Unsolicited Unavailability Announcements for Wireless Coexistence
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Solution Overview
Problem
Managing the co-existence of multiple wireless communication technologies, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, is challenging due to potential collisions and interference, especially when they share radio resources, leading to issues like rate adaptation and packet loss.
Innovation Solution
A wireless device can transmit unsolicited unavailability announcements to its communication partners, indicating future time periods of unavailability, allowing them to avoid transmitting during those times and reducing collisions on shared radio resources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple wireless communication technologies share radio resources, then resource utilization is improved, but collisions and interference increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by having a wireless device proactively transmit an unsolicited unavailability announcement frame to indicate future time periods when it will be unavailable on a wireless connection. This allows communication partners to advance-plan and avoid transmitting during those periods, preventing collisions before they occur. The announcement includes a future unavailability profile that specifies start times and durations of unavailability, enabling partners to schedule their transmissions around these periods.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If unsolicited unavailability announcements are transmitted, then collisions are reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses an intermediary approach by introducing a standardized unavailability announcement frame format that mediates between the announcing device and its communication partners. This frame includes structured fields for future unavailability profiles, recipient addresses, and transmitter identifiers, providing a universal communication mechanism that simplifies integration across different wireless technologies and devices rather than requiring custom collision avoidance protocols for each pairing.
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure relates to methods for providing unsolicited unavailability announcements to manage the co-existence of Wi-Fi and other technologies (such as Bluetooth) and to manage infrastructure and peer-to-peer connections in a wireless communication system. A wireless device may establish multiple wireless connections on a set of radio resources. The wireless device may transmit an unsolicited unavailability announcement frame, which may include information indicating a time period of future unavailability for the wireless device on the set of radio resources. Such an unsolicited unavailability announcement frame may also include information regarding the device's current availability, for example during which the device plans to initiate a transmit opportunity.