POWER SAVING METHOD IN WIRELESS LAN SYSTEM FOR PERMITTING TERMINAL STATION TO PROMPTLY TRANSITION TO DOZE STATE BY TRANSMITTING EMPTY DATA FRAME

摘要

A power saving method in a wireless LAN system is disclosed for permitting a terminal station to promptly transition to a doze state irrespective of the presence or absence of data destined to the terminal station in a base station. Upon receipt of a PS-Poll signal from a terminal station subordinate to a base station for prompting a transmission of data destined to the terminal station, the base station transmits an ACK signal to the terminal station for indicating a successful reception of the PS-Poll signal. Further, the base station transmits a data frame including data destined to the terminal station when there is such data, or transmits an empty data frame when there is no data destined to the terminal station. Then, upon receipt of the data frame (including the empty data frame), the terminal station transmits an ACK signal to the base station, and then transitions to the doze state in which a transmission/reception function is made inoperative.