Resource indication methods, access points, and stations

Abstract

To reduce electricity consumption. [Solution] This application relates to wireless fidelity technology, particularly a resource indication method, AP and STA. The method includes the AP generating and transmitting a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted in a frequency domain segment, indicating the allocation of a first bandwidth, including a first frequency domain segment, to a scheduled user within the frequency domain segment. The information may indicate the allocation of the entire bandwidth to a scheduled STA within the frequency domain segment. It is not necessary to indicate each frequency domain segment of the entire bandwidth, and the overhead of the field carrying the information can be reduced. The STA determines the allocated resource from the information and the total bandwidth size indicated by the bandwidth field, and power consumption can be reduced as it is not necessary to read resource indications for all frequency domain segments.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to wireless fidelity technology, and particularly to a resource indication method, an access point, and a station.

Background Art

[0002] To support orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) transmission, in 802.11ax, the frequency band resources are divided into several resource units, and only the allocation of one resource unit to one station or multiple users is supported. However, in the future, the allocation of multiple resource units to one station or multiple stations may be supported. If the method of indicating the resources allocated to users by using the resource unit subfield in 802.11ax is still used, the signaling overhead will increase as the bandwidth increases.

[0003] To reduce the signaling overhead, it is proposed that the segment structure of the Extremely High Throughput, physical protocol data unit (EHT PPDU) can indicate the resources allocated to users. However, the method of indicating the resources allocated to users by using the segment structure of the EHT PPDU is an issue that needs to be urgently solved.

Summary of the Invention

[0004] This application provides a resource indication method, an access point, and a station. Since the segment structure of the EHT PPDU can indicate that the full bandwidth is allocated to the scheduled STA within the frequency domain segment, it is possible to further reduce the signaling overhead.

[0005] According to a first embodiment, a resource indication method is provided. This method is carried out by a first device. The first device may be a communication device or a communication apparatus, and may be, for example, a chip system capable of supporting a communication device when implementing the functions required by this method. For example, the communication device is an access point. This method includes the following:

[0006] An access point generates a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) and transmits the PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth encompassing the first frequency domain segment. In this embodiment of the application, the first bandwidth may be the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU or be considered as the entire bandwidth. The preamble puncturing indication information may indicate that the entire bandwidth, i.e., the entire bandwidth (unpunctured) resource, is allocated to the scheduled STA within the frequency domain segment. It is not necessary to individually indicate each frequency domain segment obtained by the entire bandwidth division, and therefore it is possible to reduce the overhead of the fields used to carry the preamble puncturing indication information. The station may determine its allocated resources by utilizing preamble puncturing indication information and the total bandwidth size indicated by the bandwidth field, and since it does not need to read resource indications for all frequency domain segments, it is possible to reduce the station's power consumption.

[0007] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than that of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields. In this solution, preamble puncturing indication information can be reused to indicate the compression mode. It should be understood that some fields of the PPDU in compression mode are omitted or deleted, or the length of some fields is shortened, for example, resource unit allocation subfields or user fields are omitted or deleted. In this way, the PPDU transmitted from the access point may carry a small amount of resource unit allocation subfields, or it may not carry any resource unit allocation subfields at all. Thus, it is possible to further reduce signaling overhead. If the PPDU compression mode is determined based on preamble puncturing indication information, the station does not need to continue reading the user field or resource unit allocation subfield that follows the U-SIG field, and therefore the station's power consumption can be reduced.

[0008] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, which is located in the universal field U-SIG field.

[0009] According to a second embodiment, a resource indication method is provided. This method may be carried out by a second device. The second device may be a communication device or a communication apparatus, and may be, for example, a chip system capable of supporting the communication device when implementing the functions required by this method. For example, the communication device is a station. This method includes the following:

[0010] The station receives a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, and the station then determines the allocated resource based on the preamble puncturing indication information, where the first bandwidth is the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth includes the first frequency domain segment.

[0011] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0012] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, which is located in the universal field U-SIG field.

[0013] For the beneficial technical effects of the second embodiment or implementation of the second embodiment, please refer to the beneficial technical effects of the first embodiment or implementation of the first embodiment. Further details will not be explained again here.

[0014] According to a third aspect, a resource indication method is provided. This method may be carried out by a first device. The first device may be a communication device or a communication apparatus, and may be, for example, a chip system capable of supporting the communication device when implementing the functions required by this method. For example, the communication device is an access point. This method includes the following:

[0015] An access point generates and transmits a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, where the preamble puncturing indication information indicates that no resource units are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment, and the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU includes the first frequency domain segment. In this embodiment of the application, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates that no resources are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment. Here, no resource units are allocated means that no resource units in the first frequency domain segment are allocated to the user in the first frequency domain segment, and no resource units in the entire channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU are allocated to the user in the first frequency domain segment. If no resources are allocated to a station in a frequency domain segment, the station does not need to read subsequent EHT-SIG fields in the PPDU, for example, and therefore can reduce energy consumption.

[0016] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0017] For the technical effects of implementing the third embodiment, please refer to the beneficial technical effects of implementing the first embodiment. Further details will not be explained again here.

[0018] According to a fourth aspect, a resource indication method is provided. This method may be implemented by a second device. The second device may be a communication device or a communication apparatus, for example, a chip system capable of supporting the communication device when implementing the functions required by this method. For example, the communication device is a station. This method includes the following:

[0019] The station receives a PPDU from the access point, the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that no resource units are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment, the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU includes the first frequency domain segment, and the station then determines the allocated resources based on the preamble puncturing indication information.

[0020] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0021] For the technical effects of the fourth aspect or implementation of the fourth aspect, please refer to the beneficial technical effects of the third aspect or implementation of the third aspect. Further details will not be explained again here.

[0022] According to a fifth aspect, a resource indication method is provided. This method may be implemented by a second device, which may be a communication device or a communication apparatus, and may, for example, be a chip system capable of supporting the communication device when implementing the functions required by this method. For example, the communication device is a station. This method includes the following:

[0023] An access point generates and transmits a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment. When the PPDU is in OFDMA transmit mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a punctured or uncropped configuration of a first bandwidth with a bandwidth of 80 MHz. When the PPDU is in non-OFDMA transmit mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates the puncturing state of the 80 MHz channel corresponding to the first frequency domain segment. In this embodiment of the application, for the entire 80 MHz bandwidth, the preamble puncturing information field carrying the preamble puncturing information may indicate all puncturing states supported in non-OFDMA transmission, and may further indicate the puncturing state of the 80 MHz channel corresponding to each frequency domain segment in OFDMA transmission. In this way, a station can determine its allocated resources based on the preamble puncturing indication information and the bandwidth field. For example, if the bandwidth field indicates that the PPDU is in a non-OFDMA transmission mode, the preamble puncturing indication information is: Non This indicates the puncturing state of the frequency domain segment corresponding to the 80MHz channel in OFDMA transmission. If the bandwidth field indicates that the PPDU is in OFDMA transmission mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates the punctured or uncropped full bandwidth configuration of the 80MHz channel in OFDMA transmission mode. In this case, when the full bandwidth is 160MHz or greater, the station only needs to read the puncturing state of the 80MHz channel and does not need to read bandwidth information for channels other than the 80MHz channel. Therefore, this solution is based on the puncturing state shown in non-OFDMA transmission and is actually compatible with the puncturing state shown in 80MHz OFDMA transmission.

[0024] According to the sixth aspect, a resource indication method is provided. This method can be implemented by a second device. The second device may be a communication device, or may be a communication apparatus, for example, a chip system that can support a communication device when implementing the functions required by this method. For example, the communication device is a station. This method includes the following.

[0025] The station receives a PPDU from an access point. The PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment. When the PPDU is in the OFMDA transmission mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a punctured configuration or an unpunctured configuration of a first bandwidth with a bandwidth of 80 MHz. Or when the PPDU is in a non-OFMDA transmission mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates the puncturing state of an 80 MHz channel corresponding to the first frequency domain segment. Then, the station determines the allocated resources based on the preamble puncturing indication information and the bandwidth field.

[0026] Regarding the technical effects of the implementation of the sixth aspect, refer to the beneficial technical effects of the implementation of the fifth aspect. Details are not described again here.

[0027] According to the seventh aspect, a resource indication method is provided. This method can be implemented by a second device. The second device may be a communication device, or may be a communication apparatus, for example, a chip system that can support a communication device when implementing the functions required by this method. For example, the communication device is a station. This method includes the following.

[0028] An access point generates and transmits a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information being carried in a first preamble puncturing information field and a second preamble puncturing information field, the first preamble puncturing information field located in the U-SIG field, the second preamble puncturing information field located in the EHT-SIG field, the first preamble puncturing information field indicating the puncturing state of the first frequency domain segment or indicating that the entire bandwidth is not punctured, the second preamble puncturing information field indicating the puncturing state of the remaining frequency domain segment in the first bandwidth other than the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth including the first frequency domain segment. In this embodiment of the present application, puncturing states for bandwidths exceeding 80 MHz, such as 160 MHz, 240 MHz, or 320 MHz bandwidths, are indicated by utilizing two preamble puncturing information fields. For example, the first preamble puncturing information field indicates the puncturing state of the frequency domain segment corresponding to the 80 MHz channel, and the second preamble puncturing information field indicates the puncturing state of the remaining frequency bands in the entire bandwidth other than that frequency domain segment. The station can determine its allocated resources by utilizing the first and second preamble puncturing information fields. Since only one puncture can exist in the entire bandwidth, it should be understood that the second preamble puncturing information field provides more scalable indication content by having multiple reserved states (or entries) for other purposes.

[0029] According to the eighth aspect, a resource indication method is provided. This method can be implemented by a second device. The second device may be a communication device, or may be a communication apparatus, for example, a chip system that can support a communication device when implementing the functions required by this method. For example, the communication device is a station. This method includes the following.

[0030] The station receives a PPDU from an access point. The PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment. The station determines the allocated resources based on the preamble puncturing indication information. The preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field and a second preamble puncturing information field. The first preamble puncturing information field is located in the U-SIG field, and the second preamble puncturing information field is located in the EHT-SIG field. The first preamble puncturing information field indicates the puncturing state of the first frequency domain segment or indicates that the entire bandwidth is not punctured. The second preamble puncturing information field indicates the puncturing state of the remaining frequency domain segments in a first bandwidth other than the first frequency domain segment. The first bandwidth is the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth includes the first frequency domain segment.

[0031] For the technical effects of the implementation of the eighth aspect, please refer to the beneficial technical effects of the implementation of the seventh aspect. Details are not described again here.

[0032] According to the ninth aspect, a communication device is provided. For example, the communication device is the aforementioned access point or a device located at the access point. In some embodiments, the communication device may be configured to implement a method in any one of the first aspect or a possible implementation of the first aspect; the communication device may be configured to implement a method in any one of the third aspect or a possible implementation of the third aspect; the communication device may be configured to implement a method in any one of the fifth aspect or a possible implementation of the fifth aspect; or the communication device may be configured to implement a method in any one of the seventh aspect or a possible implementation of the seventh aspect. Specifically, the communication device may include a module configured to implement the method in any one of the first embodiment or a possible implementation of the first embodiment, a module configured to implement the method in any one of the third embodiment or a possible implementation of the third embodiment, a module configured to implement the method in any one of the fifth embodiment or a possible implementation of the fifth embodiment, or a module configured to implement the method in any one of the seventh embodiment or a possible implementation of the seventh embodiment, for example, a coupled processing module and a transceiver module. For example, the communication device is the aforementioned access point.

[0033] In some embodiments, a processing module is configured to generate a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being a channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, the first bandwidth comprising the first frequency domain segment, and a transceiver module is configured to transmit the PPDU.

[0034] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0035] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, which is located in the universal field U-SIG field.

[0036] In some other embodiments, the processing module is configured to generate a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that no resource units are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment, the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU includes the first frequency domain segment, and the transceiver module is configured to transmit the PPDU.

[0037] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0038] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, which is located in the universal field U-SIG field.

[0039] In some other embodiments, the processing module is configured to generate a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, wherein when the PPDU is in OFMDA transmission mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a punctured or punctured configuration of a first bandwidth having a bandwidth of 80 MHz, or when the PPDU is in non-OFMDA transmission mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a puncturing state of an 80 MHz channel corresponding to the first frequency domain segment. The transceiver module is configured to transmit PPDU.

[0040] In some other embodiments, the processing module is configured to generate a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field and a second preamble puncturing information field, the first preamble puncturing information field is located in the U-SIG field, the second preamble puncturing information field is located in the EHT-SIG field, the first preamble puncturing information field indicates the puncturing state of the first frequency domain segment or indicates that the entire bandwidth is not punctured, the second preamble puncturing information field indicates the puncturing state of the remaining frequency domain segment in the first bandwidth other than the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth is the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth includes the first frequency domain segment. The transceiver module is configured to transmit PPDU.

[0041] According to the tenth embodiment, a communication device is provided. For example, the communication device is the aforementioned station or a device located at the station. In some embodiments, the communication device is configured to implement a method in any one of the second embodiment or a possible implementation of the second embodiment, the communication device is configured to implement a method in any one of the fourth embodiment or a possible implementation of the fourth embodiment, the communication device is configured to implement a method in any one of the sixth embodiment or a possible implementation of the sixth embodiment, or the communication device is configured to implement a method in any one of the eighth embodiment or a possible implementation of the eighth embodiment. Specifically, the communication device may include a module configured to implement a method in any one of the second embodiment or a possible implementation of the second embodiment, a module configured to implement a method in any one of the fourth embodiment or a possible implementation of the fourth embodiment, a module configured to implement a method in any one of the sixth embodiment or a possible implementation of the sixth embodiment, or a module configured to implement a method in any one of the eighth embodiment or a possible implementation of the eighth embodiment, for example, a coupled processing module and a transceiver module. For example, the communication device is the aforementioned station.

[0042] In some embodiments, a transceiver module is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU including preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being a channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, the first bandwidth comprising the first frequency domain segment, and a processing module is configured to determine the allocated resource based on the preamble puncturing indication information.

[0043] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0044] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, which is located in the universal field U-SIG field.

[0045] In some other embodiments, the transceiver module is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU including preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that no resource units are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment, the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU includes the first frequency domain segment, and the processing module is configured to determine the allocated resources based on the preamble puncturing indication information.

[0046] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0047] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, which is located in the universal field U-SIG field.

[0048] In some other embodiments, the transceiver module is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU including preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, wherein when the PPDU is in OFMDA transmit mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a punctured or punctured configuration of a first bandwidth having a bandwidth of 80 MHz, or when the PPDU is in non-OFMDA transmit mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a puncturing state of an 80 MHz channel corresponding to the first frequency domain segment. The processing module is configured to determine the allocated resources based on preamble puncturing indication information and bandwidth fields.

[0049] In some other embodiments, the transceiver module is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field and a second preamble puncturing information field, the first preamble puncturing information field is located in the U-SIG field, the second preamble puncturing information field is located in the EHT-SIG field, the first preamble puncturing information field indicates the puncturing state of the first frequency domain segment or indicates that the entire bandwidth is not punctured, the second preamble puncturing information field indicates the puncturing state of the remaining frequency domain segment in the first bandwidth other than the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth is the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth includes the first frequency domain segment. The processing module is configured to determine the allocated resources based on preamble puncturing indication information.

[0050] According to the eleventh aspect, yet another communication device is provided. The communication device is, for example, the aforementioned access point, or is located on an access point. For example, the communication device is a chip located on an access point. The communication device includes a processor and a transceiver and implements the method described in the first aspect, third aspect, fifth aspect, seventh aspect, possible implementation of the first aspect, possible implementation of the third aspect, possible implementation of the fifth aspect, or possible implementation of the seventh aspect. The transceiver is implemented on an access point by, for example, utilizing an antenna, feeder, or codec. Alternatively, if the communication device is a chip located on an access point, the transceiver is, for example, a communication interface on the chip. The communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiver component in the access point and implements the transmission and reception of information via the radio frequency transceiver component.

[0051] In some embodiments, the processor is configured to generate a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being a channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, the first bandwidth comprising the first frequency domain segment, and the transceiver is configured to transmit the PPDU.

[0052] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0053] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, which is located in the universal field U-SIG field.

[0054] In some other embodiments, the processor is configured to generate a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that no resource units are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment, the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU includes the first frequency domain segment, and the transceiver is configured to transmit the PPDU.

[0055] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0056] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, which is located in the universal field U-SIG field.

[0057] In some other embodiments, the processor is configured to generate a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, wherein when the PPDU is in OFMDA transmit mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a punctured or punctured configuration of a first bandwidth having a bandwidth of 80 MHz, or when the PPDU is in non-OFMDA transmit mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a puncturing state of an 80 MHz channel corresponding to the first frequency domain segment. The transceiver is configured to transmit PPDU.

[0058] In some other embodiments, the processor is configured to generate a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information being carried in a first preamble puncturing information field and a second preamble puncturing information field, the first preamble puncturing information field being located in the U-SIG field, the second preamble puncturing information field being located in the EHT-SIG field, the first preamble puncturing information field indicating the puncturing state of the first frequency domain segment or indicating that the entire bandwidth is not punctured, the second preamble puncturing information field indicating the puncturing state of the remaining frequency domain segment in the first bandwidth other than the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth being the first frequency domain segment. The transceiver is configured to transmit PPDU.

[0059] According to a twelfth aspect, yet another communication device is provided. The communication device is, for example, the aforementioned station, or located in a station. For example, the communication device is a chip located in an access point. The communication device includes a processor and a transceiver and implements the method described in the second aspect, fourth aspect, sixth aspect, eighth aspect, possible implementation of the second aspect, possible implementation of the fourth aspect, possible implementation of the sixth aspect, or possible implementation of the eighth aspect. The transceiver is implemented in the station by, for example, utilizing an antenna, feeder, or codec. Alternatively, if the communication device is a chip located in a station, the transceiver is, for example, a communication interface within the chip. The communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiver component in the station and implements the transmission and reception of information via the radio frequency transceiver component.

[0060] In some embodiments, the transceiver is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU including preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being a channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, the first bandwidth comprising the first frequency domain segment, and the processor is configured to determine the allocated resource based on the preamble puncturing indication information.

[0061] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0062] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, which is located in the universal field U-SIG field.

[0063] In some other embodiments, the transceiver is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that no resource units are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment, the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU includes the first frequency domain segment, and the processor is configured to determine the allocated resources based on the preamble puncturing indication information.

[0064] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0065] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, which is located in the universal field U-SIG field.

[0066] In some other embodiments, the transceiver is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, where, when the PPDU is in OFMDA transmit mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a punctured or punctured configuration of a first bandwidth having a bandwidth of 80 MHz, or, when the PPDU is in non-OFMDA transmit mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a puncturing state of an 80 MHz channel corresponding to the first frequency domain segment, where the first bandwidth is the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth includes the first frequency domain segment. The processor is configured to determine the allocated resources based on preamble puncturing indication information and bandwidth fields.

[0067] In some other embodiments, the transceiver is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU containing preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information being carried in a first preamble puncturing information field and a second preamble puncturing information field, the first preamble puncturing information field located in the U-SIG field, the second preamble puncturing information field located in the EHT-SIG field, the first preamble puncturing information field indicating the puncturing state of the first frequency domain segment or indicating that the entire bandwidth is not punctured, and the second preamble puncturing information field indicating the puncturing state of the remaining frequency domain segment in the first bandwidth other than the first frequency domain segment. The processor is configured to determine the allocated resources based on preamble puncturing indication information.

[0068] According to a thirteenth aspect, yet another communication device is provided. The communication device may be an access point in the method design described above. For example, the communication device is a chip located at the access point. The communication device includes a memory configured to store computer executable program code and a processor coupled to the memory. The program code stored in the memory includes instructions. When the processor executes an instruction, the communication device is enabled to implement the method in any one of the first, third, fifth, seventh aspects, possible implementations of the first aspect, possible implementations of the third aspect, possible implementations of the fifth aspect, or possible implementations of the seventh aspect.

[0069] In some embodiments, the communication device may further include a communication interface. The communication interface may be a transceiver at an access point, implemented, for example, by utilizing an antenna, feeder, or codec at the access point. Alternatively, if the communication device is a chip located at the access point, the communication interface may be the chip's input / output interface, for example, input / output pins.

[0070] According to a fourteenth aspect, yet another communication device is provided. The communication device may be a station in the method design described above. For example, the communication device is a chip located at the station. The communication device includes a memory configured to store computer executable program code and a processor coupled to the memory. The program code stored in the memory includes instructions. When the processor executes an instruction, the communication device is enabled to implement the method in any one of the second, fourth, sixth, eighth aspects, possible implementations of the second aspect, possible implementations of the fourth aspect, possible implementations of the sixth aspect, or possible implementations of the eighth aspect.

[0071] In some embodiments, the communication device may further include a communication interface. The communication interface may be a transceiver at the station, which may be implemented, for example, by utilizing an antenna, feeder, or codec at the station. Alternatively, if the communication device is a chip located at the station, the communication interface may be the chip's input / output interface, for example, input / output pins.

[0072] According to the 15th aspect, a communication system is provided. The communication system may include the communication equipment described in the 9th aspect, the 11th aspect, or the 13th aspect, as well as the communication equipment described in the 10th aspect, the 12th aspect, or the 14th aspect. It should be understood that the communication system may include more access points and / or stations.

[0073] According to the sixteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system. The chip system includes a processor and further includes memory, and may implement a method carried out by an access point of the first aspect or a station of the second aspect, an access point of the third aspect or a station of the fourth aspect, an access point of the fifth aspect or a station of the sixth aspect, or an access point of the seventh aspect or a station of the eighth aspect. The chip system may include a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete components.

[0074] According to the 17th aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium containing instructions. When instructions are executed on a computer, the computer accesses an access point of the first aspect or a station of the second aspect, an access point of the third aspect or a station of the fourth aspect, an access point of the fifth aspect or a station of the sixth aspect, or an access point of the seventh aspect or 8The computer is enabled to implement methods implemented by a station of the first type, a station of the second type, a station of the third type, a station of the fourth type, a station of the fifth type, a station of the sixth type, or a station of the seventh type, or a station of the eighth type.

[0075] According to the 18th aspect, embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product. The computer program product stores instructions. When instructions are executed on a computer, the computer controls an access point of the first aspect or a station of the second aspect, an access point of the third aspect or a station of the fourth aspect, or 、 Access point of type 5 or station of type 6 , access point of the seventh type or station of the eighth type The computer is enabled to implement the methods implemented by the access point or station of the first, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth access point or station of the seventh or eighth nature.

[0076] For details on the third through eighteenth embodiments and the beneficial effects of their implementation, please refer to the descriptions of the first through eighth embodiments and the beneficial effects of their implementation. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0077] [Figure 1] This figure shows the network architecture of a wireless local area network to which embodiments of this application are applicable. [Figure 2] This is a diagram showing the internal structure of an access point and station according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 3]This is a schematic diagram of the frame structure of HE-SIG-B according to the embodiment of this application. [Figure 4] This is a schematic diagram of the HE-SIG-B frame structure when the bandwidth is 40 MHz, according to an embodiment of this application. [Figure 5] This is a schematic diagram of the frame structure of the EHT PPDU according to the embodiment of this application. [Figure 6] This is a schematic diagram of the segment structure of the EHT PPDU according to the embodiment of this application. [Figure 7] This is a schematic puncturing diagram of an 80 MHz frequency domain segment according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 8] This is a schematic flowchart of the resource indication method according to the embodiment of this application. [Figure 9] This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of this application. [Figure 10] This is a schematic diagram of another structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of this application. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0078] To further clarify the purpose, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of this application, the embodiments of this application will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0079] The embodiments of this application are applicable to wireless local area network (WLAN) scenarios and are applicable to IEEE 802.11 system standards, such as 802.11a / b / g standards, 802.11n standards, 802.11ac standards, 802.11ax standards, or next-generation standards of the 802.11ax standard, such as 802.11be standards, or next-generation standards of the 802.11ax standard. Alternatively, the embodiments of this application are applicable to wireless local area network systems, such as Internet of Things (IoT) networks or Vehicle to Everything (V2X) networks. Naturally, embodiments of this application may also be applicable to other possible communication systems, such as long-term evolution (LTE) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, LTE time division duplex (TDD) systems, universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) systems, worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication systems, or future 5G communication systems.

[0080] For example, Figure 1 is a diagram of a WLAN network architecture to which embodiments of this application are applicable. In Figure 1, an example is used in which the WLAN includes one access point (AP) and two stations (STAs) associated with the AP, the two STAs being STA1 and STA2. The AP may schedule radio resources for STA1 and STA2 and transmit data over the scheduled radio resources for STA1 and STA2, the data including uplink data information and / or downlink data information. It should be understood that the number of APs and STAs in Figure 1 are merely examples, and there may be more or fewer APs and STAs. An AP may communicate with STA1 or STA2, or an AP may communicate with STA1 and STA2. It should be understood that if the WLAN includes multiple APs and multiple STAs, embodiments of this application are also applicable to communication between APs. For example, APs may communicate with each other using a distributed system (DS), and any AP may schedule radio resources for STAs associated with and / or not associated with an AP and transmit data over the scheduled radio resources for the STAs. The embodiments of this application are further applicable to communication between STAs.

[0081] In embodiments of this application, an STA may be any type of user terminal, user equipment, access device, subscriber station, subscriber unit, mobile station, user agent, or user equipment having wireless communication capabilities or having a different name. User terminals may include various handheld devices, in-vehicle devices, wearable devices, or computing devices having wireless communication capabilities, or various other processing devices connected to a wireless modem, and various forms of user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), terminal, terminal equipment, mobile communication devices, handheld devices, mobile computing devices, entertainment devices, game devices or systems, or global positioning system devices, or any other suitable device configured to perform network communication over a wireless medium. For example, an STA may be a router, switch, or bridge. For ease of explanation, the devices described herein are collectively referred to as stations or STAs.

[0082] In embodiments of this application, an access point (AP) is a device deployed within a wireless communication network that provides wireless communication capabilities for a STA associated with the AP. The access point (AP) may be used as a hub in a communication system and may be a communication device such as a base station, router, gateway, repeater, communication server, switch, or bridge. The base station may include various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations, and repeaters. For ease of explanation, these devices are collectively referred to as APs in this specification.

[0083] For example, the AP and STA in this application may be APs and STAs applicable to the 802.11 system standard. Figure 2 shows the internal structure of an AP and STA according to an embodiment of this application. The 802.11 system standard focuses on the 802.11 physical layer (PHY) and its media access control (MAC) portion. Therefore, the STA provided in this embodiment of this application is typically a terminal product that supports the MAC and PHY portions of the 802.11 system standard, such as a mobile phone or notebook computer. Only Figure 2 shows a diagram of the structure of an AP with multiple antennas and an STA with a single antenna; however, it should be noted that in actual scenarios, each AP and STA may have multiple antennas, and may even be a device with more than two antennas. Each AP and STA includes a lower-layer PHY baseband module, MAC layer module, logical link control (LLC) layer module, and radio frequency module (antenna), as well as a higher-layer Internet Protocol (IP) processing module, a transmission control protocol (TCP) / user datagram protocol (UDP) processing module, and an application layer module. The lower and higher layers transmit information via the higher-layer interface.

[0084] The AP communicates with the STA. The AP may allocate resources to the STA, and the STA transmits data on the allocated resources. For example, in Wi-Fi protocols prior to 802.11ax, such as 802.11ac, a contiguous bandwidth including four types of bandwidths—20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, and 160MHz—must be occupied during transmission. One 20MHz channel is represented as the primary 20MHz channel. If a 20MHz channel in the bandwidth is occupied by transmissions from other stations, the transmitted data bandwidth must be reduced. For example, in a contiguous 80MHz bandwidth, the first 20MHz channel is the primary 20MHz channel, but the second 20MHz channel is busy. In this case, based on the contiguous bandwidth requirement, it is possible to transmit only data on the primary 20MHz channel, in other words, the idle 40MHz channel in the 80MHz bandwidth is wasted.

[0085] To aggregate more channels and form a larger available bandwidth, the 802.11ax protocol provides a preamble puncturing transmission method that enables the aggregation of discontinuous channels. In the example above, the AP is able to allocate a 20MHz + 40MHz bandwidth, thus allowing idle channels to be utilized more effectively. Specifically, four types of transmit bandwidths are specified in the 802.11ax standard: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, and 160MHz. The preamble puncturing transmission method can only exist for the 80MHz and 160MHz bandwidths. For example, a 20MHz channel in a 160MHz bandwidth may be punctured to form a 140MHz channel.

[0086] An AP communicates with an STA. The AP may allocate resources to the STA, and the STA transmits data on the allocated resources. For example, prior to the 802.11ax standard, APs and STAs could communicate with each other using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technology. For single-user (SU) transmission or Downlink Multiple User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU MIMO) transmission, the entire bandwidth could be allocated to one STA or group of STAs. The 802.11ax standard introduced orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technology, meaning that APs and STAs can communicate with each other using OFDMA technology.

[0087] In OFDMA and MU-MIMO technologies, the spectral bandwidth is divided into several resource units (RUs) according to the WLAN protocol. For example, the bandwidth configurations supported by the 802.11ax protocol include 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, and 80+80MHz bandwidths. The difference between the 160MHz bandwidth and the 80+80MHz bandwidth is that the former is a continuous frequency band, while the two 80MHz channels in the latter can be separated; in other words, the 160MHz bandwidth formed by the two 80MHz channels is discontinuous. In the 802.11ax protocol, spectral bandwidths of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz can be classified into several types of RUs, including 26-subcarrier RUs, 52-subcarrier RUs, 106-subcarrier RUs, 242-subcarrier RUs (maximum RU in the 20 MHz bandwidth), 484-subcarrier RUs (maximum RU in the 40 MHz bandwidth), 996-subcarrier RUs (maximum RU in the 80 MHz bandwidth), and 2*996-subcarrier RUs (maximum RU in the 160 MHz bandwidth). Each RU contains consecutive subcarriers. For example, a 26-subcarrier RU contains 26 consecutive subcarrier RUs. In the following description, a 26-subcarrier RU is shown as a 26-tone RU, a 52-subcarrier RU as a 52-tone RU, and so on. The rest can be derived by analogy.

[0088] The AP can allocate resources to the STA in units of RUs and notify the STA of the allocated resources by using a physical protocol data unit (PPDU). Specifically, the AP can indicate the allocated RUs to the STA by including resource allocation information in the signal field (SIG) contained in the PPDU. For example, the signal field may be a high-efficiency signal field-B (HE-SIG-B) or an extremely high-throughput signal field (EHT-SIG).

[0089] Figure 3 shows the format of the HE-SIG B field provided by the 802.11ax protocol. HE-SIG B is divided into two parts. The first part is the common field, which includes 1 to N resource unit allocation subfields (RU Allocation subfields) and a Center 26-Tone resource unit indication field that exists when the bandwidth is 80 MHz or higher, followed by a cyclic redundancy code (CRC) used for checking and a tail subfield used for cyclic redundancy. In addition, the user-specific field has 1 to M user fields in the resource unit allocation sequence. In the M user fields, typically two user fields form a group. Each pair of user fields is followed by the CRC and the tail field. However, the last group is excluded. The last group has one or two user fields, and the user fields of the last group are represented by a dashed line. A padding field may follow the tail field of the last group of user fields.

[0090] Each resource unit assignment subfield is a resource unit assignment index, and each resource unit assignment index indicates the size and location of one or more resource units included in the 20MHz channel. A sequence of at least one station field corresponds to a resource unit assignment sequence. Each station field indicates the station information of the assigned STA in the RU included in the resource unit assignment.

[0091] The resource unit allocation index is represented by one or more 8-bit sequences, where each 8-bit corresponds to a single 20 MHz channel in the bandwidth spectrum. For example, in the 802.11ax standard, the resource unit allocation subfield table is shown in Table 1. Because the index table shows the allocated resources, it is sometimes called the resource allocation information table.

[0092] [Table 1-1]

[0093] [Table 1-2]

[0094] In Table 1, the first column represents an 8-bit sequence, and the middle columns #1 through #9 represent different resource units. The numbers in the table represent the number of subcarriers contained within the resource unit. For example, the sequence "00111y2y1y0" indicates that the entire 242-tone RU is divided into four RUs: a 52-tone RU, a 52-tone RU, a 26-tone RU, and a 106-tone RU. The quantities in the third column indicate the number of entries assigned to the same resource unit, i.e., the number of different sequences corresponding to the same resource unit allocation method. In the sequence "00111y2y1y0", when the 242-tone RU resource unit allocation method is shown, there are eight entries, y2y1y0, to further indicate the number of users in the SU / MU-MIMO transmission contained within the 106-tone RU, corresponding to users from 1 to 8. In other words, the 3-bit y2y1y0 indicates 1 to 8 users supported by the 106-tone RU. The eight entries can be considered as eight independent rows in the table. The eight rows correspond to the same resource unit allocation method, and each row corresponds to a different number of users supported by 106 tone RUs. If the permutations and combinations of resource units indicated by one resource unit allocation subfield include resource units with 106 or more subcarriers, the resource unit allocation index further indicates the number of MU MIMO users supported by resource units with 106 or more subcarriers.

[0095] It should be understood that when the bandwidth is 20 MHz, the entire bandwidth may include the entire 242-tone RU, or various combinations of 26-tone RU, 52-tone RU, and 106-tone RU. Similarly, when the bandwidth is 40 MHz, the entire bandwidth may include the entire 484-tone RU, or various combinations of 26-tone RU, 52-tone RU, 106-tone RU, and 242-tone RU. Likewise, when the bandwidth is 80 MHz, the entire bandwidth may include the entire 996-tone RU, or various combinations of 26-tone RU, 52-tone RU, 106-tone RU, 242-tone RU, and 484-tone RU. For example, an 80 MHz bandwidth may include four resource units of 242-tone RU. When the bandwidth is 160 MHz or 80+80 MHz, the entire bandwidth may be considered a replica of the subcarrier distribution of two 80 MHz channels. The total bandwidth may include the entire 2*996 tone RU, or it may include various combinations of 26 tone RU, 52 tone RU, 106 tone RU, 242 tone RU, 484 tone RU, and 996 tone RU.

[0096] Furthermore, the concept of Content Channel (CC) is introduced into the 802.11ax standard. When the bandwidth is only 20 MHz, HE-SIG-B contains only one CC, which contains one resource unit allocation subfield indicating the RU allocated within the 20 MHz bandwidth. The resource unit allocation subfield occupies 8 bits, and all possible permutations and combinations of RUs within the 20 MHz bandwidth can be indicated by using an index. For RUs with a size of 106 tones or more, the number of users in the SU / MU-MIMO transmission within the RU, or the quantity in the user information field within the RU, must also be indicated, for example, by using the characters x or y in Table 1. For further details, please refer to the 802.11ax protocol.

[0097] When the transmission bandwidth is greater than 20 MHz, the legacy preamble (L-preamble), the repeated legacy signal (RL-SIG) within the high-efficiency preamble (HE-preamble), and the HE-SIG-A field included in the PPDU are duplicated and transmitted for each 20 MHz channel, while HE-SIG B utilizes the "1212" transmission method. Specifically, HE-SIG B contains two CCs. One CC is transmitted on odd-numbered 20 MHz channels in the transmission bandwidth and contains resource allocation information for multiple odd-numbered 20 MHz channels and station information transmitted on multiple odd-numbered 20 MHz channels. The other CC is transmitted on even-numbered 20 MHz channels in the transmission bandwidth and contains resource allocation information for multiple even-numbered 20 MHz channels and station information transmitted on multiple even-numbered 20 MHz channels. It should be understood that the contents of the resource unit allocation subfield are partially displayed in each of the two CCs. The STA can determine the RU where the bandwidth spectral resources are divided by reading two CCs.

[0098] For example, Figure 4 shows the structure of HE-SIG-B when the bandwidth is 40 MHz. When the bandwidth is 40 MHz, there are two CCs, CC1 and CC2. CC1 contains a resource unit allocation subfield and a corresponding user-specific field within the range of odd-numbered 20 MHz channels (i.e., the first 20 MHz channel). CC2 contains a resource unit allocation subfield and a corresponding user-specific field within the range of even-numbered 20 MHz channels (i.e., the second 20 MHz channel).

[0099] In another example, if the bandwidth is 80 MHz, there are still two CCs, CC1 and CC2. CC1 contains a resource unit allocation subfield and a corresponding user-specific field within the range of 242 odd-numbered subcarrier RUs (i.e., the first 20 MHz channel and the third 20 MHz channel). CC2 contains a resource unit allocation subfield and a corresponding user-specific field within the range of 242 even-numbered subcarrier RUs (i.e., the second 20 MHz channel and the fourth 20 MHz channel).

[0100] Although multiple RU assignment modes are specified for the resource unit assignment subfield shown in Table 1, in OFDMA transmissions, to reduce transmit and receive complexity, in some embodiments only the assignment of one RU to a single user is supported, and the assignment of multiple RUs to a single user is not supported; in other words, the assignment of multiple consecutive or discontinuous RUs to a single user is not supported. For example, suppose there are three RUs, RU1, RU2, and RU3, respectively. The channel status of RU1 and RU3 is better than the channel status of RU2. In the ideal case, RU1 and RU3 could be assigned to the same user. However, only the assignment of either RU1 or RU3 to the same user is supported, and the assignment of both RU1 and RU3 to the same user is not supported. It can be seen that the flexibility of RU assignment is low, and spectrum utilization is also low.

[0101] To improve spectrum utilization, the next-generation protocol of 802.11ax, such as 802.11be, allows multiple consecutive or discontinuous RUs to be assigned to one or more users. In other words, SU transmission and MU-MIMO transmission are supported over multiple discontinuous RUs. SU transmission and MU-MIMO transmission are contrasted with OFDMA transmission. Therefore, in some embodiments, SU transmission and MU-MIMO transmission are sometimes collectively referred to as non-OFDMA transmission. In the case of non-OFDMA transmission, if the aforementioned resource allocation method corresponding to OFDMA transmission is still used, as bandwidth increases, more resource unit allocation subfields and more user-specific fields are required, resulting in high signaling overhead. For example, suppose a 320 MHz bandwidth exists and the 320 MHz bandwidth is assigned to 40 users. In this case, at least 16 resource unit allocation subfields and a user field corresponding to each of those at least 16 resource unit allocation subfields are required. Each resource unit allocation subfield occupies at least 8 bits. The high signaling overhead is evident.

[0102] To reduce signaling overhead, in some embodiments, allocated resources are shown to the user by utilizing an EHT PPDU. Figure 5 shows the structure of an EHT PPDU. An EHT PPDU may include three parts: a legacy preamble (L-preamble), a high-efficiency preamble (HE-preamble), and a physical layer convergence protocol service data unit (PSDU). The L-preamble includes an L-STF field, an L-LTF field, and an L-SIG field. The HE-preamble includes an RL-SIG field, a universal SIG (U-SIG) field, an ultra-high-throughput signal (EHT-SIG) field, an extremely high-throughput short training field (EHT-STF), and an extremely high-throughput long training field (EHT-LTF). The PSDU includes fields such as the data field. The U-SIG field contains two OFDM symbols, for example, U-SIG SYM1 and U-SIG SYM1 shown in Figure 5. 2The Universal Signal (U-SIG) field may include a version-independent info field, a version-dependent info field, a CRC field, and a tail field. The version-independent info field may include a 3-bit Wi-Fi version field, a 1-bit downlink / uplink field, at least a 6-bit BSS color field, and at least a 7-bit TxOP field. Furthermore, the version-independent info field may further include a bandwidth field. The version-dependent info field may include a PPDU format field, and may further include one or more fields such as modulation and coding scheme fields, spatial stream fields, and coding fields. The CRC field occupies at least 4 bits, and the tail field occupies at least 6 bits.

[0103] In possible implementations, the EHT-SIG field includes a common EHT-SIG field and a user-specific EHT-SIG field. The common EHT-SIG field may be used to carry resource allocation information assigned to the STA. The user-specific EHT-SIG field may be used to carry user information. As an example, consider the allocation of a 320MHz bandwidth. If the structure in 802.11ax is still used, the user only needs to read the contents of the primary 80MHz channel within the 320MHz bandwidth before the EHT-SIG field to know their allocated resources; in other words, information about resources allocated to all users is carried over the primary 80MHz channel, resulting in very high overhead on the primary 80MHz channel.

[0104] However, in order to further reduce overhead (for example, to shorten the length of the EHT-SIG field), it can be understood that during the discussion of the 802.11be standard, it was proposed that the entire bandwidth could be segmented based on the EHT PPDU, or that a new PPDU structure was proposed. For example, Figure 6 shows an example of a new PPDU structure. In Figure 6, an example is used where the channel bandwidth (sometimes referred to herein as the entire bandwidth or entire frequency band) for transmitting the PPDU is 320 MHz. In Figure 6, the 320 MHz bandwidth is divided into four frequency domain segments, each of which is 80 MHz, and the first 80 MHz channel can be recognized as the primary 80 MHz channel. Since each frequency domain segment is 80 MHz, in some embodiments, the frequency domain segments may also be referred to as 80 MHz segments. Based on the structure shown in Figure 6, the U-SIG field may be repeated only in each frequency domain segment (80 MHz), and different U-SIG and EHT-SIG fields may be used for different frequency domain segments. For frequency domain segments above 40 MHz, it should be understood that the EHT-SIG field in each frequency domain segment may have two or more content channels. Each frequency domain segment may only contain puncturing indications for the 80 MHz frequency domain segment within the U-SIG field. This architecture is equivalent to the overhead of the U-SIG field, and the EHT-SIG field on the original primary 80 MHz channel is allocated to four frequency domain segments, thus reducing overhead.

[0105] For example, a 320MHz bandwidth is allocated to 40 users. If the PPDU structure shown in Figure 6 is not used and the 802.11ax structure is still used, the PPDU requires at least 16 EHT-SIG fields, and the EHT-SIG fields require at least 40 user fields. In this way, the punctured 20MHz channels of the 320MHz bandwidth can be known by reading the contents of the primary 80MHz channel of the 320MHz bandwidth, and then the allocated resources can be known by reading the EHT-SIG field. However, if the PPDU structure shown in Figure 6 is used, frequency domain segmentation is performed on the 320MHz bandwidth, so each frequency domain segment (80MHz) has one primary 20MHz channel. Similarly, there are 40 users. Some users park in the first frequency domain segment of the four frequency domain segments, some users park in the second frequency domain segment, some users park in the third frequency domain segment, and some users park in the fourth frequency domain segment. Correspondingly, the U-SIG field can be repeated only in each frequency domain segment (80 MHz). Different U-SIG and EHT-SIG fields can be used for different frequency domain segments. Since the overhead of the EHT-SIG field on the original primary 80 MHz channel can be allocated to the four frequency domain segments, user fields corresponding to 40 users can similarly be transmitted within each of the four frequency domain segments. In this way, there are fewer than 40 user fields in the EHT-SIG field within each frequency domain segment, making it possible to reduce overhead. Using the aforementioned example again, if 10 users park in each frequency domain segment, the EHT-SIG field in each frequency domain segment requires only about 10 user fields. It is clear that overhead can be reduced.

[0106] Note that Figure 6 only uses examples where all frequency domain segments are the same size. However, the size of each frequency domain segment is not limited to this embodiment of the present application, and the bandwidth of each frequency domain segment can be varied. For example, a 320 MHz bandwidth may be divided into three frequency domain segments of 80 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz, respectively.

[0107] It should be understood that multiple discontinuous RUs can be formed via preamble puncturing across the entire bandwidth. Therefore, in the case of non-OFDMA transmissions, indicating to the user that the allocated resource belongs to a portion of the resources within the entire bandwidth is equivalent to indicating to the user the preamble puncturing combination states supported in non-OFDMA transmissions.

[0108] Accordingly, in some other embodiments, for an STA in a non-OFDMA transmission, the U-SIG field may indicate the bandwidth allocated to the STA, and the U-SIG field and / or the EHT-SIG field may indicate the bandwidth puncturing state. Since both the U-SIG field and the EHT-SIG field can indicate the puncturing state, in this embodiment of the application, for ease of distinction, the field located within the U-SIG field and used to carry the puncturing state is called the preamble puncturing information field A, and the field located within the EHT-SIG field and used to carry the puncturing state is called the preamble puncturing information field B. It should be understood that the preamble puncturing information field A or the preamble puncturing information field B may not only indicate the bandwidth puncturing state. From another perspective, the bandwidth puncturing state may be indicated as a resource allocated to the user. Accordingly, the preamble puncturing information field A or the preamble puncturing information field B may be considered to indicate the resource allocation state. It should be noted that the specific names of the fields used to convey the puncture state are not limited to this embodiment of the present application. In other words, in some embodiments, preamble puncture information field A and / or preamble puncture information field B may have other names. For the purposes of this specification, the fields used to convey the puncture state are referred to as preamble puncture information fields.

[0109] In possible implementations, the EHT PPDU may include preamble puncturing information fields A and B. Specifically, preamble puncturing information fields A and B indicate puncturing information in non-OFDMA transmissions (this method is sometimes referred to as puncturing indication method 1 in non-OFDMA transmissions). Preamble puncturing information field A may be used to carry puncturing information for the 80 MHz channel corresponding to each frequency domain segment in Figure 6. By reading preamble puncturing information field A, the user can learn the puncturing state of the 80 MHz channel corresponding to the frequency domain segment in which they have located, and thus complete the reading of preamble puncturing information field B in the EHT-SIG field. Preamble puncturing information field B may include the puncturing state for the entire frequency band (e.g., the puncturing state for a 320 MHz bandwidth).

[0110] For example, the preamble puncturing information field A may occupy 3 bits, which may indicate the puncturing state of the 80MHz bandwidth. For example, the 80MHz bandwidth may be divided into four 20MHz channels based on a 20MHz granularity. Puncture in the 80MHz bandwidth means that one or more 20MHz channels in the 80MHz bandwidth are punctured. The four 20MHz channels contained in the 80MHz bandwidth are sorted in ascending order of frequency. If none of the four 20MHz channels in the 80MHz bandwidth are punctured, this may be represented as [1 1 1 1]. 1 indicates an unpunctured state, and PPDU information is transmitted on the corresponding channel. If the first 20MHz channel in the 80MHz bandwidth is punctured, this may be represented as [x 1 1 1]. If the second 20MHz channel in the 80MHz bandwidth is punctured, this is represented as [1 x 1 1]. The remaining can be derived by analogy, and the puncturing states in the 80MHz bandwidth may be [1 1 1 1], [x 1 1 1], [1 x 1 1], [1 1 x 1], [1 1 1 x], [xx 1 1], and [1 1 xx]. It should be understood that "x" indicates a punctured state, and PPDU information is not transmitted on the corresponding channel. Naturally, in this embodiment of the present application, "x" only indicates a punctured state. In some embodiments, a punctured state may be indicated in an alternative way. For example, "0" may indicate a punctured state. For example, [1 0 1 1] indicates that a second 20MHz channel in the 80MHz bandwidth is punctured. It should be noted that the method of indicating a punctured state is not limited to this embodiment of the present application. A punctured state may be indicated by using "x" or "0", or by using another possible symbol, provided that the indication of an uncropped state and a punctured state can be distinguished.This specification uses an example that shows "x" in a punctured state.

[0111] As shown in Figure 7, note that for the entire 80 MHz bandwidth, the 80 MHz bandwidth includes a primary 20 MHz channel (represented as P20), a secondary 20 MHz channel (represented as S20), and a secondary 40 MHz channel (represented as S40). S40 is further divided into S40-L (the left 20 MHz channel within S40) and S40-R (the right 20 MHz channel within S40). The puncturing states corresponding to the 80 MHz bandwidth can be shown in Figure 7. In Figure 7(a), only S20 within the 80 MHz bandwidth is punctured. In Figures 7(b) and (c), only one 20 MHz channel within S40 within the 80 MHz bandwidth is punctured. In other words, in ascending order of frequency, the 80MHz bandwidth includes, in order, the first 20MHz channel, the second 20MHz channel, the third 20MHz channel, and the fourth 20MHz channel, and the puncturing states corresponding to the 80MHz bandwidth include the 80MHz bandwidth being unpunctured or only one 20MHz channel being punctured, in other words, the puncturing states of the 80MHz bandwidth may include [1 1 1 1], [x 1 1 1], [1 x 1 1], [1 1 x 1], and [1 1 1 x].

[0112] However, in this embodiment, the preamble puncturing information field A can be used to carry puncturing information for the 80 MHz channel corresponding to each frequency domain segment in Figure 6. In other words, the 80 MHz bandwidth in this embodiment may be a frequency domain segment instead of the entire 80 MHz bandwidth. For example, the entire bandwidth may be 160 MHz and be divided into two frequency domain segments, each of which is 80 MHz. A 40 MHz channel within the 160 MHz bandwidth may be punctured. Thus, the puncturing state of the 160 MHz bandwidth may include [xx 1 1 1 1 1 1], [1 1 xx 1 1 1 1], [1 1 1 1 xx 1 1], and [1 1 1 1 1 1 xx]. From this viewpoint, for the 80 MHz frequency domain segment, the puncturing state may further include [xx 1 1] and [1 1 xx].

[0113] In another possible implementation, the EHT PPDU includes a preamble puncturing information field A but does not include a preamble puncturing information field B. Specifically, if preamble puncturing information field A indicates puncturing information in a non-OFDMA transmission (this method is sometimes called puncturing indication method 2 in non-OFDMA transmissions), then preamble puncturing information field A may indicate possible puncturing states for the 320 MHz bandwidth and all lower bandwidths. Since preamble puncturing information field A can already indicate all supported puncturing states, preamble puncturing information field B does not need to be used for indication.

[0114] Furthermore, using the examples above, it should be understood that the 80MHz bandwidth does not need to be punctured, or that a 20MHz channel within the 80MHz bandwidth may be punctured. The puncturing states of the 80MHz bandwidth may include [1 1 1 1], [x 1 1 1], [1 x 1 1], [1 1 x 1], and [1 1 1 x].

[0115] Similarly, the 160MHz bandwidth does not need to be punctured, or the 20MHz or 40MHz channels within the 160MHz bandwidth may be punctured. If the 160MHz bandwidth is not punctured, the puncturing state of the 160MHz bandwidth may include [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1]. If a 20MHz channel is punctured, the puncturing state for the 160MHz bandwidth may include [x 1 1 1 1 1 1 1], [1 x 1 1 1 1 1 1], [1 1 x 1 1 1 1 1], [1 1 1 x 1 1 1 1], [1 1 1 1 x 1 1 1], [1 1 1 1 1 x 1 1], and [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 x]. If a 40MHz channel is punctured, the puncturing state for the 160MHz bandwidth may include [xx 1 1 1 1 1 1], [1 1 xx 1 1 1 1], [1 1 1 1 xx 1 1], and [1 1 1 1 1 1 xx].

[0116] Similarly, the 240MHz bandwidth does not need to be punctured, or the 40MHz channel or the 80MHz channel may be punctured. If the 240MHz bandwidth is not punctured, the puncturing state of the 240MHz bandwidth may include [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1]. If a 40MHz channel is punctured, the puncturing state for the 240MHz bandwidth may include [xx 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1], [1 1 xx 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1], [1 1 1 1 xx 1 1 1 1 1 1], [1 1 1 1 1 1 xx 1 1 1 1], [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 xx 1 1], and [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 xx]. If an 80MHz channel is punctured, the puncturing state for the 240MHz bandwidth may include [1 1 1 1 xxxx 1 1 1 1] and [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 xxxx].

[0117] Similarly, the 320MHz bandwidth does not need to be punctured, or the 80MHz channel or the 120MHz channel may be punctured. If the 320MHz bandwidth is not punctured, the puncturing state of the 320MHz bandwidth may include [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1]. If the 80MHz channel is punctured, the puncturing state for the 320MHz bandwidth will be [xx 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1], [1 1 xx 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1], [1 1 1 1 xx 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1], [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 xx 1 1 1 1 1 1 1], [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 xx 1 1 1 1], [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 xx 1 1 This may include ], and [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 xx]. If the 120MHz channel is punctured, 320Puncture conditions for MHz bandwidth may include [1 1 1 1 xxxx 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1], [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 xxxx 1 1 1 1], and [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 xxxx].

[0118] From the above explanation, since there are up to 16 puncturing states in each bandwidth, it can be seen that the preamble puncturing information field A occupies at least 4 bits to indicate the resource unit allocated to STA in non-OFDMA transmissions.

[0119] While the PPDU structure shown in Figure 6 allows for frequency domain partitioning across the entire bandwidth, and reduces signaling overhead by allocating the EHT-SIG field overhead to multiple frequency domain segments, there is no further solution for indicating the resources allocated to the user using the PPDU structure shown in Figure 6; in other words, there is no corresponding design solution for the EHT-SIG field.

[0120] To solve the aforementioned technical problems, embodiments of the present application provide a resource indication method. In this method, the AP can reuse fields in the U-SIG field and / or EHT-SIG field to indicate multiple consecutive or discontinuous RUs assigned to the user. Alternatively, this embodiment of the present application may be considered to provide a novel design solution for the U-SIG field and EHT-SIG field. The novel design solution can further reduce signaling overhead compared to using the 802.11ax resource unit assignment subfield to indicate resources assigned to the user.

[0121] The technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application may be applied to the scenario shown in Figure 1, and of course may be applied to other possible communication scenarios or communication systems. This is not limited to the embodiments of this application. It should be understood that the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application are implemented by a transmitting device and a receiving device. In this description, the transmitting device is also referred to as the transmitting end, and the receiving device is also referred to as the receiving end. In the following description, an example is used in which the transmitting end is an AP and the receiving end is an STA.

[0122] Figure 8 is a schematic flowchart of a resource indication method according to an embodiment of this application. This method includes the following steps:

[0123] S801: The AP generates a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth encompassing the first frequency domain segment.

[0124] S802: AP sends a PPDU, and STA receives a PPDU.

[0125] S803:STA determines the allocated resources based on preamble puncturing indication information.

[0126] When notifying each STA to transmit data, the AP should understand that it needs to notify each STA of the RUs assigned to them by the AP. In this embodiment of the present application, the first bandwidth can be the entire bandwidth, i.e., the bandwidth configuration supported by the system, e.g., 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 240 MHz, or 320 MHz. To reduce signaling overhead, in this embodiment of the present application, the frequency domain segment structure of the EHT PPDU shown in Figure 6 may be used to notify the STA of the allocated resources. In the frequency domain segment scenario, the first bandwidth is 80 MHz or greater, and the first bandwidth may be divided into one or more frequency domain segments. The number of frequency domain segments is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Specifically, the different frequency domain segments may be the same size or different. For example, a 320 MHz bandwidth may be divided into four 80 MHz frequency domain segments, or into two 80 MHz frequency domain segments and one 160 MHz frequency domain segment.

[0127] The preamble puncturing information field may indicate the resource allocation status in each frequency domain segment. It should be understood that the resource allocation status is for users parking in each frequency domain segment. In other words, the preamble puncturing information field may indicate the resource allocation status of a user in each frequency domain segment. For example, a resource unit may or may not be allocated to an STA within a frequency domain segment. If no resources are allocated to an STA within a frequency domain segment, the STA does not need to read the EHT-SIG field in the EHT PPDU, thus reducing energy consumption. Therefore, in some embodiments, the preamble puncturing information field may indicate that no resource units are allocated to a user within a frequency domain segment.

[0128] In possible implementations, the preamble puncturing information field may be carried in a field of the U-SIG field. For ease of explanation, in this embodiment of the present application, this field is referred to as the first field. The first field may be a field defined in the U-SIG field, or a field newly added in the U-SIG field. In this embodiment of the present application, the frequency domain segment structure of the EHT PPDU may still be available. Thus, the first field may be the aforementioned preamble puncturing information field A.

[0129] It should be understood that the preamble puncturing information field A may occupy multiple bits and can indicate the resource allocation status in a single frequency domain segment. For example, for an 80 MHz frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing information field A may occupy 3 bits. For frequency domain segments of 160 MHz or higher, the preamble puncturing information field A may occupy at least 3 bits. Table 2 shows what can be indicated by the preamble puncturing information field A for an 80 MHz frequency domain segment.

[0130] [Table 2]

[0131] It should be understood that the 3-bit sequence values ​​carried in preamble puncturing information field A in Table 2 represent resource allocation states. Note that Table 2 merely shows the correspondence between the 3-bit sequence values ​​and resource allocation states. The specific correspondence between the 3-bit sequence values ​​and resource allocation states is not limited to this embodiment of the present application. For example, when the 3-bit sequence is "111", it may indicate that the 80MHz frequency domain segment is not punctured (i.e., the state corresponding to [1 1 1 1]). When the 3-bit sequence is "110", it may indicate that the first 20MHz channel within the 80MHz frequency domain segment is punctured (i.e., the state corresponding to [x 1 1 1]). Examples are not listed one by one in this specification. Hereafter, we will use the correspondences shown in Table 2 as examples. In this embodiment of the present application, an entry "Resource unit not allocated" may be added to Table 2. In other words, the reserved entry in Table 2 represents "Resource unit not allocated". If no resource unit is allocated to the STA within the 80MHz frequency domain segment, "111" may be carried by utilizing the preamble puncturing information field A. Since the STA needs to read the primary 20MHz channel of the 80MHz frequency domain segment, the STA reads the U-SIG field. When the STA determines, by utilizing the preamble puncturing information field A, that no resource unit is allocated, the STA does not need to continue reading fields such as the EHT-SIG field that follows the U-SIG field, and therefore, the STA's energy consumption can be reduced. Since no resource unit is allocated to the STA, the STA naturally does not need to read the user field of the EHT-SIG field to determine the resources allocated to the STA. Alternatively, in this case, the user field in the EHT-SIG field may be considered unnecessary.Therefore, the preamble puncturing information field A indicates that no resource units have been allocated to the user within the frequency domain segment, and the EHT-SIG field does not need to include the user field, thus reducing signaling overhead as much as possible.

[0132] If the bandwidth field in the U-SIG field indicates a bandwidth of 80 MHz, then it should be understood that the preamble puncturing information field A indicates the presence of a puncturing condition. In non-OFDMA transmit mode, it is possible to have only one puncture, in other words, it is possible to puncture only one channel. If the punctured channel is already indicated by the preamble puncturing information field A, then the STA in the frequency domain segment can know the resource allocation in non-OFDMA transmit mode as indicated by the bandwidth field in the U-SIG field. However, since the remaining channels are not punctured, the preamble puncturing information field B does not need to be used for additional indication, and thus the signaling overhead is reduced as much as possible.

[0133] Naturally, if the bandwidth indicated by the bandwidth field in the U-SIG field is 80 MHz or less, the preamble puncturing information field A can indicate all puncturing conditions of the 80 MHz channel, so the preamble puncturing information field B does not need to be used for additional indication, and therefore, signaling overhead can be reduced.

[0134] If the bandwidth field in the U-SIG field indicates that the bandwidth is greater than 80 MHz, and the preamble puncturing information field A contains only the puncturing state corresponding to each 80 MHz frequency domain segment, then the STA can use the preamble puncturing information field A to know the puncturing state of the 80 MHz channel corresponding to the frequency domain segment in which the STA is located, and thus complete the reading of the preamble puncturing information field B in the EHT-SIG field on the unpunctured channel. In this case, the preamble puncturing information field may be carried by preamble puncturing information field A and preamble puncturing information field B. Preamble puncturing information field A may occupy multiple bits, and preamble puncturing information field B may also occupy multiple bits. If the puncturing state in the corresponding 80 MHz frequency domain segment, as indicated by preamble puncturing information field A, is as shown in Table 2, then the contents indicated by preamble puncturing information field B may be as shown in Table 3.

[0135] [Table 3-1]

[0136] [Table 3-2]

[0137] Table 3 may be considered the design of preamble puncturing information field B, which is used for puncturing conditions with bandwidths exceeding 80 MHz. It should be understood that puncturing conditions with bandwidths exceeding 80 MHz, such as 160 MHz, 240 MHz, or 320 MHz bandwidths, are indicated by using preamble puncturing information field A and preamble puncturing information field B. Preamble puncturing information field A indicates the puncturing condition of the frequency domain segment corresponding to the 80 MHz channel, while preamble puncturing information field B indicates the puncturing condition of the remaining frequency bands in the entire bandwidth other than that frequency domain segment.

[0138] In Table 3, for example, preamble puncturing information field A occupies 3 bits and preamble puncturing information field B occupies 4 bits. The index of preamble puncturing information field B may be considered as the value of preamble puncturing information field B. This value indicates the puncturing state of the remaining frequency band in the entire band excluding the frequency domain segment. It should be noted that Table 3 merely shows the correspondence between the puncturing state and the values ​​of preamble puncturing information field A and preamble puncturing information field B, and that the specific correspondence between the puncturing state and the values ​​of preamble puncturing information field A and preamble puncturing information field B is not limited to this embodiment of the present application. For example, if preamble puncturing information field A carries "111", it may indicate that the first 80 MHz channel in the 160 MHz bandwidth is not punctured (i.e., the state corresponding to [1 1 1 1]). If the preamble puncturing information field B carries "111", it may indicate that the second 80 MHz channel within the 160 MHz bandwidth is not punctured (i.e., the state corresponding to [1 1 1 1]). Examples are not listed one by one in this specification.

[0139] For example, the correspondence shown in Table 3 is used. For instance, if the total bandwidth is 160 MHz and includes two 80 MHz channels, and preamble puncturing information field A is [1 1 1 1], it indicates that the corresponding 80 MHz channels are not punctured. If the value of preamble puncturing information field B is 0, it indicates that the other 80 MHz channels in the 160 MHz bandwidth are also not punctured, or if the value of preamble puncturing information field B is 5, it indicates that the first 20 MHz channel and the second 20 MHz channel in the other 80 MHz channels of the 160 MHz bandwidth are punctured. It should be understood that if the value of preamble puncturing information field B is in the range of 7 to 15, preamble puncturing information field B may be reserved for other purposes.

[0140] If the preamble puncturing information field A is [x 1 1 1], [1 x 1 1], [1 1 x 1], [1 1 1 x], [xx 1 1], or [1 1 xx], i.e., indicating that the corresponding 80MHz channel is punctured, then it should be understood that only one puncture can exist across the entire bandwidth, and therefore other 80MHz channels in the 160MHz bandwidth can simply not be punctured. If the value of preamble puncturing information field B is 0, it indicates that other 80MHz channels in the 160MHz bandwidth are not punctured. If the value of preamble puncturing information field B is in the range of 1 to 15, then preamble puncturing information field B may be reserved for other purposes.

[0141] Similarly, for example, if the total bandwidth is 240 MHz and includes three 80 MHz channels, and preamble puncturing information field A is [1 1 1 1], i.e., the corresponding 80 MHz channels are not punctured. If the value of preamble puncturing information field B is 0, it indicates that the other 160 MHz channels in the 240 MHz bandwidth are also not punctured, or if the value of preamble puncturing information field B is 5, it indicates that the fifth 20 MHz channel and the sixth 20 MHz channel in the other 160 MHz channels of the 240 MHz bandwidth are punctured. It should be understood that if the value of preamble puncturing information field B is in the range of 7 to 15, preamble puncturing information field B may be reserved for other purposes.

[0142] If preamble puncturing information field A shows [xx 1 1] or [1 1 xx], meaning only the remaining 160 MHz channels of the 240 MHz bandwidth can be left unpunctured, then understand that the corresponding 80 MHz channel will be punctured. If the value of preamble puncturing information field B is 0, it indicates that the remaining 160 MHz channels of the 240 MHz bandwidth will not be punctured. If the value of preamble puncturing information field B is in the range of 1 to 15, then preamble puncturing information field B may be reserved for other purposes.

[0143] Similarly, for example, if the total bandwidth is 320 MHz and includes four 80 MHz channels, preamble puncturing information field A is [1 1 1 1], indicating that the corresponding 80 MHz channels are not punctured. If the value of preamble puncturing information field B is 0, it indicates that the other 240 MHz channels in the 320 MHz bandwidth are also not punctured, or if the value of preamble puncturing information field B is 9, it indicates that the 11th 20 MHz channel and the 12th 20 MHz channel in the other 240 MHz channels of the 320 MHz bandwidth are punctured. It should be understood that if the value of preamble puncturing information field B is in the range of 10 to 15, preamble puncturing information field B may be reserved for other purposes.

[0144] If preamble puncturing information field A shows [xx 1 1] or [1 1 xx], it is only possible that the remaining 240 MHz channels of the 320 MHz bandwidth are not punctured, so please understand that the corresponding 80 MHz channel will be punctured. If the value of preamble puncturing information field B is 0, it indicates that the remaining 240 MHz channels of the 320 MHz bandwidth are not punctured. If the value of preamble puncturing information field B is in the range of 1 to 15, preamble puncturing information field B may be reserved for other purposes.

[0145] One or more STAs may be allocated the entire bandwidth; in other words, it should be understood that the entire bandwidth is allocated to one or more STAs. When the entire bandwidth is allocated to one or more STAs, the STAs are notified of the allocated resources by utilizing the aforementioned frequency domain segment structure of the EHT PPDU shown in Figure 6, and the allocated resources must be indicated for each frequency domain segment, i.e., in the U-SIG field, and the preamble puncturing information field A corresponding to each frequency domain segment must indicate [1 1 1 1]. The overhead is clearly high. Therefore, in some embodiments, the preamble puncturing information field may indicate that the entire bandwidth (unpunctured) resource is allocated to STAs scheduled within the frequency domain segment. In this way, the STAs can determine the allocated resources by utilizing the preamble puncturing information field and the total bandwidth size indicated by the bandwidth field in the U-SIG field. Specifically, the STA to which the full bandwidth resources are allocated within a frequency domain segment can be determined by reading the user field within the user-specific field in the EHT-SIG field following the U-SIG field. Note that the scheduled STA is the STA to which the resources are allocated. For example, a frequency domain segment may have 10 STAs, and all 10 STAs read the U-SIG field. However, resources are allocated to 8 of the 10 STAs. In this case, the 8 STAs are the scheduled STAs.

[0146] In possible implementations, the preamble puncturing information field may be carried in preamble puncturing information field A within the aforementioned U-SIG field. It should be understood that preamble puncturing information field A may occupy multiple bits and may indicate resource allocation status in a single frequency domain segment. For example, for an 80 MHz frequency domain segment, preamble puncturing information field A may occupy 3 bits. For frequency domain segments above 160 MHz, preamble puncturing information field A may occupy at least 4 bits. Table 4 shows what can be indicated by preamble puncturing information field A for an 80 MHz frequency domain segment.

[0147] [Table 4]

[0148] It should be understood that the 3-bit sequence values ​​carried in preamble puncturing information field A in Table 4 represent resource allocation states. Note that Table 4 merely shows the correspondence between the 3-bit sequence values ​​and resource allocation states. The specific correspondence between the 3-bit sequence values ​​and resource allocation states is not limited to this embodiment of the present application. For example, when the 3-bit sequence is "111", it may indicate that the 80MHz frequency domain segment is not punctured (i.e., the state corresponding to [1 1 1 1]). When the 3-bit sequence is "110", it may indicate that the first 20MHz channel within the 80MHz frequency domain segment is punctured (i.e., the state corresponding to [x 1 1 1]). Examples are not listed one by one herein.

[0149] As an example, the correspondence shown in Table 4 is used. In this embodiment of the present application, the entry for "Full bandwidth (unpunctured)" is in Table 4. 4It may be added to the following. Specifically, the reserved entry in Table 4 represents that "the full bandwidth (unpunctured) resource is allocated to the user in the frequency domain segment." For example, the full bandwidth resource is 320 MHz. Specifically, the resource indicated by the bandwidth field in the U-SIG field is 320 MHz. If the full bandwidth (unpunctured) resource unit is allocated to the STA in an 80 MHz channel, "111" may be carried by utilizing the preamble puncturing information field A. With respect to the STA, if the full bandwidth resource is allocated to the STA by utilizing the preamble puncture information field A, the STA may determine that it is allocated a 320 MHz unpunctured resource by reading the bandwidth field in the U-SIG field. Specifically, an STA to which the full bandwidth resource is allocated in the frequency domain segment may be determined by reading the user field in the user-specific field in the EHT-SIG field following the U-SIG field. In this solution, the entire bandwidth (unpunctured) can be indicated for one frequency domain segment by utilizing the indication of the preamble puncturing information field A, and it is not necessary to indicate this using the preamble puncturing information field A corresponding to each frequency domain segment obtained by the entire bandwidth division, thus reducing overhead.

[0150] To further reduce signaling overhead, in some embodiments, the compression mode may be shown in the U-SIG field or the EHT-SIG field. The compression mode is specific to the common field within the EHT-SIG field, i.e., the length of the common field is shortened.

[0151] For example, some fields within a common field may be simplified, meaning the length occupied by the field is reduced, or some fields within a common field may be deleted. For example, the RU Allocation subfield within a common field may be simplified. For example, the number of RU Allocation subfields may be reduced, or RU Allocation subfields within a common field may be omitted or deleted. If a common field contains a simplified RU Allocation subfield, or does not contain a RU Allocation subfield, the corresponding EHT PPDU is the EHT PPDU in compressed mode. In other words, compressed mode means that the EHT PPDU format is a simplified version of the format. For example, the RU Allocation subfield within a common field may be simplified, or RU Allocation subfields may be omitted or even deleted. The EHT PPDU format in uncompressed mode is the unsimplified version of the format. For example, the RU Allocation subfield within a common field is not simplified. In another example, if some or all of the user fields within a common field are deleted, the corresponding EHT PPDU is also an EHT PPDU in compressed mode. It should be noted that the format of the EHT PPDU in compressed mode is simpler, thus reducing overhead.

[0152] In compression mode, for example, the RU allocation subfield is simplified or even deleted. Therefore, preamble puncturing information field A and preamble puncturing information field B must indicate the resources allocated to the STA. It should be understood that in OFDMA transmission, the resource units allocated to the STA are indicated by utilizing the RU allocation subfield, and in non-OFDMA transmission, the resources allocated to the STA may be indicated by utilizing preamble puncturing information field A and / or preamble puncturing information field B. Furthermore, non-OFDMA transmission includes the allocation of punctured non-OFDMA resource units for the entire bandwidth and the allocation of uncampured non-OFDMA resource units for the entire bandwidth. To distinguish resource allocation in some of the transmission modes described above, in this embodiment of the present application, a plurality of compression modes may be defined, and the compression mode indication field is carried in a U-SIG field or an EHT-SIG field to indicate the compression mode.

[0153] For example, in this embodiment of the present application, several modes may be defined. 1. OFDMA transmission mode, where OFDMA transmission includes resource indication of the unsimplified version of the RU allocation subfield. 2. A simplified version of OFDMA transmission mode, where OFDMA transmission includes resource indication in a simplified version of the RU allocation subfield. 3. Non-OFDMA punctured transmission mode, where, in non-OFDMA transmission, the allocated resource is a punctured resource unit of the entire bandwidth. 4. Non-OFDMA non-punctured transmission mode, where, in non-OFDMA transmission, the allocated resources are unpunctured resource units of the entire bandwidth.

[0154] It should be understood that the first transmission mode is the uncompressed mode in contrast to the other three transmission modes. In other words, the other three transmission modes are compressed modes in contrast to the first transmission mode. In some embodiments, the U-SIG field may indicate a compressed mode, specifically, the compressed mode indication field is set to the U-SIG field. The compressed mode indication field may occupy multiple bits to indicate a compressed mode (including the uncompressed and compressed modes). For example, the compressed mode indication field may occupy two bits, and the contents indicated by the compressed mode indication field may be shown in Table 5.

[0155] [Table 5]

[0156] In Table 5, one value of the compression mode indication field corresponds to one compression mode, and it should be understood that Table 5 is merely an example of the correspondence between values ​​and compression modes. The specific correspondence between the values ​​of the compression mode indication field and compression modes is not limited to this embodiment of the present application. For example, when the compression mode indication field carries "00", it may indicate that the compression mode is a non-OFDMA non-puncture transmission mode, or when the compression mode indication field carries "11", it may indicate that the compression mode is an OFDMA transmission mode. Examples are not listed one by one in this specification. Note that the 1-bit Space-time block coding (STBC) field in the HE-SIG-A field of 802.11ax is meaningful only in non-MU-MIMO transmissions, so the STBC field may be reused if a compression mode related to MU-MIMO exists. For example, a 1-bit STBC field may be used to indicate two MU-MIMO compression modes, or to be used to indicate the number of MU-MIMO users.

[0157] It should be understood that an entry for "Full Bandwidth (Unpunctured)" is added to Table 4 above. In this case, if the STA determines from the compression mode indication field that the compression mode is a non-OFDMA unpunctured transmit mode, the STA does not need to continue reading the preamble puncturing information field A, and thus energy consumption can be reduced. The reserved entry in Table 4 represents that "Full Bandwidth (Unpunctured) resources are allocated to the user within the frequency domain segment" and can also be considered a non-OFDMA unpunctured transmit mode (one compression mode). Therefore, the reserved entry in Table 4 may indicate a non-OFDMA unpunctured transmit mode or one compression mode. It should be understood that in this compression mode, the resource unit allocation subfield does not need to indicate the resource allocation status. Therefore, in the common fields within the EHT-SIG field, the number of resource unit allocation subfields may be reduced or the resource unit allocation subfield may be deleted in order to reduce signaling overhead as much as possible. It should be noted that the four modes shown in Table 5 are merely examples, and the types of compression modes are not limited to this embodiment of the present application. Reserved entries in Table 4 may represent other compression modes in some other embodiments.

[0158] Similarly, the added “No resource units allocated” entry in Table 2 (i.e., a reserved entry to be reused) may also be considered as one transmit mode or one compression mode. In other words, the absence of resource units allocated to users scheduled within a frequency domain segment may be defined as a transmit mode or a compression mode. If the reserved entry in Table 3 indicates a transmit mode or a compression mode, it may be determined that no resource units are allocated to users served within a frequency domain segment. Since no resource units are allocated to the STA, it should be understood that the STA naturally does not need to read the user field in the EHT-SIG. In other words, the user field in the EHT-SIG field is unnecessary. Therefore, in this compression mode, the EHT-SIG field does not need to contain the user field in order to reduce signaling overhead as much as possible. Note that the four modes shown in Table 5 are merely examples, and the types of compression modes are not limited to this embodiment of the present application. The reserved entry in Table 2 may indicate other compression modes in some other embodiments.

[0159] As described above, in the case of non-OFDMA transmission, in some embodiments, the preamble puncturing information field A in the U-SIG field of the EHT PPDU may indicate the resource allocation state. For example, for an 80 MHz bandwidth, the preamble puncturing information field A may occupy 3 bits, and the indicated resource allocation state includes [1 1 1 1], [x 1 1 1], [1 x 1 1], [1 1 x 1], and [1 1 1 x], i.e., five states. For a 160MHz bandwidth, the preamble puncturing information field A may occupy 4 bits, and the indicated resource allocation state is [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ], [x 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ], [1 x 1 1 1 1 1 1 ], [1 1 x 1 1 1 1 1 ], [1 1 1 x 1 1 1 1 ], [1 1 1 1 1 x 1 1 ], [1 1 1 1 1 1 x 1 ], [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 x ], [xx 1 1 1 1 1 1 ], [1 1 xx 1 1 1 1 ], and [1 1 1 1 1 1 xx], that is, including 13 states. In this case, full-bandwidth puncture indication or full-bandwidth non-puncture indication in non-OFDMA transmissions can be implemented by utilizing the preamble puncturing information field A and the bandwidth field in the U-SIG field.

[0160] If the frequency domain segment structure of the EHT PPDU shown in Figure 6 is still used, for the 80 MHz frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing information field A may indicate seven resource allocation states: [1 1 1 1], [x 1 1 1], [1 x 1 1], [1 1 x 1], [1 1 1 x], [xx 1 1], and [1 1 xx]. In this case, puncturing indication for the 80 MHz channel corresponding to each frequency domain segment in OFDMA transmission can be implemented by utilizing the preamble puncturing information field A and the bandwidth field in the U-SIG field.

[0161] To minimize signaling overhead, in this embodiment of the present application, the preamble puncturing information field A may be defined so that it can be reused to indicate all puncturing conditions supported in a non-OFDMA transmission, or to indicate the puncturing conditions of the 80 MHz channel corresponding to each frequency domain segment in an OFDMA transmission. In other words, the preamble puncturing information field A may indicate all puncturing conditions supported in a non-OFDMA transmission, and may also indicate the puncturing conditions of the 80 MHz channel corresponding to each frequency domain segment in an OFDMA transmission.

[0162] In possible implementations, if the field in the U-SIG field indicates that the EHT PPDU belongs to a non-OFDMA transmission mode, then the content indicated by the preamble puncturing information field A includes the five states mentioned above, specifically, the 80MHz configuration, NonIt may be defined to indicate a punctured or uncropped configuration in an 80MHz channel (i.e., full bandwidth configuration) in OFDMA transmission. It may be defined such that when the field in the U-SIG field indicates that the EHT PPDU belongs to an OFDMA transmission mode, the content indicated by the preamble puncturing information field A includes the seven states described above, specifically, the 80MHz configuration indicates the puncturing state of the 80MHz channel corresponding to the frequency domain segment. In other words, when the bandwidth field indicates that the bandwidth is 80MHz, and the field in the U-SIG field indicates that the EHT PPDU belongs to a non-OFDMA transmission mode, the preamble puncturing information field A indicates that the 80MHz configuration is Non This indicates a punctured or punctured configuration on an 80MHz channel in OFDMA transmission. If the bandwidth field indicates that the bandwidth is 80MHz and the field in the U-SIG field indicates that the EHT PPDU belongs to the OFDMA transmission mode, then preamble puncturing information field A indicates that the 80MHz configuration indicates the puncturing state of the 80MHz channel corresponding to the frequency domain segment. Thus, for an 80MHz channel, preamble puncturing information field A has both the ability to indicate all puncturing states supported in non-OFDMA transmission and the ability to indicate the puncturing state of the 80MHz channel corresponding to the frequency domain segment in OFDMA transmission.

[0163] This solution may be understood as compatible with the aforementioned puncturing indication method 2 in non-OFDMA transmissions and can show puncturing information in 80 MHz OFDMA transmissions. For ease of understanding, Table 6 is used below as an example for explanation. Table 6 shows what is indicated by preamble puncturing information field A in U-SIG. Table 6 For example, if the total bandwidth is 80 MHz, and the preamble puncturing information field A occupies 3 bits, then...

[0164] [Table 6]

[0165] It should be understood that one value in the preamble puncturing information field A in Table 6 corresponds to one puncturing state, and Table 6 is merely an example of the correspondence between values ​​and puncturing states. The specific correspondence between values ​​in the preamble puncturing information field A and puncturing states is not limited to this embodiment of the present application. For example, if the preamble puncturing information field A carries "111", it may indicate that the 80MHz channel is not punctured (i.e., the state corresponding to [1 1 1 1]). If the preamble puncturing information field A carries "110", it may indicate that the first 20MHz channel within the 80MHz channel is punctured (i.e., the state corresponding to [x 1 1 1]). Examples are not listed one by one in this specification.

[0166] Please understand that Table 6 is used as an example. If the field in the U-SIG field indicates that the EHT PPDU belongs to a non-OFDMA transmission mode, then preamble puncturing information field A indicates the punctured or uncropped full bandwidth configuration on the 80MHz channel in non-OFDMA transmission. In this case, if, with respect to the station, it is determined based on the bandwidth field that the full bandwidth is 160MHz or greater, then the STA only needs to read the puncturing status on the 80MHz channel and does not need to read bandwidth information for channels other than the 80MHz channel. If the field in the U-SIG field indicates that the EHT PPDU belongs to an OFDMA transmission mode, then preamble puncturing information field A indicates the puncturing status of the frequency domain segment corresponding to the 80MHz channel in OFDMA transmission. It can be recognized that it has both the ability to indicate all puncturing statuses supported in non-OFDMA transmission for the entire 80MHz bandwidth and the ability to indicate the puncturing status of the 80MHz channel corresponding to the frequency domain segment in OFDMA transmission.

[0167] It should be understood that this solution is compatible with the aforementioned puncturing indication method 2 in non-OFDMA transmissions. Therefore, for bandwidths of 160 MHz or higher, preamble puncturing information field A indicates the puncturing state in non-OFDMA transmissions. In this case, it should be understood that preamble puncturing information field A occupies at least 4 bits. When preamble puncturing information field A occupies at least 4 bits, there are at least 9 reserved states for puncturing state indication in the 80 MHz frequency domain segment. In this case, preamble puncturing information field A can be reused to indicate the compression mode. In this way, the compression mode indication field does not need to be additionally set in the U-SIG field or EHT-SIG field, and therefore the signaling overhead is reduced as much as possible.

[0168] To facilitate understanding, Table 7 will be used below as an example. Table 7 shows the contents indicated by preamble puncturing information field A in the U-SIG field. In Figure 7, for example, the total bandwidth is 160 MHz or more, preamble puncturing information field A occupies 4 bits, and a compression mode, for example, compression mode 1, is used. It should be understood that there are nine reserved states for puncturing state indication of the 80 MHz frequency domain segment. Table 7 also shows the puncturing states of the 80 MHz frequency domain segment.

[0169] [Table 7]

[0170] It should be understood that one value in the preamble puncturing information field A in Table 7 corresponds to one puncturing state, and Table 7 is merely an example of the correspondence between values ​​and puncturing states. The specific correspondence between values ​​in the preamble puncturing information field A and puncturing states is not limited to this embodiment of the present application. For example, if the preamble puncturing information field A carries "1000", it may indicate that the first 20 MHz channel in the 80 MHz frequency domain segment has been punctured (i.e., the state corresponding to [x 1 1 1]). If the preamble puncturing information field A carries "1001", it may indicate that compression mode 1 is utilized and the 80 MHz frequency domain segment is not punctured (i.e., the state corresponding to [1 1 1 1]). Examples are not listed one by one in this specification.

[0171] Table 7 is used as an example. From Table 7, it can be seen that this embodiment of the present application has both the ability to indicate all puncturing conditions supported in non-OFDMA transmission and the ability to indicate the puncturing conditions of the 80 MHz channel corresponding to the frequency domain segment in OFDMA transmission. The preamble puncturing information field further indicates the compressed transmission mode in OFDMA transmission.

[0172] From Tables 6 and 7, it can be seen that in this embodiment of the present application, the preamble puncturing information field A has both the ability to indicate all puncturing conditions supported in non-OFDMA transmissions and the ability to indicate the puncturing conditions of the 80 MHz channel corresponding to the frequency domain segment in OFDMA transmissions for the entire 80 MHz bandwidth. In this case, the preamble puncturing information field A may occupy at least 3 bits. To be compatible with puncturing indications in non-OFDMA transmissions of 160 MHz or higher, the preamble puncturing information field A may occupy at least 4 bits. Thus, in some embodiments, puncturing indications in OFDMA transmissions may be separated from puncturing indications in non-OFDMA transmissions as an alternative. In other words, puncturing indications in non-OFDMA transmissions are still utilized, and it is defined that the preamble puncturing information field A occupies at least M bits, where M is 4 or greater. Puncture indication in OFDMA transmission is shown using 3 bits out of the M bits. The remaining M bits, i.e., M-3 bits, can indicate whether OFDMA transmission is in compressed or uncompressed mode.

[0173] In this case, it is important to understand that it is necessary to distinguish whether the preamble puncturing information field A indicates an OFDMA transmission or a non-OFDMA transmission. In this embodiment of the present application, the 1-bit indication information may additionally indicate whether the preamble puncturing information field A indicates an OFDMA transmission or a non-OFDMA transmission. It is important to understand that the 1-bit indication information is carried in the PPDU.

[0174] When an STA receives a PPDU from an AP, it can first use 1-bit indication information to determine whether the M-bit preamble puncturing information field A indicates an OFDMA transmission or a non-OFDMA transmission. If the M-bit preamble puncturing information field A indicates a non-OFDMA transmission, the STA can determine the puncturing state of the allocated bandwidth. If the M-bit preamble puncturing information field A indicates an OFDMA transmission, the STA can determine the puncturing state of the frequency domain segment corresponding to the 80MHz channel based on 3 of the M bits, and determine the compressed or uncompressed mode in the OFDMA transmission based on M-3 bits.

[0175] According to the resource indication method provided in this embodiment of the present application, this method provides a new U-SIG A field and a new EHT-SIG field have been designed, and fields within the U-SIG field and / or EHT-SIG field may be reused to indicate multiple consecutive or discontinuous RUs assigned to the user. Compared to using the 802.11ax resource unit assignment subfield to indicate resources assigned to the user, this can further reduce signaling overhead.

[0176] It should be noted that the resource indication method described herein utilizes the EHT PPDU segment structure to implement resource indication. In other words, the resource indication method described herein is applicable to scenarios where the entire bandwidth is divided into one or more frequency domain segments. It should be understood that the resource indication method may be further applicable to scenarios where the bandwidth is not segmented. For example, if the bandwidth of a channel for transmitting a PPDU is 320 MHz, then first the first 80 MHz channel within the 320 MHz bandwidth (i.e., the primary 80 MHz channel) may be indicated, and then the entire 320 MHz bandwidth may be indicated. However, the resource indication method described herein, i.e., the indication of the 80 MHz frequency domain segment, may still indicate the primary 80 MHz channel.

[0177] In the embodiments provided in this application, the methods provided in the embodiments of this application are described separately in terms of the AP, STA, and the interaction between the AP and STA. To implement the functions in the methods provided in the embodiments of this application, each of the AP and STA includes a hardware structure and / or a software module, and the functions described above can be implemented in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a combination of a hardware structure and a software module.

[0178] Referring to the attached drawings, a communication device configured to implement the method described above in the embodiments of this application will be described below. Accordingly, the above description may be used in subsequent embodiments, and repeated descriptions will not be explained again.

[0179] Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the communication device 900. The communication device 900 can, accordingly, perform functions or steps implemented by the transmitting end, e.g., AP, or the receiving end, e.g., STA, in embodiments of the method described above. The communication device may include a transceiver module 910 and a processing module 920. Optionally, the communication device may further include a storage unit. The storage unit may be configured to store instructions (code or program) and / or data. The transceiver module 910 and the processing module 920 may be coupled to the storage unit. For example, the processing module 920 may read instructions (code or program) and / or data in the storage unit and implement the corresponding method. The aforementioned units may be arranged independently or partially or completely integrated. For example, the transceiver module 910 may be integrated with the transmitting unit and the receiving unit.

[0180] In some possible implementations, the communication device 900 can implement the behavior and functions of the STA corresponding to the method embodiments described above. For example, the communication device 900 may be the STA, or a component (e.g., a chip or circuit) used in the STA. The transceiver module 910 may be configured to perform all the receiving or transmitting operations performed by the STA in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, e.g., S802 in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, and / or to support other processing of the technology described herein. The processing module 920 may be configured to perform all the operations performed by the STA in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, e.g., S803 in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, except for the transmitting and receiving operations, and / or to support other processing of the technology described herein.

[0181] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module 910 is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU containing preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth encompassing the first frequency domain segment. The processing module 920 is configured to determine the allocated resources based on preamble puncturing indication information.

[0182] In optional implementations, the preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0183] In the optional implementation, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, and the first preamble puncturing information field is located in the U-SIG field.

[0184] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module 910 is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU containing preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that no resource units are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment, and the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU includes the first frequency domain segment. The processing module 920 is configured to determine the allocated resources based on preamble puncturing indication information.

[0185] In optional implementations, the preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0186] In the optional implementation, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, and the first preamble puncturing information field is located in the U-SIG field.

[0187] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module 910 is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU containing preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, wherein when the PPDU is in OFMDA transmit mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a punctured or punctured configuration of a first bandwidth having a bandwidth of 80 MHz, or when the PPDU is in non-OFMDA transmit mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a puncturing state of an 80 MHz channel corresponding to the first frequency domain segment. The processing module 920 is configured to determine the allocated resources based on preamble puncturing indication information and bandwidth fields.

[0188] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module 910 is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU containing preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information being carried in a first preamble puncturing information field and a second preamble puncturing information field, the first preamble puncturing information field located in the U-SIG field, the second preamble puncturing information field located in the EHT-SIG field, the first preamble puncturing information field indicating the puncturing state of the first frequency domain segment or indicating that the entire bandwidth is not punctured, and the second preamble puncturing information field indicating the puncturing state of the remaining frequency domain segments in the first bandwidth other than the first frequency domain segment. The processing module 920 is configured to determine the allocated resources based on preamble puncturing indication information and bandwidth fields.

[0189] In some possible implementations, the communication device 900 can implement the behavior and functions of the STA corresponding to the method embodiments described above. For example, the communication device 900 may be an AP, or a component (e.g., a chip or circuit) used in the AP. The transceiver module 910 may be configured to perform all the receiving or transmitting operations performed by the AP in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, e.g., S802 in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, and / or to support other processing of the technology described herein. The processing module 920 may be configured to perform all operations performed by the AP in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, e.g., S801 in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, excluding the transmitting and receiving operations, and / or to support other processing of the technology described herein.

[0190] For example, the processing module 920 is configured to generate a PPDU, the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being a channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth encompassing the first frequency domain segment. The transceiver module 910 is configured to transmit PPDU.

[0191] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0192] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, which is located in the U-SIG field.

[0193] In another example, processing module 920 is configured to generate a PPDU, which includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that no resource units are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment, and the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU includes the first frequency domain segment. The transceiver module 910 is configured to transmit PPDU.

[0194] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information further indicates the compression mode, where the length of the PPDU in compression mode is shorter than the length of the PPDU in uncompressed mode, the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with user fields or resource unit allocation subfields omitted, or the PPDU in compression mode is a PPDU with simplified resource unit allocation subfields.

[0195] In possible implementations, preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, which is located in the U-SIG field.

[0196] For example, the transceiver module 910 is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, and when the PPDU is in OFMDA transmit mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates a punctured or punctured configuration of a first bandwidth having a bandwidth of 80 MHz, or when the PPDU is in non-OFMDA transmit mode, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates the puncturing state of an 80 MHz channel corresponding to the first frequency domain segment. The processing module 920 is configured to determine the allocated resources based on preamble puncturing indication information and bandwidth fields.

[0197] For example, the transceiver module 910 is configured to receive a PPDU from an access point, the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field and a second preamble puncturing information field, the first preamble puncturing information field is located in the U-SIG field, the second preamble puncturing information field is located in the EHT-SIG field, the first preamble puncturing information field indicates the puncturing state of the first frequency domain segment or indicates that the entire bandwidth is not punctured, the second preamble puncturing information field indicates the puncturing state of the remaining frequency domain segment in the first bandwidth other than the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth is the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth includes the first frequency domain segment. The processing module 920 is configured to determine the allocated resources based on preamble puncturing indication information.

[0198] Figure 10 shows a communication device 1000 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 1000 may be an STA and can implement the functions of an STA in the method provided in the embodiment of the present application. Alternatively, the communication device 1000 may be an AP and can implement the functions of an AP in the embodiment of the present application. Alternatively, the communication device 1000 may be a device that can support an STA when implementing the corresponding functions in the method provided in the embodiment of the present application. Alternatively, the communication device 1000 may be a device that can support an AP when implementing the corresponding functions in the method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The communication device 1000 may be a chip system. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may include a chip, or include a chip and other discrete components.

[0199] In some embodiments, the communication device 1000 may include a communication interface 1010 configured to communicate with another device via a transmission medium, thereby enabling a device used by the communication device 1000 to communicate with another device. For example, when the communication device is an STA, the other device is an AP, or when the communication device is an AP, the other device is an STA. The communication interface 1010 may specifically be a transceiver. In a hardware implementation, the communication interface 1010 may be a transceiver, and the transceiver is integrated into the communication device 1000 to form the communication interface 1010.

[0200] The communication device 1000 further includes at least one processor 1020. The processor 1020 may transmit and receive data via the communication interface 1010 to implement the functions of an STA or AP, or to support the communication device 1000 when implementing the functions of an STA or AP in the method provided in the embodiments of this application. For example, the communication device 1000 may correspondingly implement the behavior and functions of an STA in the method embodiments described above.

[0201] The communication interface 1010 may be configured to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the STA in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, for example, S802 in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, and / or to support other processing of the technology described herein. At least one processor 1020 may be configured to perform all operations performed by the STA in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, except for transmitting and receiving operations, for example, S803 in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, and / or to support other processing of the technology described herein.

[0202] For example, the communication device 1000 can implement the behavior and functions of the AP corresponding to the method embodiment described above. The communication interface 1010 may be configured to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the AP in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, for example, S802 in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, and / or to support other processing of the technology described herein. At least one processor 1020 may be configured to perform all operations performed by the AP in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, except for the transmitting and receiving operations, for example, S801 in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, and / or to support other processing of the technology described herein.

[0203] In some other embodiments, the communication device 1000 may further include at least one memory 1030 configured to store program instructions and / or data. The memory 1030 is coupled to the processor 1020. The coupling in this embodiment of the application is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units, or modules, which may be in an electrical, mechanical, or other form, and is used for information exchange between devices, units, or modules. The processor 1020 may operate in cooperation with the memory 1030. The processor 1020 may execute program instructions and / or data stored in the memory 1030 so that the communication device 1000 implements the corresponding method. At least one memory may be included in the processor.

[0204] The specific connection medium between the communication interface 1010, the processor 1020, and the memory 1030 is not limited to this embodiment of the present application. In this embodiment of the present application, in Figure 10, the memory 1030, the processor 1020, and the communication interface 1010 are connected via a bus 1040. The bus is represented by a thick line in Figure 10. The connection methods between other components are merely illustrative examples and are not limited thereto. Buses can be classified as address buses, data buses, control buses, etc. For ease of representation, only one thick line is used to represent the bus in Figure 10, but this does not mean that only one bus or only one type of bus exists.

[0205] In this embodiment of the present application, the processor 1020 may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field-programmable gate array, or another programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component that can implement or carry out the methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor, etc. The steps of the methods disclosed with reference to the embodiments of the present application may be carried out and completed directly by the hardware processor or by a combination of hardware and software modules within the processor.

[0206] In this embodiment of the present application, the memory 1030 is a non-volatile memory, such as a hard disk drive. ( HDD or solid state drive (This may be an SSD, or volatile memory, such as random-access memory (RAM). Memory is any other medium that can carry or store expected program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to such other medium. Memory in this embodiment of the application may, alternatively, be a circuit or any other device that can implement a storage function and is configured to store program instructions and / or data.

[0207] It should be noted that the communication device in the above-described embodiment may be an STA, AP, or circuit, or a chip used in an STA or AP, or another combination of devices or components having the functions of the aforementioned STA or AP. When the communication device is an STA or AP, the transceiver module 910 may be a transceiver and may include an antenna and a radio frequency circuit. The processing module may be a processor, for example, a central processing unit (CPU). When the communication device is a component having the functions of the aforementioned STA or AP, the transceiver module 910 may be a radio frequency unit, and the processing module may be a processor. When the communication device is a chip system, the transceiver module 910 may be an input / output interface of the chip system, and the processing module may be the processor of the chip system.

[0208] In possible product configurations, the AP and STA in the embodiments of this application may be implemented by utilizing, instead, one or more FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), PLDs (programmable logic devices), controllers, state machines, gate logic, discrete hardware components, any other suitable circuitry, or any combination of circuits capable of performing the various functions described herein.

[0209] Please understand that the AP in the aforementioned product form has any of the functions of the AP in the aforementioned method embodiment, and that the details will not be explained again here, and that the STA in the aforementioned product form has any of the functions of the STA in the aforementioned method embodiment, and that the details will not be explained again here.

[0210] Embodiments of this application further provide a communication system. Specifically, the communication system may include an STA and an AP, or may include more APs and access network devices. For example, the communication system includes an STA and an AP configured to implement the associated functions shown in Figure 6 or Figure 9.

[0211] The AP is configured to implement the functions of the network components associated with Figure 8. The STA is configured to implement the functions of the STA associated with Figure 8. For example, the STA may implement 802 and S803 in the embodiment shown in Figure 8, and the AP may implement S801 and S802 in the embodiment shown in Figure 8.

[0212] Embodiments of this application further provide a computer-readable storage medium containing instructions. When the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is enabled to carry out the method performed by AP or STA in Figure 8.

[0213] Embodiments of this application further provide a computer program product including computer program code. When the computer program code is executed on a computer, the computer is enabled to perform the method performed by AP or STA in Figure 8.

[0214] Embodiments of this application provide a chip system. The chip system includes a processor, which may further include memory, and is configured to implement the AP or STA functions in the aforementioned method. The chip system may include a chip, or a chip and another discrete component.

[0215] Embodiments of this application further provide a communication device including a processor and an interface. The processor is in any one of the method embodiments described above. Resource Indication It is configured to implement the method.

[0216] It should be understood that communication devices can be chips. Processors may be implemented using hardware or using software. When a processor is implemented using hardware, it may be a logic circuit or integrated circuit, etc., or when a processor is implemented using software, it may be a general-purpose processor, implemented by reading software code stored in memory. Memory may be integrated into the processor or may exist independently outside the processor.

[0217] The methods provided in the embodiments of this application may be implemented in whole or in part by utilizing software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. If software is used to implement the embodiments, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. A computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the procedures or functions according to the embodiments of the present invention are generated. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device, or another programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another. For example, computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by wired means (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, or digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless means (e.g., infrared, radio, or microwave). Computer-readable storage media may be any available media accessible by a computer, or a data storage device such as a server or data center that integrates one or more available media. Available media may be magnetic media (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks, or magnetic tapes), optical media (e.g., digital video discs (DVDs)), or semiconductor media (e.g., SSDs).

[0218] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to this application without departing from its scope. Thus, this application is intended to encompass such modifications and variations, provided that they fall within the scope of protection provided by the claims of this application and its equivalent art.

Claims

1. A resource indication method, A step of generating a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) by an access point, wherein the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being a channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth including the first frequency domain segment, The access point transmits the PPDU. Methods that include...

2. The preamble puncturing indication information further indicates a compression mode, wherein the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the user field or resource unit allocation subfield is omitted, or the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the resource unit allocation subfield is simplified. The method according to claim 1.

3. The preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, and the first preamble puncturing information field is located in the universal field U-SIG field. The method according to claim 1 or 2.

4. A resource indication method, A station receives a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) generated by an access point, the PPDU comprising preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being a channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth comprising the first frequency domain segment. The station then performs the steps of determining the allocated resources based on the preamble puncturing indication information. Resource indication methods, including those mentioned above.

5. The preamble puncturing indication information further indicates a compression mode, wherein the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the user field or resource unit allocation subfield is omitted, or the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the resource unit allocation subfield is simplified. The method according to claim 4.

6. The preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, and the first preamble puncturing information field is located in the universal field U-SIG field. The method according to claim 4 or 5.

7. A resource indication method, A step of generating a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) by an access point, wherein the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that no resource units are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment, and the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU includes the first frequency domain segment, and The access point transmits the PPDU. Resource indication methods, including those mentioned above.

8. The preamble puncturing indication information further indicates a compression mode, wherein the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the user field or resource unit allocation subfield is omitted, or the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the resource unit allocation subfield is simplified. The method according to claim 7.

9. A resource indication method, A station receives a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) generated by an access point, wherein the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates that no resource units are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment, and the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU includes the first frequency domain segment. The station performs the step of determining unallocated resources based on the preamble puncturing indication information. Resource indication methods, including those mentioned above.

10. The preamble puncturing indication information further indicates a compression mode, wherein the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the user field or resource unit allocation subfield is omitted, or the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the resource unit allocation subfield is simplified. The method according to claim 9.

11. An access point, wherein the access point is equipped with a communication device, and the communication device is A processor configured to generate a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), the PPDU comprising preamble puncturing indication information to be transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicating that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being a channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth comprising the first frequency domain segment, A transceiver configured to transmit the PPDU and An access point equipped with the following features.

12. The preamble puncturing indication information further indicates a compression mode, wherein the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the user field or resource unit allocation subfield is omitted, or the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the resource unit allocation subfield is simplified. The access point according to claim 11.

13. The access point according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, and the first preamble puncturing information field is located in a universal field U-SIG field.

14. A station, wherein the station is equipped with a communication device, and the communication device is A transceiver configured to receive a Physical Layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) from an access point, wherein the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates that a first bandwidth is allocated to a scheduled user within the first frequency domain segment, the first bandwidth being a channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU, and the first bandwidth including the first frequency domain segment, A processor configured to determine the allocated resources based on the preamble puncturing indication information. A station equipped with these features.

15. The preamble puncturing indication information further indicates a compression mode, wherein the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the user field or resource unit allocation subfield is omitted, or the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the resource unit allocation subfield is simplified. The station according to claim 14.

16. The preamble puncturing indication information is carried in a first preamble puncturing information field, and the first preamble puncturing information field is located in the universal field U-SIG field. The station according to claim 14 or 15.

17. An access point, wherein the access point is equipped with a communication device, and the communication device is A processor configured to generate a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), wherein the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates that no resource units are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment, and the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU includes the first frequency domain segment. A transceiver configured to transmit the PPDU and An access point equipped with the following features.

18. The preamble puncturing indication information further indicates a compression mode, wherein the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the user field or resource unit allocation subfield is omitted, or the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the resource unit allocation subfield is simplified. The station according to claim 17.

19. A station, wherein the station is equipped with a communication device, and the communication device is A transceiver configured to receive a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from an access point, wherein the PPDU includes preamble puncturing indication information transmitted within a first frequency domain segment, the preamble puncturing indication information indicates that no resource units are allocated to the user within the first frequency domain segment, and the channel bandwidth for transmitting the PPDU includes the first frequency domain segment. A processor configured to determine unallocated resources based on the aforementioned preamble puncturing indication information. A station equipped with these features.

20. The preamble puncturing indication information further indicates a compression mode, wherein the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the user field or resource unit allocation subfield is omitted, or the PPDU in the compression mode is a PPDU in which the resource unit allocation subfield is simplified. The station according to claim 19.

21. A chip comprising at least one processor and an interface, wherein the processor is configured to read and execute instructions stored in memory, and when the instructions are executed, the chip is capable of carrying out the method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, 4 to 6, 7 and 8, or 9 and 10.

22. A computer-readable storage medium, the computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program, the computer program including program instructions, and when the program instructions are executed by a computer, the computer is able to carry out the method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, 4 to 6, 7 and 8, or 9 and 10.

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