Method and device for defining a bit source within a trigger frame for ignoring bit and releasing redundant beamformed bit

Abstract

To disclose a method and a system for transmitting data in a wireless local area network (WLAN).SOLUTION: The method includes a step for transmitting a trigger frame from a first wireless communication device in a WLAN, in which the trigger frame includes one or more subfields of bits in the trigger frame at predetermined bit positions into which a value to be copied by a second wireless communication device to a trigger-based frame for transmission to the first wireless communication device.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] [Technical field] The present application relates to a method and system for wireless network communication, and more particularly, to defining a source of bits in a trigger frame for disregard bits and freeing up redundant beamformed bits. [Background technology]

[0002] Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 TM 802.11 is a group of media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) specification standards for wireless local area network (WLAN) communications in the Wi-Fi frequency band. TM is a family of Wireless LAN Working Group standards. These standards have undergone steady evolution and are expected to continue to grow to meet the ever-increasing demand for increased throughput, reduced latency and jitter, greater reliability, and improved power efficiency driven by new and emerging applications including virtual or augmented reality, immersive gaming, remote office, and cloud computing.

[0003] New protocol IEEE802.11be TM Currently, IEEE802.11 TM It is currently under development by the Task Group TGbe and is IEEE 802.11ax TM The next major step to define the next generation of Wi-Fi after IEEE 802.11 TM This is expected to be a revision of IEEE802.11be. TM(also known as Extremely High Throughput (EHT)) is expected to support data rates of at least 30 Gbps and may use up to 320 MHz of spectrum bandwidth in unlicensed operation, double the maximum bandwidth of 160 MHz currently contemplated for IEEE 802.11ax. The improved capabilities of 802.11be can be attributed, at least in part, to the opening up of the 6 GHz frequency band for unlicensed use.

[0004] 802.11 TM Among the elements in the IEEE 802.11b, the physical layer (PHY) includes the Physical Layer Convergence Procedure (PLCP) sublayer, which prepares appropriately structured frames that enable decodable communication between the transmitter and the receiver. A frame, for example a PLCP protocol data unit (PPDU), consists of several fields, including a preamble field and a payload. The contents of the preamble are important for synchronizing the transmitter with the receiver. The frame informs the receiver, among other information, of the transmission rate, modulation scheme and type of error coding to be applied.

[0005] To keep transmission overhead to a minimum, it is desirable for the preamble format and content to be as simple as possible, while still allowing flexibility in the information that is conveyed. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure defines a bit in the trigger frame that is copied to a bit in the U-SIG of the EHT TB PPDU to release the redundant bit in the EHT NDP PPDU.

[0007] According to a first exemplary aspect, a method for transmitting data in a wireless local area network (WLAN) includes transmitting a trigger frame from a first wireless communication device in the WLAN. The trigger frame has a special user field that includes one or more subfields of bits at predetermined bit positions within the special user field. The one or more subfields of bits are populated with values ​​that a second wireless communication device copies into a trigger-based frame for transmission to the first wireless communication device.

[0008] In some instances of the first exemplary aspect, the trigger frame includes a common information field, and one or more subfields of bits are included in the common information field.

[0009] In some examples of the above aspects, the common information field includes at least 63 bits, with one or more subfields of bits included in bit positions 53-63.

[0010] In some instances of the above aspects, the trigger frame includes a special user field, and one or more subfields of bits are included in the special user field.

[0011] In some examples of the above aspects, the one or more subfields of bits are 11 bits contained within the first five octets of bits of the special user field.

[0012] In some examples of the above aspects, one or more sub-fields of bits are 11 bits of the special user field, which may be contiguous or non-contiguous.

[0013] According to a second exemplary aspect, a method for transmitting data in a wireless local area network (WLAN) includes receiving, by a station (STA) in the WLAN, a trigger frame including a special user field, in response to the trigger frame, copying contents from one or more predetermined bit positions of the special user field into predetermined ignore bit positions of a response frame, and transmitting, by the STA, the response frame.

[0014] In some examples of the above aspects, the predetermined ignored bit positions of the response frame are positions B20 to B25 of the universal signal 1 (U-SIG-1, universal signal 1) subfield and B11 to B15 of the universal signal 2 (U-SIG-2, universal signal 2) subfield of the universal signal (U-SIG) field of the EHT trigger based (TB, trigger) physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU).

[0015] In some examples of the above aspects, the one or more predetermined bit positions of the trigger frame include 11 bits determined from a special user field of the trigger frame. The 11 bits may be 11 non-contiguous bits.

[0016] In some examples of the above aspects, the one or more predetermined bit positions of the trigger frame include 11 bits determined from a User Information List field of the trigger frame. The 11 bits are 11 non-contiguous bits.

[0017] According to a further exemplary aspect, a method for transmitting an extremely high throughput (EHT) null data packet (NDP) in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the method includes transmitting an NDP having an EHT signal field (EHT-SIG) that does not include bits of a beamformed subfield.

[0018] In some examples of further aspects, the EHT-SIG field does not include a bit for the Beamformed subfield, 4 bits for the Spatial Reuse subfield, 2 bits for the GI and LTF subfields, 3 bits for the Number of EHT-LTF Symbols subfield, 4 bits for the Number of Spatial Streams subfield, 1 bit for the Reserved subfield, 2 bits for the Reserved subfield, 4 bits for the Cyclic Redundancy Check subfield, and 6 bits for the Tail subfield.

[0019] In some examples of further aspects, the EHT-SIG field includes 4 bits for a spatial reuse subfield, 2 bits for guard interval (GI) and long training field (LTF) subfields, 3 bits for a number of EHT-LTF symbols subfield, 4 bits for a number of spatial streams subfield, 1 bit for a reserved subfield, 2 bits for the reserved subfield, 4 bits for a cyclic redundancy check subfield, and 6 bits for a tail subfield.

[0020] The exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure defines a bit in the trigger frame that is copied to a bit in the U-SIG of the EHT TB PPDU to release the redundant bit in the EHT NDP PPDU.

[0021] An exemplary aspect is a network communication device for transmitting data in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the network communication device including a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory tangibly storing executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to transmit, in the WLAN, a trigger frame from a first wireless communication device, the trigger frame including a special user field including one or more subfields of bits populated at predetermined bit positions within the trigger frame with values ​​that a second wireless communication device copies into a trigger-based frame for transmission to the first wireless communication device.

[0022] In some examples of the first above aspect, the trigger frame includes a common information field, and one or more subfields of bits are included in the common information field.

[0023] In some examples of the above aspects, the common information field includes at least 63 bits, with one or more subfields of bits included in bit positions 53-63.

[0024] In some instances of the above aspects, the trigger frame includes a special user field, and one or more subfields of bits are included in the special user field.

[0025] In some examples of the above aspects, the one or more subfields of bits are 11 bits contained within the first five octets of bits of the special user field.

[0026] In some examples of the above aspects, the 11 bits may be contiguous or non-contiguous.

[0027] An exemplary aspect is a network communication device for transmitting data in a wireless local area network (WLAN). The network communication device includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory tangibly storing executable instructions. When the instructions are executed by the processor, the processor receives a trigger frame by a station (STA) in the WLAN, the trigger frame including a special user field. In response to the trigger frame, the processor copies contents from one or more predetermined bit positions of the special user field into predetermined ignore bit positions of a response frame and transmits the response frame by the STA.

[0028] In some examples of the above aspects, the predetermined ignored bit positions of the response frame are positions B20 to B25 of the universal signal 1 (U-SIG-1, universal signal 1) subfield and B11 to B15 of the universal signal 2 (U-SIG-2, universal signal 2) subfield of the universal signal (U-SIG) field of the EHT trigger based (TB, trigger) physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU).

[0029] In some examples of the above aspects, the one or more predetermined bit positions of the trigger frame include 11 bits determined from a special user field of the trigger frame.

[0030] In some examples of the above aspects, the one or more predetermined bit positions of the trigger frame include 11 non-contiguous bits determined from a special user field of the trigger frame.

[0031] According to a further exemplary aspect, a network communications device for transmitting an extremely high throughput (EHT) null data packet (NDP) in a wireless local area network (WLAN). The network communications device includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory tangibly storing executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to transmit an NDP having an EHT signal field (EHT-SIG) that does not include a bit of a beamformed subfield.

[0032] In some examples of further aspects, the EHT-SIG field does not include a bit for the Beamformed subfield, 4 bits for the Spatial Reuse subfield, 2 bits for the GI and LTF subfields, 3 bits for the Number of EHT-LTF Symbols subfield, 4 bits for the Number of Spatial Streams subfield, 1 bit for the Reserved subfield, 2 bits for the Reserved subfield, 4 bits for the Cyclic Redundancy Check subfield, and 6 bits for the Tail subfield.

[0033] In some examples of further aspects, the EHT-SIG field includes 4 bits for a spatial reuse subfield, 2 bits for guard interval (GI) and long training field (LTF) subfields, 3 bits for a number of EHT-LTF symbols subfield, 4 bits for a number of spatial streams subfield, 1 bit for a reserved subfield, 2 bits for the reserved subfield, 4 bits for a cyclic redundancy check subfield, and 6 bits for a tail subfield. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0034] Reference is now made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, exemplary embodiments of the present application. [Figure 1] 1 illustrates an example of a wireless network including a plurality of wireless communication devices configured to transmit and receive wireless signals. [Diagram 2] 1 illustrates an example of an exemplary wireless communication device that can operate as the AP 102 or the STA 104 illustrated in FIG. [Diagram 3] 1 shows an example of an EHT TB PPDU frame structure. [Figure 4] 13 shows an example of a trigger frame structure that may be used to define bits for ignore bits of the copy source. [Diagram 5] 13 shows an example of using the common information field of the trigger frame to define UL EHT U-SIG ignore. [Figure 6] 13 shows an example of using the User Information List field of the Trigger frame to define UL EHT U-SIG ignore. [Figure 7] 13 shows an example of an EHT NDP PPDU frame format after releasing the beamformed bits.

[0035] Like reference numbers may be used in different drawings to indicate like elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0036] For purposes of explanation, specific exemplary embodiments will now be described in more detail in conjunction with the drawings.

[0037] The embodiments described herein represent sufficient information to practice the claimed subject matter and explain how to practice such subject matter. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawings, one of ordinary skill in the art will understand the concepts of the claimed subject matter and recognize applications of these concepts not specifically addressed herein. These concepts and applications should be understood to fall within the scope of the disclosure and the appended claims.

[0038] Additionally, it will be recognized that any module, component, or device for executing instructions disclosed herein may include or otherwise access one or more non-transitory computer / processor readable storage media for storage of information, such as computer / processor readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and / or other data. A non-exhaustive list of examples of non-transitory computer / processor readable storage media includes magnetic cassettes, magnetic tapes, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital video disks or digital versatile disks (i.e., DVDs), Blu-ray discs, and the like. TMor other optical storage, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any manner or technology, including random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, or other memory technology. Any such non-transitory computer / processor storage media may be part of the device or accessible or connectable thereto. Computer / processor readable / executable instructions for implementing the applications or modules described herein may be stored or otherwise maintained by such non-transitory computer / processor readable storage media.

[0039] Below is a partial list of abbreviations and associated definitions that may be used in the following description. EHT Enhanced High Throughput SIG Signal field EHT-SIG EHT-SIG field U-SIG Universal Signal field TB Trigger-based PHY Physical layer PLCP PHY Convergence Protocol PPDU PLCP Protocol Data Unit SS Spatial Stream NDP Null Data Packet TF Trigger Frame BW Bandwidth

[0040] IEEE802.11be TM Among the signal structure formats being developed for the EHT TB PPDU is the EHT Trigger-Based (TB) PPDU, which is transmitted in response to a trigger frame (TF). For the EHT TB PPDU, an EHT Universal Signal (U-SIG) preamble field has been proposed. In the existing proposal, the EHT U-SIG field includes a disregard subfield into which data copied from the TF is entered. According to an example aspect, the present disclosure provides a TF format that specifies data to be copied from the TF to the disregard subfield of the EHT U-SIG field of the EHT TB PPDU.

[0041] IEEE802.11be TM Another signal structure format being developed for is the EHT Null Data Packet (NDP) PPDU, which is used for channel sounding. The EHT NDP PPDU may also include an EHT U-SIG field in its preamble. Additionally, a beamformed bits subfield has been proposed for inclusion in such an EHT U-SIG field. Since the EHT NDP PPDU does not require a subfield for the beamformed bits, such bits are not required. According to further exemplary aspects, the present disclosure provides an EHT NDP PPDU format that allows for an EHT U-SIG field that does not include the beamformed bits.

[0042] Therefore, an exemplary embodiment is described herein that defines the bits of the trigger frame that are copied into the ignore bits of the EHT U-SIG of the EHT TB PPDU, and a suitable EHT NDP PPDU frame format is described to conserve resources in the EHT U-SIG field of the EHT NDP PPDU.

[0043] 1 illustrates a wireless network 100 including a plurality of wireless communication devices configured to transmit and receive wireless signals according to an exemplary embodiment. Wireless network 100 may be a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), although embodiments are not so limited.

[0044] The wireless communication devices include an access point station (AP) 102 and one or more non-access point stations (STAs) 104. In some embodiments, the AP 102 and the STAs 104 are compliant with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n standard. TM , IEEE802.11ac TM , IEEE802.11ax TM , and / or IEEE802.11be TM IEEE 802.11, including proposed specifications for WLANs such as TMThe wireless network 100 may be configured to transmit and receive signals in accordance with a particular communications standard and / or protocol, such as any of the standards. Communications in the wireless network 100 may also be suitable for transmitting and / or receiving communications in accordance with other technologies and standards, including the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standard promulgated by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). In a further example, the wireless standard may include a Fifth Generation (5G) wireless standard.

[0045] In some examples, the wireless network 100 may be IEEE 802.11ac TM Very High Throughput (VHT) communication using the IEEE802.11ax standard (hereinafter referred to as the 11ac standard) TM The APs 102 and the STAs 104 may be configured for High Efficiency (HE) communications via the proposed IEEE 802.11be standard (hereinafter referred to as the 11ax standard), or Extremely High Throughput (EHT) via the proposed IEEE 802.11be standard (hereinafter referred to as the 11be standard), or any other suitable wireless communication standard between the APs 102 and the STAs 104. The wireless network 100 may be configured to use orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) technology.

[0046] The STAs 104 may be associated with the AP 102 through a registration procedure. Once associated, the AP 102 can communicate with the STAs 104 within the wireless network 100. The STAs 104 may include any of the following: desktop computers, notebook computers, tablet computers, smartphones, Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices (e.g., sensors, cameras, thermostats, home appliances, etc.), wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, smart glasses, head-mounted devices, etc.), server computers, storage devices, etc.

[0047] In an exemplary embodiment, the AP 102 is configured to act as an interface between the STAs 104 and the network 106, where the AP 102 may forward requests to the network 106 via a bidirectional communication link and pass responses received from the network 106 to the STAs 104 over a bidirectional wireless channel.

[0048] Although a single instance of each AP 102, STA 104 and network 106 is shown, it should be understood that there may be embodiments in which multiple instances of each component exist within wireless network 100.

[0049] Figure 2 illustrates an example wireless communication device 200 that may be used to implement the AP 102 or the STA 104 illustrated in Figure 1. The wireless communication device 200 includes at least one processing unit 210, at least one transmitter 212, at least one receiver 214, one or more antennas 216, electronic storage including at least one non-transitory memory storage unit 218, and one or more input / output (I / O) devices or interfaces 220.

[0050] The processing unit 210 performs various processing operations of the AP 102 or the receiving (target) STA 104, such as signal coding, data processing, power control, input / output processing, or any other function. The processing unit 210 may also be configured to perform some or all of the functions and / or embodiments described herein. Each processing unit 210 includes any suitable processing or computing device configured to perform one or more operations. Each processing unit 210 may include, for example, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital signal processor, a field programmable gate array, or an application specific integrated circuit. The processing unit 210 is operatively connected to the I / O interface 220, the transmitter 212, and the receiver 214. The processing unit 210 may be configured to generate a wireless signal based on a signal received from the input 220 for transmission by the transmitter 212, or to process a wireless signal received from the receiver 214. In some embodiments communicating OFDM or OFDMA signals, the processing unit 210 may be configured to generate an OFDM or OFDMA signal suitable for transmission, for example, by performing an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) or any other suitable processing technique. The processing unit 210 may also be configured to process received OFDM or OFDMA signals, for example, by performing a fast Fourier transform (FFT) or any other suitable processing technique. In some embodiments, the processing unit 210 may be configured to detect the presence of an OFDM or OFDMA signal by performing correlation or cross-correlation to detect a preamble. The preamble may be part of a predefined frame structure for Wi-Fi communications. Although a single instance of the processing unit 210 is shown, it is understood that multiple instances of the processing unit 210 may be present in each wireless communication device. For example, there may be at least one processing unit for processing output signals transmitted by the transmitter 212 and at least one processing unit for processing input signals from the receiver 214.

[0051] The transmitter 212 may include any suitable structure for generating signals for wireless or wired transmission. Each receiver 214 may include any suitable structure for processing received signals wirelessly or wired. Each transmitter 212 and receiver 214 may include associated amplification and modulation / demodulation circuitry. Although shown as separate components, at least one transmitter 212 and at least one receiver 214 may be combined into a single transceiver. Each antenna 216 may include any suitable structure for transmitting and / or receiving wireless or wired signals. Here, a common antenna 216 is shown as being coupled to both the transmitter 212 and the receiver 214, but one or more antennas 216 may be coupled to one or more transmitters 212, and one or more separate antennas 216 may be coupled to one or more receivers 214. In some examples, one or more antennas 216 may be antenna arrays, which may be used for beamforming and beamsteering operations. Each non-transitory memory storage unit 218 may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile storage and retrieval device. Any suitable type of memory may be used, such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), hard disk, optical disk, subscriber identity module (SIM) card, memory stick, secure digital (SD) memory card, etc. The non-transitory memory storage unit 218 may store instructions and data used, generated, or collected by the AP 102 or the STA 104. For example, the non-transitory memory storage unit 218 may store software instructions or modules configured to implement some or all of the functions and / or embodiments described herein and executed by the processing unit 210.

[0052] The input / output devices / interfaces 220 may enable interaction with a user or other devices in a network. The input / output devices / interfaces 220 include any suitable structure for providing information to or receiving / providing information from a user, including network interface communications.

[0053] In some embodiments, the AP 102 and the STAs 104 may be configured to communicate over a variety of wireless channel bandwidths, including bandwidths having center frequencies of approximately 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, and bandwidths of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, or bandwidths of 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 160 MHz, 160+160 MHz, 320 MHz, 320+320 MHz, 480 MHz (such as 160+160+160 MHz), 640 MHz. In some embodiments, channel bandwidths of less than 20 MHz may be used.

[0054] In the wireless network 100, wireless communication devices such as the AP 102 and the STAs 104 communicate with each other through various well-defined frame structures. The frame structures may be generated by a processing unit 210 of the wireless communication device shown in FIG. 2. In some embodiments, the frame structures may be configurable to have the same bandwidth as the channel. The frame structures may be in the form of a PPDU that includes a frame preamble portion and a payload portion. In some embodiments, there may be different types of PPDUs that may have different fields and different PHY layers and / or different MAC layers. For example, single user (SU) PPDU, multiple-user (MU) PPDU, long-range (LR) SU PPDU, and trigger-based (TB) PPDU.

[0055] 3 shows an example of a frame structure for an EHT TB PPDU 300. The EHT TB PPDU 300 may be generated and transmitted by a transmitting wireless communication device 200 (e.g., STA 104) and received and decoded by a receiving wireless communication device 200 (e.g., AP 102). The famed EHT TB PPDU 300 may be transmitted by one or more STAs 104 in response to a trigger frame (TF) from the AP 102 and may include OFDMA uplink data from one or more STAs 104. The TF transmitted by the AP 102 allows one or more STAs transmitting the EHT TB PPDU 300 to establish synchronous transmission. The EHT TB PPDU 300 may include a preamble portion 302 followed by a payload portion 304.

[0056] As shown, the preamble portion 302 may include a legacy preamble portion 306 and an EHT preamble portion 310. TM The legacy preamble portion 306, which was first established in the standard, is the IEEE 802.11 TM The legacy preamble portion 306 may enable backward compatibility and coexistence with Wi-Fi-based devices. The legacy preamble portion 306 may include two OFDM symbols carrying a legacy short training field (L-STF) (not shown) and a legacy long training field (L-LTF) (not shown) configured for frame detection and receiver synchronization, respectively. The next OFDM symbol of the legacy preamble portion 306 may carry a legacy signal field (L-SIG) (not shown) that may include rate and length values ​​to reserve until the next transmission. The RL-SIG (not shown) may be used to support coverage extensions such as 11ax. The legacy preamble portion 306 may be decoded by legacy Wi-Fi devices.

[0057] In the illustrated embodiment, the EHT preamble portion 310 includes a U-SIG 312 field, an EHT-STF 314 field, and an EHT-LTF 316 field. Other fields such as the L-STF, L-LTF, L-SIG, RL-SIG, U-SIG, and EHT-SIG fields may be referred to as pre-EHT modulation fields. The EHT-STF 314 and EHT-LTF 316 and payload 304 may be referred to as EHT modulation fields. An example of the proposed EHT Universal Signal (U-SIG) 312 field in the preamble of the EHT TB PPDU is described, for example, in 11-20 / 1875r2, PDT PHY Update to Preamble U-SIG, IEEE 802.11be, Nov 2020, which is incorporated herein by reference. The U-SIG 312 field carries information for interpreting the EHT TB PPDU. The purpose of the U-SIG312 field is to provide forward compatibility for the EHT preamble so that it will be compatible with future 802.11 generations.

[0058] In some embodiments, the 11be standard and later frame formats use a two OFDM symbol long universal SIG (U-SIG) 312 that may contain information bits related to the payload portion 304. As can be appreciated, being two symbols long, the U-SIG 312 may have a maximum bit carrying capacity of 42 bits. The U-SIG 312 may have version independent information followed by version dependent information. The version independent information is for compatibility between 802.11 generations. This version independent information is consistent in location and interpretation among the various 802.11 generations. For example, the PHY version identifier is one piece of version independent information. The version independent information of the U-SIG 312 in the EHT TB PPDU may include two parts, U-SIG-1 (312-1) and U-SIG-2 (312-2), each of which is 26 bits long. The U-SIG-1 (312-1) may include a 3-bit PHY format identifier, 3-bit bandwidth information (not shown), and a 1-bit UL / DL flag (not shown). It may also include a 6-bit Basic Service Set (BSS) color (not shown), a 7-bit TX opportunity (TXOP) period (not shown), and five ignore bits 320-1. The U-SIG-2 (312-2) may include two bits (not shown) for the PPDU type and compression used, one bit (not shown) for validation, and two subfields (not shown) with 4 bits each for spatial reuse to indicate whether a particular reuse mode is allowed or not. The U-SIG-2 312-2 also includes the five ignore bits 320-2, another bit (not shown) for a cyclic redundancy check (CRC), and tail bits (not shown).

[0059] Thus, the U-SIG 312 of the EHT TB PPDU includes two separate ignore subfields 320-1, 320-2, namely bits B20-25 of U-SIG-1 312-1 and bits B11-15 of U-SIG-2 312-1. The contents of these 6 and 5 bits, respectively, are copied from the TF received from the AP 102. The present disclosure provides a TF structure that allows bits whose contents are copied into the ignore bits to be defined. This can allow the ignore bits to be used efficiently in subsequent 802.11 generations.

[0060] The version-dependent information of the U-SIG 312 may include, among other information, the number of symbols in the EHT long training field, the mid-amble periodicity subfield, and the space-time block coding flag. Furthermore, the presence of the U-SIG 312, together with other symbols such as the L-SIG, may enable the receiver to distinguish between frame formats associated with different standard amendments, such as between 11be and 11ax frames. For example, for an 11be EHT transmission, the L_LENGTH field, a field in the L-SIG, may be set such that the value of L_LENGTH modulo 3 is equal to 1, and bit B0 of the U-SIG 312 may be set to 0, and the receiver may recognize this as an EHT PPDU.

[0061] In some exemplary embodiments, the EHT short training field (STF) 314 and EHT long training field (LTF) 316 may follow U-SIG 312 fields and define the time and frequency tuning for MIMO / OFDMA. In some embodiments, the EHT-STF 314 and EHT-LTF 316 are longer versions of the STF and LTF from the 11ax standard, which may allow for extended range and better channel estimation. In some wide BW embodiments with a channel BW of 80 MHz or more, the EHT-STF 314 and EHT-LTF 316 fields are repeated every 20 MHz. In some embodiments, the phase of the 20 MHz copies of the EHT-STF 314 and EHT-LTF 316 may be rotated to reduce peak-to-average power ratio and enhance correlation performance.

[0062] The payload portion 304 may include one or more fields in the form of OFDM symbols containing Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) Service Data Units (PSDUs), which are data units transmitted from the MAC layer down for transmission over a wireless medium.

[0063] 4 is an example of a format of a trigger frame 400 based on the TF format of 802.11ax. Although reference is made to 802.11ax, techniques or mechanisms according to some implementations of the present disclosure may be compatible with future generations of IEEE 802.11ax. TM It should be noted that the EHT TB PPDU 300 may be used in conjunction with other standards, including standards (e.g., 802.11be and beyond) or different standards. The purpose of the trigger frame 400 is to trigger the target STAs 104 to respond to a received frame. The trigger frame 400 is sent by the AP 102 to one or more STAs 104 to trigger the one or more STAs 104 to transmit an EHT TB PPDU 300.

[0064] The subfields of the trigger frame 400 include a frame control 402 that includes header information, a protocol version, a frame type and subtype, and other parameters. The frame control 402 is allocated two octets. In addition, a duration field 404 is also allocated two octets, which sets the duration of the frame. The RA 406 is allocated six octets, and the TA 408 is allocated six octets. These fields set the addresses of the receiving and transmitting STAs 104, respectively. The common information field 410, which is allocated at least eight octets, may inform the STAs 104 of the frame structure and configuration. The user information list 412 is configured with information about all STAs 104 that will receive the EHT TB PPDU frame. The trigger frame may also include a variable number of octets for the user information list 412, which allows identifying all STAs 104 that will receive the EHT TB PPDU frame. In addition, a variable number of octets is reserved for padding 414 to meet the processing time constraints required by the STAs 104. Finally, 4 octets are allocated for the frame check sequence (FCS), which is an error detection code added to the frame.

[0065] 5 illustrates the contents of the common information field 410 of a trigger frame 400 including a UL EHT-SIG Ignore 504 subfield in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The UL EHT-SIG Ignore 504 subfield may carry EHT related information such as the STA's 320 MHz bandwidth, 16 spatial stream information, and aggregate PPDU related information.

[0066] The common information field 410 may include the following subfields: Trigger Type 506 may carry information related to a variant of the trigger frame 400 as the basic one, beamforming report poll, multiuser request to send (MU-RTS), bandwidth query report poll (BQRP), etc. Subfield UL Length 508 may indicate the length of the expected response frame. Further TF 510 subfields may indicate a target wake-up time or power saving. Required CS 512 may indicate whether the target STA 104 needs to take into account a network allocation vector (NAV) to decide whether to respond to a received frame or not. UL BW 514 may indicate the bandwidth of the transmission. GI and LTF Type 516 may provide information about the guard interval and long training field (LTF) used for the transmission (the guard interval corresponds to the interval between transmitted symbols, and the LTF may provide information about the channel estimation to recover the data). The MU-MIMO HW-LTF Mode 518 subfield may specify whether the LTF sequence is masked by an orthogonal code. The Number of EHT Long Training Field (EHT-LTF) Symbols and Midamble Period 520 may indicate the number of EHT-LTF symbols present in the EHT TB PPDU response.

[0067] Additionally, the UL STBC 522 subfield may be set to indicate the use of uplink space-time block coding. The LDPC additional symbols segment 524 may indicate the value of the LDPC additional symbols segment in the trigger frame 400. The AP TX power 526 may indicate the power used to transmit the frame when the AP transmits the trigger frame. The pre-FEC padding factor 528 may include information related to MAC and PHY operation (this padding process may occur before performing forward error correction (FEC) coding). The PE disambiguity 530 may specify packet extension (PE) information. The trigger-dependent common information 534 may be an optional subfield part of the trigger frame format.

[0068] In an exemplary embodiment, bits B53-B63 of the trigger frame common information field 410 are assigned as the UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 504 subfield. These 11 bit locations can be used to specify 11 bits of information that are copied into the 6-bit and 5-bit Ignore subfields 320-1, 320-2 of the U-SIG-1 312-1 and U-SIG-2 312-2, respectively, of the EHT TB PPDU 300. In this regard, it is noted that the UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 504 subfield replaces a number of subfields that are located in the 802.11ax trigger frame format. In FIG. 5, the replaced subfields are indicated by block 502.

[0069] The subfields of block 502 in 802.11ax are not required for the following reasons: In 802.11ax, the Doppler 536 subfield may indicate whether a midamble is present in the packet. If the packet is not larger than the midamble, the channel may be time varying. The term midamble is a reference position in the middle of the packet. However, the Doppler 536 subfield is not used in the U-SIG 312 of the EHT TB PPDU. Furthermore, in 802.11ax, the UL HE-SIG-A2 Reserved subfield 538 may carry a value contained in the reserved field of HE-SIG-A2 of the HE TB PPDU. However, in the context of the EHT TB PPDU, such a field is not required. Finally, the Reserved Bits subfield 540 is present.

[0070] Thus, in the illustrated example, the UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 504 subfield, having a size of 11 bits, may occupy positions B53-B63 of the common information field 410. The contents of the UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 504 subfield are copied to the non-transient memory storage unit 218 of the receiving STA 104. The receiving STA 104 then copies the contents of the 11-bit UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 504 subfield into the 11 ignore bits of the U-SIG of the EHT TB PPDU 300, thus defining the bits from which the U-SIG ignore bits are copied. In particular, the receiving STA 104 may copy the contents of the UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 504 subfield into B20-25 of U-SIG-1 and B11-15 of U-SIG-2 of the EHT TB PPDU.

[0071] The 11-bit UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 504 sub-field may be viewed as two sub-fields, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure: a 6-bit UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 1 sub-field 504-1 (bits B53-B58) that contains bits that are copied into the Ignore sub-field 320-1 of the EHT TB PPDU 300, and a 5-bit UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 2 sub-field 504-2 (bits B59-B63) that contains bits that are copied into the Ignore sub-field 320-2 of the EHT TB PPDU 300.

[0072] FIG. 6 presents a block diagram of an alternative example for providing a UL EHT U-SIG Ignore subfield in a trigger frame 400. In the example of FIG. 6, instead of using bits B53-B63 of the common information field 410 as shown in FIG. 5, a UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 606 subfield is instead added to a special user field 602 that is prepended to the user fields included in the user information list 412 of the trigger frame 400. Thus, the space in the user information list 412 of the trigger frame 400 is used for the eleven ignore bits of the U-SIG 312 of the source EHT TB PPDU 300. The user information list 412 may include information of the target STAs 104, such as identification, modulation and coding scheme, forward error correction coding type. The size of the user information list 412 is variable depending on the number of STAs 104. As shown at 604, each STA 104 corresponds to one of the user fields, i.e., user field 1, user field 2, etc. Since the size of the user information list is variable, an additional user field named special user field 602 is created. As a result, the total number of user fields increases by one, resulting in a total of N+1 user fields. At least 40 bits are allocated to each user field. The 11-bit UL EHT U-SIG ignore 606 subfield occupies 11 of the at least 40 bits of the special user field 602. The other bits of the at least 29 bits in block 608 may be used to convey additional information.

[0073] 6 shows the UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 606 subfield occupying the first 11 bits of the special user field 602, it should be understood that the UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 606 subfield may occupy any 11 bits, whether contiguous or not, of the at least 40 bits allocated to the special user field. The UL EHT U-SIG Ignore 606 subfield is copied into the non-transitory memory storage unit 218 of the receiving STA 104, which copies its contents into the U-SIG ignore bit of the EHT TB PPDU.

[0074] 7 is a block diagram of an EHT NDP frame 700 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The EHT NDP frame 700 may be comprised of a U-SIG field 702 and an EHT-SIG field 704. The U-SIG field 702 may include at least version independent information and version dependent information. The EHT-SIG field 704 may include a spatial reuse subfield 706 to increase parallel transmission. The spatial reuse subfield 706 may indicate whether a spatial reuse mode is allowed during transmission of the EHT NDP frame format. Other subfields of the EHT-SIG field 704 may include a GI and LTF size 708, which may provide information regarding the guard interval and long training field (LTF) used for transmission, a number of EHT LTF symbols 710, a number of spatial stream streams (NSS) 712, two reserved subfields 714 (1 bit), 716 (2 bits), a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) subfield 718, and a tail subfield 720.

[0075] In the previously proposed EHT-SIG structure, as described in "11-20 / 1317r3, SIG contents discussion for EHT sounding NDP, IEEE 802.11be, Nov 2020," which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, the reserved subfield 714 is instead designated as a beamformed subfield 722 that can be used to instruct the receiver to perform a smoothing operation for channel estimation. However, since the EHT NDP frame 700 is never beamformed, the smoothing operation can be performed regardless of the value of the beamformed subfield 722. Thus, the beamformed subfield 722 is redundant. This exemplary embodiment frees up the beamformed subfield 722 and reserves bits for other purposes, creating the reserved subfield 714. Some of the purposes may include increasing the bandwidth or spatial streams for future modifications.

[0076] Through the description of the above embodiments, the present invention may be realized by using only hardware, or by using software and a necessary universal hardware platform, or by a combination of hardware and software. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product. The software product may be stored in a non-volatile or non-transitory storage medium, which may be a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), a USB flash drive, or a hard disk. The software product includes many instructions that enable a computer device (personal computer, server, or network device) to execute the method provided in the embodiments of the present invention.

[0077] Although the present invention and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made therein without departing from the invention as defined by the appended claims.

[0078] As one skilled in the art will readily recognize from the present disclosure, any now existing or later developed process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods, or steps that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized in accordance with the present invention, and it is therefore intended that the appended claims include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.

Claims

1. 1. A method for transmitting data in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising: A method comprising: transmitting a trigger frame from a first wireless communication device in the WLAN, the trigger frame including a special user field including one or more subfields of bits populated at predetermined bit positions within the special user field with values ​​that a second wireless communication device copies into a trigger-based frame for transmission to the first wireless communication device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trigger frame includes a common information field, the common information field having one or more subfields of the bits.

3. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the common information field has at least 63 bits, and one or more sub-fields of the bits are included in bit positions 53-63.

4. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more subfields of bits are 11 bits contained within the first five octets of bits of the special user field.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the 11 bits are non-contiguous.

6. 6. The method of claim 4 or 5, wherein the 11 bits contain information to be copied to a disregard bit of a U-SIG field of the trigger-based frame.

7. 1. A method for transmitting data in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising: receiving, by a station (STA) in the WLAN, a trigger frame including a special user field; In response to the trigger frame, copying contents from one or more predetermined bit positions of said special user field into predetermined disregard bit positions of a response frame; transmitting the response frame by the STA; The method includes:

8. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the predetermined disregard bit positions of the response frame are positions B20-B25 of a Universal Signal 1 (U-SIG-1) subfield and B11-B15 of a Universal Signal 2 (U-SIG-2) subfield of a Universal Signal (U-SIG) field of an EHT trigger based (TB) physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU).

9. 9. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the one or more predetermined bit positions of the trigger frame include 11 bits determined from the special user field of the trigger frame.

10. 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the 11 bits are non-consecutive bits in the special user field of the trigger frame.

11. 1. A wireless communication device for transmitting data in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising: A processor; a memory coupled to the processor; Including, The memory tangibly storing executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to transmit a trigger frame from a first wireless communication device in the WLAN; The trigger frame includes a special user field including one or more subfields of bits that are populated at predetermined bit positions within the special user field with values ​​that a second wireless communication device copies into the trigger-based frame for transmission to the first wireless communication device.

12. The device of claim 11 , wherein the trigger frame includes a common information field, the common information field having one or more subfields of the bits.

13. 13. The device of claim 12, wherein the common information field has at least 63 bits, and one or more sub-fields of the bits are included in bit positions 53-63.

14. 12. The device of claim 11, wherein the one or more subfields of bits are 11 bits contained within the first five octets of bits of the special user field.

15. The device of claim 14 , wherein the 11 bits are non-contiguous.

16. 16. The device of claim 14 or 15, wherein the 11 bits contain information to be copied to a disregard bit of a U-SIG field of the trigger-based frame.

17. 1. A wireless communication device for transmitting data in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising: A processor; a memory coupled to the processor; Including, The memory, when executed by the processor, causes the device to receiving a trigger frame including a special user field; In response to the trigger frame, causing contents from one or more predetermined bit positions of said special user field to be copied into predetermined disregard bit positions of a response frame; The response frame is transmitted. A device that tangibly stores executable instructions.

18. 20. The device of claim 17, wherein the predetermined disregard bit positions of the response frame are positions B20-B25 of a Universal Signal 1 (U-SIG-1) subfield and B11-B15 of a Universal Signal 2 (U-SIG-2) subfield of a Universal Signal (U-SIG) field of an EHT trigger based (TB) physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU).

19. 19. The device of claim 17 or 18, wherein the one or more predetermined bit positions of the trigger frame include 11 bits determined from the special user field of the trigger frame.

20. 20. The device of claim 19, wherein the 11 bits are non-contiguous bits in the special user field of the trigger frame.

21. A chipset including at least one processor and at least one non-volatile memory, The non-volatile memory contains instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the first wireless communication device to transmit a trigger frame in a WLAN; The trigger frame includes a special user field including one or more subfields of bits in predetermined bit positions within the special user field that are populated with values ​​that a second wireless communication device copies into the trigger-based frame for transmission to the first wireless communication device.

22. 22. The chipset of claim 21, wherein the one or more subfields of bits are 11 bits contained within the first five octets of bits of the special user field.

23. The chipset of claim 22 , wherein the 11 bits are non-contiguous.

24. 24. The chipset of claim 22 or 23, wherein the 11 bits contain information to be copied into a disregard bit of a U-SIG field of the trigger-based frame.

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