Half-frame request opportunities and operation within wired and/or wireless communication systems

摘要

A communication device is configured to receive a message that indicates request opportunity parameter(s). Based on the request opportunity parameter(s), the communication device is configured to generate and transmit a transmission request within one of two or more request opportunities (e.g., 2, 3, 4, etc. or generally N request opportunities such that N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2) indicated by the request opportunity parameter(s). The two or more request opportunities are included within mini-slot(s) that span OFDM sub-carrier(s) of OFDM or OFDMA framing. A given mini-slot spans an OFDM or OFDMA frame, and a mini-slot is divided into any desired number of portions (e.g., 2, 3, 4, etc. or generally N portions) such that each of the request opportunities within that mini-slot occupies a common fraction of the mini-slot (e.g., each occupies ½, ⅓, ¼, etc. or generally 1/N of the mini-slot).

主权项

1. A communication device comprising:
a communication interface configured to:
receive, from another communication device, a message that indicates a plurality of request opportunities, wherein the plurality of request opportunities are characterized by one or more request opportunity parameters including locations of the plurality of request opportunities within a mini-slot that spans orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) sub-carriers of an OFDM or orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) frame and, for each request opportunity of the plurality of request opportunities, information that indicates whether the each request opportunity of the plurality of request opportunities consumes full OFDM or OFDMA frame or a corresponding identified portion of the OFDM or OFDMA frame that is less than the full OFDM or OFDMA frame, wherein each request opportunity of the plurality of request opportunities has a common size within the OFDMA frame being 1/M of the OFDMA frame, wherein M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2; andtransmit, to the another communication device, a transmission request within one of the plurality of request opportunities; and a processor configured to:
process the message to extract the one or more request opportunity parameters;generate the transmission request based on the one or more request opportunity parameters; andprocess the message to determine whether the plurality of request opportunities are based on a common unicast service identifier (SID), and when the plurality of request opportunities are determined to be based on the common unicast SID, select the one of the plurality of request opportunities that occupies less than all of the OFDM sub-carriers of the mini-slot for use to transmit the transmission request.