TWT Service Period Early Termination via QoS Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current technologies for indicating early termination of a Target Wake Time (TWT) service period in wireless local area networks lack efficient mechanisms for devices to explicitly signal readiness or request early termination, leading to potential power wastage and inefficient resource management.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a Quality of Service (QoS) control field with specific subfields, such as the 'End of Traffic' (EOT) subfield, in frames like QoS Null frames or QoS data frames to allow devices to indicate readiness for early termination, enabling a handshake procedure between access points and stations for efficient service period termination.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If devices remain awake for the full TWT service period to ensure complete data transmission, then network reliability is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the station sends an early termination indication frame to the access point during the TWT service period. This frame contains a buffer status field that provides feedback about the station's traffic conditions. The access point uses this feedback to determine whether to terminate the service period early, thus resolving the contradiction between maintaining network reliability and reducing energy consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The station performs preliminary assessment of its traffic buffer status before the TWT service period ends. By proactively sending the early termination indication frame with buffer status information, the station prepares the network for potential early termination, allowing the access point to make an informed decision about extending or terminating the service period, thereby saving energy while maintaining reliability.
2Reliability
If the access point extends the TWT service period to transmit pending traffic, then data completeness is improved, but device power savings are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The access point uses the buffer status field in the early termination indication frame as feedback to determine whether it has pending traffic for the station. If the buffer status indicates empty buffers and the access point has no pending traffic, it terminates the service period early, maximizing power savings. If there is pending traffic, the access point extends the service period to ensure data completeness, thus resolving the contradiction through informed decision-making based on feedback.
Solution Approach 2:
The TWT service period duration becomes dynamic rather than fixed. The access point can adjust the service period length based on real-time buffer status feedback and pending traffic conditions. This dynamic adjustment allows the system to optimize between data completeness and power savings by extending the service period only when necessary, rather than maintaining a static, conservative duration.
3Speed
If devices continuously monitor for service period termination signals, then responsiveness to termination is improved, but processing overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the termination signaling function from continuous monitoring requirements. Instead of requiring devices to continuously monitor for termination signals, the station sends a structured early termination indication frame with specific buffer status fields. The access point processes this extracted information to determine termination, reducing processing overhead while maintaining responsiveness through targeted signal exchange rather than continuous monitoring.
Data Source
AI summary
A first device may include one or more processors. The one or more processors may be configured to generate, during a service period of a target wake time (TWT) schedule, a first frame indicating, to an access point in a wireless local area network (WLAN), that the first device is ready to terminate the service period. The one or more processors may be configured to wirelessly transmit, via a transceiver, the generated first frame to the access point.