Backoff management for intra-queue priority transmission in communication networks

摘要

Wireless networks, such as 802.11 networks, comprising non-AP stations comprising at least one traffic queue for serving data traffic, the queue being capable of storing data of a first or second type. Intra-queue priority is implemented using a backoff engine that uses first EDCA parameters if the data packet to be transmitted is of the first type and second, different, EDCA parameters if the data packet is of the second type. The first type may be a priority type, and may be control data, such as a buffer-status report, or data relating to a peer-to-peer communication such as Direct Link Setup. The backoff may be calculated based on the type of data of the oldest packet in the queue. Packets of the second type may be stored in the queue according to a First In First Out principle while packets of the priority type may be stored in the queue according to Last In First Out principle. Low priority data may be transmitted with a penalty backoff (e.g. a MU EDCA scheme), while high priority data is processed without a penalty.