White space usage for wireless local area network devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9491756-B2
Application number	US-201514920401-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 22, 2015
Priority date	Aug 26, 2010
Publication date	Nov 8, 2016
Grant date	Nov 8, 2016

Abstract

A method and apparatus are described including defining a neighbor set for each access point, selecting a first clock in a first access point, the selected clock having a highest accuracy as a grand master clock, advising neighboring access points to synchronize with the selected grand master clock and transmitting a message to schedule a quiet period based on the grand master clock. Also described are a method and apparatus including receiving a beacon message, inspecting clock descriptors in the beacon message, selecting a best master clock responsive to the inspection and transmitting a message to schedule a quiet period based on the selected best master clock.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, said method comprising:
receiving a beacon message, said beacon message having a clock descriptor field, a master clock descriptor field and a quiet period scheduling field;
inspecting said clock descriptor field and said master clock descriptor field in said beacon message;
selecting a best master clock responsive to said inspection; and
transmitting a message to schedule a quiet period based on said selected best master clock, wherein said best master clock is one of most stable, most accurate, fastest and slowest.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said method operates in an access point.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said selection is performed by executing IEEE 1588 best master clock method.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein recipients of said transmitted message modify a time stamp in said messages responsive to time to receive and process said messages.

5. An apparatus comprising:
means for receiving a beacon message, said beacon message having a clock descriptor field, a master clock descriptor field and a quiet period scheduling field;
means for inspecting said clock descriptors field and said master clock descriptor field in said beacon message;
means for selecting a best master clock responsive to said inspection; and
means for transmitting a message to schedule a quiet period based on said selected best master clock, wherein said best master clock is one of most stable, most accurate, fastest and slowest.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein said apparatus is an access point.

7. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein said means for selection is performed by executing IEEE 1588 best master clock method.

8. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein recipients of said transmitted message modify a time stamp in said messages responsive to time to receive and process said messages.

9. An apparatus comprising:
a transceiver, said transceiver receiving a beacon message, said beacon message having a clock descriptor field, a master clock descriptor field and a quiet period scheduling field;
control logic, said control logic inspecting said clock descriptor field and said master clock descriptor field in said beacon message, said control logic in communication with said transceiver;
said control logic selecting a best master clock responsive to said inspection; and
said transceiver transmitting a message to schedule a quiet period based on said selected best master clock, wherein said best master clock is one of most stable, most accurate, fastest and slowest.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein said apparatus is an access point.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein said control logic selects said best master clock by executing IEEE 1588 best master clock method.

12. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein recipients of said transmitted message modify a time stamp in said messages responsive to time to receive and process said messages.

Assignees

• Thomson Licensing

Inventors

• Gao Wen
• Chen Hou-Shin

Classifications

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W36/0061

  of neighbour cell information · CPC title

• H04J3/0673

  using intermediate nodes, e.g. modification of a received timestamp before further transmission to the next packet node, e.g. including internal delay time or residence time into the packet · CPC title

• H04W56/002

  Mutual synchronization · CPC title

• H04W48/16

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title