Wireless network communication system and method
A communication system comprising one or more wireless stations programmed to await for an authorizing signal to initiate wireless communications with a network controller or access point. The network controller maintains identification information in different queues, and polls stations from those queues. The wireless station identification information may be moved between the different queues in response to wireless station activity. Between polling, each mobile station aggregates data for the next opportunity to transmit. Multi-polling may be employed such that more than a single station is polled at a time. Polling is accomplished by polling one of the more stations from each queue having the effect that stations in one queue are polled more often than those in another queue. If a lesser active station becomes active, it may be moved into the shorter queue and consequently will be polled more often.
1. A method including: receiving, at an access point, mobile station information from a plurality of mobile stations, said information including at least a timestamp and a transmission duration; calculating a probability of future station activity for each station in response to said information; maintaining a plurality of queues including station identification information, wherein said plurality of queues includes at least a queue of lower data volume stations and a queue of higher volume data stations, or a queue of lower transmission time stations and a queue of higher transmission time stations; enqueueing each station in response to said calculating, said enqueuing including entering the station identification in one of said queues; polling stations from each queue; wherein said polling is done at different rates for each of said plurality of queues to reduce a communications error rate, and, moving station information from one of said queues and entering the same station information in another of said queues.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said polling includes transmitting to at least two stations, each of said stations from a different queue, a query, said query requesting an indication of either an amount of data or a transmission time.
3. The method of claim 2 further including:
responding to said polling with an indication of allocated transmission time.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein said polling includes transmitting a query to two or more stations substantially simultaneously.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein said query is addressed to more than one wireless station.
6. A device including: a radio, said radio coupled to a processor; processor readable non-transitory memory, said memory including instructions operable to: receive mobile station information from a plurality of mobile stations, said mobile station information including a time stamp and a transmission duration; calculate a probability of future station activity for each station in response to said information; maintain a plurality of queues including station identification information, wherein said plurality of queues includes at least a queue of lower data volume stations and a queue of higher volume data stations, or a queue of lower transmission time stations and a queue of higher transmission time stations; enqueue each station in response to said calculating, said enqueueing including entering the station identification in one of said queues; poll stations from each queue wherein said polling is done at different rates for each of said plurality of queues to reduce a communications error rate, and, moving station information from one of said queues and entering the same station information in another of said queues.
7. The device if claim 6 wherein said polling includes transmitting to at least two stations, each of said stations from a different queue, a query, said query requesting an indication of either an amount of data or a transmission time.
8. The device of claim 7 wherein the instruction are further operable to:
respond to said polling with an indication of allocated transmission time.
9. The device of claim 6 wherein said polling includes transmitting a query to two or more stations substantially simultaneously.
10. The device of claim 9 wherein said query is addressed to more than one wireless station.