Stream classification service (SCS) with restricted target wait time (R-TWT) setup

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12495363-B2
Application number	US-202217814166-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 21, 2022
Priority date	Aug 11, 2021
Publication date	Dec 9, 2025
Grant date	Dec 9, 2025

Abstract

An IEEE 802.11 protocol in which the necessity and issues surrounding separately setting up SCS and reserving target wait time (R-TWT) are eliminated. In the present disclosure new data structures and processes are performed in which a station (STA) can request scheduling R-TWT for the traffic transmission of a stream classification service (SCS) during the setup procedure of that SCS. In using the teachings of the present disclosure, a STA can exchange a TWT setup frame on one link to schedule R-TWT on multiple links.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus for wireless communication in a network, the apparatus comprising:
(a) a wireless communication circuit, as a wireless station (STA) which is a separate STA or as a STA in a multiple-link device (MLD), and operating as either a regular STA or an Access Point (AP) STA, for wirelessly communicating with other wireless stations (STAs) using a carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) mechanism on a wireless local area network (WLAN); (b) a processor coupled to said wireless communication circuit for operating on the WLAN; (c) a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor for communicating with other STAs; and (d) wherein said instructions, when executed by the processor, perform steps of a wireless communications protocol for said wireless communication circuit, comprising:
(i) sending a stream classification service (SCS) request frame by a STA operating as a non-AP STA, to an AP station, to initiate a SCS setup in addition to scheduling a reserved restricted target wait time (R-TWT); wherein said SCS request frame comprises a traffic specification (TSPEC) element or QoS characteristics element;
receiving said SCS request frame from the non-AP STA, upon which the AP determines whether or not to accept the request;
(iii) sending a SCS response frame by the AP to the non-AP STA indicating a decision on the request; and
(iv) scheduling SCS traffic to be transmitted with a transmission priority which exceeds that of non-SCS traffic, by the AP and non-AP STA, during R-TWT service periods (SPs) if the request is accepted; wherein said SCS traffic is selected from the group of communication traffic consisting of downlink (DL), uplink (UL), and peer-to-peer (P2P).

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said R-TWT SP is trigger-enabled.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said non-AP sends the SCS request frame comprising a TWT element to request R-TWT setup for the SCS.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the AP sends a SCS response frame including TWT element to indicate the results of the R-TWT setup for the SCS.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the total R-TWT SP time per second scheduled by the AP is not allowed to exceed what is required by the traffic to be transmitted or prioritized during the R-TWT SPs.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the AP scheduling R-TWT can set the interval between two consecutive R-TWT SPs for a SCS traffic stream between the minimum service interval and the maximum service interval of the SCS traffic stream.

7 . An apparatus for wireless communication in a network, the apparatus comprising:
(a) a wireless communication circuit, as a wireless station (STA) which is a separate STA or as a STA in a multiple-link device (MLD), and operating as either a regular STA or an Access Point (AP) STA, for wirelessly communicating with other wireless stations (STAs) using a carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) mechanism on a wireless local area network (WLAN); (b) a processor coupled to said wireless communication circuit for operating on the WLAN; (c) a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor for communicating with other STAs; and (d) wherein said instructions, when executed by the processor, perform steps of a wireless communications protocol for said wireless communication circuit, comprising:
(i) sending a stream classification service (SCS) request frame which includes a QoS Characteristics element, by a non-AP STA, to an AP station, to initiate a SCS setup in addition to scheduling a restricted target wait time (R-TWT) for the SCS;
(ii) receiving said SCS request frame from the non-AP STA, upon which the AP determines whether or not to accept the request;
(iii) sending a SCS response frame by the AP to the non-AP STA indicating a decision on the request;
(iv) sending a TWT response frame by the AP to assign the R-TWT membership for scheduling the transmission of SCS traffic during the corresponding R-TWT service periods (SPs) if the SCS response frame accepts the SCS request; and
(v) scheduling SCS traffic to be transmitted with an increased a transmission priority which exceeds that of non-SCS traffic, by the AP and non-AP STA during the corresponding R-TWT SPs if the request is accepted.

8 . The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the TWT response frame could be transmitted by AP MLD on any link where the R-TWT SP is scheduled for the SCS traffic stream.

9 . The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the TWT response frame could be transmitted by AP MLD within timeout.

10 . The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the non-AP MLD should not transmit TWT request frame for the SCS traffic stream within timeout since the SCS traffic stream that request R-TWT scheduling is established successfully.

11 . The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the non-AP MLD retransmits SCS request frame if it does not receive TWT response frame for the SCS traffic stream within timeout since the SCS traffic stream that request R-TWT scheduling is established successfully.

12 . The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the non-AP MLD transmits TWT request frame for the SCS traffic stream if it does not receive TWT response frame for the SCS traffic stream within timeout since the SCS traffic stream that request R-TWT scheduling is established successfully.

Assignees

• Sony Group Corp
• Sony Corp America

Inventors

• Xin Liangxiao
• Abouelseoud Mohamed
• Sun Li-Hsiang
• Xia Qing

Classifications

• H04W74/0816

  with collision avoidance · CPC title

• H04W72/54

  based on quality criteria · CPC title

• Y02D30/70

  in wireless communication networks · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W76/15

  Setup of multiple wireless link connections · CPC title