CN112752345A

CN112752345A - WLAN system, communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN112752345A
Application number: CN201911056214.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王云贵; 付洁
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-10-31
Filing date: 2019-10-31
Publication date: 2021-05-04
Anticipated expiration: 2039-10-31
Also published as: CN112752345B; WO2021082878A1

Abstract

A WLAN system, a communication method and a device are disclosed, the WLAN system comprises a controller, a first access point and a second access point which have working channels with the same frequency; the controller instructs the first access point and the second access point to respectively communicate with the WLAN terminal in different scheduling periods; the second access point is used for acquiring an initial data communication rate, a first signal strength and a second signal strength corresponding to the WLAN terminal, adjusting the initial data communication rate to a target data communication rate according to the first signal strength and the second signal strength, and starting data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the target data communication rate in a second scheduling period. The data communication rate between the WLAN terminal and the access point is controlled through the signal intensity, and the situation that the service performance is reduced after the WLAN terminal switches the access point can be effectively reduced.

Description

WLAN system, communication method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a WLAN system, a communications method, and an apparatus.

Background

Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) refer to a network system that uses wireless communication technology to interconnect computer devices and can communicate with each other and realize resource sharing, and they are widely used and deployed in personal homes, business park offices, and educational medical institutions. The WLAN may include an Access Point (AP) and a Station (STA), among others. The AP can provide wireless access services to the STAs. The efficiency of communication between the AP and the STA is affected by the data communication rate.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a WLAN system, a communication method and a communication device, so as to determine the data communication rate between an STA and an access point.

In one aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a WLAN system, which may include a controller, a first access point, and a second access point, where the frequency of an operating channel of the first access point is the same as that of the second access point; the controller may be configured to instruct the first access point to be capable of data communication with the WLAN terminal for a first scheduling period and to be incapable of transmitting a wireless signal for a second scheduling period, and instruct the second access point to be incapable of transmitting a wireless signal for the first scheduling period and to be capable of data communication with the WLAN terminal for the second scheduling period, where the second scheduling period is subsequent to the first scheduling period; the second access point may be configured to obtain an initial data communication rate, a first signal strength, and a second signal strength corresponding to the WLAN terminal, adjust the initial data communication rate to a target data communication rate according to the first signal strength and the second signal strength, and start data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the target data communication rate in a second scheduling period, where the first access point may perform data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the initial data communication rate in the first scheduling period, the first signal strength is a signal strength of a wireless signal between the first access point and the WLAN terminal, and the second signal strength is a signal strength of a wireless signal between the second access point and the WLAN terminal.

Since the signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the access point can reflect the signal quality when the WLAN terminal communicates with the access point, in the WLAN system, when the second access point communicates with the WLAN terminal, the initial data communication rate can be adjusted accordingly according to the signal strengths between the WLAN terminal and the first access point and between the WLAN terminal and the second access point. Therefore, after the second access point communicates with the WLAN terminal based on the adjusted data communication rate, the data communication rate between the second access point and the WLAN terminal can be adapted to the signal quality between the second access point and the WLAN terminal, and therefore the situation that the service performance is reduced after the WLAN terminal switches the access points can be effectively reduced by controlling the data communication rate of the WLAN terminal.

In one possible implementation, the initial data communication rate is less than the target data communication rate when the first signal strength is greater than the second signal strength, and the initial data communication rate is greater than the target data communication rate when the first signal strength is less than the second signal strength.

When the initial data communication rate is adjusted to obtain the target data communication rate, the second access point may correspondingly increase or decrease the initial data communication rate according to the magnitude of the first signal strength and the magnitude of the second signal strength corresponding to the WLAN terminal, specifically, according to a difference or a ratio between the first signal strength and the second signal strength. Taking the difference as an example, the second access point may calculate a difference between the first signal strength and the second signal strength, and when the difference is positive, i.e., the first signal strength is greater than the second signal strength, the initial data communication rate may be decreased such that the obtained target data communication rate is less than the initial data communication rate, and when the difference is negative, i.e., the first signal strength is less than the second signal strength, the initial data communication rate may be increased such that the obtained target data communication rate is greater than the initial data communication rate. The second access point increases or decreases the initial data communication rate according to the first signal strength and the second signal strength, so that the data communication rate between the second access point and the WLAN terminal can better meet the rate actually required by the signal quality between the second access point and the WLAN terminal, and particularly, when the first signal strength is smaller than the second signal strength, the service performance of the WLAN terminal can be further improved by increasing the data communication rate between the second access point and the WLAN terminal.

In a possible implementation, the initial data communication rate is an actual data communication rate of the first access point when the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal for the last time in the first scheduling period, or a data communication rate determined based on the actual data communication rate and the message error rate.

In this embodiment, the second access point may refer to an actual data communication rate at which the first access point last performs data communication with the WLAN terminal within the first scheduling period, and determine a data communication rate between the second access point and the WLAN terminal based on the actual data communication rate. Alternatively, the data communication rate referred to by the second access point may be a data communication rate obtained by adjusting the actual data communication rate. In this embodiment, the second access point may adjust the data communication rate by using the message error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal. It can be understood that when the message error rate is high, indicating that the data communication quality between the access point and the WLAN terminal is low, the data communication rate between the access point and the WLAN terminal can be properly reduced to improve the success rate of data frame or message transmission; and when the message error rate is lower, the data communication quality between the access point and the WLAN terminal is higher, and the data communication rate between the access point and the WLAN terminal can be properly improved. The actual data communication rate may be adjusted according to the message error rate of the terminal based on a preset corresponding relationship.

In a further possible implementation manner, the message error rate may be calculated according to a historical message error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal and a current message error rate, where the current message error rate is a message error rate when the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal in the first scheduling period.

When the message error rate of the WLAN terminal is determined, if the historical message error rate is directly used as the message error rate of the WLAN terminal, the current message error rate of the first access point and the WLAN terminal is not considered, that is, the data communication condition between the first access point and the WLAN terminal in the first scheduling period is not considered; similarly, if the current packet error rate is taken as the packet error rate of the WLAN terminal, the finally determined data communication rate may not be ideal due to the accidental communication quality change between the first access point and the WLAN terminal in the first scheduling period. Therefore, the second access point can determine the message error rate of the WLAN terminal by combining the historical message error rate and the current message error rate. For example, a weighted summation manner may be adopted, that is, corresponding weights are respectively assigned to the historical packet error rate and the current packet error rate, the sum of the weights is 1, and then products of the historical packet error rate, the current packet error rate and the respective weights are respectively calculated, so that the sum of the two obtained products is determined as the packet error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal. Therefore, when the message error rate of the WLAN terminal is determined, the current communication condition of the first access point for carrying out data communication with the WLAN terminal is considered, and the influence of the current communication condition which is occasionally abnormal on the finally determined initial data communication rate can be reduced.

In a possible implementation, the signal strength of the wireless signal between the access point and the WLAN terminal may specifically refer to Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Received Signal Strength (RSSI), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR), or any combination thereof, which is detected by the access point or the WLAN terminal when receiving the wireless signal sent by the opposite terminal. That is, the first signal strength may be RSRP, RSSI, SNR, SINR or any combination thereof detected by the first access point or the WLAN terminal when the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal, and similarly, the second signal strength may specifically be RSRP, RSSI, SNR, SINR or any combination thereof detected by the second access point or the WLAN terminal when the second access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal.

On the other hand, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication method, where the method includes: the method comprises the steps that a first access point acquires an initial data communication rate, a first signal strength and a second signal strength corresponding to a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) terminal, wherein the first signal strength is the signal strength of a wireless signal between the first access point and the WLAN terminal, the second signal strength is the signal strength of a wireless signal between a second access point and the WLAN terminal, the frequencies of working channels of the first access point and the second access point are the same, the first access point can carry out data communication with the WLAN terminal in a first scheduling time and cannot send the wireless signal in a second scheduling time, the second access point cannot send the wireless signal in the first scheduling time and can carry out data communication with the WLAN terminal in the second scheduling time, and the first scheduling time is after the second scheduling time; the first access point adjusts the initial data communication rate to a target data communication rate according to the first signal strength and the second signal strength; the first access point starts data communication with the WLAN terminal based on a target data communication rate within a first scheduling period.

In the first scheduling period, the data communication rate of the second access point during data communication with the WLAN terminal in the second scheduling period is not directly used as the data communication rate adopted by the first access point and the WLAN terminal when the WLAN terminal starts data communication with the WLAN terminal, but the received data communication rate is correspondingly adjusted by using the signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the first access point and the second access point, so that the data communication rate adopted by the first access point and the WLAN terminal when the first access point and the WLAN terminal start data communication better conforms to the data communication rate required by the signal quality between the first access point and the WLAN terminal.

In this embodiment, whether to adjust the initial data communication rate up or down may be determined based on the magnitude between the first signal strength and the second signal strength. For example, whether to increase or decrease the initial data communication rate may be determined based on whether the difference between the first signal strength and the second signal strength is positive or negative or whether the ratio is greater than 1. Especially, when the first signal strength is greater than the second signal strength, the service performance of the WLAN terminal can be further improved by increasing the data communication rate between the second access point and the WLAN terminal.

In a possible embodiment, the target data communication rate is not greater than a first predetermined rate, and the target data communication rate is not less than a second predetermined rate, wherein the first predetermined rate is greater than the second predetermined rate.

In this embodiment, in the process of adjusting the initial data communication rate to obtain the target data communication rate, the obtained target data communication rate has certain upper and lower limits, i.e., the target data communication rate cannot be too large, but cannot be too small. Therefore, in the process of increasing the initial data communication rate, the obtained target data communication rate is not greater than the first preset rate, and in the process of decreasing the initial data communication rate, the obtained target data communication rate is not less than the second preset rate, of course, the first preset rate is greater than the second preset rate.

In a possible implementation manner, the first access point sends a reference data communication rate to the third access point, where the reference data communication rate is an actual data communication rate of the first access point when performing data communication with the WLAN terminal for the last time in the first scheduling period, or a data communication rate determined based on the actual data communication rate and the message error rate; the frequency of the working channel of the third access point is the same as that of the working channel of the first access point, the third access point cannot transmit wireless signals in the first scheduling period and the second scheduling period, and can perform data communication with the WLAN terminal in the third scheduling period, and the third scheduling period is after the first scheduling period.

In this embodiment, the third access point is the next access point with the scheduling period (i.e. the aforementioned third scheduling period), and when the second scheduling period ends, the first access point may send a reference data communication rate to the third access point, so that the third access point can start data communication with the WLAN terminal within the third scheduling period based on the reference data communication rate, thereby enabling the third access point to effectively control the data communication rate between the third access point and the WLAN terminal.

In a possible implementation manner, the first access point calculates the packet error rate according to a historical packet error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal and a current packet error rate, where the current packet error rate is a packet error rate when the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal in the first scheduling period.

In this embodiment, when the initial data communication rate sent by the first access point to the third access point is the data communication rate obtained by adjusting the actual data communication rate based on the packet error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal, the packet error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal may be obtained by performing comprehensive calculation on the historical packet error rate and the current packet error rate by the first access point. For example, the historical message error rate and the current message error rate may be weighted and summed, so that the weighted and summed result may be used as the corresponding message error rate of the WLAN terminal.

In one possible embodiment, the target data communication rate may be an uplink data communication rate or a downlink data communication rate between the second access point and the WLAN terminal. In this embodiment, when controlling the data communication rate between the second access point and the WLAN terminal, specifically, the second access point may control the rate when transmitting downlink data to the WLAN terminal, or may control the rate when receiving uplink data from the WLAN terminal.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication method, including: the controller acquires an initial data communication rate and signal strength corresponding to a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) terminal, wherein the signal strength is the signal strength of wireless signals of a second access point and the WLAN terminal, the frequencies of working channels of the first access point and the second access point are the same, the first access point can carry out data communication with the WLAN terminal within a first scheduling time and cannot send wireless signals within a second scheduling time, the second access point cannot send wireless signals within the first scheduling time and can carry out data communication with the WLAN terminal within the second scheduling time, and the first scheduling time is after the second scheduling time; the controller transmits the initial data communication rate and the signal strength to the first access point.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus, where the apparatus may be applied to a first access point, and the apparatus may specifically include: the wireless local area network WLAN terminal comprises an acquisition module, a processing module and a processing module, wherein the acquisition module is used for acquiring an initial data communication rate, a first signal strength and a second signal strength corresponding to the WLAN terminal, the first signal strength is the signal strength of a wireless signal between a first access point and the WLAN terminal, the second signal strength is the signal strength of a wireless signal between a second access point and the WLAN terminal, the frequencies of working channels of the first access point and the second access point are the same, the first access point can carry out data communication with the WLAN terminal within a first scheduling time and cannot send the wireless signal within a second scheduling time, the second access point cannot send the wireless signal within the first scheduling time and can carry out data communication with the WLAN terminal within the second scheduling time, and the first scheduling time is after the second scheduling time; the adjusting module is used for adjusting the initial data communication rate to the target data communication rate according to the first signal strength and the second signal strength; a communication module for starting data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the target data communication rate within the first scheduling period.

In one possible implementation, the initial data communication rate is greater than the target data communication rate when the first signal strength is greater than the second signal strength, and the initial data communication rate is less than the target data communication rate when the first signal strength is less than the second signal strength.

In one possible embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: a sending module, configured to send a reference data communication rate to a third access point, where the reference data communication rate is an actual data communication rate of the first access point when performing data communication with the WLAN terminal for the last time in the first scheduling period, or a data communication rate determined based on the actual data communication rate and the packet error rate; the frequency of the working channel of the third access point is the same as that of the working channel of the first access point, the third access point cannot send wireless signals in the first scheduling time interval and the second scheduling time interval, data communication can be carried out between the third access point and the WLAN terminal in the third scheduling time interval, and the third scheduling time interval is connected with the first scheduling time interval.

In one possible embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: and the calculation module is used for calculating the message error rate according to the historical message error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal and the current message error rate, wherein the current message error rate is the message error rate when the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal in the first scheduling period.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus, where the apparatus may be applied to a controller, and the apparatus may include: the wireless local area network WLAN terminal comprises an acquisition module, a transmission module and a processing module, wherein the acquisition module is used for acquiring an initial data communication rate and signal strength corresponding to the WLAN terminal, the signal strength is the signal strength of wireless signals of a second access point and the WLAN terminal, the frequencies of working channels of the first access point and the second access point are the same, the first access point can carry out data communication with the WLAN terminal within a first scheduling time and cannot send the wireless signals within a second scheduling time, the second access point cannot send the wireless signals within the first scheduling time and can carry out data communication with the WLAN terminal within the second scheduling time, and the first scheduling time is after the second scheduling time; and the sending module is used for sending the initial data communication rate and the signal strength to the first access point.

In still another aspect, embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium, which stores instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the communication method provided in the above aspect.

In yet another aspect, a computer program product containing instructions is provided, which when run on a computer causes the computer to perform the communication method provided by the above aspect.

The technical effects obtained by the communication method, the communication apparatus, the computer-readable storage medium, and the computer program product provided in the foregoing aspects are similar to the technical effects obtained by the corresponding technical means in the WLAN system provided in the foregoing aspects, and are not described herein again.

According to the technical scheme, the embodiment of the application has the following advantages:

the WLAN system may include at least a controller, a first access point and a second access point, where the frequency of the working channel of the first access point is the same as the frequency of the working channel of the second access point, for example, both the first access point and the second access point use 80MHz or 160MHz high-band wide-band. The controller in the WLAN system may be configured to instruct the first access point to be capable of data communication with the WLAN terminal during a first scheduling period and to be incapable of transmitting a wireless signal during a second scheduling period, and instruct the second access point to be incapable of transmitting a wireless signal during the first scheduling period and to be capable of data communication with the WLAN terminal during the second scheduling period, where the second scheduling period is subsequent to the first scheduling period. The second access point in the WLAN system may be configured to obtain an initial data communication rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal, and the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal in a first scheduling period based on the initial data communication rate. Meanwhile, the second access point also acquires a first signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the first access point and a second signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the second access point, adjusts the initial data communication rate according to the first signal strength and the second signal strength, specifically adjusts the initial data communication rate to a target data communication rate, and then, the second access point may start data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the target data communication rate in a second scheduling period. In the WLAN system, since the signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the access point may reflect the signal quality when the WLAN terminal communicates with the access point, when the second access point communicates with the WLAN terminal, the initial data communication rate may be correspondingly adjusted according to the signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the first access point and the second access point, so that after the second access point communicates with the WLAN terminal based on the adjusted data communication rate, the data communication rate between the second access point and the WLAN terminal is adapted to the signal quality between the second access point and the WLAN terminal, and further, by controlling the data communication rate of the WLAN terminal, the situation of service performance degradation occurring after the WLAN terminal switches the access point may be effectively reduced.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments described in the present application, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art according to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of channel division in a 5GHz band;

FIG. 2 is a network architecture diagram of an exemplary wireless access network;

fig. 3 is a diagram of a network architecture of a WLAN system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic hardware structure diagram of a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Currently, WLAN networks use a common shared frequency spectrum, mainly including the 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) band and the 5GHz band. Because there are more channels available in the 5GHz band and there is less interference, more and more WLAN networks (e.g., networks for business offices, educational medical structures, etc.) employ channels in the 5GHz band to support communication between devices. As shown in fig. 1, the frequency range of the 5GHz band is generally 5170 megahertz (MHz) to 5835MHz, and may include channels with a bandwidth of 20MHz and no overlap, or may include channels with a bandwidth of 40MHz and no overlap, or may include channels with a bandwidth of 80MHz and no overlap, or may include channels with a bandwidth of 160 MHz. Many APs and STAs currently support channels with bandwidths of 80MHz and 160 MHz.

In order to cover a large area, the WLAN may form a radio access network (i.e., a network) with a plurality of APs, and each AP may time-multiplex the same channel to avoid co-channel interference between APs. Especially, when the wireless access network adopts a channel with a bandwidth of 80MHz or a channel with a bandwidth of 160MHz, because the number of channels opened in china is small, each AP in the wireless access network multiplexes a channel with a high bandwidth in a time-sharing manner, which not only can effectively avoid the problem of co-channel interference between APs, but also each AP can provide a high-speed data interaction service for a terminal in the wireless access network.

As an example, the radio access network may adopt a network architecture as shown in fig. 2, and a Distributed Transmit and Receive Controller (DTRC) and a plurality of APs (for example, 3 APs in fig. 2) jointly form a DTR cell. In the DTR cell, the AP may be responsible for accessing the STA and transmitting data to the STA or receiving data of the STA according to parameters (such as transmission time, allocated bandwidth, and the like) of the DTRC scheduling request; the DTRC may be responsible for mobility management, transmission control and data processing (in other scenarios, it may also be responsible for related operations of other DTR cells) of users (i.e. STAs) in the DTR cell. The DTRC may specifically schedule a transmit receive access point (TxAP), schedule users within a DTR cell, manage inter-DTR cell interference, and the like. The scheduling function of TxAP means that the DTRC dynamically selects an AP in the DTR cell as TxAP according to the change conditions of the traffic, interference, and the like of users in the coverage area of the main lobe of each AP antenna pattern in the DTR cell and according to a certain scheduling period, the TxAP can perform uplink communication or downlink communication with an STA in the DTR cell in its allocated time slice, and other APs in the DTR cell can receive signals but cannot transmit signals in the time slice; the scheduling function of the users in the DTR cell means that the DTRC schedules uplink and downlink transmission times of the users in the entire DTR cell, and allocates appropriate radio resources such as Resource Units (RUs), rates, transmission powers, and the like to the users. In high bandwidth 80MHz or 160MHz networking, TxAP may have a sufficient number of larger bandwidth RUs (e.g., 242, 484, 996 subcarrier RUs) and narrower bandwidth RUs (e.g., 26, 56 subcarrier RUs). Under the framework, the TxAP generally uses a larger bandwidth RU for the access user of the TxAP, and a narrower bandwidth RU may be used for the user accessed by other APs in the DTR cell, so that not only a large bandwidth can be provided, but also a small-traffic low-latency service can be guaranteed.

And when the time slice allocated to the TxAP is exhausted, the TxAP in the DTR cell is transferred to other APs according to the scheduling of the DTRC, and performs uplink or downlink communication with the STA in the DTR cell in the time slice corresponding to the AP. At this time, the AP accessed by the STA usually needs to be handed over from the current AP to other APs (i.e. the AP determined to be TxAP again, such as a neighboring AP, etc., and the user does not perceive the handoff process). However, after the STA switches the access AP, the traffic performance of the STA may be degraded.

The inventors have found through research that factors such as distance and environment between the STA and different APs are generally different, so that when the STA switches to access from the currently accessed AP to other APs, the signal quality between the STA and the AP may change due to the different factors such as the signal quality is reduced. At this time, the switched AP still performs data communication with the STA according to the data communication rate used when the previous TxAP performs data communication with the STA, and the communication data may be lost due to the degradation of the signal quality between the TxAP and the STA, thereby reducing the service performance of the STA. For example, assuming that the communication rate between the STA and the previous AP is 100 megabits per second (Mbps), when the signal quality between the STA and the current AP is degraded, if the current AP still performs data communication with the STA at the data communication rate of 100Mbps, the signal decoding rate may be reduced due to the poor signal quality, so that part or all of the data transmitted between the STA and the AP is lost, and further, the service performance of the STA is reduced due to the lost data.

Based on this, the embodiments of the present application provide a WLAN system, in which a first access point (which may be an AP that the STA switches to access) may adjust a data communication rate when communicating with a WLAN terminal (i.e., the STA). Specifically, the WLAN system may include at least a controller, a first access point, and a second access point, where the frequency of the working channel of the first access point is the same as the frequency of the working channel of the second access point, for example, both the first access point and the second access point use 80MHz or 160MHz high-band wide band. The controller in the WLAN system may be configured to instruct the first access point to be capable of data communication with the WLAN terminal during a first scheduling period and to be incapable of transmitting a wireless signal during a second scheduling period, and instruct the second access point to be incapable of transmitting a wireless signal during the first scheduling period and to be capable of data communication with the WLAN terminal during the second scheduling period, where the second scheduling period is subsequent to the first scheduling period. The second access point in the WLAN system may be configured to obtain an initial data communication rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal, and the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal in a first scheduling period based on the initial data communication rate. At this time, if the second access point communicates with the WLAN terminal at the initial data communication rate, a problem that the service performance of the WLAN terminal is low may occur, and for this reason, the second access point further obtains a first signal strength (such as RSRP, RSSI, SNR, or SINR) between the WLAN terminal and the first access point and a second signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the second access point, and adjusts the initial data communication rate according to the first signal strength and the second signal strength, specifically, adjusts the initial data communication rate to a target data communication rate, and then the second access point may start data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the target data communication rate in a second scheduling period.

In the WLAN system, since the signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the access point may reflect the signal quality when the WLAN terminal communicates with the access point, when the second access point communicates with the WLAN terminal, the initial data communication rate may be correspondingly adjusted according to the signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the first access point and the signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the second access point, so that after the second access point communicates with the WLAN terminal based on the adjusted data communication rate, the data communication rate between the second access point and the WLAN terminal is adapted to the signal quality between the second access point and the WLAN terminal, and further, by controlling the data communication rate of the WLAN terminal, the situation that the service performance is reduced after the WLAN terminal switches the access point may be effectively reduced.

In the WLAN, the access point may be referred to as an AP and the terminal may be referred to as a STA. The AP may be a network device such as a router or a switch supporting the WLAN, and the STA may be a terminal device such as a mobile phone or a computer supporting the WLAN.

Various non-limiting specific implementations of embodiments of the present application are described in detail below by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an architecture of a WLAN system according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 3, the communication system 300 may include two access points, namely a controller 01, an access point 021 (i.e., the first access point) and an access point 022 (i.e., the second access point) (fig. 3 only includes 2 access points for illustration, and in other embodiments, the WLAN system may include more than 2 access points). Here, the frequency of the operating channel of access point 021 is the same as that of access point 022, which may be understood as that the operating channel of access point 021 and that of access point 022 use the same frequency, or that there is an overlap between the frequencies of the operating channels used by access point 021 and that used by access point 022. Communication connections may be established between controller 01 and access points 021 and 022, such as by wire. The working channel of the radio access node may also be referred to as a channel, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

The controller 01 may be configured to instruct the access point 021 to serve as a transceiving access point in the first scheduling period and instruct the access point 022 to serve as a transceiving access point in the second scheduling period. That is, in the first scheduling period, the access point 021 is capable of data communication with the WLAN terminal and the access point 022 is not capable of transmitting a wireless signal, and in the second scheduling period, the access point 021 is not capable of transmitting a signal and the access point 022 is capable of data communication with the WLAN terminal.

In this embodiment, the controller 01 may allocate scheduling periods to the access point 021 and the access point 022 in advance and may notify the access point 021 and the access point 022 of the allocated scheduling periods, for example, the controller 01 may allocate a first scheduling period to the access point 021 and a second scheduling period to the access point 022, and the second scheduling period is after the first scheduling period. The scheduling periods allocated by the controller 01 to different access points may not overlap with each other, that is, the second scheduling period may be connected to the first scheduling period, or there may be a partial overlap between the first scheduling period and the second scheduling period. In summary, the starting time of the second scheduling period is after the starting time of the first scheduling period. If there is a partial overlap between the first scheduling period and the second scheduling period, during the overlap, the access points contend for the channel as specified by the WLAN (e.g., using carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA)). In this way, access point 021 and access point 022 can communicate with the WLAN terminals in their respective corresponding scheduling periods. In practical applications, the controller 01 may allocate a plurality of scheduling periods to the access point 021 and the access point 022, for example, the controller 01 may continuously allocate a third scheduling period to the access point 021 after allocating the second scheduling period to the access point 022, and of course, if the WLAN system further includes other access points, the controller 01 may also allocate the third scheduling period to other access points, and the third scheduling period is connected to the second scheduling period.

In one possible embodiment, the controller 01 may allocate the scheduling periods to the access points 021 and 022 according to the traffic load of each access point and the priority of the traffic load, where the traffic load includes the traffic load of uplink data and/or the traffic load of downlink data. In specific implementation, if the priority of the service load of the access point is higher, the controller 01 may allocate a scheduling period to the access point to be closer to the current time, that is, preferentially allow the access point to provide a data communication service for the WLAN terminal accessed by the access point; conversely, if the priority of the traffic load of the access point is lower, the scheduling period allocated by the controller 01 to the access point may be relatively far from the current time. For the duration of the allocated scheduling period, the controller 01 may determine according to the size of the traffic load of the access point. Specifically, if the traffic load of the access point is relatively large, the duration of the scheduling period that the controller 01 may allocate to the access point may be long, such as 30 milliseconds (ms); on the contrary, if the traffic load of the access point is relatively small, the duration of the scheduling period that the controller 01 may allocate to the access point may be small, such as 10 ms.

Then, the controller 01 may transmit the allocated scheduling periods to the access points 021 and 022, respectively, so that the access points 021 and 022 perform data communication with respective accessed WLAN terminals during the respective corresponding scheduling periods. It should be noted that, in this embodiment, data communication between the access point and the WLAN terminal may specifically include uplink communication and downlink communication between the access point and the WLAN terminal, that is, the access point may send a wireless signal to the WLAN terminal, and may also receive a wireless signal sent by the WLAN terminal.

Meanwhile, when the access point needs to send downlink cache data to the WLAN terminal, the controller 01 may forward the downlink cache data corresponding to each access point to the corresponding access point. In this way, the access point 021 or 022 may issue the downlink buffer data to the WLAN terminal in the corresponding scheduling period, and control the downlink data communication rate with the WLAN terminal in the scheduling period. Similarly, when the WLAN terminal needs to send uplink cache data to the access point, the WLAN terminal may actively report the cache size of its message to be sent, or the WLAN terminal responds to a request for the message cache size sent periodically by the network side and informs the access point of the cache size of its message to be sent. In this way, the access point 021 or 022 may receive the buffered data transmitted by the WLAN terminal in the corresponding scheduling period, and control the uplink data communication rate of the WLAN terminal in the scheduling period.

When the scheduling period allocated by the access point 021 ends, a WLAN terminal under the access point 021 can switch access to the access point 022. At this time, the access point 022 may be configured to obtain an initial data communication rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal. In one possible embodiment, the initial data communication rate may be sent by access point 021 to access point 022 at the end of the scheduling period to which the access point 021 is allocated, or sent by controller 01 to access point 022, so that access point 022 can acquire the initial data communication rate. It is to be noted that the initial data communication rate obtained by the access point 022 may be an actual data communication rate when the access point 021 performs data communication with the WLAN terminal for the last time in the first scheduling period, or may also be a data communication rate determined by adjusting the actual data communication rate, and in an example, specifically, the initial data communication rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal may be obtained by primarily adjusting the actual data communication rate according to a historical Packet Error Rate (PER) corresponding to the WLAN terminal.

It is noted that the initial data communication rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal acquired by the access point 022 may not match the signal quality between the access point 022 and the WLAN terminal, which may result in a situation where the traffic performance of the WLAN terminal is low. Based on this, the access point 022 can also adjust the initial data communication rate according to the signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the access point 021 and the access point 022, respectively.

Specifically, the access point 022 may first obtain a first signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the access point 021 and a second signal strength between the terminal and the access point 022. Wherein, the first signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the access point 021 may be sent from the access point 021 to the access point 022, for example, the access point 021 may measure the signal strength existing when it communicates with the WLAN terminal, and send it to the access point 022 (or the WLAN terminal measures the signal strength and forwards it to the access point 022 by the access point 021); of course, the controller 01 may also transmit the first signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the access point 021 to the access point 022. In practice, the first signal strength may be transmitted by the access point 021 or the controller 01 to the access point 022 along with the initial data communication rate.

It is noted that, during the data communication between the WLAN terminal and the access point 021, the signal transmitted by the WLAN terminal to the access point 021 may also be received by the access point 022. Thus, access point 022 can detect a second signal strength between the WLAN terminal and access point 022 based on signals received by the access point 022 during data communication between the WLAN terminal and access point 021. Of course, the specific implementation of the access point 022 for obtaining the second signal strength is not limited to that obtained by detecting a received signal when the WLAN terminal is in data communication with the access point 022, for example, in other embodiments, the wireless signal received by the access point 022 may be a signal transmitted by the WLAN terminal to any access point within a cell, for example, the wireless signal may be a wireless signal transmitted by the WLAN terminal to the access point 022 when the WLAN terminal switches access to the access point 022.

The access point 022 can then adjust the initial data communication rate based on the first signal strength and the second signal strength to obtain the target data communication data. It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the signal strength between the access point and the WLAN terminal, specifically, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the wireless signal between the access point and the WLAN terminal, is detected by the access point or the WLAN terminal; alternatively, the signal strength between the access point and the WLAN terminal may be a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of a wireless signal between the access point and the WLAN terminal, and detected by the access point or the WLAN terminal. Of course, in other possible embodiments, the signal strength may also be a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) or a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of a wireless signal detected by the access point or the WLAN terminal, and the like.

In an exemplary embodiment of determining the target data communication rate, the access point 022 can calculate a difference between the first signal strength and the second signal strength, and if the difference is positive, i.e., the first signal strength is greater than the second signal strength, indicating that the signal quality between the WLAN terminal and the access point 021 is better than the signal quality between the WLAN terminal and the access point 022, can decrease the initial data communication rate according to the difference to obtain the target data communication rate, wherein the initial data communication rate is greater than the target data communication rate; if the difference is negative, that is, the first signal strength is less than the second signal strength, indicating that the signal quality between the WLAN terminal and the access point 021 is inferior to the signal quality between the WLAN terminal and the access point 022, the initial data communication rate may be increased according to the difference to obtain the target data communication rate, and at this time, the initial data communication rate is less than the target data communication rate.

Wherein, as an example, the initial data communication rate may be increased or decreased in a gradient to obtain the target data communication rate, such as the difference between the first signal strength and the second signal strength is increased or decreased every 3db by the first order initial data communication rate. Taking the signal strength as an example, specifically the signal-to-noise ratio, that is, the first signal strength as a first signal-to-noise ratio, and the second signal strength as a second signal-to-noise ratio, a signal-to-noise ratio difference table between the data communication rates of the two adjacent orders may be preset, such as assuming that the data communication rate between the access point 022 and the WLAN terminal includes 3 orders (the data communication rate gradually increases from 1 order to 3 orders), wherein the signal-to-noise ratio difference between the 1-order data communication rate and the 2-order data communication rate is 2.5db, and the signal-to-noise ratio difference between the 2-order data communication rate and the 3-order data communication rate is 2.9db, wherein the 1-order data communication rate is, and assuming that the initial data communication rate is the 1-order data communication rate and the difference between the first signal-to-noise ratio and the second signal-to-noise ratio is 5db, since 2.5db <5db <5.4 (i.e., 2.5 +2.9db), the access point 022 may determine to increase the initial data communication rate from the 1 A rate; illustratively, if the difference between the first signal-to-noise ratio and the second signal-to-noise ratio is 6db, then the access point 022 can determine to increase the initial data communication rate from the level 1 data communication rate to the level 3 data communication rate because 6db >5.4 db. Similarly, when the difference between the first signal-to-noise ratio and the second signal-to-noise ratio is negative, the procedure of reducing the initial data communication rate may be a gradient reduction, for example, the initial data communication rate may be reduced from the order-3 data communication rate to the order-2 data communication rate, or may be directly reduced to the order-1 data communication rate, or the like.

In other examples, the initial data communication rate may be linearly increased or decreased, and the like, which is not limited in this embodiment of the application.

In another exemplary embodiment for determining the target data communication rate, the access point 022 can also determine the target data communication rate by calculating a ratio between the first signal strength and the second signal strength, and increasing or decreasing the initial data communication rate based on the ratio, and the like. Specifically, if the ratio between the first signal strength and the second signal strength is greater than 1, that is, the first signal strength is greater than the second signal strength, which indicates that the signal quality between the WLAN terminal and the access point 021 is better than the signal quality between the WLAN terminal and the access point 022, the initial data communication rate may be reduced according to the ratio to obtain the target data communication rate; otherwise, that is, the first signal strength is smaller than the second signal strength, if the ratio between the first signal strength and the second signal strength is smaller than 1, which indicates that the signal quality between the WLAN terminal and the access point 021 is inferior to the signal quality between the WLAN terminal and the access point 022, the initial data communication rate may be increased according to the ratio, so as to obtain the target data communication rate.

Of course, in the process of adjusting the initial data communication rate, the obtained target data communication rate may have a certain rate limit, that is, the finally obtained target data communication rate cannot be too large or too small. In a specific implementation, when the initial data communication rate is increased, if the data communication rate obtained after the initial data communication rate is increased is not greater than a first preset rate, the data communication rate may be used as a target data communication rate, and if the data communication rate is greater than the first preset rate, the first preset rate may be used as the target data communication rate; when the initial data communication rate is decreased, if the data communication rate obtained after the initial data communication rate is decreased is not less than a second preset rate, the data communication rate may be used as a target data communication rate, and if the data communication rate is greater than the second preset rate, the second preset rate may be used as the target data communication rate. The first preset rate is greater than the second preset rate.

After the initial data communication rate is adjusted as described above, the access point 022 may communicate with the WLAN terminal based on a target data communication rate obtained by the adjustment, and since the target data communication rate is obtained based on the signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the access point 022, the target data communication rate matches the signal quality between the WLAN terminal and the access point 022. That is, when the access point 022 performs data communication with the WLAN terminal at the target data communication rate, the rate of signal decoding matches the data transmission rate, so that the loss of data packets can be effectively reduced; moreover, if the signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the access point 022 is high, that is, the signal quality between the WLAN terminal and the access point 022 is good, the data communication rate between the WLAN terminal and the access point 022 may be increased appropriately, so that the service performance of the WLAN terminal after the WLAN terminal is switched to the access point 022 may be improved.

It is noted that the initial data communication rate acquired by the access point 022 may specifically be an actual data communication rate of the access point 021 when data communication is performed with the WLAN terminal for the last time in the first scheduling period. Specifically, the access point 021 may adjust the data communication rate with the WLAN terminal multiple times during the data communication with the WLAN terminal in the first scheduling period, and communicate with the WLAN terminal at the adjusted data communication rate, after the first scheduling period is ended, the access point 021 may send the actual data communication rate used when the access point 021 last performs data communication with the WLAN terminal to the access point 022, or of course, the controller 01 may send the actual data communication rate to the access point 022.

As an example, the access point 021 may adjust the data communication rate between it and the WLAN terminal according to a historical packet error rate (packet error rate) corresponding to the terminal and a current packet error rate. Specifically, during data communication between the access point 021 and the WLAN terminal in the first scheduling period, a historical packet error rate (which may be a pre-stored packet error rate) corresponding to the WLAN terminal may be obtained, and meanwhile, a current packet error rate is determined according to a data transmission condition when data is transmitted between the access point 021 and the WLAN terminal, for example, 10 MAC Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) are aggregated in a data frame currently transmitted between the access point 021 and the WLAN terminal, where 8 of the 10 MAC protocol data units are successful and 2 of the MAC protocol data units are failed, and the current packet error rate is 0.2. Then, the access point 021 can adjust the current data communication rate according to the historical message error rate and the current message error rate, and the adjusted data communication rate is used for data communication between the access point 021 and the WLAN terminal when data is transmitted next time. Furthermore, after the adjustment of the data communication rate is completed each time, the historical message error rate can be updated by using the current message error rate. The access point 021 may adjust a data communication rate with the WLAN terminal a plurality of times based on the above procedure within the first scheduling period.

In other possible embodiments, the initial data communication rate acquired by the access point 022 may also be a data communication rate obtained by adjusting an actual data communication rate of the access point 021 when data communication with the WLAN terminal is performed for the last time in the first scheduling period. In a specific implementation, when the access point 021 performs data communication with the WLAN terminal for the last time in the first scheduling period, the actual data communication rate of the last communication is determined, and the packet error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal is obtained, so that the actual data communication rate is adjusted based on the packet error rate, and the adjusted actual data communication rate can be used as the initial data communication rate and sent to the access point 022.

In one example of adjusting the actual data communication rate based on the packet error rate, the actual data communication rate may be adjusted based on the packet error rate and a preset threshold. Specifically, if the packet error rate is greater than the first threshold (e.g., 0.2), the actual data communication rate may be decreased to obtain an initial data communication rate, for example, the actual data communication rate may be decreased from 54 megabits per second (Mbps) to 48 Mbps. If the packet error rate is not greater than the first threshold, and specifically smaller than a second threshold (e.g., 0.1), the actual data communication rate may be increased to obtain an initial data communication rate, for example, the initial data communication rate may be increased from 48Mbps to 54 Mbps. When the message error rate is between the first threshold and the second threshold, the actual data communication rate may not be adjusted, that is, the initial data communication rate is the actual data communication rate.

Further, in some possible embodiments, the access point 021 may further adjust the actual data communication rate according to the message error rate and the signal strength of the access point 021 in data communication with the WLAN terminal. Specifically, when the message error rate is greater than the first threshold, if the signal strength is less than the third threshold, the actual data communication rate may be reduced, and if the signal strength is not less than the third threshold, it may be further counted whether the number of times that the message error rate of the terminal is continuously greater than the preset value is greater than the fourth threshold, if so, the actual data communication rate may be reduced, and the value of the number of times is set to zero, otherwise, the actual data communication rate may not be adjusted, and the value of the number of times is increased by one. And when the message error rate is less than the second threshold, if the signal strength is greater than the third threshold, the actual data communication rate can be increased, and if the signal strength is not greater than the third threshold, whether the number of times that the message error rate of the terminal is continuously greater than the preset value is greater than the fourth threshold can be further counted, if so, the actual data communication rate can be increased, the value of the number of times is set to zero, and if not, the actual data communication rate can not be adjusted, and the value of the number of times is increased by one. When the message error rate is between the first threshold and the second threshold, if the signal strength is smaller than the third threshold, the actual data communication rate may be decreased, and if the signal strength is larger than the third threshold, the actual data communication rate may be increased. It should be noted that the above-mentioned process is only an exemplary illustration, and the specific implementation process for adjusting the actual data communication rate in combination with the message error rate and the signal strength is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In a possible implementation manner, the message error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal may be specifically obtained by calculating according to a historical message error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal and a current message error rate, where the current message error rate is a message error rate when the access point 021 performs data communication with the WLAN terminal in the first scheduling period. As an example, the access point 021 may perform a weighted summation on the historical packet error rate and the current packet error rate to obtain a packet error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal, for example, the packet error rate may be (the historical packet error rate × 0.75+ the current packet error rate × 0.25), and the like.

Similar to the access point 021, the access point 022 may start data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the target data communication rate during the second scheduling period, and may adjust the data communication rate between the access point 022 and the WLAN terminal multiple times during the second scheduling period based on the message error rate, the first signal strength, and the second signal strength corresponding to the WLAN terminal, so that the access point 022 performs high-quality communication with the WLAN terminal based on the adjusted data communication rate each time.

Further, after the second scheduling period ends, the access point 022 may send a reference data communication rate to a next access point having the scheduling period, where the reference data communication rate may be an actual data communication rate used by the access point 022 when communicating with the WLAN terminal for the last time, and for the next access point having the scheduling period, the reference data communication rate is an initial data communication rate received by the access point. For example, in a further possible embodiment, the WLAN system may further include a third access point, and the access point 022 may transmit an actual data communication rate at the last time of communicating with the WLAN terminal in the second scheduling period to the third access point, so that the third access point starts data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the actual data communication rate.

The frequency of the working channel of the third access point is the same as that of the access point 021 and the access point 022, the third access point cannot transmit signals in the first scheduling period and the second scheduling period, but can perform data communication with the WLAN terminal in the third scheduling period, accordingly, the access point 021 and the access point 022 cannot transmit signals in the third scheduling period, the third scheduling period may be after the second scheduling period, and the third scheduling period may not overlap with the second scheduling period, or overlap with the second scheduling period, and in the overlapping period, the access point 022 and the third access point compete to determine which access point communicates with the WLAN terminal. In this embodiment, the first scheduling period to the third scheduling period may be managed by the controller 01 and issued to each corresponding access point.

In other possible embodiments, the reference data communication rate transmitted by the access point 022 to the third access point may also be a data communication rate obtained by adjusting the actual data communication rate. Specifically, the access point 022 may obtain the actual data communication rate and a message error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal, and adjust the actual data communication rate based on the message error rate to obtain a new data communication rate, so that the third access point may start to perform data communication with the WLAN terminal in the third scheduling period based on the new data communication rate.

Of course, the third scheduling period may also be allocated to the access point 021, that is, after the second scheduling period is over, the access point 022 may send the reference data communication rate to the access point 021, so that the access point 021 starts data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the reference data communication rate in the third scheduling period.

In other possible embodiments, the reference data communication rate may also be sent by the controller 01 to the next access point with a scheduling period, which is not limited in this embodiment.

Next, a communication rate control procedure when each access point communicates with the WLAN terminal in the WLAN system is described in detail with reference to fig. 4. Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method in an embodiment of the present application, where the method may be applied to the WLAN system shown in fig. 3, and the method may specifically include:

s401: the access point 021 creates a data communication rate table corresponding to the WLAN terminal, which can be used to determine the data communication rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal.

When the access point accesses the WLAN terminal for the first time, a corresponding data communication rate table may be created for the WLAN terminal. After creating the data communication rate table corresponding to the WLAN terminal, the access point may determine the initial data communication rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal according to the data communication rate table. In this embodiment, the access point 021 is taken as an example to create a data communication rate table for the WLAN terminal.

In an exemplary embodiment, the created data communication rate table may include a mapping relationship between the identification (e.g., MAC address, etc.) of the WLAN terminal, the bandwidth, the signal strength, and the data communication rate table is initialized. The bandwidth may include a full band (e.g., 20MHz, 80MHz, etc. operating channels) and/or different sized sub-bands (e.g., 26tone, 52tone, 106tone, etc.). Thus, when the access point 021 accesses the WLAN terminal, the access point 021 can obtain the identity of the WLAN terminal, the bandwidth it allocates to the WLAN terminal, and the signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the access point 021. Then, the access point 021 determines the data communication rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal by querying the data communication rate table.

In a further possible implementation manner, the data communication rate table further includes a packet error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal, so as to determine the data communication rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal based on the packet error rate.

The access point 021 may allocate bandwidth to the WLAN terminal according to the length of data to be communicated with the WLAN terminal and the priority of data transmission. When the signal strength in the data communication rate table is specifically a signal-to-noise ratio or a signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio, the access point 021 may detect the signal-to-noise ratio between the access point 021 and the WLAN terminal according to an association request frame transmitted by the WLAN terminal when the access point 021 accesses the WLAN terminal.

S402: the access point 021 starts data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the determined data communication rate for a first scheduling period.

In this embodiment, the controller 01 may allocate a first scheduling period to the access point 021, allocate a second scheduling period to the access point 022, and instruct the access point 021 to be capable of data communication with the WLAN terminal during the first scheduling period and to be incapable of transmitting a wireless signal during the second scheduling period, and instruct the access point 022 to be capable of data communication with the WLAN terminal during the second scheduling period and to be incapable of transmitting a wireless signal during the first scheduling period. Wherein the second scheduling period is subsequent to the first scheduling period.

In the first scheduling period, the access point 021 may not directly use the data communication rate obtained by table lookup as the communication rate for performing data communication with the WLAN terminal, but adjust the data communication rate, specifically, adjust the data communication rate according to the signal intensity recorded in the data communication rate table and the signal intensity detected by the access point 021 in real time between the access point 021 and the WLAN terminal, and use the data communication rate obtained by adjustment as the data communication rate when communicating with the WLAN terminal.

The access point 021 can adjust the data communication rate based on the difference or ratio between the two signal strengths. Taking the difference as an example, the access point 021 may calculate the difference between the two signal strengths, and when the difference is positive, it indicates that the signal quality between the access point 021 and the WLAN terminal is poor, the data communication rate obtained by the table lookup may be decreased, and when the difference is negative, it indicates that the signal quality between the access point 021 and the WLAN terminal is good, the data communication rate obtained by the table lookup may be increased.

In the first scheduling period, after the access point 021 and the WLAN terminal transmit data once, the access point 021 may adjust a data communication rate used in current communication, so that the access point 021 performs next data transmission with the WLAN terminal by using the adjusted data communication rate, and thus the data communication rate between the access point 021 and the WLAN terminal may be matched with the signal quality thereof.

It should be noted that, each time the adjusted data communication rate is obtained based on the signal strength and the packet error rate detected in real time, the data in the data communication rate table may be updated by using the signal strength and the corresponding adjusted data communication rate, specifically, the signal strength, the packet error rate, and the data communication rate in the data communication rate table may be correspondingly updated to the values detected or calculated in real time, for example, the signal strength in the data communication rate table is updated to the currently detected signal strength.

S403: when the first scheduling period ends, the access point 021 can synchronize a table of data communication rates to the access point 022.

In this embodiment, the access point 021 may send the updated data communication rate table to the access point 022, so that the access point 022 determines relevant data corresponding to the WLAN terminal based on the data communication rate table.

S404: the access point 022 determines an initial data communication rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal and a first signal strength between the WLAN terminal and the access point 021 based on the data communication rate table, and obtains a second signal strength between the access point 022 and the WLAN terminal.

When the WLAN terminal is switched from the access point 021 to the access point 022, the access point 022 may obtain a data length of data to be transmitted and a priority of the data, which correspond to the WLAN terminal, and determine a bandwidth corresponding to the WLAN terminal based on the data length and the priority of the data, so that the access point 022 may obtain an initial data communication rate (i.e., a data communication rate recorded in a table) corresponding to the WLAN terminal and a first signal strength (i.e., a signal strength recorded in the table) between the WLAN terminal and the access point 021 by looking up the table.

It should be noted that the initial data communication rate may be an actual data communication rate adopted when the access point 021 and the WLAN terminal perform data communication for the last time in the first scheduling period, or may be a data communication rate obtained after the access point 021 adjusts the actual data communication rate by using the message error rate. Further, the message error rate for adjusting the actual data communication rate may be calculated by the access point 021 according to a message error rate recorded by the data communication rate table (for convenience of description, hereinafter referred to as a historical message error rate) and a message error rate detected by the access point 021 in real time within the first scheduling period (for convenience of description, hereinafter referred to as a current message error rate), for example, the message error rate for adjusting the actual data communication rate may be calculated by a weighted sum of the historical message error rate and the current message error rate, where a sum of two weights is 1.

Meanwhile, the access point 022 may also acquire a second signal strength between itself and the WLAN terminal. In a specific implementation, when the access point 022 receives a wireless signal corresponding to any message or data frame sent by the WLAN terminal, the access point 022 may detect a second signal strength between the access point 022 and the WLAN terminal based on the received wireless signal. The wireless signal transmitted by the WLAN terminal received by the access point 022 may be a wireless signal transmitted when the WLAN terminal performs data communication with the access point 021, or a wireless signal of an association request frame transmitted to the access point 022 when the WLAN terminal requests access.

S405: the access point 022 adjusts the initial data communication rate according to the first signal strength and the second signal strength to obtain a target data communication rate, and starts data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the target data communication rate in the second scheduling period.

Similar to the access point 021, after obtaining the initial data communication rate from the data communication rate table, the access point 022 may adjust the initial data communication rate by the signal strength, and start data communication with the WLAN terminal at the adjusted initial data communication rate. In particular implementations, the access point 022 can calculate a difference (or ratio) between the first signal strength and the second signal strength and increase or decrease the magnitude of the initial data communication rate based on the difference (or ratio). If the difference is negative, i.e. the first signal strength is less than the second signal strength, the initial data communication rate can be increased to obtain a target data communication rate with a greater communication rate, and if the difference is positive, i.e. the first signal strength is greater than the second signal strength, the initial data communication rate can be decreased to obtain a target data communication rate with a lesser communication rate.

Further, in the process of adjusting the initial data communication rate, the initial data communication rate may also be adjusted according to a certain gradient according to a difference between the first signal strength and the second signal strength. For example, a signal strength difference table between two adjacent levels of data communication rates may be preset, so that when the difference between the first signal strength and the second signal strength reaches the corresponding signal strength difference in the table, the initial data communication rate may be adjusted up or down to the corresponding level of data communication rate, for example, the initial data communication rate may be adjusted down from 54Mbps to 48 Mbps.

Meanwhile, when the access point 022 obtains the target data communication rate, the access point 022 may also update the data communication rate table by using the obtained second signal strength, the message error rate, and the target data communication rate.

Further, when the second scheduling period ends, the access point 022 may send a reference data communication rate to a next access point having the scheduling period, where the access point has working channels with the same frequency as the access point 021 and the access point 022, and the reference data communication rate may be an actual data communication rate adopted when the access point 022 performs data communication with the WLAN terminal for the last time in the second scheduling period, or may be a data communication rate obtained by adjusting the actual data communication rate by using a message error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal. In this way, the access point having the next scheduling period in which the access point can start data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the reference data communication rate can perform data communication with the WLAN terminal in the next scheduling period, and cannot transmit signals in the first scheduling period and the second scheduling period.

In practical applications, the access point 021 may update the data communication rate value in the data communication rate table using the reference data communication rate, and send the updated data communication rate table to the next access point with the scheduling period.

In addition, the embodiment of the application also provides a communication device. Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus in an embodiment of the present application, where the apparatus 500 may be applied to an access point 022 in the embodiment, and the apparatus 500 may include:

an obtaining module 501, configured to obtain an initial data communication rate, a first signal strength, and a second signal strength corresponding to a WLAN terminal.

The first signal strength is the signal strength of a wireless signal between a first access point and a WLAN terminal, the second signal strength is the signal strength of a wireless signal between a second access point and the WLAN terminal, the frequencies of working channels of the first access point and the second access point are the same, the first access point can carry out data communication with the WLAN terminal within a first scheduling time and cannot send the wireless signal within a second scheduling time, the second access point cannot send the wireless signal within the first scheduling time and can carry out data communication with the WLAN terminal within the second scheduling time, and the first scheduling time is after the second scheduling time;

the adjusting module is used for adjusting the initial data communication rate to the target data communication rate according to the first signal strength and the second signal strength;

a communication module for starting data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the target data communication rate within the first scheduling period.

In one possible implementation, the apparatus 500 further includes:

and the sending module is used for sending a reference data communication rate to the third access point, wherein the reference data communication rate is an actual data communication rate of the first access point when the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal for the last time in the first scheduling period, or a data communication rate determined based on the actual data communication rate and the message error rate.

The frequency of the working channel of the third access point is the same as that of the working channel of the first access point, the third access point cannot transmit wireless signals in the first scheduling period and the second scheduling period, and can perform data communication with the WLAN terminal in the third scheduling period, and the third scheduling period is after the first scheduling period.

In one possible implementation, the apparatus 500 further includes:

and the calculation module is used for calculating the message error rate according to the historical message error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal and the current message error rate, wherein the current message error rate is the message error rate when the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal in the first scheduling period.

The communication apparatus applied to the access point 022 provided in the above embodiment is only illustrated by the division of the above functional modules, and in practical applications, the above function distribution may be performed by different functional modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the apparatus is divided into different functional modules to perform all or part of the functions described above. In addition, the communication device provided by the above embodiment has the same concept as the system embodiment, and the implementation process thereof is described in the system embodiment, which is not described herein again.

In addition, the embodiment of the application also provides another communication device. Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 shows a schematic structural diagram of another communication apparatus in an embodiment of the present application, where the apparatus 600 may be applied to the controller 01 in the above embodiment, and the apparatus 600 may include:

an obtaining module 601, configured to obtain an initial data communication rate and a signal strength corresponding to a WLAN terminal of a wireless local area network, where the signal strength is the signal strength of a wireless signal between a second access point and the WLAN terminal, frequencies of working channels of the first access point and the second access point are the same, the first access point may perform data communication with the WLAN terminal within a first scheduling time and may not transmit the wireless signal within a second scheduling time, the second access point may not transmit the wireless signal within the first scheduling time and may perform data communication with the WLAN terminal within the second scheduling time, and the first scheduling time is after the second scheduling time.

A sending module 602, configured to send the initial data communication rate and the signal strength to the first access point.

The communication device applied to the controller 01 in the above embodiment is only illustrated by the division of the above functional modules, and in practical applications, the above function distribution may be completed by different functional modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the device is divided into different functional modules to complete all or part of the above described functions. In addition, the communication device provided by the above embodiment has the same concept as the system embodiment, and the implementation process thereof is described in the system embodiment, which is not described herein again.

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present application, where the wireless communication device may be a controller or an access point according to the foregoing embodiment. Referring to fig. 7, the wireless communication apparatus may include: a processor 701, a memory 702, a network interface 703, and a bus 704. The bus 704 is used to connect the processor 701, the memory 702, and the network interface 703. Communication connections with other devices may be made through a network interface 703 (which may be wired or wireless). The memory 702 stores therein a computer program 7021, and the computer program 7021 is used to implement various application functions.

It should be understood that in the present embodiment, the processor 701 may be a CPU or the like.

The memory 702 may include volatile memory, non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof. The non-volatile memory may include a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), a flash memory, or any combination thereof. Volatile memory may include Random Access Memory (RAM), such as Static RAM (SRAM), Dynamic RAM (DRAM), Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), Enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), direct bus RAM (DR RAM), or any combination thereof.

The bus 704 may include a power bus, a control bus, a status signal bus, and the like, in addition to a data bus. But for clarity of illustration the various busses are labeled in the figures as bus 704.

The processor 701 may be configured to execute computer programs stored in the memory 702. Wherein, when the wireless communication device is a controller, the processor 701 implements the steps performed by the controller in the above embodiments by executing the computer program 7021. When the wireless communication device is an access point, the processor 701 implements the steps performed by the access point in the above-described method embodiments by executing the computer program 7021.

It should be understood that the communication method provided by the above method embodiment may also be implemented by software, and when the method provided by the above method embodiment is implemented by software, each module in the controller and the access point may also be a software module.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium, which stores instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the steps performed by the access point or the steps performed by the controller in the above method embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product containing instructions, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the steps performed by the access point or the steps performed by the controller in the above method embodiments.

The above embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software or firmware, the above-described embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded or executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the application to occur, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website mobile terminal, computer, server, or data center to another website mobile terminal, computer, server, or data center by wire (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, twisted pair) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, data center, etc., that contains a collection of one or more media. The media may be magnetic media (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tape), optical media (e.g., compact disks), or semiconductor media. The semiconductor medium may be a Solid State Disk (SSD).

The terms "first," "second," "third," and the like in the description and in the claims of the present application and in the above-described drawings are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It will be appreciated that the data so used may be interchanged under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments described herein may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated or described herein. Furthermore, the terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed, but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the apparatus and the unit described above may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing system embodiments and method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one type of logical module division, and other division manners may be available in actual implementation, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection of some interfaces, devices or units, and may be an electric or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be obtained according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the present embodiment.

In addition, each module unit in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a hardware form, and can also be realized in a software module unit form.

The above description is only an example of the present application and is not intended to limit the present application. The protection scope of this application is subject to the claims.

Claims

1. A WLAN system, comprising a controller, a first access point and a second access point, wherein the frequency of the working channel of the first access point is the same as the frequency of the working channel of the second access point;

the controller is configured to instruct the first access point to be capable of data communication with a WLAN terminal for a first scheduling period and to be incapable of transmitting a wireless signal for a second scheduling period, and to instruct the second access point to be incapable of transmitting a wireless signal for the first scheduling period and to be capable of data communication with the WLAN terminal for the second scheduling period, the second scheduling period being subsequent to the first scheduling period;

the second access point is configured to acquire an initial data communication rate, a first signal strength, and a second signal strength corresponding to the WLAN terminal, adjust the initial data communication rate to a target data communication rate according to the first signal strength and the second signal strength, and start data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the target data communication rate in the second scheduling period, where the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the initial data communication rate in the first scheduling period, the first signal strength is a signal strength of a wireless signal between the first access point and the WLAN terminal, and the second signal strength is a signal strength of a wireless signal between the second access point and the WLAN terminal.

2. The system of claim 1,

the initial data communication rate is greater than the target data communication rate when the first signal strength is greater than the second signal strength, and the initial data communication rate is less than the target data communication rate when the first signal strength is less than the second signal strength.

3. The system according to claim 1 or 2,

the initial data communication rate is an actual data communication rate when the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal for the last time in the first scheduling period, or a data communication rate determined based on the actual data communication rate and a packet error rate.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the packet error rate is calculated according to a historical packet error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal and a current packet error rate, and the current packet error rate is a packet error rate of the first access point during data communication with the WLAN terminal in the first scheduling period.

5. A method of communication, the method comprising:

the first access point acquires an initial data communication rate, a first signal strength and a second signal strength corresponding to a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) terminal, wherein the first signal strength is the signal strength of a wireless signal between the first access point and the WLAN terminal, the second signal strength is the signal strength of a wireless signal between the second access point and the WLAN terminal, the frequencies of working channels of the first access point and the second access point are the same, the first access point can perform data communication with the WLAN terminal within a first scheduling time and cannot transmit the wireless signal within a second scheduling time, the second access point cannot transmit the wireless signal within the first scheduling time and can perform data communication with the WLAN terminal within the second scheduling time, and the first scheduling time is after the second scheduling time;

the first access point adjusts the initial data communication rate to a target data communication rate according to the first signal strength and the second signal strength;

the first access point starts data communication with the WLAN terminal based on the target data communication rate within the first scheduling period.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the initial data communication rate is less than the target data communication rate when the first signal strength is greater than the second signal strength, and wherein the initial data communication rate is greater than the target data communication rate when the first signal strength is less than the second signal strength.

7. The method of claim 5 or 6, further comprising:

the first access point sends the reference data communication rate to a third access point, wherein the reference data communication rate is an actual data communication rate of the first access point when the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal for the last time in the first scheduling period, or a data communication rate determined based on the actual data communication rate and a message error rate;

wherein the third access point has the same frequency as the working channel of the first access point, is unable to transmit wireless signals in the first scheduling period and the second scheduling period, and is able to perform data communication with the WLAN terminal in a third scheduling period, which is subsequent to the first scheduling period.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

and the first access point calculates the message error rate according to the historical message error rate corresponding to the WLAN terminal and the current message error rate, wherein the current message error rate is the message error rate of the first access point when the first access point performs data communication with the WLAN terminal in the first scheduling period.

9. A method of communication, the method comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a controller obtains an initial data communication rate and signal strength corresponding to a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) terminal, wherein the signal strength is the signal strength of wireless signals of a second access point and the WLAN terminal, the frequency of working channels of the first access point and the second access point is the same, the first access point can carry out data communication with the WLAN terminal within a first scheduling time and cannot send wireless signals within a second scheduling time, the second access point cannot send wireless signals within the first scheduling time and can carry out data communication with the WLAN terminal within the second scheduling time, and the first scheduling time is after the second scheduling time;

the controller transmits the initial data communication rate and the signal strength to the first access point.

10. A communication apparatus, wherein the communication apparatus is applied to a first access point, the apparatus comprising:

an obtaining module, configured to obtain an initial data communication rate, a first signal strength, and a second signal strength corresponding to a WLAN terminal, where the first signal strength is a signal strength of a wireless signal between a first access point and the WLAN terminal, the second signal strength is a signal strength of a wireless signal between a second access point and the WLAN terminal, frequencies of working channels of the first access point and the second access point are the same, the first access point is capable of performing data communication with the WLAN terminal in a first scheduling time and is incapable of transmitting a wireless signal in a second scheduling time, the second access point is incapable of transmitting a wireless signal in the first scheduling time and is capable of performing data communication with the WLAN terminal in the second scheduling time, and the first scheduling time is after the second scheduling time;

an adjusting module, configured to adjust the initial data communication rate to a target data communication rate according to the first signal strength and the second signal strength;

11. A communication apparatus, wherein the communication apparatus is applied to a controller, and wherein the method comprises:

an obtaining module, configured to obtain an initial data communication rate and a signal strength corresponding to a WLAN terminal, where the signal strength is a signal strength of a wireless signal between a second access point and the WLAN terminal, a frequency of a working channel of the first access point is the same as a frequency of a working channel of the second access point, the first access point is capable of performing data communication with the WLAN terminal within a first scheduling time and is incapable of sending the wireless signal within a second scheduling time, the second access point is incapable of sending the wireless signal within the first scheduling time and is capable of performing data communication with the WLAN terminal within the second scheduling time, and the first scheduling time is after the second scheduling time;

a sending module, configured to send the initial data communication rate and the signal-to-noise ratio to the first access point.

12. A computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to execute the communication method according to any one of claims 5 to 8 or the communication method according to claim 9.