US 11,122,624 B2Granted

Pre-packet arrival channel contention

AssigneeSony Group Corporation

InventorsMohamed Abouelseoud, Kazuyuki Sakoda, Liangxiao Xin

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Abstract

Performing a pre-packet arrival channel contention procedure in stations of a WLAN to enhance support for real-time applications (RTAs) which are sensitive to communication delays. The stations track active real-time application sessions and identify running RTA sessions with respect to communication times, rates and packet sizes. A station attempts to gain access to the communication channel using a pre-packet arrival channel contention process before a packet arrives from the application layer of an RTA, based on information received from the RTA as to what time the packet will arrive to a MAC queue in a MAC layer of the wireless station. Thus, the RTA packets incur less delay while the process can also reduce communications overhead.

Claims12

Dependent claims

An apparatus for wireless communication in a network, the apparatus comprising:

(a) a wireless communication circuit configured for wirelessly communicating with at least one other wireless local area network (WLAN) station in its reception area;
(b) a processor coupled to said wireless communication circuit within a station configured for operating on the WLAN;
and
(c) a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor;
(d) wherein said instructions, when executed by the processor, perform one or more steps comprising:
(i) operating said wireless communication circuit as a WLAN station configured to support at least one real-time application (RTA) that is sensitive to communication delays;
(ii) tracking active real-time application sessions and identifying running real time application (RTA) sessions with respect to communication times, rates and packet sizes;
and
(iii) attempting to gain access to a communication channel before a packet arrives in a pre-packet arrival channel contention process based on information provided by an application layer of the at least one real-time application on what time the packet will arrive to a MAC queue in a MAC layer of said WLAN station;
(iv) sending a request from a non-access point (non-AP) station to the access point (AP) in its basic service set (BSS) to perform said pre-packet arrival channel contention process in response to exchanging one or more messages or requests between said WLAN station and the AP;
and
(v) requesting a change of procedure parameters through exchanging parameter update messages with the access point (AP), in response to receiving acceptance of performing said pre-packet arrival channel contention process by the AP.

9 more elements

An apparatus for wireless communication in a network, the apparatus comprising:

(a) a wireless communication circuit configured for wirelessly communicating with at least one other wireless local area network (WLAN) station in its reception area;
(b) a processor coupled to said wireless communication circuit within a station configured for operating on the WLAN;
and
(c) a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor;
(d) wherein said instructions, when executed by the processor, perform one or more steps comprising:
(i) operating said wireless communication circuit as a WLAN station configured to support at least one real-time application that is sensitive to communication delays;
(ii) tracking active real-time application sessions and identifying running real time application (RTA) sessions with respect to communication times, rates and packet sizes in the form of rate of packet arrival, size of packet to be sent, expected time of packet arrival, and end of a real-time application session;
(iii) attempting to gain access to a communication channel before a packet arrives in a pre-packet arrival channel contention process based on information provided by an application layer of the at least one real-time application (RTA) on what time the packet will arrive to a MAC queue in a MAC layer of said WLAN station;
and
(iv) tracking of statistics to update expected pre-packet channel contention information by said WLAN station each time the communication channel is relinquished;
(v) sending a request from a non-access point (non-AP) station to the access point (AP) in its basic service set (BSS) to perform said pre-packet arrival channel contention process in response to exchanging one or more messages or requests between said WLAN station and the AP;
and
(vi) requesting a change of procedure parameters through exchanging parameter update messages with the access point (AP), in response to receiving acceptance of performing said pre-packet arrival channel contention process by the AP.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/584,246Filed 26 Sep 2019 · us provisional application
Priority: 17 Jun 2019
Published: US 2020/0396768 A117 Dec 2020
Granted: 14 Sep 2021
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

H04W 74/0808
Non-scheduled access, e.g. ALOHA: using carrier sensing, e.g. carrier sense multiple access [CSMA]
H04W 74/0816
Using carrier sensing, e.g. carrier sense multiple access [CSMA]: with collision avoidance
H04W 80/02
Wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation: data link layer protocols
H04W 84/12
Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks: wLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Family

Application62/862,341Us provisional application · filed 17 Jun 2019
US 2020/0396768 A1Pre-grant publication · published 17 Dec 2020
US 11,122,624 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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