Transmission and reception apparatus and method

Abstract

The transmitting device comprises circuitry configured to acquire and / or generate an input data unit to be transmitted to one or more receiving devices, the input data unit comprising a MAC service data unit (MSDU) and / or a control data unit; generating a MAC protocol data unit (MPDU) from one or more input data units by adding header information to the one or more input data units, the header information including at least a receiver address of the one or more input data units; generating one or more aggregated MAC protocol data units (A-MPDUs) from the MPDU, where A-MPDUs are generated from at least two of the MPDUs, and where MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices identified by a receiving end address in a header of each MPDU are included in at least one A-MPDU; generating a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from the A-MPDU; setting multi-receiving-end indication information in the PPDU and / or the A-MPDU, wherein the multi-receiving-end indication information implicitly or explicitly indicates whether the A-MPDU comprises MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices or not; and transmitting the PPDU, in which the PPDU including the at least one A-MPDU is transmitted to a different receiving device.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a transmission device, a receiving device, a transmission method, and a receiving method. Background Art

[0002] The growth of latency-sensitive applications such as extended reality (XR) games, remote surgery, and intelligent manufacturing requires the delivery of data units (also referred to herein as latency-sensitive data units or preemptive data units) within a few milliseconds or less. In traditional WLAN operation, a transmission device (e.g., a sending station (STA) or an access point (AP)) includes media access control (MAC) protocol data units (MPDUs) in an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU). All MPDUs within the A-MPDU are addressed to the same receiving device (e.g., a receiving STA). At the physical (PHY) layer, the A-MPDU is embedded in a PHY protocol data unit (PPDU), which is then sent from the transmission device to the receiving device.

[0003] The "Background" description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the present disclosure. Within the scope of the description in this background art section, the work of the presently named inventors, as well as aspects of the description that may not constitute prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted to be prior art with respect to the present disclosure. Summary of the Invention

[0004] An object is to provide more flexibility in the transmission of latency-sensitive data units and / or to achieve faster delivery of such latency-sensitive data units. Another object is to provide transmission and receiving devices for implementing the method, as well as corresponding computer programs and non-transitory computer-readable recording media.

[0005] According to one aspect, there is provided a transmission device including circuitry configured to:

[0006] Obtain and / or generate input data units to be transmitted to one or more receiving devices, the input data units including MAC service data units (MSDUs) and / or control data units;

[0007] Generate MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) from the input data units by adding header information to one or more of the input data units, the header information including at least the receiving-end address of the one or more input data units;

[0008] One or more aggregated MAC protocol data units (A-MPDUs) are generated from the MPDU, where the A-MPDU is generated from at least two MPDUs in the MPDU, and where the MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices identified by the receiving end addresses in the headers of each MPDU are included in at least one A-MPDU;

[0009] A physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) is generated from the A-MPDU;

[0010] Multi-receiver indication information is provided in the PPDU and / or the A-MPDU, and the multi-receiver indication information implicitly or explicitly indicates whether the A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices; and

[0011] The PPDU is transmitted, where the PPDU containing the at least one A-MPDU is transmitted to different receiving devices.

[0012] According to another aspect, a receiving device is provided, and the receiving device includes circuitry configured to:

[0013] Receive a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from a transmitting device;

[0014] Derive multi-receiver indication information from the received PPDU or an aggregated MAC protocol data unit (A-MPDU) included in the received PPDU, and the multi-receiver indication information explicitly or implicitly indicates whether the A-MPDU included in the received PPDU includes MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) addressed to different receiving devices; and

[0015] De-aggregate at least one A-MPDU, and for the at least one A-MPDU, the multi-receiver indication information indicates that the at least one A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices, and extract the receiving end addresses from the headers of the MPDUs; and

[0016] Obtain one or more input data units from the MPDUs addressed to the receiving device based on the receiving end addresses, and the input data units include MAC service data units (MSDUs)

[0017] and / or control data units.

[0018] According to yet another aspect, a computer program is provided, and the computer program includes program means for causing a computer to perform the steps of the methods disclosed herein when the computer program is executed on the computer; and a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, and a computer program product is stored in the non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, and the computer program product causes the methods disclosed herein to be executed when executed by a processor.

[0019] Embodiments are defined in the dependent claims. It should be understood that the disclosed method, the disclosed computer program, and the disclosed computer-readable recording medium have additional embodiments similar and / or identical to the claimed apparatus and as defined in the dependent claims and / or disclosed herein.

[0020] One aspect of the present disclosure is to change the MAC operation of a WLAN to support the transmission of an A-MPDU (also referred to herein as a multi-STA A-MPDU) that includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices. This change allows for the insertion of delay-sensitive / preemptive MPDUs during an ongoing transmission of a PPDU carrying an A-MPDU.

[0021] The foregoing paragraphs have been provided by way of general introduction and are not intended to limit the scope of the appended claims. The described embodiments, as well as further advantages, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022] When considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and many of its attendant advantages will be readily obtained, as the present disclosure and many of its attendant advantages become better understood by reference to the following detailed description, in which:

[0023] Figure 1A A schematic diagram showing MAC and PHY operations according to traditional WLAN operations for transmitting MSDUs is shown.

[0024] Figure 1B A schematic diagram showing MAC and PHY operations according to traditional WLAN operations for transmitting input data units including MSDUs and / or control data units is shown.

[0025] Figure 2 A schematic diagram showing traditional MAC operations illustrating the problem addressed by the present disclosure is shown.

[0026] Figure 3 A schematic diagram showing an A-MPDU used according to the present disclosure is shown.

[0027] Figure 4 A schematic diagram showing MAC and PHY operations according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0028] Figure 5 A diagram showing main MAC processing blocks in the MAC plane architecture for a WLAN STA according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0029] Figure 6 A schematic diagram showing an embodiment illustrating general transmit-side STA operation according to the present disclosure is shown.

[0030] Figure 7 Illustrates the structure of a PPDU and a TXOP according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0031] Figure 8 Shows a schematic diagram illustrating a first embodiment of an acknowledgment strategy according to the present disclosure.

[0032] Figure 9 Shows a schematic diagram illustrating a second embodiment of an acknowledgment strategy according to the present disclosure.

[0033] Figure 10 Shows a schematic diagram illustrating a third embodiment of an acknowledgment strategy according to the present disclosure.

[0034] Figure 11 Shows a schematic diagram illustrating a fourth embodiment of an acknowledgment strategy according to the present disclosure.

[0035] Figure 12 Shows a schematic diagram illustrating a fifth embodiment of an acknowledgment strategy according to the present disclosure.

[0036] Figure 13 Shows a schematic diagram of another embodiment of the present disclosure, which relates to inserting a high-priority MPDU into an A-MPDU after a PPDU TX start request (PPDUTXSTART.request).

[0037] Figure 14 Shows a schematic diagram of an embodiment of inserting a preemptive MPDU into a multi-STA A-MPDU according to the present disclosure using fragmentation.

[0038] FIG. 15 shows a schematic diagram of an embodiment of inserting a preemptive MPDU into a multi-STA A-MPDU according to the present disclosure using padding and / or MSDU aggregation.

[0039] Figure 16 Shows a flowchart of an embodiment of a transmission method according to the present disclosure.

[0040] Figure 17 Shows a flowchart of an embodiment of a receiving method according to the present disclosure. Detailed Embodiments

[0041] Now referring to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like or corresponding parts throughout several views, Figure 1A and Figure 1B shows a schematic diagram of MAC and PHY operations according to traditional WLAN operation. In a WLAN, the media access control (MAC) layer communicates with, for example, Figure 1A and Figure 1BThe physical (PHY) layer as shown issues a PHYTXSTART.request indication message to start the transmission of a MAC protocol data unit (MPDU). This indication message contains a parameter list called TX VECTOR (TXVECTOR) which is used to configure PHY operations.

[0042] The MPDU contains one or more MAC service data units (MSDUs) (as Figure 1A shown) and / or control data units (as Figure 1B shown). MSDUs arrive from higher layers and are placed in different queues at the MAC layer according to their priorities. The Enhanced Distributed Channel Access Function (EDCAF) coordinates channel access for transmitting MSDUs from the queues. A single MSDU can be transmitted at a time, or multiple MSDUs can be aggregated to form an aggregated MSDU (A-MSDU). To transmit an MSDU as Figure 1A shown or an input data unit as Figure 1B shown, the MAC layer creates an MPDU by taking the MSDU and adding a MAC header and a Frame Check Sequence (FCS). The MAC header contains signaling information which includes the transmitter address and the Receiver Address (RA), duration, frame control, etc., and the FCS corresponds to a sequence used to verify whether the MPDU is correctly received at the receiver.

[0043] An A-MPDU consists of a concatenation of MPDUs encapsulated in sub-frames, each sub-frame having a delimiter (DEL) and an optional padding (PAD) field. The DEL contains the length of the MPDU in the sub-frame and a signature that helps identify each sub-frame at the receiver. Meanwhile, the padding (PAD) is used to ensure that the length of each sub-frame is a multiple of a set number of bits (e.g., 32 bits). It should be noted that a sub-frame can consist only of a DEL field of zero length, which can in turn be used to meet the minimum MPDU start interval requirement or for additional padding. When the PHYTX start request indication message is sent, the MSDUs scheduled for transmission have been selected, and the total data length (in octets) is indicated via the TX vector. The A-MPDU is carried by the PHY layer as a PHY service data unit (PSDU). The PSDU is processed by the PHY and transmitted into the wireless medium as a PHY protocol data unit (PPDU). The PPDU contains a preamble (including a training field and a signaling field) and a data field carrying the PSDU.

[0044] Once PHYTX starts to request reception by the PHY, the process of transmitting a PPDU starts with a PHY preamble. The PHY sends a PHYTX start confirmation (PHYTXSTART.confirm) indication to the MAC to indicate that it is ready to receive data. Thereafter, the MAC issues a PHY data request (PHY-Data.request) indication to transfer octets of data to the PHY, and the PHY then transmits the octets. Once the PHY receives an octet of data, it issues a PHY data confirmation (PHY-Data.confirm) to indicate to the MAC that it is ready to receive another octet. This process continues until the last octet of the PSDU is transmitted. Finally, the MAC issues a PHYTX end request (PHYTXEND.request) to indicate to the PHY that the PSDU transmission is complete, and in turn, the PHY completes the PPDU transmission and issues a PHYTX end confirmation (PHYTXEND.confirm) to the MAC.

[0045] In WLAN operation, all MPDUs included in an A-MPDU are addressed to the same receiver (also referred to herein as the receiving device or receiving STA). This limits the flexibility of the sender (also referred to herein as the transmitting device or transmitting STA) to deliver data to different STAs (i.e., different receiving devices) with different priorities.

[0046] For A-MPDU transmission, typically an MPDU is selected once the MAC sends a PHYTX start request to the PHY. If a high-priority MPDU addressed to an STA different from the STA of the initial A-MPDU is queued after the PHYTX start request but before the last scheduled MPDU has been transmitted, it cannot be transmitted according to traditional WLAN operation.

[0047] It should be noted in this context that an MPDU can typically carry an MSDU and / or a control data unit, which is also commonly referred to herein as an input data unit (see Figure 1B)。The control data unit should be understood herein as a control and / or management frame, such as an acknowledgement, link measurement, trigger, channel reservation indication information (RTS / CTS), association, authentication, beacon, etc. According to the present disclosure, the input data unit (MSDU and / or control data unit) to be transmitted to one or more receiving devices is obtained or generated by the transmitting device. Then, an MPDU is generated from the input data unit by adding header information to one or more of the input data units, and then the MPDUs are aggregated into an A-MPDU. The MAC header of the MSDU may be different from the MAC header of the control data unit, but generally, the sender and receiver address information is present in the MAC header. The difference may mainly relate to additional information for the receiver to know how to interpret a specific part of the control data unit.

[0048] Figure 2 FIG. shows a schematic diagram of a conventional MAC operation illustrating the problem addressed by the present disclosure, specifically the high-priority data transmission delay until the next PPDU. When the PHYTX start request is issued by the MAC, the receiving STA1 of the A-MPDU has been selected. After that, during the transmission of the PPDU carrying the A-MPDU, the high-priority MSDU addressed to the receiving STA 2 is queued. Since the current transmission of the A-MPDU cannot contain MPDUs addressed to different individual STAs other than STA1 and cannot stop the PPDU transmission, it is necessary to delay the transmission of the high-priority MSDU for STA 2 until the next PPDU transmission. For delay-sensitive applications, this delay may be too high.

[0049] According to the present disclosure, modifications to the MAC operation are made to support the insertion of MPDUs addressed to different receiving STAs within an A-MPDU. Figure 3 FIG. shows a schematic diagram of the A-MPDU 10 used according to the present disclosure. Herein, such an A-MPDU 10 containing the insertion of MPDUs 11, 12 addressed to different receiving STAs (i.e., MPDU 11 is addressed to a receiving STA different from MPDU 12) is referred to as a multi-STA A-MPDU. One of the modifications to the frame structure of the A-MPDU is to allow different receiver addresses (RAs) in the MAC headers of the MPDUs carried in the A-MPDU subframe of the same A-MPDU.

[0050] This feature can be implemented to allow one or more high-priority MSDUs 13 destined for different STAs to be carried in the same A-MPDU. In addition, in the context of preemption, if the transmission time of the ongoing PPDU transmission permits, this feature enables the high-priority MSDU to be transmitted in the ongoing PPDU transmission (after the PHYTX start request). This is illustrated in Figure 4 FIG., Figure 4FIG. shows a schematic diagram of MAC and PHY operations according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which enables the insertion of a preemptive MPDU into the A-MPDU 10 during the ongoing transmission of a PPDU. This feature allows for the timely delivery of latency-sensitive data, which would otherwise have to wait for another PPDU transmission, as Figure 2 shown.

[0051] To support the use of multi-STA A-MPDUs, session establishment can be implemented between the sending STA and potential receiving STA. Session establishment creates a protocol regarding an operation mode defined by one of the following:

[0052] a) Case 1, fixed receiver STA protocol: Defines at least a primary receiver STA and one or more secondary receiver STAs, which are identified by MAC address and / or association identifier (AID). The primary STA is the main target receiver of the multi-STA A-MPDU, where the first MPDU in the multi-STA A-MPDU is addressed to the primary STA. Additionally, the initial frame exchange for establishing the transmission opportunity (TXOP) can be performed only with the primary STA. The secondary receiver STA can receive one or more MPDUs in the multi-STA A-MPDU that are addressed to the secondary receiver STA, where the first MPDU of the multi-STA A-MPDU is addressed to the primary STA.

[0053] b) Case 2, dynamic receiver STA protocol: Defines a group of potential receiver STAs capable of supporting multi-STA A-MPDU operations, each identified by MAC address and / or AID. The primary receiver STA is selected from the group when establishing the TXOP. The main roles of the primary STA and secondary STAs are the same as in Case 1.

[0054] Multi-STA A-MPDU session establishment can also be used to exchange capabilities, defined parameters, indication information, and specific features to be used between the sending STA and potential receiving STA. The information exchanged during session establishment includes one or more of the following:

[0055] Session identifier;

[0056] Type of indication information identifying the multi-STA A-MPDU;

[0057] PPDU type capable of carrying the multi-STA A-MPDU;

[0058] Time interval during which the multi-STA A-MPDU can be transmitted, including start time, duration, and / or end time;

[0059] Traffic Identifier (TID) and / or Access Category (AC) that can be used to identify the priority of the multi-STA A-MPDU;

[0060] The minimum MPDU start interval of the multi-STA A-MPDU that can be supported by all STAs;

[0061] PHY parameters (e.g., bandwidth, NSS, MCS, RU size, guard interval) supported by all STAs addressed in the multi-STA A-MPDU session;

[0062] The acknowledgment policy that can be used for the multi-STA A-MPDU; and

[0063] The resource unit (RU) pre-allocation that will be used to transmit the multi-STA A-MPDU carried by the multi-user (MU) PPDU.

[0064] Hereinafter, the details of the multi-STA A-MPDU operation as disclosed herein will be described in more detail. All STAs that are intended receivers of at least one MPDU within the multi-STA A-MPDU must be able to decode the PPDU carrying the multi-STA A-MPDU. Therefore, the following can be considered.

[0065] Figure 5A diagram showing the main MAC processing blocks in the MAC plane architecture for a WLAN STA according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The data unit flow when the transmitting STA is transmitting an MSDU (MSDU flow - transmission 20) is shown in the left column, and the data unit flow when the receiving STA is receiving an MSDU (MSDU flow - reception 30) is shown in the right column. In the transmitting flow, the MSDU is obtained from the higher layer and optionally aggregated (step 21) or fragmented (step 22) according to their sizes to improve the efficiency of data transmission. Then, the MSDU is encrypted (step 23) to increase its security during transmission. An MPDU is created by inserting an MPDU header (also known as a MAC header) and appending cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits (step 24). Finally, the MPDUs are aggregated (step 25) and sent to the PHY layer for transmission. In the receiving flow, an A-MPDU or MPDU is received from the PHY layer, and the de-aggregation of the A-MPDU (if present) is performed (step 31) to obtain individual MPDUs. For each MPDU, the header information is extracted and CRC verification is performed (step 32) to check if the MPDU is received correctly. The receiver address (RA) filtering (step 33) checks if the RA in the header information matches the RA of the receiving device, and if the addresses match, the receiving device continues to process the MSDU content. This involves tracking the block Ack scoreboarding of the received MSDUs (step 34) and duplicate detection (step 35) to identify MSDUs that have been received multiple times. Then, the MSDU is decrypted (step 36), reassembled (step 37), and de-aggregated (step 38) (if the MPDU contains an A-MSDU). Finally, the MSDU is forwarded to the higher layer.

[0066] Figure 6 A schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the general operation 40 of a transmitting STA according to the present disclosure. Figure 7 Shows the corresponding construction of a PPDU 14 and a TXOP according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Initially, a multi-STA A-MPDU session establishment with a potential receiving STA is performed (step 41), and a TXOP with the primary STA, or the primary STA and secondary STAs, or all STAs (broadcast) is created (step 42). Multi-STA A-MPDUs should not be sent to receiving STAs that did not participate in the prior agreement made in the multi-STA A-MPDU session.

[0067] Multiple STA A-MPDU indication information 15 (also referred to as multi-receiver indication information) can be set and used (Steps 43 and 45) to indicate that the current and / or next PPDU contains a multiple STA A-MPDU. This multiple STA A-MPDU indication information can be made in a separate PPDU prior to the PPDU containing the multiple STA A-MPDU (Step 43), or it can be made within the PPDU containing the multiple STA A-MPDU (Step 45). Additionally, this indication information can be made implicitly or explicitly. Implicit indication information can be given by the type of the PPDU and / or the time interval during which the PPDU is transmitted and / or an A-MPDU having the first MPDU MAC address set to the primary STA. The implicit indication information shall be fixed within the multiple STA A-MPDU session establishment.

[0068] At the MAC layer, explicit indication information identifying the current frame as a multiple STA A-MPDU frame can be given in the MAC header. This indication information can be carried in the frame control field. Another explicit indication information can be given in the DEL at the start of the A-MPDU and / or in the first A-MPDU subframe addressed to the primary STA to identify the A-MPDU as a multiple STA A-MPDU. This can be done by using a special DEL signature. Another explicit indication information can be given by PHY layer indication information in the PHY preamble of the PPDU to indicate the presence of a multiple STA A-MPDU, specifically as an indication of which RU contains the multiple STA A-MPDU. As yet another option, the explicit indication information can be given in a separate frame, which can be a dedicated frame or the information field part of a frame, followed directly (e.g., after a regulatory inter-frame space (IFS)) by the PPDU containing the multiple STA A-MPDU. This frame can indicate the same information as the other options of the multiple STA A-MPDU indication information mentioned above.

[0069] Subsequently, an MPDU 11 addressed to the primary receiving STA is included as the first MPDU containing data (Step 46). The RA in the MAC header of each MPDU is set to the MAC address of the STA to which the MPDU is addressed. Further, if the PPDU format requires this information (e.g., includes a user information field as part of a MU-PPDU), the AID is set to the AID of the primary STA.

[0070] If there is an MPDU addressed to a secondary receiving STA, indication information 16 (referred to as secondary STA MPDU indication information or simply secondary MPDU indication information) including the MPDU addressed to the secondary receiving STA is included (Step 47), which can be done by one or more of the following:

[0071] Set a session identifier, which can be added to PHY or MAC signaling;

[0072] Include a tuple in the MAC signaling at the start of the A-MPDU, the tuple having the MAC address of the secondary STA and the MPDU position within the A-MPDU of the MPDU addressed to the secondary STA;

[0073] Use a special DEL before and / or within the A-MPDU subframe containing the MPDU addressed to the secondary STA, which can be done by using a special DEL signature; and

[0074] Include the AID of the secondary STA or the group AID identifying the primary STA and / or the secondary STA in the PHY signaling, the AID or group AID of the secondary STA being addressed in the multi-STA A-MPDU transmitted in the corresponding RU, and the AID or group AID of the secondary STA can be added as part of the user information field.

[0075] Preferably, it should be ensured that the PHY parameters (e.g., MCS, NSS, bandwidth, RU size, guard interval) for configuring the transmission of the PPDU that can carry the multi-STA A-MPDU are supported by all receiving STA, and that all capabilities of each potential receiving STA that can be addressed in the multi-STA A-MPDU are met (e.g., minimum MPDU start interval). In addition, it should preferably be ensured that the TID of the MPDU carried by the multi-STA A-MPDU belongs to an AC having the same or higher priority as the primary AC. The primary AC corresponds to the Enhanced Distributed Channel Access Function (EDCAF) for obtaining channel access.

[0076] Then the multi-STA A-MPDU can be transmitted (step 44) within the TXOP for which the TXOP responder is set to the primary STA, or the primary STA and the secondary STA or all STAs (broadcast). In an embodiment, the acknowledgment policy is set (step 48) to support one of the following (the acknowledgment operations will be described below): immediate response for a single receiving STA, immediate response for at least two receiving STAs, or delayed response or no response for all receiving STAs (where the acknowledgment policy is set to no response (no Ack) or delayed response block Ack (BA)).

[0077] In an embodiment, general primary STA (primary receiver) operation may be as follows. The primary STA, identified by an AID and / or MAC address, listens for any A-MPDU addressed to itself. The primary STA listens for a TXOP and / or participates in TXOP establishment, for which the TXOP responder is set to the primary STA itself or broadcast. The MPDU is retrieved in the RU addressed to the AID and / or in the RU matching the AID of the primary STA itself, or the MPDU addressed to the MAC address matching the primary STA itself is retrieved. Then, the primary STA participates in multi-STA A-MPDU session establishment and identifies itself as the primary receiving STA based on the agreed operation mode. It should be noted in this context that the order of steps may also be different. For example, another (non-limiting) order may be: 1) participate in multi-STA session establishment; 2) participate in TXOP creation; 3) listen for A-MPDU addressed to the primary STA itself or broadcast; 4) retrieve the MPDU addressed to the primary STA itself.

[0078] The RA in the MAC header of the received MPDU, which is part of the A-MPDU, may be evaluated as follows: If the RA corresponds to the MAC address of the primary STA itself, continue processing the MPDU as shown after step 33, i.e., extract, decrypt the MSDU content and forward it to the higher layer. If the RA does not correspond to the MAC address of the primary STA itself, discard the MPDU content and proceed to the next MPDU. The proceed operation is defined by the MPDU length information found in the DEL. Finally, follow the acknowledgment policy set for the received MPDU. Figure 5 In an embodiment, general secondary STA (secondary receiver) operation may be as follows. The secondary STA listens for any A-MPDU addressed to itself or all STAs, or the primary receiving STA, which are identified by the AID and / or MAC address assigned to the secondary STA, broadcast, or the primary STA, respectively. The secondary STA listens for a TXOP and / or participates in TXOP establishment, for which the TXOP responder is set to the secondary STA itself and the primary STA or broadcast, or is set to the primary STA. The MPDU is retrieved in the RU addressed to the AID matching the secondary STA itself and / or the primary STA, or the MPDU addressed to the MAC address matching the secondary STA itself and / or the primary STA. In addition, the secondary STA participates in multi-STA A-MPDU session establishment and identifies itself as the secondary receiving STA based on the agreed operation mode. As described above, the order of steps may be different and is not limited to the order of steps described herein.

[0079]

[0080] ​The secondary STA listens for any A-MPDU that is identified as a multi-STA A-MPDU provided by the transmitting STA. The RA in the MAC header of the received MPDU that is part of the A-MPDU can be evaluated as follows: If the RA corresponds to the MAC address of the secondary STA itself, then continue to process the MPDU as Figure 5 shown, i.e., extract and decrypt the MSDU content. If the RA does not correspond to the MAC address of the secondary STA itself, then discard the MPDU content and advance to the next MPDU. The advancement operation is defined by the MPDU length information found in the DEL. Finally, an acknowledgment policy can be set for the received MPDU.

[0081] It should be noted that the basic element of this disclosure is that the MPDUs in the A-MPDU can be addressed to different receivers. However, it is not necessary to add MPDUs addressed to different receivers in all A-MPDUs. Instead, in some A-MPDUs, all MPDUs can be addressed to the same receiver. For example, this may be the case if there is not enough available time in the PPDU to add MPDUs addressed to different receivers, such as in a preemption scenario. Therefore, the multi-STA A-MPDU indication information can always be present either explicitly or implicitly, while the actual MPDUs with different receiver addresses may or may not be included in the A-MPDU.

[0082] The multi-STA acknowledgment operation will be described below. The acknowledgment process by which the receiver indicates to the transmitter the correct or incorrect reception of the received data unit is a fundamental aspect of the WLAN network providing quality of service. In a WLAN, an acknowledgment can be provided for each MPDU being transmitted. In a multi-STA A-MPDU, at least two MPDUs are directed to different STAs. Therefore, according to an embodiment, the acknowledgment operations are coordinated for all STAs that are receivers of the multi-STA A-MPDU.

[0083] There are at least four main acknowledgment policies (Ack policies) that can be extended to support multi-STA A-MPDU acknowledgment.

[0084] 1) No Ack: This means that when an MPDU is received, the receiving STA will not take any acknowledgment-related actions, and once the MPDU is transmitted, the transmitting STA discards the MPDU.

[0085] 2) Normal Ack: A simple acknowledgment frame transmitted by the receiving STA after a predetermined IFS after receiving the PPDU carrying the MPDU. This policy does not support A-MPDU acknowledgment because the acknowledgment can only provide feedback for the reception of one MPDU.

[0086] 3) Implicit Block Ack Request (BAR): The receiving STA can send acknowledgments for one or more MPDUs within a Block Ack (BA) frame after a predetermined IFS following the reception of the PPDU carrying the MPDUs to be acknowledged, and the Block Ack (BA) frame can be sent individually or as part of the transmitted A-MPDU. This strategy supports A-MPDU acknowledgment.

[0087] 4) BA: The receiving STA does not take immediate action upon receiving an MPDU, except for updating the scoreboard, i.e., recording the acknowledgment status. The receiving STA transmits a BA at a future time point after receiving a BAR from the transmitting STA.

[0088] The Ack strategy can be standardized or pre-agreed as part of multi-STA A-MPDU session establishment, such that only simple indication information identifying the Ack strategy is included in the MPDU. Alternatively, the indication information can be implicitly obtained from the <TID,RA> tuple. The acknowledgment process for multi-STA A-MPDU can be based on the number of receiving ends that require (or do not require) an immediate response. Different Ack strategies will now be explained.

[0089] Figure 8 A schematic diagram illustrating a first embodiment (Case 1) of the Ack strategy according to the present disclosure is shown. According to this embodiment, only the MPDUs addressed to one receiving STA (e.g., STA 2 representing the secondary receiving end) need an immediate response, specifically, they need to be acknowledged immediately after being received. Therefore, STA 2 must use the normal Ack or implicit BAR strategy, while other receiving STAs, such as STA 1 (representing the primary receiving end), must use the BA or no-Ack strategy. This situation can be relevant when STA 2 receives high-priority traffic while STA 1 receives low-priority traffic, such that the time for acknowledgment from STA 2 is urgent, while the acknowledgment from STA 1 can be sent at a later time point.

[0090] In the case where all MPDUs addressed to STA 2 have the same Ack status (successfully decoded or not successfully decoded), the normal Ack strategy can be used to send a compressed BAck. Here, indication information also needs to be added to identify the frame as a compressed BAck covering all acknowledgments for the MPDUs transmitted in the immediately preceding PPDU. In the case of transmitting multiple multi-STA A-MPDUs within a MU-PPDU, only the MPDUs addressed to one STA within one multi-STA A-MPDU can be immediately acknowledged in response.

[0091] According to another embodiment, the MPDUs of at least two receiving STAs need an immediate response. This situation can be further described based on whether the transmitting end supports TF (i.e., whether the STA is an AP).Figure 9 FIG. shows a schematic diagram illustrating a second embodiment (Case 2a) of the Ack policy according to the present disclosure. According to this embodiment, trigger-based operations are performed when the transmitting end is an AP. All MPDUs in the multi-STA A-MPDU that require a response must utilize the BA policy and may also include MPDUs with no Ack policy. The AP immediately (after the IFS) sends a trigger frame (TF) after the PPDU carrying the multi-STA A-MPDU is transmitted. The TF carries a BA request, and the STA responds to the BA request with a corresponding acknowledgment and optionally data units within the trigger-based PPDU (TB-PPDU). As Figure 9 shown, the MPDUs sent to STA 2 and STA 3 require an immediate response, which is sent in the TB-PPDU after the TF sent by the AP. Figure 9 The TB-PPDU in

[0092] contains two RUs, one for STA 2 (upper part) and one for STA 3 (bottom part). If the PPDU carrying the multi-STA A-MPDU contains other MPDUs that do not require an immediate response, the BA can be sent in the same TB-PPDU (different RUs) or at a later time point after the AP sends a BAR (as Figure 9 shown). According to a variant, the AP includes a trigger response schedule (TRS) field with a BA request added in the PPDU containing the multi-STA A-MPDU. As Figure 9 shown, the receiving end STA will respond within the TB-PPDU (after the IFS).

[0093] According to another embodiment, non-trigger-based operations are performed. According to this embodiment, the transmitting end STA can be a non-AP. These cases (Case 2b) focus on non-trigger-based operations because non-AP STAs cannot transmit TFs. However, the operations herein can also be performed by an AP. In Figure 10 a first method is illustrated, which shows a schematic diagram illustrating a third embodiment of the Ack policy according to the present disclosure. According to this first method, the transmitting end STA sets all MPDUs that require a response to the BA policy and then sequentially sends BARs to the receiving end STAs whose MPDUs require an immediate response. The order of BAR transmission can be selected based on the TID. If there are other MPDUs that do not require an immediate response, the transmitting end STA can send a BAR at a later time point.

[0094] In Figure 11A second method is illustrated in the figure, which shows a schematic diagram illustrating a fourth embodiment of the Ack policy according to the present disclosure. According to this second method, an implicit BAR policy is used for MPDUs that require an immediate response with additional indication information, and this additional indication information is Figure 11 shown in Figure 11 as a sequential BAR (SBAR) that indicates to each receiving STA the order in which acknowledgments will be sent. Then, the receiving STA will sequentially send BAck frames after a predetermined IFS after the PPDU carrying the multi-STA A-MPDU has ended. Other MPDUs must be set to the BA or no-Ack policy. In cases where some MPDUs require a non-immediate response, the transmitting STA can send a BAR at a later time point.

[0095] In the foregoing method using BAR or SBAR, if the receiving STAs are the same, non-immediate BAcks can be included in the immediate BAck frame. In the SBAR method, if several receiving STAs send their BAcks sequentially, it is preferable to keep their BAck transmissions time-aligned to avoid collisions and / or to reserve the regulatory IFS. According to Figure 11 Figure 11 , it is assumed that STA 2 and STA 3 are within range of each other, and STA 3 can detect when the BAck(p1) transmission ends, such that STA 3 can immediately send the BAck(p2) frame corresponding to STA 3 after a predetermined IFS.

[0096] In the case where STA 2 and STA 3 are out of range of each other, the transmitting STA can send short Ack frames after each BAck frame from each receiving STA (except the last one) to preserve the time alignment between BAck transmissions. This is illustrated in Figure 12 Figure 12 , which shows a schematic diagram illustrating a fourth embodiment of the Ack policy according to the present disclosure.

[0097] Next, an example of preemption according to the present disclosure will be described. This refers to the case where a high-priority MPDU (addressed to a different STA), called a preemptive MPDU, is inserted into an A-MPDU after the PHYTX start request. This is illustrated in Figure 13 Figure 13 , which shows a schematic diagram of another embodiment of the present disclosure, which relates to inserting a high-priority MPDU 12 into an A-MPDU 10 after the PPDUTX start request. In this case, the preemptive MPDU 12 replaces one or more MPDUs 11 (in this case the last MPDU 11') scheduled for transmission in a later PPDU. Therefore, the transmitting STA should take the following considerations.

[0098] The length of the multi-STA A-MPDU shall not exceed the length of the PSDU indicated in the PHYTX start request at the start of PPDU transmission. This can be achieved by one or more of the following: the length of the preemptive MPDU shall be the same as the length of the non-preemptive MPDU being replaced, and / or fragmentation and padding shall comply with the PSDU length.

[0099] Figure 14 FIG. shows a schematic diagram of an embodiment of inserting a preemptive MPDU in a multi-STA A-MPDU according to the present disclosure using fragmentation. In this case, the MSDU 2 is divided into two parts, where the first part has enough octets to fill the remaining part of the A-MPDU length without exceeding the PSDU length. The second part will be transmitted in a later PPDU (not shown).

[0100] FIG. 15 shows a schematic diagram of an embodiment of inserting a preemptive MPDU in a multi-STA A-MPDU according to the present disclosure using padding. According to Figure 15A the first embodiment shown, a delimiter (DEL) 16 of length zero is used to pad the end of the A-MPDU. This option can be used when the padding length (i.e., the difference between the end of the last A-MPDU subframe and the end of the PSDU) is small or below a predefined margin. According to Figure 15B the second embodiment shown, several MSDUs 17 are aggregated into an A-MSDU 18 to create an MPDU capable of filling the remaining part of the A-MPDU length. This option can be used when the padding length is large or above the margin. However, the following considerations are required: the RAs of the aggregated MSDUs in the A-MSDU shall be the same, the MSDUs used for padding shall have the same or higher priority as the preemptive MSDU, and additional fragmentation of the MSDUs can be performed to obtain an MPDU length that satisfies the A-MPDU length.

[0101] The duration field of the preemptive MPDU shall be the same as the duration fields in all MPDUs within the A-MPDU. That is, it shall provide consistent indication information for the end of the PPDU (the same as all other MPDUs in the A-MPDU), so that other STAs can appropriately set their Network Allocation Vector (NAV).

[0102] To support multi-STA A-MPDU operations with legacy STAs, they can be considered as the primary STA, and the following considerations can be taken into account. The general transmitter STA operations with a legacy STA as the primary receiving STA can be modified as follows: The transmitter STA can transmit a multi-STA A-MPDU to the primary STA that is a legacy STA, and the multi-STA A-MPDU session is not established with this legacy STA. The transmitter STA will use implicit multi-STA A-MPDU indication information, meaning that the PPDU format and the A-MPDU format should be compatible with the legacy version. Only the MPDUs addressed to the primary STA should be included before the MPDUs addressed to the secondary STA. Special DELs or subframes that are not compatible with the legacy version should be inserted after the MPDUs addressed to the primary STA have been transmitted. The DEL or subframe causes the primary STA to be unable to decode the rest of the A-MPDU, and the DEL or subframe also indicates to the secondary STA that the subsequent MPDUs are addressed to this secondary STA.

[0103] Figure 16 FIG. shows a flowchart of an embodiment of a transmission method 100 according to the present disclosure as performed by a transmission device. In a first step 101, input data units to be transmitted to one or more receiving devices are obtained (e.g., received or retrieved from a higher layer) and / or generated. The input data units include MSDUs and / or control data units. In a second step 102, MPDUs are generated from the input data units by adding header information to one or more of the input data units. The header information includes at least the receiving end address of the one or more input data units. In a third step 103, one or more A-MPDUs are generated from the MPDUs. An A-MPDU is generated from at least two MPDUs in the MPDUs. MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices identified by the receiving end addresses in the headers of each MPDU are included in at least one A-MPDU. In a fourth step 104, PPDUs are generated from the A-MPDUs. In a fifth step 105, multi-receiving end indication information is implicitly or explicitly set in the PPDU and / or the A-MPDU. The multi-receiving end indication information indicates whether the A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices. In a sixth step 106, the PPDU is transmitted, wherein the PPDU containing the at least one A-MPDU is transmitted to different receiving devices.

[0104] Figure 17 FIG. shows a flowchart of an embodiment of a receiving method 200 according to the present disclosure as performed by a receiving device capable of processing multi-STA A-MPDU.

[0105] In a first step 201, a PPDU is received from a transmitting device. In a second step 202, multi-receiver indication information is derived from the received PPDU or from an A-MPDU included in the received PPDU, the multi-receiver indication information explicitly or implicitly indicating whether the A-MPDU included in the received PPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices. In a third step 203, at least one A-MPDU is deaggregated for which the multi-receiver indication information indicates that the at least one A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices, and a receiver address is extracted from the header of the MPDU. In a fourth step 204, one or more input data units are obtained from the MPDUs addressed to the receiving device based on the receiver address, the input data unit including an MSDU and / or a control data unit.

[0106] In summary, according to the present disclosure, changes are made to the MAC operation of a WLAN to support the transmission of A-MPDUs containing MPDUs with different receiving stations (STAs). This allows for the insertion of preemptive MPDUs in an ongoing transmission of a PPDU carrying an A-MPDU. Further, if a transmitting STA must deliver data to different STAs with different priorities, this overcomes the limitations of the flexibility of the transmitting STA in conventional WLAN operation.

[0107] Accordingly, the foregoing discussion has only disclosed and described exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the present disclosure may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. Accordingly, the disclosure of the present disclosure is intended to be illustrative, rather than limiting the scope of the present disclosure and other claims. The present disclosure, including any readily discernible variants thereof taught herein, partially defines the scope of the foregoing claim terms such that no inventive subject matter is dedicated to the public.

[0108] In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single element or other unit may perform the functions of several items recited in the claims. The fact that certain means are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these means cannot be used advantageously.

[0109] Insofar as embodiments of the present disclosure have been described as being implemented at least in part by a software-controlled data processing apparatus, it will be recognized that a non-transitory machine-readable medium carrying such software, such as an optical disk, a magnetic disk, a semiconductor memory, etc., is also considered to represent embodiments of the present disclosure. Further, such software may also be distributed in other forms, such as via the Internet or other wired or wireless telecommunication systems.

[0110] Elements of the disclosed devices, apparatuses, and systems can be implemented by corresponding hardware and / or software elements, such as appropriate circuitry. Circuitry is a structural assembly of electronic components that includes conventional circuit elements, integrated circuits (including application specific integrated circuits, standard integrated circuits, application specific standard products, and field programmable gate arrays). Additionally, circuitry includes central processing units, graphics processing units, and microprocessors that are programmed or configured according to software code. Circuitry does not include pure software, although circuitry includes the aforementioned hardware that executes software.

[0111] A list of further embodiments of the disclosed subject matter is as follows:

[0112] 1. A transmission device, including circuitry configured to:

[0113] Obtain and / or generate input data units to be transmitted to one or more receiving devices, the input data units including MAC service data units (MSDUs) and / or control data units;

[0114] Generate MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) from the input data units by adding header information to one or more of the input data units, the header information including at least the receiving end address of the one or more input data units;

[0115] Generate one or more aggregated MAC protocol data units (A-MPDUs) from the MPDUs, wherein an A-MPDU is generated from at least two MPDUs in the MPDUs, and wherein MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices identified by the receiving end address in the header of each MPDU are included in at least one A-MPDU;

[0116] Generate physical layer protocol data units (PPDUs) from the A-MPDUs;

[0117] Set multi-receiving end indication information in the PPDU and / or the A-MPDU, the multi-receiving end indication information implicitly or explicitly indicating whether the A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices; and

[0118] Transmit the PPDU, wherein the PPDU including the at least one A-MPDU is transmitted to different receiving devices.

[0119] 2. The transmission device according to embodiment 1,

[0120] Wherein, the circuit system is configured to include, in the at least one A-MPDU, one or more preemptive secondary MPDUs addressed to a secondary receiving device in addition to one or more primary MPDUs addressed to a primary receiving device, even if the input data units included in the one or more preemptive secondary MPDUs are acquired or generated later than or after the input data units included in the primary MPDUs addressed to the primary receiving device and / or are acquired or generated after a request to start transmission of the PPDU.

[0121] 3. The transmitting device according to Embodiment 2,

[0122] Wherein, the circuit system is configured to include PPDU duration information indicating the PPDU duration in the PPDU containing the at least one A-MPDU.

[0123] 4. The transmitting device according to Embodiment 2 or 3,

[0124] Wherein, the circuit system is configured to replace one or more primary MPDUs scheduled to be transmitted in the at least one A-MPDU with the one or more preemptive secondary MPDUs, and include the replaced one or more primary MPDUs in a PPDU to be transmitted later.

[0125] 5. The transmitting device according to Embodiment 3,

[0126] Wherein, the PPDU duration indicated by the PPDU duration information is maintained in the request to start transmission by one or more of the following:

[0127] Aggregating or fragmenting one or more input data units included in a primary MPDU;

[0128] Aggregating one or more input data units included in a secondary MPDU;

[0129] And

[0130] Inserting padding bits into the A-MPDU.

[0131] 6. The transmitting device according to any one of the foregoing embodiments,

[0132] Wherein, the circuit system is configured to include one or more primary MPDUs addressed to a primary receiving device as one or more initial MPDUs in the A-MPDU, and include one or more secondary MPDUs in the A-MPDU after the one or more initial MPDUs.

[0133] 7. The transmitting device according to Embodiment 6,

[0134] Among them, the circuit system is configured to obtain the transmission opportunity (TXOP) of at least the primary receiving device.

[0135] 8. The transmitting device according to any one of the foregoing embodiments,

[0136] Among them, the circuit system is configured to implicitly signal the receiving device address as multi-receiver indication information, and the receiving device address is part of the MAC header of each MPDU within the A-MPDU, and the receiving device address uniquely identifies the receiving device of the MPDU associated with the MAC header.

[0137] 9. The transmitting device according to any one of the foregoing embodiments,

[0138] Among them, the circuit system is configured to include secondary MPDU indication information in the PPDU containing the at least one A-MPDU and / or in the at least one A-MPDU and / or in each MPDU of the at least one A-MPDU, and the secondary MPDU indication information indicates that the PPDU includes one or more MPDUs addressed to a secondary receiving device different from the primary receiving device addressed by other MPDUs included in the PPDU and / or which MPDUs are addressed to the secondary receiving device.

[0139] 10. The transmitting device according to embodiment 9,

[0140] Among them, the circuit system is configured to include the secondary MPDU indication information in one or more of the following:

[0141] The header and / or signaling field of the PPDU,

[0142] The header of the MPDU of the at least one A-MPDU,

[0143] The signaling field of the at least one A-MPDU,

[0144] The delimiter field of the signaling field of the at least one A-MPDU,

[0145] The header of the first MPDU included in the at least one A-MPDU, and a separate indication information field or frame.

[0146] 11. The transmitting device according to any one of the foregoing embodiments,

[0147] Among them, the circuit system is configured to explicitly indicate that the at least one A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices by including the multi-receiver indication information in one or more of the following:

[0148] The header and / or signaling field of the PPDU,

[0149] The header of the MPDU of the at least one A-MPDU

[0150] The signaling field of the at least one A-MPDU

[0151] The delimiter field of the signaling field of the at least one A-MPDU

[0152] The header of the first MPDU included in the at least one A-MPDU, and a separate indication information field or frame.

[0153] 12. A transmission device according to any one of the foregoing embodiments

[0154] Wherein the circuitry is configured to implicitly indicate that the at least one A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices by including at least one MPDU addressed to the primary receiving end as the first MPDU in the at least one A-MPDU.

[0155] 13. A transmission device according to any one of the foregoing embodiments

[0156] Wherein the circuitry is configured to include the receiving end address at least in the header of the MPDU addressed to a secondary receiving device different from the primary receiving device or in the headers of all MPDUs.) 14. A transmission device according to any one of the foregoing embodiments

[0157] Wherein the circuitry is configured to set an acknowledgment policy that indicates how the receiving device will acknowledge receipt of one or more MSDUs included in the MPDUs of the at least one A-MPDU, and include acknowledgment policy indication information indicating the set acknowledgment policy in each header of the MPDUs of the at least one A-MPDU.

[0158] 15. A transmission device according to embodiment 14

[0159] Wherein the circuitry is configured to set, as part of the set acknowledgment policy:

[0160] Whether and which receiving device will immediately acknowledge receipt of the MSDU, where only a single receiving device will acknowledge receipt at a time, and / or

[0161] Whether receipt of the MSDU will be acknowledged in response to an acknowledgment request or without an acknowledgment request, and / or

[0162] Whether receipt of the MSDU will not be acknowledged at all or will be acknowledged with a delay.

[0163] 16. A transmission device according to any of the foregoing embodiments,

[0164] wherein the circuit system is configured to aggregate or fragment one or more primary MSDUs addressed to a primary receiving device and / or aggregate one or more secondary MSDUs addressed to a secondary receiving device and / or add padding bits to the A-MPDU.

[0165] 17. A transmission device according to any of the foregoing embodiments,

[0166] wherein the circuit system is configured to initially perform session establishment with one or more receiving devices,

[0167] to agree whether multi-receiver operation can be used, in which the A-MPDU can include MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices, and / or

[0168] to delimit the primary receiving device and one or more secondary receiving devices in the multi-receiver operation, and / or

[0169] to exchange capabilities and parameters to be used in the multi-receiver operation.

[0170] 18. A transmission device according to any of the foregoing embodiments,

[0171] wherein the circuit system is configured to use parameters for PHY layer processing, the parameters being supported by multiple receiving devices or all receiving devices to which the MPDU in the at least one A-MPDU can be addressed, and / or the parameters being based on the link quality of the receiving devices to which the MPDU in the at least one A-MPDU can be addressed.

[0172] 19. A receiving device, comprising a circuit system configured to:

[0173] receive a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from a transmission device;

[0174] derive multi-receiver indication information from the received PPDU or an aggregated MAC protocol data unit (A-MPDU) included in the received PPDU, the multi-receiver indication information explicitly or implicitly indicating whether the A-MPDU included in the received PPDU includes MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) addressed to different receiving devices; and de-aggregate at least one A-MPDU for which the multi-receiver indication information indicates that the at least one A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices, and extract the receiver address from the header of the MPDU; and

[0175] Obtain one or more input data units from the MPDUs addressed to the receiving device based on the receiving end address, where the input data units include MAC service data units (MSDUs)

[0176] and / or control data units.

[0177] 20. The receiving device according to claim 19,

[0178] wherein the circuitry is configured to:

[0179] Derive secondary MPDU indication information from the PPDU and / or the at least one A-MPDU, where the secondary MPDU indication information indicates that the at least one A-MPDU includes one or more MPDUs addressed to the receiving device different from the primary receiving device addressed by at least the first MPDU included in the at least one A-MPDU and / or which MPDUs

[0180] are addressed to the receiving device; and

[0181] Obtain one or more MPDUs addressed to the receiving device based on the secondary MPDU indication information.

[0182] 21. The receiving device according to claim 19 or 20,

[0183] wherein the circuitry is configured to derive multi-receiving end indication information and / or secondary MPDU indication information from one or more of the following:

[0184] The header and / or signaling field of the PPDU,

[0185] The header of the MPDU of the at least one A-MPDU,

[0186] The signaling field of the at least one A-MPDU,

[0187] The delimiter field of the signaling field of the at least one A-MPDU,

[0188] The header of the first MPDU included in the at least one A-MPDU,

[0189] A separate indication information field or frame, and

[0190] The header of the first MPDU addressed to the primary receiving end.

[0191] 22. The receiving device according to any one of embodiments 19 to 21,

[0192] Wherein, the circuit system is configured to derive, from each MPDU in the at least one A-MPDU in the received PPDU, acknowledgment policy indication information indicating an acknowledgment policy set by the transmitting device, the acknowledgment policy indicating how the receiving device will acknowledge receipt of one or more MSDUs included in the MPDUs in the at least one A-MPDU, and is configured to acknowledge receipt of the MSDU according to the acknowledgment policy.

[0193] 23. The receiving device according to Embodiment 22,

[0194] Wherein, the circuit system is configured to, based on the indicated acknowledgment policy,

[0195] immediately transmit an acknowledgment of receipt of the MSDU, and / or

[0196] in response to an acknowledgment request or without an acknowledgment request, transmit an acknowledgment of receipt of the MSDU, and / or

[0197] not transmit or delay transmitting an acknowledgment of receipt of the MSDU.

[0198] 24. The receiving device according to any one of Embodiments 19 to 23,

[0199] Wherein, the circuit system is configured to participate in session establishment with the transmitting device,

[0200] to agree whether multi-receiver operation can be used, in which the A-MPDU can include MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices, and / or

[0201] to designate the receiving device as the primary receiving device and / or secondary receiving device in the multi-receiver operation, and / or

[0202] to exchange capabilities and parameters to be used in the multi-receiver operation.

[0203] 25. A transmission method, comprising:

[0204] Obtaining and / or generating input data units to be transmitted to one or more receiving devices, the input data units including MAC service data units (MSDUs) and / or control data

[0205] units;

[0206] Generating MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) from the input data units by adding header information to one or more of the input data units, the header information including at least the receiving end address of the one or more input data units;

[0207] One or more aggregated MAC protocol data units (A-MPDUs) are generated from the MPDU, wherein the A-MPDU is generated from at least two MPDUs in the MPDU, and wherein the MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices identified by the receiving end address in the header of each MPDU are included in at least one A-MPDU;

[0208] A physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) is generated from the A-MPDU;

[0209] Multi-receiver indication information is set in the PPDU and / or the A-MPDU, and the multi-receiver indication information implicitly or explicitly indicates whether the A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices; and

[0210] The PPDU is transmitted, wherein the PPDU containing the at least one A-MPDU is transmitted to different receiving devices.

[0211] 26. A receiving method, comprising:

[0212] Receiving a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from a transmitting device;

[0213] Deriving multi-receiver indication information from the received PPDU or an aggregated MAC protocol data unit (A-MPDU) included in the received PPDU, and the multi-receiver indication information explicitly or implicitly indicates whether the A-MPDU included in the received PPDU includes MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) addressed to different receiving devices; and

[0214] Deaggregating at least one A-MPDU, for which the multi-receiver indication information indicates that the at least one A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices, and extracting the receiving end address from the header of the MPDU; and

[0215] Obtaining one or more input data units from the MPDU addressed to the receiving device based on the receiving end address, and the input data unit includes a MAC service data unit (MSDU)

[0216] and / or a control data unit.

[0217] 27. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, in which a computer program product is stored, and when the computer program product is executed by a processor, the method according to Embodiment 25 or 26 is executed.

[0218] 28. A computer program comprising program code means for causing a computer to perform the steps of the method according to embodiment 25 or 26 when the computer program is executed on a computer.

Claims

1. A transmission device, including a circuit system, the circuit system being configured to: acquire and / or generate input data units to be transmitted to one or more receiving devices, the input data units including MAC service data units (MSDUs) and / or control data units; generate MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) from the input data units by adding header information to one or more of the input data units, the header information at least including the receiving end addresses of the one or more input data units; generate one or more aggregated MAC protocol data units (A-MPDUs) from the MPDUs, wherein the A-MPDUs are generated from at least two MPDUs among the MPDUs, and wherein the MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices identified by the receiving end addresses in the headers of each MPDU are included in at least one A-MPDU; generate physical layer protocol data units (PPDUs) from the A-MPDUs; set multi-receiving end indication information in the PPDU and / or the A-MPDU, the multi-receiving end indication information implicitly or explicitly indicating whether the A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices; and transmit the PPDU, wherein the PPDU containing the at least one A-MPDU is transmitted to different receiving devices.

2. The transmission device according to claim 1, wherein, the circuit system is configured to include, in the at least one A-MPDU, one or more preemptive secondary MPDUs addressed to secondary receiving devices in addition to one or more primary MPDUs addressed to a primary receiving device, even if the input data units included in the one or more preemptive secondary MPDUs are acquired or generated later than or after the input data units included in the primary MPDUs addressed to the primary receiving device and / or are acquired or generated after a request to start transmission of the PPDU.

3. The transmission device according to claim 2, wherein, the circuit system is configured to replace one or more primary MPDUs scheduled to be transmitted in the at least one A-MPDU with the one or more preemptive secondary MPDUs, and include the replaced one or more primary MPDUs in a PPDU to be transmitted later.

4. The transmission device according to claim 1, wherein, the circuit system is configured to include PPDU duration information indicating the PPDU duration in the PPDU containing the at least one A-MPDU, and / or maintain the PPDU duration indicated by the PPDU duration information in a request to start transmission by one or more of the following: aggregating or fragmenting one or more input data units included in primary MPDUs; aggregating one or more input data units included in secondary MPDUs; and inserting padding bits into the A-MPDU.

5. The transmission device according to claim 1, wherein, The circuit system is configured to include one or more primary MPDUs addressed to a primary receiving device as one or more initial MPDUs in the A-MPDU, and to include one or more secondary MPDUs in the A-MPDU after the one or more initial MPDUs.

6. The transmitting device according to claim 5, wherein, the circuit system is configured to obtain a transmission opportunity (TXOP) for at least the primary receiving device.

7. The transmitting device according to claim 1, wherein, the circuit system is configured to implicitly signal a receiving device address as multi-receiver indication information, the receiving device address being part of the MAC header of each MPDU within the A-MPDU, the receiving device address uniquely identifying the receiving device of the MPDU associated with the MAC header.

8. The transmitting device according to claim 1, wherein, the circuit system is configured to include secondary MPDU indication information in the PPDU containing the at least one A-MPDU and / or in the at least one A-MPDU and / or in each MPDU of the at least one A-MPDU, the secondary MPDU indication information indicating that the PPDU includes one or more MPDUs addressed to a secondary receiving device different from the primary receiving device to which other MPDUs included in the PPDU are addressed and / or which MPDUs are addressed to the secondary receiving device; specifically, to include the secondary MPDU indication information in one or more of the following: the header and / or signaling field of the PPDU, the header of the MPDU of the at least one A-MPDU, the signaling field of the at least one A-MPDU, the separator field of the signaling field of the at least one A-MPDU, the header of the first MPDU included in the at least one A-MPDU, and a separate indication information field or frame.

9. The transmitting device according to claim 1, wherein, the circuit system is configured to explicitly indicate that the at least one A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices by including the multi-receiver indication information in one or more of the following: the header and / or signaling field of the PPDU, the header of the MPDU of the at least one A-MPDU, the signaling field of the at least one A-MPDU, the separator field of the signaling field of the at least one A-MPDU, the header of the first MPDU included in the at least one A-MPDU, and a separate indication information field or frame.

10. The transmitting device according to claim 1, wherein, the circuit system is configured to implicitly indicate that the at least one A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices by including at least one MPDU addressed to the primary receiving end as the first MPDU in the at least one A-MPDU.

11. The transmitting device according to claim 1, wherein, The circuit system is configured to set an acknowledgment policy that indicates how the receiving device will acknowledge receipt of one or more MSDUs included in the MPDUs of the at least one A-MPDU, and acknowledgment policy indication information indicating the set acknowledgment policy is included in each header of the MPDUs of the at least one A-MPDU. Specifically, as part of the set acknowledgment policy, the circuit system is configured to set: whether and which receiving device will immediately acknowledge receipt of the MSDU, where only a single receiving device will acknowledge receipt at a time, and / or whether receipt of the MSDU will be acknowledged in response to an acknowledgment request or without an acknowledgment request, and / or whether receipt of the MSDU will not be acknowledged at all or will be acknowledged with a delay.

12. The transmitting device according to claim 1, wherein, the circuit system is configured to aggregate or fragment one or more primary MSDUs addressed to a primary receiving device and / or aggregate one or more secondary MSDUs addressed to a secondary receiving device and / or add padding bits to the A-MPDU.

13. The transmitting device according to claim 1, wherein, the circuit system is configured to initially perform session establishment with one or more receiving devices, to agree whether multi-receiver operation can be used, in which the A-MPDU can include MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices, and / or to define a primary receiving device and one or more secondary receiving devices in the multi-receiver operation, and / or to exchange capabilities and parameters to be used in the multi-receiver operation.

14. The transmitting device according to claim 1, wherein, the circuit system is configured to use parameters for PHY layer processing, the parameters being supported by multiple receiving devices or all receiving devices to which the MPDU in the at least one A-MPDU can be addressed, and / or the parameters being based on the link quality of the receiving devices to which the MPDU in the at least one A-MPDU can be addressed.

15. A receiving device, comprising a circuit system configured to: receive a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from a transmitting device; derive multi-receiver indication information from the received PPDU or an aggregated MAC protocol data unit (A-MPDU) included in the received PPDU, the multi-receiver indication information explicitly or implicitly indicating whether the A-MPDU included in the received PPDU includes MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) addressed to different receiving devices ； and deaggregate at least one A-MPDU for which the multi-receiver indication information indicates that the at least one A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices, and extract a receiver address from the header of the MPDU; and obtain one or more input data units, including MAC service data units (MSDUs) and / or control data units, from the MPDUs addressed to the receiving device based on the receiver address.

16. The receiving device according to claim 15, wherein, the circuit system is configured to: derive secondary MPDU indication information from the PPDU and / or the at least one A-MPDU, the secondary MPDU indication information indicating which of the at least one A-MPDU includes one or more MPDUs addressed to a receiving device different from the primary receiving device to which at least a first MPDU included in the at least one A-MPDU is addressed and / or which MPDUs are addressed to the receiving device; and obtain one or more MPDUs addressed to the receiving device based on the secondary MPDU indication information.

17. The receiving device according to claim 15, wherein, the circuit system is configured to participate in session establishment with a transmitting device, to agree on whether multi-receiver operation can be used, in which an A-MPDU can include MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices, and / or to define the receiving device as a primary receiving device and / or a secondary receiving device in the multi-receiver operation, and / or to exchange capabilities and parameters to be used in the multi-receiver operation.

18. A transmission method, comprising: obtaining and / or generating input data units to be transmitted to one or more receiving devices, the input data units including MAC service data units (MSDUs) and / or control data units; generating MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) from the input data units by adding header information to one or more of the input data units, the header information including at least the receiving end addresses of the one or more input data units; generating one or more aggregated MAC protocol data units (A-MPDUs) from the MPDUs, wherein the A-MPDUs are generated from at least two MPDUs among the MPDUs, and wherein MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices identified by the receiving end addresses in the headers of each MPDU are included in at least one A-MPDU; generating a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from the A-MPDU; setting multi-receiver indication information in the PPDU and / or the A-MPDU, the multi-receiver indication information implicitly or explicitly indicating whether the A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices; and transmitting the PPDU, wherein the PPDU containing the at least one A-MPDU is transmitted to different receiving devices.

19. A receiving method, comprising: receiving a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from a transmitting device; deriving multi-receiver indication information from the received PPDU or an aggregated MAC protocol data unit (A-MPDU) included in the received PPDU, the multi-receiver indication information explicitly or implicitly indicating whether the A-MPDU included in the received PPDU includes MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) addressed to different receiving devices; and Deaggregate at least one A-MPDU, where for the at least one A-MPDU, multi-receiver indication information indicates that the at least one A-MPDU includes MPDUs addressed to different receiving devices, and extract receiver addresses from headers of the MPDUs; And Obtain one or more input data units from the MPDUs addressed to the receiving device based on the receiver addresses, where the input data units include MAC service data units (MSDUs) and / or control data units.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having stored thereon a computer program product which, when executed by a processor, causes the method according to claim 18 or 19 to be performed.

Images