Method and apparatus for signaling of puncturing subchannels

Abstract

The present invention describes various examples related to signaling of puncturing subchannels in wireless communications. The puncturing pattern is signaled using an Extreme High Throughput (EHT) physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU). Then, a first station (STA) and a second STA communicate with each other based on the signaled puncturing pattern.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to signaling of punctured sub-channels in wireless communications. Background Art

[0002] Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section do not constitute prior art to the listed claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

[0003] In next-generation wireless communications, such as those implemented in wireless local area networks (WLANs) based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11be standard, puncturing of subchannels (e.g., 20 MHz bandwidth) is allowed for both orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) and non-orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (non-OFDMA) transmissions. For non-OFDMA transmissions (e.g., to single user (SU), duplicated SU, or full-bandwidth multi-user multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO), compressed mode is used. For OFDMA transmissions (e.g., to multiple users), non-compressed mode is used. However, there are some incumbent signals in 6GHz that may be licensed or unlicensed, and these incumbent signals usually have higher priority and are therefore considered to be punctured. Therefore, how to effectively provide an indication of punctured subchannels for extremely-high-throughput (EHT) wireless communications remains a problem. Therefore, a solution is needed to solve this problem. Summary of the invention

[0004] The following summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be limiting in any way. That is, the following overview is provided to introduce the concepts, highlights, benefits, and advantages of the novel and non-obvious technologies described herein. Selected embodiments are further described in the detailed description below. Therefore, the following summary is neither intended to identify the essential features of the claimed subject matter nor to be used to determine the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0005] One of the objectives of the present invention is to provide solutions, concepts, designs, techniques, methods and devices related to signaling of puncturing subchannels in wireless communications. According to various proposed solutions of the present invention, the above-described problems can be solved.

[0006] In one aspect, the present invention discloses a method for puncturing subchannels, the method comprising: sending a puncturing pattern using an EHT physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU). The method may also include: communicating between a first station (STA) and a second STA based on the sent puncturing pattern.

[0007] In some embodiments, the sending of the puncturing pattern includes: signaling the puncturing pattern in a universal signal U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU.

[0008] In some embodiments, the U-SIG field includes an EHT signal EHT-SIG compression subfield and a sub-channel puncturing indication subfield, wherein the EHT-SIG compression subfield indicates a compression mode or a non-compression mode, and the sub-channel puncturing indication subfield includes puncturing information.

[0009] In some embodiments, sending the puncturing pattern includes: for non-orthogonal frequency division multiple access transmission, providing a global puncturing indication in the U-SIG field by: setting one bit of the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 1 to indicate the compression mode; and indicating full-band puncturing information in the sub-channel puncturing indication subfield.

[0010] In some embodiments, the indication of the full-band puncturing information includes: indicating full-band puncturing information about 80 MHz bandwidth, 160 MHz bandwidth or 320 MHz bandwidth when the EHT PPDU is an 80 MHz PPDU, a 160 MHz PPDU or a 320 MHz PPDU, respectively.

[0011] In some embodiments, the indication of the full-band puncturing information includes: indicating the full-band puncturing information using a first number of entries, a second number of entries, or a third number of entries when the EHT PPDU is an 80MHz PPDU, a 160MHz PPDU, or a 320MHz PPDU, respectively, wherein the first number, the second number, and the third number are different from each other.

[0012] In some embodiments, sending the puncturing pattern includes: for orthogonal frequency division multiple access transmission, providing a local puncturing indication in the U-SIG field by: setting one bit of the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 0 to indicate a non-compressed mode; and indicating puncturing information for each 80MHz segment in the sub-channel puncturing indication subfield.

[0013] In some embodiments, the indication of the puncturing information of each 80 MHz segment includes indicating the puncturing information about the 80 MHz segment using a 4-bit bitmap, wherein each bit indicates whether a corresponding 20 MHz subchannel of four 20 MHz subchannels in the 80 MHz segment is punctured.

[0014] In some embodiments, the sending of the puncturing pattern includes: signaling the puncturing pattern in an EHT signal EHT-SIG field of the EHT PPDU, the EHT-SIG field being located after a universal signal U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU, and the U-SIG field including an EHT-SIG compression subfield indicating a compressed mode or a non-compressed mode.

[0015] In some embodiments, sending the puncturing pattern includes: for orthogonal frequency division multiple access transmission, providing a global puncturing indication in the EHT-SIG field by: setting one bit of the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 0 to indicate a non-compressed mode; and indicating the puncturing pattern in multiple resource unit RU allocation subfields in the EHT-SIG field.

[0016] On the other hand, the present invention discloses a device for punching subchannels, the device comprising a transceiver and a processor coupled to the transceiver. The transceiver can be configured to perform wireless communication. The processor can send a punching pattern using an EHTPPDU via the transceiver. The processor can communicate between a first STA and a second STA via the transceiver based on the sent punching pattern.

[0017] In some embodiments, when sending the puncturing pattern, the processor signals the puncturing pattern in a universal signal U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU.

[0018] In some embodiments, the U-SIG field includes an EHT signal EHT-SIG compression subfield and a sub-channel puncturing indication subfield, wherein the EHT-SIG compression subfield indicates a compression mode or a non-compression mode, and the sub-channel puncturing indication subfield includes puncturing information.

[0019] In some embodiments, when sending the puncturing pattern, for non-orthogonal frequency division multiple access transmission, the processor provides a global puncturing indication in the U-SIG field in the following manner: setting one bit of the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 1 to indicate the compression mode; and indicating full-band puncturing information in the sub-channel puncturing indication subfield.

[0020] In some embodiments, when indicating the full-band puncturing information, the processor indicates full-band puncturing information about 80 MHz bandwidth, 160 MHz bandwidth, or 320 MHz bandwidth if the EHT PPDU is an 80 MHz PPDU, a 160 MHz PPDU, or a 320 MHz PPDU, respectively.

[0021] In some embodiments, when indicating the full-band puncturing information, the processor indicates the full-band puncturing information using a first number of entries, a second number of entries, or a third number of entries when the EHT PPDU is an 80MHz PPDU, a 160MHz PPDU, or a 320MHz PPDU, respectively, wherein the first number, the second number, and the third number are different from each other.

[0022] In some embodiments, when sending the puncturing pattern, for orthogonal frequency division multiple access transmission, the processor provides a local puncturing indication in the U-SIG field by: setting one bit of the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 0 to indicate a non-compressed mode; and indicating puncturing information for each 80MHz segment in the subchannel puncturing indication subfield.

[0023] In some embodiments, when indicating the puncturing information of each 80 MHz segment, the processor indicates the puncturing information about the 80 MHz segment using a 4-bit bitmap, wherein each bit indicates whether a corresponding 20 MHz subchannel of four 20 MHz subchannels in the 80 MHz segment is punctured.

[0024] In some embodiments, when sending the puncturing pattern, the processor signals the puncturing pattern in an EHT signal EHT-SIG field of the EHT PPDU, the EHT-SIG field being located after a universal signal U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU, and the U-SIG field including an EHT-SIG compression subfield indicating a compressed mode or a non-compressed mode.

[0025] In some embodiments, when sending the puncturing pattern, for orthogonal frequency division multiple access transmission, the processor provides a global puncturing indication in the EHT-SIG field in the following manner: setting one bit of the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 0 to indicate a non-compressed mode; and indicating the puncturing pattern in multiple resource unit RU allocation subfields in the EHT-SIG field.

[0026] It is worth noting that although the description provided herein is provided in the context of certain radio access technologies, networks, and network topologies, such as WiFi, the concepts, schemes, and any variants / derivations thereof may be implemented in or by other types of radio access technologies, networks, and network topologies, such as, but not limited to, Bluetooth, ZigBee, 5th Generation (5G), New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, LTE-Advanced Pro, Internet-of-Things (IoT), Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT), and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Therefore, the scope of the present application is not limited to the examples described herein.

[0027] Those skilled in the art will no doubt understand these and other objects of the present invention after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. The detailed description will be given in the following embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the embodiments of the present disclosure, and the accompanying drawings are incorporated into and constitute a part of the embodiments of the present disclosure. The accompanying drawings illustrate implementations of the embodiments of the present disclosure and, together with the description, are used to explain the principles of the embodiments of the present disclosure. It is understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, as some components may be shown not to scale with the actual implementation size to clearly illustrate the concepts of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0029] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an example network environment in which various solutions and technical solutions according to the present invention can be implemented.

[0030] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of an example design according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0031] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of an example design according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0032] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of an example design according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0033] Figure 5 is a block diagram of an example communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0034] Figure 6 is a flow chart of an example method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0035] In the following detailed description, for the purpose of illustration, many specific details are set forth so that those skilled in the art can more thoroughly understand the embodiments of the present invention. However, it is apparent that one or more embodiments may be implemented without these specific details, and different embodiments may be combined as needed, and should not be limited to the embodiments listed in the accompanying drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0036] The following description is a preferred embodiment of the present invention, which is only used to illustrate the technical features of the present invention, and is not used to limit the scope of the present invention. Certain words are used throughout the specification and claims to refer to specific components. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that manufacturers may use different names to refer to the same components. Therefore, the present specification and claims do not use the difference in name as a way to distinguish components, but use the difference in function of the components as a basis for distinction. The terms "component", "system" and "device" used in the present invention can be entities related to computers, wherein the computer can be hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. The terms "including" and "comprising" mentioned in the following description and claims are open-ended terms, so they should be interpreted as "including, but not limited to...". In addition, the term "coupled" means an indirect or direct electrical connection. Therefore, if a device is described as coupled to another device, it means that the device can be directly electrically connected to the other device, or indirectly electrically connected to the other device through other devices or connection means.

[0037] Corresponding numbers and symbols in the various figures of the drawings generally refer to corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated. The drawings are drawn to clearly illustrate the relevant parts of the embodiments and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

[0038] The term "substantially" or "approximately" as used herein means that within an acceptable range, a person skilled in the art can solve the technical problem to be solved and basically achieve the technical effect to be achieved. For example, "approximately equal to" means that a certain error from "completely equal to" is acceptable to a person skilled in the art without affecting the correctness of the result.

[0039] Embodiments according to the present invention relate to various technologies, methods, schemes and / or solutions related to signaling (signaling) of punctured sub-channels (punctured sub-channels) in wireless communications. According to the present invention, multiple feasible solutions can be implemented individually or in combination. That is, although these feasible solutions are described separately below, two or more of these feasible solutions can be implemented in one combination or another combination.

[0040] It is noteworthy that although the examples described herein and shown in the figures show a first RU of size A and a second RU of size B, as in RU A+RU B, various proposed schemes according to the present invention can be implemented with RU A+RU B, and vice versa (e.g., RU B+RU A). In other words, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the examples presented herein, but also covers its variants. For example, for a multi-RU group (996+484), the order of the RUs can be exchanged in different implementations, for example, in one implementation, a first RU of size 484 plus a second RU of size 996, or alternatively, in another implementation, a first RU of size 996 plus a second RU of size 484. In addition, in the present invention, aggregated multiple RUs (multiple RUs) can be interchangeably referred to as "multi-RUs" and "MRUs". Therefore, in the above example, the multi-RU group (996+484) can be an aggregation of two RUs (i.e., a 996-tone RU and a 484-tone RU), which can be referred to as a multi-RU (996+484) or an MRU (996+484).

[0041] Figure 1 An example network environment 100 is shown in which various solutions and approaches according to the present invention may be implemented. Figures 2 to 6 An example of implementation of various proposed solutions in a network environment 100 according to the present invention is shown. Figures 1 to 6 The following description of various proposed approaches is provided.

[0042] Reference Figure 1 , a network environment 100 involves a communication entity 110 and a communication entity 120 that perform wireless communication (e.g., in a WLAN according to one or more IEEE 802.11 standards). For example, the communication entity 110 may be a first STA, and the communication entity 120 may be a second STA, wherein each of the first STA and the second STA is an access point (AP) STA or a non-AP STA. Under various proposed schemes according to the present invention, the communication entity 110 and the communication entity 120 may be configured to perform signaling of puncturing subchannels in wireless communication, as described herein.

[0043] According to the proposed scheme of the present invention, the Universal Signal (U-SIG) field in a given PPDU is used for signaling about puncturing subchannels. U-SIG includes two subfields, namely, the EHT Signal (EHT-SIG) compression subfield and the sub-channel puncturing indication subfield. The EHT-SIG compression subfield has 1 bit to indicate compression mode or non-compression mode. The sub-channel puncturing indication subfield has 6 bits (or 5 bits) for compression mode or 4 bits (or 3 bits) for non-compression mode.

[0044] Under the proposed scheme for global indication of puncturing subchannels in compressed mode, whole-band puncturing is indicated by the subchannel puncturing indication subfield. Under the proposed scheme, the EHT-SIG compression subfield may be set to 1 to indicate compressed mode, and the subchannel puncturing indication subfield may include whole-band puncturing information. For example, only non-OFDMA puncturing patterns are included in the puncturing indication subfield. As an example, a bandwidth dependent table may be used as a global puncturing indication for non-OFDMA puncturing patterns for the entire PPDU bandwidth.

[0045] Figure 2 An example design 200 under the proposed scheme is shown. Figure 2 , the table summarizes the puncturing indications according to example design 200 (wherein the EHT-SIG compression subfield is set to 1). For example, for a PPDU of any bandwidth, there is one entry to indicate that there is no puncturing. For an 80 MHz PPDU, when a non-OFDMA puncturing pattern exists in the 80 MHz bandwidth, there may be N entries to indicate the N non-OFDMA puncturing patterns in the 80 MHz bandwidth. For a 160 MHz PPDU, when a non-OFDMA puncturing pattern exists in the 160 MHz bandwidth, there may be M entries to indicate the M non-OFDMA puncturing patterns in the 160 MHz bandwidth. For a 320 MHz PPDU, when a non-OFDMA puncturing pattern exists in the 320 MHz bandwidth, there may be L entries to indicate the L non-OFDMA puncturing patterns in the 320 MHz bandwidth.

[0046] Under the proposed scheme for local puncturing indication in non-compressed mode, per-80MHz segment puncturing can be indicated in the U-SIG by the subchannel puncturing indication subfield. Under the proposed scheme, the EHT-SIG compression subfield is set to 0 to indicate non-compressed mode, and the subchannel puncturing indication subfield can contain only puncturing information for the 80MHz segment. For example, with the EHT-SIG compression subfield set to 0, a 4-bit bitmap is used to indicate one or more 20MHz subchannels within a given 80MHz segment. Under the proposed scheme, local puncturing indication can be used at reception (Rx) to find (one or more) non-punctured content channels for EHT-SIG decoding.

[0047] Figure 3 An example design 300 under the proposed scheme is shown. Figure 3 , a 4-bit bitmap can be used to indicate one or more 20MHz subchannels within a given 80MHz segment. Figure 3 In the example shown, a "0" in the bitmap may indicate no puncturing, and a "1" in the bitmap may indicate puncturing. Thus, "0110" may indicate that the second 20MHz channel and the third 20MHz channel in this 80MHz segment are punctured.

[0048] Under the proposed scheme for global puncturing indication in non-compressed mode, global puncturing may be indicated in the EHT Signal (EHT-SIG) field, where the EHT-SIG field is located after the U-SIG field in a given PPDU. For non-compressed mode, there is a resource unit (RU) allocation subfield in the EHT-SIG field. Therefore, global puncturing may be indicated in the EHT-SIG RU allocation subfield for non-compressed mode. For example, a bandwidth dependent table may be used to provide global puncturing indication.

[0049] Figure 4 An example design 400 under the proposed scheme is shown. Figure 4, in the RU allocation table, there is an entry for "punctured RU 242", which corresponds to a 20 MHz punctured subchannel. For non-compressed mode (where the EHT-SIG compression subfield is set to 0), punctured RU 242 is used to indicate the puncturing mode. For example, in Figure 4 In the example shown, the fifth 20 MHz and the sixth 20 MHz are punctured in a 160 MHz PPDU having an 80 MHz primary segment and an 80 MHz secondary segment.

[0050] Figure 5 An example system 500 having at least an example device 510 and an example device 520 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. Each of the devices 510 and 520 can perform various functions to implement the schemes, techniques, processes and methods described herein related to signaling of puncturing subchannels in wireless communications, including the above according to the various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems and methods described above and the processes described below. For example, the device 510 can be an example implementation of the communication entity 110, and the device 520 can be an example implementation of the communication entity 120.

[0051] Each of the devices 510 and 520 is part of an electronic device, which may be a station (STA) or an access point (AP), such as a portable or mobile device, a wearable device, a wireless communication device, or a computing device. For example, each of the devices 510 and 520 may be implemented in a smart phone, a smart watch, a personal digital assistant, a digital camera, or a computing device such as a tablet calculator, a laptop calculator, or a notebook calculator. Each of the devices 510 and 520 may also be part of a machine-type device, which may be an IoT device such as a stationary or fixed device, a home device, a wired communication device, or a computing device. For example, each of the devices 510 and 520 may be implemented in a smart thermostat, a smart refrigerator, a smart door lock, a wireless speaker, or a home control center. When implemented in a network device or as a network device, the devices 510 and / or 520 may be implemented in a network node, such as an AP in a WLAN.

[0052] In some implementations, the apparatus 510 and the apparatus 520 may be implemented in the form of one or more integrated circuit (IC) chips, such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) processors, or one or more complex-instruction-set-computing (CISC) processors. In each of the above-described schemes, each of the apparatus 510 and the apparatus 520 may include Figure 5 Some of those components shown in the figure, such as processor 512 and processor 522. Each of device 510 and device 520 may further include one or more other components (e.g., internal power supply, display device and / or user interface device) that are not related to the solution proposed by the present invention, so for the sake of simplicity and brevity, (one or more) such components are not shown in the figure. Figure 5 The devices 510 and 520 are not shown in the illustration and are not described below for the sake of brevity.

[0053] In one aspect, each of the processors 512 and 522 may be implemented in the form of one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more RISC processors, or one or more CISC processors. That is, although the singular term "processor" is used herein to refer to the processors 512 and 522, each of the processors 512 and 522 may include multiple processors in some implementations, and, in other embodiments according to the present invention, may include a single processor. On the other hand, each of the processors 512 and 522 may be implemented in the form of hardware (and optionally, solid) having electronic components, the electronic components including, for example, but not limited to, one or more transistors, one or more diodes, one or more capacitors, one or more resistors, one or more inductors, one or more memristors, and / or, one or more varactor diodes, which are configured and arranged to achieve specific purposes according to the embodiments of the present disclosure. In other words, in at least some implementations, according to various implementations of the embodiments of the present disclosure, each of the processors 512 and 522 is a dedicated machine that is specially designed, arranged, and configured to perform specific tasks, including those related to the signaling of the puncturing subchannels in wireless communications according to various embodiments of the present invention. For example, each of processor 512 and processor 522 may be configured with hardware components or circuits to implement one, some, or all of the examples described and illustrated herein.

[0054] In some implementations, the device 510 may also include a transceiver 516 coupled to the processor 512, and the transceiver 516 may be capable of wirelessly transmitting and receiving data. In some implementations, the device 520 may also include a transceiver 526 coupled to the processor 522, and the transceiver 526 may be capable of wirelessly transmitting and receiving data.

[0055] In some implementations, the device 510 may further include a memory 514 coupled to the processor 512 and capable of being accessed by the processor 512 and storing data therein. In some implementations, the device 520 may also include a memory 524 coupled to the processor 522 and capable of being accessed by the processor 522 and storing data therein. Each of the memory 514 and the memory 524 may include a type of random-access memory (RAM), such as dynamic RAM (DRAM), static RAM (SRAM), thyristor RAM (T-RAM) and / or zero-capacitance RAM (Z-RAM). Alternatively or additionally, each of the memory 514 and the memory 524 may include a type of read-only memory (ROM), such as mask ROM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM) and / or electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM). Alternatively or additionally, each of memory 514 and memory 524 may include a type of non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM), such as flash memory, solid-state memory, ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), and / or phase change memory.

[0056] Each of the apparatus 510 and the apparatus 520 may be a communication entity capable of communicating with each other using various proposed schemes according to the present invention. For illustrative purposes and not limitation, a description of the capabilities of the apparatus 510 as the communication entity 110 and the apparatus 520 as the communication entity 120 is provided below. It is worth noting that although the example implementation described below is provided in the context of a WLAN, it may also be implemented in other types of networks. Therefore, although the description of the following example implementation is about a scenario in which the apparatus 510 is used as a transmitting device and the apparatus 520 is used as a receiving device, the same is also applicable to another scenario in which the apparatus 510 is used as a receiving device and the apparatus 520 is used as a transmitting device, and specifically, the embodiments of the present invention are not limited.

[0057] Under the proposed scheme for signaling of puncturing subchannels in wireless communication according to the present invention, the processor 512 of the device 510 may be implemented in a first STA (e.g., in the communication entity 110 as a non-AP STA), and the processor 522 of the device 520 may be implemented in a second STA in the EHT WLAN (e.g., in the communication entity 120 as an AP). Under the proposed scheme, a puncturing pattern may be transmitted / signaled / signaled using an EHT PPDU between the first STA and the second STA. For example, the processor 512 of the device 510 may receive an EHT PPDU indicating a puncturing pattern from the device 520 via the transceiver 516, and vice versa. In addition, the first STA and the second STA may communicate with each other based on the signaled puncturing pattern. For example, the processor 512 may send and / or receive data to the device 520 based on the signaled puncturing pattern. Similarly, the processor 522 may send and / or receive data to and / or from the device 510 based on the signaled / transmitted puncturing pattern.

[0058] In some implementations, when signaling / transmitting the puncturing pattern, the processor 512 or the processor 522 may signal the puncturing pattern in a U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU.

[0059] In some implementations, the U-SIG field may include an EHT-SIG compression subfield and a subchannel puncturing indication subfield. The EHT-SIG compression subfield indicates compression mode or non-compression mode, and the subchannel puncturing indication subfield may include puncturing information.

[0060] In some embodiments, when signaling / transmitting the puncturing mode, processor 512 or processor 522 may provide a global puncturing indication (e.g., with a bandwidth-dependent table) for non-OFDMA transmissions in the U-SIG field by: (a) setting a bit of the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 1 to indicate the compression mode; and (b) indicating whole-band puncturing information in the subchannel puncturing indication subfield.

[0061] In some implementations, when indicating the full-band puncturing information, the processor 512 or the processor 522 may indicate full-band puncturing information about 80 MHz bandwidth, 160 MHz bandwidth, or 320 MHz bandwidth, respectively, when the EHT PPDU is an 80 MHz PPDU, a 160 MHz PPDU, or a 320 MHz PPDU.

[0062] In some embodiments, when indicating full-band puncturing information, processor 512 or processor 522 may indicate full-band puncturing information using a first number of entries, a second number of entries, or a third number of entries when the EHT PPDU is an 80 MHz PPDU, a 160 MHz PPDU, or a 320 MHz PPDU, respectively. The first number, the second number, and the third number may be different from each other.

[0063] In some embodiments, when signaling the puncturing mode, processor 512 or processor 522 may provide a local puncturing indication for OFDMA transmission in the U-SIG field by: (a) setting the bit of the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 0 to indicate a non-compressed mode; and (b) indicating puncturing information for each 80 MHz segment in the subchannel puncturing indication subfield.

[0064] In some implementations, when indicating the puncturing information for each 80 MHz segment, the processor 512 or the processor 522 may use a 4-bit bitmap to indicate the puncturing information about the 80 MHz segment, wherein each bit indicates whether a corresponding 20 MHz subchannel in four 20 MHz subchannels in the 80 MHz segment is punctured. For example, "0011" may indicate that in this 80 MHz segment, the third 20 MHz channel and the fourth 20 MHz channel are punctured.

[0065] In some implementations, when signaling the puncturing mode, the processor 512 or the processor 522 may signal the puncturing mode in the EHT-SIG field of the EHT PPDU, which follows the U-SIG field in the EHT PPDU. The U-SIG field may include an EHT-SIG compression subfield indicating a compressed mode or a non-compressed mode.

[0066] In some embodiments, when signaling the puncturing pattern, processor 512 or processor 522 may provide a global puncturing indication (e.g., with a bandwidth-dependent table) for OFDMA transmission in the EHT-SIG field by: (a) setting bits of the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 0 to indicate non-compressed mode; and, (b) indicating the puncturing pattern in multiple RU allocation subfields in the EHT-SIG field.

[0067] Figure 6An example process 600 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. Process 600 may represent aspects of implementing the various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems and methods described above. More specifically, process 600 may represent aspects of concepts and schemes related to signaling of puncturing subchannels in wireless communications according to the present invention. Process 600 may include one or more operations, actions or functions as shown in one or more of steps 610 and 620. Although shown as discrete steps, the steps of process 600 may be divided into additional steps, combined into fewer steps, or eliminated, depending on the desired implementation. In addition, the steps / sub-steps of process 600 may be performed as described in detail below. Figure 6 6. The process 600 may be performed in the order shown, or in a different order. In addition, one or more of the steps / sub-steps of process 600 may be performed repeatedly or iteratively. Process 600 may be implemented by or in device 510 and device 520 and any variants thereof. For illustrative purposes only and without limiting the scope, process 600 is described below in the context of device 510 as a communication entity 110 (e.g., a transmitting device of either a STA or an AP) of a wireless network (e.g., a WLAN according to one or more IEEE 802.11 standards) and device 520 as a communication entity 120 (e.g., a receiving device of either a STA or an AP) of a wireless network (e.g., a WLAN according to one or more IEEE 802.11 standards). Process 600 may start at step 610.

[0068] At step 610, the process 600 may include: signaling / transmitting / sending the puncturing pattern using the EHT PPDU between the first STA (e.g., the device 510 implemented in the communication entity 110 as a non-AP STA) and the second STA (e.g., the device 520 implemented in the communication entity 110 as an AP). For example, the processor 512 of the device 510 may receive the EHT PPDU indicating the puncturing pattern from the device 520 via the transceiver 516, and vice versa. The process 600 may proceed from 610 to 620.

[0069] At step 620, process 600 may include the first STA and the second STA communicating with each other based on the transmitted puncturing pattern.For example, processor 512 may send and / or receive data to and / or from device 520 based on the signaled / transmitted puncturing pattern.

[0070] In some implementations, when signaling the puncturing pattern, process 600 may include processor 512 or processor 522 signaling the puncturing pattern in a U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU.

[0071] In some implementations, the U-SIG field may include an EHT-SIG compression subfield and a subchannel puncturing indication subfield. The EHT-SIG compression subfield may indicate compression mode or non-compression mode, and the subchannel puncturing indication subfield may include puncturing information.

[0072] In some embodiments, when the puncturing mode is signaled, process 600 may include: processor 512 or processor 522 provides a global puncturing indication for non-OFDMA transmission in the U-SIG field (e.g., using a bandwidth-related table) by: (a) setting a bit of the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 1 to indicate the compression mode; and (b) indicating full-band puncturing information in the subchannel puncturing indication subfield.

[0073] In some embodiments, when indicating full-band puncturing information, process 600 may include processor 512 or processor 522 indicating full-band puncturing information about 80 MHz bandwidth, 160 MHz bandwidth, or 320 MHz bandwidth, respectively, when the EHT PPDU is an 80 MHz PPDU, a 160 MHz PPDU, or a 320 MHz PPDU.

[0074] In some embodiments, when indicating full-band puncturing information, process 600 may include: processor 512 or processor 522 indicates full-band puncturing information using a first number of entries, a second number of entries, or a third number of entries when the EHT PPDU is an 80 MHz PPDU, a 160 MHz PPDU, or a 320 MHz PPDU, respectively. The first number, the second number, and the third number may be different from each other.

[0075] In some embodiments, when signaling a puncturing mode, process 600 may include processor 512 or processor 522 providing a local puncturing indication for OFDMA transmission in the U-SIG field by: (a) setting a bit of the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 0 to indicate a non-compressed mode; and, (b) indicating puncturing information for each 80 MHz segment in the subchannel puncturing indication subfield.

[0076] In some embodiments, when indicating puncturing information for each 80 MHz segment, process 600 may include: processor 512 or processor 522 indicates puncturing information about the 80 MHz segment using a 4-bit bit map, wherein each bit indicates whether a corresponding 20 MHz subchannel of four 20 MHz subchannels in the 80 MHz segment is punctured.

[0077] In some embodiments, when signaling the puncturing mode, process 600 may include processor 512 or processor 522 signaling the puncturing mode in an EHT-SIG field of the EHT PPDU, the EHT-SIG field following the U-SIG field in the EHT PPDU. The U-SIG field may include an EHT-SIG compression subfield indicating a compressed mode or a non-compressed mode.

[0078] In some implementations, when signaling a puncturing mode, process 600 may include processor 512 or processor 522 providing a global puncturing indication for OFDMA transmission in the EHT-SIG field (e.g., utilizing a bandwidth-related table) by: (a) setting a bit of the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 0 to indicate a non-compressed mode; and (b) indicating the puncturing mode in multiple RU allocation subfields in the EHT-SIG field.

[0079] The subject matter described herein sometimes describes different components contained in other different components, or different components connected to other different components. It should be understood that the described structure is only an example, and in fact, the same function can also be achieved by implementing other structures. Conceptually, any component configuration that can achieve the same function is effectively "associated" to achieve the desired function. Therefore, any two components combined herein to achieve a certain specific function can be regarded as "associated" with each other to achieve the desired function, regardless of their structure or intermediate components. Similarly, any two components associated in this way can also be regarded as "operationally connected" or "operationally coupled" to achieve the desired function, and any two components that can be associated in this way can also be regarded as "operationally couplable" to each other to achieve the desired function. Specific examples of operational coupling include but are not limited to physically pairable and / or physically interactive components and / or wirelessly interactive and / or wirelessly interactive components and / or logically interactive and / or logically interactive components.

[0080] In addition, for any plural and / or singular words used in this article, those skilled in the art can convert the plural to the singular and / or the singular to the plural according to whether the context and / or application scenario is appropriate. For the sake of clarity, various substitutions between singular and plural in this article are clearly stipulated here.

[0081] In addition, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that, in general, the words used herein, especially in the appended claims, such as the words used in the body of the claims, generally have an "open" meaning, for example, the word "comprising" should be understood as "including but not limited to", the word "having" should be understood as "having at least", the word "including" should be understood as "including but not limited to", etc. It will be further understood by those skilled in the art that if an introductory claim listing intends to include a specific value, such intention will be explicitly listed in the claim, and if it is not listed, such intention does not exist. To help understanding, for example, the appended claims may contain introductory phrases such as "at least one" and "one or more" to introduce claim listings. However, such a phrase should not cause the claim list to be interpreted as if the introduction of the indefinite article "a" means that any particular claim containing such an introductory claim list is limited to embodiments containing only one such list, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrase "one or more" or "at least one" and an indefinite article such as "a", that is, "a" should be interpreted as "at least one" or "one or more". The same is true for the use of definite articles to introduce claim lists. In addition, even if a specific value is explicitly listed in an introductory claim list, those skilled in the art will recognize that such a list should be understood to include at least the listed value, for example, when only "two lists" without any other limitation, it means at least two lists, or two or more lists. In addition, if the phrase "at least one of A, B, and C, etc." is used, it is generally understood by those skilled in the art that, for example, "a system having at least one of A, B, and C" will include, but is not limited to, a system having only A, a system having only B, a system having only C, a system having A and B, a system having A and C, a system having B and C, and / or a system having A, B, and C, etc. If the phrase "at least one of A, B, or C, etc." is used, it is generally understood by those skilled in the art that, for example, "a system having at least one of A, B, or C" will include, but is not limited to, a system having only A, a system having only B, a system having only C, a system having A and B, a system having A and C, a system having B and C, and / or a system having A, B, and C, etc. It is further understood by those skilled in the art that almost all separating words and / or phrases connecting two or more alternative words appearing in the specification, claims, or drawings should be understood to take into account all possibilities, that is, including one of all words, either of the two words, or both words. For example, the phrase "A or B" should be understood to include the following possibilities: "A", "B", or "A and B".

[0082] Although the present invention has been described by way of example and in terms of preferred embodiments, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Instead, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar structures (as will be apparent to those skilled in the art), for example, combinations or replacements of different features in different embodiments. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be given the broadest interpretation to cover all such modifications and similar structures.

Claims

1. A signaling method for puncturing a subchannel, characterized in that: include: Utilizes ultra-high throughput EHT physical layer protocol data unit PPDU to send puncturing mode; as well as, Communicate between the first station STA and the second STA based on the sent puncturing pattern; The sending of the puncturing mode includes: For non-OFDMA transmission, a global puncturing indication is provided for the entire PPDU bandwidth in the Universal Signal U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU; or, For OFDMA transmission, each bit in the 4-bit bitmap is used to indicate whether a corresponding 20 MHz subchannel in the 4 20 MHz subchannels in the 80 MHz segment is punctured, wherein the 4 bits in the 4-bit bitmap are all located in the universal signal U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that For the non-OFDMA transmission, the global puncturing indication provided for the entire PPDU bandwidth is determined using a bandwidth-dependent table.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The U-SIG field includes an EHT signal EHT-SIG compression subfield and a subchannel puncturing indication subfield, wherein the EHT-SIG compression subfield indicates a compressed mode or a non-compressed mode, and the subchannel puncturing indication subfield includes puncturing information, wherein the compressed mode is used for the non-OFDMA transmission and the non-compressed mode is used for the non-OFDMA transmission.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that For the non-OFDMA transmission, the global puncturing indication is provided in the U-SIG field in the following manner: The EHT-SIG Compression subfield is set to 1 to indicate the compression mode; and, The sub-channel puncturing indication subfield indicates full-band puncturing information.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The indication of the full-band puncturing information includes: indicating full-band puncturing information about 80 MHz bandwidth, 160 MHz bandwidth or 320 MHz bandwidth when the EHT PPDU is an 80 MHz PPDU, a 160 MHz PPDU or a 320 MHz PPDU, respectively.

6. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The indication of the full-band puncturing information includes: when the EHTPPDU is an 80MHz PPDU, a 160MHz PPDU or a 320MHz PPDU, respectively, the full-band puncturing information is indicated using a first number of entries, a second number of entries or a third number of entries, wherein the first number, the second number and the third number are different from each other.

7. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that The sending of the puncturing pattern further includes: for the OFDMA transmission, providing a local puncturing indication in the U-SIG field in the following manner: The EHT-SIG Compression subfield is set to 0 to indicate the non-compressed mode; The sub-channel puncturing indication subfield indicates puncturing information for each 80 MHz segment.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that The indication of the puncturing information of each 80 MHz segment includes indicating the puncturing information about the 80 MHz segment using a 4-bit bitmap, wherein each bit indicates whether a corresponding 20 MHz sub-channel of four 20 MHz sub-channels in the 80 MHz segment is punctured.

9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The sending of the puncturing pattern also includes: signaling the puncturing pattern in an EHT signal EHT-SIG field of the EHT PPDU, the EHT-SIG field being located after a universal signal U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU, and the U-SIG field including an EHT-SIG compression subfield indicating a compressed mode or a non-compressed mode, wherein the compressed mode is used for the non-OFDMA transmission and the non-compressed mode is used for the OFDMA transmission.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The transmission of the puncturing pattern also includes: for the OFDMA transmission, providing a global puncturing indication in the EHT-SIG field in the following manner: setting the EHT-SIG compression subfield to 0 to indicate the non-compressed mode; and indicating the puncturing pattern in multiple resource unit RU allocation subfields in the EHT-SIG field.

11. A signaling device for puncturing a sub-channel, characterized in that: The apparatus includes a processor configured to: Utilizes ultra-high throughput EHT physical layer protocol data unit PPDU to send puncturing mode; as well as, Communicate between the first station STA and the second STA based on the sent puncturing pattern; The sending of the puncturing mode includes: For non-OFDMA transmission, a global puncturing indication is provided for the entire PPDU bandwidth in the Universal Signal U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU; or, For OFDMA transmission, each bit in the 4-bit bitmap is used to indicate whether a corresponding 20 MHz subchannel in the 4 20 MHz subchannels in the 80 MHz segment is punctured, wherein the 4 bits in the 4-bit bitmap are all located in the universal signal U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU.

12. The device according to claim 11, characterized in that For the non-OFDMA transmission, the global puncturing indication provided for the entire PPDU bandwidth is determined using a bandwidth-dependent table.

13. The device according to claim 12, characterized in that The U-SIG field includes an EHT signal EHT-SIG compression subfield and a subchannel puncturing indication subfield, wherein the EHT-SIG compression subfield indicates a compressed mode or a non-compressed mode, and the subchannel puncturing indication subfield includes puncturing information, wherein the compressed mode is used for the non-OFDMA transmission and the non-compressed mode is used for the OFDMA transmission.

14. The device according to claim 13, characterized in that For the non-OFDMA transmission, the processor provides the global puncturing indication in the U-SIG field in the following manner: The EHT-SIG Compression subfield is set to 1 to indicate the compression mode; and, The sub-channel puncturing indication subfield indicates full-band puncturing information.

15. The device according to claim 14, characterized in that When indicating the full-band puncturing information, the processor indicates full-band puncturing information about an 80 MHz bandwidth, a 160 MHz bandwidth, or a 320 MHz bandwidth if the EHT PPDU is an 80 MHz PPDU, a 160 MHz PPDU, or a 320 MHz PPDU, respectively.

16. The device according to claim 14, characterized in that When indicating the full-band puncturing information, the processor indicates the full-band puncturing information using a first number of entries, a second number of entries, or a third number of entries when the EHT PPDU is an 80MHz PPDU, a 160MHz PPDU, or a 320MHz PPDU, respectively, wherein the first number, the second number, and the third number are different from each other.

17. The device according to claim 13, characterized in that When sending the puncturing pattern, the processor provides a local puncturing indication in the U-SIG field for the OFDMA transmission by: The EHT-SIG Compression subfield is set to 0 to indicate non-compressed mode; The sub-channel puncturing indication subfield indicates puncturing information for each 80 MHz segment.

18. The device according to claim 17, characterized in that When indicating the puncturing information of each 80 MHz segment, the processor indicates the puncturing information about the 80 MHz segment using a 4-bit bitmap, wherein each bit indicates whether a corresponding 20 MHz subchannel of four 20 MHz subchannels in the 80 MHz segment is punctured.

19. The device according to claim 11, characterized in that When sending the puncturing pattern, the processor signals the puncturing pattern in the EHT signal EHT-SIG field of the EHT PPDU, the EHT-SIG field being located after the universal signal U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU, and the U-SIG field including an EHT-SIG compression subfield indicating a compressed mode or a non-compressed mode, wherein the compressed mode is used for the non-OFDMA transmission and the non-compressed mode is used for the OFDMA transmission.

20. The device according to claim 19, characterized in that When sending the puncturing pattern, the processor also provides a global puncturing indication in the EHT-SIG field for the OFDMA transmission in the following manner: The EHT-SIG Compression subfield is set to 0 to indicate non-compressed mode; and, The puncturing pattern is indicated in the multiple resource unit RU allocation subfield in the EHT-SIG field.

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