Patent · US Expired

Medium access control scheme for wireless LAN using a variable length interleaved time division frame

US5644576A · kind A · utility

397Cited by
5References
35Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 16, 1995
Grant dateJul 1, 1997
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 16, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04W84/12
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A Medium Access (MAC) Protocol is utilized for wireless access, preferrably over a radio frequency channel, for a plurality of remote stations to a base station on a LAN. The MAC protocol is based on a reservation scheme for user data traffic and a random access technique for control and signalling traffic. There is a time division frame structure in which time is slotted. Time slots are grouped into variable length periods. The variable frame structure consists of a frame header followed by interleaved periods of different types (type A, B or C). Type A periods are allocated to the outbound channel which is used for data transfer from the base station to the remote stations. Type B periods, are allocated to the inbound channel that is used for contention-free data transfer from the remote stations to the base station. Allocation of the data slots in the A and B periods is performed by the base station. Type C periods are reserved to the control channel used for transmission of reservation requests and data from the remote stations to the base station in a random-access contention mode using a slotted Aloha protocol. The duration and sequence of periods may be varied by using a tec…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.