Patent ID: 11889556
Assignee: SONY CORPORATION OF AMERICA
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 13:
14. An apparatus for wireless communication in a network, the apparatus comprising:
(a) a wireless communication circuit, as a wireless station (STA) operating as either an Access Point (AP) or a non-AP STA, is configured for wirelessly communicating over a channel with other wireless stations (STAs), which are either APs or non-AP STAs, on a wireless local area network (WLAN) in which Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) is applied;
(b) a processor coupled to said wireless communication circuit for operating on the WLAN as a STA;
(c) a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor for communicating with other STAs; and
(d) wherein said instructions, when executed by the processor, perform one or more steps comprising:
(i) wherein a priority-capable STA, having EDCA functions configured to operate with multiple predetermined sets of single EDCA or Multiple-User (MU) EDCA operating parameters for each access class (AC) of EDCA, providing a range of priority levels, wherein each predetermined set of operating parameters provides different levels of nominal access time for use by the STA at different periods of time when contending for said at least one channel;
(ii) said multiple predetermined sets of single EDCA or MU-EDCA operating parameters include a backoff slot duration parameter, allowing backoff slot duration to be set dynamically in response to changing between said multiple sets of single EDCA or MU-EDCA operating parameters;
(iii) wherein said priority-capable STA determines from the data that a priority period is required for transmission, and switches to utilizing a predetermined higher-priority set of single EDCA or Multiple-User (MU) EDCA operating parameters in a given AC, when the STA needs to speed up channel access by shortening nominal channel access time;
(iv) wherein said priority-capable STA utilizes a predetermined lower-priority set of EDCA operating parameters in a given AC, when the STA needs to slow down channel access toward providing a recompense, or precompense, for utilizing a predetermined higher-priority set of EDCA operating parameters;
(v) where said STA is configured for utilizing single EDCA or MU-EDCA operating parameters of different priority levels at the same time for backoff on different ACs; and
(vi) limiting a duration of time that said STA can contiguously use a predetermined higher-priority single EDCA or MU-EDCA operating parameter set for an access category (AC).