IEEE802.11 station and method of exchanging antenna capacity information

Abstract

Provided are an IEEE802.11 station and method of exchanging antenna capacity information. A first IEEE802.11 STA comprises a receiver configured to receive a probe request frame, the probe request frame including an antenna capacity information unit used for indicating a plurality of antenna capacities of a second IEEE802.11 STA; and an emitter configured to send a probe response frame, the probe response frame including a second antenna capacity information unit used for indicating a plurality of antenna capacities of a first IEEE802.11 STA.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of a Chinese invention patent application with an application date of September 07, 2005, an application number of 200580030585.0, and a title of "Implementation of Smart Antennas in a Wireless Local Area Network". technical field [0002] The present invention relates to wireless local area networks (WLANs), and in particular, to methods and apparatus for implementing a smart antenna in a WLAN, to support the use of a smart antenna in a WLAN, and for use in Smart antenna capability information is communicated between stations (STAs) in a WLAN. Background technique [0003] Typically, in a WLAN operating in infrastructure mode, a STA performs a scan to evaluate which access point (AP) is the best candidate to provide its service, and the STA performs Scanning can be passive or active. In passive scanning, the STA will listen to the beacon frames (beaconframes) sent by the APs, while in the active scanning mode, the STA wil...

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Problems solved by technology

However, the problem with this method is that the MAC header is transmitted at the same rate as the rest of the packet, so if the omnidirectional antenna cannot provide sufficient signal quality for the MAC payload , then it is unlikely that the MAC header will be decoded correctly, and in the opposite case (if the omni-directional antenna does provide enough gain), it is not necessary in the first place. use a smart antenna

[0020] 5) The STAs may be forced to send each packet using the Request-to-Send / Clear-to-Send (RTS / CTS) procedure, which will allow the AP to The sending STA is identified before the data packet arrives, however, this comes at the cost of a significant throughput loss due to the redundant work of the RTS and CYS packets, thus partially defeating the purpose of using smart antennas

[0025] Current antenna technologies enhance reception by using receive and / or transmit densities, and these techniques either take longer to gain any gain or provide less gain than other methods, in addition, current antenna technologies often require The antenna capability of a STA can only be known using proprietary messages, and in the absence of this information, the APs and STAs cannot use the antenna capability to increase the data rate or range

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