which recur in accordance with said timing structure, said beacon receive time period being longer than said beacon transmission time period, said beacon signal burst including one or more beacon symbols, each beacon symbol occupying a beacon symbol transmission unit;
monitoring for beacon signals from other devices during said beacon receive time period in accordance with said timing structure, said other devices including a second wireless terminal;
communicating data symbols using OFDM symbol transmission units during a user data time period which occurs in said timing structure following said beacon receive time period, said user data time period being distinct from said beacon receive time period in said timing structure; and
wherein said timing structure is used by both the first and second wireless terminals but with the start of the timing structure used by the first wireless terminal being offset from the start of the timing of the timing structure used by the second wireless terminal by an amount which is greater than the duration of the beacon transmission time period and less than the duration of the beacon receive time period and the start of the of the beacon transmission time period of the second wireless terminal following the end of the beacon transmission time period of the first wireless terminal by an amount which is less than the duration of the beacon transmission time period.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A portable wireless terminal generates and transmits a beacon signal. The beacon signal includes a sequence of beacon signal bursts, each beacon signal burst including one or more beacon symbols. A beacon symbol is transmitted using the air link resources of a beacon symbol transmission unit at a relatively high transmission power level with respect to user data symbols transmitted from the same wireless terminal, thus facilitating easy detection by other wireless terminals. The beacon symbols of the beacon signal occupy a small fraction of the total available air link resources. Beacon signals can, and sometimes do, convey wireless terminal identification information, via the location of the beacon symbols within the portion of the air link resource reserved for beacon symbol transmission units.
323 Citations
68 Claims
-
1. A method of operating a first wireless terminal comprising:
-
transmitting a beacon signal burst during a beacon transmission time period in accordance with a timing structure including said beacon transmission time period and a beacon receive time period which recur in accordance with said timing structure, said beacon receive time period being longer than said beacon transmission time period, said beacon signal burst including one or more beacon symbols, each beacon symbol occupying a beacon symbol transmission unit; monitoring for beacon signals from other devices during said beacon receive time period in accordance with said timing structure, said other devices including a second wireless terminal; communicating data symbols using OFDM symbol transmission units during a user data time period which occurs in said timing structure following said beacon receive time period, said user data time period being distinct from said beacon receive time period in said timing structure; and wherein said timing structure is used by both the first and second wireless terminals but with the start of the timing structure used by the first wireless terminal being offset from the start of the timing of the timing structure used by the second wireless terminal by an amount which is greater than the duration of the beacon transmission time period and less than the duration of the beacon receive time period and the start of the of the beacon transmission time period of the second wireless terminal following the end of the beacon transmission time period of the first wireless terminal by an amount which is less than the duration of the beacon transmission time period. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 56, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68)
-
-
21. A portable wireless terminal comprising:
-
a beacon signal generation module for generating a beacon signal including a sequence of beacon signal bursts, each beacon signal burst including one or more beacon symbols; a transmission module for transmitting a beacon signal burst during a beacon transmission time period in accordance with a timing structure including said beacon transmission time period and a beacon receive time periods which recur in accordance with said timing structure, using beacon signal transmission units, said beacon receive time period being longer than said beacon transmission time period, each beacon symbol occupying a beacon symbol transmission unit; a detection module for monitoring and detecting beacon signals from other devices during said beacon receive time period in accordance with said timing structure, said other devices including a second wireless terminal; wherein said transmission module is configured to transmit data symbols using OFDM symbol transmission units during a user data time period which occurs in said timing structure following said beacon receive time period, said user data time period being distinct from said beacon receive time period in said timing structure; and wherein the portable wireless terminal is a first wireless terminal, said timing structure is used by both the first and second wireless terminals but with the start of the timing structure used by the first wireless terminal being offset from the start of the timing of the timing structure used by the second wireless terminal by an amount which is greater than the duration of the beacon transmission time period and less than the duration of the beacon receive time period and the start of the of the beacon transmission time period of the second wireless terminal following the end of the beacon transmission time period of the first wireless terminal by an amount which is less than the duration of the beacon transmission time period. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 57)
-
-
41. A portable wireless terminal comprising:
-
means for generating a beacon signal including a sequence of beacon signal bursts, each beacon signal burst including one or more beacon symbols; means for transmitting said beacon signal burst during a beacon transmission time period in accordance with a timing structure including said beacon transmission time period and a beacon receive time period which recur in accordance with said timing structure, said beacon receive time period being longer than said beacon transmission time period, said beacon signal burst including one or more beacon symbols, each beacon symbol occupies a beacon symbol transmission unit; means for monitoring for beacon signals from other devices during said beacon receive time period in accordance with said timing structure, said other devices including a second wireless terminal; wherein said means for transmitting said beacon signal burst includes means for transmitting data symbols using OFDM symbol transmission units during a user data time period which occurs in said timing structure following said beacon receive time period, said user data time period being distinct from said beacon receive time period in said timing structure; and wherein the portable wireless terminal is a first wireless terminal, said timing structure is used by both the first and second wireless but with the start of the timing structure used by the first wireless terminal being offset from the start of the timing of the timing structure used by the second wireless terminal by an amount which is greater than the duration of the beacon transmission time period and less than the duration of the beacon receive time period and the start of the of the beacon transmission time period of the second wireless terminal following the end of the beacon transmission time period of the first wireless terminal by an amount which is less than the duration of the beacon transmission time period. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 58)
-
-
48. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium embodying machine executable instruction for controlling a portable wireless terminal in a wireless communications system, the non-transitory computer readable medium comprising:
-
instructions for causing the portable wireless terminal to transmit a beacon signal burst during a beacon transmission time period in accordance with a timing structure including said beacon transmission time period and a beacon receive time period which recur in accordance with said timing structure, said beacon receive time period being longer than said beacon transmission time period, said beacon signal burst including one or more beacon symbols, each beacon symbol occupying a beacon symbol transmission unit; and instructions for causing the portable wireless terminal to monitor for beacon signals from other devices during said beacon receive time period in accordance with said timing structure, said other devices including a second wireless terminal; instructions for causing the portable wireless terminal to transmit data symbols using OFDM symbol transmission units during a user data time period which occurs in said timing structure following said beacon receive time period, said user data time period being distinct from said beacon receive time period in said timing structure; and wherein said timing structure is used by both the first and second wireless terminals but with the start of the timing structure used by the first wireless terminal being offset from the start of the timing of the timing structure used by the second wireless terminal by an amount which is greater than the duration of the beacon transmission time period and less than the duration of the beacon receive time period and the start of the of the beacon transmission time period of the second wireless terminal following the end of the beacon transmission time period of the first wireless terminal by an amount which is less than the duration of the beacon transmission time period. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50, 51, 59)
-
-
52. An apparatus comprising:
a first communications device processor configured to; control wireless transmission of a beacon signal burst from a first communications device during a beacon transmission time period in accordance with a timing structure including said beacon transmission time period and a beacon receive time period which recur in accordance with said timing structure, said beacon receive time period being longer than said beacon transmission time period, each beacon signal burst including one or more beacon symbols, each beacon symbol occupying a beacon symbol transmission unit; control monitoring for beacon signals from other devices during said beacon receive time period in accordance with said timing structure, said other devices including a second wireless terminal; control a transmitter to transmit data symbols using OFDM symbol transmission units during a user data time period which occurs in said timing structure following said beacon receive time period, said user data time period being distinct from said beacon receive time period in said timing structure; and wherein said timing structure is used by both the first and second communications devices but with the start of the timing structure used by the first communications device being offset from the start of the timing of the timing structure used by the second communications device by an amount which is greater than the duration of the beacon transmission time period used by said first and second communications devices and less than the duration of the beacon receive time period and the start of the of the beacon transmission time period of the second wireless terminal following the end of the beacon transmission time period of the first wireless terminal by an amount which is less than the duration of the beacon transmission time period. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 60)
Specification