Patent ID: 7881322

Claim:
A method of saving power in a wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) including an Access Point (AP) and at least one station, the method comprising: receiving, at an AP, a Power Save (PS) Poll from a station; retrieving a frame from a highest priority buffer having frames for said station; receiving a frame control field of a frame transmitted uplink to the AP, the frame control field having a Power Management (PM) bit reset, wherein after said frame having a PM bit reset is received, said AP fills a transmit buffer with copies of frames ordered by priority; transmitting frames from said transmit buffer to said station in accordance with an order of priority; and removing said frames from said transmit buffer as the copies of frames are transmitted, wherein said removing is done when the PM bit for said station is set in a frame control field of a frame transmitted uplink to the AP; transmitting fewer than all frames in the transmit buffer to the station during a period in which the station is awake; and while there is still at least a portion of traffic buffered in the transmit buffer at the access point for transmission to the station, transmitting an end-of-wake period indication to the station to notify the station that the station can go to sleep.