Device, system and method of mitigating interference in a wireless network
System and method of locating an interferer and mitigating its effect for stations of a wireless local area network. Embodiments provide a protocol and mechanism to evaluate the interferer location relative to a wireless link and to take accurate actions to mitigate the interference effect for specific cases. A method includes classifying a location of an interferer relative to a wireless communication device based on a comparison with a clear-channel threshold and a noise-tolerability threshold of the device, categorizing a location of the interferer relative to a wireless link based on a combination of the interference categories for the transmitting and the receiving devices, and mitigating interference in the wireless network according to the categorization. For example, in some cases, mitigating includes adapting a noise-tolerability threshold of the transmitting device to allow transmission.
1. A method of mitigating interference in a wireless network, the method comprising:
comparing an energy level of an interferer with a clear-channel threshold value and a noise-tolerability threshold value of a wireless communication device;
classifying a location of said interferer relative to said wireless communication device into one selected interference category of three interference categories, wherein a first interference category includes energy below said clear-channel threshold and below said noise-tolerability threshold, wherein a second interference category includes energy above said clear-channel threshold and below said noise-tolerability threshold, and wherein a third interference category includes energy above said clear-channel threshold and above said noise-tolerability threshold; and
categorizing the location of said interferer relative to a wireless link between said wireless communication device and another wireless communication device, based on a combination of the selected interference category for said wireless communication device and an interference category for said other wireless communication device.
2. The method according to claim 1 , comprising mitigating interference to said wireless link based on the categorization of said interferer location.
3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said interferer location is categorized in the second interference category for the wireless communication device and in either the first or the second interference category for the other wireless communication device, and wherein mitigating comprises adapting the noise-tolerability threshold of said wireless communication device to allow transmission.
4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein adapting the noise-tolerability threshold comprises setting the noise-tolerability threshold value according to the energy level of said interferer.
5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein adapting the noise-tolerability threshold comprises setting a duration for the adapting according to an operating parameter of said interferer.
6. The method according to claim 1 , comprising providing as feedback to said other wireless communication device a two-bit representation of the interference category of said interferer for said wireless communication device.
7. An apparatus for mitigating interference in a wireless network, the apparatus comprising:
a wireless communication device having a transceiver able to classify a location of an interferer relative to said wireless communication device into one selected interference category of three interference categories by comparing an energy level of the interferer with a clear-channel threshold value and a noise-tolerability threshold value of said wireless communication device,
wherein said transceiver is able to categorize the location of said interferer relative to a wireless link between said wireless communication device and another wireless communication device, based on a combination of the selected interference category for said wireless communication device and an interference category received from the other wireless communication device.
8. The apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein a first interference category includes energy below said clear-channel threshold and below said noise-tolerability threshold, wherein a second interference category includes energy above said clear-channel threshold and below said noise-tolerability threshold, and wherein a third interference category includes energy above said clear-channel threshold and above said noise-tolerability threshold.
9. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein said transceiver is able to receive as feedback a two-bit representation of the interference category of said interferer for the other wireless communication device.
10. The apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein said transceiver is able to mitigate interference to said wireless link according to the categorization of said interferer location.
11. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein said transceiver is able to adapt the noise-tolerability threshold of said wireless communication device to allow transmission if said interferer location is categorized in the second interference category for said wireless communication device and in either the first or the second interference category for the other wireless communication device.
12. The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein said transceiver is able to set the noise-tolerability threshold value of said wireless communication device according to the energy level of said interferer.
13. The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein said transceiver is able to set a duration for adapting the noise-tolerability threshold according to an operating parameter of said interferer.
14. The apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein said wireless communication device is operatively coupled to a radio frequency antenna to allow communication via said wireless link.
15. The apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein said wireless communication device is able to operate according to an IEEE 802.11 communication standard.