Patent ID: 7280517
Filing Date: 2007-10-09
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of distributed dynamic bandwidth allocation for mitigating the effects of neighborhood capture in an infrastructure wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising the steps of: time-slotting of a communications channel into superframes of superframe duration (SFDuration) by a MAC protocol, wherein said superframes comprise control and data frames and busy periods (BPs), wherein said BPS comprise contention-free periods (CFPs) and contention-free bursts (CFBs); assigning each BP an Arbitration-Time Inter-Frame Space (AEFS); further assigning an enhanced distributed coordination function (EDCF) station AEFS values according to said station's priority classification; further assigning CFPs and CFBs a shortest possible AEFS value; further assigning available channels to cells; polling stations within a cell by an access point (AP) to determine if said stations within said cell have communications traffic to transmit; attempting to gain access to said communications channel by means of a contention-based scheme using a short reservation packet by said AP if said AP determined that said stations within said cell had communications traffic to transmit; performing frame exchanges if channel access is gained; gaining access to said communications channel by one of waiting for a backoff period and re-attempting to gain access to said communication channel in the event that a transmission by another cell is less than a full time slot if channel access was not gained and waiting to attempt to gain access until a next time slot; and performing a global channel release (GCR) of all channels at pre-specified intervals.