Communication method, apparatus and readable storage medium

Abstract

The present application relates to the field of wireless communication, and in particular relates to a communication method, an apparatus and a readable storage medium. The method comprises: on the basis of a tone plan of a dRU, perform transmission of a PPDU, the tone plan of the dRU comprising: the number of data tones within any 1 MHz of a 26-tonedRU is less than or equal to 2, and the number of tones within any 1 MHz at the position where pilot tones are located is 1. The present application can be used to improve the transmission power of communication apparatuses. The present application supports IEEE protocols, such as the IEEE802.11bn / UHR / Wi-Fi8 protocol, IEEE802.11be / EHT / Wi-Fi7 protocol, IEEE802.15 / UWB protocols, or IEEE802.11bf / sensing protocol, etc.

Description

Communication method, device and readable storage medium

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application with application number 202410066163.3 filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on January 16, 2024, and priority to the Chinese patent application with the invention name “Communication Method, Device and Readable Storage Medium”, all contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular to a communication method, device, and readable storage medium. Background Art

[0003] The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has issued regulations for the 6 GHz spectrum, limiting the maximum transmit power to 23 dBm (decibel-milliwatts) and the maximum power spectral density to 10 dBm / MHz (decibel-milliwatts / megahertz). The US Federal Communications Commission has also issued regulations for the 6 GHz spectrum, defining a low-power indoor (LPI) communication mode with strict limits on maximum transmit power and maximum frequency spectral density. For access points (APs), the maximum transmit power is limited to 30 dBm and the maximum power spectral density is 5 dBm / MHz. For stations (STAs), the maximum transmit power is limited to 24 dBm and the maximum power spectral density is -1 dBm / MHz. The transmit power of a device is subject to both maximum power and maximum power spectral density limits: the transmit power cannot exceed the maximum power value, and the transmit power spectral density (PSD) cannot exceed the maximum power spectral density. Compared to maximum power, maximum power spectral density (PSD) limits are more stringent, and the maximum transmit power is typically more restricted by PSD. For a station, the transmit power reaches the specified maximum power limit only when the bandwidth is 320 MHz. When the bandwidth is less than 320 MHz, the station can only transmit at a lower power (here, lower than the specified maximum power) due to the PSD limit.

[0004] Therefore, taking a 20MHz bandwidth as an example, the transmit power of a site is primarily limited by the power spectrum density. Improving the transmit power of the device to achieve higher gain has become an urgent issue. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, apparatus, and readable storage medium, which can increase the transmission power of a device without increasing the power spectrum density.

[0006] The present application is introduced below from different aspects. It should be understood that the implementation methods and beneficial effects of the following different aspects can be referenced to each other.

[0007] In this application, “transmit” may be understood as “send” and / or “receive.” It may also be understood that before a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) is sent, a PPDU may be generated.

[0008] In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which includes: a first communication device generates a PPDU based on the carrier planning (toneplan) of a distributed resource unit (dRU) under a 20MHz bandwidth, and sends the PPDU. The carrier planning of the dRU includes: the number of data subcarriers of the 26-tonedRU within any 1MHz is less than or equal to 2, and the number of subcarriers of the 26-tonedRU within any 1MHz where the pilot subcarrier is located is 1. In other words, the carrier planning of the dRU includes: the number of subcarriers contained in the 1MHz where the pilot subcarrier is located in the 26-tone dRU is less than or equal to the number of subcarriers contained in the 1MHz where the data subcarrier is located. In other words, the carrier planning of the dRU includes: the interval between the data subcarrier and the pilot subcarrier in the 26-tone dRU is greater than or equal to 13. In other words, the carrier planning of the dRU includes: the number of dRU subcarriers within any 1 MHz where the data subcarriers of the 26-tone dRU are located is less than or equal to 2, and the number of dRU subcarriers within any 1 MHz where the pilot subcarriers of the 26-tone dRU are located is 1. It is understood that the "any 1 MHz" here can refer to any 1 MHz in 20 MHz.

[0009] For example, the carrier planning of the dRU is described in the following embodiment and is not described in detail here.

[0010] In this application, "any 1 MHz where the subcarrier is located" can be understood as 1 MHz including this subcarrier, or 13 consecutive subcarriers including this subcarrier, which will not be repeated below.

[0011] The DRU in this application includes multiple subcarriers that are discrete in the frequency domain. The multiple discrete subcarriers can be partially discrete or completely discrete. In other words, the multiple discrete subcarriers can include some subcarriers that are continuous in frequency and some subcarriers that are discontinuous in frequency; or the multiple discrete subcarriers can also be completely discontinuous in frequency.

[0012] In this application, a 26-tone dRU can be understood as a dRU containing 26 subcarriers.

[0013] This application uses dRU for transmission, which can increase the transmit power while meeting the power spectral density requirements compared to continuous RU transmission. In addition, because the number of pilot subcarriers in any 1MHz of a 26-tone dRU in the carrier plan (toneplan) of this application is half the number of data subcarriers, the potential power of the pilot subcarriers is doubled compared to the data subcarriers, that is, the pilot subcarriers can obtain a 3dB power gain.

[0014] The continuous RU in this application can be understood as an RU composed of multiple continuous subcarriers, or a continuous RU is an RU composed of two groups of continuous subcarrier groups, the multiple subcarriers included in each group of continuous subcarrier groups are continuous, and the two groups of continuous subcarrier groups are only separated by protected subcarriers, empty subcarriers, or DC subcarriers.

[0015] In the second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which includes: a second communication device receives a PPDU and processes the PPDU according to the carrier planning (toneplan) of the dRU under a 20MHz bandwidth. The carrier planning of the dRU includes: the number of data subcarriers of the 26-tonedRU within any 1MHz is less than or equal to 2, and the number of subcarriers of the 26-tonedRU within any 1MHz where the pilot subcarrier is located is 1. In other words, the carrier planning of the dRU includes: the number of subcarriers contained in the 1MHz where the pilot subcarrier is located in the 26-tone dRU is less than or equal to the number of subcarriers contained in the 1MHz where the data subcarrier is located. In other words, the carrier planning of the dRU includes: the interval between the data subcarrier and the pilot subcarrier in the 26-tone dRU is greater than or equal to 13. In other words, the carrier planning of the dRU includes: the number of dRU subcarriers within any 1 MHz where the data subcarriers of the 26-tone dRU are located is less than or equal to 2, and the number of dRU subcarriers within any 1 MHz where the pilot subcarriers of the 26-tone dRU are located is 1. It is understood that the "any 1 MHz" here can refer to any 1 MHz in 20 MHz.

[0016] For example, the carrier planning of the dRU is described in the following embodiment and is not described in detail here.

[0017] In a possible implementation manner in combination with any of the above aspects, the carrier planning of the above dRU includes 9 26-tone dRUs; each 26-tone dRU includes 26 subcarriers, including 24 data subcarriers and 2 pilot subcarriers.

[0018] Exemplarily, the carrier planning of the dRU may include one or more 26-tone dRUs in the following Table 2. The pilot subcarrier index of the 26-tone dRU is shown in the second row and second column of the following Table 6.

[0019] In a possible implementation manner in combination with any of the above aspects, the carrier planning of the above dRU further includes 4 52-tone dRUs; each 52-tone dRU includes 52 subcarriers, including 48 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers.

[0020] Exemplarily, the carrier planning of the dRU may include one or more of the following: a 52-tone dRU with index 1 includes 26-tone dRUs with indexes 1 and 2; a 52-tone dRU with index 2 includes 26-tone dRUs with indexes 3 and 4; a 52-tone dRU with index 3 includes 26-tone dRUs with indexes 6 and 7; and a 52-tone dRU with index 4 includes 26-tone dRUs with indexes 8 and 9. For example, the carrier planning of the dRU may include one or more 52-tone dRUs in Table 3 below.

[0021] In a possible implementation manner in combination with any of the above aspects, the carrier planning of the above dRU further includes two 106-tone dRUs; each 106-tone dRU includes 106 subcarriers, including 102 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers.

[0022] Exemplarily, the carrier planning of the dRU may include one or more of the following: a 106-tone dRU with an index of 1 includes 26-tone dRUs with indices of 1, 2, 3, and 4, and subcarriers with subcarrier indices of {-122, 122}; a 106-tone dRU with an index of 2 includes 26-tone dRUs with indices of 6, 7, 8, and 9, and subcarriers with subcarrier indices of {-4, 4}. For example, the carrier planning of the dRU may include one or more 106-tone dRUs in Table 4 below.

[0023] In a possible implementation method of any of the above aspects, the carrier planning of the above-mentioned dRU also includes 1 242-tone dRU; the 242-tone dRU includes 242 subcarriers, including 234 data subcarriers and 8 pilot subcarriers; the subcarrier indexes of the 242-tonedRU are -122 to -2 and 2 to 122.

[0024] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device configured to execute the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect. The communication device includes a unit configured to execute the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

[0025] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device configured to execute the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect. The communication device includes a unit configured to execute the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0026] In the third aspect or the third aspect, the communication device may include a transceiver unit and a processing unit. For a detailed description of the transceiver unit and the processing unit, reference may be made to the device embodiments shown below. The beneficial effects of the second to fourth aspects may be referenced to the relevant descriptions of the first and second aspects, and are not repeated here.

[0027] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, comprising a processor configured to execute the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, or any possible implementation of any of the above aspects. Alternatively, the processor is configured to execute a program stored in a memory, and when the program is executed, the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, or any possible implementation of any of the above aspects is executed.

[0028] In combination with the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation, the memory is located outside the above-mentioned communication device.

[0029] In combination with the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation, the memory is located within the above-mentioned communication device.

[0030] In the present application, the processor and the memory may also be integrated into one device, that is, the processor and the memory may also be integrated together.

[0031] In combination with the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation, the communication device further includes a transceiver, and the transceiver is used to send or receive PPDU.

[0032] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may include a processor and an interface circuit, and the processor is connected to the interface circuit. Wherein, the interface circuit is used to interact (or transmit and receive or input and output) information or data, and the processor is used to run program instructions so that the communication device executes the method described in any possible implementation of the first aspect, the second aspect, or any aspect thereof. Wherein, the interface circuit may be a communication interface or a transceiver. The transceiver may be a radio frequency module in a communication device, or a combination of a radio frequency module and an antenna, or an input and output interface of a chip or circuit.

[0033] In the seventh aspect, the present application provides a readable storage medium having program instructions stored thereon, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, or any possible implementation of any of the aspects above.

[0034] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a program product comprising program instructions, which, when executed, enables the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, or any possible implementation of any of the aspects to be executed.

[0035] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a wireless communication system, which includes a first communication device and a second communication device; the first communication device is used to execute the method described in the above-mentioned first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, and the second communication device is used to execute the method described in the above-mentioned second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0036] The technical effects achieved in the above-mentioned aspects can be referred to each other or to the beneficial effects in the method embodiments shown below, and will not be repeated here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037] FIG1 is a network architecture diagram of a wireless communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0038] FIG2a is a schematic structural diagram of an access point provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0039] FIG2 b is a schematic diagram of the structure of a site provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0040] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of 20 MHz subcarrier distribution and RU distribution provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0041] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of 40 MHz subcarrier distribution and RU distribution provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0042] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of 80 MHz subcarrier distribution and RU distribution provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0043] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of a flow chart of uplink multi-user transmission according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0044] FIG7 is a schematic diagram of the division of subcarriers within a 20 MHz bandwidth provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0045] FIG8 is a schematic diagram of a simulation of subcarrier power allocation in a 26-tone dRU according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0046] FIG9 is a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0047] FIG10 is a block diagram of a dRU transmission based on BCC coding according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0048] FIG11 is a block diagram of a dRU transmission based on LDPC coding provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0049] FIG12 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0050] FIG13 is another schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0051] FIG14 is another structural diagram of the communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0052] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described clearly and completely below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

[0053] In the description of this application, "first" and "second" etc. are only used to distinguish different objects, rather than to describe a specific order. In addition, 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 there can be three relationships, 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 "plurality" means two or more. "The following one (or more)" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items (individuals). For example, at least one of a, b, or c can mean: a, b, c; a and b; a and c; b and c; or a and b and c. Among them, a, b, c can be single or multiple.

[0054] The terms "comprise," "include," "have," and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, product, or apparatus comprising a series of steps or elements is not limited to the listed steps or elements but may optionally include steps or elements not listed, or may optionally include other steps or elements inherent to the process, method, product, or apparatus.

[0055] 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," "for example," or "for example" should not be construed as being preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary," "for example," or "for example" is intended to present the relevant concepts in a concrete way.

[0056] It should be understood that in this application, the phrases "when," "if," and "if" all refer to the device performing a corresponding action under certain objective circumstances. They do not specify a time limit, do not require the device to perform a judgment action during implementation, and do not imply any other limitations. Specifically, "the device performing a corresponding action under certain objective circumstances" includes: the device performing the corresponding action only when the objective circumstances are met; or the device performing the corresponding action only when the objective circumstances and other circumstances are met.

[0057] The term "simultaneously" in this application may be understood as "in parallel", or at the same time point, or within a period of time, or within the same cycle, and may be understood in conjunction with the context.

[0058] Elements used in the singular herein are intended to mean "one or more" rather than "one and only one" unless specifically stated otherwise.

[0059] It will be understood that in the various embodiments of the present application, "A corresponds to B", "A corresponds to B", or similar expressions, means that B is associated with A and B can be determined based on A. Determining B based on A does not mean determining B based solely on A; B can also be determined based on A and / or other information.

[0060] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to wireless local area network (WLAN) scenarios, for example, supporting the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 related standards, such as 802.11a / b / g standards, 802.11n standards, 802.11ac standards, 802.11ax standards, IEEE 802.11ax next-generation Wi-Fi protocols, such as 802.11be, Wi-Fi 7, extremely high throughput (EHT), 802.11ad, 802.11ay or 802.11bf, and the next generation of 802.11be, Wi-Fi 8, etc., and can also be applied to ultra-wideband (UWB)-based Wi-Fi. Wireless personal area network systems based on ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless technologies, such as the 802.15 series of standards, can also be applied to sensing systems, such as the 802.11bf series of standards, and can also be applied to the 802.11bn standard or the ultra-high reliability (UHR) standard. The 802.11n standard is known as the high throughput (HT) standard, the 802.11ac standard is known as the very high throughput (VHT) standard, the 802.11ax standard is known as the high efficiency (HE) standard, and the 802.11be standard is known as the extremely high throughput (EHT) standard. 802.11bf includes two major categories of standards: low-frequency (e.g., sub7 GHz) and high-frequency (e.g., 60 GHz). Sub-7GHz implementations primarily rely on standards such as 802.11ac, 802.11ax, 802.11be, and their next-generation counterparts, while 60GHz implementations primarily rely on standards such as 802.11ad, 802.11ay, and their next-generation counterparts. 802.11ad is also known as the directional multi-gigabit (DMG) standard, and 802.11ay is also known as the enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) standard.

[0061] The technical solutions of the embodiments of this application can be applied to communication scenarios between an access point and one or more stations. In the embodiments of this application, the term "communication" can also be described as "data transmission," "information transmission," or "transmission." In the embodiments of this application, the term "transmission" can also be described as "sending" and / or "receiving."

[0062] Refer to Figure 1, which is a network architecture diagram of a wireless communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 1, the wireless communication system may include one or more access point (AP) type stations (STA), and one or more non-access point type stations (none access point station, non-AP STA). For ease of description, this document refers to the access point type station (AP STA) as the access point (AP), and the non-access point type station (non-AP STA) as the station (STA). AP and STA support WLAN communication protocols, which may include 802.11bn (or UHR), and may also include 802.11be, 802.11ax, 802.11ac and other protocols. Of course, with the continuous evolution and development of communication technology, the communication protocol may also include the next generation protocol of 802.11bn, etc. Taking WLAN as an example, the device for implementing the method of the present application may be an AP and / or STA in the WLAN, or a chip or processing system installed in the AP and / or STA.

[0063] It is understood that FIG1 illustrates a wireless communication system including one AP and six STAs (STA 1, STA 2, STA 3, STA 4, STA 5, and STA 6). In actual applications, the number of APs and STAs included in the wireless communication system may be greater or lesser, and this application does not limit the number of APs and STAs in the wireless communication system.

[0064] In one possible implementation, an access point (such as the AP in Figure 1) can be a device with wireless communication capabilities, supports communication using the WLAN protocol, and has the ability to communicate with other devices in the WLAN network (such as sites or other access points). The device with wireless communication capabilities can be a complete device, or it can be a chip or processing system installed in the complete device. The device installed with these chips or processing systems can implement the methods and functions of the embodiments of the present application under the control of the chip or processing system. Access points can be deployed in homes, inside buildings, and inside campuses, with a coverage radius of tens to hundreds of meters. Of course, they can also be deployed outdoors. An access point can be understood as a bridge connecting a wired network and a wireless network. Its main function is to connect various wireless network clients together and then connect the wireless network to the Ethernet. For example, an access point can be a terminal device (such as a mobile phone) with a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) chip or a network device (such as a communication server, router, switch, bridge, and other communication entities).

[0065] The access point in this application may be a device that supports the 802.11bn standard. Of course, the access point may also support multiple WLAN standards of the 802.11 family, such as 802.11be, 802.11bf, 802.11ax, 802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, and 802.11a.

[0066] In one possible implementation, a site (such as any site in Figure 1) can be a device with wireless communication capabilities, supports communication using the WLAN protocol, and has the ability to communicate with other sites or access points in the WLAN network. The device with wireless communication capabilities can be a complete device, or it can be a chip or processing system installed in the complete device, etc. The device installed with these chips or processing systems can implement the methods and functions of the embodiments of the present application under the control of the chip or processing system. The site can also be a wireless communication chip, a wireless sensor, or a wireless communication terminal, etc., and can also be called a user. For example, the site can be a mobile phone that supports Wi-Fi communication functions, a tablet computer that supports Wi-Fi communication functions, a set-top box that supports Wi-Fi communication functions, a smart TV that supports Wi-Fi communication functions, a smart wearable device that supports Wi-Fi communication functions, a vehicle-mounted communication device that supports Wi-Fi communication functions, or a computer that supports Wi-Fi communication functions, etc.

[0067] The station in this application may also be a device that supports the 802.11bn standard. Of course, the station may also support multiple WLAN standards of the 802.11 family, such as 802.11be, 802.11bf, 802.11ax, 802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, and 802.11a.

[0068] WLAN systems can provide high-speed and low-latency transmission. As WLAN application scenarios continue to evolve, WLAN systems will be applied to more scenarios or industries, such as the Internet of Things industry, the Internet of Vehicles industry, the banking industry, corporate offices, sports stadiums and exhibition halls, concert halls, hotel rooms, dormitories, wards, classrooms, supermarkets, squares, streets, production workshops and warehouses, etc. Of course, devices supporting WLAN communication (such as access points or sites) can be sensor nodes in smart cities (such as smart water meters, smart electricity meters, and smart air detection nodes), smart devices in smart homes (such as smart cameras, projectors, displays, televisions, speakers, refrigerators, washing machines, etc.), nodes in the Internet of Things, entertainment terminals (such as wearable devices such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)), smart devices in smart offices (such as printers, projectors, loudspeakers, speakers, etc.), Internet of Vehicles devices in the Internet of Vehicles, infrastructure in daily life scenarios (such as vending machines, self-service navigation counters in supermarkets, self-service cash registers, self-service ordering machines, etc.), and equipment in large sports and music venues, etc. The specific forms of sites and access points in the embodiments of the present application are not limited and are only illustrative.

[0069] It should be understood that the 802.11 standard focuses on the physical layer (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layer. In one example, see Figure 2a, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of the access point provided in an embodiment of the present application. The AP can be multi-antenna / multi-radio or a single antenna / single radio, and the antenna / radio is used to send / receive physical layer protocol data units (PPDUs). In one implementation, the antenna or radio part of the AP can be separated from the main body of the AP, forming a remote layout structure. In Figure 2a, the AP may include a physical layer processing circuit and a medium access control processing circuit. The physical layer processing circuit can be used to process physical layer signals, and the MAC layer processing circuit can be used to process MAC layer signals. In another example, see Figure 2b, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of the site provided in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 2b shows a schematic diagram of the STA structure of a single antenna / single radio. In actual scenarios, the STA can also be multi-antenna / multi-radio, and can be a device with more than two antennas, and the antenna / radio is used to send / receive data packets. In one implementation, the antenna or radio frequency portion of the STA can be separated from the main body of the STA, forming a remote layout. In Figure 2b, the STA can include a PHY processing circuit and a MAC processing circuit. The physical layer processing circuit can be used to process physical layer signals, and the MAC layer processing circuit can be used to process MAC layer signals.

[0070] In some embodiments, the AP in the wireless communication system shown in FIG. 1 can be replaced with an access point multi-link device (AP multi-link device, AP MLD), and the STA can be replaced with a non-AP multi-link device (non-AP MLD). That is, the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application can also be applied to scenarios where a multi-link device (MLD) communicates with a multi-link device. A multi-link device is a wireless communication device that supports parallel transmission of multiple links. Compared with devices that only support single-link transmission, multi-link devices have higher transmission efficiency and higher throughput. A multi-link device includes one or more affiliated stations STA (affiliated STA). An affiliated STA is a logical station that can work on one link. The affiliated station can be an access point (AP) or a non-AP STA. A multi-link device whose affiliated station is an AP can be called an AP MLD, and a multi-link device whose affiliated station is a non-AP STA can be called a non-AP MLD.

[0071] In one possible implementation, the multi-link device involved in the embodiment of the present application (which can be either a non-AP MLD or an AP MLD) is a device with wireless communication function. The device can be a complete device, or a chip or processing system installed in the complete device. Devices installed with these chips or processing systems can implement the methods and functions of the embodiments of the present application under the control of these chips or processing systems.

[0072] Although the embodiments of the present application are mainly described using a network that deploys the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 as an example, it will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that the various aspects of the present application can be extended to other networks that adopt various standards or protocols. For example, a personal area network (PAN), Bluetooth (BLUETOOTH), a high-performance radio LAN (HIPERLAN) (a wireless standard similar to the IEEE 802.11 standard, primarily used in Europe), and a wide area network (WAN) or other networks now known or developed later. Therefore, regardless of the coverage range and wireless access protocol used, the various aspects provided in the present application can be applied to any suitable wireless network.

[0073] The following is a brief description of some terms or nouns involved in this application.

[0074] 1. Resource Unit (RU)-based Carrier Planning (Tone Plan)

[0075] Wireless local area networks (WLANs) have evolved through several generations, including 802.11a / b / g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, 802.11be, and the currently under discussion 802.11bn. 802.11n is also known as high throughput (HT), 802.11ac is also known as very high throughput (VHT), 802.11ax is also known as high efficiency (HE), 802.11be is also known as extremely high throughput (EHT), and 802.11bn is also known as ultra-high reliability (UHR). 802.11ax currently supports the following bandwidth configurations: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, and 80+80MHz. The difference between 160MHz and 80+80MHz is that the former is a continuous frequency band, while the latter can separate the two 80MHz bands. 802.11be only supports continuous frequency bands, including 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, and 320MHz bandwidths.

[0076] In 802.11ax and 802.11be, in order to improve spectrum utilization, the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access (OFDMA) transmission method is defined. In the OFDMA transmission method, part of the continuous subcarriers within a bandwidth can be divided into a resource unit (RU). For example, 9 26-tone RUs are defined in a 20MHz bandwidth in 802.11ax / be. Each 26-tone RU has 26 continuous subcarriers, and a 26-tone RU can be allocated to one user. This method can increase the number of user access. For the sake of convenience, this application mainly describes the subcarrier distribution (Tone Plan) currently defined in the 802.11be standard. The subcarrier distribution and RU distribution under different bandwidths are explained below.

[0077] Refer to Figure 3, which is a schematic diagram of the 20MHz subcarrier distribution and RU distribution provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 3, when the bandwidth is 20MHz, the entire bandwidth (i.e., 20MHz) can include a 242-tone RU, or various combinations of 26-tone RU, 52-tone RU, and 106-tone RU. Each RU includes a data subcarrier and a pilot subcarrier. The data subcarrier can be used to carry data information, and the pilot subcarrier can be used to estimate the phase deviation and / or frequency deviation. In addition to the RU, the 20MHz bandwidth also includes some guard subcarriers, empty subcarriers, and / or direct current (DC) subcarriers.

[0078] It can be understood that a 242-tone RU can be understood as an RU containing 242 subcarriers. Similarly, a 26-tone RU can be understood as an RU containing 26 subcarriers. A 52-tone RU can be understood as an RU containing 52 subcarriers. A 106-tone RU can be understood as an RU containing 106 subcarriers.

[0079] See Figure 4, which is a schematic diagram of the 40MHz subcarrier distribution and RU distribution provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 4, when the bandwidth is 40MHz, the entire bandwidth (i.e., 40MHz) can include a 484-tone RU, or various combinations of 26-tone RU, 52-tone RU, 106-tone RU, and 242-tone RU. Among them, a 484-tone RU can be understood as an RU containing 484 subcarriers.

[0080] Refer to Figure 5, which is a schematic diagram of the 80MHz subcarrier distribution and RU distribution provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 5, when the bandwidth is 80MHz, the entire bandwidth (i.e., 80MHz) can include a 996-tone RU, or various combinations of 26-tone RU, 52-tone RU, 106-toneRU, 242-tone RU, and 484-tone RU. As shown in Figure 5, 484L in Figure 5 represents the left half of the 484-tone RU (i.e., the subcarrier range [-500:-17] or the subcarrier range [17:500]), and 484R in Figure 5 represents the right half of the 484-tone RU. 484L and 484R each contain 242 subcarriers, which is another schematic representation of 484+5DC. Among them, 996-tone RU can be understood as an RU containing 996 subcarriers. The "left" and "right" here only refer to the relative relationship relative to the center position in the frequency domain. For example, in the 484-tone RU [-500:-17], in the actual frequency domain, "484L" is the low-frequency portion relative to the frequency center of the 484-tone RU, that is, [-500:-259], and "484R" is the high-frequency portion relative to the frequency center of the 484-tone RU, that is, [-258:-17]. Similarly, for the 484-tone RU [17:500], "484L" is [17:258], and "484R" is [259:500].

[0081] When the bandwidth is 160 MHz, the entire bandwidth (i.e., 160 MHz) can be understood as a replication of two 80 MHz subcarrier distributions. The entire bandwidth (i.e., 160 MHz) can include two 996-tone RUs, or various combinations of 26-tone RUs, 52-tone RUs, 106-tone RUs, 242-tone RUs, 484-tone RUs, and 996-tone RUs. When the bandwidth is 320 MHz, the entire bandwidth (i.e., 320 MHz) can be understood as a replication of four 80 MHz subcarrier distributions. This will not be further elaborated here.

[0082] The various subcarrier distributions shown in Figures 3 through 5 are based on 242-tone RUs. Assume that the leftmost RU in Figures 3 through 5 represents the lowest frequency, and the rightmost RU in Figures 3 through 5 represents the highest frequency. From left to right, the 242-tone RUs are numbered: 1st, 2nd, ..., 16th. As can be understood, using a 320MHz bandwidth as an example, the data field in a radio frame occupies a maximum of 16 242-tone RUs. That is, in the data field, there are at most 16 242-tone RUs corresponding to the 16 20MHz channels, in ascending order of frequency.

[0083] In terms of bandwidth, a 26-tone RU corresponds to approximately 2 MHz, a 52-tone RU corresponds to approximately 4 MHz, a 106-tone RU corresponds to approximately 8 MHz, and a 242-tone RU corresponds to approximately 20 MHz. The bandwidths corresponding to RUs of other sizes can be inferred by adding or multiplying them accordingly, so we will not elaborate on this here.

[0084] It is understandable that because the 802.11be standard allows multiple RUs to be allocated to a STA, that is, multiple RUs can be combined and allocated to a single STA, the 802.11be standard supports multiple resource units (MRUs). In other words, in addition to the several types of RUs mentioned above, the 802.11be standard also introduces some MRUs. For example, a 52-tone RU and a 26-tone RU can form a 52+26-tone MRU; a 106-tone RU and a 26-tone RU can form a 106+26-tone MRU. For another example, a 484-tone RU and a 242-tone RU can form a 484+242-tone MRU, and a 996-tone RU and a 484-tone RU can form a 996+484-tone MRU. For example, a 996-tone RU, a 484-tone RU, and a 242-tone RU can form a 996+484+242-tone MRU; two 996-tone RUs and a 484-tone RU can form a 2×996+484-tone MRU; three 996-tone RUs can form a 3×996-tone MRU; three 996-tone RUs and a 484-tone RU can form a 3×996+484-tone MRU; and so on. It is understood that with the continuous evolution and development of communication technology, the next generation of 802.11be standards may support more RU or MRU formats, and this application does not impose any limitations thereon.

[0085] 2. Uplink Multi-User Transmission

[0086] Uplink multi-user transmission is an important technology. See Figure 6, which is a schematic diagram of the uplink multi-user transmission process provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 6, the uplink multi-user transmission process may include: the AP sends a trigger frame to trigger uplink multi-user transmission, and the trigger frame carries the identifier information and resource allocation information of one or more sites; after receiving the trigger frame, each site uses a trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU) to send an uplink data frame on the allocated resource unit (RU), and receives an acknowledgment (block acknowledgement, BA) frame sent by the AP after a short inter-frame space (SIFS).

[0087] 3. Distributed Resource Unit (dRU)

[0088] Both the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission have issued regulations on the 6GHz spectrum, which limit the maximum power and maximum power spectral density of transmission. Compared with the maximum power, the maximum power spectral density is more strictly limited, and the maximum power allowed to be transmitted is usually more limited by the power spectral density (PSD). Limited by the maximum power spectral density, the transmission power of a single continuous RU is limited. It should be understood that the continuous RU in this application refers to an RU composed of multiple continuous subcarriers, or a continuous RU is an RU composed of two groups of continuous subcarrier groups, and the multiple subcarriers included in each group of continuous subcarrier groups are continuous, and the two groups of continuous subcarrier groups are only separated by protected subcarriers, empty subcarriers, or DC subcarriers. Of course, the continuous RU can also be called by other names, and this application does not limit the name of the continuous RU.

[0089] The maximum power spectral density can refer to the maximum transmit power within 1 MHz, or in other words, the maximum power spectral density is expressed in the form of the transmit power at 1 MHz not exceeding x dBm (dBm = 10log (mW), where lg represents the logarithm to the base 10). The minimum granularity of the maximum power spectral density is 1 MHz. Therefore, without changing the transmit power at 1 MHz, that is, without changing the power spectral density, a distributed RU technology is proposed to increase the transmit power. A distributed RU corresponds to a continuous RU. A distributed RU includes multiple subcarriers that are discrete in the frequency domain. The discrete multiple subcarriers can be partially discrete or completely discrete. That is, the discrete multiple subcarriers can include some subcarriers that are continuous in frequency and some subcarriers that are discontinuous in frequency; alternatively, the discrete multiple subcarriers can be completely discontinuous in frequency. It should be understood that "distributed RU" and "dRU" are used interchangeably herein. It should also be understood that the distributed RU mentioned in this article refers to the RU whose subcarriers are discrete in the frequency domain. That is to say, the RU with this characteristic is called a distributed RU in this article, but in practice the RU with this characteristic may also have other names, which is not limited in this application.

[0090] For dRU and continuous RU containing the same number of subcarriers, the bandwidth spanned by dRU in the frequency domain from the low-frequency starting position to the high-frequency ending position is greater than the frequency domain bandwidth occupied by continuous RU. In this way, under the same maximum power spectrum density, the total transmit power of dRU can be higher than the total transmit power of continuous RU. That is to say, when the power spectrum density is limited, the transmit power can be increased by discretizing a limited number of subcarriers (such as the 26 subcarriers contained in a continuous 26-tone RU) to a wider bandwidth, that is, more subcarriers (such as the odd subcarriers of 2 continuous 26-tone RUs). Therefore, compared with continuous RU, when using dRU for data transmission, the transmit power on each subcarrier can be increased, the total transmit power can be increased, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can be improved.

[0091] In the embodiments of the present application, it is understood that during a transmission process of a user (such as a STA), the transmission power of each subcarrier in the resource unit allocated to the STA is the same. Taking the carrier spacing of 78.125kHz as an example, 1MHz contains 12.8 (1000 / 78.125=12.8, which is approximately 13) subcarriers. Assuming that the transmission power of 1MHz does not exceed p mW (that is, the maximum power spectral density). The maximum number of subcarriers carrying signals in any consecutive 13 subcarriers will determine the average power of each subcarrier, and then determine the transmission power of the signal, where the transmission power of the signal is equal to the product of the average power of each subcarrier and the number of subcarriers. For example, assuming that at most 5 of any 13 consecutive subcarriers (1 MHz) carry signals, the average power per subcarrier within the 1 MHz bandwidth is (p / 5) mW. Assuming that at most 2 of any 13 consecutive subcarriers (1 MHz) carry signals, the average power per subcarrier within the 1 MHz bandwidth is (p / 2) mW. In other words, given a constant maximum power spectral density, the greater the number of subcarriers carrying signals within any 13 consecutive subcarriers, the lower the average power per subcarrier and the total transmit power. Assume that the resource unit allocated to the STA is a 26-tone dRU, that is, the number of subcarriers carrying signals is 26. If at most 2 subcarriers carry signals among any 13 consecutive subcarriers in the toneplan, and the bandwidth occupied by the 26-tone dRU is 26 / 2 = 13 MHz, then the average power of each subcarrier within the 1 MHz bandwidth is (p / 2) mW. The total transmit power of the 26-tone dRU can be calculated based on the total subcarrier transmit power, specifically (p / 2) * 26 mW, or based on the bandwidth occupied by the subcarriers, specifically 13 * p mW. If the resource unit allocated to a STA is a contiguous 26-tone RU, since the contiguous 26-tone RU includes 26 consecutive subcarriers (2 groups of 13 consecutive subcarriers), that is, the bandwidth occupied by the contiguous 26-tone RU is 2MHz, the average power of each subcarrier within the 1MHz bandwidth is (p / 13)mW. The total transmit power of the contiguous 26-tone RU can be calculated based on the total subcarrier transmit power, specifically (p / 13)*26mW, or based on the bandwidth occupied by the subcarrier, specifically 2*pmW. In comparison, under the same maximum power spectral density, the total transmit power of the 26-tone dRU is 6.5 times higher than that of the contiguous 26-tone RU.

[0092] In one implementation, a DRU tone plan can be designed based on equal subcarrier spacing. For example, the subcarrier spacing in a 26-tone DRU within a 20 MHz bandwidth is 9, the subcarrier spacing in a 26-tone DRU within a 40 MHz bandwidth is 18, and the subcarrier spacing in a 26-tone DRU within an 80 MHz bandwidth is 36. In this DRU tone plan design based on equal subcarrier spacing, the number of subcarriers carrying signals within each 1 MHz frequency domain window is the same. When the power is evenly distributed to each subcarrier, the bandwidth corresponding to the total power is less than the actual signal bandwidth, indicating that the DRU is not utilizing all the potential power gain from the bandwidth. For example, within a 20 MHz bandwidth, there are a total of 242 subcarriers carrying signals, with a subcarrier spacing of 78.125 kHz. Given a maximum power spectral density of x dBm / MHz, each 1 MHz frequency domain window can cover 13 (1000 / 78.125 = 12.8, approximately 13) subcarriers. When designing a DRU based on equal subcarrier spacing, the maximum subcarrier spacing for signals in a 26-tonedRU is 9 (242 / 26 = 9.3, rounded down to 9). In other words, each 1MHz frequency domain window (i.e., 13 subcarriers) may cover two subcarriers carrying signals in a 26-tone DRU. Therefore, every two subcarriers in a 26-tonedRU share xdBm of transmit power. Therefore, the average transmit power of each subcarrier in a 26-tonedRU is (x dBm) / 2. At this time, the total transmit power of the 26 subcarriers is (x dBm) / 2*26=13*(x dBm), corresponding to a bandwidth of 13MHz. This shows that this implementation method has a potential power gain corresponding to a bandwidth of 7MHz (20-13=7) for a 20MHz bandwidth.

[0093] Although the transmission power can be improved by discretizing the subcarriers contained in the resource unit to a larger bandwidth (larger than the bandwidth occupied by continuous RU), the power gain of the existing dRU still has room for improvement. Therefore, the present application provides a carrier planning (tone plan) design of dRU under 20MHz bandwidth, and the carrier planning of the dRU can be applied to uplink and / or downlink transmission. Taking the application of dRU to uplink (multi-user) transmission as an example, the present application provides a communication method, in which STA uses its own allocated dRU for transmission. Under the condition of meeting the power spectrum density requirements, the transmission power can be improved compared to the transmission method using continuous RU, and when the data subcarriers within the 20MHz bandwidth reach the dRU power increase upper limit, the available power of the pilot subcarriers in the 26-tone dRU within the 20MHz bandwidth can be increased, thereby obtaining a 3dB gain improvement.

[0094] In this application, unless otherwise specified, the same or similar parts between the various embodiments or implementation methods can refer to each other. In the various embodiments in this application, and the various implementation methods / implementation methods / implementation methods in each embodiment, if there is no special explanation and logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments and the various implementation methods / implementation methods / implementation methods in each embodiment are consistent and can be referenced to each other. The technical features in different embodiments and the various implementation methods / implementation methods / implementation methods in each embodiment can be combined to form new embodiments, implementation methods, implementation methods, or implementation methods according to their inherent logical relationships. The implementation methods of this application described below do not constitute a limitation on the scope of protection of this application.

[0095] In order to more clearly describe the technical solution of the present application, the carrier planning (tone plan) of the dRU under the 20MHz bandwidth provided in the embodiment of the present application is first described in detail below. Exemplarily, the dRU in the present application may include multiple subcarriers discrete in the frequency domain. The multiple discrete subcarriers may be partially discrete or completely discrete. In other words, the multiple discrete subcarriers may include a part of the subcarriers that are continuous in frequency and a part of the subcarriers that are discontinuous in frequency; or, the multiple discrete subcarriers may also be completely discontinuous in frequency.

[0096] It can be understood that the maximum number of subcarriers carrying signals within the 20MHz bandwidth is 242. In a possible dRU carrier planning, the 20MHz bandwidth may include one 242-tone dRU, or two 106-tone dRUs, or four 52-tone dRUs, or nine 26-tone dRUs, or various combinations of 26-tone dRUs, 52-tone dRUs, 106-tone dRUs, and 242-tone dRUs.

[0097] A 26-tone DRU is understood as a DRU with 26 subcarriers. Similarly, a 52-tone DRU is understood as a DRU with 52 subcarriers, a 106-tone DRU is understood as a DRU with 106 subcarriers, and a 242-tone DRU is understood as a DRU with 242 subcarriers. This description is not repeated below.

[0098] Each 26-tone dRU includes 24 data subcarriers and 2 pilot subcarriers. Each 52-tone dRU includes 48 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers, which can be understood as two 26-tone dRUs combined. Each 106-tone dRU includes 102 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers, which can be understood as two 52-tone dRUs combined with an additional 2 subcarriers. Each 242-tone dRU includes 234 data subcarriers and 8 pilot subcarriers, which can be understood as two 106-tone dRUs, one 26-tone dRU, and an additional 4 subcarriers combined.

[0099] Taking into account the presence of a DC tone in the 20MHz bandwidth, which is located in the middle of the 20MHz carrier plan (tone plan), the embodiment of the present application divides the 242 subcarriers carrying signals in the 20MHz bandwidth into two parts, namely the left part and the right part, according to the position of the DC tone. The left part can be divided into two sub-parts, namely the first sub-part and the second sub-part; the right part can also be divided into two sub-parts, namely the third sub-part and the fourth sub-part. The first sub-part and the third sub-part can each include 117 subcarriers, and the second sub-part and the fourth sub-part can each include 4 subcarriers. It can be understood that the first to fourth sub-parts are all logical parts, and the actual subcarrier positions corresponding to the first sub-part and the second sub-part can be separated or interspersed with each other; similarly, the actual subcarrier positions corresponding to the third sub-part and the fourth sub-part can be separated or interspersed with each other. See Figure 7, which is a schematic diagram of the division of subcarriers in the 20MHz bandwidth provided in the embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 7, the tones of the second subsection can be located on one side of the first subsection, and the corresponding tones of the fourth subsection can be located on one side of the third subsection; alternatively, the tones of the second subsection can be interspersed in the middle of the first subsection, and the corresponding tones of the fourth subsection can also be interspersed in the middle of the third subsection. The left and right sections can have a shifted or symmetrical relationship. The first subsection of the left section and the third subsection of the right section can have a shifted or symmetrical relationship, and the second subsection of the left section and the fourth subsection of the right section can have a shifted or symmetrical relationship. The first and third subsections have a total of 2*117=234 subcarriers, which can be used to construct nine 26-tone DRUs (i.e., 2*117 / 26=9). Combining two of the eight 26-tone DRUs can create four 52-tone DRUs. The second and fourth sub-sections have a total of 2*4=8 subcarriers. These 8 subcarriers can be combined with the 26-tone DRU and / or the 52-tone DRU to form a DRU of size no less than 106-tone, such as a 106-tone DRU and a 242-tone DRU. The symbol "*" herein represents a multiplication or multiplication operation and is not further described below.

[0100] For example, based on the subcarrier division within the 20 MHz bandwidth shown in FIG7 , the first subpart and the third subpart can be used together to construct nine 26-tone DRUs, where one 26-tone DRU can be composed of the 13 subcarriers of the first subpart in the left part and the 13 subcarriers of the third subpart in the right part. The two pilot subcarriers in one 26-tone DRU are composed of one subcarrier of the first subpart in the left part and one subcarrier of the third subpart in the right part, and the 24 data subcarriers in one 26-tone DRU are composed of 12 subcarriers of the first subpart in the left part and 12 subcarriers of the third subpart in the right part. Different 26-tone DRUs have different subcarriers. The pilot subcarriers and data subcarriers of the same 26-tone DRU are different.

[0101] A 52-tone DRU can be composed of two combined 26-tone DRUs. The pilot subcarriers of a 52-tone DRU can be dispersed across the entire bandwidth (i.e., 20 MHz bandwidth) to reduce the impact of deep channel fading on the pilot subcarriers. For example, the pilot subcarriers of a 52-tone DRU are composed of the pilot subcarriers of the two 26-tone DRUs that make up the 52-tone DRU, and the data subcarriers of the 52-tone DRU are composed of the data subcarriers of the two 26-tone DRUs that make up the 52-tone DRU.

[0102] A 106-tone DRU can be composed of two 52-tone DRUs, one subcarrier from the second subsection in the left section, and one subcarrier from the fourth subsection in the right section. The pilot subcarriers of a 106-tone DRU can be composed of some pilot subcarriers of the two 52-tone DRUs that make up the 106-tone DRU.

[0103] One 242-tone DRU can be composed of two 106-tone DRUs, one 26-tone DRU, two subcarriers from the second subpart in the left part, and two subcarriers from the fourth subpart in the right part.

[0104] The following introduces the design concept of the carrier planning (tone plan) of the dRU in the embodiment of the present application based on the division of subcarriers within the 20MHz bandwidth shown in Figure 7 above.

[0105] In one possible implementation, for the 117 subcarriers included in the first subpart or the third subpart, the 117 subcarriers may be expressed as follows:

[0106] {SCdv,SCdu,SCdv,SCpu,SCdv,SCdu,SCdv,

[0107] SCdu,SCdv,SCdu,SCpv,SCdu,SCdv,SCdu}.

[0108] Regarding the meaning of "SCdu", "SCdv", "SCpu", and "SCpv", there are two possible implementations.

[0109] Implementation method a:

[0110] 1 SCdu represents 10 consecutive subcarriers in the first subpart or the third subpart. Among them, the first 5 subcarriers and the last 5 subcarriers of SCdu can be expressed as {SCd1, SCd2, SCd3, SCd4, SCd5}. "SCd1" represents 2 subcarriers, which are the 1st subcarrier among the first 5 subcarriers of SCdu and the 1st subcarrier among the last 5 subcarriers of SCdu. "SCd2" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the 2nd subcarrier among the first 5 subcarriers of SCdu and the 2nd subcarrier among the last 5 subcarriers of SCdu. "SCd3" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the 3rd subcarrier among the first 5 subcarriers of SCdu and the 3rd subcarrier among the last 5 subcarriers of SCdu. "SCd4" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the 4th subcarrier among the first 5 subcarriers of SCdu and the 4th subcarrier among the last 5 subcarriers of SCdu. "SCd5" also represents 2 subcarriers, namely the 5th subcarrier among the first 5 subcarriers of SCdu and the 5th subcarrier among the last 5 subcarriers of SCdu.

[0111] The first five subcarriers and the last five subcarriers of SCdu can be used as data subcarriers for five 26-tone DRUs, and the subcarriers in the same position in the first and last five subcarriers are used for the same 26-tone DRU. For example, the two subcarriers represented by SCd1 are used for the same 26-tone DRU, the two subcarriers represented by SCd2 are used for another 26-tone DRU, and the two subcarriers represented by SCd3 are used for another 26-tone DRU. And so on, {SCd1, SCd2, SCd3, SCd4, SCd5} are used for five 26-tone DRUs respectively.

[0112] 1 SCdv represents 8 consecutive subcarriers in the first subpart or the third subpart. Among them, the first 4 subcarriers and the last 4 subcarriers of SCdv can be expressed as {SCd6, SCd7, SCd8, SCd9}. "SCd6" represents 2 subcarriers, which are the first subcarrier among the first 4 subcarriers of SCdv and the first subcarrier among the last 4 subcarriers of SCdv. "SCd7" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the second subcarrier among the first 4 subcarriers of SCdv and the second subcarrier among the last 4 subcarriers of SCdv. "SCd8" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the third subcarrier among the first 4 subcarriers of SCdv and the third subcarrier among the last 4 subcarriers of SCdv. "SCd9" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the fourth subcarrier among the first 4 subcarriers of SCdv and the fourth subcarrier among the last 4 subcarriers of SCdv.

[0113] The first four subcarriers and the last four subcarriers of the SCdv can be used as data subcarriers of another four 26-tone dRUs, respectively, and the subcarriers at the same positions in the first four subcarriers and the last four subcarriers are used for the same 26-tone dRU.

[0114] One SCpu represents five consecutive subcarriers in the first or third subpart. The five subcarriers of an SCpu can be represented as {SCp1, SCp2, SCp3, SCp4, SCp5}. These five consecutive subcarriers can be used as pilot subcarriers for the five 26-tone DRUs.

[0115] One SCpv represents four consecutive subcarriers in the first or third subpart. The four subcarriers of SCpv can be represented as {SCp6, SCp7, SCp8, SCp9}. These four consecutive subcarriers can be used as pilot subcarriers for the other four 26-tone DRUs.

[0116] Implementation b:

[0117] 1 SCdu represents 8 consecutive subcarriers in the first subpart or the third subpart. Among them, the first 4 subcarriers and the last 4 subcarriers of SCdu can be expressed as {SCd1, SCd2, SCd3, SCd4}. "SCd1" represents 2 subcarriers, which are the 1st subcarrier among the first 4 subcarriers of SCdu and the 1st subcarrier among the last 4 subcarriers of SCdu. "SCd2" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the 2nd subcarrier among the first 4 subcarriers of SCdu and the 2nd subcarrier among the last 4 subcarriers of SCdu. "SCd3" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the 3rd subcarrier among the first 4 subcarriers of SCdu and the 3rd subcarrier among the last 4 subcarriers of SCdu. "SCd4" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the 4th subcarrier among the first 4 subcarriers of SCdu and the 4th subcarrier among the last 4 subcarriers of SCdu.

[0118] The first four subcarriers and the last four subcarriers of SCdu can be used as data subcarriers for four 26-tone DRUs, and the subcarriers in the same position in the first four subcarriers and the last four subcarriers are used for the same 26-tone DRU. For example, the two subcarriers represented by SCd1 are used for the same 26-tone DRU, the two subcarriers represented by SCd2 are used for another 26-tone DRU, and the two subcarriers represented by SCd3 are used for another 26-tone DRU. And so on, {SCd1, SCd2, SCd3, SCd4} are used for four 26-tone DRUs respectively.

[0119] 1 SCdv represents 10 consecutive subcarriers in the first subpart or the third subpart. Among them, the first 5 subcarriers and the last 5 subcarriers of SCdv can be expressed as {SCd5, SCd6, SCd7, SCd8, SCd9}. "SCd5" represents 2 subcarriers, which are the first subcarrier among the first 5 subcarriers of SCdv and the first subcarrier among the last 5 subcarriers of SCdv. "SCd6" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the second subcarrier among the first 5 subcarriers of SCdv and the second subcarrier among the last 5 subcarriers of SCdv. "SCd7" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the third subcarrier among the first 5 subcarriers of SCdv and the third subcarrier among the last 5 subcarriers of SCdv. "SCd8" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the fourth subcarrier among the first 5 subcarriers of SCdv and the fourth subcarrier among the last 5 subcarriers of SCdv. "SCd9" also represents 2 subcarriers, which are the 5th subcarrier among the first 5 subcarriers of SCdv and the 5th subcarrier among the last 5 subcarriers of SCdv.

[0120] The first 5 subcarriers and the last 5 subcarriers of the SCdv can be used as data subcarriers of another 5 26-tone dRUs respectively, and the subcarriers at the same positions in the first 5 subcarriers and the last 5 subcarriers are used for the same 26-tone dRU.

[0121] One SCpu represents four consecutive subcarriers in the first or third subpart. The four subcarriers of an SCpu can be represented as {SCp1, SCp2, SCp3, SCp4}. These four consecutive subcarriers can be used as pilot subcarriers for the four 26-tone DRUs.

[0122] One SCpv represents five consecutive subcarriers in the first or third subpart. The five subcarriers of SCpv are represented as {SCp5, SCp6, SCp7, SCp8, SCp9}. These five consecutive subcarriers can be used as pilot subcarriers for the other five 26-tone DRUs.

[0123] In the two implementations described above (i.e., implementation a and implementation b), for a subcarrier in SCpu or SCpv used for a 26-tone dRU, there is only one subcarrier used for the 26-tone dRU within the 1 MHz (or 13 subcarriers) centered on it. However, for a subcarrier in SCdu or SCdv used for a 26-tone dRU, there are two subcarriers used for the 26-tone dRU within the 1 MHz (or 13 subcarriers) centered on it. Therefore, when a subcarrier in SCpu or SCpv is used as a pilot subcarrier for the 26-tone dRU, because the number of pilot subcarriers per MHz in the 26-tone dRU is half the number of data subcarriers, the transmit power of the pilot subcarrier can be increased by 2 times relative to the transmit power of the data subcarrier, that is, the pilot subcarrier can achieve a 3dB power gain.

[0124] In the above two implementations (i.e., implementation a and implementation b), SCdu and SCdv represent data subcarriers for the 26-tone dRU, and the subcarriers represented by SCdu and SCdv are used for 9 different 26-tone dRUs respectively. The subcarriers represented by SCpu and SCpv can all be used as pilot subcarriers for the 26-tone dRU, and the subcarriers represented by SCpu and SCpv are used for 9 different 26-tone dRUs respectively. The embodiments of the present application are described below using implementation a as an example.

[0125] In the first subpart and the third subpart, one 26-tonedRU has 2 subcarriers belonging to SCpu or SCpv and 24 subcarriers belonging to SCdu or SCdv.

[0126] The second and fourth subparts can be combined with the 26-tone DRU and / or the 52-tone DRU to form a DRU of size no less than a 106-tone DRU. Exemplary principles for selecting subcarriers from the second and fourth subparts include: for a single DRU, the subcarriers selected from the second and / or fourth subparts must not reduce the minimum subcarrier spacing of subcarriers belonging to the first and third subparts of the DRU.

[0127] To better illustrate the relationship between subcarriers and DRUs in the left portion (including the first and second subportions) and the right portion (including the third and fourth subportions) within the 20 MHz bandwidth shown in Figure 7 , a table is provided below, as shown in Table 1. It should be understood that the relationship between subcarriers and DRUs in the left portion (including the first and second subportions) is the same as the relationship between subcarriers and DRUs in the right portion (including the third and fourth subportions). In Table 1, "26_1 to 26_9" represent 26-tone DRUs with indices 1 to 9, respectively. Similarly, "52_1 to 52_4" represent 52-tone DRUs with indices 1 to 4, respectively. "106_1 to 106_2" represent 106-tone DRUs with indices 1 to 2, respectively. "242_1" represents a 242-tone DRU with index 1, respectively. The meanings of SCd1 to SCd9 and SCp1 to SCp9 in Table 1 are as described in Implementation A above and are not repeated here. "tone1 to tone 4" in Table 1 represent the first to fourth subcarriers in the second subsection or the fourth subsection. The same expressions have the same meanings below and are not repeated here.

[0128] Table 1

[0129] Based on the design concept of the dRU carrier planning (tone plan) introduced above, the following examples illustrate various dRUs and the subcarriers contained therein provided in the embodiments of the present application.

[0130] It can be understood that within the 20MHz bandwidth, there are a total of 256 subcarriers. After removing 11 protection subcarriers, there are 245 subcarriers left. The index (toneindex) of these 245 subcarriers can be expressed as [-122:122], i.e. -122, -121, -120,…, -1, 0, 1,…, 120, 121, 122. The subcarrier indexes of the embodiment of the present application can be numbered in order from low frequency to high frequency, i.e. the subcarrier with the smallest index value has the lowest frequency, and the subcarrier with the largest index value has the highest frequency. Of course, the subcarrier indexes can also be numbered in order from high frequency to low frequency, i.e. the subcarrier with the smallest index value has the highest frequency, and the subcarrier with the largest index value has the lowest frequency. This embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto.

[0131] The embodiment of the present application defines 9 26-tone RUs for 20 MHz.

[0132] For example: the left and right parts in the aforementioned Figure 7 are symmetrical about the DC tone, and the subcarriers of the second subcarrier are interspersed in the middle of the first subcarrier, and the subcarriers of the fourth subcarrier are interspersed in the middle of the third subcarrier. In addition, tones 1 to 4 of the fourth subcarrier in the right part correspond to subcarrier indices 122, 4, 2, and 3, respectively, and the third subcarrier in the right part corresponds to 117 subcarriers of subcarrier indices 5 to 121 in sequence. According to the relationship between the subcarriers and dRUs shown in Table 1 above, the subcarriers contained in the 9 26-tone dRUs under a 20MHz bandwidth are shown in Table 2 below. Among them, the dRU index in the embodiment of the present application is a predefined logical index of the dRU, which will not be repeated below.

[0133] Table 2

[0134] In the carrier planning of dRU, a 20 MHz bandwidth can include four 52-tone dRUs. Each 52-tone dRU can be understood as two 26-tone dRUs combined. The specific subcarriers included are shown in Table 3 below.

[0135] Table 3

[0136] In DRU carrier planning, a 20 MHz bandwidth can include two 106-tone DRUs. A 106-tone DRU can be understood as two 52-tone DRUs (or four 26-tone DRUs) combined with two additional subcarriers. The specific subcarriers included are shown in Table 4 below.

[0137] Table 4

[0138] In one possible implementation, the 106-tone dRU with index 1 can also be understood as a combination of 52-tone dRUs with indexes 1 and 2 and subcarriers with subcarrier indexes {-122, 122}. The 106-tone dRU with index 2 can also be understood as a combination of 52-tone dRUs with indexes 3 and 4 and subcarriers with subcarrier indexes {-4, 4}.

[0139] In DRU carrier planning, a 20 MHz bandwidth can include one 242-tone DRU. A 242-tone DRU can be understood as the combination of two 106-tone DRUs, one 26-tone DRU, and four additional subcarriers. Alternatively, a 242-tone DRU can be understood as the combination of nine 26-tone DRUs and eight additional subcarriers. The specific subcarriers are shown in Table 5. The subcarrier index [-4:-2,2:4] in Table 5 represents -4, -3, -2, 2, 3, and 4.

[0140] Table 5

[0141] Table 6 shows a pilot subcarrier index that can achieve pilot power boost for a DRU in a 20 MHz bandwidth. In Table 6, the symbol " / " indicates that any subcarrier can be used for pilots. It is understood that when the symbol " / " is used, the pilot subcarrier does not have a power boost relative to the data subcarrier.

[0142] Table 6

[0143] In summary, for any 26-tone dRU in Table 2 above, there are two subcarriers that exclusively occupy 1MHz (i.e., only one subcarrier belongs to this 26-tone dRU within the 1MHz where these two subcarriers are located). Of the remaining 24 subcarriers, at most two subcarriers belong to this 26-tone dRU within 1MHz. Therefore, when these two subcarriers are used as pilot subcarriers for the 26-tone dRU (as shown in the second column of Table 6 above), because the number of pilot subcarriers within 1MHz is half the number of data subcarriers, the potential power of the pilot subcarriers is doubled compared to the data subcarriers, that is, the pilot subcarriers can achieve a 3dB power gain.

[0144] In short, in the embodiment of the present application, the number of data subcarriers within any 1 MHz of any 26-tone dRU is less than or equal to 2, and the number of subcarriers within any 1 MHz where the pilot subcarrier is located is 1. In other words, the number of subcarriers contained in the 1 MHz where the pilot subcarrier is located in any 26-tone dRU is less than or equal to the number of subcarriers contained in the 1 MHz where the data subcarrier is located. In other words, the interval between the data subcarrier and the pilot subcarrier in any 26-tone dRU is greater than or equal to 13. In other words, the number of dRU subcarriers within any 1 MHz where the data subcarrier of the 26-tone dRU is located is less than or equal to 2, and the number of dRU subcarriers within any 1 MHz where the pilot subcarrier of the 26-tone dRU is located is 1.

[0145] For any 52-tone DRU in Table 3 above, there are a maximum of 3 subcarriers within 1 MHz of each subcarrier location, and pilot subcarriers have no power increase compared to data subcarriers. For any 106-tone DRU in Table 4 above, there are a maximum of 6 subcarriers within 1 MHz of each subcarrier location. For any 242-tone DRU in Table 5 above, there are a maximum of 13 subcarriers within 1 MHz of each subcarrier location.

[0146] The “1 MHz where the subcarrier is located” mentioned in this application can be understood as “1 MHz including this subcarrier”.

[0147] To better illustrate the performance advantages of the dRU carrier planning (tone plan) under 20 MHz bandwidth provided by the embodiment of the present application, the power gain of the pilot subcarrier in the 26-tone dRU of the embodiment of the present application is illustrated below through a simulation diagram.

[0148] For example, it is assumed that the maximum power spectral density is 10dBm / MHz. Referring to Figure 8, Figure 8 is a simulation diagram of the subcarrier power allocation in the 26-tone dRU provided in an embodiment of the present application. The horizontal axis of Figure 8 represents the subcarrier index, and the vertical axis of Figure 8 represents the maximum available power of the subcarrier (in mW). As shown in Figure 8, taking the 26-tone dRU 1 in Table 2 above as an example, the transmit power (or maximum available power) of the data subcarrier in the 26-tone dRU 1 is 5mW, and the transmit power (or maximum available power) of the pilot subcarrier is 10mW. Because the transmit power of the pilot subcarrier in the 26-tone dRU 1 is twice the transmit power of the data subcarrier, the pilot subcarrier in the 26-tone dRU 1 can obtain a power gain of 3dB compared to the data subcarrier.

[0149] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the standard may adopt any one or other reasonable replacements for the dRU tone plan in the 20MHz bandwidth described above. It is understood that any dRU tone plan that meets the requirements of the embodiments of this application, "the number of data subcarriers of the 26-tonedRU within 1MHz is less than or equal to 2, and the number of subcarriers of the 26-tonedRU within 1MHz where the pilot subcarrier is located is 1" is within the scope of protection of this application, and is not limited to the dRU tone plan in the 20MHz bandwidth described above.

[0150] On the basis of the 20MHz dRU tone plan adopted by the above standard, the access point can schedule any one dRU in the 20MHz dRU tone plan adopted by the standard, or schedule multiple non-conflicting dRUs, and each dRU is assigned to a different one or more sites. The above-mentioned non-conflict means that there is no identical subcarrier, or no overlap. For example, a 106-tone dRU with an index of 2 is assigned to one or more sites, and a 52-tone dRU with an index of 1 is assigned to another one or more sites, and a 26-tone dRU with an index of 3 is assigned to another one or more sites, and a 26-tone dRU with an index of 4 is assigned to another one or more sites. Of course, the access point can also use any one dRU in the 20MHz dRU tone plan adopted by the standard, or multiple non-conflicting dRUs.

[0151] The above content details the carrier planning (tone plan) of the dRU under 20MHz bandwidth provided by the embodiment of the present application, which can be applied to uplink and / or downlink transmission. The following describes the process of the communication method provided by the present application in conjunction with the carrier planning of the dRU under 20MHz bandwidth.

[0152] The communication device in this application may support 802.11 family protocols, such as 802.11bn or the next generation of 802.11bn. Of course, the communication device in this application may also support multiple WLAN standards in the 802.11 family, such as 802.11be, 802.11bf, 802.11ax, 802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, and 802.11a. The communication device in this application may also support other standard protocols, such as sensing or ranging standards, which are not listed here.

[0153] In one possible implementation, the first communication device in this application may be the AP or STA in Figure 1, and the corresponding second communication device may be the STA or AP in Figure 1. Of course, the first communication device in this application may also be an AP MLD or a non-AP MLD, and correspondingly, the second communication device in this application may be a non-AP MLD or an AP MLD, and this application does not impose any restrictions.

[0154] Refer to Figure 9, which is a flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 9, the communication method includes but is not limited to the following steps:

[0155] S101: A first communication device generates a PPDU according to a carrier planning of a dRU. The carrier planning of the dRU includes: the number of data subcarriers of a 26-tone dRU within any 1 MHz is less than or equal to 2, and the number of subcarriers of a 26-tone dRU within any 1 MHz where a pilot subcarrier is located is 1.

[0156] S102: The first communication device sends the PPDU.

[0157] S103: The second communication device receives the PPDU according to the carrier planning of the dRU.

[0158] S104: The second communication device processes the PPDU.

[0159] In one possible implementation, the first communication device may be an AP or an AP MLD, and the second communication device may be a STA or a non-AP MLD. The first communication device may generate a PPDU based on the aforementioned carrier planning (dRU tone plan) of the dRU under the 20 MHz bandwidth and send the PPDU. It is understandable that the first communication device (AP or AP MLD) may carry information about the dRU it uses (e.g., size and / or location) in the signaling (SIG) field of the PPDU. The dRU may be one or more of the carrier planning (dRU tone plan) of the dRU under the 20 MHz bandwidth. For example, the dRU may be one or more of the dRUs in Tables 2 to 5 above. Therefore, after the second communication device (STA or non-AP MLD) receives (or parses) the SIG field of the PPDU, it may receive other parts of the PPDU (e.g., data) on the dRU.

[0160] In another possible implementation, the first communication device may be a STA or a non-AP MLD, and the second communication device may be an AP or an AP MLD. The second communication device sends a frame for triggering, and the frame for triggering includes dRU indication information, and the dRU indication information is used to indicate the dRU assigned to the first communication device. The dRU assigned to the first communication device is one or more of the carrier planning (dRU tone plan) of the dRU under the aforementioned 20MHz bandwidth. Exemplarily, the dRU assigned to the first communication device may be one or more dRUs in Tables 2 to 5 above. After receiving the frame for triggering, the first communication device can determine its own assigned dRU based on the dRU indication information in the frame for triggering, and can generate and send a PPDU based on the dRU and the carrier planning of the above dRU. The second communication device can receive and process the PPDU from the first communication device based on the dRU assigned to the first communication device and the carrier planning of the above dRU.

[0161] In one possible implementation, the first communication device sending the PPDU includes: the first communication device sending the PPDU data information on the data subcarrier of the dRU, and may send the pilot information of the PPDU on the pilot subcarrier of the dRU. The specific subcarriers included in the dRU may be determined by the carrier planning (tone plan) of the dRU under the aforementioned 20MHz bandwidth. For the carrier planning of the dRU under the 20MHz bandwidth, please refer to the description above and will not be repeated here.

[0162] Exemplarily, taking the dRU transmission based on binary convolutional code (BCC) encoding as an example, the process of the first communication device sending the PPDU can be shown in Figure 10. Figure 10 is a block diagram of the dRU transmission based on BCC encoding provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 10, after the first communication device performs BCC interleaving on the signal, it can perform constellation mapping. During the constellation mapping process, the frequency domain sequence of the signal can be mapped to multiple subcarriers of the dRU, and then undergo subsequent processing (for example: performing cyclic shift diversity (CSD) on each stream, space and frequency mapping, inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT), inserting guard interval (GI) and window, etc.), and finally sending it out through analog and RF operations.

[0163] As another example, taking the dRU uplink transmission based on low-density parity check code (LDPC) encoding as an example, the process of the first communication device sending PPDU can be shown in Figure 11. Figure 11 is a block diagram of the dRU transmission based on LDPC encoding provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 11, after the first communication device performs a stream parsing operation on the signal, constellation mapping is performed for each stream. During the constellation mapping process, the frequency domain sequence of the signal can be mapped to multiple subcarriers of the dRU, and then undergoes subsequent processing (for example: LDPC subcarrier mapping, cyclic shift diversity (CSD), space and frequency mapping, inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT), insertion of guard interval (GI) and window, etc.) for each stream after constellation mapping, and finally sends it out through analog and RF operations.

[0164] The block diagrams shown in Figures 10 and 11 above can be understood as the process of generating and sending a PPDU. It is understood that the process of generating and sending a PPDU can also refer to existing technologies (such as the existing 802.11be standard), and only a brief description is given here.

[0165] In one possible implementation, the triggering frame may adopt various possible frame formats. It may be a type of control frame in a standard MAC frame, referred to as a trigger frame; or it may be another MAC frame with a triggering function, which is not limited in the present embodiment. Another MAC frame with a triggering function may also be referred to as a MAC frame with a TRS (triggered response scheduling) function, which is generally implemented by including a TRS Control subfield in the MAC frame. Exemplarily, the dRU indication information may be carried in the RU / dRU allocation field of the user info field in the trigger frame, or in the RU / dRU allocation field of the TRS Control subfield in another MAC frame. Furthermore, exemplarily, a new field (such as a dRU allocation field) may be added to the user info field of the trigger frame to carry the dRU indication information. Similarly, a new field (such as a dRU allocation field) may be added to the TRS Control subfield of another MAC frame to carry the dRU indication information. At this time, a user info field may include both the RUallocation field and the dRUallocation field, so more information may be needed to indicate whether the RUallocation field or the dRUallocation field in the user info field is enabled.

[0166] It can be understood that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the structure of the above-mentioned frame for triggering, nor does it limit the carrying method of the above-mentioned dRU indication information in the above-mentioned frame for triggering and the corresponding frame format.

[0167] In one possible implementation, the above-mentioned dRU indication information can be used to indicate the dRU to which the first communication device (such as STA) is assigned. The dRU can be determined by size and position. The size of the dRU can refer to the number of subcarriers in the dRU, and the position of the dRU can refer to the position of the subcarriers in the dRU in the frequency domain. Generally, the subcarrier index range can be used to represent the position of the subcarriers in the dRU in the frequency domain. In an embodiment of the present application, the size and position of the dRU conform to the size and position defined in the dRU tone plan under the aforementioned 20MHz bandwidth. Exemplarily, the dRU indicated by the above-mentioned dRU indication information can be one or more dRUs in Tables 2 to 5 above.

[0168] In one possible implementation, the first communication device (or station STA) of the embodiment of the present application may be one or more, and the second communication device (such as AP) may allocate a corresponding dRU to each of the one or more first communication devices (such as STA). For example, the second communication device (such as AP) may determine the dRU allocated to one or more first communication devices (such as STA) based on the carrier planning (dRU tone plan) of the dRU under the aforementioned 20MHz bandwidth. The specific determination method may be an internal policy of the second communication device (such as AP), which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application. The second communication device (such as AP) sends a trigger frame to trigger uplink multi-user transmission. The trigger frame includes one or more dRU indication information. One dRU indication information is used to indicate the dRU allocated to a first communication device (such as STA). The dRUs allocated to different first communication devices (such as STA) may be different and non-conflicting. Accordingly, each first communication device (such as STA) scheduled by the second communication device (such as AP) for uplink multi-user transmission receives the trigger frame. For the convenience of description, this application takes a first communication device (such as STA) as an example for explanation. The first communication device (e.g., STA) determines its assigned DRU based on the DRU indication information in the trigger frame and may use the assigned DRU to send a PPDU (e.g., a TB PPDU). The transmission bandwidth used by the first communication device (e.g., STA) for DRU transmission is 20 MHz. The transmission bandwidth here can also be understood as the channel bandwidth or operating bandwidth for uplink transmission of the first communication device (e.g., STA).

[0169] It can be understood that because the second communication device (such as AP) can simultaneously schedule multiple first communication devices (such as STA) for uplink transmission, the second communication device (such as AP) can determine which subcarriers the data on belong to the same first communication device (such as STA) based on the dRU allocated to each first communication device (such as STA) and the carrier planning of the dRU under 20MHz bandwidth, so that the second communication device (such as AP) can distinguish uplink data from different first communication devices (such as STA).

[0170] The first communication device of the embodiment of the present application adopts the dRU defined in the dRU tone plan under the aforementioned 20MHz bandwidth for transmission. Compared with the transmission mode using continuous RU, the transmission power can be increased under the condition that the power spectrum density requirements are met. And when the data subcarrier of the 20MHz bandwidth reaches the dRU power increase upper limit, the available power of the pilot subcarrier in the 26-tone dRU within the 20MHz bandwidth can be increased, so that the pilot subcarrier can obtain a 3dB gain improvement compared to the data subcarrier. In addition, because the pilot subcarriers of the dRU in the embodiment of the present application are dispersed over the entire bandwidth, the impact of channel deep fading on pilot transmission can be reduced, such as reducing the possibility of channel deep fading destroying all pilot transmissions.

[0171] The above content elaborates on the method provided by the present application. In order to facilitate the implementation of the above scheme of the embodiment of the present application, the embodiment of the present application also provides corresponding devices or equipment.

[0172] The present application divides the functional modules of the communication device according to the above-mentioned method embodiment. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above-mentioned integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in this application is schematic and is only a logical functional division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation. The communication device of the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to Figures 12 to 14.

[0173] Referring to Figure 12 , Figure 12 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 12 , the communication device includes a transceiver unit 10 and a processing unit 20. The transceiver unit 10 can implement corresponding communication functions, and the processing unit 20 is used for data processing. For example, the transceiver unit 10 can also be referred to as a communication interface or a communication unit.

[0174] In some embodiments of the present application, the communication device may be the first communication device shown above. That is, the communication device shown in FIG12 may be used to execute the steps or functions performed by the first communication device in the above method embodiment. For example, the communication device may be the first communication device or a chip or functional module configured in the first communication device, etc., which is not limited in the present embodiment. The transceiver unit 10 is used to execute the transceiver-related operations of the first communication device in the above method embodiment, and the processing unit 20 is used to execute the processing-related operations of the first communication device in the above method embodiment.

[0175] The processing unit 20 is used to generate a PPDU according to the carrier planning of the dRU; the transceiver unit 10 is used to send the PPDU.

[0176] It is understandable that the transceiver unit 10 can transmit the PPDU to other communication devices, or the transceiver unit 10 can output the PPDU from the processing unit 20 to other components or other functional modules in the communication device. The relevant description of the transceiver unit outputting other information is similar and will not be detailed below.

[0177] In the embodiments of the present application, for descriptions of the carrier planning and PPDU of the dRU, etc., please refer to the introduction in the above method embodiments, and will not be described in detail here.

[0178] It is understood that the specific descriptions of the transceiver unit and the processing unit shown in the embodiments of the present application are merely examples. For the specific functions or execution steps of the transceiver unit and the processing unit, reference can be made to the above-mentioned method embodiments, which will not be described in detail here. In addition, the technical effects of the embodiments of the present application refer to the technical effects of the above-mentioned method embodiments, and for the sake of brevity, they will not be repeated here.

[0179] Reusing Figure 12, in some other embodiments of the present application, the communication device may be the second communication device shown above. That is, the communication device shown in Figure 12 can be used to execute the steps or functions performed by the second communication device in the above method embodiment. Exemplarily, the communication device may be a second communication device or a chip or functional module configured in the second communication device, etc., which is not limited in the present embodiment. The transceiver unit 10 is used to execute the transceiver-related operations of the second communication device in the above method embodiment, and the processing unit 20 is used to execute the processing-related operations of the second communication device in the above method embodiment.

[0180] The transceiver unit 10 is used to receive the PPDU according to the carrier planning of the dRU; and the processing unit 20 is used to process the PPDU.

[0181] It is understandable that the transceiver unit 10 may receive the PPDU from other communication devices, or the transceiver unit 10 may input the PPDU from other components or other functional modules in the communication device, etc. The description of other information input by the transceiver unit is similar and will not be described in detail below.

[0182] In the embodiments of the present application, for descriptions of the carrier planning and PPDU of the dRU, etc., please refer to the introduction in the above method embodiments, and will not be described in detail here.

[0183] It is understood that the specific descriptions of the transceiver unit and the processing unit shown in the embodiments of the present application are merely examples. For the specific functions or execution steps of the transceiver unit and the processing unit, reference can be made to the above-mentioned method embodiments, which will not be described in detail here. In addition, the technical effects of the embodiments of the present application refer to the technical effects of the above-mentioned method embodiments, and for the sake of brevity, they will not be repeated here.

[0184] The above describes the communication device according to the embodiment of the present application. The following describes possible product forms of the communication device. It should be understood that any product having the functions of the communication device described in FIG. 12 falls within the scope of protection of the embodiment of the present application. It should also be understood that the following description is merely illustrative and does not limit the product forms of the communication device according to the embodiment of the present application to these examples.

[0185] In one possible implementation, in the communication device shown in FIG12 , the processing unit 20 may be one or more processors, the transceiver unit 10 may be a transceiver, or the transceiver unit 10 may be a transmitting unit and a receiving unit, the transmitting unit may be a transmitter, the receiving unit may be a receiver, and the transmitting unit and the receiving unit are integrated into one device, such as a transceiver. In the embodiment of the present application, the processor and the transceiver may be coupled, etc., and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the connection method between the processor and the transceiver. During the execution of the above method, the process of sending information (such as sending a PPDU) in the above method can be understood as the process of the processor outputting the above information. When outputting the above information, the processor outputs the above information to the transceiver so that the transceiver can transmit it. After being output by the processor, the above information may also need to undergo other processing before reaching the transceiver. Similarly, the process of receiving information (such as receiving a PPDU) in the above method can be understood as the process of the processor receiving the input information. When the processor receives the input information, the transceiver receives the above information and inputs it into the processor. Furthermore, after the transceiver receives the above information, the above information may need to be processed further before being input into the processor.

[0186] Referring to Figure 13, Figure 13 is another schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device can be a first communication device or a second communication device, or a chip therein. Figure 13 only shows the main components of the communication device. In addition to the processor 1001, the communication device may further include a transceiver 1002 and a memory 1003, as well as input and output devices (not shown).

[0187] Processor 1001 is primarily used to process communication protocols and communication data, control the entire communication device, execute software programs, and process software program data. Memory 1003 is primarily used to store software programs and data. Transceiver 1002 may include control circuitry and an antenna. The control circuitry is primarily used to convert baseband signals into radio frequency signals and process radio frequency signals. The antenna is primarily used to transmit and receive radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input / output devices, such as a touch screen, display, and keyboard, are primarily used to receive user input and output data to the user.

[0188] When the communication device is powered on, the processor 1001 can read the software program in the memory 1003, interpret and execute the instructions of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor 1001 performs baseband processing on the data to be sent and outputs the baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit. The radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then transmits the radio frequency signal to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the communication device, the radio frequency circuit receives the radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor 1001. The processor 1001 converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

[0189] In another implementation, the RF circuit and antenna may be provided independently of the processor performing baseband processing. For example, in a distributed scenario, the RF circuit and antenna may be remotely arranged independent of the communication device.

[0190] The processor 1001 , the transceiver 1002 , and the memory 1003 may be connected via a communication bus.

[0191] Exemplarily, when the communication device is used to execute the steps, methods, or functions performed by the first communication device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 9 above, the processor 1001 can be used to execute step S101 in Figure 9, and / or to execute other processes of the technology described herein; the transceiver 1002 can be used to execute step S102 in Figure 9, and / or to execute other processes of the technology described herein.

[0192] Exemplarily, when the communication device is used to execute the steps, methods, or functions performed by the second communication device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 9 above, the processor 1001 can be used to execute step S104 in Figure 9, and / or to execute other processes of the technology described herein; the transceiver 1002 can be used to execute step S103 in Figure 9, and / or to execute other processes of the technology described herein.

[0193] In any of the above designs, processor 1001 may include a transceiver for implementing receiving and transmitting functions. For example, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit, an interface, or an interface circuit. The transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit for implementing the receiving and transmitting functions may be separate or integrated. The transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit may be used for reading and writing code / data, or the transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit may be used for transmitting or delivering signals.

[0194] In any of the above designs, processor 1001 may store instructions, which may be computer programs. The computer programs, when executed on processor 1001, may cause the communication device to perform the methods described in the above method embodiments. The computer programs may be embedded in processor 1001, in which case processor 1001 may be implemented by hardware.

[0195] In one implementation, the communication device may include a circuit that can implement the functions of sending, receiving, or communicating in the aforementioned method embodiment. The processor and transceiver described in this application can be implemented in an integrated circuit (IC), an analog IC, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), a mixed signal IC, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a printed circuit board (PCB), an electronic device, etc. The processor and transceiver can also be manufactured using various IC process technologies, such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), N-type metal oxide semiconductor (nMetal-oxide-semiconductor, NMOS), P-channel metal oxide semiconductor (positive channel metal oxide semiconductor, PMOS), bipolar junction transistor (bipolar junction transistor, BJT), bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS), silicon germanium (SiGe), gallium arsenide (GaAs), etc.

[0196] It is understood that the communication device shown in the embodiment of the present application may also have more components than those in Figure 13, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited to this. The method performed by the processor and transceiver shown above is only an example. For the specific steps performed by the processor and transceiver, please refer to the introduction of the method embodiment above.

[0197] In another possible implementation, in the communication device shown in Figure 12, the processing unit 20 can be one or more logic circuits, and the transceiver unit 10 can be an input / output interface, or a communication interface, or an interface circuit, or an interface, etc. Or the transceiver unit 10 can also be a sending unit and a receiving unit, the sending unit can be an output interface, the receiving unit can be an input interface, and the sending unit and the receiving unit are integrated into one unit, such as an input / output interface. Referring to Figure 14, Figure 14 is another structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 14, the communication device shown in Figure 14 includes a logic circuit 901 and an interface 902. That is, the above-mentioned processing unit 20 can be implemented with a logic circuit 901, and the transceiver unit 10 can be implemented with an interface 902. Among them, the logic circuit 901 can be a chip, a processing circuit, an integrated circuit or a system on chip (SoC) chip, etc., and the interface 902 can be a communication interface, an input / output interface, a pin, etc. Exemplarily, Figure 14 is shown as an example of the above-mentioned communication device being a chip, and the chip includes a logic circuit 901 and an interface 902.

[0198] In the embodiment of the present application, the logic circuit and the interface may also be coupled to each other. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific connection method between the logic circuit and the interface.

[0199] Exemplarily, when the communication device is used to execute the method, function, or step executed by the first communication device in the aforementioned method embodiment, the logic circuit 901 is used to generate a PPDU according to the carrier planning of the dRU; and the interface 902 is used to output the PPDU.

[0200] Exemplarily, when the communication device is used to execute the method, function, or step executed by the second communication device in the aforementioned method embodiment, the interface 902 is used to input the PPDU according to the carrier planning of the dRU; and the logic circuit 901 is used to process the PPDU.

[0201] In the embodiment of the present application, the specific description of the carrier planning, PPDU, etc. of dRU can refer to the method embodiment shown in Figure 9 above, and will not be described in detail here.

[0202] It can be understood that the communication device shown in the embodiment of the present application can implement the method provided in the embodiment of the present application in the form of hardware, or can implement the method provided in the embodiment of the present application in the form of software, etc., and the embodiment of the present application is not limited to this.

[0203] For the specific implementation of the embodiment shown in FIG14 , reference may also be made to the above embodiments, which will not be described in detail here.

[0204] An embodiment of the present application further provides a wireless communication system, which includes a first communication device and a second communication device. The first communication device and the second communication device can be used to execute the method in the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0205] In addition, the present application also provides a computer program, which is used to implement the operations and / or processing performed by the first communication device in the method provided by the present application.

[0206] The present application also provides a computer program, which is used to implement the operations and / or processing performed by the second communication device in the method provided by the present application.

[0207] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores computer code. When the computer code runs on a computer, the computer executes the operations and / or processing performed by the first communication device in the method provided by the present application.

[0208] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium having computer code stored therein. When the computer code is run on a computer, the computer executes the operations and / or processing performed by the second communication device in the method provided in the present application.

[0209] The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes computer code or computer program. When the computer code or computer program is run on a computer, the operations and / or processing performed by the first communication device in the method provided by the present application are executed.

[0210] The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes computer code or computer program. When the computer code or computer program is run on a computer, the operations and / or processing performed by the second communication device in the method provided by the present application are executed.

[0211] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the units is only 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 system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. In addition, the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, or can be electrical, mechanical or other forms of connection.

[0212] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the technical effects of the solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application.

[0213] 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.

[0214] 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 computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application is essentially 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, and the computer software product is stored in a readable storage medium, including a number of instructions for enabling a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present application. The aforementioned readable storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk or optical disk, and other media that can store program code.

[0215] The above description is merely a specific embodiment of the present application, but the scope of protection of the present application is not limited thereto. Any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by a person skilled in the art 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 communication method, characterized in that, Comprising: Transmitting a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) according to the carrier plan of a distributed resource unit (dRU), wherein the carrier plan of the dRU includes: the number of data subcarriers of 26-tone dRU within 1 MHz is less than or equal to 2, and the number of subcarriers of 26-tone dRU within 1 MHz at the position where the pilot subcarriers are located is 1.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The carrier plan of the dRU includes 9 26-tone dRUs; each 26-tone dRU includes 26 subcarriers, among which there are 24 data subcarriers and 2 pilot subcarriers.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein The carrier plan of the dRU includes one or more 26-tone dRUs in Table 2.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that The carrier plan of the dRU further includes 4 52-tone dRUs; each 52-tone dRU includes 52 subcarriers, among which there are 48 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein The carrier plan of the dRU further includes one or more of the following: The 52-tone dRU with index 1 includes 26-tone dRUs with indices 1 and 2; The 52-tone dRU with index 2 includes 26-tone dRUs with indices 3 and 4; The 52-tone dRU with index 3 includes 26-tone dRUs with indices 6 and 7; The 52-tone dRU with index 4 includes 26-tone dRUs with indices 8 and 9.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, The carrier plan of the dRU further includes 2 106-tone dRUs; each 106-tone dRU includes 106 subcarriers, among which there are 102 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein The carrier plan of the dRU further includes one or more of the following: The 106-tone dRU with index 1 includes 26-tone dRUs with indices 1, 2, 3, 4, and subcarriers with subcarrier indices {-122, 122}; The 106-tone dRU with index 2 includes 26-tone dRUs with indices 6, 7, 8, 9, and subcarriers with subcarrier indices {-4, 4}.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that The carrier plan of the dRU further includes 1 242-tone dRU; the 242-tone dRU includes 242 subcarriers, among which there are 234 data subcarriers and 8 pilot subcarriers; the subcarrier indices of the 242-tone dRU are from -122 to -2 and from 2 to 122.

9. A communication device, characterized in that, Including units or modules for performing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. A communication device, characterized in that, Including a processor and an interface circuit, the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices, and the processor is used to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 through logic circuits or by executing code instructions.

11. A readable storage medium, characterized in that, For storing a program, the program is executed by one or more processors, so that a device including the one or more processors executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

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