System and method of assigning priority to remote units in a collision free ...

(54) SYSTEM AND METHOD OF ASSIGNING
PRIORITY TO REMOTE UNITS IN A
COLLISION FREE MULTIPLE ACCESS
PROTOCOL

(75) Inventors: Donald P. Wahlstrom, Woodinville, WA (US); Praveen Mehrotra, Fresno, CA (US)

(73) Assignee: Cingular Wireless II, LLC, Atlanta, GA(US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 769 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 10/627,192

(22) Filed: Jul. 24, 2003

(Under 37 CFR 1.47)

Related U.S. Application Data

(60) Provisional application No. 60/399,042, filed on Jul. 25, 2002.

(56) References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 6,404,756 Bl * 6/2002 Whitehill et al 370/338

(Continued)

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

"Fixed wireless access/wireless local loop technology—Background;" http://florin.stanford.edu/~t361/Fall2000/ABakrie/Home. htm, downloaded from the internet on Feb. 27, 2002, 2 pages. "Fixed wireless access/wireless local loop technology—How does a WLL system work?," http://florin.stanford.edu/~t361/Fall2000/ ABakrie/How WLLworks.htm, downloaded from the internet on Feb. 27, 2002, 2 pages.

"Token passing:IEEE802.5 standard," The Data Link Layer, http:// www-net .c s .umass. edu/c s653-1997/notes/ch7/ch7 -2 .htm, downloaded from the internet on Dec. 3, 2001, 7 pages.

Primary Examiner—Meless N. Zewdu

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Woodcock Washburn LLP

Disclosed embodiments include a system and method for prioritizing access requests from a plurality of remote units, wherein the access requests are requests for uplink access in a fixed wireless network. In one embodiment, the system receives an access request from at least two remote units. The system also receives a priority request from the remote units, which may be separate or related to the access requests. The system analyzes the access requests based on the priority requests and determines which remote units will be granted uplink access to the network. The system then transmits an indication of at least one remote unit that is allowed to transmit on an uplink channel. In one embodiment, the access request and priority request are encompassed within two or more tones transmitted from a remote unit. Many other alternatives and alternative embodiments are also disclosed.

28 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets

Page 2

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

6,577,630 Bl * 6/2003 Markwalter et al 370/392

6,671,284 Bl * 12/2003 Yonge, III et al 370/462

6,751,444 Bl* 6/2004 Meiyappan 455/69

6,842,460 Bl * 1/2005 Olkkonen et al 370/465

6,891,810 B2* 5/2005 Strahsaker et al 370/294

6,967,937 Bl* 11/2005 Gormley 370/330

cited by examiner