Space-time-power scheduling for wireless networks

摘要

A technique is disclosed to schedule frame transmissions in a wireless local area network. The network includes a plurality of stations configured to communicate on the same frequency channel with a plurality of access points. A central controller examines the transmission characteristics between the various stations and access points and identifies frames that may be simultaneously transmitted by a subset of the access points to their intended stations.

主权项

1. An access point to wirelessly communicate with a station, said access point comprising:
an array of antennas, wherein each of the antennas comprises a port; a beam forming network to form multiple beams from the array of antennas; a switch connected to the beam forming network; a test receiver to scan the ports of the array of antennas through the switch to determine at least one of (1) responses from the station and (2) signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the station; an analog transceiver coupled to the switch; wherein the access point is to communicate the at least one of (1) responses from the station and (2) SNRs of the station to a central controller for use by the central controller to schedule downlink frame transmissions for the access point, and wherein the access point is to communicate with the central controller using the analog transceiver.