BANDWIDTH MODE INDICATOR CHIP

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and machine for indicating bandwidth mode, and relates to the field of communication engineering. The method comprises the following steps: The transmitting end sends a first frame to the receiving end, wherein the first frame includes a service field, the service field includes a first field, the first field indicates whether the bandwidth mode indicator field carried in the first frame is permitted to indicate the target bandwidth mode, and the target bandwidth mode includes one or more bandwidth modes other than 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 80+80 MHz or 160 MHz. Thus, in a situation where a new bandwidth mode is introduced, the two devices can negotiate the bandwidth mode based on the first frame according to the engineering solutions proposed in the invention. The invention also relates to a bandwidth mode indicator chip.

Description

Bandwidth mode indication method and device

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on August 7, 2020, with application number 202010791002.2 and application name “Bandwidth Mode Indication Method and Device”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a bandwidth mode indication method and device. Background Art

[0003] In wireless communication scenarios, because the transmitter and receiver operate in different wireless channel environments, it's extremely useful to be able to negotiate a mutually available bandwidth based on channel availability before data communication begins. To achieve this, the 802.11ac standard uses two of the first seven bits (bits B5 and B6) of the scrambling sequence used in non-high throughput (non-HT) frames or non-HT duplicated frames to indicate the bandwidth mode. The four possible values ​​for these two bits correspond to four bandwidth modes: 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz (or 80+80 MHz).

[0004] Currently, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is discussing the next-generation 802.11be standard, which will succeed 802.11ax. Compared to the previous 802.11ax standard, 802.11be supports extremely high throughput (EHT) data transmission. The maximum transmission bandwidth supported by the 802.11be standard is 320MHz. Therefore, the 802.11be standard will introduce other bandwidth modes, such as 320MHz, in addition to 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, or 160MHz.

[0005] After the introduction of bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, or 160MHz, how two devices negotiate the bandwidth mode becomes a technical issue that needs to be solved urgently.

[0006] Summary of the Invention

[0007] The present application provides a bandwidth mode indication method and apparatus, which enable two devices to normally negotiate the bandwidth mode when introducing other bandwidth modes besides 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, and 160MHz (or 80+80MHz).

[0008] In a first aspect, a bandwidth mode indication method is provided, including: a transmitting end generating a first frame, where the first frame is a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, the first frame including a service field, the service field including a first field, the first field being used to indicate whether a bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame indicates a target bandwidth mode, where the target bandwidth mode includes one or more bandwidth modes other than 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, or 160 MHz; and thereafter, the transmitting end sending the first frame to a receiving end.

[0009] Based on the above technical solution, the first frame only uses at least one bit in the service field as the first field, and does not increase or decrease the bits of the service field, thereby ensuring that the first frame has backward compatibility. In addition, the first field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is allowed to indicate the target bandwidth mode. That is to say, due to the existence of the first field in the service field of the first frame, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame expands the range of bandwidth modes that can be indicated. Thus, in the scenario where bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz are introduced, the purpose of negotiating the use of a bandwidth mode in more bandwidth modes can be achieved by transmitting the first frame between the two devices.

[0010] In addition, the first field is located in the service field of the first frame, which has the following advantages: (1) Currently, the reserved bits in the media access control (MAC) frame are likely to be used by chip manufacturers as indication bits for private features. Therefore, if the reserved bits in the MAC frame are used as the first field, it will affect the indication of the private features. Using the bits in the service field as the first field can avoid affecting the private use of the reserved bits in the MAC frame by chip manufacturers. (2) The positions of the reserved bits in the MAC frames of different types of traditional frames are not necessarily the same. Therefore, for different types of transmission frames, the implementation scheme of using the reserved bits in the MAC frame as the first field is different. The service field is a field introduced for scrambling operations at the physical layer. The service field is located before the MAC frame. The service field itself belongs to the field of the physical layer, that is, all types of traditional frames contain the service field. In this way, using the bits in the service field as the first field can be universally applied to all types of traditional frames.

[0011] In one possible design, the first field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame indicates the target bandwidth mode, including: when the first field is set to a first preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field does not indicate the target bandwidth mode; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field indicates the target bandwidth mode.

[0012] In one possible design, the first frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame does not carry a bandwidth mode indication field; or, when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set, and the first bandwidth mode set includes: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0 or 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a second bandwidth mode set, and the second bandwidth mode set includes a target bandwidth mode.

[0013] In one possible design, the first frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame does not carry a bandwidth mode indication field; or, when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set, and the first bandwidth mode set includes: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value, the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set. The first bandwidth mode set includes: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; When the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame carries the bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate the bandwidth mode in the third bandwidth mode set; or, when the first field is set to the second preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries the bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate the bandwidth mode in the fourth bandwidth mode set; wherein, at least one bandwidth mode set in the third bandwidth mode set and the fourth bandwidth mode set includes the target bandwidth mode, and the bandwidth mode included in the third bandwidth mode set is different from the bandwidth mode included in the fourth bandwidth mode set.

[0014] In one possible design, when the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field and the first field is set to a first preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence.

[0015] In one possible design, when the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field and the first field is set to a second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field is one of the following situations: the bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence; or, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least 3 bits of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence; or, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field; or, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least one bit of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence and at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0016] In one possible design, when the value of the first field is the second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field includes a fourth field and a fifth field; when the fourth field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is less than or equal to 160 MHz, each of the 8 bits occupied by the fifth field corresponds to a 20 MHz channel, and one bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the bit is idle; when the fourth field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is greater than 160 MHz, or the total bandwidth is equal to 320 MHz or 160+160 MHz, the fifth field includes 4 first bits, 2 second bits and 2 third bits, each of the 4 first bits corresponds to a 20 MHz channel in the primary 80 MHz channel, each of the 2 second bits corresponds to a 40 MHz channel in the secondary 80 MHz channel, and each of the 2 third bits corresponds to an 80 MHz in the secondary 160 MHz, the first bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the first bit is idle, the second bit is used to indicate whether the 40 MHz channel corresponding to the second bit is idle, and the third bit is used to indicate whether the 80 MHz channel corresponding to the third bit is idle.

[0017] In one possible design, the first field occupies at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0018] In one possible design, the target bandwidth mode includes a bandwidth mode with preamble puncturing and / or a bandwidth mode without preamble puncturing.

[0019] In a second aspect, a bandwidth mode indication method is provided, comprising: a receiving end receives a first frame, the first frame being

[0020] In a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, the first frame includes a service field, the service field includes a first field, and the first field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame indicates a target bandwidth mode, where the target bandwidth mode includes one or more bandwidth modes other than 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, or 160 MHz. Subsequently, the receiving end parses the first frame.

[0021] Based on the above technical solution, the first frame only uses at least one bit in the service field as the first field, and does not increase or decrease the bits of the service field, thereby ensuring that the first frame has backward compatibility. The first field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is allowed to indicate the target bandwidth mode. In other words, due to the existence of the first field in the service field of the first frame, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame expands the range of bandwidth modes that can be indicated. Thus, in the scenario where bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz are introduced, the purpose of negotiating the use of a bandwidth mode in more bandwidth modes can be achieved by transmitting the first frame between the two devices.

[0022] In one possible design, the first field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame indicates the target bandwidth mode, including: when the first field is set to a first preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field does not indicate the target bandwidth mode; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field indicates the target bandwidth mode.

[0023] In one possible design, the first frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame does not carry a bandwidth mode indication field; or, when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set, and the first bandwidth mode set includes: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0 or 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a second bandwidth mode set, and the second bandwidth mode set includes a target bandwidth mode.

[0024] In one possible design, the first frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame does not carry a bandwidth mode indication field; or, when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set, and the first bandwidth mode set includes: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value, the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set. The first bandwidth mode set includes: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; When the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame carries the bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate the bandwidth mode in the third bandwidth mode set; or, when the first field is set to the second preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries the bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate the bandwidth mode in the fourth bandwidth mode set; wherein, at least one bandwidth mode set in the third bandwidth mode set and the fourth bandwidth mode set includes the target bandwidth mode, and the bandwidth mode included in the third bandwidth mode set is different from the bandwidth mode included in the fourth bandwidth mode set.

[0025] In one possible design, when the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field and the first field is set to a first preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence.

[0026] In one possible design, when the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field and the first field is set to a second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field is one of the following situations: the bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence; or, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least 3 bits of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence; or, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field; or, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least one bit of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence and at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0027] In one possible design, when the value of the first field is the second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field includes a fourth field and a fifth field; when the fourth field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is less than or equal to 160 MHz, each of the 8 bits occupied by the fifth field corresponds to a 20 MHz channel, and one bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the bit is idle; when the fourth field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is greater than 160 MHz, or the total bandwidth is equal to 320 MHz or 160+160 MHz, the fifth field includes 4 first bits, 2 second bits and 2 third bits, each of the 4 first bits corresponds to a 20 MHz channel in the primary 80 MHz channel, each of the 2 second bits corresponds to a 40 MHz channel in the secondary 80 MHz channel, and each of the 2 third bits corresponds to an 80 MHz in the secondary 160 MHz, the first bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the first bit is idle, the second bit is used to indicate whether the 40 MHz channel corresponding to the second bit is idle, and the third bit is used to indicate whether the 80 MHz channel corresponding to the third bit is idle.

[0028] In one possible design, the first field occupies at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0029] In one possible design, the target bandwidth mode includes a bandwidth mode with preamble puncturing and / or a bandwidth mode without preamble puncturing.

[0030] According to a third aspect, a bandwidth mode indication method is provided, including: a transmitting end generates a second frame, the second frame is a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, the second frame includes a service field, the service field includes a second field, the second field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is a target bandwidth mode, the target bandwidth mode includes one or more bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; thereafter, the transmitting end sends the second frame to the receiving end.

[0031] Based on the above technical solution, the second frame only uses at least one bit in the service field as the second field, and does not increase or decrease the bits in the service field, thereby ensuring the backward compatibility of the second frame. In addition, the second field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode. Therefore, in the scenario where bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, or 160MHz are introduced, the purpose of negotiating the use of a bandwidth mode in more bandwidth modes can be achieved by transmitting the second frame between two devices.

[0032] In addition, the second field is located in the service field of the second frame, which has the following advantages: (1) Currently, the reserved bits in the MAC frame are likely to be used by chip manufacturers as indication bits for private features. Therefore, if the reserved bits in the MAC frame are used as the second field, it will affect the indication of the private features. However, using the bits in the service field as the second field can avoid affecting the private use of the reserved bits in the MAC frame by chip manufacturers. (2) The positions of the reserved bits in the MAC frames of different types of traditional frames are not necessarily the same. Therefore, for different types of transmission frames, the implementation scheme of using the reserved bits in the MAC frame as the second field is different. The service field is a field introduced for performing scrambling operations at the physical layer. The service field is located before the MAC frame. The service field itself belongs to the field of the physical layer, that is, all types of traditional frames contain the service field. In this way, using the bits in the service field as the second field can be universally applied to all types of traditional frames.

[0033] In one possible design, the second field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode, including: when the second field is set to the ninth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is not the target bandwidth mode; or, when the second field is set to the tenth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode.

[0034] In one possible design, the second frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the second field is set to the tenth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode, including: when the second field is set to the tenth preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the first bandwidth mode; when the second field is set to the tenth preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the second bandwidth mode; the first bandwidth mode and the second bandwidth mode both belong to the target bandwidth mode, and the first bandwidth mode is different from the second bandwidth mode.

[0035] In one possible design, the second field occupies at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0036] In a fourth aspect, a bandwidth mode indication method is provided, including: a receiving end receives a second frame, the second frame is a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, the second frame includes a service field, the service field includes a second field, the second field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is a target bandwidth mode, the target bandwidth mode includes one or more bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; thereafter, the receiving end parses the second frame.

[0037] Based on the above technical solution, the second frame only uses at least one bit in the service field as the second field, and does not increase or decrease the bits of the service field, thereby ensuring that the second frame has backward compatibility. In addition, the second field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode. Therefore, in the scenario where bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz are introduced, the purpose of negotiating the use of a bandwidth mode in more bandwidth modes can be achieved by transmitting the second frame between the two devices.

[0038] In one possible design, the second field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode, including: when the second field is set to the ninth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is not the target bandwidth mode; or, when the second field is set to the tenth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode.

[0039] In one possible design, the second frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the second field is set to the tenth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode, including: when the second field is set to the tenth preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the first bandwidth mode; when the second field is set to the tenth preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the second bandwidth mode; the first bandwidth mode and the second bandwidth mode both belong to the target bandwidth mode, and the first bandwidth mode is different from the second bandwidth mode.

[0040] In one possible design, the second field occupies at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0041] In a fifth aspect, a bandwidth mode indication method is provided, including: a transmitting end generates a third frame, the third frame is a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, the third frame includes: a bandwidth negotiation field and a bandwidth mode indication field, the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the third frame, the bandwidth mode of the third frame is 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz or a first bandwidth mode, the first bandwidth mode is one of other bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; thereafter, the transmitting end sends the third frame to the receiving end.

[0042] Based on the above technical solution, compared to the prior art in which non-HT frames or non-HT duplicated frames can only use the bandwidth mode indication field to achieve the purpose of negotiating the use of one bandwidth mode among four bandwidth modes, the third frame provided by the present application makes full use of a redundant state in the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field to indicate a new bandwidth mode (first bandwidth mode). Thus, the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field in the third frame are jointly used to indicate one bandwidth mode from five bandwidth modes. In this way, the transmission of the third frame between two devices can achieve the purpose of negotiating the use of one bandwidth mode from five bandwidth modes. In addition, compared to the non-HT frame or non-HT duplicated frame defined in the 802.11n standard, the third frame provided by the present application does not add or reduce bits, thereby ensuring the backward compatibility of the third frame.

[0043] In one possible design, the bandwidth negotiation field occupies bit B4 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence, and the bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence.

[0044] In one possible design, the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode used by the third frame, including: when the bandwidth negotiation field is set to 1 and the bandwidth mode indication field is set to 0, it indicates that the bandwidth mode of the third frame is the first bandwidth mode.

[0045] In a sixth aspect, a bandwidth mode indication method is provided, including: a receiving end receives a third frame, the third frame is a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, the third frame includes: a bandwidth negotiation field and a bandwidth mode indication field, the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the third frame, the bandwidth mode of the third frame is 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz or a first bandwidth mode, the first bandwidth mode is one of other bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; thereafter, the receiving end parses the third frame.

[0046] Based on the above technical solution, compared to the prior art in which non-HT frames or non-HT duplicated frames can only use the bandwidth mode indication field to achieve the purpose of negotiating the use of one bandwidth mode among four bandwidth modes, the third frame provided by the present application makes full use of a redundant state in the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field to indicate a new bandwidth mode (first bandwidth mode). Thus, the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field in the third frame are jointly used to indicate one bandwidth mode from five bandwidth modes. In this way, the transmission of the third frame between two devices can achieve the purpose of negotiating the use of one bandwidth mode from five bandwidth modes. In addition, compared to the non-HT frame or non-HT duplicated frame defined in the 802.11n standard, the third frame provided by the present application does not add or reduce bits, thereby ensuring the backward compatibility of the third frame.

[0047] In one possible design, the bandwidth negotiation field occupies bit B4 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence, and the bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence.

[0048] In one possible design, the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode used by the third frame, including: when the bandwidth negotiation field is set to 1 and the bandwidth mode indication field is set to 0, it indicates that the bandwidth mode of the third frame is the first bandwidth mode.

[0049] In the seventh aspect, a bandwidth mode indication method is provided, including: a transmitting end generates a fourth frame, the fourth frame is used to respond to a multi-user (MU)-request to send (RTS) frame, the MAC frame of the fourth frame occupies 15 bytes, and the MAC frame of the fourth frame includes a frame control field, a duration field, a send address field, a frame verification sequence field and a third field, the frame control field occupies 2 bytes, the duration field occupies 2 bytes, the send address field occupies 6 bytes, the frame verification sequence field occupies 4 bytes, and the third field occupies 1 byte, and K bits in the third field are used to indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, where K is a positive integer; thereafter, the transmitting end sends the fourth frame to the receiving end.

[0050] Based on the above technical solution, compared with the MAC frame of the clear to send (CTS) frame in the prior art which occupies 14 bytes, the MAC frame of the fourth frame occupies 15 bytes. Although the MAC frame of the fourth frame increases by 1 byte, the transmission time of the CTS frame is consistent with the transmission time of the fourth frame, and therefore does not affect the normal execution of the network allocation vector (NAV) reset mechanism based on RTS / CTS or MU-RTS / CTS interaction. In addition, the fourth frame can use the added 8 bits as the third field, and use one or more bits in the third field to indicate the bandwidth mode. Thus, in the scenario where a new bandwidth mode is introduced, the fourth frame is transmitted between two devices, so as to achieve the purpose of indicating a bandwidth mode from more bandwidth modes.

[0051] In one possible design, the fourth frame also includes a service field, which occupies 16 bits; the K bits in the third field and the M bits in the service field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, where M is a positive integer.

[0052] In one possible design, when K+M=16, the K bits in the third field and the M bits in the service field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, including: for each of the 16 bits, one bit corresponds to a 20MHz channel, and the value of the bit is used to indicate whether the 20MHz channel corresponding to the bit is idle, and the 16 bits include K bits in the third field and M bits in the service field.

[0053] In an eighth aspect, a bandwidth mode indication method is provided, including: a receiving end receives a fourth frame, the fourth frame is used to respond to the MU-RTS frame, the MAC frame of the fourth frame occupies 15 bytes, and the MAC frame of the fourth frame includes a frame control field, a duration field, a send address field, a frame verification sequence field and a third field, the frame control field occupies 2 bytes, the duration field occupies 2 bytes, the send address field occupies 6 bytes, the frame verification sequence field occupies 4 bytes, and the third field occupies 1 byte, and K bits in the third field are used to indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, where K is a positive integer; thereafter, the receiving end parses the fourth frame.

[0054] Based on the above technical solution, compared with the prior art in which the MAC frame of the CTS frame occupies 14 bytes, the MAC frame of the fourth frame occupies 15 bytes. Although the MAC frame of the fourth frame increases by 1 byte, the transmission time of the CTS frame is consistent with the transmission time of the fourth frame, and therefore does not affect the normal execution of the NAV reset mechanism based on RTS / CTS. In addition, the fourth frame can use the added 8 bits as the third field, and use one or more bits in the third field to indicate the bandwidth mode. Therefore, in the scenario where a new bandwidth mode is introduced, the fourth frame is transmitted between two devices to achieve the purpose of indicating a bandwidth mode from more bandwidth modes.

[0055] In one possible design, the fourth frame also includes a service field, which occupies 16 bits; the K bits in the third field and the M bits in the service field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, where M is a positive integer.

[0056] In one possible design, when K+M=16, the K bits in the third field and the M bits in the service field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, including: for each of the 16 bits, one bit corresponds to a 20MHz channel, and the value of the bit is used to indicate whether the 20MHz channel corresponding to the bit is idle, and the 16 bits include K bits in the third field and M bits in the service field.

[0057] In a ninth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is configured to generate a first frame, the first frame being a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, the first frame including a service field, the service field including a first field, the first field being configured to indicate whether the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame indicates a target bandwidth mode, the target bandwidth mode including one or more bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, or 160MHz. The communication module is configured to send the first frame to a receiving end.

[0058] In one possible design, the first field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame indicates the target bandwidth mode, including: when the first field is set to a first preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field does not indicate the target bandwidth mode; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field indicates the target bandwidth mode.

[0059] In one possible design, the first frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame does not carry a bandwidth mode indication field; or, when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set, and the first bandwidth mode set includes: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0 or 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a second bandwidth mode set, and the second bandwidth mode set includes a target bandwidth mode.

[0060] In one possible design, the first frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame does not carry a bandwidth mode indication field; or, when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set, and the first bandwidth mode set includes: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value, the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set. The first bandwidth mode set includes: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; When the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame carries the bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate the bandwidth mode in the third bandwidth mode set; or, when the first field is set to the second preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries the bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate the bandwidth mode in the fourth bandwidth mode set; wherein, at least one bandwidth mode set in the third bandwidth mode set and the fourth bandwidth mode set includes the target bandwidth mode, and the bandwidth mode included in the third bandwidth mode set is different from the bandwidth mode included in the fourth bandwidth mode set.

[0061] In one possible design, when the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field and the first field is set to a first preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence.

[0062] In one possible design, when the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field and the first field is set to a second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field is one of the following situations: the bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence; or, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least 3 bits of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence; or, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field; or, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least one bit of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence and at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0063] In one possible design, the first field occupies at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0064] In one possible design, the target bandwidth mode includes a bandwidth mode with preamble puncturing and / or a bandwidth mode without preamble puncturing.

[0065] In a tenth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a processing module and a communication module. The communication module is configured to receive a first frame, where the first frame is a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, and the first frame includes a service field, the service field includes a first field, and the first field is configured to indicate whether a bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame indicates a target bandwidth mode, where the target bandwidth mode includes one or more bandwidth modes other than 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, or 160 MHz. The processing module is configured to parse the first frame.

[0066] In one possible design, the first field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame indicates the target bandwidth mode, including: when the first field is set to a first preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field does not indicate the target bandwidth mode; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field indicates the target bandwidth mode.

[0067] In one possible design, the first frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame does not carry a bandwidth mode indication field; or, when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set, and the first bandwidth mode set includes: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0 or 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a second bandwidth mode set, and the second bandwidth mode set includes a target bandwidth mode.

[0068] In one possible design, the first frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame does not carry a bandwidth mode indication field; or, when the first field is set to a first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set, and the first bandwidth mode set includes: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value, the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set. The first bandwidth mode set includes: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; When the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame carries the bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate the bandwidth mode in the third bandwidth mode set; or, when the first field is set to the second preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the first frame carries the bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate the bandwidth mode in the fourth bandwidth mode set; wherein, at least one bandwidth mode set in the third bandwidth mode set and the fourth bandwidth mode set includes the target bandwidth mode, and the bandwidth mode included in the third bandwidth mode set is different from the bandwidth mode included in the fourth bandwidth mode set.

[0069] In one possible design, when the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field and the first field is set to a first preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence.

[0070] In one possible design, when the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field and the first field is set to a second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field is one of the following situations: the bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence; or, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least 3 bits of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence; or, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field; or, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least one bit of the first 7 bits of the scrambling code sequence and at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0071] In one possible design, the first field occupies at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0072] In one possible design, the target bandwidth mode includes a bandwidth mode with preamble puncturing and / or a bandwidth mode without preamble puncturing.

[0073] In an eleventh aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is configured to generate a second frame, the second frame being a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, the second frame including a service field, the service field including a second field, the second field being configured to indicate whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is a target bandwidth mode, the target bandwidth mode including one or more bandwidth modes other than 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, or 160 MHz. The communication module is configured to send the second frame to a receiving end.

[0074] In one possible design, the second field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode, including: when the second field is set to the ninth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is not the target bandwidth mode; or, when the second field is set to the tenth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode.

[0075] In one possible design, the second frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the second field is set to the tenth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode, including: when the second field is set to the tenth preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the first bandwidth mode; when the second field is set to the tenth preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the second bandwidth mode; the first bandwidth mode and the second bandwidth mode both belong to the target bandwidth mode, and the first bandwidth mode is different from the second bandwidth mode.

[0076] In one possible design, the second field occupies at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0077] In a twelfth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a processing module and a communication module. The communication module is configured to receive a second frame, where the second frame is a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, the second frame including a service field, the service field including a second field, the second field being configured to indicate whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is a target bandwidth mode, the target bandwidth mode including one or more bandwidth modes other than 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, or 160 MHz. The processing module is configured to parse the second frame.

[0078] In one possible design, the second field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode, including: when the second field is set to the ninth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is not the target bandwidth mode; or, when the second field is set to the tenth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode.

[0079] In one possible design, the second frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the second field is set to the tenth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode, including: when the second field is set to the tenth preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the first bandwidth mode; when the second field is set to the tenth preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the second bandwidth mode; the first bandwidth mode and the second bandwidth mode both belong to the target bandwidth mode, and the first bandwidth mode is different from the second bandwidth mode.

[0080] In one possible design, the second field occupies at least one bit of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0081] In a thirteenth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is configured to generate a third frame, wherein the third frame is a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, and the second frame includes: a bandwidth negotiation field and a bandwidth mode indication field, wherein the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the third frame, wherein the bandwidth mode of the third frame is 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, or 160MHz, or a first bandwidth mode, wherein the first bandwidth mode is one of bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, or 160MHz. The communication module is configured to send the third frame to a receiving end.

[0082] In one possible design, the bandwidth negotiation field occupies bit B4 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence, and the bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence.

[0083] In one possible design, the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode used by the second frame, including: when the bandwidth negotiation field is set to 1 and the bandwidth mode indication field is set to 0, it indicates that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the first bandwidth mode.

[0084] In a fourteenth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a processing module and a communication module. The communication module is configured to receive a third frame, where the third frame is a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, and the second frame includes: a bandwidth negotiation field and a bandwidth mode indication field, where the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the third frame, where the bandwidth mode of the third frame is 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, or 160MHz, or a first bandwidth mode, where the first bandwidth mode is one of bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, or 160MHz. The processing module is configured to parse the third frame.

[0085] In one possible design, the bandwidth negotiation field occupies bit B4 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence, and the bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence.

[0086] In one possible design, the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode used by the second frame, including: when the bandwidth negotiation field is set to 1 and the bandwidth mode indication field is set to 0, it indicates that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the first bandwidth mode.

[0087] In a fifteenth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is configured to generate a fourth frame, the fourth frame being used to respond to the MU-RTS frame. The MAC frame of the fourth frame occupies 15 bytes and includes a frame control field, a duration field, a transmit address field, a frame check sequence field, and a third field. The frame control field occupies 2 bytes, the duration field occupies 2 bytes, the transmit address field occupies 6 bytes, the frame check sequence field occupies 4 bytes, and the third field occupies 1 byte. K bits in the third field are used to indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, where K is a positive integer. The communication module is configured to send the fourth frame to a receiving end.

[0088] In one possible design, the fourth frame also includes a service field, which occupies 16 bits; the K bits in the third field and the M bits in the service field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, where M is a positive integer.

[0089] In one possible design, when K+M=16, the K bits in the third field and the M bits in the service field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, including: for each of the 16 bits, one bit corresponds to a 20MHz channel, and the value of the bit is used to indicate whether the 20MHz channel corresponding to the bit is idle, and the 16 bits include K bits in the third field and M bits in the service field.

[0090] In a sixteenth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a processing module and a communication module. The communication module is configured to receive a fourth frame, the fourth frame being used to respond to a MU-RTS frame, the MAC frame of the fourth frame occupying 15 bytes, the MAC frame of the fourth frame including a frame control field, a duration field, a transmit address field, a frame check sequence field, and a third field, wherein the frame control field occupies 2 bytes, the duration field occupies 2 bytes, the transmit address field occupies 6 bytes, the frame check sequence field occupies 4 bytes, and the third field occupies 1 byte, and K bits in the third field are used to indicate a bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, where K is a positive integer. The processing module is configured to parse the fourth frame.

[0091] In one possible design, the fourth frame also includes a service field, which occupies 16 bits; the K bits in the third field and the M bits in the service field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, where M is a positive integer.

[0092] In one possible design, when K+M=16, the K bits in the third field and the M bits in the service field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, including: for each of the 16 bits, one bit corresponds to a 20MHz channel, and the value of the bit is used to indicate whether the 20MHz channel corresponding to the bit is idle, and the 16 bits include K bits in the third field and M bits in the service field.

[0093] In a seventeenth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a processor and a transceiver, wherein the processor and the transceiver are configured to implement any one of the methods provided in any one of aspects one to eight. The processor is configured to perform the processing actions in the corresponding method, and the transceiver is configured to perform the receiving / sending actions in the corresponding method.

[0094] In the eighteenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, wherein the computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions, and when the computer instructions are executed on a computer, the computer executes any one of the methods provided in any one of the first to eighth aspects.

[0095] In the nineteenth aspect, a computer program product comprising computer instructions is provided, which, when the computer instructions are executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute any one of the methods provided in any one of the first to eighth aspects.

[0096] In a twentieth aspect, a chip is provided, comprising: a processing circuit and a transceiver pin, wherein the processing circuit and the transceiver pin are configured to implement any one of the methods provided in any one of aspects 1 to 8 above. The processing circuit is configured to perform the processing actions in the corresponding method, and the transceiver pin is configured to perform the receiving / sending actions in the corresponding method.

[0097] It should be noted that the technical effects brought about by any design in the above-mentioned aspects 9 to 20 can be referred to the technical effects brought about by the corresponding designs in the first to eighth aspects, and will not be repeated here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0098] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of channel distribution when the bandwidth is 320 MHz;

[0099] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the service field provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0100] FIG3 is a flow chart of a bandwidth mode indication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0101] FIG4 is a flowchart of another bandwidth mode indication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0102] FIG5 is a flowchart of another bandwidth mode indication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0103] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a CTS frame provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0104] FIG7 is a schematic structural diagram of a fourth frame provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0105] FIG8 is a flowchart of another bandwidth mode indication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0106] FIG9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0107] FIG10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0108] In the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, " / " means "or", for example, A / B can mean A or B. "And / or" in this article is merely a description of the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In addition, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. Words such as "first" and "second" do not limit the quantity and execution order, and words such as "first" and "second" do not limit them to be necessarily different.

[0109] In this application, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate examples, illustrations, or descriptions. Any embodiment or design described in this application as "exemplary" or "for example" should not be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present the relevant concepts in a concrete manner.

[0110] WLAN evolved from 802.11a / g, through 802.11n, 802.11ac, and now the currently under discussion 802.11ax and 802.11be. Table 1 lists the permitted transmission bandwidths. 802.11n is also known as high throughput (HT), 802.11ac is known as very high throughput (VHT), 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) is known as HE, and 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) is known as extremely high throughput (EHT). Standards prior to HT, such as 802.11a / b / g, are collectively referred to as non-HT. 802.11b uses non-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and is therefore not listed in Table 1.

[0111] Table 1

[0112]

[0113] For example, when the bandwidth is 320 MHz, the channel distribution can be shown in Figure 1. The 320 MHz channel can be divided into 16 20 MHz channels. These 16 20 MHz channels can be numbered sequentially from high frequency to low frequency, or from low frequency to high frequency.

[0114] For example, in Figure 1, channel 1 can be used as the primary 20 MHz channel, channel 2 can be used as the secondary 20 MHz channel, channel 1 and channel 2 can be aggregated into a primary 40 MHz channel, channel 3 and channel 4 can be aggregated into a secondary 40 MHz channel, channels 1-channel 4 can be aggregated into a primary 80 MHz channel, channels 5-channel 8 can be aggregated into a secondary 80 MHz channel, channels 1-channel 8 can be aggregated into a primary 160 MHz channel, and channels 9-channel 16 can be aggregated into a secondary 160 MHz channel.

[0115] It is worth noting that the primary 20MHz channel is not necessarily located in the first 20MHz. For example, channel 3 can be used as the primary 20MHz channel, channel 4 can be used as the secondary 20MHz channel, channels 3 and 4 can be aggregated into a primary 40MHz channel, channels 1 and 2 can be aggregated into a secondary 40MHz channel, channels 1-4 can be aggregated into a primary 80MHz channel, channels 5-8 can be aggregated into a secondary 80MHz channel, channels 1-8 can be aggregated into a primary 160MHz channel, and channels 9-16 can be aggregated into a secondary 160MHz channel. Secondary channels can also have other names, such as slave channels, auxiliary channels, etc., but the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto.

[0116] In standards subsequent to 802.11a, to ensure backward compatibility, some control frames are sent using non-HT duplicates on channels with bandwidths greater than 20 MHz. That is, the control frame uses a non-HT format (i.e., a format that complies with the 802.11a standard) and is duplicated and sent on a 20 MHz channel. For ease of description, frames sent using non-HT duplicates are referred to below as non-HT duplicated frames or frames in non-HT duplicate format.

[0117] In wireless communication scenarios, since the wireless channel environments of the sender and receiver are different, it would be very useful for data communication if the bandwidth available to both parties could be negotiated based on the channel availability of both parties before data communication.

[0118] In the 802.11n standard, non-HT duplicated frames or non-HT frames include a service field. The structure of the service field is shown in Figure 2. The service field is divided into two parts: the first 7 bits of the service field are used to carry the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence, and the last 9 bits of the service field are reserved for service bits.

[0119] To negotiate the bandwidth mode, the 802.11ac standard sets bits B5 and B6 of the first seven bits of the scrambling sequence used in non-HT duplicated frames or non-HT frames to the CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field. The CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field indicates the bandwidth mode.

[0120] The first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence are numbered from low to high as B0 to B6. Thus, B5 is the sixth bit of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence, and B6 is the seventh bit of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence.

[0121] For example, in the 802.11ac standard, the correspondence between the value of the CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field and the bandwidth mode may be shown in Table 2. In Table 2, the unit of the channel bandwidth (CBW) is MHz.

[0122] Table 2

[0123] The enumeration value of bandwidth mode is CBW200CBW401CBW802CBW160 or CBW80+803

[0124] The bandwidth mode may also be referred to as the channel bandwidth. The bandwidth mode indicated by the CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field in the current frame is the channel bandwidth used for transmission of the frame.

[0125] Optionally, in order to let the receiving end know whether the transmitting end carries the CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field in the scrambling sequence, the transmitting end uses the unicast / multicast bit in the transmitter address (TA) field in a non-HT duplicated frame or a non-HT frame to indicate whether the B5 and B6 bits in the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence are used as the CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field. Specifically, if the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, it indicates that the B5 and B6 bits in the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence are used as the CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field. If the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the B5 and B6 bits in the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence are not used as the CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field.

[0126] With technological development, in wireless communication scenarios, the bandwidth modes that can be used between a transmitter and a receiver may exceed the four bandwidth modes shown in Table 2. For example, because the 802.11be standard supports a maximum transmission bandwidth of 320 MHz, other bandwidth modes such as 320 MHz can be used between a transmitter and a receiver that adopt the 802.11be standard.

[0127] Currently, the CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field supports only the four bandwidth modes shown in Table 2. Therefore, when introducing bandwidth modes other than 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, or 160 MHz, how to indicate the bandwidth mode in non-HT duplicated frames or non-HT frames is a technical issue that needs to be addressed.

[0128] To address this technical problem, embodiments of the present application provide a bandwidth mode indication method and apparatus. The technical solution provided by the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as systems that adopt the IEEE 802.11 standard. Exemplary IEEE 802.11 standards include, but are not limited to, 802.11be standards or later-generation 802.11 standards. Scenarios in which the technical solution of the present application is applicable include: communications between access points (APs) and stations (STAs), communications between APs, and communications between STAs.

[0129] The STA involved in this application can 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, where user terminals 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, gaming devices or systems, global positioning system devices or any other suitable devices configured to communicate over a wireless medium. Here, for the convenience of description, the above-mentioned devices are collectively referred to as stations or STAs.

[0130] The access point (AP) referred to in this application is a device deployed in a wireless communication network to provide wireless communication functions for its associated STAs. The access point (AP) can serve as the hub of the communication system and can be a communication device such as a base station, router, gateway, repeater, communication server, switch, or bridge. The base station can include various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations, and relay stations. For the sake of convenience, the above-mentioned devices are collectively referred to as access points (APs).

[0131] An embodiment of the present application provides a first frame, which is a non-HT duplicated frame or a non-HT frame, such as an RTS frame or a CTS frame.

[0132] The first frame includes a service field. The service field carried by the first frame occupies 16 bits. That is, compared to the non-HT duplicated frame or non-HT frame defined by the 802.11n standard, the first frame provided by this application does not increase or decrease bits, thereby ensuring backward compatibility.

[0133] The service field of the first frame includes a first field, and the first field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is allowed to indicate a target bandwidth mode, where the target bandwidth mode includes one or more bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, or 160MHz. Exemplary target bandwidth modes may include 320MHz (or 160+160MHz), 240MHz, etc., which are not limited herein.

[0134] Optionally, the first field occupies at least one bit among bits B7-B15 of the service field. For example, the first field occupies bit B7, bit B11, or bit B15 of the service field.

[0135] In an embodiment of the present application, when the first frame carries a bandwidth mode indication field, the bits occupied by the bandwidth mode indication field are different from the bits occupied by the first field.

[0136] Optionally, when the first field occupies 1 bit, the first field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is allowed to indicate the target bandwidth mode, including: when the first field is set to a first preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is not allowed to indicate the target bandwidth mode. Alternatively, when the first field is set to a second preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is allowed to indicate the target bandwidth mode.

[0137] Exemplarily, when the first field is implemented with 1 bit, the first preset value may be 0, and the second preset value may be 1; or, the first preset value may be 1, and the second preset value may be 0.

[0138] Optionally, when the first field occupies multiple bits, the first field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is allowed to indicate the target bandwidth mode, including: when the first field is set to a first preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is not allowed to indicate the target bandwidth mode. Alternatively, when the first field is set to a value other than the first preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is allowed to indicate the target bandwidth mode. One or more other values ​​may exist.

[0139] Optionally, when the first field occupies multiple bits, the first field may have other functions, such as indicating the total bandwidth.

[0140] Optionally, the first frame can adopt any of the following designs:

[0141] Design 1: The first field occupies at least 1 bit, and the first frame indicates the bandwidth mode through the following method (1-1) or (1-2).

[0142] (1-1) When the first field is set to the first preset value, the first frame does not carry the bandwidth mode indication field, or the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in the first bandwidth mode set.

[0143] Among them, when the first field is set to the first preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is implemented with 2 bits (for example, B5 bit and B6 bit) of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence. The bandwidth modes included in the first bandwidth mode set are: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz (or 80+80MHz). The correspondence between the value of the bandwidth mode indication field and the enumeration value of the bandwidth mode can be referred to in Table 2 above. This is a unified explanation here and will not be repeated below.

[0144] (1-2) When the first field is set to the second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a second bandwidth mode set. The second bandwidth mode set includes a target bandwidth mode.

[0145] Optionally, when the bandwidth mode indication field occupies 1 or 2 bits, the second bandwidth mode set does not include the four bandwidth modes of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz; in other words, the intersection of the second bandwidth mode set and the first bandwidth mode set is an empty set.

[0146] Optionally, when the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least 3 bits, the second bandwidth mode set may include four bandwidth modes: 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz (or 80+80 MHz). In other words, the first bandwidth mode set is a proper subset of the second bandwidth mode set. Based on this, the second bandwidth mode set includes at least 5 bandwidth modes.

[0147] Optionally, when the bandwidth mode indication field occupies at least 3 bits, the second bandwidth mode set does not include the four bandwidth modes of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz (or 80 + 80 MHz). That is, the intersection of the second bandwidth mode set and the first bandwidth mode set is an empty set. Based on this, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the number of bandwidth modes included in the second bandwidth mode set. For example, the second bandwidth mode set may include 8 or 63 bandwidth modes.

[0148] Design 2: The first field occupies at least 1 bit, and the first frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit. The first frame indicates the bandwidth mode through the following methods (2-1), (2-2), or (2-3).

[0149] (2-1) When the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame does not carry the bandwidth mode indication field.

[0150] (2-2) When the first field is set to the first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is used to indicate the bandwidth mode in the first bandwidth mode set.

[0151] (2-3) When the first field is set to the second preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0 or 1, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is used to indicate the bandwidth mode in the second bandwidth mode set.

[0152] Design 3: The first field occupies at least 1 bit, and the first frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit. The first frame indicates the bandwidth mode through the following methods (3-1), (3-2), (3-3), or (3-4).

[0153] (3-1) When the first field is set to the first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, it indicates that the first frame does not carry the bandwidth mode indication field.

[0154] (3-2) When the first field is set to the first preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is used to indicate the bandwidth mode in the first bandwidth mode set.

[0155] (3-3) When the first field is set to the second preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in the third bandwidth mode set.

[0156] (3-4) When the first field is set to the second preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in the fourth bandwidth mode set.

[0157] In an embodiment of the present application, at least one of the third bandwidth mode set and the fourth bandwidth mode set includes a target bandwidth mode, and the bandwidth modes included in the third bandwidth mode set are different from the bandwidth modes included in the fourth bandwidth mode set.

[0158] In one possible design, the third bandwidth mode set may include one or more of the four bandwidth modes of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, and 160MHz (or 80+80MHz), and / or the fourth bandwidth mode set may include one or more of the four bandwidth modes of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, and 160MHz (or 80+80MHz).

[0159] In another possible design, the third bandwidth mode set does not include the four bandwidth modes of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, and 160MHz (or 80+80MHz), and the fourth bandwidth mode combination does not include the four bandwidth modes of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, and 160MHz (or 80+80MHz).

[0160] Optionally, based on any of Designs 1 to 3 above, when the value of the first field is the second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame may adopt any of the following implementations 1-1 to 1-4:

[0161] Implementation 1-1: The bandwidth mode indication field is implemented using 1 or 2 bits of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence.

[0162] Exemplarily, the bandwidth mode indication field may be implemented with bits B5 and B6 in the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence.

[0163] Implementation 1-2: The bandwidth mode indication field is implemented using at least 3 bits of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence.

[0164] Exemplarily, the bandwidth mode indication field may be implemented with bits B3, B5, and B6 in the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence.

[0165] Implementation 1-3: The bandwidth mode indication field is implemented using one or more of the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0166] Exemplarily, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies 6 bits B9-B14 of the service field.

[0167] Implementation manner 1-4: The bandwidth mode indication field is implemented with at least one bit among the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence and at least one bit among the last 9 bits of the service field.

[0168] Exemplarily, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies two bits B5-B6 in the scrambling sequence and four bits B11-B14 in the service field.

[0169] Exemplarily, the bandwidth mode indication field occupies three bits B3, B5, and B6 in the scrambling sequence, and three bits B12-B14 in the service field.

[0170] Optionally, the second bandwidth mode set, the third bandwidth mode set, or the fourth bandwidth mode set may include a bandwidth mode with preamble puncturing and / or a bandwidth mode without preamble puncturing. The bandwidth mode without preamble puncturing may also be referred to as a bandwidth mode without preamble puncturing.

[0171] For example, the bandwidth modes for preamble puncturing and non-preamble puncturing defined in 802.11be based on non-orthogonal frequency division multiple access (non-OFDMA) can be shown in Table 3. Table 3 shows 63 bandwidth modes. In Table 3, a "1" or "X" corresponds to a 20 MHz channel. A "1" indicates that the corresponding 20 MHz channel is idle, and an "X" indicates that the corresponding 20 MHz channel is busy or unavailable.

[0172] In the embodiment of the present application, for the bandwidth mode with preamble puncturing, the total bandwidth corresponding to the bandwidth mode is the bandwidth without preamble puncturing. For example, the total bandwidth can be: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz (or 80+80MHz), 320MHz (or 160+160MHz).

[0173] Table 3

[0174]

[0175]

[0176]

[0177] Design 4: The first field occupies 1 bit, and the first frame indicates the bandwidth mode through the following methods (4-1) or (4-2).

[0178] (4-1) When the first field is set to the first preset value, the first frame does not carry the bandwidth mode indication field, or the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in the first bandwidth mode set.

[0179] (4-2) When the first field is set to the second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame includes a fourth field and a fifth field. The fourth field is used to indicate the total bandwidth. The fifth field is used to indicate the preamble code puncturing information corresponding to the total bandwidth. In other words, the fifth field is used to indicate the availability of each channel corresponding to the total bandwidth.

[0180] The fourth field may occupy at least one bit, and the fifth field may occupy at least one bit. The fourth field and the fifth field are located in the service field.

[0181] Optionally, the fourth field may adopt any one of the following implementations 2-1 to 2-3:

[0182] In implementation 2-1, the fourth field occupies 1 bit. The fourth field is used to indicate the total bandwidth, including the following scenarios: Scenario 1-1 and / or Scenario 1-2:

[0183] Case 1-1: When the value of the fourth field is a preset value of eleven, it indicates that the total bandwidth is less than or equal to 160 MHz.

[0184] Case 1-2: When the value of the fourth field is the twelve preset values, it indicates that the total bandwidth is greater than 160 MHz, or the total bandwidth is equal to 320 MHz or 160+160 MHz.

[0185] In implementation 2-2, the fourth field occupies 2 bits. The fourth field is used to indicate the total bandwidth, including one or more of the following scenarios 2-1 to 2-3:

[0186] Case 2-1: When the value of the fourth field is the preset value of eleven, it indicates that the total bandwidth is equal to 80 MHz.

[0187] Case 2-2: When the value of the fourth field is the twelve preset values, it indicates that the total bandwidth is equal to 160 MHz or 80+80 MHz.

[0188] Case 2-3: When the value of the fourth field is the preset value thirteen, it indicates that the total bandwidth is equal to 320 MHz or 160+160 MHz.

[0189] Exemplarily, the eleventh preset value, the twelfth preset value, and the thirteenth preset value are 0, 1, and 2 respectively.

[0190] In implementation 2-3, the fourth field occupies 3 bits. The fourth field is used to indicate the total bandwidth, including one or more of the following scenarios 3-1 to 3-5:

[0191] Case 3-1: When the value of the fourth field is the preset value of eleven, it indicates that the total bandwidth is equal to 20 MHz.

[0192] Case 3-2: When the value of the fourth field is the twelve preset values, it indicates that the total bandwidth is equal to 40 MHz.

[0193] Case 3-3: When the value of the fourth field is the preset value thirteen, it indicates that the total bandwidth is equal to 80 MHz.

[0194] Case 3-4: When the value of the fourth field is the fourteenth preset value, it indicates that the total bandwidth is equal to 160 MHz or 80+80 MHz.

[0195] Case 3-5: When the value of the fourth field is the preset value of fifteen, it indicates that the total bandwidth is equal to 320 MHz or 160+160 MHz.

[0196] Exemplarily, the eleventh preset value to the fifteenth preset value are: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 in sequence.

[0197] Optionally, the fifth field may adopt any one of the following implementations 3-1 to 3-4:

[0198] In implementation 3-1, the fifth field occupies 8 bits. The fifth field is used to indicate the preamble puncturing information corresponding to the total bandwidth, which is the following scenario 4-1 or scenario 4-2:

[0199] Case 4-1: When the total bandwidth indicated by the fourth field is less than or equal to 160 MHz, each bit in the fifth field corresponds to a 20 MHz channel. One bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the bit is idle.

[0200] Optionally, the channels corresponding to the bits in the fifth field are sequentially set from low frequency to high frequency, so that in the fifth field, the low-order bits correspond to the low-frequency channels and the high-order bits correspond to the high-frequency channels.

[0201] Optionally, the channels corresponding to the bits in the fifth field are sequentially set in order from high frequency to low frequency, so that in the fifth field, the low-order bits correspond to the high-frequency channels and the high-order bits correspond to the low-frequency channels.

[0202] The above correspondence between bits and channels is not only applicable to scenario 4-1 of the fifth field, but also applicable to other scenarios of the fifth field or other fields.

[0203] A bit is used to indicate whether the corresponding channel is idle. When the bit is set to the seventh preset value, it indicates that the corresponding channel is available; or when the bit is set to the eighth preset value, it indicates that the corresponding channel is unavailable or busy. Optionally, the seventh preset value is 0 and the eighth preset value is 1. Alternatively, the seventh preset value is 1 and the eighth preset value is 0. This is described here uniformly and will not be repeated below.

[0204] In the embodiment of the present application, “channel is unavailable or busy” can be replaced by “channel is punctured” and “channel is idle” can be replaced by “channel is not punctured”.

[0205] Case 4-2: When the total bandwidth indicated by the fourth field is greater than 160 MHz, each bit in the fifth field corresponds to a 40 MHz channel. The first bit indicates whether the secondary 20 MHz channel within the primary 40 MHz channel is idle. The first bit corresponds to the primary 40 MHz channel. The second bit indicates whether the 40 MHz channel corresponding to the second bit is idle. The second bit is any bit in the fifth field other than the first bit.

[0206] In implementation 3-2, the fifth field occupies 8 bits. The fifth field is used to indicate the preamble puncturing information corresponding to the total bandwidth, which is the following scenario 5-1 or scenario 5-2:

[0207] Case 5-1: When the total bandwidth indicated by the fourth field is less than or equal to 160 MHz, each bit in the fifth field corresponds to a 20 MHz channel. One bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the bit is idle.

[0208] Case 5-2: The fifth field includes four first bits, two second bits, and two third bits. Each of the four first bits corresponds to a 20 MHz channel in the primary 80 MHz channel, each of the two second bits corresponds to a 40 MHz channel in the secondary 80 MHz channel, and each of the two third bits corresponds to an 80 MHz channel in the secondary 160 MHz channel. The first bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the first bit is idle. The second bit is used to indicate whether the 40 MHz channel corresponding to the second bit is idle. The third bit is used to indicate whether the 80 MHz channel corresponding to the third bit is idle.

[0209] In implementation 3-3, the fifth field occupies 10 bits. The fifth field is used to indicate the preamble puncturing information corresponding to the total bandwidth, which is the following scenario 6-1 or scenario 6-2:

[0210] Case 6-1: When the total bandwidth indicated by the fourth field is less than or equal to 160 MHz, each of the 8 bits in the fifth field corresponds to a 20 MHz channel. One bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the bit is idle.

[0211] Case 6-2: When the total bandwidth indicated by the fourth field is greater than 160 MHz, the fifth field includes four first bits, two second bits, and four third bits. Each of the four first bits corresponds to a 20 MHz channel in the primary 80 MHz channel. Each of the two second bits corresponds to a 40 MHz channel in the secondary 80 MHz channel. Each of the four third bits corresponds to a 40 MHz channel in the secondary 160 MHz channel. The first bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the first bit is idle. The second bit is used to indicate whether the 40 MHz channel corresponding to the second bit is idle. The third bit is used to indicate whether the 40 MHz channel corresponding to the third bit is idle.

[0212] In implementation 3-4, the fifth field occupies 10 bits. The fifth field is used to indicate the preamble puncturing information corresponding to the total bandwidth, which is the following scenario 7-1 or scenario 7-2:

[0213] Case 7-1: When the total bandwidth indicated by the fourth field is less than or equal to 160 MHz, each of the 8 bits in the fifth field corresponds to a 20 MHz channel. One bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the bit is idle.

[0214] Case 7-2: When the total bandwidth indicated by the fourth field is greater than 160 MHz, the fifth field includes eight first bits and two second bits. Each of the eight first bits corresponds to a 20 MHz channel in the primary 160 MHz channel. Each of the two second bits corresponds to an 80 MHz channel in the secondary 160 MHz channel. The first bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the first bit is idle. The second bit is used to indicate whether the 160 MHz channel corresponding to the second bit is idle.

[0215] Design 5: The first field occupies 2 bits, and the first frame indicates the bandwidth mode through the following methods (5-1), (5-2) or (5-3).

[0216] (5-1) When the first field is set to the first preset value, the first frame does not carry the bandwidth mode indication field, or the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in the first bandwidth mode set.

[0217] (5-2) When the first field is set to the second preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is less than or equal to 160 MHz, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate whether each channel is idle when the total bandwidth is less than or equal to 160 MHz.

[0218] (5-3) When the first field is set to the third preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is greater than 160MHz (or the total bandwidth is equal to 320MHz), and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate whether each channel is idle when the total bandwidth is greater than 160MHz.

[0219] Design 6: The first field occupies 2 bits, and the first frame indicates the bandwidth mode through the following methods (6-1), (6-2), (6-3) or (6-4).

[0220] (6-1) When the first field is set to the first preset value, the first frame does not carry the bandwidth mode indication field, or the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in the first bandwidth mode set.

[0221] (6-2) When the first field is set to the second preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is equal to 80 MHz, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate whether each channel is idle when the total bandwidth is equal to 80 MHz.

[0222] (6-3) When the first field is set to the third preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is equal to 160 MHz, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate whether each channel is idle when the total bandwidth is equal to 160 MHz.

[0223] (6-4) When the first field is set to the fourth preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is equal to 320 MHz, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate whether each channel is idle when the total bandwidth is equal to 320 MHz.

[0224] Design seven, the first field occupies 3 bits, and the first frame indicates the bandwidth mode through the following methods (7-1), (7-2), (7-3), (7-4) or (7-5).

[0225] (7-1) When the first field is set to the first preset value, the first frame does not carry the bandwidth mode indication field, or the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in the first bandwidth mode set.

[0226] (7-2) When the first field is set to the second preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is equal to 20 MHz, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate whether each channel is idle when the total bandwidth is equal to 20 MHz.

[0227] (7-3) When the first field is set to the third preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is equal to 40 MHz, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate whether each channel is idle when the total bandwidth is equal to 40 MHz.

[0228] (7-4) When the first field is set to the fourth preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is equal to 80 MHz, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate whether each channel is idle when the total bandwidth is equal to 80 MHz.

[0229] (7-5) When the first field is set to the fifth preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is equal to 160 MHz, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate whether each channel is idle when the total bandwidth is equal to 160 MHz.

[0230] (7-6) When the first field is set to the sixth preset value, the first field is used to indicate that the total bandwidth is equal to 320 MHz, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate whether each channel is idle when the total bandwidth is equal to 320 MHz.

[0231] Optionally, based on any one of the above designs five to seven, when the total bandwidth indicated by the first field is less than or equal to 160 MHz, the bandwidth mode indication field includes any one of the following implementation methods 4-1 or 4-2.

[0232] Implementation 4-1: The bandwidth mode indication field occupies 8 bits. Each bit in the bandwidth mode indication field corresponds to a 20 MHz channel. One bit is used to indicate whether the corresponding 20 MHz channel is idle.

[0233] Implementation 4-2: The bandwidth mode indication field occupies 10 bits. Each bit in the eight fields of the bandwidth mode indication field corresponds to a 20 MHz channel. One bit is used to indicate whether the corresponding 20 MHz channel is idle.

[0234] Optionally, based on any one of the above designs five to seven, when the total bandwidth indicated by the first field is greater than 160 MHz, or the total bandwidth indicated by the first field is equal to 320 MHz, the bandwidth mode indication field includes any one of the following implementation methods 5-1 to 5-4.

[0235] Implementation 5-1: The bandwidth mode indication field occupies 8 bits, and each bit in the bandwidth mode indication field corresponds to a 40 MHz channel. The first bit is used to indicate whether the secondary 20 MHz channel within the primary 40 MHz channel is idle. The first bit corresponds to the primary 40 MHz channel. The second bit is used to indicate whether the 40 MHz channel corresponding to the second bit is idle. The second bit is any bit in the bandwidth mode indication field other than the first bit.

[0236] Implementation 5-2: The bandwidth mode indication field occupies 8 bits. The bandwidth mode indication field includes 4 first bits, 2 second bits, and 2 third bits. Each of the 4 first bits corresponds to a 20 MHz channel in the primary 80 MHz channel, each of the 2 second bits corresponds to a 40 MHz channel in the secondary 80 MHz channel, and each of the 2 third bits corresponds to an 80 MHz channel in the secondary 160 MHz channel. The first bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the first bit is idle. The second bit is used to indicate whether the 40 MHz channel corresponding to the second bit is idle. The third bit is used to indicate whether the 80 MHz channel corresponding to the third bit is idle.

[0237] Implementation 5-3: The bandwidth mode indication field occupies 10 bits and includes 4 first bits, 2 second bits, and 4 third bits. Each of the 4 first bits corresponds to a 20 MHz channel in the primary 80 MHz channel. Each of the 2 second bits corresponds to a 40 MHz channel in the secondary 80 MHz channel. Each of the 4 third bits corresponds to a 40 MHz channel in the secondary 160 MHz channel. The first bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the first bit is idle. The second bit is used to indicate whether the 40 MHz channel corresponding to the second bit is idle. The third bit is used to indicate whether the 40 MHz channel corresponding to the third bit is idle.

[0238] Implementation 5-4: The bandwidth mode indication field occupies 10 bits. The bandwidth mode indicator word includes 8 first bits and 2 second bits. Each of the 8 first bits corresponds to a 20 MHz channel in the primary 160 MHz channel. Each of the 2 second bits corresponds to an 80 MHz channel in the secondary 160 MHz channel. The first bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the first bit is idle. The second bit is used to indicate whether the 160 MHz channel corresponding to the second bit is idle.

[0239] Based on the first frame, as shown in FIG3 , an embodiment of the present application provides a bandwidth mode indication method, which includes the following steps:

[0240] S101: The sending end generates a first frame.

[0241] The transmitter supports the 802.11be standard, or the next generation 802.11 standard of 802.11be. It is understood that the transmitter can be backward compatible with previous standard protocols, such as supporting the 802.11ax standard and the 802.11ax standard that precedes the 802.11ax standard. The transmitter can be either an AP or a STA.

[0242] The sending end may determine the value of the relevant field (eg, the first field) in the first frame based on its own needs, the protocol supported by the opposite end device (ie, the receiving end hereinafter), and other factors.

[0243] For example, if the receiving end supports the 802.11be standard, the transmitting end can set the value of the first field in the first frame to the first preset value or the second preset value. If the receiving end does not support the 802.11be standard, the transmitting end can only set the value of the first field in the first frame to the first preset value.

[0244] S102: The transmitting end sends a first frame to the receiving end, so that the receiving end receives the first frame.

[0245] S103: The receiving end parses the first frame.

[0246] In an embodiment of the present application, when the receiving end parses out that the value of the first field in the first frame is the second preset value, the receiving end can determine that the sending end of the first frame (i.e., the transmitting end) supports the 802.11be standard or the next generation 802.11 standard.

[0247] Based on the technical solution shown in Figure 3, the first frame only uses at least one bit in the service field as the first field, and does not increase or decrease the bits of the service field, thereby ensuring that the first frame has backward compatibility. The first field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is allowed to indicate the target bandwidth mode. In other words, due to the existence of the first field in the service field of the first frame, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame expands the range of bandwidth modes that can be indicated. Thus, in the scenario where bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz are introduced, the purpose of negotiating the use of a bandwidth mode in more bandwidth modes can be achieved by transmitting the first frame between the two devices.

[0248] In the embodiment of the present application, the first field is located in the service field of the first frame, which has the following advantages: (1) Currently, the reserved bits in the MAC frame are likely to be used by chip manufacturers as indication bits of private features. Therefore, if the reserved bits in the MAC frame are used as the first field, it will affect the indication of the private features. However, using the bits in the service field as the first field can avoid affecting the private use of the reserved bits in the MAC frame by the chip manufacturer. (2) The positions of the reserved bits in the MAC frame of different types of traditional frames are not necessarily the same. Therefore, for different types of transmission frames, the implementation scheme of using the reserved bits in the MAC frame as the first field is different. The service field is a field introduced for performing scrambling operations at the physical layer. The service field is located before the MAC frame. The service field itself belongs to the field of the physical layer, that is, all types of traditional frames contain the service field. In this way, using the bits in the service field as the first field can be universally applicable to all types of traditional frames.

[0249] An embodiment of the present application provides a second frame, which is a non-HT duplicated frame or a non-HT frame, such as an RTS frame or a CTS frame.

[0250] The second frame includes a service field. The service field carried by the second frame occupies 16 bits. That is, compared to the non-HT duplicated frame or non-HT frame defined by the 802.11n standard, the second frame provided by this application does not increase or decrease bits, thereby ensuring backward compatibility.

[0251] The service field of the second frame includes a second field for indicating whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is a target bandwidth mode, where the target bandwidth mode includes one or more bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz.

[0252] Optionally, the target bandwidth mode includes a bandwidth mode with preamble puncturing and / or a bandwidth mode without preamble puncturing.

[0253] Optionally, the second field occupies at least one bit among bits B7-B15 of the service field. For example, the second field occupies bit B7, bit B11, or bit B15 of the service field.

[0254] In this embodiment of the present application, the second field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode, including the following case (8-1) or situation (8-2):

[0255] (8-1) When the second field is set to the ninth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is not the target bandwidth mode.

[0256] Based on situation (8-1), the first frame does not carry a bandwidth mode indication field, or the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in the first bandwidth mode set. In this case, the bandwidth mode indication field carried by the first frame is implemented with 2 bits (for example, B5 bit and B6 bit) of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence. The bandwidth modes included in the first bandwidth mode set are: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz or 160MHz. The correspondence between the value of the bandwidth mode indication field and the enumeration value of the bandwidth mode can be referred to Table 2 above. This is a unified explanation and will not be repeated below.

[0257] (8-2) When the second field is set to the tenth preset value, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode.

[0258] Optionally, the second frame also includes a unicast / multicast bit, and situation (8-2) can be further refined into the following situation (8-2-1) or (8-2-2).

[0259] (8-2-1) When the second field is set to the tenth preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 0, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the first bandwidth mode.

[0260] (8-2-2) When the second field is set to the tenth preset value and the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, the second field is used to indicate that the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the second bandwidth mode.

[0261] The first bandwidth mode and the second bandwidth mode both belong to the target bandwidth mode, and the first bandwidth mode is different from the second bandwidth mode. For example, the first bandwidth mode is 240 MHz, and the second bandwidth mode is 320 MHz.

[0262] Exemplarily, when the second field is implemented with 1 bit, the ninth preset value may be 0, and the tenth preset value may be 1; or, the tenth preset value may be 1, and the ninth preset value may be 0.

[0263] Based on the second frame, as shown in FIG4 , a bandwidth mode indication method provided in an embodiment of the present application includes the following steps:

[0264] S201: The transmitting end generates a second frame.

[0265] The transmitter supports the 802.11be standard, or the next generation 802.11 standard of 802.11be. It is understood that the transmitter can be backward compatible with previous standard protocols, such as supporting the 802.11ax standard and the 802.11ax standard that precedes the 802.11ax standard. The transmitter can be either an AP or a STA.

[0266] The sending end may determine the value of the relevant field (eg, the second field) in the second frame based on its own requirements, the protocol supported by the receiving end, and other factors.

[0267] S202: The transmitting end sends a second frame to the receiving end, so that the receiving end receives the second frame.

[0268] S203: The receiving end parses the second frame.

[0269] Based on the technical solution shown in Figure 4, the second frame only uses at least one bit in the service field as the second field, and does not increase or decrease the bits in the service field, thereby ensuring the backward compatibility of the second frame. In addition, the second field is used to indicate whether the bandwidth mode of the second frame is the target bandwidth mode. Therefore, in the scenario where bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, or 160MHz are introduced, the purpose of negotiating the use of a bandwidth mode under more bandwidth modes can be achieved by transmitting the second frame between two devices.

[0270] Exemplarily, the first field or the second field may have other names, such as an EHT bandwidth indication field, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0271] In the embodiment of the present application, the second field is located in the service field of the second frame, which has the following advantages: (1) Currently, the reserved bits in the MAC frame are likely to be used by chip manufacturers as indication bits of private features. Therefore, if the reserved bits in the MAC frame are used as the second field, it will affect the indication of the private features. However, using the bits in the service field as the second field can avoid affecting the private use of the reserved bits in the MAC frame by the chip manufacturer. (2) The positions of the reserved bits in the MAC frame of different types of traditional frames are not necessarily the same. Therefore, for different types of transmission frames, the implementation scheme of using the reserved bits in the MAC frame as the second field is different. The service field is a field introduced for performing scrambling operations at the physical layer. The service field is located before the MAC frame. The service field itself belongs to the field of the physical layer, that is, all types of traditional frames contain the service field. In this way, using the bits in the service field as the second field can be universally applicable to all types of traditional frames.

[0272] Currently, the sender sends an RTS frame after the backoff ends. The sender can send the RTS frame in non-HT duplicated form. The CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field in the RTS frame indicates the bandwidth mode, and the DYN_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field indicates the bandwidth negotiation mode.

[0273] The CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field is implemented using bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence. The DYN_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field is implemented using bit B4 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence. When the DYN_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field is set to 0, static bandwidth negotiation is indicated. When the DYN_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field is set to 1, dynamic bandwidth negotiation is indicated.

[0274] After receiving the RTS, when the DYN_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field is set to 0, if NAV indicates idle and the CCA detection result of the bandwidth indicated by the RTS frame is idle, the receiving end uses the bandwidth indicated by the RTS frame to reply to the non-HT duplicated CTS frame.

[0275] When the receiving end receives the RTS frame, when the DYN_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field is set to 1, if the NAV shows idle and the CCA detection result of the bandwidth indicated by the RTS is all or part (including the main 20MHz channel) idle, the receiving station replies to the non-HT duplicated CTS using the same or smaller bandwidth as the RTS frame.

[0276] The applicant discovered that when the bandwidth mode indicated by the CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field in the RTS frame is 20MHz, regardless of whether the DYN_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field is set to 0 or 1, the receiving end adopts the same processing method: when the main 20MHz channel is busy, the receiving end does not reply to the CTS frame; when the main 20MHz channel is idle, the receiving end replies to the CTS frame, and the CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field carried by the CTS frame indicates 20MHz.

[0277] It can be seen that for the RTS frame or CTS frame defined in the current standard, when the CH_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field is set to 0, the DYN_BANDWIDTH_IN_NON_HT field is in a redundant state.

[0278] Based on this, an embodiment of the present application provides a third frame, which is a non-HT duplicated frame or a non-HT frame, such as an RTS frame or a CTS frame.

[0279] The third frame includes a bandwidth negotiation field and a bandwidth mode indication field. The bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the third frame. The bandwidth mode of the third frame can be 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 160 MHz, or the first bandwidth mode. The first bandwidth mode is one of bandwidth modes other than 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, or 160 MHz, such as 320 MHz.

[0280] The bandwidth negotiation field occupies bit B4 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence. The bandwidth mode indication field occupies bits B5 and B6 of the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence.

[0281] Optionally, the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode used by the third frame, including the following situations:

[0282] (9-1) When the bandwidth negotiation field is set to 1 and the bandwidth mode indication field is set to 0, it indicates that the bandwidth mode used by the third frame is the first bandwidth mode.

[0283] (9-2) When the bandwidth negotiation field is set to 0 and the bandwidth mode indication field is set to 0, it indicates that the bandwidth mode used by the third frame is 20 MHz.

[0284] (9-3) When the bandwidth negotiation field is set to 0 or 1 and the bandwidth mode indication field is set to 1, it indicates that the bandwidth mode used in the third frame is 40 MHz.

[0285] (9-4) When the bandwidth negotiation field is set to 0 or 1 and the bandwidth mode indication field is set to 2, it indicates that the bandwidth mode used by the third frame is 80 MHz.

[0286] (9-5) When the bandwidth negotiation field is set to 0 or 1 and the bandwidth mode indication field is set to 3, it indicates that the bandwidth mode used by the third frame is 80+80 MHz or 160 MHz.

[0287] In the embodiment of the present application, when the bandwidth negotiation field is set to 0, it indicates that static bandwidth negotiation is used. When the bandwidth negotiation field is set to 1, it indicates that dynamic bandwidth negotiation is used.

[0288] Based on the third frame, as shown in FIG5 , an embodiment of the present application provides a bandwidth mode indication method, which includes the following steps:

[0289] S301: The transmitting end generates a third frame.

[0290] The transmitter supports the 802.11be standard, or the next generation 802.11 standard of 802.11be. It is understood that the transmitter can be backward compatible with previous standard protocols, such as supporting the 802.11ax standard and the 802.11ax standard that precedes the 802.11ax standard. The transmitter can be either an AP or a STA.

[0291] The sending end may determine the values ​​of the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field in the third frame based on factors such as its own needs and the protocol supported by the receiving end.

[0292] Exemplarily, when the receiving end supports the 802.11be standard or a later-generation 802.11 standard, the transmitting end may set the bandwidth negotiation field in the third frame to 1 and the bandwidth mode indication field to 0.

[0293] S302: The transmitting end sends a third frame to the receiving end, so that the receiving end receives the third frame.

[0294] S303: The receiving end parses the third frame.

[0295] Based on the technical solution shown in Figure 5, compared to the prior art where non-HT frames or non-HT duplicated frames can only use the bandwidth mode indication field to achieve the purpose of negotiating the use of one bandwidth mode among four bandwidth modes, the third frame provided by the present application makes full use of a redundant state in the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field to indicate a new bandwidth mode (first bandwidth mode). Thus, the bandwidth negotiation field and the bandwidth mode indication field in the third frame are jointly used to indicate one bandwidth mode from five bandwidth modes. In this way, the transmission of the third frame between two devices can achieve the purpose of negotiating the use of one bandwidth mode from five bandwidth modes. In addition, compared to the non-HT frame or non-HT duplicated frame defined in the 802.11n standard, the third frame provided by the present application does not add or reduce bits, thereby ensuring the backward compatibility of the third frame.

[0296] After the bandwidth supported by the 802.11be standard was extended to 320MHz, the number of bandwidth modes available to devices increased. For the transmitter, the MU-RTS frame sent by the transmitter can use a special AID user information field (user info field) to carry the bandwidth mode indication field. This allows the bandwidth mode indication field to occupy more bits (e.g., 16 bits), making it suitable for scenarios where the communication system has more bandwidth modes.

[0297] However, for the receiver, the CTS frame used to respond to the MU-RTS frame is a traditional frame, and thus does not have enough free bits for the bandwidth mode indication field. Therefore, the current CTS frame is not suitable for scenarios where the communication system introduces more bandwidth modes.

[0298] To address this technical problem, an embodiment of the present application provides a fourth frame, which is used to respond to a MU-RTS frame or an RTS frame. Compared to the 112-bit MAC frame of the existing CTS frame, the MAC frame of this fourth frame occupies 112+N bits, where N is a positive integer. One or more of the N bits are used to indicate the bandwidth mode. This bandwidth mode can be a bandwidth mode with preamble puncturing or a bandwidth mode without preamble puncturing.

[0299] In this way, the fourth frame includes all the fields carried by the CTS frame and can also provide more idle bits to indicate the bandwidth mode, thereby achieving the purpose of indicating one bandwidth mode from at least five bandwidth modes.

[0300] In the embodiment of the present application, N is less than or equal to 10. The specific reasons are as follows:

[0301] Currently, CTS frames are typically sent at a rate of 6 Mbps. An OFDM symbol is 4 microseconds long, so one OFDM symbol can transmit 24 bits (6 Mbps * 4 microseconds) of data. Since a byte has 8 bits, one OFDM symbol can transmit 3 bytes.

[0302] As shown in Figure 6, in addition to the preamble part included in all non-HT frames, the CTS frame also includes a service field (2 bytes), a frame control field (2 bytes), a duration field (2 bytes), a receiving address (RA) field (6 bytes), a frame check sequence (FCS) field (4 bytes), and a tail (6 bits). In other words, the CTS frame needs to use 16 bytes + 6 bits to carry the above fields. Therefore, the CTS frame requires 6 OFDM symbols to transmit. It should be noted that the time required for the transmission of the physical frame header part is ignored in the above calculation process, because the transmission time of this part is fixed for all non-HT frames.

[0303] The current standard supports a NAV reset mechanism based on RTS / CTS or MU-RTS / CTS interactions: If a station last updated its NAV based on an RTS or MU-RTS frame and does not receive a PHY-RXSTART.indication within the NAVTimeout, it can reset the NAV, ignoring the NAV update from the RTS or MU-RTS frame. The NAVTimeout is calculated from the time the MAC layer receives the PHY-RXEND.indication primitive from the RTS or MU-RTS frame.

[0304] NAVTimeout is a fixed time length defined in the existing standard, which is specifically equal to (2×aSIFSTime)+(CTS_Time)+aRxPHYStartDelay+(2×aSlotTime), where aSIFSTime=16 microseconds, CTS_Time is the CTS frame transmission duration, aRxPHYStartDelay is the physical layer reception delay, and aSlotTime=9 microseconds.

[0305] Because NAVTimeout is a fixed duration, to ensure the proper execution of the NAV reset mechanism based on RTS / CTS or MU-RTS / CTS interactions, the transmission duration of the fourth frame must be consistent with that of the CTS frame. This means that the fourth frame also has a transmission duration of six OFDM symbols. Six OFDM symbols can transmit up to 18 bytes of data. Therefore, compared to the CTS frame, the fourth frame can have a maximum of 10 additional bits. In other words, N is less than or equal to 10.

[0306] Optionally, N may be equal to 8. In this way, the fourth frame can meet the rule that the length of the MAC frame increases by whole bytes.

[0307] Taking N=8 as an example, the fourth frame is described in detail below.

[0308] The MAC frame of the fourth frame occupies 15 bytes. As shown in Figure 7, the MAC frame of the fourth frame includes a frame control field, a duration field, a transmit address field, a frame check sequence field, and a third field. The frame control field occupies 2 bytes, the duration field occupies 2 bytes, the transmit address field occupies 6 bytes, the frame check sequence field occupies 4 bytes, and the third field occupies 1 byte.

[0309] The embodiment of the present application does not limit the position of the third field in the fourth frame. For example, the third field may also be located between the sending address field and the duration field.

[0310] In this embodiment of the present application, the K bits in the third field are used to indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame.

[0311] Optionally, the fourth frame further includes a service field, which occupies 16 bits. The K bits in the third field and the M bits in the service field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, where M is a positive integer.

[0312] Exemplarily, when K+M=16, the K bits in the third field and the M bits in the service field are used to jointly indicate the bandwidth mode of the fourth frame, including: for each of the 16 bits, one bit corresponds to a 20 MHz channel, and the value of the one bit is used to indicate whether the 20 MHz channel corresponding to the bit is idle. The 16 bits include the K bits in the third field and the M bits in the service field.

[0313] Exemplarily, the 16 bits may include 8 bits in the third field and 8 bits in the service field. The 8 bits in the service field may be any 8 of the last 9 bits of the service field (ie, bits B7 to B15).

[0314] Optionally, when the M bits in the service field include bits B0 to B6 in the service field, it is necessary to ensure that bits B0 to B6 cannot all be set to 0 to avoid the scrambling process from not working properly.

[0315] Based on the third frame, the present application provides a bandwidth mode indication method. As shown in FIG8 , the method includes the following steps:

[0316] S401: The transmitting end generates a fourth frame.

[0317] The detailed description of the fourth frame can be found above and will not be repeated here.

[0318] In a possible implementation manner, when the transmitting end determines that the receiving end supports the 802.11be standard or a next-generation 802.11 standard, the transmitting end generates a fourth frame.

[0319] S402: The transmitting end sends the fourth frame, so that the receiving end receives the fourth frame.

[0320] S403: The receiving end parses the fourth frame.

[0321] Based on the technical solution shown in Figure 8, compared to the existing CTS frame, the fourth frame has more spare bits that can be used to indicate the bandwidth mode. This allows the transmitter to send the third frame to the receiver in scenarios where bandwidth modes other than 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, or 160MHz are introduced, thereby indicating one bandwidth mode from multiple bandwidth modes.

[0322] The following mainly introduces the solution provided by the embodiment of the present application from the perspective of a communication device. It is understandable that, in order to implement the above functions, the communication device includes a hardware structure and / or software module corresponding to each function. Those skilled in the art should easily appreciate that, in combination with the modules and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed herein, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in a hardware or computer software driven hardware manner depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of this application.

[0323] The embodiment of the present application can divide the functional modules of the device according to the above method example. For example, each functional module can be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one functional module. The above integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. The division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic and is only a logical functional division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation. The following is an example of dividing each functional module corresponding to each function:

[0324] As shown in FIG9 , a communication device is provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device includes: a processing module 101 and a communication module 102 .

[0325] In one possible design, when the communication device acts as a transmitting end, the processing module 101 is used to execute step S101 in Figure 3, and the communication module is used to execute step S102 in Figure 3.

[0326] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a transmitting end, the processing module 101 is used to execute step S201 in Figure 4, and the communication module 102 is used to execute step S202 in Figure 4.

[0327] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a transmitting end, the processing module 101 is used to execute step S301 in Figure 5, and the communication module 102 is used to execute step S302 in Figure 5.

[0328] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a transmitting end, the processing module 101 is used to execute step S401 in Figure 8, and the communication module 102 is used to execute step S402 in Figure 8.

[0329] In another possible design, when the communication device serves as a receiving end, the processing module 101 is used to execute step S103 in Figure 3, and the communication module 102 is used to execute step S102 in Figure 3.

[0330] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a receiving end, the processing module 101 is used to execute step S203 in Figure 4, and the communication module 102 is used to execute step S202 in Figure 4.

[0331] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a receiving end, the processing module 101 is used to execute step S303 in Figure 5, and the communication module 102 is used to execute step S302 in Figure 5.

[0332] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a receiving end, the processing module 101 is used to execute step S403 in Figure 8, and the communication module 102 is used to execute step S402 in Figure 8.

[0333] FIG10 is a structural diagram of a possible product form of the communication device described in an embodiment of the present application.

[0334] As a possible product form, the communication apparatus described in the embodiment of the present application may be a communication device, which includes a processor 201 and a transceiver 202. Optionally, the communication device further includes a storage medium 203.

[0335] In one possible design, when the communication device acts as a transmitting end, the processor 201 is used to execute step S101 in Figure 3, and the transceiver 202 is used to execute step S102 in Figure 3.

[0336] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a transmitting end, the processor 201 is used to execute step S201 in Figure 4, and the transceiver 202 is used to execute step S202 in Figure 4.

[0337] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a transmitting end, the processor 201 is used to execute step S301 in Figure 5, and the transceiver 202 is used to execute step S302 in Figure 5.

[0338] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a transmitting end, the processor 201 is used to execute step S401 in Figure 8, and the transceiver 202 is used to execute step S402 in Figure 8.

[0339] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a receiving end, the processor 201 is used to execute step S103 in Figure 3, and the transceiver 202 is used to execute step S102 in Figure 3.

[0340] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a receiving end, the processor 201 is used to execute step S203 in Figure 4, and the transceiver 202 is used to execute step S202 in Figure 4.

[0341] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a receiving end, the processor 201 is used to execute step S303 in Figure 5, and the transceiver 202 is used to execute step S302 in Figure 5.

[0342] In another possible design, when the communication device acts as a receiving end, the processor 201 is used to execute step S403 in Figure 8, and the transceiver 202 is used to execute step S402 in Figure 8.

[0343] It should be understood that the communication device shown in Figure 9 or Figure 10 has the ability to implement any function of the transmitting end or the receiving end in the solution provided in the embodiment of the present application.

[0344] As another possible product form, the communication device described in the embodiment of the present application can also be implemented by a chip. The chip includes: a processing circuit 201 and a transceiver pin 202. Optionally, the chip can also include a storage medium 203.

[0345] As another possible product form, the communication device described in the embodiments of the present application can also be implemented using the following circuits or devices: one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), controllers, state machines, gate logic, discrete hardware components, any other suitable circuits, or any combination of circuits that can perform the various functions described throughout this application.

[0346] It should be understood that the computer instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions can be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) method. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media. The available medium can be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium, or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid-state drive).

[0347] Through the description of the above implementation methods, technical personnel in the relevant field can clearly understand that for the convenience and simplicity of description, only the division of the above-mentioned functional modules is used as an example. In actual applications, the above-mentioned functions can be assigned to different functional modules as needed, that is, the internal structure of the device can be divided into different functional modules to complete all or part of the functions described above.

[0348] It should be understood that the devices and methods disclosed in the several embodiments provided in this application can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely schematic. For example, the division of the modules or units is merely a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another device, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0349] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as units may be one physical unit or multiple physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed in multiple places. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

[0350] In addition, the functional units in the various embodiments of the present application may be integrated into a single processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into a single unit. The aforementioned integrated units may be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional units.

[0351] If the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, or the part that contributes to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a device (which can be a single-chip microcomputer, chip, etc.) or a processor to execute all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present application.

[0352] The above is only a specific embodiment of the present application, but the scope of protection of this application is not limited to this. Any changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in this application should be included in the scope of protection of this application. Therefore, the scope of protection of this application should be based on the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for indicating a bandwidth mode, characterized in that, the method includes: generating a first frame, the first frame being a non-high throughput (non-HT) frame or a non-high throughput duplicated (non-HT duplicated) frame, the first frame including a service field, the service field including a first field, the first field being used to indicate whether a bandwidth mode indication field carried in the first frame indicates a target bandwidth mode, the target bandwidth mode including one or more of other bandwidth modes except 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80 + 80 MHz or 160 MHz; and transmitting the first frame.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, the first field being used to indicate whether a bandwidth mode indication field carried in the first frame indicates a target bandwidth mode includes: when the first field is set to a first preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field does not indicate the target bandwidth mode; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field indicates the target bandwidth mode.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, the first frame further includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, the first field is set to the first preset value, indicating that the first frame carries the bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set, the first bandwidth mode set including: 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80 + 80 MHz or 160 MHz; or, when the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1, the first field is set to the second preset value, indicating that the first frame carries the bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a second bandwidth mode set, the second bandwidth mode set including the target bandwidth mode.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, the bandwidth mode indication field includes the B5 bit and the B6 bit in the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, the first field includes at least one bit in the last 9 bits of the service field.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that, the first field is the B7 bit in the service field.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that, the target bandwidth mode includes a bandwidth mode with preamble puncturing and / or a bandwidth mode without preamble puncturing.

8. A method for indicating a bandwidth mode, characterized in that, the method includes: Receive a first frame, where the first frame is a non-HT frame or a non-HT duplicated frame, the first frame includes a service field, and the service field includes a first field, where the first field is used to indicate whether a bandwidth mode indication field carried in the first frame indicates a target bandwidth mode, and the target bandwidth mode includes one or more of other bandwidth modes except 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80 + 80 MHz, or 160 MHz; Parse the first frame.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein, the first field is used to indicate whether a bandwidth mode indication field carried in the first frame indicates a target bandwidth mode, including: when the first field is set to a first preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field is not used to indicate the target bandwidth mode; or, when the first field is set to a second preset value, the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate the target bandwidth mode.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein, the first frame further includes a unicast / multicast bit; when the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1 and the first field is set to the first preset value, it indicates that the first frame carries the bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a first bandwidth mode set, and the first bandwidth mode set includes: 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80 + 80 MHz, or 160 MHz; or, when the unicast / multicast bit is set to 1 and the first field is set to the second preset value, it indicates that the first frame carries the bandwidth mode indication field, and the bandwidth mode indication field is used to indicate a bandwidth mode in a second bandwidth mode set, and the second bandwidth mode set includes the target bandwidth mode.

11. The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the bandwidth mode indication field includes the B5 bit and the B6 bit among the first 7 bits of the scrambling sequence.

12. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein, the first field includes at least one bit among the last 9 bits of the service field.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein, the first field is the B7 bit in the service field.

14. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 13, wherein, the target bandwidth mode includes a preamble-punched bandwidth mode and / or a non-preamble-punched bandwidth mode.

15. A communication device, wherein, the communication device includes units for performing each step in the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

16. A computer-readable storage medium, wherein, the computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions, and when the computer instructions run on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

17. A chip, wherein, The chip includes a processing unit and transceiver pins; the processing unit is configured to perform the processing operations in the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, and the transceiver pins are configured to perform the communication operations in the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

18. A computer program product, characterized in that when the computer program product runs on a computer, it causes the computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

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