Beaconing and superframe structure for millimeter wave wireless technologies

• US 9,178,574 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2014
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Cordeiro, Carlos, Trainin, Solomon
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, CHANDRAHAS B
• Application Number:
  US14/151,206
• Publication Number:
  US 20140204859A1
• Time in Patent Office: 663 Days
• Field of Search: 370/337, 370/334, 370/328, 370/311, 370/345, 455/41.2, 455/63.4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 7/02 Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas RAKE receivers H04B1/7115
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0682 using phase diversity (e.g. phase sweeping)
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0689 using different transmission schemes, at least one of them being a diversity transmission scheme
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, apparatus, and non-transient computer readable medium that pertain to communicating in a wireless network with a MAC layer that uses multi-level beacons, the multi-level beacons including a Discovery beacon (DB) which is transmitted in an omni mode and an announcement beacon/frame (AB) transmitted in a beam formed mode.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

communicating in a wireless network with a MAC layer that uses multi-level beacons, said multi-level beacons including a Discovery beacon (DB) communicated during a beacon time which is transmitted in an omni mode and which is immediately followed by a beamforming training time, the beamforming training time being followed by an announcement beacon/frame (AB) transmitted in a beamformed mode;

wherein said AB is a unicast frame addressed to a particular STA; and

wherein said DB is transmitted by a piconet coordinator (PNC) that allows new STAs to discover and potentially join said piconet, in addition to serving currently associated STAs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said AB is transmitted to target stations (STAs) that are beamformed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein to minimize overhead associated with omni transmissions, information carried in said DB is kept to a minimum and said AB contains all necessary information required to make said network function.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein when in a power save mode said PNC does not send announcement beacon/frames to any STAs.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said AB is a high-rate unicast frame and said DB is a low-rate broadcast frame.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said DB is transmitted during a Discovery Time (DT), while said AB is transmitted during an Announcement Time (AT) and wherein a Data Transfer Time (DTT) is used for actual data communications amongst networked STAs and Association Beamforming Training (A-BFT) is used for beamforming training of a new STA attempting association with said network, and Beamforming Training Time (BFTT) is for beamforming amongst STAs that are already associated with said network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein to improve efficiency, said DB may not be transmitted in every superframe and wherein if said PNC wants to serve multiple associated STAs in a superframe, said PNC can transmit multiple ABs on said superframe.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said ABs contains superframe time allocation including when said PNC will be ready to receive from and/or transmit to said STA which allows STAs who receive an announcement frame/beacon to synchronize their schedule with that of the PNC.

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

communicating in a wireless network with a MAC layer that uses multi-level beacons, said multi-level beacons including a Discovery beacon (DB) communicated during a beacon time which is transmitted in an omni mode and which is immediately followed by a beamforming training time, the beamforming training time being followed by an announcement beacon (AB) transmitted in a beamformed mode;

wherein said AB is a unicast frame addressed to a particular STA; and

wherein said DB is transmitted by a piconet coordinator (PNC) that allows new STAs to discover and potentially join said piconet, in addition to serving currently associated STAs.

10. The machine-accessible non-transient medium of claim 9, wherein said AB is transmitted to target stations (STAs) that are beamformed.

11. The machine-accessible non-transient medium of claim 9, wherein said AB is a high-rate unicast frame and said DB is a low-rate broadcast frame.

12. An apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver adapted to communicate in a wireless network with a MAC layer that uses multi-level beacons, said multi-level beacons including a Discovery beacon (DB) communicated during a beacon time which is transmitted in an omni mode and which is immediately followed by a beamforming training time, the beamforming training time being followed by an announcement beacon (AB) transmitted in a beamformed mode;

wherein said AB is a unicast frame addressed to a particular STA; and

wherein said DB is transmitted by a piconet coordinator (PNC) that allows new STAs to discover and potentially join said piconet, in addition to serving currently associated STAs.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said AB is transmitted to target stations (STAs) that are beamformed to said transceiver.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein when in a power save mode said PNC does not send announcement beacon/frames to any STAs.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said AB is a high-rate unicast frame and said DB is a low-rate broadcast frame.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said DB is transmitted during a Discovery Time (DT), while said AB is transmitted during an Announcement Time (AT) and wherein a Data Transfer Time (DTT) is used for actual data communications amongst network STAs and Association Beamforming Training (A-BFT) is used for beamforming training of a new STA attempting association with said network, and Beamforming Training Time (BFTT) is for beamforming amongst STAs that are already associated with said network.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein to minimize overhead associated with omni transmissions, information carried in said DB is kept to a minimum and said AB contains all necessary information required to make said network function.

18. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein to improve efficiency, said DB may not be present in every superframe and wherein if said PNC wants to serve multiple associated STAs in a superframe, said PNC can transmit multiple ABs on said superframe.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said ABs contains superframe time allocation including when said PNC will be ready to receive from and/or transmit to said STA which allows STAs who receive an announcement frame/beacon to synchronize their schedule with that of the PNC.