System and method for providing low latency services in wireless local area network (WLAN)

Abstract

A method for an access point to schedule acquisition of a frame from a station connected thereto is provided. The real-time application provides the frame and the frame deadline to the site. The frames and their deadlines are stored in respective buffers of the stations. Each site identifies the earliest deadline for all its buffered frames and provides the earliest deadline to the access point. And the access point sorts the deadlines, and schedules the stations according to the order of the deadlines. The access point then communicates with the station according to the scheduling and obtains the frame. A WLAN system for implementing the method is also provided.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Patent Application No. 17 / 969,437, filed on October 19, 2022. The contents of U.S. Patent Application No. 17 / 969,437 are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Technical Field

[0002] The present invention generally relates to frames in a wireless local area network (WLAN), and more particularly to a method and system for scheduling frames received at stations and access points. Background Art

[0003] In infrastructure mode, as opposed to ad hoc mode, a wireless local area network (WLAN) is a network of stations (STA) centrally managed by an access point (AP). Such WLANs are currently unable to meet real-time applications with low latency requirements in the order of milliseconds (ms). The capabilities of wireless local area networks (WLANs) are generally not able to meet such requirements.

[0004] For example, in infrastructure mode, Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) is a distributed scheme managed by STAs associated with the AP of the WLAN. EDCA is a random medium access mechanism that can achieve statistical fairness, but it does not enable WLAN to meet the low latency requirements of typical real-time applications. For the uplink, the 802.11 standard also defines trigger frames (TF) methods for controlling multiple STAs, but these methods are not satisfactory for real-time applications.

[0005] The 802.11 standard also provides a timed access mechanism in WLAN. These two mechanisms are called HCCA and TWT, both of which are timed access mechanisms.

[0006] HCCA refers to channel access controlled by the hybrid coordination function (HCF), i.e. "HCF controlled channel access (HCCA)". HCCA is based on the traffic parameters sent from the station to the access point. The access point schedules the service period (SP) for each traffic stream (TS) and each STA. During the service period, the AP can exchange TS-specific information with the station.

[0007] TWT refers to the "target wake time" function. In this case, the STA agrees with the AP on a time when the STA can activate and exchange information with the AP to initiate SP. When the SP is completed, the STA can then return to power saving mode.

[0008] Prior art approaches involve wired networks and a technology called asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), where buffered packets can include early due date (EDD) information, which helps with sorting using an EDD scheduler in the AP. In some cases, an AP can have a single buffer per switch port. However, for distributed environments such as WLANs in infrastructure mode, EDD schedulers have not yet been implemented.

[0009] For some real-time applications or services that require low packet latency, systems and methods are needed to enable a wireless local area network (WLAN) in infrastructure mode to meet low latency requirements on the order of several milliseconds (ms), and such methods and systems will eliminate or alleviate the limitations of existing technologies.

[0010] The purpose of the background art is to disclose information that the applicant believes may be relevant to the present invention. It is not necessary to admit, nor should it be construed, that any of the above information constitutes prior art against the present invention. Summary of the invention

[0011] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a scheduling method and system, wherein frames are received at a STA of a WLAN and then sent to an AP according to a due date (DD) carried in the frame, wherein the frame can be scheduled based on the due date of the frame, the due date indicating a delay requirement. In some embodiments, the DD can define the time when a client must receive a frame associated with the DD.

[0012] According to the present disclosure, a method may include a STA requesting participation in a low-latency service from an AP by sending a capability information element including such an indication to the AP. In order to transmit the deadline value from the STA to the AP, the deadline can be carried by a PHY header or a MAC header of a frame sent by the STA. This requires very little overhead. The AP can then schedule the STA among many STAs based on the deadline received from the STA. When scheduling a low-latency STA, the AP can use a basic access method such as EDCA or TF.

[0013] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method is provided, the method comprising: obtaining a new frame and a due date (DD) of the new frame at a station (STA) having a buffer, wherein the STA is coupled to an access point (AP). The method further comprises: comparing the DD of the new frame with the DD of a previous frame stored in the buffer to identify the earliest DD (EDD) between the DD of the new frame and the DD of the previous frame. The frame having the EDD in the new frame and the previous frame may be referred to as an EDD frame. The method further comprises: providing the EDD to the AP so that the AP schedules obtaining the EDD frame from the STA.

[0014] In some embodiments, providing the EDD to the AP includes: at the station, encapsulating the EDD in a MAC frame and providing the MAC to the AP. The MAC frame has a MAC header including the EDD. In some embodiments, encapsulating the EDD in the MAC frame includes: encapsulating the EDD in a MAC header of the MAC frame. In some embodiments, the MAC header includes a control field, and the control field includes the EDD.

[0015] In some embodiments, providing the EDD to the AP includes: at the station, encapsulating the EDD in a PHY header of a PHY frame, and providing the PHY frame to the AP. In some embodiments, the PHY header includes a SIG field, and the SIG field includes the EDD.

[0016] In some embodiments, the AP is used to schedule the EDD frame according to a DD scheduling process, and the method further includes: at the STA, sending a capability information element to the AP, the capability information element indicating to the AP a request for the STA to participate in the DD scheduling process. In some embodiments, the capability information element includes a field indicating the request for the STA to participate in the DD scheduling process. In some embodiments, the field indicating the STA to participate in the DD scheduling process is a binary digital field.

[0017] In some embodiments, each new frame has a corresponding DD, the corresponding DD being equal to the arrival time of the new frame at the buffer plus a delay parameter. In some embodiments, each new frame is generated by an application, and the method further comprises: at the STA, for each new frame, defining a value of the delay parameter according to at least one of: a maximum delay value set by the application generating the new frame; an average delay value associated with the application; a duty cycle of the application.

[0018] In some embodiments, obtaining an earliest due date (EDD) from a STA includes obtaining a frame having a MAC header including the EDD from the STA. In some embodiments, the MAC header includes a control field, the control field including the EDD.

[0019] In some embodiments, obtaining an earliest due date (EDD) from a STA includes obtaining a frame having a PHY header including the EDD from the STA. In some embodiments, the PHY header includes a SIG field, the SIG field including the EDD. In some embodiments, the SIG field includes an EHT-SIG field, the EHT-SIG field including the EDD.

[0020] In some embodiments, the method further comprises obtaining a capability element, the capability element comprising a field for a low latency indicator. In some embodiments, the low latency indicator is a one-bit number.

[0021] In some embodiments, the DD is the sum of the arrival time of the frame at the buffer and a delay parameter DP.

[0022] In some embodiments, the method further comprises: acquiring a capability element from the STA, the capability element comprising a field for a low latency indicator.

[0023] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method is provided, the method comprising: at an access point (AP) coupled to a station (STA), wherein each STA has a buffer: obtaining due dates (DD) from different STAs, each DD being associated with a corresponding frame; and scheduling the AP to obtain the corresponding frame according to the DD.

[0024] In some embodiments, before obtaining the deadline from the different STAs, the AP obtains a corresponding capability information element from each of the different STAs, the corresponding capability information element indicating that the corresponding STA is requesting to be scheduled according to the deadline of the frame.

[0025] In some embodiments, obtaining the corresponding capability information element includes obtaining a MAC frame including the capability information element or obtaining a PHY frame including the capability information element.

[0026] In some embodiments, scheduling the corresponding frames according to the deadlines includes: comparing the DDs with each other to sort the DDs; and scheduling the frames according to the order of the DDs.

[0027] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a system including an access point (AP) and a station (STA) coupled to the AP is provided. Each of the STAs has a corresponding buffer. Each of the STAs is used to: obtain a new frame and a due date (DD) of the new frame; compare the DD of the new frame with the DD of a previous frame stored in the buffer to identify the earliest DD (EDD) between the DD of the new frame and the DD of the previous frame. The frame having the EDD in the new frame and the previous frame can be called an EDD frame. Each of the STAs is used to provide the EDD to the AP so that the AP schedules the acquisition of the EDD frame from the STA.

[0028] In some embodiments, the AP scheduling the EDD frame includes: the AP comparing the EDD of the EDD frame with one or more other EDDs obtained from other corresponding STAs; and scheduling acquisition of the EDD frame according to the one or more other EDDs obtained from the other corresponding STAs.

[0029] Technical advantages of an embodiment include the ability to run real-time applications or services with low latency requirements on a WLAN in infrastructure mode, and ensure that the low latency requirements are met by indicating a requirement to participate in a low latency scheduling method to the AP of the WLAN, and by scheduling frames according to corresponding deadlines.

[0030] Embodiments are described above in conjunction with aspects of the present invention, and these embodiments can be implemented according to these aspects. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that embodiments can be implemented in conjunction with the aspects in which they are described, but can also be implemented together with other embodiments of this aspect. When the embodiments are mutually exclusive or incompatible with each other, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Some embodiments can be described in conjunction with one aspect, but can also be applied to other aspects, which will be apparent to those skilled in the art. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0031] Figure 1 An embodiment of a WLAN system according to the present disclosure is shown;

[0032] Figure 2 An embodiment of a capability information element according to the present disclosure is shown;

[0033] Figure 3A An embodiment of a station having frames ordered according to their arrival time according to the present disclosure is shown;

[0034] Figure 3B An embodiment of a station having frames ordered according to their DD according to the present disclosure is shown;

[0035] Figure 4 An embodiment in which an EDD according to the present disclosure may be included in a PHY header of a frame is shown;

[0036] Figure 5 An embodiment in which an EDD according to the present disclosure may be included in a MAC header of a frame is shown;

[0037] Figure 6 A flow chart showing an embodiment of a method according to the present disclosure is shown;

[0038] Figure 7 A flow chart showing an embodiment of another method according to the present disclosure is shown;

[0039] Figure 8 A block diagram of an embodiment of an electronic device according to the present disclosure is shown.

[0040] It should be noted that in all the drawings, the same features are identified by the same reference numerals. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] In the context of the present disclosure, a station (STA) may be any device for (capable of) receiving and sending wireless signals. Non-limiting examples of STAs include mobile communication devices, laptop computers equipped with wireless transmission / reception capabilities, desktop computers equipped with wireless transmission / reception capabilities, etc. In addition, also in the context of the present disclosure, an access point (AP) may be any device for communicating with a STA via wireless signals and also for providing the STA with access to a communication system, which may be connected to the AP via a wired signal or a wireless signal. Non-limiting examples of APs include hotspots, routers, etc.

[0042] Also in the context of the present disclosure, when element A is used to provide a signal (e.g., a wireless signal or an electrical signal) to element B or element B is used to obtain a signal from element A, element A may be referred to as being coupled to element B. When a change in a parameter at element A results in a change in a parameter at element B, element A may also be referred to as being coupled to element B. When element A and element B are in communication or connected to each other, element A may be referred to as being coupled to element B.

[0043] A WLAN setup is said to be in infrastructure mode when multiple STAs are associated with a single AP, which controls the operation of the WLAN setup in terms of channel selection, timing, functionality, etc. One limitation of the prior art is that such WLANs cannot support real-time applications with low latency (low delay) requirements on the order of a few milliseconds (ms), which is typical for some real-time applications and services.

[0044] Figure 1 A WLAN system according to an embodiment is shown. The WLAN system includes a basic serviceset (BSS) including stations (STA) STA 1 110, STA 2 120, and STA 3 125. In the infrastructure mode of the BSS, STAs such as STA 1 110, STA 2 120, and STA 3 125 are associated with a single AP 105. Each STA may be equipped with a buffer 115 for receiving frames from an application running on the STA or from other devices that may be coupled to the STA. Each STA may be used to request participation in a low-latency service from the AP 105 by sending a capability information element to the AP 105 to indicate the participation request to the AP 105. Whether the STA requests participation in the low-latency service is a function of the frame type that the STA is to provide to the AP 105. If the frame is associated with a real-time application, the STA receiving the frame may request a low-latency service.

[0045] Thus, each STA of the BSS managed by the AP 105 may request to participate in or not participate in the low delay service. The selection to request to participate or not participate may be carried by a frame, which is an example of a capability information element, having a low delay request field set by the STA, which may be a binary digital (0 or 1) field, such that, for example, when the low delay request field is set to zero (0), the STA is not requesting the low delay service, and when the low delay request field is set to one (1), the STA is requesting the low delay service.

[0046] Figure 2 A capability information element 205 for specifying capabilities according to an embodiment is shown. The capability information element 205 of this embodiment may be carried in a beacon frame, for example, in the body of a beacon frame, and the capability information element 205 may include an element ID field 210, a length field 215, a low latency field 220 (which may be set to 0 or 1), and other fields 225. The element ID field 210 and the length field 215 may be defined in the 802.11 standard.

[0047] In one embodiment, each STA coupled to the same AP and participating in the low-delay service has a buffer (low-delay buffer), and each frame acquired and carrying a low-delay indication can be buffered and ranked / ordered according to the transmission deadline (due date, DD) of the frame.

[0048] Each STA can be used to obtain a new frame and a DD of the new frame from the application layer, for example, and store the new frame in a corresponding buffer of the STA. The STA can be used to compare the DD of the new frame with the DD of the previous frame stored in its buffer, and identify the earliest DD (EDD) between the DD of the new frame and the DD of the previous frame. Frames with EDD in the new frame and the previous frame can be called EDD frames. The STA can also be used to provide the EDD to the AP so that the AP can schedule the EDD frame based on its EDD and other EDDs of other EDD frames cached at other STAs coupled to the AP. The AP can be used to schedule frames to meet and ensure the low latency requirements of applications (real-time applications) associated with the frames.

[0049] When many frames with corresponding DD are stored in the buffer, they can be indexed as DD i , where i represents the i-th DD frame in the frames obtained from the STA. After the frame is queued at its corresponding STA, the STA can send the earliest DD frame received by the STA from the frame. i The earliest DD on the site is notified to the AP. i It can be called EDD.

[0050] Figure 3A 1 shows a STA including a buffer for caching frames with low latency requirements according to an embodiment. For example, STA 1 110 may include a buffer 115 for receiving frames 305 from an application layer. In one embodiment, each frame 305 may be obtained at the buffer 115 and buffered according to its arrival time (a i ) to sort low-latency frames. Figure 3A , frame 305 with a1 is the earliest frame received at STA 1 110; frame 305 with a5 is the latest frame received at STA 1 110. Arrow 306 represents increasing arrival times of frames at buffer 115. Frames 305 may have different sizes (indicated by the different heights of frames 305). Subsequently, or as frames 305 arrive at buffer 115, the DD of each frame 305 may be calculated, and frames 305 may be rearranged based on the DD. The DD of frame "i" may be calculated as the arrival time of the frame at STA "a5". i "Plus the delay parameter value" DP i The sum of

[0051] DD i = a i + DP i .

[0052] Delay parameter DP i Can be set to a value defined by the real-time application generating frame "i". DP i The DP may be set in various ways, including the following non-limiting embodiments. In some embodiments, the DP may be set according to a maximum delay value determined by the application generating the frame "i". i In other embodiments, DP i DP may be set to the average delay value associated with the application generating frame "i". In other embodiments, DP may be set based on the duty cycle of the application generating frame "i" (in the case of continuous bit rate traffic) or in any other suitable manner. i . Figure 3B Frames 305 are shown reordered according to their DD. Arrow 307 indicates the increment of DD. Figure 3B Among them, DD2=a2+DP2 is earlier than DD5=a5+DP5, DD5 is earlier than DD1=a1+DP1, DD1 is earlier than DD3=a3+DP3, and DD3 is earlier than DD4=a4+DP4.

[0053] In some embodiments, the DP value may be set to be the same for all frames received by the STA within a predetermined time interval. However, in other embodiments, the DP value may be different for each application or even for each frame.

[0054] The EDD may be provided to the AP using a low overhead mechanism such as a WLAN 802.11 frame structure, where the EDD is encapsulated in a PHY header of a PHY frame. The PHY header may include a SIG field for including the EDD. Specifically, the EDD may be included in a U-SIG field or an EHT-SIG field.

[0055] Figure 4 An embodiment in which an EDD according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may be included in a PHY header of a frame is shown. The PHY frame 405 includes a plurality of headers, one of which is a U-SIG field 430 and another of which is an EHT-SIG field 440. Other fields characterizing the PHY frame may include an L-STF field 410, an L-LTF field 415, an L-SIG field 420, an RL-SIG field 425, an EFT-SIG field 435, an EHT-STF field 445, an EHT-LTF field 450, data 455, and a PE 460. In the embodiment, the EDD may be included in the U-SIG field or the EHT-SIG field.

[0056] Alternatively, if Figure 5 As shown, the EDD from the STA can be encapsulated in a MAC frame, and the MAC frame has a MAC header 505 containing the EDD. The MAC header 505 may include a 4-bit control ID field 510 and a variable length control information field 515, in which the EDD may be included. In order to encapsulate the EDD in the MAC frame, the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure may use a high efficiency (HE) variant of the high throughput (HT) control field in the MAC header and define a new (unused) control ID. For example, the STA may copy the EDD of the frame to be scheduled in the HE variant of the HT control field.

[0057] Figure 6 Flowchart of a method for scheduling frames according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Initially, in operation 605, the STA provides (sends) a request to the AP to participate in the DD scheduling method executed by the AP. In operation 610, the STA may obtain a new frame and a due date (due date, DD) of the new frame, for example, from an application running on the STA. In operation 615, the STA may compare the DD of the new frame with the DD of the previous frame stored in the buffer of the STA to identify the earliest DD (earliest DD, EDD) between the DD of the new frame and the DD of the previous frame. In operation 620, the STA may provide the EDD to the AP for the AP to schedule frames associated with the EDD. Then, the AP may schedule frames associated with the EDD provided from multiple STAs according to the EDD. After scheduling frames using the EDD, the AP may use access methods such as EDCA, or a triggered frame method for uplink services.

[0058] In another embodiment, if a frame with DD arrives at a STA when its low-delay queue (buffer) is empty, the STA may use a media access mechanism such as enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) to transmit the DD of the frame, i.e., EDD, using a quality of service (QoS) frame without data (i.e., a null frame) because there are no other frames. Then, when a frame with DD is obtained at the STA, the STA may continue to update its EDD.

[0059] In another embodiment, if there are no low-latency frames in the low-latency frame queue (buffer) at the STA, the STA may notify the AP not to schedule any frames with low-latency scheduling by including a specific string (e.g., string "1") in the EDD field of the PHY or MAC header.

[0060] In another embodiment, when the EDD in the buffer (queue) of the STA exceeds the value of the current clock value, the STA may choose not to report the EDD to the AP, but report the next EDD that is smaller than the current clock value.

[0061] In one embodiment, excessively delayed real-time traffic may be dropped at the STA and treated as a no-play-back value.

[0062] In one embodiment, when a STA is about to provide a frame with EDD to an AP, it may happen that a more urgent frame must be sent instead. For this situation, the STA may be configured to send a more urgent frame.

[0063] In one embodiment, from the station's perspective, the STA's behavior may be flexible enough to appropriately manage its low-latency queue.

[0064] Figure 7 The present invention is a flowchart of a method for scheduling frames according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The operations performed in the flowchart may be operations of an AP coupled to a station (STA), wherein each STA has a buffer. The AP may obtain DDs from different STAs, wherein each DD is related to a corresponding frame. The AP may then schedule the corresponding frames according to a deadline. In operation 705, the AP obtains a corresponding capability information element from each of the different STAs, wherein the capability information element indicates that the corresponding STA requests to be scheduled according to the EDD of all corresponding frames at the corresponding STA. In operation 710, the AP obtains each corresponding EDD from different STAs. In operation 715, the AP may schedule frames with EDDs from different STAs according to the EDDs.

[0065] Figure 8 852 (e.g., STA and AP) is a block diagram of an electronic device (ED) 852 (e.g., STA and AP) shown in a computing and communication environment 850 that can be used to implement the devices and methods disclosed herein. The electronic device 852 typically includes a processor 854 such as a central processing unit (CPU), and may also include a dedicated processor such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other such processors, a memory 856, a network interface 858, and a bus 860 to connect the components of the ED 852. The ED 852 may also optionally include components such as a mass storage device 862, a video adapter 864, and an I / O interface 868 (shown in dashed lines).

[0066] Memory 856 may include any type of non-transitory system memory that can be read by processor 854, such as static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), read-only memory (ROM), or a combination thereof. In one embodiment, memory 856 may include more than one type of memory, such as ROM used at boot time and DRAM used to store programs and data when executing programs. Bus 860 may be one or more of any type of several bus architectures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, or a video bus.

[0067] The electronic device 852 may also include one or more network interfaces 858, which may include at least one of a wired network interface and a wireless network interface. The network interface 858 may include a wired network interface for connecting to a network 874, and may also include a wireless access network interface 872 for connecting to other devices via a wireless link. The network interface 858 enables the electronic device 852 to communicate with a remote entity, such as an entity connected to the network 874.

[0068] The mass storage 862 may include any type of non-transient storage device for storing data, programs, and other information, and making these data, programs, and other information accessible through the bus 860. The mass storage 862 may include, for example, one or more of a solid-state drive, a hard disk drive, a magnetic disk drive, or an optical disk drive. In some embodiments, the mass storage 862 may be away from the electronic device 852 and may be accessed through a network interface such as an interface 858. In the illustrated embodiment, the mass storage 862 is different from the memory 856 including it, and the mass storage 862 may generally perform storage tasks compatible with higher latency, but volatility is generally small or non-existent. In some embodiments, the mass storage 862 may be integrated with a heterogeneous memory 856.

[0069] In one embodiment, the STA may include at least one processor 854 and a machine-readable memory 856 storing machine-readable instructions. When the machine-readable instructions are executed by the at least one processor 854, the at least one processor 854 is configured to: obtain a new frame and a due date (DD) of the new frame; compare the DD of the new frame with the DD of the previous frame stored in the buffer to identify the earliest DD (EDD) between the DD of the new frame and the DD of the previous frame, and the frame with EDD in the new frame and the previous frame is an EDD frame; and provide the EDD to the AP for the AP to schedule the EDD frame. The network interface 874 and the I / O interface 868 may also allow storage and / or processing to be performed externally.

[0070] In one embodiment, the AP may include at least one processor 854; a machine-readable memory 856 storing machine-readable instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor 854, configure the at least one processor 854 to: obtain due dates (DDs) from different STAs, each DD being associated with a corresponding frame; and schedule the corresponding frames according to the due dates. The network interface 874 and the I / O interface 868 may also allow for storage and / or processing externally.

[0071] In some embodiments, the electronic device 852 may be a stand-alone device, while in other embodiments, the electronic device 852 may reside in a data center. A data center as understood in the art is a collection of computing resources (usually in the form of servers) that can be used as collective computing and storage resources. In a data center, multiple servers may be connected together to provide a computing resource pool, so that virtualized entities may be instantiated on the computing resource pool. Data centers may be interconnected to form a network of computing and storage resource pools, each of which is connected by connection resources. Connection resources may take the form of physical connections such as Ethernet or optical communication links, and in some cases may also include wireless communication channels. If two different data centers are connected by multiple different communication channels, any of a variety of techniques including the formation of a link aggregation group (LAG) may be used to group the links together. It should be understood that any or all computing, storage, and connection resources (as well as other resources within the network) may be divided between different subnets, and in some cases, may be divided in the form of resource slices. If resources in multiple connected data centers or other sets of nodes are sliced, different network slices may be created.

[0072] Advantageously, the process according to the embodiment of the present disclosure can help ensure that the low latency requirements of real-time applications can be met in the WLAN. Such a method or process can provide a mechanism to provide services for communication sessions with low latency requirements on a priority basis.

[0073] Advantageously, embodiments of the present disclosure enable frames with early deadlines to be scheduled by an AP that has access to the EDDs of the STAs connected to it, without having to predict which STAs will request low latency.

[0074] Advantageously, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a STA may request to participate in the low-latency service provided by an AP by sending a capability information element to the AP, rather than requiring the AP to actively select which STAs need the low-latency service.

[0075] Advantageously, embodiments of the present disclosure include a low overhead mechanism for transmitting EDD values ​​from a STA to an AP. The EDD value can be encapsulated in a packet frame using a PHY or MAC header. This enables the STA to request low-latency services from the AP using one frame or one transmission opportunity (TXOP) instead of using additional frames or TXOPs to request.

[0076] Advantageously, embodiments of the present disclosure facilitate scheduling at the AP based on EDD values ​​received from STAs so that traffic can be queued based on its delay requirements, which helps maintain quality of service (QoS).

[0077] As another advantage, when scheduling low-latency STAs according to the disclosed embodiments, the AP can use a basic access method, such as EDCA or TF method for uplink. This can help achieve statistical fairness when providing QoS to all participating low-latency STAs.

[0078] Through the description of the above embodiments, the present invention can be implemented only by hardware, or by software and necessary general hardware platforms. Based on such an understanding, the technical solution of the present invention can be embodied in the form of a software product. The software product can be stored in a non-volatile or non-transient storage medium, which can be a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), a USB flash drive, or a mobile hard disk. The software product includes many instructions that enable a computer device (a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute the method provided in the embodiment of the present invention. For example, such execution may correspond to a simulation of a logical operation as described herein. The software product may additionally or alternatively include multiple instructions that enable a computer device to perform operations for configuring or programming a digital logic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0079] Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific features and embodiments of the present invention, it is apparent that various modifications and combinations of the present invention may be made without departing from the present invention. The specification and drawings are to be regarded only as illustrations of the present invention as defined by the appended claims and are considered to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations or equivalents falling within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method comprising: At a station (STA) having a buffer, wherein the STA is coupled to an access point (AP): Get a new frame and a deadline date (DD) of the new frame; comparing the DD of the new frame with the DD of the previous frame stored in the buffer to identify the earliest DD (EDD) between the DD of the new frame and the DD of the previous frame, the frame having the EDD among the new frame and the previous frame being an EDD frame; The EDD is provided to the AP so that the AP schedules obtaining the EDD frame from the STA.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: Providing the EDD to the AP includes, at the site: Encapsulating the EDD in a MAC frame; The MAC frame having a MAC header including the EDD is provided to the AP.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein: Encapsulating the EDD in the MAC frame includes: encapsulating the EDD in a MAC header of the MAC frame.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein: The MAC header includes a control field, and the control field includes the EDD.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein: Providing the EDD to the AP includes, at the site: Encapsulating the EDD in a PHY header of a PHY frame; The PHY frame is provided to the AP.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein: The PHY header includes a SIG field, and the SIG field includes the EDD.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein: The AP is used to schedule the EDD frame according to a DD scheduling process. The method further includes: at the STA, sending a capability information element to the AP, wherein the capability information element indicates to the AP a request for the STA to participate in the DD scheduling process.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein: The capability information element includes a field indicating the request of the STA to participate in the DD scheduling process.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein: The field indicating that the STA participates in the DD scheduling process is a binary digital field.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein: Each new frame has a corresponding DD which is equal to the arrival time of the new frame at the buffer plus a delay parameter.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein: Each new frame is generated by an application, and the method further comprises: at the STA, for each new frame, defining a value of the delay parameter according to at least one of the following: a maximum delay value set by the application generating the new frame; an average latency value associated with the application; The duty cycle of the application.

12. The method according to claim 8, wherein: Obtaining an earliest deadline (EDD) from a STA includes obtaining, from the STA, a frame having a MAC header including the EDD.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein: The MAC header includes a control field, and the control field includes the EDD.

14. The method according to claim 8, wherein: Obtaining an earliest deadline (EDD) from a STA includes obtaining, from the STA, a frame having a PHY header including the EDD.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein: The PHY header includes a SIG field, and the SIG field includes the EDD.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein: The SIG field includes an EHT-SIG field, and the EHT-SIG field includes the EDD.

17. The method of claim 8, further comprising obtaining a capability element, the capability element comprising a field for a low latency indicator.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein: The low latency indicator is a one-bit number.

19. The method according to claim 8, wherein: Each DD is the sum of the arrival time of a frame at the buffer and a delay parameter DP.

20. The method of claim 8, further comprising obtaining a capability element from the STA, the capability element comprising a field for a low latency indicator.

21. A method comprising: At an access point (AP) coupled to stations (STAs), each of which has a buffer: Obtain deadline dates (DDs) from different STAs, each DD is associated with a corresponding frame; The AP is scheduled to obtain the corresponding frame according to the DD.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein: Before obtaining the deadline from the different STAs, the AP obtains a corresponding capability information element from each of the different STAs, the corresponding capability information element indicating that the corresponding STA is requesting to be scheduled according to the deadline of the frame.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein: Acquiring the corresponding capability information element includes acquiring a MAC frame including the capability information element or acquiring a PHY frame including the capability information element.

24. The method according to any one of claims 21 to 23, wherein: Scheduling the corresponding frame according to the deadline includes: comparing the DDs with each other to rank the DDs; The frames are scheduled according to the order of the DDs.

25. A system comprising: Access point (AP); A station (STA) coupled to the AP, each of the STAs having a corresponding buffer, each of the STAs being configured to: Get a new frame and a deadline date (DD) of the new frame; comparing the DD of the new frame with the DD of the previous frame stored in the buffer to identify the earliest DD (EDD) between the DD of the new frame and the DD of the previous frame, the frame having the EDD among the new frame and the previous frame being an EDD frame; The EDD is provided to the AP so that the AP schedules obtaining the EDD frame from the STA.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein: The AP scheduling the EDD frame includes: the AP comparing the EDD of the EDD frame with one or more other EDDs obtained from other corresponding STAs; The EDD frame is acquired according to the one or more other EDD schedules acquired from the other corresponding STAs.

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