Multi-AP Coordination Status Signaling Without Polling Overhead
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing IEEE 802.11-based WLANs lack an efficient mechanism for shared access points (APs) to inform the coordinating AP about changes in coordination parameters during Multi-AP (M-AP) operations, leading to inefficiencies and overhead due to frequent polling for status updates.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a coordination status field within frames transmitted by shared APs to the coordinating AP, which includes information on modified parameters using bitmaps, encoded values, or subfields, allowing flexible and efficient communication of parameter changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If shared APs use frequent polling to inform the coordinating AP about parameter changes, then the coordination status can be kept updated, but the overhead and complexity of the coordination mechanism increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the coordination status information from frequent polling interactions and consolidates it into a single dedicated coordination status field within existing frames. This field contains a bitmap where each bit represents a specific parameter change, allowing shared APs to inform the coordinating AP of parameter changes without requiring separate polling exchanges, thereby reducing overhead while maintaining complete information update capability
Solution Approach 2:
The coordination status field is designed to be self-descriptive, with each bit in the bitmap automatically indicating whether a specific parameter has changed. The field structure itself carries the information about what needs to be updated, eliminating the need for additional polling queries from the coordinating AP to determine what parameters have changed
2Loss of information
If shared APs transmit detailed parameter change information in every frame, then the coordinating AP receives complete updates, but the frame overhead and bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential coordination status information (which parameters have changed) and places it in a compact bitmap format within the coordination status field. Full parameter values are not transmitted in every frame, but only the status indicators, dramatically reducing the data volume while maintaining complete information about what needs to be updated
Solution Approach 2:
The coordination status field uses a bitmap where each bit represents a parameter change state. This parameter-based encoding allows the system to convey information about multiple parameters using minimal bits, changing the representation from detailed parameter values to compact status indicators that scale efficiently with the number of parameters
3Device complexity
If the coordination mechanism uses a simple status field, then the overhead is reduced, but the flexibility to indicate multiple parameter changes is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the coordination status information into individual bits within the bitmap, with each bit corresponding to a specific parameter. This segmentation allows the simple status field to independently track and indicate changes in multiple different parameters simultaneously, providing flexibility without increasing overall field complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The coordination status field with its bitmap structure serves multiple functions: it can indicate changes in any combination of parameters, work with any number of parameters by extending the bitmap, and maintain a consistent simple structure regardless of the specific parameters being tracked. This universal design allows the same field structure to handle diverse coordination scenarios
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure relates to a shared access point, AP, (120) configured to participate in a coordinated transmission making use of at least a portion of at least one transmission opportunity, TXOP, obtained and shared by a sharing AP (110) operating under a coordination agreement within a Multi-AP, M-AP, set. The shared AP (120) comprises a processing circuitry (121) configured to modify at least one parameter of a plurality of coordination operation related parameters. Moreover, the shared AP (120) comprises a communication interface (123) configured to transmit a frame to the sharing AP (110). The frame comprises a coordination status field comprising information indicative of the at least one modified parameter of the plurality of coordination operation related parameters.