1. Field
The present application relates generally to wireless communications, and more specifically to systems, methods, and devices having wireless dual concurrent bands (DCB) or multiple concurrent bands (MCB), including operations achieving higher overall throughput and improving communication efficiency via band and/or channel switching and buffer management.
2. Background
In many telecommunication systems, communications networks are used to exchange messages among several interacting spatially-separated devices. Networks may be classified according to geographic scope, which could be, for example, a metropolitan area, a local area, or a personal area. Such networks may be designated respectively as a wide area network (WAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), local area network (LAN), or personal area network (PAN). Networks also differ according to the switching/routing technique used to interconnect the various network nodes and devices (e.g., circuit switching vs. packet switching), the type of physical media employed for transmission (e.g., wired vs. wireless), and the set of communication protocols used, e.g., Internet protocol suite, Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), Ethernet, etc.
Wireless networks are often preferred when the network elements are mobiles and thus have dynamic connectivity needs, or if the network architecture is formed in an ad hoc, rather than fixed, topology. Wireless networks may employ intangible physical media in an unguided propagation mode using electromagnetic waves in the radio, microwave, infra-red, optical, etc. frequency bands. Wireless networks advantageously facilitate user mobility and rapid field deployment when compared to fixed wired networks.
The devices in a wireless network may transmit/receive information between each other. The information may include packets, which in some aspects may be referred to as data units. The packets may include overhead information (e.g., header information, packet properties, etc.) that helps in routing the packet through the network, identifying the data in the packet, processing the packet, etc., as well as data, for example user data, multimedia content, etc. as might be carried in a payload of the packet.
Recent evolutions of IEEE 802.11 standard expand Wi-Fi onto multiple frequency bands. These bands include: 2 GHz frequency band for IEEE 802.11b/g/n, 5 GHz frequency band for IEEE 802.11a/n/ac, 60 GHz frequency band for IEEE 802.11ad, 900 MHz frequency band for IEEE 802.11ah and TVWS band for IEEE 802.11af. Recent technology enables a wireless device to concurrently operate on multiple bands. With a MCB station (STA) and a MCB access point (AP), multiple links may be established between the STA and the AP. Many Wi-Fi products support DCB, usually including the 2 GHz frequency band and 5 GHz frequency band. A DCB STA and a DCB AP may operate on both frequency bands concurrently and achieve higher overall throughput. However, such a DCB operation mode may cause higher power consumption, and therefore may not be beneficial. Therefore, it would be desirable if a DCB STA or a MCB STA can switch an operation frequency band with an associated AP dynamically.