Abstract: A method, performed by an access point controls transmission of a data stream from a station, by determining whether or not to admit the transmission of the data stream. The method includes receiving, from the station, a QoS registration request frame, indicating a request for transmission of a data stream, and including information indicating a QoS requirement comprising information indicating a required interval between a start of two successive time periods during which the station is permitted to transmit the data stream. A schedule for the transmission of the data stream subject to the QoS requirement is calculated when the transmission is admitted and a QoS registration response frame, including information indicating the schedule is transmitted to the station.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for transmitting data stream via wireless medium for contention based medium access across a wireless network having a plurality of stations and an access point communicating to the stations via wireless medium. The method includes: (i) transmitting data stream from the station according to prescheduled wireless medium occupancy reservation for the station within only prescheduled medium occupancy period of a selective contention period; (ii) performing a contention between the stations for wireless medium occupancy for a contention successful station to transmit data stream within only contention medium occupancy period of the selective contention period; (iii) transmitting data stream from the contention successful station after the contention; and (iv) prescheduling a wireless medium occupancy reservation for the contention successful station to transmit within a prescheduled medium occupancy period of next selective contention period.

Abstract: The presented invention provides methods and apparatus to generate a efficient medium dedication schedule which give wireless medium the ability to serve real-time and non real-time application concurrently and still be able to maintain the QoS as requested by real-time application. Furthermore, it also presents methods for implementing buffer in an efficient matter in order to complement the advantage introduced by burst transmission and burst acknowledgement.

Abstract: A mechanism for sensing the status of a media stack tray which dispenses media to a printing device, the media stack tray being associated with a dispensing device which dispenses media from the media stack tray. The mechanism includes a probe having at least two positions such that the probe is located in a first position when the media stack tray has an empty status and is located in a second position when the media stack tray has a loaded status. The probe is mounted relative to the media stack tray so that when the media stack tray has a loaded status the media is normally located between the probe and the dispensing device. The mechanism also includes a detector for detecting the position of the probe.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for efficiently scheduling wireless LAN traffic, giving the network the ability to serve both real-time and non-real time applications concurrently, while maintaining a requested level of quality of service for the real time application. It describes a method for scheduling quality of service traffic and a method to optimize this schedule thereby reducing the overall amount of time that is required for serving quality of service traffic (which is coordinated by a centralized network coordinator entity) and increasing the bandwidth available for non-real-time traffic. One application of such a scheduler would be WLANs that carry AV streams, such as may be found in a home based WLAN. Furthermore, a method is provided for announcing the schedule to all nodes in a wireless network to, for example, implement a power savings feature, thereby optimizing battery life and reducing the size and weight of portable network access terminals.