Patent ID: 7899059

Claim:
A method of processing data streams in a contention-based WLAN system, the method comprising: (A) generating two or more sub-streams corresponding to a first data stream, wherein the two or more sub-streams comprise a base sub-stream and at least one enhancement sub-stream; (B) assigning priority to each of the two or more sub-streams, wherein at least two of said base and enhancement sub-streams have different priorities; and (C) transmitting data corresponding to each of the two or more sub-streams based on the assigned priority, wherein: the contention-based WLAN system conforms to an IEEE 802.11e standard and supports a quality of service (QoS) facility; and the step of assigning comprises: assigning to said at least two of said base and enhancement sub-streams QoS parameter sets corresponding to at least two different access categories of the IEEE 802.11e standard; assigning to the base sub-stream a QoS parameter set corresponding to a voice access category of the IEEE 802.11e standard; assigning to a first enhancement sub-stream a QoS parameter set corresponding to a video access category of the IEEE 802.11e standard; if there is a second enhancement sub-stream, then assigning to the second enhancement sub-stream a QoS parameter set corresponding to a video probe access category of the IEEE 802.11e standard; and if there is a third enhancement sub-stream, then assigning to the third enhancement sub-stream a QoS parameter set corresponding to a best effort access category of the IEEE 802.11e standard.