Patent ID: 7123627
Filing Date: 2006-10-17
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. In a CSMA/CA local area network, having a plurality of stations, and wherein data flow moves over the network in superframes, a scheduler for providing quality of service, comprising: a mechanism for governing channel resources in the asynchronous, contention-based, local area network, including a transmit specification controller for granting a transmit specification to a data flow from one station on the network to another station on the network; and a TXOP mechanism for terminating transmit opportunities for stations which have successfully completed data transmission, thereby changing the length of a superframe, wherein said TXOP mechanism, during successive superframes, expands and contracts the TXOP durations of the stations in the network as a function of completed polling interval relative to the requested polling interval, and wherein the TXOP duration is T where T TXOP, Avg corresponds to the TXOP duration required to support the mean data rate at the agreed upon transmission rate, and T TXOP, Min. Data Rate and T TXOP, Max Data Rate corresponds to the minimum data rate and maximum data rates, respectively.