COCKTAIL PARTY: SIDE CONVERSATIONS AND TALKING OVER IN WIRELESS MESH NETWORKS

摘要

The present disclosure proposes a method for minor modifications to the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) channel access mechanism in order to enable a greater number of concurrent communications in a unit area in compliance with the current protocol design. The method comprises equipping nodes with wider neighborhood information than what is obtained with IEEE 802.11, and with a device calibration that equips the device with the knowledge of its performance in the presence of interference. The present disclosure medium access mechanism increases the aggregate throughput with every additional concurrent communication that is enabled in the shared medium. Cocktail Party-capable devices can fairly coexist with 802.11 legacy DCF devices, and co-operate with these devices in the same network without changes to those devices or to the standard. The same or similar mechanisms can be applied to other systems and standards in order to enable concurrent communications in the same contention area.

主权项

1. An access point N1 for use in a wireless network to be established between N1 and at least three other access points N2, N3 and N4, access point N1 comprising:
a data storage memory; a program memory; an RF circuit operatively coupled to an antenna; a processor operative coupled to the RF circuit and the at least one memory; a first set of instructions stored in the program memory that, when executed, determine whether N3 is actively communicating with N4 and, if so, then determining whether packets are stored in the data storage memory that are to be transmitted by N1 to N2; a second set of instructions stored in the program memory that, when executed, determine whether N2 is not capable of receiving signals transmitted from N3 and, if so, then determining how many packets can be sent to N2 from N1 with their receipt by N2 acknowledged in the remaining time that N3 is actively communicating with N1 and gathering those packets; a third set of instructions stored in the program memory that are adapted to be executed after the second set of instructions are executed to gather packets, the third set of instructions, when executed, causing the gathered packets to be transmitted to N2 from N1 at the same time that N3 is actively transmitting with N4.