Contention groups for hidden nodes
First Claim
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1. A method performed by a first station for communicating in a network, the method comprising:
- identifying, at the first station, beacon levels of stations in the network, the beacon levels indicative of a hierarchy of the stations in the network;
assigning, at the first station, the stations to contention groups based, at least in part, on the beacon levels, wherein at least one contention group of the contention groups includes stations of two different consecutive beacon levels; and
determining, at the first station, a communications schedule for the contention groups, wherein neighboring contention groups of the contention groups are scheduled at non-overlapping time slots of the communications schedule.
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Abstract
Communicating among stations in a network includes, from each of multiple stations in the network, transmitting information indicating which other stations from which that station is able to reliably receive transmissions. A schedule for communicating among the stations is determined based on the information from the stations and transmitting the schedule over the network. The schedule includes a plurality of time slots during which respective contention groups of stations are assigned to communicate using a contention-based protocol.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method performed by a first station for communicating in a network, the method comprising:
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identifying, at the first station, beacon levels of stations in the network, the beacon levels indicative of a hierarchy of the stations in the network; assigning, at the first station, the stations to contention groups based, at least in part, on the beacon levels, wherein at least one contention group of the contention groups includes stations of two different consecutive beacon levels; and determining, at the first station, a communications schedule for the contention groups, wherein neighboring contention groups of the contention groups are scheduled at non-overlapping time slots of the communications schedule. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A station for communicating in a network, the station comprising:
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a processor; and memory for storing instructions therein which, when executed by the processor, cause the station to; identify beacon levels of stations in the network, the beacon levels indicative of a hierarchy of the stations in the network; assign the stations to contention groups based, at least in part, on the beacon levels, wherein at least one contention group of the contention groups includes stations of two different consecutive beacon levels; and determine a communications schedule for the contention groups, wherein neighboring contention groups of the contention groups are scheduled at non-overlapping time slots of the communications schedule. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer program code, the computer program code comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor of a station, cause the station to:
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identify beacon levels of stations in a network, the beacon levels indicative of a hierarchy of the stations in the network; assign the stations to contention groups of the contention groups based, at least in part, on the beacon levels, wherein at least one contention group includes stations of two different consecutive beacon levels; and determine a communications schedule for the contention groups, wherein neighboring contention groups of the content are scheduled at non-overlapping time slots of the communications schedule. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method performed by a first station for communication in a network, the method comprising:
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identify, at the first station in the network, beacon levels of other stations in the network, the beacon levels indicative of a hierarchy of the other stations in the network; assigning the first station and the other stations of the network to contention groups based, at least in part, on the beacon levels, wherein at least one contention group of the contention groups includes stations of two different consecutive beacon levels; determining, at the first station, a schedule for each contention group of the contention groups to communicate using the network, wherein the schedule includes a plurality of time slots; wherein the contention groups and the schedule are coordinated so that stations assigned to a first contention group are scheduled in a first time slot, and stations assigned to a second contention group are scheduled in a second time slot; wherein the contention groups and the schedule are coordinated so that stations assigned to the first contention group are not capable of reliably receiving transmissions from stations in a third contention group, and wherein the first contention group and the third contention group are scheduled in the first time slot; and transmitting the schedule over the network to the other stations.
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Specification