EP0804006A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Medium access control scheme for a wireless access to an ATM network
Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1997-04-08
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2017-04-08
Abstract
Abstract According to the present invention, an adaptive and efficient MAC protocol for wireless access to an ATM network (32) is capable of supporting any type of ATM service class with associated Quality of Services parameters. An ATM cell-switched architecture is utilised in which several ATM Mobile Terminals (10,12,14,16) within a given geographic cell (small cells covering a range of several tens of meters) communicate with an ATM Access Point (18,20) using radio frequency channels, which is connected to an infrastructure ATM network by the means of conventional ATM links. Mobile Terminals can operate both indoor and outdoor with limited range and have wireless access to the Access Points on the ATM network.
Inventors
- 👤 Frédéric Bauchot
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-28 00:36
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04W; H04W74/00; H04W74/08; H04W74/0833; H04W74/0838; H04W72/00; H04W72/50; H04W72/52; H04L; H04L12/00; H04L12/54; H04L12/56; H04L12/5601; H04W72/04; H04W72/044; H04W72/0446; H04W72/12; H04W88/00; H04W88/08; H04W92/00; H04W92/02; H04L2012/5603; H04L2012/5604; H04L2012/5607; H04L2012/5629; H04L2012/5631; H04L2012/5632; H04L2012/5672; H04W48/00; H04W48/08; H04W72/20; H04W72/23; H04W74/002; H04W74/006; H04W80/00; H04W80/02; H04W84/00; H04W84/02; H04W84/10; H04W84/12
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 26
Claim 1
Independent Claim
129 words
In a data communication system of the type comprising: at least one first network based on a first technology and including at least one first station, at least one second network based on a second technology being different than the first technology, and including at least one second station, access means for providing communication between the at least first and second stations, said system being characterized in that said access means comprise: ■ means for defining a plurality of successive time frames during which traffic of data from said first or second network is carried out, and ■ means responsive to network parameters of each said first and second networks, and to traffic characteristics and constraints, for scheduling the exchange of data information during each said successive time frames.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
27 words
The system of claim 1 further comprising means for varying the duration of said successive time frames as a function of the traffic load of the system.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
44 words
The system of claim 1 or 2 wherein said means for varying the duration of said successive time frames comprise means for insuring that said time frame duration remains below an upper bound to comply with latency constraints imposed by the technology based traffic.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
25 words
The system of claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein said means limiting the duration of said successive time frames are invoked at each time frame.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
65 words
The system of anyone of claims 1 to 4, wherein said successive time frames are divided into three periods, the first period for contention free transmission from said first network to said second network; the second period for contention free transmission from said second network to said first network; and the third period for contention based transmission from said second network to said first network.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
32 words
The system of claim 5, further comprising means for varying the duration of each said three periods as a function of the traffic load and of the traffic nature of the system.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
32 words
The system of claim 6, further comprising means for insuring that the third period has not null minimum duration, and wherein said means for insuring are invoked at each said time frame.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
36 words
The system of claim 7, wherein said means for computing the minimum duration of said third period are based on the number of stations of said second network without scheduled uplink traffic during said second period.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
42 words
The system of claim 7 or 8, wherein said means for computing the minimum duration of said third period are a growing linear and/or exponential function of the number of stations of said second network without scheduled traffic during said second period.
Claim 10
Independent Claim
67 words
The system of anyone of claims 1 to 9, wherein said first network is an ATM network (32), said second network is a wireless network comprising a plurality of Mobile Terminals (10,12,14,16), each Mobile Terminal including a transceiver (46) and wherein said access means comprise an Access Point (18,20) having a transceiver (38) for radio communication with the transceivers of each of the plurality of Mobile Terminals.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
31 words
The system of claim 10, wherein said means limiting the duration of said successive time frames utilise parameters (PCR, CDVT, CTD, BT) corresponding to each ATM connection making the ATM traffic.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
35 words
The system of claim 10 or 11, wherein each of said three periods is divided into a plurality of time slots, each of them lasting the time required for the transmission of an ATM cell.
Claim 13
Independent Claim
38 words
The system of claims 10, 11 or 12, wherein several ATM cells can be transmitted either by the Access Point or by said plurality of Mobile Terminals, during a sequence of contiguous time slots, forming a cell train.
Claim 14
Independent Claim
41 words
The system of anyone of claims 10 to 13, wherein said Access Point or said plurality of Mobile Terminals further comprising means for storing the ATM cells to be transmitted in memory buffers having the structure of a said cell train.
Claim 15
Independent Claim
60 words
The system of anyone of claims 10 to 14, further including means for ensuring that the part of said ATM traffic which has been guaranteed by an ATM connection contract established at an ATM connection set-up, is carried over a wireless channel between said Access Point and said plurality of Mobile Terminals using a reservation based, contention free access method.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
15 words
The system of claim 15, wherein said means include both static and dynamic reservation means.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
33 words
The system of claim 15 or 16, comprising means to define a set of priorities for said ATM traffic, which governs which type of static or dynamic reservation means apply for this traffic.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
35 words
The system of claim 17, wherein said means defining the set of ATM traffic priorities depend on the service class and quality of service parameters corresponding to each of ATM connections making said ATM traffic.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
38 words
The system of claim 17 or 18, wherein said means defining the set of ATM traffic priorities define two traffic thresholds derived from the PCR, SCR and MCR parameters of the various ATM connections making said ATM traffic.
Claim 20
Independent Claim
32 words
The system of anyone of claims 1 to 19, wherein said plurality of Mobile Terminals further comprising means for scheduling said ATM traffic during said time frame, conjointly within said Access Point.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
50 words
The system of claim 20 wherein the scheduling means of said plurality of Mobile Terminals further comprising means to issue, during said time frame, reservation requests for transmission to said Access Point of the portion of the traffic not scheduled by said Access Point during the current said time frame.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
39 words
The system of claim 21, wherein the reservation requests can either be carried as piggybacked information within scheduled traffic sent to the said Access Point, or be carried as a dedicated unscheduled control packet sent to said Access Point.
Claim 23
Independent Claim
52 words
The system of anyone of claims 20 to 22, wherein the scheduling means of said plurality of Mobile Terminals comprise means to schedule transmission of ready to be sent ATM cells within the sub-set of said second period which has been allocated to it by the scheduling means of said Access Point.
Claim 24
Independent Claim
56 words
The system of anyone of claims 20 to 23, wherein the scheduling means of said plurality of Mobile Terminals comprise means to schedule transmission of ready to be sent ATM cells during said third period, if said ready to be sent ATM cells cannot wait the next time frame before being transmitted to said Access Point.
Claim 25
Independent Claim
46 words
The system of anyone of claims 10 to 24, wherein the scheduling means of said Access Point broadcast to said plurality of Mobile Terminals at the beginning of each time frame, a frame header control packet specifying the structure and the content of said time frame.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
19 words
The system of claim 25 further comprising a descriptor specifying the traffic to be scheduled for each time slot.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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