Techniques enabling dynamic bandwidth reservation in a wireless personal area network

• US 8,824,422 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2008
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Kesselman, Alex, Bachrach, Yuval
• Primary Examiner(s): ANWAR, MOHAMMAD S
• Application Number:
  US12/229,385
• Publication Number:
  US 20090232104A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,203 Days
• Field of Search: 370/336, 370/329, 370/338
• US Class Current: 370/336
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/26 varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture H01Q3/12, H01Q3/22, H01Q3/24 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0682 using phase diversity (e.g. phase sweeping)
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method, comprising dynamically reserving free channel time blocks for directional transmissions in a wireless personal area network (WPAN) by a transceiver communicating with a Coordinator and the Coordinator allocating a part or a whole of unreserved channel time blocks for a directional link during a handshake with the transceiver.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver operable in a wireless personal area network configured to communicate with a coordinator and at least one receiver, wherein said transceiver and said coordinator use a dynamic reservation of free channel time blocks for directional transmissions; and

said Coordinator allocating a part or a whole of unreserved channel time blocks for a directional link during a handshake with said transceiver;

wherein the handshake precedes the unreserved channel time blocks and a reserved time block precedes the handshake.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a bandwidth allocation request specifying a reservation period is sent by said transceiver using omni-directional or directional transmissions pointed toward said Coordinator.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said Coordinator responds to said transceiver using an omni-directional or quasi omni-directional transmission that must be received by the other devices with a bandwidth grant message that specifies the allocated reservation period.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said Coordinator is adapted to allow certain non-interfering links to utilize an allocated channel time block as specified in said bandwidth grant message.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said sender may itself act as said Coordinator and needs to just announce said grant.

6. A method, comprising:

dynamically reserving free channel time blocks for directional transmissions in a wireless personal area network (WPAN) by a transceiver communicating with a Coordinator; and

allocating by said Coordinator a part or a whole of unreserved channel time blocks for a directional link during a handshake with said transceiver;

wherein the handshake precedes the unreserved channel time blocks and a reserved time block precedes the handshake.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising sending by said transceiver a bandwidth allocation request specifying a reservation period using omni-directional or directional transmissions pointed toward said Coordinator.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising configuring said Coordinator to allow certain non-interfering links to utilize an allocated channel time block as specified in said bandwidth grant message.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising responding by said Coordinator to said transceiver using an omni-directional or quasi omni-directional transmission that must be received by the other devices with a bandwidth grant message that specifies the allocated reservation period.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising said sender acting itself as said Coordinator and just announcing said grant.

11. A non-transitory machine-accessible medium that provides instructions, which when accessed, cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

dynamically reserving free channel time blocks for directional transmissions in a wireless personal area network (WPAN) by a transceiver communicating with a Coordinator; and

allocating a part or a whole of unreserved channel time blocks for a directional link during a handshake with said transceiver;

wherein the handshake precedes the unreserved channel time blocks and a reserved time block precedes the handshake.

12. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 11, further comprising said instructions causing said machine to perform operations further comprising sending by said transceiver a bandwidth allocation request specifying a reservation period using omni-directional or directional transmissions pointed toward said Coordinator.

13. The non-transitory machine-accessible, medium of claim 12, further comprising said instructions causing said machine to perform operations further comprising responding by said Coordinator to said transceiver using an omni-directional or quasi omni-directional transmission that must be received by the other devices with a bandwidth grant message that specifies the allocated reservation period, which can be less than or equal to that in the bandwidth allocation request.

14. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, further comprising said instructions causing said machine to perform operations further comprising configuring said Coordinator to allow certain non-interfering links to utilize an allocated channel time block as specified in said bandwidth grant message.