CN111133825A - Enhanced time sensitive network coordination for wireless transmissions - Google Patents

Abstract

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and apparatus related to wireless time sensitive network coordination. A device may determine a transmission schedule. The device may transmit a first data frame. The device may identify the second data frame. The device may send a measurement report.

Description

Enhanced time sensitive network coordination for wireless transmissions

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to systems, methods, and devices for wireless communications, and more particularly to enhanced time-sensitive network coordination for wireless communications.

Background

Wireless devices are becoming widely popular and are increasingly requesting access to wireless channels. The increasing density of wireless deployments requires increased network and spectrum availability.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example network environment, according to one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 depicts an illustrative transmission schedule for multiple access points in a wireless time-sensitive networking domain, according to one or more example embodiments of the disclosure.

Fig. 3 depicts an illustrative distributed time-sensitive coordination architecture in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4A depicts an illustrative timing diagram for scheduling data flows in an enhanced time-sensitive network in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4B depicts an illustrative timing diagram of management frame flow in an enhanced time-sensitive network in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating an enhanced time-sensitive network environment, according to one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6A illustrates a flow diagram of an illustrative process for enhanced time-sensitive networking coordination, according to one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6B illustrates a flow diagram of an illustrative process for enhanced time-sensitive networking coordination, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 illustrates a functional diagram of an example communication station that may be suitable for use as user equipment in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine on which any one of one or more techniques (e.g., methods) may be executed, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments described herein provide certain systems, methods, and devices for enhanced time-sensitive network coordination of wireless communications. The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in or substituted for those of others. Embodiments recited in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

Reliable and deterministic communication between devices may be required in some cases. One example may be Time Sensitive Networking (TSN). TSN applications may require very low and bounded transmission latency and require high availability, and may include a mix of traffic patterns and requirements, from synchronous data streaming (e.g., from sensors to controllers in a closed-loop control system), to asynchronous events (e.g., sensors detect anomalies in monitored processes and send reports immediately), to video streaming for remote asset monitoring, and background IT/office traffic. Many TSN applications may also require communication between devices across multiple links/hops (e.g., in mesh topologies), with ultra-low latency on the order of tens of microseconds.

Time-synchronized scheduled access modes for Wi-Fi may be enabled in existing and/or future frequency bands (e.g., 6-7GHz) as well as in controlled deployments where it may be feasible to dedicate a channel to time-sensitive operations.

The green field mode may refer to a mode in which: the device assumes that no legacy (legacy) (e.g., operating under the rules of the previous protocol) Stations (STAs) are using the same channel. Thus, a device operating in green light zone mode may operate under the following assumptions: all other STAs follow the same (e.g., most recent) protocol and no legacy STAs are contending for the same channel access. In some examples, STAs operating in the green zone mode may assume, at least, that any legacy STAs that may be present may be managed to operate in a separate channel and/or time. However, operation with multiple Access Points (APs) may experience interference, latency, and/or other performance issues. For example, an AP may not all know what other APs and STAs may be doing. Thus, it may be desirable to define green-zone Wi-Fi operation in the 6-7GHz band or another frequency band to enable time-synchronized scheduled access mode for multiple APs in the 6-7GHz band or other existing frequency bands (e.g., 2.4GHz, 5GHz) for future generations of Wi-Fi.

The IEEE802.11 family of wireless communication standards defines a number of wireless communication parameters and protocols. However, latency and reliability performance guarantees may be improved in some IEEE802.11 embodiments. For example, the IEEE802.11ac standard may improve peak user throughput, and the IEEE802.11ax standard may improve efficiency, but the additional ability to control user latency may allow other improvements. For example, time synchronization/scheduling operations may improve control over latency and reliability, which may be useful in supporting emerging time sensitive operations such as smart factories, professional audio/video, and mobile virtual reality.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems, methods, and devices for enhanced time-sensitive network coordination for wireless communications.

In one or more embodiments, network architectures and protocols can enable time-sensitive control and data channel coordination among multiple Access Points (APs).

In one or more embodiments, the network architecture can include a central entity, such as a wireless TSN controller (e.g., a controller), responsible for configuring and scheduling time-sensitive control and data operations among multiple APs. A Wireless Tsn (WTSN) management protocol may be defined for coordination among multiple APs (e.g., WTSN management clients) and controllers to enable admission control, joint scheduling, and network measurements.

In one or more embodiments, multiple APs may synchronize and align control and data transmissions to allow deterministic latency with high reliability for time sensitive applications on a shared time sensitive data channel while also allowing coexistence with non-time sensitive traffic that may be in the same network. Time sensitive applications may be prioritized over non-time sensitive applications, meaning that the transmission schedule may need to be updated to accommodate time sensitive requirements.

In one or more embodiments, enhanced time-sensitive network coordination may be employed for new frequency bands (e.g., 6-7GHz) in future Wi-Fi standards, where additional requirements for time synchronization and scheduling operations may be introduced. Enhanced time-sensitive network coordination may be used in managed Wi-Fi deployments (e.g., enterprise, industrial, managed home networks, etc.) where time-sensitive traffic may be directed to dedicated channels in existing as well as new bands.

In one or more embodiments, it may be assumed that a Wi-Fi network may be managed and that there are no unmanaged Wi-Fi STAs/networks nearby.

In one or more embodiments, it may be assumed that the AP and the STA may synchronize their clocks to a master reference time (e.g., the STA may synchronize to a beacon and/or may use a time synchronization protocol defined in the IEEE802.1 AS standard).

In one or more embodiments, it may be assumed that the AP and the STA may operate according to a time synchronized scheduling mode, which may also be applicable to a new frequency band (e.g., 6-7 GHz). For these new frequency bands, new access protocols and requirements may also apply.

In one or more embodiments, the controller may make scheduling decisions, collect measurements, and may interact with the AP over a backhaul (backhaul), which may be a Wi-Fi based wireless connection or a wired connection. Control messages from the controller may arrive at the STA using two or more propagation "hops" (e.g., controller to AP, AP to STA). The AP may exchange over-the-air control information with the STA, and such exchange may be coordinated among multiple APs to address potential interference.

In one or more embodiments, when the controller is implemented in the same hardware as the AP, communication with the STA may require only a single propagation hop to reach the STA.

In one or more embodiments, a framework may allow dual connectivity and multi-band operation in which a multi-band STA may associate with multiple APs to enable specific multi-band features, such as separation of data and control planes, in order to facilitate data traffic in the data plane and control traffic in the control plane (e.g., different frequency bands or sub-bands).

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced mechanism may enable direct and indirect connections between the controller and the STAs to manage time-sensitive traffic scheduling on one or more frequency bands. For example, time-sensitive traffic scheduling may use one frequency band, while data traffic may use another frequency band or channel (e.g., through a connection with the nearest AP).

In one or more embodiments, an Extended Service Set (ESS) wireless controller (e.g., controller) may operate in a particular frequency band or channel associated with an AP in the ESS.

In one or more embodiments, APs in the same ESS may operate in the same frequency band or another frequency band, the same channel or another channel, and/or each AP may have its own Basic Service Set (BSS).

In one or more embodiments, the controller may operate in a frequency band that may allow long coverage (e.g., may cover the entire area spanned by the STA). The APs may operate in frequency bands that may allow shorter coverage (e.g., small cells) and may be uniformly dispersed to enable blanket coverage of areas with specific frequency plans.

In one or more embodiments, the STAs may perform dual connectivity, one with the controller BSS and one with the best serving AP.

In one or more embodiments, the STA may enable multi-band separation of data and control planes over two connections by interacting with the controller with respect to control exchanges (which may involve configuration of operations on control plane bands), and may interact with the serving AP for the data plane.

In one or more embodiments, the controller may collect measurements directly from the STAs through the control interface and may provide scheduling information directly to the STAs through the control interface.

In one or more embodiments, the controller may also provide scheduling information to the serving AP over the backhaul or over the control plane interface.

In one or more embodiments, the STA and the AP may apply scheduling information for data plane transmissions, and the data plane may be on a frequency band connected with the serving AP.

In one or more embodiments, multi-hop transmissions may be used or replaced by direct interaction (e.g., direct controller-to-STA connection), and overall network efficiency may be improved.

The foregoing description is for the purpose of illustration and is not intended to be limiting. Many other examples, configurations, processes, etc., may exist, some of which are described in detail below. Example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example network environment, according to one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. Wireless network 100 may include one or more user devices 120 and one or more Access Points (APs) 102 that may communicate according to and in compliance with various communication standards and protocols, such as Wi-Fi, TSN, wireless USB, P2P, bluetooth, NFC, or any other communication standard. The user device(s) 120 may be non-stationary (e.g., not having a fixed location) mobile devices or may be stationary devices.

In some embodiments, user device 120 and AP102 (which may include AP 104 and AP106, for example) may include one or more computer systems similar to the functional diagram of fig. 7 and/or the example machine/system of fig. 8.

One or more illustrative user devices 120 and/or APs 102 may be operated by one or more users 108. It should be noted that any addressable unit may be a Station (STA). STAs may exhibit a number of different characteristics, each of which shapes their functionality. For example, a single addressable unit may be a portable STA, a quality-of-service (QoS) STA, a dependent STA, and a hidden STA at the same time. One or more of the illustrative user devices 120 and the AP102 may be STAs. One or more illustrative user devices 120 and/or APs 102 may operate as Personal Basic Service Set (PBSS) control point/access point (PCP/AP). User device(s) 120 (e.g., 124, 126, or 128) and/or AP102 may comprise any suitable processor-driven device, including but not limited to mobile devices or non-mobile (e.g., stationary) devices. For example, (one or moreUser device 120 and/or AP102 may include: user Equipment (UE), station (station), Access Point (AP), software enabled AP (software enabled AP), Personal Computer (PC), wearable wireless device (e.g., bracelet, watch, glasses, ring, etc.), desktop computer, mobile computer, laptop computer, ultrabook, etc.)^tmA computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld device, an internet of things (IoT) device, a sensor device, a robotic device, an actuator, a robotic arm, an industrial robotic device, a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), a security controller and monitoring device, a PDA device, a handheld PDA device, an onboard device, an offboard device, a hybrid device (e.g., combining cellular telephone functionality with PDA device functionality), a consumer device, an onboard device, an offboard device, a mobile or portable device, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a mobile telephone, a cellular telephone, a PCS device, a PDA device including a wireless communication device, a mobile or portable GPS device, a DVB device, a relatively small computing device, a non-desktop computer, a "lightweight life-sharing" (small, CSLL) device, Ultra Mobile Device (UMD), Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC), Mobile Internet Device (MID), "origami" device or computing device, Dynamic Composable Computing (DCC) enabled device, context aware device, video device, audio device, A/V device, set-top-box (STB), blu-ray disc (BD) player, BD recorder, Digital Video Disc (DVD) player, High Definition (HD) DVD player, DVD recorder, HD recorder, personal video recorder (personal video recorder, PVR), broadcast receiver, HD, video source, audio source, stereo, audio source tuner, broadcast receiver, radio sink, personal video recorder (PMP), Digital Video Camera (DVC), digital audioPlayers, speakers, audio receivers, audio amplifiers, gaming devices, data sources, data sinks, Digital Still Cameras (DSCs), media players, smart phones, televisions, music players, and the like. Other devices, including smart devices such as lights, climate controls, vehicle components, household components, appliances, and the like, may also be included in this list.

Any of user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128, 130, and 132) and AP102 may be configured to communicate with each other, wirelessly or by wire, via one or more communication networks 135 and/or 140. User device(s) 120 may also communicate peer-to-peer with each other or directly, with or without AP 102. Any of the communication networks 135 and/or 140 may include, but are not limited to, any one of a combination of different types of suitable communication networks, such as a broadcast network, a cable network, a public network (e.g., the internet), a private network, a wireless network, a cellular network, or any other suitable private and/or public network. Additionally, any of communication networks 135 and/or 140 may have any suitable communication range associated therewith and may include, for example, a global network (e.g., the internet), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Local Area Network (LAN), or a Personal Area Network (PAN). Further, any of the communication networks 135 and/or 140 may include any type of media upon which network traffic may be carried, including but not limited to coaxial cable, twisted pair, fiber optic, Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) media, microwave terrestrial transceivers, radio frequency communication media, white space communication media, ultra-high frequency communication media, satellite communication media, or any combination of these.

Any of user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128, 130, and 132) and AP102 may include one or more communication antennas. The one or more communication antennas may be any suitable type of antenna corresponding to the communication protocol used by user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128, 130, and 132) and AP 102. Some non-limiting examples of suitable communication antennas include Wi-Fi antennas, institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE 802.11) standards group compatible antennas, directional antennas, non-directional antennas, dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patch antennas, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, omni-directional antennas, quasi-omni antennas, and so forth. One or more communication antennas may be communicatively coupled to the radio to send and/or receive signals, such as to send and/or receive communication signals to and/or from user devices 120 and/or APs 102.

Any of user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128, 130, and 132) and AP102 may be configured to perform directional transmission and/or directional reception in connection with wireless communications in a wireless network. Any of user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128, 130, and 132) and AP102 may be configured to perform such directional transmission and/or reception with a set of multiple antenna arrays (e.g., DMG antenna arrays, etc.). Each of the multiple antenna arrays may be used for transmission and/or reception in a particular respective direction or range of directions. Any of user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128, 130, and 132) and AP102 may be configured to perform any given directional transmission toward one or more defined transmission sectors. Any of user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128, 130, and 132) and AP102 may be configured to perform any given directional reception from one or more defined reception sectors.

MIMO beamforming in wireless networks may be implemented using RF beamforming and/or digital beamforming. In some embodiments, in performing a given MIMO transmission, user device 120 and/or AP102 may be configured to perform MIMO beamforming using all or a subset of its one or more communication antennas.

Any of user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128, 130, and 132) and AP102 may include any suitable radios and/or transceivers to transmit and/or receive Radio Frequency (RF) signals in a bandwidth and/or channel corresponding to a communication protocol used by any of user device(s) 120 and AP102 to communicate with each other. The radio components may include hardware and/or software for modulating and/or demodulating communication signals according to a pre-established transmission protocol. The radio may also have hardware and/or software instructions for communicating via one or more communication standards and protocols (e.g., Wi-Fi, TSN, wireless USB, Wi-Fi P2P, bluetooth, NFC, or any other communication standard). In some example embodiments, the radio and communication antenna, in cooperation, may be configured to communicate via a 2.4GHz channel (e.g., 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ax), a 5GHz channel (e.g., 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax), or a 60GHz channel (e.g., 802.11ad, 802.11 ay). In some embodiments, non-Wi-Fi protocols may be used for communication between devices, such as bluetooth, dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) (e.g., IEEE802.11 af, IEEE 802.22), whitespace Frequency (e.g., white space), or other packetized radio communication. The radio components may include any known receiver and baseband suitable for communicating via a communication protocol. The radio components may also include a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA), an additional signal amplifier, an analog-to-digital (a/D) converter, one or more buffers, and a digital baseband.

When an AP (e.g., AP 102) establishes communication with one or more user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128, 130, and/or 132), AP102 may communicate in the downlink direction and user devices 120 may communicate with AP102 in the uplink direction by transmitting frames in either direction. User devices 120 may also communicate peer-to-peer with each other or directly with or without AP 102. The data frame may be preceded by one or more preambles, which may be part of one or more headers. These preambles may be used to allow a device (e.g., AP102 and/or user device 120) to detect a new incoming data frame from another device. The preamble may be a signal used in network communication to synchronize transmission timing between two or more devices (e.g., between an AP and a user equipment).

In one or more embodiments, referring to fig. 1, AP102 may communicate with user device 120. The user devices 120 may include one or more wireless devices (e.g., user devices 124, 128, 130) and one or more wireless TSN devices (e.g., user devices 126 and 132). The user equipment may access the channel according to Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol rules or any other access rules (e.g., Wi-Fi, bluetooth, NFC, etc.). It should be noted that reserving a dedicated TSN channel and controlling access thereto may also be applicable to cellular/3 GPP systems, such as LTE, 5G or any other wireless network. The wireless TSN device may also access the channel according to the same or modified protocol rules. However, AP102 may dedicate certain channels or sub-channels to TSN applications that may be needed by one or more wireless TSN devices (e.g., user devices 126 and 132), and may allocate other channels or sub-channels for non-TSN devices (e.g., user devices 124, 128, and 130).

In one or more embodiments, AP102 may also define one or more access rules associated with the dedicated channel. The channel may be dedicated to TSN transmission, TSN application, and TSN devices. For example, the user device 126 may access a dedicated TSN channel for TSN transmissions. TSN transmissions may include transmissions with very low transmission latency and high availability requirements. Additionally, TSN transmissions may include synchronized TSN data streams between sensors, actuators, controllers, robots in a closed-loop control system. TSN transmissions require reliable and deterministic communication. The channel may be accessed by the user device 126 for several TSN message streams and is not limited to only one TSN message stream. The TSN message flow may depend on the type of application messages being transmitted between AP102 and user device 126.

In one or more embodiments, the efficiency and feasibility of reserving multiple non-overlapping data channels for time-sensitive applications may be improved while frequency planning and channel management may be used to allow neighboring APs (e.g., AP 104 and AP 106) to operate in different channels. It may be desirable to limit the amount of resources reserved for time sensitive data by efficient channel reuse. If multiple APs (e.g., AP 104 and AP 106) share a dedicated channel for time-sensitive data transmissions, interference between the multiple transmissions may be reduced through enhanced coordination between the APs. For example, overlap and interference of control transmissions (e.g., beacons), downlink data transmissions, and uplink data transmissions may be reduced through enhanced coordination. Such enhanced coordination for multiple APs may enable more efficient channel usage while also meeting latency and reliability requirements for time sensitive applications. For example, if a control transmission is not properly received and interpreted, time-sensitive operations may not be properly scheduled and/or may interfere with other transmissions, possibly causing operation errors.

In one or more embodiments, the controller 110 (e.g., a wireless TSN controller) may facilitate enhanced coordination between multiple APs (e.g., AP 104 and AP 106). The controller 110 may be a central entity or another AP and may be responsible for configuring and scheduling time-sensitive control and data operations among the APs. Wireless Tsn (WTSN) management protocols may be used to facilitate enhanced coordination between APs, which in this scenario may be referred to as WTSN management clients. The controller 110 may enable device admission control (e.g., control of admission devices to join WTSNs), joint scheduling, network measurements, and other operations. The AP may be configured to comply with the WTSN protocol.

In one or more embodiments, the use of the controller 110 may facilitate AP synchronization and alignment for control and data transmissions to ensure latency with high reliability for time sensitive sensing on a shared time sensitive data channel while enabling coexistence with non-time sensitive traffic in the same network.

In one or more embodiments, the controller 110 and its coordination may be employed for new frequency bands (e.g., 6-7GHz) in future Wi-Fi standards, where additional requirements for time synchronization and scheduling operations may be employed. Such an application of the controller 110 may be used in a managed Wi-Fi deployment (e.g., enterprise, industrial, managed home network, etc.) where time-sensitive traffic may be directed to dedicated channels in existing bands as well as in new bands.

In one or more embodiments, it may be assumed that a Wi-Fi network may be managed and that there are no unmanaged Wi-Fi STAs/networks nearby.

In one or more embodiments, it may be assumed that the AP and the STA may synchronize their clocks to a master reference time (e.g., the STA may synchronize to a beacon and/or may use a time synchronization protocol defined in the IEEE802.1 AS standard).

In one or more embodiments, the controller 110 may include a WTSN management client 112 and a switch 114. The WTSN management client 112 may facilitate execution of the WTSN protocol. The switch 114 may allow different signals to be transmitted between the AP and the STAs (e.g., the motion controller and the virtual reality server may both send signals to STAs associated with different APs, and the switch 114 may allow control of such communications).

In one or more embodiments, it may be assumed that the AP and the STA may operate according to a time synchronized scheduling mode, which may also be applicable to a new frequency band (e.g., 6-7 GHz). New access protocols and requirements may also be proposed for this new frequency band.

In one or more embodiments, a WTSN domain may be defined as a collection of APs (e.g., AP 104 and AP 106) and STAs (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128, 130, and 132) that may share dedicated wireless resources and therefore may need to operate in close coordination at the level of control and time-sensitive data scheduling to ensure latency and reliability guarantees. Different APs in the same network may form different WTSN domains (e.g., AP 104 may form a first WTSN domain and AP106 may form a second WTSN domain).

In one or more embodiments, the AP 104 and the AP106 may communicate with the controller 110 via a WTSN management protocol. The WTSN management protocol may be implemented on a wired (e.g., ethernet) TSN infrastructure, which may provide TSN-level time synchronization accuracy and latency guarantees. The WTSN management protocol may also be performed using a wireless link (e.g., a wireless backhaul, which may include a Wi-Fi or WiGig link over one or more hops). The ethernet TSN interface may be replaced by a wireless interface (e.g., 802.11MAC and/or physical layer PHY). The operation of the second wireless interface may also be managed by the controller 110 to avoid interfering with the interface for communicating with time-sensitive user STAs (e.g., user devices 126 and 132). The use of the controller 110 may reduce the workload of the AP by facilitating coordination with other devices, which may be more resource intensive and time consuming if performed by the AP itself.

In one or more embodiments, the controller 110 may perform admission control and scheduling tasks. To complete the association process for a STA (e.g., user equipment 132) with a time-sensitive data stream, an AP (e.g., AP 104) may request admission from controller 110. For example, AP 104 may forward an admission control request frame for each STA to controller 110, or AP 104 may combine admission requests from multiple STAs into one or more admission requests to send to controller 110. The controller 110 may define which APs may be in the WTSN domain and may determine admission of new time-sensitive data flows based on, for example, available resources and user requirements. Controller 110 may create and/or update a transmission schedule, which may include time-sensitive operations and/or non-time-sensitive operations, and which may be provided to the requesting AP. The AP may be responsible for performing scheduling according to time-sensitive protocols defined, for example, at the 802.11MAC/PHY layer.

In one or more embodiments, the controller 110 can perform transmission schedule updates. The controller 110 may update the transmission schedule for time-sensitive data and may send the transmission schedule to the AP and/or STAs during network operation. Transmission schedule updates may be triggered by changes in wireless channel conditions at different APs and/or STAs within a common WTSN domain. The condition change may include increased interference, new user traffic requests, and other network and/or operational changes that may affect the WTSN domain.

In one or more embodiments, the controller 110 may collect measurement data from other devices in the WTSN domain. The measurement data may be collected from time-sensitive and/or non-time-sensitive devices. The controller 110 may maintain detailed network statistics such as network statistics related to latency, packet error rate, retransmissions, channel access delay, and the like. Network statistics may be collected via measurement reports sent from the AP and/or STAs. The controller 110 may use network statistics to proactively manage wireless channel usage to allow the target latency requirements to be met. For example, measurements may be used to determine potential channel congestion and trigger a change from the joint transmission scheduling mode to: in this mode, the AP may allocate the same time slot to multiple non-interfering STAs that may be utilizing spatial reuse capabilities.

In one or more embodiments, one or more of APs 102 may act as relay nodes for data frames transmitted from a source device (e.g., controller 110) to a destination device (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128, 130, 132). For example, the AP102 can be a relay device configured to transmit a TSN synchronized data stream from a wireless communication device to a PLC to perform one or more operations in an industrial setting.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive.

Fig. 2 depicts an illustrative transmission schedule 200 for multiple APs in a wireless TSN domain, according to one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

In one or more embodiments, one or more APs 202 (e.g., AP 204 and AP206) may be associated with one or more user devices 210 (e.g., user device 212 and user device 214). AP202 may communicate with user device 120 during a beacon interval 216 (e.g., a beacon period), which beacon interval 216 may be a time period (e.g., a 110x cycle time). Beacon interval 216 may be divided into time slots 218 (e.g., time slot 228, time slot 230, time slot 232, time slot 234, time slot 236) during which beacon, uplink, and downlink transmissions may occur. Some of the time slots 218 may not be allocated for transmission.

In one or more embodiments, the transmission schedule 200 may be a joint time-sensitive schedule defined by a controller (e.g., the controller 110 of fig. 1) for a WTSN domain. To avoid interference and improve the efficiency of control frame transmissions, the controller may configure AP202 to schedule beacon transmissions within the same period (e.g., beacon interval 216) with different transmission offsets.

In one or more embodiments, time sensitive data transmissions may be scheduled in non-overlapping time slots 218 to avoid interference.

In one or more embodiments, time-sensitive data transmissions may share one or more time slots, but may be separated in the frequency and/or code domain.

In one or more embodiments, detailed interference information between STAs may not be necessary to establish a joint (e.g., interference-free) schedule, but such information may be useful to enhance overall network capacity.

In one or more embodiments, a first beacon 220 may be transmitted from one of APs 202 (e.g., AP 204) during time slot 218 of beacon interval 216. A second beacon 222 may be transmitted from one of the APs 202 (e.g., AP206) during the same time slot 218 in which the first beacon 220 was transmitted in the beacon interval 216. However, the first beacon 220 may be transmitted after a first transmission offset 224, the first transmission offset 224 beginning at the beginning of the time slot 218 in which the first beacon 220 is transmitted, and the second beacon 222 may be transmitted after a second transmission offset 226, the second transmission offset 226 may begin at the beginning of the time slot 218 in which the second beacon 222 is transmitted, but the second transmission offset 226 may span beyond the first beacon 220 such that there is a time buffer between the first beacon 220 and the second beacon 222.

In one or more embodiments, the one or more transmissions may be uplink or downlink transmissions and may include data frames. Transmissions may be allocated for time sensitive devices (e.g., user device 214) and/or non-time sensitive devices (e.g., user device 212). Any combination of scheduled transmissions may be associated with any one of APs 202. For example, any combination of time slots 218 (e.g., time slot 228, time slot 230, time slot 232, time slot 234, time slot 236) may be allocated for uplink or downlink transmissions to/from time-sensitive and/or non-time-sensitive devices.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive.

Fig. 3 depicts an illustrative distributed time-sensitive coordination architecture 300 in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

In one or more embodiments, the network can include one or more controllers 302 (e.g., controller 304, controller 306), which can form a hierarchical management structure. The lowest level controller (e.g., controller 304) may be responsible for coordination within the first WTSN domain 308, and the next level WTSN controller (e.g., controller 306) may be responsible for coordination of multiple WTSN domains (e.g., first WTSN domain 308, second WTSN domain 310). When APs have their respective controllers, the controllers may exchange scheduling and/or other control information with each other.

In one or more embodiments, the level and/or granularity of coordination between WTSN domains (e.g., first WTSN domain 308, second WTSN domain 310) may decrease as the layers increase. The controllers (e.g., controller 304, controller 306) may communicate according to a WTSN management layer, and the controllers may be connected via wired or wireless links. Such a hierarchical management architecture may be useful in large Wi-Fi deployment scenarios (e.g., enterprises, industrial spaces, etc.) and may be used to manage operations on multiple unlicensed frequencies.

However, in one or more embodiments, it may not be feasible to implement a centrally located coordination architecture, but it may still be desirable to enable enhanced control of latency for time-sensitive applications (e.g., wireless virtual reality, wireless audio, and other applications). In such a scenario, coordination may be achieved through a distributed time-sensitive coordination architecture 300 that may use a coordination protocol.

In one or more embodiments, the coordination protocol may include neighbor AP time-sensitive operation discovery. The APs (e.g., AP312, AP 314) may include information in their respective beacons (e.g., first beacon 220 and second beacon 222 of fig. 2) that may indicate whether the APs support the TSN mode. The TSN element may be included in a beacon and/or other control frame to provide an indication that the AP may support the TSN mode. By scanning beacons from other devices, the AP may discover neighboring APs that may operate in TSN mode. The TSN mode information may include a dedicated channel for time sensitive data, time synchronization, and scheduling (e.g., reserved slot bitmap). Depending on the network deployment, an AP may not be in range of all other neighboring APs. In this case, STAs (e.g., STA316, STA 318, STA 320, STA 322) may be utilized to support discovery by other devices. One or more STAs may relay TSN mode information to a neighboring AP (e.g., STA 318 may inform AP 314 of TSN operations associated with AP 312). Communication of TSN mode information may be scheduled by an AP without interfering with, for example, time sensitive data transmissions.

In one or more embodiments, the coordination protocol may include time-sensitive scheduling adaptation. If no other TSN-capable APs are detected, the AP may begin TSN operation in the selected channel (e.g., the channel that detected the least amount of activity). If another TSN-capable AP is detected in the same area (e.g., directly or through a relay STA), the TSN-capable AP may need to ensure that it is synchronized with the existing AP (e.g., the AP may be synchronized with the master AP over multiple hops) and may identify a clear, non-overlapping channel in which to initiate TSN operations. If no other channels are available, an AP may define a joint transmission schedule to coexist with control transmissions (e.g., beacons) and time-sensitive data transmissions of another AP. Once the AP has defined the joint time-sensitive transmission schedule or has updated the existing transmission schedule, the AP may broadcast scheduling information within one or more beacons to enable the transmission schedule to be implemented between other neighboring APs. The transmission schedule may be valid after a predetermined future time to allow the schedule to be propagated and the device configured to implement the schedule. Because time-sensitive applications may have known traffic patterns, these traffic patterns may facilitate scheduling updates. For example, a schedule update may be made when the TSN application has no data to send.

In one or more embodiments, the coordination protocol may include distributed time-sensitive negotiations. The neighboring APs may implement a WTSN management layer (e.g., WTSN management client 112 of fig. 1) above the AP's MAC/PHY stack to enable time synchronization and explicit negotiation between APs to allow for fair utilization of dedicated time-sensitive channels. For example, a token-based protocol may be used to determine the proportion of resources (e.g., channel time) that each AP may be allowed to reserve resources. The amount of resources to be reserved may be defined based on the number of time-sensitive flows managed by each AP. A token redistribution algorithm may be used to adapt a number of available tokens for each AP to achieve a fair distribution of resources once a new time-sensitive flow is admitted by a neighboring AP.

In one or more embodiments, in the distributed time-sensitive coordination architecture 300, the WTSN management protocol may include a clustering protocol in which an AP may assume the role of "cluster head" (e.g., initialize the first AP of a cluster) and other APs may join or create other clusters. The decision to join a cluster or create a new cluster may be implementation specific. In addition, the size of the cluster may be limited to ensure enhanced performance. The cluster leader may be responsible for scheduling and coordinating transmissions within the cluster. Cluster leaders from neighboring clusters may be coordinated on behalf of cluster members according to a management protocol (e.g., as shown in fig. 4B).

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive.

Fig. 4A depicts an illustrative timing diagram of a scheduled data stream 400 in an enhanced TSN according to one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

In one or more embodiments, the AP 402 may communicate with a controller 404. The AP 402 may include a WTSN management client (e.g., the WTSN management client 112 of fig. 1), and the controller 404 may be a WTSN controller (e.g., the controller 110 of fig. 1).

In one or more embodiments, the AP 402 may send an admission request 406 to the controller 404. The admission request 406 may include an admission request for a STA associated with the AP (e.g., a STA admission request). The STA may be a time-sensitive device or a non-time-sensitive device.

In one or more embodiments, the controller 404 may send an admission response 408 to the AP 402. The admission response 408 may include a transmission Schedule, which may include a time-sensitive transmission Schedule (e.g., TS _ SP _ Schedule).

In one or more embodiments, the controller 404 may send a transmission schedule update 410 to the AP 402. The transmission schedule update may include one or more additional scheduled transmission time slots or changes to an existing transmission schedule. The AP 402 may send an acknowledgement 412 to the controller 404 to acknowledge receipt of the transmission schedule update 410.

In one or more embodiments, AP 402 may send measurement report 414 to controller 404. The measurement report 414 may include measurements regarding time sensitive devices associated with the AP 402.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive.

Fig. 4B depicts an illustrative timing diagram of a management frame stream 450 in an enhanced TSN according to one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

In one or more embodiments, the AP 452 can communicate with the AP 454. These communications may include management frame exchanges. For example, AP 452 and AP 454 may exchange TSN information through beacons.

In one or more embodiments, the AP 452 can send a first TSN information element 456 to the AP 454 that indicates the TSN capabilities of the AP 452. The AP 454 may transmit a second TSN information element 458 indicating the TSN capabilities of the AP 454.

In one or more embodiments, the AP 454 may initiate negotiation of time-sensitive data scheduling by sending a transmission Schedule Update Request 460 (e.g., TS _ SP _ Schedule _ Update _ Request) to the AP 452, which transmission Schedule Update Request 460 may include a number of resources requested based on a number of TS tokens available at the AP 454. The AP 452 may respond by sending a proposed new Schedule, such as a Schedule Update Response 462 (e.g., TS _ SP _ Schedule _ Update _ Response), to the AP 454. Once the AP 454 has received the schedule update response 462, the AP 454 may send a schedule acknowledgement 464 to the AP 452 confirming receipt of the schedule update response 462.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive.

Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating an enhanced time-sensitive network environment 500, according to one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

In one or more embodiments, AP502 and AP504 may exist in one or more WTSN domains. AP502 may communicate with STA506 and STA508, while AP504 may communicate with STA510 and STA 512. The controller 514 may operate within a particular frequency band/channel within one of the APs or each of the APs (e.g., AP502, AP504) in the ESS or may operate outside the AP.

In one or more embodiments, APs (e.g., AP502, AP504) in the same ESS may operate in the same frequency band or in another frequency band, in the same channel or in another channel, and each may have its own BSS. The controller 514 may operate in a frequency band that allows long coverage (e.g., covering the entire area in which the STA is located). AP502 and AP504 may operate in frequency bands that allow for shorter coverage (e.g., small cells) and may be uniformly dispersed to allow for blanket coverage of areas with a particular frequency plan.

In one or more embodiments, STAs (e.g., STA506, STA508, STA510, STA 512) may use dual connectivity, one with the BSS of controller 514 and another with the best serving AP (e.g., AP502, AP 504). For example, the STAs 508 may be time-sensitive devices that communicate directly with the controller 514 via a channel 516, which channel 516 may be wireless or wired. The STA506 may be a non-time sensitive device or a legacy device (e.g., a device that does not have multi-band capability to communicate with the controller), which may communicate with the controller 514 indirectly via the AP502, and the AP502 may communicate with the controller 514 via a channel 518, which channel 518 may be wireless or wired. STA510 may be a non-time sensitive device that communicates indirectly with controller 514 via AP504, and AP504 may communicate with controller 514 via channel 520, which channel 520 may be wireless or wired. STA512 may be a time-sensitive device that communicates directly with controller 514 via a channel 522, which channel 522 may be wireless or wired.

It may be desirable to avoid multiple propagation hops between the controller and the STAs in the WTSN domain. It may also be desirable for the AP to independently exchange over-the-air control information with the STAs, but coordination between APs may be useful because these independent exchanges may cause interference.

In one or more embodiments, a dual connectivity framework may be used for communication between devices in the WTSN domain. For example, in multi-band operation, a multi-band STA may be associated with multiple APs and may implement multi-band features with separate data and control planes. Data traffic may occur on the data plane and control traffic may occur on the control plane.

In one or more embodiments, a non-time sensitive device (e.g., STA 506) may communicate with controller 514. It may be desirable to enable communication with the controller 514 even if the device does not have time sensitive requirements.

In one or more embodiments, STAs (e.g., STA506, STA508, STA510, STA 512) may achieve multi-band separation of the data plane and the control plane over two connections of a dual connection by interacting with the controller 514 for control exchanges that may involve configuring operations on the control plane. Additionally, the STA may interact with the APs (e.g., AP502, AP504) for data transmission on the data plane. For example, channel 516, channel 518, channel 520, and/or channel 522 may each include two planes in one or more frequency bands, one plane for data transmission and one plane for control transmission. In addition, channel 516, channel 518, channel 520, and channel 522 may serve as control channels for control transmissions, while channel 524, channel 526, channel 528, and channel 530 may serve as data channels for data transmissions in one or more frequency bands.

In one or more embodiments, channel 516 and channel 518 may be implemented in a single logical/physical control channel that may be shared by all STAs (e.g., STA506, STA508, STA510, STA 512). For example, channel 516 and channel 518 may be implemented in a single channel within the same frequency band. As such, the data plane and the control plane may be implemented in the same logical/physical channel facilitated by the control plane interface 501 and the data plane interface 507 of the controller 514.

In one or more embodiments, some data transmissions may be multiplexed with control information in a control channel (e.g., channel 516, channel 522).

In one or more embodiments, the controller 514 may collect measurements directly from STAs (e.g., STA506, STA508, STA510, STA 512) through a control plane (e.g., control interface) and may provide scheduling information directly to the STAs through the control plane. For example, rather than sending control signals to an AP (e.g., AP502 and/or AP504) for delivery to a STA, controller 514 may bypass the AP and send control signals directly to the STA, thereby eliminating propagation hops that may occur when control signals are sent through the AP. The controller 514 may send control signals to the STA508 via the channel 516 and may send control signals to the STA512 via the channel 522.

In one or more embodiments, controller 514 can provide transmission scheduling information to AP502 and/or AP504 over a backhaul or over a control plane. In this manner, even if controller 514 and STAs associated with AP502 and/or AP504 communicate wirelessly (e.g., via channel 516 and/or channel 522), controller 514 may use a wireless connection with AP502 and/or AP504 or may use a wired backhaul (e.g., channel 518 and/or channel 520 may be a wired backhaul or a wireless connection).

In one or more embodiments, the STAs (e.g., STA506, STA508, STA510, STA 512) and the APs (e.g., AP502 and/or AP504) may apply the scheduling information provided by controller 514 for data plane transmissions. The data plane may be on a frequency band connected with the AP.

In one or more embodiments, the controller 514 may include a control plane interface 501 that may have a large coverage range (e.g., 2.4GHz, 900MHz, or other frequency bands that may be more advantageous for longer range communications). The control plane interface 501 may be used to facilitate the exchange of control information between the controller 514 and STAs (e.g., STA506, STA508, STA510, STA 512) in the ESS. For example, control frames may be sent over channel 516 and/or channel 522, which may include one or more control planes. For example, the STA508 may have a control plane interface 503 to facilitate communication of control frames over the control plane of the channel 516. STA512 may have a control plane interface 505 to facilitate communication of control frames over the control plane of channel 522.

Communication between the controller 514 and the AP502 and/or the AP504 in the ESS may be conducted using a backhaul (e.g., channel 518 and/or channel 520 may comprise ethernet, ethernet TSN, multimedia over coaxial cable, etc.), and/or a control plane may be used to facilitate communication between the controller 514 and the AP502 and/or the AP504 (e.g., channel 518 and/or 520 may comprise a control plane). Control information sent over the control plane may include network discovery, synchronization, device association/authentication, admission control, scheduling information, and other control data. AP502 may have a control plane interface 509 to facilitate communication of control frames. AP504 may have a control plane interface 511 to facilitate communication of control frames.

In one or more embodiments, the controller 514 can have a data plane interface 507, and the data plane interface 507 can be used for data plane communication with other APs through a backhaul. The data plane interface 507 may operate in one or more frequency bands. For example, channel 518 and/or channel 520 may be part of a backhaul over which controller 514 may communicate with AP502 and/or AP504 via a data plane. AP502 may have a data plane interface 517 to facilitate communication of data frames with STAs 508 over a channel 524, which channel 524 may include a data plane. The STAs 508 may include a data plane interface 513 to facilitate data communication. The AP504 may have a data plane interface 519 to facilitate communication of data frames with the STAs 512 over a channel 528, which channel 528 may include a data plane. The STA512 may include a data plane interface 515 to facilitate data communication. The AP502 may transmit data and/or control frames to the STAs 506 over a channel 526, which channel 526 may include a data and/or control plane. AP504 may transmit data and/or control frames to STA510 over channel 530, which channel 530 may include a data and/or control plane.

In one or more embodiments, a control plane interface may be used to collect measurements from STAs and manage interference and coordination of data channel allocation/planning among multiple APs. For example, controller 514 may use control plane interface 501 (e.g., including channel 516 and/or channel 522) to transmit control frames to STAs. The control frames may allow coordination at AP502 and/or AP504 to mitigate interference and facilitate data transmission.

In one or more embodiments, a STA may have two communication interfaces, one dedicated to control plane communications and one dedicated to data plane communications. For example, channel 516 and/or channel 522 may be included in the control plane and channel 518 and/or channel 520 may be included in the data plane.

In one or more embodiments, a STA may have only one configurable interface that may be used for both control and data communications. For example, the control plane interface 503 and the data plane interface 513 of the STA508 may be a single interface capable of communicating in separate channels with the control plane and the data plane or with the control plane and the data plane over a common channel.

In one or more embodiments, the controller 514 can schedule all control and feedback (e.g., reporting) information exchanges in the control channel in a periodic or deterministic pattern.

In one or more embodiments, controller 514 can execute a central scheduler for all data plane communications in each data channel (e.g., channel 524, channel 526, channel 528, and/or channel 530). The schedule may be communicated to each AP (e.g., AP502 and AP 504). The AP may perform scheduling locally (e.g., by enabling trigger-based multi-user transmission). Controller 514 may coordinate all control and data transmissions to avoid collisions and interference.

In one or more embodiments, the wired backhaul may be replaced with a wireless backhaul. For example, channel 518 and/or channel 520 may be wireless connections. Control information may be exchanged over a control plane interface, and particular AP-related control information may be exchanged over a wireless backhaul that may include channel 518 and/or channel 520.

In one or more embodiments, a dedicated control beacon (not shown) may be transmitted by the controller 514. The dedicated control beacon may be a modified beacon (e.g., modified according to another beacon defined in the IEEE802.11 family of standards) and may include information elements to advertise the availability of the dedicated BSS and the corresponding channel for exchange of control information.

In one or more embodiments, the dedicated control beacon may include a control Basic Service Set Identifier (BSSID) field, a control information mode, and a control channel medium access configuration. The control BSSID field may indicate that control BSS capability is supported. The control information mode may indicate which communication mode may be used for the exchange of control information. The control information mode may include a broadcast mode, a request mode, and/or a scheduling mode. Depending on the configuration of the controller 514, multiple communication modes may be used simultaneously. The broadcast mode may include periodic advertisements (e.g., the controller 514 periodically broadcasts control information). In the request mode, the STA may request a control information update on a dedicated control channel (e.g., channel 516 and/or channel 522). In the scheduling mode, the controller 514 may provide scheduling of dedicated control information for a single STA (e.g., unicast transmission) or for a group of STAs (e.g., multicast transmission).

In one or more embodiments, the control channel medium access configuration may include parameters for configuring the controller 514 or a controller in another AP (e.g., AP502 or AP504) and how the STAs may access the control channel (e.g., channel 516 and/or channel 522). For example, contention-based Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) parameters and associated parameters for control channels may be included. In addition, scheduled or trigger-based access (e.g., time division or orthogonal frequency/code division multiple access-based) parameters may be included.

In one or more embodiments, the dedicated BSS control channel beacon may be transmitted from controller 514 to AP502 and/or AP504, or by a controller implemented by AP502 or AP 504. The BSS control information element may be included in a conventional beacon frame (e.g., the first beacon 220 or the second beacon 222 of fig. 2) transmitted from an AP lacking controller functionality. Conventional beacon frames may be transmitted within the ESS to advertise the availability of the dedicated control channel.

In one or more embodiments, a control channel association procedure may be implemented. The STA may perform a legacy association procedure through a conventional AP and may discover a dedicated control BSS through passive scanning on a control channel or as part of the association procedure. For example, STA506, STA508, STA510, and/or STA512 may establish an association with AP502 and/or AP504 using a legacy association procedure.

In one or more embodiments, the STA may include a capability information element to indicate the capability to use the dedicated BSS control channel as part of the association procedure. STA capabilities (e.g., capability information elements) may be forwarded to controller 514 by an associated AP (e.g., AP502 or AP504) via a backhaul (e.g., via channel 518 and/or channel 520).

In one or more embodiments, a simplified control BSS association request may be sent by the STA in a control channel to indicate the STA's ability to use the control channel to receive information directly from the controller 514 (e.g., the STA508 may send a control BSS association request to the controller 514 via the channel 516). The association process may include an association request to the controller 514 followed by an association response from the controller 514 and may include other configuration parameters to enable particular control channel operations (e.g., transmission scheduling). The simplified association process using the control channel may take advantage of security features already configured in conventional association processes, thereby avoiding the need for a large amount of additional security overhead.

In one or more embodiments, other frame types may be modified for exchange in the control channel, including admission control frames, measurement request/response frames, scheduling/trigger frames, and other types of frames.

In one or more embodiments, enhanced time-sensitive network coordination may be implemented in a next generation standard, such as another version of IEEE802.11ax, and enhancements to IEEE802.11ax for the 6GHz band.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive.

Fig. 6A illustrates a flow diagram of an illustrative process 600 for enhanced time-sensitive networking coordination, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

At block 602, one or more processors of a device (e.g., AP 104, AP106 of fig. 1) may determine a transmission schedule. The transmission schedule may be received from a controller device (e.g., controller 110 of fig. 1) over a control plane interface. The controller device may be within the AP or may operate as a separate device that controls one or more APs in the ESS. The transmission schedule may include transmission times of time-sensitive and/or non-time-sensitive devices associated with the AP and one or more other APs that may be associated with the controller. The transmission time of a time-sensitive device may support time-sensitive operations, while the transmission time of a non-time-sensitive device may support non-time-sensitive operations. Time-sensitive operations may be prioritized over non-time-sensitive operations (e.g., when a time-sensitive transmission is needed, it may be scheduled before the non-time-sensitive transmission).

At block 604, the one or more processors of the device may cause the device to transmit a first data frame. The first data frame may be transmitted to the STA according to a transmission schedule and may be transmitted through a data plane interface. The control plane interface may be a separate channel/band from the data plane interface, or the control plane interface and the data plane interface may be within the same physical channel. The data frame may be distinguished from the control frame. For example, control frames can include frames like beacons, trigger frames, measurement requests/reports, and other control/instruction frames that can facilitate transmission of data frames, while data frames can include data that is viewable by a device user (e.g., data from higher layers than the control frames). The first data frame may be a downlink transmission.

At block 606, the one or more processors of the device may identify a second data frame. The second data frame may be received over the data plane interface according to a transmission schedule. The second data frame may be an uplink transmission.

At block 608, the one or more processors of the device may cause the device to send a measurement report to the controller device over the control plane interface. The measurement report may include measurements on time sensitive devices associated with the AP. The measurement report may include information that may allow the controller to use network statistics to proactively manage wireless channel usage to allow the target latency requirement to be met.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive.

Fig. 6B illustrates a flow diagram of an illustrative process 650 for enhanced time-sensitive networking coordination, according to one or more example embodiments of the disclosure.

At block 652, one or more processors of a device (e.g., the controller 110 of fig. 1) may determine an admission request. The admission request may be received from a STA (e.g., user equipment 120) or an AP (e.g., AP 102), and may be received over a control plane interface.

At block 654, the one or more processors of the apparatus may cause the apparatus to transmit an admission response. An admission response may be sent to the device that sent the admission request. In one example, an admission request may be sent from a STA to an associated AP, and the AP may send the admission request to the device on behalf of the STA. In another example, the STA may send an admission request directly to the device. Similarly, the admission response may be sent to the STA via the AP forwarding the admission request, or may be sent directly to the STA.

At block 656, the one or more processors of the device may determine a measurement report. The measurement report may be received from the device sending the admission request over a control plane interface. The measurement report may include measurements on time sensitive devices associated with the AP. The measurement report may include information that may allow the controller to use network statistics to proactively manage wireless channel usage to allow the target latency requirement to be met.

At block 658, the one or more processors of the device may cause the device to transmit the data frame. The data frame may be transmitted to the device that sent the admission request. The data frame may be sent over a data plane interface. The data plane interface may be on a different channel/band than the control plane interface or may be in the same physical channel as the control plane interface.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive.

Fig. 7 illustrates a functional diagram of an exemplary communication station 700, according to some embodiments. In one embodiment, fig. 7 illustrates a functional block diagram of a communication station that may be suitable for use as AP102 (fig. 1) or user equipment 120 (fig. 1) in accordance with some embodiments. Communication station 700 may also be suitable for use as a handset, mobile device, cellular telephone, smartphone, tablet, netbook, wireless terminal, laptop computer, wearable computer device, femtocell, High Data Rate (HDR) subscriber station, access point, access terminal, or other Personal Communication System (PCS) device.

Communication station 700 may include communication circuitry 702 and a transceiver 710 for transmitting and receiving signals to and from other communication stations using one or more antennas 701. The communication circuitry 702 may include circuitry to: such circuitry may be operable for physical layer (PHY) communications and/or Medium Access Control (MAC) communications to control access to the wireless medium, and/or any other communication layers for transmitting and receiving signals. Communication station 700 may also include processing circuitry 706 and memory 708 arranged to perform the operations described herein. In some embodiments, the communication circuitry 702 and the processing circuitry 706 may be configured to perform the operations detailed in fig. 2, 3, 4A, 4B, 5, 6A, and 6B.

According to some embodiments, the communication circuitry 702 may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium and configure a frame or packet to communicate over the wireless medium. The communication circuitry 702 may be arranged to transmit and receive signals (it being understood that in some embodiments signals may be transmitted and received simultaneously). The communication circuitry 702 may also include circuitry for modulation/demodulation, up/down conversion, filtering, amplification, and so forth. In some embodiments, processing circuitry 706 of communication station 700 may comprise one or more processors. In other embodiments, two or more antennas 701 may be coupled to the communication circuitry 702 arranged to transmit and receive signals. Memory 708 may store information for configuring processing circuit 706 to perform operations for configuring and sending message frames and performing various operations described herein. Memory 708 may include any type of memory for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer), including non-transitory memory. For example, memory 708 may include a computer-readable storage device, a read-only memory (ROM), a random-access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk storage medium, an optical storage medium, a flash memory device, and other storage devices and media.

In some embodiments, the communication station 700 may be part of a portable wireless communication device, such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, a smartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), a wearable computer device, or another device that may receive and/or transmit information wirelessly.

In some embodiments, communication station 700 may include one or more antennas 701. Antennas 701 may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some embodiments, instead of two or more antennas, a single antenna with multiple apertures may be used. In these embodiments, each aperture may be considered a separate antenna. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectively separated to obtain spatial diversity and may result in different channel characteristics between each antenna and the antennas of the transmitting station.

In some embodiments, communication station 700 may include one or more of the following: a keyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multiple antennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, speakers, and other mobile device elements. The display may be an LCD screen including a touch screen.

Although communication station 700 is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, two or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations of software-configured elements, such as processing elements including Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, the functional elements of communication station 700 may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

Some embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware, and software. Other embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storage device may include any non-transitory memory mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, computer-readable storage media may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, and other storage devices and media. In some embodiments, communication station 700 may include one or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device memory.

Fig. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a machine 800 or system on which any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methods) discussed herein may be executed. In other embodiments, the machine 800 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine 800 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a client machine, or both in server-client network environments. In an example, the machine 800 may operate as a peer-to-peer machine in a peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environment. The machine 800 may be a Personal Computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a wearable computer device, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine (e.g., a base station). Additionally, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), or other computer cluster configurations.

Examples as described herein may include or may operate on logic or several components, modules, or mechanisms. A module is a tangible entity (e.g., hardware) capable, when operated, of performing specified operations. The modules include hardware. In an example, the hardware may be specifically configured to perform certain operations (e.g., hardwired). In another example, the hardware may include configurable execution units (e.g., transistors, circuits, etc.) and a computer-readable medium containing instructions that configure the execution units to perform particular operations when in operation. This configuration may occur under the direction of an execution unit or loading mechanism. Thus, when the device is in operation, the execution unit is communicatively coupled to the computer-readable medium. In this example, an execution unit may be a member of more than one module. For example, in operation, an execution unit may be configured by a first set of instructions to implement a first module at one point in time and reconfigured by a second set of instructions to implement a second module at a second point in time.

Machine (e.g., computer system) 800 may include a hardware processor 802 (e.g., a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination of these), a main memory 804 and a static memory 806, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interconnection link (e.g., bus) 808. The machine 800 may also include a power management device 832, a graphical display device 810, an alphanumeric input device 812 (e.g., a keyboard), and a User Interface (UI) navigation device 814 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the graphical display device 810, the alphanumeric input device 812, and the UI navigation device 814 may be touch screen displays. The machine 800 may also include a storage device (e.g., drive unit) 816, a signal generation device 818 (e.g., a speaker), an enhanced network management device 819, a network interface device/transceiver 820 coupled to the antenna(s) 830, and one or more sensors 828, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) sensor, compass, accelerometer, or other sensor. The machine 800 may include an output controller 834, such as a serial (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB)), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., Infrared (IR), Near Field Communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate with or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, card reader, etc.).

The storage device 816 may include a machine-readable medium 822 on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 824 (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions 824 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 804, within static memory 806, or within the hardware processor 802 during execution thereof by the machine 800. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 802, the main memory 804, the static memory 806, or the storage device 816 may constitute machine-readable media.

The enhanced network management device 819 may implement or perform any of the operations and processes (e.g., processes 600 and 650) described and illustrated above.

The enhanced network management device 819 may determine a transmission schedule received from the controller device over the control plane interface that includes a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations.

The enhanced network management device 819 may cause the first data frame to be sent over the data plane interface according to a transmission schedule.

The enhanced network management device 819 may identify a second data frame received over the data plane interface according to a transmission schedule.

The enhanced network management device 819 may cause measurement reports to be sent to the controller device over the control plane interface.

The enhanced network management device 819 may cause a beacon frame to be sent over the control plane interface according to the transmission schedule, the beacon frame indicating that the device supports time-sensitive operations, wherein the second data frame is received from the time-sensitive device over the data plane interface according to the transmission schedule.

The enhanced network management device 819 may identify a third data frame received from the controller device over the data plane interface.

The enhanced network management device 819 may cause an admission request to be sent to a controller device on behalf of a time-sensitive device.

The enhanced network management device 819 may determine an admission request received from a first device over a control plane interface.

The enhanced network management device 819 may cause an admission response to be sent to the first device over the control plane interface, the admission response including a transmission schedule indicating a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations.

The enhanced network management device 819 may determine a measurement report received from the first device over the control plane interface.

The enhanced network management device 819 may cause data frames to be sent to the first device over the data plane interface.

The enhanced network management device 819 may determine an updated transmission schedule based on the measurement reports and may cause the updated transmission schedule to be sent to the first device over the control plane interface.

It is to be understood that the above are only a subset of the functions that the enhanced network management device 819 may be configured to perform, and that other functions included throughout this disclosure may also be performed by the enhanced network management device 819.

While the machine-readable medium 822 is illustrated as a single medium, the term "machine-readable medium" can include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) configured to store the one or more instructions 824.

Various embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part in software and/or firmware. Such software and/or firmware may take the form of instructions contained in or on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. Which may then be read and executed by one or more processors to enable performance of the operations described herein. The instructions may take any suitable form, such as but not limited to source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, and the like. Such computer-readable media can include any tangible, non-transitory medium for storing information in one or more computer-readable forms, such as, but not limited to, Read Only Memory (ROM); random Access Memory (RAM); a magnetic disk storage medium; an optical storage medium; flash memory, and so on.

The term "machine-readable medium" may include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 800 and that cause the machine 800 to perform any one or more of the techniques of this disclosure or that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structures used by or associated with such instructions. Non-limiting examples of machine-readable media may include solid-state memory, as well as optical and magnetic media. In an example, the large-scale machine-readable medium comprises a machine-readable medium in which a plurality of particles have a static mass. Specific examples of a large-scale machine-readable medium may include non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM)), or electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

The instructions 824 may also be transmitted or received over a communication network 826 using a transmission medium via the network interface device/transceiver 820 utilizing any one of a number of transmission protocols (e.g., frame relay, Internet Protocol (IP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communication networks may include a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the internet), a mobile telephone network (e.g., a cellular network), a Plain Old Telephone (POTS) network, a wireless data network (e.g., referred to as a "local area network"), a wireless data network (e.g., a "POTS" network, a "cellular network, a" network

Is known as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards, referred to as IEEE

IEEE 802.16 family of standards), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards, and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others. In an example, the network interface device/transceiver 820 may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., ethernet, coaxial, or telephone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communication network 826. In an example, the network interface device/transceiver 820 may include multiple antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-input multiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), or multiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. The term "transmission medium" shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 800, and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible medium to facilitate communication of such software. The operations and processes described and illustrated above (e.g., process 600 of fig. 6A and/or process 650 of fig. 6B) may be implemented or performed in any suitable order as desired in various implementations. Further, in some implementations, at least a portion of the operations may be performed in parallel. Moreover, in some implementations, fewer or more operations than described may be performed.

The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. As used herein, the terms "computing device," "user device," "communication station," "handheld device," "mobile device," "wireless device," and "user equipment" (UE) refer to a wireless communication device, such as a cellular telephone, smartphone, tablet, netbook, wireless terminal, laptop computer, femtocell, High Data Rate (HDR) subscriber station, access point, printer, point-of-sale device, access terminal, or other Personal Communication System (PCS) device. The device may be mobile or stationary.

As used within this document, the term "communication" is intended to include sending, or receiving, or both. This may be particularly useful in the claims when describing the organization of data transmitted by one device and received by another device, but infringement of the claims requires the functionality of only one of these devices. Similarly, when only the functionality of one of the two devices is claimed, the bidirectional exchange of data between the two devices (both devices transmitting and receiving during the exchange) may be described as "communicating. The term "communicating" as used herein with respect to wireless communication signals includes transmitting wireless communication signals and/or receiving wireless communication signals. For example, a wireless communication unit capable of communicating wireless communication signals may include a wireless transmitter to transmit wireless communication signals to at least one other wireless communication unit, and/or a wireless communication receiver to receive wireless communication signals from at least one other wireless communication unit.

As used herein, unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinal adjectives "first", "second", "third", etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate that different instances of like objects are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

The term "access point" (AP) as used herein may be a fixed station. An access point may also be referred to as an access node, a base station, or some other similar terminology known in the art. An access terminal may also be referred to as a mobile station, User Equipment (UE), a wireless communication device, or some other similar terminology known in the art. Embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to wireless networks some embodiments may relate to wireless networks operating according to one of the IEEE802.11 standards.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with a variety of devices and systems, such as, for example, Personal Computers (PCs), desktop computers, mobile computers, laptop computers, notebook computers, tablet computers, server computers, handheld devices, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) devices, handheld PDA devices, onboard devices, offboard devices, hybrid devices, onboard devices, offboard devices, mobile or portable devices, consumer devices, non-mobile or non-portable devices, wireless communication stations, wireless communication devices, wireless Access Points (APs), wired or wireless routers, wired or wireless modems, video devices, audio-video (a/V) devices, wired or wireless networks, wireless area networks, wireless video area networks (wireless video area networks, WVAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Wireless LAN (WLAN), Personal Area Network (PAN), Wireless PAN (WPAN), and the like.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with the following systems or devices: one-way and/or two-way radio communication systems, cellular radiotelephone communication systems, mobile telephones, cellular telephones, radiotelephones, Personal Communication Systems (PCS) devices, PDA devices including wireless communication devices, mobile or portable Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, devices including GPS receivers or transceivers or chips, devices including RFID elements or chips, Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) transceivers or devices, Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) transceivers or devices, Multiple Input Single Output (MISO) transceivers or devices, Single Input Single Output (SISO) transceivers or devices, digital video broadcasting systems (DVB) or digital video broadcasting devices having one or more internal and/or external antennas, a multi-standard radio device or system, a wired or wireless handheld device (e.g., a smart phone, a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) device, etc.).

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one or more types of wireless communication signals and/or systems that conform to one or more wireless communication protocols, e.g., Radio Frequency (RF)Infrared (IR), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal FDM (orthogonal FDM), time-division multiplexing (TDM), time-division multiplexing (time-division multiplexing, TDMA), extended TDMA (extended TDMA, E-TDMA), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), extended GPRS, multiple access (code-division multiple access, CDMA), wideband CDMA (wireless CDMA, WCDMA), CDMA 2000, CDMA, multi-carrier modulation (MDM), discrete multi-tone (discrete multi-tone, DMT),

global Positioning System (GPS), Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Zigbee, ultra-wideband (UWB), global system for mobile communications (GSM), 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, fifth generation (5G) mobile network, 3GPP, Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE advanced, enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), and so on. Other embodiments may be used in various other devices, systems, and/or networks.

Example 1, the apparatus includes a memory and processing circuitry configured to: determining a transmission schedule received from a controller device over a control plane interface, the transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmission of (govern) a plurality of devices of an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the device; causing a first data frame to be transmitted over a data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; identifying a second data frame received through the data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; and causing a measurement report to be sent to the controller device over the control plane interface.

Example 2 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the transmission schedule further includes a third transmission time at which the apparatus is to transmit at least one of beacons over the control plane interface.

Example 3 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to cause a beacon frame to be transmitted over the control plane interface according to the transmission schedule, the beacon frame indicating that the apparatus supports the time-sensitive operation, wherein the second data frame is received from a time-sensitive apparatus over the data plane interface according to the transmission schedule.

Example 4 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is a separate interface from the data plane interface.

Example 5 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

Example 6 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the apparatus is a first access point, and wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to cause transmission of a frame to a second access point of the plurality of apparatuses, the frame including an indication of the transmission schedule.

Example 7 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to cause an admission request to be sent to the controller device on behalf of a time-sensitive device.

Example 8 may include a device as described in example 1 and/or some other example herein, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals.

Example 9 may include the apparatus of example 8 and/or some other example herein, further comprising one or more antennas coupled with the transceiver.

Example 10 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of operations comprising: determining, at a controller device, an admission request received from a first device over a control plane interface; causing an admission response to be sent to the first device over the control plane interface, the admission response including a transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices of an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the first device; determining a measurement report received from the first device over the control plane interface; and causing transmission of a data frame to the first device over a data plane interface.

Example 11 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first device is an access point, and wherein the admission request is sent by the access point on behalf of a station device.

Example 12 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first device is a station device, and wherein the operations further comprise causing frames to be transmitted to the station device in the control plane interface.

Example 13 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is a different plane than the data plane interface.

Example 14 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

Example 15 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the operations further comprise: determining an updated transmission schedule based on the measurement report; and causing the updated transmission schedule to be sent to the first device over the control plane interface.

Example 16 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first device is an access point, and wherein the measurement report is provided by a station device associated with the access point.

Example 17 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first device is a station device associated with an access point, and wherein the access point is associated with the controller device.

Example 18 may include a method comprising: identifying, by one or more processors of a first device, a transmission schedule received from a second device over a control plane interface, the transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices of an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the first device; causing, by the one or more processors, a first data frame to be transmitted according to the transmission schedule over a data plane interface; identifying, by the one or more processors, a second data frame received over the data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; and causing, by the one or more processors, a measurement report to be sent to the second device over the control plane interface.

Example 19 may include the method of example 18 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is a separate interface from the data plane interface.

Example 20 may include the method of example 18 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

Example 21 may include the method of example 18 and/or some other example herein, further comprising identifying a control frame received from the second device over the control plane interface.

Example 22 may include the method of example 18 and/or some other example herein, wherein the second device is a controller device, the method further comprising causing transmission of an admission request to the controller device.

Example 23 may include the method of example 18 and/or some other example herein, wherein the second device is an access point of the plurality of devices, wherein the access point is associated with a controller device, and the method further comprises causing transmission of an admission request associated with the controller device to the second device.

Example 24 may include the method of example 18 and/or some other example herein, further comprising determining an updated transmission schedule received from the controller device.

Example 25 may include the method of example 18 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is in a longer range channel than the data plane interface.

Example 26 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing a method as claimed in any of examples 18-25.

Example 27 may include a system comprising at least one memory device with programmed instructions that, in response to execution, cause at least one processor to perform the method of any of examples 18-25.

Example 28 may include a machine-readable medium including code, when executed, to cause a machine to perform the method of any of examples 18-25.

Example 29 may include a method comprising: determining a transmission schedule received from a controller device over a control plane interface, the transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices of an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the device; causing a first data frame to be transmitted over a data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; identifying a second data frame received through the data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; and causing a measurement report to be sent to the controller device over the control plane interface.

Example 30 may include the method of example 29 and/or some other example herein, wherein the transmission schedule further includes a third transmission time at which the device is to transmit at least one of beacons over the control plane interface.

Example 31 may include the method of example 29 and/or some other example herein, further comprising causing a beacon frame to be transmitted over the control plane interface in accordance with the transmission schedule, the beacon frame indicating that the device supports the time-sensitive operation, wherein the second data frame is received from a time-sensitive device over the data plane interface in accordance with the transmission schedule.

Example 32 may include the method of example 29 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is a separate interface from the data plane interface.

Example 33 may include the method of example 29 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

Example 34 may include the method of example 29 and/or some other example herein, wherein the device is a first access point, and wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to cause transmission of a frame to a second access point of the plurality of devices, the frame including an indication of the transmission schedule.

Example 35 may include a method as described in example 29 and/or some other example herein, further comprising causing an admission request to be sent to the controller device on behalf of a time-sensitive device.

Example 36 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing a method as claimed in any of examples 29-35.

Example 37 may include a system comprising at least one memory device with programmed instructions that, in response to execution, cause at least one processor to perform the method of any of examples 29-35.

Example 38 may include a machine-readable medium including code, when executed, to cause a machine to perform the method of any of examples 29-35.

Example 39 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of operations comprising: determining a transmission schedule received from a controller device over a control plane interface, the transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices of an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the device; causing a first data frame to be transmitted over a data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; identifying a second data frame received through the data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; and causing a measurement report to be sent to the controller device over the control plane interface.

Example 40 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 39 and/or some other example herein, wherein the transmission schedule further includes a third transmission time at which the device is to transmit at least one of beacons through the control plane interface.

Example 41 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 39 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to cause a beacon frame to be transmitted over the control plane interface according to the transmission schedule, the beacon frame indicating that the device supports the time-sensitive operation, wherein the second data frame is received over the data plane interface from a time-sensitive device according to the transmission schedule.

Example 42 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 39 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is a separate interface from the data plane interface.

Example 43 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 39 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

Example 44 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 39 and/or some other example herein, wherein the device is a first access point, and wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to cause transmission of a frame to a second access point of the plurality of devices, the frame including an indication of the transmission schedule.

Example 45 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 39 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to cause an admission request to be transmitted to the controller device on behalf of a time-sensitive device.

Example 46 may include an apparatus comprising means for: means for determining a transmission schedule received from a controller device over a control plane interface, the transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices of an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the device; means for causing a first data frame to be transmitted over a data plane interface in accordance with the transmission schedule; means for identifying a second data frame received over the data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; and means for causing a measurement report to be sent to the controller device over the control plane interface.

Example 47 may include the apparatus of example 46 and/or some other example herein, wherein the transmission schedule further includes a third transmission time at which the apparatus is to transmit at least one of beacons over the control plane interface.

Example 48 may include the apparatus of example 46 and/or some other example herein, further comprising means for causing a beacon frame to be transmitted over the control plane interface in accordance with the transmission schedule, the beacon frame indicating that the apparatus supports the time-sensitive operation, wherein the second data frame is received from a time-sensitive apparatus over the data plane interface in accordance with the transmission schedule.

Example 49 may include the apparatus of example 46 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is a separate interface from the data plane interface.

Example 50 may include the apparatus of example 46 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

Example 51 may include the apparatus of example 46 and/or some other example herein, wherein the apparatus is a first access point, and wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to cause transmission of a frame to a second access point of the plurality of apparatuses, the frame including an indication of the transmission schedule.

Example 52 may include an apparatus as described in example 46 and/or some other example herein, further comprising means for causing an admission request to be sent to the controller device on behalf of a time-sensitive device.

Example 53, the apparatus comprising a memory and processing circuitry configured to: determining, at a controller device, an admission request received from a first device over a control plane interface; causing an admission response to be sent to the first device over the control plane interface, the admission response including a transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices of an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the first device; determining a measurement report received from the first device over the control plane interface; and causing transmission of a data frame to the first device over a data plane interface.

Example 54 may include the apparatus of example 53 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first apparatus is an access point, and wherein the admission request is transmitted by the access point on behalf of a station apparatus.

Example 55 may include the apparatus of example 53 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first apparatus is a station apparatus, and wherein the operations further comprise causing frames to be transmitted to the station apparatus in the control plane interface.

Example 56 may include the apparatus of example 53 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is a different plane than the data plane interface.

Example 57 may include the apparatus of example 53 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

Example 58 may include an apparatus as described in example 53 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to: determining an updated transmission schedule based on the measurement report; and causing the updated transmission schedule to be sent to the first device over the control plane interface.

Example 59 may include the apparatus of example 53 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first apparatus is an access point, and wherein the measurement report is provided by a station apparatus associated with the access point.

Example 60 may include the device of example 53 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first device is a station device associated with an access point, and wherein the access point is associated with the controller device.

Example 61 may include the device of example 53 and/or some other example herein, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals.

Example 62 may include the apparatus of example 61 and/or some other example herein, further comprising one or more antennas coupled with the transceiver.

Example 63 may include a method comprising: determining, at a controller device, an admission request received from a first device over a control plane interface; causing an admission response to be sent to the first device over the control plane interface, the admission response including a transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices of an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the first device; determining a measurement report received from the first device over the control plane interface; and causing transmission of a data frame to the first device over a data plane interface.

Example 64 may include the method of example 63 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first device is an access point, and wherein the admission request is transmitted by the access point on behalf of a station device.

Example 65 may include the method of example 63 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first device is a station device, and wherein the operations further comprise causing frames to be transmitted to the station device in the control plane interface.

Example 66 may include the method of example 63 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is a different plane than the data plane interface.

Example 67 may include the method of example 63 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

Example 68 may include a method as described in example 63 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: determining an updated transmission schedule based on the measurement report; and causing the updated transmission schedule to be sent to the first device over the control plane interface.

Example 69 may include the method of example 63 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first device is an access point, and wherein the measurement report is provided by a station device associated with the access point.

Example 70 may include the method of example 63 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first device is a station device associated with an access point, and wherein the access point is associated with the controller device.

Example 71 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing a method as claimed in any of examples 63-70.

Example 72 may include a system comprising at least one memory device with programmed instructions that, in response to execution, cause at least one processor to perform the method of any of examples 63-70.

Example 73 may include a machine-readable medium including code, when executed, to cause a machine to perform the method of any of examples 63-70.

Example 74 may include an apparatus comprising: means for determining, at a controller device, an admission request received from a first device over a control plane interface; means for causing an admission response to be sent to the first device over the control plane interface, the admission response including a transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices of an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the first device; means for determining a measurement report received from the first device over the control plane interface; and means for causing transmission of a data frame to the first device over a data plane interface.

Example 75 may include the apparatus of example 74 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first apparatus is an access point, and wherein the admission request is transmitted by the access point on behalf of a station apparatus.

Example 76 may include the apparatus of example 74 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first apparatus is a station apparatus, and wherein the operations further comprise causing frames to be transmitted to the station apparatus in the control plane interface.

Example 77 may include the apparatus of example 74 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is a different plane than the data plane interface.

Example 78 may include the apparatus of example 74 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

Example 79 may include an apparatus as described in example 74 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: means for determining an updated transmission schedule based on the measurement report; and means for causing the updated transmission schedule to be sent to the first device over the control plane interface.

Example 80 may include the apparatus of example 74 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first apparatus is an access point, and wherein the measurement report is provided by a station apparatus associated with the access point.

Example 81 may include the device of example 74 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first device is a station device associated with an access point, and wherein the access point is associated with the controller device.

Example 82, the apparatus comprising memory and processing circuitry configured to: identifying, by one or more processors of a first device, a transmission schedule received from a second device over a control plane interface, the transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices of an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the first device; causing, by the one or more processors, a first data frame to be transmitted according to the transmission schedule over a data plane interface; identifying, by the one or more processors, a second data frame received over the data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; and causing, by the one or more processors, a measurement report to be sent to the second device over the control plane interface.

Example 83 may include the apparatus of example 82 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is a separate interface from the data plane interface.

Example 84 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

Example 85 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to identify a control frame received from the second apparatus over the control plane interface.

Example 86 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the second apparatus is a controller apparatus, the method further comprising causing transmission of an admission request to the controller apparatus.

Example 87 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the second apparatus is an access point of the plurality of apparatuses, wherein the access point is associated with a controller apparatus, and the method further comprises causing transmission of an admission request associated with the controller apparatus to the second apparatus.

Example 88 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to determine an updated transmission schedule received from the controller device.

Example 89 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is in a longer range channel than the data plane interface.

Example 90 may include a device as described in example 82 and/or some other example herein, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals.

Example 91 may include the apparatus of example 90 and/or some other example herein, further comprising one or more antennas coupled with the transceiver.

Example 92 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of operations comprising: identifying, by one or more processors of a first device, a transmission schedule received from a second device over a control plane interface, the transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices of an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the first device; causing, by the one or more processors, a first data frame to be transmitted according to the transmission schedule over a data plane interface; identifying, by the one or more processors, a second data frame received over the data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; and causing, by the one or more processors, a measurement report to be sent to the second device over the control plane interface.

Example 93 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 92 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is a separate interface from the data plane interface.

Example 94 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 92 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

Example 95 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 92 and/or some other example herein, wherein the operations further comprise identifying a control frame received from the second device over the control plane interface.

Example 96 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 92 and/or some other example herein, wherein the second device is a controller device, the method further comprising causing transmission of an admission request to the controller device.

Example 97 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 92 and/or some other example herein, wherein the second device is an access point of the plurality of devices, wherein the access point is associated with a controller device, and the method further comprises causing transmission of an admission request associated with the controller device to the second device.

Example 98 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 92 and/or some other example herein, wherein the operations further comprise determining an updated transmission schedule received from the controller device.

Example 99 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 92 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is in a longer range channel than the data plane interface.

Example 100 may include an apparatus comprising: means for identifying, by one or more processors of a first device, a transmission schedule received from a second device over a control plane interface, the transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices of an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the first device; means for causing, by the one or more processors, a first data frame to be transmitted according to the transmission schedule over a data plane interface; means for identifying, by the one or more processors, a second data frame received over the data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; and means for causing, by the one or more processors, transmission of a measurement report to the second device over the control plane interface.

Example 101 may include the apparatus of example 100 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is a separate interface from the data plane interface.

Example 102 may include the apparatus of example 100 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

Example 103 may include the apparatus of example 100 and/or some other example herein, further comprising means for identifying a control frame received from the second apparatus over the control plane interface.

Example 104 may include the apparatus of example 100 and/or some other example herein, wherein the second apparatus is a controller apparatus, the method further comprising causing transmission of an admission request to the controller apparatus.

Example 105 may include the apparatus of example 100 and/or some other example herein, wherein the second apparatus is an access point of the plurality of apparatuses, wherein the access point is associated with a controller apparatus, and the method further comprises causing transmission of an admission request associated with the controller apparatus to the second apparatus.

Example 106 may include the apparatus of example 100 and/or some other example herein, further comprising means for determining an updated transmission schedule received from the controller apparatus.

Example 107 may include the apparatus of example 100 and/or some other example herein, wherein the control plane interface is in a longer range channel than the data plane interface.

Example 108 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing a method as claimed in any of the preceding examples.

Example 109 may include a machine-readable storage device including machine-readable instructions that when executed implement a method as claimed in any preceding example.

Example 110 may include a machine-readable storage device including machine-readable instructions which, when executed, implement a method or implement an apparatus as claimed in any preceding example.

Example 111 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example 112 may include a system for providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

Example 113 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Embodiments according to the present disclosure are disclosed in particular in the accompanying claims directed to a method, a storage medium, an apparatus and a computer program product, wherein any feature mentioned in one claim category (e.g. method) may also be claimed in another claim category (e.g. system). The dependent or back-referenced in the appended claims are selected solely for the sake of form. However, any subject matter resulting from an intentional back-referencing of any preceding claim (especially multiple dependencies) may also be claimed, such that any combination of a claim and its features is disclosed and may be claimed regardless of the dependency selected in the appended claims. The claimable subject matter comprises not only the combinations of features recited in the appended claims, but also any other combination of features in the claims, wherein each feature mentioned in the claims may be combined with any other feature or combination of features in the claims. Furthermore, any embodiments and features described or depicted herein may be claimed in a separate claim and/or in any combination with any embodiment or feature described or depicted herein or with any feature of the appended claims.

The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure are described above with reference to block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or computer program products according to various implementations. It will be understood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, respectively, can be implemented by computer-executable program instructions. Similarly, some blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams may not necessarily need to be performed in the order presented, or may not necessarily need to be performed at all, according to some implementations.

These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded onto a special purpose computer or other specific machine, processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particular machine, such that the instructions which execute on the computer, processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus create means for implementing one or more functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement one or more functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks. By way of example, certain implementations may provide a computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code or program instructions embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement one or more functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational elements or steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide elements or steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations support combinations of means for performing the specified functions, combinations of elements or steps for performing the specified functions and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems that perform the specified functions, elements or steps, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

Conditional language such as "can," "might," "may," or "may," etc., unless specifically stated otherwise or understood otherwise within the context of use, is generally intended to convey that certain implementations may include, while other implementations do not include, certain features, elements and/or operations. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements, and/or operations are in any way required by one or more implementations or that one or more implementations necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whether these features, elements, and/or operations are included or are to be performed in any particular implementation.

Many modifications and other implementations of the disclosure set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which this disclosure pertains having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not to be limited to the specific implementations disclosed and that modifications and other implementations are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.

Claims (25)

1. An apparatus comprising a memory and processing circuitry configured to:

determining a transmission schedule received from a controller device over a control plane interface, the transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices in an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the device;

causing a first data frame to be transmitted over a data plane interface according to the transmission schedule;

identifying a second data frame received through the data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; and is

Causing a measurement report to be sent to the controller device over the control plane interface.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the transmission schedule further comprises a third transmission time at which the device is to transmit at least one of beacons over the control plane interface.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to cause a beacon frame to be transmitted over the control plane interface in accordance with the transmission schedule, the beacon frame indicating that the device supports the time-sensitive operation, wherein the second data frame is received from a time-sensitive device over the data plane interface in accordance with the transmission schedule.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control plane interface is a separate interface from the data plane interface.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is a first access point, and wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to cause a frame to be transmitted to a second access point of the plurality of devices, the frame including an indication of the transmission schedule.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the memory and processing circuitry are further configured to cause an admission request to be sent to the controller device on behalf of a time-sensitive device.

8. The device of claim 1, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising one or more antennas coupled with the transceiver.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of operations comprising:

determining, at a controller device, an admission request received from a first device over a control plane interface;

causing an admission response to be sent to the first device over the control plane interface, the admission response including a transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices in an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the first device;

determining a measurement report received from the first device over the control plane interface; and is

Causing transmission of a data frame to the first device over a data plane interface.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first device is an access point, and wherein the admission request is sent by the access point on behalf of a station device.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first device is a station device, and wherein the operations further comprise causing a frame to be sent to the station device in the control plane interface.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the control plane interface is a different plane than the data plane interface.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining an updated transmission schedule based on the measurement report; and is

Causing the updated transmission schedule to be sent to the first device over the control plane interface.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first device is an access point, and wherein the measurement report is provided by a station device associated with the access point.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first device is a station device associated with an access point, and wherein the access point is associated with the controller device.

18. A method, comprising:

identifying, by one or more processors of a first device, a transmission schedule received from a second device over a control plane interface, the transmission schedule indicating one or more transmission times including a first transmission time for time-sensitive operations and a second transmission time for non-time-sensitive operations, the time-sensitive operations having a higher priority than the non-time-sensitive operations, the one or more transmission times governing transmissions of a plurality of devices in an extended service set, the plurality of devices including the first device;

causing, by the one or more processors, a first data frame to be transmitted according to the transmission schedule over a data plane interface;

identifying, by the one or more processors, a second data frame received over the data plane interface according to the transmission schedule; and is

Causing, by the one or more processors, transmission of a measurement report to the second device over the control plane interface.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the control plane interface is a separate interface from the data plane interface.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the control plane interface and the data plane interface are in a common channel.

21. The method as recited in claim 18, further comprising: identifying a control frame received from the second device over the control plane interface.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the second device is a controller device, the method further comprising: causing an admission request to be sent to the controller device.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the second device is an access point for the plurality of devices, wherein the access point is associated with a controller device, and further comprising: causing transmission of an admission request associated with the controller device to the second device.

24. The method as recited in claim 18, further comprising: determining an updated transmission schedule received from the controller device.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein the control plane interface is in a longer range channel than the data plane interface.

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