Sony patents Wi-Fi method to share channel time for faster data

1. An apparatus for wireless communication in a network, the apparatus comprising: (a) a wireless communication circuit, performing transmission of frames between the medium access control (MAC) layers of an IEEE 802.11 network as a wireless station (STA) which is a separate STA or as a STA in a multiple-link device (MLD), and operating as either a regular STA or an Access Point (AP) STA, for wirelessly communicating with other wireless stations (STAs) using a carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) mechanism on a wireless local area network (WLAN) in which enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) is utilized for random channel access on all the links; (b) a processor coupled to said STA for operating on the WLAN; (c) a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor for communicating with other STAs; and (d) wherein said instructions, when executed by the processor, perform steps of a wireless communications protocol for said STA in reserving channel resources for frame exchanges of latency sensitive traffic with member STAs of restricted-target wake time (R-TWT) service periods (SPs), comprising: (i) wherein a non-AP STA negotiates with an AP to obtain membership in an R-TWT SP; (ii) contending for and gaining channel access by the non-AP STA before the scheduled start time of the R-TWT SP of which the non-AP STA is a member; (iii) reserving a transmit opportunity (TXOP), by the non-AP STA, on the channel whose duration overlaps the R-TWT SP; (iv) wherein the non-AP STA, as TXOP holder, performs any desired TXOP operations on the channel before the scheduled start time of the R-TWT SP on that same channel; and (v) sharing the TXOP by the non-AP STA, with an AP, which is allowed to behave as the TXOP holder until the TXOP or the R-TWT SP ends, in response to said non-AP STA sending an unsolicited message to the AP to indicate TXOP sharing, wherein additional channel contention for the R-TWT is eliminated.