Forward compatible puncturing indication

Abstract

The present disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus for wireless communications that may be used for channel puncturing. A wireless station (STA) may receive an indication of a first puncturing pattern used to transmit or receive data on a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern defined by a first wireless communications protocol release, and the STA configured to operate according to a second wireless communications protocol release. The STA may select a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communications protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. The STA may transmit or receive one or more packets on the wireless channel using the second puncturing pattern.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This patent application claims priority to commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17 / 328,464, entitled "FORWARD-COMPATIBLE PUNCTURING INDICATIONS," filed May 24, 2021. The disclosures of all prior applications are considered part of, and incorporated by reference into, this patent application.

[0002] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to wireless communications related to channel puncturing. [Background technology]

[0003] A wireless local area network (WLAN) may be formed by one or more access points (APs), which provide a shared wireless communication medium for use by several client devices, also called stations (STAs). The basic building block of a WLAN compliant with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards is the basic service set (BSS) managed by the AP. Each BSS is identified by a basic service set identifier (BSSID), which is advertised by the AP. The AP periodically broadcasts beacon frames to allow any STA within wireless range of the AP to establish or maintain a communication link with the WLAN.

[0004] Channel puncturing is a wireless communication technique that enables a wireless communication device (e.g., an AP or STA) to transmit and receive wireless communications over a portion of a wireless channel except for a particular subchannel (referred to as a "punctured subchannel"). For example, if a wireless communication device detects that a 20 MHz subchannel of a 160 MHz wireless channel is occupied, the wireless communication device can use channel puncturing to avoid communicating over the occupied subchannel while still utilizing the remaining 140 MHz bandwidth. Accordingly, channel puncturing enables a wireless communication device to improve or maximize its throughput by utilizing more spectrum than is available.

[0005] New WLAN communication protocols are being developed to enable enhanced communication features, such as, for example, increased communication bandwidth. New channel puncturing patterns may also be defined to increase the flexibility with which wireless communication devices can increase or maximize throughput on unoccupied subchannels of a wireless channel while avoiding transmitting or receiving data on occupied subchannels of the wireless channel. Summary of the Invention [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The systems, methods, and devices of the present disclosure each have several innovative aspects, no single aspect of which is solely responsible for the desirable properties disclosed herein.

[0007] One innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure may be implemented as a method of wireless communication. The method may be executed by a wireless station (STA) and may include receiving an indication of a first puncturing pattern used to transmit or receive data over a wireless channel. The first puncturing pattern may be defined by a first wireless communication protocol release. The STA may be configured to operate according to a second wireless communication protocol release that is different from the first wireless communication protocol release. The method may include selecting a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. The method may include transmitting or receiving one or more packets over the wireless channel based on the second puncturing pattern. In some examples, the STA is not configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release or is unable to decode a puncturing pattern defined by the first wireless communication protocol release.

[0008] In some implementations, selecting the second puncturing pattern may be based on a match between the received bitmap and one or more stored bitmaps corresponding to a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communication protocol release. The second puncturing pattern may include an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel corresponding to a primary channel of the access point (AP). In some examples, the second puncturing pattern may include a 320 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth, an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth, or an 80+40 MHz frequency bandwidth. In other examples, the second puncturing pattern may include a 160 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth or a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern may include an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern may include a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth without puncturing or a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth without puncturing.

[0009] In some implementations, the indication may be a bitmap including a plurality of bits, each bit of the bitmap indicating whether a corresponding subchannel of the wireless channel is punctured by the first puncturing pattern. In some examples, the bitmap may be received within an Very High Throughput (EHT) operation element of a beacon frame, an association response frame, a probe response frame, or an action frame.

[0010] In some implementations, selecting the second puncturing pattern also includes identifying each of the puncturing patterns of a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release that includes unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern, and selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern. In some examples, the method may also include determining, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns that include the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns includes unpunctured subchannels associated with a relatively high frequency of the wireless channel or a relatively low frequency of the wireless channel. The method may also include selecting the second puncturing pattern based on the determination. In some other examples, the method may also include determining, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns is associated with the bitmap having the highest binary index or the bitmap having the lowest binary index. The method may also include selecting a second puncturing pattern based on the determination.

[0011] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure may be implemented in a wireless communication device. The wireless communication device may include at least one modem, at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one modem, and at least one memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor. In some implementations, the at least one memory may store processor-readable code that, when executed by the at least one processor in conjunction with the at least one modem, is configured to receive an indication of a first puncturing pattern used to transmit or receive data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communication protocol release. The wireless communication device may be configured to operate according to a second wireless communication protocol release that is different from the first wireless communication protocol release. Execution of the processor-readable code may be configured to select a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communication protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. Execution of the processor-readable code may be configured to transmit or receive one or more packets over a wireless channel based on the second puncturing pattern. In some examples, the wireless communication device is not configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release or is unable to decode puncturing patterns defined by the first wireless communication protocol release.

[0012] In some implementations, selecting the second puncturing pattern may be based on a match between the received bitmap and one or more stored bitmaps corresponding to a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release. The second puncturing pattern may include an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel corresponding to the AP's primary channel. In some examples, the second puncturing pattern may include a 320 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth, an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth, or an 80+40 MHz frequency bandwidth. In other examples, the second puncturing pattern may include a 160 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth or a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern may include an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern may include a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth without puncturing or a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth without puncturing.

[0013] In some implementations, the indication may be a bitmap including multiple bits, each bit of the bitmap indicating whether a corresponding subchannel of the wireless channel is punctured by the first puncturing pattern. In some examples, the bitmap may be received within an EHT operation element of a beacon frame, an association response frame, a probe response frame, or an action frame.

[0014] In some implementations, selecting the second puncturing pattern also includes identifying each of the puncturing patterns of a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release that includes unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern, and selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern. In some examples, execution of the processor-readable code may be further configured to determine, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns that include the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns includes unpunctured subchannels associated with a relatively high frequency of the wireless channel or a relatively low frequency of the wireless channel. Execution of the processor-readable code may also be configured to select the second puncturing pattern based on the determination. In some other examples, execution of the processor-readable code may be further configured to determine, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns is associated with the bitmap having the highest binary index or the bitmap having the lowest binary index. Execution of the processor-readable code may also be configured to select a second puncturing pattern based on the determination.

[0015] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure may be implemented as a method of wireless communication. The method may be performed by an AP and may include selecting a first puncturing pattern to be used for transmitting or receiving data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communication protocol release. The method may include determining the presence of one or more STAs configured to operate according to a second wireless communication protocol release. In response to determining the presence of the one or more STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release, the method may include selecting a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. The method may include transmitting one or more packets over the wireless channel to or receiving from at least the STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release based on the second puncturing pattern. In some examples, selecting the second puncturing pattern may be based on a match between a first bitmap corresponding to the first puncturing pattern and one or more second bitmaps corresponding to a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the STA is not configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release or is unable to decode puncturing patterns defined by the first wireless communication protocol release.

[0016] In some implementations, the method may also include transmitting an indication of the second puncturing pattern to at least STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the indication may be a bit carried in an EHT action element of a beacon frame, an association response frame, a probe response frame, or an action frame.

[0017] In some implementations, the second puncturing pattern may include an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel corresponding to the AP's primary channel. In some examples, the second puncturing pattern may include a 320 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth, an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth, or an 80+40 MHz frequency bandwidth. In other examples, the second puncturing pattern may include a 160 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth or a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern may include an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern may include a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth without puncturing or a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth without puncturing.

[0018] In some implementations, selecting the second puncturing pattern also includes identifying each of the puncturing patterns of a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release that includes unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern, and selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern. In some examples, the method may also include determining, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns that include the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns includes unpunctured subchannels associated with a relatively high frequency of the wireless channel or a relatively low frequency of the wireless channel. The method may also include selecting the second puncturing pattern based on the determination. In some other examples, the method may also include determining, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns is associated with the bitmap having the highest binary index or the bitmap having the lowest binary index. The method may also include selecting a second puncturing pattern based on the determination.

[0019] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure may be implemented in a wireless communication device. The wireless communication device may include at least one modem, at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one modem, and at least one memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor. In some implementations, the at least one memory may store processor-readable code that, when executed by the at least one processor in cooperation with the at least one modem, is configured to select a first puncturing pattern to be used for transmitting or receiving data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communication protocol release. Execution of the processor-readable code may be configured to determine the presence of one or more STAs configured to operate according to a second wireless communication protocol release. Execution of the processor-readable code may be configured to, in response to determining the presence of one or more STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release, select a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. Execution of the processor-readable code may be configured to transmit one or more packets over a wireless channel to or receive from at least the STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release based on the second puncturing pattern. In some examples, selecting the second puncturing pattern may be based on a match between a first bitmap corresponding to the first puncturing pattern and one or more second bitmaps corresponding to the set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release.In some examples, the STA is not configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release or is unable to decode a puncturing pattern defined by the first wireless communication protocol release.

[0020] In some implementations, execution of the processor-readable code may be further configured to transmit an indication of the second puncturing pattern to at least STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the indication may be a bit carried in an EHT action element of a beacon frame, an association response frame, a probe response frame, or an action frame.

[0021] In some implementations, the second puncturing pattern may include an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel corresponding to the primary channel of the wireless communication device. In some examples, the second puncturing pattern may include a 320 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth, an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth, or an 80+40 MHz frequency bandwidth. In other examples, the second puncturing pattern may include a 160 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth or a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern may include an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern may include a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth without puncturing or a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth without puncturing.

[0022] In some implementations, selecting the second puncturing pattern also includes identifying each of the puncturing patterns of a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release that includes unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern, and selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern. In some examples, execution of the processor-readable code may be further configured to determine, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns that include the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns includes unpunctured subchannels associated with a relatively high frequency of the wireless channel or a relatively low frequency of the wireless channel. Execution of the processor-readable code may also be further configured to select the second puncturing pattern based on the determination. In some other examples, execution of the processor-readable code may be further configured to determine, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns is associated with the bitmap having the highest binary index or the bitmap having the lowest binary index. Execution of the processor-readable code may also be further configured to select a second puncturing pattern based on the determination.

[0023] The details of one or more implementations of the subject matter described in this disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, aspects, and advantages will become apparent from the description, drawings, and claims. It should be noted that the relative dimensions of the following figures may not be drawn to scale. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0024] [Figure 1] 1 is a pictorial diagram of an exemplary wireless communication network. [Figure 2A] 1 illustrates an exemplary protocol data unit (PDU) that may be used for communication between an access point (AP) and one or more stations (STAs). [Figure 2B] 2B illustrates exemplary fields in the PDU of FIG. 2A. [Figure 3A] 1 illustrates an exemplary PDU that can be used for communication between an AP and each of several STAs. [Figure 3B] FIG. 10 illustrates another exemplary PDU that may be used in communications between an AP and each of several STAs. [Figure 4] 1 illustrates an exemplary Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) that can be used for communication between an AP and each of several STAs. [Figure 5] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example wireless communication device. [Figure 6A] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example AP. [Figure 6B] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary STA. [Figure 7] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary tone plan that can be used for orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) transmission over an 80 MHz bandwidth. [Figure 8A] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary bitmap showing puncturing patterns usable for wireless communications over 20 MHz, 40 MHz, and 80 MHz bandwidths. [Figure 8B] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary bitmap showing puncturing patterns available for wireless communication over a 160 MHz bandwidth. [Figure 8C] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary bitmap showing puncturing patterns available for wireless communication over a 320 MHz bandwidth. [Figure 9]FIG. 1 illustrates a set of exemplary puncturing patterns usable for wireless communications over an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth according to one wireless communications protocol release. [Figure 10A] FIG. 1 illustrates a set of exemplary puncturing patterns usable for wireless communications over a 160 MHz bandwidth according to one wireless communications protocol release. [Figure 10B] FIG. 1 illustrates another example set of puncturing patterns usable for wireless communications over a 160 MHz frequency bandwidth according to one wireless communications protocol release. [Figure 11A] FIG. 1 illustrates a set of exemplary puncturing patterns usable for wireless communications over a 320 MHz bandwidth according to one wireless communications protocol release. [Figure 11B] FIG. 1 illustrates a set of exemplary puncturing patterns usable for wireless communications over a 320 MHz bandwidth according to another wireless communications protocol release. [Figure 12A] FIG. 1 illustrates a set of exemplary puncturing patterns usable for wireless communications over a 320 MHz bandwidth according to one wireless communications protocol release. [Figure 12B] FIG. 1 illustrates a set of exemplary puncturing patterns usable for wireless communications over a 320 MHz bandwidth according to another wireless communications protocol release. [Figure 13A] FIG. 1 illustrates another example set of puncturing patterns usable for wireless communications over a 320 MHz bandwidth according to one wireless communications protocol release. [Figure 13B] FIG. 10 illustrates another example set of puncturing patterns usable for wireless communications over a 320 MHz bandwidth according to another wireless communications protocol release. [Figure 13C] 11A, 12A, and 13A, in accordance with some implementations. FIG. [Figure 13D] FIG. 11B illustrates an example bitmap illustrating the puncturing patterns of FIGS. 11B, 12B, and 13B, according to some implementations. [Figure 14A] FIG. 10 is an example sequence diagram for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing. [Figure 14B] FIG. 10 is another example sequence diagram for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing. [Figure 15A] 1 illustrates an exemplary beacon frame that can be used for wireless communications that support channel puncturing. [Figure 15B] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an EHT operational element that can be used for wireless communication, according to some implementations. [Figure 15C] FIG. 1 illustrates an example bitmap that can be used to indicate a channel puncturing pattern, according to some implementations. [Figure 16] 1 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some implementations. [Figure 17] 1 is a flowchart illustrating another example process for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some implementations. [Figure 18] 1 is a flowchart illustrating another example process for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some implementations. [Figure 19] 1 is a flowchart illustrating another example process for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some implementations. [Figure 20] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some other implementations. [Figure 21]10 is a flowchart illustrating another example process for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some other implementations. [Figure 22] 10 is a flowchart illustrating another example process for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some other implementations. [Figure 23] 10 is a flowchart illustrating another example process for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some other implementations. [Figure 24] 10 is a flowchart illustrating another example process for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some other implementations. [Figure 25] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary wireless communication device, according to some implementations. [Figure 26] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an example wireless communication device according to some other implementations. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0025] Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.

[0026] The following description is directed to several implementations for purposes of describing innovative aspects of the present disclosure. However, those skilled in the art will readily recognize that the teachings herein can be applied in many different ways. The described implementations can be implemented in any device, system, or network capable of transmitting and receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in accordance with, among other things, one or more of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard, the IEEE 802.15 standard, the Bluetooth® standard as defined by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), or the Long Term Evolution (LTE), 3G, 4G, or 5G (New Radio (NR)) standards promulgated by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP®). The described implementations may be implemented in any device, system, or network capable of transmitting and receiving RF signals according to one or more of the following technologies or techniques: code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), single-user (SU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), and multi-user (MU) MIMO. The described implementations may also be implemented using other wireless communication protocols or RF signals suitable for use in one or more of a wireless personal area network (WPAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless wide area network (WWAN), or an internet of things (IoT) network.

[0027] Various implementations generally relate to channel puncturing in wireless communications. Some implementations, more particularly, relate to a punctured channel indication that supports channel puncturing based on different sets of puncturing patterns defined by different wireless communication protocol releases. Channel puncturing is a wireless communication technique that enables a wireless communication device (e.g., an AP or STA) to transmit or receive wireless communications on some subchannels (called “unpunctured subchannels”) of a wireless channel while avoiding other subchannels (called “punctured subchannels”) of the wireless channel. For example, if a wireless communication device determines that a 20 MHz subchannel of a 160 MHz wireless channel is occupied, the wireless communication device can use channel puncturing to avoid transmitting or receiving data on the occupied 20 MHz subchannel while still utilizing the other unoccupied 140 MHz bandwidth of the wireless channel. Accordingly, channel puncturing enables a wireless communication device to improve or maximize throughput by utilizing more of the available channel bandwidth.

[0028] As the bandwidth of a wireless channel increases, the likelihood of interference on one or more subchannels of the wireless channel also increases. Therefore, as new WLAN communication protocols enable access to a larger range of bandwidths, new or additional channel puncturing patterns may be needed to efficiently utilize the available wider channel bandwidth. The wider channel bandwidth may also be efficiently utilized by defining new puncturing patterns having a smaller puncturing granularity than existing puncturing patterns. For example, while existing puncturing patterns may indicate whether some 40 MHz or 80 MHz subchannels of a 320 MHz frequency bandwidth are punctured, a new puncturing pattern may be defined that similarly indicates whether some 20 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth are punctured.

[0029] These new or additional puncturing patterns may increase both the number and size of bitmaps used to indicate which puncturing patterns of a set of puncturing patterns are used to transmit or receive data over a wireless channel. A wireless communication device configured to operate according to one wireless communication protocol release that defines a relatively small set of puncturing patterns may not be able to decode a bitmap associated with another wireless communication protocol release that defines a relatively large set of puncturing patterns. Moreover, the wireless communication device is unaware of the new or additional puncturing patterns defined by the other wireless communication protocol release.

[0030] Aspects of the present disclosure recognize that to ensure compatibility between wireless communication devices configured to operate according to different wireless communication protocol releases that define different numbers or configurations of puncturing patterns, a wireless communication device operating according to one wireless communication protocol release should be able to determine or derive puncturing patterns defined by another wireless communication protocol release. In some implementations, a wireless communication device such as a STA may receive an indication of a first puncturing pattern used to transmit or receive data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern defined by the first wireless communication protocol release, and the STA is configured to operate according to a second wireless communication protocol release and is unable to decode the puncturing pattern defined by the first wireless communication protocol release (e.g., because the STA is not configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release). The STA may select a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. The STA may transmit or receive one or more packets over the wireless channel using the second puncturing pattern.

[0031] In some other implementations, a wireless communication device, such as an AP, may select a first puncturing pattern defined by a first wireless communication protocol release to be used to transmit or receive data over a wireless channel. The AP may determine the presence of one or more STAs configured to operate according to a second wireless communication protocol release. In response to the presence of the one or more STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release, the AP may select a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. The AP may transmit one or more packets over the wireless channel based on the second puncturing pattern to or receive from at least STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release rather than the first wireless communication protocol release.

[0032] Particular implementations of the subject matter described in this disclosure may be implemented to achieve one or more of the following potential advantages: By providing a mechanism by which a wireless communication device configured to operate according to one wireless communication protocol release can determine or derive a puncturing pattern to use for transmitting or receiving data over a wireless channel based on an indication of a puncturing pattern defined by another wireless communication protocol release, aspects of the present disclosure may ensure compatibility between wireless communication devices configured to operate according to different wireless communication protocol releases that define different numbers or configurations of puncturing patterns.

[0033] 1 shows a block diagram of an exemplary wireless communication network 100. According to some aspects, the wireless communication network 100 may be an example of a wireless local area network (WLAN), such as a Wi-Fi network (hereinafter referred to as WLAN 100). For example, the WLAN 100 may be a network implementing at least one of the IEEE 802.11 wireless communication protocol standards (such as those defined by the IEEE 802.11-2016 specification or amendments thereto, including, but not limited to, 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, 802.11be, and 802.11bf, in addition to further amendments). The WLAN 100 may include a number of wireless communication devices, such as an access point (AP) 102 and multiple stations (STAs) 104. Although only one AP 102 is shown, the WLAN network 100 may also include multiple APs 102 .

[0034] Each of the STAs 104 may also be referred to as a mobile station (MS), mobile device, mobile handset, wireless handset, access terminal (AT), user equipment (UE), subscriber station (SS), or subscriber unit, among other possible examples. The STAs 104 may represent a variety of devices, such as a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), other handheld device, netbook, notebook computer, tablet computer, laptop, display device (e.g., a TV, computer monitor, navigation system, among others), music or other audio or stereo device, remote control device ("remote"), printer, kitchen appliance or other household appliance, key fob (e.g., for a passive keyless entry and start (PKES) system), among other possible examples.

[0035] A single AP 102 and the associated set of STAs 104 may be referred to as a basic service set (BSS) managed by the respective AP 102. FIG. 1 also shows an example coverage area 106 of the AP 102, which may represent a basic service area (BSA) of the WLAN 100. The BSS may be identified to users by a service set identifier (SSID) and to other devices by a basic service set identifier (BSSID), which may be the medium access control (MAC) address of the AP 102. The AP 102 periodically broadcasts a beacon frame (“beacon”) containing the BSSID to enable any STAs 104 within wireless range of the AP 102 to “associate” or reassociate with the AP 102 to establish or maintain a respective communication link 108 (hereinafter also referred to as a “Wi-Fi link”). For example, the beacon may include an identification of the primary channel used by each AP 102, as well as timing synchronization functions for establishing or maintaining timing synchronization with the AP 102. The APs 102 may provide access to external networks for various STAs 104 within the WLAN via their respective communication links 108.

[0036] To establish a communication link 108 with an AP 102, each of the STAs 104 is configured to perform passive or active scanning operations (“scans”) on frequency channels in one or more frequency bands (e.g., the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, or 60 GHz bands). To perform a passive scan, the STAs 104 listen for beacons, which are transmitted by the respective APs 102 at periodic time intervals called target beacon transmission times (TBTTs) (measured in time units (TUs), where one TU may equal 1024 microseconds (μs)). To perform an active scan, the STAs 104 generate probe requests and transmit them continuously on each channel to be scanned, listening for probe responses from the APs 102. Each STA 104 may be configured to identify or select an AP 102 to associate with based on scan information obtained through passive or active scanning, and perform authentication and association operations to establish a communication link 108 with the selected AP 102. The AP 102 assigns an association identifier (AID) to the STA 104 at the height of the association operation, and the AP 102 uses the AID to track the STA 104.

[0037] As a result of the increasing ubiquity of wireless networks, a STA 104 may have the opportunity to select one of many BSSs within range of the STA or to select from among multiple APs 102 that together form an extended service set (ESS) that includes multiple connected BSSs. An extended network station associated with a WLAN 100 may be connected to a wired or wireless distribution system that may allow multiple APs 102 to be connected in such an ESS. Thus, a STA 104 may be covered by more than one AP 102 and may associate with different APs 102 at different times for different transmissions. Additionally, after associating with an AP 102, the STA 104 may also be configured to periodically scan its vicinity to find a more suitable AP 102 to associate with. For example, a STA 104 moving relative to its associated AP 102 may perform a “roaming” scan to find another AP 102 with more desirable network characteristics, such as a stronger received signal strength indicator (RSSI) or a lower traffic load.

[0038] In some cases, the STAs 104 may form a network without involving the AP 102 or any other device other than the STAs 104 themselves. One example of such a network is an ad hoc network (or wireless ad hoc network). An ad hoc network may alternatively be referred to as a mesh network or a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. In some cases, the ad hoc network may be implemented within a larger wireless network, such as a WLAN 100. In such an implementation, the STAs 104 may be able to communicate with each other through the AP 102 using the communication link 108, but the STAs 104 may also communicate with each other directly via a direct wireless link 110. Furthermore, two STAs 104 may communicate via the direct communication link 110 regardless of whether both STAs 104 are associated with and served by the same AP 102. In such an ad hoc system, one or more of the STAs 104 may assume the role previously played by the AP 102 in the BSS. Such a STA 104 may be referred to as a group owner (GO) and may coordinate transmissions within the ad hoc network. Examples of direct wireless links 110 include Wi-Fi direct connections, connections established by using Wi-Fi Tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS) links, and other P2P group connections.

[0039] The AP 102 and the STAs 104 can function and communicate (via their respective communication links 108) in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 family of wireless communication protocol standards (such as those defined by the IEEE 802.11-2016 specification or amendments thereto, including, but not limited to, 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, 802.11be, and 802.11bf). These standards define WLAN radio and baseband protocols for the PHY layer and medium access control (MAC) layer. The AP 102 and the STAs 104 send and receive wireless communications (hereinafter also referred to as “Wi-Fi communications”) between each other in the form of Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) Protocol Data Units (PPDUs). The APs 102 and STAs 104 in the WLAN 100 may transmit PPDUs over an unlicensed spectrum, which may be a portion of the spectrum that includes frequency bands traditionally used by Wi-Fi technology, such as the 2.4 GHz band, the 5 GHz band, the 60 GHz band, the 3.6 GHz band, and the 900 MHz band. Some implementations of the APs 102 and STAs 104 described herein may also communicate in other frequency bands, such as the 6 GHz band, which may support both licensed and unlicensed communications. The APs 102 and STAs 104 may also be configured to communicate over other frequency bands, such as shared licensed frequency bands, in which multiple operators may have licenses to operate in the same or one or more overlapping frequency bands.

[0040] Each frequency band may include multiple channels (which may be used as subchannels of larger bandwidth channels as described herein). For example, PPDUs compliant with the IEEE 802.11n, 802.11ac, and 802.11ax standard amendments may be transmitted over the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, each of which is divided into multiple 20 MHz channels. Thus, these PPDUs are transmitted over physical channels with a minimum bandwidth of 20 MHz, but larger channels can be formed through channel bonding. For example, a PPDU may be transmitted over a physical channel with a bandwidth of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or 320 MHz by combining multiple 20 MHz channels (which may be called subchannels) together.

[0041] Each PPDU is a composite structure that includes a PHY preamble and a payload in the form of a PLCP service data unit (PSDU). Information provided in the preamble may be used by a receiving device to decode subsequent data in the PSDU. In instances where the PPDU is transmitted over bonded channels, the preamble field may be duplicated and transmitted on each of multiple component channels. The PHY preamble may include both a first part (or "legacy preamble") and a second part (or "non-legacy preamble"). The first part may be used for packet detection, automatic gain control, and channel estimation, among other uses. The first part may also generally be used to maintain compatibility with legacy and non-legacy devices. The format of the second part of the preamble, its coding, and the information provided therein are based on the particular IEEE 802.11 protocol to be used to transmit the payload.

[0042] 2 illustrates an exemplary protocol data unit (PDU) 200 usable for wireless communication between an AP and several STAs. For example, PDU 200 may be configured as a PPDU. As shown, PDU 200 includes a PHY preamble 201 and a PHY payload 204. For example, preamble 201 may include a first portion 202 that itself includes a legacy short training field (L-STF) 206, which may consist of two BPSK symbols, a legacy long training field (L-LTF) 208, which may consist of two BPSK symbols, and a legacy signal field (L-SIG) 210, which may consist of one BPSK symbol. First portion 202 of preamble 201 may be configured in accordance with the IEEE 802.11a wireless communication protocol standard. The preamble 201 may also include a second portion 203 that includes one or more non-legacy signal fields 212 that conform to an IEEE wireless communication protocol, such as, for example, an IEEE 802.11ac, 802.11ax, 802.11be, or later wireless communication protocol standard.

[0043] The L-STF 206 generally enables the receiving device to perform automatic gain control (AGC) and coarse timing and frequency estimation. The L-LTF 208 generally enables the receiving device to perform fine timing and frequency estimation, and also enables the receiving device to perform an initial estimation of the wireless channel. The L-SIG 210 generally enables the receiving device to determine the time length of the PDU and use the determined time length to avoid transmitting over the PDU. For example, the L-STF 206, the L-LTF 208, and the L-SIG 210 may be modulated according to a binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation scheme. The payload 204 may be modulated according to a BPSK modulation scheme, a quadrature BPSK (Q-BPSK) modulation scheme, a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) modulation scheme, or another suitable modulation scheme. The payload 204 may include a PSDU that includes a data field (DATA) 214, which may carry upper layer data, for example, in the form of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) or an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU).

[0044] 2 also shows an example L-SIG 210 in the PDU 200. The L-SIG 210 includes a data rate field 222, a reserved bit 224, a length field 226, a parity bit 228, and a tail field 230. The data rate field 222 indicates the data rate (note that the data rate indicated in the data rate field 222 may not be the actual data rate of the data carried in the payload 204). The length field 226 indicates the length of the packet, e.g., in units of symbols or bytes. The parity bit 228 may be used to detect bit errors. The tail field 230 includes tail bits that may be used by a receiving device to terminate the operation of a decoder (e.g., a Viterbi decoder). A receiving device may use the data rate and length indicated in the data rate field 222 and the length field 226 to determine the time length of the packet, e.g., in units of microseconds (μs) or other time units.

[0045] 3A shows another exemplary PDU 300 usable for wireless communication between an AP and several STAs. The PDU 300 includes a PHY preamble including a first portion 302 and a second portion 304. The PDU 300 may further include a PHY payload 306, e.g., after the preamble in the form of a PSDU including a DATA field 322. The first portion 302 of the preamble includes an L-STF 308, an L-LTF 310, and an L-SIG 312. The second portion 304 of the preamble and the DATA field 322 may be formatted as a Very High Efficiency (VHT) preamble and frame, respectively, in accordance with the IEEE 802.11ac amendment to the IEEE 802.11 wireless communications protocol standard. The second portion 304 includes a first VHT signal field (VHT-SIG-A) 314, a VHT short training field (VHT-ST) 316, several VHT long training fields (VHT-LTF) 318, and a second VHT signal field (VHT-SIG-B) 320 that is coded separately from VHT-SIG-A 314. In instances involving the use of bonded channels, such as L-STF 308, L-LTF 310, and L-SIG 312, the information in VHT-SIG-A 314 may be duplicated and transmitted in each of the component 20 MHz subchannels.

[0046] The VHT-STF 316 may be used to improve automatic gain control estimation within MIMO transmissions. The VHT-LTF 318 may be used for MIMO channel estimation and pilot subcarrier tracking. The preamble may include one VHT-LTF 318 for each spatial stream on which the preamble is transmitted. The VHT-SIG-A 314 may indicate to the VHT-compatible AP 102 and the STA 104 that the PPDU is a VHT PPDU. The VHT-SIG-A 314 contains signaling and other information usable by the STA 104 to decode the VHT-SIG-B 320. The VHT-SIG-A 314 may indicate the packet bandwidth (BW), the presence of space-time block coding (STBC), the number of space-time streams per user, N STS The VHT-SIG-B 320 may include a Group ID indicating the group assigned to the STA and the user's location, a partial association identifier that may combine the AID and BSSID, a short guard interval (GI) indication, single-user / multi-user (SU / MU) coding indicating whether convolutional coding or LDPC coding is used, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), an indication of whether a beamforming matrix was applied to the transmission, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC), and a tail. The VHT-SIG-B 320 may be used for MU transmissions and may include signaling information usable by the STAs 104 to decode data received in the DATA field 322, including the actual data rate and MPDU or A-MPDU length values ​​for each of the multiple STAs 104, as well as MCS and beamforming information, for example.

[0047] 3B shows another exemplary PDU 350 usable for wireless communication between an AP and several STAs. The PDU 350 may be used for MU-OFDMA or MU-MIMO transmissions. The PDU 350 includes a PHY preamble including a first portion 352 and a second portion 354. The PDU 350 may further include a PHY payload 356, e.g., after the preamble in the form of a PSDU including a DATA field 374. The first portion 352 includes an L-STF 358, an L-LTF 360, and an L-SIG 362. The second portion 354 of the preamble and the DATA field 374 may be formatted as a High Efficiency (HE) WLAN preamble and frame, respectively, in accordance with the IEEE 802.11ax amendment to the IEEE 802.11 wireless communications protocol standard. The second portion 354 includes a repeat legacy signal field (RL-SIG) 364, a first HE signal field (HE-SIG-A) 366, a second HE signal field (HE-SIG-B) 368 coded separately from HE-SIG-A 366, an HE short training field (HE-STF) 370, and several HE long training fields (HE-LTF) 372. Like the L-STF 358, L-LTF 360, and L-SIG 362, the information in the RL-SIG 364 and HE-SIG-A 366 may be duplicated and transmitted in each of the component 20 MHz subchannels in cases involving the use of bonded channels. In contrast, the HE-SIG-B 368 may be unique to each 20 MHz subchannel and may be targeted to a specific STA 104.

[0048] The RL-SIG 364 may indicate to the HE-compatible STAs 104 that the PPDU is an HE PPDU. The AP 102 may use the HE-SIG-A 366 to identify multiple STAs 104 and inform them that the AP has scheduled UL or DL ​​resources for them. The HE-SIG-A 366 may be decoded by each HE-compatible STA 104 served by the AP 102. The HE-SIG-A 366 contains information usable by each identified STA 104 to decode the associated HE-SIG-B 368. For example, the HE-SIG-A 366 may indicate the frame format, including the location and length of the HE-SIG-B 368, the available channel bandwidth, and the modulation and coding scheme (MCS), among other possibilities. The HE-SIG-A 366 may also contain HE WLAN signaling information usable by STAs 104 other than the identified STAs 104.

[0049] The HE-SIG-B368 may carry STA-specific scheduling information, such as per-user MCS values ​​and per-user RU allocation information. In the context of DL MU-OFDMA, such information allows each STA 104 to identify and decode the corresponding RU in the associated data field. Each HE-SIG-B368 includes a common field and at least one STA-specific (“user-specific”) field. The common field may indicate, among other possibilities, the RU distribution to multiple STAs 104, indicate the allocation of RUs in the frequency domain, which RUs are allocated for MU-MIMO transmissions, which RUs correspond to MU-OFDMA transmissions, and the number of users in the allocation. The common field may be encoded with common bits, CRC bits, and tail bits. The user-specific field may be assigned to a specific STA 104 and used to schedule specific RUs and indicate the scheduling to other WLAN devices. Each user-specific field may include multiple user block fields (which may be followed by padding). Each user block field may include two user fields that contain information for two respective STAs to decode the respective RU payloads in the DATA field 374.

[0050] 4 illustrates an exemplary PPDU 400 usable for communication between an AP 102 and several STAs 104. As described herein, each PPDU 400 includes a PHY preamble 402 and a PSDU 404. Each PSDU 404 may carry one or more MAC protocol data units (MPDUs). For example, each PSDU 404 may carry an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU) 408 that includes an aggregation of multiple A-MPDU subframes 406. Each A-MPDU subframe 406 may include a MAC delimiter 410 and a MAC header 412 before an accompanying MPDU 414 that contains the data portion (the "payload" or "frame body") of the A-MPDU subframe 406. The MPDU 414 may carry one or more MAC service data units (MSDU) subframes 416. For example, the MPDU 414 may carry an aggregated MSDU (A-MSDU) 418 that includes multiple MSDU sub-frames 416. Each MSDU sub-frame 416 contains a corresponding MSDU 420 that is preceded by a sub-frame header 422.

[0051] Referring again to the A-MPDU subframe 406, the MAC header 412 may include several fields that store information that defines or indicates characteristics or attributes of the data encapsulated within the frame body 414. The MAC header 412 also includes several fields that indicate addresses for the data encapsulated within the frame body 414. For example, the MAC header 412 may include a combination of a source address, a transmitter address, a receiver address, or a destination address. The MAC header 412 may include a frame control field that stores control information. The frame control field specifies the frame type, e.g., a data frame, a control frame, or a management frame. The MAC header 412 may further include a time length field that indicates the length of time extending from the end of the PPDU to the end of the acknowledgement (ACK) of the last PPDU to be transmitted by the wireless communication device (e.g., a block ACK (BA) for A-MPDU). Use of the time length field serves to secure the wireless medium for the indicated length of time, thus establishing the NAV. Each A-MPDU subframe 406 may also include a frame check sequence (FCS) field 424 for error detection. For example, the FCS field 424 may include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC).

[0052] As described herein, the AP 102 and the STAs 104 may support multi-user (MU) communications, i.e., simultaneous transmissions from one device to each of multiple devices (e.g., multiple simultaneous downlink (DL) communications from the AP 102 to corresponding STAs 104), or simultaneous transmissions from multiple devices to a single device (e.g., multiple simultaneous uplink (UL) transmissions from corresponding STAs 104 to the AP 102). To support MU transmissions, the AP 102 and the STAs 104 may utilize multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) techniques and multi-user orthogonal frequency division multiple access (MU-OFDMA) techniques.

[0053] In a MU-OFDMA system, the available frequency spectrum of a wireless channel may be divided into multiple resource units (RUs), each containing several different frequency subcarriers (“tones”). Different RUs may be allocated or assigned by the AP 102 to different STAs 104 at a particular time. The size and distribution of the RUs may be referred to as the RU allocation. In some implementations, RUs may be allocated at 2 MHz intervals, so the smallest RU may contain 26 tones, consisting of 24 data tones and 2 pilot tones. As a result, in a 20 MHz channel, a maximum of 9 RUs (e.g., a 2 MHz, 26-tone RU) may be allocated (as some tones are reserved for other purposes). Similarly, in a 160 MHz channel, a maximum of 74 RUs may be allocated. Larger RUs with 52, 106, 242, 484, and 996 tones may also be allocated. For example, adjacent RUs may be separated by a null subcarrier (such as a DC subcarrier) to reduce interference between adjacent RUs, to reduce the DC offset of the receiver, and to avoid leakage of the transmit center frequency.

[0054] For UL MU transmissions, the AP 102 may transmit a trigger frame to initiate and synchronize UL MU-OFDMA or UL MU-MIMO transmissions from multiple STAs 104 to the AP 102. Such a trigger frame may thus enable multiple STAs 104 to transmit UL traffic to the AP 102 simultaneously in time. The trigger frame may address one or more STAs 104 via their respective association identifiers (AIDs) and may assign each AID (and thus each STA 104) one or more RUs that can be used to transmit UL traffic to the AP 102. The AP may also designate one or more random access (RA) RUs for which unscheduled STAs 104 may contend.

[0055] APs and STAs including multiple antennas may support various diversity schemes. For example, spatial diversity may be used by either or both of the transmitting and receiving devices to increase the robustness of the transmission. For example, to implement a transmit diversity scheme, the transmitting device may redundantly transmit the same data via two or more antennas. APs and STAs including multiple antennas may also support space-time block coding (STBC). With STBC, the transmitting device also transmits multiple copies of a data stream across several antennas to exploit various received versions of the data to increase the likelihood of decoding the correct data. More specifically, the transmitted data stream is coded within multiple blocks, and the multiple blocks are distributed over time among spaced antennas. In general, STBC is used to implement a scheme where the number of transmit antennas, N, is N. Tx is the number of spatial streams, N SS may be used when exceeding N SS The spatial streams are STS space-time streams, and the space-time streams may be mapped to N Tx are mapped to transmit chains.

[0056] APs and STAs including multiple antennas may also support spatial multiplexing, which may be used to increase the spectral efficiency and throughput of the resulting transmission. To implement spatial multiplexing, a transmitting device may divide data streams into N SS The spatial streams are separately coded and then split into multiple N Tx are transmitted in parallel via N transmit antennas. Tx transmit antennas and the receiving device is Rx If a transmitting device includes receive antennas, the maximum number of spatial streams N that the transmitting device can simultaneously transmit to the receiving device is SS is N Tx and N RxIn some implementations, the AP 102 and the STAs 104 may be capable of implementing both transmit diversity and spatial multiplexing. For example, the number of spatial streams N SS is the number of transmitting antennas N Tx In a smaller example, the spatial streams may be multiplexed by a spatial expansion matrix to achieve transmit diversity.

[0057] APs and STAs that include multiple antennas may also support beamforming. Beamforming refers to focusing transmission energy in the direction of a target receiver. Beamforming can be used both in a single-user context, e.g., to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and in a multi-user (MU) context, e.g., to enable MU multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) (MU-MIMO) transmission (also known as spatial division multiple access (SDMA)). To perform beamforming, a transmitting device called a beamformer transmits signals from each of multiple antennas. The beamformer configures amplitude and phase shifts between signals transmitted from different antennas so that the signals are actively increased along a specific direction toward a target receiver called a beamformee. The manner in which the beamformer configures the amplitude and phase shifts depends on channel state information (CSI) associated with the wireless channel over which the beamformer intends to communicate with the beamformee.

[0058] To obtain the CSI necessary for beamforming, the beamformer may perform a channel sounding procedure with the beamformee. For example, the beamformer may transmit one or more sounding signals (e.g., in the form of a Null Data Packet (NDP)) to the beamformee. The beamformee may receive the N sounding signals corresponding to all of the transmit antennas. Tx ×N RxThe beamformee may perform measurements on each of the subchannels and receive antenna pairs based on the sounding signal. The beamformee generates a feedback matrix based on the channel measurements and typically compresses the feedback matrix before sending the feedback to the beamformer. The beamformer may generate a precoding (or "steering") matrix for the beamformee based on the feedback, precode the data stream using the steering matrix, and configure amplitude and phase shifts for subsequent transmissions to the beamformee.

[0059] As described herein, the transmitting device may support the use of a diversity scheme. When performing beamforming, the transmit beamforming array gain is N SS N Tx Therefore, when performing beamforming to increase the gain, the number of transmit antennas N Tx It is generally desirable, within other constraints, to increase . It is also possible to direct the transmission more precisely by increasing the number of transmit antennas. This is particularly advantageous in the context of MU transmission, where reducing inter-user interference is particularly important.

[0060] 5 shows a block diagram of an exemplary wireless communication device 500. In some implementations, the wireless communication device 500 may be an example of a device for use in a STA, such as one of the STAs 104 described above with reference to FIG. 1. In some implementations, the wireless communication device 500 may be an example of a device for use in an AP, such as the AP 102 described above with reference to FIG. 1. The wireless communication device 500 is capable of transmitting (or outputting for transmission) and receiving wireless communications (e.g., in the form of wireless packets). For example, the wireless communication device may be configured to transmit and receive packets in the form of PPDUs and MPDUs that comply with the IEEE 802.11 standards, such as those defined by the IEEE 802.11-2016 specification or amendments thereof, including, but not limited to, 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, and 802.11be.

[0061] The wireless communication device 500 may be or include a chip, system-on-chip (SoC), chipset, package, or device that includes one or more modems 502, such as Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 compliant) modems. In some implementations, the one or more modems 502 (collectively “modems 502”) additionally include a WWAN modem (e.g., a 3GPP 4G LTE or 5G compliant modem). In some implementations, the wireless communication device 500 also includes one or more radios 504 (collectively “radios 504”). In some implementations, the wireless communication device 506 further includes one or more processors, processing blocks, or processing elements 506 (collectively “processors 506”) and one or more memory blocks or elements 508 (collectively “memory 508”).

[0062] The modem 502 may include, for example, an intelligent hardware block or device such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), among other possibilities. The modem 502 is generally configured to implement a PHY layer. For example, the modem 502 is configured to modulate packets and output the modulated packets to the radio 504 for transmission over a wireless medium. The modem 502 is similarly configured to obtain modulated packets received by the radio 504 and demodulate the packets to provide demodulated packets. In addition to the modulator and demodulator, the modem 502 may further include digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry, an automatic gain control (AGC), a coder, a decoder, a multiplexer, and a demultiplexer. For example, while in a transmit mode, data obtained from the processor 506 is provided to the coder, which encodes the data to provide coded bits. The coded bits are then mapped to points in a modulation constellation (using a selected MCS) to provide modulated symbols. The modulated symbols are then modulated by N SS number of spatial streams or N STS The modulated symbols in each spatial or space-time stream may be multiplexed, transformed via an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) block, and subsequently provided to a DSP circuit for Tx windowing and filtering. The digital signal may then be provided to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The resulting analog signal may then be provided to a frequency upconverter and ultimately to the radio 504. In an implementation involving beamforming, the modulated symbols in each spatial stream are precoded via a steering matrix prior to being provided to the IFFT block.

[0063] During receive mode, the digital signal received from the radio 504 is provided to a DSP circuit configured to acquire the received signal, for example, by detecting the presence of a signal and estimating an initial timing and frequency offset. The DSP circuit is further configured to digitally condition the digital signal, for example, using channel (narrowband) filtering, analog impairment adjustment (such as correcting for I / Q imbalance), and applying a digital gain to ultimately obtain a narrowband signal. The output of the DSP circuit may then be provided to an AGC, which is configured to use information extracted from the digital signal in one or more received training fields, for example, to determine an appropriate gain. The output of the DSP circuit is also coupled to a demodulator, which is configured to extract modulated symbols from the signal and, for example, calculate a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) for each bit position of each subcarrier in each spatial stream. The demodulator may be coupled to a decoder, which may be configured to process the LLRs to provide decoded bits. The decoded bits from all of the spatial streams are then provided to a demultiplexer for demultiplexing. The demultiplexed bits may then be descrambled and provided to the MAC layer (processor 506) for processing, evaluation, or interpretation.

[0064] The radio 504 generally includes at least one radio frequency (RF) transmitter (or “transmitter chain”) and at least one RF receiver (or “receiver chain”), which may be combined into one or more transceivers. For example, the RF transmitter and RF receiver may each include various DSP circuits, including at least one power amplifier (PA) and at least one low-noise amplifier (LNA). The RF transmitter and RF receiver may then be coupled to one or more antennas. For example, in some implementations, the wireless communication device 500 may include or be coupled to multiple transmit antennas (each with a corresponding transmit chain) and multiple receive antennas (each with a corresponding receive chain). Symbols output from the modem 502 are provided to the radio 504, which then transmits the symbols via the coupled antenna. Similarly, symbols received via the antennas are obtained by the radio 504, which then provides the symbols to the modem 502.

[0065] The processor 506 may include, for example, an intelligent hardware block or device such as a processing core, processing block, central processing unit (CPU), microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor (DSP), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), programmable logic device (PLD) such as field programmable gate array (FPGA), discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. The processor 506 processes information received through the radio 504 and modem 502 and processes information to be output through the modem 502 and radio 504 for transmission over a wireless medium. For example, the processor 506 may implement a control plane and MAC layer configured to perform various operations related to the generation and transmission of MPDUs, frames, or packets. The MAC layer is configured to perform or facilitate frame coding and decoding, spatial multiplexing, space-time block coding (STBC), beamforming, and OFDMA resource allocation, among other operations or techniques. In some implementations, the processor 506 may generally control the modem 502 to cause the modem to perform the various operations described above.

[0066] The memory 508 may include a tangible storage medium, such as a random access memory (RAM) or a read-only memory (ROM), or a combination thereof. The memory 508 may also store non-transitory processor or computer-executable software (SW) code, including instructions that, when executed by the processor 506, cause the processor to perform various operations described herein for wireless communication, including generating, transmitting, receiving, and interpreting MPDUs, frames, or packets. For example, various functions of the components disclosed herein, or various blocks or steps of the methods, operations, processes, or algorithms disclosed herein, may be implemented as one or more modules of one or more computer programs.

[0067] 6A shows a block diagram of an example AP 602. For example, the AP 602 may be an example implementation of the AP 102 described with reference to FIG. 1. The AP 602 includes a wireless communication device (WCD) 610. For example, the wireless communication device 610 may be an example implementation of the wireless communication device 500 described with reference to FIG. 5. The AP 602 also includes multiple antennas 620 coupled to the wireless communication device 610 for transmitting and receiving wireless communications. In some implementations, the AP 602 further includes an application processor 630 coupled to the wireless communication device 610 and a memory 640 coupled to the application processor 630. The AP 602 further includes at least one external network interface 650 that enables the AP 602 to communicate with a core network or a backhaul network to gain access to external networks, including the Internet. For example, the external network interface 650 may include one or both of a wired (e.g., Ethernet) network interface and a wireless network interface (such as a WWAN interface). The AP 602 further includes a housing that encloses the wireless communication device 610, the application processor 630, the memory 640, at least a portion of the antenna 620, and the external network interface 650.

[0068] 6B shows a block diagram of an exemplary STA 604. For example, the STA 604 may be an exemplary implementation of the STA 104 described with reference to FIG. 1. The STA 604 includes a wireless communication device 615. For example, the wireless communication device 615 may be an exemplary implementation of the wireless communication device 500 described with reference to FIG. 5. The STA 604 also includes one or more antennas 625 coupled with the wireless communication device 615 for transmitting and receiving wireless communications. The STA 604 further includes an application processor 635 coupled with the wireless communication device 615 and a memory 645 coupled with the application processor 635. In some implementations, the STA 604 further includes a user interface (UI) 655 (e.g., a touchscreen or keypad) and a display 665 that may be integrated with the UI 655 to form a touchscreen display. In some implementations, the STA 604 may further include one or more sensors 675, such as, for example, one or more inertial sensors, accelerometers, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, or altitude sensors. One of the aforementioned components can communicate with another of the components directly or indirectly via at least one bus. The STA 604 further includes a housing enclosing the wireless communication device 615, the application processor 635, the memory 645, at least a portion of the antenna 625, the UI 655, and the display 665.

[0069] 7 shows an example tone map 700 that can be used for OFDMA transmission over an 80 MHz bandwidth. In some examples, the tone map 700 may be defined by the IEEE 802.11ax amendment to the IEEE 802.11 wireless communications standard. The 80 MHz bandwidth may be divided into different numbers of RUs based on the size of the RUs. As shown, tone map 700 includes six tone plans: a first tone plan 721 includes 36 RUs each spanning 26 tones ("RU26"); a second tone plan 722 includes 18 RUs each spanning 52 tones ("RU52"); a third tone plan 723 includes 9 RUs each spanning 106 tones ("RU106"); a fourth tone plan 724 includes 4 RUs each spanning 242 tones ("RU242"); a fifth tone plan 725 includes 2 RUs each spanning 484 tones ("RU484"); and a sixth tone plan 726 includes 1 RU spanning 996 tones ("RU996"). Each RU26 contains 24 data subcarriers and 2 pilot subcarriers, each RU52 contains 48 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers, each RU106 contains 102 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers, each RU242 contains 234 data subcarriers and 8 pilot subcarriers, each RU484 contains 468 data subcarriers and 16 pilot subcarriers, and each RU996 contains 980 data subcarriers and 16 pilot subcarriers.

[0070] Each of tone plans 721-726 may be divided into a lower 40 MHz section 701 and an upper 40 MHz section 702. The lower 40 MHz section 701 and the upper 40 MHz section 702 of each of tone plans 721-725 may be separated by 23 DC tones, and the lower 40 MHz section 701 and the upper 40 MHz section 702 of tone plan 726 may be separated by 5 DC tones. Additionally, the lower 40 MHz section 701 of each of tone plans 721-725 may be divided into first and second 20 MHz sections separated by five null subcarriers, and the upper 40 MHz section 702 of each of tone plans 721-725 may be divided into third and fourth 20 MHz sections separated by five null subcarriers.

[0071] As described above, channel puncturing enables a wireless communication device to transmit or receive wireless communications over some portions of a wireless channel while excluding other portions of the wireless channel from transmitting or receiving wireless communications. A wireless communication device (e.g., an AP or STA) may puncture one or more subchannels of a wireless channel to avoid interference with an incumbent system occupying one or more subchannels. For example, if an AP determines that a 20 MHz subchannel of a 160 MHz wireless channel is occupied by an incumbent system, the AP may puncture the 20 MHz subchannel to still utilize the other unpunctured 140 MHz bandwidth of the wireless channel while avoiding interference associated with the incumbent system. A puncturing pattern may be used to designate or indicate the punctured 20 MHz subchannel and the unpunctured 140 MHz subchannel of the 160 MHz wireless channel. In some implementations, the puncturing pattern may be represented using a bitmap including multiple bits, with each bit of the bitmap indicating whether a corresponding subchannel of multiple subchannels of the wireless channel is punctured (or not punctured). While such a bitmap is described herein to indicate which subchannels of the wireless channel are punctured, in some other implementations, the bitmap described herein may indicate whether a corresponding RU or group of RUs of a frequency bandwidth is punctured (or not punctured).

[0072] One wireless communications protocol release specifies a set of 44 puncturing patterns that can be used to puncture 80 MHz, 160 MHz, and 320 MHz bandwidths of a wireless channel and adjacent bandwidths of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or 320 MHz of a wireless channel. The set of puncturing patterns may include four puncturing patterns indicating 20 MHz different punctured subchannels of an 80 MHz bandwidth, may include eight puncturing patterns indicating 20 MHz different punctured subchannels of a 160 MHz bandwidth, may include four puncturing patterns indicating 40 MHz different punctured subchannels of a 160 MHz bandwidth, may include eight puncturing patterns indicating 40 MHz different punctured subchannels of a 320 MHz bandwidth, may include four puncturing patterns indicating 80 MHz different punctured subchannels of a 320 MHz bandwidth, may include 12 puncturing patterns indicating 80+40 MHz different punctured subchannels of a 320 MHz bandwidth. In some examples, the wireless communication protocol release may be the first release (Release 1) of the IEEE 802.11be amendment (or an earlier amendment) to the IEEE 802.11 wireless communications standard.

[0073] In some implementations, a 4-bit or 8-bit bitmap may be used to indicate which, if any, of the puncturing patterns defined by a wireless communication protocol release is used for channel puncturing. For example, FIG. 8A shows different configurations of a 4-bit bitmap 800 that may be used to indicate various puncturing patterns for a 20 MHz bandwidth, a 40 MHz bandwidth, and an 80 MHz bandwidth. As used herein, a bit value of “x” indicates that the corresponding subchannel is punctured, and a bit value of “1” indicates that the corresponding subchannel is not punctured. For example, a bitmap 800 with index 0, denoted as

[1111] , indicates the adjacent 20 MHz or 40 MHz bandwidth. A bitmap 800 with index 1, denoted as

[1111] , indicates that none of the 80 MHz frequency bandwidth is punctured. Bitmap 800 with index 2, denoted as [x111], indicates that the first 20 MHz subchannel of the 80 MHz bandwidth is punctured, bitmap 800 with index 3, denoted as [1x11], indicates that the second 20 MHz subchannel of the 80 MHz bandwidth is punctured, bitmap 800 with index 4, denoted as [11x1], indicates that the third 20 MHz subchannel of the 80 MHz bandwidth is punctured, and bitmap 800 with index 5, denoted as [111x], indicates that the fourth 20 MHz subchannel of the 80 MHz bandwidth is punctured.

[0074] 8B illustrates different configurations of an 8-bit bitmap 810 that can be used to indicate various puncturing patterns for a 160 MHz bandwidth. A bitmap 810 with index 0, denoted as [11111111], indicates that none of the subchannels in the 160 MHz bandwidth are punctured. The bitmap 810 can have eight additional index values, 1 through 8, that indicate corresponding puncturing patterns that puncture different 20 MHz subchannels within the 160 MHz bandwidth. For example, a bitmap 810 with index 1, denoted as [x1111111], indicates that the first 20 MHz subchannel in the 160 MHz bandwidth is punctured, a bitmap 810 with index 2, denoted as [1x111111], indicates that the second 20 MHz subchannel in the 160 MHz bandwidth is punctured, a bitmap 810 with index 3, denoted as [11x11111], indicates that the third 20 MHz subchannel in the 160 MHz bandwidth is punctured, and so on.

[0075] Bitmap 810 may have four additional index values ​​9 through 12 that indicate corresponding puncturing patterns for puncturing different 40 MHz subchannels within the 160 MHz bandwidth, with the presence of adjacent "x" bits in each configuration of bitmap 810 indicating that adjacent 20 MHz subchannels within the 160 MHz bandwidth are punctured (thereby resulting in adjacent 40 MHz punctured subchannels). For example, bitmap 810 with index 9, denoted as [xx111111], indicates that the first and second 20 MHz subchannels within the 160 MHz bandwidth are punctured, bitmap 810 with index 10, denoted as [11xx1111], indicates that the third and fourth 20 MHz subchannels within the 160 MHz bandwidth are punctured, and so on.

[0076] FIG. 8C illustrates different configurations of an 8-bit bitmap 820 that can be used to indicate various puncturing patterns for a 320 MHz bandwidth. A bitmap 820 with index 0, denoted as [11111111], indicates that none of the subchannels in the 320 MHz bandwidth are punctured. The bitmap 820 can have eight additional index values, 1 through 8, that indicate corresponding puncturing patterns for puncturing different 40 MHz subchannels within the 320 MHz bandwidth. For example, a bitmap 820 with index 1, denoted as [x1111111], indicates that the first 40 MHz subchannel within the 320 MHz bandwidth is punctured, a bitmap 820 with index 2, denoted as [1x111111], indicates that the second 40 MHz subchannel within the 320 MHz bandwidth is punctured, a bitmap 820 with index 3, denoted as [11x11111], indicates that the third 40 MHz subchannel within the 320 MHz bandwidth is punctured, and so on.

[0077] Bitmap 820 may have four additional index values ​​9 through 12 that indicate corresponding puncturing patterns for puncturing different 80 MHz subchannels within the 320 MHz bandwidth. For example, bitmap 820 with index 9, denoted as [xx111111], indicates that the first and second 40 MHz subchannels within the 320 MHz bandwidth are punctured (thereby resulting in adjacent 80 MHz punctured subchannels), bitmap 820 with index 10, denoted as [11xx1111], indicates that the third and fourth 40 MHz subchannels within the 320 MHz bandwidth are punctured (thereby resulting in adjacent 80 MHz punctured subchannels), and so on.

[0078] Bitmap 820 may have 12 additional index values ​​13-24 that indicate corresponding puncturing patterns that puncture different 80+40 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz bandwidth, with the presence of non-adjacent "x" bits in each configuration of bitmap 820 indicating that non-adjacent 40 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz bandwidth are punctured. For example, a bitmap 820 with index 13 shown as [xxx11111] indicates that the first, second, and third 40 MHz subchannels of a 320 MHz bandwidth are punctured (thereby resulting in adjacent 120 MHz punctured subchannels), a bitmap 820 with index 14 shown as [xx1x1111] indicates that the first, second, and fourth 40 MHz subchannels of a 320 MHz bandwidth are punctured, a bitmap with index 19 shown as [x11111xx] indicates that the first, seventh, and eighth 40 MHz subchannels of a 320 MHz bandwidth are punctured, a bitmap with index 20 shown as [1x1111xx] indicates that the second, seventh, and eighth 40 MHz subchannels of a 320 MHz bandwidth are punctured, and so on.

[0079] As described, as new WLAN communication protocols enable access to a larger range of bandwidths, new or additional channel puncturing patterns may be needed to efficiently utilize the wider channel bandwidths. The wider channel bandwidths may also be efficiently utilized by defining new puncturing patterns having smaller puncturing granularity than existing puncturing patterns. For example, while existing puncturing patterns may indicate whether some 40 MHz or 80 MHz subchannels of a 320 MHz frequency bandwidth are punctured, new puncturing patterns may be defined that similarly indicate whether some 20 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth are punctured.

[0080] These new or additional puncturing patterns may increase the number of different puncturing patterns available to the wireless communication device, and the wireless communication device may then indicate both the number and size of the bitmaps used to indicate which puncturing patterns of the set of puncturing patterns are used for channel puncturing. A wireless communication device configured to operate according to one wireless communication protocol release that defines a relatively small set of puncturing patterns may not be able to decode a larger bitmap associated with another wireless communication protocol release that defines a relatively large set of puncturing patterns. Moreover, the wireless communication device is unaware of the new or additional puncturing patterns defined by the other wireless communication protocol release.

[0081] To ensure compatibility between wireless communication devices configured to operate according to different wireless communication protocol releases that define different numbers or configurations of puncturing patterns, aspects of the present disclosure provide a mechanism by which a wireless communication device operating according to one wireless communication protocol release can determine or derive puncturing patterns defined by another wireless communication protocol release.

[0082] 9 illustrates an exemplary set of puncturing patterns 900 usable for wireless transmission over an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth according to one wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the set of puncturing patterns 900 may be defined by Release 1 of the IEEE 802.11be amendment. The set of puncturing patterns 900 includes four puncturing patterns having bitmap indices 1 through 4 corresponding to bitmaps 1 through 4, respectively, of FIG. 8A. Each of the four puncturing patterns indicates a different 20 MHz subchannel of the 80 MHz frequency bandwidth to be punctured. For example, a first puncturing pattern with bitmap index 1 indicates that the first 20 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, a second puncturing pattern with bitmap index 2 indicates that the second 20 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, a third puncturing pattern with bitmap index 3 indicates that the third 20 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, and a fourth puncturing pattern with bitmap index 4 indicates that the fourth 20 MHz subchannel is to be punctured.

[0083] 10A illustrates an exemplary set of puncturing patterns 1000A usable for wireless transmission over a 160 MHz bandwidth according to one wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the set of puncturing patterns 1000A may be defined by Release 1 of the IEEE 802.11be amendment. The set of puncturing patterns 1000A includes eight puncturing patterns having bitmap indices 1 through 8 corresponding to bitmaps 1 through 8, respectively, of FIG. 8B. Each of the eight puncturing patterns indicates a different 20 MHz subchannel of the 160 MHz frequency bandwidth to be punctured. For example, a first puncturing pattern with bitmap index 1 indicates that the first 20 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, a second puncturing pattern with bitmap index 2 indicates that the second 20 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, a third puncturing pattern with bitmap index 3 indicates that the third 20 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, and so on, where an eighth puncturing pattern with bitmap index 8 indicates that the eighth 20 MHz subchannel is to be punctured.

[0084] FIG. 10B illustrates an exemplary set of puncturing patterns 1000B usable for wireless transmission over a 160 MHz bandwidth in accordance with one wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the set of puncturing patterns 1000B may be defined by Release 1 of the IEEE 802.11be amendment. The set of puncturing patterns 1000B includes four puncturing patterns having bitmap indices 9-12 corresponding to bitmaps 9-12, respectively, of FIG. 8B. Each of the four puncturing patterns indicates a different 40 MHz subchannel of the 160 MHz frequency bandwidth to be punctured. For example, a first puncturing pattern with bitmap index 9 indicates that the first 40 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, a second puncturing pattern with bitmap index 10 indicates that the second 40 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, a third puncturing pattern with bitmap index 11 indicates that the third 40 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, and a fourth puncturing pattern with bitmap index 12 indicates that the fourth 40 MHz subchannel is to be punctured.

[0085] 11A illustrates an exemplary set of puncturing patterns 1100A usable for wireless transmission over a 320 MHz bandwidth according to one wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the set of puncturing patterns 1100A may be defined by Release 1 of the IEEE 802.11be amendment. The set of puncturing patterns 1100A includes eight puncturing patterns having bitmap indices 1 through 8 corresponding to bitmaps 1 through 8, respectively, of FIG. 8C. Each of the eight puncturing patterns indicates a different 40 MHz subchannel of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth to be punctured. For example, a first puncturing pattern with bitmap index 1 indicates that the first 40 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, a second puncturing pattern with bitmap index 2 indicates that the second 40 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, a third puncturing pattern with bitmap index 3 indicates that the third 40 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, and so on, where an eighth puncturing pattern with bitmap index 8 indicates that the eighth 40 MHz subchannel is to be punctured.

[0086] FIG. 11B illustrates an exemplary set of puncturing patterns 1100B usable for wireless transmission over a 320 MHz bandwidth according to another wireless communications protocol release. In some examples, the set of puncturing patterns 1100B may be defined by the second release (Release 2) of the IEEE 802.11be amendment. The set of puncturing patterns 1100B includes eight puncturing patterns with bitmap indices 1 through 8 that indicate different 40 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth to be punctured. The six puncturing patterns with bitmap indices 3 through 8 are the same as the six corresponding puncturing patterns of FIG. 11A having bitmap indices 3 through 8, respectively.

[0087] However, the first and second puncturing patterns of FIG. 11B , which have bitmap indexes 1 and 2, respectively, are not the same as the first and second puncturing patterns of FIG. 11A . For example, the first puncturing pattern of FIG. 11B includes an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel 1101 that is not included in the first puncturing pattern of FIG. 11A , and the second puncturing pattern of FIG. 11B includes an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel 1102 that is not included in the second puncturing pattern of FIG. 11A . Thus, each of the first and second puncturing patterns of FIG. 11B may provide an additional 20 MHz of usable frequency bandwidth compared to the first and second puncturing patterns of FIG. 11A . Including these additional unpunctured 20 MHz subchannels in the first and second puncturing patterns of FIG. 11B also provides a smaller puncturing granularity. That is, while the puncturing pattern of FIG. 11A specifies only 40 MHz punctured subchannels, the first and second puncturing patterns of FIG. 11B specify 20 MHz punctured subchannels and 40 MHz punctured subchannels.

[0088] In some implementations, a 16-bit bitmap may be used to represent the puncturing pattern 1100B of FIG. 11B. In some examples, each bit of the 16-bit bitmap may indicate whether a corresponding 20 MHz subchannel of a 320 MHz frequency bandwidth is punctured. In contrast, the puncturing pattern 1100A of FIG. 11A may be represented by the 8-bit bitmap 820 of FIG. 8C, with each of the 8 bits indicating whether a corresponding 40 MHz subchannel of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth is punctured. In this manner, using a 16-bit bitmap to represent the set of puncturing patterns 1100B may provide smaller puncturing granularity than the 8-bit bitmap 820 of FIG. 8C.

[0089] 12A illustrates an exemplary set of puncturing patterns 1200A usable for wireless transmission over a 320 MHz bandwidth according to one wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the set of puncturing patterns 1200A may be defined by Release 1 of the IEEE 802.11be amendment. The set of puncturing patterns 1200A includes four puncturing patterns having bitmap indices 9-12 corresponding to bitmaps 9-12, respectively, of FIG. 8C. Each of the four puncturing patterns indicates a different 80 MHz subchannel of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth to be punctured. For example, a first puncturing pattern with bitmap index 9 indicates that the first 80 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, a second puncturing pattern with bitmap index 10 indicates that the second 80 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, a third puncturing pattern with bitmap index 11 indicates that the third 80 MHz subchannel is to be punctured, and a fourth puncturing pattern with bitmap index 12 indicates that the fourth 80 MHz subchannel is to be punctured.

[0090] FIG. 12B illustrates an exemplary set of puncturing patterns 1200B usable for wireless transmission over a 320 MHz bandwidth according to another wireless communications protocol release. In some examples, the set of puncturing patterns 1200B may be defined by Release 2 of the IEEE 802.11be amendment. The set of puncturing patterns 1200B includes four puncturing patterns with bitmap indices 9-12 that indicate different 80 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth to be punctured. The three puncturing patterns with bitmap indices 10-12 are the same as the three corresponding puncturing patterns of FIG. 12A having bitmap indices 10-12, respectively.

[0091] However, the first puncturing pattern of FIG. 12B having bitmap index 9 is not the same as the corresponding first puncturing pattern of FIG. 12A. For example, the first puncturing pattern of FIG. 12B includes two unpunctured 20 MHz subchannels 1201 and 1202 that are not included in the first puncturing pattern of FIG. 12A. Therefore, the first puncturing pattern of FIG. 12B may provide an additional 40 MHz of usable frequency bandwidth compared to the first puncturing pattern of FIG. 12A. Including these additional unpunctured 20 MHz subchannels in the first puncturing pattern of FIG. 12B also provides a smaller puncturing granularity. That is, while the puncturing pattern of FIG. 12A specifies only 80 MHz punctured subchannels, the first puncturing pattern of FIG. 12B specifies two adjacent 20 MHz punctured subchannels.

[0092] In some implementations, a 16-bit bitmap may be used to represent the puncturing pattern 1200B of FIG. 12B. In some examples, each bit of the 16-bit bitmap may indicate whether a corresponding 20 MHz subchannel of a 320 MHz frequency bandwidth is punctured. In contrast, the puncturing pattern 1200A of FIG. 12A is represented by the 8-bit bitmap 820 of FIG. 8C, where each of the 8 bits indicates whether a corresponding 40 MHz subchannel of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth is punctured. In this manner, using a 16-bit bitmap to represent the set of puncturing patterns 1200B may provide smaller puncturing granularity than the 8-bit bitmap 820 of FIG. 8C.

[0093] FIG. 13A illustrates an exemplary set of puncturing patterns 1300A usable for wireless transmission over a 320 MHz bandwidth according to one wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the set of puncturing patterns 1300A may be defined by Release 1 of the IEEE 802.11be amendment. The set of puncturing patterns 1300A includes 12 puncturing patterns having bitmap indices 13-24 corresponding to bitmaps 13-24, respectively, of FIG. 8C. Each of the 12 puncturing patterns indicates a different 80+40 MHz subchannel of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth to be punctured. For example, a first puncturing pattern with bitmap index 13 indicates that the first, second, and third 40 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth are to be punctured, a second puncturing pattern with bitmap index 14 indicates that the first, second, and fourth 40 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth are to be punctured, a third puncturing pattern with bitmap index 15 indicates that the first, second, and fifth 40 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth are to be punctured, and so on, where a sixth puncturing pattern with bitmap index 18 indicates that the first, second, and eighth 40 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth are to be punctured.

[0094] Furthermore, the seventh puncturing pattern having bitmap index 19 indicates that the first, seventh, and eighth 40 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth are punctured, the eighth puncturing pattern having bitmap index 20 indicates that the second, seventh, and eighth 40 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth are punctured, and so on, where the twelfth puncturing pattern having bitmap index 24 indicates that the sixth, seventh, and eighth 40 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth are punctured. Note that the first and second 40 MHz subchannels may be collectively referred to as the first 80 MHz subchannel, and the seventh and eighth 40 MHz subchannels may be collectively referred to as the last 80 MHz subchannel.

[0095] FIG. 13B illustrates an exemplary set of puncturing patterns 1300B usable for wireless transmission over a 320 MHz bandwidth according to another wireless communications protocol release. In some examples, the set of puncturing patterns 1300B may be defined by Release 2 of the IEEE 802.11be amendment. The set of puncturing patterns 1300B includes 12 puncturing patterns with bitmap indices 13-24 that indicate different 80+40 MHz subchannels of the 320 MHz frequency bandwidth to be punctured. The four puncturing patterns with bitmap indices 13-16 are the same as the four corresponding puncturing patterns of FIG. 13A having bitmap indices 13-16, respectively.

[0096] However, the puncturing patterns of FIG. 13B having bitmap indices 17-24 are not the same as the corresponding puncturing patterns of FIG. 13A having bitmap indices 17-24, respectively. For example, the puncturing pattern of FIG. 13B having index 19 includes an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel 1301 that is not included in the corresponding puncturing pattern of FIG. 13A. Thus, the puncturing pattern of FIG. 13B having index 19 may provide an additional 20 MHz of usable frequency bandwidth compared to the corresponding puncturing pattern of FIG. 13A. Including this additional 20 MHz unpunctured subchannel in the puncturing pattern of FIG. 13B also provides a smaller puncturing granularity, as described.

[0097] The puncturing pattern of FIG. 13B with bitmap index 20 includes three unpunctured 20 MHz subchannels 1311-1313 that are not included in the corresponding puncturing pattern of FIG. 13A. Therefore, the puncturing pattern of FIG. 13B with bitmap index 20 may provide an additional 60 MHz of usable frequency bandwidth compared to the corresponding puncturing pattern of FIG. 13A. The puncturing patterns of FIG. 13B with bitmap indexes 17, 21, 22, and 23, respectively, also include three unpunctured 20 MHz subchannels that are not included in the corresponding puncturing pattern of FIG. 13A. Therefore, the puncturing pattern of FIG. 13B may also provide an additional 60 MHz of usable frequency bandwidth compared to the corresponding puncturing pattern of FIG. 13A. Including these three additional 20 MHz unpunctured subchannels in the puncturing pattern of FIG. 13B also provides a smaller puncturing granularity. That is, while the puncturing pattern in FIG. 13A specifies 40 MHz and 80 MHz punctured subchannels, the puncturing patterns with respective indexes 17, 20, 21, 22, and 23 in FIG. 13B specify 20 MHz punctured subchannels, 40 MHz punctured subchannels, and 80 MHz punctured subchannels.

[0098] The puncturing pattern of FIG. 13B with bitmap index 18 includes two unpunctured 20 MHz subchannels 1371-1372 that are not included in the corresponding puncturing pattern of FIG. 13A. Similarly, the puncturing pattern of FIG. 13B with bitmap index 24 includes two unpunctured 20 MHz subchannels 1351-1352 that are not included in the corresponding puncturing pattern of FIG. 13A. Thus, the puncturing patterns of FIG. 13B with bitmap indexes 18 and 24, respectively, may provide an additional 40 MHz of usable frequency bandwidth compared to the corresponding puncturing pattern of FIG. 13A. Including these two additional 20 MHz unpunctured subchannels in the puncturing pattern of FIG. 13B also provides a smaller puncturing granularity, as described.

[0099] 8A, 8B, and 8C may be configured as 16-bit bitmaps to provide compatibility with wireless communication protocol releases that use 16-bit bitmaps to indicate which puncturing patterns of a set of puncturing patterns are used to transmit or receive data on a wireless channel. For example, still referring to FIG. 8C, an 8-bit bitmap 830 equal to [x1111111] may be configured as a 16-bit bitmap equal to [xx11111111111111], where each bit in the 8-bit bitmap 830 indicates whether a corresponding 40 MHz subchannel of the 160 MHz frequency bandwidth is punctured, and each bit in the corresponding 16-bit bitmap indicates whether a respective 20 MHz subchannel of the 160 MHz frequency bandwidth is punctured. For another example, an 8-bit bitmap 830 equal to [xx111111] may be configured as a 16-bit bitmap equal to [xxxx111111111111], where each bit in the 8-bit bitmap 830 indicates whether a corresponding 40 MHz subchannel of the 160 MHz frequency bandwidth is punctured, and each bit in the corresponding 16-bit bitmap indicates whether a respective 20 MHz subchannel of the 160 MHz frequency bandwidth is punctured. For another example, an 8-bit bitmap 830 equal to [xx1111x1] may be configured as a 16-bit bitmap equal to [xxxx11111111xx11], where each bit in the 8-bit bitmap 830 indicates whether a corresponding 40 MHz subchannel of the 160 MHz frequency bandwidth is punctured, and each bit in the corresponding 16-bit bitmap indicates whether a respective 20 MHz subchannel of the 160 MHz frequency bandwidth is punctured.

[0100] 11A, 12A, and 13A, respectively. For example, a bitmap 1350 with index 1 shown as [xx1111111111111] indicates puncturing pattern 1100A with index 1 of FIG. 11A, a bitmap with index 9 shown as [xxxx11111111111] indicates puncturing pattern 1200A with index 1 of FIG. 12A, and so on. For another example, a bitmap with index 13 shown as [xxxxxx111111111] indicates puncturing pattern 1300B with index 13 in FIG. 13B, a bitmap with index 14 shown as [xxxx11xx11111111] indicates puncturing pattern 1300B with index 14 in FIG. 13B, a bitmap with index 15 shown as [xxxx1111xx111111] indicates puncturing pattern 1300B with index 15 in FIG. 13B, and so on.

[0101] 11B, 12B, and 13B, respectively. For example, a bitmap 1360 with index 1 shown as [1x11111111111111] indicates the puncturing pattern 1100B with index 1 of FIG. 11B, a bitmap with index 9 shown as [1xx1111111111111] indicates the puncturing pattern 1200B with index 1 of FIG. 12B, and so on. For another example, a bitmap with index 13 shown as [xxxxxxx11111111] indicates puncturing pattern 1300B with index 13 in Figure 13B, a bitmap with index 14 shown as [xxxxx11xx1111111] indicates puncturing pattern 1300B with index 14 in Figure 13B, a bitmap with index 15 shown as [xxxxx1111xx11111] indicates puncturing pattern 1300B with index 15 in Figure 13B, and so on.

[0102] 14A shows a sequence diagram of example communications 1400 supporting channel puncturing. In some implementations, the communications 1400 may be performed between an AP 1402 and one or more STAs 1404 (only one STA is shown in FIG. 14A for simplicity). The AP 1402 may be an example of the AP 102 of FIG. 1 or the AP 602 of FIG. 6A, and the STA 1404 may be an example of the STA 104 of FIG. 1 or the STA 604 of FIG. 6B. In other implementations, the communications 1400 may be performed between two APs. In some other implementations, the communications 1400 may be performed between two STAs.

[0103] The AP 1402 selects a first puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns to transmit or receive data over the wireless channel 1405. The first puncturing pattern is defined by a first wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the first wireless communication protocol release may be Release 2 of the IEEE 802.11be amendment. The AP 1402 transmits an indication of the first puncturing pattern to the STA 1404 over the wireless channel 1405. The indication may be a bitmap including multiple bits, where each bit of the bitmap indicates whether a corresponding subchannel of the wireless channel 1405 is punctured (or not punctured). In some implementations, the bitmap may be a 16-bit bitmap, where each bit corresponds to a 20 MHz subchannel of a 320 MHz frequency bandwidth. In some examples, the bitmap may be carried within an EHT operation element of a beacon frame, an association response frame, a probe response frame, an action frame, or another appropriate frame. In some other examples, the bitmap may be carried within another portion of the frame.

[0104] The STA 1404 receives the indication and determines whether the STA 1404 is configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release. If the STA 1404 is configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release, the STA 1404 decodes the bitmap, obtains the first puncturing pattern, and transmits one or more PPDUs to the AP 1402 over the wireless channel 1405 according to the first puncturing pattern.

[0105] Conversely, if the STA 1404 is configured to operate according to a second wireless communication protocol release, the STA 1404 may be unable to decode the bitmap and obtain the first puncturing pattern (as would be the case if the STA is not specifically configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release). In some examples, the second wireless communication protocol release may be Release 1 of the IEEE 802.11be amendment. The STA 1404 may select a puncturing pattern defined by the second wireless communication protocol release to transmit or receive data over the wireless channel 1405.

[0106] In some implementations, the STA 1404 selects a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communication protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. The second puncturing pattern may also include an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel corresponding to the primary channel of the AP 1402, for example, so that management frames, control frames, and action frames can be exchanged between the AP 1402 and the STA 1404 on the primary channel. In some examples, the second puncturing pattern indicates a 320 MHz frequency bandwidth and includes zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz bandwidth, an 80 MHz bandwidth, or an 80+40 MHz bandwidth. In other examples, the second puncturing pattern indicates a 160 MHz frequency bandwidth and includes zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz bandwidth or a 20 MHz bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern indicates an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth and includes zero or more punctured subchannels having a 20 MHz bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern indicates a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth without channel puncturing. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern indicates a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth without channel puncturing.

[0107] In some implementations, the STA 1404 selects the second puncturing pattern based on a closest match between the bitmap received from the AP 1402 and one or more stored bitmaps corresponding to a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the STA 1404 stores multiple 16-bit bitmaps representing the set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release. That is, the 4-bit bitmap 810 of FIG. 8A and the 8-bit bitmaps 820 and 830 of FIG. 8B and FIG. 8C, respectively, may be converted to a 16-bit bitmap as described above with reference to FIG. 13C. For example, if the AP transmits an indication conveying a 16-bit bitmap [1x1111111111x111] and the primary channel of the AP 1402 corresponds to the third bit in the received bitmap, the STA 1404 may compare the received bitmap [1x1111111111x111] with a stored 16-bit bitmap corresponding to a puncturing pattern defined by a second wireless communication protocol release, a portion of which is shown in Figure 13C. In this example, the puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release may be used to transmit data to or receive data from STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release (and not configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release). For example, a stored 16-bit bitmap [xx1xxxxxxxxxxxxx] derived from the 20 MHz bandwidth puncturing pattern bitmap of FIG. 8A and a stored 16-bit bitmap [xx1111111111xxxx] derived from the 320 MHz bandwidth puncturing pattern bitmap of FIG. 8C may both match the received puncturing pattern bitmap.Between the two example matching bitmaps, bitmap = [xx1111111111xxxx] most closely matches the received 16-bit bitmap [1x1111111111x111]. The matching 16-bit bitmap [xx1111111111xxxx] indicates the puncturing pattern 1300A of Figure 13A with index 19. The STA 1404 may transmit or receive data over the wireless channel 1405 to match the puncturing pattern indicated by the AP 1402 using the puncturing pattern 1300A with index 19, for example, because the unpunctured subchannels of the stored matching puncturing pattern are a subset of the unpunctured subchannels of the puncturing pattern indicated by the AP 1402.

[0108] If two or more of the bitmaps corresponding to a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release match the bitmap provided by the AP 1402, and the AP 1402 may indicate that two or more of the corresponding puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release include unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of the unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern selected by the AP 1402, the STA 1404 may select the corresponding puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels. In this way, the STA 1404 may increase or maximize the frequency bandwidth over which packets may be exchanged with the AP 1402.

[0109] If two or more of the corresponding puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release have the same number of unpunctured subchannels (e.g., the most unpunctured subchannels), the STA 1404 may select one of the two or more corresponding puncturing patterns based on their relative frequencies or based on their relative bitmap indexes. For example, in some examples, the STA 1404 selects a puncturing pattern from the two or more corresponding puncturing patterns that includes unpunctured subchannels associated with relatively high frequencies of the wireless channel. In some other examples, the STA 1404 selects a puncturing pattern from the two or more corresponding puncturing patterns that includes unpunctured subchannels associated with relatively low frequencies of the wireless channel. In this manner, if two or more of the puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communications protocol release include unpunctured subchannels that are subsets of the unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern and also include the most unpunctured subchannels, the STA may select one of the two or more corresponding puncturing patterns based on the relative frequencies of their respective unpunctured subchannels. For example, if the STA determines that channel interference on the upper 40 MHz frequency portion of the 320 MHz wireless channel is less than channel interference on the lower 40 MHz frequency portion of the 320 MHz wireless channel, the STA may select a puncturing pattern that includes unpunctured subchannels in the upper 40 MHz frequency portion of the 320 MHz wireless channel to minimize packet loss due to, e.g., channel interference.

[0110] In some other examples, the STA 1404 selects a puncturing pattern from two or more corresponding puncturing patterns associated with the bitmap having the highest binary index, or selects a puncturing pattern from two or more corresponding puncturing patterns associated with the bitmap having the lowest binary index. The AP 1402 (and other STAs associated with the AP 1402) may also follow this process to determine which of the corresponding puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release will be used for channel puncturing. In this manner, the AP 1402 and the STAs 1404 associated with the AP 1402 may select the same puncturing pattern defined by the second wireless communication protocol release without explicit indication.

[0111] 14B shows a sequence diagram of another example communication 1410 supporting channel puncturing. In some implementations, the communication 1410 may be performed between an AP 1402 and one or more STAs 1404 (only one STA is shown in FIG. 14B for simplicity). In other implementations, the communication 1410 may be performed between two APs. In some other implementations, the communication 1410 may be performed between two STAs.

[0112] The AP 1402 selects a first puncturing pattern of a set of puncturing patterns to transmit or receive data over the wireless channel 1405. The first puncturing pattern is defined by a first wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the first wireless communication protocol release may be Release 2 of the IEEE 802.11be amendment.

[0113] The AP 1402 is configured to operate according to a second wireless communication protocol release and determines that one or more STAs (e.g., STA 1404) exist that are not configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release. In response to the determination, the AP 1402 selects a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release. As described with reference to FIG. 14A , the selected second puncturing pattern includes unpunctured 20 MHz subchannels corresponding to the primary channel of the AP 1402, e.g., so that management frames, control frames, and action frames can be exchanged between the AP 1402 and the STA 1404 on the primary channel. The selected second puncturing pattern also includes one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of the one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern.

[0114] In some implementations, the AP 1402 selects a second puncturing pattern from the set of puncturing patterns based on a match between the bitmap received from the AP 1402 and one or more stored bitmaps corresponding to a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the AP 1402 may transmit an indication of the second puncturing pattern to the STAs 1404 over the wireless channel 1405. The indication may be a bitmap including multiple bits, with each bit of the bitmap indicating whether a corresponding subchannel of the wireless channel 1405 is punctured (or not punctured).

[0115] In some other examples, the indication may be a single bit if the number of puncturing pattern candidates to match the second puncturing pattern selected by the AP 1402 is two or less. For example, if the AP indicates a 16-bit bitmap of [11xx11111111x111] based on a first wireless communication protocol release and a primary channel corresponding to the fifth bit (from the left of the bitmap), a STA configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release may derive exactly two candidate puncturing patterns, [11xx11111111xxxx] and [xxxx11111111xx11], to match the second puncturing pattern. That is, these two puncturing patterns derived by the STA 1404 match the puncturing pattern [11xx11111111x111] selected by the AP 1402 in that they do not puncture the primary channel and also include the most unpunctured subchannels among the patterns defined in the second wireless communication protocol release. In this case, the AP 1402 may use a single bit to clearly indicate which of the candidate puncturing patterns was selected as the second puncturing pattern. The bitmap or bit may be carried within the EHT operation element of a beacon frame, association response frame, probe response frame, action frame, or another appropriate frame or packet. In other examples, the bitmap may be carried in another portion of the frame.

[0116] The STA 1404 receives the indication, decodes the bitmap or bits provided in the indication, and obtains the second puncturing pattern selected by the AP 1402 for transmitting or receiving data over the wireless channel 1405. The STA 1404 and the AP 1402 then exchange PPDUs with each other over the wireless channel 1405 based on the selected second puncturing pattern.

[0117] In some other implementations, the AP 1402 may transmit a beacon frame or an action frame that includes two puncturing pattern indication fields. For example, in some examples, a first indication field may carry a bitmap for a puncturing pattern defined by a first wireless communication protocol release, and a second indication field may carry a bitmap for a puncturing pattern defined by a second wireless communication protocol release.

[0118] 15A illustrates an exemplary beacon frame 1500 usable for communication between wireless communication devices. The beacon frame 1500 is shown to include a frame control field 1501, a time length field 1502, an address 1 field 1503, an address 2 field 1504, an address 3 field 1505, a sequence control field 1506, an HT control field 1507, a frame body 1508, and a frame check sequence (FCS) field 1509. The frame control field 1501 may carry control information indicating certain parameters of the beacon frame 1500, such as the protocol version, type, and subtype. The time length field 1502 may carry information indicating the overall length (in bytes) of the beacon frame 1500. Address 1 field 1503, Address 2 field 1504, and Address 3 field 1505 may carry individual or group addresses for all or a portion of beacon frame 1500, such as a basic service set identifier (BSSID), source address (SA), destination address (DA), transmitting STA address (TA), or receiving STA address (RA). Sequence control field 1506 may indicate the sequence number, fragment number, or both corresponding to beacon frame 1500. HT control field 1507 may contain control information for beacon frame 1500. FCS field 1509 may contain information for validating or interpreting all or a portion of beacon frame 1500.

[0119] The frame body 1508 may include any suitable number of fields or elements (such as information elements). In some implementations, the beacon frame 1500 may include one or more required fields, such as, for example, a timestamp field, a beacon interval field, a capability information field, an SSID field, and a supported rates field, among others. The beacon frame 1500 may also include one or more information elements, such as, for example, an EHT operation element, a DSSS parameters element, a CF parameter set element, a traffic indication map (TIM) element, among others.

[0120] 15B shows an EHT operation element 1510 usable for wireless communication according to some implementations. The EHT operation element 1510 may include an element ID field 1511, a length field 1512, an element ID extension field 1513, and an EHT operation information field 1514. The element ID field 1511 carries information indicating the type and format of the information element 1510. The length field 1512 carries information indicating the length or size of the information element 1510. The element ID extension field 1513 carries additional information indicating the type and format of the information element 1510. The EHT operation information field 1514 may be used to carry a bitmap indicating which of multiple puncturing patterns is used for channel puncturing.

[0121] 15C illustrates an example bitmap 1520 usable for wireless communications with channel puncturing. The bitmap 1520 is shown to include 16 bits B0-B15 and may be used to indicate a channel puncturing pattern for transmitting or receiving data over a wireless channel. In some implementations, each of the 16 bits B0-B15 may indicate whether a corresponding subchannel of the 16 subchannels of the wireless channel is punctured (or not punctured).

[0122] 16 shows a flowchart illustrating an example process 1600 for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some implementations. In some implementations, the process 1600 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node, such as one of the STAs 104 or 604 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6B, respectively. In some other implementations, the process 1600 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within an AP, such as one of the APs 102 or 602 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6A, respectively.

[0123] In some implementations, process 1600 begins at block 1602, where a STA receives an indication of a first puncturing pattern used to transmit or receive data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communication protocol release. Process 1600 proceeds to block 1604, where a second puncturing pattern is selected from a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communication protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. Process 1600 proceeds to block 1606, where a STA transmits or receives one or more packets over the wireless channel based on the second puncturing pattern. In some implementations, the STA may be configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the STA is not configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release or is unable to decode a puncturing pattern defined by the first wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the first wireless communication protocol release may be a second release of an amendment to IEEE 802.11be, and the second wireless communication protocol release may be a first release of an amendment to IEEE 802.11be.

[0124] The second puncturing pattern may include an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel corresponding to the AP's primary channel. In some examples, the second puncturing pattern includes a 320 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz bandwidth, an 80 MHz bandwidth, or an 80+40 MHz bandwidth. In other examples, the second puncturing pattern includes a 160 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz bandwidth or a 20 MHz bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern includes an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 20 MHz bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern includes a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth without channel puncturing. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern includes a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth without channel puncturing.

[0125] In various implementations, the indication may be a bitmap including multiple bits, each bit of the bitmap indicating whether a corresponding subchannel of the wireless channel is punctured to transmit or receive data based on the second puncturing pattern. In some examples, the bitmap may be received within an EHT operations element of a beacon frame. In some other examples, the bitmap may be received within an EHT operations element of an action frame. In some other examples, the bitmap may be received within an EHT operations element of an association response frame or a probe response frame. In some implementations, the second puncturing pattern may be selected based on a match between the received bitmap and one or more stored bitmaps corresponding to a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communications protocol release.

[0126] 17 shows a flowchart illustrating an example process 1700 for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some implementations. In some implementations, the process 1700 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node, such as one of the STAs 104 or 604 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6B, respectively. In some other implementations, the process 1700 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within an AP, such as one of the APs 102 or 602 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6A, respectively.

[0127] In some implementations, process 1700 may be an example of selecting a second puncturing pattern within block 1604 of FIG. 16. For example, process 1700 begins at block 1702 with identifying each of the puncturing patterns of a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communication protocol release that includes unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. Process 1700 proceeds to block 1704 with selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern. For example, if two or more puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release are identified as including unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern, the STA may select the identified puncturing pattern that has the most unpunctured subchannels over which the STA may transmit or receive data. In this way, the STA may select a puncturing pattern defined by the second wireless communication protocol release that provides the widest transmission bandwidth, e.g., maximizing channel diversity and data throughput on the wireless channel.

[0128] 18 shows a flowchart illustrating an example process 1800 for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some implementations. In some implementations, the process 1800 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node, such as one of the STAs 104 or 604 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6B, respectively. In some other implementations, the process 1800 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within an AP, such as one of the APs 102 or 602 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6A, respectively.

[0129] In some implementations, process 1800 may be performed in conjunction with selecting the identified puncturing pattern in block 1704 of FIG. 17. For example, process 1800 begins at block 1802 and, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, determines which of the identified puncturing patterns include unpunctured subchannels associated with a relatively high frequency of the wireless channel or a relatively low frequency of the wireless channel. Process 1800 proceeds to block 1804 and selects a second puncturing pattern based on the determination. In this manner, if two or more of the puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release include unpunctured subchannels that are subsets of the unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern and also include the same number of unpunctured subchannels, the STA may select one of the two or more puncturing patterns based on the relative frequencies of their respective unpunctured subchannels. For example, if a STA determines that the channel interference on the upper 40 MHz frequency portion of a 320 MHz wireless channel is less than the channel interference on the lower 40 MHz frequency portion of the 320 MHz wireless channel, the STA may select a puncturing pattern that includes unpunctured subchannels within the upper 40 MHz frequency portion of the 320 MHz wireless channel to minimize packet loss due to the channel interference, for example.

[0130] 19 shows a flowchart illustrating an example process 1900 for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing, according to some implementations. In some implementations, the process 1900 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node, such as one of the STAs 104 or 604 described above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 6B, respectively. In some other implementations, the process 1900 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within an AP, such as one of the APs 102 or 602 described above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 6A, respectively.

[0131] In some implementations, process 1900 may be performed in conjunction with selecting an identified puncturing pattern in block 1704 of FIG. 17. For example, process 1900 begins at block 1902 by determining, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the identified puncturing patterns is associated with a bitmap having the highest binary index or a bitmap having the lowest binary index. Process 1900 proceeds to block 1904 by selecting a second puncturing pattern based on the determination. In this manner, if two or more of the puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release include unpunctured subchannels that are subsets of the unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern and also include the same number of unpunctured subchannels, the STA may select one of the identified puncturing patterns for transmitting or receiving data based on their relative bitmap indexes. The AP (and other STAs associated with the AP) may also follow this process to determine which of the identified puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communications protocol release will be used for channel puncturing. In this manner, the AP and the STAs associated with the AP may select the same puncturing pattern defined by the second wireless communications protocol release without explicit indication.

[0132] 20 shows a flowchart illustrating an example process 2000 for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing according to some other implementations. In some implementations, process 2000 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within an AP, such as one of the APs 102 or 602 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6A, respectively. In some other implementations, process 2000 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node, such as one of the STAs 104 or 604 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6B, respectively.

[0133] In some implementations, process 2000 begins at block 2002 by selecting a first puncturing pattern to be used for transmitting or receiving data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communication protocol release. Process 2000 proceeds to block 2004 by determining the presence of one or more STAs configured to operate according to a second wireless communication protocol release. Process 2000 proceeds to block 2006 by selecting a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release in response to determining the presence of one or more STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. Process 2000 proceeds to block 2008 and transmits one or more packets over the wireless channel based on the second puncturing pattern to or receives from at least a STA configured to operate according to a second wireless communication protocol release. In some implementations, the first wireless communication protocol release may be a second release of an amendment to IEEE 802.11be, and the second wireless communication protocol release may be a first release of an amendment to IEEE 802.11be. In some examples, the STA is not configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release or is unable to decode the puncturing pattern defined by the first wireless communication protocol release.

[0134] The second puncturing pattern may include an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel corresponding to the AP's primary channel. In some examples, the second puncturing pattern includes a 320 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz bandwidth, an 80 MHz bandwidth, or an 80+40 MHz bandwidth. In other examples, the second puncturing pattern includes a 160 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 40 MHz bandwidth or a 20 MHz bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern includes an 80 MHz frequency bandwidth and zero or more punctured subchannels having a 20 MHz bandwidth. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern includes a 40 MHz frequency bandwidth without channel puncturing. In some other examples, the second puncturing pattern includes a 20 MHz frequency bandwidth without channel puncturing.

[0135] In various implementations, the indication may be a bitmap including multiple bits, each bit of the bitmap indicating whether a corresponding subchannel of the frequency bandwidth is punctured by the second puncturing pattern. In some examples, the bitmap may be transmitted within an EHT operations element of a beacon frame. In some other examples, the bitmap may be transmitted within an EHT operations element of an action frame. In some other examples, the bitmap may be transmitted within an EHT operations element of an association response frame or a probe response frame. In some implementations, the second puncturing pattern may be selected based on a match between the received bitmap and one or more stored bitmaps corresponding to a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release.

[0136] 21 shows a flowchart illustrating an example process 2100 for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing according to some other implementations. In some implementations, process 2100 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within an AP, such as one of the APs 102 or 602 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6A, respectively. In some other implementations, process 2100 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node, such as one of the STAs 104 or 604 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6B, respectively.

[0137] In some implementations, process 2100 may be performed after process 2000 of Figure 20. For example, process 2100 begins at block 2102 with transmitting an indication of a second puncturing pattern to at least STAs configured to operate according to a second wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the indication may be a bit carried within an EHT operation element of a beacon frame or an action frame.

[0138] 22 shows a flowchart illustrating an example process 2200 for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing according to some other implementations. In some implementations, process 2200 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within an AP, such as one of the APs 102 or 602 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6A, respectively. In some other implementations, process 2200 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node, such as one of the STAs 104 or 604 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6B, respectively.

[0139] In some implementations, process 2200 may be an example of selecting a second puncturing pattern within block 2006 of FIG. 20 . For example, process 2200 begins at block 2202 with identifying each of the puncturing patterns of a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communication protocol release that includes unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. Process 2200 proceeds to block 2204 with selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern. For example, if two or more puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release are identified as including unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern, the AP may select the identified puncturing pattern that has the most unpunctured subchannels over which the AP may transmit or receive data. In this way, the AP may select a puncturing pattern defined by the second wireless communication protocol release that provides the widest transmission bandwidth, e.g., maximizing channel diversity and data throughput on the wireless channel.

[0140] 23 shows a flowchart illustrating an example process 2300 for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing according to some other implementations. In some implementations, the process 2300 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within an AP, such as one of the APs 102 or 602 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6A, respectively. In some other implementations, the process 2300 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node, such as one of the STAs 104 or 604 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6B, respectively.

[0141] In some implementations, process 2300 may be performed in conjunction with selecting an identified puncturing pattern in block 2204 of FIG. 22. For example, process 2300 begins at block 2302 by determining, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the identified puncturing patterns include unpunctured subchannels associated with a relatively high frequency of the wireless channel or a relatively low frequency of the wireless channel. Process 2300 proceeds to block 2304 by selecting a second puncturing pattern based on the determination. In this manner, if two or more of the puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release include unpunctured subchannels that are subsets of the unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern and also include the same number of unpunctured subchannels, the STA may select one of the two or more puncturing patterns based on the relative frequencies of their respective unpunctured subchannels. For example, if a STA determines that the channel interference on the upper 40 MHz frequency portion of a 320 MHz wireless channel is less than the channel interference on the lower 40 MHz frequency portion of the 320 MHz wireless channel, the STA may select a puncturing pattern that includes unpunctured subchannels within the upper 40 MHz frequency portion of the 320 MHz wireless channel to minimize packet loss due to the channel interference, for example.

[0142] 24 shows a flowchart illustrating an example process 2400 for wireless communication supporting channel puncturing according to some other implementations. In some implementations, process 2400 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within an AP, such as one of the APs 102 or 602 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6A, respectively. In some other implementations, process 2400 may be performed by a wireless communication device operating as or within a network node, such as one of the STAs 104 or 604 described above with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6B, respectively.

[0143] In some implementations, process 2400 may be performed in conjunction with selecting an identified puncturing pattern in block 2204 of FIG. 22. For example, process 2400 begins at block 2402 and determines, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the identified puncturing patterns is associated with a bitmap having the highest binary index or a bitmap having the lowest binary index. Process 2400 proceeds to block 2404 and selects a second puncturing pattern based on the determination. In this manner, if two or more of the puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release include unpunctured subchannels that are subsets of the unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern and also include the same number of unpunctured subchannels, the STA may select one of the identified puncturing patterns for transmitting or receiving data based on their relative bitmap indexes. The AP (and other STAs associated with the AP) may also follow this process to determine which of the identified puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communications protocol release will be used for channel puncturing. In this manner, the AP and the STAs associated with the AP may select the same puncturing pattern defined by the second wireless communications protocol release without explicit indication.

[0144] FIG. 25 shows a block diagram of an exemplary wireless communication device 2500 according to some implementations. In some implementations, the wireless communication device 2500 is configured to perform the communication 1400 of FIG. 14A , the communication 1410 of FIG. 14B , or both. The wireless communication device 2500 may be an exemplary implementation of the wireless communication device 500 described above with reference to FIG. 5. For example, the wireless communication device 2500 may be a chip, an SoC, a chipset, a package, or a device including at least one processor and at least one modem (e.g., a Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) modem or a cellular modem). In some implementations, the wireless communication device 2500 may be a device for use in a STA, such as one of the STAs 104 and 604 described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6B , respectively. In some other implementations, the wireless communication device 2500 may be a STA including a chip, an SoC, a chipset, a package, or a device and at least one antenna (such as antenna 625).

[0145] The wireless communication device 2500 includes a receiving component 2510, a communications manager 2520, and a transmitting component 2530. The communications manager 2520 further includes a puncturing pattern decoding component 2522 and a puncturing pattern selection component 2524. One or more portions of the components 2522 and 2524 may be implemented at least in part in hardware or firmware. In some implementations, at least some of the components 2522 and 2524 are implemented at least in part as software stored in a memory (such as memory 508). For example, one or more portions of the components 2522 and 2524 may be implemented as non-transitory instructions (or “code”) executable by a processor (such as processor 506) to perform the functions or operations of the respective components.

[0146] The receive component 2510 is configured to receive RX signals from one or more other wireless communication devices over a wireless channel. The communications manager 2520 is configured to control or manage communications with one or more other wireless communication devices. In some implementations, the puncturing pattern decoding component 2522 may receive an indication of a first puncturing pattern used to transmit or receive data over the wireless channel. In some examples, the puncturing pattern decoding component 2522 may determine that the first puncturing pattern is defined by a first wireless communication protocol release. The puncturing pattern selection component 2524 may select a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the second puncturing pattern may include one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. The transmit component 2530 is configured to transmit TX signals over the wireless channel to one or more other wireless communication devices. In some implementations, the transmitting component 2530 may transmit one or more packets over the wireless channel based on the second puncturing pattern.

[0147] FIG. 26 shows a block diagram of an exemplary wireless communication device 2600 according to some other implementations. In some implementations, the wireless communication device 2600 is configured to perform the communication 1400 of FIG. 14A , the communication 1410 of FIG. 14B , or both. The wireless communication device 2600 may be an exemplary implementation of the wireless communication device 500 described above with reference to FIG. 5. For example, the wireless communication device 2600 may be a chip, an SoC, a chipset, a package, or a device including at least one processor and at least one modem (e.g., a Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) modem or a cellular modem). In some implementations, the wireless communication device 2600 may be a device for use in an AP, such as one of the APs 102 and 602 described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6A , respectively. In some other implementations, the wireless communication device 2600 may be an AP including a chip, an SoC, a chipset, a package, or a device and at least one antenna (such as antenna 620).

[0148] The wireless communication device 2600 includes a receiving component 2610, a communications manager 2620, and a transmitting component 2630. The communications manager 2620 further includes a puncturing pattern selection component 2622 and a detection component 2624. One or more portions of the components 2622 and 2624 may be implemented at least in part in hardware or firmware. In some implementations, at least some of the components 2622 and 2624 are implemented at least in part as software stored in a memory (such as memory 508). For example, one or more portions of the components 2622 and 2624 may be implemented as non-transitory instructions (or “code”) executable by a processor (such as processor 506) to perform the functions or operations of the respective components.

[0149] The receiving component 2610 is configured to receive RX signals from one or more other wireless communication devices over a wireless channel. The communications manager 2620 is configured to control or manage communications with the one or more other wireless communication devices. In some implementations, the puncturing pattern selection component 2622 may select a first puncturing pattern used to transmit or receive data over the wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communication protocol release. The detection component 2624 is configured to determine the presence of one or more STAs configured to operate according to a second wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the one or more STAs are not configured to operate according to the first wireless communication protocol release. The puncturing pattern selection component 2622 is configured to select a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release in response to determining the presence of one or more STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release. In some examples, the second puncturing pattern includes one or more unpunctured subchannels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured subchannels of the first puncturing pattern. The transmitting component 2630 is configured to transmit TX signals over the wireless channel to one or more other wireless communication devices. In some implementations, the transmitting component 2630 may transmit one or more packets over the wireless channel to one or more STAs based on the second puncturing pattern.

[0150] The following numbered clauses describe example implementations. [Clause 1] A method for wireless communication performed by a wireless station (STA), comprising: receiving an indication of a first puncturing pattern used to transmit or receive data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communications protocol release; selecting a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communications protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured sub-channels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; transmitting or receiving one or more packets over the wireless channel based on the second puncturing pattern. [Clause 2] The method of clause 1, wherein the STA is configured to operate according to a second wireless communications protocol release and is not configured to operate according to a first wireless communications protocol release. [Clause 3] The second puncturing pattern is: a frequency bandwidth of 320 MHz and zero or more punctured subchannels having a frequency bandwidth of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, or 80+40 MHz; a frequency bandwidth of 160 MHz and zero or more punctured subchannels having a frequency bandwidth of 40 MHz or a frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz; a frequency bandwidth of 80 MHz, and zero or more punctured subchannels having a frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz; 40 MHz frequency bandwidth without puncturing, or 10. The method according to one or more of clauses 1 to 2, including a frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz without puncturing. [Clause 4] The method of one or more of clauses 1 to 3, wherein the second puncturing pattern includes an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel corresponding to a primary channel of an access point (AP). [Clause 5] The method according to one or more of clauses 1 to 4, wherein the indication includes a bitmap including a plurality of bits, each bit of the bitmap indicating whether a corresponding subchannel of the wireless channel is punctured by the first puncturing pattern. [Clause 6] The method of clause 5, wherein the bitmap is received within an Very High Throughput (EHT) operation element of a beacon frame, an association response frame, a probe response frame, or an action frame. [Clause 7] The step of selecting a second puncturing pattern comprises: identifying each of the puncturing patterns of a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communications protocol release that includes an unpunctured sub-channel that is a subset of one or more unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; and selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern. [Clause 8] Responsive to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, determining which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns includes unpunctured subchannels associated with a relatively high frequency of the wireless channel or a relatively low frequency of the wireless channel; and selecting a second puncturing pattern based on the determination. [Clause 9] Responsive to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns containing the most unpunctured subchannels, determining which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns is associated with a bitmap having a highest binary index or a bitmap having a lowest binary index; and selecting a second puncturing pattern based on the determination. [Clause 10] The method of one or more clauses 1 to 9, wherein the step of selecting a second puncturing pattern is based on a match between the received bitmap and one or more stored bitmaps corresponding to a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communications protocol release. [Clause 11] A method for wireless communication performed by a wireless access point (AP), comprising: selecting a first puncturing pattern to be used for transmitting or receiving data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communications protocol release; determining the presence of one or more wireless stations (STAs) configured to operate according to a second wireless communications protocol release; In response to determining the presence of one or more STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release, selecting a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured sub-channels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; and transmitting one or more packets over a wireless channel based on a second puncturing pattern to or receiving from at least a STA configured to operate according to a second wireless communications protocol release. [Clause 12] The method of clause 11, further comprising transmitting an indication of the second puncturing pattern to at least STAs configured to operate according to a second wireless communications protocol release. [Clause 13] The method of one or more of clauses 11 to 12, wherein the indication comprises a bit carried within an Very High Throughput (EHT) operation element of a beacon frame, an association response frame, a probe response frame, or an action frame. [Clause 14] The second puncturing pattern is: a frequency bandwidth of 320 MHz and zero or more punctured subchannels having a frequency bandwidth of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, or 80+40 MHz; a frequency bandwidth of 160 MHz and zero or more punctured subchannels having a frequency bandwidth of 40 MHz or a frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz; a frequency bandwidth of 80 MHz, and zero or more punctured subchannels having a frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz; 40 MHz frequency bandwidth without puncturing, or 14. The method according to one or more of clauses 11 to 13, including a frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz without puncturing. [Clause 15] The method of one or more of clauses 11 to 14, wherein the second puncturing pattern includes an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel corresponding to the AP's primary channel. [Clause 16] The step of selecting a second puncturing pattern comprises: identifying each of the puncturing patterns of a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communications protocol release that includes an unpunctured sub-channel that is a subset of one or more unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; and selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern. [Clause 17] Responsive to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, determining which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns includes unpunctured subchannels associated with a relatively high frequency of the wireless channel or a relatively low frequency of the wireless channel; and selecting a second puncturing pattern based on the determination. [Clause 18] Responsive to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns containing the most unpunctured subchannels, determining which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns is associated with a bitmap having a highest binary index or a bitmap having a lowest binary index; and selecting a second puncturing pattern based on the determination. [Clause 19] At least one modem; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one modem; and at least one memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing processor-readable code, the processor-readable code, when executed by the at least one processor in conjunction with the at least one modem, receiving an indication of a first puncturing pattern used to transmit or receive data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communications protocol release; selecting a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communications protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured sub-channels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; and transmitting or receiving one or more packets over the wireless channel based on the second puncturing pattern. [Clause 20] A wireless communication device as described in Clause 19, wherein the indication includes a bitmap including a plurality of bits, each bit of the bitmap indicating whether a corresponding subchannel of the wireless channel is punctured by the first puncturing pattern. [Clause 21] A wireless communication device as described in one or more of clauses 19 to 20, wherein the bitmap is transmitted within an Very High Throughput (EHT) operation element of a beacon frame, an association response frame, a probe response frame, or an action frame. [Clause 22] Execution of the processor-readable code causes a second puncturing pattern to be identifying each of the puncturing patterns of a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communication protocol release that includes an unpunctured sub-channel that is a subset of one or more unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; and selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern. [Clause 23] Execution of the processor-readable code further comprises: Responsive to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, determining which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns includes unpunctured subchannels associated with a relatively high frequency of the wireless channel or a relatively low frequency of the wireless channel; and selecting a second puncturing pattern based on the determination. [Clause 24] Execution of the processor-readable code further comprises: determining, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns is associated with a bitmap having a highest binary index or a bitmap having a lowest binary index; and selecting a second puncturing pattern based on the determination. [Clause 25] A wireless communications device as described in one or more clauses 19 to 24, wherein the selection of the second puncturing pattern is based on a match between the received bitmap and one or more stored bitmaps corresponding to a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communications protocol release. [Article 26] At least one modem; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one modem; and at least one memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing processor-readable code, the processor-readable code, when executed by the at least one processor in conjunction with the at least one modem, selecting a first puncturing pattern to be used for transmitting or receiving data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communications protocol release; determining the presence of one or more wireless stations (STAs) configured to operate according to a second wireless communications protocol release; In response to determining the presence of one or more STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communication protocol release, selecting a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communication protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured sub-channels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; and transmitting or receiving one or more packets over a wireless channel based on a second puncturing pattern to or from at least a STA configured to operate according to a second wireless communications protocol release. [Clause 27] Execution of the processor-readable code further comprises: 27. The wireless communications device of clause 26, configured to transmit an indication of the second puncturing pattern to at least a STA configured to operate according to a second wireless communications protocol release. [Clause 28] A wireless communication device as described in one or more of clauses 26 to 27, wherein the second puncturing pattern includes an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel corresponding to the AP's primary channel. [Clause 29] Execution of the processor-readable code causes a second puncturing pattern to be identifying each of the puncturing patterns of a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communication protocol release that includes an unpunctured sub-channel that is a subset of one or more unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; and selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern. [Clause 30] A wireless communications device as described in one or more clauses 26 to 29, wherein the selection of the second puncturing pattern is based on a match between the received bitmap and one or more stored bitmaps corresponding to a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communications protocol release.

[0151] As used herein, phrases referring to "at least one of" or "one or more of" a list of items refer to any combination of those items, including single members. For example, "at least one of a, b, or c" is intended to encompass the possibilities of a only, b only, c only, a and b combined, a and c combined, b and c combined, and a, b, and c combined.

[0152] The various example components, logic, logic blocks, modules, circuits, operations, and algorithmic processes described in connection with the implementations disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, firmware, software, or combinations of hardware, firmware, or software, including the structures disclosed herein and their structural equivalents. The interchangeability of hardware, firmware, and software has been described generally in terms of functionality and is shown in the various example components, blocks, modules, circuits, and processes described above. Whether such functionality is implemented in hardware, firmware, or software depends on the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system.

[0153] Various modifications of the implementations described in this disclosure may be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other implementations without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the implementations shown herein, but are to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the present disclosure, the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

[0154] Furthermore, various features that are described herein in the context of separate implementations may also be implemented in combination in a single implementation. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single implementation may also be implemented in multiple implementations separately or in any suitable subcombination. Thus, although features may be described above as working in a particular combination and may even initially be claimed as such, in some cases one or more features from the claimed combination may be deleted from that combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or a variation of the subcombination.

[0155] Similarly, while operations are shown in the figures in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring such operations to be performed in the particular order or sequential order shown, or that all of the illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. Furthermore, the figures may generally depict one or more exemplary processes in the form of a flowchart or flow diagram. However, other operations not shown may be incorporated into the generally depicted exemplary process. For example, one or more additional operations may be performed before, after, simultaneously with, or between any of the depicted operations. In some situations, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various system components in the above-described implementations should not be understood as requiring such separation in all implementations, and it should be understood that the described program components and systems may generally be integrated together in a single software product or packaged in multiple software products. [Explanation of symbols]

[0156] 100 Wireless communication network, WLAN 102 Access Point (AP) 104 stations (STA) 106 Coverage Area 108 Communication Links 110 Direct communication link, direct wireless link 200 Protocol Data Units (PDUs) 201 Preamble 202 First Part 203 Second Part 204 PHY payload, payload 206 Legacy Short Training Field (L-STF) 208 Legacy Long Training Field (L-LTF) 210 Legacy Signal Field (L-SIG) 212 Non-Legacy Signal Field 214 Data field (DATA) 222 Data Rate Field 224 reserved bits 226 Length Field 228 parity bits 230 Tailfield 300 PDU 302 First Part 304 Second Part 306 PHY payload 308 L-STF 310 L-LTF 312 L-SIG 314 First VHT Signal Field (VHT-SIG-A) 316 VHT Short Training Field (VHT-ST) 318 VHT Long Training Field (VHT-LTF) 320 Second VHT Signal Field (VHT-SIG-B) 322 DATA field 350 PDU 352 First Part 354 Second Part 356 PHY payload 358 L-STF 360 L-LTF 362 L-SIG 364 Repetitive Legacy Signal Field (RL-SIG) 366 First HE Signal Field (HE-SIG-A) 368 Second HE Signal Field (HE-SIG-B) 370 HE Short Training Field (HE-STF) 372 HE Long Training Field (HE-LTF) 374 DATA field 400 Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) 402 PHY Preamble 404 PLCP Service Data Unit (PSDU) 406 aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU) subframe (MPDU: Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit) 408 A-MPDU 410 MAC Delimiter 412 MAC header 414 MPDU 416 MAC Service Data Unit (MSDU) subframe 418 aggregated MSDUs (A-MSDUs) 420 MSDU 422 Subframe Header 424 Frame Check Sequence (FCS) field 500 wireless communication devices 502 modem 504 Radio 506 processor 508 memory 602 AP 604 STA 610 Wireless Communication Device (WCD) 615 Wireless Communication Devices 620 Antenna 625 Antenna 630 Application Processor 635 Application Processor 640 memory 645 memory 650 external network interface 655 User Interface (UI) 665 Display 675 Sensors 700 Tone Map 701 Lower 40MHz section 702 Upper 40MHz section 721 First Tone Plan 722 Second Tone Plan 723 Third Tone Plan 724 Fourth Tone Plan 725 5th Tone Plan 726 6th Tone Plan 800 4-bit bitmaps 810 8-bit bitmap 820 8-bit bitmap 830 8-bit bitmaps Set of 900 puncturing patterns 1000A puncturing pattern set 1000B Puncturing Pattern Set 1100A Puncturing Pattern Set 1100B Puncturing Pattern Set 1200A Puncturing Pattern Set 1200B Puncturing Pattern Set 1300A Puncturing Pattern Set 1300B Puncturing Pattern Set 1350 16-bit bitmaps 1360 16-bit bitmap 1400 Communications 1402 AP 1404 STA 1405 Wireless Channel 1410 Communications 1500 beacon frames 1501 Frame Control Field 1502 Duration Field 1503 Address 1 field 1504 Address 2 Field 1505 Address 3 Field 1506 Sequence Control Field 1507 HT Control Field 1508 Frame body 1509 Frame Check Sequence (FCS) field 1510 Very High Throughput (EHT) Operational Elements, Information Elements 1511 Element ID field 1512 Length Field 1513 Element ID Extension Field 1514 EHT Operation Information Field 1520 bitmap 2500 Wireless Communication Devices 2510 Receive Component 2520 Communications Manager 2522 Puncturing Pattern Decoding Component 2524 Puncturing Pattern Selection Component 2530 Transmission Component 2600 Wireless Communication Devices 2610 Receive Component 2620 Communications Manager 2622 Puncturing Pattern Selection Component 2624 Discovery Components 2630 Transmission Component

Claims

1. 1. A method for wireless communication performed by a wireless station (STA), comprising: receiving an indication of a first puncturing pattern used to transmit or receive data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communications protocol release; selecting a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communications protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured sub-channels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; transmitting or receiving one or more packets over the wireless channel based on the second puncturing pattern; Including, The method, wherein the STA is configured to operate according to the second wireless communications protocol release and is not configured to operate according to the first wireless communications protocol release.

2. The second puncturing pattern is a frequency bandwidth of 320 MHz and zero or more punctured subchannels having a frequency bandwidth of 40 MHz, 80 MHz or 80+40 MHz; a frequency bandwidth of 160 MHz and zero or more punctured subchannels having a frequency bandwidth of 40 MHz or a frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz; a frequency bandwidth of 80 MHz, and zero or more punctured subchannels having a frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz; 40MHz frequency bandwidth without puncturing, or 10. The method of claim 1, comprising a frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz without puncturing.

3. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second puncturing pattern includes an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel corresponding to a primary channel of an access point (AP).

4. the indication includes a bitmap including a plurality of bits, each bit of the bitmap indicating whether a corresponding subchannel of the wireless channel is punctured by the first puncturing pattern; 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the bitmap is received within an Very High Throughput (EHT) operation element of a beacon frame, an association response frame, a probe response frame, or an action frame.

5. the step of selecting a second puncturing pattern further comprising: identifying each of the puncturing patterns of the set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communications protocol release that includes an unpunctured sub-channel that is a subset of the one or more unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern; Including, selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern, determining, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns includes an unpunctured subchannel associated with a relatively high frequency of the wireless channel or a relatively low frequency of the wireless channel; selecting the second puncturing pattern based on the determining; Also includes determining, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns is associated with a bitmap having a highest binary index or a bitmap having a lowest binary index; selecting the second puncturing pattern based on the determining; The method of claim 1, further comprising:

6. 2. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the second puncturing pattern is based on a match between the received bitmap and one or more stored bitmaps corresponding to the set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communications protocol release.

7. 1. A method for wireless communication performed by a wireless access point (AP), comprising: selecting a first puncturing pattern to be used for transmitting or receiving data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communications protocol release; determining the presence of one or more wireless stations (STAs) configured to operate according to a second wireless communications protocol release; in response to determining the presence of the one or more STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communications protocol release, selecting a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communications protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured sub-channels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; and transmitting one or more packets over the wireless channel based on the second puncturing pattern to or receiving from at least the STA configured to operate according to the second wireless communications protocol release.

8. transmitting an indication of the second puncturing pattern to at least the STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communications protocol release; 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the indication comprises a bit carried within an Very High Throughput (EHT) operation element of a beacon frame, an association response frame, a probe response frame, or an action frame.

9. The second puncturing pattern is a frequency bandwidth of 320 MHz and zero or more punctured subchannels having a frequency bandwidth of 40 MHz, 80 MHz or 80+40 MHz; a frequency bandwidth of 160 MHz and zero or more punctured subchannels having a frequency bandwidth of 40 MHz or a frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz; a frequency bandwidth of 80 MHz, and zero or more punctured subchannels having a frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz; 40MHz frequency bandwidth without puncturing, or The method of claim 7, comprising a frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz without puncturing.

10. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second puncturing pattern includes an unpunctured 20 MHz subchannel corresponding to a primary channel of the AP.

11. the step of selecting a second puncturing pattern further comprising: identifying each of the puncturing patterns of the set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communications protocol release that includes an unpunctured sub-channel that is a subset of the one or more unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern; Including, selecting the identified puncturing pattern that includes the most unpunctured subchannels as the second puncturing pattern, determining, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns includes an unpunctured subchannel associated with a relatively high frequency of the wireless channel or a relatively low frequency of the wireless channel; selecting the second puncturing pattern based on the determining; or determining, in response to two or more of the identified puncturing patterns including the most unpunctured subchannels, which of the two or more identified puncturing patterns is associated with a bitmap having a highest binary index or a bitmap having a lowest binary index; selecting the second puncturing pattern based on the determining; 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

12. A wireless communication device, comprising: At least one modem; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one modem; and at least one memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing processor readable code, the processor readable code, when executed by the at least one processor in conjunction with the at least one modem, causing the wireless communication device to: receiving an indication of a first puncturing pattern used to transmit or receive data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern defined by a first wireless communications protocol release; selecting a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by a second wireless communications protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured sub-channels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; transmitting or receiving one or more packets over the wireless channel based on the second puncturing pattern, wherein the wireless communication device is configured to operate according to the second wireless communications protocol release and is not configured to operate according to the first wireless communications protocol release; 4. A wireless communication device configured to:

13. A wireless communication device as described in claim 12, wherein the at least one modem, the at least one processor, and the at least one memory are further configured to execute a method according to any one of claims 2 to 6.

14. A wireless communication device, comprising: At least one modem; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one modem; and at least one memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and storing processor readable code that, when executed by the at least one processor in conjunction with the at least one modem, causes the wireless communication device to: selecting a first puncturing pattern to be used for transmitting or receiving data over a wireless channel, the first puncturing pattern being defined by a first wireless communications protocol release; determining the presence of one or more wireless stations (STAs) configured to operate according to a second wireless communications protocol release; in response to determining the presence of the one or more STAs configured to operate according to the second wireless communications protocol release, selecting a second puncturing pattern from a set of puncturing patterns defined by the second wireless communications protocol release, the second puncturing pattern including one or more unpunctured sub-channels that are a subset of one or more corresponding unpunctured sub-channels of the first puncturing pattern; transmitting or receiving one or more packets over the wireless channel based on the second puncturing pattern to or from at least the STA configured to operate according to the second wireless communications protocol release; 4. A wireless communication device configured to:

15. A wireless communication device as described in claim 14, wherein the at least one modem, the at least one processor, and the at least one memory are further configured to execute a method according to any of claims 8 to 11.

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