Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.V.

Philips Lighting Holding B.v.

Theodorus J J Denteneer

Guido Roland Hiertz

Bernhard Walke

Peter M Van De Ven

Johannes SH Van Leeuwaarden

Augustus JEM Janssen

Guido R Hiertz

In wireless meshes, mesh points announce reservation of the wireless medium in beacon frame. Each mesh point determines scheduled reservation of the medium for transmission of the future beacon frames and scheduled reservations of the medium for data communication with the station The station further aggregates the reservations into a single element: an medium occupation element and integrates this element into the beacon frame for future transmission to nearby mesh points.

Medium reservation announcement

The present invention relates to, in a wireless network in which wireless stations transmit frames, a method of managing the access of the medium to a wireless station once a frame or a sequence of frames has been transmitted by the wireless station, the method comprising: (a) generating a time value resulting from a function of the duration of the frame or the sequence of frames to be transmitted, &#x2014;(b) transmitting the frame or the sequence of frames; and (c) after step (b), the wireless station refraining from access to the medium by counting down a refraining time, the value of the refraining time being determined by taking account of the said time value.

Management of access to a medium

An efficient synchronization procedure applicable to mesh WLAN based on the 802.11s standard is proposed. A first and second stations initiate the process and establish a communication link between them. Next, the first station transmits to the second station a synchronization element that contains: a capability information element indicative of a capability of the first station to synchronize, and a status information element indicative of whether the first station has established a synchronized peer link with another station. One of the two stations may then initiate the actual handshake for synchronization. The initiator transmits a request for synchronization and receives a response from the other station representative of the acceptance by the other station of the synchronization, the request and the acceptance being restrained in that the stations may not entertain conflicting synchronization procedures with different links. The request may include a set of the synchronization profile.

Synchronization protocol

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Theodorus J J Denteneer