ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS (OFDMA) UPLINK HYBRID TRANSMISSION METHOD AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT

Abstract

The invention relates to the field of wireless communication, and specifically to a hybrid method of uplink transmission of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), a hybrid method of downlink transmission of OFDMA, a communication device, a chip system, a computer-readable storage medium, and a wireless communication system. This method comprises the following steps: An access point can send activation frames to schedule stations, which support different standards, to perform an OFDMA uplink transmission, where stations supporting these different standards support different bandwidth sizes.Stations receiving this trigger frame send trigger-based physical layer protocol data units (TB PPDUs) to the access point, where the TB PPDU includes uplink data from stations supporting these different standards, and stations supporting these different standards can send this uplink data by using Resource Units (RUs) located in the bandwidths respectively supported by these stations. Therefore, the channel can be fully utilized to improve frequency domain resource utilization.

Description

Orthogonal frequency division multiple access ofdma hybrid transmission method and device

[0001] The present application claims priority to the Chinese patent application No. 201910848781.2, filed on September 9, 2019, and entitled "Orthogonal frequency division multiple access ofdma hybrid transmission method and device", the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present application relates to the field of wireless communication, in particular to an orthogonal frequency division multiple access ofdma hybrid transmission method and device in a wireless communication system. BACKGROUND

[0003] With the evolution and development of wireless local area network (WLAN) communication standards from 802.11a, 802.11g, through 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, etc., the allowed transmission bandwidth and the number of space-time streams also gradually change. The 802.11a or 802.11g standard allows a transmission bandwidth of 20MHz, the 802.11n standard allows a transmission bandwidth of 20MHz or 40MHz, the 802.11ax allows a transmission bandwidth of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz or 160MHz, and the WLAN system uses a larger bandwidth to expect a higher transmission rate. The next generation standard IEEE 802.11be, known as Extremely High Throughput (EHT), will significantly improve the peak throughput as its most important technical target, and will support a bandwidth of at least 320MHz from the 160MHz of IEEE 802.11ax, so as to further improve the transmission rate.

[0004] In the 802.11ax standard, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access mechanism is introduced, and the channel supported by 802.11ax can be divided into one or more resource units (RUs) to be allocated to one or more stations for data transmission, so as to realize OFDMA transmission. With the evolution of the standard, in a basic service set of a WLAN, an access point (AP) can be associated with a station (STA) supporting 802.11be and a station supporting 802.11ax. When the access point obtains a channel, and the bandwidth of the channel is greater than the bandwidth supported by the station supporting 802.11ax, the access point cannot schedule the station supporting 802.11ax and the station supporting 802.11be to perform orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA uplink data transmission on the channel by using the OFDMA transmission mechanism of 802.11ax, or send downlink data to the station supporting 802.11ax and the station supporting 802.11be on the channel by using the OFDMA mechanism, thereby possibly causing waste of frequency domain resources.

[0005] SUMMARY

[0006] To solve the above problems, the present application provides an orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA uplink hybrid transmission method and device, which is applied to a wireless communication system, and can fully utilize the channel and improve the spectral efficiency.

[0007] In a first aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide an orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA uplink hybrid transmission method, comprising: an access point (AP) sending a trigger frame, the trigger frame being used to trigger a first station (STA) supporting a first standard to send first uplink data on a first resource unit (RU), and being used to trigger a second STA supporting a second STA to send second uplink data on a second RU; the AP receiving a trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU), the bandwidth of the TB PPDU being a second bandwidth, the TB PPDU including the first uplink data sent by the first STA in response to the trigger frame and the second uplink data sent by the second STA in response to the trigger frame; the first STA supporting a first bandwidth, the second STA supporting a second bandwidth, the second bandwidth being greater than the first bandwidth, the first RU being located in the first bandwidth, and the second RU being located in the second bandwidth. By using the scheme of the present application, the AP can fully utilize the bandwidth not supported by the first STA to communicate with the second STA, and does not need to set a guard band, so the channel can be fully utilized, and the frequency domain resource utilization rate can be improved.

[0008] In a second aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide an OFDMA uplink hybrid transmission method, applied to a second station supporting a second standard, comprising: receiving, by the second station, a trigger frame, the trigger frame being used to trigger a first STA supporting a first standard to send first uplink data on a first resource unit (RU) and to trigger a second STA to send second uplink data on a second RU; and sending, by the second station, a trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU) according to the trigger frame, the TB PPDU having a second bandwidth, and the TB PPDU including the first uplink data sent by the first STA in response to the trigger frame and the second uplink data sent by the second STA in response to the trigger frame; wherein the first STA supports a first bandwidth, the second STA supports the second bandwidth, the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth, the first RU is located in the first bandwidth, and the second RU is located in the second bandwidth. With this scheme, the second STA can fully utilize the part of bandwidth that the first STA cannot support to communicate with the AP, and no guard interval is needed, so that the channel can be fully utilized and the spectrum efficiency is improved.

[0009] In a third aspect, an apparatus is provided, which is an AP or a chip in the AP, comprising: a sending unit, a receiving unit, and a processing unit; the processing unit is configured to generate a trigger frame; the sending unit is configured to send the trigger frame, the trigger frame being used to trigger a first STA supporting a first standard to send first uplink data on a first RU and a second STA supporting a second standard to send second uplink data on a second RU; and the receiving unit is configured to receive a trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU), the TB PPDU having a second bandwidth, and the TB PPDU including the first uplink data sent by the first STA in response to the trigger frame and the second uplink data sent by the second STA in response to the trigger frame; wherein the first STA supports a first bandwidth, the second STA supports the second bandwidth, the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth, the first RU is located in the first bandwidth, and the second RU is located in the second bandwidth. The AP can fully utilize the bandwidth that the first STA does not support to communicate with the second STA, and no guard band needs to be set, so that the channel can be fully utilized and the frequency domain resource utilization is improved.

[0010] In a fourth aspect, an apparatus is provided, which is a second STA or a chip within the second STA, comprising: a sending unit, a receiving unit, and a processing unit; the receiving unit is configured to receive a trigger frame, the trigger frame being used to trigger a first STA supporting a first standard to send first uplink data on a first RU and a second STA supporting a second standard to send second uplink data on a second RU; and the processing unit is configured to control the sending unit to send a trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU) according to the trigger frame, the TB PPDU having a second bandwidth, and the TB PPDU comprising the first uplink data sent by the first STA in response to the trigger frame and the second uplink data sent by the second STA in response to the trigger frame; the first STA supports a first bandwidth, the second STA supports a second bandwidth, the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth, the first RU is located in the first bandwidth, and the second RU is located in the second bandwidth. The second STA can fully utilize the part of the bandwidth that the first STA cannot support to communicate with the AP, and no guard interval is needed, so that the channel can be fully utilized and the spectrum efficiency is improved.

[0011] In an example of any one of the first aspect to the fourth aspect, the trigger frame comprises a common information field, and the common information field comprises an uplink bandwidth field and a first reserved bit, the uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bit being jointly used to determine the second bandwidth by the second STA. Optionally, the first reserved bit comprises one bit, and when the one bit is 1, the uplink bandwidth field is used to determine the second bandwidth by the second STA. Based on this scheme, the frame format of the trigger frame does not need to be modified, no other signaling information needs to be added, both the first STA and the second STA are supported, the second STA can accurately obtain the second bandwidth, and the signaling overhead is reduced.

[0012] In an example of any one of the first aspect to the fourth aspect, the trigger frame comprises a second user information field, and the second user information field comprises a second resource unit allocation field, a second AID field, and a second reserved bit, the second AID field comprising an identifier of the second STA, and the second resource unit allocation field and the second reserved bit being jointly used to indicate the second RU. Optionally, the second reserved bit is used to indicate that the second RU is located in a primary 160 MHz channel or a secondary 160 MHz channel, and the second resource unit allocation field is used to indicate a size and a position of the second RU in the 160 MHz channel indicated by the second reserved bit. Based on this scheme, the frame format of the trigger frame does not need to be modified, no other signaling information needs to be added, both the first STA and the second STA are supported, the second STA can accurately obtain the size and the position of the second RU, and the signaling overhead is reduced.

[0013] In an example of any of the first aspect to the fourth aspect, the second AID field is set to a second AID value, indicating a plurality of consecutive RUs starting from the second RU as available random access resource units for the second STA. Optionally, the second AID value is a non-0 special AID value, such as 2044 or 2047. Based on this scheme, the second STA can accurately determine the RA-RUs for UORA.

[0014] In an example of any of the first aspect to the fourth aspect, the trigger frame includes a first trigger frame and a second trigger frame, the first trigger frame is carried on a third RU, and the second trigger frame is carried on a fourth RU of the MU PPDU; the MU PPDU includes a signaling B field, the signaling B field includes a fourth user information field corresponding to the fourth RU, and a fourth AID field in the fourth user information field is set to a non-0 special AID value, indicating that the second trigger frame is broadcast information. For example, the special AID value is any value in 2008-2044, such as 2044 or 2008. Based on this scheme, the first STA can avoid parsing two RUs, and the second STA can correctly parse the broadcast information on the fourth RU.

[0015] In an example of any of the first aspect to the fourth aspect, the TB PPDU further includes a first physical layer preamble sent by the first STA, and a second physical layer preamble sent by the second STA; an OFDM symbol in the first physical layer preamble is aligned with an OFDM symbol in the second physical layer preamble; or, the first physical layer preamble is the same as the second physical layer preamble. In this way of OFDM symbol alignment or the same transmitted physical layer preamble, the compatibility with 802.11ax stations can be better, and the reliability can be improved.

[0016] In a fifth aspect, an OFDMA downlink hybrid transmission method is provided, including: an access point (AP) sends a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), the PPDU including first downlink data of a first STA supporting a first standard and second downlink data of a second STA supporting a second standard; a bandwidth of the PPDU is a second bandwidth, the second STA supports the second bandwidth, the first STA supports a first bandwidth, and the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth; the first downlink data is carried in a first RU included in the first bandwidth, and the second downlink data is carried in a second RU included in the second bandwidth. The AP can fully utilize the bandwidth not supported by the first STA to communicate with the second STA, and does not need to set a guard band, so that the channel can be fully utilized, and the frequency domain resource utilization rate is improved.

[0017] In a sixth aspect, an OFDMA downlink hybrid transmission method is provided, comprising: a second station receiving a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), the PPDU comprising first downlink data of a first STA supporting a first standard and second downlink data of a second STA supporting a second standard; a bandwidth of the PPDU being a second bandwidth, the second STA supporting the second bandwidth, the first STA supporting a first bandwidth, the second bandwidth being greater than the first bandwidth; the second station parsing the PPDU to obtain the second downlink data; the first downlink data being carried in a first RU contained in the first bandwidth, and the second downlink data being carried in a second RU contained in the second bandwidth. With this scheme, the second STA can fully utilize the part of bandwidth that the first STA cannot support to communicate with the AP, and no guard interval is needed, so that the channel can be fully utilized and the spectrum efficiency is improved.

[0018] In one example of the fifth aspect or the sixth aspect, the PPDU further comprises a first resource indication indicating a third RU, the third RU being used for the first STA to send first acknowledgement information in response to the first downlink data, and the PPDU further comprises a second resource indication indicating a fourth RU, the fourth RU being used for the second STA to send second acknowledgement information in response to the second downlink data. The second downlink data is a second aggregated media access control protocol data unit, the second resource indication is carried in a TRS control field in the second A-MPDU, and the second resource indication comprises a resource unit allocation field and a reserved bit. Optionally, the reserved bit is used to indicate that the fourth RU is located in a primary 160 MHz channel or a secondary 160 MHz channel, and the resource unit allocation field is used to indicate a size and a location of the fourth RU in the 160 MHz channel indicated by the reserved bit.

[0019] In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, specifically, an access point (AP), which has a function of implementing the access point behavior in the above method. The function can be implemented by hardware, or by software executed by hardware. The hardware or software comprises one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

[0020] In one possible design, the access point (AP) comprises a processor configured to support the access point to perform the corresponding functions in the above method, and a transceiver configured to support the access point to communicate with the first STA and the second STA, and to send information, data packets or instructions involved in the above method to the first STA and the second STA. The access point can further comprise a memory coupled to the processor, which stores necessary program instructions and data of the access point.

[0021] In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a station having a function of implementing the second STA behavior in the method design. The function can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the function. The module can be software and / or hardware.

[0022] In a possible design, the station includes a transceiver and a processor, where the transceiver is configured to support communication between the second STA and an access point (AP), receive a trigger frame sent by the AP, and receive acknowledgement information sent by the AP, etc. The processor obtains the size and location of the RU according to the trigger frame. The station can further include a memory coupled to the processor, which stores program instructions and data necessary for the station.

[0023] In another aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a wireless communication system, which includes the AP in the above aspect, and a first STA and a second STA, where the first STA and the second STA support different standards.

[0024] In another aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip or chip system, which includes an input / output interface and a processing circuit. The input / output interface is configured to interact with information or data. The processing circuit is configured to execute instructions, so that a device in which the chip or chip system is installed implements the method in any of the above aspects.

[0025] In another aspect, the present application provides a computer readable storage medium, which stores instructions executable by one or more processors on a processing circuit. When the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer performs the method in any of the above aspects.

[0026] In another aspect, the present application provides a computer program product containing instructions, which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method in any of the above aspects.

[0027] In another aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor configured to support a device in which the chip system is installed to implement the method in any of the above aspects, for example, to generate or process data and / or information involved in the above method. In a possible design, the chip system further includes a memory configured to store program instructions and data necessary for the data sending device. The chip system can be composed of a chip, or include a chip and other discrete devices. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0028] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application, the following will briefly introduce the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments. Obviously, for those skilled in the art, other drawings can also be obtained from these drawings without any creative effort.

[0029] FIG. 1 shows a possible application scenario of an embodiment of the present application;

[0030] FIG. 2 shows a channel division in an 802.11 system;

[0031] FIG. 3 shows a hybrid transmission method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0032] FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of an OFDMA uplink hybrid transmission method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0033] FIG. 5a shows an example of an OFDMA uplink hybrid transmission method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0034] FIG. 5b shows another example of an OFDMA uplink hybrid transmission method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0035] FIG. 6 shows a frame structure of a trigger frame provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0036] FIG. 7a shows a structure of a TB PPDU provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0037] FIG. 7b shows another structure of a TB PPDU provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0038] FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of an OFDMA downlink hybrid transmission method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0039] FIG. 9 shows a structure of a TRS field provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0040] FIG. 10 shows a structure of an apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0041] FIG. 11 shows a structure of another apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0042] The scenario described in the embodiments of the present application is for more clearly illustrating the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and does not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application.

[0043] Referring to FIG. 1, a wireless local access network (WLAN) communication system 100 is shown. The communication system 100 includes an access point (AP) 105, one or more first stations (e.g., STA 101 and STA 102), and one or more second stations (STA 103 and STA 104), the first stations having a different set of capabilities than the second stations. In one example, the one or more first stations can have a first set of capabilities, the one or more second stations can have a second set of capabilities, the one or more first stations having the first set of capabilities can comply with a first standard, and the one or more second stations having the second set of capabilities can comply with a second standard. In one aspect, the second stations having the second set of capabilities can be more advanced than the first stations having the first set of capabilities, and the first stations having the first set of capabilities can be legacy devices. In one example, the second standard can be backward compatible with the first standard, e.g., the second standard can be the 802.11be standard, or a next generation or a further next generation wireless communication standard protocol of 802.11be, and the first standard can be the 802.11ax or other wireless communication standard protocol; in another aspect, the first stations having the first set of capabilities can support the first standard, and the second stations 103 having the second set of capabilities can support both the first standard and the second standard, but operate in the second standard mode, where the second standard can be backward compatible with the first standard.

[0044] An access point (e.g., AP 105) is a device with wireless communication functionality that has the ability to communicate with one or more first stations and also has the ability to communicate with one or more second stations. In one implementation, the AP 105 supports both the first standard and the second standard. The access point AP 105 can be an AP that uses the 802.11 protocol for data transmission. In one example, the plurality of stations STA are connected to the AP via Wi-Fi compliant wireless links to obtain general connectivity to the Internet or to other wide area networks. In some implementations, a STA can also be used as an AP. It can be appreciated that the number of APs and STAs in the WLAN communication system 100 described above is exemplary only and does not limit the embodiments of the present application.

[0045] As can be appreciated by those skilled in the art, in the WLAN communication system described above, the first STA and the second STA involved in the present application can also be various user terminals, user devices, access devices, subscriber stations, subscriber units, mobile stations, user agents, user equipment or other names with wireless communication functions, wherein the user terminal can include various handheld devices, vehicle-mounted devices, wearable devices, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems with wireless communication functions, as well as various forms of user equipment (UE), mobile stations (MS), terminals, terminal equipment, portable communication devices, handsets, portable computing devices, entertainment devices, game devices or systems, global positioning system devices, Internet of Things nodes in Internet of Things communication systems or any other suitable device configured to communicate over a wireless medium, etc. Here, for the sake of convenience of description, the above-mentioned devices are collectively referred to as stations or STAs.

[0046] The access point AP involved in the present application is a device deployed in a wireless communication network to provide wireless communication functions for stations, which can be used as the hub of a WLAN. The access point AP can also be a base station, a router, a gateway, a repeater, a communication server, a switch or a bridge, etc., wherein the base station can include various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations, relay stations, etc. For the sake of convenience of description, the above-mentioned devices providing wireless communication function services for stations are collectively referred to as access points or APs.

[0047] In a WLAN, a channel is usually divided into a primary channel and one or more secondary channels. In one example, if a 20MHz is used as a basic bandwidth unit, when the channel bandwidth is 20MHz, there is only one 20MHz primary channel; when the channel bandwidth is larger than 20MHz, one 20MHz channel is the primary channel, and the remaining one or more 20MHz channels are secondary channels. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, when the channel bandwidth is 320MHz, the 320MHz channel includes a 160MHz primary channel and a 160MHz secondary channel. The 320MHz channel is sequentially numbered as channel 1 to channel 16, each number representing a 20MHz channel; wherein channel 1 represents a 20MHz primary channel (P20), channel 2 represents a 20MHz secondary channel (S20), a 40MHz secondary channel (S40) includes two 20MHz sub-channels, which are channel 3 and channel 4, an 80MHz secondary channel (S80) includes four 20MHz sub-channels, which are channel 5, 6, 7, and 8, wherein channel 5 and 6, channel 6 and 7, and channel 7 and 8 are adjacent. A 160MHz primary channel includes channel 1 to 8, and a 160MHz secondary channel includes channel 9 to 16. It can be understood that the meaning of a 160MHz secondary channel is that the bandwidth of the secondary channel is 160MHz, and the meaning of a 160MHz primary channel is that the bandwidth of the primary channel is 160MHz. In the embodiments of the present application, a secondary channel can also be referred to as a secondary channel, and a 160MHz secondary channel can also be referred to as a secondary 160MHz channel.

[0048] It should be understood that the arrangement of channels 1 to 16 can be as shown in FIG. 2, or can be in other various manners, which are not limited in the present application. For the convenience of introduction, in all embodiments of the present application, channel 1 is the primary channel for the division of the channel in the WLAN. It should be noted that the 802.11 system supports various channel bandwidths, and the bandwidth can be 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz continuous bandwidth, or 80MHz+80MHz non-continuous bandwidth, or 320MHz bandwidth. In the next generation 802.11 standard, the channel bandwidth can also be other bandwidths. Optionally, the channel division method can be similar to the above-mentioned 320MHz channel, which is not described herein. Optionally, the above-mentioned 320MHz channel includes two 160MHz channels, and any one of the 160MHz channels can be divided into resource units according to the 802.11ax standard.

[0049] The first station with the first capability set supports a first bandwidth, which can be 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz or 80MHz+80MHz, the first bandwidth can be punctured or not punctured, and the first bandwidth can be divided as shown in FIG. 2. The second station with the second capability set supports a second bandwidth, which can be 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, 80MHz+80MHz, 240MHz or 320MHz or other bandwidth, the second bandwidth can be punctured or not punctured, and the second bandwidth can be divided as shown in FIG. 2. Since the second standard supported by the second station can be backward compatible with the first standard supported by the first station, the second bandwidth supported by the second station contains the first bandwidth supported by the first station, and the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth in the frequency domain. For example, the first bandwidth is 80MHz, which is the 80MHz primary channel in FIG. 2, and the second bandwidth is 160MHz, which is the 160MHz primary channel in FIG. 2; or, the first bandwidth is 80MHz, which is the 80MHz primary channel in FIG. 2, and the second bandwidth is 320MHz, which is the 320MHz channel in FIG. 2, including the 160MHz primary channel and the 160MHz secondary channel.

[0050] It should be noted that, in the present application, the first bandwidth and / or the second bandwidth can be continuous or discontinuous in the frequency domain. For example, the 160MHz channel can include two discontinuous 80MHz channels or one continuous 160MHz channel; the 240MHz channel can include one discontinuous 160MHz channel and one discontinuous 80MHz channel, or three discontinuous 80MHz channels, or one continuous 240MHz channel; and the 320MHz channel can include two discontinuous 160MHz channels, or one discontinuous 160MHz channel and two discontinuous 80MHz channels, or four discontinuous 80MHz channels, or one continuous 320MHz channel. This definition can be applied to subsequent embodiments in the present application.

[0051] 802.11ax protocol introduces Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) mechanism, and the above-mentioned channel supported by 802.11ax can be divided into one or more resource units (RUs) allocated to one or more stations for data transmission, thereby realizing OFDMA transmission. Generally, in 802.11ax, OFDMA transmission includes OFDMA uplink transmission and OFDMA downlink transmission. The OFDMA uplink transmission introduced by 802.11ax includes a scheduled uplink transmission method based on a trigger frame, and the flow thereof includes that the AP first sends a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame contains resource indication information of resource units adopted by stations scheduled for OFDMA uplink transmission. The entire trigger frame is divided into a common domain and a station-by-station domain, wherein the common domain contains common information that all STAs need to read, and the station-by-station domain contains information that each STA needs to read respectively, for example, the indication information of resource units. After the STA supporting the 802.11ax standard receives the trigger frame, it sends a high efficient trigger based physical layer protocol data unit (HE TB PPDU) based on the resource indication information carried by the trigger frame. The flow of the OFDMA downlink transmission introduced by the 802.11ax standard includes that the access point sends a downlink data packet including data of multiple stations, the data of the multiple stations is carried on the corresponding resource unit, and the station receiving the downlink data packet acquires its own data on the corresponding RU.

[0052] However, as shown in FIG. 1, in one BSS, one access point 105 can associate second stations (e.g., STA 103 and STA 104) supporting a second standard and first stations (e.g., STA 101 and STA 102) supporting a first standard. There are multiple ways to implement mixed transmission of stations supporting different standards. In a first scenario, the first standard is 802.11a / n / ac, the first stations are stations supporting 802.11a / n / ac, and the second standard is 802.11ax, the second stations are stations supporting 802.11ax. The access point obtains a channel, and the bandwidth of the channel is greater than the first bandwidth supported by the first stations. In one implementation, as shown in FIG. 3, the access point schedules the second stations using the OFDMA mechanism of 802.11ax, i.e., the AP sends a trigger frame scheduling the 11ax stations to receive data sent by the AP on the secondary channel after SIFS from the end of the trigger frame, while the AP sends data to the 11a / n / ac stations on the primary channel at the same time. The data sent by the AP to the 11ax stations and the 11a / n / ac stations uses FDMA, and a guard band is reserved between the two to prevent interference caused by signal leakage between them. However, in this implementation, there is a guard interval between the 11ax and 11a / n / ac data, which wastes spectrum. Since the 11a / n / ac stations cannot accept the uplink scheduling of the AP, this implementation can only be applied to downlink transmission.

[0053] In a second scenario, the first standard is 802.11ax, the first stations are stations supporting 802.11ax, and the second standard is 802.11be, the second stations are stations supporting 802.11be or backward compatible with 802.11be. In the second scenario, when the access point obtains a channel, and the bandwidth of the channel is greater than the first bandwidth supported by the first stations, the access point schedules the first stations for uplink data transmission or sends downlink data to the first stations using the OFDMA mechanism of 802.11ax, at most the part of the bandwidth supported by the first stations (i.e., the first bandwidth) can be used, so even if other bandwidths in the channel are idle, the second stations cannot be scheduled for data transmission using other bandwidths, resulting in underutilization of channel resources and waste of frequency domain resources. For the second scenario, for the convenience of description, in this application, stations supporting 802.11ax can be referred to as high efficiency stations (HE STA), and stations supporting 802.11be or backward compatible with 802.11be can be referred to as extremely high throughput stations (EHT STA).

[0054] The scheme of the embodiment of the present application can support different standard stations to perform OFDMA uplink transmission or downlink transmission, thereby improving channel resource utilization. For the second scenario, the scheme of the embodiment of the present application can make full use of the bandwidth that the station supporting 802.11ax cannot fully utilize to communicate with other stations, and does not need to set a protection band, so that the channel can be fully utilized, and the frequency domain resource utilization is improved.

[0055] The scheme of the embodiment will be described below in combination with more drawings. The aspects described herein can be used as part of the IEEE 802.11 protocol, especially the 802.11 protocol supporting orthogonal frequency division multiple access communication.

[0056] The embodiment provides an OFDMA uplink hybrid transmission method. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an OFDMA uplink hybrid transmission method according to the embodiment.

[0057] In S401, an access point AP sends a trigger frame, which is used to trigger a first STA supporting a first standard and a second STA supporting a second standard to perform OFDMA uplink transmission.

[0058] For example, the AP can be the AP 105 as shown in FIG. 1, the scheduled first STA can be multiple, such as the STA 101 and the STA 102 shown in FIG. 1, and the scheduled second STA can also be multiple, such as the STA 103 and the STA 104 shown in FIG. 1. For example, the access point AP supports both 802.11ax and 802.11be, the first STA supports the 802.11ax standard, which can be referred to as an HE STA, and the second STA supports the 802.11be standard, which can be referred to as an EHT STA.

[0059] Specifically, the first STA supports a first bandwidth, and the second STA supports a second bandwidth. From the frequency domain, the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth, that is, the second bandwidth includes the first bandwidth and other bandwidths. In one example, the first bandwidth is a primary 20MHz, and the second bandwidth includes the primary 20MHz channel, and the second bandwidth includes but is not limited to any one of 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, 240MHz or 320MHz; in another example, the first bandwidth is 40MHz, and the second bandwidth includes but is not limited to any one of 80MHz, 160MHz, 240MHz or 320MHz; in another example, the first bandwidth is 80MHz, and the second bandwidth includes but is not limited to any one of 160MHz, 240MHz or 320MHz; in another example, the first bandwidth is 160MHz, and the second bandwidth is 240MHz or 320MHz.

[0060] Optionally, the first standard is 802.11ax, the second standard is 802.11be, the first STA is an HE STA, and the second STA is an EHT STA. In one example, the bandwidth supported by the HE STA in this embodiment can be 160 MHz, and the bandwidth supported by the EHT STA is a channel greater than 160 MHz (for example, 320 MHz or 240 MHz). The bandwidth supported by the HE STA can also be less than 160 MHz, for example, when the associated HE STA does not support 160 MHz, then the bandwidth supported by the HE STA here can be 80 MHz, and the bandwidth supported by the EHT STA is a channel greater than 80 MHz (for example, 160 MHz or 320 MHz). For another example, when the associated HE STA of the AP is a station that only supports a 20 MHz bandwidth, then the bandwidth supported by the HE STA here is 20 MHz, and the bandwidth supported by the EHT STA is a channel greater than 20 MHz (for example, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or 320 MHz).

[0061] The first bandwidth and the second bandwidth can be divided into at least one resource unit RU according to a preset rule. Optionally, the preset rule can be a division rule specified in the 802.11ax standard. The first bandwidth includes a first RU, and the second bandwidth includes a second RU. The trigger frame is specifically used to trigger the first STA to send first uplink data on the first RU and to trigger the second STA to send second uplink data on the second RU. That is, the first STA supports the first bandwidth, and the first STA is scheduled to send the first uplink data on the first RU located in the first bandwidth. The second STA supports the second bandwidth, and the second STA is scheduled to send the second uplink data on the second RU located in the second bandwidth. There can be multiple second stations scheduled, and there can be multiple second RUs. The second RUs located in the second bandwidth include multiple cases. In a first case, multiple second RUs are also located in the first bandwidth, that is, the second STA shares the first bandwidth with the first STA. In this case, the second bandwidth is equal to the first bandwidth. In a second case, multiple second RUs are located in other bandwidths in addition to the first bandwidth, that is, when the second STA and the first STA perform OFDMA mixed transmission, different frequency bands are used. In a third case, part of the multiple second RUs are located in the first bandwidth, and the other part of the multiple second RUs are located in other bandwidths, that is, part of the second STAs perform OFDMA transmission with the first STA by sharing the first bandwidth, and the other part of the second STAs perform OFDMA transmission by using other bandwidths. For the second case and the third case described above, the second STA can fully utilize the bandwidth not supported by the first STA to communicate with the AP, thereby improving the channel utilization.

[0062] For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the first bandwidth is an 80MHz primary channel, the second bandwidth is a 160MHz primary channel, including the 80MHz primary channel and an 80MHz secondary channel, and the first RU is located in the 80MHz primary channel in the frequency domain. Alternatively, the second RU can be located in the 80MHz primary channel; alternatively, the second RU is located in the 80MHz secondary channel; alternatively, part of the second RU is located in the 80MHz primary channel and the other part of the second RU is located in the 80MHz secondary channel. For the first case, the second STA shares the 80MHz primary channel with the first STA, and for the last two cases, the second STA can fully utilize the bandwidth not supported by the first STA to communicate with the AP, thereby improving the channel utilization.

[0063] Correspondingly, S402, the first STA receives the trigger frame; and S403, the second STA receives the trigger frame.

[0064] S404, the first STA transmits, according to the trigger frame, a first uplink data responding to the trigger frame by using a TB PPDU.

[0065] The first STA transmits, according to the trigger frame, a trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit TB PPDU.

[0066] S405, the second STA transmits, according to the trigger frame, a second uplink data responding to the trigger frame by using a TB PPDU. The second STA transmits, according to the trigger frame, a trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit TB PPDU.

[0067] S406, the AP receives the TB PPDU, the bandwidth of the TB PPDU is the second bandwidth, and the TB PPDU includes the first uplink data responding to the trigger frame transmitted by the first STA and the second uplink data responding to the trigger frame transmitted by the second STA.

[0068] Alternatively, the method further includes: S407, the access point transmits first response information of the first uplink data and second response information of the second uplink data. Correspondingly, it includes: S408, the first station receives the first response information, and S409, the second station receives the second response information. In one example, the AP can use a multi-user block acknowledgement (MBA) to acknowledge the first station and the second station. Alternatively, the MBA frame is a multi-user block acknowledgement frame in the 11ax standard, and the first station can be a HE STA.

[0069] The trigger frame in S401 can include but is not limited to the following two implementation methods: Method one: using one trigger frame to trigger two types of stations respectively; Method two: using at least two trigger frames to trigger two types of stations respectively. The following will explain the two methods in detail.

[0070] Method one: using one trigger frame to trigger two types of stations.

[0071] The trigger frame sent by the AP can deceive the HE station, so that the HE station regards the trigger frame as an 802.11ax trigger frame, so that the HE station can receive and analyze the trigger frame according to the provisions of the 802.11ax standard.

[0072] In the trigger frame, not only the association identifier and resource allocation information of the HE station are included, but also the association identifier and resource allocation information of the EHT station are included, so that one trigger frame can be used to realize the scheduling of the OFDMA uplink hybrid transmission of the HE STA and the EHT STA. An example of using one trigger frame to trigger two types of stations can be shown in FIG. 5a. The trigger frame sent by the AP triggers the first STA to send the first uplink data on the first RU, and triggers the second STA to send the second uplink data on the second RU. Optionally, the AP sends the confirmation information.

[0073] In the OFDMA uplink transmission, in order to facilitate the HE STA to accurately determine the size and position in the frequency domain of the first RU used by the HE STA for uplink transmission, the HE STA also needs to determine the first bandwidth; in order to facilitate the EHT STA to determine the size and position in the frequency domain of the second RU used by the EHT STA for uplink transmission, the EHT STA also needs to determine the second bandwidth, therefore, the trigger frame needs to carry the indication information that can be used to determine the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth. In one example, the trigger frame includes a common information field, and the common information field includes an uplink bandwidth (Uplink bandwidth, UL BW) field and first reserved bits. The uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bits are jointly used by the second STA to determine the second bandwidth, and the uplink bandwidth field is used by the first STA to determine the first bandwidth alone; that is, the EHT STA can determine the second bandwidth according to the uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bits together, and the HE STA can determine the first bandwidth according to the uplink bandwidth field according to the provisions of the 802.11ax protocol. Therefore, the EHT STA can obtain the size of the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth.

[0074] The uplink bandwidth field includes 2 bits, and the first reserved bit includes 1 bit. Optionally, the first reserved bit can be the reserved bit B63 in the common information field in the trigger frame as shown in FIG. 6. Optionally, the second reserved bit can also be a newly added bit in the trigger frame, located in the resource unit allocation field, and can also be other cases, etc.

[0075] The uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bit constitute an indication of a second bandwidth, and a total of 3 bits, the correspondence between the values of the 3 bits and the size of the second bandwidth can include a plurality of ways, and the way in which the second station determines the second bandwidth includes but is not limited to:

[0076] The first implementation: according to the uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bit, the second station determines that the second bandwidth is 320MHz, which can be composed of two 160MHz channels, can also be composed of one 160MHz channel and two 80MHz channels, and can also be composed of four 80MHz channels. For example, the correspondence between the uplink bandwidth field and the reserved bit and the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth is shown in Table 1:

[0077] Table 1

[0078]

[0079] The second implementation: according to the uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bit, the second station determines that the second bandwidth is any one of the bandwidths greater than the first bandwidth, and the specific one can be specified by the standard. For example, the correspondence between the uplink bandwidth field and the reserved bit and the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth is shown in Table 2:

[0080] Table 2

[0081]

[0082] The third implementation: according to the uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bit, the second station determines that the second bandwidth is twice the first bandwidth. For example, the correspondence between the uplink bandwidth field and the reserved bit and the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth is shown in Table 3:

[0083] Table 3

[0084]

[0085] The fourth implementation: when the bandwidth indication composed of the uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bit takes the first value and the second value, it indicates that the second bandwidth is 160MHz, and when the bandwidth indication composed of the uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bit takes the third value and the fourth value, it indicates that the second bandwidth is 320MHz. For example, the correspondence between the uplink bandwidth field and the reserved bit and the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth is shown in Table 4:

[0086] Table 4

[0087]

[0088] For the above several embodiments, when the first reserved bit is 0, the bandwidth corresponding to the 4 values of the uplink bandwidth field is determined according to the existing 802.11ax protocol. When the first reserved bit is 0, the second bandwidth determined by the second station is equal to the first bandwidth, that is, the first RU allocated by the first station and the second RU allocated by the second station are both located within the bandwidth supported by the first station. The first station does not need to consider the value of the first reserved bit, but only parses the uplink bandwidth field to determine the first bandwidth according to the 802.11ax standard. It should be noted that the correspondence between the 3-bit value and the size of the second bandwidth can also include other correspondences, not limited to the several correspondences listed in the embodiments of the present application.

[0089] In order to enable the first station to obtain the size and position of the first RU, the trigger frame further includes a first user information field. The first user information field includes a first resource unit allocation field and a first association identifier (AID) field, the first AID field includes the identification of the first STA, and the first resource unit allocation field is used to indicate the first RU allocated to the first STA for OFDMA uplink transmission;

[0090] To enable the second station to acquire the size and location of the second RU, the trigger frame further comprises a second user info field, the second user info field comprising a second resource unit allocation field, a second AID field and a second reserved bit, the second AID field comprising an identification of the second STA, the second resource unit allocation field and the second reserved bit jointly used to indicate the second RU allocated to the second STA for OFDMA uplink transmission. Specifically, the second reserved bit is used to indicate that the second RU is located in the primary 160MHz channel or the secondary 160MHz channel; the second resource unit allocation field is used to indicate the size and location of the second RU in the 160MHz channel indicated by the second reserved bit. For example, for the case that the second RU is located in the primary 160MHz, the second reserved bit takes a value of 0, and for the case that the second RU is located in the secondary 160MHz channel, the second reserved bit takes a value of 1. Optionally, the second reserved bit can be the reserved bit B39 in the second user info field of the trigger frame as shown in FIG. 6. Optionally, the second reserved bit can also be a newly added bit in the trigger frame, located in the resource unit allocation field, and can also be other cases, etc. For example, the first bandwidth is the primary 80MHz, and the second bandwidth is 320MHz, the first RU is located in the primary 80MHz, and if the second RU is located in the secondary 80MHz, the second reserved bit takes a value of 0; if the second RU is located in the secondary 160MHz, the second reserved bit takes a value of 1. Of course, the correspondence between the value of the second reserved bit and the primary / secondary 160MHz channel can be exchanged.

[0091] It should be noted that the first resource unit allocation field and the second resource unit allocation field can indicate the size and location of the RU located in the 160MHz channel, and the specific indication method can refer to the 802.11ax standard. Therefore, for the parsing of the first resource unit allocation field, the HE STA can follow the provisions of the 802.11ax standard, and for the parsing of the second resource unit allocation field, the EHT STA also follows the provisions of the 802.11ax standard. That is, after receiving the trigger frame, the EHT STA determines whether the second RU is located in the primary 160MHz channel or the secondary 160MHz channel according to the second reserved bit, and then determines which RU in the 160MHz channel indicated by the second reserved bit the second RU is, i.e., determines the size and location of the second RU in the 160MHz indicated by the second reserved bit.

[0092] The method one can be used to send the trigger frame, which is compatible with the trigger frame format of 802.11ax, such as the trigger frame shown in FIG. 6, to implement the OFDMA uplink hybrid transmission, and to reduce the complexity of the second station in analyzing the trigger frame. In addition, the reserved bits in the trigger frame can be multiplexed to enable the second station to determine the second bandwidth and the size and position of the second RU, save the signaling overhead, and not change the frame structure of the trigger frame, while avoiding the situation that the first station analyzes abnormally.

[0093] Method two: at least two trigger frames are used to trigger two types of stations. For the convenience of description, the first station is taken as an HE station, and the second station is taken as an EHT station in this embodiment.

[0094] The trigger frame sent by the AP includes at least two trigger frames. That is, the AP can send at least two trigger frames through at least two RUs in a MU PPDU (multi-user PPDU, MU PPDU), such as an HE MU PPDU.

[0095] The HE MU PPDU includes an HE-SIG B (high efficiency signaling B, HE SIG B) field, which includes resource allocation information for indicating the size and position of the at least two RUs, and at least two user information fields corresponding to the at least two RUs. The at least two RUs include a third RU and a fourth RU, and the at least two trigger frames include a first trigger frame and a second trigger frame. The first trigger frame is used to trigger a STA supporting a first standard (or a STA supporting the first standard and a STA supporting a second standard), and the second trigger frame is used to trigger a STA supporting the second standard without triggering the STA supporting the first standard. The HE-SIG B field further includes a third user information field corresponding to the third RU and a fourth user information field corresponding to the fourth RU. The third RU is used to carry the first trigger frame, and the fourth RU is used to carry the second trigger frame.

[0096] After the first STA receives the MU PPDU, the resource allocation information in the HE-SIG B is analyzed to obtain the size and position of the third RU, so that the third RU is analyzed to obtain the first trigger frame. After the second STA receives the MU PPDU, the resource allocation information in the HE-SIG B is analyzed to obtain the size and position of the fourth RU, so that the fourth RU is analyzed to obtain the second trigger frame.

[0097] Since the HE station cannot parse two RUs in the current 802.11ax standard, generally, when the HE station parses the MU PPDU, it first confirms whether it is scheduled according to the HE-SIG B, and if it is confirmed to be scheduled, it parses the data on the RU corresponding to the scheduling; if it is confirmed not to be scheduled, the HE STA parses the broadcast information on the RU corresponding to the user information field with the AID field taking the value of 0 in the HE-SIG B. If two AID fields take the value of 0 in the HE-SIG B, it will exceed the parsing capability of the HE STA, thereby causing an abnormality. Therefore, in order to avoid the parsing abnormality caused by exceeding the parsing capability of the HE station as much as possible, the following methods can be used:

[0098] The first method: a special AID value that the HE station cannot understand can be used to avoid the abnormality. For example, the AP can set the fourth AID field in the fourth user information field corresponding to the fourth RU in the HE-SIG B field to a special value other than 0. Since the HE STA cannot understand the special value, the HE STA only parses the data on the third RU, and therefore will not cause a parsing abnormality. Optionally, the special value other than 0 is any one of 2008-2044, for example, 2008 or 2044.

[0099] The second method: if the AID field in the third user information field and the AID field in the fourth user information field are both set to 0 by the AP, the AP needs to carry the first trigger frame in the RU corresponding to the user information field located more forward in the two user information fields. For example, in the HE-SIG B, the third user information field is located before the fourth user information field, and the AP carries the first trigger frame on the third RU, which will not cause an abnormality. Because the HE STA will only read the broadcast information in the RU located more forward, and ignore the broadcast information in the other RUs, therefore, it will not exceed the parsing capability of the HE STA.

[0100] It should be noted that the method of using a special AID value to indicate that the second trigger frame is a broadcast frame for the EHT STA is not only applicable to the case of mixed transmission, but also applicable to the case of OFDMA uplink transmission of the EHT STA scheduled alone or other cases.

[0101] The first trigger frame and the second trigger frame can be broadcast frames or unicast frames. If both the first trigger frame and the second trigger frame are unicast frames, the third AID field in the third user information field is the AID of the first STA, and the fourth AID field in the fourth user information field is the AID of the second STA.

[0102] Figure 5b shows a flowchart of triggering mixed transmission with two trigger frames as an example, the AP sends a MU PPDU including a first trigger frame and a second trigger frame, the first trigger frame is carried in a third RU of the MU PPDU, and the second trigger frame is carried in a fourth RU of the MU PPDU, the first trigger frame is used to trigger the first STA to send first uplink data on the first RU, and the second trigger frame is used to schedule the second STA to send second uplink data on the second RU. Optionally, the first trigger frame can also trigger the second STA to send uplink data on other RUs within the first bandwidth.

[0103] The first trigger frame can adopt a trigger frame format supported by the 802.11ax standard, such as the trigger frame shown in Figure 6, and the first trigger frame can include the first user information field (including the first AID field and the first resource unit allocation field), the functions of the fields in the first user information field can be referred to the description in Method 1. Optionally, the second trigger frame can adopt a trigger frame format supported by the 802.11ax standard, such as the trigger frame shown in Figure 6, or a new trigger frame format, such as a trigger frame format supported by the 802.11be standard, and the second trigger frame can include a second user information field (including a second AID field and a second resource unit allocation field), the functions of the fields in the second user information field can be referred to the description in Method 1.

[0104] The trigger frame is sent in the manner of Method 2, which can more flexibly schedule the first STA and the second STA.

[0105] In the case where the trigger frame is used to trigger uplink OFDMA-based random access (UL OFDMA-based random access, UORA), a user information field includes an association identifier (association identifier, AID) field, a resource unit allocation (RU Allocation) field, and a random access resource unit information (RA-RU information) field. A special AID value can be used to indicate a plurality of continuous RUs starting from the RU indicated by the resource unit allocation field as random access resource units (random access resource units, RA-RUs) for random access by a station. The Number Of RA-RU field in the RA-RU information is used to indicate the number of continuous RA-RUs. For the first station and the second station, different special AID values can be used to indicate the RA-RUs for random access by the first station and the second station, respectively.

[0106] In one example, the AID field is set to a first AID value (e.g., 0 or 2045) to indicate that multiple RA-RUs are available for random access by the first STA (or the first STA and the second STA). Optionally, the first stations can include associated and unassociated first stations, and the first AID value = 0 indicates that the RA-RUs are available for associated first stations, and the first AID value = 2045 indicates that the RA-RUs are available for unassociated first stations.

[0107] The AID field is set to a second AID value (e.g., 2044 or 2047) to indicate that multiple RA-RUs are available for random access by the second STA. Optionally, the second stations can include associated and unassociated second stations. For example, the second AID value = 2044 indicates that the RA-RUs are available for associated second stations, and the second AID value = 2047 indicates that the RA-RUs are available for unassociated second stations.

[0108] It is understood that the above indication methods can be applied to the case of sending the trigger frame according to the first method and the second method, and can be applied to other cases of sending the trigger frame, and the second AID value can be other values, which are not limited by the embodiments of the present application.

[0109] Taking the first method and the second method as examples, the AP can set the value of the first AID field in the first user information field to 0 to indicate that the multiple continuous RA-RUs starting from the first RU are available for the associated first stations; the AP can set the value of the first AID field to 2045 to indicate that the multiple continuous RA-RUs starting from the first RU are available for the unassociated first stations. The AP can set the value of the second AID field in the second user information field to 2044 to indicate that the multiple continuous RA-RUs starting from the second RU are available for the associated second stations; the AP can set the value of the second AID field to 2047 to indicate that the multiple continuous RA-RUs starting from the second RU are available for the unassociated second stations.

[0110] AID field can also be referred to as AID12. Since AID12=0 and AID12=2045 are used to indicate that the RA-RUs are allocated to HE-associated stations and HE-unassociated stations, problems can occur when the initial position of the corresponding RA-RUs exceeds the range of the primary 160 MHz, or the number of RA-RUs exceeds the maximum number possible within the primary 160 MHz. After adding RA-RU indications for EHT-associated stations and unassociated stations, the associated HE stations can use the RA-RUs corresponding to a special value of AID12 (AID12=0) for UORA, and the associated EHT stations can use the RA-RUs corresponding to two special values of AID12 (AID12=0 or AID12=2044), and can perform the UORA procedure using the sum of the RA-RUs indicated by AID12=0 and AID12=2044. The unassociated HE STA can use the RA-RUs corresponding to AID12=2045 for UORA, and the unassociated EHT STA can use the RA-RUs corresponding to two special AID values (AID12=2045 and AID12=2047) for UORA, and can perform the UORA procedure using the sum of the RA-RUs indicated by AID12=2045 and AID12=2047.

[0111] The TB PPDU transmission in steps S404 and S405 is further described below.

[0112] Optionally, the TB PPDU further includes a first physical layer preamble sent by the first STA, and a second physical layer preamble sent by the second STA. In the mixed transmission, in order not to affect the analysis of the TB PPDU by other 11ax-enabled stations in the network, the physical layer preamble can be sent in the following way:

[0113] Method one: the OFDM symbols in the first physical layer preamble are aligned with the OFDM symbols in the second physical layer preamble. In particular, the first physical layer preamble is the same as the second physical layer preamble. For example, the EHT and HE stations are aligned at the boundary of each OFDM symbol in the physical layer preamble. For example, the EHT station uses the same physical layer preamble as the HE station.

[0114] Taking the first bandwidth as a 160 MHz primary channel (P160) and the second bandwidth as a 320 MHz channel (including P160 and S160) as an example, FIG. 7a shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a TB PPDU. Among them, the physical layer preamble on the first bandwidth is the same as the physical layer preamble on the second bandwidth.

[0115] Method two: In the first bandwidth range supported by the first station, the OFDM symbols in the first physical layer preamble are aligned with the OFDM symbols in the second physical layer preamble, while in the bandwidth range not supported by the first station, no limitation is made on how the second station transmits the second physical layer preamble.

[0116] For example, in the bandwidth range supported by the HE station, the boundaries of each OFDM symbol in the physical layer preamble of the EHT and HE stations are aligned, while in the bandwidth not supported by the HE station, no limitation is made on how the EHT transmits the physical preamble. A special case is that the EHT station uses the same physical layer preamble as the HE station in the bandwidth supported by the HE station. While in the bandwidth not supported by the HE station, the physical layer preamble of the EHT is used.

[0117] Taking the first bandwidth as a 160MHz primary channel (P160) and the second bandwidth as a 320MHz channel (including P160 and S160) as an example, FIG. 7b shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a TB PPDU. Among them, the physical layer preamble on the first bandwidth is the same as the physical layer preamble of the HE station. The physical layer preamble on S160 uses the physical layer preamble of the EHT station. It should be noted that the structure and fields of the physical layer preamble of the EHT station are only exemplary.

[0118] As shown in FIG. 7a or 7b, the TB PPDU first contains a legacy preamble (L-preamble), which includes a legacy short training field (L-STF), a legacy long training field (L-LTF), a legacy signal field (L-SIG), to ensure backward compatibility so that STAs of previous versions of the standard can read the legacy preamble part. In addition, a repeated L-SIG is included, which is used for automatic detection and L-SIG robustness enhancement for 802.11ax. The preamble further includes a HE-SIG-A (High Efficient Signal Field A), which carries the relevant signaling information needed to read the data. This is followed by a HE-STF (High Efficient Short Training Field) and a HE-LTF (High Efficient Long Training Field), which are used for AGC (Automatic Gain Control) and channel measurement in the MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) case, respectively. The HE-LTF field can contain multiple HE-LTF symbols, which are used for channel measurement on multiple space-time streams. Finally, there is a data (Data) part, which carries the MAC (Medium Access Control) frame.

[0119] Method three: if the first station and the second station are allocated RUs within the same 20MHz subchannel, or there is no guard interval between the two RUs that is greater than a certain threshold, then the boundaries of each OFDM symbol in the physical layer preamble of the first station and the second station are aligned; if the first station and the second station are allocated RUs within different 20MHz subchannels, and there is a guard interval between the different 20MHz subchannels that is greater than a certain threshold, then the boundaries of the OFDM symbols in the physical layer preamble of the first station and the second station can not be aligned.

[0120] For example, when the EHT station and the HE station are scheduled into the same 20MHz subchannel, or when the EHT station and the HE station are not scheduled into the same 20MHz subchannel but there is no enough guard interval reserved between the channels of the EHT station and the HE station, the boundaries of each OFDM symbol in the physical layer preamble of the EHT station and the HE station are aligned. When the EHT station and the HE station are scheduled into different 20MHz subchannels and there is enough guard interval reserved between the channels of the EHT station and the HE station, the EHT station can not maintain OFDM symbol alignment with the physical layer preamble of the HE station.

[0121] It should be noted that, based on the working principle of the transceiver, the "alignment" involved in the embodiments is substantial alignment, which does not need to be strictly limited to no time difference in the boundaries of the OFDM symbols, but only needs to satisfy that the above-mentioned processing is substantially the same in the time dimension as a whole.

[0122] The main purpose of aligning each OFDM symbol in the TB PPDU preamble is to not affect the normal parsing of other 11ax stations in the network to the TB PPDU, because 11ax is a legacy station in the scheme and its parsing method cannot be modified, so when the OFDM symbols on multiple 20MHz within the parsing bandwidth are not aligned, it cannot determine the correct OFDM symbol start time, thereby affecting the parsing of other 11ax stations, resulting in the inability to obtain the required information. Therefore, using the same way of OFDM symbol alignment or transmission of the physical layer preamble can better compatible with the 802.11ax station and improve the reliability.

[0123] The method of the embodiments of the application can support OFDMA uplink transmission of stations of different standards, the access point can fully utilize the bandwidth that cannot be fully utilized by the first station (for example, a station supporting 802.11ax), schedule the second station for OFDMA uplink transmission, and does not need to set a guard band, so the channel can be fully utilized and the frequency domain resource utilization rate is improved.

[0124] The foregoing embodiments provide an OFDMA uplink hybrid transmission method, and the embodiments of the application provide an OFDMA downlink hybrid transmission method. FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an OFDMA uplink hybrid transmission method according to an embodiment of the application.

[0125] In S801, an access point (AP) generates and sends a multi-user physical layer protocol data unit (MU PPDU) including first downlink data of a first STA supporting a first standard and second downlink data of a second STA supporting a second standard.

[0126] Exemplarily, the AP can be the AP 105 as shown in FIG. 1, the scheduled first STAs can be the STA 101 and the STA 102 as shown in FIG. 1, and the scheduled second STAs can be the STA 103 and the STA 104 as shown in FIG. 1. Exemplarily, the AP supports both 802.11ax and 802.11be, the first STAs support the 802.11ax standard and can be referred to as HE STAs, and the second STAs support the 802.11be standard and can be referred to as EHT STAs.

[0127] The first STAs support a first bandwidth, and the second STAs support a second bandwidth. In the frequency domain, the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth, that is, the second bandwidth includes the first bandwidth and other bandwidths. The descriptions of the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth for the first STAs and the second STAs have been introduced in the specification, and will not be described here again, for example, refer to S401.

[0128] The first downlink data is carried in a first RU included in the first bandwidth, and the second downlink data is carried in a second RU included in the second bandwidth. In one example, the first bandwidth is a primary 160 MHz (P160), and the second bandwidth is 320 MHz (including the primary 160 MHz (P160) and a secondary 160 MHz (S160)). The first RU is located in the primary 160 MHz (P160), and the second RU is located in the S160. Of course, a part of the second RU can be located in the P160, and another part of the second RU can be located in the S160.

[0129] Correspondingly, the first STA receives the MU PPDU, parses and obtains the first downlink data at S802, and the second STA receives the MU PPDU, parses and obtains the second downlink data at S803.

[0130] Specifically, the first STA obtains the size and the location of the first RU according to the HE SIG field in the MU PPDU, and thus parses the first downlink data on the first RU. The second STA obtains the size and the location of the second RU according to the HE SIG field in the MU PPDU, and thus parses the second downlink data on the second RU.

[0131] Optionally, the first STA sends first acknowledgement information at S804, and the second STA sends second acknowledgement information at S805. The first acknowledgement information and the second acknowledgement information can be sent in the format of a block acknowledgement (BA) frame.

[0132] The MU PPDU needs to include bandwidth indication, so that the first station determines the first bandwidth, the second station determines the second bandwidth, and thus determines the size and the location of the first RU and the size and the location of the second RU.

[0133] Taking the first station as an HE station and the second station as an EHT station as an example, since the bandwidth supported by the HE station needs to be indicated to the HE station in the MU PPDU, how the EHT station learns the bandwidth occupied by the second downlink data of the EHT station is a problem to be solved. The reserved field in the HE SIG A of the MU PPDU cannot be effectively used in the present scheme, because after the reserved field in the HE SIG A is modified, the HE station no longer interprets any other field except the TXOP and the BSS color. One implementation is that the EHT station simultaneously performs PPDU parsing on the two channels at any time. When the EHT station successfully synchronizes to a preamble of a PPDU on a pre-specified secondary channel, and at the same time synchronizes to a preamble of a PPDU on a main 20MHz channel, it is considered that the physical layer preamble information sent by the AP to the EHT station is contained in the channel containing the pre-specified secondary channel, that is, the physical layer preamble of the EHT station is contained in the bandwidth other than the first bandwidth in the second bandwidth, and the EHT station further learns the bandwidth occupied by the EHT and the RU allocation by parsing the physical layer preamble on the specified secondary channel. Another implementation is that the AP indicates the bandwidth of the EHT station in the physical layer preamble outside the bandwidth not supported by the first station, for example, the first bandwidth is P160, and the second bandwidth is 320MHz (including P160 and S160), the AP carries the bandwidth occupied by the second downlink data of the EHT station in the bandwidth field of the physical layer preamble on the S160, and further obtains the size and position of the second RU according to the EHT SIG B field, the above method can avoid that the HE station cannot normally parse the physical layer preamble, and can also enable the EHT station to accurately obtain the bandwidth occupied by itself and further obtain the RU allocation, so as to parse the second downlink data.

[0134] The SIG B of the HE station of the MU PPDU includes a content channel (CC), there are two CCs in 11ax for the MU PPDU greater than 20MHz, denoted as CC1 and CC2, CC1 is used on all odd 20MHz channels, and CC2 is used on all even 20MHz channels. For the SIG B on the subchannel not supported by the HE station, it can continue to use the design of HE, or it can be redesigned. Regardless of which way is adopted, the length of the CC on the 20MHz subchannel not supported by the HE station should be limited, and the maximum length cannot exceed the length of the CC on the 20MHz subchannel within the bandwidth supported by the HE station. The reason is that if it exceeds the length of the CC on the 20MHz subchannel within the bandwidth supported by the HE station, both CC1 and CC2 need to be padded to align the length of the SIG B on all 20MHz subchannels. But this will cause the current calculation method of calculating the HE SIG B boundary to fail, so that the HE station cannot correctly parse the end time of the HE SIG B.

[0135] The MU PPDU can include a first aggregated MAC protocol data unit (A-MPDU) carrying first downlink data and a second A-MPDU carrying second downlink data.

[0136] Optionally, the PPDU further includes a first resource indication for indicating a third RU, and the third RU is used for the first STA to send first acknowledgement information, such as a first BA, in response to the first downlink data. The PPDU further includes a second resource indication for indicating a fourth RU, and the fourth RU is used for the second STA to send second acknowledgement information, such as a second BA, in response to the second downlink data.

[0137] Optionally, for the first station, the AP can use a triggered response scheduling (TRS) control field in the first A-MPDU to allocate an uplink transmission RU for the first BA of the first A-MPDU. For the second station, the AP can use a TRS control field in the second A-MPDU to allocate an uplink transmission RU for the second BA of the second A-MPDU.

[0138] Optionally, the structure of the TRS field can be as shown in FIG. 9, the TRS field includes a resource unit allocation field, and a reserved bit B25.

[0139] Taking the first station as an HE STA and the second station as an EHT STA as an example. The RU allocation field is 8 bits as shown in FIG. 9. When the bandwidth is expanded to be greater than 160 MHz, the 8-bit RU allocation field can not be enough to indicate the multiple RUs divided from the bandwidth greater than 160 MHz, and thus more bits are needed to indicate the RUs. In the embodiment, the RUs in the bandwidth greater than 160 MHz are indicated by joint use of the reserved field B25 and the RU allocation field.

[0140] One possible way is to use the B25 to indicate whether the RU indicated in the RU Allocation field is for the primary 160 MHz channel or the secondary 160 MHz channel. Optionally, the RU division manner in the primary 160 MHz channel can be completely reused in the secondary 160 MHz channel. The RUs with a size greater than 160 MHz can be indicated by using the remaining mode (reserved value) in the current 8-bit RU allocation.

[0141] Another possible way is to combine the B25 and the 8 bits in the RU allocation into 9 bits, and use a brand-new manner to plan all the RUs in the bandwidth greater than 160 MHz.

[0142] It should be noted that the point that the RU allocation in the TRS is extended for the bandwidth greater than 160 MHz can be applied to the mixed transmission scenario, for example, the HE and EHT mixed transmission scenario, but is not limited thereto. When the non-mixed transmission scenario, for example, the EHT station uses the channel greater than 160 MHz for transmission, the method can still be used to indicate the RUs.

[0143] The embodiment of the application provides an RU indication method, which can be used to indicate the RUs in the channel greater than 160 MHz. The method is not only applicable to the mixed transmission scenario mentioned above, but also applicable to the non-mixed transmission scenario. An access point (AP) sends a frame to at least one second station, the frame including a resource unit allocation field and a reserved bit, the resource unit allocation field and the reserved bit jointly indicating RUs used by the second station to send uplink data. The resource unit is located in a second bandwidth, the second station supports the second bandwidth, and the second bandwidth can be greater than 160 MHz.

[0144] For example, the AP can be the AP 105 in FIG. 1, and the second STA can be the STA 103 and the STA 104 in FIG. 1. The second STA supports the 802.11be standard and can be referred to as an EHT STA.

[0145] In a possible implementation, the second bandwidth can be divided into resource units according to the 802.11ax standard. The second bandwidth includes a main 160 MHz and other bandwidths except the main 160 MHz, and the division of the second bandwidth can include: the front 160 MHz is divided according to the rules of the 802.11ax standard, and the other bandwidths except the main 160 MHz can also be divided according to the provisions of the 802.11ax standard.

[0146] In a possible implementation, the resource unit allocation field includes 8 bits, and the second reserved bit can include 1 bit. The B25 is used to indicate whether the RU indicated in the RU Allocation field is for the main 160 MHz channel or the secondary 160 MHz channel. Optionally, the RU division mode in the current main 160 MHz can be completely reused in the secondary 160 MHz. For the RU whose size is greater than 160 MHz, the remaining mode (reserved value) in the current 8-bit RU allocation can be used to indicate.

[0147] Another possible implementation: the B25 is combined with the 8 bits in the RU allocation into 9 bits, and a brand-new way is used to plan and indicate all the RUs in the bandwidth greater than 160 MHz.

[0148] In an implementation, the frame is a trigger frame. Specifically, an access point (AP) sends a trigger frame to at least one second station, and the trigger frame includes: the resource unit allocation field and the second reserved bit, the resource unit allocation field and the reserved bit are used to indicate resource units for the at least one second station to send uplink data. The second station sends a TB PPDU, and the TB PPDU includes uplink data carried on the resource units. The bandwidth of the TB PPDU is the second bandwidth.

[0149] Optionally, the trigger frame further includes: an uplink bandwidth field and a first reserved bit. The uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bit are used to jointly indicate the second bandwidth. The specific indication methods include but are not limited to: 1. an indication method compatible with the existing 802.11ax protocol, which can refer to the description in method one in the foregoing embodiments. 2. the 2 bits of the uplink bandwidth field and the 1 bit of the first reserved bit are combined into 3 bits, and a brand-new way is used to indicate the size of the second bandwidth, and the 8 values of the 3 bits can correspond to 8 bandwidth sizes, and the specific mapping relationship includes multiple kinds, which are not limited by the present application.

[0150] The second station receiving the trigger frame determines the size of the second bandwidth in which the RUs are located according to the uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bit, determines the size and position of the RUs for sending uplink data in combination with the resource unit allocation field and the second reserved bit, and completes the transmission of the uplink TB PPDU.

[0151] In another embodiment, the frame is an A-MPDU frame, the A-MPDU frame includes a TRS field, the TRS field includes the resource unit allocation field and the reserved bits, thereby indicating the resource unit carrying the acknowledgement information in response to the A-MPDU frame. The specific indication method can refer to the description in the foregoing embodiments, which will not be described here.

[0152] Embodiments of the present application provide a RA-RU indication method of OFDMA-based random access UORA. The method can be applied not only to the mixed transmission scenario, but also to the non-mixed transmission scenario.

[0153] The AP sends a trigger frame, the trigger frame being used to trigger the STA to perform uplink OFDMA-based random access, the trigger frame including a user information field, the user information field including an association identifier (AID) field, a resource unit allocation (RU Allocation) field and a random access resource unit information (RA-RU information) field. A special AID value can be used to indicate that a plurality of continuous RUs starting from the RU indicated by the resource unit allocation field are random access resource units (RA-RUs) for the second station to perform random access. The RA-RU information indicates the number of the plurality of continuous RUs. Exemplarily, the AP can be the AP 105 in FIG. 1, and the second STA can be the STA 103 and the STA 104 in FIG. 1. The second STA supports the 802.11be standard and can be referred to as an EHT STA.

[0154] When the AID field takes a second AID value (for example, 2044 or 2047), it indicates that the plurality of RA-RUs can be used for random access of the second STA. Optionally, the second station can include associated and unassociated second stations. For example, the second AID value 2044 can indicate that the RA-RUs can be used for the associated second station, and the second AID value 2047 can indicate that the RA-RUs can be used for the unassociated second station. Of course, the second AID value can also take other special AID values to indicate that the RA-RUs are for the associated or unassociated second station.

[0155] The second station receives the trigger frame, determines that it is scheduled to perform UORA according to the second AID value in the AID field, and can further determine whether to schedule the associated second station or the unassociated second station to perform UORA according to the AID value.

[0156] It should be noted that the schemes of the above-mentioned embodiments can be combined with each other in a logical manner.

[0157] Fig. 10 shows a possible structure of an OFDMA hybrid transmission apparatus 1000 in the above-mentioned embodiments, which can include a processor 1002, a computer readable storage medium / memory 1003, a transceiver 1004, an input device 1005, an output device 1006, and a bus 1001. The processor, the transceiver, the computer readable storage medium, etc. are connected through the bus. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific connection medium between the above-mentioned components.

[0158] In a possible implementation, the apparatus 1000 can be configured as an AP1 (e.g. AP 105) in the aforementioned WLAN communication system 100, or as a chip system or chip within an AP. The apparatus 1000 can perform the methods and steps related to the AP in any of the above-mentioned embodiments.

[0159] For example, the transceiver 1004 can be used to support the communication between the AP and one or more first STAs in the above-mentioned embodiments, and to support the communication between the AP and one or more second STAs in the above-mentioned embodiments, and can perform the transceiving processes related to the AP in Figs. 3-9 and / or other processes for the techniques described in the present application.

[0160] For example, the transceiver 1004 can be used to perform S401, or S406 or S407; for another example, the transceiver 1004 can be used to perform S801 or to receive the information in S804 and S805. Of course, the transceiver 1004 can also be used to perform other processes and methods of the techniques described in the present application.

[0161] The processor 1002 is used to control and manage the actions of the AP, to perform the processing by the AP in the above-mentioned embodiments, to perform the processing processes related to the AP in Figs. 3-9 and / or other processes for the techniques described in the present application, to be responsible for managing the bus and can execute the programs or instructions stored in the memory. For example, the processor 1002 can be used to generate the information sent in S401 or S407, and can be used to parse the information received in S406. For another example, the processor 1002 can be used to generate the information sent in S801, and can also parse the information in S804 and S805. Of course, the processor 1002 can also be used to perform other processes and methods of the techniques described in the present application.

[0162] The computer readable storage medium / memory 1003 stores programs, instructions or data for performing the technical solutions of the present application. For example, the computer readable storage medium / memory 1003 can contain instructions sufficient to allow the apparatus 1000 to perform the methods and functions in any of the above-mentioned embodiments.

[0163] In another possible implementation, the apparatus 1000 can be configured as a second STA (e.g., STA 103 or STA 104) in the above-described WLAN communication system 100.

[0164] The transceiver 1004 can be configured to support the communication between the second STA and the above-described AP, and can perform the communication or interaction process involving the second STA in FIGs. 3 to 9 and / or other processes for the techniques described in the present application. For example, the transceiver 1004 can be configured to perform S403, S405, S407 or S409; for another example, the transceiver 1004 can also be configured to perform S803, S805.

[0165] The processor 1002 can be configured to control and manage the actions of the second STA, to perform the processing by the second STA in the above-described embodiments, to perform the processing process involving the second STA in FIGs. 3 to 9, to be responsible for managing the bus, and to execute programs or instructions stored in the memory. For example, the processor 1002 can be configured to parse the information in S403, to generate the data in S405, and to parse the information in S409; for another example, the processor 1002 can be configured to parse the PPDU received in S803, and to generate the information in S805.

[0166] The computer readable storage medium / memory 1003 stores programs, instructions and data for performing the techniques of the present application. For example, the computer readable storage medium / memory 1003 can contain instructions sufficient to allow the apparatus 1000 to perform the functions of the second STA in any of the above-described embodiments.

[0167] It can be understood that FIG. 10 only shows a simplified design of the communication apparatus 1000, and in actual applications, the communication apparatus 1000 can contain any number of transceivers, processors, memories, etc., and all the communication apparatuses 1000 that can implement the present application are within the protection scope of the present application.

[0168] The processor involved in the above device 1000 can be a general processor, such as a general central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), a microprocessor, etc., or can be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the program execution of the scheme of the present application. It can also be a digital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, a discrete hardware component. The controller / processor can also be a combination of implementing computing functions, such as a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of DSP and microprocessor, etc. The processor generally performs logical and arithmetic operations based on program instructions stored in memory.

[0169] The above-mentioned computer-readable storage medium / memory 1003 can also save an operating system and other application programs. Specifically, the program can include program code including computer operation instructions. More specifically, the above-mentioned memory can be a read-only memory (ROM), other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (RAM), other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, a disk memory, etc. The memory 1803 can be a combination of the above-mentioned storage types. And the above-mentioned computer-readable storage medium / memory can be in the processor, also can be outside the processor, or distributed on multiple entities including the processor or processing circuit. The above-mentioned computer-readable storage medium / memory can be embodied in a computer program product. For example, the computer program product can include a computer readable medium in a packaging material.

[0170] [According to Rule 26 Correction 11.09.0020] Alternatively, the device 1000 can also be configured as a general processing system, such as a chip commonly known as a chip, which includes one or more microprocessors providing processor functions, and an external memory providing at least part of the storage medium, all of which are connected together with other support circuits through an external bus architecture.

[0171] Figure 11 shows a possible structure of an OFDMA hybrid transmission device 1100 in the present application, which can include a sending unit 1101, a receiving unit 1102, and a processing unit 1103.

[0172] In a possible implementation, the apparatus 1100 can be configured to be an AP1 (e.g., the AP 105) in the WLAN communication system 100 described above, or a chip system or a chip within the AP. The apparatus 1100 can perform the methods and steps related to the AP in any of the embodiments described above.

[0173] For example, the sending unit 1101 and the receiving unit 1102 can be used to support the AP to communicate with one or more first STAs in the embodiments described above, and to communicate with one or more second STAs in the embodiments described above, and can perform the transceiving procedures related to the AP in FIGs. 3-9 and / or other procedures for the techniques described in the present application.

[0174] In one example, the sending unit 1101 can be used to send the trigger frame, and the receiving unit 1102 can be used to receive the TB PPDU. The structures of the trigger frame and the TB PPDU can be referred to the descriptions in the embodiments described above. For example, the sending unit can be used to perform S401 or S407, and the receiving unit can be used to perform S406.

[0175] In another example, the sending unit 1101 can be used to send the MU PPDU, and the receiving unit 1102 can be used to receive the acknowledgement information. The fields included in the MU PPDU and the structure of the MU PPDU can be referred to the descriptions in the embodiments described above. For example, the sending unit can be used to perform S801, and the receiving unit can be used to perform S804 and S805.

[0176] In another possible implementation, the apparatus 1000 can be configured to be a second STA (e.g., the STA 103 or the STA 104) in the WLAN communication system 100 described above. For example, the sending unit 1101 and the receiving unit 1102 can be used to support the STA to communicate with the AP in the embodiments described above, and can perform the transceiving procedures related to the second STA in FIGs. 3-9 and / or other procedures for the techniques described in the present application.

[0177] In one example, the sending unit 1101 can be used to send the TB PPDU, the receiving unit 1102 can be used to receive the trigger frame, and the processing unit 1103 can be used to generate or process signaling or data information. For example, the sending unit 1101 can be used to perform S405, and the receiving unit 1102 can be used to perform S409.

[0178] In another example, the sending unit 1101 can be used to send the acknowledgement information, and the receiving unit 1102 can be used to receive the MU PPDU. For example, the sending unit 1101 can be used to perform S805, and the receiving unit 1102 can be used to perform S803. The processing unit 1103 can be used to generate or process signaling or data information.

[0179] It should be noted that the fields or structures in the trigger frame, TB PPDU and MU PPDU mentioned above can refer to the description in the foregoing embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

[0180] For example, the apparatus 1100 can be a chip or a chip system, the sending unit 1101 in the chip or chip system can be an output interface, the receiving unit 1102 can be an input interface 1102, and the processing unit 1103 can be a processing circuit. In the foregoing embodiments, "sending" can be "output", and "receiving" can be "input", so that the interaction of the signaling or data is completed by the input and output interfaces, and the generation and processing of the signaling or data information are completed by the processing circuit.

[0181] Optionally, the apparatus 1100 can also be coupled with a memory, and the memory stores instructions, which, when executed by the processing circuit, cause the apparatus 1100 to perform the methods and steps of any of the foregoing embodiments. For example, the memory can be a storage unit included in the apparatus 1100, or can be an external storage unit outside the apparatus 1100.

[0182] The embodiments of the present application also provide a chip system, which includes a processor for supporting an AP or a second STA to implement the functions involved in any of the foregoing embodiments, such as generating or processing the data and / or information involved in the foregoing methods. In a possible design, the chip system can also include a memory, and the memory is used to store necessary program instructions and data for the sending end or the receiving end, and when the processor executes the program instructions, the device installed with the chip system implements the methods involved in any of the foregoing embodiments. The chip system can be composed of a chip, or can include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0183] The embodiments of the present application also provide a processor for being coupled with a memory, and the memory stores instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the methods and functions of the AP or the STA in any of the foregoing embodiments. The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product including instructions, which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the methods and functions of the AP or the STA in any of the foregoing embodiments. The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer readable storage medium storing instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the methods and functions of the AP or the STA in any of the foregoing embodiments. The embodiments of the present application also provide an apparatus for performing the methods and functions of the receiving end or the sending end in any of the foregoing embodiments. The embodiments of the present application also provide a wireless communication system, which includes the AP, the at least one first STA and the at least one second STA involved in any of the foregoing embodiments.

[0184] The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the present disclosure can be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module can reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium can be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium can reside in an ASIC. Alternatively, the processor and the storage medium can be located in a user terminal. The processor can execute software modules stored in a storage medium that can reside in the user terminal. Alternatively, the processor can execute software modules stored in a storage medium that can reside in a user terminal.

[0185] Those skilled in the art should clearly understand that, in one or more examples described above, the functions described in the present disclosure can be implemented by hardware, software, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, these functions can be stored in a computer readable medium or transmitted as one or more instructions or codes on a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium includes computer storage medium and communication medium, wherein the communication medium includes any medium that facilitates the transfer of computer programs from one place to another. The storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a general or special purpose computer.

[0186] The above detailed description has further explained the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the present disclosure. It should be understood that the above detailed description is only a specific implementation of the present disclosure and is not intended to limit the protection scope of the present disclosure. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made on the basis of the technical solutions of the present disclosure shall be included in the protection scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. An orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) uplink hybrid transmission method, characterized in that, the method includes: An access point (AP) sends a trigger frame, and the trigger frame is used to trigger a first station (STA) supporting a first standard and a second STA supporting a second standard to perform OFDMA uplink transmission; The AP receives a trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU), the bandwidth of the TB PPDU is a second bandwidth, and the TB PPDU includes first uplink data sent by the first STA in response to the trigger frame and second uplink data sent by the second STA in response to the trigger frame; wherein, the first STA supports a first bandwidth, the second STA supports the second bandwidth, and the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth.

2. An orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) uplink hybrid transmission method, characterized in that, the method includes: A second station (STA) supporting a second standard receives a trigger frame, and the trigger frame is used to trigger a first STA supporting a first standard and the second STA to perform OFDMA uplink transmission; The second station sends a trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU) according to the trigger frame, the bandwidth of the TB PPDU is a second bandwidth, and the TB PPDU includes first uplink data sent by the first STA in response to the trigger frame and second uplink data sent by the second STA in response to the trigger frame; wherein, the first STA supports a first bandwidth, the second STA supports the second bandwidth, and the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, the trigger frame is used to trigger the first STA to send the first uplink data on a first resource unit (RU), and is used to trigger the second STA to send the second uplink data on a second RU; wherein, the first RU is located in the first bandwidth, and the second RU is located in the second bandwidth.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, the trigger frame includes a common information field, and the common information field includes an uplink bandwidth field and a first reserved bit, and the uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bit are jointly used for the second STA to determine the second bandwidth.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, the trigger frame includes a first user information field and a second user information field; The first user information field includes a first resource unit allocation field and a first associated identifier (AID) field, the first AID field includes an identifier of the first STA, and the first resource unit allocation field is used to indicate the first RU; The second user information field includes a second resource unit allocation field, a second AID field and a second reserved bit, the second AID field includes an identifier of the second STA, and the second resource unit allocation field and the second reserved bit are jointly used to indicate the second RU.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that, The second resource unit allocation field and the second reserved bit are jointly used to indicate the second RU, specifically including: the second reserved bit is used to indicate that the second RU is located in the primary 160 MHz channel or the secondary 160 MHz channel; the second resource unit allocation field is used to indicate the size and location of the second RU in the 160 MHz channel indicated by the second reserved bit.

7. The method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein, when the value of the first AID field is the first AID value, it indicates that a plurality of consecutive RUs starting from the first RU are random access resource units RA-RUs available for the first STA or the first STA and the second STA; when the value of the second AID field is the second AID value, it indicates that a plurality of consecutive RUs starting from the second RU are random access resource units available for the second STA.

8. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein, the trigger frame includes a first trigger frame and a second trigger frame; wherein, the first trigger frame is used to trigger the first STA to send the first uplink data on the first RU, and the second trigger frame is used to trigger the second STA to send the second uplink data on the second RU; the first RU is included in the first bandwidth, and the second RU is included in the second bandwidth.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein, the first trigger frame is carried on the third RU of the MU PPDU, and the second trigger frame is carried on the fourth RU of the MU PPDU; the MU PPDU includes a signaling B field, and the signaling B field includes: a fourth user information field corresponding to the fourth RU; the value of the fourth AID field in the fourth user information field is a special AID value other than 0, which is used to indicate that the second trigger frame carried on the fourth RU is broadcast information.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein, the TB PPDU further includes a first physical layer preamble sent by the first STA and a second physical layer preamble sent by the second STA; the OFDM symbols in the first physical layer preamble are aligned with the OFDM symbols in the second physical layer preamble; or, the first physical layer preamble is the same as the second physical layer preamble.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein, the first bandwidth is 20 MHz, and the second bandwidth is any one of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 240 MHz or 320 MHz; or, the first bandwidth is 40 MHz, and the second bandwidth is any one of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 240 MHz, 320 MHz; or, the first bandwidth is 80 MHz, and the second bandwidth is any one of 160 MHz, 240 MHz or 320 MHz; the first bandwidth is 160 MHz, and the second bandwidth is 240 MHz or 320 MHz.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein, the first standard is 802.11ax, and the second standard is 802.11be.

13. An OFDMA downlink hybrid transmission method, wherein, the method includes: an access point AP generates an OFDMA physical layer protocol data unit PPDU, the PPDU includes first downlink data of a first STA supporting a first standard and second downlink data of a second STA supporting a second standard; the bandwidth of the PPDU is a second bandwidth, the second STA supports the second bandwidth, the first STA supports a first bandwidth, and the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth; the PPDU is sent to the first STA and the second STA in an OFDMA manner.

14. An OFDMA downlink hybrid transmission method, wherein, the method includes: a second station receives an OFDMA physical layer protocol data unit PPDU, the PPDU includes first downlink data of a first STA supporting a first standard and second downlink data of a second STA supporting a second standard; the bandwidth of the PPDU is a second bandwidth, the second STA supports the second bandwidth, the first STA supports a first bandwidth, and the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth; the second station analyzes the PPDU to obtain the second downlink data.

15. The method according to claim 13 or 14, wherein, the first downlink data is carried in a first RU included in a first bandwidth, and the second downlink data is carried in a second RU included in a second bandwidth.

16. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein, the PPDU further includes a first resource indication: for indicating a third RU; the third RU is used for the first STA to send first acknowledgment information in response to the first downlink data, and the PPDU further includes: a second resource indication, for indicating a fourth RU, the fourth RU is used for the second STA to send second acknowledgment information in response to the second downlink data.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein, the second downlink data is a second aggregated media access control protocol data unit A-MPDU, the second resource indication is carried in a TRS control field in the second A-MPDU, and the second resource indication includes a resource unit allocation field and a reserved bit; the second resource indication for indicating the fourth RU specifically includes: the reserved bit is used for indicating that the fourth RU is located in a primary 160 MHz channel or a secondary 160 MHz channel; the resource unit allocation field is used for indicating the size and position of the fourth RU in the 160 MHz channel indicated by the reserved bit.

18. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 17, wherein, the first bandwidth is 20 MHz, and the second bandwidth is any one of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 240 MHz or 320 MHz; or, The first bandwidth is 40 MHz, and the second bandwidth is any one of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 240 MHz, and 320 MHz; or, The first bandwidth is 80 MHz, and the second bandwidth is 160 MHz, 240 MHz, or 320 MHz; The first bandwidth is 160 MHz, and the second bandwidth is 240 MHz or 320 MHz.

19. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 18, wherein, The first standard is 802.11ax, and the second standard is 802.11be.

20. A communication device, wherein, comprising: a processing unit for generating a trigger frame; a sending unit for sending the trigger frame, where the trigger frame is used to trigger a first station STA supporting a first standard and a second STA supporting a second standard to perform OFDMA uplink transmission; a receiving unit for receiving a triggered physical layer protocol data unit TB PPDU, where the bandwidth of the TB PPDU is the second bandwidth, and the TB PPDU includes first uplink data sent by the first STA in response to the trigger frame and second uplink data sent by the second STA in response to the trigger frame; wherein, the first STA supports the first bandwidth, the second STA supports the second bandwidth, and the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth.

21. A communication device, wherein, comprising: a receiving unit for receiving a trigger frame, where the trigger frame is used to trigger a first station STA supporting a first standard and a second STA supporting a second standard to perform OFDMA uplink transmission; a processing unit for controlling a sending unit to send a triggered physical layer protocol data unit TB PPDU according to the trigger frame, where the bandwidth of the TB PPDU is the second bandwidth, and the TB PPDU includes first uplink data sent by the first STA in response to the trigger frame and second uplink data sent by the second STA in response to the trigger frame; wherein, the first STA supports the first bandwidth, the second STA supports the second bandwidth, and the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth.

22. The communication device according to claim 20 or 21, wherein, The trigger frame is used to trigger the first STA to send the first uplink data on a first resource unit RU, and is used to trigger the second STA to send the second uplink data on a second RU; wherein, the first RU is located in the first bandwidth, and the second RU is located in the second bandwidth.

23. The communication device according to any one of claims 20 to 22, wherein, The trigger frame includes a common information field, and the common information field includes an uplink bandwidth field and a first reserved bit, and the uplink bandwidth field and the first reserved bit are jointly used for the second STA to determine the second bandwidth.

24. The communication device according to any one of claims 20 to 23, wherein, The trigger frame includes a first user information field and a second user information field; The first user information field includes a first resource unit allocation field and a first associated identifier AID field. The first AID field includes the identifier of the first STA, and the first resource unit allocation field is used to indicate the first RU. The second user information field includes a second resource unit allocation field, a second AID field, and a second reserved bit. The second AID field includes the identifier of the second STA, and the second resource unit allocation field and the second reserved bit are jointly used to indicate the second RU.

25. The communication device according to claim 24, wherein, The second resource unit allocation field and the second reserved bit are jointly used to indicate the second RU, specifically including: the second reserved bit is used to indicate that the second RU is located in the primary 160 MHz channel or the secondary 160 MHz channel; the second resource unit allocation field is used to indicate the size and position of the second RU in the 160 MHz channel indicated by the second reserved bit.

26. The communication device according to claim 24 or 25, wherein, When the value of the first AID field is the first AID value, it indicates that a plurality of consecutive RUs starting from the first RU are random access resource units RA-RUs available to the first STA or the first STA and the second STA; When the value of the second AID field is the second AID value, it indicates that a plurality of consecutive RUs starting from the second RU are random access resource units available to the second STA.

27. The communication device according to claim 20 or 21, wherein, The trigger frame includes a first trigger frame and a second trigger frame; Among them, the first trigger frame is used to trigger the first STA to send the first uplink data on the first RU, and the second trigger frame is used to trigger the second STA to send the second uplink data on the second RU; The first RU is included in the first bandwidth, and the second RU is included in the second bandwidth.

28. The communication device according to claim 27, wherein, The first trigger frame is carried on the third RU of the MU PPDU, and the second trigger frame is carried on the fourth RU of the MU PPDU; The MU PPDU includes a signaling B field, and the signaling B field includes: a fourth user information field corresponding to the fourth RU; The value of the fourth AID field in the fourth user information field is a special AID value other than 0, which is used to indicate that the second trigger frame carried on the fourth RU is broadcast information.

29. The communication device according to any one of claims 20 to 28, wherein, The TB PPDU further includes a first physical layer preamble sent by the first STA and a second physical layer preamble sent by the second STA; The OFDM symbols in the first physical layer preamble are aligned with the OFDM symbols in the second physical layer preamble; or, the first physical layer preamble is the same as the second physical layer preamble.

30. The communication device according to any one of claims 20 to 29, It is characterized in that, the first bandwidth is 20 MHz, and the second bandwidth is any one of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 240 MHz or 320 MHz; or, the first bandwidth is 40 MHz, and the second bandwidth is any one of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 240 MHz, 320 MHz; or, the first bandwidth is 80 MHz, and the second bandwidth is any one of 160 MHz, 240 MHz or 320 MHz; the first bandwidth is 160 MHz, and the second bandwidth is 240 MHz or 320 MHz.

31. The communication device according to any one of claims 20 to 30, it is characterized in that, the first standard is 802.11ax, and the second standard is 802.11be.

32. A communication device, it is characterized in that, comprising: a processing unit, configured to generate an OFDMA physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), where the PPDU includes first downlink data of a first STA supporting a first standard and second downlink data of a second STA supporting a second standard; the bandwidth of the PPDU is the second bandwidth, the second STA supports the second bandwidth, the first STA supports the first bandwidth, and the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth; a sending unit, configured to send the PPDU to the first STA and the second STA in an OFDMA manner.

33. A communication device, applied to a second STA supporting a second standard, it is characterized in that, comprising: a receiving unit, configured to receive an OFDMA physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), where the PPDU includes first downlink data of a first STA supporting a first standard and second downlink data of the second STA; the bandwidth of the PPDU is the second bandwidth, the second STA supports the second bandwidth, the first STA supports the first bandwidth, and the second bandwidth is greater than the first bandwidth; a processing unit, configured to parse the PPDU to obtain the second downlink data.

34. The communication device according to claim 32 or 33, it is characterized in that, the first downlink data is carried in a first resource unit (RU) included in the first bandwidth, and the second downlink data is carried in a second RU included in the second bandwidth.

35. The communication device according to any one of claims 32 to 34, it is characterized in that, the PPDU further includes a first resource indication: used to indicate a third RU; the third RU is used for the first STA to send first acknowledgment information in response to the first downlink data, and the PPDU further includes: a second resource indication, used to indicate a fourth RU, and the fourth RU is used for the second STA to send second acknowledgment information in response to the second downlink data.

36. The communication device according to claim 35, it is characterized in that, the second downlink data is a second aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU), the second resource indication is carried in a TRS control field in the second A-MPDU, and the second resource indication includes a resource unit allocation field and a reserved bit; The second resource indication is used to indicate that the fourth RU specifically includes: the reserved bit is used to indicate that the fourth RU is located in the primary 160 MHz channel or the secondary 160 MHz channel; The resource unit allocation field is used to indicate the size and location of the fourth RU in the 160 MHz channel indicated by the reserved bit.

37. The communication device according to any one of claims 32 to 36, wherein, the first bandwidth is 20 MHz, and the second bandwidth is any one of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 240 MHz or 320 MHz; or, the first bandwidth is 40 MHz, and the second bandwidth is any one of 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 240 MHz, 320 MHz; or, the first bandwidth is 80 MHz, and the second bandwidth is 160 MHz, 240 MHz or 320 MHz; the first bandwidth is 160 MHz, and the second bandwidth is 240 MHz or 320 MHz.

38. The communication device according to any one of claims 32 to 37, wherein, the first standard is 802.11ax, and the second standard is 802.11be.

39. A communication device, wherein, comprises: a processor and a memory, the memory is used to store instructions, and when the processor runs the instructions, the communication device is enabled to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 19.

40. A chip system, wherein, comprises an input / output interface and a processing circuit, the input / output interface is used for information or data interaction, and the processing circuit is used to run instructions so that the device installed with the chip system executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 19.

41. A chip system, wherein, the chip system includes a processor for supporting the device installed with the chip system to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 19.

42. A computer-readable storage medium, wherein, instructions are stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and the instructions can be executed by one or more processors on a processing circuit. When the instructions run on a computer, the computer is enabled to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 19.

43. A computer program product containing instructions, wherein, when the instructions run on a computer, the computer is enabled to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 19.

44. A wireless communication system, wherein, the wireless communication system includes: an access point AP, and a first station STA and a second STA; wherein, the first STA and the second STA support different standards; the AP is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1, 3 to 13 and 15 - 19; the second STA is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 2 to 12, and 14 - 19.

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