Multi-band management of wireless relaying networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9749874-B2
Application number	US-201313943872-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 17, 2013
Priority date	Jul 17, 2013
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

Methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses are described for wireless communications in which first type of traffic may be transmitted from a gateway access point (AP) directly to a station. Beacon signals transmitted to the station are transmitted as part of the first type of traffic. A second type of traffic may be transmitted from the gateway AP to the station via at least one relay AP. The first type of traffic may include low-throughput traffic and may be transmitted over a long-range radio link (e.g., 2 GHz band link or sub-1 GHz band link). The second type of traffic may include high-throughput traffic and may be transmitted over at least one short-range radio link (e.g., 5 GHz band link). The gateway AP may receive low-throughput traffic directly from the station and high-throughput traffic from the station via the at least one relay AP.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for wireless communications, comprising:
associating with a station to establish a first wireless link in a wireless local area network (WLAN) concurrently with a second wireless link in the WLAN, the first wireless link directly from a gateway access point to the station to transmit a first type of traffic comprising beacon signals, and the second wireless link between the gateway access point and the station via at least one relay access point in the WLAN to transmit a second type of traffic;
identifying traffic buffered at the gateway access point for the station as the beacon signals or the second type of traffic;
transmitting the traffic identified as the beacon signals from the gateway access point directly to the station; and
transmitting the traffic identified as the second type of traffic from the gateway access point to the station via the at least one relay access point.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
transmitting the second type of traffic comprises transmitting high-throughput traffic.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the first type of traffic comprises transmitting the beacon signals over a long-range radio link.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the long-range radio link comprises a 2 GHz band link or a sub-1 GHz band link.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the second type of traffic comprises transmitting the second type of traffic over at least one short-range radio link.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the at least one short-range radio link comprises a 5 GHz band link.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of traffic comprises one or more of:
low bursts of broadcast traffic;
low bursts of multicast traffic; and
low bursts of unicast traffic.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the second type of traffic comprises transmitting one or more of:
high bursts of unicast data traffic;
high bursts of broadcast data traffic;
unicast traffic with low latency; and
broadcast traffic with low latency.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving the beacon signals at the gateway access point directly from the station over a long-range radio link; and
receiving high-throughput traffic at the gateway access point from the station via the at least one relay access point and over at least one short-range radio link.

10. A method for wireless communications, comprising:
associating with a gateway access point to establish a first wireless link in a wireless local area network (WLAN) concurrently with a second wireless link in the WLAN, the first wireless link directly from the gateway access point to a station to transmit a first type of traffic comprising beacon signals, and the second wireless link between the gateway access point and the station via at least one relay access point in the WLAN to transmit a second type of traffic;
receiving the beacon signals at the station directly from the gateway access point; and
receiving the second type of traffic at the station from the gateway access point via at least one relay access point, wherein the gateway access point has identified traffic buffered at the gateway access point for the station as beacon signals to transmit directly to the station or the second type of traffic to transmit to the station via the at least one relay access point.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
receiving the second type of traffic comprises receiving high-throughput traffic.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein receiving the first type of traffic comprises receiving the beacon signals over a long-range radio link.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the long-range radio link comprises a 2 GHz band link or a sub-1 GHz band link.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein receiving the second type of traffic comprises receiving the second type of traffic over at least one short-range radio link.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the at least one short-range radio link comprises a 5 GHz band link.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first type of traffic comprises one or more of:
low bursts of broadcast traffic;
low bursts of multicast traffic; and
low bursts of unicast traffic.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein receiving the second type of traffic comprises receiving one or more of:
high bursts of unicast data traffic;
high bursts of broadcast data traffic;
unicast traffic with low latency; and
broadcast traffic with low latency.

18. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
transmitting the beacon signals from the station directly to the gateway access point over a long-range radio link; and
transmitting the high-throughput traffic from the station to the gateway access point via the at least one relay access point and over at least one short-range radio link.

19. A device for wireless communications, comprising:
a gateway access point configured to:
associate with a station to establish a first wireless link in a wireless local area network (WLAN) concurrently with a second wireless link in the WLAN, the first wireless link directly from the gateway access point to the station to transmit a first type of traffic comprising beacon signals, and the second wireless link between the gateway access point and the station via at least one relay access point in the WLAN to transmit a second type of traffic
identify traffic buffered at the gateway access point for the station as the beacon signals or the second type of traffic;
transmit the traffic identified as the beacon signals from the gateway access point directly to the station; and
transmit the traffic identified as the second type of traffic from the gateway access point to the station via the at least one relay access point.

20. The device of claim 19 , wherein the gateway access point is configured to transmit the beacon signals directly to the station over a 2 GHz band link or a sub-1 GHz band link.

21. The device of claim 19 , wherein the gateway access point is configured to transmit the second type of traffic to the at least one relay access point over at least one 5 GHz band link.

22. The device of claim 19 , wherein:
the first type of traffic comprises one or more of:
low bursts of broadcast traffic;
low bursts of multicast traffic; and
low bursts of unicast traffic; and
the second type of traffic comprises one or more of:
high bursts of unicast data traffic;
high bursts of broadcast data traffic;
unicast traffic with low latency; and
broadcast traffic with low latency.

23. A device for wireless communications, comprising:
a station configured to:
associate with a gateway access point to establish a first wireless link in a wireless local area network (WLAN) concurrently with a second wireless link in the WLAN, the first wireless link directly from the gateway access point to the station to transmit a first type of traffic comprising beacon signals, and the second wireless link between the gateway access point and the station via at least one relay access point in the WLAN to transmit a second type of traffic;
receive the beacon signals at the station directly from the gateway access point; and
receive the second type of traffic at the station from the gateway access point via at least one relay access point, wherein the gateway access point has identified traffic buffered at the gateway access point for the station as beacon signals to transmit directly to the station or th

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Du Shu
• Zhang Ning
• Xie Zhen
• Cho James Simon
• Chen Chin-Hung
• Shi Kai

Classifications

• H04L47/24

  Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS · CPC title

• H04L45/304 Primary

  Route determination for signalling traffic · CPC title

• H04W16/26 Primary

  Cell enhancers {or enhancement}, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W28/0205

  at the air interface (dynamic wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12) · CPC title