Managing latency and jitter on wireless LANs

A method for transferring voice packets between a primary wireless access point and a plurality of voice client devices, comprising:

• assigning, relative to an access point beacon packet timing position, unique time slots for each voice client device to send their voice packets to the primary wireless access point;
• assigning, relative to said access point beacon packet timing position, a block receive time slot for the primary wireless access point to send concatenated voice packets to all of said plurality of voice client devices simultaneously;
• concatenating voice packets that are to be sent to voice client devices;
• monitoring for a conflicting transmission:
• sending concatenated voice packets from the primary wireless access point to all voice client devices simultaneously during the assigned block receive time slot if a wireless medium is available for transmission;
• de-concatenating said concatenated voice packets, performed by each voice client device, such that each voice client device extracts the voice information intended specifically for that voice client device;
• scanning to evaluate possible connections to alternative wireless access points, performed by a specific voice client device during unallocated time slots that are not assigned to that specific voice client device;
• performing collision detection;
• and
• in the event that a collision is detected between a device other than the plurality of voice client devices and the plurality of voice client devices, backing off transmission from the at least one of the plurality of voice client devices according to a contention window that is at least in part governed by a random number scheme.

A method for transferring voice packets between a primary wireless access point and a plurality of voice client devices, comprising:

• assigning, relative to an access point beacon packet timing position, unique time slots for each voice client device to send their voice packets to the primary wireless access point;
• assigning, relative to said access point beacon packet timing position, a block receive time slot for the primary wireless access point to send concatenated voice packets to all of said plurality of voice client devices simultaneously;
• concatenating voice packets that are to be sent to voice client devices;
• monitoring for a conflicting transmission;
• sending concatenated voice packets from the primary wireless access point to all voice client device simultaneously during the assigned block receive time slot if a wireless medium is available for transmission;
• de-concatenating said concatenated voice packets, performed by each voice client devices, such that each voice client device extracts the voice information intended specifically for that voice client device;
• transferring data to and from an alternative wireless access point, performed by a specific voice client device during unallocated time slots that are not assigned to that specific voice client device;
• performing collision detection;
• and
• in the event that a collision is detected between a device other than the plurality of voice client devices and the plurality of voice client devices, backing off transmission from the at least one of the plurality of voice client devices according to a contention window that is at least in part governed by a random number scheme.