Hybrid coordination function implementation

• US 20050281225A1
• Filed: 06/17/2004
• Published: 12/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Airgo Networks, Inc. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Goel, Sandesh, Mishra, Partho P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,889,645 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses, and systems are presented for transmission generation at a node in a wireless network involving writing a sequence of transmission instructions to a plurality of independently accessible buffers such that each one of the sequence of transmission instructions is written to one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers, reading each one of the sequence of transmission instructions from one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers, and carrying out at least one transmission task in accordance with each transmission instruction read from one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers, wherein a read operation for reading one of the sequence of transmission instructions from one of the independently accessible buffers may overlap in time with a write operation for writing another one of the sequence of transmission instructions to another one of the independently accessible buffers.

Claims

1. A method for transmission generation at a node in a wireless network comprising:

writing a sequence of transmission instructions to a plurality of independently accessible buffers such that each one of the sequence of transmission instructions is written to one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers;

reading each one of the sequence of transmission instructions from one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers;

carrying out at least one transmission task in accordance with each transmission instruction read from one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers; and

wherein a read operation for reading one of the sequence of transmission instructions from one of the independently accessible buffers may overlap in time with a write operation for writing another one of the sequence of transmission instructions to another one of the independently accessible buffers.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of independently accessible buffers consists of a first buffer and a second buffer that are alternately accessed to perform the writing and reading steps.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein consecutive transmission instructions from the sequence of transmission instructions are written to different ones of the independently accessible buffers.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein consecutive sets of transmission instructions from the sequence of transmission instructions are written to different ones of the independently accessible buffers.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

generating feedback information relating to the at least one transmission task associated with one of the sequence of transmission instructions; and

taking the feedback information into account in generating at least one additional transmission instruction.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the generated feedback information is written to a field within a corresponding transmission instruction in one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the writing step is performed by a higher level module responsible for scheduling transmissions, and the reading and carrying out steps are performed by a lower level module responsible for generating transmissions scheduled by the higher level module.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the lower level module is capable of asynchronously sending an interrupt to the higher level module to indicate start of carrying out of the at least one transmission instruction.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the lower level module is capable of asynchronously sending an interrupt to the higher level module to indicate end of carrying out of the at least one transmission instruction.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the lower level module is capable of adhering to a specified durational limit for carrying out the at least one transmission instruction.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the lower level module is capable of adhering to a specified durational limit for operating in a contention free period (CFP).

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the upper level module is capable of controlling relative durations of a contention free periods (CFP) and contention periods (CP) by stopping and resuming writes of transmission instructions to the independently accessible buffers.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the sequence of transmission instructions relates to a poll transmission to be sent from the node to grant a transmission opportunity (TXOP) to another node.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the node is a central node for managing channel access, and the other node is a remote node that is allowed to send a data transmission during the granted TXOP.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the sequence of transmission instructions relates to a data transmission to be sent from the node.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the node is capable of operating under a hybrid coordination function (HCF).

17. An apparatus for transmission generation at a node in a wireless network comprising:

a higher level module capable of generating a sequence of transmission instructions;

a plurality of independently accessible buffers coupled to the higher level module, the higher level module capable of writing the sequence of transmission instructions to the plurality of independently accessible buffers such that each one of the sequence of transmission instructions is written to one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers;

a lower level module coupled to the plurality of independently accessible buffers, the lower level module capable of reading each one of the sequence of transmission instructions from one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers and carrying out at least one transmission task in accordance with each transmission instruction read from one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers; and

wherein a read operation for reading one of the sequence of transmission instructions from one of the independently accessible buffers may overlap in time with a write operation for writing another one of the sequence of transmission instructions to another one of the independently accessible buffers.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the plurality of independently accessible buffers consists of a first buffer and a second buffer capable of being alternately accessed to write and read the transmission instructions.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein consecutive transmission instructions from the sequence of transmission instructions are capable of being written to different ones of the independently accessible buffers.

20. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein consecutive sets of transmission instructions from the sequence of transmission instructions are capable of being written to different ones of the independently accessible buffers.

21. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the lower level module is capable of generating feedback information relating to the at least one transmission task associated with one of the sequence of transmission instructions, and the higher level module is capable of taking the feedback information into account in generating at least one additional transmission instruction.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the lower level module is capable of writing the generated feedback information to a field within a corresponding transmission instruction in one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers.

23. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the lower level module is capable of asynchronously sending an interrupt to the higher level module to indicate start of carrying out of the at least one transmission instruction.

24. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the lower level module is capable of asynchronously sending an interrupt to the higher level module to indicate end of carrying out of the at least one transmission instruction.

25. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the lower level module is capable of adhering to a specified durational limit for carrying out the at least one transmission instruction.

26. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the lower level module is capable of adhering to a specified durational limit for operating in a contention free period (CFP).

27. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the upper level module is capable of controlling relative durations of a contention free periods (CFP) and contention periods (CP) by stopping and resuming writes of transmission instructions to the independently accessible buffers.

28. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the higher level module is responsible for scheduling transmissions and the lower level module is responsible for generating transmissions scheduled by the higher level module.

29. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein at least one of the sequence of transmission instructions relates to a poll transmission to be sent from the node to grant a transmission opportunity (TXOP) to another node.

30. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein the node is a central node for managing channel access, and the other node is a remote node that is allowed to send a data transmission during the granted TXOP.

31. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein at least one of the sequence of transmission instructions relates to a data transmission to be sent from the node.

32. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the node is capable of operating under a hybrid coordination function (HCF).

33. A system for transmission generation at a node in a wireless network comprising:

means for writing a sequence of transmission instructions to a plurality of independently accessible buffers such that each one of the sequence of transmission instructions is written to one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers;

means for reading each one of the sequence of transmission instructions from one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers;

means for carrying out at least one transmission task in accordance with each transmission instruction read from one of the plurality of independently accessible buffers; and

wherein a read operation for reading one of the sequence of transmission instructions from one of the independently accessible buffers may overlap in time with a write operation for writing another one of the sequence of transmission instructions to another one of the independently accessible buffers.