HYBRID COORDINATION FUNCTION (HCF) ACCESS THROUGH TIERED CONTENTION AND OVERLAPPED WIRELESS CELL MITIGATION
First Claim
1. A method for enabling a plurality of wireless cells to have contention-free access to a medium, each cell including a respective plurality of member stations, comprising:
- assigning a value for a first inter-cell contention-free period to a first access point station in a first cell, associated with an accessing order in the medium for member stations in said first cell and a second cell of the plurality of cells during a transmission frame;
transmitting by the first access point station in the first cell, a beacon packet containing said value for said first inter-cell contention-free period; and
receiving the beacon packet at an overlapped station occupying the first cell and the second cell, and forwarding said value for said first inter-cell contention-free period to member stations in the second cell, to delay transmissions by member stations in the second cell until after said first inter-cell contention free period has expired.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system reduce interference between overlapping first and second wireless LAN cells in a medium. Each cell includes a respective plurality of member stations and there is at least one overlapped station occupying both cells. An inter-cell contention-free period value is assigned to a first access point station in the first cell, associated with an accessing order in the medium for member stations in the first and second cells. The access point transmits a beacon packet containing the inter-cell contention-free period value, which is intercepted at the overlapped station. The overlapped station forwards the inter-cell contention-free period value to member stations in the second cell. A second access point in the second cell can then delay transmissions by member stations in the second cell until after the inter-cell contention-free period expires. The beacon packet sent by the first access point station also includes an intra-cell contention-free period value, which causes the member stations in the first cell to delay accessing the medium until polled by the first access point. After the expiration of the intra-cell contention-free period, member stations in the first cell may contend for the medium based on the quality of service (QoS) data they are to transmit, using the Tiered Contention Multiple Access (TCMA) protocol.
163 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A method for enabling a plurality of wireless cells to have contention-free access to a medium, each cell including a respective plurality of member stations, comprising:
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assigning a value for a first inter-cell contention-free period to a first access point station in a first cell, associated with an accessing order in the medium for member stations in said first cell and a second cell of the plurality of cells during a transmission frame; transmitting by the first access point station in the first cell, a beacon packet containing said value for said first inter-cell contention-free period; and receiving the beacon packet at an overlapped station occupying the first cell and the second cell, and forwarding said value for said first inter-cell contention-free period to member stations in the second cell, to delay transmissions by member stations in the second cell until after said first inter-cell contention free period has expired. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for enabling a plurality of wireless cells to have contention-free access to a medium, each cell including a respective plurality of member stations, comprising:
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assigning a value for a first inter-cell contention-free period to a first access point station in a first cell, associated with an accessing order in the medium for member stations in said first cell and a second cell of the plurality of cells during a transmission frame; transmitting by the first access point station in the first cell, a beacon packet containing said value of said first inter-cell contention-free period; assigning a value to a second inter-cell contention-free period to a second access point station in the second cell, associated with said accessing order; and transmitting by the second access point station in the second cell, a second beacon packet containing said value of said second inter-cell contention-free period. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system for enabling a plurality of wireless cells to have contention-free access to a medium, each cell including a respective plurality of member stations, comprising:
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means for assigning a value for a first inter-cell contention-free period to a first access point station in a first cell, associated with an accessing order in the medium for member stations in said first cell and a second cell of the plurality of cells during a transmission frame; means for transmitting by the first access point station in the first cell, a beacon packet containing said value of said first inter-cell contention-free period; and means for receiving the beacon packet at a station occupying the first cell and the second cell, and forwarding said value of said first inter-cell contention-free period to member stations in the second cell, to delay transmissions by member stations in the second cell until after said first inter-cell contention free period has expired. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification