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US 2004/0002357 A1Published application
Directional antennas and wireless channel access
OwnerMathilde Benvenisteinventor
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OwnerMathilde Benvenisteinventor
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A method is disclosed for addressing the problem of uplink capture, which arises in a multiple-cell wireless LAN using directional antennas. The use of directional antennas may adversely impact the performance of channel access protocols. CSMA-type MAC protocols provide dynamic bandwidth allocation in a distributed manner, eliminating idle time intervals. With such protocols, time-overlapped uplink transmissions by stations illuminated by different beams cooperate to capture the channel for long time periods. Without special measures, an imbalance could arise in the opportunity for the AP to access the channel, which could result in downlink delay and jitter and overall capacity loss. According to this invention, the uplink capture problem is mitigated by requiring all (non-AP) stations to release the channel at pre-specified times.
A method for distributed medium access that schedules transmission of frames on a channel in a wireless access network comprising an access point and a plurality of stations illuminated by multiple beams of an antenna system emanating from said access point, which antenna system does not enable simultaneous communication on the same channel in opposite directions between said access point and any two stations covered by different beams, in a way that reduces channel capture, comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.