Multi-Link WLAN Backoff Synchronization for Fair Channel Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Single-link (SL) entities face a disadvantage in channel contention when deployed alongside multi-link (ML) entities in a WLAN, as the probability of obtaining a channel through contention is lower due to the ML entity's ability to perform channel access on multiple links, affecting fair communication.
Innovation Solution
The ML entity performs a backoff procedure only on its primary link, ensuring that the probability of obtaining a channel through contention on this link is equal to that of an SL entity, and synchronizes channel access across all links to maintain fairness and proper communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If an ML entity performs channel access on multiple links simultaneously, then the throughput rate is significantly improved, but the probability of obtaining a channel through contention becomes greater than that of an SL entity, causing unfairness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the channel access mechanism by introducing separate backoff counters for each link. The ML entity performs independent backoff procedures on each link rather than having a unified multi-link backoff mechanism. This segmentation ensures that each link contends for channels independently with equal probability, preventing the unfair advantage that would otherwise arise from simultaneous multi-link access.
2Device complexity
If an ML entity uses a unified backoff counter for all links, then the device complexity is reduced, but the synchronization of channel access across multiple links deteriorates, affecting fair communication
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by configuring different backoff counter settings for different links. Specifically, the primary link is configured with a backoff counter while secondary links may have different configurations. This allows each link to have tailored channel access parameters optimized for its specific role and conditions, improving synchronization and fairness without requiring complete uniformity across all links.
Data Source
AI summary
A ML entity performs a backoff procedure of the primary link based on the backoff counter of the primary link; and when a count value of the backoff counter is 0, the ML entity sends a first PPDU on each first link in K first links, where the K first links include the primary link and K−1 first nonprimary links, and the first nonprimary link is in an idle state in a first inter-frame space before a time point at which the count value of the backoff counter decreases to 0.