Wireless communication method and related device

Abstract

The invention relates to a wireless communication method and a related device. A primary technical solution includes a station (STA) affiliated to a multi-link device (MLD) receiving a respective frame from each of one or more peer STAs on one or more channels in multi-link operation. Based on channel center frequency information included in Operating Channel Information (OCI) indicated by OCI elements contained in the respective frame, the STA performs Operating Channel Verification on a respective channel used by the STA to communicate with each of the one or more peer STAs.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application is part of a non-provisional patent application, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 324,668, filed on March 29, 2022. The contents of the above-listed applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Technical Field

[0003] The present application relates to wireless communications, and more particularly, to techniques for channel verification of extremely-high-throughput (EHT) multi-link (ML) operations in wireless communications. Background Art

[0004] Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims listed and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

[0005] In wireless communications such as EHTML operations in wireless local area networks (WLANs) according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard, there is always a channel-based man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack. During a MITM attack, an attacker uses the medium access control (MAC) address of an access point (AP) on one channel (e.g., channel A) and the MAC address of a station (STA) on another channel (e.g., channel B). Although the attacker relays frames between the AP and the STA, the attacker may also buffer frames and / or discard acknowledgment (ACK) frames, resulting in retransmissions. Therefore, a solution for EHT ML operation channel verification is needed in wireless communications. Summary of the invention

[0006] The following summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be limiting in any way. That is, the following summary is provided to introduce the concepts, highlights, benefits, and advantages of the novel and non-obvious technology described herein. Selected implementations are further described below in the detailed description. Therefore, the following summary is not intended to determine the essential characteristics of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to determine the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0007] One of the objects of the present invention is to provide solutions, concepts, designs, techniques, methods and devices related to EHT ML operation channel verification in wireless communications. Under various proposed solutions according to the present invention, the problems described herein can be solved.

[0008] In a first aspect, the present invention provides a wireless communication method, comprising: in a multi-link operation, a station (STA) attached to a multi-link device (MLD) receives a corresponding frame from each of one or more peer STAs on one or more channels; and, based on the channel center frequency information included in the operating channel information (OCI) indicated by the OCI element contained in the corresponding frame, the STA performs operating channel verification on the corresponding channel used by the STA to communicate with each of the one or more peer STAs.

[0009] On the other hand, the present invention provides a wireless communication device, which is implemented in a multi-link device (MLD) and serves as a station (STA) attached to the MLD, wherein the device includes a transceiver and a processor, the transceiver is configured to perform wireless communication, the processor is coupled to the transceiver, and the processor is configured to perform the following operations via the transceiver: receiving a corresponding frame from each of one or more peer STAs on one or more channels in a multi-link operation; and, based on the channel center frequency information included in the operating channel information (OCI) indicated by the OCI element included in the corresponding frame, performing operating channel verification on the corresponding channel used by the STA to communicate with each of the one or more peer STAs.

[0010] It is worth noting that although the description provided herein is based on the context of certain radio access technologies, networks, and network topologies (e.g., Wi-Fi), the proposed concepts, schemes, and any variants / derivations thereof may be implemented in, used for, or implemented by other types of radio access technologies, networks, and network topologies, such as, but not limited to, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Fifth Generation (5G) / New Radio (NR), Long-Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, LTE-Advanced Pro, Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and narrowband IoT (NB-IoT). Therefore, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the examples described herein. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] The present invention may be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples, which are given with reference to the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the present invention and are incorporated into and constitute a part of the present invention. The accompanying drawings illustrate embodiments of the present invention and are used together with the detailed description to explain the principles of the present invention. It is understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale in order to clearly illustrate the concepts of the present invention, as some components may be shown to be not proportional to the size in actual implementation.

[0012] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an example network environment in which various solutions and technical solutions according to the present invention can be implemented.

[0013] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of an example design according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0014] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of an example scenario according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0015] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of an example design according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0016] Figure 5 is a block diagram of an example communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0017] Figure 6 is a flow chart of an example process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0018] In the following detailed description, for the purpose of illustration, many specific details are set forth so that those with ordinary knowledge in the art can more thoroughly understand the embodiments of the present invention. However, it is obvious that one or more embodiments can be implemented without these specific details, and different embodiments or different features disclosed in different embodiments can be combined as needed, and should not be limited to the embodiments listed in the drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] Detailed embodiments and implementations of the claimed subject matter are disclosed herein. However, it should be understood that the disclosed embodiments and implementations are merely illustrative of the claimed subject matter, which may be implemented in other ways. However, the present invention may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the exemplary embodiments and implementations set forth herein. On the contrary, these exemplary embodiments and implementations are provided to make the description of the present invention thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the present invention to those skilled in the art. In the following description, details of well-known features and technologies may be omitted to avoid unnecessary confusion of the presented embodiments and implementations. The following description is a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The following embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical features of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Certain words are used throughout the specification and the scope of the claims to refer to specific components. A person with ordinary knowledge in the art should understand that manufacturers may use different nouns to refer to the same component. This specification and the scope of the claims do not use differences in names as a way to distinguish components, but rather use differences in the functions of components as a basis for distinction.

[0020] Overview

[0021] Embodiments according to the present invention relate to various technologies, methods, schemes and / or solutions related to EHT (extremely high throughput) ML (multi-link) operating channel validation in wireless communications. According to the present invention, a variety of possible solutions can be implemented individually or in combination. That is, although these possible solutions may be described separately below, two or more of these possible solutions may be implemented in one combination or another combination.

[0022] Figure 1 An example network environment 100 is shown in which various solutions and techniques according to the present invention may be implemented. Figure 2 to Figure 6 FIG. 1 shows an exemplary implementation of various proposed schemes in a network environment 100 according to the present invention. Figure 1 to Figure 6 , the present invention provides the following description of various proposed schemes.

[0023] refer to Figure 1In part (A) of the present invention, the network environment 100 includes a first MLD (MLD 110) and a second MLD (MLD 120) located in a basic service set (BSS), and the first MLD (MLD 110) and the second MLD (MLD 120) wirelessly communicate with each other through multiple links (e.g., link 1 and link 2, labeled as LINK 1, LINK 2, ..., LINK N) according to one or more IEEE 802.11 standards. Each of MLD 110 and MLD 120 can act as a non-AP MLD (which has multiple virtual STAs attached), or alternatively, can act as an AP MLD (which has multiple virtual APs attached). For illustrative purposes and not to limit the scope of the present invention, MLD 110 is shown as a non-AP MLD with multiple attached non-AP STAs (e.g., STA 1 and STA 2), and MLD 120 is shown as an APMLD with multiple attached AP STAs (e.g., AP 1 and AP 2). It is worth noting that, although a certain number (e.g., two) of STAs are shown as being attached to each of MLD 110 and MLD 120, in actual implementation, the number N of STAs attached to each of MLD 110 and MLD 120 is not limited to 2, and the number of corresponding links between MLD 110 and MLD 120 may be the same as or different from N. Under various proposed schemes according to the present invention, MLD 110 and MLD 120 may be configured to perform EHT ML operation channel verification in wireless communication according to various proposed schemes described herein. It is worth noting that various proposed schemes may be implemented separately or optionally jointly (e.g., two or more proposed schemes are implemented together), although each of the various proposed schemes may be described separately below.

[0024] refer to Figure 1In part (B), during a channel-based MITM (man-in-the-middle) attack, the attacker uses the MAC address of an AP (e.g., one of the multiple APs attached to MLD 120) to pretend to be an AP on one channel (e.g., channel A), and the attacker also uses the MAC address of a STA (e.g., one of the multiple STAs attached to MLD 110) to pretend to be a STA on another channel (e.g., channel B different from channel A). That is, the attacker may pretend to be a STA on channel B to communicate with the AP, and the attacker may also pretend to be an AP on channel A to communicate with the STA. This will cause the AP to falsely determine that the STA is operating on channel B, and similarly, this will cause the STA to falsely determine that the AP is operating on channel A. Although the attacker relays frames between the AP and the STA, the attacker may also buffer frames and / or drop ACK frames to achieve malicious goals, such as causing retransmissions, which may degrade overall system performance.

[0025] When a STA has the capability to perform operating channel validation (OCVC) (i.e., if a STA has / indicates the operating channel validation (OCVC) capability), the STA can advertise the capability in a robust security network element (RSNE), and the STA includes operating channel information and verifies the operating channel information (OCI) received from a peer STA with OCVC capability in certain (certain, also described as "specific") protected messages (e.g., management frames), where the protected messages are used for key establishment and confirmation. That is, the STA with OCVC capability verifies whether the channel information (channelinformation) in the received OCI matches the parameters of the current operating channel of the STA by performing certain operations. That is, most management frames can include an OCI element indicating an operating channel number, and such management frames are encrypted (protected). After receiving multiple management frames, each of which contains a corresponding OCI element, the STA can determine whether these management frames are sent on the same channel or on different channels. Figure 1In the channel-based MTIM attack scenario shown in part (B), based on the fact that the operating channel indicated by the OCI element contained in the received management frame is channel B and the STA operates on channel A, the STA can determine that the management frame is sent by (and received from) an attacker (rather than a real AP operating on channel A). For example, the STA verifies whether the maximum bandwidth (maximum bandwidth) used by the STA to send a physical-layer protocol data unit (PPDU) to the peer STA from which the OCI is received and / or receive a physical-layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from the peer STA is not greater than the bandwidth of the operating class (operating) specified / specified in the operating class field (Operating Class field) of the above-mentioned received OCI. In addition, or alternatively, the STA may verify whether the primary channel used by the STA to transmit a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) to a peer STA and / or receive a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from a peer STA and receive an OCI from the peer STA is the same as / matches the primary channel specified / specified in the Primary Channel Number field for the corresponding operation category. In addition, or alternatively, when the STA uses a 40MHz bandwidth to send a PPDU to a peer STA from which an OCI is received and / or receives a PPDU from a peer STA from which an OCI is received, the STA verifies whether the nonprimary 20MHz channel used matches the operation category (e.g., primary channel upper layer behavior and primary channel lower layer behavior) specified in the operation category field of the above-mentioned received OCI. In addition, or alternatively, in the case of operating in the (80+80) MHz operating category, the STA verifies whether the frequency segment 1 channel number (Frequency Segment 1 Channel Number) used by the STA to send a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) to and / or receive a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from the peer STA from which the OCI was received is the same as or matches the frequency segment 1 channel number specified in the Frequency Segment 1 Channel Number field (Frequency Segment 1 Channel Number field) of the received OCI.

[0026] In the case where the non-transmitting MAC Sublayer Management Entity (NT-MLME) of a STA with OCVC capability processes a Management MAC Protocol Data Unit (MMPDU) containing an OCI and the OCI is received in an MLME-OCTunnel.indication primitive in an On-Channel Tunneling (OCT) operation, the above-mentioned verification can be performed on the expected channel or current channel used by the STA to send PPDUs to and / or receive PPDUs from a peer STA over the wireless medium (e.g., without using the OCT procedure). In addition, the STA can verify whether the OCI contains the OCT Operating Class field, the OCT Primary Channel Number field, and the OCT Frequency Segment 1 Channel Number field. In addition, the STA may use the OCT information in these fields to perform the above verification on the channel used by the STA corresponding to the transmitting MLME (TR-MLME) from which the MLME-OCTunnel.indication primitive is received to send and / or receive PPDUs containing On-Channel Tunnel Request frames to or from the STA corresponding to the TR-MLME used by the peer STA. If an OCVC-capable STA receives a frame from a peer STA that is not on the same primary channel (or, the same frequency segment 1 channel number value) that the STA uses to receive PPDUs from the peer STA or the STA has a bandwidth that exceeds the maximum bandwidth that the STA uses to receive PPDUs from the peer STA, the frame is discarded.

[0027] In addition, for operating channel verification, the channel information that needs to be verified can generally be specified by an operating class and a channel number. Since the use of country strings is deprecated in favor of using a global operating class table alone, an operating class from the global operating class table (such as a global operating class) can be announced in beacons and probe responses. Therefore, in the process of verifying the OCI, the STA can verify the global operating class (which also defines the bandwidth and primary channel upper / lower layer behavior) and the channel number. Specifying the operating class, primary channel, and frequency segment 1 channel number can be sufficient to indicate the operating channel information covering 80MHz and 80+80 / 160MHz cases, where the center frequency index can be specified in the above-mentioned operating class table.

[0028] For example, for a very-high-throughput (VHT) 80MHz BSS operating using 80MHz channel 155 (e.g., 5735-5815MHz), which is an operating class 128 with a channel center frequency index 155, the AP may select a primary 20MHz channel (e.g., channel 153, which is the second 20MHz channel) located anywhere in its primary 80MHz channel. The OCI may have the following set of values: {Operating Class field=128, Primary Channel Number=153, Frequency Segment 1 Channel Number=0 (because it is not 80+80MHz)}. For a VHT (80+80) MHz BSS operating using 80 MHz channel 155 (e.g., 5735-5815 MHz), its operating class is 130, where the channel center frequency index for the primary band (frequency segment 0) is 155 and the channel center frequency index for the secondary band (frequency segment 1) is 42. The AP can select its primary 20 MHz channel (e.g., channel 153, which is the second 20 MHz channel) anywhere in the primary 80 MHz. The OCI can set the following set of values: {Operating Class field=130, Primary Channel Number=153, Frequency Segment 1 Channel Number=42}. The operating class indicated in the OCI element represents the widest bandwidth currently used by the transmitting STA. For example, if a VHT 80 MHz AP has an associated STA that only supports 20 MHz, the OCI element from the AP needs to indicate the 80 MHz operating class. On the other hand, if the non-AP STA supports 80MHz but the AP only supports 40MHz and the AP sends a PPDU containing an OCI element on a 20MHz bandwidth in the primary subchannel, the OCI element needs to indicate the 40MHz operating level because this is the widest bandwidth used by the AP (or transmitting STA).

[0029] With respect to operational channel verification, OCI may need to be included in certain types of messages. For example, OCI may be included in the M2 message and the M3 message of the 4-way handshake process. Alternatively or additionally, OCI may be included in a group temporal key (GTK) handshake message. Alternatively or additionally, OCI may be included in a fast BSS transition (FT) reassociation message (e.g., request and response). Alternatively or additionally, OCI may be included in a fast initial link setup (FILS) reassociation message (e.g., request and response). Alternatively or additionally, OCI may be included in an Authenticated Mesh Peering Exchange (AMPE) handshake message (e.g., Mesh Peering Management frame). Alternatively or additionally, OCI may be included in a Wireless Network Management (WNM) sleep mode message (e.g., request and response). Channel switch announcements may contain target and / or new channel information. These announcements are protected by Protected Management Frames (PMF) - assuming PMF is used, however, PMF does not apply to Beacon / Probe Responses which may contain Channel Switch Announcement elements. When OCV protection is required for a channel switch, a reasonable position is to require PMF - at least to protect the PMF environment - as PMF is likely to be available in most devices now or in the near future. Security Association (SA) queries can be extended and used after a channel switch to verify OCI. In addition, Fine Timing Measurement (FTM) exchanges are indirectly protected as they do not currently negotiate channels. Multi-channel MITM threats can be mitigated if the channel is confirmed by another security handshake process.

[0030] Figure 2 FIG. 2 is an example design 200 of an EHT multi-link OCI element according to the proposed scheme of the present invention. Figure 2As shown, the EHT multi-link OCI element in design 200 can be an extension of the existing format of the OCI element, wherein some fields are repeated for each link in the multiple links of the multi-link operation. The field elements in the EHT multi-link OCI element can include an Operating Class field (annotated as "OPERATING CLASS" in the figure), a Primary Channel Number field (annotated as "PRIMARY CHANNEL NUMBER" in the figure), and a Frequency Segment 1 Channel Number field (annotated as "FREQUENCY SEGMENT 1 CHANNEL NUMBER" in the figure). It should be noted that in some implementations, the Frequency Segment 1 Channel Number field may also be referred to as a Frequency Segment Channel Number (FREQUENCY SEGMENT CHANNEL NUMBER) field. In addition, the present invention does not distinguish different fields based on the difference in capitalization. For example, the Operating Class field and the OPERATING CLASS field both refer to the operating class field. In design 200, these three fields may be repeated for each of the multiple links used for multi-link operation. The Operating Class field may be set to the global operating class corresponding to the widest bandwidth currently used by the transmitting STA. The Primary Channel Number field may be set to the primary channel currently in use. In addition, for operating classes that specify only the channel center frequency index, the Primary Channel Number field may be one of the multiple channels in the column corresponding to the operating class, or a primary 20 MHz (sub) channel that allows high-throughput (HT) or non-HT operation. The Frequency Segment 1 Channel Number field may be set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used secondary frequency band (frequency segment 1), if applicable, or to 0. For example, the value of the Frequency Segment 1 Channel Number field may be one of the multiple center frequency indices in the column corresponding to the operating class.

[0031] Under the proposed scheme, for each of the multiple links, the Operating Class field can be set to the global operating class corresponding to the widest bandwidth currently used by the transmitting STA. For each link, the Primary Channel Number field can be set to the primary channel currently in use. For an operating class that specifies only the channel center frequency index, the Primary Channel Number field can be one of the multiple channels in the column corresponding to the operating class or the primary 20MHz (sub) channel allowed for HT or non-HT operation. For each link, when the operating channel bandwidth is 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, or 80+80MHz, the Frequency Segment 1 Channel Number field can be set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used secondary frequency band (Frequency Segment 1), if applicable, or to 0. The value of the Frequency Segment 1 Channel Number field can be one of the multiple center frequency indices from the column corresponding to the operating class. For each link, when the channel bandwidth (operating channel bandwidth) is 320MHz, the frequency segment 1 channel number field can be set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used primary frequency band (frequency segment 0) or to the center frequency of the 320MHz channel to resolve the ambiguity caused by overlapping 320MHz channelization. The value of the frequency segment 1 channel number field can be one of the multiple center frequency indexes from the column corresponding to the operating category.

[0032] Figure 3 An example scenario 300 illustrating the implementation of the proposed solution when the channel bandwidth is 320 MHz is marked. In the scenario 300, each of a given BSS and an overlapping BSS (OBSS) can use respective 320 MHz channels. Figure 3As shown, although the 320 MHz channels operated by the two BSSs are different, they overlap with each other. Therefore, if the scheme proposed according to the present invention is not implemented, there may be ambiguity as to whether the operating channel of a given BSS is the same as or different from the operating channel of the OBSS. Advantageously, since the center frequency of the 320 MHz operating channel is indicated in the frequency segment 1 channel number field of the OCI element, even if the given BSS and OBSS use the same frequency band for their respective main channels, the STA that receives the management frame containing the OCI element from each of the given BSS (the value of the frequency segment channel number is X) and the OBSS (the value of the frequency segment channel number is Y) can still correctly distinguish which management frame is received from which of the given BSS and OBSS, because the operating channels of the given BSS and OBSS have different channel center frequencies (for example, X≠Y), as shown in FIG. Figure 3 shown.

[0033] Figure 4 4 is an example design 400 of OCI KDE (Key Data Encapsulation) for multi-link operation according to the proposed solution of the present invention. Figure 4 As shown, there are multiple fields in the OCI KDE, such as, but not limited to, an operation category field, a primary channel number field, and a frequency segment 1 channel number field. These fields are repeated for each link in the multiple links of the multi-link operation.

[0034] Under the proposed scheme, for each link, the operating category field can be set to the global operating category corresponding to the widest bandwidth currently used by the transmitting STA. For each link, the primary channel number field can be set to the primary channel currently in use. For an operating category that specifies only the channel center frequency index, the primary channel number field can be one of the multiple channels in the column corresponding to the operating category, or the main 20MHz (sub) channel that allows HT or non-HT operation. For each link, when the operating channel bandwidth is 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, or 80+80MHz, the frequency segment 1 channel number field can be set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used secondary frequency band (frequency segment 1), if applicable, or set to 0. For each link, the value of the frequency segment 1 channel number field can be one of the multiple center frequency indexes from the column corresponding to the operating category. For each link, when the operating channel bandwidth is 320MHz, the frequency segment 1 channel number field can be set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used primary frequency band (frequency segment0). The value of the frequency segment 1 channel number field may be one of a plurality of center frequency indexes from the column corresponding to the operating category.

[0035] Illustrative Embodiments

[0036] Figure 5 An example communication system 500 having at least an example device 510 and an example device 520 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. Each of the device 510 and the device 520 can perform various functions to implement the schemes, techniques, processes and methods described in this specification related to EHT ML operation channel verification in wireless communication, including the above-described various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems and methods and the processes described below. For example, the device 510 can be an example implementation of the MLD 110, and the device 520 can be an example implementation of the MLD 120.

[0037] Each of the devices 510 and 520 may be part of an electronic device, which may be, for example but not limited to, a portable or mobile device, a wearable device, a wireless communication device, or a computing device. For example, each of the devices 510 and 520 may be implemented in a smart phone, a smart watch, a personal digital assistant, a digital camera, or a computing device such as a tablet computer, a laptop computer, or a notebook computer. Each of the devices 510 and 520 may also be part of a machine-type device, which may be an Internet of Things (IoT) device, such as a fixed or non-mobile device, a home device, a wired communication device, or a computing device. For example, each of the devices 510 and 520 may be implemented in a smart thermostat, a smart refrigerator, a smart door lock, a wireless speaker, or a home control center. When implemented in or as a network device, the devices 510 and / or 520 may be implemented in a network node, such as an AP in a WLAN.

[0038] In some embodiments, each of the apparatus 510 and the apparatus 520 may be implemented in the form of one or more integrated-circuit (IC) chips, such as but not limited to one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more reduced-instruction set computing (RISC) processors, or one or more complex-instruction-set-computing (CISC) processors. Each of the apparatus 510 and the apparatus 520 may include Figure 5 At least some of the components shown in the figure, for example, processor 512 and processor 522. Each of apparatus 510 and apparatus 520 may also include one or more other components not related to the solution proposed by the present invention (for example, an internal power supply, a display device and / or a user interface device), so for simplicity, these components of apparatus 510 and apparatus 520 are not shown in the figure. Figure 5 is not shown in the figure and is not described below.

[0039] In one aspect, each of the processors 512 and 522 may be implemented in the form of one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more RISC processors, or one or more CISC processors. That is, even though the singular term "processor" is used herein to refer to the processors 512 and 522, each of the processors 512 and 522 may include multiple processors in some embodiments, and may include a single processor in other embodiments. On the other hand, each of the processors 512 and 522 may be implemented in the form of hardware (and, optionally, firmware) having electronic components, including, for example but not limited to, one or more transistors, one or more diodes, one or more capacitors, one or more resistors, one or more inductors, one or more memristors, and / or one or more varactors configured and arranged to achieve a specific purpose according to the present invention. In other words, in at least some embodiments, each of the processors 512 and 522 is a dedicated machine specifically designed, arranged, and configured to perform specific tasks, including those tasks related to EHT ML operation channel verification in wireless communications according to various embodiments of the present invention. For example, each of processor 512 and processor 522 may be configured with hardware components or circuits to implement one, some, or all of the examples described and illustrated herein.

[0040] In some embodiments, the device 510 may further include a transceiver 516 coupled to the processor 512. The transceiver 516 is capable of wirelessly transmitting and receiving data. In some embodiments, the device 520 may further include a transceiver 526 coupled to the processor 522. The transceiver 526 may include a transceiver capable of wirelessly transmitting and receiving data. The transceiver 516 of the device 510 and the transceiver 526 of the device 520 may communicate with each other through one or more of a plurality of links link 1 to link N (e.g., a first link and a second link), where N is a positive integer greater than 1.

[0041] In some embodiments, the device 510 may further include a memory 514 coupled to the processor 512 and accessible by the processor 512 and storing data therein. In some embodiments, the device 520 may further include a memory 524 coupled to the processor 522 and accessible by the processor 522 and storing data therein. Each of the memory 514 and the memory 524 may include a type of random-access memory (RAM), such as dynamic RAM (DRAM), static RAM (SRAM), thyristor RAM (T-RAM) and / or zero-capacitor RAM (Z-RAM). Alternatively or additionally, each of the memory 514 and the memory 524 may include a type of read-only memory (ROM), such as a mask ROM, a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), and / or an erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM). Alternatively or additionally, each of the memory 514 and the memory 524 may include a type of non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM), such as flash memory, solid-state memory, ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), and / or phase-change memory.

[0042] Each of the device 510 and the device 520 may be a communication entity capable of communicating with each other using various proposed schemes according to the present invention. For illustrative purposes and not limitation, the following provides a description of the capabilities of the device 510 (such as the MLD 110 which may be a non-APMLD or an AP MLD) and the device 520 (such as the MLD 120 which may be an AP MLD or a non-AP MLD). It is worth noting that although the example implementations described below are provided in the context of a WLAN, they may also be implemented in other types of networks.

[0043] According to the proposed scheme for EHT ML operating channel verification in wireless communication of the present invention, the device 510 acts as a STA affiliated with a first MLD (e.g., MLD 110), and in multi-link operation, the processor 512 of the device 510 receives corresponding frames from one or more peer STAs (e.g., one or more peer STAs affiliated with the device 520, where the device 520 acts as a second MLD, such as MLD 120) on one or more channels via the transceiver 516. In addition, the processor 512 may perform operating channel verification on (regarding) the corresponding channel used by the STA for communicating with each of the one or more peer STAs based on the channel center frequency information included in the OCI indicated in the OCI element contained in the corresponding frame.

[0044] In some implementations, the OCI element may include at least an operating class field, a primary channel number field, and a frequency segment 1 channel number field, with these fields being repeated for each of a plurality of links used in a multi-link operation.

[0045] In some implementations, in response to the bandwidth of the corresponding channel being 320 MHz, the value in the frequency segment 1 channel number field may be set to the center frequency of the corresponding channel. Alternatively, in response to the bandwidth of the corresponding channel being 320 MHz, the value in the frequency segment 1 channel number field may be set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used primary frequency band.

[0046] In some embodiments, in response to the bandwidth of the corresponding channel not being 320 MHz, the value in the frequency segment 1 channel number field may be set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used secondary frequency band. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the corresponding channel may be 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or 80+80 MHz.

[0047] In some embodiments, each of the one or more peer STAs may include an OCVC STA (a STA capable of operating channel verification, also described as an "OCVC-capable STA"). In some embodiments, in performing the operating channel verification, the processor 512 may verify the OCI received in the protected messages used in the key establishment and confirmation process with each of the one or more peer STAs by determining whether the channel information in the OCI matches one or more parameters of the current operating channel of the STA.

[0048] In some embodiments, the processor 512 may discard the corresponding frame based on the result of the operating channel verification in response to the corresponding frame not being on the same primary channel used by the STA for receiving one or more PPDUs from a corresponding STA in one or more peer STAs. Alternatively or additionally, the processor 512 may discard the corresponding frame based on the result of the operating channel verification in response to the bandwidth of the corresponding frame exceeding the maximum bandwidth used by the STA for receiving one or more PPDUs from a corresponding STA in one or more peer STAs.

[0049] Illustrative Process

[0050] Figure 6 An example method 600 is shown according to an embodiment of the present invention. Method 600 may be an aspect of implementing the various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems, and methods described above. More particularly, method 600 may represent an aspect of the proposed concepts and schemes related to EHT ML operation channel verification in wireless communications according to the present invention. Method 600 may include one or more operations, actions, or functions, as shown in one or more of blocks (i.e., steps) 610 and 620. Although shown as discrete blocks, the various blocks of method 600 may be divided into additional blocks, combined into fewer blocks, or eliminated, depending on the desired implementation. In addition, the blocks of method 600 may be arranged as follows. Figure 6 , or, alternatively, in a different order. In addition, one or more steps / sub-steps of method 600 may be performed repeatedly or iteratively. Method 600 may be implemented by or in apparatus 510 and apparatus 520 and any variations thereof. For purposes of illustration only and without limiting the scope, method 600 is described in the context of apparatus 510 being an MLD 110 of a wireless network and apparatus 520 being an MLD 120 of a wireless network, such as a WLAN in accordance with one or more of the IEEE 802.11 standards. Method 600 begins at block 610.

[0051] At step 610, method 600 includes receiving, in multi-link operation, a corresponding frame from each of one or more peer STAs (e.g., one or more peer STAs affiliated with device 520 as a second MLD (e.g., MLD 120) on one or more channels by device 510 (e.g., processor 512 of device 510), wherein device 510 is an STA affiliated with a first MLD (e.g., MLD 110). Method 600 may proceed from 610 to 620.

[0052] At step 620, method 600 may include: device 510 (e.g., processor 512 of device 510) performing operating channel verification on a corresponding channel used by the STA to communicate with each of the one or more peer STAs based on the channel center frequency information included in the OCI indicated by the OCI element in the corresponding frame.

[0053] In some implementations, the OCI element may include at least an operation class field, a primary channel number field, and a frequency segment 1 channel number field, which are repeated for each of a plurality of links used in a multi-link operation.

[0054] In some embodiments, in response to the bandwidth of the respective channel being 320 MHz, the value in the frequency segment 1 channel number field is set to the center frequency of the respective channel. Optionally, in response to the bandwidth of the respective channel being 320 MHz, the value in the frequency segment 1 channel number field is set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used primary frequency band.

[0055] In some embodiments, in response to the bandwidth of the corresponding channel not being 320 MHz, the value in the frequency segment 1 channel number field is set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used secondary frequency band. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the corresponding channel can be 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or 80+80 MHz.

[0056] In some embodiments, each of the one or more peer STAs may include an OCVC STA. In some implementations, in performing the operating channel verification, the method 600 may include: the device 510 (e.g., the processor 512 of the device 510) verifies the OCI received in the protected message used in the key establishment and confirmation process with the one or more peer STAs by determining whether the channel information in the OCI matches one or more parameters of the current operating channel of the STA.

[0057] In some embodiments, the method 600 may further include: the device 510 (e.g., the processor 512 of the device 510) discarding the corresponding frame based on the result of the operating channel verification in response to the corresponding frame not being on the same primary channel used by the STA to receive one or more PPDUs from the corresponding STA of the one or more peer STAs. Alternatively or additionally, the method 600 may further include: the device 510 (e.g., the processor 512 of the device 510) discarding the corresponding frame based on the result of the operating channel verification in response to the bandwidth of the corresponding frame exceeding the maximum bandwidth used by the STA to receive one or more PPDUs from the corresponding STA of the one or more peer STAs.

[0058] Additional Notes

[0059] The subject matter described herein sometimes shows different components contained in or connected to other different components.It should be understood that the architecture depicted in this way is only an example, and many other architectures can actually be implemented to achieve the same function.In a conceptual sense, any component arrangement that achieves the same function is effectively "associated" so that the desired function is achieved.Therefore, any two components combined here to achieve a specific function can be regarded as "associated" with each other so that the desired function is achieved, regardless of the architecture or intermediate components.Similarly, any two components so associated can also be regarded as "operably connected" or "operably coupled" to each other to achieve the desired function, and any two components that can be so associated can also be regarded as "operably coupled" to each other to achieve the desired function.Specific examples of operable coupling include but are not limited to physically pairable and / or physically interacting components and / or wirelessly interactive and / or wirelessly interactive components and / or logically interacting and / or logically interactive components.

[0060] Furthermore, with respect to the use of substantially any plural and / or singular terms herein, those of ordinary skill in the art may translate from the plural to the singular and / or from the singular to the plural as appropriate to the context and / or application. For clarity, various singular / plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein.

[0061] In addition, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the terms used herein, and in particular in the appended claims, such as the bodies of the appended claims, are generally intended to be "open" terms, such as the term "including" should be interpreted as "including but not limited to", the term "comprising" should be interpreted as "including but not limited to", the term "having" should be interpreted as "having at least", etc. It will be further understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim element is intended, such intent will be expressly stated in the claim, and in the absence of such a statement, such intent is absent. For example, to aid understanding, the appended claims may include the use of the introductory phrases "at least one" and "one or more" to introduce claim elements. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed as implying that a claim element introduced by the indefinite article "a" or "an" limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim element to include only one such element, even when the same claim contains the introductory phrases "one or more" or "at least one" and an indefinite article such as "a" or "an", for example, "a" and / or "an" should be construed to mean "at least one" or "one or more", and the same applies to the use of the definite article used to introduce a claim element. In addition, even if a specific number of introduced claim elements is explicitly recited, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that such a statement should be construed to mean at least the recited number, for example, the recitation of "two elements" without other modifiers means at least two elements or two or more elements. In addition, where the use of the like "at least one of A, B, and C, etc." is used, for its purpose, generally such a structure, a person of ordinary skill in the art will understand the convention, for example, "the system has at least one of A, B, and C" will include but is not limited to the system having A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and / or A, B, and C together, etc. Where the use of the like "at least one of A, B, or C, etc." is used, for its purpose, generally such a structure, a person of ordinary skill in the art will understand the convention, for example, "the system has at least one of A, B, or C" will include but is not limited to the system having A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and / or A, B, and C together, etc. A person of ordinary skill in the art will further understand that any transitional words and / or phrases that actually represent two or more alternatives, whether in the specification, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibility of including one of the multiple terms, any of the multiple terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase "A or B" will be understood to include the possibilities of "A" or "B" or "A and B."

[0062] As can be seen from the above, it can be understood that various embodiments of the present application have been described herein for illustrative purposes, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present application. Therefore, the various embodiments disclosed herein are not meant to be restrictive, and the true scope and spirit are determined by the attached claims.

[0063] The use of ordinal terms such as "first," "second," "third," etc. in the claims to modify claim elements does not in itself indicate any priority, precedence, or order of one claim element relative to another claim element, or the temporal order of performing method actions, but serves solely as a marker to distinguish one claim element with the same name from another element with the same name using ordinal terms.

[0064] Although the embodiments of the present invention and their advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and modifications may be made to the present invention without departing from the spirit of the present invention and the scope defined by the scope of the claims. For example, new embodiments may be derived by combining parts of different embodiments. The described embodiments are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the present invention in all respects. The scope of protection of the present invention shall be determined by the scope of the attached claims. Those with ordinary knowledge in the art may make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A wireless communication method, It is characterized in that The method includes: In multi-link operation, a station (STA) attached to a multi-link device (MLD) receives a corresponding frame from each of one or more peer STAs on one or more channels; and The STA performs operating channel verification on a corresponding channel used by the STA to communicate with each of the one or more peer STAs based on channel center frequency information included in an operating channel information (OCI) element indicated by an OCI contained in the corresponding frame.

2. The method according to claim 1, It is characterized in that The OCI element includes at least an operation category field, a primary channel number field, and a frequency segment 1 channel number field, and these fields are repeated for each of the multiple links used in the multi-link operation.

3. The method according to claim 2, It is characterized in that In response to the bandwidth of the corresponding channel being 320 MHz, the value in the frequency segment 1 channel number field is set to the center frequency of the corresponding channel.

4. The method according to claim 2, It is characterized in that In response to the bandwidth of the corresponding channel being 320 MHz, the value in the frequency band 1 channel number field is set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used main frequency band.

5. The method according to claim 2, It is characterized in that In response to the bandwidth of the corresponding channel being not 320 MHz, the value in the frequency band 1 channel number field is set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used secondary frequency band.

6. The method according to claim 5, It is characterized in that The bandwidth of the corresponding channel is 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz or 80+80 MHz.

7. The method according to claim 1, It is characterized in that Each of the one or more peer STAs includes an Operational Channel Verification (OCVC) capable STA.

8. The method according to claim 1 or 7, It is characterized in that The execution of the operating channel verification includes: verifying the OCI by determining whether the channel information in the OCI matches one or more parameters of the STA's current operating channel, wherein the OCI is received in a protected message used in the process of key establishment and confirmation between the STA and each of the one or more peer STAs.

9. The method according to claim 1, It is characterized in that The method further includes: The STA discards the corresponding frame based on the result of the operating channel verification in response to the corresponding frame not being located on the same primary channel used by the STA to receive one or more physical layer protocol data units (PPDUs) from the corresponding one of the one or more peer STAs.

10. The method according to claim 1, It is characterized in that The method further includes: The STA discards the corresponding frame based on the result of the operating channel verification in response to the corresponding frame having a bandwidth exceeding a maximum bandwidth used by the STA to receive one or more physical layer protocol data units (PPDUs) from the corresponding one of the one or more peer STAs.

11. A wireless communication apparatus, which can be implemented in a multi-link device (MLD) and as a station (STA) attached to the MLD, It is characterized in that The apparatus includes a transceiver and a processor, the transceiver being configured to perform wireless communication, the processor being coupled to the transceiver, and the processor being configured to perform the following operations via the transceiver: receiving a respective frame from each of the one or more peer STAs on one or more channels in a multi-link operation; and, An operating channel verification is performed on a corresponding channel used by the STA to communicate with each of the one or more peer STAs based on channel center frequency information included in an operating channel information (OCI) element indicated by an OCI contained in the corresponding frame.

12. The device according to claim 11, It is characterized in that The OCI element includes at least an operation category field, a primary channel number field, and a frequency segment 1 channel number field, and these fields are repeated for each of the multiple links used in the multi-link operation.

13. The device according to claim 12, It is characterized in that In response to the bandwidth of the corresponding channel being 320 MHz, the value in the frequency segment 1 channel number field is set to the center frequency of the corresponding channel.

14. The device according to claim 12, It is characterized in that In response to the bandwidth of the corresponding channel being 320 MHz, the value in the frequency band 1 channel number field is set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used main frequency band.

15. The device according to claim 12, It is characterized in that In response to the bandwidth of the corresponding channel being not 320 MHz, the value in the frequency band 1 channel number field is set to the channel center frequency index of the currently used secondary frequency band.

16. The device according to claim 15, It is characterized in that The bandwidth of the corresponding channel is 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz or 80+80 MHz.

17. The device according to claim 11, It is characterized in that Each of the one or more peer STAs includes an Operational Channel Verification (OCVC) capable STA.

18. The device according to claim 11 or 17, It is characterized in that The execution of the operating channel verification includes: verifying the OCI by determining whether the channel information in the OCI matches one or more parameters of the STA's current operating channel, wherein the OCI is received in a protected message used in the process of key establishment and confirmation between the STA and each of the one or more peer STAs.

19. The device according to claim 11, It is characterized in that The processor is also configured to: The corresponding frame is discarded based on the result of the operating channel verification in response to the corresponding frame not being located on the same primary channel used by the STA to receive one or more physical layer protocol data units (PPDUs) from the corresponding one of the one or more peer STAs.

20. The device according to claim 11, It is characterized in that The processor is also configured to: The corresponding frame is discarded based on the result of the operating channel verification in response to the corresponding frame having a bandwidth exceeding a maximum bandwidth used by the STA to receive one or more physical layer protocol data units (PPDUs) from a corresponding one of the one or more peer STAs.

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