Robust wireless communication system and components thereof for processing a message from two sources

Abstract

A wireless communication system includes an access point and first and second stations. The first station transmits a first message that includes an address of a second station as a destination address and an address of the first station as a source address. The access point forwards the message including the address of the second station address as the destination address and the address of the first station as the source address. The second station receives the message from the first station during a first time interval and receives the first message from the access point during a second time interval. The second station processes the duplicate received message to produce inbound data.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A receiving device comprising:
 a transceiver configured to receive, during a first time interval, a first message transmitted by an originating device, the first message including a forwarding setting field; and   processing circuitry configured to make a determination, based on the forwarding setting field, that a forwarded first message is expected to be received from an access point in a subsequent time interval;   wherein the transceiver is configured to receive, during a second time interval subsequent to the first time interval, a second message transmitted by the access point, and   wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate inbound data based on both the first message and the second message.   
     
     
         2 . The receiving device of  claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry includes:
 a filtering stage configured to generate;
 a first filtered symbol stream based on the first message; 
 a second filtered symbol stream based on the second message; 
   an equalizing module configured to generate;
 a first equalized symbol stream based on the first filtered symbol stream; and 
 a second equalized symbol stream based on the second filtered symbol stream. 
   
     
     
         3 . The receiving device of  claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry further includes:
 a soft decision module configured to compute first soft bits from the first equalized symbol stream and second soft bits from the second equalized symbol stream; and   a memory to store the first soft bits until the second soft bits have been computed.   
     
     
         4 . The receiving device of  claim 3 , wherein the processing circuitry further includes:
 conversion circuitry configured to generate the inbound data by combining the first soft bits and the second soft bits.   
     
     
         5 . The receiving device of  claim 1 , wherein the determination that a forwarded first message is expected to be received includes determining that the first message has not been received from the access point. 
     
     
         6 . The receiving device of  claim 1 , wherein a time between the first time interval and the second time interval corresponds to a distributed interframe space. 
     
     
         7 . The receiving device of  claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
 transmit an acknowledgement signal in response to receipt of the second message, but not in response to receipt of the first message.   
     
     
         8 . A wireless station comprising:
 at least one processing circuitry configured to:
 detect receipt of a first message having a source address of a second wireless station during a first time interval, the first message including a forwarding field; 
 determine, based on the forwarding field, that a forwarded first message is expected to be received from a third wireless station in a second time interval subsequent to the first time interval; 
 detect receipt of a second message including the forwarded first message and having a source address of a wireless access point during the second time interval; and 
 in response to receiving the second message, generate inbound data based on both the first message and the second message. 
   
     
     
         9 . The wireless station of  claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry includes:
 a filtering stage and an equalizer module coupled in series and configured to generate a first symbol stream based on the first message and a second symbol stream based on the second message.   
     
     
         10 . The wireless station of  claim 9 , wherein the processing circuitry further includes:
 a soft decision module configured to compute first soft bits from the first symbol stream and second soft bits from the second symbol stream; and   a memory to store the first soft bits until after the second soft bits have been computed.   
     
     
         11 . The wireless station of  claim 10 , wherein the processing circuitry further includes:
 conversion circuitry configured to generate the inbound data by combining the first soft bits and the second soft bits.   
     
     
         12 . The wireless station of  claim 8 , wherein the determining that a forwarded first message is expected to be received includes determining that the first message was received from an originating source. 
     
     
         13 . The wireless station of  claim 8 , wherein a time between the first time interval and the second time interval corresponds to a distributed interframe space. 
     
     
         14 . The wireless station of  claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
 transmit an acknowledgement signal in response to receipt of the second message, but not in response to receipt of the first message.   
     
     
         15 . A method comprising:
 detecting, at a first station, receipt of a first message transmitted by an originating device, wherein the first message is received during a first time interval, the first message including a forwarding field;   determining, at the first station and based on the forwarding field, that a forwarded first message is expected to be received from a forwarding device in a second time interval subsequent to the first time interval;   receiving, at the first station a second message including the forwarded first message during a second time interval, the second message transmitted by a forwarding device; and   in response to receiving the second message generating, at the first station, inbound data based on both the first message and the second message.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises:
 generating a first symbol stream based on the first message and a second symbol stream based on the second message.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises:
 computing first soft bits from the first symbol stream;   computing second soft bits from the second symbol stream; and   storing the first soft bits until second soft bits have been generated.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein generating the inbound data further comprises:
 combining the first soft bits and the second soft bits.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the determining includes determining that the forwarding field includes information instructing the forwarding device to generate the second message. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the method:
 transmit an acknowledgement signal in response to receipt of the second message, but not in response to receipt of the first message.