Wireless transmission using distributed frequency modulation

Abstract

The present disclosure provides systems, methods, and devices for wireless communications. An example device selects a first resource unit (RU) among multiple resource units (RUs) for transmitting a physical (PHY) layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) over a wireless medium. The first RU may include a set of contiguous tones occupying a first frequency bandwidth. The multiple RUs may collectively span a second frequency bandwidth greater than the first frequency bandwidth. The device uses a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with the first RU to map the contiguous tone set of the first RU to a non-contiguous tone set distributed across a second frequency bandwidth. The device transmits the PPDU over the non-contiguous tone set distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This patent application claims the U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 115,021, filed on November 7, 2020, entitled “WIRELESS TRANSMISSIONS USING DISTRIBUTED TONES,” U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 027,349, filed on May 19, 2020, entitled “DISTRIBUTED TONE MAPPING FOR POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY (PSD) LIMITS,” and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 027,349, filed on March 13, 2020, entitled “PHYSICAL LAYER (PHY) PACKET DESIGN FOR POWER SPECTRAL The present invention relates to a wireless transmission system that is wireless and that is used for wireless communication over a wireless network. The present invention relates to a wireless transmission system that is wireless and that is used for wireless communication over a wireless network. The present invention relates to a wireless transmission system that is wireless and that is used for wireless communication over a wireless network. The present invention relates to a wireless transmission system that is wireless and that is used for wireless communication over a wireless network. The present invention relates to a wireless transmission system that is wireless and that is used for wireless communication over a wireless network. The present invention relates to a wireless transmission system that is wireless and that is used for wireless communication over a wireless network. The present invention relates to a wireless transmission system that is wireless and that is used for wireless communication over a wireless network. The present invention relates to a wireless transmission system that is wireless and that is used for wireless communication over a wireless network. The present invention relates to a wireless transmission system that is wireless and that is used for wireless communication over a wireless network. The present invention relates to a wireless transmission system that is wireless and that is used for wireless communication over a wireless network. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications and, more particularly, to physical layer (PHY) packets and signaling for wireless transmissions.

[0004] Related technical description

[0005] A wireless local area network (WLAN) may be formed by one or more access points (APs) that provide a shared wireless medium for use by several client devices, such as stations (STAs). An AP may manage a basic service set (BSS), which may be identified by a basic service set identifier (BSSID) reported by the AP. The AP periodically broadcasts beacon frames to enable any STA within the wireless range of the AP to establish or maintain a communication link with the WLAN. New WLAN communication protocols are being developed to implement enhanced WLAN communication features.

[0006] In some instances, APs and STAs may be subject to power spectral density (PSD) limitations that may undesirably reduce transmission range. These PSD limitations may also degrade the packet detection and channel estimation capabilities of the APs and STAs.

[0007] Overview

[0008] The systems, methods, and devices of the disclosure each have several innovative aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for the desirable attributes disclosed herein.

[0009] An innovative aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure may be implemented in a method for wireless communication. The method may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device, and may include: selecting a first RU of a plurality of resource units (RUs) for transmitting a physical (PHY) layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) over a wireless medium. The first RU may include a set of contiguous tones occupying a first frequency bandwidth, and the plurality of RUs may together span a second frequency bandwidth that is larger than the first frequency bandwidth. The method may include: using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with the first RU to map the contiguous tone set of the first RU to a non-contiguous tone set distributed across a second frequency bandwidth. The method may include: transmitting the PPDU over the non-contiguous tone set distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0010] In some implementations, mapping the contiguous frequency tone set may include mapping the pilot frequency tone and the data frequency tone of the first RU to the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, the frequency tones in the non-contiguous frequency tone set are interleaved with the frequency tones in one or more other non-contiguous frequency tone sets distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. In some other instances, the frequency tone mapping offset associated with the first RU may be a bit-reversed arrangement of the RU index of the first RU. The frequency tone mapping vector may indicate the starting frequency tone index, the ending frequency tone index, and the frequency tone interval of the non-contiguous frequency tone set.

[0011] In some implementations, the arrangement of the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth may be based on or associated with the tone mapping offsets of the plurality of RUs. In some instances, the arrangement of the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth may be different from the arrangement of the tones in the unique contiguous set of tones corresponding to the plurality of RUs.

[0012] In some implementations, the method may also include: mapping each non-contiguous set of frequency tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth to a corresponding non-contiguous set of frequency tones distributed across a third frequency bandwidth that is larger than the second frequency bandwidth. In some other implementations, the method may also include: identifying a number of remaining frequency tones in the second frequency bandwidth; and mapping the identified remaining frequency tones to the non-contiguous set of frequency tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, the number of selected remaining frequency tones may be the modulo of the number of contiguous frequency tones in one of RU52, RU106, RU242, or RU484 and the number of contiguous frequency tones in RU26. In some other implementations, the method may also include: receiving RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242, or RU484 of an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) frequency tone plan as a reference group from which to reference the frequency tone mapping offset.

[0013] In some implementations, the plurality of RUs may include four RUs 52 or two RUs 106 based on eight RUs 26 of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan. In some instances, mapping a unique contiguous frequency modulation set may include sequentially assigning frequency modulation mapping offsets 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13 to eight RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 4, 2, 6, 1, 5, 3, and 7, respectively; and assigning frequency modulation mapping offset 9 to the center 26 frequency modulation RU of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan.

[0014] In some other implementations, the multiple RUs include eight RU52 or four RU106 based on sixteen RU26 of the OFDMA frequency planning, and mapping a unique adjacent frequency set includes: assigning frequency mapping offsets 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 sequentially to the sixteen RU26 identified by RU indexes 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7 and 15 respectively; and assigning frequency mapping offsets 17 and 26 to the middle 26 frequency RUs of the OFDMA frequency planning.

[0015] In some other implementations, the multiple RUs include eight RU52 or four RU106 based on sixteen RU26 of the OFDMA frequency planning, and mapping the unique adjacent frequency set includes: sequentially assigning frequency mapping offset values ​​between 9-12, 14-21 and 23-26 to sixteen RU26 identified by RU indexes 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7 and 15 respectively; and assigning frequency mapping offsets 13 and 22 to the two middle 26 frequency RUs of the OFDMA frequency planning.

[0016] In some other implementations, the multiple RUs include sixteen RUs 52 or eight RUs 106 based on the thirty-two RUs 26 of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan, and mapping the unique adjacent frequency modulation set includes: sequentially assigning frequency modulation mapping offsets 31-38, 40-47, 49-56 and 58-65 to the thirty-two RUs 26 identified by RU indexes 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15 and 31 respectively; and assigning frequency modulation mapping offsets 39, 48, 57 and 66 to the four middle 26 frequency modulation RUs of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan.

[0017] In some other implementations, the multiple RUs include sixteen RUs 52 or eight RUs 106 based on the thirty-two RUs 26 of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan, and mapping the unique adjacent frequency modulation set includes: sequentially assigning frequency modulation mapping offsets 31-34, 36-43, 45-52, 54-61 and 63-66 to the thirty-two RUs 26 identified by RU indexes 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15 and 31 respectively; and assigning frequency modulation mapping offsets 35, 44, 53 and 62 to the four middle 26 frequency modulation RUs of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan.

[0018] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure may be implemented in a wireless communication device. The wireless communication device may include a processing system coupled to an interface. The processing system may be configured to: select a first RU among multiple RUs for transmitting a PPDU on a wireless medium. The first RU may include a set of contiguous frequency tones occupying a first frequency bandwidth, and the multiple RUs may together span a second frequency bandwidth that is larger than the first frequency bandwidth. The processing system may be configured to: use a frequency tone mapping vector and a frequency tone mapping offset associated with the first RU to map the contiguous frequency tone set of the first RU to a non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across a second frequency bandwidth. The interface may be configured to: output a PPDU for transmission on the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0019] In some implementations, mapping the contiguous frequency tone set may include mapping the pilot frequency tone and the data frequency tone of the first RU to the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, the frequency tones in the non-contiguous frequency tone set are interleaved with the frequency tones in one or more other non-contiguous frequency tone sets distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. In some other instances, the frequency tone mapping offset associated with the first RU may be a bit-reversed arrangement of the RU index of the first RU. The frequency tone mapping vector may indicate the starting frequency tone index, the ending frequency tone index, and the frequency tone interval of the non-contiguous frequency tone set.

[0020] In some implementations, the arrangement of the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth may be based on or associated with the tone mapping offsets of the plurality of RUs. In some instances, the arrangement of the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth may be different from the arrangement of the tones in the unique contiguous set of tones corresponding to the plurality of RUs.

[0021] In some implementations, the processing system may be further configured to map each non-contiguous set of tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth to a corresponding set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a third frequency bandwidth that is larger than the second frequency bandwidth. In some other implementations, the processing system may be further configured to identify a number of remaining tones in the second frequency bandwidth; and map the identified remaining tones to the non-contiguous set of tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, the number of selected remaining tones may be the modulus of the number of contiguous tones in one of RU52, RU106, RU242, or RU484 and the number of contiguous tones in RU26. In some other implementations, the interface may be further configured to receive RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242, or RU484 of an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) tone plan as a reference group from which the tone mapping offset is referenced.

[0022] In some implementations, the plurality of RUs may include four RUs 52 or two RUs 106 based on eight RUs 26 of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan. In some instances, mapping a unique contiguous frequency modulation set may include sequentially assigning frequency modulation mapping offsets 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13 to eight RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 4, 2, 6, 1, 5, 3, and 7, respectively; and assigning frequency modulation mapping offset 9 to the center 26 frequency modulation RU of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan.

[0023] In some other implementations, the multiple RUs include eight RU52 or four RU106 based on sixteen RU26 of the OFDMA frequency planning, and mapping a unique adjacent frequency set includes: assigning frequency mapping offsets 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 sequentially to the sixteen RU26 identified by RU indexes 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7 and 15 respectively; and assigning frequency mapping offsets 17 and 26 to the middle 26 frequency RUs of the OFDMA frequency planning.

[0024] In some other implementations, the multiple RUs include eight RU52 or four RU106 based on sixteen RU26 of the OFDMA frequency planning, and mapping the unique adjacent frequency set includes: sequentially assigning frequency mapping offset values ​​between 9-12, 14-21 and 23-26 to sixteen RU26 identified by RU indexes 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7 and 15 respectively; and assigning frequency mapping offsets 13 and 22 to the two middle 26 frequency RUs of the OFDMA frequency planning.

[0025] In some other implementations, the multiple RUs include sixteen RUs 52 or eight RUs 106 based on the thirty-two RUs 26 of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan, and mapping the unique adjacent frequency modulation set includes: sequentially assigning frequency modulation mapping offsets 31-38, 40-47, 49-56 and 58-65 to the thirty-two RUs 26 identified by RU indexes 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15 and 31 respectively; and assigning frequency modulation mapping offsets 39, 48, 57 and 66 to the four middle 26 frequency modulation RUs of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan.

[0026] In some other implementations, the multiple RUs include sixteen RUs 52 or eight RUs 106 based on the thirty-two RUs 26 of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan, and mapping the unique adjacent frequency modulation set includes: sequentially assigning frequency modulation mapping offsets 31-34, 36-43, 45-52, 54-61 and 63-66 to the thirty-two RUs 26 identified by RU indexes 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15 and 31 respectively; and assigning frequency modulation mapping offsets 35, 44, 53 and 62 to the four middle 26 frequency modulation RUs of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan.

[0027] Details of one or more implementations of the subject matter described in the present disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the following description. Other features, aspects, and advantages will become apparent from the description, drawings, and claims. It should be noted that the relative sizes of the following drawings may not be drawn to scale. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0029] Figure 1 A block diagram of an example wireless communication network is shown.

[0030] Figure 2A Example protocol data units (PDUs) that may be used for communications between an access point (AP) and one or more stations (STAs) are shown.

[0031] Figure 2B Shows Figure 2A Example fields in a PDU.

[0032] Figure 3A Example PDUs that may be used for communications between an AP and one or more STAs are shown.

[0033] Figure 3B Another example PDU that may be used for communication between an AP and one or more STAs is shown.

[0034] Figure 4 Example physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data units (PPDUs) that may be used for communications between an AP and each of a number of STAs are shown.

[0035] Figure 5A An example tone map for a 20 MHz bandwidth is shown.

[0036] Figure 5B An example tone map for a 40 MHz bandwidth is shown.

[0037] Figure 5CAn example tone map for an 80 MHz bandwidth is shown.

[0038] Figure 6 A block diagram of an example wireless communication device is shown.

[0039] Fig. 7A A block diagram of an example AP is shown.

[0040] Figure 7B A block diagram of an example STA is shown.

[0041] Figure 8 A sequence diagram illustrating example communications to support transfer PPDU duplication is shown.

[0042] Fig. 9A A sequence diagram illustrating example communications that support transmission of a PPDU using duplicated resource units (RUs) is shown.

[0043] Fig. 9B Example RU replication is shown.

[0044] Fig. 10A A sequence diagram is shown that supports example communications for transmitting a PPDU using tone mapping.

[0045] Fig. 10B An example mapping of tones is shown.

[0046] Fig. 10C An example mapping of tones is shown.

[0047] Fig.11 A flow diagram illustrating example operations for wireless communications supporting transmission of PPDU duplication is shown.

[0048] Fig. 12A , 12B 12C shows a flow chart illustrating example operations for wireless communications supporting transmission of PPDU duplication.

[0049] Fig.13 A flow diagram illustrating example operations for wireless communications supporting RU duplication is shown.

[0050] Fig.14 A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using tone mapping is shown.

[0051] Fig.15A and 15B A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using tone mapping is shown.

[0052] Fig.16A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using tone mapping is shown.

[0053] Fig.17 A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using tone mapping is shown.

[0054] Fig.18 A sequence diagram is shown that supports example communications for transmitting a PPDU using tone mapping.

[0055] Fig.19 An example mapping of tones is shown.

[0056] Fig. 20 A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using tone mapping is shown.

[0057] Fig.21A , 21B , 21C, 21D, 21E, and 21F show flow charts illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications using frequency mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs.

[0058] Fig. 22 A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using tone mapping is shown.

[0059] Fig.23 A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using tone mapping is shown.

[0060] Fig.24 A sequence diagram is shown that supports example communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using tone mapping based on distance to tone mapping (DTM).

[0061] Fig.25 An example mapping of tones is shown.

[0062] Fig.26 A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using DTM-based tone mapping is shown.

[0063] Fig.27A and 27B A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using DTM-based tone mapping is shown.

[0064] Fig.28A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using tone mapping and PPDU duplication is shown.

[0065] Fig.29 A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more single user (SU) PPDUs using DTM-based tone mapping is shown.

[0066] Fig.30 A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using DTM-based tone mapping and PPDU duplication is shown.

[0067] Fig.31 A flow diagram illustrating example operations for supporting wireless communications for transmitting one or more PPDUs using parsing-based tone mapping is shown.

[0068] Fig.32 A sequence diagram of example communications supporting tone mapping based on tone mapping vectors and tone mapping offsets is shown.

[0069] Fig.33 An example table of tone map offsets is shown.

[0070] Fig.34 Another example table of tone map offsets is shown.

[0071] Fig.35 An example tone map is shown.

[0072] Fig.36 A flow diagram illustrating example operations for wireless communications supporting tone mapping based on tone mapping vectors and tone mapping offsets is shown.

[0073] Fig.37

[0013] A flow diagram illustrating another example operation for wireless communications supporting tone mapping based on tone mapping vectors and tone mapping offsets is shown.

[0074] Fig.38

[0013] A flow diagram illustrating another example operation for wireless communications supporting tone mapping based on tone mapping vectors and tone mapping offsets is shown.

[0075] Fig.39

[0013] A flow diagram illustrating another example operation for wireless communications supporting tone mapping based on tone mapping vectors and tone mapping offsets is shown.

[0076] Fig.40

[0013] A flow diagram illustrating another example operation for wireless communications supporting tone mapping based on tone mapping vectors and tone mapping offsets is shown.

[0077] FIG. 41A to FIG. 41E A flow diagram illustrating other example operations for wireless communications supporting tone mapping based on tone mapping vectors and tone mapping offsets is shown.

[0078] Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.

[0079] Detailed Description

[0080] The following description is directed to certain implementations in order to describe the innovative aspects of the present disclosure. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that the teachings herein can be applied in many different ways. The described implementations can be implemented in a manner that is capable of being implemented in accordance with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard, the IEEE 802.15 standard, the Bluetooth SIG standard, or the like as defined by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The described implementations may be implemented in any device, system, or network capable of transmitting and receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in accordance with one or more of the Long Term Evolution (LTE), 3G, 4G, or 5G (New Radio (NR)) standards, or the like released by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The described implementations may be implemented in any device, system, or network capable of transmitting and receiving RF signals in accordance with one or more of the following technologies or techniques: code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), single user (SU) multiple input multiple output (MIMO), and multi-user (MU) MIMO. The described implementations may also be implemented using other wireless communication protocols or RF signals suitable for use in one or more of a wireless personal area network (WPAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless wide area network (WWAN), or an Internet of Things (IOT) network.

[0081] Various implementations generally involve increasing the allowed transmit power of APs and STAs. APs and STAs may be subject to power spectral density (PSD) limitations that undesirably reduce transmission range, reduce packet detection capabilities, and reduce channel estimation capabilities of APs and STAs. For example, recently proposed PSD limitations for wireless communications in the 6 GHz band may limit the transmit power of APs to 5 dBm / MHz, and may limit the transmit power of non-AP STAs to -1 dBm / MHz. Some implementations more specifically involve using tone mapping to increase the frequency bandwidth over which information is transmitted between wireless communication devices. In some instances, a STA may identify a first RU of a plurality of resource units (RUs) allocated to the STA for wireless transmission. The first RU may include a contiguous tone set occupying a first frequency bandwidth, and the plurality of RUs may span a second frequency bandwidth larger than the first frequency bandwidth. The STA may prepare a PPDU based on the second frequency bandwidth. The STA may map a contiguous tone set occupying a first frequency bandwidth of the first RU to a non-contiguous tone set distributed across a second frequency bandwidth based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with the first RU. The STA may transmit the PPDU using a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0082] Specific implementations of the subject matter described in the present disclosure may be implemented to achieve one or more of the following potential advantages. In some implementations, the described techniques may be used to increase the allowed transmit power of APs and STAs. Specifically, because the PSD limit imposed on wireless communications is expressed as a function of bandwidth, the maximum transmit power allowed by such PSD limits may be increased by using a larger bandwidth for wireless communications without increasing the number or width of RUs allocated for such communications. In some implementations, a STA allocated with a RU comprising a set of contiguous frequency tones spanning a first frequency bandwidth may map the tones of the allocated RUs to a set of non-contiguous frequency tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth larger than the first frequency bandwidth, and transmit data using the mapped tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. Transmitting information over a wider frequency bandwidth may increase the PSD limit applicable to such transmissions, which may allow STAs to use higher transmit power levels for such transmissions without violating PSD limits. Using a higher transmit power level to transmit information may extend the transmission range of a wireless communication device, may increase the power gain of a wireless communication device, and may increase the throughput of a wireless communication device. In this way, the implementation of the subject matter disclosed herein may be used to increase the total transmit power of a wireless communication device. Increasing the allowed transmit power of a wireless communication device can improve the range and signal quality of wireless transmissions from the wireless communication device (such as by increasing one or more of a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), a channel quality indicator (CQI), a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), etc.).

[0083] Figure 1 A block diagram of an example wireless communication network 100 is shown. According to some aspects, the wireless communication network 100 may be an example of a wireless local area network (WLAN) such as a Wi-Fi network (and will be referred to as WLAN 100 hereinafter). For example, the WLAN 100 may be a network that implements at least one of the IEEE 802.11 family of wireless communication protocol standards, such as the standards defined by the IEEE 802.11-2016 specification or its revisions, including but not limited to 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, and 802.11be. The WLAN 100 may include numerous wireless communication devices, such as an access point (AP) 102 and a plurality of stations (STAs) 104. Although only one AP 102 is shown, the WLAN network 100 may also include a plurality of APs 102.

[0084] Each STA 104 may also be referred to as a mobile station (MS), a mobile device, a mobile handset, a wireless handset, an access terminal (AT), a user equipment (UE), a subscriber station (SS), or a subscriber unit, among other examples. STA 104 may represent a variety of devices, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), other handheld devices, netbooks, notebook computers, tablet computers, laptops, display devices (e.g., TVs, computer monitors, navigation systems, etc.), music or other audio or stereo equipment, remote control devices (“remote controls”), printers, kitchen or other home appliances, key fobs (e.g., for passive keyless entry and start (PKES) systems), and other examples.

[0085] A single AP 102 and the associated set of STAs 104 may be referred to as a basic service set (BSS), which is managed by the respective AP 102 . Figure 1 Additionally shown is an example coverage area 106 of the AP 102, which may represent a basic service area (BSA) of the WLAN 100. The BSS may be identified to users by a service set identifier (SSID) and may also be identified to other devices by a basic service set identifier (BSSID), which may be a media access control (MAC) address of the AP 102. The AP 102 periodically broadcasts a beacon frame (“beacon”) including the BSSID to enable any STA 104 within the wireless range of the AP 102 to “associate” or re-associate with the AP 102 to establish or maintain a corresponding communication link 108 (hereinafter also referred to as a “Wi-Fi link”) with the AP 102. For example, the beacon may include an identification of a primary channel used by the corresponding AP 102 and a timing synchronization function for establishing or maintaining timing synchronization with the AP 102. The AP 102 may provide access to external networks to various STAs 104 in the WLAN via corresponding communication links 108 .

[0086] To establish a communication link 108 with the AP 102, each STA 104 is configured to perform passive or active scanning operations ("scanning") on frequency channels in one or more frequency bands (eg, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, or 60 GHz bands). To perform a passive scan, the STA 104 listens for beacons transmitted by the corresponding AP 102 at periodic time intervals, referred to as target beacon transmission times (TBTTs), measured in time units (TUs), where one TU may be equal to 1024 microseconds (μs). To perform an active scan, the STA 104 generates probe requests and sequentially transmits these probe requests on each channel to be scanned, and listens for probe responses from the AP 102. Each STA 104 may be configured to identify or select an AP 102 to associate with based on the scan information obtained through passive or active scanning, and perform authentication and association operations to establish a communication link 108 with the selected AP 102. The AP 102 assigns an association identifier (AID) to the STA 104 at the end of the association operation, and the AP 102 uses the AID to track the STA 104.

[0087] As wireless networks become more and more common, STA 104 may have the opportunity to select one of many BSSs within the range of the STA or to select among multiple APs 102 that together form an extended service set (ESS) (including multiple connected BSSs). The extended network station associated with WLAN 100 may be connected to a wired or wireless distribution system that allows multiple APs 102 to be connected in such an ESS. In this way, STA 104 may be covered by more than one AP 102 and may be associated with different APs 102 at different times for different transmissions. Additionally, after associating with AP 102, STA 104 may also be configured to periodically scan its surroundings to find a more suitable AP 102 to associate with. For example, a STA 104 that is moving relative to its associated AP 102 may perform a "roaming" scan to find another AP 102 with more suitable network characteristics (such as a larger received signal strength indicator (RSSI) or a reduced traffic load).

[0088] In some cases, STA 104 may form a network without AP 102 or other equipment other than STA 104 itself. An example of such a network is an ad hoc network (or wireless ad hoc network). An ad hoc network may alternatively be referred to as a mesh network or a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. In some cases, an ad hoc network may be implemented within a larger wireless network (such as WLAN 100). In such an implementation, although STA 104 may be able to communicate with each other through AP 102 using a communication link 108, STA 104 may also communicate directly with each other via a direct wireless link 110. In addition, two STAs 104 may communicate via a direct communication link 110, regardless of whether the two STAs 104 are associated with the same AP 102 and served by the same AP 102. In such an ad hoc system, one or more STAs 104 may assume the role played by AP 102 in a BSS. Such STAs 104 may be referred to as group owners (GOs) and may coordinate transmissions within the ad hoc network. Examples of direct wireless link 110 include a Wi-Fi Direct connection, a connection established by using a Wi-Fi Tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS) link, and other P2P group connections.

[0089] The AP 102 and the STA 104 may function and communicate (via corresponding communication links 108) in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 family of wireless communication protocol standards, such as those defined by the IEEE 802.11-2016 specification or its revisions, including, but not limited to, 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, and 802.11be. These standards define WLAN radio and baseband protocols for the PHY and media access control (MAC) layers. The AP 102 and the STA 104 transmit and receive wireless communications (hereinafter also referred to as "Wi-Fi communications") to and from each other in the form of PHY protocol data units (PPDUs) (or physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) PDUs). The AP 102 and STA 104 in the WLAN 100 may transmit PPDUs on an unlicensed spectrum, which may be a portion of a spectrum that includes frequency bands traditionally used by Wi-Fi technology, such as the 2.4 GHz band, the 5 GHz band, the 60 GHz band, the 3.6 GHz band, and the 900 MHz band. Some implementations of the AP 102 and STA 104 described herein may also communicate in other frequency bands, such as the 6 GHz band, that may support both licensed and unlicensed communications. The AP 102 and STA 104 may also be configured to communicate on other frequency bands, such as shared licensed frequency bands, where multiple operators may have licenses to operate in one or more of the same or overlapping frequency bands.

[0090] Each frequency band may include multiple sub-bands or frequency channels. For example, PPDUs that comply with IEEE 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, and 802.11be standard revisions may be transmitted on 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or 6 GHz frequency bands, where each frequency band is divided into multiple 20 MHz channels. In this way, these PPDUs are transmitted on a physical channel with a minimum bandwidth of 20 MHz, but larger channels may be formed by channel bonding. For example, a PPDU may be transmitted on a physical channel with a bandwidth of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or 320 MHz by bonding multiple 20 MHz channels together.

[0091] Each PPDU is a composite structure including a PHY preamble and a payload in the form of a PHY service data unit (PSDU). The information provided in the preamble can be used by the receiving device to decode subsequent data in the PSDU. In an instance where the PPDU is transmitted over a bonded channel, the preamble field can be copied and transmitted in each of a plurality of component channels. The PHY preamble may include both a legacy portion (or "legacy preamble") and a non-legacy portion (or "non-legacy preamble"). Legacy preambles can be used for packet detection, automatic gain control, and channel estimation, as well as other purposes. Legacy preambles can also generally be used to maintain compatibility with legacy devices. The format, decoding, and information provided therein of the non-legacy portion of the preamble are based on the specific IEEE 802.11 protocol to be used to transmit the payload.

[0092] Figure 2A An example protocol data unit (PDU) 200 that may be used for wireless communication between an AP 102 and one or more STAs 104 is shown. For example, the PDU 200 may be configured as a PPDU. As shown, the PDU 200 includes a PHY preamble 202 and a PHY payload 204. For example, the preamble 202 may include a legacy portion that itself includes a legacy short training field (L-STF) 206 that may consist of two BPSK symbols, a legacy long training field (L-LTF) 208 that may consist of two BPSK symbols, and a legacy signal field (L-SIG) 210 that may consist of two BPSK symbols. The legacy portion of the preamble 202 may be configured in accordance with the IEEE 802.11a wireless communication protocol standard. The preamble 202 may also include a non-legacy portion including one or more non-legacy fields 212 that comply with, for example, an IEEE wireless communication protocol such as IEEE 802.11ac, 802.11ax, 802.11be, or a later wireless communication protocol.

[0093] L-STF 206 generally enables the receiving device to perform automatic gain control (AGC) and coarse timing and frequency estimation. L-LTF 208 generally enables the receiving device to perform fine timing and frequency estimation, and can also perform initial estimation of the wireless channel. L-SIG 210 generally enables the receiving device to determine the duration of the PDU and use the determined duration to avoid transmitting on the PDU. For example, L-STF 206, L-LTF 208 and L-SIG 210 can be modulated according to a binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation scheme. Payload 204 can be modulated according to a BPSK modulation scheme, an orthogonal BPSK (Q-BPSK) modulation scheme, an orthogonal amplitude modulation (QAM) modulation scheme, or another appropriate modulation scheme. Payload 204 may include a PSDU including a data field (DATA) 214, which in turn may carry, for example, a higher layer data in the form of a media access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) or an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU).

[0094] Figure 2B Shows Figure 2A 2. An example L-SIG 210 in a PDU 200 of FIG. 210 includes a data rate field 222, reserved bits 224, a length field 226, parity bits 228, and a tail field 230. The data rate field 222 indicates the data rate (note that the data rate indicated in the data rate field 212 may not be the actual data rate of the data carried in the payload 204). The length field 226 indicates the packet length, for example, in symbols or bytes. The parity bits 228 may be used to detect bit errors. The tail field 230 includes tail bits, which may be used by a receiving device to terminate the operation of a decoder (e.g., a Viterbi decoder). The receiving device may use the data rate and length indicated in the data rate field 222 and the length field 226 to determine the packet duration, for example, in microseconds (μs) or other time units.

[0095] Figure 3A An example PPDU 300 that can be used for wireless communication between an AP and one or more STAs is shown. The PPDU 300 can be used for SU, OFDMA, or MU-MIMO transmission. The PPDU 300 can be formatted as a high-efficiency (HE) WLAN PPDU according to the IEEE 802.11ax revision to the IEEE 802.11 wireless communication protocol standard. The PPDU 300 includes a PHY preamble that includes a legacy portion 302 and a non-legacy portion 304. The PPDU 300 can further include a PHY payload 306 (e.g., in the form of a PSDU including a data field 324) after the preamble.

[0096] The legacy portion 302 of the preamble includes an L-STF 308, an L-LTF 310, and an L-SIG 312. The non-legacy portion 304 includes a repetition of the L-SIG (RL-SIG) 314, a first HE signal field (HE-SIG-A) 316, an HE short training field (HE-STF) 320, and one or more HE long training fields (or symbols) (HE-LTF) 322. For OFDMA or MU-MIMO communications, the second portion 304 further includes a second HE signal field (HE-SIG-B) 318 that is encoded separately from the HE-SIG-A 316. As with the L-STF 308, L-LTF 310, and L-SIG 312, in instances involving the use of bonded channels, the information in the RL-SIG 314 and HE-SIG-A 316 may be replicated and transmitted in each component 20 MHz channel. In contrast, the content in the HE-SIG-B 318 may be unique to each 20 MHz channel and targeted specific STA 104 .

[0097] The RL-SIG 314 may indicate to the HE-compatible STA 104 that the PPDU 300 is a HE PPDU. The AP 102 may use the HE-SIG-A 316 to identify multiple STAs 104 and inform the multiple STAs 104 that the AP has scheduled UL or DL ​​resources for them. For example, the HE-SIG-A 316 may include a resource allocation subfield indicating the resource allocation for the identified STA 104. The HE-SIG-A 316 may be decoded by each HE-compatible STA 104 served by the AP 102. For MU transmissions, the HE-SIG-A 316 further includes information that may be used by each identified STA 104 to decode the associated HE-SIG-B 318. For example, the HE-SIG-A 316 may indicate the frame format (including the location and length of the HE-SIG-B 318), the available channel bandwidth, and the modulation and coding scheme (MCS), among other examples. The HE-SIG-A 316 may also include HE WLAN signaling information that may be used by STAs 104 other than the identified STA 104 .

[0098] HE-SIG-B 318 may carry STA-specific scheduling information, such as, for example, STA-specific (or "user-specific") MCS values ​​and STA-specific RU allocation information. In the context of DL MU-OFDMA, such information enables the corresponding STA 104 to identify and decode the corresponding resource unit (RU) in the associated data field 324. Each HE-SIG-B 318 includes a common field and at least one STA-specific field. The common field may indicate RU allocations (including RU assignments in the frequency domain) to multiple STAs 104, indicating which RUs are allocated for MU-MIMO transmissions and which RUs correspond to MU-OFDMA transmissions, as well as the number of users in the allocation and other examples. The common field may be encoded with common bits, CRC bits, and tail bits. User-specific fields are assigned to a specific STA 104 and may be used to schedule a specific RU and indicate the scheduling to other WLAN devices. Each user-specific field may include multiple user block fields. Each user block field may include two user fields containing information for two corresponding STAs to decode corresponding RU payloads in the data field 324 .

[0099] Figure 3B Another example PPDU 350 that can be used for wireless communication between an AP and one or more STAs is shown. The PPDU 350 can be used for SU, OFDMA, or MU-MIMO transmission. The PPDU 350 can be formatted as an extremely high throughput (EHT) WLAN PPDU according to the IEEE 802.11be amendment to the IEEE 802.11 wireless communication protocol standard, or can be formatted as a PPDU that complies with any future (post-EHT) version of a new wireless communication protocol (complying with future IEEE 802.11 wireless communication protocol standards or other wireless communication standards). The PPDU 350 includes a PHY preamble that includes a legacy portion 352 and a non-legacy portion 354. The PPDU 350 may further include a PHY payload 356 (e.g., in the form of a PSDU including a data field 374) after the preamble.

[0100] The legacy portion 352 of the preamble includes an L-STF 358, an L-LTF 360, and an L-SIG 362. The non-legacy portion 354 of the preamble includes an RL-SIG 364 and a plurality of wireless communication protocol version-related signal fields following the RL-SIG 364. For example, the non-legacy portion 354 may include a universal signal field 366 (referred to herein as "U-SIG 366") and an EHT signal field 368 (referred to herein as "EHT-SIG 368"). One or both of the U-SIG 366 and the EHT-SIG 368 may be configured to be used for wireless communication protocol versions other than EHT and carry version-related information thereof. The non-legacy portion 354 further includes an additional short training field 370 (referred to herein as "EHT-STF 370", but may also be constructed to be used for and carry version-related information for other wireless communication protocol versions other than EHT) and one or more additional long training fields 372 (referred to herein as "EHT-LTF 372", but they may be constructed to be used for and carry version-related information for other wireless communication protocol versions other than EHT). As with the L-STF 358, L-LTF 360, and L-SIG 362, in instances involving the use of bonded channels, the information in the U-SIG 366 and the EHT-SIG 368 may be replicated and transmitted in each component 20 MHz channel. In some implementations, the EHT-SIG 368 may additionally or alternatively carry information in one or more non-primary 20 MHz channels that is different from the information carried in the primary 20 MHz channel.

[0101] The EHT-SIG 368 may include one or more jointly encoded symbols and may be encoded in a different block from the block in which the U-SIG 366 is encoded. The EHT-SIG 368 may be used by the AP to identify multiple STAs 104 and notify the multiple STAs 104 that the AP has scheduled UL or DL ​​resources for them. The EHT-SIG 368 may be decoded by each compatible STA 104 served by the AP 102. The EHT-SIG 368 may generally be used by the receiving device to interpret the bits in the data field 374. For example, the EHT-SIG 368 may include RU allocation information, spatial stream configuration information, and per-user signaling information (such as MCS) and other examples. The EHT-SIG 368 may further include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) (e.g., 4 bits) and a tail (e.g., 6 bits) that may be used for a binary convolutional code (BCC). In some implementations, the EHT-SIG 368 may include one or more code blocks each including a CRC and a tail. In some aspects, each code block may be encoded separately.

[0102] The EHT-SIG 368 may carry STA-specific scheduling information, such as, for example, user-specific MCS values ​​and user-specific RU allocation information. The EHT-SIG 368 may generally be used by a receiving device to interpret bits in the data field 374. In the context of DL MU-OFDMA, such information enables the corresponding STA 104 to identify and decode the corresponding RU in the associated data field 374. Each EHT-SIG 368 may include a common field and at least one user-specific field. The common field may indicate the RU distribution to multiple STAs 104, indicate the RU assignment in the frequency domain, indicate which RUs are allocated for MU-MIMO transmission and which RUs correspond to MU-OFDMA transmission, and the number of users in the allocation and other examples. The common field may be encoded with common bits, CRC bits, and tail bits. The user-specific fields are assigned to a specific STA 104 and may be used to schedule a specific RU and indicate the scheduling to other WLAN devices. Each user-specific field may include multiple user block fields. Each user block field may include, for example, two user fields containing information for two corresponding STAs to decode their corresponding RU payloads.

[0103] The presence of the RL-SIG 364 and the U-SIG 366 may indicate to the EHT or future version compatible STA 104 that the PPDU 350 is an EHT PPDU or any future (post-EHT) version of a PPDU that complies with a new wireless communication protocol (complying with future IEEE 802.11 wireless communication protocol standards). For example, the U-SIG 366 may be used by a receiving device to interpret bits in one or more of the EHT-SIG 368 or the data field 374.

[0104] Figure 4An example PPDU 400 is shown that may be used for communication between an AP 102 and one or more STAs 104. As described above, each PPDU 400 includes a PHY preamble 402 and a PSDU 404. Each PSDU 404 may represent (or "carry") one or more MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) 416. For example, each PSDU 404 may carry an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU) 406 that includes an aggregation of multiple A-MPDU subframes 408. Each A-MPDU subframe 406 may include an MPDU frame 410 that includes a MAC delimiter 412 and a MAC header 414 preceding an accompanying MPDU 416 that includes a data portion ("payload" or "frame body") of the MPDU frame 410. Each MPDU frame 410 may also include a frame check sequence (FCS) field 418 for error detection (e.g., the FCS field may include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC)) and padding bits 420. The MPDU 416 may carry one or more MAC service data units (MSDUs) 416. For example, the MPDU 416 may carry an aggregated MSDU (A-MSDU) 422, which includes multiple A-MSDU subframes 424. Each A-MSDU subframe 424 contains a corresponding MSDU 430, which is preceded by a subframe header 428 and, in some cases, followed by padding bits 432.

[0105] Referring back to the MPDU frame 410, the MAC delimiter 412 may be used as a marker for the start of an associated MPDU 416 and indicates the length of the associated MPDU 416. The MAC header 414 may include a plurality of fields containing information defining or indicating the characteristics or attributes of the data encapsulated within the frame body 416. The MAC header 414 includes a duration field indicating a duration from the end of the PPDU to at least the end of the ACK (ACK) or block ACK (BA) of the PPDU to be transmitted by the receiving wireless communication device. The use of the duration field is used to reserve the wireless medium for the indicated duration and enable the receiving device to establish its network allocation vector (NAV). The MAC header 414 also includes one or more fields indicating the address of the data encapsulated within the frame body 416. For example, the MAC header 414 may include a combination of a source address, a transmitter address, a receiver address, or a destination address. The MAC header 414 may further include a frame control field containing control information. The frame control field may specify a frame type, such as a data frame, a control frame, or a management frame.

[0106] Access to the shared wireless medium is typically managed by a distributed coordination function (DCF). With DCF, there is generally no centralized master device that allocates time and frequency resources for the shared wireless medium. Instead, before a wireless communication device (such as AP102 or STA 104) is allowed to transmit data, the wireless communication device must wait for a specific time and contend for access to the wireless medium. In some implementations, the wireless communication device may be configured to implement DCF by using carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) with collision avoidance (CA) (CSMA / CA) technology and timing intervals. Before transmitting data, the wireless communication device may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) and determine that the appropriate wireless channel is idle. CCA includes physical (PHY level) carrier sense and virtual (MAC level) carrier sense. Physical carrier sense is accomplished via a measurement of the received signal strength of a valid frame, which is compared with a threshold to determine whether the channel is busy. For example, if the received signal strength of the detected preamble is higher than a threshold, the medium is considered busy. Physical carrier sense also includes energy detection. Energy detection involves measuring the total energy received by the wireless communication device regardless of whether the received signal represents a valid frame. If the total energy detected is above a threshold, the medium is considered busy. Virtual carrier sensing is accomplished via the use of a Network Allocation Vector (NAV), which is an indicator of the time when the medium may next become idle. The NAV is reset each time a valid frame is received that is not addressed to the wireless communication device. The NAV effectively serves as a duration of time that must elapse before a wireless communication device can contend for access, even in the absence of detected symbols or even if the detected energy is below a related threshold.

[0107] As described above, DCF is implemented by using time intervals. These time intervals include slot time (or "slot interval") and interframe space (IFS). Slot time is the basic timing unit and can be determined based on one or more of the transmit-receive turnaround time, channel listening time, propagation delay, and MAC processing time. Measurements of channel listening are performed for each slot. All transmissions can start at slot boundaries. There are different variants of IFS, including short IFS (SIFS), distributed IFS (DIFS), extended IFS (EIFS), and arbitration IFS (AIFS). For example, DIFS can be defined as the sum of SIFS and twice the slot time. The value of the slot time and IFS can be provided by a suitable standard specification, such as one of the IEEE802.11 wireless communication protocol standard family (such as a standard defined by the IEEE 802.11-2016 specification or its revision, including but not limited to 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba and 802.11be).

[0108] When the NAV reaches 0, the wireless communication device performs physical carrier sensing. If the channel remains idle within an appropriate IFS (e.g., DIFS), the wireless communication device initiates a backoff timer, which indicates the duration of time that the device must sense that the medium is idle before the device is allowed to transmit. The backoff timer decrements one slot each time the medium is sensed to be idle during the corresponding time slot interval. If the channel remains idle until the backoff timer expires, the wireless communication device becomes the owner (or "owner") of the transmission opportunity (TXOP) and can begin transmitting. TXOP is the duration of time that the wireless communication device can transmit frames on the channel after the wireless communication device has won contention for the wireless medium. On the other hand, if one or more carrier sensing mechanisms indicate that the channel is busy, the MAC controller within the wireless communication device will not allow transmission.

[0109] Each time a wireless communication device generates a new PPDU for transmission in a new TXOP, the wireless communication device randomly selects a new backoff timer duration. The available distribution of numbers that can be randomly selected for the backoff timer is called a contention window (CW). When the backoff timer expires, if the wireless communication device transmits the PPDU, but the medium is still busy, there may be a conflict. Additionally, if there is too much energy on the wireless channel, resulting in a poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the communication may be damaged or otherwise not successfully received. In such instances, the wireless communication device may not receive a communication confirming the transmission of the PDU within the timeout interval. The MAC may increase the CW exponentially (e.g., double it) and randomly select a new backoff timer duration from the CW before each attempted retransmission of the PPDU. Before each attempted retransmission, the wireless communication device may wait for a duration of DIFS, and if the medium remains idle, proceed to initiate a new backoff timer. There are different CW and TXOP durations for each of the four access categories (AC): Voice (AC_VO), Video (AC_VI), Background (AC_BK), and Best Effort (AC_BE). This enables specific types of traffic to be prioritized in the network.

[0110] Some APs and STAs may be configured to implement spatial reuse techniques. For example, APs and STAs configured to communicate using IEEE802.11ax or 802.11be may be configured with BSS colors. APs associated with different BSSs may be associated with different BSS colors. If an AP or STA detects a wireless packet from another wireless communication device while contending for access, the AP or STA may apply different contention parameters based on whether the wireless packet is transmitted by or to another wireless communication device within its BSS, or is transmitted from a wireless communication device from an overlapping BSS (OBSS) (as determined by the BSS color indication in the preamble of the wireless packet). For example, if the BSS color associated with the wireless packet is the same as the BSS color of the AP or STA, the AP or STA may use a first received signal strength indication (RSSI) detection threshold when performing CCA on the wireless channel. However, if the BSS color associated with the wireless packet is different from the BSS color of the AP or STA, the AP or STA may use a second RSSI detection threshold instead of the first RSSI detection threshold when performing CCA on the wireless channel, the second RSSI detection threshold being greater than the first RSSI detection threshold. In this way, the requirement to win contention is relaxed when the interfering transmission is associated with the OBSS.

[0111] As described above, the AP 102 and the STA 104 may support multi-user (MU) communications; that is, concurrent transmissions from one device to each of multiple devices (e.g., multiple simultaneous downlink (DL) communications from the AP 102 to the corresponding STAs 104), or concurrent transmissions from multiple devices to a single device (e.g., multiple simultaneous uplink (UL) transmissions from the corresponding STAs 104 to the AP 102). To support MU transmissions, the AP 102 and the STA 104 may utilize multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) and multi-user orthogonal frequency division multiple access (MU-OFDMA) techniques.

[0112] In the MU-OFDMA scheme, the available spectrum of a wireless channel may be divided into multiple resource units (RUs), each of which includes several different frequency subcarriers ("tones"). Different RUs may be allocated or assigned to different STAs 104 by AP 102 at a specific time. The size and distribution of RUs may be referred to as RU allocation. In some implementations, RUs may be allocated in 2MHz intervals, and thus, the minimum RU may include 26 tones including 24 data tones and 2 pilot tones. Therefore, in a 20MHz channel, up to 9 RUs (such as 2MHz, 26 tones RU) may be allocated (because some tones are reserved for other purposes). Similarly, in a 160MHz channel, up to 74 RUs may be allocated. Larger 52-tone, 106-tone, 242-tone, 484-tone, and 996-tone RUs may also be allocated. Adjacent RUs may be separated by a null subcarrier, such as a DC subcarrier, for example, to reduce interference between adjacent RUs, reduce receiver DC offset, and avoid transmit center frequency leakage.

[0113] For UL MU transmissions, the AP 102 may transmit a trigger frame to initiate and synchronize UL MU-OFDMA or UL MU-MIMO transmissions from multiple STAs 104 to the AP 102. Such a trigger frame may thereby enable multiple STAs 104 to send UL traffic concurrently in time to the AP 102. The trigger frame may address one or more STAs 104 by a corresponding association identifier (AID), and may assign one or more RUs to each AID (and thus each STA 104) that may be used to send UL traffic to the AP 102. The AP may also specify one or more random access (RA) RUs that unscheduled STAs 104 may contend for.

[0114] Figure 5AAn example tone map 500 for a 20 MHz bandwidth is shown. The 20 MHz bandwidth can be divided into different numbers of RUs based on the size of the RU. As shown, the tone map 500 includes four tone plans: a first tone plan 501 includes RUs spanning 26 tones, a second tone plan 502 includes RUs spanning 52 tones, a third tone plan 503 includes RUs spanning 106 tones, and a fourth tone plan 504 includes RUs spanning 242 tones. Specifically, the first tone plan 501 includes eight RUs, each spanning 26 tones; the second tone plan 502 includes four RUs, each spanning 52 tones; the third tone plan 503 includes two RUs, each spanning 106 tones; and the fourth tone plan 504 includes one RU, which spans 242 tones (where the left half of the channel is used for single user (SU) operation). Each 26-frequency modulation RU may include 24 data subcarriers and 2 pilot subcarriers, each 52-frequency modulation RU may include 48 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers, each 106-frequency modulation RU may include 102 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers, and the 242-frequency modulation RU may include 234 data subcarriers and 8 pilot subcarriers.

[0115] Figure 5B An example tone map 510 for a 40 MHz bandwidth is shown. The 40 MHz bandwidth can be divided into different numbers of RUs based on the size of the RUs. As shown, the tone map 510 includes five tone plans: a first tone plan 511 includes RUs across 26 tones, a second tone plan 512 includes RUs across 52 tones, a third tone plan 513 includes RUs across 106 tones, a fourth tone plan 514 includes RUs across 242 tones, and a fifth tone plan 515 includes RUs across 484 tones. Specifically, the first frequency modulation plan 511 includes eighteen RUs, each RU spanning 26 frequency modulations; the second frequency modulation plan 512 includes eight RUs, each RU spanning 52 frequency modulations; the third frequency modulation plan 513 includes four RUs, each RU spanning 106 frequency modulations; the fourth frequency modulation plan 514 includes two RUs, each RU spanning 242 frequency modulations; and the fifth frequency modulation plan 515 includes one RU, which spans 484 frequency modulations (where the left half of the channel is used for SU operation). Each 26 frequency modulation RU may include 24 data subcarriers and 2 pilot subcarriers, each 52 frequency modulation RU may include 48 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers, each 106 frequency modulation RU may include 102 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers, each 242 frequency modulation RU may include 234 data subcarriers and 8 pilot subcarriers, and 484 frequency modulation RU may include 468 data subcarriers and 16 pilot subcarriers.

[0116] Figure 5C An example tone map 520 for an 80 MHz bandwidth is shown. The 80 MHz bandwidth can be divided into different numbers of RUs based on the size of the RU. As shown, the tone map 520 includes six tone plans: a first tone plan 521 includes RUs across 26 tones, a second tone plan 522 includes RUs across 52 tones, a third tone plan 523 includes RUs across 106 tones, a fourth tone plan 524 includes RUs across 242 tones, a fifth tone plan 525 includes RUs across 484 tones, and a sixth tone plan 526 includes RUs across 996 tones. The first frequency plan 521 includes thirty-six RUs, each RU spanning 26 frequencies; the second frequency plan 522 includes eighteen RUs, each RU spanning 52 frequencies; the third frequency plan 523 includes eight RUs, each RU spanning 106 frequencies; the fourth frequency plan 524 includes four RUs, each RU spanning 242 frequencies; the fifth frequency plan 525 includes two RUs, each RU spanning 484 frequencies; and the sixth frequency plan 526 includes one RU, which spans 996 frequencies (where the left half of the channel is used for SU operation). Each 26-frequency modulation RU includes 24 data subcarriers and 2 pilot subcarriers, each 52-frequency modulation RU includes 48 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers, each 106-frequency modulation RU includes 102 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers, each 242-frequency modulation RU includes 234 data subcarriers and 8 pilot subcarriers, each 484-frequency modulation RU includes 468 data subcarriers and 16 pilot subcarriers, and the 996-frequency modulation RU includes 980 data subcarriers and 16 pilot subcarriers.

[0117] Each of the tone plans 521-526 is divided into a lower 40 MHz portion 501 and an upper 40 MHz portion 502. The lower 40 MHz portion 501 and the upper 40 MHz portion 502 of each of the tone plans 521-525 are separated by 23 DC tones, and the lower 40 MHz portion 501 and the upper 40 MHz portion 502 of the tone plan 526 are separated by 5 DC tones. Additionally, the lower 40 MHz portion 501 of each of the tone plans 521-525 is divided into first and second 20 MHz portions separated by 5 null subcarriers, and the upper 40 MHz portion 502 of each of the tone plans 521-525 is divided into third and fourth 20 MHz portions separated by 5 null subcarriers.

[0118] Figure 6 6 shows a block diagram of an example wireless communication device 600. In some implementations, the wireless communication device 600 may be a wireless communication device for a STA (such as the one described above with reference to FIG. Figure 1In some implementations, the wireless communication device 600 may be an example of a device in an AP (such as one of the STAs 104 described above). Figure 1 The wireless communication device 600 is an example of a device in the AP 102 described herein. The wireless communication device 600 is capable of transmitting (or outputting for transmission) and receiving wireless communications (e.g., in the form of wireless packets). For example, the wireless communication device may be configured to transmit and receive packets in the form of PPDUs and MPDUs that comply with the IEEE 802.11 standard (such as the standard defined by the IEEE 802.11-2016 specification or its revisions, including but not limited to 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, and 802.11be).

[0119] The wireless communication device 600 may be or may include a chip, system on chip (SoC), chipset, package, or device including one or more modems 602 (e.g., Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 compliant) modems). In some implementations, one or more modems 602 (collectively, "modems 602") additionally include a WWAN modem (e.g., a 3GPP 4G LTE or 5G compatible modem). In some implementations, the wireless communication device 600 also includes one or more radios 604 (collectively, "radios 604"). In some implementations, the wireless communication device 606 further includes one or more processors, processing blocks, or processing elements 606 (collectively, "processors 606") and one or more memory blocks or elements 608 (collectively, "memory 608").

[0120] The modem 602 may include an intelligent hardware block or device (for example, such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)). The modem 602 is generally configured to implement the PHY layer. For example, the modem 602 is configured to modulate packets and output the modulated packets to the radio 604 for transmission on the wireless medium. Similarly, the modem 602 is configured to obtain modulated packets received by the radio 604 and demodulate the packets to provide demodulated packets. In addition to the modulator and demodulator, the modem 602 may further include a digital signal processing (DSP) circuit system, an automatic gain control (AGC), a decoder, a decoder, a multiplexer, and a demultiplexer. For example, when in the transmission mode, the data obtained from the processor 606 is provided to the decoder, which encodes the data to provide coded bits. The coded bits are mapped to points in the modulation constellation (using the selected MCS) to provide modulated symbols. The modulated symbols can be mapped to a number (N SS ) spatial streams or several (N STSThe modulated symbols in the corresponding spatial stream or space-time stream may be multiplexed, transformed via an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) block, and then provided to the DSP circuit system for Tx windowing and filtering. The digital signal may be provided to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The resulting analog signal may be provided to an upconverter and ultimately to the radio 604. In an implementation involving beamforming, the modulated symbols in the corresponding spatial stream are precoded via a steering matrix before being provided to the IFFT block.

[0121] When in receive mode, a digital signal received from the radio 604 is provided to a DSP circuit system that is configured to acquire the received signal, for example, by detecting the presence of the signal and estimating the initial timing and frequency offset. The DSP circuit system is further configured to digitally condition the digital signal, for example, using channel (narrowband) filtering, analog impairment conditioning (such as correcting I / Q imbalance), and applying digital gain to ultimately obtain a narrowband signal. The output of the DSP circuit system may be fed to an AGC that is configured to use information extracted from the digital signal (e.g., in one or more received training fields) to determine an appropriate gain. The output of the DSP circuit system is also coupled to a demodulator that is configured to extract modulated symbols from the signal and, for example, calculate a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) for each bit position of each subcarrier in each spatial stream. The demodulator is coupled to a decoder that may be configured to process the LLRs to provide decoded bits. The decoded bits from all spatial streams are fed to a demultiplexer for demultiplexing. The demultiplexed bits may be descrambled and provided to the MAC layer (processor 606) for processing, evaluation, or interpretation.

[0122] The radio 604 generally includes at least one radio frequency (RF) transmitter (or "transmitter chain") and at least one RF receiver (or "receiver chain"), which can be combined into one or more transceivers. For example, the RF transmitter and receiver may include various DSP circuit systems, including at least one power amplifier (PA) and at least one low noise amplifier (LNA), respectively. The RF transmitter and receiver may in turn be coupled to one or more antennas. For example, in some implementations, the wireless communication device 600 may include or be coupled to multiple transmit antennas (each having a corresponding transmit chain) and multiple receive antennas (each having a corresponding receive chain). The codewords output from the modem 602 are provided to the radio 604, which transmits the codewords via the coupled antennas. Similarly, the codewords received via the antennas are obtained by the radio 604, which provides the codewords to the modem 602.

[0123] The processor 606 may include an intelligent hardware block or device designed to perform the functions described herein, such as, for example, a processing core, a processing block, a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD) (such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA)), discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof. The processor 606 processes information received through the radio 604 and the modem 602, and processes information to be output by the modem 602 and the radio 604 for transmission over a wireless medium. For example, the processor 606 may implement a control plane and a MAC layer, which is configured to perform various operations related to the generation and transmission of MPDUs, frames, or packets. The MAC layer is configured to perform or facilitate the coding and decoding of frames, spatial multiplexing, space-time block coding (STBC), beamforming, and OFDMA resource allocation, and other operations or techniques. In some implementations, the processor 606 may generally control the modem 602 to cause the modem to perform the various operations described above.

[0124] The memory 608 may include a tangible storage medium, such as a random access memory (RAM) or a read-only memory (ROM) or a combination thereof. The memory 608 may also store non-transient processor or computer executable software (SW) code containing instructions that, when executed by the processor 606, cause the processor to perform various operations for wireless communication described herein, including generation, transmission, reception, and interpretation of MPDUs, frames, or packets. For example, the various functions of the various components disclosed herein or the various blocks or steps of the methods, operations, processes, or algorithms disclosed herein may be implemented as one or more modules of one or more computer programs.

[0125] Fig. 7A 702 is a block diagram of an example AP 702. For example, AP 702 may be a reference Figure 1 An example implementation of the AP 102 is described. The AP 702 includes a wireless communication device (WCD) 710. For example, the wireless communication device 710 may be a wireless communication device (WCD) 710. Figure 6An example implementation of the wireless communication device 600 described. The AP 702 also includes a plurality of antennas 720 coupled to the wireless communication device 710 to transmit and receive wireless communications. In some implementations, the AP 702 additionally includes an application processor 730 coupled to the wireless communication device 710, and a memory 740 coupled to the application processor 730. The AP 702 further includes at least one external network interface 750, which enables the AP 702 to communicate with a core network or a backhaul network to obtain access to an external network including the Internet. For example, the external network interface 750 may include one or both of a wired (e.g., Ethernet) network interface and a wireless network interface (such as a WWAN interface). Components of the aforementioned components may communicate directly or indirectly with other components of these components on at least one bus. The AP 702 further includes a housing that encloses the wireless communication device 710, the application processor 730, the memory 740, and encloses at least a portion of the antenna 720 and the external network interface 750.

[0126] Figure 7B 704. For example, STA 704 may be a reference Figure 1 104. STA 704 includes a wireless communication device 715. For example, the wireless communication device 715 may be a reference Figure 6 An example implementation of the wireless communication device 600 described. The STA 704 also includes one or more antennas 725 coupled to the wireless communication device 715 to transmit and receive wireless communications. The STA 704 additionally includes an application processor 735 coupled to the wireless communication device 715, and a memory 745 coupled to the application processor 735. In some implementations, the STA 704 further includes a user interface (UI) 755 (such as a touch screen or keyboard) and a display 765, which can be integrated with the UI 755 to form a touch screen display. In some implementations, the STA 704 may further include one or more sensors 775 (such as one or more inertial sensors, accelerometers, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, or altitude sensors, for example). Components of the aforementioned components can communicate directly or indirectly with other components of these components on at least one bus. The STA 704 further includes a housing that encloses the wireless communication device 715, the application processor 735, the memory 745, and at least portions of the antenna 725, the UI 755, and the display 765.

[0127] Figure 8 800 to support the transmission of PPDU duplication. In some implementations, the communication 800 can be performed between an AP 802 and one or more STAs 804 (for simplicity, the communication 800 can be performed between an AP 802 and one or more STAs 804). Figure 8Only one STA is shown in the figure). AP 802 may be Figure 1 AP 102 or Fig. 7A An example of an AP 702 and a STA 804 may be Figure 1 STA 104 or Figure 7B 8 is an example of a STA 704. In some other implementations, the communication 800 can be performed by any suitable wireless communication device.

[0128] In some implementations, the AP 802 may determine, select, or obtain one or more UL transmission parameters and may indicate the one or more UL transmission parameters using any suitable frame, such as a control frame or a management frame, to the STA 804. The STA 804 receives the indication of the one or more UL transmission parameters and formats or prepares the PPDU for transmission on the selected bandwidth.

[0129] The STA 804 generates a plurality of PPDU copies based on duplication of the entire PPDU excluding any universal signal field (U-SIG) and the EHT-SIG, e.g., such that each of the plurality of PPDU copies is prepared for transmission across the selected bandwidth. In some implementations, the number N of PPDU copies generated by duplicating the PPDU may be based at least in part on a power spectral density (PSD) limit for a combined frequency bandwidth applicable to the plurality of different frequency subbands, where N is an integer greater than one. Figure 8 In the example of , STA 804 generates N=4 PPDU copies, and each of these PPDU copies is formatted for a 20 MHz bandwidth.

[0130] STA 804 transmits each of the plurality of PPDU copies on a corresponding frequency subband of the plurality of different frequency subbands. As shown, each PPDU copy is transmitted on a 20 MHz frequency subband, and the resulting PPDU transmission spans an 80 MHz bandwidth. AP 802 receives the PPDU copies spanning the 80 MHz bandwidth.

[0131] As discussed, the number N of PPDU copies generated by the STA 804 may be based at least in part on a PSD limit applicable to a combined frequency bandwidth occupied by the number N of PPDU copies. In some instances, the combined frequency bandwidth may be N times greater than the selected bandwidth over which the corresponding PPDU copies are transmitted. Figure 8 In the example of , the applicable PSD limit is based on a combined frequency bandwidth of 80 MHz, rather than the 20 MHz bandwidth replicated for each PPDU, thereby increasing the maximum allowed transmit power of STA 804 by approximately four times.

[0132] Although not included in this article for simplicity Figure 8 , but the PPDU may include a physical layer preamble, which includes a HE premodulation or EHT premodulation part and a HE or EHT modulation part. The PPDU may also include one or more data fields. In some implementations, the STA 804 may replicate the HE premodulation or EHT premodulation part of the preamble, the HE or EHT modulation part of the preamble, and the one or more data fields according to the same replication format. Figure 8 In the example of , the HE premodulation or EHT premodulation preamble portion, the HE or EHT modulation preamble portion, and the one or more data fields each span 20 MHz, and each is replicated N=4 times to span a larger frequency bandwidth of 80 MHz.

[0133] In some other implementations, the STA 804 may replicate the HE premodulation or EHT premodulation portion of the preamble according to a first replication format, and may replicate the HE or EHT modulation portion of the preamble and the one or more data fields according to a second replication format different from the first replication format. For example, in some instances, the HE premodulation or EHT premodulation preamble portion may span 20 MHz and may be replicated 4 times to span a larger frequency bandwidth of 80 MHz, and the HE or EHT modulation preamble portion and the one or more data fields may each span 40 MHz and may be replicated 2 times to span a larger frequency bandwidth of 80 MHz.

[0134] For another example, the selected bandwidth may be 20 MHz, duplicating the PPDU may generate eight PPDU copies, and the eight PPDU copies may be transmitted on different 20 MHz frequency sub-bands of a contiguous 160 MHz radio channel or a non-contiguous 80+80 MHz radio channel. For another example, the selected bandwidth may be 40 MHz, duplicating the PPDU may generate two PPDU copies, and the two PPDU copies may be transmitted on different 40 MHz frequency sub-bands of an 80 MHz radio channel. For another example, the selected bandwidth may be 40 MHz, duplicating the PPDU may generate four PPDU copies, and the four PPDU copies may be transmitted on different 40 MHz frequency sub-bands of a contiguous 160 MHz radio channel or a non-contiguous 80+80 MHz radio channel. For another example, the selected bandwidth may be 80 MHz, duplicating the PPDU may generate two PPDU copies, and the two PPDU copies may be transmitted on different 80 MHz frequency sub-bands of a contiguous 160 MHz radio channel or a non-contiguous 80+80 MHz radio channel. For another example, the selected bandwidth may be 80 MHz, duplicating the PPDU may generate four PPDU copies, and the four PPDU copies may be transmitted on different 80 MHz frequency sub-bands of a contiguous 320 MHz radio channel or a non-contiguous 160+160 MHz radio channel. Other configurations are possible.

[0135] In some implementations, the PPDU may be one of a high efficiency (HE) format, an extremely high throughput (EHT) format, or a single user (SU) extended range (ER) PPDU format. The U-SIG and the EHT-SIG may also be replicated in the time domain, for example, in a manner similar to the time domain replication of the HE-SIG-A of the HE ER SUPPDU. In some instances, the STA 804 may generate a PPDU replication by replicating the HE premodulation or EHT premodulation portion of the preamble in each of a plurality of 20 MHz frequency subbands and replicating the HE or EHT modulation portion of the preamble and one or more data portions in each of a plurality of 40 MHz frequency subbands, 80 MHz frequency subbands, or 160 MHz frequency subbands.

[0136] The HE premodulation or EHT premodulation portion of the preamble may include L-STF, L-LTF, L-SIG, RL-SIG, HE-SIG-A, and U-SIG (and may include HE-SIG-B in the HE premodulation portion, and EHT-SIG in the EHT premodulation portion). The HE or EHT modulation portion of the preamble may include several HE or EHT signal fields and several HE or EHT training fields (such as HE-STF, HE-LTF, EHT-STF, EHT-LTF, and one or more data fields). In some implementations, the signal field of each PPDU copy may be used to indicate the presence of a PPDU copy, indicate the frequency bandwidth of the PPDU copy, indicate the entire bandwidth across which multiple PPDU copies are transmitted, or any combination thereof. In some instances, the PPDU may be a HE PPDU, and the signal field may be one of a HE-SIG-A field or a HE-SIG-B field. In some other instances, the PPDU may be an EHT PPDU, and the signal field may be an EHT-SIG field or a U-SIG field.

[0137] Fig. 9A 900 is a sequence diagram of an example communication 900 that supports the use of duplicate RUs to transmit PPDUs. In some implementations, the communication 900 can be performed between an AP 902 and one or more STAs 904 (for simplicity, the Fig. 9A Only one STA is shown in the figure). AP 902 may be Figure 1 AP 102 or Fig. 7A An example of an AP 702, and a STA 904 may be Figure 1 STA104 or Figure 7B 900 is an example of a STA 704. In some other implementations, the communication 900 can be performed by any suitable wireless communication device.

[0138] In some implementations, AP 902 may allocate one or more groups of duplicated RUs to different STAs for UL transmission. In some instances, AP 902 may transmit a trigger frame that allocates a group of duplicated RUs to STA 904 for UL transmission. STA 904 receives the trigger frame and obtains the group of duplicated RUs allocated by the trigger frame. In some other instances, the STA may select or otherwise obtain the group of duplicated RUs without a trigger frame. STA 904 may format or prepare a PPDU for transmission based on the duplicated RUs and transmit the PPDU using the group of duplicated RUs. In some instances, the PPDU may be transmitted as a UL TB PPDU. In some other instances, the PPDU may be transmitted as DL data (such as DL OFDMA communication).

[0139] The PSD limit applicable to communication 900 can be based on the frequency bandwidth spanned by the group of replicated RUs, and the frequency bandwidth can be at least twice the RU bandwidth of the corresponding replicated RUs. In some instances, each RU in a group of replicated RUs can include the same number of frequency tones. In some other instances, one or more RUs included in the group of replicated RUs can include at least one non-contiguous frequency tone.

[0140] Fig. 9B An example RU replication 910 is shown. The RU replication 910 may include a replicated first resource unit (RU1), a replicated second resource unit (RU2), and a replicated third resource unit (RU3). The replicated first resource unit RU1 may be based on replicating a 26-tone RU (RU26) twice so that the resulting replicated resource unit RU1 spans three adjacent RU26, which may increase the frequency bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU by three times (compared to using a single RU26 to transmit the PPDU), and thus increase the allowable transmit power by three times. The replicated second resource unit RU2 may be based on replicating a 52-tone RU (RU52) once so that the resulting replicated resource unit RU2 spans two adjacent RU52, which may increase the frequency bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU by two times (compared to using a single RU52 to transmit the PPDU), and thus increase the allowable transmit power by two times. ? The replicated third resource unit RU3 can be based on replicating the 26-frequency modulation RU (RU26) twice so that the resulting replicated resource unit RU3 spans three non-adjacent RU26, which can increase the frequency bandwidth used to transmit the PPDU by three times (compared to using a single RU26 to transmit the PPDU) and thus increase the allowable transmission power by three times.

[0141] Fig. 10A 1 shows a sequence diagram of an example communication 1000 that supports transmitting a PPDU using tone mapping. In some implementations, the communication 1000 can be performed between an AP 1002 and one or more STAs 1004 (for simplicity, the Fig. 10A Only one STA is shown in the figure). AP 1002 may be Figure 1 AP 102 or Fig. 7A An example of an AP 702, and a STA 1004 may be Figure 1 STA 104 or Figure 7B 1000 is an example of a STA 704. In some other implementations, the communication 1000 can be performed by any suitable wireless communication device.

[0142] In some implementations, the AP 1002 may allocate one or more RUs to each of the plurality of STAs for UL transmission. The AP 1002 may transmit a trigger frame that allocates a set of RUs to solicit UL transmissions from the STA identified by the trigger frame. In some instances, the trigger frame may allocate RUs comprising a set of contiguous tones spanning a first frequency bandwidth to the STA 1004. In some other instances, the corresponding STA may obtain or select the RUs.

[0143] STA 1004 receives the trigger frame and selects the frequency tone indicated by the trigger frame. STA 1004 formats or prepares the PPDU for transmission based on the first frequency bandwidth of the selected RU and maps the contiguous frequency tone set of the selected RU to a non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across a second frequency bandwidth larger than the first frequency bandwidth. STA 1004 transmits the PPDU using the non-contiguous frequency tone set across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0144] The PSD limit applicable to communication 1000 can be based on a second frequency bandwidth, and the second frequency bandwidth can be at least one order of magnitude larger than the first frequency bandwidth. In some implementations, the contiguous frequency tone set of the allocated RU includes 26 frequency tones across a 2 MHz frequency subband, includes 52 frequency tones across a 4 MHz frequency subband, includes 106 frequency tones across a 10 MHz frequency subband, or includes 242 frequency tones across a 20 MHz frequency subband, and each frequency tone in the non-contiguous frequency tone set is transmitted on a unique 1 MHz frequency subband. In some instances, the spacing between adjacent frequency tone pairs in the non-contiguous frequency tone set includes a number M of frequency tones that are not allocated to the wireless communication device, where M is an integer greater than one. The number M of unallocated frequency tones can be used for UL transmissions from one or more other STAs concurrent with the transmission of the UL TB PPDU from STA 1004.

[0145] In some implementations, STA 1004 may transmit a first portion of a PPDU using a first group of 26 tones in the non-contiguous set of tones, may transmit a second portion of the PPDU using the remaining 14 tones in the non-contiguous set of tones, wherein the first and second portions of the PPDU are transmitted concurrently. In some instances, STA 1004 may use the non-contiguous set of tones to transmit one or more subsequent PPDUs using the non-contiguous set of tones by repeatedly cycling through the tones in the non-contiguous set of tones. In some other implementations, STA 1004 may transmit a first portion of a PPDU using a first group of 26 tones in the non-contiguous set of tones, may transmit a second portion of the PPDU using a second group of 26 tones in the non-contiguous set of tones, may transmit a third portion of the PPDU using a third group of 26 tones in the non-contiguous set of tones, and may transmit a fourth portion of the PPDU using the remaining 2 tones in the non-contiguous set of tones, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth portions of the PPDU are transmitted concurrently and are cyclic copies of each other. In some examples, the STA 1004 can transmit one or more subsequent PPDUs using the non-contiguous set of tones by repeatedly cycling through the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones.

[0146] In some other implementations, the contiguous set of tones of the allocated RU may include 26 tones across a 2 MHz frequency subband, and the non-contiguous set of tones may include 20 tones across a 20 MHz frequency subband. In some instances, STA 1004 may map the contiguous set of tones to the non-contiguous set of tones by determining an interval between adjacent tones in the non-contiguous set of tones, and distributing the tones in the non-contiguous set of tones across a second frequency bandwidth based on the determined interval. STA 1004 may determine the interval by dividing the number of tones in the non-contiguous set of tones by the number of tones in the contiguous set of tones in the allocated RU, generating an integer quotient and a remainder based on the division, and selecting the integer quotient as the interval.

[0147] Fig. 10BAn example mapping 1010 of tones is shown. As shown, the tones allocated to a user (or STA) (or selected by a user (or STA)) may be mapped to a second set of tones distributed across an 80 MHz frequency band. In some instances, the tones included in the corresponding RU (which may be referred to herein as "existing tones") may be contiguous tones associated with one of the RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242, RU484, or RU996 resource units of a tone plan adopted by one or more of the IEEE 802.11 wireless communication protocol standard family (such as the IEEE 802.11ax or 802.11be standards). In some other instances, when the corresponding RU is one of the RU26, RU52, or RU106 resource units of the tone plan, the tones included in the corresponding RU may be distributed across a 20 MHz frequency segment. For example, during the resource allocation phase, each STA may select or obtain a single RU or multiple RUs for UL transmission. When a STA selects, obtains, or is allocated an RU or multiple RUs that are smaller than RU242 (which spans a 20 MHz frequency subband), the user may use the contiguous tones of the allocated RU to transmit UL data, or may extend the contiguous tones of the RU across the 20 MHz frequency subband and use the extended tones to transmit UL data.

[0148] In some implementations, existing tones allocated to several users may be mapped to a corresponding set of interleaved tones distributed across a wider frequency bandwidth (such as wider than 20 MHz). Fig. 10B As shown in the example of , the existing frequency tones are mapped one at a time from each selected or allocated RU (or 20 MHz frequency segment) to the corresponding frequency tones in the second non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the 80 MHz frequency band. That is, the mapped frequency tones occupy every Mth frequency tone of the frequency tone plan associated with the wider frequency bandwidth, where M=N+1, and N indicates the number of other non-contiguous frequency tone sets. In this way, the applicable PSD limit can be based on, for example, the wider frequency band spanned by the mapped second frequency tone set, rather than the frequency sub-bands spanned by the allocated RUs or 20 MHz frequency segments.

[0149] exist Fig. 10BIn the example of , the existing frequency tones in the first 20 MHz frequency sub-band are mapped to the first frequency tone, the fifth frequency tone, the ninth frequency tone, and so on in the frequency tone set distributed across the 80 MHz frequency band. The existing frequency tones in the second 20 MHz frequency sub-band are mapped to the second frequency tone, the sixth frequency tone, the tenth frequency tone, and so on in the frequency tone set distributed across the 80 MHz frequency band. The existing frequency tones in the third 20 MHz frequency sub-band are mapped to the third frequency tone, the seventh frequency tone, the eleventh frequency tone, and so on in the frequency tone set distributed across the 80 MHz frequency band. The existing frequency tones in the fourth 20 MHz frequency sub-band are mapped to the fourth frequency tone, the eighth frequency tone, the twelfth frequency tone, and so on in the frequency tone set distributed across the 80 MHz frequency band. In this way, the applicable PSD limit and total transmit power can be based on, for example, the 80 MHz frequency band, rather than on the 20 MHz frequency segment.

[0150] In some other implementations, a set of non-contiguous tones mapped from a selected, obtained, or allocated RU or 20 MHz frequency segment may be distributed across other frequency bands, such as, for example, a 20 MHz band, a 40 MHz band, a 160 MHz band, or a 320 MHz band. Moreover, implementations of the subject matter disclosed herein may be used with other sizes of allocated RUs, such as, for example, RU52, RU106, RU242, RU484, or RU996.

[0151] Fig. 10C An example mapping 1020 of tones is shown. As shown, the existing tones allocated to each user by the trigger frame can span the corresponding 20 MHz frequency sub-band and can be mapped to a second set of tones that spans the 80 MHz frequency band. In some implementations, the distributed tones mapped from the existing tones of each allocated RU (or each 20 MHz frequency segment) are interleaved with each other so that each distributed set of tones in the second set of distributed tones spans the entire 80 MHz frequency band. In this way, the applicable PSD limits and total transmit power can be based on, for example, the 80 MHz frequency band, rather than on the 20 MHz frequency segments.

[0152] exist Fig. 10CIn the example of , two tones are sequentially mapped from each RU or frequency segment to a corresponding pair of tones in a second set of tones distributed across an 80 MHz frequency band. That is, the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones occupy every Mth and M+1th tone of the frequency tone plan associated with the second frequency bandwidth, where M=N+1, and N indicates the number of other non-contiguous sets of tones. In some other implementations, a group of more than two tones are sequentially mapped from each allocated RU or frequency segment to a corresponding group of more than two tones in a second set of tones distributed across an 80 MHz frequency band. In some other implementations, the set of non-contiguous tones mapped from the allocated RU or 20 MHz frequency segment may be distributed across other frequency bands, such as, for example, a 20 MHz band, a 40 MHz band, a 160 MHz band, or a 320 MHz band. Moreover, implementations of the subject matter disclosed herein may be used with other sizes of allocated RUs, such as, for example, RU52, RU106, RU242, RU484, or RU996.

[0153] Fig.11 A flowchart illustrating example operations 1100 for wireless communication to support transmission of PPDU duplication is shown. In some implementations, the operations 1100 may be performed by a STA (such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Figure 8 The operations 1100 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within one of the STAs 804 of the STA. In some other implementations, the operations 1100 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node.

[0154] At block 1102, the wireless communication device generates a plurality of PPDU copies configured to be transmitted over a selected bandwidth. At block 1104, the wireless communication device outputs each of the plurality of PPDU copies over a corresponding frequency subband in a plurality of different frequency subbands of a wireless channel. In some examples, each PPDU copy can be based on a copy of the entire PPDU excluding any universal signal field (U-SIG).

[0155] The PPDU may include a physical layer preamble, which includes an EHT premodulation portion and an EHT modulation portion. The PPDU may also include one or more data fields. In some implementations, generating multiple PPDU copies includes copying the EHT premodulation portion of the preamble, the EHT modulation portion of the preamble, and the one or more data fields according to the same replication format. In some other implementations, generating multiple PPDU copies includes copying the EHT premodulation portion of the preamble according to a first replication format, copying the EHT modulation portion of the preamble according to a second replication format, and copying the one or more data fields according to a second replication format, wherein the second replication format is different from the first replication format. In some instances, the first replication format can be associated with a first multiple of the frequency bandwidth, and the second replication format can be associated with a second multiple of the frequency bandwidth, wherein the second multiple is at least twice the first multiple.

[0156] In some implementations, the number N of generated PPDU copies may be based at least in part on a power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to a combined frequency bandwidth of the plurality of different frequency sub-bands, where N is an integer greater than one. In some instances, the combined frequency bandwidth may be N times greater than a selected bandwidth over which the corresponding PPDU copies are transmitted. In some other implementations, the plurality of different frequency sub-bands may include one or more unlicensed channels in the 6 GHz spectrum, and the PSD limit applicable to the transmission may be based on a combined frequency bandwidth of the plurality of different frequency sub-bands.

[0157] Fig. 12A A flow chart illustrating example operations 1200 for wireless communication to support transmission of PPDU duplication is shown. In some implementations, the operations 1200 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Figure 8 In some other implementations, operation 1200 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In some instances, operation 1200 is performed with reference to Fig.11 An example of generating multiple PPDU copies in block 1102 of described operations 1100. For example, at block 1202, the wireless communication device copies the EHT pre-modulated portion of the preamble, the EHT modulated portion of the preamble, and the one or more data fields according to the same replication format.

[0158] Fig. 12B A flow chart illustrating example operations 1210 for wireless communication supporting transmission of PPDU duplication is shown. In some implementations, operations 1210 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Figure 8 In some other implementations, operation 1210 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In some instances, operation 1210 is performed with reference to Fig.11 An example of generating multiple PPDU copies in block 1102 of described operation 1100. For example, at block 1212, the wireless communication device copies the EHT pre-modulated portion of the preamble according to a first replication format. At block 1214, the wireless communication device copies the EHT modulated portion of the preamble according to a second replication format different from the first replication format. At block 1216, the wireless communication device copies the one or more data fields according to the second replication format. In some instances, the first replication format can be associated with a first multiple of a frequency bandwidth, and the second replication format can be associated with a second multiple of a frequency bandwidth, wherein the second multiple is at least twice the first multiple.

[0159] In this way, the EHT pre-modulation portion of the PPDU preamble may be replicated for transmission on a first frequency bandwidth, while the EHT modulation portion of the PPDU preamble and the one or more data fields of the PPDU may be replicated for transmission on a second frequency bandwidth that is larger than the first frequency bandwidth. For example, the EHT pre-modulation preamble portion may be replicated in 20 MHz chunks, while the EHT modulation preamble portion and the one or more data fields may be replicated in larger frequency chunks, such as 40 MHz chunks, 80 MHz chunks, or 160 MHz chunks.

[0160] Fig. 12C A flow chart illustrating example operations 1220 for wireless communication supporting transmission of PPDU duplication is shown. In some implementations, operations 1220 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Figure 8 In some other implementations, operation 1220 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In some instances, operation 1220 is performed with reference to Fig.11An example of generating multiple PPDU copies in block 1102 of described operations 1100. For example, at block 1222, the wireless communication device copies the EHT pre-modulated portion of the preamble in each of a plurality of 20 MHz frequency sub-bands. At block 1224, the wireless communication device copies the EHT modulated portion of the preamble in each of a plurality of 40 MHz frequency sub-bands, 80 MHz frequency sub-bands, or 160 MHz frequency sub-bands. At block 1224, the wireless communication device copies the data portion of the PPDU in each of a plurality of 40 MHz frequency sub-bands, 80 MHz frequency sub-bands, or 160 MHz frequency sub-bands.

[0161] Fig.13 A flow chart illustrating example operations 1300 for wireless communication supporting RU duplication is shown. In some implementations, the operations 1300 may be performed by a STA (such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 9A The operation 1300 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within one of the STAs 904 of the STA. In some other implementations, the operation 1300 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node.

[0162] At block 1302, the wireless communication device generates a physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) for transmission based at least in part on the allocated set of duplicate RUs. At block 1304, the wireless communication device outputs the PPDU using the allocated set of duplicate RUs.

[0163] In some implementations, a power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to the transmission is based on a frequency bandwidth spanned by the allocated set of replicated RUs, and the frequency bandwidth spanned is at least twice the frequency bandwidth of the corresponding replicated RUs. The size of the RUs in the allocated set of RUs may be based at least in part on the applicable PSD limit. In some instances, each RU included in the allocated set of replicated RUs may include the same number of frequency tones.

[0164] Fig.14 A flow diagram illustrating example operations 1400 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 1400 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 10AIn some other implementations, operation 1400 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In box 1402, the wireless communication device receives a trigger frame that allocates a resource unit (RU) to the wireless communication device for uplink (UL) transmission, the RU comprising a set of contiguous frequency tones spanning a first frequency bandwidth. In box 1404, the wireless communication device prepares a physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) for UL transmission based at least in part on the first frequency bandwidth. In box 1406, the wireless communication device maps the contiguous frequency tone set of the allocated RU to a set of non-contiguous frequency tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth larger than the first frequency bandwidth. In box 1408, the wireless communication device transmits the PPDU using the second set of frequency tones.

[0165] In some implementations, the PPDU is a UL TB PPDU that spans a second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, the PSD limit applicable to the transmission is based on the second frequency bandwidth, and the second frequency bandwidth is at least an order of magnitude greater than the first frequency bandwidth.

[0166] In some implementations, the tones in the non-contiguous set of frequencies are interleaved with tones in several other non-contiguous sets of frequencies, and the tones in each of the several other sets of frequencies are distributed across a second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, the tones in the non-contiguous set of frequencies occupy every Mth tone of a frequency tone plan associated with the second frequency bandwidth, where M=N+1, and N indicates the number of other non-contiguous sets of frequencies. In some other instances, the tones in the non-contiguous set of frequencies occupy every Mth and M+1th tone of a frequency tone plan associated with the second frequency bandwidth, where M=N+1, and N indicates the number of other non-contiguous sets of frequencies. Additionally, each of the several other sets of frequencies can be assigned to different wireless communication devices.

[0167] Fig.15A A flow chart illustrating example operations 1500 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 1500 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 10A In some other implementations, operations 1500 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node. In some instances, operations 1500 are performed with reference to Fig.14An example of transmitting a PPDU in block 1408 of described operation 1400. For example, at block 1502, the wireless communication device transmits a first portion of the PPDU using a first group of 26 tones in the non-contiguous set of tones. At block 1504, the wireless communication device transmits a second portion of the PPDU using the remaining 14 tones in the non-contiguous set of tones, wherein the first and second portions of the PPDU are transmitted concurrently. At block 1506, the wireless communication device transmits one or more subsequent PPDUs using the non-contiguous set of tones by repeatedly cycling through the tones in the non-contiguous set of tones.

[0168] Fig. 15B A flow diagram illustrating example operations 1510 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 1510 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 10A In some other implementations, operation 1510 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In some instances, operation 1510 is performed with reference to Fig.14 An example of transmitting a PPDU using block 1408 of described operation 1400. For example, in block 1512, the wireless communication device transmits a first portion of the PPDU using a first group of 26 tones in the non-contiguous set of tones. In block 1514, the wireless communication device transmits a second portion of the PPDU using a second group of 26 tones in the non-contiguous set of tones. In block 1516, the wireless communication device transmits a third portion of the PPDU using a third group of 26 tones in the non-contiguous set of tones. In block 1518, the wireless communication device transmits a fourth portion of the PPDU using the remaining 2 tones in the non-contiguous set of tones, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth portions of the PPDU are transmitted concurrently. In block 1520, the wireless communication device transmits one or more subsequent PPDUs using the non-contiguous set of tones by repeatedly cycling through the tones in the non-contiguous set of tones.

[0169] Fig.16 A flow chart illustrating example operations 1600 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 1600 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 10AIn some other implementations, operation 1600 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node. In some instances, operation 1600 is performed with reference to Fig.14 An example of mapping the contiguous set of tones of the allocated RU in block 1406 of described operation 1400. For example, at block 1602, the wireless communication determines spacing between adjacent tones in the set of non-contiguous tones. At block 1604, the wireless communication device distributes the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones across a second frequency bandwidth based on the determined spacing.

[0170] In some implementations, the contiguous tone set of the allocated RU includes 26 tones across a 2 MHz frequency subband, includes 52 tones across a 4 MHz frequency subband, includes 106 tones across a 10 MHz frequency subband, or includes 242 tones across a 20 MHz frequency subband. Each tone in the non-contiguous tone set can be transmitted on a unique 1 MHz frequency subband. In some instances, the spacing between adjacent tone pairs in the non-contiguous tone set includes a number M of tones that are not allocated to the wireless communication device, where M is an integer greater than one.

[0171] Fig.17 A flow chart illustrating example operations 1700 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 1700 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 10A In some other implementations, operations 1700 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node. In some instances, operations 1700 are performed with reference to Fig.16 An example of determining an interval in block 1602 of described operation 1600. For example, in block 1702, the wireless communication device divides the number of tones in the set of non-contiguous tones by the number of tones in the set of contiguous tones. In block 1704, the wireless communication device generates an integer quotient and a remainder based on the division. In block 1706, the wireless communication device selects the integer quotient as the interval.

[0172] Fig.18 1800 is a sequence diagram of an example communication 1800 that supports transmitting one or more PPDUs using tone mapping. In some implementations, the communication 1800 can be performed between an AP 1802 and one or more STAs 1804 (for simplicity, the communication 1800 can be performed between an AP 1802 and one or more STAs 1804). Fig.18Only one STA is shown in the figure). AP 1802 may be Figure 1 AP 102 or Fig. 7A An example of an AP 702, and a STA 1804 may be Figure 1 STA 104 or Figure 7B 18 is an example of a STA 704. In some other implementations, the communication 1800 can be performed by any suitable wireless communication device.

[0173] The AP 1802 may allocate RUs selected for UL transmission to each of the plurality of STAs. In some implementations, the AP 1802 may transmit a trigger frame to solicit UL transmissions from the STAs. The trigger frame may also allocate RUs to the STA 1804 for UL transmission. In some aspects, the RUs allocated by the trigger frame may include a set of contiguous tones across the RU bandwidth. For example, RU26 may include 26 frequency tones across 2 MHz frequency subbands (24 frequency tones available for UL transmission and 2 frequency tones available for use as pilots), RU52 may include 52 frequency tones across 4 MHz frequency subbands (48 frequency tones available for UL transmission and 4 frequency tones available for use as pilots), RU106 may include 106 frequency tones across 10 MHz frequency subbands (102 frequency tones available for UL transmission and 4 frequency tones available for use as pilots), and RU242 may include 242 frequency tones across 20 MHz frequency subbands (234 frequency tones available for UL transmission and 8 frequency tones available for use as pilots).

[0174] STA 1804 receives the trigger frame and identifies the tones included in the allocated RU. STA 1804 prepares a PPDU for transmission based on a first frequency bandwidth associated with the allocated RU and maps the contiguous set of tones of the allocated RU to a non-contiguous set of tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth that is larger than the first frequency bandwidth. STA 1804 transmits the PPDU using the second set of tones across the second frequency bandwidth. AP 1802 receives the PPDU, which in some implementations may be transmitted as a UL TB PPDU.

[0175] STA 1804 prepares a PPDU for transmission based on a first frequency bandwidth associated with the allocated RU, and maps the contiguous frequency tone set in the allocated RU to a non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across a second frequency bandwidth based on a frequency tone mapping scheme. In some implementations, the second frequency bandwidth may be larger than the first frequency bandwidth, and the first frequency bandwidth may be larger than the RU bandwidth. In some instances, the first frequency bandwidth is 20 MHz, and the second frequency bandwidth is one of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or 320 MHz. In some other instances, the second frequency bandwidth may be an order of magnitude (or more) larger than the RU bandwidth.

[0176] The STA 1804 transmits a PPDU using a second set of tones across a second frequency bandwidth. The AP 1802 receives the PPDU, which in some implementations may be transmitted as a UL TB PPDU. The PPDU may be an uplink (UL) triggered (TB) PPDU across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0177] In some implementations, STA 1804 may transmit a first portion of the PPDU using a first group of 26 tones in the non-contiguous tone set and may transmit a second portion of the PPDU using the remaining 14 tones in the non-contiguous tone set, wherein the first and second portions of the PPDU are transmitted concurrently. In some instances, STA 1804 may transmit one or more subsequent PPDUs using the non-contiguous tone set by repeatedly cycling through the tones in the non-contiguous tone set. In some other implementations, STA 1004 may transmit a first portion of the PPDU using a first group of 26 frequency tones in a non-contiguous frequency tone set, may transmit a second portion of the PPDU using a second group of 26 frequency tones in the non-contiguous frequency tone set, may transmit a third portion of the PPDU using a third group of 26 frequency tones in the non-contiguous frequency tone set, and may transmit a fourth portion of the PPDU using the remaining 2 frequency tones in the non-contiguous frequency tone set, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth portions of the PPDU are transmitted concurrently and are cyclic copies of each other. In some instances, STA 1804 may transmit one or more subsequent PPDUs using the non-contiguous frequency tone set by repeatedly cycling through the frequency tones in the non-contiguous frequency tone set.

[0178] In some other implementations, the contiguous set of tones of the allocated RU may include 26 tones across a 2 MHz frequency subband, and the non-contiguous set of tones may include 20 tones across a 20 MHz frequency subband. In some instances, STA 1804 may map the contiguous set of tones to the non-contiguous set of tones by determining an interval between adjacent tones in the non-contiguous set of tones, and distributing the tones in the non-contiguous set of tones across a second frequency bandwidth based on the determined interval. STA 1804 may determine the interval by dividing the number of tones in the non-contiguous set of tones by the number of tones in the contiguous set of tones in the allocated RU, generating an integer quotient and a remainder based on the division, and selecting the integer quotient as the interval.

[0179] The PSD limit applicable to communication 1800 can be based on a second frequency bandwidth, and the second frequency bandwidth can be at least one order of magnitude larger than the first frequency bandwidth. In some implementations, the applicable PSD limit can be determined by multiplying the PSD limit applicable to transmission on the first frequency bandwidth by a number N equal to the second frequency bandwidth divided by the first frequency bandwidth. In some implementations, the contiguous frequency tone set of the allocated RU includes 26 frequency tones across a 2 MHz frequency subband, includes 52 frequency tones across a 4 MHz frequency subband, includes 106 frequency tones across a 10 MHz frequency subband, or includes 242 frequency tones across a 20 MHz frequency subband, and each frequency tone in the non-contiguous frequency tone set is transmitted on a unique 1 MHz frequency subband. In some instances, the spacing between adjacent frequency tone pairs in the non-contiguous frequency tone set includes a number M of frequency tones that are not allocated to the wireless communication device, where M is an integer greater than one. The number M of unallocated tones may be used for UL transmissions from one or more other STAs concurrently with the transmission of a UL TB PPDU from STA 1804 .

[0180] In some implementations, the tones in the non-contiguous set of tones are interleaved with tones in one or more other non-contiguous sets of tones across the entire second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, each of the one or more other non-contiguous sets of tones is assigned to a different wireless communication device.

[0181] In some implementations, the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones occupy every Mth tone index of the tone plan for the second frequency bandwidth, where M is an integer greater than one. In some other implementations, the tones in the set of contiguous tones are mapped to corresponding distributed tones of the tone plan associated with the second frequency bandwidth in groups of N tones, where N is an integer greater than one.

[0182] In some implementations, each of the first number of tones in the set of non-contiguous tones occupies a unique 1 MHz frequency subband. In some instances, each of the second number of tones in the set of non-contiguous tones shares a unique 1 MHz frequency subband occupied by a corresponding tone in the first number of tones.

[0183] Fig.19 An example mapping 1900 of tones is shown. As shown, the tones allocated to the user (or STA) by the trigger frame may be mapped to a second set of tones distributed across the 80 MHz frequency band. In some instances, the tones in the corresponding RU included in the allocated RU (which may be referred to herein as "existing tones") may be contiguous tones associated with one of the RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242, RU484, or RU996 resource units of the adopted tone plan specified by one or more of the IEEE 802.11 wireless communication protocol standard family (such as the IEEE 802.11ax standard). In some other instances, when the corresponding RU is one of the RU26, RU52, or RU106 resource units of the tone plan, the tones included in the corresponding RU may be distributed across a 20 MHz frequency segment. For example, during the resource allocation phase, each user (or STA) may be allocated a single RU or multiple RUs for UL transmission. When a user is allocated an RU or multiple RUs that is smaller than RU242 (which spans a 20 MHz frequency sub-band), the user may use contiguous tones of the allocated RUs to transmit UL data, or may extend contiguous tones of the allocated RUs across the 20 MHz frequency sub-band and use the extended tones to transmit UL data.

[0184] In some implementations, STA 1804 may determine the mapped tone index for each tone in the non-contiguous tone set based on multiplying the tone index of the corresponding tone in the contiguous tone set by a number M, where M is an integer greater than one. Fig.19 In the example of , for example, M=13 so that adjacent mapped tone pairs in the second frequency bandwidth are separated by intervals of 13 tones. In some implementations, sets of non-adjacent tone mappings from an allocated RU or 20MHz frequency segment can be distributed across other frequency bands, such as, for example, a 20MHz band, a 40MHz band, a 160MHz band, or a 320MHz band. Furthermore, implementations of the subject matter disclosed herein can be used in conjunction with other sizes of allocated RUs, such as, for example, RU52, RU106, RU242, RU484, or RU996.

[0185] Fig. 20A flow diagram illustrating example operations 2000 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 2000 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, Figure 8 STA 804, or Fig.18 The operations 2000 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within one of the STAs 1804 of the STA. In some other implementations, the operations 2000 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node.

[0186] In box 2002, the wireless communication device receives a trigger frame that allocates a resource unit (RU) to the wireless communication device for uplink (UL) transmission, the allocated RU including a set of contiguous frequency tones spanning the RU bandwidth. In box 2004, the wireless communication device extends the frequency tones in the contiguous frequency tones set of the allocated RU across a first frequency bandwidth. In box 2006, the wireless communication device prepares a physical (PHY) layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) for UL transmission based at least in part on the first frequency bandwidth. In box 2008, the wireless communication device maps the contiguous frequency tones set of the allocated RU to a set of non-contiguous frequency tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth based on a frequency tone mapping scheme. In box 2010, the wireless communication device transmits the PPDU using the mapped set of non-contiguous frequency tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0187] In some implementations, the second frequency bandwidth may be larger than the first frequency bandwidth, and the first frequency bandwidth may be larger than the RU bandwidth. In some instances, the first frequency bandwidth is 20 MHz, and the second frequency bandwidth is one of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or 320 MHz. In some other instances, the second frequency bandwidth may be an order of magnitude (or more) larger than the RU bandwidth. In some other instances, the second frequency bandwidth may be one or more subbands of the PPDU bandwidth.

[0188] The PPDU may be an uplink (UL) triggered (TB) PPDU spanning at least a second frequency bandwidth. In some implementations, a power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to transmission of the PPDU may be based at least in part on the second frequency bandwidth. In some other implementations, a power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to transmission of the PPDU is based on a PSD limit corresponding to the first frequency bandwidth multiplied by a number N, where N is equal to the second frequency bandwidth divided by the first frequency bandwidth.

[0189] In some implementations, the tones in the non-contiguous set of tones are interleaved with tones in one or more other non-contiguous sets of tones across the entire second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, each of the one or more other non-contiguous sets of tones is assigned to a different wireless communication device.

[0190] In some implementations, the contiguous set of tones of the allocated RU includes one of: 26 tones across a 2 MHz frequency subband, 52 tones across a 4 MHz frequency subband, 106 tones across a 10 MHz frequency subband, or 242 tones across a 20 MHz frequency subband. In some instances, the tones in the contiguous set of tones of the allocated RU extend across a 20 MHz frequency band regardless of the number of tones in the allocated RU.

[0191] In some implementations, the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones occupy every Mth tone index of the tone plan for the second frequency bandwidth, where M is an integer greater than one. In some other implementations, the tones in the set of contiguous tones are mapped to corresponding distributed tones of the tone plan associated with the second frequency bandwidth in groups of N tones, where N is an integer greater than one.

[0192] In some implementations, each of the first number of tones in the set of non-contiguous tones occupies a unique 1 MHz frequency subband. In some instances, each of the second number of tones in the set of non-contiguous tones shares a unique 1 MHz frequency subband occupied by a corresponding tone in the first number of tones.

[0193] Fig.21A A flow diagram illustrating example operations 2100 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 2100 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, Figure 8 STA 804, or Fig.18 In some other implementations, operation 2100 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node. In some instances, operation 2100 is performed with reference to Fig. 20 An example of mapping the contiguous set of tones of the allocated RU to a non-contiguous set of tones in block 2008 of operations 2000 is described.

[0194] For example, at block 2102, the wireless communication device determines a mapped tone index for each tone in the set of non-contiguous tones based on multiplying the tone index of the corresponding tone in the set of contiguous tones by a number M, where M is an integer greater than one. In some other implementations, the mapped tone index (IDX) for a group of M tones in the second frequency bandwidth is 经映射_频调_k,1 ) is IDX 经映射_频调 =mod(13*(k–1)+1,N 频调 ), where IDX 本地_频调 is the corresponding tone in the set of contiguous tones, M is an integer greater than one, and N 频调 is the number of tones in the second frequency bandwidth. In some examples, M=13.

[0195] Fig.21B A flow diagram illustrating example operations 2110 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 2110 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, Figure 8 STA 804, or Fig.18 In some other implementations, operation 2110 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In some instances, operation 2110 is performed with reference to Fig. 20 An example of mapping the contiguous set of tones in the allocated RU to a non-contiguous set of tones is described in block 2008 of operations 2000.

[0196] For example, in box 2112, the wireless communication device maps each of the number N1 of the allocated RUs to a corresponding tone in a first set of N1 tones distributed across the entire second frequency bandwidth, where N1 is an integer greater than one. In box 2114, the wireless communication device maps each of the remaining number N2 of the allocated RUs to a corresponding tone in a second set of N2 tones distributed across subbands of the second frequency bandwidth, where N2 is an integer greater than one.

[0197] In some implementations, a first set of N1 tones occupies a first tone and every Pth subsequent tone of a second frequency bandwidth, where P is an integer greater than one. Also, a second set of N2 tones may occupy the Ith tone and every Pth subsequent tone of the second frequency bandwidth for N2-1 subsequent tones, where I is an integer greater than one. In some instances, P=13 and I is less than P. In some implementations, the tones in the second set of N2 tones and the tones in the first set of N1 tones located in a subband of the second frequency bandwidth are interleaved with each other. In some other implementations, each tone in the first set of N1 tones located outside of a subband of the second frequency bandwidth occupies a unique 1 MHz frequency subband. In some instances, each tone in the second set of N2 tones shares a unique 1 MHz frequency subband with a corresponding tone in the second set of N1 tones located in a subband of the second frequency bandwidth.

[0198] Fig. 21C A flow diagram illustrating example operations 2120 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 2120 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, Figure 8 STA 804, or Fig.18 In some other implementations, operation 2120 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In some instances, operation 2120 is performed with reference to Fig. 20 An example of mapping the contiguous set of tones in the allocated RU to a non-contiguous set of tones is described in block 2008 of operations 2000.

[0199] For example, at block 2122, the wireless communication device maps each of the first 75 tones of the allocated RU 106 to a corresponding tone in a first set of 75 tones distributed across the entire second frequency bandwidth. At block 2124, the wireless communication device maps each of the remaining 31 tones of the allocated RU 106 to a corresponding tone in a second set of 31 tones distributed across a first portion of the second frequency bandwidth.

[0200] Fig.21D A flow diagram illustrating example operations 2130 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 2130 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, Figure 8 STA 804, or Fig.18 In some other implementations, operation 2130 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In some instances, operation 2130 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. Fig. 20 An example of transmitting a PPDU in block 2010 of the operation of . For example, at block 2132, the wireless communication device transmits all tones in a first set of N1 tones and a second set of N2 tones at the same power level.

[0201] Fig.21E A flow diagram illustrating example operations 2140 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 2140 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, Figure 8 STA 804, or Fig.18 In some other implementations, operation 2140 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In some instances, operation 2140 is performed with reference to Fig. 20 An example of transmitting a PPDU in block 2010 of operations 2000 is described.

[0202] For example, at block 2142, the wireless communication device transmits each tone in a first set of N1 tones outside of a sub-band of a second frequency bandwidth at a first power level. At block 2144, the wireless communication device transmits each tone in a second set of N2 tones and each tone in the first set of N1 tones in a sub-band of the second frequency bandwidth at a second power level different from the first power level.

[0203] Fig.21F A flow diagram illustrating example operations 2150 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 2150 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, Figure 8 STA 804, or Fig.18In some other implementations, operation 2150 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In some instances, operation 2150 is performed with reference to Fig. 20 An example of transmitting a PPDU in block 2010 of operations 2000 is described.

[0204] For example, at block 2152, the wireless communication device transmits one or more subsequent PPDUs using the mapped set of non-contiguous tones by repeatedly cycling through the tones in the mapped set of non-contiguous tones across the second frequency band.

[0205] Fig. 22 A flow diagram illustrating example operations 2200 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 2200 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, Figure 8 STA 804, or Fig.18 The operation 2200 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within one of the STAs 1804 of the STA. In some other implementations, the operation 2200 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node.

[0206] In box 2202, the wireless communication device receives a trigger frame that allocates a resource unit (RU) to the wireless communication device for uplink (UL) transmission, and the allocated RU includes a contiguous frequency tone set spanning the RU bandwidth. In box 2204, the wireless communication device extends the contiguous frequency tone set of the allocated RU across the first frequency bandwidth. In box 2206, the wireless communication device prepares a physical (PHY) layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) for UL transmission based at least in part on the first frequency bandwidth. In box 2208, the wireless communication device maps the contiguous frequency tone set of the allocated RU to one or more first non-contiguous frequency tone groups distributed across a second frequency bandwidth based on a frequency tone mapping scheme. In box 2210, the wireless communication device transmits the PPDU using the mapped one or more first non-contiguous frequency tone groups distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, each frequency tone group spans an 80MHz band.

[0207] In some implementations, the second frequency bandwidth also includes one or more second non-contiguous frequency tone groups that are distributed across the second frequency bandwidth and are allocated to the unmapped frequency tones of the allocated RU. Each of the first and second non-contiguous frequency tone groups of the second frequency bandwidth can occupy or span any suitable frequency sub-band. For example, in an implementation where the first non-contiguous frequency tone group is 80MHz wide and the second non-contiguous frequency tone group is also 80MHz wide, a first number of 80MHz portions or "chunks" of non-contiguous frequency tones in the second frequency bandwidth can be used for distributed transmissions, and a second number of 80MHz portions or "chunks" of non-contiguous frequency tones in the second frequency bandwidth can be used for localized transmissions. That is, while some 80MHz portions of the second frequency bandwidth can be used for distributed transmissions that can increase applicable PSD limits, other portions of the second frequency bandwidth can be reserved for UL transmissions based on frequency resources associated with one or more RUs allocated by the trigger frame. In some instances, the second frequency bandwidth is larger than the first frequency bandwidth, and the first frequency bandwidth is larger than the RU bandwidth.

[0208] In some implementations, a power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to the PPDU transmission is based at least in part on the second frequency bandwidth. In some other implementations, a power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to the PPDU transmission is based on a PSD limit corresponding to the first frequency bandwidth multiplied by a number N, where N is equal to the second frequency bandwidth divided by the first frequency bandwidth.

[0209] Fig.23 A flow diagram illustrating example operations 2300 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 2300 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, Figure 8 STA 804, or Fig.18 The operation 2300 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within one of the STAs 1804 of the STA. In some other implementations, the operation 2300 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node.

[0210] In box 2302, the wireless communication device receives a trigger frame that allocates a resource unit (RU) to the wireless communication device for uplink (UL) transmission, the allocated RU including a contiguous frequency tone set spanning the RU bandwidth. In box 2304, the wireless communication device extends the contiguous frequency tone set of the allocated RU across a first frequency bandwidth. In box 2306, the wireless communication device prepares a physical (PHY) layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) for UL transmission based at least in part on the first frequency bandwidth. In box 2308, the wireless communication device maps the contiguous frequency tone set across the first frequency bandwidth to one or more non-contiguous frequency tone sets based on a frequency tone mapping scheme, each of the one or more non-contiguous frequency tone sets being distributed across an 80 MHz frequency band. In box 2310, the wireless communication device maps each non-contiguous frequency tone set from a corresponding 80 MHz frequency band to one of a 160 MHz frequency band or a 320 MHz frequency band based on the frequency tone mapping scheme. At block 2312, the wireless communication device transmits the PPDU using a mapped set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth.

[0211] Fig.24 2400 to support the use of DTM-based tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs. In some implementations, the communication 2400 can be between an AP 2402 and one or more STAs 2404 (for simplicity, the communication 2400 can be performed between an AP 2402 and one or more STAs 2404). Fig.24 Only one STA is shown in the figure). AP 2402 may be Figure 1 AP 102 or Fig. 7A An example of an AP 702, and a STA 2404 may be Figure 1 STA 104 or Figure 7B 24 is an example of a STA 704. In some other implementations, the communication 2400 can be performed by any suitable wireless communication device.

[0212] In some implementations, STA 2404 may select, identify or otherwise obtain an RU in a RU group across a spectrum for UL or DL ​​transmission. In some other implementations, AP 2402 may allocate the RU to STA 2404 in a trigger frame. The selected RU includes a set of contiguous tones across the bandwidth of the selected RU. For example, RU26 may include 26 tones across a 2MHz frequency subband (24 tones available for UL transmission and 2 tones available as pilots), RU52 may include 52 tones across a 4MHz frequency subband (48 tones available for UL transmission and 4 tones available as pilots), RU106 may include 106 tones across a 10MHz frequency subband (102 tones available for UL transmission and 4 tones available as pilots), and RU242 may include 242 tones across a 20MHz frequency subband (234 tones available for UL transmission and 8 tones available as pilots).

[0213] STA 2404 formats or prepares PPDU for transmission based on the spectrum spanned by the RU group, and maps the contiguous frequency tone set of the selected RU to the first non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the spectrum. In some instances, the contiguous frequency tone set of the selected RU can be mapped to the first non-contiguous frequency tone set based on the DTM applicable to each RU in the RU group. STA2404 transmits the PPDU on the first non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the spectrum. AP 2402 receives the PPDU. In some instances, the PPDU transmission can be an UL transmission (e.g., requested by a trigger frame). In some other instances, the PPDU transmission can be a DL transmission.

[0214] In some implementations, each tone in the first non-contiguous tone set occupies a unique 1 MHz frequency sub-band. In some instances, mapping the contiguous tone set of the selected RU includes: mapping the pilot tone of the selected RU to the first non-contiguous tone set based on the DTM. The DTM can be configured to map the contiguous tone set of each RU in the RU group to a corresponding non-contiguous tone set distributed across the spectrum. In some instances, the DTM indicates the distance or interval between the adjacent tones in each non-contiguous tone set. In some other instances, the tones in the non-contiguous tone set can be interwoven with each other across the entire spectrum. In some instances, each tone in the non-contiguous tone set occupies a unique 1 MHz frequency sub-band. In some other instances, each non-contiguous tone set can be assigned to different wireless communication devices. In some instances, the DTM can be 13. In some other instances, the DTM can be other suitable values.

[0215] In some implementations, the power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to the PPDU transmission can be based on the spectrum. In some other implementations, the spectrum spans an 80 MHz band and the selected RU spans a band less than or equal to approximately 10 MHz. In some instances, the contiguous tone set includes one of: 26 tones across a 2 MHz frequency sub-band, 52 tones across a 4 MHz frequency sub-band, or 106 tones across a 10 MHz frequency sub-band. In some other instances, the tones in the contiguous tone set of the selected RU are mapped to a non-contiguous tone set distributed across the spectrum in a group including N tones, where N is an integer greater than one.

[0216] In some implementations, the PPDU may be in one of a high efficiency (HE) format or an extremely high throughput (EHT) format. In some instances, the set of non-contiguous tones excludes tones associated with a punctured frequency subband. In some other instances, the group of RUs may include one or more of RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242, RU484, or RU996 resource units.

[0217] Fig.25 An example mapping 2500 of tones is shown. As shown, the example mapping 2500 includes groups of RUs that span the frequency spectrum together. Fig.25 In the example of , the RU group includes several RU52s, two RU242s, and RU106 (indicated along the horizontal axis) that collectively span 80 MHz spectrum. In some instances, the tones included in corresponding ones of the selected RUs (which may be referred to herein as "existing tones") may be contiguous tones associated with one of the RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242, RU484, or RU996 resource units of a tone plan adopted by one or more of the IEEE 802.11 family of wireless communication protocol standards (such as the IEEE 802.11ax or IEEE 802.11be standards). Each of one or more wireless communication devices may be assigned one or more RUs, and the contiguous tones of each corresponding RU may be mapped to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the spectrum based on a DTM applicable to the entire spectrum. In Fig.25 In the example of , DTM=13, for example, so that the tones of the non-contiguous tone set are separated by 13 tones.

[0218] Fig.26 2600 for wireless communication. In some implementations, the operations 2600 may be performed by a STA (such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 10AIn some other implementations, operation 2600 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In box 2602, the wireless communication device selects, identifies, or otherwise obtains an RU in a RU group spanning a spectrum, wherein the selected RU includes a set of contiguous frequency tones spanning the bandwidth of the selected RU. In box 2604, the wireless communication device formats a PPDU for transmission based on a first spectrum spanned by the RU group. In box 2606, the wireless communication device maps the contiguous frequency tone set of the selected RU to a first non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across a first spectrum based on a frequency tone mapping distance (DTM) applicable to each RU in the RU group. In box 2608, the wireless communication transmits the PPDU on the first non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the first spectrum.

[0219] In some implementations, each tone in the first non-contiguous set of tones occupies a unique 1 MHz frequency subband. In some implementations, mapping the set of contiguous tones of the selected RU includes mapping pilot tones of the selected RU to the first non-contiguous set of tones based on the DTM.

[0220] In some implementations, the DTM may be configured to map a contiguous set of frequencies for each RU in the RU group to a corresponding set of non-contiguous frequencies distributed across a first spectrum. In some instances, the DTM indicates the distance or spacing between adjacent frequencies in each non-contiguous set of frequencies. In some other instances, the frequencies in the non-contiguous set of frequencies may be interlaced with each other across the entire first spectrum. In some instances, each frequency tone in the non-contiguous set of frequencies occupies a unique 1 MHz frequency subband. In some other instances, each non-contiguous set of frequencies is assigned to a different wireless communication device.

[0221] In some implementations, the power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to the PPDU transmission is based on the first spectrum. In some other implementations, the first spectrum spans an 80 MHz frequency band and the selected RU spans a frequency band less than or equal to approximately 10 MHz. In some instances, the contiguous frequency tone set includes one of: 26 frequency tones spanning a 2 MHz frequency sub-band, 52 frequency tones spanning a 4 MHz frequency sub-band, or 106 frequency tones spanning a 10 MHz frequency sub-band. In some other instances, the tones in the contiguous frequency tone set of the selected RU are mapped to a non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the first spectrum in a group including N frequency tones, where N is an integer greater than one.

[0222] In some implementations, the PPDU may be in one of a high efficiency (HE) format or an extremely high throughput (EHT) format. In some instances, the set of non-contiguous tones excludes tones associated with a punctured frequency subband. In some other instances, the RU group includes one or more of RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242, RU484, or RU996 resource units.

[0223] Fig.27A 2700 for wireless communication. In some implementations, the operations 2700 may be performed by a STA (such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 10A In some other implementations, operation 2700 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In some instances, Fig.27A An example operation 2700 may be Fig.26 One implementation of mapping a contiguous set of tones in block 2604 of operation 2600. In block 2702, the wireless communication device obtains or selects a mapped tone index for each tone in a set of non-contiguous tones based on multiplying a corresponding tone of a selected RU by a DTM.

[0224] Fig.27B 27. A flow diagram illustrating example operations 2710 for wireless communication is shown. In some implementations, operations 2710 may be performed by a STA (such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 10A In some other implementations, operation 2710 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as a network node or operating within a network node. In some instances, operation 2710 may be performed by referring to Fig.26 The described operations 2600 are performed prior to transmitting the PPDU in block 2608. At block 2712, prior to transmitting the PPDU, the wireless communication device distributes the set of non-contiguous tones across a second frequency spectrum that is wider than the first frequency spectrum.

[0225] In some implementations, the tones in the distributed non-contiguous set of tones can be interleaved with tones in one or more other distributed non-contiguous sets of tones across the entire second frequency spectrum.

[0226] Fig.28A flow chart illustrating example operations 2800 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping and PPDU duplication to transmit a PPDU is shown. In some implementations, operations 2800 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 10A The operation 2800 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within one of the STAs 1004 of the STA. In some other implementations, the operation 2800 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node.

[0227] In box 2802, the wireless communication device selects, identifies, or otherwise obtains a RU for transmitting a PPDU on a wireless medium. In some instances, the selected RU may be part of a group of RUs that collectively span a first spectrum, wherein each RU in the group of RUs may include a set of contiguous tones that span the bandwidth of the corresponding RU. In box 2804, the wireless communication device formats a physical (PHY) layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) for transmission associated with the first spectrum. In box 2806, the wireless communication device uses a tone mapping distance (DTM) applicable to each RU in the group of RUs to map the contiguous tone set of the selected RU to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the first spectrum. In box 2808, the wireless communication device generates multiple PPDU copies based on the replication of the PPDU, wherein each PPDU copy is formatted for transmission across the first spectrum. In box 2810, the wireless communication device transmits each of the multiple PPDU copies on a corresponding frequency subband of a second spectrum that is wider than the first spectrum.

[0228] In some implementations, each PPDU copy of the plurality of PPDU copies is generated by copying the entire PPDU except for any universal signal field (U-SIG). In some instances, the first spectrum is 80 MHz wide and the second spectrum is 160 MHz wide, the PPDU is copied to generate two PPDU copies, and the two PPDU copies are transmitted on different 80 MHz frequency bands of the 160 MHz wireless channel.

[0229] In some implementations, the first spectrum is 80 MHz wide, the second spectrum is 320 MHz wide, the PPDU is replicated to generate four PPDU replicas, and the four PPDU replicas are transmitted on different 80 MHz bands of the 320 MHz wireless channel. In some instances, the number N PPDU replicas generated by replicating the PPDU is based at least in part on the PSD limit applicable to the second spectrum, where N is an integer greater than one. In some implementations, the PPDU is one of a high efficiency (HE) format or an extremely high throughput (EHT) format. In some instances, the non-contiguous frequency tone set includes a pilot frequency tone and a data frequency tone corresponding to the PPDU.

[0230] In some implementations, the DTM may be configured to map a contiguous set of tones for each RU in the RU group to a corresponding set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a first spectrum. In some instances, the DTM indicates the distance or spacing between adjacent tones in each non-contiguous set of tones. In some other instances, the tones in the non-contiguous set of tones may be interlaced with each other across the entire first spectrum. In some instances, each of the mapped non-contiguous tones distributed across the first spectrum occupies a unique 1 MHz frequency sub-band. In some other instances, each set in the mapped non-contiguous set of tones may be assigned to different wireless communication devices. The DTM may be any suitable value. In some instances, the DTM may be 13.

[0231] In some implementations, a power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to the PPDU transmission may be based on the second spectrum. In some instances, the PPDU may be in one of a high efficiency (HE) format or an extremely high throughput (EHT) format. In some other instances, the set of non-contiguous tones excludes tones associated with a punctured frequency subband.

[0232] Fig.29 A flow chart illustrating example operations 2900 for supporting wireless communications using DTM-based tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 2900 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 10A The operation 2900 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node.

[0233] In box 2902, the wireless communication device selects, identifies, or otherwise obtains a resource unit (RU) for transmitting a physical (PHY) layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) on a wireless medium. The selected RU may be part of a frequency tone plan for a spectrum. In some instances, the selected RU may include a set of contiguous frequency tones across the bandwidth of the selected RU. In box 2904, the wireless communication device uses a frequency tone mapping distance (DTM) to map the contiguous frequency tone set of the selected RU to a set of non-contiguous frequency tones distributed across the spectrum. The DTM may be applicable to the entire spectrum. In box 2906, the wireless communication device transmits the PPDU on a set of non-contiguous frequency tones distributed across the spectrum. In some implementations, the PPDU may be a downlink (DL) orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) transmission or a multi-user (MU) multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmission. In some instances, the PPDU may be a single user (SU) PPDU. In some other instances, the PPDU may be a triggered (TB) PPDU, and the RU may be identified by a trigger frame received by the wireless communication device.

[0234] In some implementations, the frequency spectrum may be associated with the number of non-punctured tones in the tone plan.In some instances, mapping the set of contiguous tones of the selected RU includes mapping the pilot tones of the selected RU to a set of non-contiguous tones based on the DTM.

[0235] In some implementations, the DTM may be configured to map the contiguous tones of each RU in the tone plan to corresponding sets of non-contiguous and non-perforated tones distributed across the spectrum. In some instances, the DTM may indicate the distance or spacing between adjacent tones in each set of non-contiguous and non-perforated tones. In some other instances, the tones in the sets of non-contiguous and non-perforated tones may be interlaced with each other across the entire spectrum. In some instances, each tone in the set of non-contiguous tones may occupy a unique 1 MHz frequency subband. In some aspects, the DTM may be 13.

[0236] In some implementations, the PSD limit applicable to the PPDU transmission can be based on, associated with, or indicated by a spectrum spanned by a RU group corresponding to a frequency tone plan. In some instances, the spectrum spans an 80 MHz band and the selected RU spans a band less than or equal to approximately 10 MHz. In some other instances, the tones in a contiguous frequency tone set can be mapped to a non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the spectrum in a group including N tones, where N is an integer greater than one. In some implementations, the non-contiguous frequency tone set excludes tones associated with perforated frequency subbands. In some implementations, the RU group includes one or more of RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242, RU484, or RU996 resource units.

[0237] In some implementations, mapping includes obtaining a mapped tone index for each tone in the set of non-contiguous tones that is based on or associated with a logical tone index of a corresponding tone of the selected RU multiplied by the DTM.

[0238] Fig.30 A flow chart illustrating example operations 3000 for wireless communication supporting transmission of PPDUs using DTM-based tone mapping and PPDU duplication is shown. In some implementations, the operations 3000 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 10A The operations 3000 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within one of the STAs 1004 of the STA. In some other implementations, the operations 3000 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node.

[0239] In box 3002, the wireless communication device selects, identifies, or otherwise obtains RUs in a group of RUs that collectively span a first spectrum, wherein each RU in the group of RUs may include a set of contiguous frequency tones that span the bandwidth of the corresponding RU. In box 3004, the wireless communication device extends the set of contiguous frequency tones of the selected RU across a first frequency bandwidth that is wider than the bandwidth of the selected RU. In box 3006, the wireless communication device formats a SU PPDU for transmission based on the first frequency bandwidth. In box 3008, the wireless communication device maps the set of contiguous frequency tones of the selected RU to a set of non-contiguous frequency tones distributed across the entire first spectrum based on a DTM applicable to each RU in the group of RUs. In box 3010, the wireless communication device generates multiple SUPPDU copies based on duplication of the SU PPDU. In box 3012, the wireless communication device transmits each of these SU PPDU copies on a corresponding frequency subband of a second spectrum that is wider than the first spectrum.

[0240] In some implementations, mapping a contiguous set of tones for a selected RU includes using a DTM to map the pilot tones of the selected RU to a set of non-contiguous tones. In some implementations, the DTM is configured to map a contiguous set of tones for each RU in the RU group to a corresponding set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second spectrum. In some instances, the DTM indicates the distance or spacing between adjacent tones in each non-contiguous set of tones. In some other instances, the tones in the non-contiguous set of tones may be interwoven with each other across the entire second spectrum. In some instances, each tone in the non-contiguous set of tones occupies a unique 1 MHz frequency subband. In some other instances, the DTM may be 13.

[0241] In some implementations, a power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to the PPDU transmission can be based on a third spectrum. In some instances, the tones in the contiguous tone set are mapped to a non-contiguous tone set distributed across the second spectrum in groups including N tones, where N is an integer greater than one. In some implementations, the first spectrum is a 20 MHz channel, the second spectrum is an 80 MHz channel, and the third spectrum is a 160 MHz channel or a 320 MHz channel.

[0242] In some implementations, the set of non-contiguous tones excludes tones associated with a punctured frequency subband. In some instances, the RU group includes one or more of RU26, RU52, RU106, or RU242 resource units. The transmission may be an uplink (UL) transmission or a downlink (DL) transmission.

[0243] Fig.31 A flow chart illustrating example operations 3100 for supporting wireless communications using parsing-based tone mapping to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 3100 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig. 10A The operation 3100 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within one of the STAs 1004 of the STA. In some other implementations, the operation 3100 may be performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node.

[0244] In box 3102, the wireless communication device selects, identifies, or otherwise obtains an RU in a group of RUs that span a frequency spectrum together. In some instances, the selected RU includes multiple contiguous frequency tones that span the bandwidth of the selected RU. In box 3104, the wireless communication device formats or prepares a PPDU for wireless transmission based on or associated with a first frequency bandwidth that is wider than the bandwidth of the selected RU. In box 3106, the wireless communication device resolves the multiple contiguous frequency tones of the selected RU into one or more non-contiguous frequency tone sets based on or associated with a frequency tone mapping number, wherein each non-contiguous frequency tone set spans a unique frequency segment of a second frequency bandwidth that is wider than the first frequency bandwidth. In box 3108, the wireless communication device schedules transmission of the PPDU on the one or more non-contiguous frequency tone sets.

[0245] In some implementations, parsing the multiple contiguous tones of the selected RU is performed by a proportional recurring (PRR) parser. In some instances, parsing the multiple contiguous tones of the selected RU can be based on or associated with the number of unpunctured tones in each unique frequency segment of the second frequency bandwidth.

[0246] In some implementations, the wireless communication device spreads the tones in each non-contiguous tone set across the entire spectrum. In some instances, the tone spreading can be based on a tone mapping distance (DTM) applicable to the entire spectrum. In some other instances, the DTM may indicate the distance or spacing between adjacent tones in each non-contiguous tone set. In some instances, the DTM may be 13. In some implementations, the power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to the PPDU transmission can be based on the spectrum, associated with the spectrum, or indicated by the spectrum. In some instances, the PPDU transmission can be a UL transmission. In some other instances, the PPDU transmission can be a DL transmission.

[0247] Fig.32 An example sequence diagram 3200 for wireless communications supporting tone mapping based on tone mapping vectors and tone mapping offsets is shown. In some implementations, the operations described with reference to the sequence diagram 3200 may be performed between an AP 3202 and one or more STAs 3204 (referred to herein for simplicity). Fig.32 Only one STA is shown in the figure). AP 3202 may be Figure 1 AP 102 or Fig. 7A An example of an AP 702 and a STA 3204 may be Figure 1 STA 104 or Figure 7B In some other implementations, the operations described with reference to sequence diagram 3200 may be performed by other suitable wireless communication devices.

[0248] The example sequence diagram 3200 is described with reference to resource units (RUs) defined or specified by an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) frequency modulation plan for an 80 MHz bandwidth. Figure 5C One or more of the 80 MHz tone plans of the OFDMA tone map 520 may be used in the example sequence diagram 3200. As discussed, the tone map 520 includes six tone plans. A first tone plan 521 includes thirty-six 26-tone RUs (RU26) across an 80 MHz bandwidth, a second tone plan 522 includes eighteen 52-tone RUs (RU52) across an 80 MHz bandwidth, a third tone plan 523 includes eight 106-tone RUs (RU106) across an 80 MHz bandwidth, a fourth tone plan 524 includes four 242-tone RUs (RU242) across an 80 MHz bandwidth, a fifth tone plan 525 includes two 484-tone RUs (RU484) across an 80 MHz bandwidth, and a sixth tone plan 526 includes one 996-tone RU (RU996) across an 80 MHz bandwidth.

[0249] Each RU26 includes 24 data subcarriers and 2 pilot subcarriers, and occupies a 2MHz frequency band. Each RU52 includes 48 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers, and occupies a 4MHz frequency band. Each RU106 includes 102 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers, and occupies an 8MHz frequency band. Each RU242 includes 234 data subcarriers and 8 pilot subcarriers, and occupies a 20MHz frequency band. Each RU484 includes 468 data subcarriers and 16 pilot subcarriers, and occupies a 40MHz frequency band. RU996 includes 980 data subcarriers and 16 pilot subcarriers, and occupies an 80MHz frequency band. Each RU of the multiple RUs in the corresponding frequency modulation plan can be identified by a corresponding RU index, where the RU occupying the lowest frequency is assigned the lowest RU index, and the RU occupying the highest frequency is assigned the highest RU index.

[0250] In some implementations, the AP may allocate multiple RUs of the frequency tone plan to one or more wireless communication devices (such as STA 3204) for wireless transmission. In some other implementations, STA 3204 may select a first RU of the multiple RUs for wireless transmission. Each RU of the multiple RUs includes a unique set of contiguous frequency tones occupying a first frequency bandwidth, and the multiple RUs span a second frequency bandwidth that is larger than the first frequency bandwidth. In some implementations, the first frequency bandwidth may be a frequency band occupied by contiguous frequency tones of one or more RUs allocated to STA 3204, and the second frequency bandwidth may be one of a 20 MHz bandwidth, a 40 MHz bandwidth, or an 80 MHz bandwidth. For Fig.32 In the example of , a group of nine RU26 spanning a 20 MHz bandwidth is allocated for wireless transmission, and the first RU26 in the group of nine RU26 is allocated to STA 3204.

[0251] AP 3202 transmits an indication 3210 of RU allocation for wireless transmission. In some implementations, indication 3210 may be a trigger frame that allocates one or more RUs to each of several STAs identified by the trigger frame. In some instances, the trigger frame may solicit UL transmissions from one or more identified STAs. In some other implementations, indication 3210 may allocate all RUs of a corresponding frequency bandwidth (such as the entire second frequency bandwidth) to STA 3204 for SU transmission from STA3204. In some other implementations, indication 3210 may allocate one or more punctured RUs to STA3204. In some instances, a signaling field of one or more punctured RUs may indicate puncturing.

[0252] The STA 3204 receives the indication 3210 and selects, identifies, or otherwise obtains the first RU based on the information contained in the indication 3210. The STA 3204 may format or prepare one or more PPDUs 3220 based on the second frequency bandwidth for wireless transmission on the frequency tone of the first RU.

[0253] STA 3204 maps the contiguous set of tones of the first RU to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with the first RU. In some instances, STA 3204 may map both the data tones and the pilot tones of the first RU to a set of non-contiguous tones based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset.

[0254] In some implementations, RU26, RU52, RU106, or RU242 may be selected as the reference group from which the reference tone map is offset. Fig.32 In the example of , RU26 is selected as the reference group. The frequency tone mapping vector indicates the starting frequency tone index, the ending frequency tone index and the frequency tone interval of the selected reference group. In some instances, the frequency tone mapping vector can be expressed as [start: interval: end], where start indicates the starting frequency tone index when mapping the selected reference group to a non-contiguous frequency tone set, interval indicates the frequency tone interval of the mapped non-contiguous frequency tone set, and end indicates the ending frequency tone index when mapping the selected reference group to a non-contiguous frequency tone set. As a non-limiting example, the frequency tone mapping vector for the RU26 reference group for a 20 MHz bandwidth may be [0:9:225], the frequency tone mapping vector for the RU26 reference group for a 40 MHz bandwidth may be [0:18:450], the frequency tone mapping vector for the RU26 reference group for an 80 MHz bandwidth may be [0:36:900], the frequency tone mapping vector for the RU26 reference group for a 160 MHz bandwidth may be [0:72:1800], and the frequency tone mapping vector for the RU26 reference group for a 320 MHz bandwidth may be [0:144:3600]. In some instances, the RU26 frequency tone mapping vectors for 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, and 320 MHz bandwidths may be expressed as a matrix D T_基准 :

[0255]

[0256] STA 3204 may use the tone mapping vector and tone mapping offset for the 20 MHz bandwidth to map the contiguous tones of the first RU to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth. Other wireless communication devices may also use the tone mapping vector and the corresponding tone mapping offset for the 20 MHz bandwidth to map the contiguous tones of one or more allocated RUs to one or more other sets of non-contiguous tones distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth. Specifically, STA 3204 may use the tone mapping vector and the tone mapping offset to identify the tone index of each tone in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, the tone index of the corresponding tone in the set of non-contiguous tones may be expressed as D T =D T_基准 +D T_偏移 .

[0257] The tone spacing indicates the spacing or distance between adjacent pairs of tones in a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth. That is, the tone spacing may indicate how many tones are allocated to other wireless communication devices between each pair of adjacent tones in the set of non-contiguous tones. In some instances, the tone spacing may be the same for each set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0258] After STA 3204 maps the first RU to the non-contiguous frequency tone set, STA 3204 may transmit one or more PPDUs on the frequencies in the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. In this way, the PSD limit applicable to the transmission of the one or more PPDUs may be based on the second frequency bandwidth instead of the first frequency bandwidth, which may allow STA 3204 to transmit the one or more PPDUs using a higher transmit power level.

[0259] The AP 3202 receives the one or more PPDUs 3220 on a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, the PPDU 3220 may be a HE TB PPDU or an EHT TB PPDU. In some other instances, the PPDU 3220 may be a DL PPDU received by a STA 3204 or other suitable wireless communication device. Additionally, the one or more PPDUs 3220 may be a SU PPDU or a MU PPDU.

[0260] In some implementations, the tone mapping offset can be based on a bit-reversed permutation of binary representations of logical RU indices of a RU group to be mapped to one or more non-contiguous sets of tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth. The bit-reversed permutation can be used to evenly distribute the tones mapped from the RU group across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0261] Fig.33An example table 3300 of tone mapping offsets is shown. Table 3300 can be used to map contiguous tones of eight RU26, four RU52, two RU106, or one RU242 to one or more non-contiguous tone sets distributed across a 20 MHz bandwidth using RU26 as the selected reference group. As shown, three bits of the binary representation (i.e., binary index) of the logical RU index of the eight RU26 are reversed to generate the corresponding bit-reversed binary RU index (i.e., bit-reversed binary index). The decimal representation of the bit-reversed binary RU index can indicate the interleaved RU index (i.e., interleaved RU index) for the eight RU26. The interleaved RU index can indicate the order in which the tone mapping offsets of the eight RU26 are sequentially mapped to the tones in the offset range in the second frequency bandwidth.

[0262] The tone mapping offset may indicate the tone index of the first mapped tone in each set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. As discussed, when the 242 tones in each 20 MHz tone mapping 520 are grouped into nine RU26s, there are 8 remaining tones. In some implementations, the first four tones 1→4 and the last four tones 239→242 in the corresponding 20 MHz frequency bandwidth may be reserved for mapping the 8 remaining tones of the corresponding 20 MHz bandwidth. Thus, a set of nine tone mapping offsets applicable to nine RU26s within the corresponding 20 MHz bandwidth may start with offset=5 instead of offset=1 so that the tones of the nine RU26s are not mapped to the first four tones (or the last four tones) distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth. In some instances, a set of nine tone mapping offsets (i.e., an offset range) may include values ​​5→13.

[0263] Although each 20 MHz frequency plan can support nine RU26, only eight of these RU26 are used to build a larger RU. That is, eight RU26 can be used to form four RU52, two RU106, or one RU242. Figure 5C As shown in RU5, RU 14 , R.U. 23 and RU 32 are the middle RU26 in their corresponding 20MHz segments in the 80MHz frequency plan and are not used in the RU52 or RU106 frequency plan. Thus, in some implementations, the middle RU26 in the first 20MHz (or the fifth RU26) may be assigned a frequency mapping offset = 9, which represents the middle value of the frequency mapping offset set 5→13. In some instances, the fifth RU26 and the corresponding offset value = 9 may be excluded from Table 3300.

[0264] For example, the binary representation of logical RU index 0 = 000, and the corresponding bit-reversed binary RU index = 000, which assigns an interleaved RU index = 0. Thus, RU26 with logical RU index = 0 can be the first RU26 mapped to the corresponding non-contiguous frequency tone set, and the first frequency tone of RU26 with logical RU index = 0 can be mapped to the 5th frequency tone distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. For another example, the binary representation of logical RU index 1 = 001, and the corresponding bit-reversed binary RU index = 100, which assigns an interleaved RU index = 4. Thus, RU26 with logical RU index = 4 can be the fifth RU26 mapped to the corresponding non-contiguous frequency tone set, and the first frequency tone of RU26 with logical RU index = 4 can be mapped to the 6th frequency tone distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. For another example, the binary representation of logical RU index 2 = 010, and the corresponding bit-reversed binary RU index = 010, which assigns an interleaved RU index = 2. As such, RU26 with logical RU index = 2 may be the third RU26 mapped to a corresponding set of non-contiguous tones, and the first tone of RU26 with logical RU index = 2 may be mapped to the 7th tone distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0265] Fig.34 Another example table 3400 of tone mapping offset is shown. Table 3400 can be used to map the contiguous tone of sixteen RU26, eight RU52, four RU106, two RU242 or one RU484 to one or more non-contiguous tone sets distributed across a 40MHz bandwidth using RU26 as the selected reference group. As shown, 4 bits of the binary representation (i.e., binary index) of the logical RU index of the sixteen RU26 are reversed to generate the corresponding bit-reversed binary RU index (i.e., bit-reversed binary index). The decimal representation of the bit-reversed binary RU index can indicate the interleaved RU index (i.e., interleaved RU index) for the sixteen RU26. The interleaved RU index can indicate the order in which the tone mapping offsets of the sixteen RU26 are sequentially mapped to the tone in the offset range in the second frequency bandwidth. The tone mapping offset can indicate the tone index of the first mapped tone in each non-contiguous tone set distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0266] For example, the binary representation of logical RU index 0 = 0000, and the corresponding bit-reversed binary RU index = 0000, which assigns an interleaved RU index = 0. Thus, RU26 with logical RU index = 0 can be the first RU26 mapped to the corresponding non-contiguous frequency tone set, and the first frequency tone of RU26 with logical RU index = 0 can be mapped to the 9th frequency tone distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. For another example, the binary representation of logical RU index 1 = 0001, and the corresponding bit-reversed binary RU index = 1000, which assigns an interleaved RU index = 8. Thus, RU26 with logical RU index = 8 can be the ninth RU26 mapped to the corresponding non-contiguous frequency tone set, and the first frequency tone of RU26 with logical RU index = 8 can be mapped to the 10th frequency tone distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. For another example, the binary representation of logical RU index 2 = 0010, and the corresponding bit-reversed binary RU index = 0100, which assigns an interleaved RU index = 4. As such, RU26 with logical RU index = 4 may be the fifth RU26 mapped to a corresponding set of non-contiguous tones, and the first tone of RU26 with logical RU index = 4 may be mapped to the 11th tone distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0267] In some other implementations, one or more other tables of tone mapping offsets may be used to map contiguous tones of a greater number of RU26 to one or more non-contiguous sets of tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth using RU26 as the selected reference group. For example, a table of tone mapping offsets may be determined and used to map sixteen RU52 or eight RU106 based on thirty-two RU26, and a table of tone mapping offsets may be determined and used when RUs other than RU26 are selected as the reference group.

[0268] Fig.35 An example tone mapping 3500 is shown. The example tone mapping 3500 depicts an implementation of mapping contiguous tones of multiple RU26 spanning a 20 MHz bandwidth to a corresponding set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth. Specifically, the multiple RU26s include nine RU26s with corresponding indexes RU1-RU9, where each RU26 includes 26 tones and spans a 2 MHz bandwidth. For example, RU1 includes tones 1→26, RU2 includes tones 27→52, RU3 includes tones 53→78, and so on, where RU9 includes tones 209→234. The nine RU26s occupy 234 tones, leaving 242–234=8 remaining tones in the 20 MHz bandwidth.

[0269] In some implementations, the first four RU26 with indices RU1-RU4 are assigned logical RU indices 0→3, respectively, and the last four RU26 with indices RU6-RU9 are assigned logical RU indices 4→7, respectively. The intermediate RU26 with index RU5 is not used to form a larger RU (such as RU52, RU106, RU242, or RU484) and is not assigned a logical RU index. The binary representation of the logical RU indices 0→7 may be bit-reversed and converted to decimal to generate the interleaved RU indices for the eight RU26 with indices RU1-RU4 and RU6-RU9, as shown in reference to Fig.33 as described.

[0270] In some implementations, the 20 MHz tone mapping vector [0:9:225] described above can be used in conjunction with a tone mapping offset set to identify the locations of tones distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth to be mapped from the contiguous tone sets corresponding to RU1-RU4 and RU6-RU9. Fig.33 The described frequency tone mapping offset sets 5→8 and 10→13 can be applied to the 20MHz frequency tone mapping vector [0:9:225] to identify the location of the mapped frequencies, and the interleaved RU indices 0, 4, 2, 6, 1, 5, 3 and 7 corresponding to RU1-RU4 and RU6-RU9, respectively, can be used to determine the order in which the frequency tone mapping offsets of RU1-RU4 and RU6-RU9 are sequentially mapped to the offset range identified in the 20MHz bandwidth.

[0271] As shown, RU1 has the lowest interleaved RU index = 0 and has a tone mapping offset = 5. Therefore, the first tone of RU1 is mapped to tone 5 in the first non-contiguous tone set distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth. RU6 has the next lowest interleaved RU index = 1 and has a tone mapping offset = 6. Therefore, the first tone of RU6 is mapped to tone 6 in the second non-contiguous tone set distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth. RU3 has the next lowest interleaved RU index = 2 and has a tone mapping offset = 7. Therefore, the first tone of RU3 is mapped to tone 7 in the third non-contiguous tone set distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth. RU8 has the next lowest interleaved RU index = 3 and has a tone mapping offset = 8. Therefore, the first tone of RU8 is mapped to tone 8 in the fourth non-contiguous tone set distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth. RU2 has the next lowest interleaved RU index = 4 and has a tone mapping offset = 10. Thus, the first tone of RU2 is mapped to tone 10 in the fifth non-contiguous tone set distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth. RU7 has the next lowest interleaved RU index = 5 and has a tone mapping offset = 11. Thus, the first tone of RU7 is mapped to tone 11 in the sixth non-contiguous tone set distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth. RU4 has the next lowest interleaved RU index = 6 and has a tone mapping offset = 12. Thus, the first tone of RU4 is mapped to tone 12 in the seventh non-contiguous tone set distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth. RU9 has the next lowest interleaved RU index = 7 and has a tone mapping offset = 13. Thus, the first tone of RU9 is mapped to tone 13 in the eighth non-contiguous tone set distributed across the 20 MHz bandwidth. In this way, after the first tone of RU1 is mapped, the first tone in each subsequent RU26 can be mapped to a selected intermediate tone of the tone offset that can be used for mapping. In some instances, selection of the middle tone can be based on which of the available tone offsets is at or near the middle or end of a group of available tone offsets.

[0272] The second tones of RU1-RU4 and RU6-RU9 are sequentially mapped to the next tone position distributed across the 20MHz bandwidth based on the tone interval = 9 and the order indicated by the interleaved RU index. For example, the second tone of RU1 is mapped to tone 14 in the first non-contiguous tone set. The second tone of RU6 is mapped to tone 15 in the second non-contiguous tone set. The second tone of RU3 is mapped to tone 16 in the third non-contiguous tone set. The second tone of RU8 is mapped to tone 17 in the fourth non-contiguous tone set. The second tone of RU2 is mapped to tone 19 in the fifth non-contiguous tone set. The second tone of RU7 is mapped to tone 20 in the sixth non-contiguous tone set. The second tone of RU4 is mapped to tone 21 in the seventh non-contiguous tone set. The second tone of RU9 is mapped to tone 22 in the eighth non-contiguous tone set distributed across the 20MHz bandwidth.

[0273] In some implementations, the remaining tones may be mapped to tones distributed across a 20 MHz bandwidth separately from the tones of RU26. In some instances, the remaining tones may be mapped to tones 1, 2, 3, 4, 239, 240, 241, and 242 of the tones distributed across a 20 MHz bandwidth.

[0274] In some other implementations, the plurality of RUs may include eight RUs 52 or four RUs 106 based on the sixteen RUs 26 of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan, and the sixteen RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7, and 15 may include frequency modulation mapping offsets between 9-16 and 18-25, respectively. In some instances, the frequency modulation mapping offsets for the middle 26 frequency modulation RUs of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan may be 17 and 26.

[0275] In some other implementations, the plurality of RUs may include eight RUs 52 or four RUs 106 based on the sixteen RUs 26 of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan, and the sixteen RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7, and 15 may include frequency modulation mapping offsets between 9-16 and 18-25, respectively. In some instances, the frequency modulation mapping offsets for the middle 26 frequency modulation RUs of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan may be 17 and 26. In an alternative, the sixteen RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7, and 15 may include frequency modulation mapping offsets between 9-12, 14-21, and 23-26, respectively. In some instances, the frequency modulation mapping offsets for the two middle 26 frequency modulation RUs of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan may be 13 and 22.

[0276] In some other implementations, the plurality of RUs may include sixteen RUs 52 or eight RUs 106 based on the thirty-two RUs 26 of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan, and the thirty-two RUs 26 identified by RU indexes 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15, 31 may include frequency modulation mapping offsets between 31-38, 40-47, 49-56, and 58-65, respectively. In some instances, the frequency modulation mapping offsets for the four middle 26-frequency modulation RUs of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan may be 39, 48, 57, and 66.

[0277] In some other implementations, the plurality of RUs may include sixteen RUs 52 or eight RUs 106 based on the thirty-two RUs 26 of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan, and the thirty-two RUs 26 identified by RU indexes 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15, 31 may include frequency modulation mapping offsets between 31-34, 36-43, 45-52, 54-61, and 63-66, respectively. In some instances, the frequency modulation mapping offsets for the four middle 26 frequency modulation RUs of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan may be 35, 44, 53, and 62.

[0278] In some other implementations, the plurality of RUs include sixteen RUs 52 or eight RUs 106 based on thirty-two RUs 26 of an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) frequency modulation plan, and the thirty-two RUs 26 identified by RU indexes 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15, 31 may include frequency modulation mapping offsets between 31-34, 36-43, 45-52, 54-61, and 63-66, respectively. In some instances, the frequency modulation mapping offsets for the four middle 26 frequency modulation RUs of the OFDMA frequency modulation plan may be 35, 44, 53, and 62.

[0279] In some implementations, when RU26 is selected as the reference group and the first RU is RU52, the frequency tones of RU52 are distributed across the second frequency bandwidth based on the distribution of the two RU26 across the second frequency band, where RU521=RU261+RU262 and RU522=RU263+RU264. That is, when mapping the contiguous frequency tone set of RU106 to the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency bandwidth, the first frequency tone group of RU52 is mapped to the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency band based on the frequency tone mapping vector and the frequency tone mapping offset associated with the first RU26, and the second frequency tone group of RU52 is mapped to the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency band based on the frequency tone mapping vector and the frequency tone mapping offset associated with the second RU26.

[0280] In some other implementations, when RU26 is selected as the reference group and the first RU is RU106, the frequency tones of RU106 are distributed across the second frequency bandwidth based on the distribution of four RU26 across the second frequency band, where RU1061=RU261+RU262+RU263+RU264+2 remaining frequency tones. That is, when mapping a contiguous frequency tone set of RU106 to a non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across a second frequency bandwidth, the first frequency tone group of RU106 is mapped to the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency band based on the frequency tone mapping vector and the frequency tone mapping offset associated with the first RU26, the second frequency tone group of RU106 is mapped to the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency band based on the frequency tone mapping vector and the frequency tone mapping offset associated with the second RU26, the third frequency tone group of RU106 is mapped to the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency bandwidth based on the frequency tone mapping vector and the frequency tone mapping offset associated with the third RU26; and the fourth frequency tone group of RU106 is mapped to the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency bandwidth based on the frequency tone mapping vector and the frequency tone mapping offset associated with the fourth RU26.

[0281] Fig.36 A flow diagram illustrating example operations 3600 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset to transmit one or more PPDUs. In some implementations, operations 3600 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig.32The method is performed by an apparatus of a wireless communication device operating on or within one of the STA3204 of the wireless communication device. In box 3602, the wireless communication device selects, identifies, or otherwise obtains a first resource unit (RU) among multiple resource units (RUs) for transmitting one or more PPDUs on a wireless medium. The first RU may include a set of contiguous frequency tones occupying a first frequency bandwidth, and the multiple RUs may together span a second frequency bandwidth that is larger than the first frequency bandwidth. In box 3604, the wireless communication device uses a frequency tone mapping vector and a frequency tone mapping offset associated with the first RU to map the contiguous frequency tone set of the first RU to a non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across a second frequency bandwidth. In box 3606, the wireless communication transmits the PPDU on the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0282] In some implementations, the first frequency bandwidth may be equal to the frequency bandwidth of the RU, and the second frequency bandwidth may be one of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, or 80 MHz. In some instances, a power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to the PPDU transmission may be based on the second frequency bandwidth.

[0283] In some implementations, an allocation of a first RU to a wireless communication device may be received in a trigger frame. In some instances, the trigger frame may also allocate one or more other RUs of a plurality of RUs that span a second frequency bandwidth to other wireless communication devices. In some instances, the PPDU may be a high efficiency (HE) or very high throughput (EHT) triggered (TB) PPDU. In some other instances, the PPDU may be a single user (SU) PPDU. In some other instances, the PPDU may be a multi-user (MU) PPDU. In some other instances, the PPDU may be a downlink (DL) PPDU.

[0284] In some implementations, mapping a contiguous set of tones for a first RU includes mapping pilot tones and data tones for the first RU to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones may be interleaved with tones in one or more other sets of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0285] In some implementations, each RU in the plurality of RUs may include a unique set of contiguous tones occupying a different portion of the second frequency bandwidth. As a non-limiting example, in some instances, the plurality of RUs may be composed of Figure 5CThe frequency sub-band occupied by the fifth RU26 may not be used for the allocation of RU52 or RU106. For example, a group of eight RU26 in a 20 MHz segment may be used to form four RU52, two RU106, or one RU242.

[0286] In some implementations, the frequency tone mapping vector may be based on the first frequency bandwidth relative to the second frequency bandwidth. The frequency tone mapping vector may indicate the starting frequency tone index, the ending frequency tone index, and the frequency tone interval of the set of non-contiguous frequency tones mapped from the contiguous frequency tones of the first RU. The frequency tone interval may be equal to the quotient of the number of frequencies available for wireless transmission across the second frequency bandwidth divided by the number of contiguous frequency tones of the first RU. In some implementations, the frequency tone interval for the selected reference group may be based at least in part on the width of the second frequency bandwidth. As a non-limiting example, in some instances where the selected reference group is a RU26 resource unit, when the second frequency bandwidth is 20MHz, the frequency tone interval may be 9, when the second frequency bandwidth is 40MHz, the frequency tone interval may be 18, when the second frequency bandwidth is 80MHz, the frequency tone interval may be 36, when the second frequency bandwidth is 160MHz, the frequency tone interval may be 72, and when the second frequency bandwidth is 320MHz, the frequency tone interval may be 144.

[0287] In some implementations, a tone map offset associated with a first RU can be based at least in part on a bit-reversed permutation of an RU index of the first RU. In some instances, an ordering of tones in a set of unique non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth can be based at least in part on a tone map offset associated with a plurality of RUs distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0288] Fig.37 A flow diagram illustrating example operations 3700 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 3700 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig.32 In some instances, Fig.37 An example operation 3700 can be found at Fig.36The operation 3600 of the wireless communication device is performed before mapping the contiguous tone set in block 3604. At block 3702, the wireless communication device receives a selection of one of RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242, or RU484 of the OFDMA tone rule as a reference group from which to map the reference tone. In some implementations, the AP (such as Figure 1 AP 102 Fig. 7A AP 702 or Fig.32 The selection may be received by one of the APs 3202. In some other implementations, the selection may be made by the wireless communication device.

[0289] Fig.38 A flow chart illustrating example operations 3800 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset to transmit one or more PPDUs. In some implementations, operations 3800 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig.32 In some instances, Fig.38 An example operation 3800 may be Fig.36 The wireless communication device maps each unique contiguous tone set to a corresponding non-contiguous tone set distributed across a second frequency bandwidth based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with a corresponding RU in a plurality of RUs.

[0290] In some implementations, the arrangement of tones in a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth may be based at least in part on a tone map offset associated with a plurality of RUs that collectively span the second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, the arrangement of tones in a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth may be different from the arrangement of tones in a set of unique contiguous tones corresponding to a plurality of RUs that collectively span the second frequency bandwidth.

[0291] In some implementations, the PPDU may be transmitted on a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, the first frequency bandwidth may be equal to the frequency bandwidth of the RU, and the second frequency bandwidth may be one of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, or 80 MHz. Thus, the PSD limit applicable to the PPDU transmission may be based on or associated with the second frequency bandwidth.

[0292] In some implementations, the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth can be interleaved with each other. In some instances, each set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth can be assigned to a different wireless communication device.

[0293] Fig.39 A flow diagram illustrating example operations 3900 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset to transmit one or more PPDUs. In some implementations, operations 3900 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig.32 In some instances, Fig.39 An example operation 3900 can be found at Fig.38 The operation 3800 of mapping each unique contiguous frequency tone set in box 3802 is performed. In box 3902, the wireless communication device maps each non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the second frequency bandwidth to a corresponding non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across a third frequency bandwidth larger than the second frequency bandwidth. In some instances, the PPDU can be transmitted on a non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the third frequency bandwidth. In this way, the PSD limit applicable to the PPDU transmission can be based on or associated with the third frequency bandwidth. In some implementations, the first frequency bandwidth can be equal to the frequency bandwidth of the RU, the second frequency bandwidth can be one of 20MHz, 40MHz, or 80MHz, and the third frequency bandwidth can be one of 160MHz or 320MHz. The tones in the non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the third frequency bandwidth can be intertwined with each other. In some instances, each non-contiguous frequency tone set distributed across the third frequency bandwidth can be assigned to different wireless communication devices.

[0294] Fig.40 A flow diagram illustrating example operations 4000 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, the operations 4000 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig.32 In some instances, Fig.40 An example operation 4000 can be found at Fig.36The method of mapping the set of contiguous tones of the first RU in block 3604 of operation 3600 is performed after the mapping of the set of contiguous tones of the first RU in block 3604 of operation 3600. In block 4002, the wireless communication device identifies the remaining tones in the second frequency bandwidth. In block 4004, the wireless communication device maps the identified remaining tones to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth. In some implementations, the number of the identified remaining tones is equal to the modulo of the number of contiguous tones in one of RU52, RU106, RU242, or RU484 and the number of contiguous tones in RU26.

[0295] Fig.41A A flow diagram illustrating example operations 4100 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 4100 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig.32 In some instances, Fig.41A Example operation 4100 can be used with Fig.38 The mapping of a contiguous frequency tone set to a corresponding non-contiguous frequency tone set is performed in conjunction with box 3802 of operation 3800. In box 4102, when the multiple RUs include four RU52 or two RU106 based on eight RU26 of the OFDMA frequency tone plan, the wireless communication device can sequentially assign frequency tone mapping offsets 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13 to the eight RU26 identified by RU indexes 0, 4, 2, 6, 1, 5, 3 and 7, respectively. In some instances, the frequency tone mapping offset for the center 26 frequency tone RU of the OFDMA frequency tone plan can be equal to 9.

[0296] Fig.41B A flow diagram illustrating example operations 4110 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 4110 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig.32 In some instances, Fig.41B Example operation 4110 can be used with Fig.38The mapping of a contiguous frequency tone set to a corresponding non-contiguous frequency tone set is performed in conjunction with box 3802 of operation 3800. In box 4112, when the plurality of RUs includes eight RU52 or four RU106 based on sixteen RU26 of the OFDMA frequency tone plan, the wireless communication device may sequentially assign frequency tone mapping offsets 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25 to the sixteen RU26 identified by RU indexes 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7, and 15, respectively. In some instances, the frequency tone mapping offsets for the two middle 26-frequency tone RUs of the OFDMA frequency tone plan may be 17 and 26.

[0297] Fig.41C A flow diagram illustrating example operations 4120 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 4120 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig.32 In some instances, Fig.41C Example operation 4120 can be done with Fig.38 The mapping of a contiguous frequency tone set to a corresponding non-contiguous frequency tone set is performed in combination in box 3802 of operation 3800. In box 4122, when the multiple RUs include eight RU52 or four RU106 based on sixteen RU26 of the OFDMA frequency tone plan, the wireless communication device can sequentially assign frequency tone mapping offset values ​​between 9-12, 14-21 and 23-26 to the sixteen RU26 identified by RU indexes 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7 and 15, respectively. In some instances, the frequency tone mapping offsets for the two middle 26 frequency tone RUs of the OFDMA frequency tone plan can be 13 and 22.

[0298] Fig.41D A flow diagram illustrating example operations 4130 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 4130 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig.32 In some instances, Fig.41DExample operation 4130 can be used with Fig.38 The mapping of a contiguous frequency tone set to a corresponding non-contiguous frequency tone set is performed in conjunction with box 3802 of operation 3800. In box 4132, when the plurality of RUs includes sixteen RUs 52 or eight RUs 106 based on thirty-two RUs 26 of the OFDMA frequency tone plan, the wireless communication device may sequentially assign frequency tone mapping offsets 31-38, 40-47, 49-56, and 58-65 to the thirty-two RUs 26 identified by RU indexes 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15, and 31, respectively. In some instances, the frequency tone mapping offsets for the four middle 26-frequency tone RUs of the OFDMA frequency tone plan may be 39, 48, 57, and 66.

[0299] Fig.41E A flow diagram illustrating example operations 4140 for supporting wireless communications using tone mapping based on a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset to transmit one or more PPDUs is shown. In some implementations, operations 4140 may be performed by a STA such as Figure 1 STA104, Figure 7B STA 704, or Fig.32 In some instances, Fig.41E Example operation 4140 can be used with Fig.38 The mapping of a contiguous frequency tone set to a corresponding non-contiguous frequency tone set is performed in conjunction with box 3802 of operation 3800. In box 4142, when the plurality of RUs includes sixteen RU52 or eight RU106 based on thirty-two RU26 of OFDMA frequency tone planning, the wireless communication device can sequentially assign frequency tone mapping offsets 31-34, 36-43, 45-52, 54-61 and 63-66 to the thirty-two RU26 identified by RU indexes 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15 and 31, respectively. In some instances, the tone mapping offsets for the four middle 26-tone RUs of the OFDMA tone plan may be 35, 44, 53, and 62.

[0300] Various implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses.

[0301] 1. A method for wireless communication by an apparatus of a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

[0302] selecting a first resource unit (RU) of a plurality of resource units (RUs) for transmitting a physical (PHY) layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) over a wireless medium, the first RU comprising a set of contiguous tones occupying a first frequency bandwidth, the plurality of RUs collectively spanning a second frequency bandwidth that is larger than the first frequency bandwidth;

[0303] Mapping the contiguous set of tones of the first RU to a non-contiguous set of tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with the first RU; and transmitting the PPDU on the non-contiguous set of tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0304] 2. The method of clause 1, wherein mapping the set of contiguous tones comprises mapping pilot tones and data tones of the first RU to the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0305] 3. A method as in any one or more of clauses 1-2, wherein the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones are interleaved with tones in one or more other sets of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth.

[0306] 4. A method as in any one or more of clauses 1-3, wherein the frequency mapping offset associated with the first RU comprises a bit-reversed arrangement of the RU index of the first RU.

[0307] 5. The method of clause 4, wherein the tone map offset associated with the first RU is further associated with a first frequency bandwidth and a second frequency bandwidth.

[0308] 6. A method as in any one or more of clauses 1-5, wherein the tone mapping vector indicates a starting tone index, an ending tone index, and a tone spacing for the set of non-contiguous tones.

[0309] 7. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-6, wherein each non-contiguous set of tones associated with a respective RU size has the same tone spacing.

[0310] 8. The method of clause 6, wherein the arrangement of the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth is associated with the tone mapping offsets of the plurality of RUs that collectively span the second frequency bandwidth.

[0311] 9. The method of clause 6, wherein an arrangement of the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth is different than an arrangement of the tones in the set of unique contiguous tones corresponding to the plurality of RUs.

[0312] 10. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-9, wherein the plurality of RUs comprises four RUs 52 or two RUs 106 based on eight RUs 26 of an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) tone plan, and mapping the unique contiguous tone set comprises:

[0313] assigning tone map offsets 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13 sequentially to the eight RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 4, 2, 6, 1, 5, 3, and 7, respectively; and

[0314] A tone map offset of 9 is assigned to the center 26 tone RUs of the OFDMA tone plan.

[0315] 11. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-9, wherein the plurality of RUs comprises eight RUs 52 or four RUs 106 based on sixteen RUs 26 of an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) tone plan, and mapping the unique contiguous tone set comprises:

[0316] assigning tone map offsets 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25 sequentially to the sixteen RUs 26 identified by RU indexes 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7, and 15, respectively; and

[0317] Tone map offsets 17 and 26 are assigned to the middle 26 tone RUs of the OFDMA tone plan.

[0318] 12. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-9, wherein the plurality of RUs comprises eight RUs 52 or four RUs 106 based on sixteen RUs 26 of an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) tone plan, and mapping the unique contiguous tone set comprises:

[0319] sequentially assigning tone map offset values ​​between 9-12, 14-21, and 23-26 to the sixteen RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7, and 15, respectively; and

[0320] Tone map offsets 13 and 22 are assigned to the two middle 26-tone RUs of the OFDMA tone plan.

[0321] 13. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-9, wherein the plurality of RUs comprises sixteen RUs 52 or eight RUs 106 based on thirty-two RUs 26 of an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) tone plan, and mapping the unique contiguous tone set comprises:

[0322] assigning tone map offsets 31-38, 40-47, 49-56, and 58-65 sequentially to the thirty-two RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15, and 31, respectively; and

[0323] Tone map offsets 39, 48, 57, and 66 are assigned to the four middle 26-tone RUs of the OFDMA tone plan.

[0324] 14. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-9, wherein the plurality of RUs comprises sixteen RUs 52 or eight RUs 106 based on thirty-two RUs 26 of an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) tone plan, and mapping the unique contiguous tone set comprises:

[0325] assigning tone map offsets 31-34, 36-43, 45-52, 54-61, and 63-66 sequentially to the thirty-two RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15, and 31, respectively; and

[0326] Tone map offsets 35, 44, 53, and 62 are assigned to the four middle 26-tone RUs of the OFDMA tone plan.

[0327] 15. The method of clause 1, further comprising:

[0328] RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242, or RU484 receiving an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) tone plan serves as a reference group from which the tone map is offset.

[0329] 16. The method of clause 15, wherein the reference group is RU26, the first frequency bandwidth is 2 MHz, and wherein:

[0330] When the second frequency bandwidth is 20 MHz, the tone mapping distance is 9;

[0331] When the second frequency bandwidth is 40 MHz, the tone mapping distance is 18;

[0332] When the second frequency bandwidth is 80 MHz, the tone mapping distance is 36;

[0333] When the second frequency bandwidth is 160 MHz, the tone mapping distance is 72; and

[0334] When the second frequency bandwidth is 320 MHz, the frequency modulation mapping distance is 144.

[0335] 17. The method of clause 15, wherein the reference group is RU26, the first RU is RU52, and mapping the contiguous tone set comprises:

[0336] mapping a first group of tones of RU52 to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with the first RU26; and

[0337] The tone mapping vector and tone mapping offset associated with the second RU 26 are used to map the second group of tones of RU 52 to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0338] 18. The method of clause 15, wherein the reference group is RU26, the first RU is RU106, and mapping the contiguous tone set comprises:

[0339] mapping a first group of tones of the RU 106 to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with the first RU 106;

[0340] mapping a second group of tones of RU 106 to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with a second RU 26;

[0341] mapping a third group of tones of RU 106 to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with a third RU 26; and

[0342] The tone mapping vector and tone mapping offset associated with the fourth RU 106 are used to map a fourth tone group of the RU 106 to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0343] 19. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-18, further comprising:

[0344] Each non-contiguous set of tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth is mapped to a corresponding non-contiguous set of tones distributed across a third frequency bandwidth that is larger than the second frequency bandwidth.

[0345] 20. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-19, further comprising:

[0346] identifying a plurality of remaining tones selected in a second frequency bandwidth; and

[0347] The identified remaining tones are mapped to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth.

[0348] 21. The method of clause 20, wherein the number of remaining tones identified comprises the modulo of the number of contiguous tones in one of RU52, RU106, RU242, or RU484 and the number of contiguous tones in RU26.

[0349] 22. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-21, wherein the PPDU comprises an uplink (UL) transmission or a downlink (DL) transmission.

[0350] 23. A wireless communication device, comprising:

[0351] A processing system, the processing system being configured to:

[0352] selecting a first resource unit (RU) of a plurality of resource units (RUs) for transmitting a physical (PHY) layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) over a wireless medium, the first RU comprising a set of contiguous tones occupying a first frequency bandwidth, the plurality of RUs collectively spanning a second frequency bandwidth that is larger than the first frequency bandwidth; and

[0353] mapping a contiguous set of tones of the first RU to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with the first RU; and an interface configured to:

[0354] The PPDU is output for transmission on the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across a second frequency bandwidth.

[0355] 24. The wireless communication device of clause 23, wherein mapping the set of contiguous tones comprises mapping pilot tones and data tones of the first RU to the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0356] 25. The wireless communication device of any one or more of clauses 23-24, wherein the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones are interleaved with tones in one or more other sets of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0357] 26. The wireless communication device of any one or more of clauses 23-25, wherein the tone map offset associated with the first RU comprises a bit-reversed permutation of a RU index of the first RU.

[0358] 27. The wireless communication device of any one or more of clauses 23-26, wherein the tone mapping vector indicates a starting tone index, an ending tone index, and a tone spacing for the set of non-contiguous tones.

[0359] 28. The wireless communication device of clause 27, wherein each non-contiguous set of tones associated with a respective RU size has the same tone spacing.

[0360] 29. A wireless communication device as in any one or more of clauses 23-28, wherein the arrangement of the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth is associated with the tone mapping offsets of the plurality of RUs that collectively span the second frequency bandwidth.

[0361] 30. The wireless communication device of any one or more of clauses 23-29, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0362] identifying a number of remaining tones in a second frequency bandwidth; and

[0363] The identified remaining tones are mapped to the non-contiguous set of tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

[0364] 31. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-30, wherein the first frequency bandwidth comprises a bandwidth of one of RU26, RU52, RU106, or RU242, and the second frequency bandwidth is one of a 20 MHz bandwidth, a 40 MHz bandwidth, or an 80 MHz bandwidth.

[0365] 32. The method of clause 6, wherein the tone spacing comprises a quotient of a number of tones available for transmission across the second frequency bandwidth divided by a number of contiguous tones of the first RU.

[0366] 33. The method of clause 1, wherein each RU of the plurality of RUs spanning the second frequency bandwidth comprises a unique set of contiguous tones occupying a different portion of the second frequency bandwidth.

[0367] 34. The method of clause 19, wherein the third frequency bandwidth is one of a 160 MHz bandwidth or a 320 MHz bandwidth.

[0368] 35. The method of clause 19, wherein the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the third frequency bandwidth are interleaved with one another.

[0369] 36. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-35, wherein the first RU is allocated to the wireless communication device in a trigger frame.

[0370] 37. The method of clause 36, wherein the trigger frame allocates one or more of the other RUs in the plurality of RUs to one or more other wireless communication devices.

[0371] 38. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-37, wherein the PPDU comprises a high efficiency (HE) or very high throughput (EHT) triggered (TB) PPDU.

[0372] 39. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-38, wherein the PPDU comprises a single user (SU) PPDU.

[0373] 40. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-38, wherein the PPDU comprises a multi-user (MU) PPDU.

[0374] 41. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-40, wherein a power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to the PPDU transmission is based on a second frequency bandwidth.

[0375] 42. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-41, wherein the first RU comprises a plurality of RUs.

[0376] 43. The method of any one or more of clauses 1-42, wherein the plurality of RUs comprises one or more of RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242, or RU484.

[0377] As used herein, a phrase referring to "at least one of" or "one or more of" a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including single members. For example, "at least one of a, b, or c" is intended to cover the following possibilities: only a, only b, only c, a combination of a and b, a combination of a and c, a combination of b and c, and a combination of a, b, and c.

[0378] The various illustrative components, logic, logic blocks, modules, circuits, operations, and algorithmic processes described in conjunction with the implementations disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, firmware, software, or a combination of hardware, firmware, or software, including the structures disclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents. This interchangeability of hardware, firmware, and software has been generally described in terms of their functionality and is illustrated in the various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and processes described above. Whether such functionality is implemented in hardware, firmware, or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system.

[0379] Various modifications to the implementations described in this disclosure may be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, and the universal principles defined herein may be applied to other implementations without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the implementations shown herein, but should be granted the widest scope consistent with the disclosure, the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

[0380] In addition, various features described in this specification in the context of separate implementations may also be implemented in combination in a single implementation. Conversely, various features described in the context of a single implementation may also be implemented in multiple implementations separately or in any suitable subcombination. Thus, while features may be described above as functioning in a particular combination and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination may in some cases be removed from the combination, and a claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination, or a variation of a subcombination.

[0381] Similarly, although operations are depicted in a particular order in the accompanying drawings, this should not be understood as requiring such operations to be performed in the particular order shown or in a sequential order, or to perform all the illustrated operations to achieve the desired result. In addition, the accompanying drawings may schematically depict one or more example processes in the form of a flow chart or a flow diagram. However, other operations that are not depicted may be incorporated into the example processes schematically illustrated. For example, one or more additional operations may be performed before, after, simultaneously or between any illustrated operations. In some environments, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. In addition, the separation of various system components in the implementation described above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all implementations, and it should be understood that the described program components and systems can generally be integrated together in a single software product or packaged into multiple software products.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication by an apparatus of a wireless communication device, the method comprising: Selecting a first RU of a plurality of resource units RU for transmitting a physical PHY layer convergence protocol PLCP protocol data unit PPDU over a wireless medium, the first RU comprising a set of contiguous tones occupying a first frequency bandwidth, the plurality of RUs collectively spanning a second frequency bandwidth larger than the first frequency bandwidth; mapping the set of contiguous tones of the first RU to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with the first RU, the tone mapping vector indicating a starting tone index and an ending tone index of the set of non-contiguous tones; and The PPDU is transmitted on the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein: Mapping the set of contiguous tones includes mapping pilot tones and data tones of the first RU to the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein: The tones in the set of non-contiguous tones are interleaved with tones in one or more other sets of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein: The tone map offset associated with the first RU is a bit-reversed permutation of the RU index of the first RU.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein: The tone mapping offset associated with the first RU is further associated with the first frequency bandwidth and the second frequency bandwidth.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein: The tone mapping vector further indicates tone spacing of the set of non-contiguous tones.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein: Each non-contiguous tone set associated with a corresponding RU size has the same tone spacing.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein: The arrangement of the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth is associated with a tone map offset for the plurality of RUs that collectively span the second frequency bandwidth.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein: An arrangement of tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth is different than an arrangement of tones in a set of unique contiguous tones corresponding to the plurality of RUs.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein: The plurality of RUs include four RUs 52 or two RUs 106 based on eight RUs 26 of OFDMA tone planning, and mapping a unique contiguous tone set includes: sequentially assigning tone map offsets 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13 to the eight RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 4, 2, 6, 1, 5, 3, and 7, respectively; and A tone map offset of 9 is assigned to the center 26 tone RU of the OFDMA tone plan.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein: The plurality of RUs include eight RUs 52 or four RUs 106 based on sixteen RUs 26 of an orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA tone plan, and mapping a unique contiguous tone set includes: assigning tone map offsets 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25 sequentially to the sixteen RUs 26 identified by RU indexes 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7, and 15, respectively; and Tone map offsets 17 and 26 are assigned to the two middle 26-tone RUs of the OFDMA tone plan.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein: The plurality of RUs include eight RUs 52 or four RUs 106 based on sixteen RUs 26 of an orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA tone plan, and mapping a unique contiguous tone set includes: sequentially assigning tone map offset values ​​between 9-12, 14-21, and 23-26 to the sixteen RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7, and 15, respectively; and Tone map offsets 13 and 22 are assigned to the two middle 26-tone RUs of the OFDMA tone plan.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein: The plurality of RUs include sixteen RUs 52 or eight RUs 106 based on thirty-two RUs 26 of OFDMA tone planning, and mapping a unique contiguous tone set includes: assigning tone map offsets 31-38, 40-47, 49-56, and 58-65 sequentially to the thirty-two RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15, and 31, respectively; and Tone map offsets 39, 48, 57, and 66 are assigned to the four middle 26-tone RUs of the OFDMA tone plan.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein: The plurality of RUs include sixteen RUs 52 or eight RUs 106 based on thirty-two RUs 26 of OFDMA tone planning, and mapping a unique contiguous tone set includes: assigning tone map offsets 31-34, 36-43, 45-52, 54-61, and 63-66 sequentially to the thirty-two RUs 26 identified by RU indices 0, 16, 8, 24, 4, 20, 12, 28, 2, 18, 10, 26, 6, 22, 14, 30, 1, 17, 9, 25, 5, 21, 13, 29, 3, 19, 11, 27, 7, 23, 15, and 31, respectively; and Tone map offsets 35, 44, 53, and 62 are assigned to the four middle 26-tone RUs of the OFDMA tone plan.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising: RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242 or RU484 receiving an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) tone plan as a reference group from which the reference tone map is offset.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein: The reference group is the RU26, the first frequency bandwidth is 2 MHz, and wherein: When the second frequency bandwidth is 20 MHz, the tone mapping distance is 9; When the second frequency bandwidth is 40 MHz, the tone mapping distance is 18; When the second frequency bandwidth is 80 MHz, the tone mapping distance is 36; When the second frequency bandwidth is 160 MHz, the tone mapping distance is 72; and When the second frequency bandwidth is 320 MHz, the frequency modulation mapping distance is 144.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein: The reference group is the RU26, the first RU is RU52, and mapping the contiguous tone set includes: mapping a first group of tones of said RU 52 to said set of non-contiguous tones distributed across said second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with a first RU 26; and The tone mapping vector and tone mapping offset associated with the second RU 26 are used to map the second group of tones of the RU 52 to the non-contiguous set of tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein: The reference group is the RU26, the first RU is RU106, and mapping the contiguous tone set includes: mapping a first group of tones of a first RU 106 to the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with the RU 106; mapping a second group of tones of said RU 106 to said set of non-contiguous tones distributed across said second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with a second RU 26; mapping a third group of tones of said RU 106 to said set of non-contiguous tones distributed across said second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with a third RU 26; and A fourth group of tones of a fourth RU 106 is mapped to the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with the RU 106.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising: Each of the one or more other non-contiguous sets of tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth is mapped to a corresponding non-contiguous set of tones in a plurality of non-contiguous sets of tones distributed across a third frequency bandwidth larger than the second frequency bandwidth.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying one or more remaining tones in the second frequency bandwidth; as well as The identified one or more remaining tones are mapped to the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein: The number of the one or more identified remaining tones comprises the modulo of the number of contiguous tones in one of RU52, RU106, RU242, or RU484 and the number of contiguous tones in RU26.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein: The PPDU includes uplink UL transmission or downlink DL transmission.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein: The first frequency bandwidth includes a bandwidth of one of RU26, RU52, RU106, or RU242, and the second frequency bandwidth is one of a 20 MHz bandwidth, a 40 MHz bandwidth, or an 80 MHz bandwidth.

24. The method of claim 6, wherein: The tone spacing comprises a quotient of the number of tones available for transmission across the second frequency bandwidth divided by the number of contiguous tones of the first RU.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein: Each RU of the plurality of RUs spanning the second frequency bandwidth comprises a unique set of contiguous tones occupying a different portion of the second frequency bandwidth.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein: The third frequency bandwidth is one of a 160 MHz bandwidth or a 320 MHz bandwidth.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein: The tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the third frequency bandwidth are interleaved with each other.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein: The first RU is allocated to the wireless communication device in a trigger frame.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein: The trigger frame allocates one or more RUs of other RUs in the plurality of RUs to one or more other wireless communication devices.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein: The PPDU includes a high-efficiency HE or an very high-throughput EHT triggered TBPPDU.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein: The PPDU includes a single-user SU PPDU.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein: The PPDU includes a multi-user MU PPDU.

33. The method of claim 1, wherein: The power spectral density (PSD) limit applicable to PPDU transmission is based on the second frequency bandwidth.

34. The method of claim 1, wherein: The first RU includes multiple RUs.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein: The plurality of RUs include one or more of RU26, RU52, RU106, RU242, or RU484.

36. A wireless communication device, comprising: A processing system, the processing system being configured to: Selecting a first RU of a plurality of resource units RU for transmitting a physical PHY layer convergence protocol PLCP protocol data unit PPDU over a wireless medium, the first RU comprising a set of contiguous tones occupying a first frequency bandwidth, the plurality of RUs collectively spanning a second frequency bandwidth larger than the first frequency bandwidth; as well as mapping the set of contiguous tones of the first RU to a set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth using a tone mapping vector and a tone mapping offset associated with the first RU, the tone mapping vector indicating a starting tone index and an ending tone index of the set of non-contiguous tones; and interface, the interface being configured to: The PPDU is output for transmission on the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

37. The wireless communication device of claim 36, wherein: Mapping the set of contiguous tones includes mapping pilot tones and data tones of the first RU to the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

38. The wireless communication device of claim 36, wherein: The tones in the set of non-contiguous tones are interleaved with tones in one or more other sets of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

39. The wireless communication device of claim 36, wherein: The tone map offset associated with the first RU comprises a bit-reversed arrangement of the RU index of the first RU.

40. The wireless communication device of claim 36, wherein: The tone mapping vector further indicates a tone spacing of the non-contiguous tone sets.

41. The wireless communication device of claim 40, wherein: Each non-contiguous tone set associated with a corresponding RU size has the same tone spacing.

42. The wireless communication device of claim 36, wherein: The arrangement of the tones in the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth is associated with a tone map offset for the plurality of RUs that collectively span the second frequency bandwidth.

43. The wireless communication device of claim 36, wherein: The processing system is further configured to: identifying one or more remaining tones in the second frequency bandwidth; and The identified one or more remaining tones are mapped to the set of non-contiguous tones distributed across the second frequency bandwidth.

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