Directional channel access techniques for wireless communication networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017265221-A1
Application number	US-201615201379-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 1, 2016
Priority date	Mar 8, 2016
Publication date	Sep 14, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Directional channel access techniques for wireless communication networks are described. According to various such techniques, a directional channel access mechanism may be implemented in order to enable improved spatial reuse in a wireless network. In some embodiments, according to the directional channel access mechanism, a wireless communication device may be able to perform multiple concurrent channel accesses in different respective directions. In various embodiments, a wireless communication device utilizing the directional channel access mechanism may transmit in multiple different directions at the same time. In some embodiments, a wireless communication device utilizing the directional channel access mechanism may receive from multiple different directions at the same time. In various embodiments, a wireless communication device utilizing the directional channel access mechanism may transmit in one or more directions and receive from one or more other directions at the same time. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus, comprising:
a memory; and logic, at least a portion of which is implemented in circuitry coupled to the memory, the logic to:
determine an access category (AC) for a medium access control service data unit (MSDU) to be transmitted from a source device to a destination station (STA);
store the MSDU in a destination-and-AC-specific (DACS) transmit queue associated with the AC and the destination STA;
identify, among a plurality of antennas of the source device, an antenna to be used to transmit the MSDU to the destination STA; and
assign the MSDU to an antenna-and-AC specific (AACS) transmit queue associated with the AC and the antenna.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , the logic to assign the MSDU to a destination-specific sub-queue of the AACS transmit queue, the destination-specific sub-queue to comprise a sub-queue associated with the destination STA.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , the antenna to correspond to a best transmit (TX) sector for single-input single-output (SISO) transmissions from the source device to the destination STA.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , the antenna to comprise one of multiple antennas to be used for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmissions from the source device to the destination STA, the logic to assign the MSDU to multiple AACS transmit queues, each one of the multiple AACS transmit queues associated with the AC and a respective one of the multiple antennas.

5 . The apparatus of claim 4 , the logic to assign the MSDU to multiple destination-specific sub-queues associated with the destination STA, each one of the multiple destination-specific sub-queues to comprise a sub-queue of a respective one of the multiple AACS transmit queues.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , the logic to:
identify a user priority (UP) associated with the MSDU; and determine the AC for the MSDU based on the identified UP.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , the AC to comprise one of a voice (VO) access category, a video (VI) access category, a best effort (BE) access category, and a background (BK) access category.

8 . The apparatus of claim 7 , the logic to maintain multiple backoff timers for the antenna, the multiple backoff timers to include a backoff timer associated with the VO access category, a backoff timer associated with the VI access category, a backoff timer associated with the BE access category, and a backoff timer associated with the BK access category.

9 . A system, comprising:
the apparatus of claim 1 ; at least one radio frequency (RF) transceiver; and at least one RF antenna.

10 . At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions that, in response to being executed at a wireless communication device, cause the wireless communication device to:
determine an access category (AC) for a medium access control service data unit (MSDU) to be transmitted to a destination station (STA); store the MSDU in a destination-and-AC-specific (DACS) transmit queue associated with the AC and the destination STA; identify, among a plurality of antennas of the wireless communication device, an antenna to be used to transmit the MSDU to the destination STA; and assign the MSDU to an antenna-and-AC specific (AACS) transmit queue associated with the AC and the antenna.

11 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , comprising instructions that, in response to being executed at the wireless communication device, cause the wireless communication device to assign the MSDU to a destination-specific sub-queue of the AACS transmit queue, the destination-specific sub-queue to comprise a sub-queue associated with the destination STA.

12 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , the antenna to correspond to a best transmit (TX) sector for single-input single-output (SISO) transmissions from the wireless communication device to the destination STA.

13 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , the antenna to comprise one of multiple antennas to be used for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmissions from the wireless communication device to the destination STA, the logic to assign the MSDU to multiple AACS transmit queues, each one of the multiple AACS transmit queues associated with the AC and a respective one of the multiple antennas.

14 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , comprising instructions that, in response to being executed at the wireless communication device, cause the wireless communication device to assign the MSDU to multiple destination-specific sub-queues associated with the destination STA, each one of the multiple destination-specific sub-queues to comprise a sub-queue of a respective one of the multiple AACS transmit queues.

15 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , comprising instructions that, in response to being executed at the wireless communication device, cause the wireless communication device to:
identify a user priority (UP) associated with the MSDU; and determine the AC for the MSDU based on the identified UP.

16 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , the AC to comprise one of a voice (VO) access category, a video (VI) access category, a best effort (BE) access category, and a background (BK) access category.

17 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , comprising instructions that, in response to being executed at the wireless communication device, cause the wireless communication device to maintain multiple backoff timers for the antenna, the multiple backoff timers to include a backoff timer associated with the VO access category, a backoff timer associated with the VI access category, a backoff timer associated with the BE access category, and a backoff timer associated with the BK access category.

18 . A wireless communication device, comprising:
a plurality of antennas; a memory; and logic, at least a portion of which is implemented in circuitry coupled to the memory, the logic to:
determine an access category (AC) for a medium access control service data unit (MSDU) to be transmitted to a destination station (STA);
store the MSDU in a destination-and-AC-specific (DACS) transmit queue associated with the AC and the destination STA;
identify, among the plurality of antennas, an antenna to be used to transmit the MSDU to the destination STA; and
assign the MSDU to an antenna-and-AC specific (AACS) transmit queue associated with the AC and the antenna.

19 . The wireless communication device of claim 18 , the logic to assign the MSDU to a destination-specific sub-queue of the AACS transmit queue, the destination-specific sub-queue to comprise a sub-queue associated with the destination STA.

20 . The wireless communication device of claim 18 , the antenna to correspond to a best transmit (TX) sector for single-input single-output (SISO) transmissions to the destination STA.

21 . The wireless communication device of claim 18 , the antenna to comprise one of multiple antennas to be used for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmissions to the destination STA, the logic to assign the MSDU to multiple AACS transmit queues, each one of the multiple AACS transmit queues associated with the AC and a respective one of the multiple antennas.

Assignees

• Yang Ou
• Cordeiro Carlos
• Trainin Solomon
• Cariou Laurent

Inventors

• Yang Ou
• Cordeiro Carlos
• Trainin Solomon
• Cariou Laurent

Classifications

• H04W74/002 Primary

  Transmission of channel access control information · CPC title

• H04B7/0413

  MIMO systems · CPC title

• H04B7/0617

  for beam forming · CPC title

• H04W48/02

  Access restriction performed under specific conditions · CPC title

• H04B7/0608 Primary

  Antenna selection according to transmission parameters · CPC title