Importance

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Abstract

In a method for conflict resolution among remote hosts in a wireless network where remotes make bandwidth requests to the base station via uplink frames partitioned into one or more reservation minislots, a collision occurs where two or more remotes have transmitted a request in the same minislot. Each remote is characterized by a stack level, and only remotes with a stack level equal to 0 are permitted to transmit access request packets. Newly active remotes are allowed to join in with those remotes already having stack level 0 during any particular conflict resolution period by setting their stack levels to 0 and entering the request state. If the stack level of a remote is 0, the remote randomly picks a minislot for transmission of an access request. If the outcome is SUCCESS, and the queue at the remote is empty, the remote transmits the current packet after receiving a transmit permit and exits the request state. If the queue is not empty, then, after receiving a permit, the current packet is transmitted with a piggybacked reservation request for transmission of the next packet in the queue, continuing until the queue is empty. If the outcome of the reservation request was not SUCCESS, the remote participates in a random draw to determine whether to increment its stack level by 1 or leave it at 0. If the stack level of any remote is not 0, then in one embodiment if the outcome of the previous reservation request was COLLIDED, the remote increments its stack level by 1, otherwise decrementing it by 1. In an alternate embodiment, if the outcome of all the reservation requests during the previous cycle was COLLIDED for greater than or equal to some threshold, the remote increments its stack level by 1, otherwise decrementing it by 1. The number of reservation minislots available in any particular uplink frame may be dynamically changed based on the percentage of idle minislots and the total uplink queue length.

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First Claim