Target Wake Time (TWT)

Target Wake Time (TWT) is a new feature that allows an Access Point (AP) and stations to “wake up” at negotiated times. The stations and AP reach a TWT agreement that defines when a station is awake to receive and send data.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐏𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐖𝐓 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬?

Without TWT, the AP will broadcast a beacon frame to alert some stations to possible data transmissions.

This beacon frame informs some stations of the information that their data has been stored in the AP’s cache. Since the AP can only communicate with one station at a time, they have to “stay awake” to receive data packets from the AP one after another regardless of how long that process takes. 

  

When station 1 is exchanging data with AP, station 2 is in an idle state and waits until the AP finishes its communication with station 1. This causes extra power consumption and shorter battery lives for network devices.