Dynamic cca for increasing system throughput of a wlan network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016353329-A1
Application number	US-201514721521-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 26, 2015
Priority date	May 26, 2015
Publication date	Dec 1, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present invention relates generally to wireless networking, and more particularly to methods and apparatuses for providing increased system throughput of next generation WLAN devices without impacting the throughput of legacy devices. According to certain aspects of the invention, some embodiments allow a controller to set the energy level for an STA to use to determine whether the medium is busy or not. According to certain other aspects of the invention, some embodiments allow an STA to set the energy level individually of the controller but considering the received energy levels from neighbor AP's in the network. According to further other aspects of the invention, some embodiments allow an STA to set the energy level individually by taking into consideration of the load and percentage of legacy devices in the BSS and OBSSs of the network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for increasing throughput of wireless devices and systems in a WLAN network including legacy wireless devices, comprising:
receiving, at a wireless device in the WLAN, Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) threshold related information from an associated Access Point (AP), wherein the associated AP is an AP with which the wireless device is associated; receiving, at the wireless device, CCA threshold related information from a neighbor AP, wherein the neighbor AP is an AP with which the wireless is not associated; setting the CCA threshold of the wireless device based on the received CCA threshold information from both the associated AP and the neighbor AP.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the CCA threshold related information from an associated AP includes one or more of the group consists of frame data, beacon frame, traffic load information of the Basic Service Set (BSS) corresponding to the associated AP, and number of legacy wireless devices in the BSS corresponding to the associated AP.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the CCA threshold related information from a neighbor AP includes one or more of the group consists of frame data, beacon frame, traffic load information of the BSS corresponding to the neighbor AP, and number of legacy wireless devices in the BSS corresponding to the neighbor AP.

4 . A method for increasing throughput of wireless devices and systems in a WLAN including legacy wireless devices, comprising:
receiving, at a wireless device in the WLAN, a frame transmitted from an associated AP, wherein the associated AP is an AP with which the wireless device is associated; determining an associated AP RSSI based on the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) of the frame transmitted from the associated AP; receiving, at the wireless device, a frame transmitted from a neighbor AP, wherein the neighbor AP is an AP with which the wireless is not associated; determining a neighbor AP RSSI based on the RSSI of the beacon frame from the neighbor AP; setting the CCA threshold of the wireless device based on the associated AP RSSI and the neighbor AP RSSI.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the setting the CCA threshold further comprising:
comparing the associated AP RSSI to a predetermined default threshold value; comparing the neighbor AP RSSI to the predetermined default threshold value; upon determining that the associated AP RSSI is substantially similar or equal to the predetermined default threshold value and that the neighbor AP RSSI is substantially similar or equal to the predetermined default threshold value, setting the CCA threshold to the predetermined default threshold value; and upon determining that at least one of the associated AP RSSI and the neighbor AP RSSI is higher than the default value by a predetermined margin, setting the CCA threshold to a value higher than the predetermined default threshold value.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the setting the CCA threshold further comprising:
determining measurements of the associated AP RSSI and the neighbor AP RSSI; transmitting from the wireless device the determined measurements to the associated AP; receiving instructions from the associated AP, wherein the instructions are based on the determined measurements; and setting the CCA threshold according to the received instructions.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the determined measurements comprise at least one or more of: RSSI from the associated AP, the minimal value of a plurality of neighbor AP RSSIs, the maximum value of a plurality of neighbor AP RSSIs.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the determining further comprising:
comparing a neighbor AP RSSI with an associated AP RSSI; for a predetermined time period, upon determining that a neighbor AP RSSI has a value higher than the corresponding associated AP RSSI, including said neighbor AP RSSI into a set of higher neighbor AP RSSIs; computing minimum RSSI by calculating the minimum of the set of higher neighbor AP RSSIs; and computing maximum RSSI by calculating the maximum of the set of higher neighbor AP RSSIs.

9 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
transmitting, from the associated AP, instructions signaling to associated wireless devices to set their CCA threshold value independently.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
setting, at the wireless device, a first CCA threshold for data received from the associated AP and other associated wireless devices in the same BSS; and setting, at the wireless device, a second CCA threshold for data received from a neighbor BSS.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the setting first CCA threshold comprising:
calculating RX sensitivity of the wireless device; upon determining that the RX sensitivity is higher than the predetermined default threshold value, setting the first CCA threshold to the RX sensitivity; and upon determining that the RX sensitivity is lower than the predetermined default threshold value, setting the first CCA threshold to the predetermined default threshold value.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the calculating the RX sensitivity comprising:
for each predetermined update period, recording RSSI of each beacon frame from the associated AP; upon determining the recorded RSSI is higher than a predetermined upper limit, setting that recorded RSSI value to predetermined upper limit; calculating a moving average of all recorded RSSIs of the update period; and at the end of each predetermined update period, converting the moving average to RX sensitivity.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the converting comprising:
setting RX threshold of the wired device equal to the moving average minus a predetermined RX sensitivity margin; and setting the RX sensitivity to the RX threshold upon determining that the RX threshold is higher or equal to a predetermined lower limit.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the converting comprising:
adjusting the average RSSI upon determining that the wireless device has missed at least one beacon frame; and resetting the RX sensitivity.

15 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the second CCA threshold equals the average of the minimum RSSI and the maximum RSSI subtracted by a predetermined CCA threshold margin.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the predetermined CCA threshold margin equals 20 dBm.

17 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the second CCA threshold equals average of all the neighbor AP RSSIs in the set of higher neighbor AP RSSIs subtracted by a predetermined CCA threshold margin.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the predetermined CCA threshold margin equals 20 dBm.

19 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the instructions from the associated AP comprising instructions signaling to all associated wireless devices to use a global CCA threshold.

20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the global CCA threshold is signaled in a beacon frame of the associated AP.

21 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the instructions from the associated AP comprising instructions signaling to all associated wireless devices that it is assigning CCA threshold individually to each associated wireless device.

22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the individual CCA threshold is determined based on the measurements that the associated AP received from the corresponding associated wireless device.

23 . A method for increasing thro

Assignees

• Qualcomm Technologies Int Ltd

Inventors

• Kakani Naveen Kumar

Classifications

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W40/244

  using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing · CPC title

• H04W24/10 Primary

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04W72/0446

  Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames · CPC title

• H04W28/22 Primary

  Negotiating communication rate · CPC title