US-12627447-B1 - Network improvements using beacon bursting communication techniques

Abstract

This disclosure describes techniques for providing communications between an access point and one or more stations. Such techniques may involve determining, by the access point, transmission data to be provided to a station in an uplink transmission, determining a transmission time to perform the uplink transmission over a wireless channel, determining a point in time at which to reserve the wireless channel, the point in time being an amount of time before the transmission time, generating a series of beacons, individual beacons of the series of beacons comprising the uplink transmission of the wireless channel, and initiating transmission of the series of beacons at the point in time.

Inventors

• Jason Wang

Assignees

• AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20221214

Claims (20)

1. 1 . A method comprising: transmitting, by an access point over a wireless channel, a first beacon frame including a beacon interval field indicating a beacon interval time value; determining, by the access point based on the beacon interval time value, a beacon time; determining, by the access point based on the beacon time, a contending time that is prior to the beacon time; determining, by the access point at the contending time, whether the wireless channel is occupied; based on determining that the wireless channel is not occupied, transmitting a second beacon frame, the second beacon frame including first data indicating a first amount of time the wireless channel will be occupied, the first amount of time being greater than an amount of time corresponding to the transmitting of the first second frame; after the transmitting of the second beacon frame, transmitting a third beacon frame, the transmitting of the third beacon frame occurring less than the first amount of time after the transmitting of the second beacon frame.
2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first data comprises a first value of a duration field of a media access control (MAC) layer header in a payload of the first frame.
3. 3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises determining the first amount of time based on a configured number of beacon frames to transmit in a burst.
4. 4 . An electronic device comprising: a wireless transceiver; one or more processors; one or more non-transitory computer readable media storing computer executable instructions which, when executed using the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to perform operations comprising determining, based on a beacon interval time value, a first time; determining, at the first time, whether a wireless channel is occupied; based on determining that the wireless channel is not occupied, transmitting a first frame, the first frame including first data indicating a first amount of time the wireless channel will be occupied, the first amount of time being greater than an amount of time corresponding to the transmitting of the first frame; after the transmitting of the first frame, transmitting a second frame, the second frame being a beacon frame, and the transmitting of the second frame occurring less than the first amount of time after the transmitting of the first frame.
5. 5 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the first frame is a beacon frame.
6. 6 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the first frame is not a beacon frame.
7. 7 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the first frame is a beacon frame and comprises first data representing a traffic indication map (TIM).
8. 8 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the first data comprises a first value of a duration field of a media access control (MAC) layer header in a payload of the first frame.
9. 9 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the one or more computer readable media store computer executable instructions which, when executed using the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to perform operations comprising prior to the determining of the first time, transmitting, over the wireless channel, a zeroth beacon frame including a beacon interval field indicating the beacon interval time value; determining, based on the beacon interval time value, a beacon time; and determining, based on the beacon time, the first time; wherein the first time is prior to the beacon time.
10. 10 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the one or more computer readable media store computer executable instructions which, when executed using the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to perform operations comprising after transmitting of the second frame, transmitting a third frame, the third frame being a beacon frame, and the transmitting of the third frame occurring less than the first amount of time after the transmitting of the first frame.
11. 11 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the one or more computer readable media store computer executable instructions which, when executed using the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to perform operations comprising based on determining at the first time that the wireless channel is occupied, determining a backoff time period; based on a determination that an amount of time has passed corresponding to the backoff time period, determining at a second time that the wireless channel is not occupied; wherein the transmitting of the first frame is based on the determining at the second time that the wireless channel is not occupied.
12. 12 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the first frame includes second data comprising a length value in a signal field of a preamble of the first frame; and a rate value in a signal field of a preamble of the first frame; wherein the length value indicates a length that is greater than a length of the first frame.
13. 13 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the one or more computer readable media store computer executable instructions which, when executed using the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to perform operations comprising determining the first amount of time based on a configured number of beacon frames to transmit in a burst.
14. 14 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the first time is determined based on a delay parameter, and wherein the one or more computer readable media store computer executable instructions which, when executed using the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to perform operations comprising based on determining at the first time that the wireless channel is occupied, determining a backoff time period; based on a determination that an amount of time has passed corresponding to the backoff time period, determining at a second time that the wireless channel is not occupied; based on the determining at the first time that the wireless channel is occupied and the determining at the second time that the wireless channel is not occupied, determining a difference between the first time and the second time, and updating the delay parameter based on the difference; wherein the transmitting of the first frame is based on the determining at the second time that the wireless channel is not occupied.
15. 15 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the one or more computer readable media store computer executable instructions which, when executed using the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to perform operations comprising based on determining at a second time that the wireless channel is occupied, determining a backoff time period; based on a determination that an amount of time has passed corresponding to the backoff time period, determining at a third time that the wireless channel is not occupied; based on the determining at the second time that the wireless channel is occupied and the determining at the third time that the wireless channel is not occupied, determining a difference between the second time and the third time, and determining a value of a delay parameter based on the difference; wherein the first time is determined based on the delay value.
16. 16 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the one or more computer readable media store computer executable instructions which, when executed using the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to perform operations comprising determining a number of beacon frames to transmit based on a maximum transmit opportunity time; determining the first amount of time based on a configured number of beacon frames to transmit in a burst.
17. 17 . A method comprising: determining, by an access point based on a beacon interval time value, a first time; determining, by the access point at the first time, whether a wireless channel is occupied; based on determining that the wireless channel is not occupied, transmitting a first frame, the first frame including first data indicating a first amount of time the wireless channel will be occupied, the first amount of time being greater than an amount of time corresponding to the transmitting of the first frame; after transmitting of the first frame, transmitting a second frame, the second frame being a beacon frame, and the transmitting of the second frame occurring less than the first amount of time after the transmitting of the first frame.
18. 18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the method comprises: after transmitting of the second frame, transmitting a third frame, the third frame being a beacon frame, and the transmitting of the third frame occurring less than the first amount of time after the transmitting of the first frame.
19. 19 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the method comprises: based on determining at the first time that the wireless channel is occupied, determining a backoff time period; based on a determination that an amount of time has passed corresponding to the backoff time period, determining at a second time that the wireless channel is not occupied; wherein the transmitting of the first frame is based on the determining at the second time that the wireless channel is not occupied.
20. 20 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the first frame is not a beacon frame.

Description

BACKGROUND In a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, distributed coordination function (DCF) may be employed as a method enabling a plurality of stations (STAS) to share a wireless medium. DCF is based on a carrier sensing multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA). For example, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards under the 802.11 umbrella, commonly referred to as WiFi, may utilize DCF based on CSMA/CA. Generally, in operations under a DCF access environment, when a medium is not occupied (that is, idle) for a DCF interframe space (DIFS) interval or longer, a node may transmit a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) to be urgently transmitted. When the medium is determined to be occupied according to a carrier sensing mechanism, a node may determine the size of a contention window (CW) using a random backoff algorithm and perform a backoff procedure. The node may select a random value in the CW to perform the backoff procedure and determine backoff time based on the selected random value. When a plurality of nodes attempts to access a medium, a node having the shortest backoff time among the nodes will be the first to again try to access the medium and the other nodes may suspend the remaining backoff times and wait until the node having accessed the medium finishes transmission. When the node having accessed the medium finishes frame transmission, the other nodes contend again with the remaining backoff times to acquire a transmission resource. In some networks, devices (e.g., stations (STAs)) in the network may reduce their energy consumption by regularly going into a sleep mode during which communication hardware is shut off. In such devices, time synchronization might be used, in which transmission of packets to the device is synchronized based on the time instances in which a radio for the device comes out of sleep mode (i.e., enters an awake interval). This enables the device to, for example, only turn on its radio for short durations to receive packets and to keep its radio off otherwise. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The use of the same reference numbers in different figures indicates similar or identical items or features. FIG. 1 depicts an example environment in which a system may be implemented to use beacon bursting communication techniques in accordance with at least some embodiments. FIG. 2 depicts a system architecture that may be implemented to use communication techniques involving beacon bursting in accordance with at least some embodiments. FIG. 3 is a conceptual view illustrating techniques for performing communication between an access point (AP) and a station (STA) in accordance with at least some embodiments. FIG. 4 depicts a conceptual view of potential issues that might arise in communications between an AP device and a STA device as a result of congestion in accordance with at least some embodiments. FIG. 5 depicts a conceptual view of potential issues that might arise in communications between an AP device and a STA device as a result of clock drift in accordance with at least some embodiments. FIG. 6 depicts a conceptual view of communication techniques that may be implemented to use beacon bursting in accordance with embodiments. FIG. 7 depicts a flow diagram illustrating a process for reserving a channel using a series of beacon transmissions in accordance with at least some embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION In the following description, various embodiments will be described. For purposes of explanation, specific configurations and details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will also be apparent to one skilled in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without the specific details. Furthermore, well-known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the embodiment being described. This disclosure describes, in part, techniques for enabling communications between an access point (AP) and a number of stations (STAs) while minimizing the impact of congestion or clock drift on such communications. In an IEEE 802.11 compliant wireless local area network (WLAN), there are generally three types of frames: management frames, control frames, and data frames. Management frames are used to manage a basic service set (BSS), control frames control access to the medium (e.g., radio channel), and data frames contain payloads that convey information to a recipient. One type of management frame is a beacon frame. A beacon frame serves to announce the presence of a wireless network broadcast by an AP, and synchronize members of the network. A beacon frame includes a service set identifier (SSID) field that indicates an SSID of the wireless network corre