Access point connection mirroring

Abstract

A method for operating a first station in a basic service set (BSS) includes the steps of establishing a first wireless link with an access point (AP), determining that one or more metrics corresponding to the first wireless link satisfy respective threshold values, and transmitting a request to a second station in the BSS for the second station to forward network traffic transmitted by the first station toward the AP through a second wireless link between the second station and the AP.

Description

Technology Field

[0001] Cross-reference regarding related applications

[0002] This application claims priority based on U.S. provisional application No. 63 / 770,895 filed March 12, 2025 and U.S. provisional application No. 63 / 805,842 filed May 14, 2025, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference. Background Technology

[0003] A Basic Service Set (BSS) is the basic building block of an IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) network. A BSS may include an Access Point (AP) and one or more Stations (STAs) that communicate through the AP. The AP can act as the central coordinator of the BSS and provide connectivity for the STAs to a wired network or the Internet. The STAs may be client devices, such as laptops, smartphones, or other Internet of Things (IoT) devices, that connect to the AP via wireless links. Brief explanation of the drawing

[0004] To easily identify the discussion of any specific element or action, the most significant digit or digits of the reference number refer to the drawing number where the element is first introduced. FIG. 1 illustrates a system including an access point (AP), a first station (STA), and a second station participating in a common basic service set (BSS), according to one embodiment. FIG. 2 illustrates a system according to one embodiment in which a helper station operates simultaneously as a repeater for a plurality of neighboring stations within the same basic service set (BSS). FIG. 3 illustrates a system that supports multi-hop forwarding within a basic service set (BSS) according to one embodiment. FIG. 4 illustrates a method for establishing a repeater relationship with another station in the same BSS after determining that the wireless link has entered a degraded state or condition, according to one embodiment. FIG. 5 illustrates a method for establishing a repeater relationship with another station in the same BSS after receiving a request according to one embodiment. FIG. 6 illustrates a method for two stations to establish a repeater relationship after determining that the wireless link has entered a degraded state or condition, according to one embodiment. Specific details for implementing the invention

[0005] In wireless local area networks (WLANs), stations (STAs) may rely on a stable wireless link to an access point (AP) for connectivity. However, this wireless link can degrade significantly under certain conditions, leading to poor performance or complete loss of connection. One common factor is distance: as a station moves further away from the AP, the likelihood of retransmissions, higher latency, and jitter increases, which can affect the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), reduce data transmission rates, and increase the probability of packet errors or complete connection failure. This can be a particular issue for real-time or latency-sensitive applications, such as video streaming and camera feeds.

[0006] Environmental factors can also affect the stability of wireless links. Physical obstacles such as walls, doors, and furniture attenuate radio signals, while building materials like concrete or metal can severely restrict the propagation of wireless signals. In residential and commercial environments, interference from other devices, such as microwave ovens, telephones, and neighboring Wi-Fi networks, can introduce additional noise, which reduces the effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the wireless link. These conditions can cause frequent retransmissions and unstable throughput, making the user experience unpredictable and undesirable.

[0007] The aspects and embodiments of the present disclosure address these and other problems by providing techniques that enable a station experiencing degraded connectivity to an AP to dynamically leverage another station within the same Basic Service Set (BSS) as a repeater. As used herein, unless otherwise noted, a station operating “as a repeater” or “in repeater mode” refers to a station that maintains its own wireless link to the AP and (a) forwards network traffic received from another station toward the AP and / or (b) forwards traffic from the AP toward that other station. For example, if the first station determines that one or more link quality metrics associated with the wireless connection to the AP fall below their respective thresholds, the first station may initiate a request to the second station in the BSS to forward network traffic transmitted by the first station toward the AP. This approach may allow the first station to maintain connectivity without requiring additional infrastructure such as dedicated repeaters, range extenders, or wired backhaul.

[0008] In some embodiments, the first station evaluates metrics such as Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), Packet Error Rate (PER), Retry Count, or Throughput to determine whether its wireless link to the AP is insufficient for reliable communication. If degraded conditions of this wireless link are detected, the first station may request one or more neighboring stations within the BSS (including the second station) to forward network traffic transmitted by the first station toward the AP (sometimes referred to herein as a forwarding request). Such a forwarding request may include control signaling transmitted to neighboring stations in-band via a WLAN or out-of-band via an auxiliary channel such as BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). Conventional infrastructure BSS configurations do not allow direct station-to-station (STA-to-STA) communication bypassing the AP, but the embodiments described herein may enable such communication via alternative wireless links. For example, two stations within the same BSS can establish a direct link using protocols such as softAP / STA, Neighbor Awareness Networking (NaN), Wi-Fi peer-to-peer (P2P), or similar mechanisms. These approaches allow stations to negotiate and maintain forwarding relationships independently of the AP, thereby facilitating repeater functions even in scenarios where STA-AP communication is completely lost.

[0009] When the second station receives a forwarding request, it may determine whether it has sufficient capacity to operate as a repeater. Here, the second station may consider its own traffic demands and / or anticipated additional load from the first station. If the second station has sufficient capacity, it may begin forwarding traffic received from the first station toward the AP while continuing to transmit its own traffic. The second station may maintain a Virtual Access Point (VAP) interface to handle traffic received from the first station and may apply bridging or Network Address Translation (NAT) techniques for packet forwarding. In some embodiments, the second station may implement Quality-of-Service (QoS) scheduling to manage these concurrent traffic flows.

[0010] In some cases, before forwarding traffic received from the first station, the second station may report various link quality metrics or current traffic requirements to the first station. The first station may collect this information from a number of candidate stations and select the second station based on an optimization algorithm that considers factors such as link quality, current traffic load, etc. In at least one embodiment, the first station may select the second station from a number of candidate stations based on timeliness. For example, the first station may select the second station based on the fact that the second station was the first to acknowledge or accept a forwarding request from the first station.

[0011] FIG. 1 may illustrate a system (100) that, according to one embodiment, may include an access point (AP) (102), a first station (STA) (104), and a second station (STA) (106) that can participate in a common basic service set (BSS). In the example of FIG. 1, a wireless link (108) may connect the station (104) to the AP (102), and a wireless link (110) may connect the station (106) to the AP (102). A control channel (112) may provide a signaling path between the stations (104 and 106) for the discovery, negotiation, configuration, monitoring, and dissolution of helper-oriented forwarding relationships. The control channel (112) may be realized via the same WLAN (in-band) or via an auxiliary out-of-band (OOB) radio as described below.

[0012] The stations (104 and 106) may be any client devices capable of communicating wirelessly with other electronic devices within the network. The stations (104 and 106) may include, for example, IP cameras, security sensors, smart speakers, home automation hubs, set-top boxes, laptops, tablets, smartphones, or any other Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The AP (102) may be any WLAN (e.g., Wi-Fi) access point or gateway operating in infrastructure mode. In some deployments, the station (104) may correspond to a range-limited device located closer to the edge of the AP (102)'s coverage, while the station (106) may correspond to a device located closer to the AP (102) or otherwise experiencing more favorable channel conditions. All devices may participate in the same basic service set (BSS) and may be logically coordinated by the AP (102).

[0013] Station (104) can monitor link quality and performance information for its wireless link (108) to AP (102) and can determine that the wireless link (108) is in a degraded state when one or more metrics satisfy associated thresholds. The monitored metrics may include one or more of Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), Packet Error Rate (PER), Retry Count, Measured Throughput, or Latency. The metric thresholds may be fixed, adaptive, or policy-based. When a degraded condition of the wireless link (108) is detected, Station (104) may seek assistance from neighboring stations, such as Station (106), which are members of the BSS, that can forward traffic toward AP (102) on behalf of Station (104).

[0014] When seeking assistance, station (104) may send a forwarding request to one or more neighboring stations, including station (106). Depending on the capabilities and current connectivity of the stations (104, 106), the forwarding request may be communicated using in-band signaling associated with the BSS or through an out-of-band (OOB) channel.

[0015] In embodiments where forwarding requests are communicated using in-band signaling, the forwarding requests may be transmitted in-band over a WLAN. For example, a station (104) may generate a management or action frame, such as a public or vendor-specific action frame, which is addressed to the station (106) and relayed by the AP (102) within the BSS. In other embodiments, the forwarding requests may be encapsulated in an IP-level unicast or multicast message, such as a UDP packet, which is delivered to the station (106) via the AP (102). In at least one embodiment, the station (104) may also use tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS) signaling to establish a direct control path to the station (106). The choice of the in-band signaling mechanism may depend on the network configuration, the capabilities of the AP (102), the capabilities of the station (104) or the station (106), policy preferences, etc.

[0016] In addition to scenarios involving degraded (but available) wireless links, Station (104) can also communicate directly with Station (106) when Station (104) experiences a complete loss of connectivity to the AP (102). In such cases, Station (104) can establish a direct link to Station (106) using various protocols and mechanisms designed to facilitate peer-to-peer communication outside of the conventional infrastructure BSS framework. For example, protocols such as SoftAP / STA mode allow Station (106) to instantiate a temporary access point interface, enabling Station (104) to associate and transmit traffic for forwarding. Neighbor Awareness Networking (NaN) can provide proximity-based device discovery and communication that supports the dynamic formation of forwarding relationships. Wi-Fi peer-to-peer (P2P) can enable stations (104 and 106) to negotiate and maintain a direct connection independently of the AP (102). Tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS) can enable stations (104 and 106) within the same BSS to establish direct links for both control and data traffic, thereby bypassing the AP (102). Additionally, among other similar protocols that may be used, these protocols can enable stations (104) and (106) to negotiate and maintain a forwarding relationship to the AP (102) even in scenarios where STA-to-AP communication between station (104) and the AP (102) is completely lost.

[0017] In embodiments where a forwarding request is communicated using OOB signaling, the forwarding request may be transmitted out of band using an auxiliary radio technology such as Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE). For example, Station (104) and Station (106) may each include BLE radios and may be configured to advertise and scan for BLE services that facilitate device discovery and control signaling. When a degraded condition of the WLAN link is detected, Station (104) may initiate a BLE connection with Station (106) and transmit a forwarding request through the BLE connection. In at least one embodiment, Station (104) may transmit the forwarding request as a BLE General Attribute Profile (GATT) or a similarly structured BLE frame. The OOB approach allows Station (104) to communicate the forwarding request to Station (106) even if Station (104) has completely lost connectivity to the AP (102).

[0018] A forwarding request may include various information to facilitate decision-making and session setup at the station (106). The request may include identification information for the station (104) (e.g., MAC address, device type, or capabilities), characterization of the traffic to be forwarded (e.g., estimated data rate, burst profile, or Quality of Service (QoS) class), a snapshot of current link-quality metrics for the wireless link (108) (e.g., RSSI, SNR, PER, retry count, throughput, or latency), and an estimated forwarding traffic rate for network traffic originating from or passing through the station (104). The request may further specify any policy constraints or preferences, such as the requested session lifetime or lease duration, termination conditions, and preferred data plane modes (e.g., Virtual AP (VAP) association, bridging, Network Address Translation (NAT), Wireless Distribution System (WDS), or Tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS)). In some embodiments, the forwarding request may also request measurement reports from neighboring stations within the BSS regarding the quality and availability of their respective wireless links to the AP (102). For example, the forwarding request may request a measurement report from station (106) regarding his wireless link (110) to the AP (102). These measurement reports may help station (104) select the optimal (or at least suitable) station among all candidate stations within the BSS.

[0019] In embodiments where Station (104) selects Station (106) to forward network traffic from Station (104) to AP (102) (or Station (106) forwards network traffic from Station (104) with or without selection by Station (104), Station (106) may instantiate a Virtual Access Point (VAP) interface. The VAP interface may be configured to advertise a Service Set Identifier (SSID) that may be the same as or different from the SSID of the BSS coordinated by AP (102). The VAP may operate on a channel that is the same as or different from the underlying BSS and may be configured to accept associated requests from one or more stations, including Station (104). In various embodiments, the helper station (station (106)) is not enumerated as an infrastructure AP (AP (102)) and instantiates a temporary session-specific virtual AP interface solely for the purpose of relaying traffic to the request station (station (104)). That is, in at least one embodiment, this VAP does not serve as a general access point for the BSS.

[0020] When the VAP is instantiated, the station (106) may transmit a notice or beacon advertising the availability of the VAP for association. The station (104) may initiate an association procedure with the VAP when it receives such a notice or when it is otherwise notified of the existence of the VAP (e.g., through a forwarding request / accept exchange). This association procedure may follow any suitable association protocol, such as those found in IEEE 802.11.

[0021] Once an association is established between the VAP at station (104) and station (106), station (104) can transmit network traffic destined for AP (102) to the VAP interface at station (106). Then, station (106) can forward the received traffic toward AP (102) over its wireless link (110) by appropriately using bridging, Network Address Translation (NAT), or other forwarding techniques. In some embodiments, station (106) can maintain sender-specific forwarding tables, perform Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), and manage Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) relay or assignment for the associated station (104). According to embodiments, the station (106) can preserve the identity of the sender (here, station (104)), thereby enabling the AP (102) to attribute uplink traffic to the sender and enabling the helper (here, station (106)) to forward downlink frames to the sender. In various embodiments, the station (106) may be configured to preserve Quality of Service (QoS) markings, enforce policy constraints, and support the simultaneous forwarding of network traffic from the station (104) and other stations in the BSS.

[0022] A VAP-based association may be maintained for the duration of a forwarding session, as determined by session lifetime parameters, a disconnection message, detection of improved link conditions for the station (104), etc. At the end of the forwarding session, the station (104) may detach from the VAP and resume direct communication with the AP (102), or initiate an association with another helper station (not shown). The VAP interface at the station (106) may be disabled when no longer needed, or may be kept available for future association requests from other stations experiencing degraded connectivity to the AP (102).

[0023] While the embodiments described above in the present disclosure utilize a VAP, other suitable protocols or processes capable of enabling the station (104) to communicate directly with the station (106) may be used. For example, protocols such as Tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS), Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer (P2P), Neighbor Awareness Networking (NaN), or AP / STA configurations may be used to establish a data path or wireless link between the station (104) and the station (106).

[0024] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, Network Address Translation (NAT) may be utilized by a helper station (station (106)) to facilitate the forwarding of network traffic between a sender station (station (104)) and an access point (AP (102)). When NAT is utilized, the station (106) may instantiate a routing subnet for associated sender stations, such as station (104), and assign local IP addresses via DHCP or static configuration. As station (104) transmits network traffic intended for AP (102), station (106) may translate the source IP address of each packet to its own IP address before forwarding the packet to AP (102) over its wireless link (link (110)). This approach enables multiple sender stations to share a wireless link to the helper's AP.

[0025] According to embodiments, a forwarding request may be transmitted from station (104) to station (106) via a control channel (112). In some embodiments, the forwarding request may be transmitted out-of-band (OOB), such as via Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE). In at least one embodiment, the forwarding request may be transmitted within the band via an AP (102). For example, station (104) may transmit a forwarding request to the AP (102), and the AP (102) may subsequently transmit the forwarding request to station (106). Acknowledgment or acceptance messages transmitted from station (106) to station (104) may also be communicated via the AP (102). In some embodiments, the forwarding request may be in-band returned over the WLAN using public or vendor-specific action / management frames relayed by the AP (102), Internet Protocol (IP) messages tunneled through the AP, or, if permitted, tunneled direct-link signaling (e.g., TDLS).

[0026] Station (104) may send a forwarding request addressed to Station (106) via the control channel (112). The forwarding request may convey various information such as identification and capability information for Station (104), characterization of traffic to be forwarded (e.g., estimated rate, burst profile, QoS class, etc.), current values ​​for link quality metrics corresponding to the wireless link (108), and indications of requested session lifetime and termination conditions. In some cases, the forwarding request may request a measurement report from Station (106) regarding the quality and usage of each of its respective wireless links to the AP (102), which is exemplified here as the wireless link (110).

[0027] When a forwarding request is received, the station (106) can authenticate and verify the forwarding request and determine whether sufficient forwarding capacity is available to handle the forwarding of network traffic from the station (104) to the station (106). To determine whether sufficient forwarding capacity exists, the station (106) may consider specific factors or metrics such as the current use of the link (110) to the AP (102), observed or predicted PHY rates, queue depth, airtime availability, existing QoS commitments, and the predicted forwarding load for the station (104) as indicated in the request. The station (106) may respond to the forwarding request with an acceptance message when the station (106) has sufficient forwarding capacity. The acceptance message may include various data such as the accepted session lifetime, selected data plane mode, QoS parameters or weights, identifiers for correlating subsequent configuration and disassembly messages, and reports of link quality metrics corresponding to the wireless link (110). In at least some embodiments, the station (106) may respond to a forwarding request with a negative acknowledgment when the station (106) does not have sufficient forwarding capacity.

[0028] Upon acceptance, the station (106) may enter repeater mode while maintaining its association with the AP (102) via the link (110). While operating in repeater mode, the station (106) may schedule its own traffic (e.g., traffic originating from the station (106)) and forwarded traffic (e.g., traffic originating from the station (104)) according to one or more QoS policies. The policies may include prioritization algorithms, airtime fairness, rate limits, latency / jitter targets, etc. The station (106) may selectively adjust predictable transmission opportunities using features such as target wake time (TWT) or service-cycle scheduling, and such adjusted activity may present detectable periodic management information on the channel.

[0029] In at least some embodiments, the system (100) may utilize stateless relay that enables opportunistic forwarding of network traffic originating from the station (104) without prior acceptance. Here, the station (104) may send a forwarding request and begin sending network traffic before receiving acceptance from the station (106).

[0030] In a deployment having multiple candidate helpers, the station (104) may send forwarding requests to a set of neighboring candidate stations and collect responses including capability indications and link quality reports corresponding to each set of neighboring candidate stations. In at least one embodiment, the station (104) may select a helper, such as the station (106), based on an optimization algorithm that may consider one or more of link quality or current load. In some embodiments, the station (104) may periodically re-evaluate the selection and move the session to another candidate station if performance degrades or if a better candidate becomes available. In one embodiment, the station (104) may use a selection policy to select among a set of neighboring candidate stations based on which candidate station responds to the forwarding request first with an acceptance message.

[0031] In certain embodiments, the station (106) may pre-advertise repeater availability and current forwarding capacity via the control channel (112) (e.g., via beacons or probe responses, TDLS discovery attributes, or vendor-specific information elements in BLE advertisements). These announcements may include capability flags and approximate capacity indicators, enabling faster selection and reduced negotiation latency when the station detects degraded connectivity. According to embodiments, the station (104) may select the station (106) to forward its network traffic to the AP (102) based on the most recent advertisement made by the station (106) regarding its current forwarding capacity. After receiving such an advertisement and determining that the wireless link (108) is in a degraded state, the station (104) may evaluate the advertised capability flags and capacity indicators and then address its forwarding request to the station (106). In some embodiments, the station (104) can address its forwarding requests to all stations within the BSS with sufficient forwarding capacity when the wireless link (108) enters a degraded condition.

[0032] In various embodiments, the dissolution of a forwarding session may occur upon the expiration of an approved lifespan, upon receipt of an explicit termination message from the station (104 or 106), upon detection of a failure condition (e.g., loss of VAP association, health-probe failure, or deterioration of the link (110) below a threshold), or upon improvement of the connectivity of the wireless link (108). Following dissolution, the station (104) may return to direct communication with the AP (102) over the link (108) if available, or may initiate a new candidate station discovery and selection process to identify another helper station and re-establish the forwarding of network traffic from the station (104) to the AP (102).

[0033] The functions described herein for the stations (104 and 106) may be realized by firmware, device drivers, control software running on the processing devices of each station (104 and 106), or any combination thereof. The functions described herein for the stations (104 and 106) may utilize information maintained by the WLAN stack regarding association status, QoS configuration, observed link metrics, etc. The functions described herein for the stations (104 and 106) may enable the system (100) to maintain network connectivity between the station (104) and the AP (102) under challenging wireless conditions without additional fixed infrastructure (e.g., without additional repeaters or APs).

[0034] FIG. 2 illustrates a system (200) according to one embodiment in which a helper station (here, station (106)) acts as a repeater for multiple sender stations within the same basic service set (BSS). Devices that are part of the system (200) (e.g., stations, APs) may include one or more features described in relation to the system (100) of FIG. 1. As in FIG. 1, the AP (102) can coordinate the BSS, and the station (104) can respond to a range-constrained device in which the direct wireless link (link (108)) to the AP (102) is in a degraded state. Furthermore, the station (202) may represent another station device (e.g., IP camera, sensor, smart speaker, set-top box, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or other IoT device) that participates in the same BSS and also experiences degraded connectivity on the wireless link to the AP (102), exemplified as link (210). Station (106) can maintain its own wireless link to the AP (102), exemplified as a link (110), and can provide forwarding services for traffic originating from multiple other stations in the BSS, including stations (104 and 202).

[0035] In some embodiments, Station (104) and Station (202) may each send forwarding requests addressed to Station (106) when they detect degraded link conditions to AP (102). Discovery, negotiation, configuration, monitoring, and dismantling associated with these forwarding relationships may be performed through respective control channels between the senders and the helper. For example, control channel (112) may combine stations (104 and 106), and control channel (206) may combine stations (202 and 106). As described above in relation to FIG. 1, each control channel may be realized in-band (OOB) via WLAN (e.g., through public or vendor-specific action / management frames relayed by AP (102) or via TDLS) or out-of-band (OOB) via auxiliary radio (e.g., BLE). Control signaling can convey identification and capability information, traffic characteristics (e.g., estimated data rate, burstiness, and / or QoS class), snapshots of current link quality metrics (e.g., RSSI, SNR, packet error rate, retry count, measured throughput, or latency), requested session lifetimes and termination conditions, etc.

[0036] When a forwarding request is received on either of the control channels (112 or 206), the station (106) can authenticate and verify the request and determine whether sufficient forwarding capacity is available to support additional streams of network traffic. To this end, the station (106) can evaluate one or more factors such as the current use of the wireless link (110), observed or predicted PHY rates, queue depth, available airtime, existing QoS commitments, and the expected forwarding load communicated by the requesting station. In at least some embodiments, the station (106) can maintain permission-control policies for controlling concurrent forwarding sessions, including minimum and maximum resource allocations per network stream (or per originating station), total session limits, and rules to ensure that the station (106)'s own traffic (originating from the station (106)) is not insufficient. When sufficient capacity exists, the station (106) may send an acceptance message to the requesting station (e.g., indicating an accepted session lifetime, a selected data plane mode, and applicable QoS parameters). Otherwise, the station (106) may send a negative acknowledgment indicating that forwarding cannot be provided at that time. In other embodiments, no acknowledgment message may be sent back to the requesting station.

[0037] As illustrated in FIG. 2, the station (106) may operate as a repeater for any number of other stations within the BSS (subject to its capacity and policy constraints), including the stations (104 and 202) simultaneously. In some embodiments, the station (106) may instantiate and maintain multiple simultaneous forwarding sessions. For example, the station (106) may maintain a first forwarding session corresponding to network traffic received from the station (104) and a second forwarding session corresponding to network traffic received from the station (202). When VAP-based associations are used, the station (106) may (i) instantiate a single VAP interface that accepts associations from multiple stations (including the stations (104 and 202)), or (ii) instantiate multiple VAP interfaces (e.g., separate SSIDs or BSSIDs) to isolate and manage streams of network traffic. In some embodiments, the station (106) is not listed as an infrastructure AP (102) and may use one or more of bridging or wireless distributed system (WDS) technologies to preserve caller identity.

[0038] While operating as a repeater for Station (104) and Station (202), Station (106) can schedule and forward uplink network traffic originating from Station (104) and Station (202) (or at least passing through Station (104) and Station (202) toward AP (102) via Link (110), while also handling its own local traffic. Similarly, for downlink traffic, Station (106) can receive frames destined for Station (106), Station (202), or other downlink stations using Station (106) or Station (202) to forward their own network traffic to AP (102). Station (106) can forward these frames to the corresponding station (here, Station (106) or Station (202)) via a selected data path. In at least some embodiments, the station (106) may maintain a per-originator state, which may include forwarding tables, address-resolution contexts (e.g., ARP), DHCP relay or assignment information (if applicable), mapping tables used to attribute uplink traffic to the correct sender and filter / redirect downlink frames to the intended station, etc. The station (106) may apply Quality of Service (QoS) policies (e.g., per-flow or per-access-category prioritization, airtime fairness, latency / jitter targets, and / or rate limits) across all active sessions to limit the impact of forwarding on both the helper's own traffic and the traffic of other senders. In some cases, helpers and senders can coordinate predictable transmission opportunities (e.g., using Target Wake Time (TWT) or service-cycle scheduling), which can present periodic management information on the channel representing the forwarding arrangement.

[0039] In at least one embodiment, Station (202) may use a forwarding request identical or similar to Station (104) that includes in-band and / or OOB signaling options and similar request content. In multiple candidate batches, Station (202) may discover multiple potential neighboring stations and select Station (106) based on one or more factors such as link quality metrics, current load / capacity reports, or timeliness (e.g., helper that acknowledges acceptance first). Likewise, Station (104) may re-evaluate its helper selection while Station (202) is also being served, and Station (104) or Station (202) may move the active session to a different neighboring station if performance degrades or a more suitable helper becomes available. In certain embodiments, Stations (104 and 202) may use a stateless relay option: when issuing a forwarding request, they may begin transmitting traffic that a listening helper may opportunistically forward. In some embodiments, this stateless mode may be used temporarily until formal acceptance is received, after which QoS and permission controls may be applied. However, in other embodiments, this stateless mode may be used indefinitely until Station (104) or Station (202) indicates to Station (106) that its own wireless link to AP (102) (wherein wireless link (108) or wireless link (204)) is no longer in a degraded state and forwarding of its own network traffic is no longer required.

[0040] The dissolution of a forwarding session for station (104) and / or station (202) may occur upon the expiration of an approved lifetime, upon receipt of an explicit termination message from the sender or helper, upon detection of a failure condition (e.g., loss of VAP association, health-probe failure, or degradation of the link (110) below thresholds), upon improvement of the sender's direct link to the AP (102) (e.g., wireless link (108) or wireless link (204)), etc. After dissolution, the affected stations (106, 202) may resume direct communication with the AP (102) when feasible, or initiate a new discovery and selection process to identify an alternative neighbor station to act as a repeater.

[0041] FIG. 3 may illustrate a system (300) that supports multi-hop (daisy-chain) forwarding within a Basic Service Set (BSS) according to one embodiment. Devices that are part of the system (300) (e.g., stations, APs) may include one or more features described for the system (100) of FIG. 1 or the system (200) of FIG. 2. As in FIG. 1, the AP (102) can coordinate the BSS. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the station (302) may correspond to a station located such that the direct wireless link to the AP (102) is in a degraded state, and the signals transmitted by the station (302) are attenuated too much by the time they reach the station (106) for the station (106) to operate as a direct repeater to the station (302). However, station (104) may receive transmissions from station (302) having sufficient strength to act as a direct repeater for station (302). According to embodiments, the repeater relationship between station (104) and station (106) may be established when station (302) transmits a forwarding request to stations within the BSS, or may be initiated subsequently as needed. In either case, station (104) may act as an intermediate repeater for station (302), and station (106) may act as an upstream repeater, thereby enabling multi-hop forwarding from station (302) to AP (102) through station (104) and station (106).

[0042] In some embodiments, the station (302) may send a forwarding request to the station (104) when it detects that its link to the AP (102) does not satisfy one or more thresholds for reliable communication. The discovery, negotiation, configuration, monitoring, and dissolution of this downstream helper relationship may be performed via a control channel (306) between the station (302) and the station (104). As described in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2, the control channel (306) may be realized in-band via a WLAN (e.g., public or vendor-specific action / management frames relayed by the AP (102) or TDLS) or out-of-band (OOB) via an auxiliary radio such as BLE. The forwarding request may convey identification and capability information for the station (302), traffic characteristics (e.g., estimated rate, burst profile, and / or QoS class), current values ​​for link quality metrics observed by the station (302) (e.g., RSSI, SNR, packet error rate, retry count, measured throughput, or latency), requested session lifetime, and termination conditions, etc.

[0043] When a forwarding request is received from a station (302), the station (104) can authenticate and verify the request and determine whether there is sufficient forwarding capacity to serve the station (302) while respecting existing commitments (e.g., the station (104)'s own traffic and any other active forwarding sessions). To do so, the station (104) can evaluate one or more factors such as the use of its upstream path toward the AP (102) (directly via the wireless link (108) or via the station (106) if a repeater relationship has already been established with the station (106)), observed or predicted PHY rates, queue depth, available airtime, existing QoS commitments, and the expected forwarding load for the station (302) as indicated in the request. If capacity is available, the station (104) may send an acceptance message (e.g., indicating the accepted session lifetime, selected data plane mode, and applicable QoS parameters) to the station (302). Otherwise, the station (104) may send a negative acknowledgment. In certain embodiments, a stateless relay option may allow the station (302) to begin sending payloads for opportunistic forwarding for a certain period (e.g., before formal acceptance).

[0044] In some embodiments, a forwarding request sent by Station (302) may also be received by Station (106). However, due to high attenuation of the signals sent by Station (302), Station (106) may determine that it cannot reliably receive data directly from Station (302). As a result, Station (106) may refuse to act as a direct repeater for Station (302) by sending a negative acknowledgment or refraining from responding to the forwarding request. This can help ensure that in this scenario, only stations with sufficient link quality and capacity, such as Station (104), are selected to forward network traffic on behalf of Station (302).

[0045] After accepting a forwarding request from Station (302), Station (104) may initiate or update an individual forwarding request to Station (106) via the control channel (112) (at least as described above in FIG. 1) to establish an upstream forwarding session capable of accommodating aggregated traffic including network traffic from Station (302) and Station (104) (if the wireless link (108) has recently entered a deteriorated condition) or scale it (if a repeater relationship has already been established between Station (104) and Station (106). Station (106) may perform permission-control assessments similar to those described above (e.g., current use of the link (110), predicted PHY rates, queue depth, airtime availability, and QoS commitments) and may accept or reject based on its capacity and policy constraints. In batches where station (104) already has an active session with station (106), station (104) can update session parameters (e.g., expected rate / QoS) to reflect additional forwarding load attributable to station (302).

[0046] In embodiments where a repeater relationship between station (104) and station (106) is already established, station (104) may query station (106) to determine whether there is sufficient forwarding capacity to accommodate additional load associated with station (302). In at least some embodiments, acceptance of a forwarding request from station (302) by station (104) is conditional upon confirmation that both station (104) (for downstream hops from station (302) to station (104)) and station (106) (for upstream hops from station (104) to station (106), and forward to AP (102)) have appropriate resources under their respective permission-control policies (e.g., available airtime, queue depth, PHY rate margin, and QoS commitments). If the station (106) indicates insufficient capacity, the station (104) may reject the forwarding request from the station (302) or seek an alternative upstream helper station that forwards network traffic from both the station (104) and the station (302) to the AP (102).

[0047] During operation, Station (104) can schedule uplink traffic originating from Station (302) along with Station (104)'s own traffic and forward it toward Station (106). Station (106) can, in turn, schedule uplink traffic originating from Station (302) and Station (104) and forward it toward AP (102) via the link (110), while simultaneously handling its own network traffic. For downlink traffic, Station (106) can receive frames from AP (102) destined for Station (104) and / or Station (302), and can forward these frames to appropriate recipients via established data paths, first between Station (106) and Station (104) and then between Station (104) and Station (302). In at least some embodiments, both station (104) and station (106) may maintain a sender-specific state that may include forwarding tables, address-resolution contexts (e.g., ARP), DHCP relay or assignment information (if applicable), and mapping tables used to attribute uplink traffic to the correct sender and to filter or redirect downlink frames to the intended station. QoS policies (e.g., flow-by-flow or access-category-by-access priority, airtime fairness, latency / jitter targets and / or rate limiting) may be applied at each hop to limit the effect of forwarding on the helper's own traffic and other forwarded streams. In some cases, participating nodes may coordinate predictable send opportunities (e.g., TWT) to improve determinism across multi-hop paths.

[0048] In additional embodiments, loop prevention and path stability measures may be applied to the daisy-chain configuration. For example, control messages and / or data encapsulations may carry hop count or time-to-live (TTL) parameters and / or path vector information to prevent routing loops and limit chain length. A policy-configurable maximum hop count may be used to limit forwarding complexity and airtime consumption.

[0049] The dissolution of a forwarding session from station (302) to station (104) and / or a session from station (104) to station (106) may occur upon the expiration of an approved lifespan, upon receipt of an explicit termination message from any participant, upon detection of a failure condition (e.g., loss of VAP association, health-probe failure, or degradation of the station-to-station link below thresholds), or upon improvement of the direct link to AP (102). Subsequently, station (302) and / or station (104) may resume direct communication with AP (102) when feasible, or initiate a new discovery and selection process to identify alternative helpers. By enabling controlled multi-hop forwarding within the same BSS under constrained conditions, the system (300) can maintain application performance and preserve connectivity for edge devices in coverage without deploying additional fixed infrastructure, such as AP repeaters listed as APs (102).

[0050] FIG. 4 illustrates a method (400) for establishing a repeater relationship with another station in the same BSS after determining that the wireless link has entered a degraded state or condition, according to one embodiment. According to embodiments, the method (400) may be performed by processing logic comprising hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the processing logic includes memory for storing instructions, and when one or more processors execute instructions, the processing logic may perform the method (400) partially or completely. In some embodiments, the method (400) may be performed using one or more devices of the system (100), system (200), or system (300), such as AP (102), station (104), station (106), station (202), or station (302). Other devices may perform the method (400) as described herein.

[0051] In block 402, the processing logic can establish a first wireless link with the access point (AP).

[0052] In block 404, the processing logic may determine that one or more metrics corresponding to the first wireless link satisfy their respective thresholds. In various embodiments, one or more metrics may include, but are not limited to, RSSI, SNR, PER, retry count, measured throughput, or latency. The determination may be made using fixed, adaptive, or policy-based thresholds and may be based on real-time monitoring of link quality and performance information.

[0053] In block 406, the processing logic may send a request for the second station to forward network traffic transmitted by the first station toward the AP via a second wireless link between the second station and the AP. The request may be sent to the second station within the BSS. In some embodiments, the processing logic may select the second station from a plurality of candidate stations in the BSS based on one or more of a link quality metric or a current payload, such as the available bandwidth of the candidate station, the current traffic load, or the measured link quality to the AP. The request may be sent to the second station in response to the selection of the second station.

[0054] In certain embodiments, the request may include control signaling transmitted out of band in relation to the BSS via an auxiliary radio channel, such as BLE. Such a request may be transmitted via BLE using Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) or other suitable BLE protocols, so that the first station can communicate with the second station even if the first station loses connectivity to the AP.

[0055] When a request is transmitted, the processing logic may receive a response from the second station indicating acceptance of the request. The response may include information such as an accepted session lifetime, a selected data plane mode, or applicable QoS parameters. If the response indicates acceptance, the processing logic may transmit network traffic addressed to the AP through the second station by directing network traffic to the second station, and the second station then forwards the traffic toward the AP via its own wireless link.

[0056] In some embodiments, the processing logic may periodically re-evaluate the selection of the second station and, if performance degrades or a better candidate becomes available, move the forwarding relationship to another candidate station. This method may further include dismantling procedures, such as terminating the forwarding relationship upon the expiration of an approved lifespan, receiving a termination message, or detecting improved link conditions.

[0057] FIG. 5 illustrates a method (500) for establishing a repeater relationship with another station in the same BSS after receiving a request according to one embodiment. According to embodiments, the method (500) may be performed by processing logic comprising hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the processing logic may include a memory for storing instructions, wherein one or more processors may execute instructions, thereby causing the processing logic to perform the method (500) partially or completely. In some embodiments, the method (500) may be performed using one or more devices of the system (100), system (200), or system (300), such as AP (102), station (104), station (106), station (202), or station (302). Other devices may perform the method (500) as described herein.

[0058] In block 502, processing logic can establish a wireless link to an access point (AP) for the first station, and the first station and the AP are in a basic service set (BSS). In some embodiments, after establishing the wireless link, processing logic can continuously monitor one or more metrics (e.g., RSSI, SNR, PER, retry count, measured throughput, or latency) corresponding to the first wireless link using fixed, adaptive, or policy-based thresholds to inform subsequent authorization and acceptance decisions.

[0059] In block 504, the processing logic may receive a request from the second station in the BSS for the first station to forward network traffic transmitted by the second station to the AP over the wireless link. In certain embodiments, the request may include control signaling received out-of-bounds in relation to the BSS, for example, via BLE (e.g., GATT-based messages), or may be received in-band via action / management frames relayed by the AP or via TDLS. In response to receiving the request, the processing logic may determine that one or more metrics corresponding to the first wireless link satisfy their respective thresholds and / or determine that sufficient forwarding capacity is available on the wireless link based on at least one of (i) current use of the wireless link or (ii) expected forwarding traffic rate for the second station. When applicable criteria are satisfied, the processing logic may transmit a response to the second station directing acceptance of the request, which may include an accepted session lifetime, a selected data plane mode, and applicable QoS parameters.

[0060] In block (506), the processing logic can receive a first set of packets transmitted toward the AP by the second station. In some embodiments, the first station may maintain a VAP interface to the second station, and the first set of packets may be received via VAP association. In other embodiments, the packets may be received via bridging, WDS / 4-address forwarding, or other suitable data plane mechanisms.

[0061] In block (508), the processing logic can transmit a first packet set to the AP. The processing logic can also transmit a second packet set originating from the first station to the AP and schedule the transmission of the first packet set and the second packet set according to one or more QoS policies such as flow-by-flow or access-category-by-access priority, airtime fairness, latency / jitter targets, minimum / maximum rate guarantees, and / or rate limiting.

[0062] In various embodiments, the processing logic may periodically re-evaluate link quality metrics and forwarding capacity during the session and continue, adjust, or terminate forwarding based on a policy. Disconnection may occur upon the expiration of an approved lifespan, receipt of a termination message, detection of a failure condition, or improvement of the direct AP link of the second station.

[0063] FIG. 6 illustrates a method (600) for two stations to establish a repeater relationship after determining that a wireless link has entered a degraded state or condition, according to one embodiment. According to embodiments, the method (600) may be performed by processing logic comprising hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the processing logic includes memory for storing instructions, and when one or more processors execute instructions, the processing logic may perform the method (600) partially or completely. In some embodiments, the method (600) may be performed using one or more devices of the system (100), system (200), or system (300), such as AP (102), station (104), station (106), station (202), or station (302). Other devices may perform the method (600) as described herein.

[0064] In block 602, the processing logic can establish a first wireless link between a first station within the basic service set (BSS) and an access point (AP) within the BSS.

[0065] In block 604, the processing logic can establish a second wireless link between the second station in the BSS and the AP.

[0066] In block 606, the processing logic may determine that one or more metrics corresponding to the first wireless link satisfy their respective thresholds. In various embodiments, one or more metrics may include, but are not limited to, RSSI, SNR, PER, retry count, measured throughput, or latency. The determination may be made using fixed, adaptive, or policy-based thresholds.

[0067] In block 608, the processing logic may transmit a request from the first station to the second station for the second station to forward network traffic transmitted by the first station toward the AP via the second wireless link. In some embodiments, the request may include control signaling transmitted out of bounds to the BSS, for example, via BLE, or may be transmitted in-band via AP-relayed management frames or TDLS.

[0068] In block 610, the processing logic can forward network traffic transmitted by the first station addressed to the AP from the second station to the AP via the second wireless link.

[0069] In certain embodiments, the second station may determine that one or more metrics corresponding to the second wireless link satisfy their respective thresholds before accepting a forwarding request. These metrics may include RSSI, SNR, PER, retry count, measured throughput, or latency, and may be evaluated using fixed, adaptive, or policy-based thresholds.

[0070] Additionally, the second station may determine that sufficient forwarding capacity is available on the second wireless link based on at least one of (i) the current use of the second wireless link or (ii) the expected forwarding traffic rate for the first station. If applicable criteria are satisfied, the second station may transmit a response to the first station indicating acceptance of the request, which may include an accepted session lifetime, a selected data plane mode, and applicable QoS parameters.

[0071] In some implementations, the second station may periodically re-evaluate link quality metrics and forwarding capacity during the session and continue, adjust, or terminate forwarding based on a policy. Dissolution may occur upon the expiration of the approved lifespan, receipt of a termination message, detection of a failure condition, or improvement of the first station's direct AP link.

[0072] In the foregoing description, many details are described. However, it will be apparent to a person skilled in the art who has the advantage of the present disclosure that embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In some cases, to avoid obscuring the description, well-known structures and devices are depicted in block diagram form rather than in detail. Additionally, in the foregoing description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form part of the description and in which some embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated as examples. It is understood that other embodiments may be used and structural modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0073] Parts of the detailed description are presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are means used by a person skilled in the art of data processing to most effectively convey the nature of their work to another person skilled in the art. An algorithm is conceived here and generally as a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. The steps are those that require physical manipulation of physical quantities. Generally, but not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals that can be stored, transmitted, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. Primarily for common use, it has sometimes proven convenient to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, etc.

[0074] However, it must be kept in mind that all these and similar terms are merely convenient labels associated with and applied to appropriate physical quantities. As is evident from the discussion above, unless specifically stated otherwise, it is recognized that throughout the description, discussions using terms such as "receive," "adjust," etc., refer to actions and processes of a computing system or similar electronic computing device that manipulate data represented as physical (e.g., electronic) quantities within the registers and memories of the computing system to convert it into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computing system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission, or display devices.

[0075] The words “yes” or “exemplary” are used in this specification to mean serving as an example, case, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described as “yes” or “exemplary” in this specification is not necessarily to be interpreted as being more desirable or advantageous than other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of the words “yes” or “exemplary” is intended to present concepts in a concrete manner. When used in this application, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or.” That is, unless otherwise stated or evident from the context, it is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive substitutions of “X includes A or B.” That is, “X includes A or B” is satisfied under any of the foregoing cases where X includes A; X includes B; or X includes both A and B. Furthermore, articles (“a” and “an”) as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be interpreted to mean “one or more” unless otherwise specified or it is evident from the context that they refer to the singular form. Moreover, throughout the entirety, the use of the terms “one embodiment,” “embodiment,” or “some embodiments” is not intended to mean the same embodiment or embodiments unless otherwise stated.

[0076] The embodiments described herein may also relate to devices for performing operations as described herein. Such devices may include a general-purpose computer that may be specifically configured for required purposes or which is optionally activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such computer programs may be stored on any type of disk, including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks; read-only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); EPROMs; EEPROMs; magnetic or optical cards; flash memory; or any type of medium suitable for storing electronic instructions, such as, but not limited to, non-transient computer-readable storage media. The term "computer-readable storage media" should be considered to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., centralized or distributed databases and / or related caches and servers) that store one or more sets of instructions. The term "computer-readable medium" should also be considered to include any medium capable of storing, encoding, or carrying a set of instructions for execution by a machine and enabling the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the embodiments. Accordingly, the term "computer-readable storage medium" should be considered to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical media, magnetic media, and any medium capable of storing a set of instructions for execution by a machine and enabling the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the embodiments.

[0077] The algorithms and displays presented in this specification are not inherently related to any specific computer or other device. Various general-purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings of this specification, or it may be found convenient to configure a more specialized device to perform the required method steps. The structures required for such various systems will be apparent from the following description. Furthermore, the embodiments are not described with reference to any specific programming language. It will be understood that various programming languages ​​may be used to implement the teachings of the embodiments as described in this specification.

[0078] The foregoing description includes numerous specific details, such as examples of specific systems, components, methods, etc., to provide a good understanding of some embodiments of the present disclosure. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that at least some embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other cases, widely known components or methods are not described in detail and are presented in a simple block diagram format to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present disclosure. Accordingly, the foregoing specific details are merely illustrative. Specific embodiments may vary from these illustrative details and may still be considered to be within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0079] It should be understood that the foregoing description is intended to be exemplary rather than limiting. Many other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the foregoing description. Accordingly, the scope of the present disclosure must be determined by reference to the appended claims, together with the full scope of equivalents given to such claims.

[0080] In the foregoing description, numerous specific details are described for the purpose of explanation and to provide a complete understanding of the present disclosure. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present disclosure can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known circuits, structures, and techniques are not illustrated in detail but are instead illustrated as block diagrams to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the understanding of this description.

[0081] References in the description such as “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “some embodiments,” “various embodiments,” “according to embodiments,” etc., mean that a specific feature, structure, or characteristic described in relation to the embodiment(s) is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Phrases such as “in one embodiment” or “in some embodiments” located in various places in this description do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment(s).

Claims

Claim 1 A method for operating a first station in a basic service set (BSS), comprising: establishing a first wireless link with an access point (AP); determining that one or more metrics corresponding to the first wireless link satisfy respective threshold values; and transmitting a request to a second station in the BSS for the second station to forward network traffic transmitted by the first station toward the AP through a second wireless link between the second station and the AP. Claim 2 A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving a response indicating acceptance of the request from the second station. Claim 3 A method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of transmitting network traffic addressed to the AP through the second station by directing network traffic to the second station. Claim 4 A method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more metrics include at least one of a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a packet error rate (PER), a retry count, a measured throughput, or a latency. Claim 5 A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of selecting the second station from a plurality of candidate stations in the BSS based on one or more of a link quality metric or a current traffic load. Claim 6 A method according to paragraph 5, wherein the request is transmitted to the second station in response to selecting the second station. Claim 7 A method according to claim 1, wherein the request includes control signaling transmitted out of band in relation to the BSS. Claim 8 In paragraph 7, the method wherein the request is transmitted via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Claim 9 A first station of a basic service set (BSS) that establishes a wireless link to an access point (AP)—where the first station and the AP are in the basic service set (BSS)—; receives a request from a second station in the BSS for the first station to forward network traffic transmitted by the second station to the AP via the wireless link; receives a first packet set transmitted by the second station toward the AP; and transmits the first packet set to the AP. Claim 10 In paragraph 9, the first station further comprises: a first station transmitting a second set of packets originating from the first station to the AP. Claim 11 In paragraph 10, the commands additionally cause the first station to schedule the transmission of the first packet set and the second packet set according to one or more Quality of Service (QoS) policies. Claim 12 In paragraph 9, the first station further comprises: a first station maintaining a virtual access point (VAP) interface to the second station. Claim 13 In paragraph 9, the first station further: determines that one or more metrics corresponding to the first wireless link satisfy their respective threshold values; and transmits a response indicating acceptance of the request to the second station. Claim 14 In paragraph 13, the first station, wherein one or more metrics include at least one of a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), Packet Error Rate (PER), Retry Count, Measured Throughput, or Latency. Claim 15 In claim 9, the first station further determines that sufficient forwarding capacity is available on the wireless link based on at least one of (i) the current utilization rate of the wireless link or (ii) the expected forwarding traffic rate for the second station; and transmits a response to the second station indicating acceptance of the request. Claim 16 In paragraph 9, the above request is a first station that includes control signaling received out-of-band in relation to the BSS. Claim 17 A system comprising: an access point (AP) within a basic service set (BSS); a first station within the BSS; and a second station within the BSS, wherein the system establishes a first wireless link between the first station and the AP and a second wireless link between the second station and the AP; determines that one or more metrics corresponding to the first wireless link satisfy respective threshold values; transmits a request from the first station to the second station for the second station to forward network traffic transmitted by the first station toward the AP via the second wireless link; and transmits network traffic transmitted by the first station to the AP addressed at the AP from the second station via the second wireless link. Claim 18 In paragraph 17, the system further comprises: determining by the second station that one or more metrics corresponding to the second wireless link satisfy their respective threshold values; and transmitting a response indicating acceptance of the request from the second station to the first station. Claim 19 In claim 17, the system further: determines that sufficient forwarding capacity is available on the second wireless link based on at least one of (i) the current utilization rate of the second wireless link or (ii) the expected forwarding traffic rate for the first station; and transmits a response indicating acceptance of the request from the second station to the first station. Claim 20 In paragraph 17, the above request is a system comprising control signaling transmitted out of band in relation to the above BSS.

Images