Patent ID: 7768988
Filing Date: 2010-08-03
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method for use during a wireless frame exchange in a wireless network, comprising: receiving a first wireless frame from a remote network device, said first wireless frame carrying a medium reservation period indication to reserve a network medium for a subsequent transmission of a single data MAC protocol data unit (MPDU) to said remote network device, said medium reservation period indication having been generated based on a suggested data rate developed by said remote network device for said subsequent transmission of said single data MPDU, wherein said first wireless frame also includes an indication of said suggested data rate; determining an actual data rate to use to transmit user data to said remote network device during said subsequent transmission; when said actual data rate is different from said suggested data rate and does not allow all of said single data MPDU to be transmitted within a medium reservation period defined by said medium reservation period indication, fragmenting said single data MPDU to identify a first fragment that can be transmitted in a data frame within said medium reservation period; transmitting said first fragment to said remote network device within a subsequent data frame; receiving an acknowledgement (ACK) frame from said remote network device after transmitting said subsequent data frame; transmitting another fragment of said single data MPDU to said remote network device in a data frame after receiving said ACK frame; and switching from a short network allocation vector (NAV) technique to a long NAV technique in response to receipt of said ACK frame, wherein said short NAV technique uses a medium reservation indication that reserves the network medium until an end of a subsequent frame transmission and said long NAV technique uses a network medium reservation indication that reserves the network medium until an end of a corresponding frame exchange sequence.