Wireless gaming protocol

摘要

Example apparatus and methods concern establishing, maintaining, managing, or terminating communications between an access point and a client in a wireless network used by a shared, wireless gaming system. An example apparatus may include a first logic configured to control timing for the protocol and a second logic configured to control message exchange for the protocol. Controlling timing and message exchange facilitates reducing contention in the wireless gaming environment. Contention may lead to latency. A user gaming experience may depend on reducing latency. Therefore, reducing latency may produce an improved gaming experience. Controlling timing and message exchange also facilitates reducing power consumption by clients (e.g., accessories, controllers), which in turn facilitates improving battery life for clients.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
collecting network utilization data associated with a wireless network, where a gaming console functions as an access point in the wireless network and where a gaming accessory functions as a client in the wireless network, and selectively controlling, as a function of the network utilization data, a communication priority for the gaming accessory, a channel selection by the gaming console, a sleep time for the gaming accessory, or a wakeup time for the gaming accessory; controlling the gaming accessory to determine a slot time for the gaming accessory according to a distributed time division media access (TDMA) approach; controlling exchanges between the gaming accessory and the gaming console to employ packet aggregation; and manipulating media access control for the wireless network using a network allocation vector (NAV), where the NAV is configured to reserve a period of time for the gaming accessory to communicate with the gaming console and the reserved period of time encompasses a turnaround delay associated with the gaming console sending information to the gaming accessory.