Devices, systems, and methods for mitigating aggressive medium reservations

Abstract

A device includes a reservation pattern detector to detect a pattern of medium reservations in which a sum of reservation durations associated with two or more frames received from a first wireless device meets or exceeds a threshold duration value, and a reservation mitigator coupled with the reservation pattern detector to, responsive to detecting the pattern of medium reservations, provide a mitigation operation to prevent a second wireless device from yielding the medium to the first wireless device.

1 - 24 . (canceled) 
     
     
         25 . A device, comprising:
 a reservation pattern detector configured to detect a pattern of medium reservations in which a sum of reservation durations associated with two or more frames received from a first wireless device meets or exceeds a threshold duration value; and   a reservation mitigator coupled with the reservation pattern detector and configured to, responsive to detecting the pattern of medium reservations, provide a mitigation operation to prevent a second wireless device from yielding the medium to the first wireless device.   
     
     
         26 . The device of claim  1 , wherein the reservation pattern detector is further configured to detect the pattern of medium reservations by the first wireless device by detecting that an idle period of the medium is less than a threshold idle period. 
     
     
         27 . The device of claim  1 , wherein the reservation pattern detector is configured to detect the pattern of medium reservations by the first wireless device by detecting that a number of frames received from the first wireless device indicate a reservation duration that meets or exceeds the threshold duration value and that the number of frames meet or exceed a threshold number of frames. 
     
     
         28 . The device of claim  1 , wherein the reservation pattern detector is configured to detect the pattern of medium reservations by the first wireless device by determining an interval of a plurality of frames received from the first wireless device and comparing a reservation duration of the plurality of frames to the interval of the plurality of frames. 
     
     
         29 . The device of claim  1 , wherein:
 the reservation pattern detector is further configured to determine an interval of a plurality of frames received from the first wireless device; and   the reservation mitigator is configured to provide the mitigation operation by:
 using the determined interval to determine a time to transmit a mitigation signal to interfere with reception of at least one of the plurality of frames by the second wireless device; and 
 causing the device to transmit the mitigation signal to the second wireless device at the determined time. 
   
     
     
         30 . The device of claim  5 , configured to transmit the mitigation signal to the second wireless device using transmit beamforming or narrowband transmission. 
     
     
         31 . The device of claim  1 , wherein the reservation mitigator is configured to provide the mitigation operation by transmitting a mitigation signal to the second wireless device via the medium to cause the second wireless device to switch to communication via another wireless medium. 
     
     
         32 . The device of claim  1 , wherein the reservation mitigator is configured to provide the mitigation operation by causing the second wireless device to clear a network allocation vector (NAV) value associated with the reservation duration indicated by the first wireless device. 
     
     
         33 . The device of claim  9 , wherein the reservation mitigator is configured to cause the second wireless device to clear the NAV value associated with the reservation duration indicated by the first wireless device by transmitting a CFend control frame. 
     
     
         34 . The device of claim  9 , wherein the reservation mitigator is configured to cause the second wireless device to clear the NAV value by causing the second wireless device to communicate via the medium during a time period that the medium is reserved by the first wireless device. 
     
     
         35 . The device of claim  1 , wherein the mitigation signal comprises a vendor specific information element (IE) that identifies the first wireless device to prevent the second wireless device from yielding the medium to a transmission by the first wireless device. 
     
     
         36 . A device, comprising:
 a transceiver configured to communicate via a medium; and   logic circuitry coupled with the transceiver and configured to:   detect a pattern of medium reservations in which a sum of reservation durations associated with two or more frames received from a first network device meets or exceeds a threshold duration value; and   responsive to the detection of the pattern of channel reservations, provide a mitigation operation to prevent a second network device from yielding the medium to the first wireless device.   
     
     
         37 . The device of claim  12 , further comprising:
 an integrated circuit (IC) coupled with the transceiver, wherein the logic circuitry comprises a reservation pattern detector and a reservation mitigator residing on the IC, wherein the a reservation pattern detector is configured to detect the pattern of medium reservations and the reservation mitigator is configured to provide the mitigation operation.   
     
     
         38 . The device of claim  12 , further comprising:
 a location tracker configured to track a location of the device; and   a time tracker configured to track a time value, wherein the logic circuitry is configured to detect the pattern of medium reservations based on one or more of the location and the time value.   
     
     
         39 . The device of claim  12 , wherein the logic circuitry is configured to detect that an idle period of the channel is less than a threshold idle period to detect the pattern of channel reservations. 
     
     
         40 . The device of claim  12 , wherein the logic circuitry is configured to time a transmission of a mitigation signal to interfere with reception, by the second network device, of at least one reservation frame transmitted by the first network device, wherein the mitigation signal comprises a frame. 
     
     
         41 . The device of claim  12 , wherein the logic circuitry is configured to transmit a mitigation signal to the second network device via the channel to cause the second network device to communicate via another channel. 
     
     
         42 . A system, comprising:
 a plurality of network devices configured to communicate via a medium, wherein the plurality of network devices includes a first network device and a second network device;   a pattern detector configured to detect a pattern of medium reservations in which a sum of reservation durations associated with two or more frames received from the first network device meets or exceeds a threshold duration value; and   a reservation mitigator configured to, responsive to the detection of the pattern of medium reservations, provide a mitigation operation to prevent the second network device from yielding the medium to the first wireless device.   
     
     
         43 . The system of claim  18 , further comprising:
 the first network device is a wireless base station configured to issue medium reservations to reserve the medium; and   the second network device is a wireless device comprising one or more antennas for transmitting and receiving signals via the medium.   
     
     
         44 . The system of claim  18 , wherein the pattern detector and the reservation mitigator reside in a third network device of the plurality of network devices.