Method and apparatus for scheduling in a wireless communication network

摘要

Techniques to efficiently schedule and serve stations in a wireless network are described. An access point may aggregate stations with flows carrying traffic having similar characteristics, e.g., VoIP flows. The access point may schedule these stations together in an overall service period. The access point may serve each station in a respective service period within the overall service period. The access point may send a multi poll frame at the start of the overall service period to indicate the start time and/or service period for each station. Each station may decide to power down until its start time. The service periods for the stations may overlap one another. The service period for each station may cover an initial transmission as well as additional transmission and/or retransmission. If additional transmission and/or retransmission are not needed for a given station, then the next station may be served right away.