Systems and methods of client device grouping for uplink transmission in a wlan

Abstract

Systems and methods for grouping client devices for uplink multi-user transmission are provided. Client device groups may be determined based on at least one of traffic compatibility/similarity, client device class compatibility/similarity, and uplink pathloss similarity. A target received signal strength measured by an AP with which client devices in the client device groups communicate and an appropriate modulation coding scheme rate to be used by the client devices may be determined and set for the client devices. The modulation coding scheme rate can be adjusted based on feedback regarding successful data packet reception at the AP from each of the client devices.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a hardware processor of a computing component, the machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause the hardware processor to:
 determine, in a wireless local area network (WLAN), a plurality of client devices having data to be transmitted to an access point (AP), each of the plurality of client devices being associated with one or more access category identifiers;   create a group of client devices from the plurality of client devices for uplink multi-user transmission, the group of client devices identified as being associated with the same access category identifier; and   select, for each of the client devices in the group of client devices, a modulation coding scheme (MCS) and a desired received signal strength indication (RSSI) at the AP from which a transmit power is derived, the MCS and the transmit power to be used during transmission of the data from each of the client devices in the group of client devices to the AP.   
     
     
         2 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more access category identifiers is indicative of a type of data to be transmitted to the AP, the creation of the group of client devices comprising determining a largest buffer queue size of each of the plurality of client devices. 
     
     
         3 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 2 , wherein the instructions further cause the hardware processor to associate those client devices whose largest buffer queue size is associated with the same access category identifier. 
     
     
         4 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 3 , wherein the instructions further cause the hardware processor to select one or more subsets of the associated client devices whose largest buffer queue size is within a threshold level of variance from each other. 
     
     
         5 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 4 , wherein the one or more access category identifiers associated with each of the plurality of client devices is identified through periodic buffer status reports received by the AP from each of the plurality of client devices. 
     
     
         6 . A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a hardware processor of a computing component, the machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause the hardware processor to:
 determine, in a wireless local area network (WLAN), a plurality of client devices having data to be transmitted to an access point (AP), each of the plurality of client devices being associated with a device class;   create a group of client devices from the plurality of client devices for uplink multi-user transmission, the group of client devices identified as being associated with the same device class; and   select, for each of the client devices in the group of client devices, a modulation coding scheme (MCS) and a desired received signal strength indication (RSSI) at the AP from which a transmit power is derived, the MCS and the transmit power to be used during transmission of the data from each of the client devices in the group of client devices to the AP.   
     
     
         7 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 6 , wherein the device class is indicative of each of the client device's transmitter fidelity. 
     
     
         8 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 7 , wherein the instructions further cause the hardware processor to schedule the transmission of the data from each of the client devices in the group of client devices associated with a device class, the device class being associated with a lower transmitter fidelity, in accordance with an uplink single user transmit mode. 
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 7 , wherein each of the client device's transmitter fidelity is reflected in terms of at least one of error vector magnitude characteristics and frequency characteristics during transmission at a particular effective isotropic radiated power. 
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 6 , wherein the instructions further cause the hardware processor to analyze initial association request messages received at the AP from each of the client devices to determine each of the client device's associated device class. 
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 6 , wherein the instructions further cause the hardware processor to determine each of the client device's associated device class based on at least one of a model and type of each of the client devices. 
     
     
         12 . A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a hardware processor of a computing component, the machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause the hardware processor to:
 determine available uplink power headroom at each of a plurality of client devices, the plurality of client devices comprising a group established for uplink multi-user transmission to an access point (AP) with which each of the plurality of client devices communicates;   build a data set comprising the available uplink power headroom for each of the plurality of client devices upon receipt of upstream packets from each of the plurality of client devices;   calculate a maximum achievable received signal strength at the AP and determine a maximum achievable modulation coding scheme (MCS) rate at the AP based on actual received signal strength at the AP from each of the plurality of client devices and an available uplink power headroom at each of the plurality of client devices;   select those of the plurality of client devices having sufficient uplink power headroom to accommodate a transmit power change to achieve a target received signal strength at the AP; and   set the target received signal strength and MCS for the selected client devices.   
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause the hardware processor to monitor receipt of uplink multi-user packets at the AP from each of the plurality of client devices. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 13 , wherein the instructions further cause the hardware processor to adjust MCS rates for each of the plurality of client devices based on successful receipt of the uplink multi-user packets at the AP. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause the hardware processor to:
 determine, within the group, those client devices having a similar uplink pathloss to the AP;   further subdivide the group based on the similarity of the uplink pathloss to the AP; and   schedule uplink multi-user transmissions in accordance with the further subdivisions of the group.