Contention based medium reservation for multicast transmission in wireless local area networks
View Patent ↗A method and apparatus are described including multicasting a medium reservation message and receiving a response to the medium reservation message. Also described are a method and apparatus including receiving a medium reservation message, determining if a medium is idle and transmitting a response to the medium reservation message responsive to the determination. Further described are a method and apparatus including receiving a medium reservation message, determining if a received network allocation vector in the medium reservation message has a value greater than a current network allocation vector, determining if transmission over a medium during a time interval is detected and resetting the current network allocation vector responsive to the determination of transmission. Yet further described are a method and apparatus including receiving a response to a medium reservation message, determining if a network allocation vector in the response is greater than a current network allocation vector and updating the current network allocation vector responsive to the determination.
1. A method, said method comprising:
determining if a communications medium is idle;
determining a time interval for a reservation for said communications medium responsive to said first determination, said time interval for said reservation being a sum of time to multicast a request-to-send signal plus a sum of time for receivers of said request-to-send signal to transmit responses to said request-to-send signal plus time to multicast pending data frames;
multicasting a medium reservation message for reserving said communications medium responsive to said second determination using a multicast group address;
receiving a response to said medium reservation message; and
multicasting pending data frames during said time interval reserved for said communications medium responsive to said received response, wherein multicasting pending data frames includes multicasting a plurality of data or management frames or initiating pending data frame exchanges.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said response is one of a positive response and a negative response.
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said communications medium is a wireless channel.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said method is performed via a wireless network.
5. A method for operating a mobile station, said method comprising:
receiving a message for reserving a communications medium for a time interval, said time interval for said reservation being a sum of time to multicast a request-to-send signal plus a sum of time for receivers of said request-to-send signal to transmit responses to said request-to-send signal plus time to multicast pending data frames;
determining if said communications medium is idle;
determining an overlap degree responsive to said first determination, wherein said overlap degree is a number of unique beacons said mobile station receives from different access points;
selecting a time period for transmitting a response to said medium reservation message; and
transmitting said response to said medium reservation message in said selected time period with a transmission probability responsive to said overlap degree.
6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein said response is one of a positive response and a negative response.
7. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
determining whether to transmit a cancellation message; and
transmitting a cancellation message responsive to said determination.
8. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
initializing a counter;
incrementing said counter if said response to said medium reservation message was not transmitted; and
selecting another time period for transmitting said response to said medium reservation message.
9. The method according to claim 5 , wherein said communications medium is a wireless channel.
10. The method according to claim 5 , wherein said method is performed via a wireless network.
11. An apparatus, comprising:
means for determining if a communications medium is idle;
means for determining a time interval for a reservation for said communications medium responsive to said first determination, said time interval for said reservation being a sum of time to multicast a request-to-send signal plus a sum of time for receivers of said request-to-send signal to transmit responses to said request-to-send signal plus time to multicast pending data frames;
means for multicasting a medium reservation message for reserving said communications medium responsive to said second determination using a multicast group address;
means for receiving a response to said medium reservation message; and
means for multicasting pending data frames during said time interval reserved for said communications medium responsive to said received response, wherein multicasting pending data frames includes multicasting a plurality of data or management frames or initiating pending data frame exchanges.
12. The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein said response is one of a positive response and a negative response.
13. The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein said medium is a wireless channel.
14. The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein said apparatus communicates via a wireless network.
15. An apparatus, comprising:
means for receiving a message for reserving a communications medium for a time interval, said time interval for said reservation being a sum of time to multicast a request-to-send signal plus a sum of time for receivers of said request-to-send signal to transmit responses to said request-to-send signal plus time to multicast pending data frames;
means for determining if said communications medium is idle;
means for determining an overlap degree responsive to said first determination, wherein said overlap degree is a number of unique beacons it receives from different access points;
means for selecting a time period for transmitting a response to said medium reservation message; and
means for transmitting said response to said medium reservation message in said selected time period with a transmission probability responsive to said overlap degree.
16. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein said response is one of a positive response and a negative response.
17. The apparatus according to claim 15 , further comprising:
means for determining whether to transmit a cancellation message; and
means for transmitting a cancellation message responsive to said determination.
18. The apparatus according to claim 15 , further comprising:
means for initializing a counter;
means for incrementing said counter if said response to said medium reservation message was not transmitted; and
means for selecting another time period for transmitting said response to said medium reservation message.
19. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein said communication medium is a wireless channel.
20. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein said apparatus communicates via a wireless network.