Access point and method for communicating with stations in accordance with a multiple-access technique
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An apparatus of an access point comprising:
- memory; and
physical layer (PHY), and medium-access control (MAC) layer circuitry coupled to the memory, the PHY and MAC layer circuitry configured to;
contend for a wireless medium to receive exclusive control of the medium for a control period;
transmit a polling frame;
receive responses from at least two stations to the polling frame, wherein the responses each comprise an indication of a size of buffered data at the corresponding station of the at least two stations;
transmit a control transmission at the beginning of the control period, the control transmission to identify the at least two stations and a duration of the control transmission, wherein the duration is determined at least partially by the indication of the size of buffered data; and
receive simultaneously aggregate media access control protocol data units (A-MPDUs) that include data from the identified stations in accordance with a non-contention based multiple-access technique during the control period, wherein the A-MPDUs indicate an acknowledgement of the control transmission, and wherein the A-MPDUs are to be transmitted by the identified stations a short interframe space (SIFS) after the identified stations receive the control transmission.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
According to various embodiments, a computer-implemented method is disclosed that allows an AP to efficiently poll various information from STAs belonging to a SDMA group. Each STA may transmit uplink frames using uplink SDMA mechanism.
76 Citations
50 Claims
-
1. An apparatus of an access point comprising:
- memory; and
physical layer (PHY), and medium-access control (MAC) layer circuitry coupled to the memory, the PHY and MAC layer circuitry configured to;contend for a wireless medium to receive exclusive control of the medium for a control period; transmit a polling frame; receive responses from at least two stations to the polling frame, wherein the responses each comprise an indication of a size of buffered data at the corresponding station of the at least two stations; transmit a control transmission at the beginning of the control period, the control transmission to identify the at least two stations and a duration of the control transmission, wherein the duration is determined at least partially by the indication of the size of buffered data; and receive simultaneously aggregate media access control protocol data units (A-MPDUs) that include data from the identified stations in accordance with a non-contention based multiple-access technique during the control period, wherein the A-MPDUs indicate an acknowledgement of the control transmission, and wherein the A-MPDUs are to be transmitted by the identified stations a short interframe space (SIFS) after the identified stations receive the control transmission. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
- memory; and
-
10. A communication station (STA) comprising:
- memory; and
physical layer (PHY) and medium-access control (MAC) layer circuitry coupled to the memory, the PHY and MAC layer circuitry configured to;receive a polling frame; transmit a response to the polling frame with an indication of a size of buffered data at the STA; receive, from an access point, a control transmission indicating a beginning of the control period, the control period comprising a transmission opportunity (TXOP), the control transmission to identify at least two stations, wherein the control transmission further comprises a duration of the control transmission; and when the STA is identified in the control transmission, the STA is arranged to transmit an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) that include data from the STA to the access point in accordance with a non-contention based multiple-access technique during the control period, wherein the A-MPDUs indicate an acknowledgement of the control transmission, and wherein the A-MPDU is to be transmitted by the STA a short interframe space (SIFS) after the reception of the control transmission, wherein during the control period, one or more other stations identified in the control transmission transmit other aggregate media access control protocol data units (A-MPDUs) that include data from the one or more other stations to the access point simultaneously with the STA in accordance with the non-contention based multiple-access technique. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
- memory; and
-
17. A method performed by an apparatus of an access point comprising:
-
contending for a wireless medium to receive exclusive control of the medium for a control period; transmitting a polling frame; receiving responses from at least two stations to the polling frame, wherein the responses each comprise an indication of a size of buffered data at the corresponding station of the at least two stations; transmitting a control transmission at the beginning of the control period, the control transmission to identify the at least two stations and a duration of the control transmission, wherein the duration is determined at least partially by the indication of the size of buffered data; and receiving simultaneously aggregate media access control protocol data units (A-MPDUs) that include data from the identified stations in accordance with a non-contention based multiple-access technique during the control period, wherein the A-MPDUs indicate an acknowledgement of the control transmission, and wherein the A-MPDUs are to be transmitted by the identified stations a short interframe space (SIFS) after the identified stations receive the control transmission. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. A method performed by a communication station (STA) comprising physical layer (PHY) and medium-access control (MAC) layer circuitry configured to:
-
receive a polling frame; transmit a response to the polling frame with an indication of a size of buffered data at the STA; receive, from an access point, a control transmission indicating a beginning of the control period, the control period comprising a transmission opportunity (TXOP), the control transmission to identify at least two stations, wherein the control transmission further comprises a duration of the control transmission and wherein the duration is determined at least partially by the indication of the size of buffered data; and when the STA is identified in the control transmission, the STA is arranged to transmitting an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) that include data from the STA to the access point in accordance with a non-contention based multiple-access technique during the control period, wherein the A-MPDUs indicate an acknowledgement of the control transmission, and wherein the A-MPDU is to be transmitted by the STA a short interframe space (SIFS) after the reception of the control transmission, wherein during the control period, one or more other stations identified in the control transmission transmit simultaneously with the STA other aggregate media access control protocol data units (A-MPDUs) that include data from the one or more other stations to the access point in accordance with the non-contention based multiple-access technique. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
-
-
33. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of an apparatus of an access point to perform operations comprising:
-
contending for a wireless medium to receive exclusive control of the medium for a control period; transmitting a polling frame; receiving responses from at least two stations to the polling frame, wherein the responses each comprise an indication of a size of buffered data at the corresponding station of the at least two stations; transmitting a control transmission at the beginning of the control period, the control transmission to identify the at least two stations and a duration of the control transmission, wherein the duration is determined at least partially by the indication of the size of buffered data; and receiving concurrently aggregate media access control protocol data units (A-MPDUs) that include data from the identified stations in accordance with a non-contention based multiple-access technique during the control period, wherein the A-MPDUs indicate an acknowledgement of the control transmission, and wherein the A-MPDUs are to be transmitted by the identified stations a short interframe space (SIFS) after the identified stations receive the control transmission. - View Dependent Claims (34)
-
-
35. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a communication station (STA) to perform operations comprising:
-
receive a polling frame; transmit a response to the polling frame with an indication of a size of buffered data at the STA; receive, from an access point, a control transmission indicating a beginning of the control period, the control period comprising a transmission opportunity (TXOP), the control transmission to identify at least two stations, wherein the control transmission further comprises a duration of the control transmission and wherein the duration is determined at least partially by the indication of the size of buffered data; and when the STA is identified in the control transmission, the STA is arranged to transmit an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) that include data from the STA to the access point in accordance with a non-contention based multiple-access technique during the control period, wherein the A-MPDUs indicate an acknowledgement of the control transmission, and wherein the A-MPDU is to be transmitted by the STA a short interframe space (SIFS) after the reception of the control transmission, wherein during the control period, one or more other stations identified in the control transmission transmit simultaneously with the STA other aggregate media access control protocol data units (A-MPDUs) that include data from the one or more other stations to the access point in accordance with the non-contention based multiple-access technique. - View Dependent Claims (36)
-
-
37. An apparatus of an access point comprising:
- memory; and
physical layer (PHY) and medium-access control (MAC) layer circuitry coupled to the memory, the PHY and MAC layer circuitry configured to;transmit a polling frame; receive responses from at least two stations to the polling frame, wherein the responses each comprise an indication of a size of buffered data at the corresponding station of the at least two stations; transmit a control transmission identifying a control period and identifying the at least two stations, wherein the control transmission further comprises a duration of the control transmission, and wherein the duration is determined at least partially by the indication of the size of buffered data; receive simultaneously uplink transmissions of aggregate media access control protocol data units (A-MPDUs) through two or more antennas from the identified stations on non-orthogonal channel resources in accordance with an uplink space-division multiple access (UL-SDMA) technique during the control period, wherein the A-MPDUs indicate an acknowledgement of the control transmission, and wherein the A-MPDUs are to be transmitted by the identified stations a short interframe space (SIFS) after the identified stations receive the control transmission; and processing circuitry to separate the uplink transmissions received from each identified station. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
- memory; and
-
43. A method performed by an apparatus of an access point, the method comprising:
-
transmitting a polling frame; receive responses from at least two stations to the polling frame, wherein the responses each comprise an indication of a size of buffered data at the corresponding station of the at least two stations; transmitting a control transmission identifying a control period and identifying the at least two stations, wherein the control transmission further comprises a duration of the control transmission, and wherein the duration is determined at least partially by the indication of the size of buffered data; receiving simultaneously uplink transmissions of aggregate media access control protocol data units (A-MPDUs) through two or more antennas from the identified stations on non-orthogonal channel resources in accordance with an uplink space-division multiple access (UL-SDMA) technique during the control period, wherein the A-MPDUs indicate an acknowledgement of the control transmission, and wherein the A-MPDUs are to be transmitted by the identified stations a short interframe space (SIFS) after the identified stations receive the control transmission; and processing to separate the uplink transmissions received from each identified station. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
-
-
49. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of an apparatus of an access point to configure the access point to perform operations comprising:
-
transmitting a polling frame; receive responses from at least two stations to the polling frame, wherein the responses each comprise an indication of a size of buffered data at the corresponding station of the at least two stations; transmitting a control transmission identifying a control period and identifying the at least two stations, wherein the control transmission further comprises a duration of the control transmission, wherein the duration is determined at least partially by the indication of the size of buffered data; receiving simultaneously uplink transmissions of aggregate media access control protocol data units (A-MPDUs) through two or more antennas from the identified stations on non-orthogonal channel resources in accordance with an uplink space-division multiple access (UL-SDMA) technique during the control period, wherein the A-MPDUs indicate an acknowledgement of the control transmission, and wherein the A-MPDUs are to be transmitted by the identified stations a short interframe space (SIFS) after the identified stations receive the control transmission; and processing to separate the uplink transmissions received from each identified station. - View Dependent Claims (50)
-
Specification