Wireless communication between stations of differing protocols

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9516483-B2
Application number	US-85754004-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 28, 2004
Priority date	Feb 20, 2004
Publication date	Dec 6, 2016
Grant date	Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

A method for wireless communication between stations of differing protocols begins by determining whether protocols of target stations of a wireless communication are different than a protocol of a source station. The method continues by, when at least one of the target stations has a different protocol than the protocol of the source station, determining whether the wireless communication is a direct wireless communication or an indirect wireless communication. The method continues with the source station transmitting a frame to an access point, wherein the frame is formatted in accordance with the protocol of the source station, when the wireless communication is the indirect wireless communication. The method continues with the access point converting the frame into at least one alternate frame based on the protocol of the at least one of the target stations having the different protocol. The method continues with the access point transmitting the at least one alternate frame to the at least one of the target stations.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method in a wireless local area network (WLAN) for wireless communication between a plurality of wireless stations of differing protocols in the WLAN, the method comprises:
determining whether protocols of wireless target stations of the plurality of wireless stations differ from a wireless protocol of a wireless source station of the plurality of wireless stations;
when at least one of the wireless target stations has a protocol differing from the protocol of the wireless source station, determining whether the WLAN includes an access point;
when the WLAN includes a wireless access point:
receiving, by the access point, a frame formatted in accordance with the protocol of the wireless source station;
reformatting, by the wireless access point, the frame into a reformatted frame having another frame format in accordance with the wireless protocol of the at least one wireless target station that differs from that of the wireless source station; and
transmitting, by the wireless access point, the reformatted frame to the at least one of the wireless target stations.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprises:
transmitting, by the access point, the frame to other stations of the wireless target stations that use the protocol of the wireless source station.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprises:
transmitting, by the access point, the reformatted frame to other stations of the wireless target stations that use the protocol of the at least one of the wireless target stations that differs from that of the wireless source station.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprises:
determining that a first wireless target station supports a legacy protocol and does not support the protocol of the wireless source station, the legacy protocol older than the protocol of the wireless source station; and
reformatting, by the access point, the frame into the reformatted frame having the another frame format in accordance with the legacy protocol.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprises:
when each of a plurality of the wireless target stations has a different protocol than the protocol of the wireless source station, reformatting, by the access point, the frame into the reformatted frame having the another frame format in accordance with the different protocols of the plurality of wireless target stations.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reformatting the frame into the reformatted frame comprises:
determining frame length of the frame;
determining data rate of the frame;
determining data amount being conveyed in the frame; and
determining number of at least one alternate frame based on the data amount of the frame.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reformatting the frame into the reformatted frame comprises:
determining whether frequency band of the protocol of the at least one of the wireless target stations is different than a frequency band of the protocol of the wireless source station; and
when the frequency band of the protocol of the at least one of the wireless target stations is different than the frequency band of the protocol of the wireless source station, concurrently transmitting at least one alternate frame to the at least one of the wireless target stations and transmitting the frame to other stations of the wireless target stations that use the protocol of the wireless source station.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reformatting the frame into the reformatted frame comprises:
determining whether frequency band of the protocol of the at least one of the wireless target stations is different than a frequency band of the protocol of the wireless source station;
when the frequency band of the protocol of the at least one of the wireless target stations is not different than the frequency band of the protocol of the wireless source station, determining whether another channel in the frequency band of the protocol of the wireless source station is available; and
when the another channel in the frequency band of the protocol of the wireless source station is available, concurrently transmitting the alternate frame via the another channel to the at least one of the wireless target stations and transmitting the frame to other stations of the wireless target stations that use the protocol of the wireless source station via a channel within the frequency band of the protocol of the wireless source station.

9. A wireless source station for use in a wireless local area network (WLAN) for wireless communications, the wireless source station comprises:
a radio transmitter section operably coupled to convert outbound digital symbols into outbound radio frequency (RF) signals;
a radio receiver section operably coupled to convert inbound RF signals received by the wireless source station into inbound digital symbols;
baseband processing module operably coupled to convert the inbound digital symbols into a frame in accordance with a WLAN protocol and to:
determine whether WLAN protocols of wireless target stations of the wireless communication are different than the WLAN protocol of the wireless source station;
when at least one of the wireless target stations has a different WLAN protocol than the WLAN protocol of the wireless source station, the baseband processing module functions to:
reformat the frame to a reformatted frame having another frame format in accordance with the WLAN protocol of the at least one of the wireless target stations having the different WLAN protocol to produce the reformatted frame; and
transmit the reformatted frame via the radio transmitter section to the at least one of the wireless target stations that has a different WLAN protocol than the WLAN protocol of the wireless source station.

10. The wireless source station of claim 9 , wherein the baseband processing module further functions to:
provide the reformatted frame to the radio transmitter section for transmission to other stations of the wireless target stations that use the different WLAN protocol.

11. The wireless source station of claim 9 further comprises:
transmitting, by the radio transmitter section, the frame to other stations of the wireless target stations that use the WLAN protocol of the wireless source station.

12. The wireless source station of claim 9 , wherein the baseband processing module further functions to:
determine that a first wireless target station supports a legacy WLAN protocol and does not support the WLAN protocol of the wireless source station, the legacy WLAN protocol older than the WLAN protocol of the wireless source station; and
reformat the frame into the reformatted frame having the another frame format in accordance with the legacy WLAN protocol.

13. The wireless source station of claim 9 , wherein the baseband processing module further functions to:
when each of a plurality of the wireless target stations has a different WLAN protocol than the WLAN protocol of the wireless source station, reformat the frame into a plurality of reformatted frames in accordance with the different WLAN protocols of the plurality of wireless target stations.

14. The wireless source station of claim 9 , wherein the reformatting the frame into the reformatted frame comprises:
determining frame length of the frame;
determining data rate of the frame;
determining data amount being conveyed in the frame; and
determining number of at least one alternate frame based on the data amount of the frame.

15. The wireless source station of claim 9 , wherein the baseband processing module further functions to:
when a wireless access poin

Assignees

• Hansen Christopher J
• Trachewsky Jason A
• Markison Timothy W
• Broadcom Corp

Inventors

• Hansen Christopher J
• Trachewsky Jason A
• Markison Timothy W

Classifications

• H04L69/08

  Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion · CPC title

• H04W80/00

  Wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation · CPC title

• H04W88/16

  Gateway arrangements · CPC title

• H04W88/08

  Access point devices · CPC title

• H04W4/18 Primary

  Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals · CPC title