Techniques enabling dynamic bandwidth reservation in a wireless personal area network

• US 9,572,157 B2
• Filed: 09/03/2013
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• 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:
  US14/016,483
• Publication Number:
  US 20140003402A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,260 Days
• Field of Search: 370/336, 370/329, 370/338
• 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 7/0682 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 capable of operating in a wireless personal area network, wherein the transceiver is configured to

receive, during a first period of a handshake sequence, a request for a reserved time for a directional link in the wireless personal area network, wherein the handshake sequence has a start time corresponding to initiation of the first period;

transmit, during a second period of the handshake sequence, using omni-directional transmission, a grant message indicative of a grant of the reserved time for the directional link in response to the request, the second period after the first period; and

schedule at least part of the reserved time for other directional links, at least one of the other directional links being non-interfering with the directional link;

wherein the request, the grant message, and the reserved time all occur between two consecutive beacons transmitted by the apparatus, and

wherein the handshake sequence has an end time prior to a start time of the reserved time.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the reserved time comprises previously unreserved free channel time blocks.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the request specifies the reserved time, and wherein the transceiver is further configured to receive the request via a directional transmission.

4. A method of wireless communications comprising:

receiving, during a first period of a handshake sequence, a request for a reserved time for a directional link in a wireless personal area network, wherein the handshake sequence has a start time corresponding to initiation of the first period;

transmitting, during a second period of the handshake sequence, using omni-directional transmission, a grant message indicative of a grant of the reserved time for the directional link in response to the request, the second period after the first period; and

scheduling communications over a second directional link in the WPAN during the reserved time, the second directional link being non-interfering with the directional link;

wherein said receiving, said transmitting, and the reserved time all occur between two consecutive beacons, and

wherein the handshake sequence has an end time prior to a start time of the reserved time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the reserved time comprises previously unreserved free channel time blocks.

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

receiving, during a first period of a handshake sequence, a request for a reserved time for a directional link in a wireless personal area network, wherein the handshake sequence has a start time corresponding to initiation of the first period; and

transmitting, during a second period of the handshake sequence, using omni-directional transmission, a grant message indicative of a grant of the reserved time for the directional link in response to the request; and

scheduling communications over a second directional link during the reserved time, the second directional link being non-interfering with the directional link;

wherein the request, the grant message, and the reserved time all occur between two consecutive beacons, and

wherein the handshake sequence has an end time prior to a start time of the reserved time.

7. The machine-accessible non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the reserved time comprises previously unreserved free channel time blocks.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a transceiver capable of operating in a wireless personal area network, wherein the transceiver is configured to

transmit, during a first period of a handshake sequence, a request for a reserved time for a directional link in a wireless personal area network, wherein the handshake sequence has a start time corresponding to initiation of the first period;

receive, during a second period of the handshake sequence, subsequent to said transmitting, using omni-directional transmission, a grant message indicative of a grant of the reserved time for the directional link;

transmit wirelessly during the reserved time; and

schedule communications over a second directional link during the reserved time, the second directional link being non-interfering with the directional link;

wherein the request, the grant message, and the reserved time all occur between two consecutive beacons, and

wherein the handshake sequence has an end time prior to a start time of the reserved time.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the grant and the beacon are to be received from a same wireless communication device.

10. A method of wireless communications, comprising:

transmitting, during a first period of a handshake sequence, a request for a reserved time for a directional link in a wireless personal area network (WPAN), wherein the handshake sequence has a start time corresponding to initiation of the first period;

receiving, during a second period of the handshake sequence, subsequent to said transmitting, using omni-directional transmission, a grant message indicative of a grant of the reserved time for the directional link;

scheduling communications over a second directional link in the WPAN during the reserved time, the second directional link being non-interfering with the directional link;

transmitting directional data during the reserved time;

wherein said transmitting the request, said receiving, and said transmitting during the reserved time all occur between two consecutive beacons, and

wherein the handshake sequence has an end time prior to a start time of the reserved time.

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

transmitting, during a first period of a handshake sequence, a request for a reserved time for a directional link in a wireless personal area network (WPAN), wherein the handshake sequence has a start time corresponding to initiation of the first period;

receiving, during a second period of the handshake sequence, subsequent to said transmitting, using omni-directional transmission, a grant message indicative of a grant of the reserved time for the directional link;

transmitting directional data during the reserved time; and

scheduling communications over a second directional link in the WPAN during the reserved time, the second directional link being non-interfering with the directional link;

wherein said transmitting the request, said receiving, and said transmitting during the reserved time all occur between two consecutive beacons, and

wherein the handshake sequence has an end time prior to a start time of the reserved time.

12. The machine-accessible non-transitory medium of claim 11, wherein said operations further comprise receiving the grant and receiving the beacons from a same wireless communication device.