Radio resource management based on switch and backhaul capacity

Abstract

The systems and methods herein can analyze bandwidth limitations in communication flows of an access point (AP). Based on the bandwidth limitations, the AP can then determine a lower amount of wireless bandwidth to provide to a station in wireless communication with the AP. The AP can then modify the bandwidth allocation assigned to the station based on the lower amount of wireless bandwidth.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application was filed on January 22, 2021 as a PCT international patent application and claims the benefit of priority to U.S. non-provisional patent application serial number 16 / 752,499 filed on January 24, 2020, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0003] The exemplary aspects are directed to communication systems. More particularly, the exemplary aspects are directed to IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11 wireless communication systems. Background Art

[0004] Wireless systems employ processes to manage the radio resources of wireless devices to optimize parameters including channelization, transmit power, etc. Radio management helps avoid or mitigate problems related to signal interference, bandwidth contention, etc. Newer Wi-Fi standards allow for more bandwidth capacity for wireless local area networks (WLANs). Higher throughput over WLANs can be achieved by utilizing wide channel bandwidths (e.g., up to 160 MHz) and very high data rates. However, the use of wide bandwidths facilitates high frequency reuse, which can cause more interference on at least some channels between basic service sets (BSSs) in radio frequency (RF) neighborhoods. Therefore, access points (APs) providing WLAN wireless access must carefully manage radio resource management (RRM) to balance the higher bandwidth capacity with the increased potential for interference (caused by overlapping spectrum) when a higher bandwidth is selected.

[0005] The AP may rely on other communication technologies to connect to the rest of the network / internet. One of the most common connections is an Ethernet switch, which can be connected directly to the AP. The AP may also use other technologies as a backhaul, such as 5G networks or Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS). The realized capacity that the AP can provide to stations connected to the AP may be constrained by the capacity of the switch and / or the backhaul connection. For example, if the switch capacity is only 1Gbps, then the stations connected to the AP cannot realize the full capacity of a 160MHz bandwidth channel, which can support up to 2.3Gbps. Similarly, 5G backhaul may have limited data rates due to physical link capacity limitations or because the cellular service provider has regulated the channel due to tiered plans.

[0006] With current RRM techniques, switch and backhaul limitations are not determined or allowed for in bandwidth allocation, which can result in bandwidth selection being too broad and APs and client stations being unable to utilize the increased radio capacity, while also reducing the available wireless spectrum. Summary of the Invention

[0007] Aspects herein may include systems and methods that analyze bandwidth limitations in communication flows of an access point (AP). Based on the bandwidth limitations, the AP may then determine a lower amount of wireless bandwidth to provide to a station in wireless communication with the AP. The AP may then modify the bandwidth allocation assigned to the station based on the lower amount of wireless bandwidth. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] Figure 1 An environment with a network according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0009] Figure 2 An access point or controller according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0010] Figure 3 shows a signaling procedure according to aspects of the present disclosure;

[0011] Figure 4A illustrates data structures that may be received, stored, retrieved, managed, etc., according to aspects of the present disclosure;

[0012] Figure 4B shows another data structure that may be received, stored, retrieved, managed, etc., according to aspects of the present disclosure;

[0013] Figure 4C shows another data structure that may be received, stored, retrieved, managed, etc., according to aspects of the present disclosure;

[0014] Figure 5 A process performed at an AP to manage radio resources in response to limitations on bandwidth available to stations according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0015] Figure 6 Another process performed at an AP to manage radio resources in response to limitations on bandwidth available to stations according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0016] Figure 7A Another process performed at an AP to manage radio resources in response to limitations on bandwidth available to stations according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0017] Figure 7B Another process performed at an AP to manage radio resources in response to limitations on bandwidth available to stations according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0018] Figure 7C Another process performed at an AP to manage radio resources in response to limitations on bandwidth available to stations according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0019] Figure 7DAnother process performed at an AP to manage radio resources in response to limitations on bandwidth available to stations according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0020] Figure 8 An embodiment of a station or access point according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown.

[0021] In the accompanying drawings, the same reference numeral may refer to the same component. A letter following the reference numeral indicates another instance of the same type of component. Similar components may share the description of that component. When referring to a component without a letter following the reference numeral, all components with that reference numeral may share that description. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] Overview

[0023] Aspects of this paper include a method for optimizing the operating bandwidth, spatial streams, and frequency allocations of a radio based on the capabilities of the backend infrastructure, the current network status, and backhaul capacity. This method can incorporate knowledge about wired and wireless components, traffic inflows in different topologies, and more to determine whether bandwidth allocations should be adjusted based on the underlying infrastructure nodes.

[0024] As radios evolve, AP radios can handle gigabit traffic from very high throughput (VHT) stations, enabling wireless networks to support high-bandwidth applications and HD / 4K video streaming. Recently developed standards have even further improved link capacity and efficiency, with each spatial stream handling 1.2Gbps and a combined 9.6Gbps output generated by an AP with 8 spatial stream capabilities. With the adoption of newer 802.11 standards, back-end switches, ports, and other network elements may now become bandwidth-constrained.

[0025] Aspects of this document can bias radio resource management (RRM) bandwidth, adaptive resource unit (RU) allocation, and dynamic spatial stream adjustment based on switch and backhaul capacity constraints to optimize the highest achievable radio capacity (i.e., data rate) and reduce co-channel interference caused by overlapping BSSs (OBSSs).

[0026] RRM's Backhaul-Aware Dynamic Frequency Adjustment (BADFA) takes into account the following three infrastructure parameters. First, BADFA takes into account access switch capabilities. Access switch capabilities can include port capabilities. The access switch can provide the first-hop connection to the Wi-Fi AP, so the switch capacity directly affects the maximum amount of data that the AP's egress Ethernet port can push. Using Level 2 (L2) discovery protocols such as CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) or LLDP (Link Layer Data Protocol), the AP can sense the maximum capacity of the connected switch. In addition, a resource manager (e.g., a WLAN controller or a network management system (NMS)) can provide visibility into the AP's port capabilities and the current load on the port. In addition, wireless APs can support link aggregation (LAG). LAG allows an AP to merge multiple Ethernet links between two networked devices into a single logical link. Therefore, the total capacity of the AP's egress ports can also take LAG into account.

[0027] You can also measure switch port usage for non-Wi-Fi services directly or average it based on historical data. Subtracting the non-Wi-Fi service switch port usage from the maximum switch port capacity gives you the switch port capacity available for wireless or Wi-Fi services, which RRM considers in bandwidth selection decisions.

[0028] Second, BADFA considers switch profiles: the network infrastructure, such as a switch or NMS, can be queried to obtain information about the capacity and traffic utilization of the next-hop link (to the rest of the network / internet) of the switch to which the AP is connected. The bandwidth of this next-hop link can also be considered.

[0029] Next, BADFA can consider egress capacity: despite having individual Gigabit ports, if the switch's egress port bandwidth is limited, the switch may not be able to handle its true capabilities. For example, if ten APs are each connected to a 1Gbps port on the switch, and the switch has a single 5Gbps link to the router, and all traffic to and from the APs needs to traverse this 5Gbps link, then the switch is limited. If each AP attempts to push 1Gbps of data through the switch link to the router, the AP may be constrained by the 5Gbps link at the egress port.

[0030] Additionally, BADFA can take user policies into account. Adjacent APs can be located on different switches (e.g., due to high availability (HA)), which means that other APs can have different switch capacities and utilization. Therefore, if a channel width is reduced on one AP, that channel may have freed up spectrum that can be used to increase the bandwidth of another AP on a different switch allowing for increased capacity. Similarly, by leveraging software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN), users can configure dynamic switch policies, which can allow the access rate of each switch / port to be different during peak hours compared to after-hours.

[0031] BADFA can take into account the next-hop link capacity and the average utilization of the next-hop link, as well as the average load requested and pushed by each AP. RRM can select the appropriate bandwidth for the AP based on the next-hop link capacity. For example, in a heavily loaded network, allocating 80MHz channels to 5 APs connected to a switch with a 1Gbps next-hop link is ineffective because the next-hop link cannot utilize the high data rate achievable with 80MHz, and the spectrum will be better used by other APs connected to the backend infrastructure, which can handle higher bandwidth.

[0032] The wireless AP can be connected to the backend infrastructure via a wired DOCSIS interface (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial cable, hybrid fiber coaxial cable (HFC), etc.), or via a wireless infrastructure (e.g., cellular, 5G technology, etc.).

[0033] Using these technologies, user policies and / or external factors can cause variations in available bandwidth. For example, high interference can severely degrade the backend infrastructure's ability to handle inbound Gigabit traffic from an AP. Therefore, these aspects can consider such infrastructure capacity and usage to measure the available bandwidth of the AP.

[0034] Backhaul capacity may be limited by physical link limitations (as described above) or by service provider regulation due to tiered plans and policies. When bandwidth of the backend infrastructure is reduced, aspects of this document can implement the following adjustments on the Wi-Fi AP to make wireless communication with stations more robust.

[0035] These aspects can also limit or change the functionality of the AP or other network elements to allow for maximum wireless bandwidth. For example, the system can suppress higher modulation and coding scheme (MCS) traffic: When the backend infrastructure cannot handle high-bandwidth wireless traffic, these aspects can limit the downlink (DL) to a lower MCS rate for reliable communication between the AP and the station. While this will reduce overall bandwidth consumption, it will also reduce 802.11 overhead by reducing RTS / CTS and retries at higher rates.

[0036] Furthermore, these aspects can regulate trigger frames (TFs). For at least some stations, the AP can regulate uplink (UL) transmissions from STAs by adjusting the number of TFs. Trigger frames allow the access point to control the flow of traffic from its associated stations. By regulating trigger frames, uplink traffic can be reduced / distributed, resulting in lower bandwidth usage.

[0037] These aspects can also adjust robust contention backoff. The contention backoff parameters can be adjusted to increase the contention window minimum (CWmin) and contention window maximum (CWmax), allowing reliable message exchange over reduced backend infrastructure. Additionally, these aspects can reduce spatial streams. A spatial stream is a radio chain that transmits a unique data set to one or more stations. The total capacity of a radio is determined by the capacity of each SS multiplied by the total number of supported spatial streams. When backend capacity is reduced, the radio can reduce the number of supported spatial streams to further reduce overall bandwidth consumption. Reducing spatial streams also reduces the overall power consumption of the wireless AP. Permutations and combinations of the aforementioned adjustments can be made based on changes seen in wireless deployments.

[0038] Finally, some network deployments include mesh networks, where two or more APs participate in a wireless network. Mesh networks offer flexible RF topologies without relying on Ethernet switch ports. A root access point (RAP) can be connected to a backend access switch, and multi-hop sub-mesh APs (CMAPs) can be connected to the RAP via mesh backhaul and Wi-Fi. As the number of hops increases, latency in wireless communications increases, and the overall capacity of the CMAP decreases. Therefore, mesh topology-aware RF optimization will include optimization.

[0039] First, the method can support incremental bandwidth adjustment based on the number of mesh hops. For example, if the mesh backhaul between RAP and CMAP operates with 80MHz channel width, all subsequent sub-MAPs can only support 40MHz or lower channel width.

[0040] The mesh supports a unique tree topology where data traffic from stations associated with a CMAP can be bridged without querying the backend infrastructure. These aspects can perform traffic inflow analysis within the mesh topology and, if a large amount of traffic is exchanged within a mesh subtree (traffic not routed to the backend infrastructure), these aspects can allocate robust and wider channel bandwidth to the subtree segment while reducing the bandwidth of the backend dependent mesh nodes.

[0041] Traffic flows can then be further analyzed to create a stack ranking within the mesh nodes based on traffic inflow. For example, the mesh node with the highest traffic inflow can be assigned the best frequency with the widest possible bandwidth. Similarly, the leaf mesh node with the least traffic inflow can be assigned the lowest bandwidth.

[0042] Aspects herein are generally directed to wireless communication systems that can be implemented in accordance with one or more wireless communication standards. For example, some aspects may relate to wireless communication implemented in accordance with the Wi-Fi standard developed by IEEE 802.11, such as wireless communication implemented in accordance with IEEE 802.11ax. Some aspects may also relate to wireless communication implemented in accordance with other standards, regulations, rules, guidelines, etc. Some aspects may additionally or alternatively relate to wireless communications in accordance with one or more other wireless communication standards, such as, but not limited to, other IEEE wireless communication standards (e.g., IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.1In, IEEE 802.11u, IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.Had, IEEE 802.11af, IEEE 802.11ah, and / or IEEE 802.1lay standards), Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) wireless communication standards (e.g., Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Direct services, Wireless Gigabit (WiGig), WiGig Display Extensions (WDE), WiGig Bus Extensions (WBE), WiGig Serial Extensions (WSE) standards and / or standards developed by the WFA Neighbor Awareness Network (NAN) Task Group), Machine Type Communication (MTC) standards (such as those implemented in 3GPP Technical Report (TR) 23.887, 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 22.368 and / or 3GPP TS 23.682), and / or Near Field Communication (NFC) standards (such as those developed by the NFC Forum), including any predecessors, revisions, descendants and / or variants of any of the foregoing standards.

[0043] Likewise, some aspects may relate to wireless communications performed in accordance with one or more broadband wireless communication standards, such as 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or 3GPP LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) technologies and / or standards. Other examples of broadband wireless communication technologies / standards may include Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) / High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and / or GSM with General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) system (GSM / GPRS), IEEE 802.16 wireless broadband standards, such as IEEE802.16m and / or IEEE 802.16p, International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-ADV), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and / or WiMAX II, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 (e.g., CDMA2000 1.times.RTT, CDMA2000 EV-DO, CDMA EV-DV, etc.), High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network (HIPERMAN), Wireless Broadband (WiBro), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High Speed Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Packet Access (HSOPA), High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) technologies and / or standards.

[0044] Example Embodiments

[0045] Figure 1 An example of an operating environment 100 associated with aspects of the present invention is shown. A WLAN in the environment 100 may include an extended service set (ESS), which may include a master station or controller 101, one or more APs 104a-104f, one or more basic service sets (BSSs) 102, which may include an AP 5 104e, and one or more devices or stations (STAs) 108. The master station 101 may be an AP that transmits and receives using the IEEE 802.11 protocol.

[0046] The AP 104 may be a base station and may use other communication protocols as well as the IEEE 802.11 protocol. The IEEE 802.11 protocol may include the use of OFDMA, time division multiple access (TDMA), and / or code division multiple access (CDMA). The IEEE 802.11 protocol may include multiple access technologies. For example, the IEEE 802.11 protocol may include spatial division multiple access (SDMA) and / or multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO). Example configurations of the AP 104 and / or the controller 101 may be as follows: Figure 8 shown.

[0047] STA 108 may include one or more High-Efficiency Wireless (HEW) STAs (as set forth in, for example, the IEEE 802.11ax standard), future-defined STA types, and / or one or more legacy STAs (as set forth in, for example, the IEEE 802.11n / ac standard). STA 108 may be a wireless device, such as a cellular phone, a smartphone, a handheld wireless device, wireless glasses, a wireless watch, a wireless personal device, a tablet computer, or other device capable of transmitting and receiving using the IEEE 802.11 protocol. In an operating environment, AP 104 may generally manage access to a wireless medium in a WLAN in environment 100 for STA 108.

[0048] In the environment 100, one or more STAs 108 may associate and / or communicate with the AP 104 to join a WLAN. Joining the WLAN may enable the STAs 108 to wirelessly communicate with each other via the AP 104, directly with each other, with the AP 104, or with another network or resource through the AP 104. In some configurations, to send data to a recipient, the sending STA may transmit an uplink (UL) physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) including the data to the AP 104, which may then send the data in a downlink (DL) PPDU to the receiving STA 108. PLCP is a physical layer protocol used with 802.11 and other standards.

[0049] In some configurations, the data frames transmitted between STAs 108 or between a STA 108 and an AP 104 may be configurable. For example, a channel used for communication may be divided into subchannels with a contiguous bandwidth of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, or 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or a non-contiguous bandwidth of 80 + 80 MHz (160 MHz). In addition, the bandwidth of the subchannel may be increased to 1 MHz, 1.25 MHz, 2.03 MHz, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz bandwidth, combinations thereof, or any other bandwidth division that is less than or equal to the available bandwidth. The bandwidth of the subchannel may be based on the number of active subcarriers. The bandwidth of the subchannel may be a multiple of 26 (e.g., 26, 52, 104, etc.) active subcarriers or tones spaced 20 MHz apart. In some configurations, the bandwidth of the subchannel is 256 tones spaced 20 MHz apart. In other configurations, the bandwidth of the subchannel is a multiple of 26 tones or a multiple of 20 MHz. A 20 MHz subchannel may also include 256 tones for a 256-point Fast Fourier Transform (FFT); however, other combinations are possible, and the use of 256 tones in a 20 MHz subchannel is not necessary to perform the methods herein.

[0050] When managing access to the wireless medium in a WLAN in environment 100, AP 104 can schedule medium access for a transmitting STA 108 during an UL time interval during which AP 104 can refrain from transmitting over the wireless medium. The UL time interval can comprise a portion of a transmission opportunity (TXOP) owned by AP 104.

[0051] At a given point in time, multiple STAs in a WLAN may wish to transmit data. In some configurations, instead of scheduling medium access for the STAs 108 in different corresponding UL time intervals, the AP 104 may schedule medium access for the STAs 108 to support a UL MU transmission technique, according to which multiple STAs 108 may simultaneously transmit UL MU PPDUs to the AP 104 during a given UL time interval. For example, by utilizing UL MU OFDMA techniques during a given UL time interval, multiple STAs 108 may transmit UL MU PPDUs to the AP 104 via different corresponding OFDMA resource units (RUs) allocated by the AP 104. In another example, by utilizing UL MU-MIMO techniques during a given UL time interval, multiple STAs 108 may transmit UL MU PPDUs to the AP 104 via different corresponding spatial streams allocated by the AP 104.

[0052] To manage access, the AP 104 may send a primary synchronization transmission at the beginning of a control period, which may be a trigger frame (TF) or a control and scheduling transmission. The AP 104 may transmit the duration of the TXOP and subchannel information. During the control period, the STA 108 may communicate with the AP 104 based on a non-contention-based multiple access technology (e.g., OFDMA or MU-MIMO). This technology differs from traditional WLAN communications, in which devices communicate based on contention-based communication technology rather than multiple access technology. During the control period, the AP 104 may communicate with the STA 108 using one or more control frames, and the STA 108 may operate on a subchannel that is smaller than the operating range of the AP 104.

[0053] During the primary synchronization transmission, STAs 108 may contend for the wireless medium, while legacy STAs 108 are excluded from the primary synchronization transmission and do not contend for the wireless medium. The TF used during the primary synchronization transmission may indicate a UL-MU-MIMO and / or UL OFDMA control period. The multiple access technology used during the control period may be a scheduled OFDMA technology, or alternatively, may be a TDMA technology, a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) technology, or an SDMA technology.

[0054] Similarly, STAs in a wireless local area network may need to receive data. Similarly, instead of scheduling medium access for STAs 108 in different corresponding DL time intervals, AP 104 may schedule medium access for STAs 108 to support a DL MU transmission technique, according to which multiple STAs 108 can simultaneously receive DL MU PPDUs from AP 104 during a given DL time interval. For example, by using a DL MU OFDMA technique during a given UL time interval, multiple STAs 108 can receive DL MU PPDUs from AP 104 via different corresponding OFDMA RUs allocated by AP 104. In another example, by using a DL MU-MIMO technique during a given DL time interval, multiple STAs 108 can receive DL MU PPDUs from AP 104 via different corresponding spatial streams allocated by AP 104.

[0055] To manage access, the AP 104 may send a master synchronization transmission at the beginning of a control period, which may be a TF or control and scheduling reception. The AP 104 may transmit the duration and subchannel information of a receive opportunity (RXOP). During the control period, the STA 108 may communicate with the AP 104 based on a non-contention-based multiple access technology (e.g., OFDMA or MU-MIMO). During the control period, the AP 104 may communicate with the STA 108 using one or more control frames, and the STA 108 may operate on a subchannel that is smaller than the operating range of the AP 104.

[0056] During the primary synchronization transmission, STAs 108 may contend for the wireless medium, while legacy STAs 108 are excluded from the primary synchronization transmission and do not contend for the wireless medium. The TF used during the primary synchronization transmission may indicate a UL-MU-MIMO and / or UL OFDMA control period. The multiple access technology used during the control period may be a scheduled OFDMA technology, or alternatively, a TDMA technology, an FDMA technology, or an SDMA technology.

[0057] The AP 104 may also communicate according to conventional IEEE 802.11 communication techniques with conventional stations and / or STAs 108. In some configurations, the AP 104 may also be configured to communicate with the STAs 108 outside of the control period according to conventional IEEE 802.11 communication techniques, although this is not required.

[0058] Environment 100 may include a controller 101, which may include an egress port 103a and / or a switch 103b. Ports 103a and switches 103b may be part of the same component, or may be separate components, with controller 101 representing physically distinct devices. Ports 103a and switches 103b may be implemented in hardware, software, or both. Ports 103a and switches 103b may provide connectivity to one or more APs 104 and to a network 105. Network 105 may be separate from or physically distinct from the network included in environment 100.

[0059] One or more APs 104 may be connected to the controller 101. For example, two independent APs (AP104a and AP2104b) may communicate with the controller 101 via wired or wireless communication to access the external network 105. The AP 104 may be hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. Figure 8 described.

[0060] AP 104 may be referred to as a node, and thus, reference numeral 104 may be referred to as both an AP and a node. API 104a may be a top-level node RAP in a mesh network. The mesh network may include child nodes AP3 104c and AP4 104d. Each of these child nodes 104c, 104d may have additional child nodes, for example, AP4 104d communicates with child node AP5 104e and child node AP6 104f. Figure 1 More or fewer APs 104 are shown connected to the mesh network and may be configured differently. Figure 1 One or more APs 104 in the environment 100 can communicate with the STAs 108.

[0061] STA 108 can be any hardware, software, or combination of hardware and software that provides clients with access to BSS 102 and access to external network 105 through BSS 102. STA 108 can communicate wirelessly with AP 104c. STA 108 can be combined with Figure 8 described.

[0062] Embodiments of hardware and / or software that may include components of the AP 104 and / or controller 101 may be as follows: Figure 2 These components may include, but are not limited to, one or more of a backhaul capacity analyzer 204, a port capability analyzer 208, a switch analyzer 212, a wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216, a mesh analyzer 220, a radio resource management (RRM) bandwidth adjuster 224, and a bandwidth controller 228.

[0063] The backhaul capacity analyzer 204 can analyze the bandwidth or other capabilities of the connection between the controller 101 and the backend network 105. Thus, the egress connection from the BSS 102 and / or the environment 100 to the network 105 can be analyzed to determine the amount of available bandwidth or other types of limitations or conditions. The backhaul capacity analyzer 204 then presents the total amount of outgoing bandwidth available to the environment 100 to the RRM bandwidth adjuster 224. The information determined by the backhaul capacity analyzer 204 can be, for example, combined with Figure 4A and / or Figure 4B described.

[0064] The port capability analyzer 208 can analyze the bandwidth and other limited capabilities of port 103. The port capability analyzer 208 can determine the amount of incoming bandwidth and the amount of outgoing bandwidth from port 103, as well as any type of limitations on the bandwidth capacity through port 103a, or processing limitations that may limit the amount of data sent through port 103a. Similarly, the switch analyzer 212 can analyze the bandwidth capacity of switch 103b. Thus, the switch analyzer 212 can also determine the incoming bandwidth capability, outgoing capability, and any limitations on the data throughput processing through switch 103b. Data from the port capability analyzer 208 and the switch analyzer 212 can also be sent to the RRM bandwidth adjuster 224. The information determined by the port capability analyzer 208 can be, for example, combined with Figure 4A and / or Figure 4B Descriptive.

[0065] The wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216 can analyze any limitations that may be present on the wireless links from the AP 104 to the controller 101, between the AP 104 and the STAs 108, or any other type of limitation on the capacity of the wireless environment 100. In this way, the wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216 can determine whether there are any types of limitations or bandwidth limiters that the RRM bandwidth adjuster 224 may need to consider. The information determined by the wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216 can be, for example, combined with Figure 4A and / or Figure 4B Descriptive.

[0066] The mesh analyzer 220 may analyze the AP mesh shown as 104a to 104f. The mesh analyzer 220 may determine the bandwidth capacity between nodes or the entire mesh network. This information about the mesh network may be provided to the RRM bandwidth adjuster 224. The information determined by the mesh analyzer 220 may be as shown in conjunction with Figure 4C described.

[0067] The RRM bandwidth adjuster 224 can determine the limit for any AP 104 in the environment 100 based on bandwidth information, at another STA 108, or through a connected link or links that result in a limit on the AP's capacity. Thus, the RRM bandwidth adjuster 224 can determine the maximum amount of bandwidth that can be used by the AP 104 based on the AP's situation in the network in the environment 100, or by utilizing one of the components (e.g., switch 103b, port 103a), or other components or connections that limit the amount of bandwidth that can be sent to or from the AP 104. This information can then be sent to the bandwidth controller 228.

[0068] The bandwidth controller 228 is used to vary the amount of wireless spectrum provided to the AP 104 based on the constraints provided by the RRM bandwidth adjuster 224. Thus, for example, if the AP 104a is unable to send more than a certain amount of bandwidth to the network 105 based on constraints of the switch 103b, port 103a, network 105 connection, or other device or connection, the bandwidth controller 228 can limit the wireless capacity of the AP 104a to STAs 108 or other APs 104 based on these constraints. In this way, wireless spectrum that may have been allocated to the AP 104a but cannot be used by the AP 104b can then be reallocated or allocated to other APs 104 that do not have the same type of constraints or that may require additional wireless bandwidth.

[0069] An embodiment of the signaling process 300 performed by components of the environment 100 may be as follows: Figure 3 The backhaul, which may be represented by network 105 , may communicate with controller 101 , which may communicate with one or more APs 104 , which in turn may communicate with one or more STAs 108 .

[0070] During the signaling process, backhaul network 105 may send a message or information to controller 101 in signal 304. Additionally, AP 104 may send one or more pieces of information to the controller in signal 308. Signals 304 and 308 may provide information regarding bandwidth capacity upstream of controller 101 and upstream or downstream of AP 104. This information may then provide a determined amount of bandwidth available to each AP 104 based on its limitations, which are based on the devices or links connected to the AP 104 or within the AP's signaling tree.

[0071] This information can then be used to determine the capacity to be provided or allocated to the AP 104. This allocated wireless capacity can be sent to the AP 104 in signal 312 to limit the amount of wireless spectrum that the AP 104 can use. The AP 104 can then use the allocated spectrum to communicate with the STA 108 in signal 316. In this way, the AP 104 can adjust or associate its wireless spectrum to the lowest capacity or capability that the AP 104 can use based on the connections and devices connected upstream and downstream to the AP 104.

[0072] The data storage device 400, which includes one or more data structures that can be sent, received, stored, retrieved, or managed within a system in the environment 100, can be as follows: Figures 4A to 4C The data structures provided in the data storage device 400 or in the environment 100 and communicated in several processes for providing wireless capabilities to the STA 108 may be compared to Figures 4A to 4C There are many more data structures than those shown in .

[0073] Figure 4A 4. The first data structure 404 shown in FIG. 4 may represent data about one or more ports 103a. The data structure 404 may include a port identifier (PID) 408, switch capabilities 412, first hop limits 416, link aggregation (LAG) data 420, known Wi-Fi traffic information 424, and / or determined port capabilities 428. The data structure 404 may have more or fewer fields, as indicated by ellipsis 432. Each port 103 within the system may include a different data structure 404, as indicated by ellipsis 436.

[0074] PID 408 can be any type of identifier that uniquely identifies port 103a. PID 408 can be a numeric ID, an alphanumeric ID, a globally unique ID (GUID), or another type of ID. In some cases, PID 408 is the MAC address or other communication address of port 103a. Regardless of the ID type, PID 408 uniquely identifies port 103a to other ports 103a within or outside of environment 100.

[0075] Switch capacity 412 may represent the capacity that can be provided by a switch within port 103a or a switch that can be connected to port 103a. Switch capacity 412 may represent the total bandwidth available for sending information to or receiving information from network 105. Switch capacity 412 may be expressed as bandwidth in bits per second or other metrics.

[0076] The first hop limit 416 may determine and record the capacity of the connection from port 103a to network 105. The first hop limit 416 may be listed as the amount of available bandwidth and may be derived by averaging the amount of bandwidth being used over a period of time or by other methods.

[0077] LAG data 420 may include the aggregate amount of data being used by the various wireless or wired data flows received or transmitted by port 103a. Thus, port 103a can determine the total amount of data bandwidth being used by aggregating all bandwidth from the various individual connections or flows entering port 103a from switch 103b or AP 104. Similarly, outgoing data links can be analyzed to determine the aggregate amount of data being used. LAG data 420 may use logical links and / or physical links to determine aggregation. LAG data 420 may be represented by the total bandwidth received or transmitted by port 103a.

[0078] Non-Wi-Fi traffic information 424 may include any type of bandwidth being used by housekeeping or other control features that may not be part of the data traffic. This non-Wi-Fi traffic 424 may also be referred to as 802.11 overhead traffic. These non-Wi-Fi types of transmissions may be performed to control or establish interfaces between different switches 103b, APs 104, or other devices in the network 105. This non-Wi-Fi traffic may also be determined by the average bandwidth used at a point in time or by other types of measurements. Non-Wi-Fi traffic information 424 may include bandwidth measurements.

[0079] Determined port capacity 428 may be the amount of available bandwidth that port 103a can provide. Determined port capacity 428 is typically determined by subtracting non-Wi-Fi traffic information 424 from switch capacity 412. In other cases, determined port capacity 428 may be calculated as the product of switch capacity 412 and the capacity allowed by a user-implemented software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) policy. The SD-WAN policy is the amount of bandwidth allowed by the user. For example, the SD-WAN policy may be set to 75% of the total capacity. In this manner, determined port capacity 428 may determine whether more data is being sent than determined port capacity 428 based on the amount of bandwidth used in LAG data 420. If there is insufficient determined port capacity 428, port 103a may alert AP 104 or control the bandwidth being used by different APs 104 to ensure that the amount of data is within determined port capacity 428.

[0080] The data structure 440 that may represent information about the switch 103b may be as follows: Figure 4BData structure 440 may include, but is not limited to, one or more of switch ID 444, egress capacity 448, user policy 452, and next-hop link data 456. Data structure 440 may have more or fewer fields, as indicated by ellipsis 460. Furthermore, each switch within the system may have a separate data structure 440, as indicated by ellipsis 464.

[0081] The switch ID 444 may be any type of ID, including a numeric ID, an alphanumeric ID, a GUID, a MAC address, a URL, etc. The switch ID 444 uniquely identifies the switch 103 b among other switches in the environment 100 or other components in the environment 100 .

[0082] Egress capacity 448 can be the capacity or amount of bandwidth between switch 103b and port 103a. Egress capacity 448 can be limited by port 103a or other components outside of port 103a. Egress capacity 448 can be recorded as the amount of bandwidth available for transmission from switch 103b. Egress capacity is calculated by first determining the Ethernet port capacity of the AP, multiplying it by the link aggregation data, and then subtracting the amount of 802.11 management overhead.

[0083] User policies 452 may be any type of policy for sharing spectrum or bandwidth between switches 103b in environment 100 or other BSSs that may be adjacent to BSS 102 and share the same spectrum. Thus, in certain circumstances, user policies 452 may allocate or request that switch 103b move bandwidth to another BSS or switch 103b. These policies 452 may be used to determine whether bandwidth to AP 104 should be limited in certain circumstances.

[0084] Next hop link data 456 may be the bandwidth capacity of any type of link from switch 103b to port 103a or from switch 103b to network 105, etc. This next hop link data 456 may be similar to the data associated with first hop limit 416. Next hop link data 456 may be recorded as bandwidth or other limits.

[0085] Another data structure 468 may be as follows Figure 4C As shown. Data structure 468 may be associated with any type of data regarding the mesh network in environment 100. Thus, data structure 468 may include one or more AP IDs 472a to 472n, link hop information 480, information regarding traffic bridging 484, and / or information regarding flow inflow bandwidth 488. Figure 4CMore or fewer fields may be shown, as indicated by ellipses 492. There may be more than one mesh network in environment 100, and each mesh network may have its own separate data structure 468, as indicated by ellipses 496.

[0086] Each of the AP ID 472a, AP2 ID 472b, and APn ID 472n can be any type of ID, including a numeric ID, an alphanumeric ID, a GUID, a MAC address, a URL, or other type of address or ID. The AP ID 472 is unique to each AP 104 and therefore must uniquely identify that AP 104 within the mesh network or environment 100. As indicated by ellipsis 476, there can be one or more AP IDs in a mesh network.

[0087] Link hop information 480 may describe the number of links or hops within the mesh network. Each link may have a separate required bandwidth. Therefore, links higher in the mesh network may require more bandwidth to handle outbound capacity or communication capabilities from APs 104 lower in the mesh network. Information about bandwidth requirements and link hops may be stored in the data field.

[0088] Traffic Bridge 484 may include a description of the traffic volume within the mesh subtree, which can be determined through inflow analysis. A mesh network may have several members that are not associated with the backend fabric. Thus, these nodes may not provide information and may not be known to the controller / processor that uses this information. Inflow analysis can determine the amount of bandwidth required based on an assessment of the traffic volume exchanged between mesh nodes, and can also determine the amount of network bandwidth provided by the independent mesh nodes. This information may be described as one or more bandwidths within Traffic Bridge Data field 484.

[0089] Stream inflow bandwidth 488 can be an analysis or ranking of mesh nodes based on the amount of stream inflow being used; thus, the mesh node with the highest stream inflow can be provided with the best frequency or bandwidth to provide access to AP 104 or STA 108. Thus, the stream inflow bandwidth 488 provides a hierarchical order of which nodes in the mesh network may require the most bandwidth. In a mesh network, a first node may have higher bandwidth requirements than one or more nodes higher in the mesh tree (e.g., the first node's parent node). This situation may arise when there is a large amount of inter-node communication between the first node and / or one or more nodes in a subtree that includes or is lower than the first node. Consequently, one or more nodes in a subtree may be allocated more bandwidth than those nodes above the subtree.

[0090] An embodiment of the method 500 for changing or adjusting radio resources within a network in the environment 100 may be as follows: Figure 5Typically, the method 500 begins with a start operation 504 and ends with an end operation 516. The method 500 may include more or fewer steps, or may be performed in a manner different from Figure 5 The method 500 may be implemented as a set of computer-executable instructions, executed by a computer system or processing component, and encoded or stored on a computer-readable storage medium. Furthermore, the method 500 may be implemented by gates in an ASIC, FPGA, or other type of hardware device, or other hardware device or component. Hereinafter, the method 500 will be explained with reference to the systems, components, modules, software, data structures, etc. described herein.

[0091] At stage 508, the AP 104 and / or controller 101 may determine the bandwidth capacity of each AP 104 communicating with the STA 108. Here, each of the different components 204 to 220 may be used to analyze different configurations of the port 103a, network 105, switch 103b, any mesh network, any AP 104, etc. The bandwidth determined may be as combined with Figure 4A 4B and is allocated to each AP 104 or station 108 within the network in the environment 100. The determined bandwidth may then be provided to the RRM bandwidth adjuster 224.

[0092] Then, at stage 512, the RRM bandwidth adjuster 224 may change the bandwidth allocations for each of the different APs 104 based on the capacity or capability required for uplink and downlink communications by these APs 104. These changed bandwidth allocations may be allocations stored at the APs 104 or the controller 101 based on the capacity or capability required for uplink and downlink communications by these APs 104. Figures 4A to 4C The data provided in .

[0093] In one configuration, bandwidth allocation is set by changing the RU allocation provided to the STA 108. In addition to changing the RU allocation, other changes to communication characteristics can also be used in conjunction with or in place of changing the RU allocation. These changed RU allocations or other communication characteristics ensure that the AP 104 only provides the STA 108 with the amount of bandwidth that can be used for uplink or downlink communication. Therefore, if the AP 104 has a limit on the amount of bandwidth of the uplink port 103a or switch 103b or other device or connection, the amount of wireless bandwidth allowed by the AP 104 can be limited or set to the amount of bandwidth allowed by the limit.

[0094] An embodiment of the method 600 for determining bandwidth capacity from stage 508 above may be as follows Figure 6 Typically, method 600 begins with a start operation 604 and ends with an end operation 624. Method 600 may include more or fewer steps, or may be performed in a manner different from Figure 6The method 600 may be implemented as a set of computer-executable instructions, executed by a computer system or processing component, and encoded or stored on a computer-readable storage medium. Furthermore, the method 600 may be implemented by gates in an ASIC, FPGA, or other type of hardware device, or other hardware device or component. Hereinafter, the method 600 will be explained with reference to the systems, components, modules, software, data structures, etc. described herein.

[0095] At stage 608, the backhaul capacity analyzer 204 and / or the port capacity analyzer 208 may determine the port capacity. Here, the port capacity analyzer and / or the backhaul capacity analyzer 204, 208 may analyze the port 103a to determine one or more items of information in the data structure 404. This information may include any egress bandwidth or other limitations on the port capacity, which may be stored in the data structure 404.

[0096] Then, at stage 612, the switch analyzer 212 can determine the switch capabilities. The switch analyzer 212 can analyze the incoming or outgoing bandwidth and any other limitations in the processing or data throughput of the switch. This information can be stored in the data structure 440 of Figure 4b.

[0097] The wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216 can then control the wired or wireless capacity. This control can include performing actions such as limiting or capping the amount of MCS traffic in the network to reduce the overall bandwidth consumption in the network between one or more APs 104 and / or switches 103b or ports 103a in the environment 100. This control may be implemented by reducing the number of Request to Send (RTS) or Clear to Send (CTS) messages and sending these messages at a higher rate. Furthermore, the wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216 can also adjust trigger frames to reduce or space out bandwidth usage in the network in the environment 100. Furthermore, contention backoff parameters can be adjusted to change the minimum / maximum backoff amount to allow for reliable message exchange while reducing the amount of bandwidth infrastructure as described above. Furthermore, the wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216 can also reduce the number of spatial streams being used to change the overall capacity of the radio (to reduce bandwidth) based on the limited number of spatial streams.

[0098] Then, at stage 612, the mesh analyzer 220 may determine mesh capabilities. Here, the mesh analyzer may analyze any type of mesh, for example, a mesh having APs 104a to 104f. The mesh capabilities may determine any type of service bridging, streaming, flow, link hops, etc. Figure 4C As described, this information may be stored in data structure 468 .

[0099] An embodiment of the method 700 for determining port capacity in stage 608 may be as follows Figure 7A Generally, the method 700 begins with a start operation 702 and ends with an end operation 714. The method 700 may include more or fewer steps, or may be performed in a manner different from Figure 7A The method 700 may be implemented as a set of computer-executable instructions, executed by a computer system or processing component, and encoded or stored on a computer-readable storage medium. Furthermore, the method 700 may be implemented by gates in an ASIC, FPGA, or other type of hardware device, or other hardware device or component. Hereinafter, the method 700 will be explained with reference to the systems, components, modules, software, data structures, etc. described herein.

[0100] The port capability analyzer 208 can determine a maximum amount of port bandwidth. This determination can include using the backhaul capacity analyzer 204 to evaluate or determine a maximum amount of egress bandwidth from the port 103a to the network 105. This bandwidth can represent the maximum amount of bandwidth available to the port 103a. In other configurations, the maximum port capacity can be the amount of bandwidth between two or more ports 103a within the network 105 in the environment 100.

[0101] The port capacity analyzer 208 may then determine the capacity or amount of bandwidth between any one or more APs 104 and the port 103a. In other words, the determination determines the amount of incoming traffic capacity of the port 103a.

[0102] Port capability analyzer 208 can then determine the amount of link aggregation bandwidth. Link aggregation (LAG) combines multiple Ethernet links between two devices into a single logical link. Therefore, it can aggregate or determine the total amount of bandwidth being used by data links between two or more devices in a network within environment 100. This LAG amount can then be recorded in data field 420 of data structure 404.

[0103] Then, at stage 710, the port capability analyzer can determine the amount of non-Wi-Fi or data traffic being communicated between the devices. Non-Wi-Fi traffic can include any type of control information or other type of data processed between two or more devices to provide data communication capabilities. This information can then be stored as non-Wi-Fi traffic information 424 in a field of data structure 404. Thereafter, the port capacity can be determined by port capability analyzer 208 using a method similar to that used to discover any non-Wi-Fi or other limitations determined above to determine the total capacity of the port. This result is provided as the total amount of capability or capacity that can be provided to AP 104.

[0104] An embodiment of the method 716 for determining switch capabilities may be as follows Figure 7BTypically, method 716 begins with a start operation 718 and ends with an end operation 726. Method 716 may include more or fewer steps, or may be performed in a manner different from Figure 7B The steps are arranged in the order shown. Method 716 can be implemented as a set of computer-executable instructions, executed by a computer system or processing component, and encoded or stored on a computer-readable storage medium. In addition, method 716 can be implemented by gates in an ASIC, FPGA, or other type of hardware device or other hardware device or component. Hereinafter, method 700 will be explained with reference to the systems, components, modules, software, data structures, etc. described herein.

[0105] At stage 720 , the switch analyzer 212 may determine the egress capacity. The egress capacity may be the amount of bandwidth from the switch 103 b to the port 103 a or the network 105 .

[0106] The determined egress capacity may be the bandwidth stored in data structure 440 .

[0107] Then, at stage 722, the switch analyzer 212 can evaluate any user policies associated with the switch or AP. The user policy can determine how to interact with different neighboring APs 104 in the environment 100 or as part of another BSS. The neighbor policy can request or require that the amount of bandwidth used by the AP 104 be reduced to allow that bandwidth to be provided to another AP 104 with higher priority communications. Conversely, the neighbor policy can also require another AP 104 to provide bandwidth to the current AP 104 of the environment 100. These policies can be evaluated to determine whether the system in the environment 100 should attempt to limit AP bandwidth.

[0108] At stage 724, switch analyzer 212 may determine the next-hop link bandwidth. AP 104 may determine the amount of hop bandwidth between itself and another AP 104, between itself and switch 103b, and so on. This next-hop link bandwidth is a direct indication of the amount of limited bandwidth within the mesh network or between AP 104 and switch 103b. This information may be stored in field 456 of data structure 440.

[0109] An embodiment of the method 728 for controlling the wireless capacity of stage 616 may be as follows Figure 7C Typically, method 728 begins with a start operation 730 and ends with an end operation 740. Method 728 may include more or fewer steps, or may be performed in a manner different from Figure 7CThe method 728 may be executed as a set of computer-executable instructions, executed by a computer system or processing component, and encoded or stored on a computer-readable storage medium. Furthermore, the method 728 may be executed by gates in an ASIC, FPGA, or other type of hardware device or other hardware device or component. Hereinafter, the method 728 will be explained with reference to the systems, components, modules, software, data structures, etc. described herein.

[0110] At stage 732, the wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216 may first limit the amount of backend traffic. Here, the wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216 may limit the amount of control traffic between the AP 104 and wireless STAs 108, or between APs 104 or other devices, to limit or restrict the amount of downlink traffic to a lower MCS rate. This reduces the amount of 802.11 overhead by reducing RTS / CTS messages or retries that can operate at higher rates. This limited traffic helps expand the amount of bandwidth available for data services.

[0111] The wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216 may then adjust the number of trigger frames at stage 734. By adjusting the number of allowed trigger frames, allocated uplink transmissions from the AP 104 may be dispersed or eliminated. Thus, by limiting or spacing out the number of trigger frames, the amount of bandwidth used for uplink transmissions may be controlled.

[0112] Then, at stage 736, the wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216 may change the contention backoff parameters. For example, CWmin and CWmax may be changed to result in fewer collisions between messages and allow for more reliable message exchanges, even with fewer backend messages. This change then allows the wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216 to increase bandwidth by limiting backend control messages and still allow for reliable service because the contention backoff parameters have been increased.

[0113] Then, at stage 738, the wireless infrastructure capacity analyzer 216 can reduce the number of spatial streams. Any AP 104 can have various spatial streams that can direct communications to various devices. By limiting the number of spatial streams allowed or used, the amount of bandwidth for the AP 104 is naturally reduced because fewer streams can be sent out.

[0114] An embodiment of the method 742 for determining grid capabilities at stage 620 may be as follows Figure 7D Typically, method 742 begins with a start operation 744 and ends with an end operation 752. Method 742 may include more or fewer steps, or may be performed in a manner different from Figure 7DThe steps are arranged in the order shown. Method 742 can be implemented as a set of computer-executable instructions, executed by a computer system or processing component, and encoded or stored on a computer-readable storage medium. In addition, method 742 can be implemented by gates in an ASIC, FPGA, or other type of hardware device or other hardware device or component. Hereinafter, method 742 will be explained with reference to the systems, components, modules, software, data structures, etc. described herein.

[0115] At stage 746, the mesh analyzer 220 may determine the mesh hop capacity. Here, the mesh analyzer 220 may analyze the bandwidth or traffic between any two APs 104 in the mesh (eg, between AP 104d and AP 104f).

[0116] These hop capacities may be stored along with the AP IDs to determine links and link capacities between identified APs.

[0117] At stage 748, mesh analyzer 220 may also configure traffic bridging. Traffic bridging ensures that mesh subtree nodes have sufficient bandwidth for inter-node communication. It reduces the bandwidth of independent mesh nodes 104 compared to other nodes 104 to reduce the amount of bandwidth allocated to these nodes 104. This ensures that traffic flows are not routed to backend infrastructure and ensures a smoother and more efficient method of exchanging data within the mesh network.

[0118] Then, at stage 750, the mesh analyzer 220 may perform flow inflow. Flow inflow determines the amount of bandwidth flowing into the AP 104. These inflows may be analyzed to determine whether lower leaf mesh nodes require more bandwidth on higher connected links to perform properly. Otherwise, the minimum bandwidth is provided to each link in the mesh network, but the amount of bandwidth higher in the tree may be increased to allow for proper operation of lower nodes in the mesh tree.

[0119] Figure 8 The diagram shows that it can be implemented Figure 1 104, controller 101 and / or STA 108 of one or more of the communication device 800. In various embodiments, the device 800 may include logic circuitry. For example, the logic circuitry may include physical circuitry to perform operations for Figure 1 The operations described in one or more of the AP 104, the controller 101 and the STA. Figure 8 As shown, device 800 may include, but is not limited to, one or more of a radio interface 805 , baseband circuitry 825 , and / or a computing platform 845 .

[0120] Device 800 may be implemented in a single computing entity (eg, entirely in a single device). Figure 1The device 800 may include one or more APs 104, controllers 101, and / or STAs 108, storage media 855, and logic circuits. Alternatively, the device 800 may use a distributed system architecture (e.g., a client-server architecture, a peer-to-peer architecture, a master-slave architecture, etc.) to distribute various parts of the structure and / or operation.

[0121] The radio interface 805, which may also include an analog front end (AFE), may include a component or combination of components suitable for transmitting and / or receiving single-carrier or multi-carrier modulated signals (e.g., including complementary code keying (CCK), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), and / or single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) symbols), although the configuration is not limited to any particular air interface or modulation scheme. The radio interface 805 may include, for example, a receiver 810 and / or a transmitter 815. The radio interface 805 may include bias control, a crystal oscillator, and / or one or more antennas 820. In additional or alternative configurations, the radio interface 805 may use an oscillator and / or one or more filters as needed.

[0122] The baseband circuitry 825 can communicate with the radio interface 805 to process, receive, and / or transmit transmit signals, and can include, for example, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for down-converting received signals and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 830 for up-converting signals for transmission. Furthermore, the baseband circuitry 825 can include baseband or physical layer (PHY) processing circuitry for PHY link layer processing of corresponding receive / transmit signals. The baseband circuitry 825 can include, for example, a medium access control (MAC) processing circuitry 835 for MAC / data link layer processing. The baseband circuitry 825 can include a memory controller for communicating with the MAC processing circuitry 835 and / or a computing platform 845, for example, via one or more interfaces 840.

[0123] In some configurations, the PHY processing circuitry may include a frame construction and / or detection module, in conjunction with additional circuitry such as a buffer memory, to construct and / or deconstruct communication frames. Alternatively or additionally, the MAC processing circuitry 835 may share processing for some of these functions or perform these processes independently of the PHY processing circuitry. In some configurations, MAC and PHY processing may be integrated into a single circuit.

[0124] The computing platform 845 can provide computing functionality for the device 800. As shown, the computing platform 845 can include a processing component 850. In addition to or in lieu of the baseband circuitry 825, the device 800 can use a memory component 855 to perform processing operations or logic for one or more of the AP 104, the controller 101, and / or the STA 108, storage media 855, and logic circuitry. The processing component 850 (and / or the PHY and / or the MAC 835) can include various hardware elements, software elements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware elements can include devices, logic devices, components, processors, microprocessors, circuits, processor circuits, circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, etc.), integrated circuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), memory cells, logic gates, registers, semiconductor devices, chips, microchips, chipsets, and the like. Examples of software elements may include software components, programs, applications, computer programs, applications, system programs, software development programs, machine programs, operating system software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines, functions, methods, processes, software interfaces, application program interfaces (APIs), instruction sets, computing codes, computer codes, code segments, computer code segments, words, values, symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whether an embodiment is implemented using hardware elements and / or software elements may vary based on any number of factors, such as the desired computing rate, power level, thermal tolerance, processing cycle budget, input data rate, output data rate, memory resources, data bus speed, and other design or performance constraints required for a given implementation.

[0125] The computing platform 845 may further include other platform components. Other platform components include common computing elements, such as one or more processors, multi-core processors, coprocessors, memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals, interfaces, oscillators, timing devices, graphics cards, sound cards, multimedia input / output (I / O) components (e.g., digital displays), power supplies, and the like. Examples of memory unit 855 may include, but are not limited to, various types of computer-readable and machine-readable storage media in the form of one or more high-speed memory cells, such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), double data rate DRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymer memory (e.g., ferroelectric polymer memory), bidirectional memory, phase change or ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) memory, magnetic or optical cards, device arrays (e.g., redundant array of independent disks (RAID) drives), solid-state storage devices (e.g., universal serial bus (USB) memory, solid-state drives (SSDs)), and any other type of storage medium suitable for storing information.

[0126] Device 800 can be, for example, an ultra-mobile device, a mobile device, a fixed device, a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile computing device, a smart phone, a telephone, a digital telephone, a cellular phone, a user device, an e-book reader, a cell phone, a one-way pager, a two-way pager, an information appliance, a computer, a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a netbook computer, a handheld computer, a tablet computer, a server array or server farm, a web server, a network server, an internet server, a workstation, a microcomputer, a mainframe computer, a supercomputer, a network appliance, a web appliance, a distributed computing system, a multiprocessor system, a processor-based system, a consumer electronic product, a programmable consumer electronic product, a gaming device, a display, a television, a digital television, a set-top box, a wireless access point, a base station, a node B, a user station, a mobile subscriber center, a radio network controller, a router, a hub, a gateway, a bridge, a switch, a machine, or a combination thereof. Therefore, the functions and / or specific configurations of device 800 described herein can be included in various embodiments of device 800 or omitted as needed.

[0127] Embodiments of device 800 may be implemented using a single-input single-output (SISO) architecture. However, certain embodiments may include multiple antennas (e.g., antenna 820) for transmitting and / or receiving using adaptive antenna techniques such as beamforming or spatial division multiple access (SDMA) and / or using MIMO communication techniques.

[0128] The components and features of device 800 may be implemented using any combination of discrete circuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), logic gates, and / or single-chip architectures. Furthermore, the features of device 800 may be implemented using a microcontroller, a programmable logic array, and / or a microprocessor, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Note that hardware, firmware, and / or software elements may be collectively or individually referred to herein as "logic," "circuitry," or "processor."

[0129] Figure 8 The device may also include a security module (not shown). The security module may include information about, but not limited to, security parameters required to connect the device to another device or other available network or network device, and may include Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) security access keys, network keys, etc. as described above.

[0130] Figure 8 Another module that the device may include is a network access unit (not shown). The network access unit can be used to connect to another network device. In one example, connectivity can include synchronization between devices. In another example, the network access unit can serve as a medium that supports communication with other stations. In yet another example, the network access unit can work with at least the MAC circuit 835. The network access unit can also work and interact with one or more modules / components described herein.

[0131] It should be understood that Figure 8 The exemplary device 800 shown in the block diagram of FIG. 8 can represent one functional description example of many potential implementations. Therefore, the division, omission, or inclusion of block functions described in the figures does not mean that the hardware components, circuits, software, and / or elements for implementing these functions must be divided, omitted, or included in the embodiments.

[0132] For example, embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented as a computer process (method), a computing system, or an article of manufacture, such as a computer program product or a computer-readable medium. A computer program product may be a computer storage medium readable by a computer system, and the computer storage medium encodes a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process. A computer program product may also be a propagation signal on a carrier readable by a computing system, and the propagation signal encodes a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process. Therefore, the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware and / or software (including firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.). In other words, embodiments of the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium, which has a computer-usable or computer-readable program code implemented in the medium for use by an instruction execution system or in combination with it. A computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium capable of containing, storing, communicating, propagating, or transmitting a program used by an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device or in combination with it.

[0133] A computer usable or computer readable medium can be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. More specific examples of computer readable media (a non-exhaustive list) may include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer floppy disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fibers, and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM). Note that a computer usable or computer readable medium can even be paper or other suitable medium with the program printed thereon, as the program can be captured electronically by, for example, optically scanning the paper or other medium, and then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner (if desired), and then stored in a computer memory.

[0134] While certain embodiments of the present disclosure have been described, other embodiments are possible. Furthermore, while embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in connection with data stored in memory and other storage media, data may also be stored on or read from other types of computer-readable media (e.g., secondary storage devices (such as hard disks, floppy disks, or CD-ROMs), carrier waves from the Internet, or other forms of RAM or ROM). Furthermore, the stages of the disclosed methods may be modified in any manner, including by reordering stages and / or inserting or deleting stages, without departing from the present disclosure.

[0135] Furthermore, embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced on circuits comprising discrete electronic components, packaged or integrated electronic chips comprising logic gates, circuits utilizing microprocessors, or implemented on a single chip comprising electronic components or microprocessors. Embodiments of the present disclosure may also be practiced using other technologies capable of performing logical operations, such as AND, OR, and NOT, including but not limited to mechanical, optical, fluidic, and quantum technologies. Furthermore, embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced in a general-purpose computer or any other circuit or system.

[0136] The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented via a system on a chip (SOC), wherein Figure 1 Each or many of the elements shown in the figure can be integrated into a single integrated circuit. Such a SOC device may include one or more processing units, a graphics unit, a communication unit, a system virtualization unit, and various application functions, all of which can be integrated (or "burned") into the chip substrate as a single integrated circuit. When operated by an SOC, the functions described herein with respect to the embodiments of the present disclosure can be performed by dedicated logic integrated on a single integrated circuit (chip) with other components of the computing device 800.

[0137] For example, embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to block diagrams and / or operational diagrams of methods, systems, and computer program products according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The functions / actions noted in the blocks may not appear in the order shown in any flowchart. For example, two blocks shown in succession may actually be executed substantially simultaneously, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending on the functions / actions involved.

[0138] Although the description includes examples, the scope of the present disclosure is determined by the appended claims. Furthermore, although the description has been described in language specific to specific structural features and / or methodological acts, the claims are not limited to those features or acts. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as examples of embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0139] Aspects of the present disclosure include a method comprising: receiving, at a first access point (AP) of a first basic service set (BSS), a signal from a second AP of a second BSS; determining, by the first AP, a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) associated with the second AP to determine whether there is interference from the second AP; and generating a joint schedule for the first AP and the second AP to manage how the first AP and the second AP transmit or receive signals to mitigate the interference when there is interference.

[0140] Any one of the one or more aspects above, wherein the first AP and the second AP exchange protocols to perform joint scheduling.

[0141] Any one or more of the above aspects, wherein the protocol is a handshake signal.

[0142] Any one of the one or more aspects above, wherein the first AP and the second AP elect the first AP as the master AP to generate the joint scheduling.

[0143] Any one or more of the above aspects, wherein the second AP is a slave AP.

[0144] Any one of the one or more aspects above, wherein the first AP and the second AP synchronize timing before following the joint scheduling.

[0145] Any of one or more aspects above, wherein timing is synchronized using a precision time protocol.

[0146] Any one of the one or more aspects above, wherein the first AP receives data associated with the second AP to generate the joint scheduling.

[0147] Any of one or more of the above aspects, wherein the data associated with the second AP includes one or more of the amount of activity at the second AP, the current resource units (RUs) allocated to the second AP, and / or the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) scheduling followed by the second AP.

[0148] Any one of the one or more aspects above, wherein the joint scheduling provides an RU, and the second AP transmits or receives data in the RU.

[0149] Aspects of the present disclosure also include an access point (AP) comprising: a radio device operable to receive a signal from a second AP of a second basic service set (BSS); a memory; a processor in communication with the memory and the radio device, the processor operable to: determine a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) associated with the second AP to determine whether there is interference from the second AP; when interference exists: send a handshake signal to the second AP as a protocol to perform joint scheduling; and generate a joint schedule for the AP and the second AP to manage how the AP and the second AP transmit or receive signals to mitigate interference.

[0150] Any one of the one or more aspects above, wherein the AP and the second AP elect the AP as a master AP to generate the joint scheduling, and wherein the second AP is a slave AP.

[0151] Any one of the above one or more aspects, wherein the AP and the second AP synchronize timing before following the joint schedule, and wherein the timing is synchronized using a precision time protocol.

[0152] Any of one or more of the above aspects, wherein the AP receives data associated with the second AP to generate the joint scheduling, and wherein the data associated with the second AP includes one or more of the amount of activity at the second AP, the current resource units (RUs) allocated to the second AP, and / or the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) scheduling followed by the second AP.

[0153] Any one of the one or more aspects above, wherein the joint scheduling provides an RU, and the second AP transmits or receives data in the RU.

[0154] Aspects of the present disclosure also include a basic service set, comprising: a first access point operable to: receive a signal from a second AP of a second basic service set (BSS); determine a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) associated with the second AP to determine whether there is interference from the second AP; when interference is present; send a handshake signal to the second AP as a protocol to perform joint scheduling; and generate a joint schedule for the AP and the second AP to manage how the AP and the second AP transmit or receive signals to mitigate interference.

[0155] Any one of the one or more aspects above, wherein the AP and the second AP elect the AP as a master AP to generate the joint scheduling, and wherein the second AP is a slave AP.

[0156] Any one of the above one or more aspects, wherein the AP and the second AP synchronize timing before following the joint schedule, and wherein the timing is synchronized using a precision time protocol.

[0157] Any of one or more of the above aspects, wherein the AP receives data associated with the second AP to generate the joint scheduling, and wherein the data associated with the second AP includes one or more of the amount of activity at the second AP, the current resource units (RUs) allocated to the second AP, and / or the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) scheduling followed by the second AP.

[0158] Any one of the one or more aspects above, wherein the joint scheduling provides an RU, and the second AP transmits or receives data in the RU.

[0159] Any one or more of the above aspects, wherein the bandwidth limitation is associated with an egress capacity of the AP.

[0160] Any one of the above one or more aspects, wherein the egress capacity is a product of the Ethernet port capacity of the AP multiplied by the link aggregation data (LAG) minus an amount of 802.11 management traffic overhead.

[0161] Any one or more of the above aspects, wherein the port capacity comprises the product of the switch capability multiplied by the capacity allowed by the user-implemented SD-WAN policy.

[0162] Any one or more of the above aspects, wherein a first node in the mesh network has a higher bandwidth allocation than a parent node of the first node.

[0163] Any one of the above one or more aspects, wherein the network traffic in the mesh network requires more bandwidth and is local to a subtree of the mesh network including the first node and one or more nodes below the first node.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication, comprising: Analyze bandwidth limitations in access point (AP) traffic flows; determining, based on the bandwidth constraint, a lower amount of wireless bandwidth to provide to a station (STA) in wireless communication with the AP; and modifying a bandwidth allocation assigned to the STA based on the lower amount of wireless bandwidth, The bandwidth limitation is at least one of the following: being associated with a switch in communication with the AP, and wherein the bandwidth limitation associated with the switch comprises one or more of an egress capacity or a next-hop link bandwidth of the switch; associated with a port in communication with the AP, wherein the bandwidth limit associated with the port comprises a determined port capacity, and wherein the determined port capacity is a difference between the port capacity and a non-wireless traffic overhead; being associated with a mesh network to which the AP belongs, and wherein the bandwidth limitation associated with the mesh network comprises a link hop bandwidth or a flow inflow bandwidth; associated with a backhaul network in communication with the AP; or Associated with the egress capacity of the AP.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The port capacity comprises the product of the switch capability multiplied by the capacity allowed by the SD-WAN policy implemented by the user.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein Modifying the bandwidth allocation includes reducing a number of spatial streams used by the AP based on the bandwidth limit, or modifying a resource unit (RU) allocation provided to the STA based on the bandwidth limit.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein The egress capacity is the difference between the product of the Ethernet port capacity of the AP and the link aggregation data (LAG) and the amount of 802.11 management service overhead.

5. An access point (AP), comprising: a radio device operable to provide wireless bandwidth to a station (STA) to transmit or receive signals; Memory; A processor in communication with the memory and the radio device, the processor being operable to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-4. The AP according to claim 5 , wherein: The bandwidth limitation is modified by suppressing higher modulation and coding scheme (MCS) traffic.

7. The AP according to claim 5 or 6, wherein: Modifying the bandwidth allocation assigned to the STA includes reducing uplink (UL) transmissions from the STA by adjusting a number of trigger frames sent by the AP.

8. The AP of claim 5 or 6, further comprising increasing a contention window minimum (CWmin) or a contention window maximum (CWmax) to allow reliable message exchange over a reduced backend infrastructure bandwidth.

9. An extended service set (ESS), comprising: a port, the port communicating with a backhaul network; a switch, the switch communicating with the port; two or more stations (STA); The access point (AP) according to any one of claims 5 to 8, the AP communicating with the switch and the two or more STAs.

10. The ESS according to claim 9, wherein: A first node in the mesh network has a higher bandwidth allocation than a parent node of the first node.

11. The ESS according to claim 10, wherein: The network traffic in the mesh network requires more bandwidth and is local to a subtree of the mesh network including the first node and one or more nodes below the first node.

12. The ESS according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein: Modifying the bandwidth allocation allocated to the at least one of the two or more STAs includes modifying a resource unit (RU) allocated to the at least one of the two or more STAs.

13. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 4.

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