Freescale Semiconductor,inc.

Knut T Odman

William Shvodian

Sergio T Montano

Joel Zvi Apisdorf

Russell G Dowe

A method is provided for transmitting wireless signals in a network comprising a network coordinator and one or more remote devices. The available transmission time is divided into a plurality of superframes, each of which is further divided up into a beacon duration, one or more management time slots, one or more guaranteed time slots, and one or more asynchronous time slots. Each of the management time slots, guaranteed time slots, and asynchronous time slots are assigned to one of the one or more remote devices. The network coordinator sends a beacon to the one or more remote devices during the beacon duration. The device or coordinator assigned to the current guaranteed time slot sends frames of isochronous data in the current guaranteed time slot. The device or coordinator assigned to the current asynchronous time slot sends frames of asynchronous data in the current asynchronous time slot.

System and method for handling asynchronous data in a wireless network

A method is provided for accommodating periodic interfering signals in a wireless network. In this method, a network scans a transmission medium to locate any interfering signals. If it finds interfering signals, the scan determines their period, and the network alters the period of its superframes such that: either the period of the superframes is equal to the period of the interfering signals; the period of the superframes is an integer multiple of the period of the interfering signals; or the period of the interfering signals is an integer multiple of the period of the superframes. The network then alters the position of the superframes relative to the position of the interfering signals to arrange things such that no portion of the interfering signal interferes with a superframe beacon, such that that a maximum amount of contiguous channel time is provided in each superframe, or both.

Method of accommodating periodic interfering signals in a wireless network

A method is provided for sending information in a wireless network. A service data unit is broken up by a transmitter into multiple fragments that are sent as the payloads of respective data frames transmitted to a receiver. Each of these frames includes a service data unit identifier identifying the service data unit the fragment is associated with, a fragment number indicating the position of the fragment within the associated service data unit, and a total fragment value indicating the total number of fragments in the service data unit. The receiver extracts the service data unit fragments, buffers them, and uses the fragments to reconstruct the service data unit. The receiver is able to efficiently buffer the fragments because of the service data unit identifier, fragment number, and total fragment value contained in each frame.

Method of accommodating fragmentation and burst in a wireless protocol

A method is provided for a remote device to monitor and communicate with a wireless network using cyclic beacons. The remote device receives a beacon, which beacon includes beacon information that defines a superframe. From the beacon information, the remote device determines whether the received beacon and the associated superframe are assigned to a network device or are unassigned. By receiving as many beacons as there are allowable devices in the network, the remote device can determine if the network is full. If the remote device runs through all of the beacons and all indicate that their associated superframes are assigned, then the remote device determines that the network is full and performs a network-full function. If the remote device receives a beacon that indicates that its associated superframe is unassigned, it determines that the network is not full and performs an association request during the unassigned superframe.

Method of operating a media access controller

A method is provided to pass information in a wireless network. The available channel time in the network is first divided into a plurality of sequential superframes. Some devices may need to transmit during every superframe, but others will only need to transmit during a fraction of the superframes. These devices are assigned sub-rate time slots in the superframes at sub-rates that must be a power of two. In other words, they can only be assigned sub-rate time slots every second superframe, every fourth superframe, every eighth superframe, etc. This allows the sub-rate time slots to be spread more evenly throughout the plurality of sequential superframes, and minimizes the amount of overlap possible.

Method of using sub-rate slots in an ultrawide bandwidth system

A method is provided for a local device in a network to determine media qualities for the transmission paths between it and all of the remote devices in a wireless network. Each of the devices in the network will be assigned at least one of a plurality of management time slots in a superframe rotation. Each device will always transmit a frame during this assigned time slot, whether it is a management frame or a null frame. Individual devices can listen during these frames, determine quality information about the transmission medium between the receiving device and the transmitting device, and based on this quality information set the transmission and reception parameters that the receiving device will use when later communicating with that particular transmitting device. The criteria for determining transmitting parameters and reception parameters can be different to make certain that compatible transmission and reception parameters are chosen among devices.

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Vienna, VA, United States of America

Knut T Odman