Association processing method, data processing method, electronic device, and medium

Abstract

Provided in the present disclosure is an association processing method, which is applied to a master access point (AP), and comprises: sending an association request frame to a slave AP, the association request frame being used for indicating a request for an association with the slave AP to obtain a capability of supporting a multi-AP coordinated operation, the multi-AP coordinated operation comprising multi-AP joint transmission, and the capability of supporting a multi-AP coordinated operation comprising a capability of supporting an associated channel bandwidth, the associated channel bandwidth being formed by combining a channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and a channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP; and receiving an association response frame sent by the slave AP in response to the association request frame, the association response frame being used for indicating whether to agree with the association to obtain the capability of supporting a multi-AP coordinated operation.

Description

Association processing method, data processing method, electronic device and medium

[0001] Cross-references

[0002] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on January 19, 2024, with application number 202410083224.7 and invention name “Association processing method, data processing method, electronic device and medium”. The entire contents of the application are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular to an association processing method, a data processing method, an electronic device, and a computer-readable medium. Background Art

[0004] Wireless local area network (WLAN) standards are evolving towards continuously increasing throughput. WLAN system standards are primarily researched and discussed within the IEEE 802.11 standards group. WLAN standards have evolved through several generations, including 802.11a / b / g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, and the next-generation standard, 802.11be. The 802.11be standard targets extremely high throughput (EHT). It is also known as the EHT standard, Wireless Fidelity 7 (Wi-Fi 7), or the seventh generation of WiFi technology. The 802.11be standard introduces support for the 6 GHz frequency band, supporting a maximum channel bandwidth of 320 MHz in the 6 GHz band to support ultra-high transmission rate scenarios. In some scenarios, an access point (AP) with a 160 MHz or even lower channel bandwidth capability needs to provide services to a terminal station (STA) with a 320 MHz channel bandwidth capability. In this case, the STA can only operate on a 160 MHz channel bandwidth or even lower channel bandwidth, which greatly limits the transmission rate. How to better adapt to the STA's large channel bandwidth capability has become an urgent problem that needs to be solved. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The present disclosure provides an association processing method, a data processing method, an electronic device, and a computer-readable medium.

[0006] In the first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an association processing method, which is applied to a master AP and can also be applied to a structure or device set in the master AP, such as a chip, a chip system or a circuit system, etc. The method is explained by taking the application of the method to the master AP as an example. The method includes: sending an association request frame to the slave AP, the association request frame is used to indicate a request to associate with the slave AP to obtain the ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation, wherein the multi-AP collaborative operation includes multi-AP joint transmission, and the ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation includes the ability to support association channel bandwidth, which is formed by combining the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP, and receiving an association response frame sent by the slave AP in response to the association request frame, the association response frame is used to indicate whether to agree to the association to obtain the ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation.

[0007] In the second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an association processing method, which is applied to a slave AP, and can also be applied to a structure or device set in a slave AP, such as a chip, a chip system or a circuit system, etc. The method is explained by taking the application of the method to the slave AP as an example. The method includes: receiving an association request frame sent by a master AP, the association request frame is used to indicate a request to associate with the slave AP to obtain the ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation, wherein the multi-AP collaborative operation includes multi-AP joint transmission, and the ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation includes the ability to support association channel bandwidth, which is formed by combining the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP, and sending an association response frame in response to the association request frame to the master AP, the association response frame is used to indicate whether to agree to the association to obtain the ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation.

[0008] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a data processing method, which is applied to a master AP and can also be applied to a structure or device set in the master AP, such as a chip, a chip system or a circuit system, etc. The method is illustrated by applying the method to the master AP as an example. The method includes: determining that it has been associated with a STA and a slave AP, and the STA is a STA that can support multi-AP joint transmission; based on the pre-acquired ability to support associated channel bandwidth, performing multi-AP joint transmission with the STA; wherein the associated channel bandwidth is formed by a combination of the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP, and the multi-AP joint transmission includes the master AP and the master AP simultaneously transmitting data to the STA through the slave AP, and the master AP and the master AP simultaneously receiving data from the STA through the slave AP.

[0009] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a data processing method, which is applied to a slave AP and can also be applied to a structure or device set in a slave AP, such as a chip, a chip system or a circuit system, etc. The method is explained by taking the application of the method to the slave AP as an example. The method includes: determining that it has been associated with the STA and the master AP, and the STA is a STA that can support multi-AP joint transmission; receiving the first data in the pre-processed data sent by the master AP, and the pre-processed data is obtained by the master AP pre-processing the to-be-sent data to be sent to the STA based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP; wherein the associated channel bandwidth is formed by combining the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP, the configuration parameters of the slave AP include the number of antennas of the slave AP, and the multi-AP joint transmission includes the master AP and the master AP simultaneously transmitting data to the STA through the slave AP and the master AP and the master AP simultaneously receiving data from the STA through the slave AP; the first data is sent to the STA by occupying the bandwidth part of the associated channel bandwidth by the slave AP.

[0010] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an electronic device, comprising: one or more processors; a memory on which one or more programs are stored, wherein when the one or more programs are executed by one or more processors, the one or more processors implement the first aspect and any possible embodiment of the first aspect, or the second aspect and any possible embodiment of the second aspect, or the third aspect and any possible embodiment of the third aspect, or the fourth aspect and any possible embodiment of the fourth aspect; one or more I / O interfaces connected between the processor and the memory, configured to implement information interaction between the processor and the memory.

[0011] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer program implements the first aspect and any possible embodiment of the first aspect, or the second aspect and any possible embodiment of the second aspect, or the third aspect and any possible embodiment of the third aspect, or the fourth aspect and any possible embodiment of the fourth aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] In the accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure:

[0013] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of an OFDMA-based uplink transmission according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0014] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of a D-MIMO system architecture based on MU-MIMO provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0015] FIG3 is a block diagram of a transmitter of an AP provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0016] FIG4 is a flow chart of an association processing method provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0017] FIG5 is a flow chart of a data processing method provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0018] FIG6 is a flow chart of another data processing method provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0019] FIG7 is a flow chart of another association processing method provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0020] FIG8 is a schematic diagram of an associated channel bandwidth provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0021] FIG9 is an architecture diagram of a joint transmission system provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0022] FIG10 is a schematic diagram of a multi-AP joint data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0023] FIG11 is a flow chart of another data processing method provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0024] FIG12 is a block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0025] FIG13 is a block diagram of a computer-readable medium according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] To enable those skilled in the art to better understand the technical solutions of the present disclosure, an association processing method, a data processing method, an electronic device, and a computer-readable medium provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0027] The present disclosure will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the illustrated embodiments may be embodied in different forms, and the present disclosure should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth below. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully understand the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art.

[0028] The accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure are used to provide a further understanding of the embodiments of the present disclosure and constitute a part of the specification. Together with the detailed embodiments, they are used to explain the present disclosure and do not constitute a limitation of the present disclosure. The above and other features and advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art by describing the detailed embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0029] In the absence of conflict, the various embodiments of the present disclosure and the various features therein may be combined with each other.

[0030] The terms used in this disclosure are only used to describe specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the disclosure. As used in this disclosure, the term "and / or" includes any and all combinations of one or more related enumerated items. As used in this disclosure, the singular forms "a" and "the" are also intended to include plural forms, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. As used in this disclosure, the terms "comprising" and "made of" specify the presence of the features, wholes, steps, operations, elements and / or components, but do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, wholes, steps, operations, elements, components and / or groups thereof.

[0031] Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used in this disclosure have the same meanings as those commonly understood by those skilled in the art. It will also be understood that terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and this disclosure, and will not be interpreted as having an idealized or overly formal meaning unless expressly defined in this disclosure.

[0032] In this disclosure, unless otherwise specified, the following technical terms should be understood as follows.

[0033] 1) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) technology. OFDMA is an evolution of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technology. A group of users can access a channel at the same time. OFDMA technology divides spectrum resources into multiple spectrum resource blocks, and multiple spectrum resource blocks can be allocated to multiple STA nodes for simultaneous use. Uplink and downlink transmissions can be performed based on OFDMA technology. Referring to Figure 1, a schematic diagram of an uplink transmission based on OFDMA is provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure. During the uplink transmission process, multiple STAs can transmit data to the AP simultaneously on their allocated spectrum resource blocks. Taking three STAs as an example in Figure 1, at least two of STA1, STA2 and STA3 can transmit data to the AP simultaneously.

[0034] 2) In Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) technology, a single AP simultaneously serves multiple STAs. MU-MIMO technology enables a distributed multi-user multiple input multiple output (D-MIMO) system architecture. In this architecture, an AP serves as a D-MIMO processing unit (PU), also known as a D-MIMO PU. It can connect to multiple distributed APs. The D-MIMO PU coordinates and optimizes data transmission between these distributed APs to achieve higher spatial multiplexing gain and network efficiency. The D-MIMO PU caches downlink data, selects the transmission direction, selects participating APs in the system, and performs precoding. Furthermore, in uplink transmission, the D-MIMO PU receives backhaul data from various distributed APs and performs joint processing on the received data. The D-MIMO PU can be deployed on dedicated D-MIMO APs or standalone APs, depending on network configuration and requirements. Distributed APs in a D-MIMO system, other than the D-MIMO PU, can be considered to provide only radio frequency capabilities. In this architecture, all APs operate in the same frequency band. Therefore, this technology only improves the efficiency of spatial multiplexing and does not improve the bandwidth and throughput of the entire system. Referring to Figure 2, a schematic diagram of a D-MIMO system architecture based on MU-MIMO is provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure. In this architecture, a D-MIMO PU is connected to three distributed APs, namely D-MIMO AP1, D-MIMO AP2, and D-MIMO AP3. Based on this architecture, D-MIMO AP1, D-MIMO AP2, and D-MIMO AP3 can each provide services to multiple STAs simultaneously.

[0035] In some related technologies, for example, the standards for WLANs that use technologies such as OFDMA and MU-MIMO support one AP providing services to multiple STAs simultaneously. The new generation WLAN standard 802.11be, also known as the Wi-Fi 7 standard, introduces support for the 6GHz frequency band and supports a maximum channel bandwidth of 320MHz in the 6GHz frequency band. However, due to the limitations of its hardware capabilities, the channel bandwidth capability of the AP may be less than 320MHz. Taking the AP with a channel bandwidth capability of 160MHz as an example, FIG3 is a block diagram of an AP transmitter provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure. The AP transmitter may include a common physical layer (Common PHY) and a sub-physical layer (Sub PHY). The data to be transmitted by the AP is converted into a radio frequency signal and sent out after encoding, interleaving, modulation, spatial stream mapping, and other operations. It can be understood that the Sub PHY part limits the maximum channel bandwidth that the AP can support in hardware, that is, limits the channel bandwidth capability of the AP.

[0036] In some scenarios, an AP with a 160 MHz or lower channel bandwidth capability needs to provide services to one or more STAs with a 320 MHz channel bandwidth capability. In this case, due to the AP's hardware capabilities, the STA can only operate on a 160 MHz channel bandwidth or even lower, which greatly limits the transmission rate. How to better adapt to the STA's large channel bandwidth capabilities has become an urgent problem that needs to be solved.

[0037] In view of this, the embodiments of the present disclosure provide an association processing method, data processing method, electronic device, and computer-readable medium, which are primarily applicable to scenarios in the WLAN field where wireless communications are performed using the Wi-Fi protocol. Wi-Fi protocols, for example, may include Wi-Fi 4, Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 7, and Wi-Fi protocols evolved after Wi-Fi 7, and can be applied to the D-MIMO system architecture described above. A detailed description is provided below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0038] In a first aspect, referring to FIG. 4 , an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an association processing method, which is applied to a master AP and includes the following steps.

[0039] S401: The master AP sends an association request frame to the slave AP. The association request frame is used to indicate a request to associate with the slave AP to obtain a capability of supporting multi-AP collaborative operation.

[0040] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the association request frame can reuse frames from existing AP interaction processes or be a newly designed frame, without limitation. The number of slave APs can be one or more. In this disclosure, the AP that actively initiates an association request is referred to as the master AP, Master-AP, or M-AP; the AP that passively associates is referred to as a slave AP, Slave-AP, or S-AP.

[0041] In the disclosed embodiment, multi-AP collaborative operation includes but is not limited to multi-AP joint transmission, for example, it may also include multi-AP hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), multi-AP multiple input multiple output (MIMO) and other collaborative operations. The ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation includes but is not limited to the ability to support associated channel bandwidth, for example, it may also include the ability to support multi-AP roaming, multi-AP coordinated beamforming, etc. The associated channel bandwidth is formed by combining the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP. For example, if the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the slave AP is 160MHz, then the associated channel bandwidth is a 320MHz channel bandwidth formed by combining two 160MHz channel bandwidths. For another example, if the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the three slave APs is 80MHz, then the associated channel bandwidth is a 320MHz channel bandwidth formed by combining four 80MHz channel bandwidths.

[0042] It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the channel bandwidth supported by the AP can be understood as the channel bandwidth capability of the AP or the maximum channel bandwidth of the AP's operation or the maximum channel bandwidth supported by the AP, all of which represent the maximum channel bandwidth that the AP can occupy when working.

[0043] S402: The master AP receives an association response frame sent by the slave AP in response to the association request frame, where the association response frame is used to indicate whether the association is agreed to obtain the capability of supporting multi-AP cooperative operation.

[0044] In the association processing method provided by the present disclosure, the master AP and the slave AP can be associated through interaction between them, thereby enabling the master AP to obtain the ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation. In this way, multiple APs can jointly provide services for the same STA, which can better adapt to the STA's large channel bandwidth capabilities, allowing the STA to operate on the maximum channel bandwidth it supports, making more efficient use of resources, and no longer limiting the transmission rate, further improving throughput and providing a better user experience.

[0045] In some embodiments, when the association response frame is used to indicate the consent to associate to obtain the ability to support multi-AP cooperative operation, after receiving the association response frame sent by the slave AP in response to the association request frame, the master AP may also send an association confirmation (Acknowledgement, ACK) frame to the slave AP. The association ACK frame is used to indicate that the association is successful. In this way, the slave AP can know that it has successfully associated with the master AP and can work with the master AP to provide multi-AP cooperative operation for the STA according to needs to flexibly adapt the channel bandwidth capability of the STA.

[0046] In some embodiments, configuration information for multi-AP coordinated operation can be sent from a master AP to a slave AP, or it can be pre-configured locally on the slave AP. When sent by the master AP, it can be sent via an association request frame, an association ACK frame, or, of course, a newly designed frame, which is not limited in this disclosure. When sent by the master AP, multi-AP coordinated operation can be configured for the slave AP in real time based on actual needs, thereby efficiently achieving multi-AP coordinated operation.

[0047] The configuration information includes but is not limited to at least one of the following: time synchronization information, which is used for time synchronization between the master AP and the slave AP; and channel bandwidth notification information, which is used to determine the bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth occupied by the AP.

[0048] The channel bandwidth announcement information is used to determine the bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth occupied by the AP, which can be implemented in various ways. Three possible implementations are described below.

[0049] In one implementation, the channel bandwidth announcement information indicates a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth occupied by the slave AP.

[0050] In another implementation, the channel bandwidth announcement information indicates the bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth occupied by the master AP. In this implementation, the slave AP can determine the bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth occupied by the slave AP based on the bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth occupied by the master AP and the associated channel bandwidth.

[0051] In yet another implementation, the channel bandwidth announcement information may simultaneously indicate that the master AP occupies a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth and that the slave AP occupies a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth.

[0052] In some embodiments, when the association response frame is used to indicate the consent to association to obtain the capability of supporting multi-AP cooperative operation, the master AP may further generate channel bandwidth capability information, which is used to indicate that the master AP has the capability to support the associated channel bandwidth, and send the channel bandwidth capability information to the STA so that the STA knows that the master AP has the capability to support the associated channel bandwidth. In this way, after the master AP obtains the capability to support multi-AP cooperative operation, it can announce it to the STA so that the STA knows that the master AP has the capability to support the associated channel bandwidth, and can flexibly adapt the channel bandwidth capability of the STA during the interaction process.

[0053] The master AP may send the channel bandwidth capability information to the STA in a variety of implementations, which are not limited in this disclosure. Three possible implementations are described below.

[0054] In one implementation, the master AP sends the channel bandwidth capability information to the STAs by broadcasting.

[0055] In another implementation, the master AP sends the channel bandwidth capability information to the STAs that can support multi-AP joint transmission in a multicast or groupcast manner.

[0056] In another implementation, the master AP may also send channel bandwidth capability information to a specific STA that supports multi-AP joint transmission.

[0057] It should be noted that in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the STA that supports multi-AP joint transmission can be understood as a STA whose channel bandwidth is adapted to or the same as the associated channel bandwidth, that is, the maximum channel bandwidth supported by the STA that supports multi-AP joint transmission is adapted to the joint channel bandwidth, or the maximum channel bandwidth supported by the STA that supports multi-AP joint transmission is the same as the joint channel bandwidth.

[0058] In some embodiments, if a STA supports multi-AP joint transmission, after the master AP sends channel bandwidth capability information to the STA, the master AP can also conduct multi-AP joint transmission with the STA based on its ability to support the associated channel bandwidth. Prior to this, the master AP must confirm that it is associated with the STA. Multi-AP joint transmission can include the master AP and the master AP simultaneously transmitting data to the STA via a slave AP, and the master AP and the master AP simultaneously receiving data from the STA via a slave AP. Using this method, the master AP can transmit data with the STA based on its acquired ability to support the associated channel bandwidth, adapting to the STA's large channel bandwidth capabilities and improving transmission rates.

[0059] In some embodiments, multi-AP joint transmission with a STA based on the ability to support the associated channel bandwidth may include: obtaining data to be transmitted to the STA, obtaining configuration parameters of a slave AP, preprocessing the data to be transmitted based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP to obtain preprocessed data, and transmitting first data in the preprocessed data to the slave AP, so that the slave AP transmits the first data to the STA by occupying a portion of the bandwidth of the associated channel bandwidth, and the master AP transmits second data in the preprocessed data to the STA by occupying a portion of the bandwidth of the associated channel bandwidth. The multi-AP joint transmission in this process can be understood as the master AP and the master AP simultaneously transmitting data to the STA via the slave AP. Through this method, the master AP, based on the ability to support the associated channel bandwidth, jointly transmits data to the STA in conjunction with the slave AP to adapt to the STA's large channel bandwidth capability, thereby improving throughput.

[0060] In some embodiments, supporting the associated channel bandwidth capability and performing multi-AP joint transmission with a STA may include: receiving third data sent by the STA via a master AP occupying a portion of the associated channel bandwidth, and the master AP receiving fourth data sent by a slave AP, where the fourth data is data received from the STA via the slave AP occupying a portion of the associated channel bandwidth; and then processing the third and fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and pre-acquired configuration parameters of the slave AP. This multi-AP joint transmission process can be understood as the master AP and the slave AP simultaneously receiving data from the STA via the slave AP. Through this method, the master AP, based on its support for the associated channel bandwidth capability, jointly receives data sent by the STA with the slave AP to adapt to the STA's large channel bandwidth capability, thereby improving throughput.

[0061] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the configuration parameters of the slave AP include but are not limited to the number of antennas of the slave AP. For example, the configuration parameters of the slave AP other than the number of antennas, such as hardware configuration parameters, may also be included.

[0062] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is no limitation on how the master AP obtains the configuration parameters of the slave AP.

[0063] In some embodiments, the slave AP's configuration parameters can be pre-stored in the master AP's storage unit, which can be understood as being stored locally on the master AP. Alternatively, the master AP can receive the slave AP's configuration parameters from the slave AP. In this implementation, the slave AP's configuration parameters can be carried in an association response frame or received via a newly designed frame, without limitation. This method allows the master AP to flexibly select different methods to obtain the slave AP's configuration parameters based on actual needs.

[0064] It should be noted that in the embodiments of the present disclosure, when the master AP pre-processes the data to be transmitted based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP, or when the master AP processes the third data and the fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP, other parameters may also be used, such as the number of antennas of the master AP, and the present disclosure does not limit this. Pre-processing may include processes such as encoding, interleaving, modulation, and spatial stream mapping, and the pre-processing method may adopt existing methods. The difference between the pre-processing in the embodiments of the present disclosure and existing methods is that the pre-processing uses new parameters such as the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP.

[0065] In some embodiments, the master AP pre-processes the data to be transmitted based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP through the Common PHY layer, or the master AP processes the third data and the fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP through the Common PHY layer.

[0066] In some embodiments, the master AP sends the second data via the Sub PHY, or receives the third data via the Sub PHY.

[0067] In some embodiments, the already associated master AP and slave AP can cancel the association according to actual needs, and the original networking mode (for example, mesh network (MESH) networking) can be restored after the disassociation. In one possible implementation, the master AP sends an association cancellation frame to the slave AP, and the association cancellation frame is used to indicate the disassociation to disable the ability of multi-AP collaborative operation. In another possible implementation, the master AP receives the association cancellation frame sent by the slave AP, and the association cancellation frame is used to indicate the request to disassociate to disable the ability of multi-AP collaborative operation. In this implementation, after receiving the association cancellation frame from the slave AP, the master AP can also send a consent to disassociation frame to the slave AP to indicate the consent to disassociation with the slave AP. Through this method, the master AP and the slave AP can flexibly adapt the networking mode according to actual needs.

[0068] In a second aspect, referring to FIG. 4 , an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an association processing method, which is applied to a slave AP and includes the following steps.

[0069] S401: A slave AP receives an association request frame sent by a master AP, where the association request frame is used to indicate a request to associate with the slave AP to obtain a capability of supporting multi-AP collaborative operation.

[0070] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the association request frame can reuse the frames in the existing AP interaction process, or it can be a newly designed frame, and there is no limitation on this. The number of slave APs can be one or more. It should be noted that the AP in the present disclosure can be an AP using the Wi-Fi 7 protocol, or it can be an AP using a Wi-Fi protocol evolved after Wi-Fi 7. In the present disclosure, the AP that actively initiates the association request is referred to as the master AP or Master-AP or M-AP; the AP that passively associates is referred to as the slave AP or Slave-AP or S-AP.

[0071] In the disclosed embodiment, multi-AP collaborative operation includes but is not limited to multi-AP joint transmission, for example, it may also include multi-AP hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), multi-AP multiple input multiple output (MIMO) and other collaborative operations. The ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation includes but is not limited to the ability to support associated channel bandwidth, for example, it may also include the ability to support multi-AP roaming, multi-AP coordinated beamforming, etc. The associated channel bandwidth is formed by combining the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP. For example, if the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the slave AP is 160MHz, then the associated channel bandwidth is a 320MHz channel bandwidth formed by combining two 160MHz channel bandwidths. For another example, if the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the three slave APs is 80MHz, then the associated channel bandwidth is a 320MHz channel bandwidth formed by combining four 80MHz channel bandwidths.

[0072] It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the channel bandwidth supported by the AP can be understood as the channel bandwidth capability of the AP or the maximum channel bandwidth of the AP's operation or the maximum channel bandwidth supported by the AP, all of which represent the maximum channel bandwidth that the AP can occupy when working.

[0073] S402: Sending an association response frame in response to the association request frame to the primary AP, where the association response frame is used to indicate whether the association is agreed to obtain the capability of supporting multi-AP cooperative operation.

[0074] In the association processing method provided by the present disclosure, the master AP and the slave AP can be associated through interaction between them, thereby enabling the master AP to obtain the ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation. In this way, multiple APs can jointly provide services for the same STA, which can better adapt to the STA's large channel bandwidth capabilities, allowing the STA to operate on the maximum channel bandwidth it supports, and the transmission rate is no longer limited, further improving the throughput.

[0075] In some embodiments, when the association response frame is used to indicate consent to association to obtain the ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation, after sending an association response frame in response to the association request frame to the master AP, the slave AP can also receive an association ACK frame sent by the master AP, and the association ACK frame is used to indicate that the association is successful.

[0076] In some embodiments, the slave AP may receive configuration information for multi-AP collaborative operation from the master AP, or may be pre-configured locally on the slave AP. When receiving from the master AP, the configuration information may be received via an association request frame, an association ACK frame, or a newly designed frame, which is not limited in this disclosure.

[0077] The configuration information includes but is not limited to at least one of the following: time synchronization information, which is used for time synchronization between the master AP and the slave AP; and channel bandwidth notification information, which is used to determine the bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth occupied by the AP.

[0078] The channel bandwidth announcement information is used to determine the bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth occupied by the AP, which can be implemented in various ways. Three possible implementations are described below.

[0079] In one implementation, the channel bandwidth announcement information indicates a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth occupied by the slave AP.

[0080] In another implementation, the channel bandwidth announcement information indicates the bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth occupied by the master AP. In this implementation, the slave AP can determine the bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth occupied by the slave AP based on the bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth occupied by the master AP and the associated channel bandwidth.

[0081] In yet another implementation, the channel bandwidth announcement information may simultaneously indicate that the master AP occupies a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth and that the slave AP occupies a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth.

[0082] In some embodiments, the slave AP may also send slave AP configuration parameters to the master AP. The slave AP configuration parameters include, but are not limited to, the number of antennas of the slave AP. For example, the slave AP configuration parameters may also include other hardware configuration parameters of the slave AP in addition to the number of antennas. The slave AP configuration parameters may be sent via an association response frame or a newly designed frame, which is not limited thereto.

[0083] In some embodiments, when the association response frame is used to indicate consent to association to obtain the ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation, the method further includes: receiving first data in the pre-processed data sent by the master AP, the pre-processed data being obtained by the master AP pre-processing the data to be sent to the STA based on the association channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP, the STA being a STA capable of supporting multi-AP joint transmission, and sending the first data to the STA by occupying the bandwidth portion of the association channel bandwidth from the slave AP.

[0084] In some embodiments, when the association response frame is used to indicate consent to association to obtain the ability to support multi-AP collaborative operation, the method further includes: receiving fourth data from the STA by occupying a bandwidth portion of the association channel bandwidth from the slave AP, the STA being a STA capable of supporting multi-AP joint transmission, and sending the fourth data to the master AP, so that the master AP processes the fourth data based on the association channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP.

[0085] It should be noted that the STA supporting multi-AP joint transmission in the present disclosure can be understood as a STA whose channel bandwidth is adapted to or the same as the associated channel bandwidth, that is, the maximum channel bandwidth supported by the STA supporting multi-AP joint transmission is adapted to the joint channel bandwidth, or the maximum channel bandwidth supported by the STA supporting multi-AP joint transmission is the same as the joint channel bandwidth.

[0086] In some embodiments, the first data is sent from the AP through the Sub PHY, or the fourth data is received through the Sub PHY.

[0087] In some embodiments, an association cancellation frame is sent from the AP to the master AP, where the association cancellation frame is used to indicate a request to cancel the association to disable the ability of multiple APs to cooperate with each other, or an association cancellation frame is received from the AP sent by the master AP, where the association cancellation frame is used to indicate the ability to cancel the association to disable the ability of multiple APs to cooperate with each other.

[0088] In a third aspect, referring to FIG. 5 , an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a data processing method, which is applied to a master AP and includes the following steps.

[0089] S501: Determine that the STA is associated with a slave AP, and that the STA is capable of supporting multi-AP joint transmission.

[0090] S502: Based on the pre-acquired capability of supporting the associated channel bandwidth, perform multi-AP joint transmission with the STA.

[0091] Among them, the associated channel bandwidth is formed by the combination of the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP. Multi-AP joint transmission includes the master AP and the master AP simultaneously transmitting data to the STA through the slave AP and the master AP and the master AP simultaneously receiving data from the STA through the slave AP.

[0092] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the STA that supports multi-AP joint transmission can be understood as a STA whose channel bandwidth is adapted to or the same as the associated channel bandwidth, that is, the maximum channel bandwidth supported by the STA that supports multi-AP joint transmission is adapted to the joint channel bandwidth, or the maximum channel bandwidth supported by the STA that supports multi-AP joint transmission is the same as the joint channel bandwidth.

[0093] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the master AP can pre-acquire the ability to support the associated channel bandwidth through the association processing method provided in the first aspect above. The specific method for obtaining the ability to support the associated channel bandwidth can be found in the first aspect and will not be repeated here.

[0094] In the data processing method provided by the present disclosure, the main AP performs multi-AP joint transmission with the STA based on the ability to support the associated channel bandwidth. In this way, multiple APs can jointly provide services for the same STA, which can better adapt to the STA's large channel bandwidth capability, allowing the STA to operate at the maximum channel bandwidth it supports. The transmission rate is no longer limited, further improving the throughput.

[0095] In some embodiments, based on the pre-acquired ability to support the associated channel bandwidth, multi-AP joint transmission is performed with the STA, including: obtaining the data to be sent to the STA, and obtaining the configuration parameters of the slave AP, preprocessing the data to be sent to obtain preprocessed data based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP, and sending the first data in the preprocessed data to the slave AP, so that the slave AP sends the first data to the STA by occupying the bandwidth part of the associated channel bandwidth, and the master AP sends the second data in the preprocessed data to the STA by occupying the bandwidth part of the associated channel bandwidth by the master AP.

[0096] In some embodiments, based on the pre-acquired capability of supporting the associated channel bandwidth, multi-AP joint transmission is performed with the STA, including: occupying a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth by the master AP, receiving third data sent by the STA, and receiving fourth data sent by the slave AP, where the fourth data is data received from the STA by the slave AP occupying the bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth, and processing the third data and the fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and the pre-acquired configuration parameters of the slave AP.

[0097] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the configuration parameters of a slave AP include, but are not limited to, the number of antennas of the slave AP. For example, they may also include other hardware configuration parameters of the slave AP in addition to the number of antennas. There is no limitation on how the master AP obtains the configuration parameters of the slave AP. The configuration parameters of the slave AP may be pre-stored in the storage unit of the master AP, which can be understood as being stored locally in the master AP. Alternatively, the master AP may receive the configuration parameters of the slave AP from the slave AP.

[0098] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, when the master AP pre-processes the data to be transmitted based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP, or when the master AP processes the third data and the fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP, other parameters may also be used, such as the number of antennas of the master AP, which are not limited in this disclosure. Pre-processing may include processes such as encoding, interleaving, modulation, and spatial stream mapping, and the pre-processing method may adopt existing methods. The difference between the pre-processing in the embodiments of the present disclosure and existing methods is that the pre-processing uses new parameters such as the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP.

[0099] In some embodiments, the master AP pre-processes the data to be transmitted based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP through the Common PHY layer, or the master AP processes the third data and the fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP through the Common PHY layer.

[0100] In some embodiments, the master AP sends the second data via the Sub PHY, or receives the third data via the Sub PHY.

[0101] In a fourth aspect, referring to FIG6 , an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a data processing method, which is applied to a slave AP and includes the following steps.

[0102] S601: Determine that the STA is associated with the primary AP and the STA is capable of supporting multi-AP joint transmission.

[0103] S602: Receive first data in the pre-processed data sent by the master AP.

[0104] The pre-processed data is obtained by the master AP pre-processing the data to be sent to the STA based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP. The associated channel bandwidth is formed by combining the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP. The configuration parameters of the slave AP include, but are not limited to, the number of antennas of the slave AP. For example, other hardware configuration parameters of the slave AP besides the number of antennas may also be included. Pre-processing may include encoding, interleaving, modulation, spatial stream mapping, and other processes.

[0105] S603: Send first data to the STA by occupying a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth from the AP.

[0106] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, multi-AP joint transmission includes the master AP and the master AP simultaneously transmitting data to the STA through the slave AP, and the master AP and the master AP simultaneously receiving data from the STA through the slave AP. A STA that supports multi-AP joint transmission can be understood as a STA whose channel bandwidth is adapted to or the same as the associated channel bandwidth, that is, the maximum channel bandwidth supported by the STA supporting multi-AP joint transmission is adapted to the joint channel bandwidth, or the maximum channel bandwidth supported by the STA supporting multi-AP joint transmission is the same as the joint channel bandwidth.

[0107] In the data processing method provided by the present disclosure, multiple APs can jointly provide services for the same STA, which can better adapt to the STA's large channel bandwidth capabilities, allowing the STA to operate on the maximum channel bandwidth it supports, and the transmission rate is no longer limited, further improving the throughput.

[0108] In some embodiments, the method further includes: receiving fourth data from the STA by occupying a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth from the slave AP, and sending the fourth data to the master AP, so that the master AP processes the fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP.

[0109] In some embodiments, the first data is sent from the AP through the Sub PHY, or the fourth data is received through the Sub PHY.

[0110] In order to enable those skilled in the art to more clearly understand the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below through specific examples.

[0111] Referring to Figure 7, another association processing method is provided for an embodiment of the present disclosure. In this specific embodiment, the channel bandwidth supported by the STA is 320MHz, which can be understood as the maximum channel bandwidth that can be occupied when the STA is working is 320MHz. The channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the slave AP are both 160MHz, which can be understood as the maximum channel bandwidth that can be occupied when the master AP and the slave AP are working is 160MHz. The method includes the following steps.

[0112] S701: The master AP sends an association request frame to the slave AP. Correspondingly, the slave AP receives the association request frame sent by the master AP. The association request frame is used to indicate a request to associate with the slave AP to obtain the capability of supporting multi-AP collaborative operation.

[0113] In this embodiment, multi-AP coordinated operation is multi-AP joint transmission, and the capability of supporting multi-AP coordinated operation is the capability of supporting associated channel bandwidth. Multi-AP joint transmission means that the master AP and the master AP simultaneously transmit data to the STA through the slave AP, and the master AP and the master AP simultaneously receive data from the STA through the slave AP.

[0114] The associated channel bandwidth in this embodiment is a 320 MHz channel bandwidth formed by combining the 160 MHz channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the 160 MHz channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP.

[0115] In this embodiment, the association request frame may carry configuration information for multi-AP joint transmission. For example, the configuration information includes time synchronization information and channel bandwidth announcement information, and the channel bandwidth announcement information is used to indicate the bandwidth portion of the association channel bandwidth occupied by the slave AP. Referring to FIG8 , a schematic diagram of an association channel bandwidth is provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure. Unless otherwise specified, the association channel bandwidth hereinafter refers to the association channel bandwidth shown in FIG8 . When the master AP occupies the first bandwidth portion of the association channel bandwidth (which may be referred to as 160 MHz-1), the channel bandwidth announcement information is used to indicate that the slave AP occupies the second bandwidth portion of the association channel bandwidth (which may be referred to as 160 MHz-2). This means that the master AP operates in the first 160 MHz bandwidth portion of the association channel bandwidth, and the slave AP operates in the second 160 MHz bandwidth portion of the association channel bandwidth. The channel bandwidth announcement information allows the slave AP to obtain the channel bandwidth occupied by the slave AP when jointly providing multi-AP joint transmission for STAs with the master AP, and the slave AP can maintain time synchronization with the master AP through time synchronization information.

[0116] S702: The slave AP sends an association response frame in response to the association request frame to the master AP. Correspondingly, the master AP receives the association response frame sent by the slave AP. The association response frame is used to indicate whether to agree to associate to obtain the capability of supporting multi-AP collaborative operation.

[0117] In this embodiment, the case where the association response frame is used to indicate consent to association in order to obtain the capability of supporting multi-AP coordinated operation is described.

[0118] In this embodiment, the association response frame may carry the configuration parameters of the slave AP. For example, the configuration parameters of the slave AP include the number of antennas of the slave AP. By sending the number of antennas of the slave AP to the master AP, the master AP can use the number of antennas of the slave AP to pre-process the data to be transmitted when jointly providing data transmission services to the STA with the slave AP.

[0119] Through the above-mentioned association processing method, the master AP and the slave AP can be associated. It can be understood that the master AP and the slave AP are combined to form a joint transmission system. The joint transmission system can also be called a virtual AP, which has a 320MHz channel bandwidth working capability and can provide multi-AP collaborative operation for STAs with 320MHz channel bandwidth capability, so that STAs can send and receive data on the 320MHz channel bandwidth they support. The transmission rate is no longer limited by the service provided by a single AP, further improving the throughput. 9 is an architecture diagram of a joint transmission system provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure. The joint transmission system includes a portion within a dashed box. By combining a master AP and a slave AP operating on a 160 MHz channel bandwidth to form a joint transmission system, the joint transmission system is capable of operating on a 320 MHz channel bandwidth. This can be understood as the Sub PHY portions of the master AP and the slave AP within the dashed box being combined to form a virtual AP. The Common PHY on master AP (320 MHz) module and the Sub PHY on slave AP (160 MHz-2) module are not limited to a connection method; for example, they may be connected via a local area network (LAN). When the joint transmission system provides multi-AP joint transmission services to STAs, the STAs believe that they are associated with a master AP capable of a 320 MHz channel bandwidth. This design is compatible with the interaction process of the existing 802.11 standard. The STA does not need to make any special adaptations. The STA only needs to associate with the master AP to obtain the services provided by the joint transmission system on the 320 MHz channel bandwidth.

[0120] S703: The master AP sends an association ACK frame to the slave AP. Correspondingly, the slave AP receives the association ACK frame sent by the master AP. The association ACK frame is used to indicate that the association is successful.

[0121] Through S703 , the slave AP can learn that it has successfully associated with the master AP, and can work with the master AP to provide multi-AP joint transmission for the STA.

[0122] S704: The master AP generates channel bandwidth capability information, which indicates that the master AP has the capability to support the associated channel bandwidth. Corresponding to the example of FIG8 , the channel bandwidth capability information indicates that the master AP has the capability to support a 320 MHz channel bandwidth.

[0123] S705: The master AP sends channel bandwidth capability information to the STA.

[0124] Through S705 , the STA is informed that the primary AP has the capability of supporting the associated channel bandwidth.

[0125] It should be noted that the master AP may send the channel bandwidth capability information to the STA during the process of associating with the STA, or may send the channel bandwidth capability information to the STA after successfully associating with the STA, and there is no limitation on this.

[0126] In this embodiment, the STA may be understood as a STA that supports multi-AP joint transmission, that is, the maximum channel bandwidth 320 MHz supported by the STA is adapted to or the same as the joint channel bandwidth 320 MHz.

[0127] S706: The master AP determines that it has been associated with the STA, and performs multi-AP joint transmission with the STA based on the capability of supporting the associated channel bandwidth.

[0128] S706 may include performing joint transmission and joint reception with the STA based on the capability of supporting the associated channel bandwidth. For details, see the following steps.

[0129] S7061: Acquire data to be sent to the STA and configuration parameters from the AP, and pre-process the data to be sent based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters from the AP to obtain pre-processed data.

[0130] In the S7061, the master AP can perform preprocessing operations such as encoding, interleaving, and spatial stream mapping on the data to be transmitted at the Common PHY layer according to the 320 MHz channel bandwidth. The preprocessed data can be sent to STAs simultaneously through the Sub PHY layers of the master and slave APs. STAs can receive the data on the 320 MHz bandwidth channel. For details, see the following steps.

[0131] S7062: The master AP sends the first data in the pre-processed data to the slave AP.

[0132] The master AP may send the first data to the slave AP via the LAN, and this embodiment does not limit the sending method. In S7062, the master AP sends the first data to be sent on the 160MHz-2 channel bandwidth to the slave AP.

[0133] S7063: The master AP sends the second data in the pre-processed data to the STA by occupying the bandwidth part of the associated channel bandwidth (corresponding to 160MHz-1 in Figure 8). At the same time, the slave AP sends the first data to the STA by occupying the bandwidth part of the associated channel bandwidth (corresponding to 160MHz-2 in Figure 8).

[0134] In S7063, the master AP can simultaneously send the second data to the STA through the 160 MHz-1 channel bandwidth in the Sub PHY layer; at the same time, the slave AP can send the first data to the STA through the 160 MHz-2 channel bandwidth in the Sub PHY layer.

[0135] The preceding describes the downlink data transmission process. The following describes the uplink data transmission process in detail, combined with steps S7064-S7066. In the uplink transmission direction, the STA sends data on a 320 MHz channel bandwidth. The master and slave APs simultaneously receive data via the Sub PHY layer on bandwidths 160 MHz-1 and 160 MHz-2, respectively. The slave AP then transmits the received data back to the master AP, where it is processed uniformly by the master AP's Common PHY layer.

[0136] S7064: The master AP receives the third data sent by the STA through the bandwidth part 160 MHz-1. At the same time, the slave AP receives the fourth data sent by the STA through the bandwidth part 160 MHz-2.

[0137] S7065: The slave AP sends fourth data to the master AP.

[0138] The slave AP may send the fourth data to the master AP via a LAN, and this embodiment does not limit the sending method.

[0139] S7066: Process the third data and the fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and the pre-acquired configuration parameters of the slave AP, where the configuration parameters of the slave AP include the number of antennas of the slave AP.

[0140] This embodiment also provides a schematic diagram of multi-AP joint data transmission, with reference to FIG10 . FIG10 will be described below in conjunction with the steps included in S706 . FIG10 includes both uplink and downlink transmission processes. The uplink transmission process corresponds to S7061-S7063, and the downlink transmission process corresponds to S7064-S7066. During the downlink transmission process, the master AP pre-processes 320 MHz downlink data via the Common PHY layer based on the associated channel bandwidth capabilities supported. The pre-processed first data is sent to the slave AP via the LAN. The slave AP sends the first data to the STA via the Sub PHY layer 160 MHz-2. Simultaneously, the master AP sends the second data to the STA via the Sub PHY layer 160 MHz-1. The STA receives the first and second data simultaneously. After receiving the downlink data, the STA may send an acknowledgment (ACK) frame to the master AP to acknowledge receipt of the data. If the ACK is processable by the master AP, it is processed by the master AP. If the ACK requires processing by the slave AP, the master AP sends the received ACK to the slave AP. For the uplink transmission process, the STA sends the third data and the fourth data on the 320 MHz channel bandwidth. The master AP receives the third data through the Sub PHY layer 160 MHz-1, and the slave AP receives the fourth data through the Sub PHY layer 160 MHz-2. The slave AP transmits the received fourth data back to the master AP through the LAN, and the Common PHY layer of the master AP processes it uniformly.

[0141] In this embodiment, the associated master AP and slave AP can be disassociated according to actual needs, and the original networking mode (for example, MESH networking) can be restored after disassociation. The following two possible disassociation modes are provided.

[0142] S7071: The master AP sends an association cancellation frame to the slave AP. The association cancellation frame is used to indicate the cancellation of association to disable the ability of multi-AP collaborative operation.

[0143] S7072: The master AP receives an association cancellation frame sent from the slave AP, where the association cancellation frame is used to indicate a request to cancel the association to disable the capability of multi-AP collaborative operation.

[0144] Referring to Figure 11, another data processing method is provided for an embodiment of the present disclosure. In this specific embodiment, the channel bandwidth supported by the STA is 320MHz, which can be understood as the maximum channel bandwidth that can be occupied when the STA is working is 320MHz. The channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the slave AP is 160MHz, that is, the maximum channel bandwidth that can be occupied when the master AP and the slave AP are working is 160MHz. In this embodiment, the STA is a STA that can support multi-AP joint transmission. The method includes the following steps.

[0145] S1101: The master AP determines that it has associated with the STA and the slave AP.

[0146] S1102: Based on the pre-acquired capability of supporting the associated channel bandwidth, perform multi-AP joint transmission with the STA.

[0147] Among them, multi-AP joint transmission is that the master AP and the master AP simultaneously transmit data to the STA through the slave AP, and the master AP and the master AP simultaneously receive data from the STA through the slave AP.

[0148] The associated channel bandwidth in this embodiment is a 320 MHz channel bandwidth formed by combining the 160 MHz channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the 160 MHz channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP.

[0149] In this embodiment, the master AP may obtain the ability to support the associated channel bandwidth in advance through the association processing method provided above. In addition, the acquisition and included contents of the parameters in this embodiment may refer to any of the above embodiments and will not be described in detail.

[0150] It should be noted that the associated channel bandwidth diagram of FIG8 , the system architecture diagram of FIG9 , and the multi-AP joint data transmission diagram of FIG10 are all applicable to this embodiment. This embodiment will be described below in conjunction with FIG8-FIG10 .

[0151] S1102 specifically includes the following steps.

[0152] S11021: Acquire data to be sent to the STA and configuration parameters from the AP, and pre-process the data to be sent based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters from the AP to obtain pre-processed data.

[0153] In S11021, the master AP can perform preprocessing operations such as encoding, interleaving, and spatial stream mapping on the data to be transmitted at the Common PHY layer according to the 320 MHz channel bandwidth. The preprocessed data can be sent to the STA simultaneously through the Sub PHY layer of the master AP and the slave AP. The STA can receive the data on the 320 MHz bandwidth channel. See the following steps for details.

[0154] S11022: The master AP sends the first data in the pre-processed data to the slave AP.

[0155] The master AP may send the first data to the slave AP via a LAN, and this embodiment does not limit the sending method.

[0156] S11023: The master AP sends the second data in the pre-processed data to the STA by occupying the bandwidth part of the associated channel bandwidth (corresponding to 160MHz-1 in Figure 8). At the same time, the slave AP sends the first data to the STA by occupying the bandwidth part of the associated channel bandwidth (corresponding to 160MHz-2 in Figure 8).

[0157] 8-10 , in S11022, the master AP sends the first data to be sent over the 160 MHz-2 channel bandwidth to the slave AP. In S11023, the master AP can send the second data to the STA over the 160 MHz-1 channel bandwidth in the Sub PHY layer. Simultaneously, the slave AP can send the first data to the STA over the 160 MHz-2 channel bandwidth in the Sub PHY layer.

[0158] The above describes the downlink data transmission process. The following describes the uplink data transmission process in detail, combined with steps S11024-S11026. In the uplink transmission direction, the STA sends data on the 320 MHz channel bandwidth. The master and slave APs simultaneously receive data via the Sub PHY layer on bandwidths 160 MHz-1 and 160 MHz-2, respectively. The slave AP transmits the received data back to the master AP, where it is processed uniformly by the master AP's Common PHY layer.

[0159] S11024: The master AP receives the third data sent by the STA through the bandwidth part 160 MHz-1. At the same time, the slave AP receives the fourth data sent by the STA through the bandwidth part 160 MHz-2.

[0160] S11025: The slave AP sends fourth data to the master AP.

[0161] S11026: The master AP processes the third data and the fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and pre-acquired configuration parameters of the slave AP. Through the above-described association processing method, the master AP and the slave AP are associated, and multi-AP joint transmission is provided for STAs with 320 MHz channel bandwidth capabilities. This allows the STA to send and receive data on the 320 MHz channel bandwidth it supports, and the transmission rate is no longer limited by the service provided by a single AP, further improving throughput.

[0162] In the fifth aspect, referring to Figure 12, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an electronic device, comprising: one or more processors 1201; a memory 1202, on which one or more programs are stored, and when the one or more programs are executed by one or more processors 1201, the one or more processors 1201 implement the above-mentioned first aspect and any possible embodiment of the first aspect, or the second aspect and any possible embodiment of the second aspect, or the third aspect and any possible embodiment of the third aspect, or the fourth aspect and any possible embodiment of the fourth aspect; one or more I / O interfaces 1203, connected between the processor 1201 and the memory 1202, and configured to implement information interaction between the processor 1201 and the memory 1202.

[0163] Among them, the processor 1201 is a device with data processing capabilities, including but not limited to a central processing unit (CPU); the memory 1202 is a device with data storage capabilities, including but not limited to random access memory (RAM, more specifically SDRAM, DDR, etc.), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), and flash memory (FLASH); the I / O interface (read-write interface) 1203 is connected between the processor 1201 and the memory 1202, and can realize information interaction between the processor 1201 and the memory 1202, including but not limited to a data bus (Bus), etc.

[0164] In some embodiments, the processor 1201 , the memory 1202 , and the I / O interface 1203 are connected to each other via a bus 1204 , and further connected to other components of the computing device.

[0165] In the sixth aspect, referring to Figure 13, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer-readable medium on which a computer program is stored. When the program is executed by a processor, it implements the above-mentioned first aspect and any possible embodiment of the first aspect, or the second aspect and any possible embodiment of the second aspect, or the third aspect and any possible embodiment of the third aspect, or the fourth aspect and any possible embodiment of the fourth aspect.

[0166] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that all or some of the steps, systems, and functional modules / units in the apparatus disclosed above may be implemented as software, firmware, hardware, or a suitable combination thereof.

[0167] In hardware implementations, the division between functional modules / units mentioned in the above description does not necessarily correspond to the division of physical components; for example, one physical component may have multiple functions, or one function or step may be performed by several physical components in cooperation.

[0168] Some or all of the physical components may be implemented as software executed by a processor, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor, or a microprocessor, or as hardware, or as an integrated circuit, such as an application specific integrated circuit. Such software may be distributed on computer-readable media, which may include computer storage media (or non-transitory media) and communication media (or transient media). As is well known to those skilled in the art, the term computer storage media includes volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storing information (such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data). Computer storage media include, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM, more specifically synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), double data rate RAM (DDRRAM), etc.), read only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory (FLASH) or other disk storage; compact disc ROM (CD-ROM), digital versatile disc (DVD) or other optical disk storage; magnetic cassettes, magnetic tapes, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage; any other medium that can be used to store the desired information and can be accessed by a computer. In addition, it is well known to those skilled in the art that communication media generally contain computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and may include any information delivery media.

[0169] The present disclosure has disclosed example embodiments, and although specific terms are employed, they are used and should be interpreted only in a general illustrative sense and not for purposes of limitation. In some instances, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, unless otherwise expressly indicated, features, characteristics, and / or elements described in conjunction with a particular embodiment may be used alone or in combination with features, characteristics, and / or elements described in conjunction with other embodiments. Therefore, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

1. An association processing method is applied to a master access point AP. The method includes: Sending an association request frame to a slave AP, where the association request frame is used to indicate a request to associate with the slave AP to obtain the ability to support multi-AP cooperative operation; Wherein, the multi-AP cooperative operation includes multi-AP joint transmission, and the ability to support multi-AP cooperative operation includes the ability to support an association channel bandwidth, and the association channel bandwidth is formed by combining the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP; Receiving an association response frame sent by the slave AP in response to the association request frame, where the association response frame is used to indicate whether to agree to associate to obtain the ability to support multi-AP cooperative operation.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, In the case where the association response frame is used to indicate agreement to associate to obtain the ability to support multi-AP cooperative operation, after receiving the association response frame sent by the slave AP in response to the association request frame, the method further includes: Sending an association confirmation ACK frame to the slave AP, where the association ACK frame is used to indicate successful association.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein The method further includes: Sending configuration information for the multi-AP cooperative operation to the slave AP; Wherein, the configuration information includes at least one of the following: Time synchronization information, which is used for time synchronization between the master AP and the slave AP; Channel bandwidth announcement information, which is used to determine the bandwidth portion of the association channel bandwidth occupied by the AP.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein, In the case where the association response frame is used to indicate agreement to associate to obtain the ability to support multi-AP cooperative operation, the method further includes: Generating channel bandwidth capability information, which is used to indicate that the master AP has the ability to support the association channel bandwidth; Sending the channel bandwidth capability information to a terminal station STA, so that the STA can learn that the master AP has the ability to support the association channel bandwidth.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein, In the case where the STA is a STA that can support the multi-AP joint transmission, after sending the channel bandwidth capability information to the STA, the method further includes: Determining that it has been associated with the STA; Based on the ability to support the association channel bandwidth, performing the multi-AP joint transmission with the STA; Wherein, the multi-AP joint transmission includes simultaneously transmitting data from the master AP and the master AP to the STA through the slave AP and simultaneously receiving data from the STA from the master AP and the master AP through the slave AP.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein, The performing the multi-AP joint transmission with the STA based on the ability to support the association channel bandwidth includes: Obtaining data to be sent that needs to be sent to the STA; Obtaining configuration parameters of the slave AP, where the configuration parameters of the slave AP include the number of antennas of the slave AP; Based on the association channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP, preprocessing the data to be sent to obtain preprocessed data; Sending the first data in the preprocessed data to the slave AP, so that the slave AP sends the first data to the STA by occupying the bandwidth portion of the association channel bandwidth; The primary AP sends the second data in the preprocessed data to the STA by occupying a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein The multi-AP joint transmission with the STA based on the ability to support the associated channel bandwidth includes: The primary AP receives the third data sent by the STA by occupying a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth. Receive the fourth data sent by the secondary AP, where the fourth data is the data received by the secondary AP from the STA by occupying a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth. Process the third data and the fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and the pre-acquired configuration parameters of the secondary AP, where the configuration parameters of the secondary AP include the number of antennas of the secondary AP.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein The configuration parameters of the secondary AP are obtained from the storage unit of the primary AP or received from the secondary AP.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein The method further includes: Sending an association cancellation frame to the secondary AP, where the association cancellation frame is used to indicate canceling the association to disable the multi-AP cooperation ability. Or, Receiving an association cancellation frame sent by the secondary AP, where the association cancellation frame is used to indicate a request to cancel the association to disable the multi-AP cooperation ability.

10. An association processing method applied to a secondary access point AP, the method including: Receiving an association request frame sent by the primary AP, where the association request frame is used to indicate a request to associate with the secondary AP to obtain the ability to support multi-AP cooperation. Wherein, the multi-AP cooperation includes multi-AP joint transmission, and the ability to support multi-AP cooperation includes the ability to support the associated channel bandwidth, and the associated channel bandwidth is formed by combining the channel bandwidth supported by the primary AP and the channel bandwidth supported by the secondary AP. Sending an association response frame in response to the association request frame to the primary AP, where the association response frame is used to indicate whether to agree to the association to obtain the ability to support multi-AP cooperation.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein, In the case where the association response frame is used to indicate agreeing to the association to obtain the ability to support multi-AP cooperation, after sending the association response frame in response to the association request frame to the primary AP, the method further includes: Receiving an association acknowledgment ACK frame sent by the primary AP, where the association ACK frame is used to indicate successful association.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein The method further includes: Receiving configuration information for the multi-AP cooperation sent by the primary AP. Wherein, the configuration information includes at least one of the following: Time synchronization information, which is used for time synchronization between the primary AP and the secondary AP. Channel bandwidth announcement information, which is used to determine the bandwidth portion occupied by the AP of the associated channel bandwidth.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein, The method further includes: Sending the configuration parameters of the secondary AP to the primary AP, where the configuration parameters of the secondary AP include the number of antennas of the secondary AP.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein, In the case where the association response frame is used to indicate agreeing to the association to obtain the ability to support multi-AP cooperation, the method further includes: Receive the first data in the preprocessed data sent by the master AP, where the preprocessed data is obtained by the master AP based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP for the data to be sent to the terminal station STA, and the STA is a STA that can support multi-AP joint transmission; Send the first data to the STA by the slave AP occupying a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein, When the association response frame is used to indicate consent to associate to obtain the ability to support multi-AP cooperative operation, the method further includes: Receive the fourth data from the terminal station STA by the slave AP occupying a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth, where the STA is a STA that can support multi-AP joint transmission; Send the fourth data to the master AP so that the master AP processes the fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP.

16. The method according to claim 10, wherein The method further includes: Receive an association cancellation frame sent by the master AP, where the association cancellation frame is used to indicate cancellation of the association to disable the multi-AP cooperative operation ability; Or, Send an association cancellation frame to the master AP, where the association cancellation frame is used to indicate a request to cancel the association to disable the multi-AP cooperative operation ability.

17. A data processing method applied to a master access point AP, the method including: Determine that it has been associated with a terminal station STA and a slave AP, where the STA is a STA that can support multi-AP joint transmission; Perform the multi-AP joint transmission with the STA based on the pre-acquired ability to support the associated channel bandwidth; Wherein, the associated channel bandwidth is formed by combining the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP, and the multi-AP joint transmission includes the master AP and the master AP simultaneously sending data to the STA through the slave AP and the master AP and the master AP simultaneously receiving data from the STA through the slave AP.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein Performing the multi-AP joint transmission with the STA based on the pre-acquired ability to support the associated channel bandwidth includes: Obtain the data to be sent to the STA; Obtain the configuration parameters of the slave AP, where the configuration parameters of the slave AP include the number of antennas of the slave AP; Preprocess the data to be sent based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP to obtain preprocessed data; Send the first data in the preprocessed data to the slave AP so that the slave AP sends the first data to the STA by occupying a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth; Send the second data in the preprocessed data to the STA by the master AP occupying a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth.

19. The method according to claim 17, wherein, Performing the multi-AP joint transmission with the STA based on the pre-acquired ability to support the associated channel bandwidth includes: Receive the third data sent by the STA by the master AP occupying a bandwidth portion of the associated channel bandwidth; Receive the fourth data sent from the slave AP, where the fourth data is the data received by the slave AP from the STA through a bandwidth part that occupies the associated channel bandwidth; Process the third data and the fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and the pre-acquired configuration parameters of the slave AP, where the configuration parameters of the slave AP include the number of antennas of the slave AP.

20. A data processing method applied to a slave access point AP, the method comprising: Determine that it is associated with a terminal station STA and a master AP, where the STA is a STA capable of supporting multi-AP joint transmission; Receive the first data in the pre-processed data sent by the master AP, where the pre-processed data is obtained by the master AP pre-processing the data to be sent to the STA based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP; Wherein, the associated channel bandwidth is formed by combining the channel bandwidth supported by the master AP and the channel bandwidth supported by the slave AP, the configuration parameters of the slave AP include the number of antennas of the slave AP, and the multi-AP joint transmission includes the master AP and the master AP simultaneously transmitting data to the STA through the slave AP and the master AP and the master AP simultaneously receiving data from the STA through the slave AP; Send the first data to the STA through a bandwidth part that occupies the associated channel bandwidth by the slave AP.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein, The method further comprises: Receive fourth data from the STA through a bandwidth part that occupies the associated channel bandwidth by the slave AP; Send the fourth data to the master AP so that the master AP processes the fourth data based on the associated channel bandwidth and the configuration parameters of the slave AP.

22. An electronic device, comprising: One or more processors; A memory storing one or more programs, which when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 or any one of claims 10 to 16 or any one of claims 17 to 19 or any one of claims 20 to 21; One or more I / O interfaces connected between the processor and the memory and configured to enable information interaction between the processor and the memory.

23. A computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program when executed by a processor implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 or any one of claims 10 to 16 or any one of claims 17 to 19 or any one of claims 20 to 21.

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