Wireless access point and communication method supporting asymmetric coordinated beamforming

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for handling coordinated beamforming in a wireless communication system. An example method performed by a first access point (AP) generally includes outputting at least one of a first indication that the first AP supports spatial reuse of transmit resources or a second indication that the first AP supports asymmetric coordinated beamforming (CBF) for transmission to a second AP, and outputting signaling to one or more stations (STAs) supported by the first AP for transmission without expecting to form a null directed to other STAs supported by the second AP.

Description

[0001] Cross-references to related applications

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Patent Application No. 18 / 050,847, filed on October 28, 2022, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0003] Certain aspects of this disclosure relate generally to wireless communication, and more specifically, to techniques for coordinating beamforming in wireless communication systems.

[0004] Related technologies

[0005] Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide a variety of communication services, such as voice, video, packet data, message sending and receiving, and broadcasting. These wireless networks can be multiple access networks capable of supporting multiple users by sharing available network resources. Examples of such multiple access networks include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, and Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks.

[0006] To address the increasing bandwidth demands of wireless communication systems, various solutions are being developed to allow multiple user terminals to communicate with a single access point while achieving high data throughput through shared channel resources. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology represents one such approach and has emerged as a popular technique for communication systems. MIMO technology has been adopted in several wireless communication standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard. IEEE 802.11 represents a set of air interface standards for wireless local area networks (WLANs) developed by the IEEE 802.11 committee for short-range communications, such as tens to hundreds of meters. Summary of the Invention

[0007] An innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure provides a method for wireless communication at a first access point (AP). The method includes: outputting at least one of a first indication regarding spatial reuse of transmission resources supported by the first AP or a second indication regarding the first AP supporting asymmetric coordinated beamforming (CBF) for transmission to a second AP; and outputting signaling to one or more stations (STAs) supported by the first AP for transmission, without intending to form null values ​​pointing to other STAs supported by the second AP.

[0008] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure provides a method for wireless communication at a second AP. The method includes: obtaining from a first AP an indication of whether the second AP is selected to participate in and the asymmetric CBF of the first AP; and participating in and the asymmetric CBF of the first AP after obtaining the indication.

[0009] Other aspects provide: an apparatus operable to, configured to, or otherwise adapted to perform one or more of the foregoing methods and / or those methods described elsewhere herein; a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor of the apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the foregoing methods and those methods described elsewhere herein; a computer program product embodied on a computer-readable storage medium, including code for performing the foregoing methods and those methods described elsewhere herein; and / or an apparatus including components for performing the foregoing methods and those methods described elsewhere herein. By way of example, an apparatus may include a processing system, a device having a processing system, or a processing system cooperating via one or more networks.

[0010] For illustrative purposes, the following description and figures illustrate certain features. Attached Figure Description

[0011] To gain a more detailed understanding of the foregoing features of this disclosure, a more specific description, which has been briefly summarized above, can be obtained by referring to various aspects, some of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. However, it should be noted that the drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of this disclosure and are therefore not intended to limit its scope, as the description may acknowledge other equally valid aspects.

[0012] Figure 1 An example wireless communication network is depicted.

[0013] Figure 2 It is a block diagram that conceptually illustrates the design of an example access point (AP) and wireless station (STA) according to certain aspects of this disclosure.

[0014] Figure 3 Symmetrical coordinated beamforming according to certain aspects of this disclosure is described.

[0015] Figure 4 The joint transmission and symmetrical coordinated beamforming according to various aspects of this disclosure are described.

[0016] Figure 5 Symmetric and asymmetric coordinated beamforming according to various aspects of this disclosure are described.

[0017] Figure 6The present disclosure describes a call flow where two APs perform asymmetric coordinated beamforming with two STAs, according to various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0018] Figure 7 A graph depicting a comparison of percentage network throughput gain between symmetric CBF and asymmetric CBF according to certain aspects of this disclosure is presented.

[0019] Figure 8 A flowchart illustrating an example method for wireless communication is shown.

[0020] Figure 9 A flowchart illustrating an example method for wireless communication is shown.

[0021] Figure 10 A block diagram of an example wireless communication device is depicted. Detailed Implementation

[0022] This disclosure provides apparatus, methods, processing systems, and computer-readable media for processing coordinated beamforming in wireless communication systems.

[0023] In typical wireless communication systems that utilize spatial reuse of transmission resources, multiple access points (APs) can cooperate in transmitting beamformed signals to stations (STAs). In joint transmission (TX), multiple APs coordinate their transmissions to send signals to one or more STAs. In coordinated beamforming (CBF), simultaneous transmission across adjacent APs is allowed. APs employ physical layer (PHY) nulling techniques to mitigate interference to adjacent Basic Service Sets (BSS) transmissions caused by their own transmissions. In typical CBF techniques, operation can be viewed as “symmetric,” where both the BSS and overlapping BSS devices (e.g., APs) nullify the interference they cause in their adjacent BSSs. The process of nulling interference reduces the total power that the device can use to transmit the desired signal. Furthermore, nulling interference can utilize the device's antenna, thereby reducing the number of data streams the device can transmit.

[0024] This disclosure provides techniques for “asymmetric” CBF, wherein the BSS that wins a transmission opportunity (TxOP) does not resort to zeroing to mitigate interference with the OBSS, but the OBSS can share the TxOP by transmitting its own signal, provided that the OBSS creates a null value toward the BSS when sharing (e.g., transmitting during the TxOP). Asymmetric CBF can be viewed as an enhanced form of spatial reuse (SR), where the OBSS can reuse transmission resources used by the BSS. In such a case, the OBSS does not need to notify the BSS of the transmissions scheduled by the OBSS, as long as the OBSS forms a null value toward the BSS client.

[0025] In some cases, the total data throughput in both the BSS and OBSS can be increased by enabling the OBSS to share a TxOP without zeroing the BSS that wins the TxOP, thus mitigating interference in the OBSS. This increase in throughput improves the utilization of transmission resources in both the BSS and OBSS. Furthermore, since the OBSS can transmit data during a TxOP instead of waiting for the TxOP to end and then trying to win the next TxOP to transmit data, latency in the OBSS can be reduced (i.e., improved).

[0026] An introduction to wireless communication networks

[0027] The various aspects of this disclosure are described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, this disclosure may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to any particular structure or function presented throughout this disclosure. Rather, these aspects are provided so that this disclosure will be comprehensive and complete, and will fully convey the scope of this disclosure to those skilled in the art. Based on the teachings herein, those skilled in the art will understand that the scope of this disclosure is intended to cover any aspect of the disclosure herein, whether implemented independently or in combination with any other aspect of this disclosure. For example, any number of aspects set forth herein may be used to implement an apparatus or method of practice. Furthermore, the scope of this disclosure is intended to cover such apparatus or methods practiced using structures, functionalities, or structures and functionalities other than or different from the aspects of the disclosure herein. It should be understood that any aspect of the disclosure herein may be embodied by one or more elements of the claims.

[0028] The word “exemplary” is used in this document to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described as “exemplary” in this document is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or superior to other aspects.

[0029] While specific aspects are described herein, numerous variations and arrangements of these aspects fall within the scope of this disclosure. Although some benefits and advantages of preferred aspects are mentioned, the scope of this disclosure is not intended to be limited to any particular interest, use, or object. Rather, aspects of this disclosure are intended to be broadly applicable to various wireless technologies, system configurations, networks, and transmission protocols, some of which are illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings and the following description of preferred aspects. The detailed description and drawings are merely illustrative and not limiting of this disclosure, the scope of which is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

[0030] The techniques described in this article can be used in various broadband wireless communication systems, including communication systems based on orthogonal multiplexing schemes. Examples of such communication systems include Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems, Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) systems, and so on. SDMA systems can take full advantage of different directions to simultaneously transmit data belonging to multiple user terminals. TDMA systems allow multiple user terminals to share the same frequency channel by dividing the transmitted signal into different time slots, with each time slot assigned to a different user terminal. OFDMA systems utilize Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), a modulation technique that divides the entire system bandwidth into multiple orthogonal subcarriers. These subcarriers can also be referred to as tones, bins, etc. With OFDM, each subcarrier can be modulated independently using data. SC-FDMA systems can utilize interleaved FDMA (IFDMA) to transmit on subcarriers distributed across the system bandwidth, localized FDMA (LFDMA) to transmit on adjacent subcarrier blocks, or enhanced FDMA (EFDMA) to transmit on multiple adjacent subcarrier blocks. Generally, modulation symbols are transmitted using OFDM in the frequency domain and SC-FDMA in the time domain. The techniques described herein can be used in any type of single-carrier (SC) and SC-Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) system.

[0031] The teachings of this document can be incorporated into (e.g., implemented therein or performed by) various wired or wireless devices (e.g., nodes). In some aspects, a wireless node implemented according to the teachings of this document may include an access point or access terminal.

[0032] An access point (“AP”) may include, be implemented as, or be referred to as a B-node, radio network controller (“RNC”), evolved B-node (eNB), base station controller (“BSC”), base transceiver station (“BTS”), base station (“BS”), transceiver function (“TF”), radio router, radio transceiver, basic service set (“BSS”), extended service set (“ESS”), radio base station (“RBS”), or any other term.

[0033] An access terminal (“AT”) may include, be implemented as, or be referred to as a subscriber station, subscriber unit, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, user terminal, user agent, user equipment, user gear, user station, or some other term. In some implementations, an access terminal may include a cellular phone, cordless phone, Session Initiation Protocol (“SIP”) phone, Wireless Local Loop (“WLL”) station, personal digital assistant (“PDA”), handheld device with wireless connectivity, wireless station (“STA”), or some other suitable processing device connected to a wireless modem. Therefore, one or more aspects of the teachings herein may be incorporated into: a telephone (e.g., a cellular phone or smartphone), a computer (e.g., a laptop computer), a portable communication device, a portable computing device (e.g., a personal data assistant), an entertainment device (e.g., a music or video device or a satellite radio), a GPS device, or any other suitable device configured to communicate via wireless or wired media. In some aspects, the node is a wireless node. For example, such a wireless node can provide connectivity to or to a network (e.g., a wide area network such as the Internet or a cellular network) via wired or wireless communication links.

[0034] Example wireless communication system

[0035] Figure 1 This is a diagram illustrating an example wireless communication system 100 with an access point and a wireless station. For simplicity, Figure 1 Only one access point 110 is shown. An access point is generally a fixed station that communicates with various wireless stations and may also be referred to as a base station or some other term. Wireless stations can be fixed or mobile and may also be referred to as mobile stations, wireless devices, or some other term. Access point 110 can communicate with one or more wireless stations 120 at any given time on both downlink and uplink. The downlink (i.e., the forward link) is the communication link from the access point to the wireless station, while the uplink (i.e., the reverse link) is the communication link from the wireless station to the access point. Wireless stations can also communicate peer-to-peer with other wireless stations, for example via a direct link, such as Tunneled Direct Link Establishment (TDLS). System controller 130 can communicate with the access point and provide coordination and control for it.

[0036] While the following disclosures describe a wireless station 120 capable of communicating via Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA), in some respects, wireless station 120 may also include wireless stations that do not support SDMA. Thus, in such respects, access point (AP) 110 can be configured to communicate with both SDMA and non-SDMA wireless stations. This approach facilitates the continued deployment of older versions of wireless stations (“legacy” stations) within the enterprise, extending their useful life, while allowing for the introduction of newer SDMA wireless stations where deemed appropriate.

[0037] System 100 uses multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas to transmit data on the downlink and uplink. Access point 110 is equipped with N ap There are K antennas, and multiple inputs (MI) for downlink transmission and multiple outputs (MO) for uplink transmission. A set of K selected radio stations 120 collectively represents multiple outputs for downlink transmission and multiple inputs for uplink transmission. For pure SDMA, if the data symbol streams of the K radio stations are not multiplexed in some way in terms of code, frequency, or time, then N is expected to... ap ≥K≥1. If the data symbol stream can be multiplexed using TDMA technology, different code channels of CDMA, or disjoint subband sets of OFDM, then K can be greater than N. ap Each selected wireless station transmits user-specific data to and / or receives user-specific data from the access point. Typically, each selected wireless station may be equipped with one or more antennas (i.e., N). sta ≥1). These K selected wireless stations can have the same or different numbers of antennas.

[0038] System 100 can be a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system or a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system. In a TDD system, the downlink and uplink share the same frequency band. In an FDD system, the downlink and uplink use different frequency bands. MIMO system 100 can also use a single carrier or multiple carriers for transmission. Each radio station can be equipped with a single antenna or multiple antennas. If the radio stations 120 share the same frequency channel by dividing transmission / reception into different time slots, with each time slot assigned to a different radio station 120, then system 100 can also be a TDMA system.

[0039] Figure 2 A block diagram illustrating an access point 110 and two radio stations 120m and 120x in a MIMO / MLO system 100 is provided. In some respects, access point 110 and / or radio stations 120m and 120x can implement various techniques for handling direct link communication between radio stations in an MLO system, such as those described herein. Figures 4 to 20. Further description. For example, access point 110 and / or wireless stations 120m and 120x may include as described herein. Figure 1 The corresponding link manager described.

[0040] Access point 110 has an N. ap Each antenna ranges from 224a to 224t. The 120m wireless station is equipped with N... sta,m Each antenna is 252mA to 252mA, and the 120x wireless base station is equipped with N... sta,x Each antenna ranges from 252xa to 252xu. Access point 110 is a transmitting entity for the downlink and a receiving entity for the uplink. Each radio station 120 is a transmitting entity for the uplink and a receiving entity for the downlink. As used herein, a “transmitting entity” is an independently operating device or apparatus capable of transmitting data via a radio channel, and a “receiving entity” is an independently operating device or apparatus capable of receiving data via a radio channel. The term communication generally refers to transmitting, receiving, or both. In the following description, the subscript “DL” indicates the downlink, the subscript “UL” indicates the uplink, and N… UL N wireless stations were selected for simultaneous transmission on the uplink. DL N wireless stations were selected for simultaneous transmission on the downlink. UL It can be equal to or not equal to N DL And N UL and N DL It can be a static value, or it can be changed for each scheduling interval. Beam control or some other spatial processing technique can be used at the access point and radio station.

[0041] On the uplink, at each radio station 120 selected for uplink transmission, the TX data processor 288 receives service data from the data source 286 and control data from the controller 280. The TX data processor 288 processes (e.g., encodes, interleaves, and modulates) the service data of the radio station based on a decoding and modulation scheme associated with the rate selected for that radio station and provides a data symbol stream. The TX spatial processor 290 performs spatial processing on the data symbol stream and sends it to N. sta,m Each antenna provides N sta,m Each transceiver (TMTR) 254 receives and processes (e.g., converts to analog, amplifies, filters, and up-converts) the corresponding transmitted symbol stream to generate the uplink signal. sta,m Each transceiver 254 provides N sta,m One uplink signal is used to obtain from N sta,m Each antenna 252 transmits to the access point.

[0042] Scheduleable NUL Several radio stations transmit simultaneously on the uplink. Each of these radio stations performs spatial processing on its data symbol stream and transmits its set of transmitted symbol streams to the access point on the uplink.

[0043] At access point 110, N ap Antennas 224a to 224ap from all N UL Each wireless station receives uplink signals transmitted on the uplink. Each antenna 224 provides the received signal to a corresponding transceiver (RCVR) 222. Each transceiver 222 performs processing complementary to the processing performed by transceiver 254 and provides a received symbol stream. The RX space processor 240 receives signals from N... ap N transceiver 222 ap Each received symbol stream performs receiver space processing and provides N UL Each recovered uplink data symbol stream is an estimate of the data symbol stream transmitted by the corresponding radio station. The receiver spatial processing is performed according to the channel correlation matrix inversion (CCMI), minimum mean square error (MMSE), soft interference cancellation (SIC), or some other technique. The RX data processor 242 processes the stream (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) according to the rate used for each recovered uplink data symbol stream to obtain decoded data. The decoded data for each radio station can be provided to the data trap 244 for storage and / or to the controller 230 for further processing.

[0044] On the downlink, at access point 110, TX data processor 210 receives N data from data source 208, which is scheduled for downlink transmission. DL The data includes service data from each wireless station, control data from controller 230, and other data that may come from scheduler 234. Various types of data can be transmitted on different transport channels. TX data processor 210 processes (e.g., encodes, interleaves, and modulates) the service data of each wireless station based on a rate selected for each station. TX data processor 210 is for N... DL Each wireless station provides N DL One downlink data symbol stream. TX space processor 220 to N DL Each downlink data symbol stream performs spatial processing (such as pre-decoding or beamforming as described in this disclosure), and for N ap Each antenna provides N ap N transmit symbol streams. Each transceiver 222 receives and processes its respective transmit symbol stream to generate downlink signals. ap Each transceiver 222 provides N ap A downlink signal for use from Nap Each antenna 224 transmits to the wireless station.

[0045] At each of the 120 wireless stations, N sta,m Antenna 252 receives N from access point 110 ap Each transceiver 254 processes the received signal from its associated antenna 252 and provides a received symbol stream. The RX space processor 260 supports signals from N... sta,m N transceiver 254 sta,m The received symbol stream performs receiver spatial processing and provides the radio station with a recovered downlink data symbol stream. This receiver spatial processing is performed according to CCMI, MMSE, or some other technique. The RX data processor 270 processes (e.g., demodulates, deinterleaves, and decodes) the recovered downlink data symbol stream to obtain decoded data for the radio station.

[0046] At each wireless station 120, channel estimator 278 estimates the downlink channel response and provides a downlink channel estimate, which may include channel gain estimation, SNR estimation, noise variance, etc. Similarly, channel estimator 228 estimates and provides an uplink channel estimate for the uplink channel response. The controller 280 at each wireless station is typically based on the downlink channel response matrix H of the wireless station. dn,m To derive the spatial filter matrix for this wireless station. Controller 230 derives this matrix based on the effective uplink channel response matrix H. up,eff This is used to derive the spatial filter matrix for the access point. The controller 280 of each wireless station can transmit feedback information (e.g., downlink and / or uplink eigenvectors, eigenvalues, SNR estimates, etc.) to the access point. Controllers 230 and 280 also control the operation of the respective processing units at access point 110 and wireless station 120, respectively.

[0047] In some wireless communication networks (e.g., 802.11be networks), a multi-link device (MLD) can be a wireless communication device with multiple affiliated APs or STAs. An MLD can have a single Media Access Control (MAC) Service Access Point (SAP) leading to the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer. An MLD can also have a MAC address that uniquely identifies the MLD management entity. An MLD can support various multi-link operations (MLOs). In various respects, an MLO can include multi-band aggregation, where two or more channels in different frequency bands (e.g., 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands) are combined to achieve higher transmission rates. In various respects, the 6 GHz band can include a frequency range of 5.925 GHz–7.125 GHz. For example, a single frame can be split and transmitted simultaneously through different channels in different frequency bands, thereby reducing frame transmission time or facilitating the transmission of larger aggregated frames. An MLO can include multi-band and multi-channel full-duplex communication, which is achieved by simultaneously transmitting and receiving on different channels (in the same or different frequency bands). MLO can include data and control plane separation on different channels (in the same or different frequency bands). In some respects, MLO can be implemented using a multi-link single radio (MLSR) architecture, where multiple affiliated APs or STAs of the MLD can be logical devices under a single radio component.

[0048] In typical wireless communication systems that utilize spatial reuse of transmission resources, multiple access points (APs) can cooperate in transmitting beamformed signals to stations (STAs). In joint transmission (TX), multiple APs coordinate their transmissions to send signals to the STA. In coordinated beamforming (CBF), simultaneous transmission across adjacent APs is allowed. APs employ physical layer (PHY) nulling techniques to mitigate interference to adjacent Basic Service Sets (BSS) transmissions caused by their own transmissions. In typical CBF techniques, operation can be viewed as “symmetric,” where both the BSS and the overlapping basic service set (OBSS) devices (e.g., APs) nullify the interference they cause in their adjacent BSSs. The process of nulling interference reduces the total power that the devices can use to transmit the desired signal. Furthermore, nulling interference can utilize the device's antenna, thereby reducing the number of data streams the device can transmit.

[0049] Therefore, it is desirable to develop techniques that enable OBSSs to share TxOPs without zeroing out the BSS that wins the TxOP, thereby mitigating interference in OBSSs.

[0050] Example of asymmetric coordinated beamforming

[0051] Various aspects of this disclosure provide techniques that enable OBSS to share TxOP without zeroing the BSS that wins TxOP, thereby mitigating interference in the OBSS.

[0052] This disclosure describes a technique for "coordinated beamforming" (CBF) in which simultaneous transmission across adjacent APs undergoing PHY nulling techniques is allowed to mitigate interference with transmissions to adjacent BSSs.

[0053] Typical CBF techniques focus on “symmetrical” scenarios, where both the BSS and OBSS devices zero out interference to their adjacent BSS.

[0054] Various aspects of this disclosure provide techniques for asymmetric CBF, wherein the BSS that wins TxOP does not use zeroing to mitigate interference with the OBSS; however, the OBSS creates null values ​​toward the BSS in order to share TxOP.

[0055] Figure 3 Symmetrical coordinated beamforming according to various aspects of this disclosure is depicted. Thus, as shown, AP1 in BSS1 transmits to STAs 320a and 320b while simultaneously generating null values ​​toward BSS2 (e.g., toward STAs 320c and 320d in BSS2). Similarly, AP2 in BSS2 transmits simultaneously to STAs 320c and 320d while simultaneously generating null values ​​toward BSS1 (e.g., toward STAs 320a and 320b in BSS1).

[0056] Figure 4 Joint transmission and symmetrical coordinated beamforming according to various aspects of this disclosure are depicted. In joint transmission, multiple APs (AP1 and AP2) transmit to STA simultaneously. Thus, as shown at 400, AP1 and AP2 transmit to STA 1 simultaneously. AP1 and AP2 are also illustrated as transmitting to STA 2 simultaneously. The advantages of joint transmission include high capacity due to the utilization of all streams on all APs. The disadvantages of joint transmission include that the APs typically need to be tightly synchronized in time and frequency offset. Additionally, the backhaul network connecting the APs must be a high-capacity network.

[0057] In symmetric coordinated beamforming, as shown at 450, each user receives data from only one AP. Therefore, as shown, STA1 receives data from AP1, and STA2 receives data from AP2. Both APs create null values ​​towards their respective OBSS STAs. That is, AP1 creates a null value towards STA2, and AP2 creates a null value towards STA1. The advantages of coordinated beamforming over joint transmission include that the APs do not need to be as tightly synchronized, and that further symmetric CBF can be used when the backhaul network has less capacity. The disadvantages of symmetric coordinated beamforming compared to joint transmission include lower data network throughput.

[0058] Figure 5Symmetric and asymmetric coordinated beamforming according to various aspects of this disclosure are depicted. As shown at 500, STA1 receives data from AP1, and STA2 receives data from AP2. Both APs create null values ​​towards their respective OBSS STAs. That is, AP1 creates a null value towards STA2, and AP2 creates a null value towards STA1.

[0059] In the asymmetric coordinated beamforming shown at 550, the BSS (AP1) that wins the TxOP does not create any null values ​​and is free to allocate all of AP's streams for data transmission. AP1 may cause some interference to adjacent OBSSs. If AP2 creates null values ​​toward the STA (STA1) that is being scheduled in the BSS that wins the TxOP (e.g., transmissions from AP2 via pre-decoding or beamforming), then AP2 in the OBSS is allowed to share the TxOP with AP1, as shown in the figure.

[0060] As described in this paper, asymmetric CBF can have several advantages over symmetric CBF.

[0061] The advantage of asymmetric CBF is that the AP that wins the TxOP does not generate null values. When the AP that wins the TxOP creates a null value, as in symmetric CBF, the creation of a null value comes at the cost of reducing the number of flows allocated by the AP for data. Reducing the number of flows is not always desirable, and therefore in asymmetric CBF, the AP that wins the TxOP does not reduce the number of flows allocated for data to create a null value. If the AP that wins the TxOP is sending all the data available to that AP and unused flows are available, the AP that wins the TxOP can switch to using symmetric CBF. Therefore, asymmetric CBF may be preferred if the AP that wins the TxOP has the potential to allocate all flows in the BSS that wins the TxOP. For example, the BSS could resort to DL multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission or multi-stream single-user (SU) transmission to the mesh AP.

[0062] In all aspects of this disclosure, in cases of high path loss, asymmetric CBF can outperform symmetric CBF.

[0063] Asymmetric CBF can be a natural extension of space reuse (SR) technology because it has no impact on the throughput of the BSS that wins TxOP, and the OBSS can freely share TxOP as long as the OBSS sets the interference to the BSS link to zero.

[0064] In all aspects of this disclosure, asymmetric CBF exhibits less signaling overhead compared to symmetric CBF. The reduced signaling overhead in asymmetric CBF is due to the fact that in symmetric CBF, both involved BSSs need to be informed during each TxOP which client is being scheduled in the other BSS, whereas in asymmetric CBF, the BSS does not need to know which client is being scheduled in the OBSS.

[0065] Figure 6 An example call flow of two APs is depicted, illustrating the execution of various aspects of this disclosure and asymmetric coordinated beamforming (CBF) of two STAs. As shown, AP1 may send a signal to AP2, thereby instructing AP2 to be selected for participation in AP1's asymmetric CBF. In the example call flow, AP1 sends a Physical Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) to STA1. As depicted, AP1's transmission of the PPDU to STA1 may cause interference to STA2. Optionally, AP2 may read the duration of the PPDU (e.g., by receiving and decoding the PPDU header) and determine the period for transmission to STA2. Then, during the duration of the transmission performed by AP1, AP2 transmits to STA2 while simultaneously forming null values ​​toward STA1 associated with AP1.

[0066] Figure 7 A graph depicts the percentage network throughput gain of symmetric and asymmetric CBF relative to Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA, e.g., traditional CSMA / CA) for a simple topology with 1 BSS and 1 OBSS. The graph assumes a 2-stream AP with one active single-antenna client STA per BSS or OBSS. STA locations are uniformly and randomly selected within each BSS. The graph also assumes fully buffered DL traffic. As shown, beyond a certain BSS_AP to OBSS_AP path loss (e.g., 114 dB), the asymmetric CBF outperforms (e.g., has a higher gain relative to EDCA than the symmetric CBF) symmetric CBF.

[0067] Example operation of access point

[0068] Figure 8 It shows the use of the first AP (such as, Figure 1 and Figure 2 An example of a method 800 for wireless communication at AP 110.

[0069] Method 800 begins at step 805, wherein at least one of a first indication regarding spatial reuse of transmission resources supported by the first AP or a second indication regarding the first AP supporting asymmetric protocol CBF is output for transmission to the second AP. In some cases, the operation of this step refers to, as per reference... Figure 10The circuitry and / or code described for the output, or the code that can be executed by the circuitry and / or the code.

[0070] Then, method 800 proceeds to step 810, where signaling is output to one or more STAs supported by the first AP for transmission, without expecting to form null values ​​pointing to other STAs supported by the second AP. In some cases, the operation of this step refers to, as in [reference needed] Figure 10 The circuitry and / or code described for the output, or the code that can be executed by the circuitry and / or the code.

[0071] In some aspects, method 800 further includes: outputting an indication that the first AP does not expect to perform a symmetric CBF with the second AP for transmission to the second AP. In some cases, the operational reference for this step is as follows: Figure 10 The circuitry and / or code described for the output, or the code that can be executed by the circuitry and / or the code.

[0072] In some aspects, method 800 further includes: outputting an indication of each of one or more STAs for transmission to a second AP. In some cases, the operational reference for this step is as follows: Figure 10 The circuitry and / or code described for the output, or the code that can be executed by the circuitry and / or the code.

[0073] In some aspects, method 800 further includes: determining TxOP based on CCA, wherein after determining TxOP, at least one of a first indication or a second indication is output for transmission to a second AP, and wherein signaling is output during TxOP for transmission. In some cases, this step refers to the operation of referencing Figure 10 The circuit and / or code described for determination, or that can be executed by the circuit and / or the code.

[0074] In some aspects, method 800 further includes: estimating the distance or path loss to the second AP, wherein at least one of a first indication or a second indication is output for transmission to the second AP based on a distance or path loss value greater than a threshold. In some cases, this step refers to operations as described in reference... Figure 10 The circuit and / or code used for estimation described herein or that can be executed by the circuit and / or the code.

[0075] In some aspects, method 800 further includes: outputting an indication regarding the selection of a second AP for participation and the asymmetric CBF of the first AP for transmission to the second AP and zero or more other APs. In some cases, the operational reference for this step is as follows: Figure 10 The circuitry and / or code described for the output, or the code that can be executed by the circuitry and / or the code.

[0076] In one aspect, method 800 or any aspect thereof may be made by means of a device (such as...) Figure 10 The communication device 1000 performs the operation, and the device includes various components operable to, configured to, or adapted to perform the method 800. The communication device 1000 is described in more detail below.

[0077] It should be noted that Figure 8 This is merely one example of a method, and other methods that include fewer, additional, or alternative steps may also be consistent with this disclosure.

[0078] Figure 9 It shows the use of a second AP (such as, Figure 1 and Figure 2 An example of a method 900 for wireless communication at AP 110.

[0079] Method 900 begins at step 905, wherein an indication is obtained from the first AP regarding the selection of the second AP for participation and the asymmetric CBF of the first AP. In some cases, the operation of this step refers to, as referenced Figure 10 The circuit and / or code described for obtaining, or that can be executed by the circuit and / or the code.

[0080] Method 900 then proceeds to step 910, where, after receiving instruction, the asymmetric CBF of the first AP is engaged. In some cases, the operation of this step refers to or may be derived from, as referenced... Figure 10 The described circuitry and / or code are used to participate in the execution.

[0081] In some respects, the participation and asymmetric CBF of the first AP includes outputting signaling to one or more second STAs supported by the second AP for transmission, while forming one or more null values ​​pointing to one or more first STAs supported by the first AP.

[0082] In some aspects, method 900 further includes determining signaling to be scheduled to one or more second STAs based on one or more first CSIs and one or more second CSIs, wherein the first CSI is associated with one or more first channels between the second AP and one or more first STAs, and the one or more second CSIs are associated with one or more second channels between the second AP and one or more second STAs. In some cases, this step refers to the operation as described in reference Figure 10 The circuitry and / or code used for the decision described herein, or that may be executed by such circuitry and / or code.

[0083] In some aspects, method 900 further includes measuring one or more first channels to generate a first measurement. In some cases, this step refers to the operation as described in reference... Figure 10 The circuitry and / or code described for measurement, or that can be executed by the circuitry and / or the code.

[0084] In some aspects, method 900 also includes determining one or more first CSIs based on a first measurement. In some cases, this step refers to referencing... Figure 10 The circuit and / or code described for determination, or that can be executed by the circuit and / or the code.

[0085] In some respects, the decision was also based on the amount of data that could be used to send to one or more second STAs.

[0086] In some aspects, method 900 further includes reading the duration of the PPDU transmitted by the first AP, wherein the second AP outputs signaling for transmission during a first period that is as short as or shorter than the duration. In some cases, this step refers to the operation as described in reference... Figure 10 The circuitry and / or code described for reading or that can be executed by the circuitry and / or the code.

[0087] In some respects, the first cycle is based on the duration and the second cycle is used for acknowledgment (ACK) of received signaling.

[0088] In one aspect, method 900 or any aspect thereof may be made by means of a device (such as...) Figure 10 The communication device 1000 performs the operation, and the device includes various components operable to, configured to, or adapted to perform the method 900. The communication device 1000 is described in more detail below.

[0089] It should be noted that Figure 9 This is merely one example of a method, and other methods that include fewer, additional, or alternative steps may also be consistent with this disclosure.

[0090] Example communication device

[0091] Figure 10 Various aspects of the example communication device 1000 are described. In some aspects, the communication device 1000 is an access point (AP), as described above. Figure 1 and Figure 2 AP 110 is described.

[0092] Communication device 1000 includes a processing system 1005 coupled to a transceiver 1090 (e.g., a transmitter and / or receiver). Transceiver 1090 is configured to transmit and receive signals from communication device 1000 via antenna 1092, such as various signals as described herein. Transceiver 1090 may be a reference... Figure 2 Examples of various aspects of the transceiver 222 are described. The processing system 1005 may be configured to perform the processing functions of the communication device 1000, including processing signals received and / or to be transmitted by the communication device 1000.

[0093] Processing system 1005 includes one or more processors 1010. In various aspects, the one or more processors 1010 may represent... Figure 2 One or more of the RX data processor 242, TX data processor 210, TX space processor 220, or controller 230 of AP 110 illustrated herein. One or more processors 1010 are coupled to computer-readable medium / memory 1055 via bus 1088. In some aspects, computer-readable medium / memory 1055 is configured to store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) that, when executed by one or more processors 1010, cause one or more processors 1010 to execute: regarding Figure 8 The described method 800 or any aspect related to that method; and / or about Figure 9 The method 900 described or any aspect thereof. Note that reference to a processor performing the functions of the communication device 1000 may include one or more processors 1010 performing those functions of the communication device 1000.

[0094] In the depicted example, computer-readable medium / memory 1055 stores codes (e.g., processor-executable instructions), such as code 1060 for output, code 1065 for determination, code 1070 for estimation, code 1075 for acquisition, code 1080 for participation, code 1082 for decision, code 1084 for measurement, and code 1086 for reading. Processing the code 1060 for output, the code 1065 for determination, the code 1070 for estimation, the code 1075 for acquisition, the code 1080 for participation, the code 1082 for decision, the code 1084 for measurement, and the code 1086 for reading can cause the communication device 1000 to execute: regarding Figure 8 The method 800 described or any aspect related to the method; and / or about Figure 9 The described method 900 or any aspect related to that method.

[0095] One or more processors 1010 include circuitry configured to implement (e.g., execute) code stored in a computer-readable medium / memory 1055. This circuitry includes circuitry such as circuitry 1015 for output, circuitry 1020 for determination, circuitry 1025 for estimation, circuitry 1030 for acquisition, circuitry 1035 for participation, circuitry 1040 for decision, circuitry 1045 for measurement, and circuitry 1050 for reading. Processing performed using the circuitry 1015 for output, the circuitry 1020 for determination, the circuitry 1025 for estimation, the circuitry 1030 for acquisition, the circuitry 1035 for participation, the circuitry 1040 for decision, the circuitry 1045 for measurement, and the circuitry 1050 can enable the communication device 1000 to perform: Regarding Figure 8 The method 800 described or any aspect related to the method; and / or about Figure 9 The described method 900 or any aspect related to that method.

[0096] The various components of the communication device 1000 can provide parts for performing the following: Regarding Figure 8 The described method 800 or any aspect related to that method; and / or about Figure 9 The described method 900 or any aspect thereof. For example, components for sending, transmitting, or outputting for use in sending may include... Figure 2 The transmitter unit 222 or antenna 224 of the AP 110 shown, and / or Figure 10 The communication device 1000 includes a transceiver 1090 and an antenna 1092. In some aspects, the components for receiving or acquiring data may include... Figure 2 The receiver unit 222 or antenna 224 of AP 110 illustrated herein, and / or Figure 10 The transceiver 1090 and antenna 1092 of the communication device 1000.

[0097] Example Terms

[0098] Specific implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

[0099] Clause 1: A method for wireless communication at a first access point (AP), the method comprising: outputting at least one of a first indication regarding spatial reuse of transmission resources supported by the first AP or a second indication regarding asymmetric coordinated beamforming (CBF) supported by the first AP for transmission to a second AP; and outputting signaling to one or more stations (STAs) supported by the first AP for transmission, without intending to form null values ​​pointing to other STAs supported by the second AP.

[0100] Clause 2: The method according to Clause 1 further includes: outputting an indication that the first AP does not expect to perform a symmetric CBF with the second AP for transmission to the second AP.

[0101] Clause 3: The method according to any one of Clauses 1 and 2 further includes: outputting an indication of each of the one or more STAs for transmission to the second AP.

[0102] Clause 4: The method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 3, the method further comprising: determining a transmission opportunity (TxOP) based on a free channel assessment (CCA), wherein after determining the TxOP, at least one of the first indication or the second indication is output for transmission to the second AP, and wherein the signaling is output during the TxOP for transmission.

[0103] Clause 5: The method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 4, the method further comprising: estimating the distance or path loss to the second AP, wherein at least one of the first indication or the second indication is output for transmission to the second AP based on a value of the distance or the path loss being greater than a threshold.

[0104] Clause 6: The method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 5 further comprises: outputting an indication of the second AP being selected to participate and the asymmetric CBF of the first AP for transmission to the second AP and zero or more other APs.

[0105] Clause 7: A method for wireless communication at a second AP, the method comprising: obtaining from a first AP an indication that the second AP is selected to participate in asymmetric coordinated beamforming (CBF) with the first AP; and participating in asymmetric CBF with the first AP after obtaining the indication.

[0106] Clause 8: The method according to Clause 7, wherein participating in and the asymmetric CBF of the first AP includes outputting signaling to one or more second STAs supported by the second AP for transmission, while forming one or more null values ​​pointing to one or more first STAs supported by the first AP.

[0107] Clause 9: The method according to Clause 8 further comprises: determining the signaling scheduled to the one or more second STAs based on one or more first CSIs and one or more second CSIs, wherein the first CSI is associated with one or more first channels between the second AP and the one or more first STAs, and the one or more second CSIs are associated with one or more second channels between the second AP and the one or more second STAs.

[0108] Clause 10: The method according to Clause 9 further includes: measuring the one or more first channels to generate a first measurement; and determining the one or more first CSIs based on the first measurement.

[0109] Clause 11: The method described in Clause 9, wherein the decision is further based on the amount of data that can be used to send to the one or more second STAs.

[0110] Clause 12: The method according to Clause 8 further includes: reading the duration of a Physical Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) transmitted by the first AP, wherein the second AP outputs the signaling for transmission in a first period that is as short as or shorter than the duration.

[0111] Clause 13: The method according to Clause 12, wherein the first period is based on the duration and a second period for receiving acknowledgments (ACKs) of the signaling.

[0112] Clause 14: An apparatus comprising: a memory including processor-executable instructions; and a processor configured to execute the executable instructions and cause the apparatus to perform a method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 13.

[0113] Clause 15: An apparatus comprising components for performing the method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 13.

[0114] Clause 16: A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device, cause the device to perform the method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 13.

[0115] Clause 17: A computer program product embodied on a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program product comprising code for performing a method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 13.

[0116] Additional Notes

[0117] The foregoing description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Therefore, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but are to be consistent with the full scope of the language claims, wherein, unless specifically stated otherwise, an element referred to in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one”, but rather “one or more.” Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. All structural and functional equivalents of elements throughout the various aspects described herein that are known to or will later be known to a person skilled in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be covered by the claims. Furthermore, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be offered to the public, whether or not such disclosure is expressly recited in the claims. No element of a claim should be interpreted in accordance with the provisions of 35 U.S.SC §112, paragraph 6, unless the element is expressly stated using the phrase “for a component of” or, in the case of a method claim, using the phrase “for a step of”.

[0118] The various operations described above can be performed by any suitable component capable of performing the corresponding function. This component may include various hardware and / or software components and / or modules, including but not limited to circuits, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or processors. Generally, in the presence of operations illustrated in the accompanying drawings, these operations may have corresponding components plus functional elements.

[0119] The receiving component may include Figure 2 The transceiver, receiver, or at least one antenna and at least one receiving processor shown are included. Components for transmitting, transmitting, or outputting may include... Figure 2 The transceiver, transmitter, or at least one antenna and at least one transmission processor shown are included. Components for communication, for generation, for taking one or more actions, for selection, for determination, for ignoring, for mapping, and for relaying may include a processing system, which may include one or more processors, such as... Figure 2 The processors 260m, 270m, 288m and / or 290m of the STA 120m shown, and / or the processors 210, 220, 240 and / or 242 of the AP 110.

[0120] In some cases, a device may have an interface (output component) for outputting frames for transmission, rather than actually transmitting frames. For example, a processor may output frames to a radio frequency (RF) front end for transmission via a bus interface. Similarly, a device may have an interface (acquisition component) for receiving frames from another device, rather than actually receiving frames. For example, a processor may acquire (or receive) frames from an RF front end for receiving via a bus interface.

[0121] As used herein, the term "determine" encompasses a wide variety of actions. For example, "determine" can include calculation, operation, processing, deduction, investigation, lookup (e.g., searching in a table, database, or other data structure), assertion, and so on. Furthermore, "determine" can include receiving (e.g., receiving information) and accessing (e.g., accessing data in memory). Additionally, "determine" can include parsing, selecting, choosing, and creating.

[0122] As used in this article, the phrase “at least one of the items” refers to any combination of these items (including a single member). As an example, “at least one of a, b, or c” is intended to cover a, b, c, ab, ac, bc, and abc, as well as combinations that include multiple members (aa, aabb, aabbcc, bb, bbcc, and / or cc).

[0123] The various exemplary logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in this disclosure may be implemented or executed using a general-purpose processor, digital signal processor (DSP), application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device (PLD), discrete gate or transistor logic unit, discrete hardware component, or any combination thereof, designed to perform the functions described herein. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in alternatives, the processor may be any commercially available processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors combined with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0124] The steps or algorithms of the methods described in this disclosure may be directly embodied in hardware, a software module executed by a processor, or a combination of both. The software module may reside in any form of storage medium known in the art. Some exemplary storage media that may be used include: random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disks, removable disks, CD-ROMs, etc. The software module may include a single instruction or multiple instructions, and may be distributed across several different code segments, across different programs, and across multiple storage media. The storage medium may be coupled to the processor, enabling the processor to read information from and write information to the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium may be integral with the processor.

[0125] The methods disclosed herein include one or more steps or actions for implementing the described methods. The steps and / or actions of the methods may be interchanged without departing from the scope of the claims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions is specified, the order and / or use of a particular step and / or action may be modified without departing from the scope of the claims.

[0126] The described functionality can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in hardware, an example hardware configuration may include a processing system in a wireless node. This processing system may utilize a bus architecture. Depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system, the bus may include any number of interconnect buses and bridges. The bus can link together various circuits, including a processor, machine-readable media, and a bus interface. The bus interface can be used to connect network adapters, etc., to the processing system via the bus. The network adapter can be used to implement signal processing functions at the PHY layer. In wireless station 120 (see...) Figure 1 In such cases, user interfaces (e.g., keypads, displays, mice, joysticks, etc.) can also be connected to the bus. The bus can also link various other circuits, such as timing sources, peripheral devices, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and similar circuits, which are well known in the art and will not be described further.

[0127] A processor may be responsible for managing the bus and general-purpose processing, including executing software stored on a machine-readable medium. A processor may be implemented using one or more general-purpose processors and / or special-purpose processors. Examples include microprocessors, microcontrollers, DSP processors, and other circuitry that can execute software. Software should be interpreted broadly as instructions, data, or any combination thereof, whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise. For example, a machine-readable medium may include RAM (Random Access Memory), flash memory, ROM (Read-Only Memory), PROM (Programmable Read-Only Memory), EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), registers, disks, optical disks, hard disks, or any other suitable storage medium, or any combination thereof. A machine-readable medium may be embodied in a computer program product. A computer program product may include packaging material.

[0128] In a hardware implementation, machine-readable media may be part of a processing system separate from the processor. However, as will be readily understood by those skilled in the art, machine-readable media, or any portion thereof, may be external to the processing system. As an example, machine-readable media may include transmit lines, carrier waves modulated by data, and / or computer products separated from wireless nodes, all of which may be accessed by the processor via a bus interface. Alternatively or additionally, machine-readable media, or any portion thereof, may be integrated into the processor, such as in the case of having a cache and / or a general-purpose register file.

[0129] The processing system may be configured as a general-purpose processing system having one or more microprocessors providing processor functionality and external memory providing at least a portion of machine-readable medium, all of which are linked together with other supporting circuitry via an external bus architecture. Alternatively, the processing system may be implemented using an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) with a processor, a bus interface, a user interface (in the case of an access terminal), supporting circuitry, and at least a portion of machine-readable medium integrated into a single chip, or using one or more FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays), PLDs (Programmable Logic Devices), controllers, state machines, gated logic components, discrete hardware components, or any other suitable circuitry or any combination of circuitry capable of performing the various functionalities described throughout this disclosure. Those skilled in the art will recognize how best to implement the aforementioned functionalities of the processing system depends on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system as a whole.

[0130] Machine-readable media may include multiple software modules. These software modules include instructions that, when executed by a processor, enable the processing system to perform various functions. Software modules may include send and receive modules. Each software module may reside in a single storage device or be distributed across multiple storage devices. For example, when a triggering event occurs, a software module may be loaded from a hard disk drive into RAM. During the execution of a software module, the processor may load some instructions from the set of instructions into a cache to improve access speed. One or more cache lines may then be loaded into a general-purpose register file for processor execution. When the functionality of a software module is referred to below, it will be understood that such functionality is implemented by the processor when executing the instructions from that software module.

[0131] If implemented in software, the functions may be stored as one or more instructions or codes on or transmitted through a computer-readable medium. A computer-readable medium includes both computer storage media and communication media, including any medium that facilitates the transfer of a computer program from one location to another. A storage medium can be any available medium accessible to a computer. By way of example and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disc storage devices, disk storage devices or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store the desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and is accessible to a computer. Additionally, any connection is appropriately referred to as a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using coaxial cable, optical fiber, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared (IR), radio, and microwave, then such coaxial cable, optical fiber, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. As used in this article, disks and optical discs include compressed optical discs (CDs), laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs (DVDs), floppy disks, and... Optical discs, where magnetic disks typically copy data magnetically, use lasers to optically copy data. Therefore, in some aspects, computer-readable media can include non-transitory computer-readable media (e.g., tangible media). Furthermore, in other aspects, computer-readable media can include transient computer-readable media (e.g., signals). Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0132] Therefore, certain aspects may include computer program products for performing the operations given herein. For example, such computer program products may include computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon (and / or encoded thereon) that are executable by one or more processors to perform the operations described herein. For some aspects, computer program products may include packaging material.

[0133] Furthermore, it should be understood that modules and / or other suitable components for performing the methods and techniques described herein may be downloaded and / or otherwise obtained by the wireless station and / or access point where applicable. For example, such devices may be coupled to a server to facilitate the transfer of components for performing the methods described herein. Alternatively, the various methods described herein may be provided via storage components (e.g., RAM, ROM, physical storage media such as CDs or floppy disks, etc.) so that the wireless station and / or access point can obtain the various methods once such storage component is coupled to or provided to the device. Additionally, any other suitable techniques for providing the methods and techniques described herein to the device may be used.

[0134] It should be understood that the claims are not limited to the precise configurations and components illustrated above. Various modifications, variations, and alterations may be made to the arrangement, operation, and details of the methods and apparatus described above without departing from the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communications at a first access point (AP), comprising: outputting, for transmission to a second AP, at least one of a first indication that the first AP supports spatial reuse of transmission resources or a second indication that the first AP supports asymmetric coordinated beamforming (CBF); and outputting, for transmission, signaling to one or more stations (STAs) supported by the first AP without expecting to form nulls directed to other STAs supported by the second AP.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: outputting, for transmission to the second AP, an indication that the first AP does not expect to perform symmetric CBF with the second AP.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: outputting, for transmission to the second AP, an indication of each of the one or more STAs.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining a transmission opportunity (TxOP) based on a clear channel assessment (CCA), wherein the at least one of the first indication or the second indication is outputted for transmission to the second AP after determining the TxOP, and wherein the signaling is outputted for transmission during the TxOP.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: estimating a distance or a path loss to the second AP, wherein the at least one of the first indication or the second indication is outputted for transmission to the second AP based on a value of the distance or the path loss being greater than a threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: outputting, for transmission to the second AP or to the second AP and other APs, an indication that the second AP is selected for participating in asymmetric CBF with the first AP.

7. A method for wireless communications at a second access point (AP), comprising: obtaining, from a first AP, an indication that the second AP is selected for participating in asymmetric coordinated beamforming (CBF) with the first AP; and participating in the asymmetric CBF with the first AP after obtaining the indication, wherein participating in the asymmetric CBF with the first AP comprises outputting, for transmission, signaling to one or more second stations (STAs) supported by the second AP while forming one or more nulls directed to one or more first STAs supported by the first AP.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: deciding to schedule the signaling to the one or more second STAs based on one or more first channel state information (CSI) and one or more second CSI, wherein the first CSI is associated with one or more first channels between the second AP and the one or more first STAs, and the one or more second CSI is associated with one or more second channels between the second AP and the one or more second STAs.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: ​ ​ measure the one or more first channels to generate first measurements; and determine the one or more first CSI based on the first measurements.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the decision is further based on an amount of data available for transmission to the one or more second STAs.

11. The method of claim 7, the method further comprising: reading a duration of a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) transmitted by the first AP, wherein the second AP outputs the signaling for transmission in a first period that is as short as or shorter than the duration.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first period is based on the duration and a second period for receiving an acknowledgement (ACK) of the signaling.

13. A first access point (AP) configured for wireless communication, the first access point (AP) comprising: a memory including processor-executable instructions; and one or more processors configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and cause the first AP to: output at least one of a first indication that the first AP supports spatial reuse of transmit resources or a second indication that the first AP supports asymmetric coordinated beamforming (CBF) for transmission to a second AP; and output signaling to one or more stations (STAs) supported by the first AP for transmission without expecting to form a null directed to other STAs supported by the second AP.

14. The first AP of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and further cause the first AP to: output an indication that the first AP does not expect to perform symmetric CBF with the second AP for transmission to the second AP.

15. The first AP of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and further cause the first AP to: output an indication of each of the one or more STAs for transmission to the second AP.

16. The first AP of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and further cause the first AP to: determine a transmit opportunity (TxOP) based on a clear channel assessment (CCA), wherein the at least one of the first indication or the second indication is output for transmission to the second AP after determining the TxOP, and wherein the signaling is output for transmission during the TxOP.

17. The first AP of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and further cause the first AP to: estimate a distance or a path loss to the second AP, wherein the at least one of the first indication or the second indication is output for transmission to the second AP based on a value of the distance or the path loss being greater than a threshold. ​ 18. The first AP of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and further cause the first AP to: output, for transmission to the second AP or to the second AP and other APs, an indication that the second AP is selected for participation in asymmetric CBF with the first AP.

19. A second access point (AP) configured for wireless communication, the second AP comprising: a memory, the memory including processor-executable instructions; and one or more processors configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and cause the second AP to: obtain, from a first AP, an indication that the second AP is selected for participation in asymmetric coordinated beamforming (CBF) with the first AP; and participate in the asymmetric CBF with the first AP after obtaining the indication, wherein the one or more processors configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and cause the second AP to participate in the asymmetric CBF with the first AP includes the one or more processors configured to: output, for transmission, signaling to one or more second stations (STAs) supported by the second AP while forming one or more nulls directed to one or more first STAs supported by the first AP.

20. The second AP of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and further cause the second AP to: decide to schedule the signaling to the one or more second STAs based on one or more first channel state information (CSI) and one or more second CSI, wherein the first CSI is associated with one or more first channels between the second AP and the one or more first STAs and the one or more second CSI is associated with one or more second channels between the second AP and the one or more second STAs.

21. The second AP of claim 20, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and further cause the second AP to: measure the one or more first channels to generate first measurements; and determine the one or more first CSI based on the first measurements.

22. The second AP of claim 20, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to decide to schedule the signaling to the one or more second STAs further based on an amount of data available for transmission to the one or more second STAs.

23. The second AP of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and further cause the second AP to: read a duration of a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) transmitted by the first AP; and output, for transmission, the signaling in a first period that is as short as or shorter than the duration.

24. The second AP of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and further cause the second AP to: read a duration of a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) transmitted by the first AP; and output, for transmission, the signaling in a first period that is as short as or shorter than the duration.

25. The second AP of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and further cause the second AP to: read a duration of a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) transmitted by the first AP; and output, for transmission, the signaling in a first period that is as short as or shorter than the duration.

26. The second AP of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and further cause the second AP to: read a duration of a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) transmitted by the first AP; and output, for transmission, the signaling in a first period that is as short as or shorter than the duration.

27. The second AP of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the processor-executable instructions and further cause the second AP to: read a duration of a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) transmitted by the first AP; and output, for transmission, the signaling in a first period that is as short as or shorter than the duration.

24. The second AP of claim 23, wherein the first period is based on the duration and a second period for receiving an acknowledgement (ACK) of the signaling.

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