Patent ID: 9585159
Date: 2017-02-28
CPC Classifications: H04B,H04W

Claim:
1. A method of operating an access point (AP) communicating with a plurality of stations (STAs) in a wireless network, the method comprising: identifying a target station (STA) of the plurality of STAs in the wireless network based at least in part on a medium usage efficiency of the target STA, wherein the medium usage efficiency of the target STA is based on a percentage of time the AP spends transmitting data to the target STA relative to a total time spent transmitting data to all of the plurality of STAs; sending a relay selection trigger to the target STA to cause the target STA to broadcast a relay selection request to a set of candidate STAs in the wireless network, wherein the relay selection request includes a set of metrics pertaining to a direct link between the AP and the target STA; receiving one or more relay selection responses from one or more candidate STAs in the set of candidate STAs based at least in part on the set of metrics; and selecting a relay STA from the one or more candidate STAs based at least in part on the one or more relay selection responses, wherein the selected relay STA is to relay data between the AP and the target STA.