Patent ID: 9526066
Filing Date: 2016-12-20
CPC Classification: H04L,H04W

Claim Text:
1. In a communication system including at least an access point and a plurality of wireless devices transmitting respective probe requests to the access point for determining whether the access point is within a range for initiating and maintaining a wireless communication link between each of the plurality of wireless devices and the access point, a method for station selection of a modulation and coding rate for more efficient probe communication, the method comprising: transmitting, at the access point, one or more frames to the plurality of wireless devices, each frame comprising a transmission power indication; receiving, at the access point, the respective probe requests from the plurality of wireless devices at a respective received power; determining a respective path-loss for each of the respective probe requests based on the respective received power; determining a respective modulation and coding scheme for each of the plurality of wireless devices based on the respective path-loss; transmitting, at the access point, separate first responses to the respective probe requests to the plurality of wireless devices, each of the probe responses transmitted according to the respective modulation and coding scheme; receiving acknowledgments of the first responses to the respective probe requests from a first portion of the plurality of wireless devices; determining no acknowledgments of the first responses to the respective probe requests have been received from a second portion of the plurality of wireless devices within a predetermined time period after transmission of the corresponding first responses to the respective probe requests; determining second modulation and coding schemes for the second portion of wireless devices based on the determining, each second modulation and coding scheme defining a coding rate that is lower than a coding rate used for the first response transmitted to the respective wireless device in the second portion; transmitting, at the access point, separate second responses to the respective probe requests to the wireless devices in the second portion, each of the second probe responses transmitted according to the corresponding second modulation and coding scheme; and utilizing the modulation and coding schemes of probe responses acknowledged by wireless devices of the plurality of wireless devices for subsequent communication with the wireless devices.