Systems and methods for WLAN sensing carried out by a networking device

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for WLAN sensing carried out by a networking device. Methods are provided for WLAN sensing. The method may be carried out by a networking device including a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna, and at least one processor configured to execute instructions. The method includes identifying a plurality of networking devices operating within a sensing space and identifying a maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices. The method further includes causing configuration of a plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the maximum set of unique sensing links and obtaining a plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. Further, the method includes identifying a reduced set of sensing links based on the plurality of sensing measurements.

Description

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR WLAN SENSING CARRIED OUT BY A NETWORKING DEVICETECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for wireless local area network (WLAN) sensing. In particular, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for WLAN sensing carried out by a networking device.BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

[0002] A WLAN sensing system (also referred to as a Wi-Fi sensing system) may be configured to detect features of interest or motion in a sensing space, which is known as a sensing goal. Further, the WLAN sensing system may be a network of Wi-Fi-enabled devices which are part of an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 network (sometimes referred to as a Basic Service Set (BSS), or Extended Service Set (ESS)). Motion is determined in the sensing space by a sensing algorithm / technique on a device detecting perturbation in the local environment based on analysis of sensing measurements (channel state information) over time. Further, a sensing transmission is sent from a sensing transmitter. Furthermore, a sensing receiver performs a sensing measurement at the Physical (PHY) / Media Access Control layer (MAC) layer and passes this up to a sensing agent or sensing algorithm at a higher layer to detect motion.

[0003] Further, a basic service set (BSS) is set of an Access Point Station (AP STA) and non- AP STAs associated together at the PHY / MAC layer to form a wireless network. The BSS comprises of a single device acting as an access point (AP or AP STA) and one or more devices connected to and controlled by the AP (non-AP STA, or simply STA where the access point is AP). A BSS is identified in IEEE 802.11 by a BSS identifier (BSSID).BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

[0004] The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for WLAN sensing. In particular, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for WLAN sensing carried out by a networking device.

[0005] Methods are provided for WLAN sensing. In an example embodiment, a method for WLAN sensing is described. The method may be carried out by a networking device including a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna, and at least one processor configured to execute instructions. The method includes identifying a plurality of networking devices operating withina sensing space. The plurality of networking devices includes the networking device and additional networking devices within a basic service set that support WLAN sensing. In example, the networking device is not an access point of the basic service set. Further, the method includes identifying a maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices. The method includes causing configuration of a plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the maximum set of unique sensing links. Further, the method includes obtaining a plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. The method further includes identifying a reduced set of sensing links based on the plurality of sensing measurements.

[0006] In some embodiments, the method includes causing the configuration of a reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the reduced set of sensing links.

[0007] In some embodiments, the method includes obtaining a second plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. Further, the method includes identifying a second reduced set of sensing links based on the second plurality of sensing measurements.

[0008] In some embodiments, identifying the plurality of networking devices includes requesting sensing capability information from an access point.

[0009] In some embodiments, the maximum set of sensing links includes sensing links between every networking device and every other networking device of the plurality of networking devices.

[0010] In some embodiments, the plurality of networking devices are part of a basic service set, and an access point of the basic service set is not included in the maximum set of unique sensing links.

[0011] In some embodiments, the plurality of networking devices are part of a basic service set, and an access point of the basic service set is included in the maximum set of unique sensing links.

[0012] In some embodiments, the plurality of sensing measurement sessions includes a first sensing measurement session characterized by the networking device acting as a sensing transmitter or sensing receiver. The plurality of sensing measurement sessions also includes a second sensing measurement session characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the additional networking devices.

[0013] In some embodiments, the method includes causing the configuration of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions includes the networking device requesting the access point to configure the plurality of sensing measurement sessions via sensing by proxy messages.

[0014] In some embodiments, the plurality of sensing measurement sessions is characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the plurality of networking devices.

[0015] In some embodiments, obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes requesting the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing reporting trigger frame and receiving the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing measurement report frame.

[0016] In some embodiments, obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes receiving a sensing by proxy report frame from the access point.

[0017] In some embodiments, identifying the reduced set of sensing links includes identifying selected sensing links according to presence or motion on the selected sensing links exceeding thresholds during the plurality of sensing measurement sessions.

[0018] In some embodiments, a first number of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions are less than a second number of the maximum set of unique sensing links.

[0019] In some embodiments, identifying a maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices includes identifying first unique sensing links associated with a first networking device of the plurality of networking devices. Further, the method includes identifying additional unique sensing links associated with an additional networking device of the plurality of networking devices and that have not been previously identified. The method also includes repeating step b until the maximum set of unique sensing links is identified.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example wireless communication system.

[0021] FIG. 2 A and FIG. 2B are diagrams showing example wireless signals communicated between wireless communication devices.

[0022] FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B are plots showing examples of channel responses computed from the wireless signals communicated between wireless communication devices in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B.

[0023] FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B are diagrams showing example channel responses associated with motion of an object in distinct regions of a space.

[0024] FIG. 4C and FIG. 4D are plots showing the example channel responses of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B overlaid on an example channel response associated with no motion occurring in the space.

[0025] FIG. 5 depicts an implementation of some of an architecture of a system for WLAN sensing, according to some embodiments.

[0026] FIG. 6 depicts an example of a WLAN sensing procedure, according to some embodiments.

[0027] FIG. 7A depicts an example of a Sensing Measurement Setup Request frame Action field format, according to some embodiments.

[0028] FIG. 7B illustrates an example of a Sensing Measurement Parameters element, according to some embodiments.

[0029] FIG. 7C illustrates an example of a format of a Sensing Measurement Parameters field, according to some embodiments.

[0030] FIG. 7D depicts an example of a Sensing Measurement Setup Response frame Action field format, according to some embodiments.

[0031] FIG. 8 A depicts one-to-many and many-to-one aspects of an example of a WLAN sensing procedure, according to some embodiments.

[0032] FIG. 8B depicts pairwise aspects of an example of a WLAN sensing procedure, according to some embodiments.

[0033] FIG. 9A and FIG. 9B depict an example of message flows of a trigger-based (TB) sensing measurement exchange of a WLAN sensing procedure that consists of a sensing measurement setup phase, a Null Data PHY-layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) Announcement (NDPA) sounding and reporting phase, a trigger frame (TF) sounding phase, and a sensing measurement setup termination phase, according to some embodiments.

[0034] FIG. 10A depicts an example of phases of a TB sensing measurement exchange, according to some embodiments.

[0035] FIG. 10B indicates valid combinations of phases of a TB sensing measurement exchange, according to some embodiments.

[0036] FIG. 11 depicts an example of a TB sensing measurement exchange including a polling phase, an NDPA sounding phase, a TF sounding phase, and a reporting phase, according to some embodiments.

[0037] FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B depict a message flow of a non-TB sensing measurement exchange of a WLAN sensing procedure that consists of a sensing measurement setup phase, an NDPA sounding phase with sensing initiator to sensing responder (SI2SR) sounding and reporting, an NDPA sounding phase with sensing responder to sensing initiator (SR2SI) sounding, an NDPA sounding phase with both SI2SR sounding and reporting and SR2SI sounding, and a sensing measurement setup termination phase, according to some embodiments.

[0038] FIG. 13 depicts an example of a single non-TB sensing measurement exchange consisting of a measurement sounding phase and a reporting phase, according to some embodiments.

[0039] FIG. 14A and FIG. 14B depict an example of an Action field format of a Sensing Measurement Report frame Action field and a Sensing Measurement Report Container field format, according to some embodiments.

[0040] FIG. 15 A to FIG. 151 depict a hierarchy of fields within a Sensing Trigger frame, according to some embodiments.

[0041] FIG. 16 depicts an exemplary WLAN network in the form of a Basic Service Set (BSS) including a plurality of networking devices and an Access Point device, according to some embodiments.

[0042] FIG. 17 depicts an exemplary WLAN network in the form of a BSS including a plurality of networking devices and an AP device supporting WLAN sensing, according to some embodiments.

[0043] FIG. 18A depicts an example of a Sensing by Proxy (SBP) request frame action field format, according to some embodiments.

[0044] FIG. 18B depicts an example of an enhanced SBP parameters element format, according to some embodiments.

[0045] FIG. 18C depicts an example of an SBP parameters Control field format for a SBP responder query, according to some embodiments.

[0046] FIG. 18D depicts an example of a modified SBP Response frame format for a SBP Response, according to some embodiments.

[0047] FIG. 18E depicts an example of a SBP Parameters element format, according to some embodiments.

[0048] FIG. 18F depicts an example of a SBP Parameters Control field format for an SBP Responder Query, according to some embodiments.

[0049] FIG. 19 depicts an exemplary WLAN network showing a plurality of networking devices and sensing links established between the plurality of networking devices, according to some embodiments.

[0050] FIG. 20A depicts an example of a SBP Parameters Control field format, according to some embodiments.

[0051] FIG. 20B depicts an example of a Sensing Responder Role Bitmap field format, according to some embodiments.

[0052] FIG. 21 depicts an example of SBP Response frame format, according to some embodiments.

[0053] FIG. 22 depicts an exemplary WLAN network showing a plurality of networking devices and sensing links established between a networking device and other networking devices, according to some embodiments.

[0054] FIG. 23 depicts an exemplary WLAN network showing a plurality of networking devices and sensing measurement sessions established for first client device and second client device, according to some embodiments.

[0055] FIG. 24 depicts an exemplary WLAN network showing example of a reduced set of sensing links for the goal of proximity detection, according to some embodiments.

[0056] FIG. 25 is an exemplary schematic illustration of Multi-AP devices.

[0057] FIG. 26 depicts an exemplary WLAN network in the form of a BSS including a plurality of networking devices and an AP STA not supporting WLAN sensing, according to some embodiments.

[0058] FIG. 27A depicts an example of a transmitter user information field for a Sensing responder-to-Sensing Responder (SR2SR) sounding trigger frame, according to some embodiments.

[0059] FIG. 27B depicts an example of a receiver user information field for a SR2SR sounding trigger frame, according to some embodiments.

[0060] FIG. 28 depicts an exemplary flowchart for WLAN sensing carried out by a networking device, according to some embodiments.

[0061] FIG. 29 depicts an exemplary flowchart for WLAN sensing carried out by the networking device, according to some other embodiments.

[0062] FIG. 30 depicts an exemplary flowchart for identifying a maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices, according to some embodiments.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0063] Wireless sensing enables a device to obtain sensing measurements of transmission channel(s) between two or more devices. With the execution of a wireless sensing procedure, it is possible for a device to obtain sensing measurements useful for detecting and tracking changes in the environment. In some aspects of what is described herein, a wireless sensing system may be used for a variety of wireless sensing applications by processing wireless signals (e.g., radio frequency (RF) signals) transmitted through a space between wireless communication devices. Example wireless sensing applications include motion detection, which can include the following: detecting motion of objects in the space, motion tracking, breathing detection, breathing monitoring, presence detection, gesture detection, gesture recognition, human detection (movingand stationary human detection), human tracking, fall detection, speed estimation, intrusion detection, walking detection, step counting, respiration rate detection, apnea estimation, posture change detection, activity recognition, gait rate classification, gesture decoding, sign language recognition, hand tracking, heart rate estimation, breathing rate estimation, room occupancy detection, human dynamics monitoring, and other types of motion detection applications. Other examples of wireless sensing applications include object recognition, speaking recognition, keystroke detection and recognition, tamper detection, touch detection, attack detection, user authentication, driver fatigue detection, traffic monitoring, smoking detection, school violence detection, human counting, human recognition, bike localization, human queue estimation, Wi-Fi imaging, and other types of wireless sensing applications. For instance, the wireless sensing system may operate as a motion detection system to detect the existence and location of motion based on Wi-Fi signals or other types of wireless signals. As described in more detail below, a wireless sensing system may be configured to control measurement rates, wireless connections, and device participation, for example, to improve system operation or to achieve other technical advantages. The system improvements and technical advantages achieved when the wireless sensing system is used for motion detection are also achieved in examples where the wireless sensing system is used for another type of wireless sensing application.

[0064] In some example wireless sensing systems, a wireless signal includes a component (e.g., a synchronization preamble in a Wi-Fi PHY frame, or another type of component) that wireless devices can use to estimate a channel response or other channel information, and the wireless sensing system can detect motion (or another characteristic depending on the wireless sensing application) by analyzing changes in the channel information collected over time. In some examples, a wireless sensing system can operate similarly to a bistatic radar system, where a WiFi access point (AP) assumes the receiver role, and each Wi-Fi device (station (STA), node, or peer) connected to the AP assumes the transmitter role. The wireless sensing system may trigger a connected device to generate a transmission and produce a channel response measurement at a receiver device. This triggering process can be repeated periodically to obtain a sequence of time variant measurements. A wireless sensing algorithm or a wireless sensing application may then receive the generated time-series of channel response measurements (e.g., computed by Wi-Fi receivers) as input, and through a correlation or filtering process, may then make a determination (e.g., determine if there is motion or no motion within the environment represented by the channel response, for example, based on changes or patterns in the channel estimations). In examples where the wireless sensing system detects motion, it may also be possible to identify a location of the motion within the environment based on motion detection results among a number of wireless devices.

[0065] Accordingly, wireless signals received at each of the wireless communication devices in a wireless communication network may be analyzed to determine channel information for the various communication links (between respective pairs of wireless communication devices) in the network. The channel information may be representative of a physical medium that applies a transfer function to wireless signals that traverse a space. In some instances, the channel information includes a channel response. Channel responses can characterize a physical communication path, representing the combined effect of, for example, scattering, fading, and power decay within the space between the transmitter and receiver. In some instances, the channel information includes beamforming state information (e.g., a feedback matrix, a steering matrix, channel state information, etc.) provided by a beamforming system. Beamforming is a signal processing technique often used in multi antenna (multiple-input / multiple-output (MIMO)) radio systems for directional signal transmission or reception. Beamforming can be achieved by operating elements in an antenna array in such a way that signals at some angles experience constructive interference while others experience destructive interference.

[0066] The channel information for each of the communication links may be analyzed (e.g., by a hub device or other device in a wireless communication network, or a sensing transmitter, sensing receiver, or sensing initiator communicably coupled to the network) to, for example, detect whether motion has occurred in the space, to determine a relative location of the detected motion, or both. In some aspects, the channel information for each of the communication links may be analyzed to detect whether an object is present or absent, e.g., when no motion is detected in the space.

[0067] In some cases, a wireless sensing system can control a node measurement rate. For instance, a Wi-Fi motion system may configure variable measurement rates (e.g., channel estimation / environment measurement / sampling rates) based on criteria given by a current wireless sensing application (e.g., motion detection). In some implementations, when no motion is present or detected for a period of time, for example, the wireless sensing system can reduce the rate at which the environment is measured, such that the connected device will be triggered or caused to make sensing transmissions or sensing measurements less frequently. In some implementations, when motion is present, for example, the wireless sensing system can increase the triggering rate or sensing transmissions rate or sensing measurement rate to produce a time-series of measurements with finer time resolution. Controlling a variable sensing measurement rate can allow energy conservation (through the device triggering), reduce processing (less data to correlate or filter), and improve resolution during specified times.

[0068] In some cases, a wireless sensing system can perform band steering or client steering of nodes throughout a wireless network, for example, in a Wi-Fi multi-AP or extended service set(ESS) topology, multiple coordinating wireless APs each provide a basic service set (BSS) which may occupy different frequency bands and allow devices to transparently move between from one participating AP to another (e.g., mesh). For instance, within a home mesh network, Wi-Fi devices can connect to any of the APs, but typically select one with good signal strength. The coverage footprints of the mesh APs typically overlap, often putting each device within communication range or more than one AP. If the AP supports multi-bands (e.g., 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), the wireless sensing system may keep a device connected to the same physical AP but instruct it to use a different frequency band to obtain more diverse information to help improve the accuracy or results of the wireless sensing algorithm (e.g., motion detection algorithm). In some implementations, the wireless sensing system can change a device from being connected to one mesh AP to being connected to another mesh AP. Such device steering can be performed, for example, during wireless sensing (e.g., motion detection), based on criteria detected in a specific area to improve detection coverage, or to better localize motion within an area.

[0069] In some cases, beamforming may be performed between wireless communication devices based on some knowledge of the communication channel (e.g., through feedback properties generated by a receiver), which can be used to generate one or more steering properties (e.g., a steering matrix) that are applied by a transmitter device to shape the transmitted beam / signal in a particular direction or directions. Thus, changes to the steering or feedback properties used in the beamforming process indicate changes, which may be caused by moving objects, in the space accessed by the wireless communication system. For example, motion may be detected by substantial changes in the communication channel, e.g., as indicated by a channel response, or steering or feedback properties, or any combination thereof, over a period of time.

[0070] In some implementations, for example, a steering matrix may be generated at a transmitter device (beamformer) based on a feedback matrix provided by a receiver device (beamformee) based on channel sounding. Because the steering and feedback matrices are related to propagation characteristics of the channel, these matrices change as objects move within the channel. Changes in the channel characteristics are accordingly reflected in these matrices, and by analyzing the matrices, motion can be detected, and different characteristics of the detected motion can be determined. In some implementations, a spatial map may be generated based on one or more beamforming matrices. The spatial map may indicate a general direction of an object in a space relative to a wireless communication device. In some cases, many beamforming matrices (e.g., feedback matrices or steering matrices) may be generated to represent a multitude of directions that an object may be located relative to a wireless communication device. These many beamforming matrices may be used to generate the spatial map. The spatial map may be used to detect the presence of motion in the space or to detect a location of the detected motion.

[0071] In some instances, a motion detection system can control a variable device measurement rate in a motion detection process. For example, a feedback control system for a multi-node wireless motion detection system may adaptively change the sample rate based on environmental conditions. In some cases, such controls can improve operation of the motion detection system or provide other technical advantages. For example, the measurement rate may be controlled in a manner that optimizes or otherwise improves air-time usage versus detection ability suitable for a wide range of different environments and different motion detection applications. The measurement rate may be controlled in a manner that reduces redundant measurement data to be processed, thereby reducing processor load / power requirements. In some cases, the measurement rate is controlled in a manner that is adaptive, for instance, an adaptive sample can be controlled individually for each participating device. An adaptive sample rate can be used with a tuning control loop for different use cases, or device characteristics.

[0072] In some cases, a wireless sensing system can allow devices to dynamically indicate and communicate their wireless sensing capability or wireless sensing willingness to the wireless sensing system. For example, there may be times when a device does not want to be periodically interrupted or triggered to transmit a wireless signal that would allow the AP to produce a channel measurement. For instance, if a device is sleeping, frequently waking the device up to transmit or receive wireless sensing signals could consume resources (e.g., causing a cell phone battery to discharge faster). These and other events could make a device willing or not willing to participate in wireless sensing system operations. In some cases, a cell phone running on its battery may not want to participate, but when the cell phone is plugged into the charger, it may be willing to participate. Accordingly, if the cell phone is unplugged, it may indicate to the wireless sensing system to exclude the cell phone from participating; whereas if the cell phone is plugged in, it may indicate to the wireless sensing system to include the cell phone in wireless sensing system operations. In some cases, if a device is under load (e.g., a device streaming audio or video) or busy performing a primary function, the device may not want to participate; whereas when the same device's load is reduced and participating will not interfere with a primary function, the device may indicate to the wireless sensing system that it is willing to participate.

[0073] Example wireless sensing systems are described below in the context of motion detection (detecting motion of objects in the space, motion tracking, breathing detection, breathing monitoring, presence detection, gesture detection, gesture recognition, human detection (moving and stationary human detection), human tracking, fall detection, speed estimation, intrusion detection, walking detection, step counting, respiration rate detection, apnea estimation, posture change detection, activity recognition, gait rate classification, gesture decoding, sign language recognition, hand tracking, heart rate estimation, breathing rate estimation, room occupancydetection, human dynamics monitoring, and other types of motion detection applications). However, the operation, system improvements, and technical advantages achieved when the wireless sensing system is operating as a motion detection system are also applicable in examples where the wireless sensing system is used for another type of wireless sensing application.

[0074] In various embodiments of the disclosure, non-limiting definitions of one or more terms that will be used in the description are provided below.

[0075] A networking device is a device used in the WLAN network. For example, a Multi- AP device or a STA device may be a networking device.

[0076] A wireless access point (WAP) or simply an access point (AP) is a networking device in a WLAN network that allows other networking devices in a WLAN network to connect to a wired network. In examples, an AP creates a wireless local area network.

[0077] A station (STA) is any device that is connected to a WLAN network, and which contains 802. 11 compliant MAC and PHY interfaces to the wireless medium. A STA may be a laptop, desktop, smartphone, or a smart appliance. A STA may be fixed, mobile or portable. A STA that does not take on the role of an AP may be referred to as a non-AP STA.

[0078] A term “sensing space” may refer to any physical space in which a WLAN sensing system may operate.

[0079] A term “sensing area” may refer to a part or subset of a sensing space. For example, if a sensing space represents a house, then an individual room may be a sensing area within that sensing space.

[0080] A term “sensing procedure” may refer to a procedure that allows a high-efficiency (HE) station (STA) or extremely high throughput (EHT) STA to perform sensing. A sensing procedure may be initiated with the establishment of a sensing measurement session, which may be followed by zero or more sensing measurement exchanges, and may be terminated either implicitly or explicitly with a sensing measurement session termination.

[0081] A term “sensing capabilities exchange” may refer to the beginning part of a sensing procedure, during which the sensing capabilities may be exchanged between the sensing STAs. A term “sensing capabilities exchange” may also be referred to as “sensing session setup” or “session setup”.

[0082] A term “sensing measurement session” may refer to a set of sensing measurement exchanges that use operational parameters agreed to between a sensing initiator and sensing responder and is identified by a Measurement Session ID. The term “sensing measurement session” may also be referred to as “sensing session” or “sensing measurement setup” or“measurement setup”. The term “Measurement Session ID” may also be referred to as “Measurement Setup ID”.

[0083] A term “sensing measurement exchange” may refer to part of a sensing procedure, during which sensing measurements are performed.

[0084] A term "sensing initiator" may refer to a high-efficiency (HE) station (STA) or extremely high throughput (EHT) STA that initiates a sensing procedure by transmitting a Sensing Measurement Request frame, or a directional multi-gigabit (DMG) STA that initiates a DMG sensing procedure by transmitting a DMG Sensing Measurement Request frame.

[0085] A term "sensing responder" may refer to a high-efficiency (HE) station (STA) or extremely high throughput (EHT) STA that participates in a sensing procedure by responding to a sensing initiator, or a DMG STA that participates in a DMG sensing procedure by responding to a sensing initiator.

[0086] A term "sensing transmitter" may refer to a station (STA) that transmits PPDUs used for measurements in a sensing procedure or a DMG sensing procedure.

[0087] A term "sensing receiver" may refer to a station (STA) that is the intended recipient of PPDUs sent by a sensing transmitter to obtain sensing measurements in either a sensing procedure or a directional multi-gigabit (DMG) sensing procedure.

[0088] A term “Proxy AP Client Device (or “PACD”) may refer to a client device that can initiate the forming of a WLAN sensing network among the client devices. The PACD may be a sensing controller.

[0089] A term “client device” refers to a piece of software or hardware that requests and receives information or resources from a server. The client device is typically used to access data, services, or applications provided by servers over a network, such as the internet. For example, client devices include smartphones, laptops, desktop computers, and other devices that may connect to the network and communicate with servers.

[0090] A term “maximum set of sensing links (or “maximum set of unique sensing links”) may correspond to a set of sensing links that includes all possible sensing links between client devices (networking devices) which support WLAN sensing.

[0091] A term “reduced set of sensing links” may correspond to a set of sensing links that is determined to be sufficient to satisfy a sensing goal and may be a subset of a maximum set of sensing links.

[0092] A term “sensing by proxy responders query” (or “SBP responders query”) may correspond to a message which is based on an SBP Request frame which queries an access point acting as an SBP responder to report associated stations supporting WLAN sensing.

[0093] A term “sensing by proxy responders response” or “SBP responders response”) may correspond to a message based on an SBP Response frame which reports to an SBP initiator which has issued a SBP responders query associated stations supporting WLAN sensing.

[0094] A term “configuration vector” may refer to a vector which describes a list of sensing transmitters and sensing receivers required to configure a sensing measurement session.

[0095] A term “transmission opportunity (TXOP)” may refer to a negotiated interval of time during which a particular quality of service (QoS) station (e.g., a STA, an AP, or either a STA or an AP, for example in the role of a sensing initiator, a sensing responder, a sensing transmitter, or a sensing receiver) may have the right to initiate a frame exchange onto a wireless medium. A QoS access category (AC) of the transmission opportunity may be requested as part of a service or session negotiation.

[0096] A term “Quality of Service (QoS) access category (AC)” may refer to an identifier for a frame which classifies a priority of transmission that the frame requires. In an example, four QoS access categories are defined namely AC_VI: Video, AC_VO: Voice, AC_BE: Best-Effort, and AC BK: Background. Further, each QoS access category may have different TXOP parameters defined for it.

[0097] A term “interframe space (IFS)” may refer to the time interval between certain adjacent PPDU (+SigExt (signal extension)). A STA shall determine that the medium is idle through the use of the Carrier Sense (CS) function for the interval specified. Different IFSs are defined to provide priority levels for access to the wireless medium. Timings for IFSs are referenced from the occurrence of the PHY interface primitives PHY-TXEND. confirm, PHY- TXSTART. confirm, PHY-RXSTART.indication, and PHY-RXEND. indication. One of the defined IFS is a “short interframe space (SIFS)” In an example, a short interframe space may be approximately 10 ps. In another example, a short interframe space may be approximately 16 ps.

[0098] A term “PHY -layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU)” may refer to a data unit that includes preamble and data fields. The preamble field may include transmission vector format information and the data field may include payload and higher layer headers.

[0099] A term “null data PPDU (NDP)” may refer to a PPDU that does not include a data field. In an example, a null data PPDU may be used for a sensing transmission, where a MAC header of the NDP includes information required for a sensing receiver to make a sensing measurement on the sensing transmission.

[0100] A term “transmission parameters” may refer to a set of IEEE 802.11 PHY transmitter configuration parameters which are defined as a part of transmission vector (TXVECTOR) corresponding to a specific PHY and which may be configurable for each PHY-layer PPDU transmission or each null data PPDU (NDP) transmission.

[0101] A term “resource unit (RU)” may refer to an allocation of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) channels which may be used to carry a modulated signal. An RU may include a variable number of carriers depending on the mode of the modem.

[0102] A term “tone” may refer to an individual subcarrier in an OFDM signal. A tone may be represented in thefrequency domain. In the frequency domain, a tone may also be referred to as a subcarrier.

[0103] A term “time domain pulse” may refer to a complex number that represents amplitude and phase of discretized energy in the time domain. When frequency domain channel state information values are obtained for each tone from a baseband receiver, time domain pulses may be obtained by performing an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) on the channel state information values.

[0104] A term “sensing goal” may refer to a goal of a sensing activity at a time. A sensing goal is not static and may change at any time. In an example, a sensing goal may require sensing measurements of a specific type, a specific format, or a specific precision, resolution, or accuracy to be available to a sensing algorithm.

[0105] A term “wireless local area network (WLAN) sensing session” or “Wi-Fi sensing session” may refer to a period during which objects in a physical space may be probed, detected and / or characterized. In an example, during a WLAN sensing session, several devices participate in, and thereby contribute to the generation of sensing measurements. A WLAN sensing session may be referred to as a “measurement campaign.”

[0106] A term “non-sensing message” may refer to a message which is not primarily related to sensing. In an example, non-sensing messages may include data, management, and control messages.

[0107] A term “sensing measurement” may refer to a measurement of a state of a wireless channel between a transmitter device (for example, a sensing transmitter) and a receiver device (for example, a sensing receiver) derived from a sensing transmission. In an example, sensing measurement may also be referred to as channel response measurement.

[0108] A term “sensing algorithm” may refer to a computational algorithm that achieves a sensing goal. A sensing algorithm may be executed on any device in a Wi-Fi sensing system.

[0109] Wireless network management (WNM) may provide information on network conditions and may also provide a means to obtain and exchange WLAN sensing information.

[0110] A sensing receiver is a station (STA) that receives sensing transmissions (for example, PPDUs or any other transmission including a data transmission which may be opportunistically used as a sensing transmission) sent by a sensing transmitter and performs sensing measurementsas part of a WLAN sensing procedure. An AP is an example of a sensing receiver. In some examples, a STA may also be a sensing receiver.

[0111] A sensing transmitter is a station (STA) that transmits a sensing transmission (for example, PPDUs or any other transmission) used for sensing measurements (for example, channel state information) in a WLAN sensing procedure. In an example, a STA is an example of a sensing transmitter. In some examples, an AP may be a sensing transmitter for WLAN sensing purposes, for example where a STA acts as a sensing receiver.

[0112] A sensing initiator is a station (STA) that initiates a WLAN sensing procedure. The role of sensing initiator may be taken on by a sensing receiver, a sensing transmitter, or a separate device which includes a sensing algorithm (for example, a remote processing device).

[0113] A sensing responder is a station (STA) that participates in a WLAN sensing procedure initiated by a sensing initiator. The role of sensing responder may be taken on by a sensing receiver or a sensing transmitter. In examples, multiple sensing responders may take part in a WLAN sensing session.

[0114] A sensing by proxy (SBP) initiator is defined as a non-AP STA acting as a sensing initiator that transmits an SBP Request frame. In examples, sensing by proxy (SBP) enables a non- AP STA to obtain sensing measurements of the channel between an AP and one or more non-AP STAs or between a receiving antenna and a transmitting antenna of an AP. With the execution of the SBP procedure, it is possible for a non-AP STA to obtain sensing measurements necessary for detecting and tracking changes in the environment. A sensing by proxy (SBP) responder is an AP that receives or is the intended recipient of an SBP Request frame.

[0115] A term “sensing transmission” may refer to a transmission made from a sensing transmitter to a sensing receiver which may be used to make a sensing measurement. In an example, a sensing transmission may also be referred to as wireless sensing signal or wireless signal.

[0116] A term “sensing trigger message” may refer to a message sent from a sensing initiator to a sensing transmitter to initiate or trigger one or more sensing transmissions.

[0117] A term “sensing response message” may refer to a message which is included within a sensing transmission from a sensing transmitter to a sensing receiver. A sensing transmission that includes a sensing response message may be used by a sensing receiver to perform a sensing measurement.

[0118] A term “sensing response announcement” may refer to a message that is included within a sensing transmission from a sensing transmitter to a sensing receiver that announces that a sensing response NDP will follow within a short interframe space (SIFS). An example of asensing response announcement is an NDP announcement, or NDPA. In examples, a sensing response NDP may be transmitted using a requested transmission configuration.

[0119] A term “sensing response NDP” may refer to a response transmitted by a sensing transmitter and used for a sensing measurement at a sensing receiver. In examples, a sensing response NDP may be used when a requested transmission configuration is incompatible with transmission parameters required for successful non-sensing message reception. A sensing response NDP may be announced by a sensing response announcement. In an example, a sensing response NDP may be implemented with a null data PPDU. In some examples, a sensing response NDP may be implemented with a frame that does not contain any data.

[0120] A term “channel representation information (CRI)” or “channel impulse response (CIR)” may refer to properties of a communications channel, such as how wireless signals propagate from a sensing transmitter to a sensing receiver along multiple paths, which are known or measured by a technique of channel estimation. For example, CRI may refer to one or more sensing measurements made on one or more sensing transmissions during a sampling instance which together represent the state of the channel at the sampling instance between two devices.

[0121] A term “channel state information (CSI)” may refer to an example of CRI which is represented in the frequency domain. CSI indicates the properties of a communications channel which is measured by channel estimation in subcarrier-level granularity. CSI is typically a matrix of complex values representing the amplitude attenuation and phase shift of signals, which provides an estimation of a communications channel. A CSI of a subcarrier may be represented as an in-phase (real) component (I) and a quadrature (imaginary) component (Q).

[0122] A term “time-domain channel representation information (TD-CRI)” or “channel impulse response (CIR)” in time-domain may refer to an example of CRI which is represented in the time domain. TD-CRI may be generated by applying an inverse transform, such as an Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) or an IFFT, to CSI. TD-CRI or CIR of a time domain pulse may be represented as an in-phase (real) component (I) and a quadrature (imaginary) component (Q).

[0123] A term “full time-domain channel representation information (full TD-CRI)” may refer to a series of complex pairs of time domain pulses which are created by performing an IFFT on CSI values, for example CSI calculated by a baseband receiver.

[0124] A term “filtered time-domain channel representation information (filtered TD-CRI)” may refer to a reduced series of complex pairs of time domain pulses created by applying an algorithm to a full TD-CRI. The algorithm may select some time domain pulses and reject others. The filtered TD-CRI may contain information that relates a selected time domain pulse to the corresponding time domain pulse in the full TD-CRI.

[0125] A term “reconstructed filtered time-domain channel representation information (reconstructed filtered TD-CRI)” may refer to a version of a full TD-CRI created from a filtered TD-CRI.

[0126] A term “channel representation information transmission message” may refer to a message sent by a sensing receiver that has performed a sensing measurement on a sensing transmission, in which the sensing receiver sends CRI to a sensing initiator which may be a sensing transmitter which contains a sensing algorithm or a remote processing device which contains a sensing algorithm.

[0127] A term “reconstructed CSI (R-CSI)” may refer to a representation of original CSI values as measured by the baseband receiver that is reconstructed from a time domain channel representation information (TD-CRI). In an example, R-CSI may be calculated by taking original CSI values (frequency domain), performing an IFFT to translate those values into the time domain, selecting a number of time domain pulses, zeroing or nulling time domain values that do not include a selected time domain pulse, and performing a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The resulting frequency domain complex values are the R-CSI.

[0128] A term “feature of interest” may refer to an item or state of an item in a sensing space which is positively detected and / or identified by a sensing algorithm.

[0129] A term “sensing imprint” may refer to a steady state or semi-static representation of the propagation channel between a sensing transmitter and a sensing receiver in the sensing space calculated by the sensing receiver in the form of a time domain channel impulse response.

[0130] A term “requested transmission configuration” may refer to transmission parameters a sensing transmitter is requested to use when sending a sensing transmission.

[0131] A term “delivered transmission configuration” may refer to transmission parameters applied by a sensing transmitter to a sensing transmission.

[0132] A term “imprint delta” may refer to a single dimension matrix of complex values which represent the difference between a time domain channel impulse response generated by converting a CSI measurement to the time domain using an IFFT, and a stored sensing imprint.

[0133] A term “measurement imprint delta threshold” may refer to minimum difference between a TD-CRI value and the corresponding sensing imprint value for which a sensing receiver or a sensing algorithm considers that there is a change in the propagation channel propagation characteristics.

[0134] A term “measurement imprint delta count” may refer to a number of times which a measurement imprint delta threshold is exceeded before a sensing receiver, or a sensing algorithm considers that there is a change in propagation channel propagation characteristics.

[0135] A term “imprint delta derivative period” may refer to a period during which imprint delta derivatives must remain below an imprint delta derivative threshold before a sensing receiver or a sensing algorithm may determine that a new sensing imprint needs to be calculated.

[0136] A term “imprint delta derivative” may refer to a rate of change of the imprint delta over one or more tones and over one or more frames.

[0137] A term “imprint delta derivative threshold” may refer to a minimum value of the rate imprint delta derivative for which a sensing receiver or a sensing algorithm considers that there is ongoing movement or motion in the sensing space. If the imprint delta derivative drops below the imprint delta derivative threshold, a sensing receiver or a sensing algorithm may determine that a new sensing imprint needs to be calculated.

[0138] A term “steady-state imprint delta threshold” may refer to a maximum difference between a TD-CRI value and a corresponding sensing imprint value for which a sensing receiver or a sensing algorithm considers that the TD-CRI has not returned to its steady-state (i.e., a stored sensing imprint).

[0139] A term “sensing imprint average count” may refer to a number of sensing measurements which may be averaged to generate a sensing imprint.

[0140] A term “steering matrix configuration” may refer to a matrix of complex values representing real and complex phases required to pre-condition one or more antennas of a radio frequency (RF) transmission signal chain for each transmit signal. Application of a steering matrix configuration (for example, by a spatial mapper) enables beamforming and beam-steering.

[0141] A term “spatial mapper” may refer to a signal processing element that adjusts the amplitude and phase of a signal input to an RF transmission chain in a sensing transmitter. A spatial mapper may include elements to process the signal to each RF chain implemented. The operation carried out may be called spatial mapping. The output of a spatial mapper is one or more spatial streams.

[0142] A mesh network or a wireless mesh network may refer to a communications network (e.g., WLAN) made up of radio nodes (e.g., mesh stations or mesh STAs, mesh clients, or Multi- AP devices, etc.) organized in a mesh topology. In examples, the mesh network may also be referred to as “Mesh”.

[0143] A sensing controller is a controller that facilitates and coordinates WLAN sensing related connections and activities.

[0144] A Multi- AP device may refer to a physical device of a mesh network that may act as both a station and an AP or a device that has a Backhaul STA module for backhaul link connection and a Fronthaul AP module for fronthaul link connection.

[0145] A term “Multi-AP Network” or “Multi-AP Network Deployment”, or “Mesh BSS” may refer to a collection of interconnected physical devices.

[0146] A term “mesh root node” may refer to a Multi-AP device with a Multi-AP controller in a mesh network. In examples, a backhaul of the mesh root node is connected to a wide area network (WAN).

[0147] A term “leaf node” may refer to a Multi-AP device without a Multi-AP controller in the mesh network. The leaf node may connect to the mesh root node directly or via other leaf nodes.

[0148] A term “hop” in a mesh network may refer to a backhaul connection between two Multi-AP devices.

[0149] A term “mesh network configuration option (MNCO)” may refer to a possible way to configure backhaul links in the mesh network.

[0150] A term “sensing preferred MNCO” may refer to an MNCO that is best suited or adequately suited to sensing according to one or more established criteria. In examples, a sensing preferred MNCO must also be adequately suited for data communications.

[0151] A term “preferred sensing link” may refer to a link that traverses a sensing area of interest between two multi-AP devices in a mesh network. In an example, the preferred sensing link may be determined by a sensing algorithm or a sensing controller to be the best sensing link by some criteria.

[0152] A term “sensing PPDU” may refer to a customized data packet with one or more training fields on which sensing measurements can be made and a header and data field portion which contain Motion Information elements to be shared with other networked devices in the WiFi network.

[0153] For purposes of reading the description of the various embodiments below, the following descriptions of the sections of the specifications and their respective contents may be helpful:

[0154] Section A describes a wireless communications system, wireless transmissions and sensing measurements which may be useful for practicing embodiments described herein.

[0155] Section B describes systems and methods that are useful for a wireless sensing system configured to send sensing transmissions and make sensing measurements.

[0156] Section C describes embodiments of systems and methods that are useful for performing WLAN sensing via a networking device.A. Wireless communications system, wireless transmissions, and sensing measurements

[0157] FIG. 1 illustrates wireless communication system 100. Wireless communication system 100 includes three wireless communication devices: first wireless communication device 102A, second wireless communication device 102B, and third wireless communication device 102C. Wireless communication system 100 may include additional wireless communication devices and other components (e.g., additional wireless communication devices, one or more network servers, network routers, network switches, cables, or other communication links, etc.).

[0158] Wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C can operate in a wireless network, for example, according to a wireless network standard or another type of wireless communication protocol. For example, the wireless network may be configured to operate as a wireless local area network (WLAN), a personal area network (PAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), or another type of wireless network. Examples of WLANs include networks configured to operate according to one or more of the 802.11 family of standards developed by IEEE (e.g., Wi-Fi networks), and others. Examples of PANs include networks that operate according to short- range communication standards (e.g., Bluetooth®., Near Field Communication (NFC), ZigBee), millimeter wave communications, and others.

[0159] In some implementations, wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C may be configured to communicate in a cellular network, for example, according to a cellular network standard. Examples of cellular networks include networks configured according to 2G standards such as Global System for Mobile (GSM) and Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) or Enhanced General Packet Radio Service (EGPRS); 3G standards such as code division multiple access (CDMA), wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA); 4G standards such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A); 5G standards, and others.

[0160] In the example shown in FIG. 1, wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C can be, or they may include standard wireless network components. For example, wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C may be commercially-available Wi-Fi APs or another type of wireless access point (WAP) performing one or more operations as described herein that are embedded as instructions (e.g., software or firmware) on the modem of the WAP. In some cases, wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C may be nodes of a wireless mesh network, such as, for example, a commercially-available mesh network system (e.g., Plume WiFi, Google Wi-Fi, Qualcomm Wi-Fi SON, etc.). In some cases, wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C acting as nodes of a mesh network system may adhere to a mesh networkingstandard such as Wi-Fi Alliance EasyMesh or IEEE P802.11s. In some cases, another type of standard or conventional Wi-Fi transmitter device may be used. In some instances, one or more of wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C may be implemented as WAPs in a mesh network, while other wireless communication device(s) are implemented as leaf devices (e.g., mobile devices, smart devices, etc.) that access the mesh network through one of the WAPs. In some cases, one or more of wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C is a mobile device (e.g., a smartphone, a smart watch, a tablet, a laptop computer, etc.), a wireless-enabled device (e.g., a smart thermostat, a Wi-Fi enabled camera, a smart TV), or another type of device that communicates in a wireless network.

[0161] Wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C may be implemented without WiFi components; for example, other types of standard or non-standard wireless communication may be used for motion detection. In some cases, wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C can be, or they may be part of, a dedicated motion detection system. For example, a dedicated motion detection system can include a hub device and one or more beacon devices (as remote sensor devices), and wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C can be either a hub device or a beacon device in the motion detection system.

[0162] As shown in FIG. 1, wireless communication device 102C includes modem 112, processor 114, memory 116, and power unit 118; any of wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C in wireless communication system 100 may include the same, additional, or different components, and the components may be configured to operate as shown in FIG. 1 or in another manner. In some implementations, modem 112, processor 114, memory 116, and power unit 118 of a wireless communication device are housed together in a common housing or other assembly. In some implementations, one or more of the components of a wireless communication device can be housed separately, for example, in a separate housing or other assembly.

[0163] Modem 112 can communicate (receive, transmit, or both) wireless signals. For example, modem 112 may be configured to communicate RF signals formatted according to a wireless communication standard (e.g., Wi-Fi or Bluetooth). Modem 112 may be implemented as the example wireless network modem 112 shown in FIG. 1, or may be implemented in another manner, for example, with other types of components or subsystems. In some implementations, modem 112 includes a radio subsystem and a baseband subsystem. In some cases, the baseband subsystem and radio subsystem can be implemented on a common chip or chipset, or they may be implemented in a card or another type of assembled device. The baseband subsystem can be coupled to the radio subsystem, for example, by leads, pins, wires, or other types of connections.

[0164] In some cases, a radio subsystem in modem 112 can include one or more antennas and RF circuitry. The RF circuitry can include, for example, circuitry that fdters, amplifies, orotherwise conditions analog signals, circuitry that up-converts baseband signals to RF signals, circuitry that down-converts RF signals to baseband signals, etc. Such circuitry may include, for example, filters, amplifiers, mixers, a local oscillator, etc. The radio subsystem can be configured to communicate radio frequency wireless signals on the wireless communication channels. As an example, the radio subsystem may include a radio chip, an RF front end, and one or more antennas. A radio subsystem may include additional or different components. In some implementations, the radio subsystem can be or may include the radio electronics (e.g., RF front end, radio chip, or analogous components) from a conventional modem, for example, from a Wi-Fi modem, pico base station modem, etc. In some implementations, the antenna includes multiple antennas.

[0165] In some cases, a baseband subsystem in modem 112 can include, for example, digital electronics configured to process digital baseband data. As an example, the baseband subsystem may include a baseband chip. A baseband subsystem may include additional or different components. In some cases, the baseband subsystem may include a digital signal processor (DSP) device or another type of processor device. In some cases, the baseband system includes digital processing logic to operate the radio subsystem, to communicate wireless network traffic through the radio subsystem, to detect motion based on motion detection signals received through the radio subsystem or to perform other types of processes. For instance, the baseband subsystem may include one or more chips, chipsets, or other types of devices that are configured to encode signals and deliver the encoded signals to the radio subsystem for transmission, or to identify and analyze data encoded in signals from the radio subsystem (e.g., by decoding the signals according to a wireless communication standard, by processing the signals according to a motion detection process, or otherwise).

[0166] In some instances, the radio subsystem in modem 112 receives baseband signals from the baseband subsystem, up-converts the baseband signals to RF signals, and wirelessly transmits the RF signals (e.g., through an antenna). In some instances, the radio subsystem in modem 112 wirelessly receives RF signals (e.g., through an antenna), down-converts the RF to baseband signals, and sends the baseband signals to the baseband subsystem. The signals exchanged between the radio subsystem and the baseband subsystem may be digital or analog signals. In some examples, the baseband subsystem includes conversion circuitry (e.g., a digital-to-analog converter, an analog-to-digital converter) and exchanges analog signals with the radio subsystem. In some examples, the radio subsystem includes conversion circuitry (e.g., a digital-to-analog converter, an analog-to-digital converter) and exchanges digital signals with the baseband subsystem.

[0167] In some cases, the baseband subsystem of modem 112 can communicate wireless network traffic (e.g., data packets) in the wireless communication network through the radiosubsystem on one or more network traffic channels. The baseband subsystem of modem 112 may also transmit or receive (or both) signals (e.g., motion probe signals or motion detection signals) through the radio subsystem on a dedicated wireless communication channel. In some instances, the baseband subsystem generates motion probe signals for transmission, for example, to probe a space for motion. In some instances, the baseband subsystem processes received motion detection signals (signals based on motion probe signals transmitted through a space), for example, to detect motion of an object in the space.

[0168] Processor 114 can execute instructions, for example, to generate output data based on data inputs. The instructions can include programs, codes, scripts, or other types of data stored in memory. Additionally, or alternatively, the instructions can be encoded as pre-programmed or reprogrammable logic circuits, logic gates, or other types of hardware or firmware components. Processor 114 may be or may include a general-purpose microprocessor, a specialized coprocessor or another type of data processing apparatus. In some cases, processor 114 performs high level operation of the wireless communication device 102C. For example, processor 114 may be configured to execute or interpret software, scripts, programs, functions, executables, or other instructions stored in memory 116. In some implementations, processor 114 may be included in modem 112.

[0169] Memory 116 can include computer-readable storage media, for example, a volatile memory device, a non-volatile memory device, or both. Memory 116 can include one or more read-only memory devices, random-access memory devices, buffer memory devices, or a combination of these and other types of memory devices. In some instances, one or more components of the memory can be integrated or otherwise associated with another component of wireless communication device 102C. Memory 116 may store instructions that are executable by processor 114. For example, the instructions may include instructions for time-aligning signals using an interference buffer and a motion detection buffer, such as through one or more of the operations of the example processes herein disclosed.

[0170] Power unit 118 provides power to the other components of wireless communication device 102C. For example, the other components may operate based on electrical power provided by power unit 118 through a voltage bus or other connection. In some implementations, power unit 118 includes a battery or a battery system, for example, a rechargeable battery. In some implementations, power unit 118 includes an adapter (e.g., an alternating current (AC) adapter) that receives an external power signal (from an external source) and coverts the external power signal to an internal power signal conditioned for a component of wireless communication device 102C. Power unit 118 may include other components or operate in another manner.

[0171] In the example shown in FIG. 1, wireless communication devices 102 A, 102B transmit wireless signals (e.g., according to a wireless network standard, a motion detection protocol, or otherwise). For instance, wireless communication devices 102A, 102B may broadcast wireless motion probe signals (e.g., reference signals, beacon signals, status signals, etc.), or they may send wireless signals addressed to other devices (e.g., a user equipment, a client device, a server, etc.), and the other devices (not shown) as well as wireless communication device 102C may receive the wireless signals transmitted by wireless communication devices 102A, 102B. In some cases, the wireless signals transmitted by wireless communication devices 102A, 102B are repeated periodically, for example, according to a wireless communication standard or otherwise.

[0172] In the example shown, wireless communication device 102C processes the wireless signals from wireless communication devices 102A, 102B to detect motion of an object in a space accessed by the wireless signals, to determine a location of the detected motion, or both. For example, wireless communication device 102C may perform one or more operations of the example processes described below with respect to FIG. 28, FIG. 29 and FIG. 30, or another type of process for detecting motion or determining a location of detected motion. The space accessed by the wireless signals can be an indoor or outdoor space, which may include, for example, one or more fully or partially enclosed areas, an open area without enclosure, etc. The space can be or can include an interior of a room, multiple rooms, a building, or the like. In some cases, the wireless communication system 100 can be modified, for instance, such that wireless communication device 102C can transmit wireless signals and wireless communication devices 102A, 102B can process the wireless signals from wireless communication device 102C to detect motion or determine a location of detected motion.

[0173] The wireless signals used for motion detection can include, for example, a beacon signal (e.g., Bluetooth Beacons, Wi-Fi Beacons, other wireless beacon signals), another standard signal generated for other purposes according to a wireless network standard, or non-standard signals (e.g., random signals, reference signals, etc.) generated for motion detection or other purposes. In examples, motion detection may be carried out by analyzing one or more training fields carried by the wireless signals or by analyzing other data carried by the signal. In some examples data will be added for the express purpose of motion detection or the data used will nominally be for another purpose and may be reused or repurposed for motion detection. In some examples, the wireless signals propagate through an object (e.g., a wall) before or after interacting with a moving object, which may allow the moving object's movement to be detected without an optical line-of-sight between the moving object and the transmission or receiving hardware. Based on the received signals, wireless communication device 102C may generate motion detection data. In some instances, wireless communication device 102C may communicate the motion detectiondata to another device or system, such as a security system, which may include a control center for monitoring movement within a space, such as a room, building, outdoor area, etc.

[0174] In some implementations, wireless communication devices 102A, 102B can be modified to transmit motion probe signals (which may include, e.g., a reference signal, beacon signal, or another signal used to probe a space for motion) on a separate wireless communication channel (e.g., a frequency channel or coded channel) from wireless network traffic signals. For example, the modulation applied to the payload of a motion probe signal and the type of data or data structure in the payload may be known by wireless communication device 102C, which may reduce the amount of processing that wireless communication device 102C performs for motion sensing. The header may include additional information such as, for example, an indication of whether motion was detected by another device in wireless communication system 100, an indication of the modulation type, an identification of the device transmitting the signal, etc.

[0175] In the example shown in FIG. 1, wireless communication system 100 is a wireless mesh network, with wireless communication links between each of wireless communication devices 102. In the example shown, the wireless communication link between wireless communication device 102C and wireless communication device 102A can be used to probe motion detection field 110A, the wireless communication link between wireless communication device 102C and wireless communication device 102B can be used to probe motion detection field HOB, and the wireless communication link between wireless communication device 102A and wireless communication device 102B can be used to probe motion detection field HOC. In some instances, each wireless communication device 102 detects motion in motion detection fields 110 accessed by that device by processing received signals that are based on wireless signals transmitted by wireless communication devices 102 through motion detection fields 110. For example, when person 106 shown in FIG. 1 moves in motion detection field 110A and motion detection field 110C, wireless communication devices 102 may detect the motion based on signals they receive that are based on wireless signals transmitted through respective motion detection fields 110. For instance, wireless communication device 102 A can detect motion of person 106 in motion detection fields 110A, HOC, wireless communication device 102B can detect motion of person 106 in motion detection field HOC, and wireless communication device 102C can detect motion of person 106 in motion detection field 110A.

[0176] In some instances, motion detection fields 110 can include, for example, air, solid materials, liquids, or another medium through which wireless electromagnetic signals may propagate. In the example shown in FIG. 1, motion detection field 110A provides a wireless communication channel between wireless communication device 102A and wireless communication device 102C, motion detection field 110B provides a wireless communicationchannel between wireless communication device 102B and wireless communication device 102C, and motion detection field HOC provides a wireless communication channel between wireless communication device 102A and wireless communication device 102B. In some aspects of operation, wireless signals transmitted on a wireless communication channel (separate from or shared with the wireless communication channel for network traffic) are used to detect movement of an object in a space. The objects can be any type of static or moveable object and can be living or inanimate. For example, the object can be a human (e.g., person 106 shown in FIG. 1), an animal, an inorganic object, or another device, apparatus, or assembly, an object that defines all or part of the boundary of a space (e.g., a wall, door, window, etc.), or another type of object. In some implementations, motion information from the wireless communication devices may be analyzed to determine a location of the detected motion. For example, as described further below, one of wireless communication devices 102 (or another device communicably coupled to wireless communications devices 102) may determine that the detected motion is near a particular wireless communication device.

[0177] FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B are diagrams showing example wireless signals communicated between wireless communication devices 204A, 204B, 204C. Wireless communication devices 204 A, 204B, 204C can be, for example, wireless communication devices 102A, 102B, 102C shown in FIG. 1, or other types of wireless communication devices. Wireless communication devices 204A, 204B, 204C transmit wireless signals through space 200. Space 200 can be completely or partially enclosed or open at one or more boundaries. In an example, space 200 may be a sensing space. Space 200 can be or can include an interior of a room, multiple rooms, a building, an indoor area, outdoor area, or the like. First wall 202A, second wall 202B, and third wall 202C at least partially enclose space 200 in the example shown.

[0178] In the example shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, wireless communication device 204A is operable to transmit wireless signals repeatedly (e.g., periodically, intermittently, at scheduled, unscheduled or random intervals, etc.). Wireless communication devices 204B, 204C are operable to receive signals based on those transmitted by wireless communication device 204A. Wireless communication devices 204B and 204C each have a modem (e.g., modem 112 shown in FIG. 1) that is configured to process received signals to detect motion of an object in space 200.

[0179] As shown, an object is in first position 214A in FIG. 2 A, and the object has moved to second position 214B in FIG. 2B. In FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, the moving object in space 200 is represented as a human, but the moving object can be another type of object. For example, the moving object can be an animal, an inorganic object (e.g., a system, device, apparatus, or assembly), an object that defines all or part of the boundary of space 200 (e.g., a wall, door, window, etc.), or another type of object.

[0180] As shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, multiple example paths of the wireless signals transmitted from wireless communication device 204A are illustrated by dashed lines. Along first signal path 216, the wireless signal is transmitted from wireless communication device 204A and reflected off first wall 202A toward the wireless communication device 204B. Along second signal path 218, the wireless signal is transmitted from the wireless communication device 204A and reflected off second wall 202B and first wall 202A toward wireless communication device 204C. Along third signal path 220, the wireless signal is transmitted from the wireless communication device 204A and reflected off second wall 202B toward wireless communication device 204C. Along fourth signal path 222, the wireless signal is transmitted from the wireless communication device 204A and reflected off third wall 202C toward the wireless communication device 204B.

[0181] In FIG. 2A, along fifth signal path 224A, the wireless signal is transmitted from wireless communication device 204A and reflected off the object at first position 214A toward wireless communication device 204C. Between FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, a surface of the object moves from first position 214A to second position 214B in space 200 (e.g., some distance away from first position 214A). In FIG. 2B, along sixth signal path 224B, the wireless signal is transmitted from wireless communication device 204A and reflected off the object at second position 214B toward wireless communication device 204C. Sixth signal path 224B depicted in FIG. 2B is longer than fifth signal path 224A depicted in FIG. 2A due to the movement of the object from first position 214A to second position 214B. In some examples, a signal path can be added, removed, or otherwise modified due to movement of an object in a space.

[0182] The example wireless signals shown in FIG. 2 A and FIG. 2B may experience attenuation, frequency shifts, phase shifts, or other effects through their respective paths and may have portions that propagate in another direction, for example, through the first, second and third walls 202A, 202B, and 202C. In some examples, the wireless signals are radio frequency (RF) signals. The wireless signals may include other types of signals.

[0183] In the example shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, wireless communication device 204A can repeatedly transmit a wireless signal. In particular, FIG. 2A shows the wireless signal being transmitted from wireless communication device 204A at a first time, and FIG. 2B shows the same wireless signal being transmitted from wireless communication device 204A at a second, later time. The transmitted signal can be transmitted continuously, periodically, at random or intermittent times or the like, or a combination thereof. The transmitted signal can have a number of frequency components in a frequency bandwidth. The transmitted signal can be transmitted from wireless communication device 204A in an omnidirectional manner, in a directional manner or otherwise. In the example shown, the wireless signals traverse multiple respective paths in space200, and the signal along each path may become attenuated due to path losses, scattering, reflection, or the like and may have a phase or frequency offset.

[0184] As shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, the signals from first to sixth paths 216, 218, 220, 222, 224A, and 224B combine at wireless communication device 204C and wireless communication device 204B to form received signals. Because of the effects of the multiple paths in space 200 on the transmitted signal, space 200 may be represented as a transfer function (e.g., a filter) in which the transmitted signal is input, and the received signal is output. When an object moves in space 200, the attenuation or phase offset affected upon a signal in a signal path can change, and hence, the transfer function of space 200 can change. Assuming the same wireless signal is transmitted from wireless communication device 204A, if the transfer function of space 200 changes, the output of that transfer function - the received signal - will also change. A change in the received signal can be used to detect movement of an object.

[0185] Mathematically, a transmitted signal (t) transmitted from the first wireless communication device 204A may be described according to Equation (1): / ■(t) = n=-oo CneJa)nt.... (1)

[0186] where )nrepresents the frequency of the / 7th frequency component of the transmitted signal, cnrepresents the complex coefficient of the / 7th frequency component, and t represents time. With the (t) being transmitted from the first wireless communication device 204A, an output signal rk(t) from a path, k. may be described according to Equation (2):

[0187] where an krepresents an attenuation factor (or channel response; e.g., due to scattering, reflection, and path losses) for the / 7th frequency component along k. and <pn krepresents the phase of the signal for / 7th frequency component along k. Then, the received signal, R, at a wireless communication device can be described as the summation of all output signals rfe(t) from all paths to the wireless communication device, which is shown in Equation (3):R = ErtW .... (3)

[0188] Substituting Equation (2) into Equation (3) renders the following Equation (4):

[0189] R at a wireless communication device can then be analyzed. R at a wireless communication device can be transformed to the frequency domain, for example, using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) or another type of algorithm. The transformed signal can represent R as a series of n complex values, one for each of the respective frequency components (at the n frequencies u>„). For a frequency component at frequency a>n. a complex value, Hn. may be represented as follows in Equation (5):

[0190] Hnfor a given a>nindicates a relative magnitude and phase offset of the received signal at a)n. When an object moves in the space, Hnchanges due to an kof the space changing. Accordingly, a change detected in the channel response can be indicative of movement of an object within the communication channel. In some instances, noise, interference, or other phenomena can influence the channel response detected by the receiver, and the motion detection system can reduce or isolate such influences to improve the accuracy and quality of motion detection capabilities. In some implementations, the overall channel response can be represented as follows in Equation (6):

[0191] In some instances, the channel response, hch, for a space can be determined, for example, based on the mathematical theory of estimation. For instance, a reference signal, Rref, can be modified with candidate hch, and then a maximum likelihood approach can be used to select the candidate channel which gives best match to the received signal (RrCvd)- hi some cases, an estimated received signal (RrcVd) is obtained from the convolution of Rref with the candidate hcfl, and then the channel coefficients of hchare varied to minimize the squared error of RrcVd- This can be mathematically illustrated as follows in Equation (7):

[0192] with the optimization criterion as in Equation (8):

[0193] The minimizing, or optimizing, process can utilize an adaptive filtering technique, such as least mean squares (LMS), recursive least squares (RLS), batch least squares (BLS), etc. The channel response can be a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, infinite impulse response (IIR) filter, or the like. As shown in the equation above, the received signal can be considered as a convolution of the reference signal and the channel response. The convolution operation means that the channel coefficients possess a degree of correlation with each of the delayed replicas of the reference signal. The convolution operation as shown in the equation above, therefore shows that the received signal appears at different delay points, each delayed replica being weighted by the channel coefficient.

[0194] FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B are plots showing examples of channel responses 360, 370 computed from the wireless signals communicated between wireless communication devices 204 A, 204B, 204C in FIG. 2 A and FIG. 2B. FIG. 3 A and FIG. 3B also show frequency domain representation 350 of an initial wireless signal transmitted by wireless communication device 204A. In the examples shown, channel response 360 in FIG. 3A represents the signals receivedby wireless communication device 204B when there is no motion in space 200, and channel response 370 in FIG. 3B represents the signals received by wireless communication device 204B in FIG. 2B after the object has moved in space 200.

[0195] In the example shown in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B, for illustration purposes, wireless communication device 204A transmits a signal that has a flat frequency profile (the magnitude of each frequency component, , fa and3is the same), as shown in frequency domain representation 350. Because of the interaction of the signal with space 200 (and the objects therein), the signals received at wireless communication device 204B that are based on the signal sent from wireless communication device 204A are different from the transmitted signal. In this example, where the transmitted signal has a flat frequency profile, the received signal represents the channel response of space 200. As shown in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B, channel responses 360, 370 are different from frequency domain representation 350 of the transmitted signal. When motion occurs in space 200, a variation in the channel response will also occur. For example, as shown in FIG. 3B, channel response 370 that is associated with motion of object in space 200 varies from channel response 360 in FIG. 3A that is associated with no motion in space 200.

[0196] Furthermore, as an object moves within space 200, the channel response may vary from channel response 370. In some cases, space 200 can be divided into distinct regions and the channel responses associated with each region may share one or more characteristics (e.g., shape), as described below. Thus, motion of an object within different distinct regions can be distinguished, and the location of detected motion can be determined based on an analysis of channel responses.

[0197] FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B are diagrams showing example channel responses 401, 403 associated with motion of object 406 in distinct regions 408, 412 of space 400. In the examples shown, space 400 is a building, and space 400 is divided into a plurality of distinct regions - first region 408, second region 410, third region 412, fourth region 414, and fifth region 416. Space 400 may include additional or fewer regions, in some instances. As shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B, the regions within space 400 may be defined by walls between rooms. In addition, the regions may be defined by ceilings between floors of a building. For example, space 400 may include additional floors with additional rooms. In addition, in some instances, the plurality of regions of a space can be or can include a number of floors in a multistory building, a number of rooms in the building, or a number of rooms on a particular floor of the building. In the example shown in FIG. 4A, an object located in first region 408 is represented as person 406, but the moving object can be another type of object, such as an animal or an inorganic object.

[0198] In the example shown, wireless communication device 402A is located in fourth region 414 of space 400, wireless communication device 402B is located in second region 410 ofspace 400, and wireless communication device 402C is located in fifth region 416 of space 400. Wireless communication devices 402 can operate in the same or similar manner as wireless communication devices 102 of FIG. 1. For instance, wireless communication devices 402 may be configured to transmit and receive wireless signals and detect whether motion has occurred in space 400 based on the received signals. As an example, wireless communication devices 402 may periodically or repeatedly transmit motion probe signals through space 400, and receive signals based on the motion probe signals. Wireless communication devices 402 can analyze the received signals to detect whether an object has moved in space 400, such as, for example, by analyzing channel responses associated with space 400 based on the received signals. In addition, in some implementations, wireless communication devices 402 can analyze the received signals to identify a location of detected motion within space 400. For example, wireless communication devices 402 can analyze characteristics of the channel response to determine whether the channel responses share the same or similar characteristics to channel responses known to be associated with first to fifth regions 408, 410, 412, 414, 416 of space 400.

[0199] In the examples shown, one (or more) of wireless communication devices 402 repeatedly transmits a motion probe signal (e.g., a reference signal) through space 400. The motion probe signals may have a flat frequency profile in some instances, wherein the magnitude of / j, f2and fy is the same or nearly the same. For example, the motion probe signals may have a frequency response similar to frequency domain representation 350 shown in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. The motion probe signals may have a different frequency profile in some instances. Because of the interaction of the reference signal with space 400 (and the objects therein), the signals received at another wireless communication device 402 that are based on the motion probe signal transmitted from the other wireless communication device 402 are different from the transmitted reference signal.

[0200] Based on the received signals, wireless communication devices 402 can determine a channel response for space 400. When motion occurs in distinct regions within the space, distinct characteristics may be seen in the channel responses. For example, while the channel responses may differ slightly for motion within the same region of space 400, the channel responses associated with motion in distinct regions may generally share the same shape or other characteristics. For instance, channel response 401 of FIG. 4A represents an example channel response associated with motion of object 406 in first region 408 of space 400, while channel response 403 of FIG. 4B represents an example channel response associated with motion of object 406 in third region 412 of space 400. Channel responses 401, 403 are associated with signals received by the same wireless communication device 402 in space 400.

[0201] FIG. 4C and FIG. 4D are plots showing channel responses 401, 403 of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B overlaid on channel response 460 associated with no motion occurring in space 400. In the example shown, wireless communication device 402 transmits a motion probe signal that has a flat frequency profde as shown in frequency domain representation 450. When motion occurs in space 400, a variation in the channel response will occur relative to channel response 460 associated with no motion, and thus, motion of an object in space 400 can be detected by analyzing variations in the channel responses. In addition, a relative location of the detected motion within space 400 can be identified. For example, the shape of channel responses associated with motion can be compared with reference information (e.g., using a trained artificial intelligence (Al) model) to categorize the motion as having occurred within a distinct region of space 400.

[0202] When there is no motion in space 400 (e.g., when object 406 is not present), wireless communication device 402 may compute channel response 460 associated with no motion. Slight variations may occur in the channel response due to a number of factors; however, multiple channel responses 460 associated with different periods of time may share one or more characteristics. In the example shown, channel response 460 associated with no motion has a decreasing frequency profile (the magnitude of each of , fa and3is less than the previous). The profile of channel response 460 may differ in some instances (e.g., based on different room layouts or placement of wireless communication devices 402).

[0203] When motion occurs in space 400, a variation in the channel response will occur. For instance, in the examples shown in FIG. 4C and FIG. 4D, channel response 401 associated with motion of object 406 in first region 408 differs from channel response 460 associated with no motion and channel response 403 associated with motion of object 406 in third region 412 differs from channel response 460 associated with no motion. Channel response 401 has a concaveparabolic frequency profile (the magnitude of the middle frequency component, fa, is less than the outer frequency components fa and3), while channel response 403 has a convex-asymptotic frequency profile (the magnitude of the middle frequency component fa is greater than the outer frequency components, fa and3). The profiles of channel responses 401, 403 may differ in some instances (e.g., based on different room layouts or placement of the wireless communication devices 402).

[0204] Analyzing channel responses may be considered similar to analyzing a digital filter. A channel response may be formed through the reflections of objects in a space as well as reflections created by a moving or static human. When a reflector (e.g., a human) moves, it changes the channel response. This may translate to a change in equivalent taps of a digital filter, which can be thought of as having poles and zeros (poles amplify the frequency components of a channel response and appear as peaks or high points in the response, while zeros attenuate thefrequency components of a channel response and appear as troughs, low points, or nulls in the response). A changing digital fdter can be characterized by the locations of its peaks and troughs, and a channel response may be characterized similarly by its peaks and troughs. For example, in some implementations, analyzing nulls and peaks in the frequency components of a channel response (e.g., by marking their location on the frequency axis and their magnitude), motion can be detected.

[0205] In some implementations, a time series aggregation can be used to detect motion. A time series aggregation may be performed by observing the features of a channel response over a moving window and aggregating the windowed result by using statistical measures (e.g., mean, variance, principal components, etc.). During instances of motion, the characteristic digital-fdter features would be displaced in location and flip-flop between some values due to the continuous change in the scattering scene. That is, an equivalent digital fdter exhibits a range of values for its peaks and nulls (due to the motion). By looking at this range of values, unique profdes (in examples profdes may also be referred to as signatures) may be identified for distinct regions within a space.

[0206] In some implementations, an artificial intelligence (Al) model may be used to process data. Al models may be of a variety of types, for example linear regression models, logistic regression models, linear discriminant analysis models, decision tree models, naive Bayes models, / / -nearest neighbors models, learning vector quantization models, support vector machines, bagging and random forest models, and deep neural networks. In general, all Al models aim to learn a function which provides the most precise correlation between input values and output values and are trained using historic sets of inputs and outputs that are known to be correlated. In examples, artificial intelligence may also be referred to as machine learning.

[0207] In some implementations, the profiles of the channel responses associated with motion in distinct regions of space 400 can be learned. For example, machine learning may be used to categorize channel response characteristics with motion of an object within distinct regions of a space. In some cases, a user associated with wireless communication devices 402 (e.g., an owner or other occupier of space 400) can assist with the learning process. For instance, referring to the examples shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B, the user can move in each of first to fifth regions 408, 410, 412, 414, 416 during a learning phase and may indicate (e.g., through a user interface on a mobile computing device) that he / she is moving in one of the particular regions in space 400. For example, while the user is moving through first region 408 (e.g., as shown in FIG. 4A) the user may indicate on a mobile computing device that he / she is in first region 408 (and may name the region as “bedroom”, “living room”, “kitchen”, or another type of room of a building, as appropriate). Channel responses may be obtained as the user moves through the region, and thechannel responses may be “tagged” with the user's indicated location (region). The user may repeat the same process for the other regions of space 400. The term “tagged” as used herein may refer to marking and identifying channel responses with the user's indicated location or any other information.

[0208] The tagged channel responses can then be processed (e.g., by machine learning software) to identify unique characteristics of the channel responses associated with motion in the distinct regions. Once identified, the identified unique characteristics may be used to determine a location of detected motion for newly computed channel responses. For example, an Al model may be trained using the tagged channel responses, and once trained, newly computed channel responses can be input to the Al model, and the Al model can output a location of the detected motion. For example, in some cases, mean, range, and absolute values are input to an Al model. In some instances, magnitude and phase of the complex channel response itself may be input as well. These values allow the Al model to design arbitrary front-end filters to pick up the features that are most relevant to making accurate predictions with respect to motion in distinct regions of a space. In some implementations, the Al model is trained by performing a stochastic gradient descent. For instance, channel response variations that are most active during a certain zone may be monitored during the training, and the specific channel variations may be weighted heavily (by training and adapting the weights in the first layer to correlate with those shapes, trends, etc.). The weighted channel variations may be used to create a metric that activates when a user is present in a certain region.

[0209] For extracted features like channel response nulls and peaks, a time-series (of the nulls / peaks) may be created using an aggregation within a moving window, taking a snapshot of few features in the past and present, and using that aggregated value as input to the network. Thus, the network, while adapting its weights, will be trying to aggregate values in a certain region to cluster them, which can be done by creating logistic classifier-based decision surfaces. The decision surfaces divide different clusters and subsequent layers can form categories based on a single cluster or a combination of clusters.

[0210] In some implementations, an Al model includes two or more layers of inference. The first layer acts as a logistic classifier which can divide different concentrations of values into separate clusters, while the second layer combines some of these clusters together to create a category for a distinct region. Additionally, subsequent layers can help in extending the distinct regions over more than two categories of clusters. For example, a fully-connected Al model may include an input layer corresponding to the number of features tracked, a middle layer corresponding to the number of effective clusters (through iterating between choices), and a final layer corresponding to different regions. Where complete channel response information is inputto the Al model, the first layer may act as a shape filter that can correlate certain shapes. Thus, the first layer may lock to a certain shape, the second layer may generate a measure of variation happening in those shapes, and third and subsequent layers may create a combination of those variations and map them to different regions within the space. The output of different layers may then be combined through a fusing layer.B. WLAN sensing system example methods and apparatus

[0211] Section B describes systems and methods that are useful for a wireless sensing system configured to send and receive sensing transmissions and to make sensing measurements.

[0212] FIG. 5 depicts an implementation of some of an architecture of an implementation of system 500 for WLAN sensing, according to some embodiments. System 500 may include a plurality of networking devices. The plurality of networking devices may include networking device 502, additional networking devices 504-(l-N), and Access Point (AP) device 506. In an example, system 500 may include networking device 502, additional networking devices 504-(l- N), AP device 506, and network 560 enabling communication between the system components for information exchange. Further, each of the networking device 502, additional networking devices 504-(l-N), and AP device 506 may include sensing controller (564, 566, and 570-1). In an embodiment, sensing controller (564, 566, and 570-1) is a controller that facilitates and coordinates WLAN sensing related connections and activities.

[0213] In an example implementation, additional networking device 504-(l-N) may include at least first additional networking device 504-1 and second additional networking device 504-2. System 500 may be an example or instance of wireless communication system 100 and network 560 may be an example or instance of wireless network or cellular network, details of which are provided with reference to FIG. 1 and its accompanying description.

[0214] According to an embodiment, networking device 502 may be configured to receive one or more sensing transmissions (for example, from one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l-N) and AP device 506) and perform one or more measurements (for example, channel representation information (CRI) measurements such as channel state information (CSI) or time domain channel representation information (TD-CRI)) useful for WLAN sensing. In examples, these measurements may be known as sensing measurements. Sensing measurements may be processed to achieve a sensing goal of system 500. In an embodiment, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N) may be client devices. In examples, the networking device 502, additional networking devices 504-(l-N) and AP device 506 may be any computing device, such as a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet computer, a mobile device, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), or any other computing device. In some embodiments, networking device 502 may take a role of sensing transmitter and / or sensing receiver. In an embodiment, one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l-N) may be an AP. In some embodiments, one or more networking devices of additional networking devices 504-(l-N) may be client devices. In some embodiments, one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l- N) may take a role of sensing transmitter and / or sensing receiver.

[0215] According to an implementation, networking device 502 may be implemented by a device, such as wireless communication device 102 shown in FIG. 1. In some implementations, networking device 502 may be implemented by a device, such as wireless communication device 204 shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. Further, networking device 502 may be implemented by a device, such as wireless communication device 402 shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. In an implementation, networking device 502 may coordinate and control communication among additional networking devices 504-(l-N). According to an implementation, networking device 502 may be enabled to control a sensing measurement session comprising one or more sensing measurement exchanges to ensure that required sensing transmissions are made at a required times and to ensure an accurate determination of one or more sensing measurements. In some embodiments, networking device 502 may process sensing measurements to achieve the sensing goal of system 500. In some embodiments, networking device 502 may be configured to achieve a sensing goal of the system by using AP device 506. In other embodiments, networking device 502 may be configured to achieve the sensing goal without using AP device 506. In some embodiments, networking device 502 may be configured to transmit sensing measurements to one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l-N), and one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l-N) may be configured to process the sensing measurements to achieve a sensing result of system 500.

[0216] In an embodiment, networking device 502 may be a STA. In some embodiments, networking device may be a non-AP STA. In some embodiments, networking device 502 may be configured to receive sensing measurements via AP device 506, and networking device 502 may be configured to process sensing measurements to achieve the sensing goal of system 500.

[0217] Referring again to FIG. 5, in some embodiments, additional networking devices 504- (1-N) may be configured to send one or more sensing transmissions to networking device 502 based on which one or more sensing measurements may be performed for WLAN sensing. In an embodiment, one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l-N) may be a STA, a non-AP STA, or a combination thereof. In an embodiment, one or more of additional networking devices504-(l-N) may be an AP. In some embodiments, one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l-N) may take a role of sensing initiator and / or sensing responder.

[0218] According to an implementation, one or more of additional networking devices 504- (1-N) may be implemented by a device, such as wireless communication device 102 shown in FIG. 1. In some implementations, one or more of networking devices 504-(l-N) may be implemented by a device, such as wireless communication device 204 shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. Further, one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l-N) may be implemented by a device, such as wireless communication device 402 shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. In some embodiments, additional networking devices 504-(l-N) may be any computing device, such as a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet computer, a mobile device, a PDA, or any other computing device. In some implementations, communication between networking device 502, one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l-N), and AP device 506 may happen via station management entity (SME) and MAC layer management entity (MLME) protocols.

[0219] In some embodiments, AP device 506 may be configured to facilitate the process of WLAN sensing, as explained in further paragraphs using FIG. 6 to FIG. 30. For example, AP device 506 may provide the information associated with additional networking devices 504-(l-N) to networking device 502 when AP devices support WLAN sensing. Accordingly, networking device 502 may perform WLAN sensing based on the received information associated with additional networking devices 504-(l-N). According to some implementations, AP device 506 may include / execute a sensing algorithm. In an embodiment, remote processing device (also referred as AP device 506) may be a STA. According to an implementation, AP device 506 may be implemented by a device, such as wireless communication device 102 shown in FIG. 1. In some implementations, AP device 506 may be implemented by a device, such as wireless communication device 204 shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. Further, AP device 506 may be implemented by a device, such as wireless communication device 402 shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. In some embodiments, AP device 506 may be a hardware device that allows wireless devices to connect to a wired network using Wi-Fi. In example, AP device 506 may be a wireless router, a wireless range extender, WAPs, an outdoor access point, and the like. In embodiments, AP device 506 may fail to support IEEE P802.11bf. In other embodiments, AP device 506 may not be capable of acting as a sensing controller which can manage sensing measurement sessions and a sensing algorithm. Accordingly, networking device 502 may take a role of sensing initiator where a sensing algorithm determines a WLAN sensing session and the sensing measurements required to fulfill the measurement campaign. In an example, networking device 502 may communicate sensing measurement parameters and / or transmission parameters required to initiatea WLAN sensing session to additional networking devices 504-(l-N) or AP device 506 to coordinate and control sensing transmissions for performing sensing measurements.

[0220] Referring to FIG. 5 in more detail, networking device 502 may include processor 508 and memory 510. For example, processor 508 and memory 510 of networking device 502 may be processor 114 and memory 116, respectively, as shown in FIG. 1. In an embodiment, networking device 502 may further include transmitting antenna(s) 512, receiving antenna(s) 514, and sensing agent 516. In an embodiment, sensing agent 516 is a module which allows a networking device to participate in WLAN sensing. Networking device 502 which implements sensing agent 516, may implement techniques and technology defined by IEEE P802.11bf which is a standard that describes enhancements to a WLAN MAC and PHY layer for WLAN sensing. In some embodiments, an antenna may be used to both transmit and receive signals in a half-duplex format. When the antenna is transmitting, it may be referred to as transmitting antenna 512, and when the antenna is receiving, it may be referred to as receiving antenna 514. It is understood by a person of normal skill in the art that the same antenna may be transmitting antenna 512 in some instances and receiving antenna 514 in other instances. In the case of an antenna array, one or more antenna elements may be used to transmit or receive a signal, for example, in a beamforming environment. In some examples, a group of antenna elements used to transmit a composite signal may be referred to as transmitting antenna 512, and a group of antenna elements used to receive a composite signal may be referred to as receiving antenna 514. In some examples, each antenna is equipped with its own transmission and receive paths, which may be alternately switched to connect to the antenna depending on whether the antenna is operating as transmitting antenna 512 or receiving antenna 514.

[0221] In an implementation, sensing agent 516 may be responsible for causing networking device 502 to receive sensing transmissions and associated sensing measurement parameters and / or transmission parameters to calculate sensing measurements. In examples, sensing agent 516 may be responsible for processing sensing measurements to fulfill a sensing goal. In some implementations, receiving sensing transmissions and optionally associated sensing measurement parameters and / or transmission parameters, and calculating sensing measurements may be carried out by sensing agent 516 running in the medium access control (MAC) layer of networking device 502 and processing sensing measurements to fulfill a sensing goal may be carried out by an algorithm running in the application layer of networking device 502, for example sensing algorithm 518. In examples, sensing algorithm 518 running in the application layer of networking device 502 may be known as a WLAN sensing agent, a sensing application, or sensing algorithm. In examples, sensing algorithm 518 may include and / or execute sensing agent 516. According to some implementations, sensing agent 516 may include and / or execute sensing algorithm 518. Insome implementations, sensing agent 516 running in the MAC layer of networking device 502 and sensing algorithm 518 running in the application layer of networking device 502 may run separately on processor 508. In an implementation, sensing agent 516 may pass one or more of sensing measurement parameters, transmission parameters, or physical layer parameters (e.g., such as channel representation information, examples of which are CSI, CIR, and TD-CRI) between the MAC layer of networking device 502 and the application layer of networking device 502. In an example, sensing agent 516 in the MAC layer or sensing algorithm 518 in the application layer may operate on physical layer parameters, for example to detect one or more features of interest. In examples, sensing algorithm 518 may form services or features, which may be presented to an end-user. According to an implementation, communication between the MAC layer of networking device 502 and other layers or components of networking device 502 (including the application layer) may take place based on communication interfaces, such as an MLME interface and a data interface. In examples, sensing agent 516 may be configured to determine a number or a timing or an amplitude or a phase of sensing transmissions and sensing measurements for the purpose of WLAN sensing. In some implementations, sensing agent 516 may be configured to transmit sensing measurements to plurality of sensing transmitters 504-(l- N) and / or remote processing device (or the AP device 506) for further processing. In an implementation, sensing agent 516 may be configured to cause at least one transmitting antenna of transmitting antenna(s) 512 to transmit messages to one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l-N) and / or to AP device 506. Further, sensing agent 516 may be configured to receive, via at least one receiving antenna of receiving antennas(s) 514, messages from one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l-N) or from AP device 506. In an example, sensing agent 516 may be configured to make sensing measurements based on sensing transmissions received from one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l-N) and / or AP.

[0222] In some embodiments, networking device 502 may include sensing measurements storage 520. In an implementation, sensing measurements storage 520 may store sensing measurements computed by networking device 502 based on received sensing transmissions, or received by networking device 502 based on received messages. In an example, sensing measurements stored in sensing measurements storage 520 may be periodically or dynamically updated as required. In some embodiments, networking device 502 may include sensing measurement parameters storage 522. In an implementation, sensing measurement parameters storage 522 may store sensing measurement parameters and / or transmission parameters applicable to one or more sensing measurement setups. In an implementation, sensing measurement parameters storage 522 may store sensing measurement parameters and / or transmissionparameters applicable to one or more sensing measurement sessions. In an implementation, sensing measurement parameters storage 522 may store sensing measurement parameters and / or transmission parameters applicable to one or more sensing measurement exchanges. In an example, sensing measurement parameters and / or transmission parameters stored in sensing measurement parameters storage 522 may be periodically or dynamically updated as required. In an implementation, sensing measurements storage 520 and sensing measurement parameters storage 522 may include any type or form of storage, such as a database or a fde system or may be coupled to memory 510.

[0223] Referring again to FIG. 5, additional networking device 504-1 (which is an example of one or more of additional networking devices 504-(l-N)) may include processor 528-1 and memory 530-1. For example, processor 528-1 and memory 530-1 of additional networking device 504-1 may be processor 114 and memory 116, respectively, as shown in FIG. 1. In an embodiment, sensing transmitter 504-1 may further include transmitting antenna(s) 532-1, receiving antenna(s) 534-1, and sensing agent 536-1.

[0224] Sensing agent 536-1 may be configured to cause at least one transmitting antenna of transmitting antenna(s) 532-1 and at least one receiving antenna of receiving antennas(s) 534-1 to exchange messages with networking device 502 or with AP device 506. In some embodiments, an antenna may be used to both transmit and receive in a half-duplex format. When the antenna is transmitting, it may be referred to as transmitting antenna 532-1, and when the antenna is receiving, it may be referred to as receiving antenna 534-1. It is understood by a person of normal skill in the art that the same antenna may be transmitting antenna 532-1 in some instances and receiving antenna 534-1 in other instances. In the case of an antenna array, one or more antenna elements may be used to transmit or receive a signal, for example, in a beamforming environment. In some examples, a group of antenna elements used to transmit a composite signal may be referred to as transmitting antenna 532-1, and a group of antenna elements used to receive a composite signal may be referred to as receiving antenna 534-1. In some examples, each antenna is equipped with its own transmit and receive paths, which may be alternately switched to connect to the antenna depending on whether the antenna is operating as transmitting antenna 532-1 or receiving antenna 534-1.

[0225] In an implementation, sensing agent 536-1 may be responsible for causing additional networking device 504-1 to send sensing transmissions and, in examples, receive associated sensing measurements from networking device 502 and AP device 506. In examples, sensing agent 536-1 may be responsible for processing sensing measurements to fulfdl a sensing goal. In some implementations, sensing agent 536-1 may run in the medium access control (MAC) layer ofadditional networking device 504-1 and processing sensing measurements to fulfill a sensing goal may be carried out by sensing algorithm 538-1, which in examples may run in the application layer of additional networking device 504-1. In examples, sensing algorithm 538-1 running in the application layer of additional networking device 504-1 may be known as a WLAN sensing agent, a sensing application, or a sensing algorithm. In examples, sensing algorithm 538-1 may include and / or execute sensing agent 536-1. According to some implementations, sensing agent 536-1 may include and / or execute sensing algorithm 538-1. In some implementations, sensing agent 536- 1 may run in the MAC layer of additional networking device 504-1 and sensing algorithm 538-1 may run in the application layer of additional networking device 504-1. In some implementations, sensing agent 536-1 of additional networking device 504-1 and sensing algorithm 538-1 may run separately on processor 528-1. In an implementation, sensing agent 536-1 may pass sensing measurement parameters, transmission parameters, or physical layer parameters between the MAC layer of additional networking device 504-1 and the application layer of additional networking device 504-1. In an example, sensing agent 536-1 in the MAC layer or sensing algorithm 538-1 in the application layer may control physical layer parameters, for example physical layer parameters used to generate one or more sensing transmissions. In examples, sensing algorithm 538-1 may form services or features, which may be presented to an end-user. According to an implementation, communication between the MAC layer of additional networking device 504-1 and other layers or components of additional networking device 504-1 (including the application layer) may take place based on communication interfaces, such as an MLME interface and a data interface. In examples, sensing agent 536-1 may be configured to determine a number or a timing or an amplitude or a phase of sensing transmissions for the purpose of WLAN sensing. In some implementations, sensing agent 536-1 may be configured to cause additional networking device 504-1 to transmit sensing transmissions to networking device 502 and AP device 506. In an implementation, sensing agent 536-1 may be configured to cause at least one transmitting antenna of transmitting antenna(s) 532-1 to transmit messages to networking device 502 or to AP device 506. Further, sensing agent 536-1 may be configured to receive, via at least one receiving antenna of receiving antennas(s) 534-1, messages from networking device 502 or from AP device 506.

[0226] In some embodiments, additional networking device 504-1 may include sensing measurements storage 540-1. In an implementation, sensing measurements storage 540-1 may store sensing measurements computed by additional networking device 504-1 or received in a message by additional networking device 504-1. In an implementation, sensing measurements storage 540-1 may store sensing measurements computed by networking device 502 based onsensing transmissions captured by additional networking device 504-1 and sent by networking device 502 to additional networking device 504-1. In an example, sensing measurements stored in sensing measurements storage 540-1 may be periodically or dynamically updated as required. In an implementation, sensing measurements storage 540-1 may include any type or form of storage, such as a database or a fde system or coupled to memory 530-1.

[0227] In some embodiments, additional networking device 504-1 may include sensing measurement parameters storage 542-1. In an implementation, sensing measurement parameters storage 542-1 may store sensing measurement parameters and / or transmission parameters applicable to one or more sensing measurement sessions. In an implementation, sensing measurement parameters storage 542-1 may store sensing measurement parameters and / or transmission parameters applicable to one or more sensing measurement setups. In an implementation, sensing measurement parameters storage 542-1 may store sensing measurement parameters and / or transmission parameters applicable to one or more sensing measurement exchanges. In an example, sensing measurement parameters and / or transmission parameters stored in sensing measurement parameters storage 542-1 may be periodically or dynamically updated as required. In an implementation, sensing measurements storage 540-1 and sensing measurement parameters storage 542-1 may include any type or form of storage, such as a database or a fde system or may be coupled to memory 530-1.

[0228] Referring to FIG. 5 in more detail, AP device 506 may include processor 548 and memory 550. For example, processor 548 and memory 550 of AP device 506 may be processor 114 and memory 116, respectively, as shown in FIG. 1. In an embodiment, AP device 506 may further include transmitting antenna(s) 552, receiving antenna(s) 554, sensing agent 556, and sensing algorithm, 558. In some embodiments, an antenna may be used to both transmit and receive signals in a half-duplex format. When the antenna is transmitting, it may be referred to as transmitting antenna 552, and when the antenna is receiving, it may be referred to as receiving antenna 554. It is understood by a person of normal skill in the art that the same antenna may be transmitting antenna 552 in some instances and receiving antenna 554 in other instances. In the case of an antenna array, one or more antenna elements may be used to transmit or receive a signal, for example, in a beamforming environment. In some examples, a group of antenna elements used to transmit a composite signal may be referred to as transmitting antenna 552, and a group of antenna elements used to receive a composite signal may be referred to as receiving antenna 554. In some examples, each antenna is equipped with its own transmission and receive paths, which may be alternately switched to connect to the antenna depending on whether the antenna is operating as transmitting antenna 552 or receiving antenna 554. Further, AP device 506 mayinclude sensing measurements storage 572 and sensing measurement parameters storage 562. In an embodiment, sensing measurements storage 572 and sensing measurement parameters storage 562 may include any type or form of storage, such as a database or a fde system or coupled to memory 550.

[0229] In an implementation, sensing agent 556 may be responsible for determining sensing measurement parameters and / or transmission parameters for one or more sensing measurement setups. In examples, sensing agent 556 may receive sensing measurement parameters and / or transmission parameters for one or more sensing measurement setups from sensing algorithm 558. In an example, sensing agent 556 may receive sensing measurements from one or more of plurality of networking devices 502, 504-(l-N) and may process the sensing measurements to fulfdl a sensing goal. In an example, sensing agent 556 may receive channel representation information (such as CSI or TD-CRI) from networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l- N) and may process the channel representation information to fulfdl a sensing goal. In some implementations, sensing agent 556 may receive sensing measurements or channel representation information and may provide the received sensing measurements or channel representation information to sensing algorithm 558, and sensing algorithm 558 may receive the sensing measurements or channel representation information from sensing agent 556 and may process the information to fulfdl a sensing goal. In other implementations, AP device 506 fails to perform the functionalities / task associated with the sensing agent due to one or more errors.

[0230] In an embodiment, networking device 502 acting as a sensing transmitter may perform a sensing transmission which is received by additional networking devices 504-(l-N) acting as sensing receivers. Further, networking device 502 may act as a sensing transmitter for a sensing measurement instance. Furthermore, networking device 502 may act as a sensing receiver for the same sensing measurement instance.

[0231] In an embodiment, a single networking device 502 is shown in FIG. 5. However, there may be multiple networking devices 502-(l-M) (not shown) acting as sensing transmitters for a sensing measurement instance and a sensing receiver for the same sensing measurement instance

[0232] For ease of explanation and understanding, descriptions provided above may be with reference to additional networking device 504-1, however, the description is equally applicable to additional networking devices 504-(l-N).

[0233] According to one or more implementations, communications in network 560 may be governed by one or more of the 802. 11 family of standards developed by IEEE. Some example IEEE standards may include IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.11ax, IEEE 802. l ime, IEEE 802.11az and IEEE 802.11be. IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.11 ax are fully ratified standards whilst IEEE802. l ime reflects an ongoing maintenance update to the IEEE 802.11 standard and IEEE 802. 11 be defines the next generation of standard. IEEE 802. 11 az is an extension of the IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802. 11 ax standards which add new functionality. In some implementations, communications may be governed by other standards (other or additional IEEE standards or other types of standards). In some embodiments, parts of network 560 which are not required by system 500 to be governed by one or more of the 802.11 family of standards may be implemented by an instance of any type of network, including wireless networks or cellular networks. Further, IEEE 802. 11 ax included Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access, (OFDMA), which allows networking device 502 to simultaneously transmit data to all participating devices, such as additional networking devices 504-Q-N), and vice versa using a single transmission opportunity (TXOP). The efficiency of OFDMA depends on how networking device 502 schedules channel resources (interchangeably referred to as Resource Units (RUs)) among additional networking devices 504-(l-N) and configures transmission parameters. According to an implementation, system 500 may be an OFDMA enabled system.

[0234] Referring back to FIG. 5, according to one or more implementations, WLAN sensing system 500 may participate in a sensing session. In examples, a sensing session is an agreement between a sensing initiator and a sensing responder to participate in a WLAN sensing procedure (also known as Wi-Fi sensing procedure). In examples, sensing measurement parameters associated with a sensing session may be determined by a sensing initiator and may be exchanged between the sensing initiator and a sensing responder. In examples, sensing initiator may be networking device 502 and sensing responder may be AP device 506. In examples, sensing initiator may be networking device 502 and sensing responder may be additional networking device 504- 1. In examples, sensing initiator may be additional networking device 504-1, and sensing responder may be networking device 502. In examples, a networking device (e.g., networking device 502, additional networking device 504-1 or AP device 506) may participate in multiple sensing sessions either as a sensing initiator or as a sensing responder. In examples, networking device 502 may participate in multiple sensing sessions either as a sensing initiator or as a sensing responder. In examples, AP device 506 may participate in multiple sensing sessions as a sensing responder.

[0235] FIG. 6 is reproduced from IEEE P802.11bf D3.0 Figure AD-1 and illustrates an example of a WLAN sensing procedure (also known as a Wi-Fi sensing procedure) according to some embodiments. In examples, a WLAN sensing procedure allows a STA to perform WLAN sensing. In an example, a WLAN sensing procedure enables a STA to obtain one or more sensing measurements of the wireless transmission channel between two or more STAs and / or the wireless transmission channel between a receiving antenna and a transmitting antenna of a STA. In examples, a WLAN sensing procedure is composed of one or more of a sensing session setup, asensing measurement setup, one or more sensing measurement exchanges, sensing measurement setup termination, and sensing session termination.

[0236] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a WLAN sensing procedure with a sensing measurement session setup with a STA with MAC ADDR=A and Association Identifier (AID)=1 and is a reproduction of Figure AD-1 of IEEE P802.11bf D3.0. In examples, a sensing measurement session setup establishes a sensing session or a sensing procedure. In examples, the sensing measurement session may be identified by the AID of the STA involved in the sensing measurement session. FIG. 6 illustrates a measurement session setup procedure for the STA with MAC ADDR=A, where the measurement session ID = 1.

[0237] In examples, a sensing measurement session setup allows for a sensing initiator and a sensing responder to exchange and agree on operational attributes associated with a sensing measurement exchange. A sensing initiator may transmit a Sensing Measurement Setup Request frame to a sensing responder with which it intends to perform a sensing measurement session setup. An example of a Sensing Measurement Request frame Action field format (which may also be referred to as a Sensing Measurement Setup Request frame Action field format) as described by IEEE P802.11bf D3.0 in Figure 9-1198a is provided in FIG. 7A. As shown in the example illustrated in FIG. 7A, in embodiments, a Sensing Measurement Setup Request frame Action field format may include one or more of a Category field, a Public Action field, a Dialog Token field, a Sensing Comeback Info field, a Measurement Setup ID field, and a Sensing Measurement Parameters element. In examples, a Category value code is defined for a “Protected Sensing Frame.” In an embodiment, a Protected Sensing Action field is defined in the octet immediately after the Category field in order to differentiate Protected Sensing Frame formats from Public Sensing Frame formats.

[0238] FIG. 7B is reproduced from IEEE P802.11bf D3.0 Figure 9-1001bc and illustrates an example, according to some embodiments, of a Sensing Measurement Parameters element format 704. In examples, a Sensing Measurement Parameters element indicates operational attributes of a corresponding sensing measurement exchange. In examples, the Sensing Measurement Parameters element comprises a Sensing Measurement Parameters field and a Sensing subelements field. FIG. 7C is reproduced from IEEE P802.11bf D3.0 Figure 9-1001bd and illustrates an example of a format of a Sensing Measurement Parameters field format, according to some embodiments. In an example, a Sensing Measurement Parameters field comprises a Sensing Transmitter subfield. The Sensing Transmitter subfield may be set to 1 to indicate a sensing responder assumes a sensing transmitter role, such as sensing transmitter 504-1. In an example the sensing responder assumes a sensing transmitter role according to the Sensing Transmitter subfield for the Sensing Measurement Setup ID associated with the SensingMeasurement Parameters field. In an example, the Sensing Measurement Parameters field comprises a Sensing Receiver subfield. The Sensing Receiver subfield may be set to 1 to indicate a sensing responder assumes a sensing receiver role, such as sensing receiver 502-1. In an example the sensing responder assumes a sensing receiver role according to the Sensing Receiver subfield for the Sensing Measurement Setup ID associated with the Sensing Measurement Parameters field.

[0239] Referring again to FIG. 7C, in examples, a Sensing Measurement Parameters field format 706 includes a Sensing Measurement Report Requested subfield if the Sensing Receiver subfield indicates that the sensing responder should assume a sensing receiver role. In an example, the Sensing Measurement Report Requested subfield may indicate that whether or not a sensing responder sends Sensing Measurement Report frames in sensing measurement exchanges that result from the sensing measurement session setup.

[0240] In examples, after the sensing responder receives the Sensing Measurement Setup Request frame, the sensing responder may transmit a Sensing Measurement Setup Response frame. An example of a Sensing Measurement Response frame Action field format 708 (which may also be referred to as a Sensing Measurement Setup Response frame Action field format) is described by IEEE P802.11bf D3.0 Figure 9-1198d and is provided in FIG. 7D. In examples, the sensing responder may use a Status Code field in the Sensing Measurement Setup Response frame to indicate whether the sensing responder accepts the requested sensing measurement setup parameters in the received Sensing Measurement Setup Request frame. In an embodiment, the Status Code field may be set to 0 indicating a successful sensing measurement setup, where the sensing responder accepts the operational attributes included in the Sensing Measurement Setup Request frame. In examples, the sensing responder may indicate in the Sensing Measurement Setup Response frame that the operational attributes included in the Sensing Measurement Setup Request frame sent by the sensing initiator are not accepted, for example by setting the Status Code field to a non-zero value. In examples, the sensing responder may indicate in the Sensing Measurement Setup Response frame suggested sensing measurement parameters, for example to indicate to the sensing initiator one or more operational attributes preferred by the sensing responder. In examples, the sensing responder may indicate to the sensing initiator that suggested sensing measurement parameters are included in the Sensing Measurement Setup Response frame by setting the Status Code field to a non-zero value.

[0241] In examples, the sensing initiator may assign a role to the sensing responder as part of the sensing measurement setup sent in the Sensing Measurement Setup Request frame. For example, the sensing initiator may indicate to a sensing responder that the sensing responder is to assume the role of a sensing receiver, such as sensing receiver 502-1, or the role of a sensing transmitter, such as sensing transmitter 504-1, or the role of sensing receiver 502-1 and sensingtransmitter 504-1. In examples, the sensing initiator may indicate to the sensing responder whether the sensing responder sends sensing measurement report frames in sensing measurement exchanges. In an embodiment, the role assigned to the sensing responder and / or whether the sensing responder sends sensing measurement report frames persists until the sensing measurement setup is terminated.

[0242] Referring again to FIG. 6 and the measurement session with the STA with MAC ADDR=A identified by the STA AID, AID=1, the measurement session setup is followed by one or more sensing measurement exchanges and measurement reporting instances which may be performed based on the defined operational attribute set. In the example shown in FIG. 6, the one or more sensing measurement exchanges and measurement reporting instances for the STA with MAC ADDR=A may be assigned measurement exchange IDs, for example a first measurement exchange may be assigned measurement exchange ID=1, and a second measurement exchange may be assigned measurement exchange ID=2. In examples, a measurement exchange may be uniquely associated with a measurement session setup.

[0243] Referring again to FIG. 6, a second measurement session setup may be initiated for the STA with MAC ADDR=A, which may be identified as measurement session ID=2. Measurement session ID=2 may be associated with a second operational attribute set. In examples, after the second sensing measurement session setup, any subsequent one or more sensing measurement exchanges may be performed based on either the first operational attribute set (measurement session ID=1) or the second operational attribute set (measurement session ID=2.)

[0244] Referring again to FIG. 6, FIG. 6 illustrates a measurement session setup with a STA with MAC ADDR=B and Unassociated STA Identifier (USID)=2. In examples, the measurement session may be identified by the USID of the STA with MAC ADDR=B. FIG. 6 further illustrates a sensing measurement exchange for the STA with MAC ADDR=B. In the example, the operational attribute set for the measurement session for the STA with MAC ADDR=B is the same as the second operational attribute set established with the STA with MAC ADDR=A, and the same measurement session ID is used for both the STA with MAC ADDR=A and the STA with MAC ADDR=B. That is, a sensing measurement session ID (which may also be referred to as a sensing measurement session label) may apply to one or more STAs. In examples according to FIG. 6, subsequent sensing measurement exchanges associated with measurement session ID=2 may be associated with the STA with MAC ADDR=A, the STA with MAC ADDR=B, or with both the STA with MAC ADDR=A and the STA with MAC ADDR=B. Each sensing measurement exchange may have one-to-many (including one-to-one) announcement and / or triggering and may have either one-to-many or many-to-one (including one-to-one) sounding.

[0245] In examples, an operational atribute set of a measurement session may be terminated by performing a sensing measurement session termination procedure, for example as is shown in FIG. 6 for sensing measurement session ID=1 and the STA with MAC ADDR=A. In examples, the sensing measurement session ID of a terminated sensing measurement setup may be used for a subsequent sensing measurement session. This is shown in FIG. 6 where a sensing measurement session with ID=1 is established for the STA with MAC ADDR=B, after the termination of the sensing measurement session ID=1 with the STA with MAC ADDR=A. In some embodiments, a sensing measurement session may be terminated using a sensing measurement session termination procedure, as shown in FIG. 6.

[0246] FIG. 8A illustrates that measurement exchanges between a sensing initiator and a sensing responder may be one-to-many or many-to-one. In examples, a measurement exchange and / or measurement reporting may have a one-to-one (single device to single device) announcement or triggering or may have a one-to-many (single device to multiple devices) announcement or triggering. In examples, a measurement exchange may have one-to-one, one-to- many, or many-to-one (many devices to a single device) sounding.

[0247] As previously described, a sensing measurement session is an agreement between a sensing initiator and a sensing responder to participate in a WLAN (Wi-Fi) sensing procedure. In examples, a sensing measurement session is pairwise and in examples, may be identified by a sensing measurement ID, MAC addresses of the sensing initiator and the sensing responder or by the associated AID / USID values, or by any combination of these or other identifiers. FIG. 8B shows an example of pairwise exchanges or procedures that may take place between a sensing initiator and a sensing responder related to a sensing measurement session, which may include one or more of a sensing session setup, a sensing measurement setup (a sensing measurement session setup), a sensing measurement setup termination (a sensing measurement session termination), and a sensing session termination.

[0248] In examples, a sensing measurement exchange of a WLAN sensing procedure may be a trigger-based (TB) sensing measurement exchange. FIG. 9A and FIG. 9B depict a message flow of a sensing measurement session of a WLAN sensing procedure comprising a sensing measurement session setup procedure followed by one or more trigger-based (TB) sensing measurement exchanges that consist of either NDPA sounding or trigger frame (TF) sounding, following by a sensing measurement session termination procedure, according to some examples. In examples, a TB sensing measurement exchange may be used where the sensing initiator is an AP, and one or more non-AP STAs are sensing responders. In examples, a TB sensing measurement exchange may include a polling phase, an NDPA sounding phase, a trigger frame (TF) sounding phase, and a reporting phase.

[0249] FIG. 10A is reproduced from IEEE P802. 1 Ibf D3.0 Figure 1 l-102b and illustrates an example of a TB sensing measurement exchange including a polling phase, an NDPA sounding phase, a Trigger frame (TF) sounding phase, and a reporting phase. The table in FIG. 10B indicates valid combinations of phases of a TB sensing measurement exchange, in some examples.

[0250] FIG. 11 is reproduced from IEEE P802.11bf D3.0 Figure l l-102c and provides one example of a TB sensing measurement exchange with a single AP (for example, and with reference to FIG. 5, networking devices 502, additional networking devices 504-(l-N)), or AP device 506) in the role of a sensing initiator and six STAs, referred to as STA 1, STA 2, STA 3, STA 4, STA 5 and STA 6 (such as networking devices 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N))), all of which in the example are sensing responders. In example, the networking device (for example, any one of STA 4, STA 5 and STA 6) communicates with the single AP to achieve the sensing goal. In the example, the TB sensing measurement exchange comprises a polling phase, an NDPA sounding phase, a TF sounding phase, and a reporting phase. In the example, STA 1, STA 2 and STA 3 are acting as sensing transmitters, such as additional networking device 504-1, additional networking device 504-2 and additional networking device 504-3. In the example of FIG. 11, STA 4, STA 5, and STA 6 are acting as sensing receivers, such as networking device 502. In examples, in the polling phase, the AP acting as the sensing initiator transmits a Sensing Polling Trigger frame to STA 1, STA 2, STA 3, STA 4, STA 5, and STA 6. In an embodiment, sensing transmitter STA 1 and sensing transmitter STA 2 respond to the Sensing Polling Trigger frame with an indication that the STA is available to participate in a sensing measurement exchange. In examples, the indication is a CTS-to-self frame. In the example, sensing transmitter STA 3 does not respond to the Sensing Polling Trigger frame sent by the AP as the sensing initiator, indicating that STA 3 will not participate in the sensing measurement exchange. In an embodiment, sensing receiver STA 4 and sensing receiver STA 5 respond to the Sensing Polling Trigger frame with an indication that the STA is available to participate in a sensing measurement exchange. In examples, the indication is a CTS-to-self frame. In the example, sensing receiver STA 6 does not respond to the Sensing Polling Trigger frame sent by the AP as the sensing initiator, indicating that STA 6 will not participate in the sensing measurement exchange.

[0251] Referring again to FIG. 11, in a NDPA sounding phase, the AP acting as sensing initiator assumes the role of sensing transmitter. In examples, the AP as sensing transmitter transmits a sensing transmission. In examples, the sensing transmission may be a broadcast transmission. In examples, the sensing transmission may be a unicast transmission to one or more STAs, for example to sensing receiver STA 4, sensing receiver STA 5 and / or to sensing receiver STA 6. In examples, a period of one or more SIFS elapses between the AP as sensing transmitter sending the sensing NDPA frame and when the AP as sensing transmitter sends the one or moresensing transmissions. In examples, one or more of the sensing transmissions may be a full bandwidth NDP frame. In examples, one or more of the sensing transmissions may be a partial bandwidth NDP frame. In examples, one or more of the NDP frames may be an SI2SR NDP frame.

[0252] The sensing measurement exchange of FIG. 11 includes a TF Sounding phase. In examples, in the TF Sounding phase, the AP as the sensing initiator sends a Sensing Sounding Trigger frame to sensing transmitter STA 1 and to sensing transmitter STA 2. In examples, responsive to receiving the Sensing SR2SI Sounding Trigger frame, sensing transmitter STA 1 and sensing transmitter STA 2 send sensing transmissions to the AP. In examples, the sensing transmissions may comprise NDP transmissions. In an example, one or more of the NDP transmissions to the AP may be SR2SI NDP transmissions (as shown in the example of FIG. 11). In examples, a period of one or more SIFS elapses between sensing transmitter STA 1 receiving the Sensing SR2SI Sounding Trigger frame and transmitting a sensing transmission, and in examples a period of one or more SIFS elapses between sensing transmitter STA 2 receiving the Sensing SR2SI Sounding Trigger frame and transmitting a sensing transmission. In examples, the AP may assume the role of sensing receiver, and the AP may make sensing measurements on the sensing transmissions from sensing transmitter STA 1 and sensing transmitter STA 2.

[0253] In examples, a sensing measurement exchange of a WLAN sensing procedure may be a non-trigger-based (non-TB) sensing measurement exchange. FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B depicts a message flow of a sensing measurement session setup procedure followed by one or more non- TB sensing measurement exchanges of a WLAN sensing procedure that consist of one or more of downlink sounding or uplink sounding, according to some embodiments, followed by a sensing measurement session termination procedure, according to some examples. In examples, a non-TB sensing measurement exchange may be used where the sensing initiator is a non-AP STA, and an AP is the sensing responder. In examples of uplink sounding described by IEEE P802.11bf, an example of which is shown in FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B, the sensing initiator (non-AP STA) acting as a sensing transmitter (for example, additional networking device 504-1) transmits a sensing announcement frame followed by a sensing transmission. In examples, the sensing announcement frame may be an NDPA frame. In examples, the sensing transmission may be an NDP frame (for example, an SI2SR NDP frame). In examples, responsive to receiving the sensing transmission, the AP acting as a sensing receiver (for example, networking device 502 or AP device 506), may transmit to the sensing initiator (non-AP STA in the role of additional networking device 504-1) a sensing measurement report, for example one or more Sensing Measurement Report frames. In examples of downlink sounding as shown in FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B, the sensing initiator (non- AP STA) acting as a sensing receiver transmits a sensing announcement frame. In examples, the sensing announcement frame may be an NDPA frame. In examples, responsive to receiving thesensing announcement frame, the AP acting as sensing transmitter may transmit one or more sensing transmissions. In examples, one or more of the sensing transmissions may be an NDP frame (for example, an SI2SR NDP frame). In examples, the non-AP STA acting as a sensing receiver, responsive to receiving a sensing transmission, may make a sensing measurement on the sensing transmission. In examples, the sensing measurement session may be terminated by the sensing initiator or the sensing responder transmitting a SENS Measurement Setup Termination frame. In examples, the sensing responder or sensing initiator (respectively) may respond with an acknowledgment.

[0254] FIG. 13 is reproduced from IEEE P802.11bf D3.0 figure ll-102i and illustrates a detailed example of a non-TB sensing measurement exchange, according to some embodiments.In examples, STA 1 acting as sensing initiator and sensing transmitter, such as additional networking device 504-1, transmits a sensing announcement frame. In examples, the sensing announcement frame may be a sensing NDPA frame. In examples, one or more SIFS may elapse followed by STA 1 acting as sensing initiator and sensing transmitter transmitting one or more sensing transmissions. In examples, one or more of the sensing transmissions may be an NDP frame (for example, a SI2SR NDP frame). In an example. STA 1 acting as sensing initiator and sensing receiver, such AP which is an example of sensing receiver, may transmit a sensing announcement frame followed after a period by an SI2SR NDP frame. In examples, the sensing announcement frame may be a sensing NDPA frame, and the period may be a SIFS. In examples, one or more SIFS may elapse followed by AP acting as sensing responder and sensing transmitter transmitting one or more sensing transmissions. In examples, AP acting as sensing responder and sensing transmitter does not transmit an NDPA frame and instead transmits a sensing transmission one SIFS after receiving the SI2SR NDP. In examples, the sensing transmission may be an NDP frame (for example, an SR2SI NDP frame).

[0255] FIG. 14A is reproduced from IEEE P802.1 Ibf D3.0, Figure 9-1198f and illustrates an example of a Sensing Measurement Report frame Action field format. In some examples, a Sensing Measurement Report frame may be transmitted to provide WLAN sensing measurements, for example to a sensing agent or a sensing algorithm of a sensing initiator. In examples, a Sensing Measurement Report frame may comprise one or more Sensing Measurement Report Containers. FIG. 14B is reproduced from IEEE P802.1 Ibf D3.0 Figure 9-189g and is an example of a Sensing Measurement Report Container field format. A Sensing Measurement Report Container may comprise a single sensing measurement report, in some embodiments.

[0256] Referring again to FIG. 14B, in embodiments a Sensing Measurement Report Container may include a Sensing Measurement Report Control field. In examples, the Sensing Measurement Report Control field may contain information necessary to interpret the SensingMeasurement Report field. For example, the Sensing Measurement Report Control field format may comprise one or more subfields. In an embodiment, one or more subfields of the Sensing Measurement Report Control field may include PHY layer parameters used by the sensing receiver when performing the sensing measurement, for example receiver antenna beamforming or spatial layer information. In examples, Sensing Measurement Report Control field definitions are shown in Table 9-127h from IEEE P802.1 Ibf D3.0, which is reproduced below.Table 9-127h — Sensing Measurement Report Control field definition

[0257] In a sensing session, exchanges of transmissions between sensing receiver (i.e., networking device 502 or additional networking devices 504-(l-N)) and one or more of plurality of sensing transmitters (i.e., additional networking devices 504-(l-N) or networking device 502) may occur. In an example, control of these transmissions may be with the MAC layer of the IEEE 802.11 stack. According to an implementation, sensing receiver may secure a TXOP which may be allocated to one or more sensing transmissions by one or more of plurality of sensing transmitters. According to an implementation, sensing receiver may allocate channel resources (or RUs) within a TXOP to the one or more of plurality of sensing transmitters. In an example, sensing receiver may allocate the channel resources to the one or more of plurality of sensing transmitters by allocating time and bandwidth within the TXOP to the one or more of plurality of sensing transmitters.

[0258] According to an implementation, example 1500 of a hierarchy of fields within sensing trigger message is shown in FIG. 15A to FIG. 151.

[0259] As described in FIG. 15A and based upon a Trigger frame as described by IEEEP802.ll, the Common Info field may contain information which is common to one or more of a plurality of sensing transmitters (e.g., additional networking devices 504-(l-N), as shown in FIG. 5). According to some implementations, the requirement of an NDPA preceding an NDP may be optional. This may be indicated to one or more of the plurality of sensing transmitters and may,for example, be encoded into a “Trigger Dependent Common Info” field if the requirement is common to the plurality of sensing transmitters, or into a “Trigger Dependent User Info” field if the requirement is specific to one or more sensing transmitters of the plurality of sensing transmitters. According to an example, the requirement for a sensing announcement (for example, and NDPA) preceding a sensing response NDP may be encoded by a single bit where 0 (bit clear) indicates that a sensing announcement is optional and 1 (bit set) indicates that a sensing announcement is required.

[0260] As described by FIG. 15B which is a reproduction of IEEE P802.11bf D3.0 Figure 9- 102a (Trigger Dependent Common Info field format of the Sensing Polling, SR2SI Sounding, Sensing Reporting, and Sensing Threshold-based Reporting Trigger frame), a Trigger Dependent Common Info field format may include the Sensing Trigger Subtype field with different values to indicate different Sensing Trigger frame variants. The Sensing Trigger frame variants may be used for Sensing Polling, SR2SI Sounding, Sensing Threshold-based Report, Sensing Reporting, or SR2SR Sounding.

[0261] As adapted from IEEE P802.ll and IEEE P802.11bf and described in FIG. 15C, a Trigger Type (within B0..3 of “Common Info” field) may be defined which represents a sensing trigger message. In examples, a sensing Trigger message may have a Trigger Type subfield value of 8.

[0262] As described by IEEE P802.ll and reproduced in FIG. 15D the sensing trigger message may have an uplink bandwidth (UL BW) subfield value of 0, 1, 2 or 3 corresponding to bandwidths of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, or 80+80 MHz (160 MHz).

[0263] As described in FIG. 15E and based upon a Trigger frame as described by IEEE P802.ll, the User Info List contains information which is specific to each of the plurality of sensing transmitters. In examples, the User Info List may include the AID of a sensing transmitter, an RU allocation for a sensing transmitter, and other Trigger Dependent User Info.

[0264] As described in FIG. 15F and leveraging the definition of IEEE P802.ll, the AID12 subfield of the User Info List illustrated in FIG. 15D may be used to address a specific sensing transmitter of the plurality of sensing transmitters.

[0265] As described in FIG. 15G and FIG. 15H and leveraging the definition of IEEE P802.11, the RU Allocation subfield is used to allocate resource units (RU) to each of the plurality of sensing transmitters 504-(l-N).

[0266] As described in FIG. 151, the Trigger Dependent User Info subfield may be used to request the transmission configuration and / or steering matrix configuration for one or more sensing transmitters of the plurality of sensing transmitters that the sensing trigger message is triggering.C. Systems and methods for WLAN sensing carried out by a networking device

[0267] The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for WLAN sensing. In particular, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for WLAN sensing carried out by a networking device.

[0268] A WLAN sensing system may be configured to detect features of interest in a sensing space. The WLAN sensing system may be a network of Wi-Fi enabled devices which are part of IEEE 802.11 network (sometimes referred to as a Basic Service Set (BSS) or Extended Service Set (ESS)). The features of interest may include motion of objects and motion tracking, presence detection, intrusion detection, gesture recognition, fall detection, breathing rate detection, and other applications. The sensing space may refer to any physical space in which the WLAN sensing system may operate and may include a place of adobe, a place of work, a shopping mall, a sport, or sports hall or sports stadium, a garden, or any other physical space.

[0269] FIG. 16 depicts exemplary Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) network 1600 (which is an example of network 560) in the form of BSS 1602 including plurality of client devices 1604, 1606, 1608, and 1610, and an Access Point Station 1612 (AP STA) (which is an example of AP device 506), according to some embodiments. The WLAN network is also known as Wi-Fi network. Client devices 1604, 1606, 1608 and 1610, and AP STA 1612 may be examples of networking devices as described by FIG. 5.

[0270] Referring to FIG. 16 in detail, there are four client devices 1604, 1606, 1608, and 1610 associated with single AP STA (hereinafter termed as AP device) in exemplary BSS 1602. AP device 1612 may be implemented by an AP STA and client devices 1604, 1606, 1608, and 1610 are implemented by non-AP STAs. Further, data may pass from the AP STA to the non-AP STA(s) and vice versa. The links between the AP STA and each of the non-AP STAs are shown as data links 1614, 1616, 1618, and 1620.

[0271] FIG. 17 depicts exemplary WLAN network 1700 in the form of BSS 1732 including plurality of networking devices and AP device supporting WLAN sensing, according to some embodiments. In exemplary WLAN network 1700, plurality of networking device consists of an AP device and a plurality of client devices or non-AP Stations (STA). In a Wi-Fi or WLAN network, the Access Point (AP) device may control the network and manage the non-AP Stations (STA) which are connected to AP device. Likewise, in a WLAN sensing network, the AP device may be the most important device, and non-AP STAs within the WLAN sensing network are simple, low-performance (in terms of memory and processing capability) devices. In some cases, the WLAN network may include non-AP STAs which support WLAN sensing via IEEEP802. 1 Ibf but the AP device may either not support IEEE P802.11bf or AP device may not be capable of acting as a sensing controller which can manage sensing measurement sessions and the sensing algorithm. In such cases, a system 500 may be implemented in networking devices by which the networking devices in the WLAN sensing network may assign a non-AP STA device to implement the sensing controller and manage a WLAN sensing network to make a broad series of sensing measurements over many links between the networking devices to achieve a sensing goal. Furthermore, a networking device which implements the sensing controller may require a means by which networking device may query the AP of the WLAN network to determine which devices in the WLAN network support WLAN sensing and the levels of support of WLAN sensing that are provided. Details on the system and methods for performing the WLAN sensing have been explained in further paragraphs using FIG. 17 to FIG. 30.

[0272] FIG. 17 shows an exemplary implementation of system 1700. System 1700 may be implemented on a WLAN network (also known as a Wi-Fi network) as shown. As depicted, the WLAN network is overlaid with sensing space 1734 within which sensing measurements may be made over sensing links 1702 to 1720. In the example, plurality of networking devices may correspond to client devices 1722, 1724, 1726, and 1728 (alternatively used as sensing devices) associated with single AP device 1730 in BSS 1732. AP device 1730 may be implemented by an AP STA and plurality of networking devices may be implemented by the plurality of client devices 1722, 1724, 1726 and 1728 and AP device 1730. In an example, data may pass from the AP STA to the non-AP STA(s) and vice versa.

[0273] Referring to FIG. 17 in detail, a WLAN sensing network between the STAs (AP STA and non-AP STA) in the WLAN network is depicted. In some embodiments, AP device 1730 in the WLAN network may not be able to act as a sensing controller. As a result, AP device 1730 may not be able to manage a WLAN sensing network. In an embodiment, the sensing controller facilitates and coordinates WLAN sensing related connections and activities. The sensing controller may be responsible for connections and activities required to achieve the sensing goal. The sensing controller may implement the sensing algorithm. Further, the sensing controller may be a module which executes on a networking device that supports WLAN sensing. In the implementation of FIG. 17, one of networking device from the plurality of networking devices deployed in the WLAN network may act as a sensing controller and manages the WLAN sensing network as the AP device 1730 may not be able to carry out this role. The networking device which acts as a sensing controller and manages the WLAN sensing network may be referred to as a Proxy Access Point Client Device (PACD) (interchangeably used as networking device 502 of FIG. 5). In an example, client device 1722 may act as the PACD.

[0274] In some embodiments, networking device 1722 (also described as PACD 1722) may be configured to identify plurality of networking devices operating within a sensing space 1734. In an embodiment, plurality of networking devices may include networking device 1722 and client devices 1724, 1726, and 1728 within BSS 1732 that support WLAN sensing. Further, in an embodiment, networking device may not be an access point of BSS. In identifying plurality of networking devices, PACD 1722 request sensing capability information from AP device 1730). Further, AP device 1730 reverts to PACD 1722 with the requested sensing capability information. In an embodiment, the sensing capability information may correspond to information associated with plurality of networking devices (client devices 1722, 1724, 1726, and 1728) which are communicatively coupled with AP device 1730. For example, the sensing capability information may include information on whether any networking device from plurality of networking devices is able to obtain sensing measurements of transmission channel(s) between it and other devices or whether it may obtain sensing measurements useful for detecting and tracking changes in the environment.

[0275] Further, PACD 1722 may request the sensing capability information associated with plurality of networking devices associated with AP device 1730 by sending a modified Sensing by Proxy (SBP) request frame configured to AP device 1730. In this implementation, PACD 1722 may act as a SBP initiator and AP device 1730 may act as a SBP responder. Further, AP device 1730 of BSS 1732 may respond to the modified SBP Request frame with a modified SBP response frame. In an embodiment, the modified SBP response frame may be configured to report the sensing capability information associated with plurality of networking devices communicatively coupled with AP device 1730 which supports WLAN sensing. Details on requesting the sensing capability information associated with plurality of networking devices using the SBP request have been explained in further paragraphs using FIG. 18A to FIG. 18F.

[0276] Referring again to FIG. 17, PACD 1722 may identify a maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices supporting WLAN sensing. In some embodiments, the maximum set of unique sensing links may include sensing links between every networking device and every other networking device of the plurality of networking devices. In some embodiments, AP device 1730 may also be a networking device that support WLAN sensing. Accordingly, the maximum set of unique sensing links (sensing link 1702 to sensing link 1720) may include sensing links between AP device 1730 and plurality of networking devices. (In FIG. 17, sensing link 1702, sensing link 1704, sensing link 1716, and sensing link 1720 are sensing links between AP device 1730 and plurality of client devices 1722, 1724, 1726, and 1728.) In some embodiments, the plurality of networking devices are part of BSS 1732 and AP device 1730 of BSS 1732 is included in the maximum set of unique sensing links(sensing link 1702 to sensing link 1720). Details on identifying maximum set of unique sensing links have been explained in further paragraphs using FIG 19.

[0277] Further, PACD 1722 may determine a series of sensing measurement sessions (alternatively termed as “a first number of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions”) associated with BSS 1732. In a sensing measurement session, one networking device from plurality of networking devices may act as a sensing transmitter and all other networking devices from plurality of networking devices may be configured to be sensing receivers. Furthermore, a second networking device may act as a sensing transmitter and all other devices from plurality of networking devices which have not already been part of a sensing measurement exchange with the first networking device may be configured to be sensing receivers. This may be repeated until sensing measurement sessions have been configured to include all sensing links in maximum set of unique sensing links (sensing link 1702 to sensing link 1720). In an embodiment, the optimum number of sensing measurement sessions to achieve this step may be mmax— 1, when mmaxis the number of networking devices operating in BSS 1732. In some embodiments, the optimum number of sensing measurement sessions is less than the number of sensing links in the maximum set of unique sensing links. FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a WLAN sensing procedure (also known as a Wi-Fi sensing procedure) according to some embodiments. In examples, a WLAN sensing procedure allows a STA to perform WLAN sensing. In an example, a WLAN sensing procedure enables a STA to obtain one or more sensing measurements of the wireless transmission channel between two or more STAs and / or the wireless transmission channel between a receive antenna and a transmit antenna of a STA. In examples, a WLAN sensing procedure is composed of one or more of a sensing session setup, a sensing measurement setup, one or more sensing measurement exchanges, sensing measurement setup termination, and sensing session termination. Further, the steps may be repeated until all sensing links in maximum set of unique sensing links (sensing link 1702 to sensing link 1720) are established. However, any algorithm or series of sensing measurement sessions that achieves the purpose of measuring all sensing links in BSS 1732 may be used in this step. Each set of sensing measurement exchanges may be encoded in a configuration vector. In an example, a configuration vector may be {TX, RX1;••• ,where "TX" may an ID of the sensing transmitter and RXxmay be an ID of the xth sensing receiver. In an example, the IDs may correspond to MAC addresses.

[0278] When the sensing measurement session includes AP device 1730, an alternative configuration of the sensing measurement session may be used. PACD 1722 may initiate a sensing measurement session where AP device 1730 may trigger many STAs to act as sensing transmitters (PACD 1722, client device 1724, client device 1726, and client device 1728) while AP device 1730 may act as a sensing receiver. This mode is a Trigger-frame sounding phase of a Trigger-Based (TB) sensing measurement exchange. In this scenario, the configuration vector for this specific sensing measurement session may be modified to transpose TX and RX. As an example, configuration vector {TX, RX1;RX2, RX3, RX4} becomes configuration vector {RX, TX1;TX2, TX3, TX4}.

[0279] Referring to FIG. 17 again, PACD 1722 may cause configuration of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the maximum set of unique sensing links (sensing link 1702 to sensing link 1720). In causing the configuration of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions, PACD 1722 may request AP device 1730 to configure the plurality of sensing measurement sessions via Sensing By Proxy (SBP) messages. In some embodiments, one or more sensing measurement sessions of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions may be characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the plurality of networking devices. In some embodiments, PACD 1722 may request AP device 1730 to configure a first sensing measurement session from the sensing measurement sessions using SBP. Further, PACD 1722 may also configure a second sensing measurement session from the sensing measurement sessions using SBP. PACD 1722 may continue configuring measurement sessions until all sensing links in the WLAN sensing network may be configured as part of a sensing measurement session using SBP. Details on identifying maximum set of unique sensing links (sensing link 1702 to sensing link 1720) have been explained in further paragraphs using FIG. 20 to FIG. 23.

[0280] Further, PACD 1722 may obtain a plurality of sensing measurements. In an embodiment, each of the plurality of sensing measurements may be associated with one of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. In an embodiment, sensing measurement exchanges may be performed according to each of the configured sensing measurement sessions. In obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements, PACD 1722 may receive an SBP report frame from AP device 1730. Details on obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements have been explained in further paragraphs using FIG. 20 to FIG. 23.

[0281] Furthermore, a sensing algorithm may be executed by the PACD 1722 to processes all sensing measurements to sense sensing space 1734 according to the sensing goal. In an embodiment, the sensing algorithm refers to a computational algorithm that achieves the sensing goal. The sensing goal may be determined by the sensing algorithm. For example, the sensing goal may be the determination of movement in the sensing space 1734, the estimation of the proximity of a sensed object to a sensing device, the determination of the size of a sensed object, and the like.

[0282] Referring to FIG. 17 again, PACD 1722 may identify a reduced set of sensing links (alternatively termed as “a second number of the maximum set of unique sensing links”) based onthe plurality of sensing measurements, based on the sensing goal, or based on a combination of the plurality of sensing measurements and the sensing goal. In an embodiment, the reduced set of sensing links may correspond to the sensing links in which sensing measurements are useful to the sensing goal. In identifying the reduced set of sensing links, PACD 1722 may identify selected sensing links according to presence or motion on the selected sensing links exceeding one or more thresholds during the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. For example, a sensing link may be determined to be useful when the sensing measurements associated with the sensing link may be above a determined or configured threshold as detected by the sensing algorithm. In another example, a sensing link may be determined to be useful when the motion associated with the sensing link may be above a determined or configured threshold as detected by the sensing algorithm. Details about the identification of the reduced set of sensing links are provided, for example, in FIG 24.

[0283] Further, PACD 1722 may determine a reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions which allows the configuration of the reduced set of sensing links with an optimized number of sensing measurement sessions. Details on determining the reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions have been explained in further paragraphs using FIG 24.

[0284] Furthermore, the PACD 1722 may cause the configuration of the reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the reduced set of sensing links. In an embodiment, the configuration of the reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions may be performed using SBP messages. In an embodiment, the technique of configuring the reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions may be identical to the process of configuring the plurality of sensing measurement sessions.

[0285] Referring to FIG. 17 again, PACD 1722 may obtain a second plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. In an embodiment, the technique of obtaining the second plurality of sensing measurements may be identical to the process of obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements. Further, PACD 1722 may identify a second reduced set of sensing links based on the second plurality of sensing measurements. In an embodiment, the technique of identifying the second reduced set of sensing links may be identical to the process of identifying the reduced set of sensing links. In an example, the second reduced set of sensing links based on the second plurality of sensing measurements may correspond to the sensing goal but may accommodate a change of conditions which affect signal propagation in sensing space 1734. In another example, the second reduced set of sensing links based on the second plurality of sensing measurements may correspond to a second sensing goal.

[0286] Further, the plurality of sensing measurement sessions associated with the maximum set of unique sensing links may remain configured and PACD 1722 may request sensingmeasurement exchanges to be performed according to the configurations of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. In an embodiment, the sensing measurement exchanges may be performed on an ad hoc or periodic basis. As a result, the sensing algorithm may determine one or more changes in the reduced set of sensing links which satisfies the sensing goal. Accordingly, the PACD may update the reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions.

[0287] FIG. 18A depicts example 1802 of SBP Request frame Action field format, according to some embodiments. FIG. 18B depicts example 1804 of enhanced SBP Parameters element format for an SBP Responders Query, according to some embodiments. Further, FIG. 18C depicts example 1806 of SBP Parameters Control field format for an SBP Responders Query, according to some embodiments. FIG. 18D depicts example 1808 of modified SBP Response frame Action field format for a response to an SBP Responders Query, according to some embodiments. Furthermore, FIG. 18E depicts example 1810 of SBP Parameters element format, according to some embodiments. FIG. 18F depicts example 1812 of SBP Parameters Control field format for a response to an SBP Responder Query, according to some embodiments.

[0288] Referring to FIG. 18A in detail, a PACD may determine plurality of networking devices which may be a part of a BSS, may be in a sensing space, and may be capable of supporting WLAN sensing. The PACD may determine networking devices which support WLAN sensing by reference to sensing capability information. The PACD may further request an AP device of the BSS to share information on client devices which are associated with the AP device. In an embodiment, the PACD may request information related to the client devices associated with the AP device by sending an SBP Request frame configured to query AP device. This frame may be called an SBP Responders Query frame. In this example, the PACD may act as an SBP initiator and the AP device may act as an SBP responder. SBP Request frame Action field format 1802 is defined by P802.1 Ibf as shown in FIG. 18A. In an example, the SBP Request frame may include a set of fields, such as category, public action / protected dual of public action, dialog token, SBP parameters element, sensing measurement parameters element, and ISTA (initiating STA) availability window element.

[0289] Referring to FIG. 18B in detail, SBP Parameters element 1804 may include parameters relating to an SBP procedure. SBP Parameters element 1804 may be carried by SBP Request frame 1802, A version of the SBP Parameters element may be enhanced to configure a SBP Request frame that carries the SBP Parameters element request frame to act as an SBP Responders Query message. In an example, SBP Parameters element may include a set of fields, such as Element ID, Length, Element ID Extension, and SBP Parameters Control. As compared to the SBP Parameters element defined by P802. 1 Ibf, the Sensing Responder IDs field, and the Sensing Responder Role Bitmap field may not present in enhanced SBP Parameters element 1804.

[0290] Referring to FIG. 18C in detail, enhanced SBP Parameters element 1804 may include a newly defined SBP Parameters Control field 1806. In an example, SBP Parameters Control field 1806 may include a set of fields, such as SBP Request, SBP Procedure Expiry Exponent, SR2SR Sounding Request, and SBP responder query. Some bits of SBP Parameters Control field 1806 may not be used and may be reserved to maintain compatibility with already -defined versions of similar SBP Parameters Control fields. In some embodiments, SBP request may be set to ‘ 1’ to indicate that the SBP Parameters Element is carried by a SBP Request frame. A Sensing Responder-to-Sensing Responder (SR2SR) Sounding Request may be set to ‘0’ if the purpose of the SBP Request frame is to query an AP device for information on client devices that are associated with the AP device and that support WLAN sensing. Examples of WLAN sensing may be Trigger-Frame (TF) sounding using sensing responder-to-sensing initiator (SR2SI) sensing transmissions, TF sounding using SR2SR sensing transmissions and NDPA sounding within a Trigger-based measurement exchange. In some embodiments, SR2SR Sounding Request may be set to ‘ 1 ’ if the purpose of the SBP Request frame is to query AP device for receiving information on client devices that are associated with AP device and that support WLAN sensing using the SR2SR procedure. In some embodiments, SBP Responder Query is set to ‘ L to signify that the SBP Request frame that carries this element is a SBP Responders Query. (If SBP Responder Query is set to a reserved value then the SBP Parameters Control field 1806 may be describing a normal SBP Request frame as defined by P802. 1 Ibf)

[0291] Further, the AP device of the BSS may respond to the SBP Request frame with a modified SBP Response frame 1808 as shown in FIG. 18D. The modified SBP Response frame may be configured to report all the client devices associated with the AP device according to the configuration of SBP Responders Query. An example of modified SBP Response frame 1808 is shown in FIG. 18D. In an example, SBP Response frame 1808 may include a set of fields, such as Public Action / Protected Dual of Public Action, Dialog Token, Status Code, and SBP Parameters element. In some embodiments, the Dialog Token may be set to the same value as a Dialog Token of the corresponding SBP Request frame. In some embodiments, the Status Code is set to ‘SUCCESS’ when the SBP Response include a list of the devices associated with the responding AP device and is not set to ‘SUCCESS’ (i.e., any value other than that corresponding to SUCCESS) when the SBP Responders Query to AP device has failed for any reason.

[0292] Referring to FIG. 18E in detail, SBP Parameters element 1810 may include parameters relating the SBP procedure (reproduced from Figure 9-1001bj of P802.11bf / D3.0). SBP Parameters element 1810 may be carried by SBP Response frame 1808. In an example, SBP Parameters Element 1810 may include a set of fields, such as Element ID, Length, Element IDExtension, SBP Parameters Control, Sensing Responder Addresses, Sensing Responder IDs, and Sensing Responder Role Bitmap.

[0293] Further, SBP Parameter Control field of a standard version of SBP Parameters Element 1810 may be enhanced to reflect that SBP Response frame 1808 that carries SBP Parameters element 1810 is acting as a response to an SBP Responders Query. In an embodiment, SBP Parameters Control field 1812 is a newly-defined variant of an existing SBP Parameters Control for the response to the SBP Responders Query, and is shown in FIG. 18F. In an example, SBP Response Parameters Control field 1812 may include a set of fields, such as SBP Request, Number of Sensing Responders, SR2SR Sounding Request, and SBP Responder Query. In some embodiments, SBP Request may be set to ‘0’ to indicate that the SBP parameters element may be carried by SBP Response frame 1808. Further, Number of Sensing Responders may be set to the number of client devices associated with AP device which may be sending the frame (in examples, this may be referred to as n, particularly in reference to FIG. 18E and the number of octets used to encode Sensing Responder Addresses field). In an example, Number of Sensing Responders field may be encoded by an 8-bit value and may allow the description of up to 255 sensing responders. In other examples, encodings which describe more or less than 255 sensing responders may be used. In some embodiments, SBP Responder Query is set to ‘ 1’ when the SBP Parameters element (of which SBP Parameters Control field 1812 is part) is carried by SBP Response frame 1808 acting as a response to an SBP Responders Query.

[0294] Referring to FIG. 18E in detail, the Sensing Responder Addresses field may include identifiers of client devices which are associated with the AP device that sends SBP Response frame 1808 (i.e., an SBP Response frame acting as a response to a SBP Responders Query). In an example, the identifiers may correspond to MAC addresses. The identifiers field may include the MAC addresses of n client devices. The client devices identified in sensing responder addresses may be only those client devices that support WLAN sensing or may be only those client devices that support SR2SR WLAN sensing. The client devices returned may be according to the request made by the corresponding SBP Request frame 1802. Further, n may be permitted to be zero and there may be no Sensing Responder Addresses field included in SBP Parameters Control field 1812.

[0295] FIG. 19 depicts exemplary WLAN network 1900 showing a plurality of networking devices and sensing links established between the plurality of networking devices, according to some embodiments. To maximize motion sensing coverage in the sensing space, to improve the likelihood of achieving the sensing goal and / or to improve the accuracy of the sensing goal, the sensing controller (i.e., the PACD) may measure a maximum number of sensing links in the sensing space that are supported by the sensing devices in the WLAN sensing network. In Figure19, plurality of networking devices may be AP device 1930 and four client devices 1902, 1904, 1906, and 1908. In an example, aPACD (for example, client device 1902 and referred to aPACD 1902) may determine the maximum set of sensing links between networking devices which may support SR2SR WLAN sensing. For example, the maximum set of sensing links may be sensing links 1910 to 1928. In the maximum set of unique sensing links, there are sensing links between each networking device of plurality of networking devices in the WLAN sensing network. In this implementation, AP device 1930 may also be a networking device and so maximum set of unique sensing links may include sensing links between AP device and plurality of client devices. In identifying maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of plurality of networking devices, PACD 1902 may identify first unique sensing links associated with a first networking device of plurality of networking devices. In the current scenario, first networking device may be client device 1902. Accordingly, first unique sensing links associated with first networking device may be sensing links 1912, 1920, 1922, and 1924. Further, PACD 1902 may identify additional unique sensing links associated with an additional networking device of the plurality of networking devices and that have not been previously identified. For example, an additional networking device may be 1904. Accordingly, second unique sensing links associated with second networking device may be sensing links (1918, 1926, and 1910) PACD 1902 may continue to identify unique sensing links for remaining additional networking devices until the maximum set of unique sensing links may be identified.

[0296] Referring to FIG. 19 in detail, plurality of networking devices and maximum set of unique sensing links may be represented as a graph where each node of the graph may be represented by a networking device which is available for SR2SR WLAN sensing. This graph includes AP device and PACD. The graph includes all devices that have been determined by step 1 to support SR2SR WLAN sensing. The number of networking devices that PACD 1902 may determine as suitable for WLAN sensing are defined by mmax. In an embodiment, PACD 1902 may determine the set of sensing measurements which provides the maximum coverage of the WLAN sensing network. The set of sensing measurements may be represented by a complete graph of the network including the identified nodes. A complete graph is one in which all nodes are connected by edges to all other nodes. In FIG. 19, the number of networking devices (nodes),mmax, is 5 and the number of sensing links (edges) between the networking devices is 10. In general, the number of edges, emax, or sensing measurements, between mmaxnodes may be represented using equation (9):

[0297] FIG. 20A depicts an example of a SBP Parameters Control field format, according to some embodiments. Further, FIG. 20B depicts an example of a Sensing Responder Role Bitmap field format, according to some embodiments. FIG. 21 depicts an example of SBP Response frame format, according to some embodiments.

[0298] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, PACD may request AP device to configure a first sensing measurement session from the sensing measurement sessions using SBP. PACD may request AP device to configure the first sensing measurement session with a SBP Request frame. The SBP Request frame may include a Sensing Measurement Parameters element which configures the sensing measurement exchange requested in the first sensing measurement session. This configuration of the sensing measurement exchange may depend on the sensing goal. For example, a wide bandwidth sensing transmission may be configured for precise determination of the size of an object in the sensing space and a narrow bandwidth sensing transmission may be configured for a detection of movement in a sensing space. The SBP Request frame may include an SBP Parameters element which configures the first sensing measurement session. In an embodiment, the SBP Parameters element is defined by P802.11bf / D3.0 and the SBP Parameters Control field used by this SBP Request frame including the SBP Parameters element is shown as SBP Parameters Control field 2002 in FIG. 20A (reproduced from Figure 9-1001bk of P802.11bf / D3.0).

[0299] In an example, SBP Parameters Control field 2002 may include a set of fields, such as SBP Request, SBP Procedure Expiry Exponent, Sensing Responder, Number of Sensing Responders, Preferred Responder List, Number of Preferred Responders, Mandatory Preferred Responder, SR2SR Sounding Request, and Preferred Responder Role Bitmap Present. In an embodiment, Number of Sensing Responders and Number of Preferred Responders may be set to the number of sensing responders required in the first sensing measurement session as determined by PACD. The number of the sensing responders required in the first sensing measurement session may be mmax— 1. Further, the number of sensing responders field may have a maximum value of 15, such that if the number of sensing responders required in the first sensing measurement session is greater than 15 then the first sensing measurement session may be split into two or more sensing measurement sessions with a common sensing transmitter and the sensing receivers partitioned into groups. For example, the configuration vector may be {TX, RX1;RX2, ••• , RX19, RX20}. Further, the configuration vector may be partitioned into two sensing measurement sessions with configuration vectors of: {TX, RX1;RX2, ••• , RX10} and {TX, RX11, RX12, - , RX20}.

[0300] Referring to FIG. 20A in detail, Mandatory Number of Responders may be set to ‘ 1 ’ to indicate that all sensing transmitters and sensing receivers participate in the sensingmeasurement session. In an embodiment, Preferred Responder List and the Mandatory Preferred Responder may be set to ‘ 1’ to indicate that a list of sensing transmitters and sensing receivers that correspond to the configuration vector is supplied in the SBP Parameters element. Further, SR2SR Sounding Request may be set to ‘ 1’ to indicate that PACD requests the SR2SR variant of the TF sounding phase to be used in the sensing measurement session. In some embodiments, SR2SR Sounding Request may be set to ‘0’ to indicate that PACD requests the SI2SR variant of the TF sounding phase to be used in the sensing measurement session. The SI2SR variant of the TF sounding phase may be used when AP device is configured to be the sensing transmitter, otherwise the SR2SR variant the TF sounding phase may be used. Furthermore, Preferred Responder Role Bitmap Present may be set to ‘1’ to indicate that responder roles are defined by a Preferred Responder Role Bitmap field.

[0301] In the SBP parameters element, Sensing Responder Addresses may include the sensing transmitters and sensing responders described by the configuration vector. Each address may be described as a 6-octet MAC address and the value may be described up to Number of Preferred Responders or Number of Sensing Responders. Sensing Responder Addresses may include a sensing transmitter followed by one or more sensing responders up to the total number of devices described in Number of Preferred Responders. Further, Sensing Responder Role Bitmap field 2004 may indicate the role of each of the sensing responders which take part in the SBP procedure. The format of Sensing Responder Role Bitmap field 2004 is shown in FIG. 20B which is reproduced from P802.11bf / D3.0, Figure 9-1001bl. In an embodiment, Role 1 may correspond to the first sensing responder in the Sensing Responder Addresses field, and the like. Each role may be a 2-bit value as described in Table 1 which is an adaptation of P802. 1 lbf / D3.0. Table 1 shows role of encoding in Sensing Responder Role Bitmap field 2004.Table 1 Sensing Responder Role Bitmap

[0302] Referring to FIG. 21 in detail, AP device may respond to PACD indicating whether AP has configured the first sensing measurement session using the SBP. Further, AP device may respond to PACD with the SBP Response frame 2100. If AP device determines that AP device can configure the first sensing measurement session, then the SBP Response frame 2100 mayindicate this by transmitting a Status Code of SUCCESS. If AP device cannot configure the first sensing measurement session, the SBP response frame 2100 may transmit a status code other than SUCCESS. For example, the SBP response may transmit the status code REJECTED WITH SUGGESTED CHANGES and may include suggested changes in a SBP Parameters element and a Sensing Measurement Parameters element. The format of the SBP Response frame 2100 is shown in FIG. 21. This is reproduced from P802.11bf / D3.0, Figure 9- 1198k. The SBP Response frame 2100 may include an SBP Parameter element and a SBP Parameters Control field 2002 as shown in FIG. 20A.

[0303] In the SBP Response frame 2100, a Status Code, a Sensing Responder Address field and a Sensing Responder ID field may be present and may describe the MAC addresses and the Association Identifier (AID) or Unassociated Identifier (USID) of the sensing responders which are part of the SBP procedure. The MAC addresses in the Sensing Responder Address field may be identical to those identified in the comparable field of the SBP Request frame. In this case, the status code in the Status Code field may be SUCCESS and the SBP procedure and a related sensing measurement session may be created and configured. The value carried by the Measurement Session ID indication in the SBP Response frame 2100 (as shown in FIG. 21) may be the same identifier as the related sensing measurement session.

[0304] FIG. 22 depicts exemplary WLAN network 2200 showing a plurality of networking devices and sensing links established between a networking device and other networking devices, according to some embodiments.

[0305] Referring to FIG. 22 in detail, WLAN sensing network 2200 with five networking devices (2202 to 2210) and with sensing links established between first networking device 2202 and all other networking devices is shown. For example, sensing links configured in a sensing measurement session (solid lines represent configured sensing links and dashed lines represent unconfigured sensing links) are shown. For example, 2212, 2214, 2216, and 2218 may represent configured links and 2220, 2222, 2224, 2226, 2228, and 2230 may represent unconfigured links. In the example, the first sensing measurement session may be configured between first networking device and all other networking devices participating in the sensing measurement session.

[0306] In an embodiment, a second SBP procedure may be based on the maximum set of sensing links between the plurality of networking devices. Further, second networking device may become the sensing transmitter and client devices which have not previously made a sensing measurement over a link between client devices may be included in the SBP procedure. In this example, first networking device may not be included in the SBP procedure since a sensing measurement between first networking device and second networking device is already established in the first sensing measurement session.

[0307] FIG. 23 depicts an exemplary WLAN network showing a plurality of networking devices and sensing measurement sessions established for first client device and second client device, according to some embodiments.

[0308] Referring to FIG. 23 in detail, a WLAN sensing network 2300 with five networking devices (2302 to 2310) and with sensing measurement sessions established between first networking device and all other networking devices and second networking device and all other networking devices are shown. For example, configured sensing links may be sensing links 2312, 2318, 2320, 2314, 2322, 2316, and 2324. Further, unconfigured sensing links may be sensing links 2226, 2228, and 2230. In an embodiment, PACD (e.g., networking device 2310) may continue to configure sensing links until all sensing links in the WLAN sensing network are configured in a sensing measurement session. In a fully configured network, there may be mmax— 1 SBP procedures and mmax— 1 related sensing measurement sessions to cover the emaxsensing links. Each of the mmax— 1 SBP procedures may have an associated measurement session ID.

[0309] Further, sensing measurement exchanges may be performed according to each of themmax—1 SBP procedures. AP device (networking device 2302), acting as the sensing initiator, may receive sensing reports according to each of the SBP procedures, i.e., the sensing initiator receives sensing reports via a Sensing Measurement Report frame. Following the reception of a Sensing Measurement Report frame, AP device may report the sensing measurement to the SBP initiator (the PACD). AP device may issue a SBP Report frame addressed to the SBP initiator (the PACD, networking device 2310) to transfer the sensing measurement. By this means, AP device may transfer all sensing measurements to PACD.

[0310] FIG. 24 depicts exemplary WLAN network 2400 showing example of a reduced set of sensing links for the goal of proximity detection, according to some embodiments. When the sensing space may be first sensed by the sensing measurements, a reduced set of sensing links may be detected where sensing measurements useful to the sensing goal are determined. In an embodiment, a sensing measurement useful to the sensing goal may be determined when the sensing measurement has a value above a determined or configured threshold, or the motion of the sensing link, determined from the sensing measurement, may have a value above a determined or configured threshold. In embodiments, the determination of the usefulness of the sensing measurement or sensing measurements may be detected using the sensing algorithm.

[0311] Referring to FIG. 24 in detail, AP device 2418, client device 2414, and additional client devices 2410, 2412, and 2416 may be examples of networking devices. In an embodiment, PACD may be a client device in sensing network (in an example, client device 2414 may act as PACD). Further, Reduced set of sensing links 2402 to 2408 for the goal of proximity detection is shown. For example, the sensing goal may be to detect motion on the perimeter of a sensing space.Accordingly, sensing links which cross the boundaries of the sensing space may be selected as the reduced set of sensing links 2402 to 2408. As shown, the sensing links between the networking devices may be established. In an embodiment, the PACD may determine a reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions which allows the configuration of the reduced set of sensing links with an optimized number of sensing measurement sessions. The PACD may determine configuration vectors for each of the sensing measurement sessions. In the example shown in Figure 24, two sensing measurement sessions may cover all the sensing links. In the first sensing measurement session, first networking device 2410 may be a sensing transmitter, and second networking device 2412 and third networking device 2416 may be the sensing receivers. Further, in the second sensing measurement session, PACD 2414 may be a sensing transmitter, and second networking device 2412 and third networking device 2416 may be sensing receivers. The configuration vectors in these cases may be {2410,2412,2416} and {2414,2412,2416}. In an embodiment, the PACD may configure the sensing measurement sessions associated with reduced set of sensing links using SBP via AP device 2418. Accordingly, sensing measurement exchanges are made using the configured sensing measurement sessions and the sensing algorithm may be executed which processes the sensing measurements.

[0312] FIG. 25 is an exemplary schematic illustration of Multi-AP devices and a mesh WLAN network realized using Multi- AP devices. Further, FIG. 26 depicts an exemplary WLAN network in the form of a BSS including a plurality of networking devices and an AP STA not supporting WLAN sensing, according to some embodiments. For the sake of brevity, FIG. 25 and FIG. 26 are explained together.

[0313] Referring to FIG. 25 in detail, a mesh WLAN network is implemented comprising multiple multi-AP devices. Within the mesh WLAN network, one Multi-AP device 2502 may connect to WAN 2504 and may include a Multi-AP controller 2520. Other Multi-AP devices may connect to first Multi-AP device 2502. Each other Multi-AP device may have one backhaul link from the Multi-AP device’s backhaul STA module (backhaul STA 2528 and 2534). Further, each Multi-AP device may include multiple fronthaul links to its fronthaul AP module, fronthaul AP 2524, 2532, 2544, and 2538 (i.e., from a multi-AP device’s Fronthaul AP 2524, 2532, 2544, and 2538 to one or more backhaul STA modules 2528, 2534 of other multi-AP devices 2506, 2508, and 2510 and / or from a multi-AP device’s Fronthaul AP module 2524, 2532, 2544, and 2538 to one or more non- AP STAs 2512, 2514, 2516, and 2516). In an embodiment, each Multi-AP device 2502, 2506, 2508, and 2510 may include Multi-AP agent 2522, 2530, 2542, and 2536. Further, Multi-AP device 2502, 2510 may include logical ethemet port 2526, 2540. In an example, the use of Multi-AP devices may allow for more accurate and precise tracking of devices and individualswithin the sensing space as the data collected from multiple access points can be combined and analyzed to provide a more comprehensive understanding of movement and behavior patterns.

[0314] Referring to FIG. 26 in detail, AP device 2612, client device 2602, and additional client devices 2604, 2606, and 2608 (plurality of client devices may include client device 2602 and and additional client devices 2604, 2606, and 2608) may be examples of networking devices. In an embodiment, PACD may be a client device in sensing network (in an example, client device 2602 may act as PACD). In a current example, the sensing network of FIG. 26 shows a network where AP device 2602 may not support WLAN sensing or may not implement a sensing controller. Further, plurality of networking devices 2602, 2604, 2606, and 2608 are part of BSS 2610 and AP device 2612 of BSS 2610 is not included in the maximum set of unique sensing links. The WLAN sensing network may include networking devices which support WLAN sensing, but the networking devices may be deployed in data network with an AP device which may not support WLAN sensing. As shown in FIG. 26, WLAN sensing network may include four client devices 2602, 2604, 2606, and 2608 (non-AP STA), and one AP device (AP STA) 2612 which may not support WLAN sensing. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, PACD may be deployed in the WLAN sensing network. PACD may be a multi-AP device capable of acting as both a non- AP STA to AP device for support the requirements of the data network and as AP STA to support the requirements of the WLAN sensing network. For example, PACD may be networking device 2602. As shown, the data links associated with AP device 2612 may be data links (2614, 2616, 2618, and 2620). Further, the sensing links associated with four client devices may be sensing links 2622, 2624, 2626, 2628, 2630, and 2632. In an embodiment, PACD 2602 may support WLAN sensing and implements a sensing controller capable of controlling and coordinating a sensing procedure, including sensing measurement sessions, and sensing measurement exchanges, and sensing algorithm capable of determining the sensing goal.

[0315] Further, PACD 2602 may determine plurality of networking devices which are part of BSS, may be in the sensing space 2634, and can support WLAN sensing. Plurality of networking devices may be determined by means of a data exchange between PACD 2602 and AP device 2612. In an example, PACD may request AP device 2612 of the BSS 2610 and to which PACD 2602 may be required to share information on all networking devices associated with AP device 2612. In an embodiment, multicast DNS (mDNS) may be the discovery protocol used by PACD 2602 and AP device 2612 to share information on all networking devices associated with AP device 2612.

[0316] Furthermore, PACD 2602 may determine the maximum set of unique sensing links between the plurality of networking devices which support WLAN sensing. In maximum set of sensing links, there is sensing link between every networking device and every other networkingdevice in the WLAN sensing network. In this implementation, AP device 2612 is a networking device which may not participate in making sensing measurements. Thus, maximum set of unique sensing links may not include sensing links between AP device 2612 and client devices 2602, 2604, 2606, and 2608.

[0317] Furthermore, PACD 2602 may determine a plurality of sensing measurement sessions which cover the determined maximum set of unique sensing links. In an alternative configuration of the sensing measurement session, PACD 2602 may initiate a sensing measurement session where PACD 2602 may trigger multiple STAs to act as sensing transmitters while PACD 2602 (in the role of an AP device) may act as a sensing receiver. This mode is a trigger-frame sounding phase of a TB sensing measurement exchange. In this scenario, the configuration vector for this specific sensing measurement session may be modified to transpose TX and RX. As an example, configuration vector {TX, RX1;RX2, RX3, RX4, RX5} may become configuration vector {RX, TX TX2, TX3, TX4, TX5}. This alternative configuration may be supported only where PACD 2602 may be a sensing receiver. The alternative configuration has the advantage that it requires only sensing transmissions to be transmitted between the sensing responders and the sensing initiator as the one or more sensing measurements may be calculated at the sensing initiator. The sensing measurements may not be required to be transferred back to the sensing initiator. In an embodiment, the plurality of sensing measurement sessions may include a first sensing measurement session characterized by the networking device acting as a sensing transmitter or sensing receiver. The plurality of sensing measurement sessions may also include a second sensing measurement session characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the additional networking devices.

[0318] In an embodiment, PACD 2602 may configure the first sensing measurement session from the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. The first sensing measurement session may be a sensing measurement session where PACD 2602 acts as the sensing transmitter according to the configuration vector or where PACD 2602 alternatively acts as the sensing receiver according to the configuration vector. In an embodiment, PACD 2602 may configure the first sensing measurements session by means of a sensing measurement request frame transmitted to all sensing responders identified as RXx, or as TXxin the alternative configuration. In an embodiment, the sensing responders may respond to confirm that the sensing measurement session has been configured.

[0319] Further, the sensing responders may respond with a sensing Measurement response frame containing a status code, SUCCESS, which indicates that the sensing measurement session is configured.

[0320] Referring to FIG. 26 in detail, PACD 2602 may configure the second sensing measurement session from the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. The second sensing measurement session may be configured to use SR2SR sensing measurement exchanges. The configuration vector that describes the second sensing measurement session may describe the sensing responders in the second sensing measurement session and may describe which client device of client devices 2604, 2606, and 2608 acts as a sensing transmitter and which client devices of client devices 2604, 2606, and 2608 act as sensing receivers in the SR2SR sensing measurement session. In an embodiment, PACD 2602 may configure the second sensing measurements session by means of a sensing measurement request frame transmitted to all sensing responders identified by the configuration vector. Further, PACD 2602 may confirm the successful configuration of the second sensing measurement session if PACD 2602 receives a correctly configured sensing measurement response frame including a status code field set to SUCCESS.

[0321] In an embodiment, PACD 2602 may configure sensing measurement sessions until all sensing links in the WLAN sensing network are configured through sensing measurement sessions. In a fully configured network, there may be mmax— 1 sensing measurement sessions to cover the emaxsensing links. Note that in this implementation, mmaxmay not include AP device which is not a sensing device in the WLAN sensing network, and which does not support WLAN sensing.

[0322] Further, sensing measurement exchanges are performed according to each of the configured sensing measurement sessions and each of the mmax— 1 sensing measurement sessions. Details on sensing measurement exchanges have been explained in further paragraphs using FIG. 27 A and FIG. 27B.

[0323] Furthermore, a plurality of sensing measurements each corresponding to one sensing measurement session of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions may be requested and obtained by the sensing initiator (PACD) by means of at least one sensing reporting trigger frame and at least one sensing measurement report frame. In an embodiment, a sensing algorithm may be executed by PACD 2602 to process sensing measurements for sensing the sensing space 2634 based on the sensing goal. In obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements, PACD 2602 may request the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing reporting trigger frame. Further, PACD 2602 may receive the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing measurement report frame.

[0324] In an embodiment, the maximum set of sensing links may remain the best set of sensing links when the sensing controller is a high-performance device, or a lightly loaded device. However, where the processing power may be limited or where the sensing controller may be heavily loaded then a reduced set of sensing links may be determined which is based on thecapability of the sensing controller to process sensing measurements and on detected motion on each of the sensing links in the maximum set of sensing links. This reduced set of sensing links may lead to an optimum set of sensing measurement sessions according to the sensing goal and the available resources on the sensing controller. In an embodiment, the sensing goal may be supported by the reduced set of sensing links and the sensing controller may determine the sensing links that are required to be included in the reduced set of sensing links optimized for the sensing goal and the capability (processing power, memory, throughput, and the like) of the sensing controller.

[0325] Accordingly, once the sensing space 2634 may be first sensed by using the plurality of sensing measurements, a reduced set of sensing links from the plurality of sensing links (where sensing measurements are useful to the sensing goal) are detected. In an embodiment, a sensing measurement useful to the sensing goal may be determined when the sensing measurement have a value above a determined or configured threshold, or the motion of the sensing link, determined from the sensing measurement, may have a value above a determined or configured threshold. In embodiments, the determination of the usefulness of the sensing measurement or sensing measurements may be detected using the sensing algorithm (example shown in FIG. 24). In an embodiment, PACD 2602 may determine a reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions which allows the configuration of the reduced set of sensing links with an optimized number of sensing measurement sessions. PACD 2602 may determine configuration vectors for each of the reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions (example shown in FIG. 24).

[0326] Referring to FIG. 26 again, PACD 2602 may configure the reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions. In an embodiment, sensing measurements may be obtained upon configuring the reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions. Further, a sensing algorithm may be executed to achieve the sensing goal.

[0327] Further, the plurality of sensing measurement sessions associated with the maximum set of unique sensing links may remain configured and PACD 2602 may request sensing measurement exchanges to be performed according to the configurations of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. In an embodiment, the sensing measurement exchanges may be performed on an ad hoc or periodic basis. As a result, the sensing algorithm may determine one or more changes in the reduced set of sensing links which satisfies the sensing goal. Accordingly, the PACD 2602 may update the reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions.

[0328] FIG. 27A depicts an example of a Transmitter User Information field 2702 for a Sensing Responder-to-Sensing Responder (SR2SR) Sounding Trigger frame, according to some embodiments. Further, FIG. 27B depicts an example of a Receiver User Information field for a SR2SR Sounding Trigger frame, according to some embodiments.

[0329] As discussed in FIG. 26, sensing measurement exchanges may be performed according to each of the mmax— 1 SBP procedures upon configuring maximum set of unique sensing links. In the first sensing measurement session, a Trigger-Based (TB) sensing measurement exchange may be used. In the first configuration example, where there is one sensing transmitter and one or more sensing receivers, the Null Data PPDU Announcement (NDPA) sounding phase of the TB sensing measurement exchange may provide Sensing Initiator to Sensing Responder (SI2SR) sensing transmissions. In the alternative configuration example, where there is one sensing receiver and one or more sensing transmitters, the SR2SI Trigger frame (TF) sounding phase of the TB sensing measurement exchange may provide the SR2SI sensing transmissions. Where NDPA sounding is used, sensing measurements may be requested and received by the sensing initiator (which may be the PACD) by means of a Sensing Reporting Trigger frame and a Sensing Measurement Report frame. In the remaining sensing measurement sessions, the TB sensing measurement exchange may be used, and the SR2SR TF sounding phase of the TB sensing measurement exchange may provide the SR2SR sensing transmissions. The SR2SR sounding trigger frame may include a transmitter user information field 2702 corresponding to the ST A identified by TX and one or more receiver user Information fields 2704 corresponding to the ST as identified by RXZ. Examples of transmitter user info fields 2702 and the receiver user information fields 2704 according to P802. 1 Ibf are given in FIG. 27A and FIG. 27B respectively.

[0330] Referring to FIG. 27A in detail, the TX / RX field in the Transmitter User Information field 2702 may be set to ‘0’ to represent a sensing transmitter and the sensing transmitter may be identified by the AID12 / USID12 field.

[0331] Referring to FIG. 27B in detail, the TX / RX field in the Receiver User Information field 2704 may be set to ‘ 1’ to represent a sensing receiver. Further, the sensing receiver may be identified by the AID12 / USID12 field. The sensing transmitter that provides the sensing transmission that the sensing receiver is about to receive may be identified by the field, TX AID12 / USID12. Further, sensing measurements may be requested and received by the sensing initiator (PACD) by means of a Sensing Reporting Trigger frame and a Sensing Measurement Report frame.

[0332] In operation, systems and methods may be described where networking device associated with an AP device in the WLAN network may act as a sensing controller when the AP device of the WLAN network fails to act as the sensing controller i.e., the AP device may not implement the functionality of the sensing controller. Thus, the AP device may not be able to facilitate and coordinate WLAN sensing related connections and activities or the AP device may not support WLAN sensing. Accordingly, systems and methods may be implemented using twoimplementations for overcoming the limitation of the AP device. In the first implementation, an AP device of the WLAN network may support WLAN sensing and may be compliant with P802.11bf but may not implement a sensing controller. In an embodiment, a client device (an example of a networking device) may be deployed in the WLAN network that may act as the sensing controller and execute the sensing algorithm. Further, the client device may be capable of acting as an SBP initiator in an SBP procedure or as the sensing initiator in the sensing measurement session (i.e., the client device is a multi-AP device). The client device is called a proxy AP Client Device (PACD).

[0333] In an embodiment, a PACD (an example of a networking device, for example, networking device 502) may query the AP device for a list of associated stations (referred as ‘plurality of networking devices’) (for example, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N)) which support WLAN sensing. When the plurality of networking devices may be determined, PACD may determine a complete network of all possible unique sensing links and may request the AP device (for example, AP device 506) to configure one or more sensing measurement sessions. The PACD receives and processes all sensing measurements from which the PACD may further determine the best set of sensing measurement sessions to achieve the sensing goal. The PACD may use sensing by proxy to perform the first implementation.

[0334] In the second implementation, an AP device may not support WLAN sensing. Thus, a PACD may form a separate WLAN sensing network which is overlaid with the existing data network. Accordingly, the PACD may first query the AP device for a list of associated stations (plurality of networking devices). Further, the PACD (for example, networking device 502) may determine a complete network of all possible sensing links but excluding the AP device (which does not support sensing). Furthermore, the PACD may act as a sensing initiator and configure the complete network of all possible sensing links using a combination of sensing measurement sessions. Further, the PACD may receive and process all the sensing measurements from which the PACD may further determine the best set of sensing measurement sessions to achieve the sensing goal.

[0335] FIG. 28 depicts an exemplary flowchart for WLAN sensing carried out by a networking device, according to some embodiments. In an implementation, flowchart 2800 may be carried out by a networking device (for example, networking device 502).

[0336] In a brief overview of an implementation of flowchart 2800, at step 2802, a plurality of networking devices operating within a sensing space may be identified. Further, at step 2804, a maximum set of unique sensing links may be identified between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices. At step 2806, configuration of a plurality of sensing measurement sessions may be caused according to the maximum set of unique sensing links. Furthermore, at step 2808,a plurality of sensing measurements may be obtained corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. At step 2810, a reduced set of sensing links may be identified based on the plurality of sensing measurements.

[0337] Step 2802 includes identifying a plurality of networking devices operating within a sensing space. According to some implementation, networking device 502 may be configured to identify the plurality of networking devices (for example, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N)) operating within the sensing space using sensing controller 564. In examples, identifying the plurality of networking devices (for example, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N)) includes requesting sensing capability information from an access point. In an embodiment, plurality of networking devices (for example, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N)) may include networking device (for example, networking device 502) and additional networking devices (for example, additional networking devices 504-(l-N)) within a basic service set that support WLAN sensing. In some embodiments, networking device (for example, networking device 502) may not be an access point of the basic service set.

[0338] Step 2804 includes identifying a maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices (for example, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N)). According to some implementation, networking device 502 may be configured to identify the maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices (for example, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N)) using sensing controller 564. In an embodiment, maximum set of sensing links includes sensing links between every networking device and every other networking device of the plurality of networking devices (for example, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N)).

[0339] Step 2806 includes configuration of a plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the maximum set of unique sensing links. According to some implementation, networking device 502 may be configured to cause configuration of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions using sensing controller 564 according to the maximum set of unique sensing links. In examples, causing the configuration of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions includes the networking device (for example, networking device 502) requesting the access point to configure the plurality of sensing measurement sessions via sensing by proxy messages.

[0340] Step 2808 includes obtaining a plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. According to some implementation, networking device 502 may be configured to obtain the plurality of sensing measurements corresponding tothe plurality of sensing measurement sessions using sensing agent 516. In an embodiment, the obtained plurality of sensing measurements may be stored in sensing measurement storage 520. In some embodiments, the plurality of networking devices (for example, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N)) may be a part of a basic service set and an access point (for example, AP device 506) of the basic service set may not be included in the maximum set of unique sensing links. Further, the plurality of sensing measurement sessions may include a first sensing measurement session characterized by the networking device (for example, networking device 502) acting as a sensing transmitter or sensing receiver, and a second sensing measurement session characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the additional networking devices (for example, additional networking devices 504-(l-N)). In examples, obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes requesting the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing reporting trigger frame. Further, obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes receiving the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing measurement report frame.

[0341] In some embodiments, the plurality of networking devices (for example, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N)) may be part of the BSS and AP device (for example, AP device 506) of the BSS may be included in the maximum set of unique sensing links. In some embodiments, the plurality of sensing measurement sessions may be characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the plurality of networking devices (for example, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N)). In examples, obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes receiving a sensing by proxy report frame from the AP device (for example, AP device 506).

[0342] Step 2810, identifying a reduced set of sensing links based on the plurality of sensing measurements. According to some implementation, networking device 502 may be configured to identify the reduced set of sensing links based on the plurality of sensing measurements using sensing controller 564. In examples, identifying the reduced set of sensing links includes identifying selected sensing links according to presence or motion on the selected sensing links exceeding thresholds during the plurality of sensing measurement sessions.

[0343] While the above steps shown in Figure 28 are described in a particular sequence, the steps may occur in variations to the sequence in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure. Further, details related to various steps of FIG. 28, which are already covered in the description related to FIG. 1 to FIG. 27 are not discussed again in detail here for the sake of brevity.

[0344] FIG. 29 depicts an exemplary flowchart for WLAN sensing carried out by the networking device, according to some other embodiments. In an implementation, flowchart 2900 may be carried out by a networking device (for example, networking device 502).

[0345] In a brief overview of an implementation of flowchart 2900, at step 2902, the configuration of a reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions may be caused according to the reduced set of sensing links. At step 2904, a second plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions may be obtained. Furthermore, at step 2906, a second reduced set of sensing links may be identified based on the second plurality of sensing measurements.

[0346] Step 2902 includes causing the configuration of a reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the reduced set of sensing links. According to some implementation, networking device 502 may be configured to cause the configuration of the reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the reduced set of sensing links using sensing controller 564. In an embodiment, the configuration of the reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions may be performed using SBP messages. In an embodiment, the technique of configuring the reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions may be identical to the process of configuring the plurality of sensing measurement sessions.

[0347] Step 2904 includes obtaining a second plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions. According to some implementation, networking device 502 may be configured to obtain the second plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions using sensing agent 516. In an embodiment, the technique of obtaining the second plurality of sensing measurements may be identical to the process of obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements.

[0348] Step 2906 includes identifying a second reduced set of sensing links based on the second plurality of sensing measurements. According to some implementation, networking device 502 may be configured to identify the second reduced set of sensing links based on the second plurality of sensing measurements using sensing controller 564. In an embodiment, a first number of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions are less than a second number of the maximum set of unique sensing links. In an embodiment, the technique of identifying the second reduced set of sensing links may be identical to the process of identifying the reduced set of sensing links.

[0349] While the above steps shown in FIG. 29 are described in a particular sequence, the steps may occur in variations to the sequence in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure. Further, details related to various steps of Figure 29, which are already covered in the description related to FIG. 1 to FIG. 28 are not discussed again in detail here for the sake of brevity.

[0350] FIG. 30 depicts an exemplary flowchart for identifying a maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices, according to some embodiments. In an implementation, flowchart 3000 may be carried out by a networking device (for example, networking device 502).

[0351] In a brief overview of an implementation of flowchart 3000, at step 3002, the first unique sensing links may be identified associated with a first networking device of the plurality of networking devices. At step 3004, additional unique sensing links may be identified associated with an additional networking device of the plurality of networking devices and that have not been previously identified. Furthermore, at step 3006, it is determined if the maximum set of unique sensing links are identified. If the output of step 3006 is no, step 3002 is performed again until the maximum set of unique sensing links are identified. Further, if the output of step 3004 is yes, the flowchart 3000 ends at step 3008.

[0352] Step 3002 includes identifying the first unique sensing links associated with a first networking device of the plurality of networking devices. According to some implementation, networking device 502 may be configured to identify the first unique sensing links associated with the first networking device of the plurality of networking devices (for example, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N)) using sensing controller 564.

[0353] Step 3004 includes identifying additional unique sensing links associated with an additional networking device of the plurality of networking devices and that have not been previously identified. According to some implementation, networking device 502 may be configured to identify additional unique sensing links associated with the additional networking device of the plurality of networking devices (for example, networking device 502 and additional networking devices 504-(l-N)) and that have not been previously identified using sensing controller 564.

[0354] Step 3006 includes determining if the maximum set of unique sensing links are identified. According to some implementation, networking device 502 may be configured to determine if the maximum set of unique sensing links are identified using sensing controller 564. If the output of step 3006 is ‘No’, then step 3002 is performed again until the maximum set of unique sensing links are identified. Further, if the output of step 3004 is ‘Yes’, the flowchart 3000 ends at step 3008.

[0355] While the above steps shown in FIG. 30 are described in a particular sequence, the steps may occur in variations to the sequence in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure. Further, details related to various steps of Figure 30, which are already covered in the description related to FIG. 1 to FIG. 29 are not discussed again in detail here for the sake of brevity.

[0356] Embodiment 1 is method for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) sensing carried out by a networking device including a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna, and at least one processor configured to execute instructions, the method comprising: identifying a plurality of networking devices operating within a sensing space, the plurality of networking devices including the networking device and additional networking devices within a basic service set that support WLAN sensing, wherein the networking device is not an access point of the basic service set; identifying a maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices; causing configuration of a plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the maximum set of unique sensing links; obtaining a plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions; and identifying a reduced set of sensing links based on the plurality of sensing measurements.

[0357] Embodiment 2 is the method of embodiment 1, further comprising causing the configuration of a reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the reduced set of sensing links.

[0358] Embodiment 3 is the method of embodiment 1 or 2, further comprising: obtaining a second plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions; and identifying a second reduced set of sensing links based on the second plurality of sensing measurements.

[0359] Embodiment 4 is the method of any of embodiments 1-3, wherein identifying the plurality of networking devices includes requesting sensing capability information from an access point.

[0360] Embodiment 5 is the method of any of embodiments 1-4, wherein the maximum set of unique sensing links includes sensing links between every networking device and every other networking device of the plurality of networking devices.

[0361] Embodiment 6 is the method of any of embodiments 1-5, wherein the plurality of networking devices are part of a basic service set, and an access point of the basic service set is not included in the maximum set of unique sensing links.

[0362] Embodiment 7 is the method of any of embodiments 1-6, wherein the plurality of networking devices are part of a basic service set, and an access point of the basic service set is included in the maximum set of unique sensing links.

[0363] Embodiment 8 is the method of embodiment 6 or 7, wherein the plurality of sensing measurement sessions includes: a first sensing measurement session characterized by the networking device acting as a sensing transmitter or sensing receiver, and a second sensing measurement session characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the additional networking devices.

[0364] Embodiment 9 is the method of embodiment 7, wherein causing the configuration of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions includes the networking device requesting the access point to configure the plurality of sensing measurement sessions via sensing by proxy messages.

[0365] Embodiment 10 is the method of embodiment 7, wherein the plurality of sensing measurement sessions are characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the plurality of networking devices.

[0366] Embodiment 11 is the method of any of embodiments 6 - 10, wherein obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes: requesting the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing reporting trigger frame, and receiving the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing measurement report frame.

[0367] Embodiment 12 is the method of embodiment 7, wherein obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes receiving a sensing by proxy report frame from the access point.

[0368] Embodiment 13 is the method of any of embodiments 1-12, wherein identifying the reduced set of sensing links includes identifying selected sensing links according to presence or motion on the selected sensing links exceeding thresholds during the plurality of sensing measurement sessions.

[0369] Embodiment 14 is the method of any of embodiments 1-13, wherein a first number of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions are less than a second number of the maximum set of unique sensing links.

[0370] Embodiment 15 is the method of any of embodiments 1-14, wherein identifying the maximum set of unique sensing links between the individual ones of the plurality of networking devices includes: a) identifying first unique sensing links associated with a first networking device of the plurality of networking devices; b) identifying additional unique sensing links associatedwith an additional networking device of the plurality of networking devices and that have not been previously identified; and c) repeating step b until the maximum set of unique sensing links is identified.

[0371] Embodiment 16 is a system for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) sensing comprising: a networking device including a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna, and at least one processor configured to execute instructions for: identifying a plurality of networking devices operating within a sensing space, the plurality of networking devices including the networking device and additional networking devices within a basic service set that support WLAN sensing, wherein the networking device is not an access point of the basic service set; identifying a maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices; causing configuration of a plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the maximum set of unique sensing links; obtaining a plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions; and identifying a reduced set of sensing links based on the plurality of sensing measurements.

[0372] Embodiment 17 is the system of embodiment 16, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the instructions for causing the configuration of a reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the reduced set of sensing links.

[0373] Embodiment 18 is the system of embodiment 16 or 17, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the instructions for: obtaining a second plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions; and identifying a second reduced set of sensing links based on the second plurality of sensing measurements.

[0374] Embodiment 19 is the system of any of embodiments 16-18, wherein identifying the plurality of networking devices includes requesting sensing capability information from an access point.

[0375] Embodiment 20 is the system of any of embodiments 16-19, wherein the maximum set of unique sensing links includes sensing links between every networking device and every other networking device of the plurality of networking devices.

[0376] Embodiment 21 is the system of any of embodiments 16-20, wherein the plurality of networking devices are part of a basic service set and an access point of the basic service set is not included in the maximum set of unique sensing links.

[0377] Embodiment 22 is the system of any of embodiments 16-21, wherein the plurality of networking devices are part of a basic service set and an access point of the basic service set is included in the maximum set of unique sensing links.

[0378] Embodiment 23 is the system of embodiment 21, wherein the plurality of sensing measurement sessions includes: a first sensing measurement session characterized by the networking device acting as a sensing transmitter or sensing receiver, and a second sensing measurement session characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the additional networking devices.

[0379] Embodiment 24 is the system of embodiment 22, wherein causing the configuration of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions includes the networking device requesting the access point to configure the plurality of sensing measurement sessions via sensing by proxy messages.

[0380] Embodiment 25 is the system of embodiment 22, wherein the plurality of sensing measurement sessions are characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the plurality of networking devices.

[0381] Embodiment 26 is the system of any of embodiments 21-25, wherein obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes: requesting the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing reporting trigger frame, and receiving the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing measurement report frame.

[0382] Embodiment 27 is the system of embodiment 22, wherein obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes receiving a sensing by proxy report frame from the access point.

[0383] Embodiment 28 is the system of any of embodiments 16-27, wherein identifying the reduced set of sensing links includes identifying selected sensing links according to presence or motion on the selected sensing links exceeding thresholds during the plurality of sensing measurement sessions.

[0384] Embodiment 29 is the system of any of embodiments 16-28, wherein a first number of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions are less than a second number of the maximum set of unique sensing links.

[0385] Embodiment 30 is the system of any of embodiments 16-29, wherein identifying the maximum set of unique sensing links between the individual ones of the plurality of networking devices includes: a) identifying first unique sensing links associated with a first networking device of the plurality of networking devices; b) identifying additional unique sensing links associated with an additional networking device of the plurality of networking devices and that have not been previously identified; and c) repeating step b until the maximum set of unique sensing links is identified.

[0386] While various embodiments of the methods and systems have been described, these embodiments are illustrative and in no way limit the scope of the described methods or systems.Those having skill in the relevant art can effect changes to form and details of the described methods and systems without departing from the broadest scope of the described methods and systems. Thus, the scope of the methods and systems described herein should not be limited by any of the illustrative embodiments and should be defined in accordance with the accompanying claims and their equivalents.

Claims

CLAIMSWe claim:

1. A method for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) sensing carried out by a networking device including a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna, and at least one processor configured to execute instructions, the method comprising: identifying a plurality of networking devices operating within a sensing space, the plurality of networking devices including the networking device and additional networking devices within a basic service set that support WLAN sensing, wherein the networking device is not an access point of the basic service set; identifying a maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices; causing configuration of a plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the maximum set of unique sensing links; obtaining a plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions; and identifying a reduced set of sensing links based on the plurality of sensing measurements.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing the configuration of a reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the reduced set of sensing links.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: obtaining a second plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions; and identifying a second reduced set of sensing links based on the second plurality of sensing measurements.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the plurality of networking devices includes requesting sensing capability information from an access point.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the maximum set of unique sensing links includes sensing links between every networking device and every other networking device of the plurality of networking devices.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of networking devices are part of a basic service set, and an access point of the basic service set is not included in the maximum set of unique sensing links.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of networking devices are part of a basic service set, and an access point of the basic service set is included in the maximum set of unique sensing links.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the plurality of sensing measurement sessions includes: a first sensing measurement session characterized by the networking device acting as a sensing transmitter or sensing receiver, and a second sensing measurement session characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the additional networking devices.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein causing the configuration of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions includes the networking device requesting the access point to configure the plurality of sensing measurement sessions via sensing by proxy messages.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of sensing measurement sessions are characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the plurality of networking devices.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes: requesting the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing reporting trigger frame, and receiving the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing measurement report frame.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes receiving a sensing by proxy report frame from the access point.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the reduced set of sensing links includes identifying selected sensing links according to presence or motion on the selected sensing links exceeding thresholds during the plurality of sensing measurement sessions.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein a first number of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions are less than a second number of the maximum set of unique sensing links.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the maximum set of unique sensing links between the individual ones of the plurality of networking devices includes: a) identifying first unique sensing links associated with a first networking device of the plurality of networking devices; b) identifying additional unique sensing links associated with an additional networking device of the plurality of networking devices and that have not been previously identified; and c) repeating step b until the maximum set of unique sensing links is identified.

16. A system for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) sensing comprising: a networking device including a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna, and at least one processor configured to execute instructions for: identifying a plurality of networking devices operating within a sensing space, the plurality of networking devices including the networking device and additional networking devices within a basic service set that support WLAN sensing, wherein the networking device is not an access point of the basic service set; identifying a maximum set of unique sensing links between individual ones of the plurality of networking devices; causing configuration of a plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the maximum set of unique sensing links; obtaining a plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions; and identifying a reduced set of sensing links based on the plurality of sensing measurements.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the instructions for causing the configuration of a reduced plurality of sensing measurement sessions according to the reduced set of sensing links.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the instructions for: obtaining a second plurality of sensing measurements corresponding to the plurality of sensing measurement sessions; and identifying a second reduced set of sensing links based on the second plurality of sensing measurements.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein identifying the plurality of networking devices includes requesting sensing capability information from an access point.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the maximum set of unique sensing links includes sensing links between every networking device and every other networking device of the plurality of networking devices.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the plurality of networking devices are part of a basic service set and an access point of the basic service set is not included in the maximum set of unique sensing links.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein the plurality of networking devices are part of a basic service set and an access point of the basic service set is included in the maximum set of unique sensing links.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the plurality of sensing measurement sessions includes: a first sensing measurement session characterized by the networking device acting as a sensing transmitter or sensing receiver, and a second sensing measurement session characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the additional networking devices.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein causing the configuration of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions includes the networking device requesting the access point to configure the plurality of sensing measurement sessions via sensing by proxy messages.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the plurality of sensing measurement sessions are characterized by sensing receiver to sensing receiver (SR2SR) sensing measurement exchanges between two or more of the plurality of networking devices.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes: requesting the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing reporting trigger frame, and receiving the plurality of sensing measurements by at least one sensing measurement report frame.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein obtaining the plurality of sensing measurements includes receiving a sensing by proxy report frame from the access point.

28. The system of claim 16, wherein identifying the reduced set of sensing links includes identifying selected sensing links according to presence or motion on the selected sensing links exceeding thresholds during the plurality of sensing measurement sessions.

29. The system of claim 16, wherein a first number of the plurality of sensing measurement sessions are less than a second number of the maximum set of unique sensing links.

30. The system of claim 16, wherein identifying the maximum set of unique sensing links between the individual ones of the plurality of networking devices includes: a) identifying first unique sensing links associated with a first networking device of the plurality of networking devices; b) identifying additional unique sensing links associated with an additional networking device of the plurality of networking devices and that have not been previously identified; and c) repeating step b until the maximum set of unique sensing links is identified.

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