Automatic time slicing of beacon intervals in high density wireless LAN

摘要

A wireless LAN station having a MAC address and receiving beacon frames indicating a beacon interval selects a sub-interval from the beacon interval for transmission and reception of wireless signals. The beacon sub-interval used by each set of stations for transmission and reception is preferably ½n of the beacon interval, where n is the number of device-unique assignment bits, such as MAC address. Each station thereby self-assigns itself one of the sub-intervals as a segment for transmission and reception, thereby reducing collisions and re-transmissions in a congested access point.

主权项

1. A method for self-allocation of a wireless LAN station to a segment of a beacon interval, the method comprising:
a first step of determining a beacon interval; a second step of said wireless LAN station self-allocating an interval of said beacon interval for wireless communications, said self-allocating interval being a fraction of said beacon interval and derived from a subset of bits of a unique address identifier of said wireless LAN station; a third step of sending wireless data only during said self-allocated interval of said beacon interval and receiving wireless data throughout said beacon interval; wherein said address identifier is also used as a source address in a transmission by said wireless LAN station.