METHOD FOR INDICATING BUFFER STATUS IN A WLAN ACCESS POINT

摘要

A wireless local area network (WLAN) includes an access point (102) and a mobile station (106). The mobile station can operate in a low power mode by shutting down a WLAN subsystem (204) of the mobile station. While the mobile station is in a low power mode, the access point buffers data received at the access point destined for the mobile station (706). The mobile station wakes up to initiate a service period by transmitting a trigger frame to the access point, and identifies a traffic stream to be serviced in the presently initiated service period. The access point begins transmitting response frames to the mobile station, identifying the traffic stream requested by the mobile station, and in at least one response frame, the access point may indicate the buffer status of another traffic stream associated with the mobile station to allow the mobile station to make decisions regarding data retrieval and power save state.