Techniques for interference reduction in wireless communications networks

An apparatus, comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive data transmissions from a transmitting device across a distributedly controlled wireless communications network, the data transmissions corresponding to a connection with the transmitting device and occurring within a reserved portion of a communications resource, wherein control of the communication resource is shared between devices belonging to said wireless communication network;
• a controller configured to detect an interference condition, wherein the interference condition includes an allocation of the communications resource for a neighboring device that overlaps with the reserved portion;
• and
• a transmitter configured to send a notification to the transmitting device, the notification indicating the presence of overlapping transmissions in the reserved portion of the communications resource, wherein the receiver is further configured to receive the data transmissions from the transmitting device in the form of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals, and wherein the notification includes an indication of non-overlapping reserved portion of the communications resource for the wireless communication device.

A computer system, comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive data transmissions from a transmitting device across a distributedly controlled wireless communications network, the data transmissions corresponding to a connection with the transmitting device and occurring within a reserved portion of a communications resource, wherein control of the communication resource is shared between devices belonging to said wireless communication network;
• a processor;
• a memory, the memory storing instructions for the processor to detect an interference condition, wherein the interference condition includes an allocation of the communications resource for a neighboring device that overlaps with the reserved portion;
• and
• a transmitter configured to send a notification to the transmitting device, the notification indicating the presence of overlapping transmissions in the reserved portion of the communications resource, wherein the notification includes an indication of non-overlapping reserved portions of the communications resource for the wireless communications device.

A computer reader useable medium having computer program logic recorded thereon for enabling a processor in a computer system to reduce interference in a distributedly controlled wireless communications network, the computer program logic comprising:

• program code for enabling the processor to receive data transmissions from a transmitting device across the distributedly controlled wireless communications network, the data transmissions corresponding to a connection with the transmitting device and occurring within a reserved portion of a communications resource, wherein control of the communication resource is shared between devices belonging to said wireless communication network;
• program code for enabling the processor to detect an interference condition, wherein the interference condition includes an allocation of the communications resource for a neighboring device overlapping with the reserved portion;
• program code for enabling the processor to send a notification to the transmitting device, the notification indicating the presence of overlapping transmissions in the reserved portion of the communications resource;
• and
• program code for transmitting an indication of non-overlapping reserved portions of the communications resource for the wireless communications device wherein the indication is included in a modified distributed reservation protocol information element (DRP IE), and wherein the modified DRP IE indicates the overlapping reserved portions of the communications resource by leaving out indications of corresponding media access slots (MASs).