Granted Patent B1

US 7,085,284 · App. 09/706,454 · Granted Aug 1, 2006

Abstract

Claims (18)

1. A method of operating a wireless communication system comprising:

in a controller, receiving streaming data contention-window slot assignment requests from streaming transmitter units;

in the controller, assigning contention-window slot numbers to the requesting streaming transmitter units;

in the controller, sending an indication of available contention-window slots to other transmitter units; and

in the other transmitter units, using a randomly selected contention-window slot to begin transmitting, wherein the randomly selected contention-window slot is selected from contention-window slots other than the assigned contention-window slots,

wherein the indication of the available contention-window slots is an indication of the first unassigned slot.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the randomly selected slot is selected from slots greater or equal to the first unassigned slot.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the streaming data is audio data.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the streaming data is video data.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the number of assigned contention-window slots is limited.

6. A wireless communication system comprising:

a controller adapted to receive streaming data contention-window slot assignment requests from streaming transmitter units, the controller adapted to assign contention-window slot numbers to requesting streaming transmitter units and send an indication of available contention-window slots to other transmitter units;

at least one streaming transmitter unit adapted to begin transmitting in a contention-window time slot assigned by the controller; and

at least one other transmitter unit adapted to begin transmitting in a randomly selected contention-window slot, the randomly selected contention-window slot being selected from contention-window slots other than the assigned contention-window slots, the at least one streaming transmitter unit and at least one other transmitter unit sensing the transmit medium and not beginning to transmit in a contention window if another unit has begun transmitting,

wherein the indication of the available contention-window slots is an indication of the first unassigned contention-window slot.

7. The wireless communication system of claim 6 wherein the streaming data transmitted by the streaming transmitter unit comprises audio data.

8. The wireless communication system of claim 6 wherein the streaming data transmitted by the streaming transmitter unit comprises video data.

9. The wireless communication system of claim 6 wherein a limited number of assignable contention-window slots are available.

Assignments (17)