Abstract: To avoid blocking node AC queues in the degraded MU EDCA mode due to regular OFDMA transmission of data from another AC queue in resource units provided by an AP, the present invention proposes to use a dedicated HEMUEDCATimer for each AC queue, in order for them to be able to exit the degraded MU EDCA mode independently of the other AC queues. In this respect, upon successfully transmitting data stored in two or more traffic queues, in each of one or more accessed resource units provided by the AP within one or more transmission opportunities, the node sets each traffic queue transmitting in the accessed resource unit in the degraded MU EDCA mode for a predetermined degrading duration counted down by a respective timer associated with the transmitting traffic queue. Next, upon expiry of any timer, the node switches back the associated traffic queue to the conventional EDCA mode.

Abstract: A physical Access Point (AP) manages a plurality of BSS groups through Virtual APs. The AP periodically sends beacon frames informing of the profile of each BSS of the plurality of BSSs. To improve channel utilization, the trigger frame identifies a plurality of BSS groups, stations of which are allowed to access the resources units to transmit data during the reserved TXOP. The AP receives, during the reserved TXOP, data from one station of a first group identified in the trigger frame and data from one station (separate from the first one) of a second and separate group identified in the trigger frame. First group and second group use the same joint set of random access parameters for the random access procedure, thus ensuring equivalent fairness in accessing the offered the resources units to transmit data during the reserved TXOP to several BSSs.

Abstract: A method of communication in a wireless network comprising an access point and stations, the method comprising by at least one emitting station having data to be directly transmitted to at least one destination station different from the access point: generating a status report to be transmitted to the access point, said status report indicating an amount of data of at least an emission buffer of the emitting station, said data been directed to one of the said at least one destination station; and transmitting said status report to the access point-; wherein said status report contains an identification element allowing the access point to reserve a wireless resource for the direct transmission between the emitting station and the destination station. Accordingly, scheduled traffic by a station is made with an accurate amount of data for the direct link.

Abstract: A communication method in a communication network comprising a plurality of nodes, at least one node comprising a plurality of traffic queues for serving data traffic at different priorities, each traffic queue being associated with a respective queue backoff value computed from respective queue contention parameters having first and second values in, respectively, a first and a second contention modes, obtaining quality of service requirements of data stored in a traffic queue of the node; checking whether the quality of service requirements can be fulfilled when accessing the communication channel using the second contention mode; if the requirements cannot be fulfilled as the result of the checking, disabling access to resource units provided by the other node within one or more transmission opportunities granted to the other node on the communication channel; and transmitting data stored in the traffic queue using the first contention mode.

Abstract: In an 802.11ax network with an access point, a trigger frame offers scheduled and random resource units to nodes for data uplink communication to the access point. To avoid the overall energy level seen by legacy nodes for a communication channel to drop below a detection threshold, the invention provides two tools. First, the scheduled and random resource units may be interleaved over communication channels. Second, unused resource units may be detected, and a node or the access point may send a padding signal on them to increase the overall energy level. The latter may be evaluated during a monitoring period before deciding to emit the signal. As the overall energy level seen by legacy nodes is increased, the risk that such legacy nodes do not detect activity on a 20 MHz channel having only a subpart of its RUs used is reduced. And risks of collisions are consequently reduced.

Abstract: In an 802.11ax network with an access point, a trigger frame offers random resource units to nodes for data uplink communication to the access point. To dynamically adapt the contention mechanism used by the nodes to access the random resource units, the AP updates a correcting TBD parameter at each new TXOP and includes the updated adjusting parameter in the trigger frame for the next TXOP. The nodes use the TBD parameter to generate a local random RU backoff value from a contention window range, for contending for access to the random resource units. The TBD parameter may directly impact the contention window size CWO or boundaries values of a selection range from which CWO is selected.

Abstract: A communication method in a communication network comprising a plurality of nodes, at least one node comprising a plurality of traffic queues for serving data traffic at different priorities, each traffic queue being associated with a respective queue backoff value computed from respective queue contention parameters having first and second values in, respectively, a first and a second contention modes, obtaining quality of service requirements of data stored in a traffic queue of the node; checking whether the quality of service requirements can be fulfilled when accessing the communication channel using the second contention mode; if the requirements cannot be fulfilled as the result of the checking, disabling access to resource units provided by the other node within one or more transmission opportunities granted to the other node on the communication channel; and transmitting data stored in the traffic queue using the first contention mode.

Abstract: In an 802.11ax network with an access point, a trigger frame offers scheduled and random resource units to nodes for data uplink communication to the access point. To avoid the overall energy level seen by legacy nodes for a communication channel to drop below a detection threshold, the invention provides two tools. First, the scheduled and random resource units may be interleaved over communication channels. Second, unused resource units may be detected, and a node or the access point may send a padding signal on them to increase the overall energy level. The latter may be evaluated during a monitoring period before deciding to emit the signal. As the overall energy level seen by legacy nodes is increased, the risk that such legacy nodes do not detect activity on a 20 MHz channel having only a subpart of its RUs used is reduced. And risks of collisions are consequently reduced.

Abstract: In an 802.11ax network with an access point, a trigger frame offers random resource units to nodes for data uplink communication to the access point. To dynamically adapt the contention mechanism used by the nodes to access the random resource units, the AP updates a correcting TBD parameter at each new TXOP and includes the updated adjusting parameter in the trigger frame for the next TXOP. The nodes use the TBD parameter to generate a local random RU backoff value from a contention window range, for contending for access to the random resource units. The TBD parameter may directly impact the contention window size CWO or boundaries values of a selection range from which CWO is selected.

Abstract: The invention provides multi-user communication in a MU Uplink transmission opportunity in case of a multi-BSS environment of a wireless network. Resource units with AID=0 or 2045 are available for stations to transmit data to addressee virtual access points (VAPs) other than the VAP having initiated the TXOP. The initiating VAP receiving frames from the resources forwards them to the appropriate addressee VAPs within the same physical AP. Responses may be provided by the addressee VAPs directly to the stations or via the initiating VAP or the representative VAP. This approach increases the opportunities for the stations to access the medium in case of multiple BSSs. Better usage of the MU Uplink OFDMA transmission is also made.

Abstract: The present invention provides according to one of its aspects a method of communication in a wireless network comprising an access point and a plurality of stations, the method comprising, at one of the stations: receiving a trigger frame from the access point, the trigger frame reserving a transmission opportunity on at least one communication channel of the wireless network, the transmission opportunity including random resource units that the stations may access using a contention scheme, wherein the trigger frame includes a first indicator specifying a traffic type of data allowed to be sent on at least one of the random resource units; determining, based on the first indicator, eligible resource units, among the resource units in the reserved transmission opportunity, for the station to contend for access for transmitting data; and transmitting data on a determined eligible resource unit using a contention scheme.

Abstract: The invention relates to improve use of resource units in MU transmissions of an 802.1 1ax network. An un-associated station may receive data frames over a downlink resource unit, RU, assigned to an AID, e.g. 2045, reserved for stations not associated with the AP, The AP may use a downlink RU sharing an allocation scheme feature of an uplink RU previously used by the un-associated station. The AP may also aggregated data frames addressed to several stations within the same downlink RU, for instance to acknowledge frames previously received from the stations. The aggregated data frames may signal which respective response RUs the addressee stations should use for a next multi-user uplink transmission to respond to the AP. These approaches particularly applies to the exchange of management frames for instance to speed up the association procedure of un-associated stations.

Abstract: The present invention provides a new trigger frame dedicated to NDP feedback procedure. This NDP feedback trigger frame comprises a specific field allowing stations (non-AP nodes) receiving this trigger frame to identify it as being a dedicated NDP feedback trigger frame. Thanks to this specific field, a receiving station knows that a NDP feedback procedure has started and that a NDP feedback is expected by the access point. The present invention also provides for communication methods using this NDP feedback trigger frame, communication device station and access point configured to implement these methods, and also a wireless communication network comprising such devices.

Abstract: 802.11 ac networks define an operating band made of an ordered series of 20 MHz channels and authorize a restricted number of possible composite channel configurations to be used for data transmission. A method of transmitting data between a source and a receiver in such a wireless network may comprise, at the source: sending, to the receiver, RTS frames to request reservation of a composite channel, the RTS frames including a flag signalling the source supports transmission over un-authorized composite channels, for instance over sub-channels not contiguous within the operating band; receiving, from the receiver in response to the RTS frames, CTS frames acknowledging reservation of un-authorized composite channel configuration, for instance of non-contiguous sub-channels; and then transmitting, to the receiver, data frames on the reserved sub-channels of the un-authorized configuration, for instance on the reserved non-contiguous sub-channels within the operating band.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and device for sending data over a channel of a communication medium comprising a plurality of channels and which can be accessed by a plurality of nodes. Each node using a medium access mechanism with collision avoidance based on a computation of backoff values corresponding to a number of time-slots a node waits before accessing the communication medium. The method comprising the following steps performed by a first node of the plurality of nodes upon the reception of a trigger frame: obtaining a backoff counter value computed by the first node; selecting a channel among the plurality of channels based on the obtained backoff counter; and sending data on the selected channel by the first node.

Abstract: 802.11ac networks define an operating band made of an ordered series of 20 MHz channels and authorize a restricted number of possible composite channel configurations to be used for data transmission. A method of transmitting data between a source and a receiver in such a wireless network may comprise, at the source: sending, to the receiver, RTS frames to request reservation of a composite channel, the RTS frames including a flag signalling the source supports transmission over un-authorized composite channels, for instance over sub-channels not contiguous within the operating band; receiving, from the receiver in response to the RTS frames, CTS frames acknowledging reservation of un-authorized composite channel configuration, for instance of non-contiguous sub-channels; and then transmitting, to the receiver, data frames on the reserved sub-channels of the un-authorized configuration, for instance on the reserved non-contiguous sub-channels within the operating band.

Abstract: 802.11ax nodes benefit from additional medium accesses through multi-user uplink provided by an AP, compared to legacy node. To restore fairness in medium access, the invention proposes to update node's EDCA parameters, in particular EDCA backoffs, using penalty values each time the node successfully transmits data to the AP over OFDMA resource units. This is to reduce the probability for the node to access anew a communication channel through conventional EDCA contention. The penalty value is preferably provided by the AP which has an overview of the system and may be adjusted based on information local to the node, for instance the amount of data transmitted or its current contention window. For instance, the penalty value is added to the current value of the EDCA backoff counters upon successful OFDMA transmission by the node.

Abstract: The invention relates to wireless network comprising an access point and non-AP stations. The station has traffic queues and associated a backoff counters which are decremented over time upon continuously sensing the medium as free during more than respective AIFS durations. To compensate additional opportunities provided by OFDMA RUs, a queue switches to an MU mode upon transmitting its data in an RU provided by the AP. To restore dynamicity of the backoff counters, frozen in the MU mode in the known techniques, embodiments provide the following at each expiry of one of the queue backoff counters: the current mode of the expiring traffic queue is determined; in case of legacy mode, the station accesses the channel to transmit data from the queue; whereas in case of MU mode, a new backoff value is drawn to reset the expiring backoff counter, without having data from the queue being transmitted.

Abstract: To avoid blocking node AC queues in the degraded MU EDCA mode due to regular OFDMA transmission of data from another AC queue in resource units provided by an AP, the present invention proposes to use a dedicated HEMUEDCATimer for each AC queue, in order for them to be able to exit the degraded MU EDCA mode independently of the other AC queues. In this respect, upon successfully transmitting data stored in two or more traffic queues, in each of one or more accessed resource units provided by the AP within one or more transmission opportunities, the node sets each traffic queue transmitting in the accessed resource unit in the degraded MU EDCA mode for a predetermined degrading duration counted down by a respective timer associated with the transmitting traffic queue. Next, upon expiry of any timer, the node switches back the associated traffic queue to the conventional EDCA mode.

Abstract: A wireless communication method in a wireless network comprising an access point and a plurality of stations. The method includes selecting a transmission mode among a first and a second transmission modes, wherein access to a communication channel in the first transmission mode uses a contention mechanism with stations of the network, while access to the communication channel in the second transmission mode uses a preemption mechanism; sending a trigger frame to the stations using the selected transmission mode, the trigger frame reserving a transmission opportunity on at least one communication channel of the wireless network and defining resource units forming the communication channel and including a plurality of resource units that the stations can access for sending data; and receiving data from stations over the defined resource units.