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  Collision avoidance for traffic in a wireless networkRelated Patent Categories: Telecommunications, Radiotelephone System, Zoned Or Cellular Telephone System, Control Or Access Channel ScanningThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070293218. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CLAIMED OF PRIORITY UNDER 35 U.S.C. .sctn.119 [0001] The present Application for Patent claims priority to Provisional Application No. 60/802,635 entitled "Collision avoidance for traffic in a wireless network" filed May 22, 2006, and assigned to the assignee hereof and hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein. BACKGROUND [0002] I. Field [0003] The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for transmitting data in a wireless communication network. [0004] II. Background [0005] Wireless networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, and so on. These networks may be capable of supporting communication for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Examples of such networks include wireless local area networks (WLANs), wireless wide area networks (WWANs), wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs), and wireless personal area networks (WPANs). The terms "network" and "system" are often used interchangeably. [0006] A wireless network may include any number of access points (APs) and any number of stations (STAs). An access point may act as a coordinator for communication with the stations. A station may actively communicate with an access point, may be idle, or may be powered down at any given moment depending on the data requirements of the station. [0007] The access points and stations may operate in an unscheduled mode. In this mode, transmissions for different stations are not scheduled and hence may collide with one another when sent at the same time via a wireless channel. A collision typically results in transmission failures for all affected stations, which may then require retransmissions from these stations. The retransmissions consume air time (which is a valuable network resource), consumes battery power at the stations, cause additional delays in traffic data, and may result in other deleterious effects. [0008] There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to avoid collision in unscheduled operation. SUMMARY [0009] Techniques to avoid collision of traffic in a wireless network are described herein. These techniques may be used for both scheduled and unscheduled traffic, e.g., to avoid collision between unscheduled traffic of a station and scheduled or unscheduled traffic of another station communicating with the same access point, or between scheduled or unscheduled traffic of a station communicating with an access point and scheduled or unscheduled traffic of another station communicating with another access point. [0010] In an embodiment, a station detects for synchronization of its traffic with traffic of other stations in the wireless network. The traffic of the station may be, e.g., a periodic flow such as a voice-over-IP (VoIP) flow or a video telephony flow. The station may detect for synchronization in various manners and based on, e.g., percentage of first transmission failures, counters indicative of statistics of transmitted frames and/or received frames, and/or other information, as described below. The station may confirm synchronization of its traffic, e.g., by monitoring for traffic from another station during a service period for the station. The station adjusts transmission of its traffic when synchronization is detected in order to avoid collision with the traffic of the other stations. The station may delay transmission of its traffic by a predetermined amount of time, by a pseudo-random amount, until after the other stations finish their transmissions, and so on. [0011] The collision avoidance techniques described herein may be used for various types of traffic and are especially applicable for periodic flows that carry traffic data on a regular basis, such as VoIP flows. The techniques reduce the likelihood of collision and retransmission and may provide various advantages such as higher network capacity, greater power savings for the stations, and reduced delays for the traffic. [0012] Various aspects and embodiments of the invention are described in further detail below. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013] The features and nature of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference characters identify correspondingly throughout. [0014] FIG. 1 shows a wireless network with an access point and multiple stations. [0015] FIG. 2 shows a transmission timeline for the access point. [0016] FIG. 3 shows unscheduled APSD operation for one station. [0017] FIG. 4 shows transmission timelines for three stations. [0018] FIG. 5 shows a process for avoiding collision for traffic. [0019] FIG. 6 shows an apparatus for avoiding collision for traffic. [0020] FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of the access point and one station. Continue reading... Full patent description for Collision avoidance for traffic in a wireless network Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Collision avoidance for traffic in a wireless network patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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