Patent ID: 7760678
Filing Date: 2010-07-20
Classification: H04B,H04L

Abstract:
1. An apparatus including a combination of hardware and software associated with a cooperating relay station (CRS) in a wireless packet-carrying network (WPCN), including: a source-to-CRS (SC) link quality estimator coupled to a CRS receiver to estimate an SC link quality of an SC wireless channel using signal quality information derived from a first packet transmitted by a source station and received by the CRS; a CRS-to-destination (CD) link quality estimator coupled to the CRS receiver to estimate a CD link quality of a CD wireless channel using signal quality information derived from a second packet transmitted by a destination station and received by the CRS; source-to-destination (SD) link quality logic coupled to the CRS receiver to extract a value of an SD link quality parameter from the second packet; and cooperator decision logic coupled to at least one of the SC link quality estimator, the CD link quality estimator, or the SD link quality logic to choose whether to participate with at least one of the source station or another CRS in transmitting an SD packet based upon at least one of the SC link quality, the CD link quality, or the value of the SD link quality parameter; wherein the first packet comprises a request-to-send (RTS) packet; and wherein the second packet comprises a clear-to-send (CTS) packet.