US 11,889,556 B2
Prioritized channel access
Liangxiao Xin, San Jose, CA (US); and Mohamed Abouelseoud, San Francisco, CA (US)
Assigned to SONY GROUP CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP); and SONY CORPORATION OF AMERICA, New York, NY (US)
Filed by SONY GROUP CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
Filed on Sep. 8, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/468,888.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/126,585, filed on Dec. 17, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0201756 A1, Jun. 23, 2022
Int. Cl. H04W 74/08 (2009.01); H04W 84/12 (2009.01)
CPC H04W 74/0816 (2013.01) [H04W 74/0866 (2013.01); H04W 84/12 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus for wireless communication in a network, the apparatus comprising:
(a) a wireless communication circuit, as a wireless station (STA) operating as either an Access Point (AP) or a non-AP STA, is configured for wirelessly communicating over a channel with other wireless stations (STAs), which are either APs or non-AP STAs, on a wireless local area network (WLAN) in which Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) is applied;
(b) a processor coupled to said wireless communication circuit for operating on the WLAN as a STA;
(c) a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor for communicating with other STAs; and
(d) wherein said instructions, when executed by the processor, perform one or more steps comprising:
(i) wherein a priority-capable STA, having EDCA functions configured to operate with multiple predetermined sets of single EDCA or Multiple-User (MU) EDCA operating parameters for each access class (AC) of EDCA, providing a range of priority levels, wherein each predetermined set of operating parameters provides different levels of nominal access time for use by the STA at different periods of time when contending for said at least one channel;
(ii) wherein said priority-capable STA determines from the data that a priority period is required for transmission, and switches to utilizing a predetermined set of higher-priority set of single EDCA or Multiple-User (MU) EDCA operating parameters in a given AC, from said multiple predetermined sets of single EDCA or Multiple-User (MU) EDCA operating parameters, when the STA needs to speed up channel access for this higher priority traffic; and
(iii) wherein said priority-capable STA utilizes a predetermined set of lower-priority set of EDCA operating parameters in a given AC, from said multiple predetermined sets of single EDCA or Multiple-User (MU) EDCA operating parameters, when the STA needs to slow down channel access for lower priority traffic and for keeping channel access equitable between stations in the network.