Forward error correction coding and modulation with reliability differential

Abstract

The present disclosure provides methods, devices, and systems for forward error correction coding and modulation with reliability differential. In some examples, a transmitting wireless communication device may use a concatenated coding technique to generate a set of coded bits conveying both information bits having a first priority and information bits having a second priority lower than the first priority. In other examples, the transmitting device may use a parallel encoding technique to generate a first set of encoded bits communicated with information bits having the first priority and a second set of encoded bits communicated with information bits having the second priority. According to aspects of the disclosure, the transmitting device may map encoded bits corresponding to information bits having the first priority to relatively higher reliability bit positions of a modulation constellation.

Description

[0001] Priority declaration

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. patent application No. 17 / 821,695, filed on August 23, 2022, entitled “FORWARD ERROR CORRECTION ENCODING WITH RELIABILITY DIFFERENTIATION,” which is hereby incorporated by reference and used for all purposes. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly, to forward error correction coding and modulation with reliability differential. Background Art

[0004] A wireless local area network (WLAN) may be formed by one or more wireless access points (APs) that provide a shared wireless communication medium for use by multiple client devices, also referred to as wireless stations (STAs). The basic building block of a WLAN that complies with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards is a basic service set (BSS) managed by an AP. Each BSS is identified by a basic service set identifier (BSSID) announced 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.

[0005] A source wireless communication device (e.g., which may be an AP or STA in a WLAN) may use forward error correction coding to deliver information bits with a certain degree of redundancy in conjunction with transmitting information bits to a destination wireless communication device. Using forward error correction coding techniques such as low-density parity check (LDPC) coding, the source wireless communication device may generate a set of coded bits from which information bits may be accurately conveyed even when some coded bits are not accurately received by the destination wireless communication device. The source wireless communication device may convert the set of coded bits into modulation symbols according to a modulation scheme such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), and may modulate these modulation symbols onto a carrier signal to obtain a modulated carrier signal for transmission to the destination wireless communication device over a wireless channel. Summary of the invention

[0006] 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.

[0007] One innovative aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure may be implemented in a method for wireless communication. The method includes: performing a first forward error correction coding operation on a first set of information bits associated with a first priority to obtain a first set of coded bits; and performing a second forward error correction coding operation on a portion of the first set of coded bits and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority to obtain a second set of coded bits. The method also includes: mapping the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols in such a way that the first set of information bits is mapped to relatively high reliability bit positions of a modulation constellation, and the second set of information bits is mapped to relatively low reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation. The method also includes: modulating the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal and sending the modulated carrier signal on a wireless channel.

[0008] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure can be implemented in a wireless communication device. The wireless communication device includes: at least one processor; and at least one memory, the at least one memory is communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and stores processor-readable code, which is configured to: perform a first forward error correction encoding operation on a first set of information bits associated with a first priority to obtain a first set of coded bits; and perform a second forward error correction encoding operation on a portion of the first set of coded bits and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority to obtain a second set of coded bits. The processor-readable code is configured to map the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols when executed by the at least one processor, in such a way that the first set of information bits is mapped to a relatively high reliability bit position of a modulation constellation, and the second set of information bits is mapped to a relatively low reliability bit position of the modulation constellation. The processor-readable code is configured to modulate the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal and transmit the modulated carrier signal on a wireless channel when executed by the at least one processor.

[0009] In some examples, these methods and wireless communication devices may be configured to: divide the multiple information bits into the first set of information bits and the second set of information bits according to a bit priority sorting parameter, wherein the bit priority sorting parameter indicates, with respect to each modulation symbol in the set of modulation symbols, a proportion of bit positions of the modulation constellation that constitute relatively high reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation.

[0010] In some examples of the methods and wireless communication devices, the first forward error correction coding operation and the second forward error correction coding operation are low density parity check (LDPC) coding operations.

[0011] In some examples of the method and wireless communication device, the first set of information bits includes data bits associated with an application.

[0012] In some examples of these methods and wireless communication devices, the first set of information bits includes bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the second set of information bits includes bits of a second field of the MPDU.

[0013] In some examples of these methods and wireless communication devices, the first set of information bits includes bits of a first MPDU and the second set of information bits includes bits of a second MPDU.

[0014] In some examples of the method and wireless communication device, the first set of information bits includes bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

[0015] In some examples of the method and wireless communication device, the modulation constellation includes a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] The details of one or more aspects of the subject matter described in the present disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the following description. However, the accompanying drawings illustrate only some typical aspects of the present disclosure and are therefore not to be considered as limiting its scope. Other features, aspects and advantages will become apparent from the description, drawings and claims.

[0017] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of an example wireless communication network is shown.

[0018] Figure 2A Example protocol data units (PDUs) that can be used for communications between an access point (AP) and one or more stations (STAs) are shown.

[0019] Figure 2B Shows Figure 2A Example fields in a PDU.

[0020] Figure 3A An example physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) that can be used for communications between an AP and one or more STAs is shown.

[0021] Figure 3B Another example PPDU that can be used for communication between an AP and one or more STAs is shown.

[0022] Figure 4 An example PPDU is shown that can be used for communication between an AP and one or more STAs.

[0023] Figure 5A block diagram of an example wireless communication device is shown.

[0024] Fig. 6A A block diagram of an example access point (AP) is shown.

[0025] Figure 6B A block diagram of an example station (STA) is shown.

[0026] Figure 7 A block diagram of an example operating environment is shown.

[0027] Figure 8 A block diagram of an example communication process is shown.

[0028] Fig. 9 A block diagram of an example communication process is shown.

[0029] Fig.10 A flow chart illustrating an example process for supporting forward error correction coding and modulation with reliability differentials according to some examples is shown.

[0030] Fig.11 A flow chart illustrating an example process for supporting forward error correction coding and modulation with reliability differentials according to some examples is shown.

[0031] Fig.12 A flow chart illustrating an example process for supporting forward error correction decoding and demodulation with reliability differentials according to some examples is shown.

[0032] Fig.13 A flow chart illustrating an example process for supporting forward error correction decoding and demodulation with reliability differentials according to some examples is shown.

[0033] Fig.14 A block diagram of an example wireless communication device supporting forward error correction coding and modulation with reliability differential is shown according to some examples.

[0034] Fig.15 A block diagram of an example wireless communication device supporting forward error correction coding and modulation with reliability differential is shown according to some examples.

[0035] Fig.16 A block diagram of an example wireless communication device supporting forward error correction decoding and demodulation with reliability differentials is shown according to some examples.

[0036] Fig.17 A block diagram of an example wireless communication device supporting forward error correction decoding and demodulation with reliability differentials is shown according to some examples.

[0037] The same reference numbers and designations in different drawings represent the same elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0038] The following description is directed to certain specific examples 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 a variety of different ways. Some or all of the examples described may 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 Special Interest Group (SIG), or the like. The described examples may be implemented in any device, system, or network capable of transmitting and receiving radio frequency (RF) signals according to one or more of the Long Term Evolution (LTE), 3G, 4G, or 5G (New Radio (NR)) standards, or the like released by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The described examples may be implemented in any device, system, or network capable of transmitting and receiving RF signals according to 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 examples 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.

[0039] Various aspects are generally directed to using relatively high reliability bit positions of a modulation constellation to convey information of relatively greater importance or priority. Some aspects are more specifically directed to: performing forward error correction encoding of information bits; and mapping the resulting coded bits to modulation symbols in a manner such that coded bits used to convey information bits associated with a first priority are mapped to constellation positions with relatively high reliability, while coded bits used to convey information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority are mapped to constellation positions with relatively low reliability.

[0040] In some examples, a transmitting wireless communication device may use a concatenated coding technique including multiple coding stages to generate a set of coded bits that convey both information bits having a first priority and information bits having a second priority. In such examples, the transmitting device may parse the information bits into a first set of information bits associated with the first priority and a second set of information bits associated with the second priority, and may perform a first forward error correction coding operation on the first set of information bits, the execution of which generates the first set of coded bits. Then, the transmitting device may perform a second forward error correction coding operation on the second set of information bits and at least a portion of the first set of coded bits, the execution of which generates the second set of coded bits. In such examples, the transmitting device may map portions of the second set of coded bits associated with the first set of information bits to satellite positions having relatively higher reliability, and map portions of the second set of coded bits associated with the second set of information bits to satellite positions having relatively lower reliability.

[0041] In other examples, the transmitting device may use a parallel coding technique to generate two sets of coded bits. In such examples, the transmitting device may parse the information bits into a first set of information bits associated with a first priority and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority. The transmitting device may perform a first forward error correction encoding operation on the first set of information bits, the execution of which generates the first set of coded bits, and perform a second forward error correction encoding operation on the second set of information bits, the execution of which generates the second set of coded bits. In such examples, the transmitting device may map the first set of coded bits to a satellite seat position having a relatively high reliability, and map the second set of coded bits to a satellite seat position having a relatively low reliability.

[0042] In some examples, the receiving wireless communication device may extract a set of received modulation symbols conveying information bits encoded according to the concatenated coding technique discussed above from the modulated wireless carrier signal. In such examples, the receiving device may demap bits from the set of received modulation symbols to obtain a set of received bits. The receiving device may then choose to decode the entire set of received bits to obtain a first set of information bits associated with a first priority and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority, or to decode only a portion of the set of received bits to obtain the first set of information bits associated with the first priority.

[0043] In other examples, the receiving device may extract a set of received modulation symbols conveying information bits encoded according to the parallel coding technique discussed above from the modulated wireless carrier signal. In such examples, the receiving device may demap bits from the set of received modulation symbols to obtain a first set of received bits corresponding to a first set of encoded bits and a second set of received bits corresponding to a second set of encoded bits. The receiving device may then decode the first set of received bits to obtain a first set of information bits associated with a first priority, and decode the second set of received bits to obtain a second set of information bits associated with a second priority.

[0044] Certain aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure may be implemented to achieve one or more of the following potential advantages. In some examples, the described techniques may be used to exploit the higher reliability of certain bit positions of a modulation constellation to increase the rate of successful recovery of information bits that are more important or prioritized over other information bits at the receiving side. A transmitting device may use concatenated coding techniques to advantageously provide a receiving device with the flexibility to save processing resources by recovering only higher priority information bits when desired. Conversely, by reducing the bit overhead associated with forward error correction coding relative to the bit overhead associated with forward error correction coding in conjunction with the concatenated coding techniques, a transmitting device may use parallel coding techniques to advantageously communicate information bits at a rate greater than the rate supported by the concatenated coding techniques.

[0045] 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 series 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.

[0046] 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, etc. STA 104 may represent a variety of devices, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), other handheld devices, netbooks, notebook computers, tablet computers, laptop computers, 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, remote control keys (e.g., for passive keyless entry and start (PKES) systems), etc.

[0047] 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 corresponding 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 medium 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 (also referred to as a “Wi-Fi link” hereinafter) 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 various STAs 104 in the WLAN with access to external networks via respective communication links 108 .

[0048] To establish a communication link 108 with AP 102, each of STAs 104 is configured to perform passive or active scanning operations ("scans") on frequency channels in one or more frequency bands (eg, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, or 60 GHz bands). To perform passive scanning, the STA 104 listens for beacons transmitted by the corresponding AP 102 at periodic time intervals, referred to as target beacon transmission time (TBTT), measured in time units (TUs), where one TU may be equal to 1024 microseconds (μs). To perform active scanning, the STA 104 generates probe requests and transmits them sequentially 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 scanning 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 association identifier (AID) to track the STA 104.

[0049] 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). Extended network stations associated with WLAN 100 can be connected to a wired or wireless distribution system that allows multiple APs 102 to be connected in such an ESS. Therefore, STA 104 can be covered by more than one AP 102 and can be associated with different APs 102 at different times for different transmissions. Additionally, after associating with AP 102, STA 104 can also be configured to periodically scan its surroundings to find a more appropriate AP 102 to associate with. For example, a STA 104 that is moving relative to its associated AP 102 can perform a "roaming" scan to find another AP 102 with more desirable network characteristics (such as a larger received signal strength indicator (RSSI) or a reduced traffic load).

[0050] 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 examples, although STA 104 may be able to communicate with each other through AP 102 using communication link 108, STA 104 may also communicate directly with each other via direct wireless link 110. Additionally, two STAs 104 may communicate via direct communication link 110, regardless of whether the two STAs 104 are associated with the same AP 102 and served by the same AP. In such an ad hoc system, one or more STAs 104 may assume the role played by AP 102 in the BSS. Such STA 104 may be referred to as a group owner (GO) and may coordinate transmission within the ad hoc network. Examples of the direct wireless link 110 include a Wi-Fi direct connection, a connection established by using a Wi-Fi Tunnel Direct Link Setup (TDLS) link, and other P2P group connections.

[0051] 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 medium access control (MAC) layers. The AP 102 and the STA 104 send and receive wireless communications (hereinafter also referred to as "Wi-Fi communications") to and from each other in the form of physical layer (PHY) protocol data units (PPDUs). The AP 102 and STA 104 in the WLAN 100 may send 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 examples 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.

[0052] Each frequency band in the 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 sent on 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or 6 GHz frequency bands, where each frequency band is divided into multiple 20 MHz channels. Therefore, these PPDUs are sent 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 sent on a physical channel with a bandwidth of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or 320 MHz by bonding multiple 20 MHz channels together.

[0053] 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 sent on a bound channel, the preamble field can be copied and sent in each component channel of a plurality of component channels. The PHY preamble may include both a legacy part (or "legacy preamble") and a non-legacy part (or "non-legacy preamble"). Legacy preambles can be used for other purposes such as packet detection, automatic gain control, and channel estimation. Legacy preambles can also be used to maintain compatibility with legacy devices. The format, decoding, and information provided therein of the non-legacy part of the preamble are based on the specific IEEE 802.11 protocol to be used to send the payload.

[0054] Figure 2A An example protocol data unit (PDU) 200 that can be used for wireless communication between an AP 102 and one or more STAs 104 is shown. For example, the PDU 200 can 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 can include a legacy portion, which itself includes a legacy short training field (L-STF) 206 that can be composed of two BPSK symbols, a legacy long training field (L-LTF) 208 that can be composed of two BPSK symbols, and a legacy signal field (L-SIG) 210 that can be composed of two BPSK symbols. The legacy portion of the preamble 202 can be configured according to the IEEE 802.11a wireless communication protocol standard. The preamble 202 may also include a non-legacy portion including, for example, one or more non-legacy fields 212 that comply with an IEEE wireless communication protocol, such as IEEE 802.11ac, 802.11ax, 802.11be, or later wireless communication protocols.

[0055] L-STF 206 generally enables the receiving device to perform coarse timing and frequency tracking and automatic gain control (AGC). L-LTF 208 generally enables the receiving device to perform fine timing and frequency tracking, 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 sending 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, higher layer data in the form of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) or an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU).

[0056] Figure 2B Shows Figure 2A 2. Example L-SIG 210 in PDU 200 of FIG. L-SIG 210 includes a data rate field 222, a reserved bit 224, a length field 226, a parity bit 228, and a tail field 230. Data rate field 222 indicates the data rate (note that the data rate indicated in data rate field 212 may not be the actual data rate of the data carried in payload 204). Length field 226 indicates the length of the packet, for example, in symbols or bytes. Parity bit 228 can be used to detect bit errors. Tail field 230 includes a tail bit that can be used by a receiving device to terminate the operation of a decoder (e.g., a Viterbi decoder). The receiving device can use the data rate and length indicated in data rate field 222 and length field 226 to determine the duration of the packet, for example, in microseconds (μs) or other time units.

[0057] 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 transmissions. 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 may also include a PHY payload 306 after the preamble (e.g., in the form of a PSDU including a data field 324).

[0058] 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, a 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 also includes a second HE signal field (HE-SIG-B) 318 that is encoded separately from the HE-SIG-A 316. The HE-STF 320 can be used for timing and frequency tracking and AGC, and the HE-LTF 322 can be used for finer channel estimation. As with L-STF 308, L-LTF 310, and L-SIG 312, in instances involving the use of bonded channels, the information in RL-SIG 314 and HE-SIG-A 316 may be replicated and sent in each component 20 MHz channel. In contrast, the content in HE-SIG-B 318 may be unique to each 20 MHz channel and target specific STA 104.

[0059] 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 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 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 transmission, the HE-SIG-A 316 also includes information that can 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), etc. The HE-SIG-A 316 may also include HE WLAN signaling information that can be used by STAs 104 other than the identified STA 104.

[0060] 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 transmission and which RUs correspond to MU-OFDMA transmissions, as well as the number of users in the allocation, etc. The common field may be encoded with common bits, CRC bits, and tail bits. User-specific fields are assigned to specific STAs 104 and may be used to schedule specific RUs 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, which contain information for two corresponding STAs to decode their corresponding RU payloads in the data field 324.

[0061] 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 also include a PHY payload 356 after the preamble (e.g., in the form of a PSDU including a data field 374).

[0062] 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 other wireless communication protocol versions above the EHT and carry information related to the version. The non-legacy portion 354 also includes an additional short training field 370 (referred to herein as "EHT-STF 370", but it may also be constructed 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 and carry version-related information for other wireless communication protocol versions above EHT). The EHT-STF 370 may be used for timing and frequency tracking and AGC, and the EHT-LTF 372 may be used for more refined channel estimation. 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 copied and sent in each of the component 20 MHz channels. In some examples, 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.

[0063] 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 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 a 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), etc. The EHT-SIG 368 may also include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) (e.g., four bits) and a tail (e.g., 6 bits) that may be used for a binary convolutional code (BCC). In some examples, the EHT-SIG 368 may include one or more code blocks each including a CRC and a tail. In some aspects, each of the code blocks may be encoded separately.

[0064] 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 of 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, etc. The common field may be encoded with common bits, CRC bits, and tail bits. The user-specific field is 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, which contain information for two corresponding STAs to decode their corresponding RU payloads.

[0065] The presence of the RL-SIG 364 and the U-SIG 366 may indicate to the EHT or later version compatible STA 104 that the PPDU 350 is an EHT PPDU or a PPDU of any later (post-EHT) version 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.

[0066] Figure 4An example PPDU 400 is shown that can 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 aggregate 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) 426. For example, the MPDU 416 may carry an aggregate MSDU (A-MSDU) 422 that includes multiple A-MSDU subframes 424. Each A-MSDU subframe 424 includes a corresponding MSDU 430, which is preceded by a subframe header 428 and, in some cases, followed by padding bits 432.

[0067] Referring back to the MPDU frame 410, the MAC delimiter 412 may be used as a marker for the start of the 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 in 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 acknowledgement (ACK) or block ACK (BA) of the PPDU to be sent 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 in 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 also 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.

[0068] Figure 5 1 shows a block diagram of an example wireless communication device 500. In some examples, the wireless communication device 500 may be a STA (such as the one described above with reference to Figure 1 In some examples, the wireless communication device 500 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 500 is capable of sending and receiving wireless communications, for example, in the form of wireless packets. For example, the wireless communication device may be configured to send and receive packets in the form of physical layer protocol data units (PPDUs) and medium access control (MAC) protocol data units (MPDUs) that comply with IEEE 802.11 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).

[0069] The wireless communication device 500 may be or may include a chip, system on chip (SoC), chipset, package, or device including one or more modems 502 (e.g., Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 compatible) modems). In some examples, one or more modems 502 (collectively, “modems 502”) additionally include a WWAN modem (e.g., a 3GPP 4GLTE or 5G compatible modem). In some examples, the wireless communication device 500 also includes one or more processors, processing blocks, or processing elements 504 (collectively, “processors 504”) coupled to the modem 502. In some examples, the wireless communication device 500 additionally includes one or more radio components 506 (collectively, “radio components 506”) coupled to the modem 502. In some examples, the wireless communication device 500 also includes one or more memory blocks or elements 508 (collectively, “memory 508”) coupled to the processor 504 or the modem 502.

[0070] The modem 502 may include an intelligent hardware block or device (such as, for example, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or the like). The modem 502 is generally configured to implement the PHY layer, and in some examples, also implements portions of the MAC layer (e.g., a hardware portion of the MAC layer). For example, the modem 502 is configured to modulate packets and output the modulated packets to the radio component 504 for transmission over the wireless medium. Similarly, the modem 502 is configured to obtain modulated packets received by the radio component 504 and demodulate the packets to provide demodulated packets. In addition to the modulator and demodulator, the modem 502 may also include digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry, automatic gain control (AGC) circuitry, a decoder, a multiplexer, and a demultiplexer. For example, when in a transmit mode, data obtained from the processor 506 may be provided to an encoder, which encodes the data to provide decoded bits. The decoded bits may then be mapped to a plurality of (N SS ) spatial streams for spatial multiplexing or multiple (N STS The coded bits in each stream may then be mapped to points in a modulation constellation (using the selected MCS) to provide modulated symbols. The 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 a DSP circuit (e.g., for Tx windowing and filtering). The digital signal may then be provided to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The resulting analog signal may then be provided to a frequency upconverter and ultimately to the radio component 504. In an example involving beamforming, the modulated symbols in the corresponding spatial stream are pre-decoded via a steering matrix and then provided to the IFFT block.

[0071] When in receive mode, the DSP circuit is configured to acquire a signal including modulated symbols received from the radio component 504, for example, by detecting the presence of the signal and estimating initial timing and frequency offset. The DSP circuit is further configured to digitally condition the signal, for example using channel (narrowband) filtering and analog impairment conditioning (such as correcting I / Q imbalance) and by applying digital gain to ultimately obtain a narrowband signal. The output of the DSP circuit can then be fed to the AGC, which is configured to use information extracted from the digital signal (e.g., in one or more received training fields) to determine the appropriate gain. The output of the DSP circuit is also coupled to a demultiplexer that demultiplexes the modulated symbols when multiple spatial streams or space-time streams are received. The demultiplexed symbols can be provided to a demodulator that is configured to extract the 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 can be configured to process the LLRs to provide decoded bits. The decoded bits may then be descrambled and provided to the MAC layer (processor 506) for processing, evaluation, or interpretation.

[0072] The radio component 504 typically 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, each of the RF transmitter and receiver may include various analog circuits, 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 examples, the wireless communication device 500 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 symbols output from the modem 502 are provided to the radio component 504, which then transmits the symbols via the coupled antennas. Similarly, the symbols received via the antennas are obtained by the radio component 504, which then provides the symbols to the modem 502.

[0073] The processor 506 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)), a discrete gate or transistor logic component, a discrete hardware component, or any combination thereof. The processor 506 processes information received through the radio component 504 and the modem 502, and processes information to be output by the modem 502 and the radio component 504 to be sent through the wireless medium. For example, the processor 506 may implement at least part of the control plane and the MAC layer, which is configured to perform various operations related to the generation, transmission, reception and processing of MPDUs, frames or packets. In some examples, the MAC layer is configured to generate an MPDU to provide to the PHY layer for decoding, and receive decoded information bits from the PHY layer for processing as an MPDU. The MAC layer may be further configured to allocate time and frequency resources, such as for OFDMA and other operations or technologies. In some examples, processor 506 may generally control modem 502 to cause the modem to perform the various operations described above.

[0074] The memory 504 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 504 may also store non-transitory processor or computer executable software (SW) code containing instructions that, when executed by the processor 506, cause the processor to perform various operations described herein for wireless communication, including the generation, transmission, reception, and interpretation of MDPUs, frames, or packets. For example, various functions of the components disclosed herein or 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.

[0075] Fig. 6A 602 is a block diagram of an example AP 602. For example, AP 602 may be a reference Figure 1 An example of an AP 102 is depicted. AP 602 includes a wireless communication device (WCD) 610 (although AP 602 itself may also be generally referred to as a wireless communication device, as used herein). For example, wireless communication device 610 may be a wireless communication device. Figure 5An example of a wireless communication device 500 described. The AP 602 also includes a plurality of antennas 620 coupled to the wireless communication device 610 to send and receive wireless communications. In some examples, the AP 602 additionally includes an application processor 630 coupled to the wireless communication device 610 and a memory 640 coupled to the application processor 630. The AP 602 also includes at least one external network interface 650 that enables the AP 602 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 650 may include one or both of a wired (e.g., Ethernet) network interface and a wireless network interface (such as a WWAN interface). Components in the above components may communicate directly or indirectly with other components in the components via at least one bus. The AP 602 also includes a housing that contains the wireless communication device 610, the application processor 630, the memory 640, and at least portions of the antenna 620 and the external network interface 650.

[0076] Figure 6B 604. For example, STA 604 may be a reference Figure 1 104. STA 604 includes a wireless communication device 615 (although STA 604 itself may also be generally referred to as a wireless communication device as used herein). For example, wireless communication device 615 may be a reference Figure 5 An example of a wireless communication device 500 described. STA 604 also includes one or more antennas 625 coupled to the wireless communication device 615 to send and receive wireless communications. STA 604 additionally includes an application processor 635 coupled to the wireless communication device 615 and a memory 645 coupled to the application processor 635. In some examples, STA 604 also includes a user interface (UI) 655 (such as a touch screen or keyboard) and a display 665, which can be integrated with UI 655 to form a touch screen display. In some examples, STA 604 may also include one or more sensors 675, such as, for example, one or more inertial sensors, accelerometers, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, or altitude sensors. Components in the above components can communicate directly or indirectly with other components in the components through at least one bus. STA 604 also includes a housing that contains the wireless communication device 615, the application processor 635, the memory 645, and at least portions of the antenna 625, UI 655, and the display 665.

[0077] Various aspects are generally directed to using relatively high reliability bit positions of a modulation constellation to convey information of relatively greater importance or priority. Some aspects are more specifically directed to: performing forward error correction encoding of information bits; and mapping the resulting coded bits to modulation symbols in a manner such that coded bits used to convey information bits associated with a first priority are mapped to constellation positions with relatively high reliability, while coded bits used to convey information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority are mapped to constellation positions with relatively low reliability.

[0078] In some examples, a transmitting wireless communication device may use a concatenated coding technique including multiple coding stages to generate a set of coded bits that convey both information bits having a first priority and information bits having a second priority. In such examples, the transmitting device may parse the information bits into a first set of information bits associated with the first priority and a second set of information bits associated with the second priority, and may perform a first forward error correction coding operation on the first set of information bits, the execution of which generates the first set of coded bits. Then, the transmitting device may perform a second forward error correction coding operation on the second set of information bits and at least a portion of the first set of coded bits, the execution of which generates the second set of coded bits. In such examples, the transmitting device may map portions of the second set of coded bits associated with the first set of information bits to satellite positions having relatively higher reliability, and map portions of the second set of coded bits associated with the second set of information bits to satellite positions having relatively lower reliability.

[0079] In some other examples, the transmitting device may use a parallel coding technique to generate two sets of coded bits. In such examples, the transmitting device may parse the information bits into a first set of information bits associated with a first priority and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority. The transmitting device may perform a first forward error correction encoding operation on the first set of information bits, the execution of which generates the first set of coded bits, and perform a second forward error correction encoding operation on the second set of information bits, the execution of which generates the second set of coded bits. In such examples, the transmitting device may map the first set of coded bits to a satellite seat position having a relatively high reliability, and map the second set of coded bits to a satellite seat position having a relatively low reliability.

[0080] In some examples, the receiving wireless communication device may extract a set of received modulation symbols conveying information bits encoded according to the concatenated coding technique discussed above from the modulated wireless carrier signal. In such examples, the receiving device may demap bits from the set of received modulation symbols to obtain a set of received bits. The receiving device may then choose to decode the entire set of received bits to obtain a first set of information bits associated with a first priority and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority, or to decode only a portion of the set of received bits to obtain the first set of information bits associated with the first priority.

[0081] In other examples, the receiving device may extract a set of received modulation symbols conveying information bits encoded according to the parallel coding technique discussed above from the modulated wireless carrier signal. In such examples, the receiving device may demap bits from the set of received modulation symbols to obtain a first set of received bits corresponding to a first set of encoded bits and a second set of received bits corresponding to a second set of encoded bits. The receiving device may then decode the first set of received bits to obtain a first set of information bits associated with a first priority, and decode the second set of received bits to obtain a second set of information bits associated with a second priority.

[0082] Certain aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure may be implemented to achieve one or more of the following potential advantages. In some examples, the described techniques may be used to exploit the higher reliability of certain bit positions of a modulation constellation to increase the rate of successful recovery of information bits that are more important or prioritized over other information bits at the receiving side. The use of concatenated coding techniques may advantageously provide a receiving device with the flexibility to save processing resources by recovering only higher priority information bits when desired. The use of parallel coding techniques may advantageously enable a source device to communicate information bits at a greater rate relative to a rate supported by the concatenated coding techniques by reducing the bit overhead associated with forward error correction coding relative to the bit overhead associated with forward error correction coding in conjunction with the concatenated coding techniques.

[0083] Figure 7 7 is a block diagram of an example operating environment 700 in which forward error correction coding and modulation with reliability differentials may be implemented in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In operating environment 700, a source wireless communication device (WCD) 702 may communicate with a destination WCD 704 via a wireless channel 710. In some examples, wireless channel 710 may be a wireless communication network such as a wireless communications network. Figure 1In some examples, the source WCD 702 may be an AP in the WLAN (e.g., the AP 102 in the WLAN 100), and the destination WCD 704 may be a STA in the WLAN (e.g., the STA 104 in the WLAN 100), or vice versa. In some examples, the source WCD 702 and the destination WCD 704 may be two corresponding STAs in the WLAN (e.g., the two corresponding STAs 104 in the WLAN 100). In some examples, the wireless channel 710 may be a wireless channel of another type of wireless network (e.g., a cellular radio access network (RAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN), or other types of wireless networks), and the source WCD 702 and the destination WCD 704 may communicate wirelessly in the network. In some examples, the wireless channel 710 may represent a direct wireless link between the source WCD 702 and the destination WCD 704 that is not associated with any particular wireless network.

[0084] In operating environment 700, source WCD 702 transmits information bits 703 to destination WCD 704. Information bits 703 may include application layer data, such as data bits associated with one or more applications. Information bits 703 may additionally or alternatively include bits that convey lower layer information, such as MAC layer information, PHY layer information, or a combination thereof. For example, information bits 703 may include one or more MPDUs (e.g., Figure 4 bits of one or more fields of an MPDU 416), one or more PPDUs (e.g., Figure 3A PPDU 300 or Figure 3B 700) of one or more fields of the PPDU 350). It is noteworthy that although the source WCD 702 and the destination WCD 704 respectively act as the source and destination of the information bits 703 communicated on the wireless channel 710 in the operating environment 700, each may be capable of playing the opposite role. For example, in some examples, the destination WCD 704 may transmit the information bits (not shown) to the source WCD 702 via the wireless channel 710.

[0085] Source WCD 702 may apply a forward error correction coding technique to generate coded bits 706 based on information bits 703. In some examples, source WCD 702 may generate coded bits 706 by encoding information bits 703 using low density parity check (LDPC) coding. In some other examples, source WCD 702 may generate coded bits 706 by encoding information bits 703 using another forward error correction coding technique, such as binary convolutional code (BCC) coding or linear block code coding.

[0086] The source WCD 702 may generate modulation symbols 708 based on the coded bits 706 according to a modulation scheme. In some examples, the modulation scheme may be a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) modulation scheme, such as 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, 1024-QAM, or 4096-QAM. In some examples, another type of modulation scheme may be used, such as a phase shift keying (PSK), frequency shift keying (FSK), or amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation scheme. In conjunction with generating the modulation symbols 708, the source WCD 702 may map bits among the coded bits 706 to bit positions of a modulation constellation associated with the modulation scheme being used. The number of coded bits 706 mapped to each modulation symbol 708 may depend on the modulation scheme. For example, source WCD 702 may map ten respective coded bits 706 to each modulation symbol 708 if it implements 1024-QAM modulation, but may map twelve respective coded bits 706 to each modulation symbol 708 if it implements 4096-QAM.

[0087] Source WCD 702 may generate a modulated carrier signal 709 by modulating modulation symbols 708 onto a carrier signal, and may transmit modulated carrier signal 709 to destination WCD 704 over wireless channel 710. Destination WCD 704 may receive and process modulated carrier signal 709 to extract received modulation symbols 712 according to the modulation scheme, convert received modulation symbols 712 into received bits 714 by demapping bits from received modulation symbols 712, and obtain received information bits 716 by decoding received bits 714.

[0088] Ideally, the received modulation symbols 712 would exactly match the modulation symbols 708 modulated onto the carrier signal to generate the modulated carrier signal 709, and the received bits 714 would exactly match the coded bits 706 converted into those modulation symbols 708. However, under real-world conditions, the received modulation symbols 712 extracted from the modulated carrier signal 709 by the destination WCD 704 may typically differ, at least to some extent, from the modulation symbols 708 modulated onto the carrier signal due to factors such as signal attenuation, interference, and multipath propagation. When the received modulation symbols 712 differ from the modulation symbols 708, the received bits 714 obtained at the destination WCD 704 will differ from the coded bits 706 converted into the modulation symbols 708 at the source WCD 702. However, due to the redundancy provided by forward error correction coding, even when the received bits 714 differ from the coded bits 706, the received information bits 716 ultimately obtained at the destination WCD 704 may match the information bits 703 transmitted by the source WCD 702.

[0089] In some examples, respective reliabilities of various bit positions of the modulation constellation used in the operating environment 700 may differ. According to aspects of the present disclosure, the source WCD 702 may differentiate between the bit positions of the modulation constellation based on the reliabilities of the bit positions of the modulation constellation in conjunction with mapping the coded bits 706 to the modulation symbols 708. In some examples, the source WCD 702 may identify a plurality of priority levels with respect to the information bits 703 and the bit positions of the modulation constellation to be communicated to the destination WCD 704. In some examples, the source WCD 702 may parse the information bits 703 into a plurality of sets of information bits 703, each set to be communicated via a bit position associated with its respective priority level.

[0090] In some examples, source WCD 702 may parse information bits 703 into a first set of information bits 703-1 associated with a first priority and a second set of information bits 703-2 associated with a second priority lower than the first priority. In some examples, source WCD 702 may map coded bits 706 that convey bits among those bits in the first set of information bits 703-1 to relatively higher reliability bit positions, and may map coded bits 706 that convey bits among those bits in the second set of information bits 703-2 to relatively lower reliability bit positions.

[0091] In some examples, the source WCD 702 may parse the information bits 703 into a first set of information bits 703-1 and a second set of information bits 703-2 according to the bit prioritization parameter. The bit prioritization parameter may indicate, with respect to each modulation symbol 708, a proportion of bit positions of the modulation constellation that are to convey information bits 703 having a first priority. In some examples, based on the bit prioritization parameter, the source WCD 702 may identify, in each modulation symbol 708, the bit positions of the modulation constellation that should convey the information bits 703-1 among those bits in the first set and the bit positions of the bits that should convey the information bits 703-2 among those bits in the second set.

[0092] For example, in one example, the source WCD 702 may implement 1024-QAM modulation such that each modulation symbol 708 conveys ten coded bits 706. Based on the bit priority ordering parameters, the source WCD 702 may determine that two relatively high reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation will convey information bits 703-1 having a first priority, while the remaining eight bit positions of the modulation constellation will convey information bits 703-2 having a lower second priority. The source WCD 702 may identify the two most reliable bit positions of the 1024-QAM constellation as the two relatively high reliability bit positions, and may map the coded bits 706 conveying the information bits 703-1 having the first priority to those two bit positions in each of the modulation symbols 708. The source WCD 702 may map the coded bits 706 conveying the information bits 703-2 having the lower second priority to the eight remaining bit positions in each of the modulation symbols 708.

[0093] According to aspects of the present disclosure, the source WCD 702 may parse the information bits 703 into a first set of information bits 703-1 and a second set of information bits 703-2 according to a ratio between a corresponding number of relatively higher reliability bit positions and relatively lower reliability bit positions in each modulation symbol 708, as indicated or implied by the bit prioritization parameter. For example, in the above example where the bit prioritization parameter indicates that two bit positions of the 1024-QAM modulation constellation are to convey information bits 703-1 having a first priority, the bit prioritization parameter implies a 4 to 1 ratio between bits having a second priority and bits having a first priority. Based on this implied ratio, in conjunction with parsing the information bits 703, the source WCD 702 may maintain a 4 to 1 ratio between the number of information bits 703-2 it assigns the second priority and the number of information bits 703-1 it assigns the first priority.

[0094] In some examples, the destination WCD 704 may determine (e.g., based on the bit prioritization parameter) which bit positions in each of the received modulation symbols 712 contain received bits 714 for conveying information bits having a first priority and which bit positions contain received bits 714 for conveying information bits having a second priority lower than the first priority. In some examples, the destination WCD 704 may decode the received bits 714 of the relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation to obtain a first set of received information bits 716-1 associated with the first priority, and may decode the received bits 714 of the relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation to obtain a second set of received information bits 716-2 associated with the second priority.

[0095] In some examples, after parsing the information bits 703 into the first set of information bits 703-1 and the second set of information bits 703-2 of respective first and second priorities, the source WCD 702 may employ a parallel encoding technique. According to the parallel encoding technique, the source WCD 702 may perform separate respective forward error correction encodings of the first set of information bits 703-1 and the second set of information bits 703-2 in parallel to obtain respective first and second sets of coded bits 706. The source WCD 702 may then map the bits of the first set of coded bits 706 to higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation, and may map the bits of the second set of coded bits 706 to lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation.

[0096] In some examples, rather than performing separate respective forward error correction encodings in parallel, source WCD 702 may employ a concatenated encoding technique. According to the concatenated encoding technique, source WCD 702 may first perform forward error correction encoding of a first set of information bits 703-1 to obtain a first set of coded bits 706 conveying a first set of information bits 703-1. Source WCD 702 may then combine the first set of coded bits 706 (or a portion of the first set of coded bits 706) with a second set of information bits 703-2, and perform forward error correction encoding on the combination of the two to obtain a second set of coded bits 706 conveying both the first set of information bits 703-1 and the second set of information bits 703-2.

[0097] Figure 8 A block diagram of an example communication process 800 according to some examples is shown. According to aspects of the present disclosure, Figure 7 Source WCD 702 may perform the operations of communication process 800 in conjunction with implementing parallel encoding techniques in operating environment 700 .

[0098] According to the communication process 800, a first set I of information bits may be encoded at block 802. 1 , and a second set I of information bits of the information bits may be encoded in parallel at block 804 2 The set of information bits I 1 may be a set of information bits associated with a first priority, and the set of information bits I 2 It may be a set of information bits associated with a second priority level lower than the first priority level. According to some examples, the set of information bits I 1 and I 2 The set of information bits can be parsed into a set of information bits I by sorting the set of information bits according to the bit priority parameter 1 and I 2 To obtain. The set of information bits I 1 and I 2The encoding may be performed at respective blocks 802 and 804 using forward error correction encoding such as LDPC encoding, BCC encoding, or linear block code encoding.

[0099] The information bits may be obtained by performing the operations of the set I of information bits at blocks 802 and 804. 1 and I 2 The corresponding set of coded bits E is obtained by encoding 1 and E 2 At block 806, the set of coded bits E 1 and E 2 can be mapped to the bit positions of the modulation constellation to convert the set of coded bits E 1 and E 2 is converted into a set S of modulation symbols. According to some examples, the modulation constellation may be a QAM constellation, such as a 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, 1024-QAM, or 4096-QAM constellation. The set E of coded bits 1 The bits in can be mapped to relatively high reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation, and the set of coded bits E 2 The bits in can be mapped to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation.

[0100] At block 808, the set S of modulation symbols may be modulated onto a carrier signal to produce a modulated carrier signal 809, which may be sent by a source device over a wireless channel 810. A destination device receiving the modulated carrier signal 809 over the wireless channel 810 may extract the received set S' of modulation symbols from the modulated carrier signal 809 via demodulation performed at block 812.

[0101] At block 814, demapping may be performed to obtain a set of received bits E based on the set of received modulation symbols S′ extracted from the modulated carrier signal 809. 1 ' and E 2 '. At block 816, the set E of received bits may be 1 'Decode to obtain the set I of received information bits 1 ', and at block 818, the set E of received bits may be 2 'Decode to obtain the set I of received information bits 2 '.

[0102] Fig. 9 A block diagram of an example communication process 900 according to some examples is shown. According to aspects of the present disclosure, Figure 7 Source WCD 702 may perform the operations of communication process 900 in conjunction with implementing concatenated coding techniques in operating environment 700 .

[0103] According to the communication process 900, at block 902, a first set of information bits I 1 Encode to obtain the first set of coded bits E 1 Then at block 904, the first set of coded bits E may be executed. 1 and the second set of information bits I 2 to obtain a first set I of coded bits conveying information bits 1 and the second set of information bits I 2 The second set E of the two 2 The set of information bits I 1 may be a set of information bits associated with a first priority, and the set of information bits I 2 It may be a set of information bits associated with a second priority level lower than the first priority level. According to some examples, the set of information bits I 1 and I 2 The set of information bits can be parsed into a set of information bits I by sorting the set of information bits according to the bit priority parameter 1 and I 2 A forward error correction code such as LDPC code, BCC code, or linear block code may be used to obtain a set of coded bits E at corresponding blocks 902 and 904. 1 and E 2 .

[0104] According to some examples, at block 904, the first set of coded bits E may be encoded by performing 1 and the second set of information bits I 2 The second set of coded bits E is obtained by combining some (but not all) of 2 For example, according to some examples, at block 902, a first set I of information bits is 1 The encoding may generate a first set I of coded bits including information bits 1 The first set of the first set of parity bits E 1 According to aspects of the present disclosure, at block 904, the second set of information bits may be performed 2 and the first set of coded bits E 1 The first set I of information bits 1 to obtain the second set of coded bits E 2 , and the first set E of coded bits can be omitted from the combined coding 1 The second set of coded bits E 2 The second set of parity bits may include a second set of parity bits that can be used with respect to the first set of information bits. 1 and the second set of information bits I 2Forward error correction for both.

[0105] At block 906, the set of coded bits E may be 2 The various bits of are mapped to the bit positions of the modulation constellation to convert the set of coded bits E 2 is converted into a set S of modulation symbols. According to some examples, the modulation constellation can be a QAM constellation such as a 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, 1024-QAM or 4096-QAM constellation. In the set E of coded bits 2 Among them, the coded bits conveying the information bits associated with the first priority (the first set of information bits I 1 The information bits among those in the second set of information bits (information bits in the second set I) may be mapped to relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation, and the coded bits conveying the information bits associated with the second priority (the second set I of information bits) may be mapped to relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation. 2 The information bits among those in the modulation constellation) can be mapped to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation.

[0106] According to various aspects of the present disclosure, when generating a second set E of coded bits from 2 The first set of coded bits omitted in the combined encoding of 1 In the example of a portion of the first set of parity bits, the first set of coded bits E may still be included in the modulated carrier signal 909. 1 The portion of the first set of parity bits included in block 906 may include providing the first set of coded bits E to the destination device. 1 The conversion of the portion including the first set of parity bits into a modulation symbol S may involve converting the first set of coded bits E 1 The portion of the first set including parity bits is mapped to a relatively higher reliability position of the modulation constellation.

[0107] At block 908, the set S of modulation symbols may be modulated onto a carrier signal to produce a modulated carrier signal 909, which may be sent by a source device over a wireless channel 910. A destination device receiving the modulated carrier signal 909 over the wireless channel 910 may extract the received set S' of modulation symbols from the modulated carrier signal 909 via demodulation performed at block 912.

[0108] At block 914, demapping may be performed to obtain a set of received bits E based on the set of received modulation symbols S′ extracted from the modulated carrier signal 909. 2 '. In which the first set of coded bits E 1In an example where the portion of the first set of parity bits is omitted from the combined encoding at block 904 but included in the mapping at block 906, the demapping at block 914 may include obtaining the first set of coded bits E 1 The following selections may then be made (based on, for example, the conditions of the wireless channel 910): 2 'Only obtain the higher priority information bits (the first set of received information bits I 1 '), or from the set of received bits E 2 'Get all information bits, that is, the first set I of received information bits 1 ' and the second set I of received information bits 2 '.

[0109] If it is determined that only higher priority information bits are obtained, then the set of received bits E 2 The portion of ' may be decoded at block 916 to obtain a first set I of received information bits 1 According to aspects of the present disclosure, the demapping at block 914 includes obtaining a first set E of coded bits 1 In some examples of an additional set of received bits corresponding to a portion of the first set of parity bits, the first set of received information bits I is obtained at block 916. 1 ' may involve an additional set of received bits and the set of received bits E 2 ' to decode the above part.

[0110] If it is determined that all information bits are obtained, then at block 918, the set E of received bits may be 2 ' is decoded to obtain a first set I of received information bits 1 ' and the second set of received information bits and I 2 According to aspects of the present disclosure, the demapping at block 914 includes obtaining a first set E of coded bits 1 In some examples of an additional set of received bits corresponding to a portion of the first set of parity bits, the first set of received information bits I is obtained at block 918. 1 ' and the second set I of received information bits 2 ' may involve an additional set of received bits and the set of received bits E 2 ' is decoded in its entirety (or substantially in its entirety).

[0111] Fig.10A flow chart illustrating an example process 1000 for supporting forward error correction coding and modulation with reliability differential according to some examples is shown. The operations of process 1000 may be implemented by a wireless communication device or components thereof as described herein. For example, according to some examples, process 1000 may be implemented by the wireless communication device or components thereof as described above with reference to Figure 7 The source WCD 702 described above performs the above. According to some examples, the process 1000 may be performed according to implementing a concatenated coding technique, such as in conjunction with Fig. 9 The communication process 900.

[0112] In some examples, at block 1002, the wireless communication device may perform a first forward error correction encoding operation on a first set of information bits associated with a first priority. Figure 7 In the operating environment 700 of FIG. 1002, the source WCD 702 may perform a first forward error correction encoding operation on the information bits 703-1 that may be associated with the first priority. The execution of the first forward error correction encoding operation in block 1002 may produce a first set of coded bits, the first set of coded bits including a first set of information bits and a first set of parity bits.

[0113] In some examples, in block 1004, the wireless communication device may perform a second forward error correction encoding operation on the first set of coded bits and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority level lower than the first priority level. Figure 7 In the operating environment 700 of FIG. 1004, the source WCD 702 may perform a second forward error correction encoding operation on a first set of coded bits generated via encoding of information bits 703-1 and on information bits 703-2 that may be associated with a second priority level lower than the first priority level associated with information bits 703-1. The performance of the second forward error correction encoding operation in block 1004 may produce a second set of coded bits that includes the first set of information bits, the first set of parity bits, the second set of information bits, and the second set of parity bits.

[0114] In some examples, the wireless communication device may perform a second forward error correction encoding operation on the second set of information bits and a portion (but not all) of the first set of coded bits in block 1004. For example, according to some examples, the wireless communication device may perform a second forward error correction encoding operation on the second set of information bits and a portion of the first set of coded bits that includes the first set of information bits, and may omit a portion of the first set of coded bits that includes the first set of parity bits from the second forward error correction encoding operation.

[0115] In some examples, the first forward error correction encoding operation and the second forward error correction encoding operation may be LDPC encoding operations. In other examples, the first forward error correction encoding operation and the second forward error correction encoding operation may be BCC encoding operations, linear block code encoding operations, or encoding operations associated with another type of forward error correction. In some examples, the first set of information bits may include data bits associated with an application. In some examples, the first set of information bits may include an MPDU (e.g., Figure 4 In some examples, the first set of information bits may include bits of a first field of the first MPDU (e.g., Figure 4 The second set of information bits may include bits of one or more fields of the MPDU 416 of the first MPDU (eg, bits of one or more fields of the MPDU 416 of the first MPDU), and the second set of information bits may include bits of the second MPDU (eg, bits of one or more fields of the MPDU 416 of the first MPDU). Figure 4 In some examples, the first set of information bits may include bits of a field of the PPDU (e.g., Figure 3A PPDU 300 or Figure 3B bits of the field of the PPDU 350).

[0116] In some examples, in block 1006, the wireless communication device may map the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols. Figure 7 In the operating environment 700 of FIG. 1004, the source WCD 702 may map the set of coded bits 706 generated by the performance of the second forward error correction coding operation in block 1004 to a set of modulation symbols 708. In some examples, mapping the second set of coded bits to the set of modulation symbols in block 1006 may include mapping the coded bits associated with the first set of information bits to relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation and mapping the coded bits associated with the second set of information bits to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation. For example, in Figure 7In the operating environment 700 of FIG. 7 , the source WCD 702 may map the coded bits 706 conveying the information bits 703-1 associated with the first priority to relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation (e.g., two relatively higher reliability bit positions of the ten-bit 1024-QAM constellation), and may map the coded bits 706 conveying the information bits 703-2 associated with the second priority lower than the first priority to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation (e.g., the remaining eight bit positions of the ten-bit 1024-QAM constellation). In some examples, the modulation constellation may include a QAM constellation, such as 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, 1024-QAM, or 4096-QAM. In some examples, the modulation constellation may be a constellation associated with another type of modulation scheme, such as a PSK, FSK, or ASK modulation scheme. In some examples, a portion of the first set of coded bits including the first set of parity bits may be omitted from the second forward error correction encoding operation in block 1004 , but the portion may be mapped to relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation in block 1006 .

[0117] In some examples, the plurality of information bits may be divided into a first set of information bits and a second set of information bits according to a bit priority ordering parameter. Figure 7 In the operating environment 700 of FIG. 1004 , the source WCD 702 may divide the information bits 703 into a first set of information bits 703-1 and a second set of information bits 703-2 based on a bit prioritization parameter. According to aspects of the present disclosure, the bit prioritization parameter may indicate, with respect to each modulation symbol in the set of modulation symbols generated in block 1006, a proportion of bit positions of a modulation constellation that constitute relatively high reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation. According to aspects of the present disclosure, the bit prioritization parameter may be used as a basis for determining how many (and which) bit positions of the modulation constellation constitute relatively high reliability bit positions. According to aspects of the present disclosure, a plurality of information bits may be parsed into a first set of information bits and a second set of information bits based on a ratio between a corresponding number of relatively high reliability bit positions and relatively low reliability bit positions in each modulation symbol, as indicated or implied by the bit prioritization parameter.

[0118] In some examples, in block 1008, the wireless communication device may modulate the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal. Figure 7 In operating environment 700 , source WCD 702 may modulate modulation symbols 708 onto a carrier signal to generate a modulated carrier signal 709 .

[0119] In some examples, in block 1010, a wireless communication device may transmit a modulated carrier signal over a wireless channel. Figure 7In operating environment 700 of , source WCD 702 may transmit modulated carrier signal 709 over wireless channel 710 .

[0120] Fig.11 A flow chart illustrating an example process 1100 for supporting forward error correction coding and modulation with reliability differential according to some examples is shown. The operations of process 1100 may be implemented by a wireless communication device or components thereof as described herein. For example, according to some examples, process 1100 may be implemented by the wireless communication device or components thereof as described above with reference to Figure 7 The process 1100 may be performed by the source WCD 702 as described. According to some examples, the process 1100 may be performed according to implementing parallel encoding techniques, such as in conjunction with Figure 8 The communication process 800.

[0121] In some examples, in block 1102, the wireless communication device may parse a set of information bits into a first set of information bits associated with a first priority and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority according to a bit priority ordering parameter. Figure 7 In operating environment 700, source WCD 702 may parse a set of information bits 703 into a first set of information bits 703-1 associated with a first priority and a second set of information bits 703-2 associated with a second priority lower than the first priority according to the bit priority sorting parameter.

[0122] In some examples, in block 1104, the wireless communication device may perform a first forward error correction encoding operation on a first set of information bits. Figure 7 In operating environment 700, source WCD 702 may perform a first forward error correction encoding operation on a set of information bits 703-1. According to aspects of the present disclosure, the first forward error correction operation may produce a first set of coded bits including a first set of information bits and a first set of parity bits.

[0123] In some examples, in block 1106, the wireless communication device may perform a second forward error correction encoding operation on the second set of information bits. Figure 7 In operating environment 700, source WCD 702 may perform a second forward error correction encoding operation on the set of information bits 703-2. According to aspects of the present disclosure, the second forward error correction operation may produce a second set of coded bits including a second set of information bits and a second set of parity bits.

[0124] In some examples, the first forward error correction encoding operation and the second forward error correction encoding operation may be LDPC encoding operations. In other examples, the first forward error correction encoding operation and the second forward error correction encoding operation may be BCC encoding operations, linear block code encoding operations, or encoding operations associated with another type of forward error correction. In some examples, the first set of information bits may include data bits associated with an application. In some examples, the first set of information bits may include an MPDU (e.g., Figure 4 In some examples, the first set of information bits may include bits of a first field of the first MPDU (e.g., Figure 4 The second set of information bits may include bits of one or more fields of the MPDU 416 of the first MPDU (eg, bits of one or more fields of the MPDU 416 of the first MPDU), and the second set of information bits may include bits of the second MPDU (eg, bits of one or more fields of the MPDU 416 of the first MPDU). Figure 4 In some examples, the first set of information bits may include bits of a field of the PPDU (e.g., Figure 3A PPDU 300 or Figure 3B bits of the field of the PPDU 350).

[0125] In some examples, in block 1108, the wireless communication device may map the first set of coded bits and the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols. Figure 7 In the operating environment 700 of , the source WCD 702 may map a set of coded bits 706 conveying a set of information bits 703-1 and a set of coded bits 706 conveying a set of information bits 703-2 to modulation symbols 708. According to aspects of the present disclosure, mapping the first set of coded bits and the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols in block 1108 may include mapping the coded bits associated with the first set of information bits to relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation and mapping the coded bits associated with the second set of information bits to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation according to a bit priority ordering parameter. For example, in Figure 7In the operating environment 700 of , according to the bit prioritization parameter, the source WCD 702 may map the coded bits 706 conveying the information bits 703-1 associated with the first priority to the relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation (e.g., two relatively higher reliability bit positions of the ten-bit 1024-QAM constellation), and may map the coded bits 706 conveying the information bits 703-2 associated with the second priority lower than the first priority to the relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation (e.g., the remaining eight bit positions of the ten-bit 1024-QAM constellation). In some examples, the bit prioritization parameter may indicate, for each modulation symbol in the set of modulation symbols, a proportion of the bit positions of the modulation constellation that constitute the relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation. In some examples, the modulation constellation may include a QAM constellation such as 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, 1024-QAM, or 4096-QAM. In some examples, the modulation constellation may be a constellation associated with another type of modulation scheme such as a PSK, FSK, or ASK modulation scheme.

[0126] According to aspects of the present disclosure, the bit prioritization parameter may indicate, with respect to each modulation symbol in the set of modulation symbols generated in block 1108, a proportion of bit positions of the modulation constellation that constitute relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation. According to aspects of the present disclosure, the bit prioritization parameter may be used as a basis for determining how many (and which) bit positions of the modulation constellation constitute relatively higher reliability bit positions. According to aspects of the present disclosure, in block 1102, the set of information bits may be parsed into a first set of information bits and a second set of information bits according to a ratio between a corresponding number of relatively higher reliability bit positions and relatively lower reliability bit positions in each modulation symbol, as indicated or implied by the bit prioritization parameter.

[0127] In some examples, in block 1110, the wireless communication device may modulate a set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal. Figure 7 In operating environment 700 , source WCD 702 may modulate modulation symbols 708 onto a carrier signal to generate a modulated carrier signal 709 .

[0128] In some examples, in block 1112, the wireless communication device may transmit a modulated carrier signal over a wireless channel. Figure 7 In operating environment 700 of , source WCD 702 may transmit modulated carrier signal 709 over wireless channel 710 .

[0129] According to various aspects of the present disclosure, at a subsequent point in time, the bit priority ordering parameter may be modified. In some examples, the bit priority ordering parameter may be modified based on the state of the wireless channel. For example, based on the determination that the channel quality of the wireless channel has been reduced (e.g., so that it has been below a threshold), the bit priority ordering parameter may be modified in a manner that the relatively high reliability bit position of the information bit with the first priority is considered suitable for conveying a lesser bit position of the modulation constellation. A set of third information bits and a set of fourth information bits may be obtained (e.g., by parsing the second plurality of information bits according to the modified bit priority ordering parameter), and a third forward error correction coding operation and a fourth forward error correction coding operation may be performed on the set of third information bits and the set of fourth information bits to obtain a third set of corresponding coded bits and a fourth set of coded bits. The third set of coded bits and the fourth set of coded bits may be mapped to a second set of modulation symbols according to the modified bit priority ordering parameter. Then, a second modulated carrier signal may be generated by modulating the second set of modulation symbols onto a second carrier signal, and the second modulated carrier signal may be sent on a wireless channel.

[0130] Fig.12 A flow chart illustrating an example process 1200 for supporting forward error correction decoding and demodulation with reliability differential according to some examples is shown. The operations of process 1200 may be implemented by a wireless communication device or components thereof as described herein. For example, according to some examples, process 1200 may be implemented by the wireless communication device or components thereof as described above with reference to Figure 7 The destination WCD 704 is described as performing. According to some examples, process 1200 can be performed according to implementing a concatenated coding technique, such as in conjunction with Fig. 9 The communication process 900.

[0131] In some examples, in block 1202, a wireless communication device may receive a modulated carrier signal on a wireless channel. Figure 7 In operating environment 700 of FIG. 7 , destination WCD 704 may receive modulated carrier signal 709 over wireless channel 710 .

[0132] In some examples, at block 1204, the wireless communication device may process the modulated carrier signal to extract a set of received modulation symbols. Figure 7 In operating environment 700 , destination WCD 704 may process modulated carrier signal 709 to extract a set of received modulation symbols 712 .

[0133] In some examples, in block 1206, the wireless communication device may demap bits from the received set of modulation symbols to obtain a received set of bits. Figure 7In operating environment 700 of FIG. 7 , destination WCD 704 may demap bits from a set of received modulation symbols 712 to obtain a set of received bits 714 .

[0134] In some examples, in box 1208, the wireless communication device determines whether to obtain only information bits associated with a first priority from the received set of bits, or to obtain both information bits associated with the first priority and information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority.

[0135] In response to determining in block 1208 that both information bits associated with the first priority and information bits associated with the second priority are obtained, the set of received bits obtained in block 1206 may be decoded in block 1210 to obtain a first set of received information bits associated with the first priority and a second set of received information bits associated with the second priority. For example, in response to determining in block 1210 that both information bits associated with the first priority and information bits associated with the second priority are obtained. Figure 7 In order to obtain both information bits associated with the first priority and information bits associated with the second priority in the operating environment 700, the destination WCD 704 can decode the set of received bits 714 to obtain a first set of received information bits 716-1 associated with the first priority and a second set of received information bits 716-2 associated with the second priority.

[0136] In response to determining in block 1208 that only information bits associated with the first priority are obtained, a portion of the set of received bits obtained in block 1206 may be decoded in block 1212 to obtain a first set of received information bits associated with the first priority. Figure 7 In operating environment 700, destination WCD 704 may decode a portion of the set of received bits 714 to obtain a set of received information bits 716-1 that may be associated with a first priority.

[0137] Fig.13 A flow chart illustrating an example process 1300 for supporting forward error correction decoding and demodulation with reliability differential according to some examples is shown. The operations of process 1300 may be implemented by a wireless communication device or components thereof as described herein. For example, according to some examples, process 1300 may be implemented by the wireless communication device or components thereof as described above with reference to Figure 7 The destination WCD 704 is described as performing. According to some examples, process 1300 can be performed according to implementing parallel encoding techniques, such as in conjunction with Figure 8 The communication process 800.

[0138] In some examples, in block 1302, a wireless communication device may receive a modulated carrier signal on a wireless channel. Figure 7In operating environment 700 of FIG. 7 , destination WCD 704 may receive modulated carrier signal 709 over wireless channel 710 .

[0139] In some examples, at block 1304, the wireless communication device may process the modulated carrier signal to extract a set of received modulation symbols. Figure 7 In operating environment 700 , destination WCD 704 may process modulated carrier signal 709 to extract a set of received modulation symbols 712 .

[0140] In some examples, in block 1306, the wireless communication device may demap bits from the received set of modulation symbols to obtain a first set of received bits and a second set of received bits. Figure 7 In operating environment 700 of FIG. 7 , destination WCD 704 may demap bits from a set of received modulation symbols 712 to obtain a first set of received bits 714 and a second set of received bits 714 .

[0141] In some examples, in block 1308, the wireless communication device may decode the first set of received bits to obtain a first set of received information bits associated with a first priority. Figure 7 In the operating environment 700 of FIG. 13 , the destination WCD 704 may decode the first set of received bits obtained in block 1306 to obtain a first set of received information bits 716 - 1 associated with a first priority.

[0142] In some examples, in block 1310, the wireless communication device may decode the second set of received bits to obtain a second set of received information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority. Figure 7 In the operating environment 700 of FIG. 13 , the destination WCD 704 may decode the second set of received bits obtained in block 1306 to obtain a second set of received information bits 716-2 associated with a second priority level lower than the first priority level.

[0143] Fig.14 1 shows a block diagram of an example wireless communication device 1400 according to some examples. In some examples, the wireless communication device 1400 is configured to perform the above reference Fig.10 The wireless communication device 1400 may be the wireless communication device 1400 described above. Figure 7 An example of a depicted wireless communication source WCD 702. For example, the wireless communication device 1400 may be a chip, SoC, chipset, package, or device that includes at least one processor and at least one modem (eg, a Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) modem or a cellular modem).

[0144] The wireless communication device 1400 includes a receiving component 1410, a communication manager 1420, and a transmitting component 1430. The transmitting component 1430 also includes an encoding component 1432 and a modulation component 1434. Portions of one or more of the components 1410, 1420, 1430, 1432, and 1434 may be implemented at least in part in hardware or firmware. In some examples, at least some of the components 1410, 1420, 1430, 1432, and 1434 are at least partially implemented as software stored in a memory (such as memory 508). For example, portions of one or more of the components 1410, 1420, 1430, 1432, and 1434 may be implemented as non-transitory instructions (or "code") that can be executed by a processor (such as processor 506) to perform the functions or operations of the corresponding components.

[0145] The receiving component 1410 is configured to receive RX signals from one or more other wireless communication devices on a wireless channel. The communication manager 1420 is configured to control or manage communications with one or more other wireless communication devices. The transmitting component 1430 is configured to transmit TX signals to one or more other wireless communication devices on a wireless channel.

[0146] In some examples, the encoding component 1432 may perform a first forward error correction encoding operation on a first set of information bits associated with a first priority, the performance of the first forward error correction encoding operation producing a first set of encoded bits, which may include a first set of information bits and a first set of parity bits, and perform a second forward error correction encoding operation on a portion of the first set of encoded bits and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority, the performance of the second forward error correction encoding operation producing a second set of encoded bits, which includes the first set of information bits, the second set of information bits, and the second set of parity bits.

[0147] In some examples, the modulation component 1434 may map the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols, the mapping comprising mapping coded bits associated with the first set of information bits to relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation and mapping coded bits associated with the second set of information bits to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation, and the modulation component may modulate the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal. In some examples, the transmission component 1430 may transmit the modulated carrier signal over a wireless channel.

[0148] Fig.15 1 shows a block diagram of an example wireless communication device 1500 according to some examples. In some examples, the wireless communication device 1500 is configured to perform the above reference Fig.11The wireless communication device 1500 may be the one described above with reference to Figure 7 An example of a depicted wireless communication source WCD 702. For example, the wireless communication device 1500 may be a chip, SoC, chipset, package, or device that includes at least one processor and at least one modem (eg, a Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) modem or a cellular modem).

[0149] The wireless communication device 1500 includes a receiving component 1510, a communication manager 1520, and a transmitting component 1530. The communication manager 1520 also includes a parsing component 1522, and the transmitting component 1530 also includes an encoding component 1532 and a modulation component 1534. Portions of one or more of the components 1510, 1520, 1522, 1530, 1532, and 1534 may be implemented at least in part in hardware or firmware. In some examples, at least some of the components 1510, 1520, 1522, 1530, 1532, and 1534 are at least partially implemented as software stored in a memory, such as the memory 508. For example, portions of one or more of the components 1510, 1520, 1522, 1530, 1532, and 1534 may be implemented as non-transitory instructions (or "code") that can be executed by a processor, such as the processor 506, to perform the functions or operations of the corresponding components.

[0150] The receiving component 1510 is configured to receive RX signals from one or more other wireless communication devices on a wireless channel. The communication manager 1520 is configured to control or manage communications with one or more other wireless communication devices. The transmitting component 1530 is configured to transmit TX signals to one or more other wireless communication devices on a wireless channel.

[0151] In some examples, parsing component 1522 can parse the set of information bits into a first set of information bits associated with a first priority and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority according to the bit prioritization parameter.

[0152] In some examples, the encoding component 1532 may perform a first forward error correction encoding operation on a first set of information bits, the execution of which produces a first set of encoded bits, which may include a first set of information bits and a first set of parity bits, and may perform a second forward error correction encoding operation on a second set of information bits, the execution of which produces a second set of encoded bits, which may include a second set of information bits and a second set of parity bits.

[0153] In some examples, the modulation component 1534 can map the first set of coded bits and the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols, the mapping comprising: mapping the coded bits associated with the first set of information bits to relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation and mapping the coded bits associated with the second set of information bits to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation according to the bit priority ordering parameter, and the modulation component can modulate the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal. In some examples, the transmission component 1530 can transmit the modulated carrier signal over a wireless channel.

[0154] Fig.16 A block diagram of an example wireless communication device 1600 is shown according to some examples. In some examples, the wireless communication device 1600 is configured to perform the above reference Fig.12 The wireless communication device 1600 may be the one described above with reference to Figure 7 An example of a depicted destination WCD 704. For example, the wireless communication device 1600 may be a chip, SoC, chipset, package, or device that includes at least one processor and at least one modem (eg, a Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) modem or a cellular modem).

[0155] The wireless communication device 1600 includes a receiving component 1610, a communication manager 1620, and a transmitting component 1630. The receiving component 1610 also includes a demodulation component 1612 and a decoding component 1614. Portions of one or more of the components 1610, 1612, 1614, 1620, and 1630 may be implemented at least in part in hardware or firmware. In some examples, at least some of the components 1610, 1612, 1614, 1620, and 1630 are at least partially implemented as software stored in a memory, such as the memory 508. For example, portions of one or more of the components 1610, 1612, 1614, 1620, and 1630 may be implemented as non-transitory instructions (or "code") that can be executed by a processor, such as the processor 506, to perform the functions or operations of the corresponding components.

[0156] The receiving component 1610 is configured to receive RX signals from one or more other wireless communication devices on a wireless channel. The communication manager 1620 is configured to control or manage communications with one or more other wireless communication devices. The transmitting component 1630 is configured to transmit TX signals to one or more other wireless communication devices on a wireless channel.

[0157] In some examples, receiving component 1610 may receive a modulated carrier signal over a wireless channel.

[0158] In some examples, demodulation component 1612 may process the modulated carrier signal to extract a received set of modulation symbols and demap bits from the received set of modulation symbols to obtain a received set of bits.

[0159] In some examples, decoding component 1614 may determine whether to obtain only information bits associated with a first priority from the set of received bits, or to obtain both information bits associated with the first priority and information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority. In some examples, in response to determining to obtain both information bits associated with the first priority and information bits associated with the second priority, decoding component 1614 may decode the set of received bits to obtain a first set of received information bits associated with the first priority and a second set of received information bits associated with the second priority. In some examples, in response to determining to obtain only information bits associated with the first priority, decoding component 1614 may decode a portion of the set of received bits to obtain a first set of received information bits associated with the first priority.

[0160] Fig.17 1 shows a block diagram of an example wireless communication device 1700 according to some examples. In some examples, the wireless communication device 1700 is configured to perform the above reference Fig.13 The wireless communication device 1700 may be the process 1300 described above. Figure 7 An example of a depicted destination WCD 704. For example, the wireless communication device 1700 may be a chip, SoC, chipset, package, or device that includes at least one processor and at least one modem (eg, a Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) modem or a cellular modem).

[0161] The wireless communication device 1700 includes a receiving component 1710, a communication manager 1720, and a transmitting component 1730. The receiving component 1710 also includes a demodulation component 1712 and a decoding component 1714. Portions of one or more of the components 1710, 1712, 1714, 1720, and 1730 may be implemented at least in part in hardware or firmware. In some examples, at least some of the components 1710, 1712, 1714, 1720, and 1730 are at least partially implemented as software stored in a memory, such as the memory 508. For example, portions of one or more of the components 1710, 1712, 1714, 1720, and 1730 may be implemented as non-transitory instructions (or "code") that can be executed by a processor, such as the processor 506, to perform the functions or operations of the corresponding components.

[0162] The receiving component 1710 is configured to receive RX signals from one or more other wireless communication devices on a wireless channel. The communication manager 1720 is configured to control or manage communications with one or more other wireless communication devices. The transmitting component 1730 is configured to transmit TX signals to one or more other wireless communication devices on a wireless channel.

[0163] In some examples, receiving component 1710 may receive a modulated carrier signal over a wireless channel.

[0164] In some examples, demodulation component 1712 may process the modulated carrier signal to extract a received set of modulation symbols and demap bits from the received set of modulation symbols to obtain a first set of received bits and a second set of received bits.

[0165] In some examples, decoding component 1714 may decode a first set of received bits to obtain a first set of received information bits associated with a first priority, and decode a second set of received bits to obtain a second set of received information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority.

[0166] The examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

[0167] Clause 1. A method for wireless communication by a wireless communication device, the method comprising: performing a first forward error correction coding operation on a first set of information bits associated with a first priority, the execution of the first forward error correction coding operation producing a first set of coded bits, the first set of coded bits including the first set of information bits and a first set of parity bits; performing a second forward error correction coding operation on a second set of information bits and at least a portion of the first set of coded bits, the second set of information bits being associated with a second priority lower than the first priority, the execution of the second forward error correction coding operation producing a second set of coded bits, the second set of coded bits including the first set of information bits, the second set of information bits and a second set of parity bits; mapping the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols, the mapping comprising: mapping the first set of information bits to relatively higher reliability bit positions of a modulation constellation and mapping the second set of information bits to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation; modulating the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal; and transmitting the modulated carrier signal over a wireless channel.

[0168] Clause 2. The method according to Clause 1 further comprises: dividing a plurality of information bits into a first set of the information bits and a second set of the information bits according to a bit priority sorting parameter, wherein the bit priority sorting parameter indicates the proportion of the bit positions of the modulation constellation that constitute relatively high reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation with respect to each modulation symbol in the set of modulation symbols.

[0169] Clause 3. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 2, wherein the first forward error correction encoding operation and the second forward error correction encoding operation are low density parity check (LDPC) encoding operations.

[0170] Clause 4. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 3, wherein the first set of information bits comprises data bits associated with an application.

[0171] Clause 5. A method according to any one of clauses 1 to 4, wherein the first set of information bits includes bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the second set of information bits includes bits of a second field of the MPDU.

[0172] Clause 6. A method according to any one of clauses 1 to 5, wherein the first set of information bits includes bits of a first medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) and the second set of information bits includes bits of a second MPDU.

[0173] Clause 7. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 6, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

[0174] Clause 8. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 7, wherein the modulation constellation comprises a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation.

[0175] Item 9. A wireless communication device, the wireless communication device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory, the at least one memory being communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing processor-readable code, the processor-readable code being configured, when executed by the at least one processor, to: perform a first forward error correction coding operation on a first set of information bits associated with a first priority, the execution of the first forward error correction coding operation producing a first set of coded bits, the first set of coded bits comprising the first set of information bits and a first set of parity bits; perform a second forward error correction coding on a second set of information bits and at least a portion of the first set of coded bits operation, the second set of information bits is associated with a second priority lower than the first priority, the execution of the second forward error correction coding operation produces a second set of coded bits, the second set of coded bits includes the first set of information bits, the second set of information bits and a second set of parity bits; mapping the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols, the mapping includes: mapping the first set of information bits to relatively higher reliability bit positions of a modulation constellation and mapping the second set of information bits to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation; modulating the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal; and transmitting the modulated carrier signal on a wireless channel.

[0176] Clause 10. According to the wireless communication device described in Clause 9, the at least one memory stores processor-readable code, and the processor-readable code is configured to: divide multiple information bits into a first set of information bits and a second set of information bits according to a bit priority sorting parameter, and the bit priority sorting parameter indicates the proportion of bit positions of the modulation constellation that have relatively high reliability bit positions constituting the modulation constellation with respect to each modulation symbol in the set of modulation symbols.

[0177] Clause 11. The wireless communication device of any of clauses 9 to 10, wherein the first forward error correction encoding operation and the second forward error correction encoding operation are low density parity check (LDPC) encoding operations.

[0178] Clause 12. The wireless communication device of any of clauses 9 to 11, wherein the first set of information bits comprises data bits associated with an application.

[0179] Clause 13. A wireless communication device as described in any of clauses 9 to 12, wherein the first set of information bits includes bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the second set of information bits includes bits of a second field of the MPDU.

[0180] Clause 14. A wireless communication device as described in any of clauses 9 to 13, wherein the first set of information bits includes bits of a first medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) and the second set of information bits includes bits of a second MPDU.

[0181] Clause 15. The wireless communication device of any of clauses 9 to 14, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

[0182] Clause 16. A wireless communication device as described in any of Clauses 9 to 15, wherein the modulation constellation comprises a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation.

[0183] Clause 17. A method for wireless communication by a wireless communication device, the method comprising: parsing a set of information bits into a first set of information bits associated with a first priority and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority according to a bit priority sorting parameter; performing a first forward error correction coding operation on the first set of information bits, the execution of the first forward error correction coding operation producing a first set of coded bits, the first set of coded bits including the first set of information bits and a first set of parity bits; performing a second forward error correction coding operation on the second set of information bits, the execution of the second forward error correction coding operation producing a second set of coded bits, the second set of coded bits including the second set of information bits and a second set of parity bits; mapping the first set of coded bits and the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols, the mapping comprising: mapping the first set of information bits to relatively higher reliability bit positions of a modulation constellation and mapping the second set of information bits to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation according to the bit priority sorting parameter; modulating the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal; and transmitting the modulated carrier signal on a wireless channel.

[0184] Clause 18. The method according to Clause 17 further includes: modifying the bit priority sorting parameter based on the state of the wireless channel; mapping the third set of coded bits and the fourth set of coded bits to a second set of modulation symbols according to the modified bit priority sorting parameter; modulating the second set of modulation symbols onto a second carrier signal; and sending the modulated second carrier signal on the wireless channel.

[0185] Clause 19. A method according to any one of clauses 17 to 18, wherein the bit priority ordering parameter indicates, with respect to each modulation symbol in the set of modulation symbols, a proportion of bit positions of the modulation constellation that constitute relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation.

[0186] Clause 20. The method of any one of clauses 17 to 19, wherein the first forward error correction encoding operation and the second forward error correction encoding operation are low density parity check (LDPC) encoding operations.

[0187] Clause 21. The method of any one of clauses 17 to 20, wherein the first set of information bits comprises data bits associated with an application.

[0188] Clause 22. A method according to any one of clauses 17 to 21, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the second set of information bits comprises bits of a second field of the MPDU.

[0189] Clause 23. A method according to any one of clauses 17 to 22, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a first medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) and the second set of information bits comprises bits of a second MPDU.

[0190] Clause 24. The method of any of clauses 17 to 23, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

[0191] Clause 25. The method of any of clauses 17 to 24, wherein the modulation constellation comprises a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation.

[0192] Clause 26. A wireless communication device, the wireless communication device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory, the at least one memory being communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing processor-readable code, the processor-readable code being configured, when executed by the at least one processor, to: parse a set of information bits into a first set of information bits associated with a first priority and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority according to a bit priority sorting parameter; perform a first forward error correction coding operation on the first set of information bits, the execution of the first forward error correction coding operation producing a first set of coded bits, the first set of coded bits comprising the first set of information bits and odd bits; A first set of even-parity bits; performing a second forward error correction coding operation on the second set of information bits, the performing of the second forward error correction coding operation generating a second set of coded bits, the second set of coded bits comprising the second set of information bits and a second set of parity bits; mapping the first set of coded bits and the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols, the mapping comprising: mapping the first set of information bits to relatively higher reliability bit positions of a modulation constellation and mapping the second set of information bits to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation according to the bit priority sorting parameter; modulating the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal; and transmitting the modulated carrier signal over a wireless channel.

[0193] Clause 27. According to the wireless communication device described in Clause 26, the at least one memory stores processor-readable code, and the processor-readable code is configured to: modify the bit priority sorting parameter based on the state of the wireless channel; map the third set of coded bits and the fourth set of coded bits to a second set of modulation symbols according to the modified bit priority sorting parameter; modulate the second set of modulation symbols onto a second carrier signal; and send the modulated second carrier signal on the wireless channel.

[0194] Clause 28. A wireless communication device according to any one of clauses 26 to 27, wherein the bit priority ordering parameter indicates, with respect to each modulation symbol in the set of modulation symbols, a proportion of bit positions of the modulation constellation that constitute relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation.

[0195] Clause 29. The wireless communication device of any of clauses 26 to 28, wherein the first forward error correction encoding operation and the second forward error correction encoding operation are low density parity check (LDPC) encoding operations.

[0196] Clause 30. The wireless communications device of any of clauses 26 to 29, wherein the first set of information bits comprises data bits associated with an application.

[0197] Clause 31. A wireless communication device according to any one of clauses 26 to 30, wherein the first set of information bits includes bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the second set of information bits includes bits of a second field of the MPDU.

[0198] Clause 32. A wireless communication device as described in any of clauses 26 to 31, wherein the first set of information bits includes bits of a first medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) and the second set of information bits includes bits of a second MPDU.

[0199] Clause 33. A wireless communication device as recited in any of Clauses 26 to 32, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

[0200] Clause 34. A wireless communication device as recited in any one of Clauses 26 to 33, wherein the modulation constellation comprises a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation.

[0201] Item 35. A method for wireless communication by a wireless communication device, the method comprising: receiving a modulated carrier signal on a wireless channel; processing the modulated carrier signal to extract a set of received modulation symbols; demapping bits from the set of received modulation symbols to obtain a set of received bits; and determining whether to obtain only information bits associated with a first priority from the set of received bits, or to obtain both the information bits associated with the first priority and information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority.

[0202] Clause 36. The method of clause 35, further comprising decoding the received set of bits to obtain a first set of received information bits associated with the first priority and a second set of received information bits associated with the second priority.

[0203] Clause 37. The method of clause 35, further comprising decoding a portion of the received set of bits to obtain a first set of received information bits associated with the first priority.

[0204] Clause 38. The method of any one of clauses 35 to 37, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority level include data bits associated with an application.

[0205] Clause 39. A method according to any one of clauses 35 to 38, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority include bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the information bits associated with the second priority include bits of a second field of the MPDU.

[0206] Clause 40. A method according to any one of clauses 35 to 39, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority include bits of a first medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the information bits associated with the second priority include bits of a second MPDU.

[0207] Clause 41. The method of any one of clauses 35 to 40, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority comprise bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

[0208] Clause 42. A method according to any one of clauses 35 to 41, wherein the modulation symbols are modulation symbols of a Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) constellation.

[0209] Item 43. A wireless communication device, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory, the at least one memory being communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing processor-readable code, the processor-readable code being configured, when executed by the at least one processor, to: receive a modulated carrier signal on a wireless channel; process the modulated carrier signal to extract a set of received modulation symbols; demap bits from the set of received modulation symbols to obtain a set of received bits; and determine whether to obtain only information bits associated with a first priority from the set of received bits, or to obtain both the information bits associated with the first priority and information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority.

[0210] Clause 44. According to the wireless communication device of clause 43, the at least one memory stores processor-readable code, and the processor-readable code, when executed by the at least one processor, is configured to: decode the set of received bits to obtain a first set of received information bits associated with the first priority and a second set of received information bits associated with the second priority.

[0211] Clause 45. According to a wireless communication device according to clause 43, the at least one memory stores processor-readable code, and the processor-readable code, when executed by the at least one processor, is configured to: decode a portion of the set of received bits to obtain a first set of received information bits associated with the first priority.

[0212] Clause 46. The wireless communication device of any of clauses 43 to 45, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority level include data bits associated with an application.

[0213] Clause 47. A wireless communication device according to any one of clauses 43 to 46, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority include bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the information bits associated with the second priority include bits of a second field of the MPDU.

[0214] Clause 48. A wireless communication device according to any one of clauses 43 to 47, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority include bits of a first medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the information bits associated with the second priority include bits of a second MPDU.

[0215] Clause 49. A wireless communication device as described in any of clauses 43 to 48, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority include bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

[0216] Clause 50. A wireless communications device as recited in any one of clauses 43 to 49, wherein the modulation symbols are modulation symbols of a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation.

[0217] Item 51. A method for wireless communication by a wireless communication device, the method comprising: receiving a modulated carrier signal on a wireless channel; processing the modulated carrier signal to extract a set of received modulation symbols; demapping bits from the received set of modulation symbols to obtain a first set of received bits and a second set of received bits; decoding the first set of received bits to obtain a first set of received information bits associated with a first priority; and decoding the second set of received bits to obtain a second set of received information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority.

[0218] Clause 52. The method of clause 51, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority level include data bits associated with an application.

[0219] Clause 53. A method according to any one of clauses 51 to 52, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority include bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the information bits associated with the second priority include bits of a second field of the MPDU.

[0220] Clause 54. A method according to any one of clauses 51 to 53, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority include bits of a first medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the information bits associated with the second priority include bits of a second MPDU.

[0221] Clause 55. The method of any one of clauses 51 to 54, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority comprise bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

[0222] Clause 56. A method according to any one of clauses 51 to 55, wherein the modulation symbols are modulation symbols of a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation.

[0223] Clause 57. A wireless communication device, the wireless communication device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory, the at least one memory being communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing processor-readable code, the processor-readable code being configured, when executed by the at least one processor, to: receive a modulated carrier signal on a wireless channel; process the modulated carrier signal to extract a set of received modulation symbols; demap bits from the set of received modulation symbols to obtain a first set of received bits and a second set of received bits; decode the first set of received bits to obtain a first set of received information bits associated with a first priority; and decode the second set of received bits to obtain a second set of received information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority.

[0224] Clause 58. The wireless communication device of clause 57, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority level include data bits associated with an application.

[0225] Clause 59. A wireless communication device according to any one of clauses 57 to 58, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority include bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the information bits associated with the second priority include bits of a second field of the MPDU.

[0226] Clause 60. A wireless communication device according to any one of clauses 57 to 59, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority include bits of a first medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the information bits associated with the second priority include bits of a second MPDU.

[0227] Clause 61. A wireless communication device as described in any of clauses 57 to 60, wherein the information bits associated with the first priority include bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

[0228] Clause 62. A wireless communications device as defined in any one of clauses 57 to 61, wherein the modulation symbols are modulation symbols of a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation.

[0229] As used herein, unless expressly stated otherwise, "or" is intended to be interpreted in an inclusive sense. For example, "a or b" may include only a, only b, or a combination of a and b. 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 individual members. For example, "at least one of a, b, or c" is intended to cover the following examples: 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 and b and c.

[0230] The various illustrative components, logical parts, logic blocks, modules, circuits, operations, and algorithmic processes described in conjunction with the examples 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 exemplified 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.

[0231] Various modifications to the examples described in this disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other examples without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Therefore, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but should be granted the broadest scope consistent with the disclosure, the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

[0232] Additionally, various features described in this specification in the context of separate examples may also be implemented in combination in a single example. Conversely, individual features described in the context of a single example may also be implemented in multiple examples individually or in any suitable sub-combination. Thus, although 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 deleted from the combination, and a claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or a variation of a sub-combination.

[0233] Similarly, although operations are depicted in a specific order in the figure, this should not be understood as requiring such operations to be performed in the specific order shown or in a sequential order, or to perform all 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 not depicted can be incorporated into the example processes schematically illustrated. For example, one or more additional operations may be performed before, after, simultaneously or between any operations in the illustrated operations. In some environments, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. In addition, the separation of the various system components in the examples described above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all examples, but it should be understood as the described program components and systems can usually be integrated together in a single software product, or be packaged in multiple software products.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication by a wireless communication device, the method comprising: performing a first forward error correction encoding operation on a first set of information bits associated with a first priority level, said performing of said first forward error correction encoding operation producing a first set of coded bits, said first set of coded bits comprising said first set of information bits and a first set of parity bits; performing a second forward error correction encoding operation on a second set of information bits and at least a portion of the first set of coded bits, the second set of information bits being associated with a second priority level lower than the first priority level, the performing of the second forward error correction encoding operation producing a second set of coded bits, the second set of coded bits comprising the first set of information bits, the second set of information bits, and a second set of parity bits; Mapping the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols, the mapping comprising: mapping the first set of information bits to relatively higher reliability bit positions of a modulation constellation; and mapping a second set of the information bits to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation; modulating the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal; and The modulated carrier signal is transmitted over the wireless channel.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: A plurality of information bits are divided into the first set of information bits and the second set of information bits according to a bit priority ordering parameter, the bit priority ordering parameter indicating, with respect to each modulation symbol in the set of modulation symbols, a proportion of bit positions of the modulation constellation constellating relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first forward error correction encoding operation and the second forward error correction encoding operation are low density parity check (LDPC) encoding operations. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of information bits comprises data bits associated with an application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the second set of information bits comprises bits of a second field of the MPDU.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a first medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) and the second set of information bits comprises bits of a second MPDU.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the modulation constellation comprises a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation.

9. A wireless communication device, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing processor-readable code that, when executed by the at least one processor, is configured to: performing a first forward error correction encoding operation on a first set of information bits associated with a first priority level, said performing of said first forward error correction encoding operation producing a first set of coded bits, said first set of coded bits comprising said first set of information bits and a first set of parity bits; performing a second forward error correction encoding operation on a second set of information bits and at least a portion of the first set of coded bits, the second set of information bits being associated with a second priority level lower than the first priority level, the performing of the second forward error correction encoding operation producing a second set of coded bits, the second set of coded bits comprising the first set of information bits, the second set of information bits, and a second set of parity bits; Mapping the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols, the mapping comprising: mapping the first set of information bits to relatively higher reliability bit positions of a modulation constellation; and mapping a second set of the information bits to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation; modulating the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal; and The modulated carrier signal is transmitted over the wireless channel.

10. The wireless communication device of claim 9, wherein the at least one memory stores processor-readable code, and the processor-readable code, when executed by the at least one processor, is configured to: divide a plurality of information bits into a first set of the information bits and a second set of the information bits according to a bit priority sorting parameter, wherein the bit priority sorting parameter indicates, with respect to each modulation symbol in the set of modulation symbols, a proportion of bit positions of the modulation constellation that constitute relatively high reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation.

11. The wireless communication device of claim 9, wherein the first forward error correction encoding operation and the second forward error correction encoding operation are low density parity check (LDPC) encoding operations.

12. The wireless communication device of claim 9, wherein the first set of information bits comprises data bits associated with an application.

13. The wireless communication device of claim 9, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the second set of information bits comprises bits of a second field of the MPDU.

14. The wireless communication device of claim 9, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a first medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) and the second set of information bits comprises bits of a second MPDU.

15. The wireless communication device of claim 9, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

16. The wireless communication device of claim 9, wherein the modulation constellation comprises a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation.

17. A method for wireless communication by a wireless communication device, the method comprising: parsing the set of information bits into a first set of information bits associated with a first priority and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority according to a bit prioritization parameter; performing a first forward error correction encoding operation on the first set of information bits, the performing of the first forward error correction encoding operation producing a first set of coded bits, the first set of coded bits comprising the first set of information bits and a first set of parity bits; performing a second forward error correction encoding operation on the second set of information bits, the performing of the second forward error correction encoding operation producing a second set of coded bits, the second set of coded bits comprising the second set of information bits and a second set of parity bits; Mapping the first set of coded bits and the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols, the mapping comprising: mapping the first set of information bits to relatively higher reliability bit positions of a modulation constellation and mapping the second set of information bits to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation according to the bit priority ordering parameter; modulating the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal; and The modulated carrier signal is transmitted over the wireless channel.

18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising: modifying the bit prioritization parameter based on a status of the wireless channel; mapping the third set of coded bits and the fourth set of coded bits to the second set of modulation symbols according to the modified bit priority ordering parameter; modulating a second set of modulation symbols onto a second carrier signal; as well as The modulated second carrier signal is transmitted over the wireless channel.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the bit prioritization parameter indicates, with respect to each modulation symbol in the set of modulation symbols, a proportion of bit positions of the modulation constellation that constitute relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the first forward error correction encoding operation and the second forward error correction encoding operation are low density parity check (LDPC) encoding operations.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the first set of information bits comprises data bits associated with an application.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the second set of information bits comprises bits of a second field of the MPDU.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a first medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) and the second set of information bits comprises bits of a second MPDU.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

25. The method of claim 17, wherein the modulation constellation comprises a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation.

26. A wireless communication device, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing processor-readable code that, when executed by the at least one processor, is configured to: parsing the set of information bits into a first set of information bits associated with a first priority and a second set of information bits associated with a second priority lower than the first priority according to a bit prioritization parameter; performing a first forward error correction encoding operation on said first set of information bits, said performing of said first forward error correction encoding operation producing a first set of coded bits, The first set of coded bits includes the first set of information bits and the first set of parity bits; performing a second forward error correction encoding operation on said second set of information bits, said performing of said second forward error correction encoding operation producing a second set of coded bits, The second set of coded bits includes the second set of information bits and a second set of parity bits; Mapping the first set of coded bits and the second set of coded bits to a set of modulation symbols, the mapping comprising: mapping the first set of information bits to relatively higher reliability bit positions of a modulation constellation and mapping the second set of information bits to relatively lower reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation according to the bit priority ordering parameter; modulating the set of modulation symbols onto a carrier signal; and The modulated carrier signal is transmitted over the wireless channel.

27. The wireless communication device of claim 26, wherein the at least one memory stores processor readable code that, when executed by the at least one processor, is configured to: modifying the bit prioritization parameter based on a status of the wireless channel; mapping the third set of coded bits and the fourth set of coded bits to the second set of modulation symbols according to the modified bit priority ordering parameter; modulating a second set of modulation symbols onto a second carrier signal; as well as The modulated second carrier signal is transmitted over the wireless channel.

28. The wireless communication device of claim 26, wherein the bit prioritization parameter indicates, with respect to each modulation symbol in the set of modulation symbols, a proportion of bit positions of the modulation constellation that constitute relatively higher reliability bit positions of the modulation constellation.

29. The wireless communication device of claim 26, wherein the first forward error correction encoding operation and the second forward error correction encoding operation are low density parity check (LDPC) encoding operations.

30. The wireless communication device of claim 26, wherein the first set of information bits comprises data bits associated with an application.

31. The wireless communication device of claim 26, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a first field of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), and the second set of information bits comprises bits of a second field of the MPDU.

32. The wireless communication device of claim 26, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a first medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) and the second set of information bits comprises bits of a second MPDU.

33. The wireless communication device of claim 26, wherein the first set of information bits comprises bits of a field of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

34. The wireless communication device of claim 26, wherein the modulation constellation comprises a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellation.

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