Method and apparatus for providing wireless access to an ATM network
AssigneeArmonk Business Machines Corporation
InventorFrederic Bauchot
Life of this patent
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Abstract
According to the present invention, an adaptive and efficient MAC protocol for wireless access to an ATM network is capable of supporting any type of ATM service class with associated Quality of Services parameters. An ATM cell-switched architecture is utilized in which several ATM Mobile Terminals within a given geographic cell (small cells covering a range of several tens of meters) communicate with an ATM Access Point using radio frequency channels, which is connected to an infrastructure ATM network by the means of conventional ATM links. Mobile Terminals can operate both indoor and outdoor with limited range and have wireless access to the Access Points on the ATM network.
Claims42
In a data communication system having at least one first network based on a wired ATM technology and at least one second network based on a wireless transmission technology, the system providing one or more connections between wired stations and wireless stations via an access point, access means for providing communication between the the wired and wireless stations, wherein said access means comprises:
- means for defining a plurality of successive time frames during which data traffic from between an access point of the wired network and one or more wireless stations is communicated, each time frame having a plurality of time slots, the time slots for each time frame grouped into at least three periods:
- a first period for contention free transmission from the access point to the wireless stations;
- a second period for contention free transmission from the wireless stations to the access point;
- and, a third period for contention based transmission from the wireless stations to the access point;
- means for varying the duration of each time frame as a function of the traffic load between the access point and the wireless stations while insuring that the time frame duration remains below an upper bound to comply with latency constraints imposed by the connections;
- means for varying the duration of each of the three periods as a function of the traffic load and of the traffic constraints and insuring that the third period has a non-null minimum duration;
- and,
- means for scheduling the exchange of data information during each said successive time frames using network parameters for connections between the wired stations and wireless stations, and traffic characteristics and constraints.
In a data communication system having at least one first network based on wired transmission technology and at least one second network based on a wireless transmission technology, the system providing one or more connections between wired stations and wireless stations via an access point, a method of providing communication between the wired and wireless stations, comprising the steps of:
- defining a plurality of successive time frames during which data traffic between an access point of the wired network and one or more wireless stations is communicated, each time frame having a plurality of time slots, the time slots for each time frame grouped into at least three periods:
- a first period for contention free transmission from the access point to the wireless stations;
- a second period for contention free transmission from the wireless stations to the access point;
- and,
- a third period for contention based transmission from the wireless stations to the access point;
- varying the duration of each time frame as a function of the traffic load between the access point and the wireless stations while insuring that the time frame duration remains below an upper bound to comply with latency constraints imposed by the connections;
- varying the duration of each of the three periods as a function of the traffic load and of the traffic constraints and insuring that the third period has a non-null minimum duration;
- and,
- scheduling the exchange of data information during each said successive time frames using network parameters for connections between the access point and wireless stations, and traffic characteristics and constraints.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.