Data transmission indication method, access point, and terminal

Abstract

To provide a data transmission indication method, an access point, and a terminal.SOLUTION: A method includes transmitting, by an access point, orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to a terminal, where the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate, to the terminal, a subchannel allocated for the terminal. Thereby, the terminal determines a sub-channel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, where the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes an identifier of the terminal and sub-channel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal. A scheme for the access point to allocate a sub-channel for each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling in the method provided by an embodiment of the present invention allows the access point to indicate sub-channels for more terminals, that is, the number of terminals the access point indicates sub-channels to is not limited.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of communication technologies, and more specifically, to a data transmission indication method, an access point, and a terminal.

Background Art

[0002] Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (hereinafter abbreviated as OFDM) is a basic transmission method for current wireless communication. Here, within the range allowed by the orthogonality of subcarriers, the subcarrier spacing is compressed to be minimized, thereby forming a plurality of transmission paths that are parallel and do not interfere with each other, and improving the frequency utilization efficiency of the system. The above characteristics of OFDM are used in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (hereinafter abbreviated as OFDMA). Subcarriers in OFDM that do not interfere with each other are allocated to a plurality of users to perform multi-user access or data transmission. Transmitting data in the OFDMA mode actually means that the transmitting end synchronously transmits the data of a plurality of receiving ends to the receiving ends associated with the subchannels by using the subchannels corresponding to the receiving ends (a subchannel in this specification may include one subcarrier or a plurality of subcarriers).

[0003] In the prior art, in the OFDMA mode, transmission can only support a bandwidth of 20 MHz to execute the transmission. 20 MHz may be divided into 64 subcarriers, where 48 subcarriers are used for the transmission of user data. In the conventional OFDMA technology, the signaling part (the format of the signaling part is only applicable to a bandwidth of 20 MHz) is added after the physical layer preamble in the data format, and the signaling part is used to indicate the users allocated to each subcarrier. Here, one subcarrier can only correspond to one user identifier (Identity, hereinafter abbreviated as ID). The transmitting end synchronously transmits the data of different users on different subcarriers. Correspondingly, the user receives the data transmitted by the transmitting end on the corresponding subcarrier.

[0004] However, when the number of users exceeds 48, due to the limitation of the 20 MHz bandwidth, in the prior art, for the remaining users other than the 48 users, no indication can be executed when the remaining users receive the data of the transmitting end. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] The present invention is used to solve the problem in the prior art that for the remaining users other than the 48 users, no indication can be executed when the remaining users receive the data of the transmitting end, and provides a data transmission indication method, an access point, and a terminal.

[0006] According to a first aspect, the present invention is a data transmission indication method, comprising: A step of transmitting orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to a terminal by an access point, wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to the terminal subchannels allocated to the terminal, whereby the terminal determines the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes an identifier of the terminal and subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal, the method including the step is provided.

[0007] Regarding the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the identifier of the terminal is an identifier of one or more terminal groups, each terminal group includes at least one terminal, and the subchannel information includes uplink subchannels or downlink subchannels or uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannels. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal is the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to each terminal group that the allocated subchannels are uplink subchannels or downlink subchannels or uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannels, and there is a one-to-one correspondence between the terminal group and the subchannels.

[0008] Regarding the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, before the step of transmitting the OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal by the access point, the method further includes a step of transmitting, by the access point, a mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of the terminal to the terminal, whereby the terminal learns the terminal group in which the terminal is located.

[0009] Regarding the first aspect, in the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of a terminal group, the terminal group includes at least two terminals, and in that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal is For each terminal in the terminal group, it includes OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel, and each terminal and subchannel in the terminal group have a one-to-one correspondence.

[0010] Regarding any one from the first aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in the fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the step of the access point transmitting orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal is The step of the access point transmitting an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM preamble to the terminal, where the OFDM preamble carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling, or The step of the access point transmitting a null data packet announcement NDPA frame to the terminal, where the NDPA frame carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0011] Regarding any one from the first aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in the fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the step of the access point transmitting orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal is It includes the step of the access point transmitting an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble to the terminal. The NDPA frame carries the identifier of the terminal in the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries the subchannel information within the OFDMA physical layer signaling, or the NDPA frame corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries the subchannel information within the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble carries the identifier of the terminal in the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0012] Regarding any one from the first aspect to the fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in the sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal for receiving the downlink OFDMA data information. In that case, after the step of transmitting the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal by the access point, the method further includes the step of transmitting, by the access point, the downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode, where the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble includes a switching field and an ultra high throughput signaling B UHT-SIG-B.

[0013] Regarding the sixth possible implementation of the first aspect, in the seventh possible implementation of the first aspect, OFDMA physical layer signaling or downlink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA acknowledgment ACK request or an OFDMA block acknowledgment BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the step of transmitting the downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode by the access point, the method further includes the step of receiving, by the access point, an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0014] Regarding the sixth possible implementation of the first aspect, in the eighth possible implementation of the first aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the step of transmitting the downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal by the access point, the method includes the step of transmitting, by the access point, an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode, The method further includes a step of receiving, by an access point, an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by a terminal on a corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0015] Regarding any one from the first aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in the ninth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the step of transmitting, by the access point, the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal is A step of transmitting, by the access point, multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) data information to the terminal in the multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, where the MU-MIMO data information carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling. In that case, after the step of transmitting, by the access point, the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal, the method The method further includes a step of receiving, by an access point, an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by a terminal on a corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0016] Regarding any one from the first aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in the tenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the step of transmitting, by the access point, the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal is A step of transmitting MU-MIMO data information to a terminal in MU-MIMO mode by an access point, where the MU-MIMO data information carries OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the step of A step of transmitting an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to a terminal by an access point, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in OFDMA mode, and the step of In that case, after the step of transmitting orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal by the access point, the method Further includes a step of receiving, by the access point, an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal in OFDMA mode.

[0017] Regarding any one from the first aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in the eleventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the step of transmitting orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal by the access point A step of transmitting MU-MIMO data information to a terminal in MU-MIMO mode by an access point, and A step of transmitting an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to a terminal by an access point, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in OFDMA mode, and the ACK request frame or the BA request frame carries OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the step of In that case, after the step of the access point transmitting orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the method further includes the step of the access point receiving an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on a corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0018] Regarding any one from the first aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in the twelfth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. After the step of the access point transmitting orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the method includes further the step of the access point transmitting OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information to the terminal on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode, and the step of the access point receiving an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on a corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0019] Regarding any one from the first aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in the thirteenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. After the step of the access point transmitting orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the method The step of transmitting OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information to the terminal on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode by the access point; The step of transmitting an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal by the access point, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode; The method further includes the step of receiving, by the access point, an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on a corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0020] Regarding any one from the first aspect to the fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in the fourteenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. In that case, before the step of transmitting, by the access point, the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the method Further includes the step of receiving, by the access point, an uplink transmission frame transmitted by the terminal; In that case, after the step of transmitting, by the access point, the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the method Further includes the step of receiving, by the access point, uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on a corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0021] Regarding the 14th possible implementation method of the first aspect, in the 15th possible implementation method of the first aspect, the uplink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is further used to instruct the access point to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. In that case, after the step of the access point receiving the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel, the method further includes the step of the access point transmitting an ACK response or a BA response corresponding to the uplink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0022] Regarding any one from the first aspect to the 5th possible implementation method of the first aspect, in the 16th possible implementation method of the first aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the step of the access point transmitting the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the method further includes the step of the access point receiving the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0023] According to the second aspect, the present invention is a data transmission indication method, a step of the terminal receiving the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point, where the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal by the access point, and the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal, A method is provided that includes a step of determining, by a terminal, a subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0024] Regarding a second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the identifier of the terminal is an identifier of one or more terminal groups, each terminal group includes at least one terminal, the subchannel information includes an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel, and in that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal is including OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to each terminal group that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel, and there is a one-to-one correspondence between the terminal group and the subchannel.

[0025] Regarding the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, before the step of receiving, by the terminal, the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by an access point, the method further includes a step of receiving, by the terminal, a mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of the terminal, where the mapping relationship is transmitted by the access point. In that case, the step of determining, by the terminal, the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to OFDMA physical layer signaling is including a step of determining, by the terminal, according to the mapping relationship, that the terminal is arranged within the terminal group, and in that case, a step of determining, by the terminal, that the subchannel corresponding to the terminal group is the subchannel corresponding to the terminal.

[0026] Regarding the second aspect, in the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of a terminal group, and the terminal group includes at least two terminals. In this case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal is included in the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to each terminal in the terminal group that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel. Each terminal and subchannel in the terminal group have a one-to-one correspondence.

[0027] Regarding any one from the second aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the fourth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the step of the terminal receiving the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point is the step of the terminal receiving the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM preamble transmitted by the access point, where the OFDM preamble carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling, or the step of the terminal receiving the null data packet announcement NDPA frame transmitted by the access point, where the NDPA frame carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0028] Regarding any one from the second aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the step of the terminal receiving the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point is A step of receiving, by a terminal, an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble transmitted by an access point, where the NDPA frame carries an identifier of the terminal in OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries subchannel information within the OFDMA physical layer signaling, or the NDPA frame corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries subchannel information within the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble carries the identifier of the terminal in the OFDMA physical layer signaling, further including the step.

[0029] Regarding any one from the second aspect to the fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the sixth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated by the access point to the terminal for receiving downlink OFDMA data information. In that case, after the step of determining, by the terminal, the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the method A step of receiving, by the terminal, on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point, where the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble includes a switching field and an ultra high throughput signaling B UHT-SIG-B, further including the step.

[0030] Regarding the sixth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the seventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the step of receiving, by the terminal, on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point includes A step of receiving, by the terminal, the destination terminal address transmitted by the access point corresponding to the OFDMA data, and A step of determining, by the terminal, whether the terminal matches the destination terminal address, and If they match, the method specifically includes the step of receiving, by the terminal, the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal.

[0031] Regarding the seventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the eighth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling or the downlink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA acknowledgment ACK request or an OFDMA block acknowledgment BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the step of receiving, by the terminal, the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the method further includes the step of transmitting, by the terminal, an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0032] Regarding the seventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the ninth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the step of receiving, by the terminal, the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the method includes the step of receiving, by the terminal, an ACK request frame or a BA request frame transmitted by the access point, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The method further includes a step of transmitting, by the terminal, an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0033] Regarding any one from the second aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the tenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the step of receiving, by the terminal, the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point is a step of receiving, by the terminal, multi-user multiple-input multiple-output MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point, where the MU-MIMO data information carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling. In that case, after the step of determining, by the terminal, the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the method is The method further includes a step of transmitting, by the terminal, an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0034] Regarding any one from the second aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the eleventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the step of receiving, by the terminal, the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point is A step of receiving, by a terminal, MU-MIMO data information transmitted by an access point, where the MU-MIMO data information carries OFDMA physical layer signaling, and A step of receiving, by a terminal, an ACK request frame or a BA request frame transmitted by an access point, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode, and In that case, after a step of determining, by the terminal, a subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the method Further includes a step of transmitting, by the terminal, an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0035] Regarding any one from the second aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the twelfth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the step of receiving, by the terminal, the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point A step of receiving, by the terminal, MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point, and A step of receiving, by the terminal, an ACK request frame or a BA request frame transmitted by the access point, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode, and the ACK request frame or the BA request frame carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and In that case, after the step of determining, by the terminal, the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the method further includes the step of transmitting, by the terminal, an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0036] Regarding any one from the second aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the thirteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the step of determining, by the terminal, the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the method includes further the step of receiving, by the terminal on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point, and the step of transmitting, by the terminal, an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0037] Regarding any one from the second aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the fourteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the step of determining, by the terminal, the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the method Receiving, by a terminal, OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information transmitted by an access point on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal; Receiving, by a terminal, an ACK request frame or a BA request frame transmitted by an access point, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode; Further including transmitting, by the terminal, an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0038] Regarding any one from the second aspect to the fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the fifteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. In that case, before the step of receiving, by the terminal, the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point, the method further includes: Transmitting, by the terminal, an uplink transmission frame to the access point; In that case, after the step of determining, by the terminal, the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the method further includes: Transmitting, by the terminal, uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0039] Regarding the 15th possible implementation method of the second aspect, in the 16th possible implementation method of the second aspect, the uplink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is further used to instruct the access point to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. In that case, after the step of the terminal transmitting the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the method further includes the step of the terminal receiving, on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, an ACK response or a BA response corresponding to the uplink OFDMA data information and transmitted by the access point.

[0040] Regarding any one from the second aspect to the 5th possible implementation method of the second aspect, in the 17th possible implementation method of the second aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the step of the terminal determining the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the method further includes the step of the terminal transmitting the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0041] According to the third aspect, the present invention provides an access point, comprising a transmission module configured to transmit orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to a terminal, where the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal, whereby the terminal determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal.

[0042] Regarding the third aspect, in the first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of one or more terminal groups, each terminal group includes at least one terminal, the sub-channel information includes an uplink sub-channel or a downlink sub-channel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional sub-channel, and in that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the sub-channel allocated to the terminal is including the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate that the allocated sub-channel for each terminal group is an uplink sub-channel or a downlink sub-channel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional sub-channel, and there is a one-to-one correspondence between the terminal group and the sub-channel.

[0043] Regarding the first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in the second possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the transmission module is further configured to transmit to the terminal the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of the terminal before the OFDMA physical layer signaling is transmitted to the terminal, so that the terminal learns the terminal group in which the terminal is located.

[0044] Regarding the third aspect, in the third possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of one terminal group, the terminal group includes at least two terminals, and in that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the sub-channel allocated to the terminal is including the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate that the allocated sub-channel for each terminal in the terminal group is an uplink sub-channel or a downlink sub-channel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional sub-channel, and there is a one-to-one correspondence between each terminal in the terminal group and the sub-channel.

[0045] Regarding any one from the third aspect to the third possible implementation method of the third aspect, in the fourth possible implementation method of the third aspect, the transmission module transmits an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM preamble to the terminal, and the OFDM preamble is specifically configured to carry OFDMA physical layer signaling, or transmits a null data packet announcement NDPA frame to the terminal, and the NDPA frame is specifically configured to carry OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0046] Regarding any one from the third aspect to the third possible implementation method of the third aspect, in the fifth possible implementation method of the third aspect, the transmission module transmits an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble to the terminal, the NDPA frame carries the identifier of the terminal in the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries subchannel information within the OFDMA physical layer signaling, or the NDPA frame corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries subchannel information within the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble carries the identifier of the terminal in the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and is further configured as such.

[0047] Regarding any one from the third aspect to the fifth possible implementation method of the third aspect, in the sixth possible implementation method of the third aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal for receiving downlink OFDMA data information. In that case, after the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling is transmitted to the terminal, the transmission module transmits downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode, and the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble includes a switching field and an ultra high throughput signaling B UHT-SIG-B, and is further configured as such.

[0048] Regarding the sixth possible implementation method of the third aspect, in the seventh possible implementation method of the third aspect, OFDMA physical layer signaling or downlink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA acknowledgment response ACK request or an OFDMA block acknowledgment response BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the access point further includes a receiving module configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode after the transmitting module transmits the downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0049] Regarding the sixth possible implementation method of the third aspect, in the eighth possible implementation method of the third aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the transmitting module transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal after the downlink OFDMA data information is transmitted on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, and the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are further configured to be used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The receiving module is further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0050] Regarding any one from the third aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in the ninth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the transmission module is specifically configured to transmit MU-MIMO data information to the terminal in the multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, and the MU-MIMO data information carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The receiving module is further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode after the transmission module transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0051] Regarding any one from the third aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in the tenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the transmission module is configured to transmit MU-MIMO data information to the terminal in the MU-MIMO mode, where the MU-MIMO data information carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and transmit an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal. The ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, after the transmitting module transmits orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal, the receiving module is further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0052] Regarding any one from the third aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in the eleventh possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the transmitting module transmits MU-MIMO data information to the terminal in the MU-MIMO mode and transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal. The ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The ACK request frame or the BA request frame is specifically configured to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling. In that case, after the transmitting module transmits orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal, the receiving module is further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0053] Regarding any one from the third aspect to the third possible implementation method of the third aspect, in the twelfth possible implementation method of the third aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal while the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. The transmission module is further configured to transmit OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information to the terminal on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode after the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling is transmitted to the terminal. The receiving module is further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0054] Regarding any one from the third aspect to the third possible implementation method of the third aspect, in the thirteenth possible implementation method of the third aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal while the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the transmission module is further configured to transmit OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information to the terminal on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode after the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling is transmitted to the terminal, and transmit an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal. The ACK request frame or the BA request frame contains dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the receiving module is further configured to receive, on a corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode, an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal.

[0055] Regarding any one from the third aspect to the fifth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in the fourteenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal while the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the receiving module is further configured to receive an uplink transmission frame transmitted by the terminal before the transmitting module transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal, and to receive the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on a corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode after the transmitting module transmits the OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0056] Regarding the fourteenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in the fifteenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the uplink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is further used to instruct the access point to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the transmitting module is further configured to transmit, in the OFDMA mode, an ACK response or a BA response corresponding to the uplink OFDMA data information on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal after the receiving module receives the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on a corresponding subchannel.

[0057] Regarding any one from the third aspect to the fifth possible implementation method of the third aspect, in the sixteenth possible implementation method of the third aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to a terminal, and while uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to an access point, it is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. In that case, the receiving module is further configured to receive, in the OFDMA mode, the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannels after the transmitting module transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0058] According to a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a terminal, a receiving module configured to receive orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by an access point, where the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal by the access point, and the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes an identifier of the terminal and subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal, and a determination module configured to determine the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0059] Regarding the fourth aspect, in the first possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, the identifier of the terminal is an identifier of one or more terminal groups, each terminal group includes at least one terminal, and the subchannel information includes uplink subchannels or downlink subchannels or uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannels. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal is Including OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to each terminal group that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel, and there is a one-to-one correspondence between the terminal group and the subchannel.

[0060] Regarding the first possible implementation of the fourth aspect, in the second possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the receiving module is further configured to receive the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of the terminal before receiving the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point, and the mapping relationship is transmitted by the access point. In that case, the determination module is specifically configured to determine, according to the mapping relationship, that the terminal is arranged within the terminal group, and in that case, to determine that the subchannel corresponding to the terminal group is the subchannel corresponding to the terminal.

[0061] Regarding the fourth aspect, in the third possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of one terminal group, the terminal group includes at least two terminals, and in that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal is Including OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to each terminal within the terminal group that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel, and there is a one-to-one correspondence between each terminal within the terminal group and the subchannel.

[0062] Regarding any one from the fourth aspect to the third possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, in the fourth possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, the receiving module receives an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) preamble transmitted by an access point, and the OFDM preamble is specifically configured to carry OFDMA physical layer signaling, or receives a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame transmitted by the access point, and the NDPA frame is specifically configured to carry OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0063] Regarding any one from the fourth aspect to the third possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, in the fifth possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, the receiving module receives an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble transmitted by an access point, the NDPA frame carries an identifier of a terminal in OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble is further configured to carry subchannel information within the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponding to the identifier of the terminal, or receives an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble transmitted by the access point, the NDPA frame carries subchannel information within the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponding to the identifier of the terminal, and the OFDM preamble is further configured to carry the identifier of the terminal in OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0064] Regarding any one from the fourth aspect to the fifth possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, in the sixth possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, OFDMA physical layer signaling is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated by the access point for receiving downlink OFDMA data information. In that case, after the determination module determines the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the receiving module receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal. The downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble further includes a switching field and an ultra-high throughput signaling B UHT-SIG-B, and is further configured as such.

[0065] Regarding the sixth possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, in the seventh possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, the receiving module includes a receiving unit configured to receive the destination terminal address transmitted by the access point while corresponding to the OFDMA data, and a determination unit configured to determine whether the terminal matches the destination terminal address, and if it matches, instruct the receiving unit to receive the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal.

[0066] Regarding the seventh possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, in the eighth possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, OFDMA physical layer signaling or downlink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA acknowledgment ACK request or an OFDMA block acknowledgment BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the terminal further includes a transmission module configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode after the reception module receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal.

[0067] Regarding the seventh possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, in the ninth possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the reception module is further configured to receive an ACK request frame or a BA request frame transmitted by the access point after the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point is received on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, and the ACK request frame or BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the transmission module is further configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0068] Regarding any one from the 4th aspect to the 3rd possible implementation method of the 4th aspect, in the 10th possible implementation method of the 4th aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the receiving module is specifically configured to receive the multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) data information transmitted by the access point. The transmitting module is further configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode after the determination module determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0069] Regarding any one from the 4th aspect to the 3rd possible implementation method of the 4th aspect, in the 11th possible implementation method of the 4th aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the receiving module receives the MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point, where the MU-MIMO data information carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and receives the ACK request frame or the BA request frame transmitted by the access point. The ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are specifically configured to be used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, after the determination module determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the transmission module is further configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0070] Regarding any one from the fourth aspect to the third possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in the twelfth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal to the terminal when an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the receiving module receives the MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point and receives the ACK request frame or the BA request frame transmitted by the access point. The ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The ACK request frame or the BA request frame is specifically configured to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling. In that case, after the determination module determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the transmission module is further configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0071] Regarding any one from the 4th aspect to the 3rd possible implementation method of the 4th aspect, in the 13th possible implementation method of the 4th aspect, OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to send an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is sent to the access point. In that case, after the determination module determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the receiving module is further configured to receive the OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information sent by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal. The transmitting module is further configured to send an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0072] Regarding any one from the 4th aspect to the 3rd possible implementation method of the 4th aspect, in the 14th possible implementation method of the 4th aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is sent to the access point. In that case, after the determination module determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the receiving module is further configured to receive the OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information sent by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal and receive the ACK request frame or the BA request frame sent by the access point. The ACK request frame or the BA request frame contains dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to send an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The transmission module is further configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0073] Regarding any one from the fourth aspect to the fifth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in the fifteenth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the transmission module is further configured to transmit an uplink transmission frame to the access point before the reception module receives the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point, and is further configured to transmit uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode after the determination module determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0074] Regarding the fifteenth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in the sixteenth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the uplink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is further used to instruct the access point to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the reception module is further configured to receive, on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, an ACK response or a BA response corresponding to the uplink OFDMA data information and transmitted by the access point after the transmission module transmits the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point.

[0075] Regarding any one from the fourth aspect to the fifth possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, in the seventeenth possible implementation method of the fourth aspect, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to a terminal, and while uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to an access point, it is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. In that case, after the determination module determines the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the transmission module is further configured to transmit the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0076] The present invention provides a data transmission indication method, an access point, and a terminal. Here, the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, whereby each terminal learns the subchannels corresponding to the terminal, and thus the terminal can perform corresponding operations on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to indicate more subchannels to terminals, that is, the number of terminals to which the access point indicates subchannels is not limited.

[0077] To more clearly explain the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, in the following, the accompanying drawings necessary for the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced. Obviously, the accompanying drawings in the following description show some embodiments of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can derive other drawings from these accompanying drawings without creative effort.

Brief Description of the Drawings

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Embodiments for Carrying out the Invention

[0079] In order to make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, hereinafter, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly described with reference to the accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of them. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0080] The terminal related to this application, i.e., the user equipment, may be a wireless terminal or a wired terminal. The wireless terminal may refer to a device that provides voice and / or data connectivity to the user, a handheld device with a wireless connection function, or another processing device connected to a wireless modem. The wireless terminal may communicate with one or more core networks by using a radio access network (RAN, such as Radio Access Network). The wireless terminal may be a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone (also referred to as a "cellular" phone), or a computer equipped with a mobile terminal. For example, it may be a portable, pocket-sized, handheld, computer-integrated, or in-vehicle mobile device that exchanges language and / or data with a radio access network. For example, it may be a device such as a Personal Communication Service (PCS) phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). The wireless terminal may also be referred to as a system, a Subscriber Unit, a Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station, a Mobile, a Remote Station, an Access Point, a Remote Terminal, an Access Terminal, a User Terminal, a User Agent, a User Device, or a User Equipment.

[0081] The access point (such as a base station) related to this application may be an access point (Access Point) of a WLAN, or may refer to a device that communicates with a wireless terminal on an air interface in an access network by using one or more sectors. The base station converts the received wireless frames and IP packets with each other, and functions as a router between the wireless terminal and the rest of the access network, where the rest of the access network may include an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The base station may similarly adjust the attribute management of the air interface. For example, the base station may be a base station (BTS, Base Transceiver Station) in GSM or CDMA, and similarly, a base station (NodeB) in WCDMA, and further, an evolved NodeB (NodeB, eNB, or e-NodeB, evolved Node B) in LTE, which is not limited in this application.

[0082] Embodiment 1 of the present invention provides a data transmission indication method. The method related to the embodiment is a specific process in which an access point uses OFDMA physical layer signaling to indicate a corresponding subchannel to a terminal. The method includes transmitting, by the access point, OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, where the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal, whereby the terminal determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, where the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal.

[0083] It should be noted that there may be one or more terminals in this embodiment of the present invention. The access point performs the same operation for each terminal, and thus, the description is made by using the terminal in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0084] In particular, the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal in the OFDM mode, that is, the access point can transmit OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminals within the coverage area of the access point. However, another terminal within the coverage area of the access point can similarly obtain the OFDMA physical layer signaling and listen to correctly demodulate it. The OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention includes a terminal identifier and subchannel information corresponding to the terminal identifier, and is used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal. Thereby, each terminal learns the subchannel corresponding to the terminal and performs corresponding operations on that subchannel. For example, on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the terminal can receive data belonging to the terminal and transmitted by the access point, or on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the terminal can transmit corresponding response information or uplink data information to the access point. The terminal identifier in the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling may be an identifier of a single terminal group or identifiers of a plurality of terminal groups, and the terminal group may include a plurality of terminals.

[0085] The channel bandwidth of the subchannel is not limited in the present invention, and the access point determines the bandwidth of the subchannel according to the bandwidth requirement conditions of the terminal. Furthermore, the subchannels shown may be presented in a plurality of forms, which may be the center frequency and bandwidth of the subchannel, or the number of channels and bandwidth of the start frequency band, or the range of the number of channels from the start frequency band to the end frequency band, which is not limited in the present invention.

[0086] The subchannel indicated to the terminal by the OFDMA physical layer signaling related to this embodiment may correspond to one terminal or a plurality of terminals. For example, a plurality of terminals may be grouped into one group, and the OFDMA physical layer signaling allocates the subchannel to this group. In that case, all terminals within the group can use the subchannel.

[0087] In the prior art, the format of the signaling part can only support a bandwidth of 20 MHz. When a user is allocated to each subcarrier among 48 subcarriers and a bandwidth larger than 20 MHz can be used, the prior art does not have a corresponding extension solution to support that bandwidth. However, the OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention can support a larger bandwidth, and for a large number of terminals, the allocated subchannels can be allocated to and indicated for multiple terminals, where a subchannel includes one or more subcarriers. Therefore, the subject matter of this embodiment of the present invention is different from that of the prior art (in the prior art, the subject matter is to allocate users to subcarriers, and in this embodiment of the present invention, the subject matter is to allocate subchannels or subcarriers to users). Due to the limitation of subcarriers in the prior art, it can only perform indication for 48 terminals. Indicating subchannels for terminals by OFDMA physical layer signaling cannot be limited by the bandwidth, and subchannels can be allocated to more terminals (more users than 48) in a larger bandwidth. Certainly, this embodiment of the present invention can still allocate subchannels to a quantity of terminals less than 48.

[0088] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, whereby each terminal learns the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, and thus the terminal can perform corresponding operations on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to indicate subchannels to more terminals, that is, the number of terminals to which the access point indicates subchannels is not limited.

[0089] Figure 1 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 2 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a feasible implementation manner in which subchannels are indicated to a terminal by using OFDMA physical layer signaling. Further, based on Embodiment 1, the identifier of the terminal may be the identifier of one or more terminal groups, each terminal group includes at least one terminal, and the subchannel information includes uplink subchannels or downlink subchannels or uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannels. The method includes the following.

[0090] S101: The access point transmits the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of the terminal to the terminal, so that the terminal learns the terminal group where the terminal is located.

[0091] In particular, the terminal needs to know the terminal group to which the terminal belongs. In that case, the terminal can know the subchannel corresponding to the terminal only when the access point allocates a subchannel to the terminal group. Therefore, the access point needs to transmit the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of the terminal to each terminal, so that each terminal learns the terminal group where the terminal is located. For a simple manner in which the terminal is notified of the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of each terminal in the form of a grouping management frame, reference may be made to Table 1, which is specifically as follows.

[0092]

Table 1

[0093] By using the terminal grouping management frame shown in Table 1, the terminal can learn the identifier of the terminal group where the terminal is located.

[0094] S102: The access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, whereby the terminal determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal, and the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to each terminal group that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel.

[0095] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling may indicate to the terminal that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel by using dedicated indication bits. That is, the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling can not only indicate the allocated subchannel for the terminal group, but also indicate to the terminal group that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel.

[0096] In particular, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of one or more terminal groups, and the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate the allocated subchannel for each terminal group to one or more terminal groups. Here, the terminal group and the subchannel are in a one-to-one correspondence.

[0097] The relevant fields included in the indication of the foregoing OFDMA physical layer signaling may be in the format shown in Table 2 below. The group numbers in Table 2 are used to indicate the grouping identifiers of a plurality of current terminals, and the terminals may be stations (hereinafter abbreviated as STAs). The fields shown in Table 2 may indicate that subchannels are allocated to each terminal group, where each terminal group may include at least one terminal. For example, terminal group 1 includes STA1 and STA2, terminal group 2 includes STA3 to STA5, and group n includes STA k to STA n. According to this indication method, both STA1 and STA2 operate on subchannel 1, STA3 to STA5 operate on subchannel 2, and all of STA k to STA n operate on subchannel n. By using this indication, the terminal can learn the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, and the access point can similarly flexibly schedule the terminals within the terminal group on each allocated subchannel. In addition, the terminal groups can also have common elements. For example, terminal group 1 may include STA1 to STA3, and terminal group 2 may include STA2 to STA5. Here, both STA2 and STA3 are in terminal group 1 and terminal group 2. In this way, the access point can flexibly allocate all subchannels to the STAs within the effective range of the indication, thereby further improving the flexibility of terminal scheduling by the access point.

[0098]

Table 2

[0099] In other cases, in a subchannel, when the interval between subcarriers in the OFDMA mode is different from the interval between subcarriers in the OFDM mode, and, as a special case, when the interval between subcarriers in the OFDM mode is an integer multiple (K times) of the interval between subcarriers in the OFDMA mode, the effective indication on the subchannel where a plurality of terminals are operating can be implemented in a manner in which the subcarriers in the OFDMA mode are simply grouped. The number of subcarriers in the OFDM mode in each 20 MHz (i.e., the unit subchannel bandwidth) is 64, and in that case, the number of subcarriers in the OFDMA mode is 64*K (* is the multiplication sign), and thus, the access point may allocate the 64*K subcarriers within the subchannel to the terminals within the terminal group (see Table 3), that is, each terminal corresponds to some (one or more) subcarriers. That is, Table 3 actually details Table 2 as long as the subchannel is concerned, where subcarrier k n can be a subcarrier identifier in the OFDMA mode (i.e., k N =64*K, and k n can be any integer from 1 to k N ), or can be a subcarrier identifier in the OFDM mode (i.e., k N =64). Note that the prior art cannot support the refinement regarding the interval between subcarriers, and thus, it cannot perform indications for more users at 20 MHz.

[0100] When subcarrier k n is a subcarrier identifier in the OFDMA mode, the indication unit granularity of the method of this embodiment is specific to each subcarrier of OFDMA (i.e., the subcarrier can correspond to a terminal), and subcarrier k nWhen it is the subcarrier identifier in the OFDM mode, the indication unit granularity of the method of this embodiment is K subcarriers of OFDMA. Therefore, the embodiment of the method of the present invention divides subchannels by using a narrower interval between subcarriers for a unit bandwidth (for example, the unit bandwidth is 20 MHz), and can effectively perform indication on the operating subchannels of multiple terminals in such a way that the divided subchannels are simply grouped.

[0101] In addition, when K = 4, each 64 consecutive OFDMA subcarriers occupy a channel unit (5 MHz). In this case, the channel numbers in Embodiment 1 and Embodiment 2 may similarly continue to be used as an indication method.

[0102]

Table 3

[0103] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point transmits to the terminal the OFDMA physical layer signaling that carries and includes the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal. The access point further transmits to each terminal the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of each terminal, so that each terminal learns the terminal group where it is located, and further learns the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, and thereby executes the corresponding operation on that subchannel. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to indicate subchannels to more terminals. That is, the number of terminals for which the access point indicates subchannels is not limited.

[0104] Embodiment 3 of the present invention provides a data transmission indication method. This method related to this embodiment is another feasible implementation manner in which an access point indicates a subchannel for a terminal by using OFDMA physical layer signaling. Based on Embodiment 1, the OFDMA physical layer signaling may include an identifier of a terminal and subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal. The identifier of the terminal is an identifier of a single terminal group. The terminal group includes at least two terminals. And the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to each terminal in the terminal group that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel.

[0105] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling may indicate to the terminal that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel by using a dedicated indication bit. The terminals and subchannels in the terminal group have a one-to-one correspondence. That is, the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling can not only indicate the allocated subchannel for each terminal in the terminal group, but also indicate to each terminal in the terminal group that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel.

[0106] In particular, the relevant fields included in the indication of the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling may be in the format shown in Table 4 below. The group number in Table 4 is used to indicate the grouping identifier of the current terminal group. The subchannels following the group number, and the STAs within the terminal group corresponding to the group number, have a one-to-one correspondence separately. That is, the access point allocates the subchannels to the terminals within the terminal group in sequence. That is, the STAs within the group corresponding to the group number are STA1 to STAn in sequence. In that case, according to the format, STA1 corresponds to subchannel 1, STA2 corresponds to subchannel 2, and similarly, STAn corresponds to subchannel n.

[0107] In the aforementioned case where the interval between subcarriers within a subchannel in the OFDM mode is different from that in the OFDMA mode, the subchannels allocated by each STA within the group can be indicated not only in a manner that simply uses the channel number or the like, but also, as shown in Table 4', in a manner that uses the subcarrier range.

[0108]

Table 4

[0109]

Table 5

[0110] That is, each terminal within the aforementioned terminal group corresponds to a different subchannel, and since the OFDMA physical layer signaling can support a larger bandwidth (not limited to a 20 MHz bandwidth), more terminals can be indicated by the subchannels.

[0111] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, whereby each terminal learns the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, and thus the terminal can perform corresponding operations on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to indicate subchannels to more terminals.

[0112] Figure 2 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 4 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. This method related to this embodiment is a process in which an OFDM preamble carrying OFDMA physical layer signaling is transmitted to the terminal, whereby the terminal learns the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal. The method includes the following.

[0113] S201: The access point transmits an OFDM preamble to the terminal, where the OFDM preamble carries OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0114] In particular, the access point transmits an OFDM preamble in the OFDM mode to any terminal within the coverage area of the access point. Here, the OFDM preamble includes a Short Training Field (hereinafter abbreviated as STF), a Long Training Field (hereinafter abbreviated as LTF), Legacy Signaling (hereinafter abbreviated as L-SIG), and Ultra High Throughput Signaling A (hereinafter abbreviated as UHT-SIG-A), and UHT-SIG-A carries OFDMA physical layer signaling. Note that the OFDM mode is as follows. The access point transmits the OFDM preamble to the terminal. However, in this case, the access point does not know the specific terminal to which the OFDM preamble is transmitted. Therefore, the access point transmits the OFDM preamble to any terminal, and all active terminals listen to and receive the OFDM preamble, and in that case, obtain the OFDMA physical layer signaling, thereby learning the channel corresponding to the terminal.

[0115] Regarding the manner in which the OFDMA physical layer signaling indicates the subchannels in this embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the descriptions in Embodiments 1 to 3, and it should be noted that the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0116] S202: The access point transmits downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. Here, the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data (Data Symbol), and the OFDMA preamble includes a Switching Field and Ultra High Throughput Signaling B (hereinafter abbreviated as UHT-SIG-B).

[0117] In particular, the access point transmits downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode, that is, the access point can transmit downlink OFDMA data information to a plurality of terminals simultaneously on each subchannel corresponding to the terminal. Therefore, the signaling overhead can be reduced, and a multi-user diversity gain can be brought. In addition, the subchannel corresponding to the terminal may further include the primary channel of the basic service set (Basic Service Set, hereinafter abbreviated as BSS). Here, the primary channel is used by the access point and the terminal to exchange control signaling and management signaling, that is, after completely transmitting the OFDMA physical layer signaling on the primary channel, the access point can release the primary channel or transmit downlink OFDMA data information to the terminal by using the primary channel together with another subchannel.

[0118] For the data transmission frame format of the OFDM preamble and the downlink OFDMA data information, reference may be made to Table 5 below. Further, when transmitted together, both the OFDMA physical layer signaling and the OFDMA data can use the format in Table 5, and when only the OFDMA physical layer signaling is transmitted individually, only the OFDM preamble is transmitted.

[0119]

Table 6

[0120] Note that the content transmitted in the OFDMA mode is independent of each other for each terminal, that is, the Switching Fields, UHT-SIG-B, and OFDMA data on each subchannel corresponding to the terminal are all independent of each other. It should be noted that the aforementioned Switching Field may include an Ultra High Throughput Short Training Field (hereinafter abbreviated as UHT-STF) and an Ultra High Throughput Long Training Field (hereinafter abbreviated as UHT-LTF). In the OFDMA mode, the UHT-STF is used by the terminal to complete the automatic gain control (hereinafter abbreviated as AGC) or channel synchronization of the subchannel or all channels indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The UHT-LTF is used by the terminal to complete channel estimation on the subchannel or all channels. When the physical layer signaling in UHT-SIG-A only performs channel allocation for the terminal group, the UHT-SIG-B can be used by the transmitting end to perform further indication for the terminals within the terminal group corresponding to the subchannels within the subchannel.

[0121] In the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode, when the UHT-STF is used by the terminal to perform AGC or channel synchronization on the subchannel or all channels indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling and the corresponding space-time streams, the UHT-LTF is used by the terminal to perform channel estimation on the subchannel or all channels indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling and the subchannels of the corresponding space-time streams. Furthermore, the space-time stream allocation information of MU-MIMO can be carried in UHT-SIG-A or in UHT-SIG-B.

[0122] In addition, the access point may transmit an OFDM preamble on the primary channel in OFDM mode (see the example in FIG. 2a), or may transmit an OFDM preamble on a plurality of subchannels in an iterative manner (see the example in FIG. 2b). In that case, the access point is switched to OFDMA mode and transmits an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data to the terminal on the indicated subchannels described above. On the other hand, when the interval between OFDM subcarriers is different from the OFDMA interval (an example where the unit channel is 20 MHz is used), reference may be made to the example in FIG. 2c regarding the transmission of the OFDM preamble and downlink OFDMA data information by the access point, that is, this unit channel (the primary channel in the figure) is divided into a plurality of subcarriers, and one or more subcarriers correspond to the terminal. When the interval between OFDM subcarriers is different from the OFDMA interval and the bandwidth is the sum of the bandwidths of a plurality of unit channels, reference may be made to the example in FIG. 2d regarding the transmission of the OFDM preamble and downlink OFDMA data information by the access point.

[0123] Correspondingly, the terminal detects and receives an OFDM preamble in the idle state and in OFDM mode. After receiving the OFDM preamble in OFDM mode (the OFDM preamble may be received on the primary channel or on a plurality of subchannels), the terminal reads the OFDMA physical layer signaling in UHT-SIG-A in OFDM mode, switches to the subchannels indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling, adjusts the AGC again, completes the estimation of the channel state information of the corresponding subchannel, and demodulates the downlink OFDMA data information on the corresponding subchannel to obtain the OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data belonging to the terminal.

[0124] Another receiving method of the terminal is that the terminal detects and receives an OFDM preamble in the idle state and in the OFDM mode. After receiving the OFDM preamble in the OFDM mode (the OFDM preamble can be received on the primary channel or on a plurality of sub-channels), the terminal reads the OFDMA physical layer signaling in UHT-SIG-A in the OFDM mode, and is switched to the entire bandwidth occupied when the access point transmits data at this time, adjusts the AGC again, completes the estimation of the channel state information of the sub-channel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling or the estimation of the channel state information of the entire bandwidth, and demodulates the downlink OFDMA data information on the corresponding sub-channel to obtain the OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data belonging to the terminal.

[0125] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point transmits an OFDM preamble carrying OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, whereby the terminal obtains the OFDMA physical layer signaling from the OFDM preamble, and thereby, according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal can learn the sub-channel on which it should receive the downlink OFDMA data information corresponding to the terminal. That is, the method in which the access point allocates sub-channels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform more indications for more terminals when the terminal receives the data of the access point. That is, the number of terminals for which the access point indicates sub-channels is not limited.

[0126] Figure 3 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 5 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which an access point transmits a Null Data Packet Announcement (hereinafter abbreviated as NDPA) carrying OFDMA physical layer signaling to a terminal, whereby the terminal acquires the OFDMA physical layer signaling from the NDPA frame. Accordingly, the terminal learns the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal. The method includes the following.

[0127] S301: The access point transmits an NDPA frame to the terminal, where the NDPA frame carries the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0128] In particular, an exclusive NDPA frame is used to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention, and is used to reduce the overhead brought about when the OFDMA physical layer signaling is transmitted. The format of the NDPA frame in this embodiment of the present invention is shown specifically in Table 6 below.

[0129]

Table 7

[0130] The access point may well transmit the NDPA frame to the terminals within the coverage area of the access point in the OFDM mode, and may transmit the NDPA frame on a subchannel (such as a primary channel) (see the example in Fig. 3a), or may transmit the NDPA frame on a plurality of subchannels (see the example in Fig. 3b). It should be noted that all other terminals may listen to obtain the NDPA frame. In that case, the access point further needs to transmit an OFDM preamble in the OFDM mode. The above-mentioned OFDMA physical layer signaling may be carried by the NDPA frame, or may be carried by both the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble. However, generally, it is carried only by the NDPA frame to reduce the signaling overhead. Appropriately, when the NDPA frame carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the OFDM preamble may further indicate a specific terminal identifier within the terminal group.

[0131] Regarding the manner in which the OFDMA physical layer signaling indicates the subchannels in this embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the descriptions in Embodiments 1 to 3. It should be noted that the details will not be described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0132] S302: The access point transmits downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. Here, the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble includes a switching field and UHT-SIG-B.

[0133] In particular, the access point transmits downlink OFDMA data information in the OFDMA mode, that is, the access point can simultaneously transmit downlink OFDMA data information to a plurality of terminals on each subchannel corresponding to the terminals. Therefore, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0134] Correspondingly, in the idle state, the terminal detects and receives an NDPA frame in the OFDM mode, reads OFDMA physical layer signaling in the OFDM mode, and in that case, the terminal also receives an OFDM preamble in the OFDM mode, switches to the OFDMA mode by using the subchannels indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and on the subchannels, receives the OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data transmitted by the access point in the OFDMA mode.

[0135] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point transmits an NDPA frame carrying OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, whereby the terminal obtains the OFDMA physical layer signaling from the NDPA frame, and thereby, according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal may learn the subchannels on which it should receive the downlink OFDMA data information corresponding to the terminal, and thereby, on the corresponding subchannels, receive the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal receives data from the access point, that is, the number of terminals indicated by the access point for the subchannels is not limited. In addition, the access point can simultaneously transmit the downlink OFDMA data information to a plurality of terminals on the respective subchannels corresponding to the terminals, and therefore, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0136] Figure 4 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 6 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which an access point transmits an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble that separately carry the content included in the OFDMA physical layer signaling to a terminal, whereby the terminal acquires the OFDMA physical layer signaling from the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble, and thus, the terminal learns the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal, receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point. The method includes the following.

[0137] S401: The access point transmits an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble to the terminal.

[0138] In particular, the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble can carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling in two cooperation modes. These modes are independent as follows.

[0139] The first mode: The access point transmits an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble to the terminal, where the NDPA frame carries the identifier of the terminal in the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries the subchannel information within the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling. The identifier of the terminal in this specification may be the identifier of one or more terminal groups in Embodiment 2, the subchannel and the terminal group have a one-to-one correspondence, and further may be the identifier of a single terminal group in Embodiment 3, and the subchannel and the terminals within the group have a one-to-one correspondence.

[0140] Second method: The access point transmits an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble to the terminal. Here, the NDPA frame corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries the subchannel information within the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble carries the identifier of the terminal in the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling. The identifier of the terminal in this specification may be the identifier of one or more terminal groups in Embodiment 2, and there is a one-to-one correspondence between the subchannel and the terminal group. Furthermore, in Embodiment 3, it may be the identifier of a single terminal group, and there is a one-to-one correspondence between the subchannel and the terminals within the group.

[0141] That is, the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble can cooperate with each other to indicate the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The user group information field in Table 5 may include the identifier of the terminal and may further include the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal. In addition, the control information field in Table 5 may further indicate the length of the effective time of the subchannel information of the currently indicated terminal or terminal group, so that the terminal can determine whether the indication of the subchannel information of the terminal or terminal group is valid or expired according to the length of time. If it is not expired, the terminal can continue to receive and transmit data using the current subchannel.

[0142] When the NDPA frame carries the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal (i.e., carries the complete OFDMA physical layer signaling), the OFDM preamble, again, may not carry the identifier of the terminal or the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal (the OFDM preamble can similarly carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling, which has already been specifically described in the foregoing embodiments and will not be described in detail here again), or when the NDPA frame carries only the identifier of the terminal, the OFDM preamble needs to carry the subchannel information in the NDPA frame in addition to corresponding to the identifier of the terminal, or when the NDPA frame carries only the subchannel information, the OFDM preamble needs to carry the identifier of the terminal in the NDPA frame in addition to corresponding to the subchannel information.

[0143] Regarding the manner in which the OFDMA physical layer signaling indicates the subchannels in this embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the descriptions in Embodiments 1 to 3, and it should be noted that the details will not be described in detail here again in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0144] S402: The access point transmits downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode, where the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble includes a Switching Field and UHT-SIG-B.

[0145] In particular, the access point transmits downlink OFDMA data information in the OFDMA mode, that is, the access point can transmit downlink OFDMA data information to a plurality of terminals simultaneously on the respective subchannels corresponding to the terminals, and therefore, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0146] Correspondingly, in the idle state, the terminal receives an NDPA frame in the OFDM mode, reads a part of the OFDMA physical layer signaling carried in the NDPA frame in the OFDM mode. In that case, the terminal also receives an OFDM preamble in the OFDM mode, and then reads that part of the content that supplements the OFDMA physical layer signaling and is within the OFDM preamble. Next, the terminal is switched to the OFDMA mode according to the subchannels indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling obtained by combining the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble, and reads / demodulates the OFDMA preamble and the OFDMA data of the terminal on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal.

[0147] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point transmits an NDPA frame carrying OFDMA physical layer signaling and an OFDM preamble to the terminal, whereby each terminal may learn, by using the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble, the subchannel on which the terminal should receive the downlink OFDMA data information corresponding to the terminal, and thereby receive the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal receives the data of the access point. That is, the number of terminals for which the access point indicates subchannels is not limited. In addition, the access point can simultaneously transmit the downlink OFDMA data information to a plurality of terminals on the respective subchannels corresponding to the terminals, and thus the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0148] Furthermore, based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, as a feasible implementation method of the embodiments of the present invention, the method related to this embodiment is a process in which after transmitting downlink OFDMA data information to the terminal, the access point receives an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel. Appropriately, the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling or OFDMA data carries an OFDMA acknowledgment response (Acknowledge, hereinafter abbreviated as ACK) request or an OFDMA block acknowledgment response (Block ACK, hereinafter abbreviated as BA) request. The OFDMA ACK request or OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal while the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point. After S202 or S302 or S402, the operation of S10 may be executed.

[0149] S10: The access point receives an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0150] In particular, in order to indicate that the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point has been correctly received by each terminal, each terminal needs to respond to the access point by means of an ACK response or a BA response. When the access point adds an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request to the OFDMA data or the OFDMA physical layer signaling (referring to FIG. 4a, an example in which the access point adds an OFDMA ACK request is used), after receiving the downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the indication of the OFDMA physical layer signaling of the access point, the terminal can directly respond by means of an ACK or BA response in the OFDMA mode on the subchannel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The ACK response corresponds to the OFDMA ACK request, and the BA response corresponds to the OFDMA BA request. In that case, the access point receives the ACK response or the BA response transmitted by the terminal on each corresponding subchannel. That is, it is enabled that a plurality of terminals simultaneously transmit responses to the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminals, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0151] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and a plurality of terminals can simultaneously transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicated by the access point for the subchannel is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of a plurality of terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0152] Furthermore, based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, as another realizable implementation manner of the embodiments of the present invention, the method related to this embodiment is a process in which, after transmitting OFDMA physical layer signaling and downlink OFDMA data information to a terminal, an access point transmits a single ACK request frame or BA request frame to the terminal, whereby the terminal can transmit an ACK response or BA response to the access point on the subchannel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0153] The aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling may be used to correspond to the terminal and further to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal while an ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point. After S202 or S302 or S402, the following step may be executed.

[0154] S20: The access point transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode.

[0155] In particular, after transmitting downlink OFDMA data information to the terminal, the access point may further transmit a single ACK request frame or BA request frame to the terminal (referring to FIG. 4b, an example where the BA request frame is transmitted individually is used), where the ACK request frame or BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. Optionally, the ACK request frame or BA request frame may carry OFDMA physical layer signaling or may not carry OFDMA physical layer signaling. The terminal determines the subchannel on which the terminal transmits an ACK response or BA response to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling. When the ACK request frame or BA request frame does not carry OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal responds with an ACK response or BA response on the subchannel corresponding to each terminal when the access point transmits the downlink OFDMA data information, that is, the terminal may use the subchannel on which the terminal receives the downlink OFDMA data information as the subchannel on which the terminal responds with an ACK response or BA response.

[0156] The representation of the dedicated information bits may be to identify the ACK request frame or BA request frame as a frame type (i.e., a new frame type different from the conventional ACK request frame or BA request frame) used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. Another representation of the dedicated information bits may similarly be as follows. When the frame type of the ACK request frame or BA request frame has not been changed, the dedicated information bits are directly used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode.

[0157] In addition, similar to the OFDM preamble, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame can be transmitted only on the primary channel or can be transmitted on all sub-channels in a Duplicated Transmission mode.

[0158] S21: The access point receives the ACK response or the BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding sub-channel in the OFDMA mode.

[0159] In particular, after learning the sub-channel on which the terminal transmits the ACK response or the BA response to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits the ACK response or the BA response to the access point on the corresponding sub-channel in the OFDMA mode. That is, all terminals can transmit the ACK response or the BA response to the access point on their respective corresponding sub-channels at the same time, that is, the ACK responses or the BA responses of multiple terminals can be transmitted in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0160] Optionally, when the sub-channel of the terminal is a plurality of unit channels (such as a channel with a unit of 20 MHz), the terminal can transmit the ACK response or the BA response on these plurality of unit channels by a dual transmission method or can transmit the ACK response or the BA response by a non-dual transmission method.

[0161] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the subchannel on which the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point is indicated to the terminal by using the OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal transmits an ACK response or BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals for which the access point indicates the subchannel is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0162] Figure 5 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 7 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which an access point transmits multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) data information carrying OFDMA physical layer signaling to a terminal, and the OFDMA ACK request or OFDMA BA request is carried by the OFDMA physical layer signaling, whereby the terminal responds with an ACK response or BA response on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. As shown in Figure 5, the method includes the following.

[0163] S501: The access point transmits MU-MIMO data information to the terminal in the MU-MIMO mode, where the MU-MIMO data information carries OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0164] In particular, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carried by the aforementioned MU-MIMO data information includes an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. That is, the access point requests the terminal to respond with an ACK response or a BA response after the terminal obtains the corresponding MU-MIMO data information. The OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal while the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point.

[0165] S502: The access point receives an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0166] In particular, after determining the subchannel on which the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits the ACK response or the BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode. That is, all terminals can simultaneously transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on their respective corresponding subchannels. That is, the ACK responses or the BA responses of multiple terminals can be transmitted in parallel, and in that case, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0167] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point adds OFDMA physical layer signaling to the MU-MIMO data information transmitted to the terminal. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point and to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. Thereby, a plurality of terminals can simultaneously transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannels. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indication for more terminals when the terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicated by the access point for the subchannels is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of a plurality of terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0168] FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 8 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which the access point transmits MU-MIMO data information carrying OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal and transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal. Thereby, the terminal responds with an ACK response or a BA response on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. As shown in FIG. 6, the method includes the following.

[0169] S601: The access point transmits MU-MIMO data information to the terminal in the MU-MIMO mode. Here, the MU-MIMO data information carries OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0170] In particular, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point and to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal.

[0171] S602: The access point transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode.

[0172] In particular, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame transmitted by the access point to the terminal has the purpose of requiring the terminal to respond to the access point with an ACK response or a BA response in the OFDMA mode after the terminal obtains the corresponding MU-MIMO data information in order for the access point to learn whether the MU-MIMO data information has been successfully transmitted.

[0173] S603: The access point receives the ACK response or the BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0174] In particular, after determining the subchannel on which the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits the ACK response or the BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode. That is, all terminals can simultaneously transmit the ACK response or the BA response to the access point on their respective corresponding subchannels, that is, the ACK responses or the BA responses of multiple terminals can be transmitted in parallel, and in that case, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0175] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point adds OFDMA physical layer signaling to the MU-MIMO data information transmitted to the terminal. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point and to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. Thereby, a plurality of terminals can simultaneously transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannels. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indication for more terminals when the terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicated by the access point for the subchannels is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of a plurality of terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0176] FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 9 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which the access point transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame carrying OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, whereby the terminal responds with an ACK response or a BA response on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. As shown in FIG. 7, the method includes the following.

[0177] S701: The access point transmits MU-MIMO data information to the terminal in the MU-MIMO mode.

[0178] S702: The access point transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal. Here, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The ACK request frame or the BA request frame carries OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0179] In particular, the ACK request frame or BA request frame transmitted by the access point to the terminal is for the purpose of requiring the terminal to respond to the access point with an ACK response or BA response in the OFDMA mode after the terminal obtains the corresponding MU-MIMO data information, in order for the access point to learn whether the MU-MIMO data information has been successfully transmitted. The OFDMA physical layer signaling carried in the ACK request frame or BA request frame is used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal while the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point.

[0180] S703: The access point receives the ACK response or BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0181] In particular, after determining the subchannel on which the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits the ACK response or BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode. That is, all terminals can transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point simultaneously on their respective corresponding subchannels, that is, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals can be transmitted in parallel, and in that case, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0182] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point adds OFDMA physical layer signaling to the ACK request frame or BA request frame transmitted to the terminal. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point and to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. Thereby, a plurality of terminals can simultaneously transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannels. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal transmits the ACK response or BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicated by the access point for the subchannels is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of a plurality of terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0183] FIG. 8 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 10 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling carrying an OFDMA ACK request or OFDMA BA request to the terminal, whereby the terminal responds with an ACK response or BA response on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. As shown in FIG. 8, the method includes the following.

[0184] S801: The access point transmits orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0185] In particular, OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. That is, the access point requests the terminal to respond to the access point with an ACK response or a BA response after the terminal acquires the corresponding OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information, thereby learning whether the subsequent OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information has been successfully transmitted. The OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate the corresponding subchannel allocated to the terminal while the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point.

[0186] S802: The access point transmits OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information to the terminal on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode.

[0187] Optionally, the OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information may carry OFDMA physical layer signaling or may not carry OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0188] S803: The access point receives the ACK response or BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0189] In particular, after determining the subchannel on which the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits the ACK response or BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA or OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode (in this case, the access point needs to indicate not only the subchannel allocation in the OFDMA physical layer signaling but also the allocation status of the MU-MIMO spatio-temporal streams in each subchannel). That is, all terminals can simultaneously transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point on their respective corresponding subchannels, that is, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals can be transmitted in parallel, and in that case, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0190] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point transmits the OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, where the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point and to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal, whereby multiple terminals can simultaneously transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannels, that is, the method by which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal transmits the ACK response or BA response to the access point, that is, the number of terminals to which the access point indicates the subchannel is not limited, and therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0191] Figure 9 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 11 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which an access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling and an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to a terminal, whereby the terminal responds with an ACK response or a BA response on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. As shown in Figure 9, the method includes the following.

[0192] S901: The access point transmits orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0193] In particular, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to the terminal the corresponding subchannel allocated to the terminal while an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point.

[0194] S902: The access point transmits OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information to the terminal on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode.

[0195] Optionally, the OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information may carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling or may not carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0196] S903: The access point transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode.

[0197] Optionally, an ACK request frame or a BA request frame may or may not carry OFDMA physical layer signaling. Further, optionally, when the aforementioned OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information carries OFDMA physical layer signaling, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame may not carry OFDMA physical layer signaling, or when the aforementioned OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information does not carry OFDMA physical layer signaling, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame may carry OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0198] S904: The access point receives an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on a corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0199] In particular, after determining the subchannel on which an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal determines to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on a corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA or OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode according to dedicated information bits in the ACK request frame or the BA request frame. That is, all terminals can transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on their respective corresponding subchannels simultaneously, that is, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals can be transmitted in parallel, and in that case, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0200] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point and to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. Thereby, a plurality of terminals can simultaneously transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannels. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indication for more terminals when the terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals for which the access point indicates subchannels is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of a plurality of terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0201] FIG. 10 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 12 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method of this embodiment involves the process of transmitting uplink OFDMA data information started by the terminal. This method particularly includes the following steps.

[0202] S1001: The access point receives an uplink transmission frame transmitted by the terminal.

[0203] Particularly, the method related to this embodiment is the aforementioned process of transmitting uplink OFDMA data information started by the STA, and the uplink transmission frame carries an OFDMA data transmission request.

[0204] The terminal may well be one that transmits an uplink transmission frame in the OFDM mode, where the uplink transmission frame may be of any particular type. The terminal can add an OFDMA data transmission request to the uplink transmission frame, where the OFDMA data transmission request is used to request the access point to complete subsequent data transmission in the OFDMA mode.

[0205] After receiving the terminal's uplink transmission frame, the access point determines whether to switch the terminal to the OFDMA mode to execute the transmission according to the terminal's OFDMA data transmission request or the current network situation, for example, whether there is a request from another terminal at the access point. If the access point determines that the terminal needs to be switched to the OFDMA mode, the access point uses the OFDMA mode in subsequent data transmission, or if the access point's determination result is that the terminal cannot be switched to the OFDMA mode, the access point continues to perform data transmission in the OFDM mode.

[0206] S1002: The access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0207] In particular, when the access point determines that the terminal needs to be switched to the OFDMA mode according to the OFDMA data transmission request or the current network situation and performs data transmission in the OFDMA mode, the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, where the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to instruct the terminal to transmit uplink OFDMA data information on each corresponding subchannel.

[0208] OFDMA physical layer signaling can be carried by the OFDM preamble in the foregoing embodiments, or can be carried by the NDPA frame, or it should be noted that the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble can cooperate with each other to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling. For a specific process, reference may be made to the foregoing embodiments, and the details will not be described again here. Appropriately, an example where the OFDMA physical layer signaling is carried by the OFDM preamble is used (see the example in FIG. 10a), and the OFDM preamble part can be transmitted only on the primary channel or can be transmitted on a plurality of subchannels (including the primary channel), and reference is made to the example in FIG. 10b.

[0209] Appropriately, after S1002, the access point may further transmit the downlink OFDMA data information of the terminal on each subchannel corresponding to the foregoing terminal. For the downlink OFDMA data transmission process, reference may be made to the foregoing embodiments, and the details will not be described again here.

[0210] By using the subchannels indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal learns the subchannels on which the terminal transmits the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point, that is, the signaling indication that occurs when the access point additionally instructs the terminal to transmit the uplink OFDMA data information is avoided, and the system efficiency is improved.

[0211] S1003: The access point receives the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0212] In particular, after determining the subchannel on which the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on that subchannel.

[0213] Optionally, after S1002, when the access point further transmits downlink OFDMA data information to the terminal, the terminal receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the corresponding subchannel, and after waiting for a fixed period of time, the terminal transmits the uplink OFDMA data information associated with the terminal on the subchannel.

[0214] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal transmits an uplink transmission frame to the access point, whereby the access point uses OFDMA physical layer signaling to indicate to each terminal the subchannel on which the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted. Thus, each terminal can transmit data to the access point on the corresponding subchannel. That is, the subchannel is allocated to the terminal in a manner in which the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling, whereby when the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point, the access point can perform indication for more terminals, and the signaling indication that occurs when the access point additionally instructs the terminal to transmit the uplink OFDMA data information is avoided, and the system efficiency is improved.

[0215] Furthermore, the method according to this embodiment is directed to the process in which, after receiving the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal in the foregoing scenario shown in FIG. 10 in which the terminal transmits the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point, the access point transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the terminal on the corresponding subchannel. Further, after S1003, the method further includes the following.

[0216] S1004: The access point transmits an ACK response or a BA response corresponding to the uplink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0217] In particular, the terminal transmits uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal, where the uplink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request instructs the access point to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the terminal in the OFDMA mode, that is, it is used to make the access point feedback the transmission status of the uplink OFDMA data information to the terminal.

[0218] The access point is the entity that transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling. Therefore, the access point can directly transmit an ACK response or a BA response of the uplink OFDMA data information associated with the terminal to the terminal on the corresponding subchannel, whereby the terminal learns whether the uplink OFDMA data has been successfully transmitted.

[0219] It should be noted that the frame format and indication method in Embodiment 1 to Embodiment 3 are similarly applicable when the access point responds to the terminal by an ACK or a BA response in parallel in the OFDMA mode for uplink multi-user transmission data (uplink OFDMA data information or uplink MU-MIMO data information).

[0220] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, an ACK request or a BA request is carried by uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by a terminal to an access point, whereby the access point can transmit an ACK response or a BA response corresponding to the uplink OFDMA data information to the terminal on a corresponding subchannel. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal transmits uplink OFDMA data to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicating the subchannel by the access point is not limited. Therefore, the terminal can learn whether the uplink OFDMA data has been successfully transmitted according to the ACK response or BA response transmitted by the access point.

[0221] FIG. 11 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 13 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method of this embodiment involves a process of transmitting uplink OFDMA data information started by an access point. This method particularly includes the following steps.

[0222] S1101: The access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0223] In particular, the OFDMA physical layer signaling can be carried by the OFDM preamble in the foregoing embodiment, or can be carried by the NDPA frame, or the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble can cooperate with each other to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling. For a specific process, reference may be made to the foregoing embodiment, and details are not described again here.

[0224] OFDMA physical layer signaling is used specifically to support terminals and indicate to the terminals the subchannels allocated to them when uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. Optionally, in all embodiments of the present invention, OFDMA physical layer signaling may include information bits used to indicate to the terminals whether the subchannel allocation is used for the uplink, or only for the downlink, or for both the uplink and the downlink. In this embodiment, the information bits in the OFDMA physical layer signaling indicate to the terminals that the subchannel is a subchannel used for uplink transmission. When the access point acquires the channel usage right, the terminal is instructed to transmit the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on the corresponding subchannel by using the distributed OFDMA physical layer signaling. An example where the OFDMA physical layer signaling is carried by an OFDM preamble is used, and the OFDM part can be transmitted on a plurality of subchannels (see 11a), or only on the primary channel (see 11b).

[0225] S1102: The access point receives the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0226] Specifically, after determining the subchannel on which the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on that subchannel. Thus, the access point can receive multiple fragments of the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0227] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point uses OFDMA physical layer signaling to indicate to the terminal the subchannel on which the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted. As a result, each terminal can transmit uplink data to the access point on the corresponding subchannel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized. Further, the subchannels are allocated to each terminal in a manner that the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling. As a result, when a terminal transmits uplink OFDMA data to the access point, the access point can perform indications for more terminals, that is, the number of terminals to which the access point indicates the subchannels is not limited.

[0228] FIG. 12 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 14 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 12, the method includes the following.

[0229] S1201: The terminal receives the OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated by the access point to the terminal. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal.

[0230] In particular, the terminal receives the OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point in the OFDM mode. Here, the OFDM mode in this specification refers to a mode in which the access point can transmit the OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminals within the coverage area of the access point, but another terminal within the coverage area of the access point can also obtain the OFDMA physical layer signaling and listen to correctly demodulate it. The OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention includes the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal.

[0231] The channel bandwidth of the subchannel is not limited in the present invention, and the access point determines the bandwidth of the subchannel according to the bandwidth requirement conditions of the terminal. Furthermore, the subchannels shown may be presented in a plurality of forms, which may be the center frequency and bandwidth of the subchannel, or the number of channels and bandwidth of the start frequency band, or the range of the number of channels from the start frequency band to the end frequency band, which is not limited in the present invention.

[0232] S1202: The terminal determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0233] In particular, each terminal can determine the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the content included in the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and execute the corresponding operation on the corresponding subchannel. For example, on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the terminal can receive the data that belongs to the terminal and is transmitted by the access point, or transmit the corresponding response information or uplink data information to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal. The identifier of the terminal in the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling may be the identifier of a single terminal or the identifier of a terminal group, and the terminal group may include a plurality of terminals.

[0234] The subchannel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling related to this embodiment for the terminal may correspond to one terminal or a plurality of terminals. For example, a plurality of terminals may be grouped into one group, and the OFDMA physical layer signaling allocates the subchannel to this group. In that case, all terminals in the group can use the subchannel.

[0235] In the prior art, the format of the signaling part can only support a bandwidth of 20 MHz. When a user is allocated to each sub - carrier among 48 sub - carriers and a bandwidth larger than 20 MHz can be used, the prior art does not have a corresponding extension solution to support that bandwidth. However, the OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention can support a larger bandwidth, and for a large number of terminals, it can allocate and indicate the sub - channels allocated to multiple terminals, where a sub - channel includes one or more sub - carriers. Therefore, the subject matter of this embodiment of the present invention is different from that of the prior art (in the prior art, the subject matter is to allocate users to sub - carriers, and in this embodiment of the present invention, the subject matter is to allocate sub - channels or sub - carriers to users). Due to the limitation of sub - carriers in the prior art, it can only perform indication for 48 terminals. Indicating sub - channels to terminals by OFDMA physical layer signaling is not limited by bandwidth, and sub - channels can be allocated to more terminals (more users than 48) in a larger bandwidth. Certainly, this embodiment of the present invention can also allocate sub - channels to a quantity of terminals less than 48.

[0236] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, a terminal receives the OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by an access point, and determines the sub - channel corresponding to the terminal, and thereby executes the corresponding operation on the corresponding sub - channel. That is, the method by which the access point allocates sub - channels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to indicate sub - channels to more terminals, that is, the number of terminals to which the access point indicates sub - channels is not limited.

[0237] FIG. 13 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 15 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a feasible implementation manner in which the subchannel is indicated to the terminal by using OFDMA physical layer signaling. Further, based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 12, the identifier of the terminal may be the identifier of one or more terminal groups, each terminal group includes at least one terminal, and the subchannel information includes an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel. The method includes the following.

[0238] S1301: The terminal receives the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of the terminal, where the mapping relationship is transmitted by the access point.

[0239] In particular, the terminal needs to know the terminal group to which it belongs. In that case, the terminal can know the subchannel corresponding to it only when the access point allocates a subchannel to the terminal group. Therefore, the access point needs to send the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of the terminal to each terminal, so that each terminal learns the terminal group in which it is located. For a simple way in which the terminal is notified of the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of each terminal in the form of a grouping management frame, reference may be made to the format of Table 1 and the related description, and the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0240] S1302: The terminal receives the OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point, where the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal, and the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to each terminal group that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel.

[0241] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling may indicate to the terminal that the subchannel allocated to the terminal is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel by using dedicated indication bits. That is, the OFDMA physical layer signaling can not only indicate the allocated subchannels for a terminal group, but also indicate to the terminal group that the allocated subchannels are uplink subchannels or downlink subchannels or uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannels.

[0242] In particular, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of one or more terminal groups, and the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate the subchannels allocated to each terminal group to one or more terminal groups, where the terminal groups and the subchannels are in a one-to-one correspondence.

[0243] Regarding the relevant fields included in the indication of the OFDMA physical layer signaling, reference may be made to the formats and relevant descriptions shown in Table 2 and Table 3, and the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0244] S1303: The terminal determines, according to the mapping relationship, that the terminal is arranged within a terminal group. In that case, the terminal determines that the subchannel corresponding to the terminal group is the subchannel corresponding to the terminal.

[0245] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point transmits to the terminal an OFDMA physical layer signaling that carries and includes the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal. The access point further transmits to each terminal the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of each terminal, whereby each terminal learns the terminal group in which it is located and further learns the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, and thereby executes the corresponding operation on that subchannel. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to indicate subchannels to more terminals. That is, the number of terminals to which the access point indicates subchannels is not limited.

[0246] Embodiment 16 of the present invention provides a data transmission indication method. This method related to this embodiment is another realizable implementation manner for the access point to indicate subchannels to the terminal by using OFDMA physical layer signaling. Based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 12, the OFDMA physical layer signaling may well include the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal. The identifier of the terminal is the identifier of a single terminal group. The terminal group includes at least two terminals. And the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to each terminal in the terminal group that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel.

[0247] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling may indicate, by using dedicated indication bits, that the subchannels allocated to the terminals are uplink subchannels or downlink subchannels or uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannels. The terminals and subchannels within a terminal group have a one-to-one correspondence. That is, the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling can not only indicate the allocated subchannels for each terminal within the terminal group, but also indicate to each terminal within the terminal group that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel.

[0248] In particular, with respect to the relevant fields included in the indication of the OFDMA physical layer signaling, reference may be made to the format shown in Table 4 and the relevant explanations, and the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0249] Each terminal within the aforementioned terminal group in Table 4 corresponds to a different subchannel, and since the OFDMA physical layer signaling can support a larger bandwidth (not limited to a 20 MHz bandwidth), the subchannels can be indicated to more terminals.

[0250] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, a terminal receives the OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by an access point, and learns the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, whereby the terminal can perform corresponding operations on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to indicate subchannels to more terminals, that is, the number of terminals to which the access point indicates subchannels is not limited.

[0251] Figure 14 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 17 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which a terminal receives OFDMA physical layer signaling carried by an OFDM preamble, learns a subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and receives downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by an access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal. The method includes the following.

[0252] S1401: The terminal receives an OFDM preamble transmitted by an access point, where the OFDM preamble carries OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0253] S1402: The terminal determines a subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0254] In particular, the terminal receives an OFDM preamble transmitted by an access point in the OFDM mode, where the OFDM mode in this specification refers to a mode in which the access point transmits the OFDM preamble to any terminal within the coverage area of the access point. The OFDM preamble includes an STF, an LTF, an L-SIG, and a UHT-SIG-A, where the UHT-SIG-A carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The access point transmitting the OFDM preamble in the OFDM mode means that the access point transmits the OFDM preamble to the terminal, but in this case, the access point does not know the specific terminal to which the OFDM preamble is transmitted. Therefore, the access point transmits the OFDM preamble to any terminal, and all active terminals listen to and receive the OFDM preamble, and in that case, obtain the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and thereby learn the channel corresponding to the terminal.

[0255] Regarding the content included in the OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the descriptions in Embodiments 14 to 16, and it should be noted that the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0256] S1403: The terminal receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the corresponding subchannel. Here, the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble includes a switching field and UHT-SIG-B.

[0257] In particular, the access point transmits the downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode, that is, the access point can simultaneously transmit the downlink OFDMA data information to a plurality of terminals on each subchannel corresponding to the terminal. Therefore, the signaling overhead can be reduced, and a multi-user diversity gain can be obtained. In addition, the subchannel corresponding to the terminal may further include the primary channel of the BSS. Here, the primary channel is used by the access point and the terminal to exchange control signaling and management signaling. That is, after completely transmitting the OFDMA physical layer signaling on the primary channel, the access point can release the primary channel or transmit the downlink OFDMA data information to the terminal by using the primary channel together with another subchannel.

[0258] Regarding the data transmission frame format of the OFDM preamble and the downlink OFDMA data information, reference may be made to the format shown in Table 5 and the related descriptions, and the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0259] In addition, the access point needs to allocate sub-channels to the terminal group. In fact, it also allocates sub-channels to each terminal. However, the data transmitted by the access point each time is sent to a specific terminal within the terminal group. Therefore, the terminal needs to learn the actual terminal addresses of the terminals within the terminal group. Therefore, the access point further needs to add a specific destination terminal address to the UHT-SIG-B or Media Access Control (hereinafter abbreviated as MAC) layer header transmitted on each sub-channel. Here, the destination terminal address is the address of an element within the terminal group indicated by the group number in Table 1 to Table 4, and the terminal reads the destination terminal address within the UHT-SIG-B or MAC layer header.

[0260] Correspondingly, after determining the OFDM preamble received in the OFDM mode, the terminal reads the OFDMA physical layer signaling of UHT-SIG-A, and determines whether the terminal is within the terminal group indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling according to the address of the terminal. If the terminal is within the terminal group, the terminal is switched to the OFDMA mode, further switched to the sub-channel indicated according to the sub-channel information corresponding to the terminal group, receives the OFDMA preamble, and determines whether the terminal is the destination terminal according to the destination terminal address carried in the received UHT-SIG-B or MAC layer header. If so, the terminal reads the subsequent OFDMA data, or otherwise, the terminal stops reading. If it is determined that the terminal is not within the terminal group, the terminal can choose not to be switched to the OFDMA mode and continue to obtain the OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data in the OFDM mode.

[0261] In the foregoing steps, regardless of whether the terminal is a destination terminal or not, the terminal can read the time duration within the data frame format (i.e., including OFDM preamble, OFDMA preamble, and OFDMA data), and determine the time required for transmission. The non-destination terminal sets the terminal's Network Allocation Vector (NAV) according to the time duration. For the time duration of the NAV, the non-destination terminal may choose not to listen to any subchannel again in order to reduce the power loss of the terminal. In addition, the non-destination terminal can similarly set the NAV according to the length of the L-SIG, where the length may represent the total length of a plurality of data frames and is used by the terminal to calculate the time occupied by the total length.

[0262] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal receives an OFDM preamble carrying OFDMA physical layer signaling, and obtains the OFDMA physical layer signaling from the OFDM preamble, whereby, according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal learns the subchannel on which the downlink OFDMA data information corresponding to the terminal should be received. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform more indications for more terminals when the terminal receives the data of the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicating the subchannel by the access point is not limited.

[0263] FIG. 15 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 18 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which the terminal obtains the OFDMA physical layer signaling carried in the NDPA frame, learns the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal. The method includes the following.

[0264] S1501: The terminal receives the NDPA frame transmitted by the access point, where the NDPA frame carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0265] In particular, the exclusive NDPA frame is used to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention, and is used to reduce the overhead incurred when the OFDMA physical layer signaling is transmitted. Regarding the format of the NDPA frame in this embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to Table 6, and the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0266] The access point may be configured to transmit the NDPA frame within the coverage area of the access point to the terminals in the OFDM mode, and may transmit the NDPA frame on the primary channel or may transmit the NDPA frame on a plurality of subchannels. It should be noted that all other terminals may listen to obtain the NDPA frame. In that case, the access point may further need to transmit an OFDM preamble in the OFDM mode. The aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling may be carried by the NDPA frame or may be carried by both the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble. However, generally, it is carried only by the NDPA frame to reduce the signaling overhead. Optionally, when the NDPA frame carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the OFDM preamble may further indicate a specific terminal identifier within the terminal group.

[0267] S1502: The terminal determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0268] Regarding the content included in the OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the descriptions in Embodiments 14 to 16, and it should be noted that the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0269] S1503: The terminal receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the corresponding subchannel. Here, the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble includes a switching field and UHT-SIG-B.

[0270] In particular, the access point transmits the downlink OFDMA data information in the OFDMA mode, that is, the access point can simultaneously transmit the downlink OFDMA data information to a plurality of terminals on the respective subchannels corresponding to the terminals. Therefore, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized. In addition, the subchannel corresponding to the terminal may further include the primary channel of the BSS. Here, the primary channel is used by the access point and the terminal to exchange control signaling and management signaling. That is, after completely transmitting the OFDMA physical layer signaling on the primary channel, the access point can release the primary channel or transmit the downlink OFDMA data information to the terminal by using the primary channel together with another subchannel.

[0271] The terminal detects and receives the NDPA frame in the OFDM mode in the idle state, reads the OFDMA physical layer signaling in the OFDM mode, and in that case, the terminal also receives the OFDM preamble in the OFDM mode. Regarding the data transmission frame format of the OFDM preamble and the downlink OFDMA data information, reference may be made to the format shown in Table 5 and the related descriptions, and the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0272] In addition, the access point needs to allocate sub-channels to the terminal group. In fact, it also allocates sub-channels to each terminal. However, the data transmitted by the access point each time is transmitted to a specific terminal within the terminal group. Therefore, the terminal needs to learn the actual terminal addresses of the terminals within the terminal group. Therefore, the access point further needs to add a specific destination terminal address to the UHT-SIG-B or MAC layer header transmitted on each sub-channel. Here, the destination terminal address is the address of an element within the terminal group indicated by the group number in Tables 1 to 4, and the terminal reads the destination terminal address within the UHT-SIG-B or MAC layer header.

[0273] Correspondingly, after determining the OFDM preamble received in the OFDM mode, the terminal determines whether the terminal is within the terminal group indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling according to the address of the terminal. If the terminal is within the terminal group, the terminal is switched to the OFDMA mode, further switched to the sub-channel indicated according to the sub-channel information corresponding to the terminal group, further receives the OFDMA preamble, and determines whether the terminal is the destination terminal according to the destination terminal address carried in the received UHT-SIG-B or MAC layer header. If so, the terminal then reads the subsequent OFDMA data, or otherwise, the terminal stops reading. If it is determined that the terminal is not within the terminal group, the terminal can choose not to be switched to the OFDMA mode and continue to obtain the OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data in the OFDM mode.

[0274] In the foregoing steps, regardless of whether the terminal is a destination terminal or not, the terminal can read the time duration within the data frame format (i.e., including the OFDM preamble, OFDMA preamble, and OFDMA data) and determine the time required for transmission. The non-destination terminal sets the NAV of the terminal according to the time duration. In terms of the time duration of the NAV, the non-destination terminal may choose not to listen to any subchannel again in order to reduce the power loss of the terminal. In addition, the non-destination terminal can similarly set the NAV according to the length of the L-SIG, where the length may indicate the total length of a plurality of data frames and is used by the terminal to calculate the time occupied by the total length.

[0275] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal carries OFDMA physical layer signaling and receives an NDPA frame transmitted by an access point. Thereby, the terminal obtains the OFDMA physical layer signaling from the NDPA frame. Thereby, according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, it is good that the terminal learns the subchannel on which the downlink OFDMA data information corresponding to the terminal should be received. Thereby, on the corresponding subchannel, the terminal receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform more indications for a larger number of terminals when the terminal receives the data of the access point. That is, the number of terminals for which the access point indicates the subchannel is not limited.

[0276] FIG. 16 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 19 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which an access point transmits an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble that carry the contents included in the OFDMA physical layer signaling separately to a terminal, whereby the terminal obtains the OFDMA physical layer signaling from the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble, and thus the terminal learns the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal. The method includes the following.

[0277] S1601: The terminal receives the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble transmitted by the access point.

[0278] In particular, the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble can carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling in two cooperation methods. These methods are independent as follows.

[0279] The first method: The terminal receives the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble transmitted by the access point, where the NDPA frame carries the identifier of the terminal in the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries the subchannel information within the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling. The identifier of the terminal in this specification may be the identifier of one or more terminal groups in Embodiment 2, the subchannel and the terminal group have a one-to-one correspondence, and may further be the identifier of a single terminal group in Embodiment 3, and the subchannel and the terminals within the group have a one-to-one correspondence.

[0280] Second method: The terminal receives the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble transmitted by the access point. Here, the NDPA frame corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries the subchannel information within the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble carries the identifier of the terminal in the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling. The identifier of the terminal in this specification may be the identifier of one or more terminal groups in Embodiment 2, and there is a one-to-one correspondence between the subchannel and the terminal group. Furthermore, in Embodiment 3, it may be the identifier of a single terminal group, and there is a one-to-one correspondence between the subchannel and the terminals within the group.

[0281] That is, the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble can cooperate with each other to indicate the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The user group information field in Table 5 may include the identifier of the terminal and may further include the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal. In addition, the control information field of Table 5 may further indicate the length of the effective time of the subchannel information of the currently indicated terminal or terminal group, so that the terminal can determine whether the indication of the subchannel information of the terminal or terminal group is effective or expired according to the length of time. If it is not expired, the terminal can continue to receive and transmit data using the current subchannel.

[0282] When the NDPA frame carries only the identifier of the terminal, the OFDM preamble needs to correspond to the identifier of the terminal and further carry the subchannel information within the NDPA frame, or when the NDPA frame carries only the subchannel information, the OFDM preamble needs to correspond to the subchannel information and further carry the identifier of the terminal within the NDPA frame.

[0283] S1602: The terminal determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0284] Regarding the content included in the OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the descriptions in Embodiments 14 to 16, and it should be noted that the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0285] S1603: The terminal receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the corresponding subchannel. Here, the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble includes a switching field and UHT-SIG-B.

[0286] In particular, the access point transmits the downlink OFDMA data information in the OFDMA mode, that is, the access point can simultaneously transmit the downlink OFDMA data information to a plurality of terminals on the respective subchannels corresponding to the terminals. Therefore, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized. In addition, the subchannel corresponding to the terminal may further include the primary channel of the BSS. Here, the primary channel is used by the access point and the terminal to exchange control signaling and management signaling. That is, after completely transmitting the OFDMA physical layer signaling on the primary channel, the access point can release the primary channel or transmit the downlink OFDMA data information to the terminal by using the primary channel together with another subchannel.

[0287] The terminal detects and receives the NDPA frame in the OFDM method in the idle state, reads a part of the OFDMA physical layer signaling carried in the NDPA frame. In that case, the terminal also receives the OFDM preamble in the OFDM mode, and then supplements the OFDMA physical layer signaling and reads that part of the content in the OFDM preamble.

[0288] Regarding the data transmission frame format of the OFDM preamble and downlink OFDMA data information, reference may be made to the format shown in Table 5 and the related explanations, and the details will not be re-explained here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0289] In addition, the access point needs to allocate subchannels to the terminal group. In fact, it also allocates subchannels to each terminal. However, the data transmitted by the access point each time is transmitted to a specific terminal within the terminal group. Therefore, the terminal needs to learn the actual terminal addresses of the terminals within the terminal group. Therefore, the access point further needs to add a specific destination terminal address to the UHT-SIG-B or MAC layer header transmitted on each subchannel. Here, the destination terminal address is the address of an element within the terminal group indicated by the group number in Tables 1 to 4, and the terminal reads the destination terminal address within the UHT-SIG-B or MAC layer header.

[0290] Correspondingly, after determining the OFDM preamble received in the OFDM mode, the terminal determines whether the terminal is within the terminal group indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling according to the address of the terminal. If the terminal is within the terminal group, the terminal is switched to the OFDMA mode, further switched to the subchannel indicated according to the subchannel information corresponding to the terminal group, receives the OFDMA preamble, and determines whether the terminal is the destination terminal according to the destination terminal address carried in the received UHT-SIG-B or MAC layer header. If so, the terminal then reads the subsequent OFDMA data, or if not, the terminal stops reading. If it is determined that the terminal is not within the terminal group, the terminal selects not to be switched to the OFDMA mode and can continue to obtain the OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data in the OFDM mode.

[0291] In the foregoing steps, regardless of whether the terminal is a destination terminal or not, the terminal can read the time duration within the data frame format (i.e., including the OFDM preamble, the OFDMA preamble, and the OFDMA data), and determine the time required for transmission. The non-destination terminal sets the NAV of the terminal according to the time duration. For the time duration of the NAV, the non-destination terminal may choose not to listen to any subchannel again in order to reduce the power loss of the terminal. In addition, the non-destination terminal can also set the NAV according to the length of the L-SIG, where the length may indicate the total length of a plurality of data frames and is used by the terminal to calculate the time occupied by the total length.

[0292] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling, receives the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble transmitted by the access point, and learns the subchannel on which the terminal should receive the downlink OFDMA data information corresponding to the terminal by using the OFDMA physical layer signaling in the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble, thereby receiving the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform more indications for a larger number of terminals when the terminal receives the data of the access point. That is, the number of terminals for which the access point indicates the subchannels is not limited.

[0293] Furthermore, based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. 14 to 16, as a feasible implementation method of the embodiments of the present invention, the method related to this implementation is a process in which, after receiving the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point, the terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel. Appropriately, the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling or OFDMA data carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal while an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point. That is, after S1403 or S1503 or S1603, the operation of S20 may be executed.

[0294] S30: The terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0295] In particular, in order to indicate that the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point has been correctly received by each terminal, each terminal needs to respond to the access point by means of an ACK response or a BA response. When the access point adds an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request to the downlink OFDMA data information or the OFDMA physical layer signaling, after receiving the downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the indication of the OFDMA physical layer signaling of the access point, the terminal can directly respond by means of an ACK or BA response in the OFDMA mode on the subchannel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The ACK response corresponds to the OFDMA ACK request, and the BA response corresponds to the OFDMA BA request. In that case, the access point receives the ACK response or the BA response transmitted by the terminal on each corresponding subchannel. That is, it is enabled for a plurality of terminals to simultaneously transmit responses to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0296] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and a plurality of terminals can simultaneously transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicated by the access point for the subchannel is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of a plurality of terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0297] Furthermore, based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. 14 to 16, as another realizable implementation method of the embodiments of the present invention, in this embodiment, the method related to this embodiment is a process in which, after receiving OFDMA physical layer signaling and downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by an access point, the terminal receives a single ACK request frame or BA request frame transmitted by the access point, whereby the terminal can transmit an ACK response or BA response to the access point on the subchannel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The foregoing OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and may be further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point. After S202 or S302 or S402, the following steps may be executed.

[0298] S40: The terminal receives an ACK request frame or a BA request frame transmitted by the access point, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode.

[0299] In particular, after transmitting downlink OFDMA data information to the terminal, the access point may further transmit a single ACK request frame or BA request frame to the terminal (referring to FIG. 4b, an example where the BA request frame is transmitted individually is used), where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. Appropriately, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame may carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling or may not carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The terminal determines the subchannel on which the terminal transmits the ACK response or BA response to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0300] The representation of the dedicated information bit may be identified as a frame type (i.e., a new frame type different from the conventional ACK request frame or BA request frame) used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode for an ACK request frame or a BA request frame. Another representation of the dedicated information bit may similarly be as follows. When the frame type of the ACK request frame or the BA request frame has not been changed, the dedicated information bit is directly used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode.

[0301] In addition, similar to the OFDM preamble, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame may be transmitted only on the primary channel or may be transmitted on all sub-channels in a Duplicated Transmission manner.

[0302] S21: The terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding sub-channel in the OFDMA mode.

[0303] In particular, after learning the sub-channel on which the terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding sub-channel in the OFDMA mode. That is, all terminals can transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on their respective corresponding sub-channels at the same time. That is, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals can be transmitted in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0304] Optionally, when the sub-channel of the terminal is a plurality of unit channels (such as a channel with a unit of 20 MHz), the terminal may transmit an ACK response or a BA response on these plurality of unit channels by a dual transmission method or may transmit an ACK response or a BA response by a non-dual transmission method.

[0305] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal receives the OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point, and determines, according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the subchannel on which the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal transmits an ACK response or BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicating the subchannel by the access point is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0306] FIG. 17 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 20 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which the access point transmits MU-MIMO data information carrying OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal and adds an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, whereby the terminal responds with an ACK response or a BA response on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. As shown in FIG. 17, the method includes the following.

[0307] S1701: The terminal receives the MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point, where the MU-MIMO data information carries OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0308] In particular, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carried by the aforementioned MU-MIMO data information further includes an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, which is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. That is, the access point requests the terminal to respond with an ACK response or a BA response after the terminal acquires the corresponding MU-MIMO data information. The OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate the subchannels allocated to the terminal while the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point.

[0309] S1702: The terminal determines the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0310] Regarding the content included in the OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the descriptions in Embodiments 14 to 16, and it should be noted that the details will not be described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0311] S1703: The terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannels in the OFDMA mode.

[0312] In particular, after determining the subchannels on which the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits the ACK response or the BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannels in the OFDMA mode. That is, all terminals can simultaneously transmit the ACK response or the BA response to the access point on their respective corresponding subchannels. That is, the ACK responses or the BA responses of multiple terminals can be transmitted in parallel, and in that case, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0313] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal carries OFDMA physical layer signaling, receives MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point, and determines, according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the subchannel on which the terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point. Thereby, a plurality of terminals can simultaneously transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicating the subchannel by the access point is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of a plurality of terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0314] FIG. 18 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 21 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which the access point transmits MU-MIMO data information carrying OFDMA physical layer signaling, and an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, whereby the terminal responds with an ACK response or a BA response on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. As shown in FIG. 18, the method includes the following.

[0315] S1801: The terminal receives the MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point, where the MU-MIMO data information carries OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0316] In particular, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal while an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point.

[0317] S1802: The terminal receives an ACK request frame or a BA request frame transmitted by the access point, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame contains dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode.

[0318] In particular, the terminal receives an ACK request frame or a BA request frame transmitted by the access point, that is, the access point requests the terminal to respond to the access point with an ACK response or a BA response in the OFDMA mode after the terminal obtains the corresponding MU-MIMO data information, thereby learning whether the MU-MIMO data information has been successfully transmitted.

[0319] S1803: The terminal determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0320] Regarding the content included in the OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the descriptions in Embodiments 14 to 16, and it should be noted that the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0321] S1804: The terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0322] In particular, after determining the subchannel on which the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode. That is, all terminals can simultaneously transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on their respective corresponding subchannels, that is, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals can be transmitted in parallel, and in that case, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0323] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal carries OFDMA physical layer signaling, receives MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point, and determines, according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the subchannel on which the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point. Thereby, a plurality of terminals can simultaneously transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal transmits the ACK response or BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicating the subchannel by the access point is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of a plurality of terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0324] FIG. 19 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 22 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which the access point transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame carrying OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, whereby the terminal responds with an ACK response or a BA response on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. As shown in FIG. 19, the method includes the following.

[0325] S1901: The terminal receives the MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point.

[0326] S1902: The terminal receives an ACK request frame or a BA request frame transmitted by the access point, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode, and the ACK request frame or the BA request frame carries OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0327] In particular, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame transmitted by the access point to the terminal requests the terminal to respond to the access point with an ACK response or a BA response after the access point obtains the MU-MIMO data information corresponding to the terminal, thereby learning whether the MU-MIMO data information has been successfully transmitted. The OFDMA physical layer signaling carried by the ACK request frame or the BA request frame is used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal while the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point.

[0328] S1903: The terminal determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0329] Regarding the content included in the OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the descriptions in Embodiments 14 to 16, and it should be noted that the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0330] S1904: The terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0331] In particular, after determining the subchannel on which the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits the ACK response or BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode. That is, all terminals can simultaneously transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point on their respective corresponding subchannels. That is, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals can be transmitted in parallel, and in that case, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0332] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling, receives the ACK request frame or BA request frame transmitted by the access point, and determines the subchannel on which the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling. Thereby, multiple terminals can simultaneously transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannels. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal transmits the ACK response or BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicated by the access point for the subchannel is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0333] FIG. 20 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 23 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling carrying an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request to the terminal, whereby the terminal responds with an ACK response or a BA response on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. As shown in FIG. 20, the method includes the following.

[0334] S2001: The terminal receives the OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point.

[0335] In particular, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. That is, after the terminal acquires the corresponding OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information, the access point requests the terminal to respond to the access point by an ACK response or a BA response, thereby learning whether the subsequent OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information has been successfully transmitted. The OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate the corresponding subchannel allocated to the terminal while an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point.

[0336] S2002: The terminal determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0337] Regarding the OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the descriptions in Embodiments 14 to 16, and it should be noted that the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0338] S2003: The terminal receives the OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point on the corresponding subchannel.

[0339] Optionally, the OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information may carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling or may not carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0340] S2004: The terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0341] In particular, after determining the subchannel on which the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits the ACK response or BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode. That is, all terminals can simultaneously transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point on their respective corresponding subchannels, that is, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals can be transmitted in parallel, and in that case, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0342] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal receives the OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point, and determines the subchannel on which the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, whereby multiple terminals can simultaneously transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannels. That is, the method of the access point allocating subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal transmits the ACK response or BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicated by the access point for the subchannel is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0343] FIG. 21 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 24 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method related to this embodiment is a process in which the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling and an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, whereby the terminal responds with an ACK response or a BA response on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. As shown in FIG. 21, the method includes the following.

[0344] S2101: The terminal receives the OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point.

[0345] In particular, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate the corresponding subchannel allocated to the terminal while an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point.

[0346] S2102: The terminal determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0347] Regarding the OFDMA physical layer signaling in this embodiment of the present invention, reference may be made to the descriptions in Embodiments 14 to 16, and it should be noted that the details are not described again here in this embodiment of the present invention.

[0348] S2103: The terminal receives the OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point on the corresponding subchannel.

[0349] Optionally, the OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information may carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling or may not carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0350] S2104: The access point transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode.

[0351] In particular, that is, the access point uses an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to require the terminal to respond to the access point with an ACK response or a BA response after the terminal obtains the corresponding MU-MIMO data information, thereby learning whether the subsequent OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information is successfully transmitted.

[0352] Optionally, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame can carry OFDMA physical layer signaling or cannot carry OFDMA physical layer signaling. Further, optionally, when the aforementioned OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information carries OFDMA physical layer signaling, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame cannot carry OFDMA physical layer signaling, or when the aforementioned OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information does not carry OFDMA physical layer signaling, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame can carry OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0353] S2105: The terminal transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0354] In particular, after determining the subchannel on which the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal determines to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode according to the dedicated information bits in the ACK request frame or the BA request frame. That is, all terminals can simultaneously transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on their respective corresponding subchannels, that is, the ACK responses or BA responses of multiple terminals can be transmitted in parallel, and in that case, the corresponding time-frequency resources can be fully utilized.

[0355] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal receives the OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point, and determines, according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the subchannel on which the ACK response or BA response is to be transmitted to the access point. Thereby, a plurality of terminals can simultaneously transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point on the corresponding subchannel. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indication for more terminals when the terminal transmits the ACK response or BA response to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicated by the access point for the subchannel is not limited. Therefore, the ACK responses or BA responses of a plurality of terminals are transmitted to the access point in parallel, and the corresponding time-frequency resources are fully utilized.

[0356] FIG. 22 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 25 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method of this embodiment involves the process of transmitting uplink OFDMA data information started by the terminal. This method particularly includes the following steps.

[0357] S2201: The terminal transmits an uplink transmission frame to the access point.

[0358] Particularly, the method related to this embodiment is the aforementioned process of transmitting uplink OFDMA data information started by the STA, and the uplink transmission frame carries an OFDMA data transmission request.

[0359] The terminal may well be one that transmits an uplink transmission frame in the OFDM mode, where the uplink transmission frame may be of any particular type. The terminal can add an OFDMA data transmission request to the uplink transmission frame, where the OFDMA data transmission request is used to request the access point to complete subsequent data transmission in the OFDMA mode.

[0360] After receiving the terminal's uplink transmission frame, the access point determines whether to switch the terminal to the OFDMA mode to execute the transmission according to the terminal's OFDMA data transmission request or the current network situation, for example, whether there is a request from another terminal at the access point. If the access point determines that the terminal needs to be switched to the OFDMA mode, the access point uses the OFDMA mode in subsequent data transmission, or if the access point's determination result is that the terminal cannot be switched to the OFDMA mode, the access point continues to perform data transmission in the OFDM mode.

[0361] S2202: The terminal receives the OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point.

[0362] In particular, when the access point determines that the terminal needs to be switched to the OFDMA mode according to the OFDMA data transmission request or the current network situation and performs data transmission in the OFDMA mode, the access point transmits the OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, where the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to instruct the terminal to transmit uplink OFDMA data information on each corresponding subchannel.

[0363] OFDMA physical layer signaling can be carried by the OFDM preamble in the foregoing embodiments, or can be carried by the NDPA frame, or it should be noted that the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble can cooperate with each other to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling. For a specific process, reference may be made to the foregoing embodiments, and the details will not be described again here.

[0364] Optionally, after S2202, the access point may further transmit the downlink OFDMA data information of the terminal on each subchannel corresponding to the foregoing terminal. For the downlink OFDMA data transmission process, reference may be made to the foregoing embodiments, and the details will not be described again here.

[0365] S2203: The terminal determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0366] In particular, the terminal learns the subchannel on which the terminal transmits the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point by using the subchannel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling, that is, the signaling indication that occurs when the access point additionally instructs the terminal to transmit the uplink OFDMA data information is avoided, and the system efficiency is improved.

[0367] S2204: The terminal transmits the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0368] After determining the subchannel on which the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on that subchannel.

[0369] When, after S2202, the access point further transmits downlink OFDMA data information to the terminal as appropriate, the terminal receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the corresponding subchannel, and after waiting for a fixed time period, the terminal transmits the uplink OFDMA data information associated with the terminal on the subchannel.

[0370] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the terminal transmits an uplink transmission frame to the access point, whereby the access point uses OFDMA physical layer signaling to indicate to each terminal the subchannel on which the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted. Thus, each terminal can transmit data to the access point on the corresponding subchannel. That is, the subchannel is allocated to the terminal in a manner in which the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling, whereby when the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point, the access point can perform indication for more terminals, and the signaling indication that occurs when the access point additionally instructs the terminal to transmit the uplink OFDMA data information is avoided, and the system efficiency is improved.

[0371] Furthermore, the method according to this embodiment is directed to the process in which, in the aforementioned scenario shown in FIG. 22 in which the terminal transmits uplink OFDMA data information to the access point, after transmitting the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point, the terminal receives an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the access point on the corresponding subchannel. Furthermore, after S2204, the method further includes the following.

[0372] S2205: The terminal receives, on the corresponding subchannel, an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the access point corresponding to the uplink OFDMA data information.

[0373] In particular, the terminal transmits uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal, where the uplink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request instructs the access point to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the terminal in the OFDMA mode, that is, it is used to make the access point feedback the transmission status of the uplink OFDMA data information to the terminal.

[0374] The access point is the entity that transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling. Therefore, the access point can directly transmit an ACK response or a BA response of the uplink OFDMA data information associated with the terminal to the terminal on the corresponding subchannel, whereby the terminal learns whether the uplink OFDMA data has been successfully transmitted.

[0375] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the ACK request or the BA request is carried by the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal to the access point, whereby the access point can transmit an ACK response or a BA response corresponding to the uplink OFDMA data information to the terminal on the corresponding subchannel. That is, the method in which the access point allocates subchannels to each terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to perform indications for more terminals when the terminal transmits uplink OFDMA data to the access point. That is, the number of terminals indicated by the access point for the subchannel is not limited. Therefore, the terminal can learn whether the uplink OFDMA data has been successfully transmitted according to the ACK response or the BA response transmitted by the access point.

[0376] Figure 23 is a schematic flowchart of Embodiment 26 of the data transmission indication method according to the present invention. The method of this embodiment involves a process of transmitting uplink OFDMA data information started by an access point. This method particularly includes the following steps.

[0377] S2301: The terminal receives OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point.

[0378] In particular, the OFDMA physical layer signaling can be carried by the OFDM preamble in the foregoing embodiment, or can be carried by the NDPA frame, or the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble can cooperate with each other to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling. For a specific process, reference may be made to the foregoing embodiment, and details will not be described again here.

[0379] The OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is particularly used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal when the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. Appropriately, in all embodiments of the present invention, the OFDMA physical layer signaling may include information bits used to indicate to the terminal whether the subchannel allocation is used for the uplink, or only for the downlink, or for both the uplink and the downlink. In this embodiment, the information bits in the OFDMA physical layer signaling indicate to the terminal that the subchannel is a subchannel used for uplink transmission. When the access point acquires the channel usage right, the terminal is instructed to transmit the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on the corresponding subchannel by using the distributed OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0380] S2302: The terminal determines the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0381] In particular, by using the subchannels indicated by OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal learns the subchannels on which the terminal transmits uplink OFDMA data information to the access point, that is, the signaling indication that occurs when the access point additionally instructs the terminal to transmit uplink OFDMA data information is avoided, and the system efficiency is improved.

[0382] S2303: The terminal transmits uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0383] In particular, after determining the subchannel on which the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the terminal transmits the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on that subchannel.

[0384] In the data transmission indication method provided in this embodiment of the present invention, the access point uses OFDMA physical layer signaling to indicate to the terminal the subchannel on which the uplink OFDMA data is transmitted, so that each terminal can transmit data to the access point on the corresponding subchannel. That is, the subchannels are allocated to each terminal in the way that the access point transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling, so that when the terminal transmits uplink OFDMA data to the access point, the access point can perform indications for more terminals, that is, the number of terminals for which the access point indicates the subchannels is not limited.

[0385] Those skilled in the art will understand that all or part of the steps of the foregoing method embodiments may be implemented by a program that instructs related hardware. The foregoing program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. When the program is executed, the foregoing steps included in the method embodiments are executed. The foregoing storage medium may be any medium capable of storing program code, such as ROM, RAM, magnetic disk, or optical disk.

[0386] Embodiment 1 of the access point of the present invention provides an access point, and the access point includes a transmission module 10 configured to transmit orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to a terminal. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal, whereby the terminal determines the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal.

[0387] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the foregoing data transmission indication method embodiment, and its implementation principle and technical effects are similar, and details will not be described again here.

[0388] Optionally, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of one or more terminal groups, each terminal group includes at least one terminal, the sub-channel information includes an uplink sub-channel or a downlink sub-channel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional sub-channel, and in that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the sub-channel allocated to the terminal includes, for each terminal group, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate that the allocated sub-channel is an uplink sub-channel or a downlink sub-channel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional sub-channel. Here, the terminal group and the sub-channel are in a one-to-one correspondence. In that case, the transmission module 10 is further configured to transmit to the terminal the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of the terminal before the OFDMA physical layer signaling is transmitted to the terminal, so that the terminal learns the terminal group in which the terminal is located.

[0389] Optionally, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of one terminal group, the terminal group includes at least two terminals, and in that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to each terminal in the terminal group that the allocated sub-channel is an uplink sub-channel or a downlink sub-channel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional sub-channel. Here, each terminal and the sub-channel in the terminal group are in a one-to-one correspondence.

[0390] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effect are similar and will not be described again here in detail.

[0391] Optionally, the transmission module 10 is specifically configured to transmit an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) preamble to the terminal, where the OFDM preamble is configured to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0392] Optionally, the transmission module 10 is further configured to transmit a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame to the terminal, where the NDPA frame carries the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0393] Optionally, the transmission module 10 is further configured to transmit an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble to the terminal, where the NDPA frame carries the identifier of the terminal in the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries the subchannel information within the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0394] Optionally, the transmission module 10 is further configured to transmit an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble to the terminal, where the NDPA frame corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries the subchannel information within the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble carries the identifier of the terminal in the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0395] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the aforementioned data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effects are similar, and the details will not be described again here.

[0396] FIG. 24 is a schematic structural diagram of Embodiment 2 of an access point according to the present invention. Further, based on Embodiment 1 of the foregoing apparatus, OFDMA physical layer signaling is specifically used to indicate to a terminal subchannels allocated to the terminal for receiving downlink OFDMA data information. In that case, after the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling is transmitted to the terminal, the transmission module 10 transmits downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. Here, the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble further includes a switching field and an ultra high throughput signaling B (UHT-SIG-B).

[0397] Further, the OFDMA physical layer signaling or the downlink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA acknowledgment (ACK) request or an OFDMA block acknowledgment (BA) request. The OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is further used to indicate the subchannels allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point.

[0398] In that case, based on Embodiment 1 of the foregoing apparatus, referring to FIG. 24, the access point further includes a receiving module 11 configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode after the transmission module 10 transmits downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0399] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the foregoing embodiment of the data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effects are similar, and details will not be described again here.

[0400] Continuing to refer to FIG. 24, based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 24, OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to a terminal, and an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point and used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal. In this case, after the downlink OFDMA data information is transmitted on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the transmission module 10 is further configured to transmit an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, and the reception module 11 is further configured to receive the ACK response or the BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0401] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the foregoing embodiment of the data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effects are similar, and details will not be described again here.

[0402] Continuing to refer to FIG. 24, based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 24, OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the transmission module 10 is specifically configured to transmit MU-MIMO data information to the terminal in the multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, where the MU-MIMO data information is configured to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The receiving module 11 is further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode after the transmission module 10 transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0403] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and will not be described again in detail here.

[0404] Continuing to refer to FIG. 24, based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 24, OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to a terminal, and an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to an access point, and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. In that case, the transmission module 10 transmits MU-MIMO data information to the terminal in the MU-MIMO mode, where the MU-MIMO data information carries OFDMA physical layer signaling, and transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode, and is thus specifically configured. The reception module 11 is further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode after the transmission module 10 transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0405] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effect are similar, and the details will not be described again here.

[0406] Continuing to refer to FIG. 24, based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 24, OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to a terminal, and while an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point, it is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. In that case, the transmission module 10 transmits MU-MIMO data information to the terminal in the MU-MIMO mode and transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal. Here, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The ACK request frame or the BA request frame is specifically configured to carry OFDMA physical layer signaling. The reception module 11 is further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode after the transmission module 10 transmits OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0407] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and will not be described again in detail here.

[0408] Continuing to refer to FIG. 24, based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 24, OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling is transmitted to the terminal, the transmission module 10 transmits OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information to the terminal on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode, and the receiving module 11 is further configured to receive the ACK response or the BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannels in the OFDMA mode.

[0409] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effect are similar, and details are not described again here.

[0410] Continuing to refer to FIG. 24, based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 24, OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to a terminal, and while an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point, it is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. In that case, after the transmission module 10 transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, it transmits OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information to the terminal on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode, and transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal. Here, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The receiving module 11 is further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannels in the OFDMA mode.

[0411] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effect are similar and will not be described in detail here again.

[0412] Continuing to refer to FIG. 24, based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 24, OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to a terminal, and while uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point, it is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. In that case, before the transmission module 10 transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the receiving module 11 receives the uplink transmission frame transmitted by the terminal, and after the transmission module 10 transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, it is further configured to receive the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannels in the OFDMA mode.

[0413] Furthermore, the uplink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is further used to instruct the access point to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. In that case, after the receiving module 10 receives the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel, the transmitting module 10 is further configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response corresponding to the uplink OFDMA data information to the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0414] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and will not be described again in detail here.

[0415] Continuing to refer to FIG. 24, based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 24, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the transmitting module 10 transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the receiving module 11 is further configured to receive the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode.

[0416] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and will not be described again in detail here.

[0417] FIG. 25 is a schematic structural diagram of Embodiment 1 of a terminal according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 25, the terminal includes a receiving module 20 and a determination module 21.

[0418] The receiving module 20 receives orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling transmitted by an access point, where the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to the terminal subchannels allocated by the access point to the terminal, and where the OFDMA physical layer signaling is configured to include an identifier of the terminal and subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal.

[0419] The determination module 21 is configured to determine a subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0420] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the foregoing embodiment of the data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effects are similar, and details are not described again here.

[0421] Optionally, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of one or more terminal groups, each terminal group includes at least one terminal, the subchannel information includes an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel, and in that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal includes, for each terminal group, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel. Here, the terminal group and the subchannel are in a one-to-one correspondence. In that case, before the receiving module 20 receives the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point, it receives the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of the terminal. Here, the mapping relationship is transmitted by the access point and is further configured in this way. In that case, the determination module 21 is specifically configured to determine, according to the mapping relationship, that the terminal is arranged within the terminal group. In that case, it is specifically configured to determine that the subchannel corresponding to the terminal group is the subchannel corresponding to the terminal.

[0422] Optionally, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of one terminal group, the terminal group includes at least two terminals, and in that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal includes, for each terminal within the terminal group, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel. Here, the terminals within the terminal group and the subchannel are in a one-to-one correspondence.

[0423] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the foregoing embodiment of the data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effects are similar, and details are not described again here.

[0424] Based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 25, further, the receiving module 20 is specifically configured to receive an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) preamble transmitted by an access point, where the OFDM preamble is configured to carry OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0425] Optionally, the receiving module 20 is further configured to receive a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame transmitted by an access point, where the NDPA frame is configured to carry OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0426] Optionally, the receiving module 20 is further configured to receive an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble transmitted by an access point, where the NDPA frame carries an identifier of a terminal in OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries subchannel information within the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0427] Optionally, the receiving module 20 is further configured to receive an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble transmitted by an access point, where the NDPA frame corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries the subchannel information within the foregoing OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble carries the identifier of the terminal in the foregoing OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0428] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the foregoing embodiment of the data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effects are similar, and details are not described again here.

[0429] FIG. 26 is a schematic structural diagram of Embodiment 2 of the terminal according to the present invention. Based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 25, further, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal by the access point for receiving downlink OFDMA data information. In that case, after the determination module 21 determines the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the receiving module 20 receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal. Here, the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble further includes a switching field and an ultra-high throughput signaling B UHT-SIG-B.

[0430] In that case, based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 25, further, the receiving module 20 includes a receiving unit 201 configured to receive the destination terminal address transmitted by the access point corresponding to the OFDMA data, and a determination unit 202 configured to determine whether the terminal matches the destination terminal address, and if so, instruct the receiving unit 201 to receive the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal.

[0431] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and will not be described in detail here again.

[0432] FIG. 27 is a schematic structural diagram of Embodiment 3 of the terminal according to the present invention. The foregoing OFDMA physical layer signaling or the foregoing downlink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the foregoing OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 26, further, in the foregoing terminal, after the receiving module 20 receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the transmitting module 22 configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode is further provided.

[0433] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effect are similar, and details are not described again here.

[0434] Continuing to refer to FIG. 27, the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal, and while the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point, it is further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal. In that case, after the receiving module 20 receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, it receives the ACK request frame or BA request frame transmitted by the access point. Here, the ACK request frame or BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are further configured to be used to instruct the terminal to transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The transmitting module 22 is further configured to transmit the ACK response or BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0435] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the aforementioned data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effect are similar and will not be described in detail here again.

[0436] Continuing to refer to FIG. 27, OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the receiving module 20 is specifically configured to receive the multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) data information transmitted by the access point, and the transmitting module 22 is further configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode after the determining module 21 determines the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0437] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effect are similar and will not be described in detail here again.

[0438] Continuing to refer to FIG. 27, OFDMA physical layer signaling is used specifically to correspond to a terminal and to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal while an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the receiving module 20 receives the MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point, where the MU-MIMO data information carries the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling, and receives the ACK request frame or the BA request frame transmitted by the access point, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode, and is thus specifically configured. The transmitting module 22 is further configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode after the determining module 21 determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0439] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the aforementioned data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effect are similar and will not be described again in detail here.

[0440] Continuing to refer to FIG. 27, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used specifically to correspond to the terminal and to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal while an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the receiving module 20 receives the MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point and receives the ACK request frame or the BA request frame transmitted by the access point. Here, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The ACK request frame or the BA request frame is specifically configured to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The transmitting module 22 is further configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode after the determining module 21 determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0441] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and will not be described again in detail here.

[0442] Continuing to refer to FIG. 27, OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the determination module 21 determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the receiving module 20 is further configured to receive the OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, and the transmitting module 22 is further configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0443] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effect are similar and will not be described in detail here again.

[0444] Continuing to refer to FIG. 27, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is specifically used to correspond to the terminal, and while an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point, it is also used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. In that case, after the determination module 21 determines the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the receiving module 20 receives the OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal, and also receives the ACK request frame or the BA request frame transmitted by the access point. Here, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The transmitting module 22 is further configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0445] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effect are similar and will not be described again in detail here.

[0446] Continuing to refer to FIG. 27, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal while uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. In that case, before the receiving module 20 receives the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point, the transmitting module 22 is further configured to transmit an uplink transmission frame to the access point. After the determination module 21 determines the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the transmitting module 22 is further configured to transmit uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0447] Furthermore, the uplink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is further used to instruct the access point to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. In that case, after the transmission module 22 transmits the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point, the receiving module 20 is further configured to receive, on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, an ACK response or a BA response corresponding to the uplink OFDMA data information and transmitted by the access point.

[0448] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and will not be described again here.

[0449] Continuing to refer to FIG. 27, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the determination module 21 determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the transmission module 22 is further configured to transmit the uplink OFDMA data information to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0450] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and will not be described again here.

[0451] Embodiment 3 of the access point of the present invention provides an access point, and the access point is a transmitter 30 configured to transmit orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to a terminal. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. Thereby, the terminal determines the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal, and includes the transmitter 30.

[0452] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effect are similar, and the details will not be described again here.

[0453] Optionally, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of one or more terminal groups. Each terminal group includes at least one terminal. The subchannel information includes uplink subchannels or downlink subchannels or uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannels. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal includes the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to each terminal group that the allocated subchannels are uplink subchannels or downlink subchannels or uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannels. Here, the terminal group and the subchannel are in a one-to-one correspondence.

[0454] The transmitter 30 may be further configured such that, before the OFDMA physical layer signaling is transmitted to the terminal, it transmits to the terminal the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of the terminal, whereby the terminal learns the terminal group in which the terminal is located.

[0455] Optionally, the terminal identifier is an identifier of a terminal group, the terminal group includes at least two terminals, and in that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal includes, for each terminal in the terminal group, OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel, where the terminals and subchannels in the terminal group have a one-to-one correspondence.

[0456] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effect are similar, and details are not described again here.

[0457] Furthermore, the transmitter 30 is specifically configured to transmit an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) preamble to the terminal, where the OFDM preamble is configured to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0458] Optionally, the transmitter 30 may be further configured to transmit a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame to the terminal, where the NDPA frame is configured to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0459] Optionally, the transmitter 30 may be further configured to transmit the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble to the terminal, where the NDPA frame is configured to carry the identifier of the terminal in the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and is configured to carry the subchannel information within the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0460] As appropriate, the transmitter 30 transmits an NDPA frame and an OFDM preamble to the terminal. Here, the NDPA frame corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries subchannel information within the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble further may be configured to carry the identifier of the terminal in the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0461] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and will not be described again here in detail.

[0462] Furthermore, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal for receiving downlink OFDMA data information. In that case, after the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling is transmitted to the terminal, the transmitter 30 transmits downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. Here, the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble further may be configured to include a switching field and an ultra high throughput signaling B (UHT-SIG-B).

[0463] As appropriate, the method in which the transmitter 30 transmits downlink OFDMA data information to each terminal on a subchannel corresponding to the terminal can be implemented by constructing an Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (hereinafter abbreviated as IDFT) module corresponding to the antenna of the access point in the transmitter 30. That is, the access point may first perform encoding of the downlink data of a plurality of terminals into a plurality of spatio-temporal streams, spatio-stream separation, and spatio-temporal encoding, and reference may be made to FIG. 28. The spatio-temporal streams correspond to the antennas of the access point. The spatio-temporal streams of different terminals on the same antenna are mapped to subchannels or subcarriers corresponding to the terminals and transmitted by using the IDFT module corresponding to the antenna, whereby the respective corresponding downlink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the terminals by using different subchannels. When the access point has a plurality of antennas, there are a corresponding number of IDFT modules (when the number of antennas is M, the number of IDFT modules is also M). All of these IDFT modules operate in the same frequency band. Therefore, for OFDMA in which the access point has a plurality of antennas, different users work on different subchannels, and on the same subchannel, the spatio-temporal streams of the access point can be distinguished by using spatial mapping. The spatio-temporal streams may further support MU-MIMO implementation on the subchannel.

[0464] Correspondingly, the terminal performs demodulation by using a Discrete Fourier Transform (hereinafter abbreviated as DFT) module to obtain the data at the receiving end, and obtains the data on the subchannel where the terminal is located according to the indication of the OFDMA physical layer signaling. When the data is a multi-antenna spatial mapping signal, the signal is separated by using a plurality of antennas, or when the data is a single-antenna signal, the signal does not need to be separated.

[0465] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effects are similar, and details will not be described again here.

[0466] FIG. 29 is a schematic structural diagram of Embodiment 4 of an access point according to the present invention. The access point includes the foregoing transmitter 30 and further includes a receiver 31.

[0467] The foregoing OFDMA physical layer signaling or the foregoing downlink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA acknowledgment ACK request or an OFDMA block acknowledgment BA request. The OFDMA ACK request or OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the foregoing OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the receiver 31 is configured to receive the ACK response or BA response transmitted by the terminal on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode after the transmitter 30 transmits the downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0468] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effects are similar, and details will not be described again here.

[0469] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is adapted to the terminal, and an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point, and is used to indicate the subchannels allocated to the terminal. In that case, after the downlink OFDMA data information is transmitted on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal, the transmitter 30 transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal. Here, the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are preferably further configured to be used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The receiver 31 is preferably further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannels in the OFDMA mode.

[0470] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is adapted to the terminal, and an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point, and is specifically used to indicate the subchannels allocated to the terminal. In that case, the transmitter 30 transmits MU-MIMO data information to the terminal in the multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, where the MU-MIMO data information is specifically configured to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The receiver 31 is preferably further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannels in the OFDMA mode after the transmitter 30 transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0471] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is adapted to the terminal, and while an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point, it is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. In that case, the transmitter 30 transmits MU-MIMO data information to the terminal in the MU-MIMO mode, where the MU-MIMO data information carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode, and is specifically configured as such. The receiver 31 may be further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode after the transmitter transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0472] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is adapted to the terminal, and while an ACK response or a BA response is transmitted to the access point, it is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal. In that case, the transmitter 30 transmits MU-MIMO data information to the terminal in the MU-MIMO mode and transmits an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode, and the ACK request frame or the BA request frame is configured to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and is specifically configured as such. The receiver 31 may be further configured to receive an ACK response or a BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannel in the OFDMA mode after the transmitter 30 transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal.

[0473] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal while the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. The transmitter 30 may be further configured to transmit OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information to the terminal on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode after the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling is transmitted to the terminal. The receiver 31 may be further configured to receive the ACK response or the BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannels in the OFDMA mode.

[0474] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal while the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling is transmitted to the terminal, the transmitter 30 is further configured to transmit OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information to the terminal on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA+MU-MIMO mode, and transmit an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, where the ACK request frame or the BA request frame contains dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The receiver 31 may be further configured to receive the ACK response or the BA response transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannels in the OFDMA mode.

[0475] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is adapted to the terminal, and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal while the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the receiver 31 receives the uplink transmission frame transmitted by the terminal before the transmitter 30 transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to the terminal, and after the transmitter 30 transmits the OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the receiver 31 is further configured to receive the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannels in the OFDMA mode. Optionally, the transmitter 30 may further transmit the uplink OFDMA data information by using an IDFT module, whereby each terminal may learn only the part corresponding to the terminal in the subchannels or subcarriers mapped only by using the IDFT module according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and may set other parts to 0, and reference may be made to FIG. 30.

[0476] Optionally, the uplink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is further used to instruct the access point to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the terminal in the OFDMA mode. In that case, after the receiver 31 receives the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannels, the transmitter 30 is further configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response corresponding to the uplink OFDMA data information on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0477] Suitably, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is adapted to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate the subchannels allocated to the terminal to the terminal while the uplink OFDMA data information is transmitted to the access point. In that case, after the transmitter 30 transmits the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the receiver 31 is further configured to receive the uplink OFDMA data information transmitted by the terminal on the corresponding subchannels in the OFDMA mode.

[0478] The access point provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and will not be described in detail again here.

[0479] FIG. 31 is a schematic structural diagram of Embodiment 4 of a terminal according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 31, the terminal includes a receiver 40 and a processor 41.

[0480] The receiver 40 receives the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated to the terminal by the access point. Here, the OFDMA physical layer signaling is configured to include the identifier of the terminal and the subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal.

[0481] The processor 41 is configured to determine the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0482] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and will not be described in detail again here.

[0483] Optionally, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of one or more terminal groups, each terminal group includes at least one terminal, and in that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal is that for each terminal group, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel is included, where there is a one-to-one correspondence between the terminal group and the subchannel.

[0484] Before the receiver 40 receives the orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA physical layer signaling transmitted by the access point, it receives the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal group and the address of the terminal, where the mapping relationship is further configured to be transmitted by the access point, and in that case, the processor 41 is particularly configured to determine, according to the mapping relationship, that the terminal is arranged within the terminal group, and in that case, to determine that the subchannel corresponding to the terminal group is the subchannel corresponding to the terminal.

[0485] Optionally, the identifier of the terminal is the identifier of one terminal group, the terminal group includes at least two terminals, and in that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal is that for each terminal within the terminal group, the OFDMA physical layer signaling used to indicate that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel or a downlink subchannel or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel is included, where there is a one-to-one correspondence between the terminals within the terminal group and the subchannel.

[0486] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effect are similar, and details are not described again here.

[0487] Furthermore, the receiver 40 receives an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) preamble transmitted by the access point, where the OFDM preamble is specifically configured to carry OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0488] Optionally, the receiver 40 receives a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame transmitted by the access point, where the NDPA frame may be further configured to carry the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0489] Optionally, the receiver 40 receives the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble transmitted by the access point, where the NDPA frame carries the identifier of the terminal in the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and is further configured to carry subchannel information within the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0490] Optionally, the receiver 40 receives the NDPA frame and the OFDM preamble transmitted by the access point, where the NDPA frame corresponds to the identifier of the terminal and carries the subchannel information within the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling, and the OFDM preamble carries the identifier of the terminal in the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0491] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the aforementioned data transmission indication method, and its implementation principle and technical effect are similar, and details will not be described again here.

[0492] Furthermore, OFDMA physical layer signaling is particularly used to indicate to the terminal the subchannels allocated by the access point for receiving downlink OFDMA data information. In that case, after the processor 41 of the receiver 40 determines the subchannels corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, the receiver 40 receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal. Here, the downlink OFDMA data information includes an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data, and the OFDMA preamble further includes a switching field and an ultra high throughput signaling B UHT-SIG-B.

[0493] Furthermore, the receiver 40 receives the destination terminal address transmitted by the access point corresponding to the OFDMA data, determines whether the terminal matches the destination terminal address, and if so, is particularly configured to receive the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannels corresponding to the terminal.

[0494] The terminal provided in this embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the technical solution of the embodiment of the foregoing data transmission indication method. Its implementation principle and technical effect are similar and will not be described in detail here again.

[0495] FIG. 32 is a schematic structural diagram of Embodiment 5 of the terminal according to the present invention. Based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 31, further, the terminal further includes a transmitter 42.

[0496] Optionally, the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling or the aforementioned downlink OFDMA data information carries an OFDMA acknowledgment response ACK request or an OFDMA block acknowledgment response BA request. The OFDMA ACK request or OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the aforementioned OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the transmitter 42 is configured such that after the receiver 40 receives the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the transmitter 42 transmits an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0497] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is further used to indicate the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or BA response is transmitted to the access point. The receiver 40 is further configured such that after the downlink OFDMA data information transmitted by the access point is received on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal, the receiver 40 receives an ACK request frame or a BA request frame transmitted by the access point, where the ACK request frame or BA request frame includes dedicated information bits, and the dedicated information bits are used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. The transmitter 42 is configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode.

[0498] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling carries an OFDMA ACK request or an OFDMA BA request, and the OFDMA ACK request or the OFDMA BA request is used to instruct the terminal to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. In that case, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the receiver 40 receives the multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) data information transmitted by the access point, where the MU-MIMO data information is further configured to carry the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The transmitter 42 is configured to transmit an ACK response or a BA response to the access point on the subchannel corresponding to the terminal in the OFDMA mode after the processor 41 determines the subchannel corresponding to the terminal according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

[0499] Optionally, the OFDMA physical layer signaling corresponds to the terminal and is specifically used to indicate to the terminal the subchannel allocated to the terminal when the ACK response or the BA response is transmitted to the access point. In that case, the receiver 40 receives the MU-MIMO data information transmitted by the access point, where the MU-MIMO data information carries the OFDMA physical layer ...

Claims

1. A data transmission indication method, comprising: a step of transmitting, by an access point, MU-MIMO data information to a terminal in a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, wherein the MU-MIMO data information carries orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling; and a step of receiving, by the access point, an acknowledgement (ACK) response or a block acknowledgement (BA) response from the terminal in an OFDMA mode on a subchannel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling and allocated to the terminal.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes a request used to instruct the terminal to transmit the ACK response or the BA response in the OFDMA mode.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of transmitting, by the access point, a request frame to the terminal for instructing the terminal to transmit the ACK response or the BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the request frame includes dedicated information bits used to instruct the terminal to transmit the ACK response or the BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the MU-MIMO data information is OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information.

6. A data transmission indication method, comprising: a step of receiving, by a terminal, MU-MIMO data information from an access point in a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, wherein the MU-MIMO data information carries orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling; and a step of transmitting, by the terminal, an acknowledgement (ACK) response or a block acknowledgement (BA) response to the access point in an OFDMA mode on a subchannel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling and allocated to the terminal.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes a request used to instruct the terminal to transmit the ACK response or the BA response in the OFDMA mode. **Claim 8** The method according to claim 6, further comprising the step of receiving, by the terminal, a request frame from the access point for instructing the terminal to transmit the ACK response or the BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. **Claim 9** The method according to claim 8, wherein the request frame includes dedicated information bits used to instruct the terminal to transmit the ACK response or the BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. **Claim 10** The method according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein the MU-MIMO data information is OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information. **Claim 11** An access point, a transmission module configured to transmit MU-MIMO data information to a terminal in a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, wherein the MU-MIMO data information carries orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling; and a reception module configured to receive a confirmation response (ACK) response or a block confirmation response (BA) response from the terminal in the OFDMA mode on a subchannel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling and allocated to the terminal. **Claim 12** The access point according to claim 11, wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes a request used to instruct the terminal to transmit the ACK response or the BA response in the OFDMA mode. **Claim 13** The access point according to claim 11, wherein the transmission module is further configured to transmit a request frame to the terminal for instructing the terminal to transmit the ACK response or the BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. **Claim 14** The access point according to claim 13, wherein the request frame includes dedicated information bits used to instruct the terminal to transmit the ACK response or the BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode. **Claim 15** The access point according to any one of claims 11 to 14, wherein the MU-MIMO data information is OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information.

16. A terminal, comprising: a receiving module configured to receive MU-MIMO data information from an access point in a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, wherein the MU-MIMO data information carries orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling; and a transmitting module configured to transmit an acknowledgement (ACK) response or a block acknowledgement (BA) response to the access point in an OFDMA mode on a subchannel indicated by the OFDMA physical layer signaling and allocated to the terminal.

17. The terminal according to claim 16, wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling includes a request used to instruct the terminal to transmit the ACK response or the BA response in the OFDMA mode.

18. The terminal according to claim 16, wherein the receiving module is further configured to receive from the access point a request frame for instructing the terminal to transmit the ACK response or the BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode.

19. The terminal according to claim 18, wherein the request frame includes dedicated information bits used to instruct the terminal to transmit the ACK response or the BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode.

20. The terminal according to any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein the MU-MIMO data information is OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information.

21. A computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

22. A computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 6 to 10.

23. An apparatus, comprising: a processor; A device including a computer-readable storage medium configured to store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 5. **Claim 24** A device comprising: a processor; a computer-readable storage medium configured to store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to execute the method according to any one of claims 6 to 10.

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