Beamforming techniques

Abstract

To provide techniques for beamforming, and in particular for WiFi communication schemes such as IEEE 802.11ax and 802.11be.SOLUTION: In particular, the present disclosure relates to a beamformer device (110) configured to send a request to a beamformee device (120). The request includes a set of sounding tone indices. The set of sounding tone indices indicates a tone for which a beamforming information report (121) is requested from the beamformee device (120). The tone is defined by a first WiFi scheme, where the set of sounding tone indices is based on a first tone plan (400) defined by the first WiFi scheme for a partial channel bandwidth and a second tone plan (200) defined by a second WiFi scheme for a full channel bandwidth. The present disclosure further relates to a corresponding beamformee device.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to techniques for beamforming. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a beamformer device that transmits a request including a set of sounding tone indexes to a beamformee device, and a beamformee device that transmits a report of beamforming information to the beamformer device. The present disclosure further relates to a beamformer device that receives the beamforming report from the beamformee device. [Background technology]

[0002] The compressed beamforming report is part of the sounding procedure defined to transmit beamforming information from the beamformee to the beamformer. It is used in the IEEE 802.11n, ac, and ax versions of the WiFi standard, also known as 11n, 11ac, and 11ax. The compressed beamforming report consists of a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) control field that defines the various parameter indications (e.g., Nc, Ng, codebook size), general feedback information (e.g., average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) per stream), and compressed data per tone, including the precoder matrix and SNR per tone (for multi-user (MU) feedback type).

[0003] Starting with 801.11ax, sounding may be performed over the entire bandwidth (BW) or over a portion of the BW (single or multiple resource allocations - Resource Units (RUs)). Therefore, a specific set of tone (subcarrier) indices is defined for sounding over all portions of the supported BW.

[0004] IEEE 802.11be, also known as 11be or WiFi6, introduces larger BW and larger MIMO sizes, which require updated feedback parameters, frame formats, and also precise definition of compression precoder matrices and SNR. Additionally, 802.11be introduces a new tone plan (i.e., frequency division structure for the basic unit, RU) that implies different tone definitions that should be applied to sounding as well. Summary of the Invention

[0005] An objective of the present disclosure is to provide techniques for improving the performance of beamforming in advanced communication systems such as Extreme High Throughput (EHT) WiFi according to IEEE 802.11be.

[0006] This object is achieved by the features of the independent claims. Further implementations are evident from the dependent claims, the description and the figures.

[0007] The basic idea of ​​this disclosure is to apply new index definitions for new tone plans. This disclosure presents an update of parameters and formats defined by High Efficiency (HE) WiFi, e.g., according to IEEE 802.11ax, to include new and extended cases introduced by EHT WiFi, e.g., according to IEEE 802.11be.

[0008] This disclosure provides new / expanded definitions for the following fields and parameters: New sounding index definition for BW ≥ 80MHz Extended definition of compressed precoder matrix values Expanded definition of SNR value to provide.

[0009] In particular, this disclosure introduces a mechanism for adjusting the tone index to match the 802.11be tone plan.

[0010] The new tone plan introduced by 802.11be is for partial BW transmission (including punctured BW) and reuses the 802.11ax tone plan in the full 80MHz BW allocated to a single STA (or group of STAs). This new tone plan can be defined in the fractional BW information field.

[0011] This disclosure introduces three optional solutions, which are described in detail below:

[0012] Option 1: Introduce a new unified sounding index set to be used for all options (meaning the new set should cover both the new tone plan and the full BW 802.11ax tone plan).

[0013] · Option 2: Introduce a new set of sounding indices for partial BW sounding (by duplication of the indices of the 20 MHz part) and add a central tone index for full BW sounding.

[0014] Option 3: Reuse the 802.11ax sounding index set, but define which sounding RUs correspond to the data RUs defined by the new tone plan.

[0015] A further idea of ​​the present disclosure is to define some of the compressed beamforming matrix values ​​and general parameters.

[0016] In summary, this disclosure defines indices for measured and reported compressed beamforming precoder matrices for new bandwidth values ​​and new tone plans introduced by the IEEE 802.11be standard. This disclosure also provides precise definitions of compressed precoder matrix formats for MIMO schemes larger than 8×8 adopted by IEEE 802.11be.

[0017] To describe the present invention in detail, the following terms, abbreviations and notations are used. BW Bandwidth MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output SNR Signal to Noise Ratio MU Multi-User SU Single User Ng Number of tones, tone grouping coefficient Nc Number of spatial streams Na angle number Nr Number of transmit antennas RU Resource Unit OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access Station by STA WiFi notation AP Access Point by WiFi notation S1 to S4 Frequency Segments NDP Null Data Packet Resource Unit (RU) is a unit in OFDMA terminology used in WiFi systems to describe a group of subcarriers (tones) used for both downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) transmissions. In OFDMA, different transmission powers may be applied to different RUs. There are up to 9 RUs for a 20 MHz bandwidth, 18 for a 40 MHz bandwidth, and more for an 80 MHz or 160 MHz bandwidth. These RUs make the access point available for multiple users to access it simultaneously and efficiently.

[0018] According to a first aspect, the present disclosure relates to a beamformer device configured to send a request to a beamformee device, the request including a set of sounding tone indices indicating tones for which a beamforming information report is requested from the beamformee device, the tones being defined by a first WiFi scheme, where the set of sounding tone indices is based on a first tone plan defined by the first WiFi scheme for a partial channel bandwidth and a second tone plan defined by the second WiFi scheme for a full channel bandwidth.

[0019] Such a beamformer device can improve beamforming performance in advanced communication systems such as EHT by operating with a new set of sounding tone indices based on a first tone plan for a partial channel bandwidth and a second tone plan for the full channel bandwidth.

[0020] The beamformer device (also called beamformer) transmits a sounding packet and requests the beamformee device (also called beamformee) to measure the channel in a specific BW, which can be the entire BW or a portion of the BW in which the sounding packet is transmitted.

[0021] The beamformee is then requested to transmit a compressed beamforming report containing the beamforming information for those tones requested by the beamformer, but the transmission of this report may be over the entire BW or a portion of a BW that is completely unrelated to the tones being reported.

[0022] For example, a beamformer may transmit a sounding packet at 80 MHz and request to report in only the first 10 MHz, but the report is transmitted using the entire 80 MHz BW.

[0023] In this disclosure, a definition of a set of tone indices is provided to indicate which portion of the sounding BF is requested to be reported.

[0024] Regarding Tone Plan and WiFi Method: a.There are two Wi-Fi methods: 11be (the first method), which supports BW of 80 / 160 / 240 / 320MHz, and 11ax (the second method), which only relates to 80MHz.

[0025] b.For any subset of 80MHz BW, the 11be WiFi standard defines a new tone plan (named the first tone plan).

[0026] c. For all 80MHz BW, 11be will reuse the 11ax tone plan (named the second tone plan).

[0027] Any BW>80MHz supported by d.11be will use an overlapping 80MHz tone plan, which means that rules b. and c. are valid within any 80MHz segment.

[0028] The first tone plan is divided into multiple resource units (RUs), with each RU assigned a respective portion of the channel bandwidth, and each RU being divided into multiple tones to be reported.

[0029] The set of sounding tone indexes includes, for each RU, a start sounding tone index that defines a start tone for each RU for reporting beamforming information, and an end sounding tone index that defines an end tone for each RU for reporting beamforming information.

[0030] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the first WiFi scheme is 802.11be WiFi and the second WiFi scheme is 802.11ax WiFi.

[0031] This brings the advantage that beamformer devices can be applied with the IEEE 802.11be WiFi standard, which offers larger bandwidth and larger MIMO sizes than current versions of WiFi, to improve performance.

[0032] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the first WiFi scheme supports channel bandwidths of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 240 MHz, and 320 MHz.

[0033] This provides the advantage that the beamformer device supports bandwidths such as those currently supported by EHT WiFi.

[0034] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the second WiFi standard supports a channel bandwidth of 80 MHz.

[0035] This provides the advantage that the beamformer device is compliant with the current version of IEEE 802.11ax WiFi, which supports 80 MHz channel bandwidth.

[0036] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the full channel bandwidth is 80 MHz, and the fractional channel bandwidth is any subset of the full channel bandwidth.

[0037] This provides the advantage that the beamformer device can be adapted to a variety of different bandwidths, based on the full channel bandwidth or a subset thereof.

[0038] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the sounding tone indices are based on a new unified sounding index set that includes sounding tone indices of both a first tone plan for a partial channel bandwidth and a second tone plan for the full channel bandwidth.

[0039] This provides the advantage that the beamformer device can provide new sounding tone indices for bandwidths greater than 80 MHz.

[0040] Such a beamformer device supports a solution according to option 1 above. Corresponding tables are described below with respect to Figures 5, 6 and 7.

[0041] In this implementation, the rule of Option 1 is described that the sounding tone index is based on a new unified sounding index set that includes the sounding tone index of both the first tone plan for the partial channel bandwidth and the second tone plan for the full channel bandwidth. Further explanation of the rule is given in the diagram part of the description regarding Figures 5 to 7, where a different table including the sounding tone index is shown for this Option 1.

[0042] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the sounding tone indexes are based on a new set of sounding indexes for the partial channel bandwidth and an additional central tone index for the full channel bandwidth.

[0043] This provides the advantage that the beamformer device can provide new sounding tone indices for various bandwidths, especially for bandwidths above 80 MHz.

[0044] Such a beamformer device supports a solution according to option 2 above. Corresponding tables are described below with respect to Figures 8, 9 and 10.

[0045] In this implementation, we describe the rule for option 2 that the sounding tone index is based on a new sounding index set for the partial channel bandwidth and an additional center tone index for the full channel bandwidth. Further explanation of the rule is given in the diagram part of the description for Figures 8 to 10, where a different table containing the sounding tone index is shown for this option 2.

[0046] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the sounding tone index is based on reusing the sounding tone index defined for the resource units of the second tone plan and defining which resource units of the second tone plan correspond to the resource units of the first tone plan.

[0047] This provides the advantage that the beamformer device can efficiently reuse existing sounding tone indices to process various bandwidths, especially bandwidths above 80 MHz.

[0048] Such a beamformer device supports a solution according to option 3 above. Corresponding tables are described below with respect to Figures 11 and 12.

[0049] This implementation describes a rule for option 3 where the sounding tone index is based on reusing the sounding tone index defined for the resource units of the second tone plan and defining which resource units of the second tone plan correspond to resource units of the first tone plan. Further explanation of the rule is given in the diagram portion of the description for Figures 11 and 12 where a different table with the sounding tone index is shown for this option 3.

[0050] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the set of sounding tone indexes for channel bandwidths greater than the full channel bandwidth, in particular channel bandwidths of 160 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 240 MHz or 320 MHz, is based on an overlap of rules defined for the set of sounding tone indexes within each segment of the full channel bandwidth.

[0051] This provides the advantage that the beamformer device can be applied in conjunction with WiFi systems with high bandwidths, especially bandwidths above 80 MHz.

[0052] FIG. 11, described below, shows the index definitions for bandwidths above 80 MHz.

[0053] Rule overlap means that a rule defined for a particular bandwidth segment may also be valid for another bandwidth segment, e.g., a rule defined for an 80 MHz bandwidth may also apply to bandwidth segments between 80 MHz and 100 MHz.

[0054] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the request to the beamformee device indicates a channel bandwidth, where the indicated channel bandwidth is the total channel bandwidth defined for the first WiFi scheme.

[0055] This provides the advantage that the beamformer device is informed of the channel bandwidth used by the beamformer device in order to efficiently report its beamforming parameters.

[0056] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the indicated channel bandwidth is a full channel bandwidth of 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 160 MHz, 240 MHz, 320 MHz, or any fractional bandwidth of these bandwidths.

[0057] This provides the advantage that the beamformer device can be applied at a variety of different bandwidths.

[0058] A first WiFi standard, for example 812.11be, defines a number of full channel bandwidths, for example 80MHz, 80+80MHz, 160MHz, 240MHz, 320MHz. The full channel bandwidth or a partial channel bandwidth of the full channel bandwidth is indicated by a beamformer device. The partial bandwidth is any portion of the full bandwidth, for example a partial bandwidth of an 80MHz full bandwidth may be 20MHz, or 40MHz, or 60MHz, or any other portion of 77MHz or 80MHz. For example, a partial bandwidth of a 320MHz full bandwidth may be any portion of 320MHz, for example 80MHz, or 160MHz, or 200MHz, or 300MHz, or 319MHz, or any other portion of 320MHz.

[0059] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, a set of sounding tone indices is defined for each channel bandwidth and for each number of tones Ng, specifically for Ng=4 and Ng=16.

[0060] This provides the advantage that the beamformer device is adaptive to the channel bandwidth and number of tones.

[0061] According to a second aspect, the present disclosure relates to a method for requesting beamforming information, the method including: sending a request by a beamformer device to a beamformee device, the request including a set of sounding tone indices indicating tones for which a report of beamforming information is requested from the beamformee device, the tones being defined by a first WiFi scheme, the set of sounding tone indices being based on a first tone plan defined by the first WiFi scheme for a partial channel bandwidth and a second tone plan defined by a second WiFi scheme for a full channel bandwidth, the method further including receiving a report of beamforming information from the beamformee device based on the set of sounding tone indices.

[0062] This method corresponds to the beamformer device described above for the first aspect of the present disclosure.

[0063] Such a method of requesting beamforming information can improve beamforming performance in advanced communication systems such as EHT by operating with a new set of sounding tone indexes based on a first tone plan for a partial channel bandwidth and a second tone plan for the full channel bandwidth.

[0064] The first WiFi system may be 802.11be WiFi, which among other things supports channel bandwidths of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 240 MHz, and 320 MHz. The second WiFi system may be 802.11ax WiFi, which among other things supports channel bandwidths of 80 MHz.

[0065] According to a third aspect, the present disclosure relates to a beamformee device configured to transmit a report of beamforming information to a beamformer device based on a set of sounding tone indexes received from the beamformer device, the set of sounding tone indexes indicating tones for which a report of beamforming information is requested from the beamformee device, the tones being defined by a first WiFi scheme, where the set of sounding tone indexes is based on a first tone plan defined by the first WiFi scheme for a partial channel bandwidth and a second tone plan defined by the second WiFi scheme for a full channel bandwidth.

[0066] Such a beamformee device can improve beamforming performance in advanced communication systems such as EHT by operating with a new set of sounding tone indices based on a first tone plan for a partial channel bandwidth and a second tone plan for the full channel bandwidth.

[0067] This beamformee device has the same characteristics as the beamformer device of the first aspect described above, but it is the entity that receives requests from and sends reports to the beamformer device.

[0068] The first WiFi system may be 802.11be WiFi, which among other things supports channel bandwidths of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 240 MHz, and 320 MHz. The second WiFi system may be 802.11ax WiFi, which among other things supports channel bandwidths of 80 MHz.

[0069] According to a fourth aspect, the present disclosure relates to a method for reporting beamforming information based on a set of sounding tone indexes received from a beamformer device, the method including transmitting, by a beamformee device, a report of beamforming information to the beamformer device, the set of sounding tone indexes indicating tones for which a report of beamforming information is requested from the beamformee device, the tones being defined by a first WiFi scheme, where the set of sounding tone indexes is based on a first tone plan defined by the first WiFi scheme for a partial channel bandwidth and a second tone plan defined by the second WiFi scheme for a full channel bandwidth.

[0070] Such a method of reporting beamforming information can improve the performance of beamforming in advanced communication systems such as EHT by operating with a new set of sounding tone indexes based on a first tone plan for a partial channel bandwidth and a second tone plan for the full channel bandwidth.

[0071] This method corresponds to the beamformee device described above for the third aspect of the present disclosure.

[0072] The first WiFi system may be 802.11be WiFi, which among other things supports channel bandwidths of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 240 MHz, and 320 MHz. The second WiFi system may be 802.11ax WiFi, which among other things supports channel bandwidths of 80 MHz.

[0073] According to a fifth aspect, the present disclosure relates to a beamformer device configured to receive, from a beamforming device, a beamforming report including a compressed precoder matrix and to reconstruct, based on the compressed precoder matrix, the precoder matrix reported by the beamforming device, where the compressed precoder matrix is defined by a set of angles in a specific order that implies a series of mathematical operations to be applied to an identity matrix to reconstruct the precoder matrix, and this set of angles is determined based on extending a given formula specified for the number of transmitting antennas and the number of spatial streams supported by a second WiFi scheme, particularly 802.11ax WiFi, to the number of transmitting antennas Nr and the number of spatial streams Nc supported by a first WiFi scheme, particularly 802.11be WiFi.

[0074] Such a beamformer device can improve the beamforming performance in an advanced communication scheme such as EHT by using an extended formula extended for the number of transmitting antennas and the number of spatial streams supported by EHT.

[0075] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the extension of the given formula is specified for values of 8 < Nr ≤ 16 corresponding to matrices from 9×1 to 16×16, and values of 1 ≤ Nc ≤ 16.

[0076] This brings the advantage that a larger MIMO size can be implemented and optimally controlled. That is, the beamformer device can be applied in an environment with a high population density having a larger number of stations.

[0077] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the beamforming report includes the SNR values of the spatial streams reported by the beamforming device, and each reported i-th SNR value corresponds to the SNR obtained by applying the i-th column of the reported precoder matrix by the beamforming device, particularly for i > 8.

[0078] This provides the advantage that the SNR value can be better controlled.

[0079] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device, the beamforming report includes SNR values ​​of spatial streams in a MIMO scheme greater than 8x8.

[0080] This brings the advantage that the beamformer device can be applied with spatial streams of large MIMO size, thus improving the communication quality.

[0081] According to a seventh aspect, the present disclosure relates to a computer program product comprising computer executable code or instructions which, when executed, cause at least one computer to perform a method according to the above aspect. Such a computer program product may comprise a non-transitory readable storage medium storing program code on the medium for use by a processor, the program code comprising instructions for implementing the method or computer block as described below.

[0082] According to an eighth aspect, the present disclosure relates to a beamformer device (110) configured to transmit a request for a partial bandwidth BW for sounding feedback to a beamformee device (120), wherein the requested partial BW for sounding feedback includes a partial BW type indicating the BW to be used for the sounding feedback.

[0083] In an exemplary implementation of a beamformer device according to the eighth aspect, the partial BW type may be 20 MHz, 40 MHz or n×80 MHz, where n is an integer equal to or greater than 1.

[0084] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device according to the eighth aspect, the requested partial BW for sounding feedback is included in a partial BW information field.

[0085] In an exemplary implementation of a beamformer device according to the eighth aspect, the partial BW information field includes 6 bits.

[0086] In an exemplary implementation of a beamformer device according to the eighth aspect, the least significant two bits of the partial BW information field indicate the type of the partial BW.

[0087] Below is shown an exemplary mapping between the two least significant bits B0, B1 of the partial BW information field and the requested partial BW. Any other mapping is also possible.

[0088] [Table 1]

[0089] In an exemplary implementation of a beamformer device according to the eighth aspect, the most significant four bits of the partial BW information field indicate a particular BW corresponding to the indicated partial BW type.

[0090] Below we show an example mapping between the four most significant bits B2, B3, B4, B5 of the partial BW information field and the position of the resource unit. Any other mapping is also possible.

[0091] [Table 2]

[0092] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device according to the eighth aspect, if a partial BW type of 20 MHz is signaled, the most significant 4 bits of the partial BW information field indicate the kth RU 242, where k is an integer equal to or greater than 0. Specifically, k may be an integer from 0 to 15.

[0093] In an exemplary implementation of the beamformer device according to the eighth aspect, if a 40 MHz partial BW type is signaled, the most significant 4 bits of the partial BW information field indicate the kth RU 484, where k is an integer equal to or greater than 0, specifically between 0 and 7, or the kth RU 242, where k is an integer equal to or greater than 0. Specifically, k may be an integer between 0 and 15.

[0094] In an exemplary implementation of a beamformer device according to the eighth aspect, if a partial BW type of n x 80 MHz is signaled, the most significant 4 bits of the partial BW information field indicate a bitmap of 4 segments of 80 MHz, with the indicated "1" meaning that 80 MHz is requested for sounding feedback.

[0095] In an exemplary implementation of a beamformer device according to the eighth aspect, if a partial BW type of 20 MHz is signaled, then for the indicated kth RU 242, a tone index defined for the k RUs 242 is used, where k is an integer greater than or equal to 0.

[0096] In an exemplary implementation of a beamformer device according to the eighth aspect, if a partial BW type of 40 MHz is signaled, then for the indicated kth RU 484, tone indices defined for 2×k and 2×k+1 RUs 242 are used, and for the indicated kth RU 242, tone indices defined for k and k+1 RUs 242 are used, where k is an integer greater than or equal to 0.

[0097] In an exemplary implementation of a beamformer device according to the eighth aspect, if a partial BW type of n×80 MHz is signaled, tone indices defined for 4×k, 4×k+1, 4×k+2, and 4×k+3 RUs 242 are used, where n and k are integers equal to or greater than 0. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0098] Further embodiments of the present invention are described with respect to the following figures. [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic diagram 100 illustrating a sounding procedure 100 defined for the transmission of beamforming information between a beamformer 110 and a beamformee 120. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 illustrates a tone plan 200 including 80 MHz resource unit locations as defined by the IEEE 802.11ax standard. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 illustrates a resource unit index table 300 including start and end index definitions for sounding in the IEEE 802.11ax standard. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 shows a tone plan 400 defined for 80 MHz by the IEEE 802.11be standard. [Diagram 5] FIG. 5 illustrates a resource unit index table 500 including RU start and end index definitions for a unified index set for Ng=4 and 80 MHz bandwidth according to a first optional solution of the present disclosure. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 illustrates a resource unit index table 600 including RU start and end index definitions for a unified index set for Ng=16 and 80 MHz bandwidth according to a first optional solution of the present disclosure. [Figure 7] A diagram showing a superset of subcarrier indexes 700 for compressed beamforming for an 80 MHz bandwidth according to a first optional solution of the present disclosure. [Figure 8] A diagram showing a resource unit index table 800 including RU start and end index definitions for partial bandwidths of Ng=4 and 80 MHz bandwidth according to a second optional solution of the present disclosure. [Figure 9] A diagram showing a resource unit index table 900 including RU start and end index definitions for partial bandwidths of Ng=16 and 80 MHz bandwidth according to a second optional solution of the present disclosure. [Figure 10] A diagram showing a superset of subcarrier indexes 1000 for partial bandwidth compressed beamforming for an 80 MHz bandwidth according to a second optional solution of the present disclosure. [Figure 11] A diagram showing a cross-reference table 1100 of resource unit indexes for an 80 MHz bandwidth according to a third optional solution of the present disclosure. [Figure 12] FIG. 12 illustrates an index definition table 1200 for bandwidths greater than 80 MHz according to a third optional solution of the present disclosure. [Figure 13] FIG. 13 shows an example angle definition table T9 1300 illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=9, in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 14] FIG. 14 shows an example angle definition table T10 1400 illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=10 in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 15] FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a first portion T11a 1500 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=11 in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 16] FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a second portion T11b 1600 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=11 in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 17] FIG. 17 illustrates a first portion T12a 1700 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=12, in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 18] FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating a second portion T12b 1800 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=12 in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 19] FIG. 19 illustrates a first portion T13a 1900 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=13, in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 20] FIG. 20 illustrates a second portion T13b 2000 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=13, in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 21] FIG. 21 illustrates a first portion T14a 2100 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=14, in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 22] FIG. 22 illustrates a second portion T14b 2200 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=14, in accordance with the present disclosure. [Diagram 23] FIG. 23 illustrates a first portion T15a 2300 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=15, in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 24] FIG. 24 is a diagram showing a second portion T15b 2400 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=15 in accordance with the present disclosure. [Diagram 25] FIG. 25 is a diagram showing a first portion T16a 2500 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=16 in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 26] FIG. 26 illustrates a second portion T16b 2600 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=16, in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 27] FIG. 27 illustrates a third portion T16c 2700 of an example angle definition table illustrating the ordering of angles in a compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=16, in accordance with the present disclosure. [Figure 28] 28 is a schematic diagram of a method 2800 for requesting beamforming information according to the present disclosure. [Figure 29] FIG. 29 is a schematic diagram of a method 2900 for reporting beamforming information according to the present disclosure. [Diagram 30] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a partial BW information field. [Diagram 31] A schematic diagram of a modified STA information subfield. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0099] In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of the description, and which show, by way of example, specific embodiments in which the present disclosure may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized, and that structural or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims.

[0100] It should be understood that comments made in connection with a described method may also apply to a corresponding device or system configured to perform the method, and vice versa. For example, where certain method steps are described, a corresponding device may include units that perform the described method steps, even if such units are not explicitly described or illustrated in the figures. Furthermore, it should be understood that features of the various exemplary aspects described herein may be combined with each other, unless otherwise specified.

[0101] The methods, devices and systems described herein may be implemented in wireless communication schemes, in particular in the WiFi communication standard according to IEEE 802.11, in particular in the 802.11n / ac / ax version of the WiFi standard and in the 802.11be version of the WiFi standard. The described devices may include integrated circuits and / or passive circuits and may be manufactured by various technologies. For example, the circuits may be designed as logic integrated circuits, analog integrated circuits, mixed signal integrated circuits, optical circuits, memory circuits and / or integrated passive circuits.

[0102] The devices described herein may be configured to transmit and / or receive wireless signals. The wireless signals may be or include radio frequency signals emitted by a wireless transmitting device (or a wireless transmitter or transmitter). However, the devices described herein are not limited to transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals, and other signals designed for transmission in a deterministic communication network may be transmitted and / or received.

[0103] The devices and systems described herein may include a processor or processing device, a memory, and a transceiver, i.e., a transmitter and / or a receiver. The term "processor" or "processing device" refers to any device that can be utilized to process a particular task (or block or step). A processor or processing device may be a single processor or a multi-core processor, or may include a set of processors, or may include a means for processing. A processor or processing device may process software or firmware or applications, etc.

[0104] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram 100 illustrating a sounding procedure 100 defined for the transmission of beamforming information between a beamformer 110 and a beamformee 120 .

[0105] Beamforming relies on a channel calibration procedure, called channel sounding in the 802.11 WiFi standard, to determine how to radiate energy in a preferred direction.

[0106] The channel sounding 100 consists of three main steps.

[0107] In the first step, the beamformer 110 starts the process by transmitting a Null Data Packet (NDP) announcement frame 111 that is used to secure control of the channel and identify the beamformee. The beamformee 120 responds to the NDP announcement 111, while all other stations simply delay channel access until the sounding sequence is complete.

[0108] In a second step, the beamformer 110 follows the NDP announcement 111 with a Null Data Packet (NDP) 112. The value of the NDP 112 is such that the receiver can analyze the OFDM training field to compute the channel response and therefore the steering matrix. In a multi-user transmission, multiple NDPs 112 may be transmitted.

[0109] In a third step, the beamformee 120 analyzes the training field of the received NDP 112 and computes a feedback matrix. The feedback matrix, reported by the beamformee 120 in a compressed beamforming report 121, enables the beamformer 110 to compute a steering matrix to direct the transmission to the beamformee 120.

[0110] The sounding procedure 100 may be performed for the entire bandwidth or a portion of the BW. A specific set of tone (subcarrier) indices is defined for sounding of every portion of the supported bandwidth. IEEE 802.11be WiFi introduces larger bandwidth and larger MIMO size, which requires updated feedback parameters, frame formats, and also precise definition of compression precoder matrix and SNR. Furthermore, 802.11be introduces a new tone plan, which implies different tone definitions to be applied to sounding as well.

[0111] In the following, a beamformer device 110 and a beamformee device 120 are described that improve the performance of beamforming in advanced communication systems such as EHT WiFi according to IEEE 802.11be.

[0112] Such a novel beamformer device 110 is configured to transmit a request 111 (e.g., by an NDP announcement) to the beamformee device 120. The request includes a set of sounding tone indexes indicating the tones for which a beamforming information report 121 is requested from the beamformee device 120. The tones are defined by a first WiFi scheme. The set of sounding tone indexes is based on a first tone plan (e.g., the first tone plan 400 shown in FIG. 4) defined by the first WiFi scheme for a partial channel bandwidth and a second tone plan (e.g., the second tone plan 200 shown in FIG. 2) defined by the second WiFi scheme for the entire channel bandwidth.

[0113] The first WiFi standard may be 802.11be WiFi, and the second WiFi standard may be 802.11ax WiFi.

[0114] The first WiFi standard may support channel bandwidths of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 240 MHz, and 320 MHz.

[0115] The second WiFi standard may support a channel bandwidth of 80 MHz.

[0116] The full channel bandwidth may be, for example, 80 MHz. The partial channel bandwidth may be, for example, any subset of the full channel bandwidth.

[0117] According to the first optional solution described above, the sounding tone index may be based on a new unified sounding index set (e.g., sets 500, 600, 700 described below with respect to Figures 5, 6 and 7) that includes sounding tone indexes of both the first tone plan 400 for the partial channel bandwidth and the second tone plan 200 for the full channel bandwidth.

[0118] According to the second optional solution mentioned above, the sounding tone index may be based on a new sounding index set for the partial channel bandwidth (e.g., sets 800, 900, 1000 described below with respect to Figures 8, 9 and 10) and an additional center tone index for the full channel bandwidth.

[0119] According to the third optional solution described above, the sounding tone index may be based on reusing the sounding tone indexes defined for the resource units of the second tone plan 200 (e.g., sounding tone indexes 1100, 1200 described below with respect to Figures 11 and 12) and defining which resource units of the second tone plan 200 correspond to resource units of the first tone plan 400.

[0120] The set of sounding tone indexes for a channel bandwidth greater than the full channel bandwidth, e.g., 160 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 240 MHz or 320 MHz channel bandwidth, may be based on an overlap of rules defined for the set of sounding tone indexes within each segment of the full channel bandwidth, e.g., as described below with respect to Figures 11 and 12.

[0121] The request to the beamformee device 120 may indicate a channel bandwidth. The indicated channel bandwidth may be the total channel bandwidth defined for the first WiFi scheme.

[0122] For example, the indicated channel bandwidth may be a full channel bandwidth of 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 160 MHz, 240 MHz, 320 MHz, or any subbandwidth thereof.

[0123] A set of sounding tone indices may be defined for each channel bandwidth and for each number of tones Ng, for example, for Ng=4 and Ng=16.

[0124] The novel beamformee device 120 as shown in Fig. 1 is configured to transmit a beamforming information report 121 to the beamformer device 110 based on a set of sounding tone indexes received from the beamformer device 110. The set of sounding tone indexes indicates the tones for which a beamforming information report is requested from the beamformee device 120. The tones are defined by a first WiFi scheme. The set of sounding tone indexes is based on a first tone plan defined by the first WiFi scheme for a partial channel bandwidth and a second tone plan defined by the second WiFi scheme for a full channel bandwidth.

[0125] As mentioned above, a further idea of ​​the present disclosure is to define compressed beamforming matrix values ​​and some of the generic parameters.

[0126] This involves receiving a beamforming report 121 from a beamforming device 120, where the beamforming report 121 includes a compressed precoder matrix, and is configured to reconstruct the precoder matrix reported by the beamforming device 120 based on the compressed precoder matrix, and can be implemented by a new beamformer device 110. The compressed precoder matrix is defined by a set of angles in a specific order that implies a series of mathematical operations to be applied to the identity matrix to reconstruct the precoder matrix. This set of angles is determined based on extending a given formula specified for the number of transmit antennas and number of spatial streams supported by a second WiFi scheme, e.g., 802.11ax WiFi, to the number of transmit antennas Nr and number of spatial streams Nc supported by a first WiFi scheme, e.g., 802.11be WiFi.

[0127] The specific formula may be given in section 20.3.12.3.6 of the 802.11n standard and may be defined for each version of 802.11 in terms of the allowed Nr and Nc values.

[0128] The specific values of the set of angles are given in tables T9, T10, T11a / b, T12a / b, T13a / b, T14a / b, T15a / b and T16a / b / c for different numbers Nr of transmit antennas, as shown in FIGS. 13 to 27.

[0129] The extension of the given formula may be specified for values of 8 < Nr ≤ 16 and 1 ≤ Nc ≤ 16 corresponding to matrices from 9×1 to 16×16.

[0130] The beamforming report 121 may include SNR values ​​of spatial streams reported by the beamformee device 120. Each reported i-th SNR value corresponds to the SNR obtained by applying the i-th column of the precoder matrix reported by the beamformee device 120, specifically for i>8.

[0131] The beamforming report 121 may include SNR values ​​of spatial streams in a MIMO scheme greater than 8x8.

[0132] FIG. 2 shows a tone plan 200, also denoted as the second tone plan below, defined by the IEEE 802.11ax standard having a resource unit position of 80 MHz.

[0133] The 802.11ax standard introduced an OFDMA format where the entire spectrum is divided into blocks defined as resource units (RUs). The transmitted signal may be a combination of multiple allocations, with different RUs assigned to different stations. The RU size is defined by the number of frequency tones, which can be 26 / 52 / 106 / 242 / 484 / 996 tones as shown in Figure 2. An 80MHz bandwidth contains 26 9RUs, 52 4RUs, etc. as shown in Figure 2.

[0134] FIG. 3 shows a resource unit index table 300 with start (S) and end (E) index definitions for sounding in the IEEE 802.11ax standard.

[0135] The sounding procedure (shown in Figure 1) defines a sampling of frequencies for channel measurements and reporting that can be every 4 or 16 (Ng) tones. To align the sounding sampling parameters with the RU definition, an explicit definition of the set of tone indices is provided by the sounding procedure standard.

[0136] For each RU, a starting sounding tone index, i.e., RU index start (denoted as S in Fig. 3), and an ending sounding tone index, i.e., RU index end (denoted as E in Fig. 3), are defined to ensure that all tones of the RU are covered. The sounding start / end indexes are different from the normal tone indexes used for data transmission (see example in Fig. 3). A set of indexes is defined per bandwidth (shown in Fig. 3 for bandwidths of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80 MHz) and per Ng value.

[0137] FIG. 4 shows a tone plan 400, also denoted below as the first tone plan, defined by the IEEE 802.11be standard for 80 MHz.

[0138] The IEEE 802.11be standard introduces three main changes in terms of bandwidth compared to 802.11ax: Larger BWs of 240 MHz and 320 MHz are supported. The new tone plan 400 illustrated in Figure 4 is defined for an 80 MHz bandwidth in all cases except when the entire band is assigned to a single station (STA) (or group of STAs). All bandwidths above 80 MHz are defined as overlaps of the 80 MHz bandwidth.

[0139] The indices defined in the 802.11ax sounding procedure (see FIG. 1) are no longer aligned with the RU locations as given in the new tone plan 400. Therefore, the sounding procedure definition needs to be updated to comply with the new tone plan 400 and also to comply with the new rules of tone plan 400 overlap with bandwidth.

[0140] Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7 describe the Option 1 solution for the new index definition for the new tone plan. Option 1 introduces a new unified sounding index set to be used for all options, which means that the new set covers both the new tone plan and the 802.11ax tone plan for the entire BW.

[0141] Figure 5 shows a resource unit index table 500 with RU start and end index definitions for a unified index set of Ng=4 and an 80 MHz bandwidth. Figure 6 shows a resource unit index table 600 with RU start and end index definitions for a unified index set of Ng=16 and an 80 MHz bandwidth. Figure 7 shows the corresponding superset of subcarrier indexes 700 for compressed beamforming for an 80 MHz bandwidth.

[0142] The unified index set is a new set introduced for the entire 80 MHz bandwidth, where all 26 RUs are covered with a single RU start / end index pair, plus the center tone of the 996 RUs is covered as an additional tone.

[0143] The rules for applying this option are as follows: - The RU start / end indexes correspond to the 26 RUs defined in the new tone plan for 80 MHz bandwidth (see Figure 4). - For Ng=4, if the indicated RU covers the entire bandwidth, the central index is used as well.

[0144] The indices for Ng=4 and Ng=16 are shown in Figures 5 and 6, respectively.

[0145] Also shown in FIG. 7 is a superset for the 80 MHz index.

[0146] Figures 8, 9 and 10 describe the solution according to Option 2 for the new index definition for the new tone plan. Option 2 introduces a new set of sounding indexes for partial bandwidth sounding by overlapping the indices of the 20 MHz part and adding a central tone index for full BW sounding.

[0147] Figure 8 shows a resource unit index table 800 with RU start and end index definitions for fractional bandwidths of Ng=4 and 80 MHz bandwidth. Figure 9 shows a resource unit index table 900 with RU start and end index definitions for fractional bandwidths of Ng=16 and 80 MHz bandwidth. Figure 10 shows the corresponding superset of subcarrier indexes 1000 for fractional bandwidth compressed beamforming of 80 MHz bandwidth.

[0148] In this option 2, a set of indices for partial BW sounding is defined. The indices are defined as overlaps of 20 MHz portions. The rules for applying this option are as follows: - The RU start / end indexes correspond to the 26 RUs defined in the new tone plan for 80 MHz BW (see Figure 4). - Use an additional core index if the indicated RU covers the entire bandwidth.

[0149] The indices for Ng=4 and Ng=16 are shown in Figures 8 and 9, respectively.

[0150] Also shown in FIG. 10 is a superset of indices for partial bandwidth compressed beamforming 80 MHz.

[0151] Figures 11 and 12 describe a solution according to Option 3 for new index definition for the new tone plan. Option 3 introduces reusing the 802.11ax sounding index set without defining which sounding RUs correspond to data RUs defined by the new tone plan.

[0152] FIG. 11 shows a cross-reference table 1100 of resource unit indexes for an 80 MHz bandwidth according to a third optional solution of the present disclosure.

[0153] In this option 3, the index definitions in the 802.11ax standard are reused (see Table 9-93c-d of IEEE 802.11ax). The corresponding indexes in the new tone plan (see Figure 4) are given in Figure 11. This means that all 26 RUs shown for sounding use the indexes defined in 802.11ax, with the RU indexes shown in Figure 11.

[0154] FIG. 12 shows an index definition table 1200 for bandwidths greater than 80 MHz according to the third optional solution of the present disclosure.

[0155] IEEE 802.11be defines tone plans for all bandwidths above 80 MHz to be overlaps of 80 MHz. All proposed options for the new index set are applicable to bandwidths above 80 MHz as overlaps of indices of multiple 80 MHz segments in both partial and full BW sounding.

[0156] Therefore, the indices for compressed beamforming for bandwidths above 80 MHz can be given as shown in Figure 12. S1 corresponds to the lower frequency segment, and S2 to S4 correspond to the ascending frequency segments.

[0157] As mentioned above, a further idea of ​​the present disclosure is to define compressed beamforming matrix values ​​and some of the generic parameters.

[0158] This can be implemented by a novel beamformer device 110, as described above with respect to FIG. 1. The novel beamformer device 110 is configured to receive a beamforming report 121 from a beamformee device 120. The beamforming report 121 includes a compressed precoder matrix. The novel beamformer device 110 is configured to reconstruct the precoder matrix reported by the beamformee device 120 based on the compressed precoder matrix. The compressed precoder matrix is ​​defined by a set of angles in a specific order, which implies a set of mathematical operations applied to an identity matrix to reconstruct the precoder matrix. The set of angles is determined based on extending a given formula specified for the number of transmit antennas and the number of spatial streams supported by a second WiFi scheme, e.g., 802.11ax WiFi, to the number of transmit antennas Nr and the number of spatial streams Nc supported by a first WiFi scheme, e.g., 802.11be WiFi. Specific formulas may be given in section 20.3.12.3.6 of the 802.11n standard and may be defined by each version of 802.11 in terms of allowed Nr and Nc values.

[0159] Specific values ​​of the sets of angles are given in Tables T9, T10, T11a / b, T12a / b, T13a / b, T14a / b, T15a / b and T16a / b / c for different numbers of transmit antennas Nr, as shown in Figures 13 to 27.

[0160] The compressed precoder matrix is ​​defined by a set of angles in a specific order, which implies a set of mathematical operations that the beamformer should apply to the identity matrix to reconstruct the precoder matrix reported by the beamformee. The angles are obtained by the formula given in section 20.3.12.3.6 of the IEEE 802.11n standard, and are defined by each version of IEEE 802.11 in terms of allowed Nr and Nc values. This definition includes Na (the number of angles) and also the exact order of angles for feedback report transmission. Thus, the present disclosure extends this definition for schemes larger than 8×8 defined in IEEE 802.11be. The full definition of all angles for all possible MIMO sizes is given below with respect to Figures 13 to 27.

[0161] The beamforming report also includes SNR values ​​for the reported spatial streams. In the single-user feedback format, only the average SNR (over the entire bandwidth) is reported, while in the multi-user format, both the average SNR and the SNR per tone are reported. The number of SNR values ​​is equal to Nc, where the i-th SNR value corresponds to the expected SNR when the beamformer applies the i-th column of the reported precoder matrix. This scheme can be extended for Nc>8 by the following rule: For any i>8, the i-th reported SNR value (average and per tone) corresponds to the expected SNR when the beamformer applies the i-th column of the reported precoder matrix.

[0162] FIG. 13 shows an example angle definition table T9 1300 illustrating the ordering of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=9.

[0163] Angle definition table T9 1300 defines the order of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=9 and for various numbers of Nc, i.e., spatial streams ranging from 1 to 9. The corresponding sizes of the feedback matrix V are also shown in FIG. 13 for selected parameters Nr=9 and Nc=1 to 9. Additionally, a number Na of angles ranging from 16 to 72 is given in table T9 1300.

[0164] FIG. 14 shows an example angle definition table T10 1400 illustrating the ordering of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=10.

[0165] Angle definition table T10 1400 defines the order of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=10 and for various numbers of Nc, i.e., spatial streams ranging from 1 to 10. The corresponding sizes of the feedback matrix V are also shown in FIG. 14 for selected parameters Nr=10 and Nc=1 to 10. Additionally, a number Na of angles ranging from 18 to 90 is given in table T10 1400.

[0166] 15 and 16 show exemplary angle definition tables T11a, T11b illustrating the ordering of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=11, with a first part of the table T11a 1500 shown in FIG. 15 and a second part of the table T11b 1600 shown in FIG. 16.

[0167] The angle definition tables T11a, T11b define the order of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=11 and for various numbers of Nc spatial streams, i.e., ranging from 1 to 11. The corresponding sizes of the feedback matrix V are also shown in Figures 15 and 16 for selected parameters Nr=11 and Nc=1 to 11. Furthermore, the number Na of angles ranging from 20 to 110 is given in the tables T11a, T11b.

[0168] 17 and 18 show exemplary angle definition tables T12a, T12b illustrating the ordering of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=12 according to the present disclosure, with a first portion of the table T12a 1700 shown in FIG. 17 and a second portion of the table T12b 1800 shown in FIG. 18.

[0169] The angle definition tables T12a, T12b define the order of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=12 and for various numbers of Nc, i.e., spatial streams ranging from 1 to 12. The corresponding sizes of the feedback matrix V are also shown in Figures 17 and 18 for the selected parameters Nr=12 and Nc=1 to 12. Furthermore, the number Na of angles ranging from 22 to 132 is given in the tables T12a, T12b.

[0170] 19 and 20 show exemplary angle definition tables T13a, T13b illustrating the ordering of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=13 according to the present disclosure, with a first portion of the table T13a 1900 shown in FIG. 19 and a second portion of the table T13b 2000 shown in FIG. 20.

[0171] The angle definition tables T13a, T13b define the order of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=13 and for various numbers of Nc, i.e., spatial streams ranging from 1 to 13. The corresponding sizes of the feedback matrix V are also shown in Figures 19 and 20 for the selected parameters Nr=13 and Nc=1 to 13. Furthermore, the number Na of angles ranging from 24 to 156 is given in the tables T13a, T13b.

[0172] 21 and 22 show exemplary angle definition tables T14a, T14b illustrating the ordering of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=14 according to the present disclosure, with a first portion of the table T14a 2100 shown in FIG. 21 and a second portion of the table T14b 2200 shown in FIG. 22.

[0173] The angle definition tables T14a, T14b define the order of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=14 and for various numbers of Nc, i.e., spatial streams ranging from 1 to 14. The corresponding sizes of the feedback matrix V are also shown in Figures 21 and 22 for the selected parameters Nr=14 and Nc=1 to 14. Furthermore, the number Na of angles ranging from 26 to 182 is given in the tables T14a, T14b.

[0174] 23 and 24 show exemplary angle definition tables T15a, T15b illustrating the ordering of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=15 according to the present disclosure, with a first portion of the table T15a 2300 shown in FIG. 23 and a second portion of the table T15b 2400 shown in FIG. 24.

[0175] The angle definition tables T15a, T15b define the order of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for a number of transmit antennas Nr=15 and for various numbers of Nc, i.e., spatial streams ranging from 1 to 15. The corresponding sizes of the feedback matrix V are also shown in Figures 23 and 24 for selected parameters Nr=15 and Nc=1 to 15. Furthermore, the number Na of angles ranging from 28 to 210 is given in the tables T15a, T15b.

[0176] 25, 26 and 27 show exemplary angle definition tables T16a, T16b, T16c illustrating the ordering of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=16 according to the present disclosure, with a first portion of the table T16a 2500 shown in FIG. 25, a second portion of the table T16b 2600 shown in FIG. 26, and a third portion of the table T16c 2700 shown in FIG. 27.

[0177] The angle definition tables T16a, T16b, T16c define the order of angles in the compressed beamforming feedback matrix subfield for the number of transmit antennas Nr=16 and for various numbers of Nc, i.e., spatial streams ranging from 1 to 16. The corresponding sizes of the feedback matrix V are also shown in Figures 25, 26 and 27 for selected parameters Nr=16 and Nc=1 to 16. Furthermore, the number Na of angles ranging from 30 to 240 is given in the tables T16a, T16b, T16c.

[0178] FIG. 28 illustrates a schematic diagram of a method 2800 for requesting beamforming information according to the present disclosure.

[0179] The method 2800 includes transmitting 2801 a request by a beamformer device, e.g., beamformer device 110 shown in FIG. 1, to a beamformee device, e.g., beamformee device 120 shown in FIG. 1, the request including a set of sounding tone indices, the set of sounding tone indices indicating tones for which a beamforming information report is requested from the beamformee device, the tones being defined according to a first WiFi scheme, and the set of sounding tone indices being based on a first tone plan defined for a partial channel bandwidth by the first WiFi scheme and a second tone plan defined for a full channel bandwidth by the second WiFi scheme.

[0180] The method 2800 further includes receiving 2802 a report of beamforming information from the beamformee device based on the set of sounding tone indexes.

[0181] The first tone plan may be defined as shown in FIG. 4, and the second tone plan may be defined as shown in FIG.

[0182] The first WiFi system may be 802.11be WiFi, which specifically supports channel bandwidths of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 240 MHz and 320 MHz. The second WiFi system may be 802.11ax WiFi, which specifically supports channel bandwidths of 80 MHz.

[0183] FIG. 29 illustrates a schematic diagram of a method 2900 for reporting beamforming information according to the present disclosure.

[0184] The method 2900 includes transmitting 2901, by a beamformee device, e.g., beamformer device 120 shown in FIG. 1, a report of beamforming information to a beamformer device, e.g., beamformer device 110 shown in FIG. 1, based on a set of sounding tone indexes received from the beamformer device, where the set of sounding tone indexes indicate tones for which a report of beamforming information is requested from the beamformee device, the tones being defined according to a first WiFi scheme, and the set of sounding tone indexes is based on a first tone plan defined for a partial channel bandwidth by the first WiFi scheme and a second tone plan defined for the full channel bandwidth by the second WiFi scheme.

[0185] The first tone plan may be defined as shown in FIG. 4, and the second tone plan may be defined as shown in FIG.

[0186] This method corresponds to the beamformee device described above for the third aspect of the present disclosure.

[0187] The first WiFi system may be 802.11be WiFi, which among other things supports channel bandwidths of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 240 MHz, and 320 MHz. The second WiFi system may be 802.11ax WiFi, which among other things supports channel bandwidths of 80 MHz.

[0188] FIG. 30 shows a schematic diagram of a partial BW information field 3000. The partial BW information field 3000 includes six bits B0-B5. The two least significant bits 3001 (B0 and B1) of the partial BW information field indicate the type of the partial BW, i.e., the resolution type. The four most significant bits 3002 (B2, B3, B4 and B5) of the partial BW information field indicate a particular BW corresponding to the indicated partial BW type, RU index and / or segment bitmap. It should be understood that the two most significant bits (B4, B5) can also indicate a resolution type, whereas the four least significant bits (B0, B1, B2, B3) can indicate a particular BW corresponding to the indicated partial BW type, RU index and / or segment bitmap.

[0189] FIG. 31 shows a schematic diagram of a modified STA information subfield 3100, where bits B11-B16 have been replaced with a partial BW information field 3000.

[0190] The present disclosure also relates to a computer program product comprising computer executable code or instructions that, when executed, cause at least one computer to perform the process and computation steps described herein, in particular the methods and procedures described above. Such a computer program product may include a readable non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon program code for use by a computer. The program code may implement the process and computation steps described herein, in particular the methods and procedures described above.

[0191] Although a particular feature or aspect of the present disclosure may be disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature or aspect may be combined with one or more other features or aspects of other implementations, as may be desirable and advantageous for any given or particular application. Moreover, to the extent that the terms "include," "have," "including," or other variants thereof are used in the detailed description or claims, such terms are inclusive, similar to the term "comprise." Also, the terms "exemplary," "for example," and "eg" are provided merely as examples, not as best or optimal. The terms "coupled" and "connected" may be used with derivatives. It should be understood that these terms may be used to indicate that two elements cooperate or interact with each other, regardless of whether they are in direct physical or electrical contact or whether they are not in direct contact with each other.

[0192] While specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, those skilled in the art will recognize that various alternative and / or equivalent implementations may be substituted for the specific embodiments illustrated and described without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the specific embodiments discussed herein.

[0193] Although elements in the following claims are recited in a particular order with corresponding labeling, the elements are not necessarily limited to being implemented in that particular order, unless the claim recitation specifically implies a particular order for implementing some or all of those elements.

[0194] Many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the above teachings. Of course, those skilled in the art will easily understand that there are many applications of the present invention beyond those described herein. Although the present invention has been described with reference to one or more specific embodiments, those skilled in the art will understand that many changes can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, it should be understood that within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents, the present invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein.

Claims

1. A beamformer device (110), comprising: configured to send a request to a beamformee device (120), the request including a set of sounding tone indices, the set of sounding tone indices indicating tones for which a beamforming information report (121) is requested from the beamformee device (120), the tones being defined according to a first WiFi scheme; The set of sounding tone indexes is based on a first tone plan (400) defined for a partial channel bandwidth by the first WiFi system and a second tone plan (200) defined for a full channel bandwidth by a second WiFi system.

2. the first WiFi system is 802.11be WiFi; The beamformer device (110) of claim 1, wherein the second WiFi standard is 802.11ax WiFi.

3. The beamformer device (110) of claim 1 or 2, wherein the first WiFi system supports channel bandwidths of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 240 MHz and 320 MHz.

4. The beamformer device (110) of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the second WiFi standard supports a channel bandwidth of 80 MHz.

5. The total channel bandwidth is 80 MHz; The beamformer device (110) of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the partial channel bandwidth is any subset of the full channel bandwidth.

6. The beamformer device (110) of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the sounding tone index is based on a new unified sounding index set (500, 600, 700) including sounding tone indexes of both the first tone plan (400) for the partial channel bandwidth and the second tone plan (200) for the full channel bandwidth.

7. The beamformer device (110) of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the sounding tone index is based on a new set of sounding indices (800, 900, 1000) for the partial channel bandwidth and an additional central tone index for the full channel bandwidth.

8. 6. The beamformer device (110) of claim 1, wherein the sounding tone index is based on a reuse of the sounding tone index (1100, 1200) defined for resource units of the second tone plan (200) and a definition of which resource units of the second tone plan (200) correspond to resource units of the first tone plan (400).

9. 9. The beamformer device (110) of claim 6, wherein the set of sounding tone indexes for a channel bandwidth exceeding the full channel bandwidth, in particular a channel bandwidth of 160 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 240 MHz or 320 MHz, is based on an overlap of rules defined for the set of sounding tone indexes within each segment of the full channel bandwidth.

10. The request to the beamformee device (120) indicates a channel bandwidth; The beamformer device (110) of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the indicated channel bandwidth is a full channel bandwidth defined for the first WiFi system.

11. The beamformer device (110) of claim 10, wherein the indicated channel bandwidth is a full channel bandwidth of 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 160 MHz, 240 MHz, 320 MHz, or any sub-bandwidth of these bandwidths.

12. The beamformer device (110) according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the set of sounding tone indices is defined for each channel bandwidth and for each number of tones Ng, in particular for Ng=4 and Ng=16.

13. 28. A method (2800) for requesting beamforming information, comprising: sending (2801) a request by a beamformer device (110) to a beamformee device, the request including a set of sounding tone indices, the set of sounding tone indices indicating tones for which a beamforming information report is requested from the beamformee device, the tones being defined according to a first WiFi scheme; the set of sounding tone indexes is based on a first tone plan defined for a partial channel bandwidth by the first WiFi system and a second tone plan defined for a full channel bandwidth by a second WiFi system; A method (2800), comprising receiving (2802) the report of beamforming information from the beamformee device based on the set of sounding tone indexes.

14. A beamformee device (120), comprising: configured to transmit a beamforming information report (121) to a beamformer device (110) based on a set of sounding tone indexes received from said beamformer device (110); the set of sounding tone indices indicates tones for which beamforming information reporting is requested from the beamformee device (120), the tones being defined according to a first WiFi scheme; The set of sounding tone indexes is based on a first tone plan defined for a partial channel bandwidth by the first WiFi system and a second tone plan defined for a full channel bandwidth by a second WiFi system.

15. A beamformer device (110), comprising: configured to receive a beamforming report (121) from a beamformee device (120), the beamforming report (121) including a compressed precoder matrix; configured to reconstruct a precoder matrix reported by the beamformee device (120) based on the compressed precoder matrix; the compressed precoder matrix is ​​defined by a set of angles in a particular order that implies a sequence of mathematical operations applied to an identity matrix to reconstruct the precoder matrix; The set of angles is determined based on extending a given formula specified for the number of transmit antennas and the number of spatial streams supported by a second WiFi technology, in particular 802.11ax WiFi, to the number of transmit antennas Nr and the number of spatial streams Nc supported by a first WiFi technology, in particular 802.11be WiFi, by a beamformer device (110).

16. 16. The beamformer device (110) of claim 15, wherein the extension of the given formula is specified for values ​​of 8<Nr≦16 and 1≦Nc≦16, corresponding to matrices from 9×1 to 16×16.

17. the beamforming report includes SNR values ​​of spatial streams reported by the beamformee devices; A beamformer device (110) as described in claim 15 or 16, wherein each reported i-th SNR value, in particular for i>8, corresponds to the SNR obtained from applying the i-th column of the reported precoder matrix by the beamformer device.

18. The beamformer device (110) of claim 17, wherein the beamforming report includes SNR values ​​of spatial streams in a MIMO scheme greater than 8x8.

19. A beamformer device (110), comprising: A beamformer device (110) configured to transmit a request for a partial bandwidth, BW, for sounding feedback to a beamformee device (120), the requested partial BW for sounding feedback including a partial BW type indicating the BW to be used for sounding feedback.

20. The beamformer device (110) of claim 19, wherein the partial BW type can be 20 MHz, 40 MHz or nx80 MHz, where n is an integer equal to or greater than 1.

21. The beamformer device (110) of claim 19 or 20, wherein the requested partial BW for sounding feedback is included in a partial BW information field.

22. The beamformer device (110) of claim 21, wherein the partial BW information field (3000) comprises 6 bits.

23. The beamformer device (110) of claim 21 or 22, wherein the least significant two bits (3001) of the partial BW information field indicate a type of the partial BW.

24. The beamformer device (110) of claim 21 or 22, wherein the most significant four bits (3002) of the partial BW information field indicate a particular BW corresponding to the indicated partial BW type.

25. If a 20 MHz partial BW type is signaled, the most significant 4 bits of the partial BW information field indicate the kth RU 242, where k is an integer equal to or greater than 0; If a 40 MHz partial BW type is signaled, the most significant 4 bits of the partial BW information field indicate the kth RU 484, where k is an integer from 1 to 8 or the kth RU 242, where k is an integer equal to or greater than 0; 25. The beamformer device (110) of any one of claims 21 to 24, wherein if a partial BW type of n x 80 MHz is signaled, the most significant four bits of the partial BW information field indicate a bitmap of four segments of 80 MHz, with the indicated "1" meaning that 80 MHz is requested for sounding feedback.

26. If a 20 MHz fractional BW type is signaled, then for the indicated kth RU 242, a tone index defined for k RUs 242 is used, where k is an integer equal to or greater than 0; If a 40 MHz partial BW type is signaled, then for the indicated kth RU 484, tone indices defined for 2×k and 2×k+1 RUs 242 are used, and for the indicated kth RU 242, tone indices defined for k and k+1 RUs 242 are used, where k is an integer greater than or equal to 0; or A beamformer device (110) as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 25, wherein when a partial BW type of n x 80 MHz is signalled, tone indices defined for 4 x k, 4 x k + 1, 4 x k + 2 and 4 x k + 3 RUs 242 are used, where n and k are integers greater than or equal to 0.

Images