Wireless communication method, client device, and access point device

Abstract

Provided are a wireless communication method, a client device, and an access point device. The wireless communication method executed by a client device comprises: receiving an announcement message from an associated access point device associated with the client device, wherein the announcement message indicates one or more coordinating access point devices that have negotiated multi-access point coordination with the associated access point device; in response to receiving, from a non-associated access point device that is not associated with the client device, a non-primary channel access switching trigger signal explicitly or implicitly indicating that a primary channel of the associated access point device is in a busy state, a destination of the non-primary channel access switching trigger signal comprising the associated access point device, determining, on the basis of the announcement message and the non-primary channel access switching trigger signal, whether the non-associated access point device is different from each of the one or more coordinating access point devices; in response to determining that the non-associated access point device is different from each of the one or more coordinating access point devices, performing non-primary channel access switching; and in response to determining that the non-associated access point device is the same as one of the one or more coordinating access point devices, not performing or delaying non-primary channel access switching.

Description

Wireless communication methods, client devices, and access point devices

[0001] Cross-references to related applications

[0002] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202510143638.9, filed on February 8, 2025, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0003] This disclosure relates to the field of wireless communications, and more specifically, to wireless communication methods, station (STA), access point (AP) devices, and computer program products that facilitate multi-access point (MAP) cooperation and non-primary channel access (NPCA) in wireless communications. Background Technology

[0004] The 802.11TGbn discussion group has reached a preliminary agreement to introduce MAP (Mapping Assignment) and NPCA (Portable Node Assignment) technologies into next-generation Wi-Fi. However, the current design of MAP and NPCA technologies means that implementing NPCA under MAP may result in a problem where the STA (Station) cannot communicate properly with its associated AP (Access Point). Summary of the Invention

[0005] This disclosure aims to improve the current design of MAP collaboration technology and NPA technology to avoid the problem that the STA and its associated AP cannot communicate properly due to inconsistent NPA handover.

[0006] At least one embodiment of this disclosure provides a wireless communication method performed by a client device. The method includes: receiving an announcement message from an associated access point device (APD) associated with the client device, the announcement message indicating one or more cooperating APDs that have negotiated multi-access point device cooperation with the associated APD; in response to receiving a non-associated access point device (NAD) trigger signal from a non-associated access point device (NAD) not associated with the client device, explicitly or implicitly indicating that the primary channel of the associated APD is busy, and the destination of the non-primary channel access point device (NAD) trigger signal includes the associated APD; determining, based on the announcement message and the non-primary channel access point device (NAD) trigger signal, whether the non-associated APD is different from each of the one or more cooperating APDs; in response to determining that the non-associated APD is different from each of the one or more cooperating APDs, performing a non-primary channel access handover; and in response to determining that the non-associated APD is the same as one of the one or more cooperating APDs, not performing or delaying the non-primary channel access handover.

[0007] At least one embodiment of this disclosure also provides a wireless communication method performed by an access point device, which is an associated access point device associated with a client device. The method includes: sending an announcement message to the client device, the announcement message indicating one or more cooperating access point devices that have negotiated multi-access point device cooperation with the associated access point device; and, in response to receiving a non-associated access point device (NADD) trigger signal from a non-associated access point device (NADD) not associated with the client device, explicitly or implicitly indicating that the NADD's primary channel is busy, and the destination of the NADD trigger signal includes the NADD, determining whether the non-associated access point device is different from each of the one or more cooperating access point devices; performing a non-primary channel access handover in response to determining that the non-associated access point device is different from each of the one or more cooperating access point devices; and not performing or delaying the non-primary channel access handover in response to determining that the non-associated access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices.

[0008] At least one embodiment of this disclosure also provides a client device for wireless communication. The client device includes: a transceiver; a memory storing computer-readable instructions; and a processor coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein when the computer-readable instructions are executed by the processor, the client device causes the client device to perform the aforementioned wireless communication method performed by the client device.

[0009] At least one embodiment of this disclosure also provides an access point device for wireless communication. The access point device includes: a transceiver; a memory storing computer-readable instructions thereon; and a processor coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein when the computer-readable instructions are executed by the processor, the access point device causes the access point device to perform the aforementioned wireless communication method performed by the access point device.

[0010] At least one embodiment of this disclosure also provides a computer program product including computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the aforementioned wireless communication method executed by a client device.

[0011] At least one embodiment of this disclosure also provides a computer program product including computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the aforementioned wireless communication method performed by an access point device.

[0012] In at least one embodiment of this disclosure, the AP announces to its associated STAs that it has established MAP cooperation with one or more cooperating APs, thus informing the STAs of the established MAP cooperation relationship. When deciding whether to perform an NPCA handover, the AP and STA take into account the established MAP cooperation relationship of the AP, in order to avoid the problem that the STA cannot communicate normally with its associated AP because the STA has switched to a non-primary channel while the AP still needs to remain on the primary channel. This better achieves compatibility between MAP cooperation technology and NPCA technology, which is also more in line with the original intention of the 802.11TGbn discussion group to introduce MAP cooperation technology and NPCA technology to improve network resource utilization. Attached Figure Description

[0013] From the following description of the embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, aspects, features, and advantages of this disclosure will become clearer and more readily understood, wherein:

[0014] Figure 1 illustrates a schematic application scenario of a wireless communication method according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0015] Figure 2 illustrates the schematic main channel and the schematic non-main channel;

[0016] Figure 3 illustrates the schematic process of NPCA switching;

[0017] Figure 4 illustrates a schematic framework for MAP collaboration technology;

[0018] Figures 5A and 5B illustrate a schematic framework of MAP collaboration technology when the collaboration mechanism negotiated during the MAP negotiation phase only includes the Co-RTWT mechanism.

[0019] Figure 6 illustrates an illustrative MAP collaboration process according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0020] Figure 7 illustrates another illustrative MAP collaboration process according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0021] Figures 8A and 8B illustrate a schematic frame structure of a first sub-announcement message according to at least one embodiment of the disclosure;

[0022] Figure 8C illustrates a schematic frame format of a startup control frame according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0023] Figures 9A to 9D illustrate schematic frame structures of a second sub-declaration message according to at least one embodiment of the disclosure;

[0024] Figures 10A to 10D illustrate schematic frame structures of a third sub-declaration message according to at least one embodiment of the disclosure;

[0025] Figure 11 shows a schematic flowchart of a wireless communication method performed by a STA according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0026] Figure 12 illustrates a sub-step of step S150 in Figure 11 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0027] Figure 13 illustrates a sub-step of step S150 in Figure 11 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0028] Figure 14 illustrates a sub-step of step S150 in Figure 11 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0029] Figure 15 shows a schematic flowchart of a wireless communication method performed by an AP according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0030] Figure 16 illustrates a sub-step of step S250 in Figure 15 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0031] Figure 17 illustrates a sub-step of step S250 in Figure 15 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0032] Figure 18 shows a schematic block diagram of a client device according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0033] Figure 19 shows a schematic block diagram of an access point device according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0034] Those skilled in the art will understand that the elements in the accompanying drawings are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some elements in the illustrations, block diagrams, or flowcharts may be exaggerated relative to other elements to aid in the accurate understanding of this embodiment.

[0035] Specific implementation methods

[0036] The present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described herein, which may be implemented in many different forms. The described embodiments are provided only to make the present disclosure thorough and complete, and to fully convey the concept of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. Features of the various embodiments described may be combined with or substituted for each other, unless expressly excluded or should be excluded based on the context.

[0037] In this disclosure, an access point device (AP) is a communication device capable of communicating with non-access point (non-AP) devices (e.g., stations (STAs) or client devices) in a WLAN and allowing non-APs to connect to a wired network. An AP is typically connected to a router (via a wired network) as a standalone device, but it can also be integrated with or used within a router. Similarly, in this disclosure, a client device (STA) is a communication device capable of communicating with an AP to obtain various communication services (such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcasting, etc.). An STA can be any device containing IEEE 820.11 compliant Media Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) interfaces to the wireless medium (WM). For example, an STA can be a laptop computer, desktop personal computer (PC), personal digital assistant (PDA), access point, or Wi-Fi phone in a WLAN environment. STAs can be fixed or mobile. In a WLAN environment, the terms "STA," "client device," "wireless client," "user," and "user equipment" are generally used interchangeably.

[0038] In this disclosure, a STA in a WLAN can function as an AP in different situations, and vice versa. This is because communication devices in the context of IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) technology may include both STA and AP hardware components. In this way, the communication device can switch between STA mode and AP mode based on the actual WLAN conditions and / or requirements.

[0039] In this disclosure, for the convenience of describing the embodiments, for a certain STA, the AP associated with the STA is called the associated AP, the AP not associated with the STA is called the non-associated AP, and the AP that has established a MAP collaboration relationship with the associated AP is called the collaborative AP.

[0040] In this disclosure, for ease of describing embodiments, the AP that initiates MAP cooperative transmission (e.g., sharing transmission opportunity (TXOP) or initiating cooperative channel measurement) in MAP cooperation is referred to as the sharing AP, and the AP waiting for the sharing AP to initiate MAP cooperative transmission is referred to as the shared AP.

[0041] As mentioned earlier, the 802.11TGbn discussion group has initially agreed to introduce MAP collaboration and NPCA technologies into next-generation Wi-Fi. However, the current design of MAP collaboration and NPCA technologies makes it possible for STAs to be unable to communicate properly with their associated APs when implementing NPCA under MAP collaboration.

[0042] To facilitate understanding of this disclosure, the current design of MAP collaboration technology and NPCA technology is described below with reference to Figures 1 to 6.

[0043] Figure 1 illustrates a schematic application scenario of a wireless communication method according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0044] As shown in Figure 1, the Basic Service Sets (BSS) of AP1, AP2, and AP3 are BSS1, BSS2, and BSS3, respectively. STA1 and STA1a are associated with AP1, STA2 and STA2a are associated with AP2, and STA3 is associated with AP3. Here, "associated" means that the STA and AP have established a logical connection, enabling the STA to access network resources through the AP. In an environment with densely deployed multiple APs, BSS1, BSS2, and BSS3 may partially overlap; this overlapping portion is called the Overlapping Basic Service Set (OBSS). STA1 is located within the OBSS of BSS1, BSS2, and BSS3. Signals emitted by AP2 and / or AP3, such as broadcast signals emitted by AP2 or signals destined for AP1 or AP2, can also be received by STA1. STA2 is located within the OBSS of BSS1 and BSS2. Signals emitted by AP1, such as broadcast signals emitted by AP1 or signals destined for AP2, can also be received by STA2. It should be understood that signals are represented as frames at the data link layer and as Physical Protocol Data Units (PPDUs) at the physical layer. The data link layer uses frames to encapsulate data, while at the physical layer, these frames are converted into PPDUs for transmission. A PPDU generally includes a header and a data portion. The data portion, if encrypted, can only be parsed by the destination device of the PPDU, while the header can generally be parsed by any device that receives it to determine the source device, destination device, type, etc., of the PPDU.

[0045] Figure 2 illustrates the schematic main channel and the schematic non-main channel.

[0046] As is well known, different wireless devices (including APs and STAs) can support different operating bandwidths, and different operating bandwidths include different numbers of channels. For example, taking a bandwidth of 20MHz per channel as an example, wireless devices with operating bandwidths of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, and 160MHz can use 1, 2, 4, and 8 channels respectively. The current 802.11 protocol refers to the channel that can be shared by all wireless devices as the primary channel (PCH), and the remaining channels as non-primary channels (NPCH).

[0047] For example, as shown in Figure 2, a wireless device with an operating bandwidth of 20MHz can use channel CH1. A wireless device with an operating bandwidth of 40MHz can use both channels CH1 and CH2. A wireless device with an operating bandwidth of 80MHz can use four channels, CH1 through CH4. A wireless device with an operating bandwidth of 160MHz can use eight channels, CH1 through CH8. These wireless devices share the same channel CH1, which is called the primary channel, and the remaining channels CH2 through CH8 are called non-primary channels.

[0048] Figure 3 illustrates the schematic process of NPCA switching.

[0049] Under the current 802.11 protocol, an Access Point (AP) can advertise its primary channel and operating bandwidth. Any STA wishing to transmit or receive data with the AP needs to compete for EDCA (Electronic Data Acquisition and Competition) on the AP's primary channel (or DCF (Distributed Data Acquisition) as specified in the earlier 802.11n protocol). In one example, if the AP advertises its primary channel as channel 40 in the 5GHz band (hereinafter referred to as channel 40), then STAs with operating bandwidths of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, or other sizes will need to compete for EDCA on channel 40. This means that when channel 40 is busy, one or more STAs may be unable to transmit or receive data with the AP, even if non-primary channels within the AP's operating bandwidth are idle.

[0050] To address the underutilization of non-primary channels when the primary channel is busy, the 802.11TGbn discussion group introduced NPCA (Non-Primary Channel Interchange) technology. According to the current consensus reached by the 802.11TGbn discussion group regarding NPCA, if an AP or STA receives an OBSS PPDU on the primary channel, indicating that the primary channel is busy, it can switch from primary channel communication mode to non-primary channel communication mode. This switching operation is called NPCA handover, as shown in Figure 3. Taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, the PPDU sent by AP2 can be received not only by its associated STA2 and STA2a, but also by AP1, STA1, and AP3. The header of this PPDU can carry the identifier of BSS2, such as the BSS color and / or BSSID. AP1, STA1, and AP3 can use this identifier to determine that the PPDU belongs to a different BSS than their own, thus identifying it as an OBSS PPDU. It should be understood that if an AP can receive a PPDU from a BSS other than its own, it generally means that its own BSS overlaps at least partially with that other BSS. Similarly, if a STA can receive a PPDU from a BSS other than the BSS of its associated AP, it generally means that the BSS of its associated AP overlaps at least partially with that other BSS.

[0051] Figure 4 illustrates a schematic framework for MAP collaboration technology.

[0052] The 802.11TGbn discussion group has preliminarily agreed to introduce MAP (Mapping Access Point) cooperation technology in next-generation Wi-Fi to allow multiple access points (APs) to better utilize network resources to serve STAs through mutual cooperation. Currently, there are four MAP cooperation mechanisms: Coordinated Time Division Multiple Access (Co-TDMA), Coordinated Spatial Reuse (Co-SR), Coordinated Beamforming (Co-BF), and Coordinated Restricted Target Wake Time (Co-RTWT). This disclosure does not intend to describe the specific details of these four cooperation mechanisms in detail, but only briefly introduces the parts closely related to this disclosure.

[0053] MAP cooperation can be divided into three phases: MAP discovery, MAP negotiation, and MAP transmission. During the MAP discovery phase, APs supporting MAP cooperation can announce their MAP capabilities, for example, via beacon frames. During the MAP negotiation phase, APs can initiate a MAP session to negotiate which of the four cooperation mechanisms (or one or more) they will use for MAP cooperation. Next, during the MAP transmission phase, the AP that first acquires the TXOP (the sharing AP) can send an Initiation Control Frame (ICF) to the other AP (the shared AP). Upon receiving the ICF, the shared AP can determine whether to initiate or not to initiate MAP cooperation (e.g., according to current or future Wi-Fi protocols regarding AP decision-making) and sends an Initiation Control Response (ICR) to the sharing AP to indicate its agreement or disagreement. For example, in Co-TDMA, if the ICR indicates that the shared AP agrees to initiate Co-TDMA cooperation, the sharing AP shares a portion of its TXOP with the shared AP for data transmission. If the ICR indicates that the shared AP does not agree to initiate this MAP collaboration, the sharing AP will not share the TXOP with the shared AP.

[0054] Alternatively, after receiving the ICF, the shared AP may only send back the ICR if it agrees to initiate MAP cooperation; otherwise, it will not send back the ICR. In this alternative, if the sharing AP receives the ICR, it shares a period of the transmission phase (TP) within the TXOP with the shared AP; if the sharing AP does not receive the ICR within a predetermined time interval, it will not share the TXOP with the shared AP. Another alternative is that after receiving the ICF, the shared AP may only send back the ICR if it disagrees to initiate MAP cooperation; otherwise, it will not send back the ICR. In this alternative, if the sharing AP does not receive the ICR within a predetermined time interval, it shares a period of the transmission phase within the TXOP with the shared AP. This predetermined time interval depends on the future design of the ICF and ICR. For example, the ICF and ICR may be included in the Basic Service Report Polling (BSRP) frame and the Basic Service Report (BSR) frame, respectively. When using a bulk acknowledgment mechanism, the ICR can be included in a frame carrying a BSR for bulk carrying acknowledgment messages, such as a multi-STA BlockACK frame.

[0055] For example, taking AP1 and AP2 in the scenario of Figure 1 as an example, assuming that both AP1 and AP2 have MAP cooperation capabilities, they can each declare their MAP capability information indicating that they support MAP cooperation technology. Subsequently, during the shared TXOP1 period, AP1 and AP2 initiate a MAP session to negotiate whether to perform MAP cooperation using Co-TDMA or Co-SR mechanisms. Then, AP1 first competes for TXOP2, and then AP1 sends an ICF to AP2. For example, this ICF conveys that AP1 expects to initiate Co-TDMA cooperation with AP2 during TXOP2. Assuming that AP2 agrees to initiate Co-TDMA cooperation, it sends an ICR indicating its agreement to initiate Co-TDMA cooperation back to AP1. Upon receiving this ICR, AP1 shares a period of the transmission time within TXOP2 with AP2. AP2 can then transmit data during this period.

[0056] A single MAP session can contain multiple MAP transmission phases. For example, as shown in Figure 4, after TXOP2 ends, AP2 competes for TXOP3. AP2, acting as the shared AP, then sends an ICF to AP1 to convey its expectation of initiating Co-SR cooperation with AP1 during TXOP2. Assuming AP1 agrees to initiate this Co-SR cooperation, it sends an ICR to AP2 indicating its agreement. Upon receiving this ICR, AP2 cooperates with AP1 according to the Co-SR mechanism. For example, according to the current design of the Co-SR cooperation mechanism, AP2 will further initiate cooperative channel measurements with AP1 to exchange measurement results such as received channel strength, path loss, and signal-to-noise ratio. Based on the measurement results, they will negotiate a power control scheme that reduces interference between their respective BSSs, and then simultaneously transmit data with their respective associated STAs within TXOP3 at the negotiated power.

[0057] Multiple MAP sessions can be initiated between APs, and the MAP cooperation mechanism negotiated in each MAP session can be the same or different. For example, as shown in Figure 4, after the previous MAP session ends, AP1 and AP2 can initiate a new MAP session during the shared TXOP4 period and negotiate to cooperate using the Co-BF cooperation mechanism. Subsequently, AP1 competes for TXOP5, thereby sending an ICF to AP2, and after receiving an ICR from AP2 indicating its agreement to initiate this Co-BF cooperation, it cooperates with AP2 according to the Co-BF mechanism. For example, according to the current design of the Co-BF cooperation mechanism, AP1 will initiate cooperative channel measurement to AP2 to measure channel state information (CSI) across both BSSs, and perform beamforming based on the measurement results, so that the beam energy is minimized for each AP1 in the direction of the STA within the OBSS and maximized for the direction of its own target STA, thereby reducing interference to STAs within the OBSS and improving the transmission quality for its own target STA.

[0058] Figures 5A and 5B illustrate a schematic framework of MAP collaboration technology when the collaboration mechanism negotiated during the MAP negotiation phase only includes the Co-RTWT mechanism.

[0059] When the cooperation mechanism negotiated during the MAP negotiation phase only includes the Co-RTWT mechanism, the framework of MAP cooperation technology can differ slightly from the framework shown in Figure 4. As shown in Figure 5A, when the cooperation mechanism negotiated during the MAP negotiation phase only includes the Co-RTWT mechanism, ICF and ICR exchanges may not be performed during the MAP transmission phase. Taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assume STA1a is performing a file download, STA1 is performing a voice call, STA2 is running a game application, and STA2a is running a video application. R-TWT protection has been established for STA1 within BSS1, which means that AP1 and STA1 have agreed on STA1's service period (SP). In other words, other STAs within BSS1 (i.e., STA1a) will not occupy STA1's SP. Similarly, R-TWT protection has also been established for STA2 within BSS2, which means that AP2 has also agreed on STA2's dedicated SP with STA2. In other words, other STAs within BSS2 (i.e., STA2a) will not occupy STA2's SP. However, R-TWT protection only applies to a single BSS. In cases where BSS1 and BSS2 partially overlap, the transmission between AP1 and STA1 may be affected by AP2 and / or STA2 because STA1's SP is not known to AP2 and STA2's SP is not known to AP1.

[0060] With the introduction of the Co-RTWT mechanism, AP1 and AP2 exchange information about their respective established R-TWT protections during the MAP negotiation phase and create a Co-RTWT schedule to ensure that the SPs of STA1 protected by R-TWT in AP1 and STA2 protected by R-TWT in AP2 do not overlap. Therefore, if the cooperation mechanism negotiated by AP1 and AP2 during the MAP negotiation phase only includes the Co-RTWT mechanism, then AP1 and AP2 have already agreed on non-overlapping SPs for STA1 and SPs for STA2 during the MAP negotiation phase. Subsequently, AP1 transmits data with STA1 using the SPs for STA1 according to this agreement, and AP2 also transmits data with STA2 using the SPs for STA2 according to this agreement, until a new MAP session is initiated or MAP cooperation ceases.

[0061] As shown in Figure 5B, during the MAP negotiation phase, AP1 and AP2 agreed that the SP used for STA1 would be Co-RTWT SP1, and the SP used for STA2 would be Co-RTWT SP2. Subsequently, AP1 transmits voice traffic with STA1 during Co-RTWT SP1, and AP2 transmits game traffic with STA2 during Co-RTWT SP2.

[0062] Based on the above introduction to NPCA and MAP cooperative technologies, and especially by comparing Figures 4 and 5A, it can be seen that only when the mechanism negotiated during the MAP negotiation phase includes only the Co-RTWT mechanism, the shared AP does not need to remain on the primary channel after the MAP negotiation phase. Otherwise, when the mechanism negotiated during the MAP negotiation phase includes one or more of the Co-TDMA, Co-SR, and Co-BF mechanisms, the shared AP needs to remain on the primary channel after the MAP negotiation phase to wait for the sharing AP to initiate MAP cooperative transmission (e.g., waiting for the sharing AP to send its shared TXOP or waiting for the sharing AP to initiate cooperative channel measurement). However, during this waiting period, if the STA associated with the shared AP receives an OBSS PPDU (e.g., an ICF sent by the sharing AP), according to the current design of NPCA technology, the STA will trigger an NPCA handover, but the sharing AP will still remain on the primary channel waiting for the sharing AP to initiate MAP cooperative transmission. The result is that during MAP cooperative transmission, the shared AP attempts to send data on the primary channel, while the STA attempts to receive data on a non-primary channel, and data transmission between the two is impossible. In other words, when implementing NPCA technology under MAP collaboration, if the collaboration mechanism includes one or more of the Co-TDMA, Co-SR, and Co-BF mechanisms, the shared AP may be unable to communicate normally with its associated STA.

[0063] Furthermore, it's easy to understand that if a STA associated with a shared AP receives an ICF, but the destination of that ICF does not include the shared AP but includes other APs, this means that the ICF is not used to initiate MAP cooperation between the shared AP and the sharing AP. The shared AP does not need to remain on the main channel waiting for the sharing AP to initiate cooperative transmission. In this case, according to the current design of NPCA technology, the STA and the shared AP can consistently perform NPCA handover. Conversely, if the destination of the ICF received by the STA associated with the shared AP happens to be the shared AP, then as mentioned earlier, if the cooperation mechanism between the sharing AP and the shared AP includes one or more of Co-TDMA, Co-SR, and Co-BF mechanisms, the STA and its shared AP will experience communication problems due to inconsistent NPCA handover.

[0064] In view of this, this disclosure proposes improvements to the current designs of MAP cooperation and NPCA technologies. One aspect of the improvement is that the AP announces a list of cooperating APs with which it has established MAP cooperation to the STA. When the STA receives a non-primary channel access handover trigger signal that explicitly or implicitly indicates that the primary channel of the associated AP is busy, it can identify whether the destination of the non-primary channel access handover trigger signal includes its associated AP. If the destination of the non-primary channel access handover trigger signal does not include its associated AP, the STA can perform an NPCA handover. If the destination of the non-primary channel access handover trigger signal includes the associated AP, the STA can further consider this list of cooperating APs to determine whether to perform an NPCA handover and / or the appropriate timing for an NPCA handover, thereby avoiding the problem of the STA being unable to communicate properly with its associated AP. The non-primary channel access handover trigger signal can include any signal that explicitly, specifically, and directly indicates that the primary channel of the associated AP is busy, or any signal that implicitly, non-specifically, and indirectly informs the STA that the primary channel of the AP is busy. For example, non-primary channel access handover trigger signals may include, but are not limited to, OBSS PPDU, Multi-User Request to Send / Clear Send Frames (MU-RTS / CTS), signals carrying information about the primary channel load so that the STA can determine whether the primary channel is busy, signals directly indicating that the primary channel load exceeds a threshold, etc. The OBSS PPDU itself may not be specifically used to indicate that the associated AP's primary channel is busy, but the STA receiving the OBSS PPDU can be aware that the associated AP's primary channel is busy. For ease of explanation, the OBSS PPDU will be used as an example of a non-primary channel access handover trigger signal in the following description.

[0065] According to one embodiment of this disclosure, a MAP announcement phase can be added after the MAP negotiation phase and before the MAP transmission phase. During the MAP announcement phase, the associated AP can send an announcement message containing a list of one or more cooperating APs with which it has negotiated MAP cooperation. The STA of the associated AP can receive this announcement message and learn about the list of cooperating APs of the associated AP. Subsequently, when the STA receives an OBSS PPDU sent by a non-associated AP, it can identify whether the destination of the OBSS PPDU includes its associated AP. If the destination of the OBSS PPDU includes its associated AP, an NPCA handover can be performed. If the destination of the OBSS PPDU does not include its associated AP, it can determine, based on the announcement message, whether the non-associated AP is different from each of the cooperating APs in the list. If it is determined that the non-associated AP is different from each of the cooperating APs in the list, it means that the OBSS PPDU was not sent by its cooperating AP, and an NPCA handover can be performed immediately. Otherwise, if it is determined that the non-associated AP is the same as one of the cooperating APs in the cooperating AP list, it means that the OBSS PPDU was sent by one of its cooperating APs, and an NPCA handover is not performed or is delayed. Accordingly, when the associated AP receives the OBSS PPDU, it can also determine whether the non-associated AP is different from each of its one or more cooperating APs. If it is determined that the non-associated AP is different from each of its one or more cooperating APs, then an NPCA handover is performed immediately. Otherwise, if it is determined that the non-associated AP is the same as one of its cooperating APs, then an NPCA handover is not performed or is delayed.

[0066] Figure 6 illustrates an exemplary MAP collaboration process according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0067] Taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assume that AP1 and AP2 have negotiated MAP cooperation, AP1 has not negotiated MAP cooperation with AP3, and AP2 has negotiated cooperation with AP3. Referring to the MAP cooperation process shown in Figure 6, after the MAP negotiation phase, AP2 competes for TXOP2. During TXOP2, AP2 sends an announcement message indicating a list of one or more cooperating APs that have negotiated MAP cooperation with AP2, which includes AP1. Subsequently, AP1 competes for TXOP3, and during TXOP3, AP1 sends an announcement message indicating a list of one or more cooperating APs that have negotiated MAP cooperation with AP1, which includes AP2.

[0068] In one example, AP3 then contends for TXOP4 and sends a PPDU destined for AP2. Since BSS1 and BSS3 partially overlap, STA1 and AP1 can also receive this PPDU. When AP1 receives the PPDU, it can determine that the PPDU is not addressed to itself based on the destination information in the PPDU header indicating BSS2, and thus immediately perform an NPCA handover. When STA1 receives the PPDU, it can also determine that the PPDU is not addressed to its associated AP (i.e., AP1) based on the destination information in the PPDU header indicating BSS2, and thus also immediately perform an NPCA handover. As a result, both STA1 and AP1 immediately perform a non-primary channel access handover upon receiving the PPDU, and both can continue normal communication on the non-primary channel.

[0069] In another example, AP3 then competes for TXOP5 and sends a PPDU with AP1 as the destination. When AP1 receives this PPDU, it can determine that the PPDU is addressed to itself based on the destination information carried in the PPDU header, which at least indicates BSS1. AP1 also determines that AP3, which sent the PPDU, is not its cooperating AP based on the source information carried in the PPDU header, which indicates BSS3, and thus immediately performs an NPCA handover. When STA1 receives this PPDU, it can also determine that the PPDU is addressed to its associated AP (i.e., AP1) based on the destination information carried in the PPDU header, which at least indicates BSS1. STA1 also determines that AP3, which sent the PPDU, is not a cooperating AP of its associated AP because the BSS3 indicated by the source information carried in the PPDU header is not in the list of cooperating APs included in the announcement message. Therefore, STA1 also immediately performs an NPCA handover. As a result, both STA1 and AP1 immediately switch to the non-primary channel upon receiving this PPDU, and both can continue to communicate normally on the non-primary channel.

[0070] Thus, when a STA receives an OBSS PPDU destined for its associated AP, it considers whether a MAP cooperation relationship has been established between its associated AP and the AP that sent the OBSS PPDU to determine whether to immediately perform an NPCA handover. Only when no MAP cooperation relationship exists between its associated AP and the AP that sent the OBSS PPDU will the STA immediately switch to a non-primary channel; otherwise, it will not perform or will delay the NPCA handover. Compared to the current design of NPCA technology, this avoids the problem of the STA being unable to communicate normally with its associated AP because the STA has already switched to a non-primary channel while the AP still needs to remain on the primary channel.

[0071] As described above, if the STA determines that the non-associate AP sending the OBSS PPDU is the same as one of the cooperating APs announced in the announcement message, it means that the non-associate AP sending the OBSS PPDU is one of the cooperating APs of its associated AP, and therefore, NPCA handover is not performed or is delayed. The STA further performs the following operations to determine whether to not perform or delay NPCA handover. The STA monitors for messages indicating whether MAP cooperation between the non-associate AP and the associated AP will be initiated or not during a predetermined delay period. If no message is detected during the predetermined delay period, NPCA handover is performed when the predetermined delay period expires. If the message is detected during the predetermined delay period and the message indicates that MAP cooperation between the non-associate AP and the associated AP will not be initiated, NPCA handover is also performed. If the message is detected during the predetermined delay period and the message indicates that multi-AP cooperation between the non-associate AP and the associated AP will be initiated, meaning that the associated AP will remain on the primary channel until the non-associate AP initiates MAP cooperation transmission (e.g., for sharing a TXOP or initiating a cooperative channel measurement), the STA does not perform NPCA handover.

[0072] Corresponding to the STA, when the STA's associated AP receives an OBSS PPDU sent by a non-associated AP with its destination including the associated AP, and determines that the non-associated AP is the same as one of its cooperating APs, the associated AP further performs the following operations to determine whether to perform or delay NPCA handover. The associated AP determines whether to initiate MAP cooperation with the non-associated AP (e.g., according to relevant provisions in current or future Wi-Fi protocols). If it is determined to initiate MAP cooperation with the non-associated AP, meaning the associated AP will remain on the primary channel waiting for the non-associated AP to initiate MAP cooperation transmission, the associated AP will not perform NPCA handover. In this case, the associated AP may send a message indicating that it will initiate MAP cooperation with the non-associated AP. Conversely, if it is determined not to initiate MAP cooperation with the non-associated AP, meaning the associated AP does not need to remain on the primary channel waiting for the non-associated AP to initiate MAP cooperation transmission, it can perform NPCA handover. In this case, the associated AP may send a message indicating that it will not initiate MAP cooperation with the non-associated AP, or it may not send any message to implicitly indicate that it will not initiate MAP cooperation with the non-associated AP.

[0073] Figure 7 illustrates another exemplary MAP collaboration process according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0074] Referring to Figure 7, the difference from Figure 6 is that after AP1 and AP2 send the announcement message, AP2 competes for TXOP4 and sends an ICF to ask AP1 whether to start MAP collaboration within TXOP4.

[0075] When AP1 receives the ICF, it can determine that the ICF originates from one of its cooperating APs based on the ICF's attributes or the fact that the BSS information in the ICF header is identical to the BSS information of one of its cooperating APs. It can also determine whether to initiate MAP cooperation with AP1. If AP1 determines not to initiate MAP cooperation with AP2, it sends an ICR indicating to AP2 that it will not initiate MAP cooperation with AP2 and immediately performs an NPCA handover, as it does not need to remain on the primary channel to perform MAP cooperation transmission. If AP1 determines to initiate MAP cooperation with AP2, it sends an ICR indicating to AP2 that it will initiate MAP cooperation with AP2 and does not perform an NPCA handover, as it may need to remain on the primary channel waiting for AP1 to share a TXOP or waiting for AP1 to instruct it to perform other MAP cooperation.

[0076] When STA1 receives the ICF, it identifies it as an OBSS PPDU based on two factors: firstly, the BSS information (i.e., BSS2 information) in the header differs from the BSS information (i.e., BSS1 information) of its associated AP (i.e., AP1). Secondly, it determines that AP2, which sent the ICF, is one of the cooperating APs of its associated AP because the BSS information in the ICF header is the same as the BSS information of one of the cooperating APs in the received announcement message. Next, STA1 monitors the ICR sent by AP1 to AP2 within a predetermined delay period. If the ICR indicates that AP1 will not initiate MAP cooperation with AP2, meaning that its associated AP does not need to remain on the primary channel to perform MAP cooperative transmission, STA1 immediately performs an NPCA handover. If the ICR indicates that AP1 will initiate MAP cooperation with AP2, meaning that its associated AP needs to remain on the primary channel to perform MAP cooperative transmission, STA1 does not perform an NPCA handover.

[0077] Thus, as shown in the example in Figure 7, when an ICF (Initial Communication Message) is received from the cooperating AP, if the associated AP decides not to initiate MAP (Mapping and Mapping) cooperation, it sends an ICR (Initial Communication Message) instructing it not to initiate MAP cooperation and performs an NPCA (Non-Portable Automated Communication) handover. The STA, upon detecting this ICR, also performs an NPCA handover. The STA and associated AP perform the NPCA handover almost simultaneously (the time from when the AP sends the ICR to when the STA detects it is very short and can be ignored). This effectively delays the NPCA handover from the time the ICF is received to the time the associated AP sends the ICR. If the associated AP decides to initiate MAP cooperation, neither the associated AP nor the STA performs an NPCA handover. This avoids the problem of the STA switching to a non-primary channel while its associated AP remains on the primary channel, preventing normal communication between the STA and its associated AP.

[0078] As described earlier, alternative solutions exist where the ICR might be designed to indicate only that MAP cooperation will be initiated or only that MAP will not be initiated. That is, the AP sends an ICR only if it is certain that MAP cooperation will be initiated, and does not send an ICR if it is certain that MAP cooperation will not be initiated; or, the AP sends an ICR only if it is certain that MAP cooperation will not be initiated, and does not send an ICR if it is certain that MAP cooperation will be initiated. Taking the solution where the ICR is designed to indicate only that MAP cooperation will be initiated as an example, when STA1 receives an ICF and determines that AP2, which sent this ICF, is a cooperating AP of its associated AP, STA1 monitors the ICR sent by AP1 to AP2 for a predetermined delay period. If no ICR sent by AP1 to AP2 is detected within the predetermined delay period, an NPCA handover is performed when the predetermined delay period expires. If an ICR sent by AP1 to AP2 is detected within the predetermined delay period, an NPCA handover is not performed. Accordingly, under this solution, when AP1 receives an ICF and determines that MAP cooperation with AP2 will not be initiated, AP1 performs an NPCA handover. If AP1 determines to initiate MAP cooperation with AP2, it will send an ICR to AP2 and will not perform an NPCA handover, because it may need to remain on the primary channel and wait for AP2 to share a TXOP or initiate cooperative channel measurements.

[0079] In other words, in the above alternative, when the associated AP receives an ICF from the cooperating AP, if it decides not to initiate MAP cooperation, the associated AP can perform an NPCA handover upon receiving the ICF, while the STA performs an NPCA handover when the predetermined delay period expires. The associated AP switches to the non-primary channel earlier than the STA by the predetermined delay period. It is important to note that the minimum length of this predetermined delay period is equal to the time required for the ICR to be transmitted from the associated AP to the STA; therefore, this duration is so short that its impact on communication between the associated AP and the STA is negligible. Thus, in the above alternative, the associated AP and STA also perform NPCA handover approximately simultaneously.

[0080] In this way, the associated AP and STA consistently perform NPCA handover, avoiding the problem of communication failure when the STA has switched to a non-primary channel while the AP remains on the primary channel. It also ensures that the STA and associated AP switch to a non-primary channel promptly and as early as possible when the conditions for switching to a non-primary channel are met, thus making full use of the non-primary channel and improving network resource utilization.

[0081] According to one embodiment of this disclosure, an announcement message sent by an associated AP may include a first sub-announcement message. This first sub-announcement message includes BSS information corresponding one-to-one with each cooperating AP in the list. The BSS information of each corresponding cooperating AP includes its BSSID and / or BSS color. The STA can compare the BSS information of non-associated APs included in the received OBSS PPDU with the BSS information of each cooperating AP included in the first sub-announcement message to determine whether a non-associated AP is one of the cooperating APs. If the comparison determines that the BSS information of a non-associated AP is different from the BSS information of each corresponding cooperating AP, then the non-associated AP is determined to be different from each cooperating AP. When the BSS information includes both BSSID and BSS color, if either the BSSID or BSS color of a non-associated AP is the same as the corresponding BSSID or BSS color of a cooperating AP, then the non-associated AP is considered to be the same as that cooperating AP.

[0082] Figures 8A and 8B illustrate a schematic frame structure of a first sub-declaration message according to at least one embodiment of the disclosure.

[0083] The Access Point Device Identifier (AP ID) field indicated by the dashed lines in Figures 8A and 8B is optional and readily understood. The number of bytes associated with the AP ID shown in the figures may vary depending on the presence or absence of the AP ID field, which will be described later in the embodiment described in conjunction with Figure 8C.

[0084] The first sub-announcement message can be embedded in an appropriate frame issued by the associated AP.

[0085] For example, the first sub-advertisement message can be embedded in the frame structure of a beacon frame, probe response frame, or association response frame. For instance, the first sub-advertisement message can be sent by embedding a MAP coordination list element within the frame structure of these frames. This MAP coordination list element can carry one or more coordinated AP entries. Each coordinated AP entry includes BSS information for a coordinated AP that has established MAP coordination with the associated AP. The BSS information can include BSS coloring, BSSID, or both. Additionally, the MAP coordination list element can also carry an entry indicating the number of coordinated APs. A possible frame format for this example is shown in Figure 8A. Taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assuming AP1 negotiates MAP coordination with AP2 and AP3, the MAP coordination list element can include two coordinated AP entries. Coordinated AP entry 1 corresponds to AP2, and coordinated AP entry 2 corresponds to AP3. Each coordinated AP entry includes the BSSID field and BSS coloring field of the corresponding coordinated AP. It should be understood that, in order to save costs, each collaborative AP entry may also include only the BSS coloring field or the BSSID field.

[0086] For example, the first sub-announcement message can also be embedded in the frame structure of NPCA operation information sent by the associated AP to announce NPCA information (including, for example, the channel number of the non-primary channel to be switched to). For instance, the first sub-announcement message can be sent by embedding an NPCA delayed BSS list element in its frame structure. This element can carry multiple BSS entries, each including the BSS information of a cooperating AP that has established a MAP cooperation relationship with the associated AP. The BSS information can include BSS coloring, BSSID, or both. Additionally, the NPCA delayed BSS list element can also carry a field indicating the number of cooperating APs (Num of list). Possible frame formats based on this example are shown in Figure 8B. For example, taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assuming AP1 has negotiated MAP cooperation with AP2 and AP3, the NPCA delayed BSS list element can carry two BSS entries. BSS entry 1 includes the BSSID and / or BSS coloring of AP2. BSS entry 2 includes the BSS ID and / or BSS coloring corresponding to AP3.

[0087] Figures 8A and 8B are shown as examples only; the first sub-announcement message can also be sent by other frames sent by the associated AP.

[0088] Thus, by adding new elements to the existing frame structure to send the first announcement sub-message without completely modifying the original frame format, backward compatibility of the protocol can be ensured and resources can be saved.

[0089] Based on the MAP cooperation mechanism described above and in conjunction with Figures 4 to 5B, the current MAP cooperation transmission during a specific TXOP period primarily considers one-to-one MAP cooperation, i.e., cooperation between a pair of APs. In the case of one-to-one MAP cooperation transmission, the sharing AP that issues the ICF can include the MAC address of the shared AP to which this MAP cooperation is directed, or the BSSID and / or BSS coloring corresponding to the shared AP, or other identifiers used to uniquely identify the shared AP in the destination information of the ICF.

[0090] If we further consider the scenario of one-to-many MAP cooperation, where a sharing AP can simultaneously send MAP cooperation invitations to multiple shared APs, then during a specific TXOP, the sharing AP can invite some or all of the multiple cooperating APs to participate in this MAP cooperation. In this case, the destination information of the ICF sent by the sharing AP can be a broadcast address, and the ICF also includes another information element indicating which of the multiple cooperating APs are invited as shared APs for this MAP cooperation. When a STA associated with one of the multiple cooperating APs receives this ICF, it can further determine whether the MAP cooperation to be initiated by this ICF includes MAP cooperation between the sharing AP and its associated APs, or in other words, whether the multi-access point cooperation to be initiated by this ICF is directed to its associated AP. If the multi-access point cooperation to be initiated by this ICF does not include MAP cooperation between the sharing AP and its associated APs, it means that its associated AP does not need to remain on the main channel waiting for a shared TXOP or to initiate MAP cooperation channel measurement, and can immediately perform NPCA handover. Conversely, if the multi-access point cooperation that this ICF intends to initiate includes MAP cooperation between the shared AP and its associated AP, it means that the associated AP needs to remain on the main channel and wait to be shared TXOP or initiate MAP cooperation channel measurement. As mentioned above, it can monitor the ICR sent by its associated AP within a predetermined delay period, indicating whether its associated AP will initiate or not initiate this MAP cooperation, and thus not perform or delay the execution of NPCA handover.

[0091] Figure 8C illustrates a schematic frame format of a startup control frame according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0092] In an embodiment considering one-to-many MAP collaboration, referring to Figure 8C, the ICF may include information elements such as destination information, source information, and a user information list. The source information may include the MAC address of the AP sending the ICF, the BSSID and / or BSS coloring corresponding to that AP, or other identifiers that can uniquely identify the AP. The destination information may include the broadcast address. During the MAP negotiation phase with each of its collaborating APs, any AP can mutually assign AP IDs to each other to identify the other. Therefore, on the one hand, an AP will assign a different AP ID to each of its collaborating APs, and on the other hand, it will also receive an AP ID assigned to it by each collaborating AP. AP IDs may expire at the end of the corresponding MAP session and be reassigned during the next MAP negotiation phase. During a specific TXOP, if an AP wants to initiate MAP collaboration with one or more of its collaborating APs, it adds the AP IDs assigned to it by this or these collaborating APs to the user information list of the ICF. As shown in Figure 8C, the user information list element may include multiple user information entries, each corresponding to one of its collaborating APs and including the AP ID assigned to it by that collaborating AP.

[0093] In this embodiment, the first sub-announcement message sent by the AP to its associated STA may include, in addition to the BSSID and / or BSS coloring of each of its cooperating APs, the AP ID assigned to the AP by each of its cooperating APs during the corresponding MAP negotiation phase (as shown by the dashed lines in Figures 8A and 8B and Figures 9A to 10D below).

[0094] Taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assume that AP1's cooperating APs include AP2 and AP3, and during the corresponding MAP negotiation phase, AP2 assigns AP1 an AP ID of ID_2008, and AP3 assigns AP1 an AP ID of ID_2009. During the MAP announcement phase, AP1 can send an announcement message, including a first sub-announcement message, to its associated STA1. Taking the frame structure of the first sub-announcement message shown in Figure 8A as an example, it can include two cooperating AP entries. Cooperating AP entry 1 includes AP2's BSSID and / or BSS coloring, and the AP ID assigned by AP2 to AP1, i.e., ID_2008. Cooperating AP entry 2 includes AP3's BSSID and / or BSS coloring, and the AP ID assigned by AP3 to AP1, i.e., ID_2009. It is also assumed that, in addition to AP1, AP4 (not shown in Figure 1) has established a cooperative relationship with AP2.

[0095] In one example, when AP2 wins the TXOP and decides to invite only AP1 to participate in this MAP collaboration, taking the frame format shown in Figure 8C as an example, AP2 can include its MAC address in the source information of its ICF, include the broadcast address in the destination information, and include a user information entry in the user information list, where the AP ID in the user information entry is the AP ID assigned by AP2 to AP1, i.e., ID_2008.

[0096] In this example, when AP1 receives this ICF, it determines that its destination includes AP1 by using the destination information of the ICF as the broadcast address. AP1 also determines that AP2, which sent the ICF, is one of its cooperating APs by using the source information of the ICF. AP1 further determines that the MAP cooperation initiated by this ICF is directed to AP2 by recognizing that ID_2008 in the user information entry of the ICF is the same as the AP ID assigned to it by AP2. Thus, as mentioned above, AP1 further determines whether it agrees to participate in this MAP cooperation and optionally feeds back an ICR indicating whether it agrees or disagrees to participate in this MAP cooperation.

[0097] Accordingly, in this example, after STA1, associated with AP1, receives this ICF, STA1 can determine that its destination includes AP1 through the destination information of the ICF. STA1 also determines through the source information of the ICF that AP2, which sent the ICF, is one of AP1's cooperating APs. STA1 further determines that the MAP cooperation initiated by this ICF is directed to AP2 by recognizing that ID_2008 in the user information entry of the ICF is the same as ID_2008 in the cooperating AP entry 1 contained in the announcement message received from AP1. Therefore, STA1 does not switch or delays performing NPCA handover. The specific method for not switching or delaying the NPCA handover here is similar to the previously described embodiments. For example, during a predetermined delay period, the ICR indicating that AP1 agrees or disagrees to start or not start this MAP collaboration is monitored from AP1 to AP2. If an ICR indicating that AP1 agrees to start this MAP collaboration is detected, the NPCA handover is not performed. If an ICR indicating that AP1 disagrees to start this MAP collaboration is detected, the NPCA handover is performed. If no ICR is detected during the predetermined delay period, the NPCA handover is performed when the predetermined delay period expires.

[0098] In another example, when AP2 wins the TXOP and decides to invite only AP4 to participate in this MAP collaboration, taking the frame format shown in Figure 8C as an example, AP2 can include its MAC address in the source information of its ICF, include the broadcast address in its destination information, and include a user information entry in the user information list element. The AP ID in the user information entry is the AP ID assigned by AP2 to AP4, which is different from the AP ID assigned by AP2 to AP1.

[0099] In this other example, after AP1 receives this ICF, since the AP ID in the user information entry of the ICF is different from the AP ID assigned to it by AP2, AP1 can determine that the MAP collaboration to be initiated by the ICF is not directed to AP2, and thus immediately performs NPCA handover.

[0100] Correspondingly, in this other example, after STA1 associated with AP1 receives this ICF, since the AP ID in the user information entry of the ICF is different from the ID_2008 in the cooperative AP entry 1 in the first sub-announcement message, STA1 can determine that the MAP cooperation to be initiated by the ICF is not directed to AP1, and thus STA1 immediately performs NPCA handover.

[0101] Thus, more complex one-to-many MAP cooperation scenarios are considered. Even if the ICF received by the STA comes from one of its associated APs, if its associated AP is not the AP to which the MAP cooperation to be initiated by that associated AP is directed, an NPCA handover can be performed immediately. This allows the STA to perform NPCA handover with its associated AP more promptly while avoiding the problem of the STA being unable to communicate normally with its associated AP, thereby further improving the utilization of non-primary channels.

[0102] Another improvement to the current design of MAP collaboration technology and NPA technology proposed in this disclosure is that, in addition to announcing to the STA a list of collaborating APs with which it has established MAP collaboration relationships, the AP also announces to the STA the collaboration mechanism negotiated between each collaborating AP and its associated AP. When the STA receives an OBSS PPDU whose destination includes the AP, it considers not only the list of collaborating APs but also the collaboration mechanism of the collaborating APs to determine whether to perform an NPA handover and / or the timing of the NPA handover.

[0103] As described above in conjunction with Figures 5A and 5B, when the negotiation mechanism during the MAP negotiation phase only includes the Co-RTWT mechanism, since the shared AP does not need to remain on the primary channel after the MAP negotiation phase waiting for the sharing AP to initiate MAP cooperative transmission (for sharing TXOP or initiating cooperative channel measurement), the STA associated with the shared AP can immediately trigger NPCA handover upon receiving the OBSS PPDU from the sharing AP. Therefore, in addition to announcing the list of cooperating APs to its associated STAs, the AP can also announce the cooperative mechanism negotiated with each cooperating AP. When a STA receives an OBSS PPDU and determines that the OBSS PPDU comes from a cooperating AP, if the cooperative mechanism negotiated by that cooperating AP only includes the Co-RTWT mechanism, it can also immediately perform NPCA handover. Conversely, if the cooperative mechanism negotiated by that cooperating AP includes one or more of the Co-TDMA, Co-SR, and Co-BF mechanisms, it can further determine whether to perform or delay NPCA handover, as described above in conjunction with Figures 6 and 7.

[0104] Therefore, in this other embodiment, the announcement message may include a second sub-announcement message in addition to the first announcement message. The second sub-announcement message includes one or more cooperation feature information corresponding to one or more cooperating APs respectively. The cooperation feature information includes the cooperation mechanism that the corresponding cooperating AP will use to perform MAP cooperation with the associated AP.

[0105] Figures 9A to 9D illustrate schematic frame structures of a second sub-declaration message according to at least one embodiment of the disclosure.

[0106] The AP ID indicated by the dashed lines in Figures 9A to 9D is optional and easy to understand. The number of bytes associated with the AP ID shown in the figures can change depending on the presence or absence of the AP ID field. This field was described earlier in the embodiment described in conjunction with Figure 8C and will not be repeated here.

[0107] In one instance, the second sub-advertisement message and the first sub-advertisement message can be embedded in the same frame sent by the associated AP.

[0108] For example, the second sub-advertisement message and the first sub-advertisement message can be embedded together in the frame structure of beacon frames, probe response frames, and association response frames sent by the associated APs. For example, this can be achieved by including a MAP coordination list element in the frame structure of these frames. The MAP coordination list element can carry one or more coordinated AP entries. Each coordinated AP entry includes BSS information for a coordinated AP that has established MAP coordination with the associated AP, as well as coordination characteristic information negotiated between the coordinated AP and the associated AP. The BSS information may include BSS coloring and / or BSSID. The coordination characteristic information includes at least the coordination mechanism negotiated between the coordinated AP and the associated AP. Additionally, the MAP coordination list element can also carry a field indicating the number of coordinated APs. A possible frame format based on this example is shown in Figure 9A. Taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assuming AP1 has negotiated MAP coordination with AP2 and AP3, the MAP coordination list element can carry two coordinated AP entries. Coordinated AP entry 1 corresponds to AP2, and coordinated AP entry 2 corresponds to AP3. Each cooperating AP entry includes a BSS info field and a MAP feature bitmap field. The BSS info field includes a BSSID subfield and / or a BSS coloring subfield to indicate the BSSID and / or BSS coloring of the corresponding cooperating AP. The MAP feature bitmap field can include at least 4 bits. For example, the first 4 bits of the MAP feature bitmap field can be set to indicate whether the Co-TDMA, Co-SR, Co-BF, and Co-RTWT mechanisms will be used for MAP cooperation, respectively. A value of 1 for each of the first 4 bits indicates that the corresponding cooperation mechanism will be used for MAP cooperation, and a value of 0 indicates that the corresponding cooperation mechanism will not be used for MAP cooperation. For example, if the MAP feature bitmap field in cooperating AP entry 1 is 01100000, it means that AP2 has negotiated both Co-SR and Co-BF cooperation mechanisms with AP1. If the MAP feature bitmap field in cooperating AP entry 2 is 10110000, it means that AP3 has negotiated both Co-TDMA, Co-BF, and Co-RTWT cooperation mechanisms with AP1.

[0109] For example, the second sub-announcement message and the first sub-announcement message can be embedded together in the frame structure of the NPCA operation information sent by the associated AP for announcing NPCA information. For instance, this can be achieved by including an NPCA delayed BSS list element in its frame structure. The NPCA delayed BSS list element can carry multiple BSS entries. Each BSS entry includes, in addition to the BSS information of a cooperating AP that has established MAP cooperation with the associated AP, cooperation feature information negotiated between the cooperating AP and the associated AP for MAP cooperation. The BSS information can include BSS coloring and / or BSSID. The cooperation feature information includes at least the cooperation mechanism negotiated between the cooperating AP and the associated AP. Additionally, the NPCA delayed BSS list element can also carry a field indicating the number of cooperating APs (Num of list). A possible frame format based on this example is shown in Figure 9B. Taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assuming AP1 has negotiated MAP cooperation with AP2 and AP3, the NPCA delayed BSS list element can carry two BSS entries. BSS entry 1 corresponds to AP2, and BSS entry 2 corresponds to AP3. Each BSS entry includes a BSS information field and a MAP feature bitmap field. The BSS information field includes a BSSID subfield and / or a BSS coloring subfield to indicate the BSSID and / or BSS coloring of BSS2 and BSS3 corresponding to AP2 and AP3. The MAP feature bitmap field is the same as the MAP feature bitmap field in Figure 9A, and will not be described again here to avoid repetition.

[0110] In one instance, the second sub-advertisement message and the first sub-advertisement message can also be embedded in different frames sent by the associated AP.

[0111] For example, the first sub-announcement message can be embedded in the frame structure of a beacon frame, probe response frame, and association response frame sent by the associated AP, while the second sub-announcement message can be embedded in the frame structure of NPCA operation information sent by the associated AP for announcing NPCA information. Possible frame formats based on this example are shown in Figure 9C. Taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assuming AP1 negotiates MAP cooperation with AP2 and AP3, AP1 can send a beacon frame, probe response frame, or association response frame embedded with MAP cooperation list elements, and NPCA operation information embedded with NPCA delay BSS list elements. The MAP cooperation list elements have two cooperating AP entries. Cooperating AP entry 1 corresponds to AP2, and cooperating AP entry 2 corresponds to AP3. Cooperating AP entry 1 includes a BSSID field and / or a BSS coloring field indicating BSS2 for AP2. Cooperating AP entry 2 includes a BSSID field and / or a BSS coloring field indicating BSS3 for AP3. The NPCA delay BSS list elements have two BSS entries, BSS entry 1 corresponding to AP2, and BSS entry 2 corresponding to AP3. Each BSS entry can include at least 4 bits. For example, the first 4 bits of the BSS entry field can be set to indicate whether the Co-TDMA, Co-SR, Co-BF, and Co-RTWT mechanisms will be used for MAP cooperation, respectively. A value of 1 for each of the first 4 bits indicates that the corresponding cooperation mechanism will be used for MAP cooperation, and a value of 0 indicates that the corresponding cooperation mechanism will not be used for MAP cooperation. For example, if BSS entry 1 is 01100000, it means that AP2 and AP1 have negotiated both Co-SR and Co-BF cooperation mechanisms. If BSS entry 2 is 10110000, it means that AP3 and AP1 have negotiated Co-TDMA, Co-BF, and Co-RTWT cooperation mechanisms.

[0112] For example, the first sub-announcement message can be embedded in the frame structure of the NPCA operation information sent by the associated AP to announce NPCA information, while the second sub-announcement message can be embedded in the frame structure of the beacon frame, probe response frame, and association response frame sent by the associated AP. Possible frame formats based on this example are shown in Figure 9D. Taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assuming AP1 negotiates MAP cooperation with AP2 and AP3, AP1 can send a beacon frame, probe response frame, or association response frame embedding NPCA delay BSS list elements, and NPCA operation information embedding MAP cooperation list elements. The NPCA delay BSS list elements and MAP cooperation list elements are similar to those in Figure 9C, and will not be described further here to avoid repetition.

[0113] Figures 9A to 9D are shown as examples only. The first and second sub-announcement messages can also be sent by one or more other frames sent by the associated AP.

[0114] Thus, by adding new elements to the existing frame structure to send the second announcement sub-message without completely modifying the original frame format, backward compatibility of the protocol can be ensured and resources can be saved.

[0115] The operation of the STA and its associated AP in this other embodiment is described below.

[0116] For example, taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assume that AP1 negotiates MAP cooperation with AP2 and AP3. The MAP cooperation mechanism negotiated by AP1 and AP2 is the Co-RTWT mechanism. The mechanism negotiated by AP1 and AP3 is the Co-TDMA mechanism or the Co-SR mechanism. Referring to Figure 7, during the MAP announcement phase, AP1 sends a first sub-announcement message including BSS information of AP2 and AP3 and a second sub-announcement message including the cooperation mechanism that AP2 and AP3 will use to cooperate with AP1 in MAP. For example, if the first and second sub-announcement messages are sent together in the frame format shown in Figure 9A, then the BSS information contained in the cooperating AP entry 1 in Figure 9A is the BSSID and / or BSS coloring corresponding to BSS2, and the MAP feature bitmap contained therein is 00010000. The BSS information contained in the cooperating AP entry 2 is the BSSID and / or BSS coloring corresponding to BSS3, and the MAP feature bitmap contained therein is 11000000.

[0117] When AP1 receives an OBSS PPDU from AP2 with AP1 as its destination, AP1 can determine that the destination of the OBSS PPDU includes AP1 based on the BSS information indicated by the destination information contained in the header of the OBSS PPDU, which includes BSS1. AP1 can also determine that the OBSS PPDU originates from AP2, one of its cooperating APs, based on the BSS information indicated by the source information contained in the header of the OBSS PPDU, which belongs to BSS2. AP1 is aware that the cooperation mechanism negotiated with AP2 is the Co-RTWT mechanism, and therefore AP1 immediately performs NPCA handover.

[0118] When STA1 receives an OBSS PPDU from AP2 with AP1 as its destination, STA1 can determine that the destination of the OBSS PPDU includes its associated AP by determining that the BSS information indicated by the destination information contained in the header of the OBSS PPDU includes BSS1. STA1 can also determine that the AP sending the OBSS PPDU is one of the cooperating APs of its associated AP by determining that the BSS information indicated by the source information contained in the header of the OBSS PPDU is the same as the BSS information contained in the cooperating AP entry 1 in the first sub-advertisement message. STA1 can also identify that the MAP feature bitmap in the cooperating AP entry 1 in the second sub-advertisement message is 00010000, thereby determining that AP1 will use the Co-RTWT mechanism to perform MAP cooperation with AP2. STA1 can then immediately perform an NPCA handover because, under the Co-RTWT mechanism, AP1 and AP2 do not need to wait for each other to notify of the shared TXOP.

[0119] As can be seen, both AP1 and STA1 immediately perform NPCA handover in response to receiving an OBSS PPDU from AP2 with AP1 as the destination. This ensures that the timing of the NPCA handover is consistent, which avoids the problem that the STA cannot communicate normally with its associated AP because the STA has switched to a non-primary channel while the AP still needs to remain on the primary channel.

[0120] When AP1 receives an OBSS PPDU from AP3 with AP1 as its destination, AP1 can determine that the destination of the OBSS PPDU is AP1 based on the BSS information indicated by the destination information contained in the OBSS PPDU header, which indicates that it belongs to BSS1. AP1 can also determine that the OBSS PPDU originates from one of its cooperating APs based on the fact that the BSS information indicated by the source information contained in the OBSS PPDU header is the same as the BSS information of one of its cooperating APs. AP1 is aware that the cooperation mechanism negotiated with AP3 is either Co-TDMA or Co-SR, and therefore, AP1 can continue to perform the operations described above in conjunction with Figure 7. For example, AP1 continues to determine whether to initiate or not to initiate MAP cooperation with AP3. If AP1 determines not to initiate MAP cooperation with AP3, it sends an ICR indicating that it will not initiate MAP cooperation with AP3 and performs an NPCA handover. If AP1 determines to initiate MAP cooperation with AP3, it sends an ICR indicating that it will initiate MAP cooperation with AP3 and does not perform an NPCA handover. In the alternative, the ICR message is designed to indicate only whether MAP cooperation will be initiated or not. For example, in the scenario where the ICR message is designed to indicate only whether MAP cooperation will be initiated, if AP1 determines not to initiate MAP cooperation with AP3, it will not send an ICR and will directly perform an NPCA handover. However, if AP1 determines that it will initiate MAP cooperation with AP3, it will send an ICR indicating that MAP cooperation with AP3 will be initiated, and will not perform an NPCA handover.

[0121] When STA1 receives an OBSS PPDU from AP3 with AP1 as its destination, STA1 can determine that the destination of the OBSS PPDU is its associated AP by comparing the BSS information indicated by the destination information in the header of the OBSS PPDU, including BSS1. STA1 can also determine that the AP sending the OBSS PPDU is one of the associated APs by comparing the BSS information indicated by the source information in the header of the OBSS PPDU with the BSS information contained in the cooperating AP entry 2 in the first sub-announcement message. STA1 can also identify that the MAP feature bitmap in the cooperating AP entry 2 in the second sub-announcement message is 11000000, thereby determining that AP1 will use the Co-TDMA mechanism or the Co-SR mechanism to perform MAP cooperation with AP3. STA1 can then continue with the operations described above in conjunction with Figure 7. For example, STA1 monitors messages indicating whether MAP cooperation between AP3 and AP1 will be initiated or not during a predetermined delay period (e.g., ICRs sent by AP3 to AP1 or by AP1 to AP3). If the message is detected within a predetermined delay period and indicates that Co-TDMA or Co-SR cooperation between AP3 and AP1 will not be initiated, an NPCA handover is performed. If the message is detected within a predetermined delay period and indicates that Co-TDMA or Co-SR cooperation between AP3 and AP1 will be initiated, an NPCA handover is not performed. In an alternative, the ICR message is designed only to indicate that MAP cooperation will be initiated. If AP1 determines that MAP cooperation will not be initiated, it does not send an ICR, and STA1 performs an NPCA handover in response to the absence of an ICR detected within the predetermined delay period. In another alternative, the ICR message is designed only to indicate that MAP cooperation will not be initiated. If AP1 determines that MAP cooperation will be initiated, it does not send an ICR, and STA1 performs an NPCA handover in response to the presence of an ICR detected within the predetermined delay period.

[0122] As can be seen, the responses of AP1 and STA1 to an OBSS PPDU received from AP3 with AP1 as a destination include the following: If AP1 determines to initiate MAP cooperation, neither AP1 nor STA1 performs NPCA handover; if AP1 determines not to initiate MAP cooperation and does not send an ICR indicating not to initiate MAP cooperation, AP1 performs NPCA handover earlier than STA1 by a predetermined delay period (the minimum length of the predetermined delay period can be equal to the time it takes for the ICR to travel from AP1 to STA1, which can be negligible), and AP1 and STA1 perform NPCA handover almost simultaneously; if AP1 determines not to initiate MAP cooperation and sends an ICR indicating not to initiate MAP cooperation, AP1 and STA1 perform NPCA handover almost simultaneously (the time it takes for the ICR to travel from AP1 to STA1 can be negligible). This ensures that AP1 and STA1 perform NPCA handover at almost the same time, avoiding the problem of STA being unable to communicate normally with its associated AP because the STA has switched to a non-primary channel while the AP still needs to remain on the primary channel.

[0123] In this way, by announcing to its associated STA a list of cooperating APs with which it has negotiated MAP cooperation and the cooperation mechanism negotiated with each cooperating AP, the AP can take into account both the list of cooperating APs and the cooperation mechanism when deciding whether to perform NPCA handover. This can avoid the inability to send and receive data between the two if the STA has already switched to a non-primary channel while the AP still needs to remain on the primary channel. Furthermore, it can enable the AP and STA to perform NPCA handover as early as possible when they need to perform NPCA handover, thereby making fuller use of network resources.

[0124] Another improvement proposed in this disclosure to the current design of MAP collaboration technology and NPCA technology is that the AP does not declare the collaboration mechanism negotiated with the collaborating AP, but instead directly declares the NPCA support information derived from the collaboration mechanism negotiated with the collaborating AP. This reduces the implementation complexity of the STA.

[0125] If the cooperation mechanism negotiated between the associated AP and the cooperating AP only includes the Co-RTWT mechanism, the associated AP can set the NPCA support information to the first value, indicating that when the STA receives an OBSS PPDU from this cooperating AP and the destination includes its associated AP, it supports the STA to immediately perform an NPCA handover. Conversely, if the cooperation mechanism negotiated between the associated AP and the cooperating AP does not only include the Co-RTWT mechanism, the associated AP can set the NPCA support information to the second value, indicating that when the STA receives an OBSS PPDU from this cooperating AP and the destination includes its associated AP, it does not support the STA to immediately perform an NPCA handover.

[0126] In yet another embodiment, the announcement message may include a first sub-announcement message and a third sub-announcement message. The third sub-announcement message includes one or more non-master channel access support information corresponding to one or more cooperating APs, respectively.

[0127] Figures 10A to 10D illustrate schematic frame structures of a third sub-declaration message according to at least one embodiment of the disclosure.

[0128] The AP ID indicated by the dashed lines in Figures 10A to 10D is optional and easy to understand. The number of bytes associated with the AP ID shown in the figures can change depending on the presence or absence of the AP ID field, which was described earlier in the embodiment described in conjunction with Figure 8C and will not be repeated here.

[0129] In one embodiment, the third sub-announcement message and the first sub-announcement message can be embedded in the same frame sent by the associated AP.

[0130] For example, the third sub-advertisement message and the first sub-advertisement message can be embedded together in the frame structure of the beacon frame, probe response frame, and association response frame sent by the associated AP. For example, this can be achieved by including a MAP coordination list element in the frame structure of these frames. The MAP coordination list element can carry one or more cooperating AP entries. Each cooperating AP entry includes a BSS information field representing the BSS information of a cooperating AP that has negotiated MAP coordination with the associated AP, and an NPCA support information field representing the NPCA support information field corresponding to that cooperating AP, indicating whether the STA associated with that AP can immediately perform an NPCA handover upon receiving an OBSS PPDU from that cooperating AP. Additionally, the MAP coordination list element can also carry a field indicating the number of coordinated APs. Possible frame formats based on this example are shown in Figure 10A. For example, taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assuming AP1 has negotiated MAP coordination with AP2 and AP3, the MAP coordination list element can carry two cooperating AP entries. Cooperating AP entry 1 corresponds to AP2, and cooperating AP entry 2 corresponds to AP3. Each cooperating AP entry includes a BSS information field and an NPCA support information field. The BSS information field includes a BSSID subfield and / or a BSS coloring subfield for indicating the corresponding cooperating AP. The NPCA support information field may include at least one bit. For example, when its first bit is set to a first value (e.g., 0), it indicates support for immediate NPCA handover when STA1 receives an OBSS PPDU from AP2; when its first bit is set to a second value (e.g., 1), it indicates that immediate NPCA handover is not supported when STA1 receives an OBSS PPDU from AP2 whose destination includes AP1. For example, taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assuming that the negotiation mechanism between AP2 and AP1 is a Co-SR or Co-BF mechanism, AP1 can determine that when the OBSS PPDU received by STA1 comes from AP2 and whose destination includes AP1, an NPCA handover cannot be performed immediately. Therefore, AP1 sets the first bit of the NPCA support information field in cooperating AP entry 1 to 1. Assuming that the negotiation mechanism between AP3 and AP1 only includes the Co-RTWT mechanism, AP1 can determine that when the OBSS PPDU received by STA1 comes from AP3, it can immediately perform NPCA handover. Therefore, the first bit of the NPCA support information field in the cooperative AP entry 2 is set to 0.

[0131] For example, the third sub-announcement message and the first sub-announcement message can be embedded together in the frame structure of the NPCA operation information sent by the associated AP for announcing NPCA information. For instance, this can be achieved by including an NPCA delayed BSS list element in its frame structure. The NPCA delayed BSS list element can carry multiple BSS entries, each including a BSS information field indicating the BSS information of a cooperating AP that has negotiated MAP cooperation with the associated AP, and also including an NPCA support information field. A possible frame format based on this example is shown in Figure 10B. The BSS information field and NPCA support information field in Figure 10B are similar to those in Figure 10A, and will not be described again here to avoid repetition.

[0132] In one embodiment, the third sub-announcement message and the first sub-announcement message can be embedded in different frames sent by the associated AP, respectively.

[0133] For example, the first sub-announcement message can be embedded in the frame structure of a beacon frame, probe response frame, and associated response frame sent by the associated AP, while the second sub-announcement message can be embedded in the frame structure of NPCA operation information sent by the associated AP to announce NPCA information. Possible frame formats according to this example are shown in Figure 10C. The first sub-announcement message is sent by embedding MAP cooperation list elements in the frame structure of the beacon frame, probe response frame, and associated response frame. The third sub-announcement message is sent by embedding an NPCA support information bitmap in the NPCA operation information. The length of the NPCA support information bitmap is variable, and it includes at least the same number of NPCA support entries as the number of cooperating APs, indicating NPCA support information corresponding one-to-one with each cooperating AP entry in the MAP cooperation list element. For example, taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assuming AP1 negotiates MAP cooperation with AP2 and AP3, AP1 can send a beacon frame, probe response frame, or associated response frame embedded with MAP cooperation list elements, and NPCA operation information embedded with the NPCA support information bitmap. The MAP cooperation list element carries two cooperating AP entries. Cooperative AP entry 1 corresponds to AP2, and cooperative AP entry 2 corresponds to AP3. Cooperative AP entry 1 includes a BSSID field indicating BSS2 and / or a BSS coloring field. Cooperative AP entry 2 includes a BSSID field indicating BSS3 and / or a BSS coloring field. NPCA support information bitmap elements can have at least two bits, with the first bit corresponding to AP2 and the second bit corresponding to AP3. Assuming the negotiation mechanism between AP2 and AP1 is Co-SR or Co-BF, AP1 can determine that when STA1 receives an OBSS PPDU from AP2 and its destination includes AP1, it cannot immediately perform an NPCA handover, and therefore sets the value of the first bit in the NPCA support information bitmap element to 1. Assuming the negotiation mechanism between AP3 and AP1 only includes Co-RTWT, AP1 can determine that when STA1 receives an OBSS PPDU from AP3, it can immediately perform an NPCA handover, and therefore sets the value of the second bit in the NPCA support information bitmap element to 0.

[0134] For example, the first sub-announcement message can be embedded in the frame structure of the NPCA operation information sent by the associated AP to announce NPCA information, while the third sub-announcement message can be embedded in the frame structure of the beacon frame, probe response frame, and association response frame sent by the associated AP. Possible frame formats based on this example are shown in Figure 10D. For example, in the scenario of Figure 1, assuming AP1 negotiates MAP cooperation with AP2 and AP3, AP1 can send a beacon frame, probe response frame, or association response frame embedding NPCA support information bitmap elements, and NPCA operation information embedding MAP cooperation list elements. The NPCA support information bitmap elements and MAP cooperation list elements in Figure 10D are similar to those in Figure 10C. To avoid repetition, they will not be described further here.

[0135] Figures 10A to 10D are shown as examples only. The first announcement message and the third sub-announcement message can also be sent by one or more other frames sent by the associated AP.

[0136] The operation of the STA and its associated AP in this yet another embodiment is described below.

[0137] For example, taking the scenario in Figure 1 as an example, assume that AP1 negotiates MAP cooperation with AP2 and AP3. The MAP cooperation mechanism negotiated by AP1 and AP2 is the Co-RTWT mechanism, and the mechanism negotiated by AP1 and AP3 is the Co-TDMA mechanism or the Co-SR mechanism. AP1 will send a first sub-announcement message including BSS information of AP2 and AP3 and a third sub-announcement message including NPCA support information corresponding to AP2 and AP3. For example, if the first sub-announcement message and the third sub-announcement message are sent using the frame format shown in Figure 10C, then the BSS information field included in the cooperative AP entry 1 in the MAP cooperation list element includes the BSSID and / or BSS coloring of BSS2, and the BSS information field included in the cooperative AP entry 2 includes the BSSID and / or BSS coloring of BSS3. The NPCA support information bitmap in the NPCA operation information can be 01000000. The first bit is 0 because the MAP cooperation mechanism negotiated between AP1 and AP2 is the Co-RTWT mechanism, so the STA is supported to immediately perform NPCA handover when it receives an OBSS PPDU from AP2. The second bit is 1 because the mechanism negotiated between AP1 and AP3 is the Co-TDMA mechanism or the Co-SR mechanism, so the STA is not supported to immediately perform NPCA handover when it receives an OBSS PPDU from AP3 whose destination includes AP1.

[0138] When AP1 receives an OBSS PPDU from AP2 with AP1 as its destination, AP1 can determine that the OBSS PPDU belongs to one of its cooperating APs based on the fact that the BSS information indicated by the source information in the header of the OBSS PPDU is the same as the BSS information of AP2, which is its cooperating AP. AP1 also knows that the cooperation mechanism it negotiated with AP2 is the Co-RTWT mechanism, so AP1 immediately performs NPCA handover.

[0139] When STA1 receives an OBSS PPDU from AP2 with AP1 as its destination, STA1 can determine that the destination of the OBSS PPDU is its associated AP (i.e., AP1) by determining that the BSS information indicated by the destination information in the OBSS PPDU header belongs to BSS1. STA1 can also determine that the AP sending the OBSS PPDU is one of the cooperating APs of its associated AP by comparing the BSS information indicated by the source information in the OBSS PPDU header with the BSS information contained in the cooperating AP entry 1 in the first sub-advertisement message. STA1 can also identify that the NPCA support information bitmap in the third sub-advertisement message is 01000000, thereby determining that it is supported to immediately perform NPCA handover upon receiving an OBSS PPDU from AP2 with AP1 as its destination. Therefore, STA1 immediately performs NPCA handover.

[0140] As can be seen, both AP1 and STA1 immediately perform NPCA handover in response to receiving an OBSS PPDU from AP2 with AP1 as the destination. This ensures that the timing of the NPCA handover is consistent, avoiding the problem that STA cannot communicate normally with its associated AP because STA1 has already switched to a non-primary channel while AP1 still needs to remain on the primary channel.

[0141] When AP1 receives an OBSS PPDU from AP3 with AP1 as its destination, AP1 can determine that the destination of the OBSS PPDU is itself, based on the BSS information indicated by the destination information in the OBSS PPDU header, which includes BSS1. AP1 can also determine that the OBSS PPDU originates from one of its cooperating APs, based on the fact that the BSS information indicated by the source information in the OBSS PPDU header is the same as the BSS information of one of its cooperating APs. AP1 is aware that the cooperation mechanism negotiated with AP3 is either Co-TDMA or Co-SR, and therefore, AP1 can continue to perform the operations described above in conjunction with Figure 7. For example, AP1 then determines whether to initiate or not to initiate MAP cooperation with AP3. If AP1 determines that it will not initiate MAP cooperation with AP3, it sends an ICR indicating that it will not initiate MAP cooperation with AP3 and performs an NPCA handover. If AP1 determines that it will initiate MAP cooperation with AP3, it sends an ICR indicating that it will initiate MAP cooperation with AP3 and does not perform an NPCA handover. In an alternative, the ICR message is designed to indicate only that MAP cooperation will be initiated. If AP1 determines that it will not initiate MAP cooperation with AP3, it does not send an ICR and directly performs an NPCA handover. If AP1 determines that it will initiate MAP cooperation with AP3, it sends an ICR indicating that it will initiate MAP cooperation with AP3, and does not perform an NPCA handover. In another alternative, the ICR message is designed to indicate only that MAP cooperation will not be initiated. AP1 does not send an ICR and does not perform an NPCA handover if it determines that MAP cooperation will be initiated; it sends an ICR and performs an NPCA handover if it determines that MAP cooperation will not be initiated.

[0142] When STA1 receives an OBSS PPDU from AP3 with AP1 as its destination, STA1 can determine that the destination of the OBSS PPDU is its associated AP based on the BSS information indicated by the destination information in the OBSS PPDU header, including BSS1. STA1 can also determine that the AP sending the OBSS PPDU is one of the cooperating APs by comparing the BSS information contained in the header of the OBSS PPDU with the BSS information contained in the cooperating AP entry 2 in the first sub-announcement message. STA1 can also identify that the NPCA support information bitmap in the third sub-announcement message is 01000000, thereby determining that it does not support immediate NPCA handover upon receiving an OBSS PPDU from AP3 with AP1 as its destination. Next, STA1 can continue to perform the operations described above in conjunction with Figure 7. For example, STA1 then monitors messages indicating whether MAP cooperation between AP3 and AP1 will be initiated or not (e.g., ICRs sent by AP3 to AP1 or by AP1 to AP3) within a predetermined delay period. If the message is detected within a predetermined delay period and indicates that Co-TDMA or Co-SR cooperation between AP3 and AP1 will not be initiated, an NPCA handover is performed. If the message is detected within a predetermined delay period and indicates that Co-TDMA or Co-SR cooperation between AP3 and AP1 will be initiated, an NPCA handover is not performed. In an alternative, the ICR message is designed only to indicate that MAP cooperation will be initiated. If AP1 determines that MAP cooperation will not be initiated, it does not send an ICR. In this case, STA1 does not perform an NPCA handover in response to detecting an ICR within a predetermined delay period, and performs an NPCA handover in response to not detecting an ICR within the predetermined delay period. In another alternative, the ICR message is designed only to indicate that MAP cooperation will not be initiated. If AP1 determines that MAP cooperation will be initiated, it does not send an ICR. In this case, STA1 immediately performs an NPCA handover in response to detecting an ICR within a predetermined delay period, and does not perform an NPCA handover in response to not detecting an ICR within the predetermined delay period.

[0143] As can be seen, the responses of AP1 and STA1 to receiving an OBSS PPDU from AP3 with AP1 as the destination include the following: If AP1 determines to initiate MAP cooperation, neither AP1 nor STA1 performs NPCA handover; if AP1 determines not to initiate MAP cooperation and does not send an ICR indicating not to initiate MAP cooperation, AP1 performs NPCA handover earlier than STA1 by a predetermined delay period (the minimum duration of the predetermined delay period can be equal to the transmission time of the ICR from AP1 to STA1, which can be negligible); if AP1 determines not to initiate MAP cooperation and sends an ICR indicating not to initiate MAP cooperation, AP1 and STA1 perform NPCA handover almost simultaneously (the transmission time of the ICR from AP1 to STA1 can be negligible). This ensures that AP1 and STA1 perform NPCA handover at almost the same time, avoiding the problem that STA1 cannot communicate normally with its associated AP1 because STA1 has already switched to a non-primary channel while AP1 still needs to remain on the primary channel.

[0144] In this way, the AP can directly announce the non-primary channel access support information derived from the cooperation mechanism negotiated between each cooperating AP and the AP without announcing the cooperation mechanism negotiated between each cooperating AP. This makes it unnecessary for the STA to perform this derivation when it receives a PPDU sent from a cooperating AP and whose destination includes the associated AP. The STA can simply use the NPCA support information (e.g., the NPCA support information bitmap in Figure 10C) to determine whether it is supported to immediately perform NPCA handover for that cooperating AP, thereby reducing the implementation complexity on the STA side.

[0145] Figure 11 is a schematic flowchart illustrating a wireless communication method performed by a STA according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0146] Referring to FIG11, according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, a wireless communication method 1100 performed by a STA may include steps S110 to S150. In step S110, an announcement message is received from an associated AP of the STA, indicating one or more cooperating APs that have negotiated MAP cooperation with the associated AP. In step S120, a non-master channel access handover trigger signal is received from a non-associated AP not associated with the STA, explicitly or implicitly indicating that the master channel of the associated AP is busy, the destination of which includes the associated AP. In step S130, it is determined whether the non-associated AP is different from each of the one or more cooperating APs. If the non-associated AP is different from each of the one or more cooperating APs, the method proceeds to step S140 to perform an NPCA handover. If the non-associated AP is the same as at least one of the one or more cooperating APs, the method proceeds to step S150, and the NPCA handover is not performed or is delayed. The operation of the STA corresponding to steps S110 to S150 has already been described above with reference to FIG6, and will not be repeated here to avoid repetition.

[0147] Figure 12 illustrates a sub-step of step S150 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0148] Referring to Figure 12, step S150 in Figure 11 may include sub-steps S151 to S153. In step S151, the STA monitors for a message indicating whether MAP collaboration between the non-associate AP and the associated AP will be initiated or not initiated within a predetermined delay period. In step S152, the STA determines whether the message was not detected within the predetermined delay period, or whether the message was detected within the predetermined delay period and the message indicates that MAP collaboration between the non-associate AP and the associated AP will not be initiated. If yes, the method proceeds to sub-step S153 to perform NPCA handover. Conversely, if the message is detected and the message indicates that MAP collaboration between the non-associate AP and the associated AP will be initiated, NPCA handover is not performed. The STA operations corresponding to sub-steps S151 to S154 have already been described above with reference to Figure 7, and will not be repeated here to avoid repetition.

[0149] Additionally, considering the one-to-many MAP cooperation scenario described above in conjunction with FIG. 8C, a non-associate AP can simultaneously initiate MAP cooperation with multiple cooperating APs. The non-master channel access handover trigger signal is the ICF (Initial Channel Fault) used by the non-associate AP to initiate its MAP cooperation. In this case, step S150 of the wireless communication method 1100 executed by the STA, in addition to including sub-steps S151 to S153 as shown in FIG. 12, may further include, between step S130 and step S151, an additional step for determining whether the MAP cooperation initiated by the ICF includes MAP cooperation between a non-associate AP and an associated AP. The process proceeds to sub-step S151 only if it is determined that the MAP cooperation to be initiated by the ICF includes MAP cooperation between a non-associate AP and an associated AP; otherwise, it proceeds to sub-step S153. The operation of the STA corresponding to this additional step has been described above in conjunction with FIG. 8C, and will not be repeated here to avoid repetition. FIG. 13 illustrates the sub-steps of step S150 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0150] Referring to Figure 13, step S150 in Figure 11, in addition to sub-steps S151 to S153, may also include sub-step S135, which is performed before sub-step S151. In sub-step S135, the STA determines, based on the second sub-announcement message received from its associated AP, whether the cooperation mechanism negotiated between the non-associated AP and the associated AP for MAP cooperation only includes the cooperation-restricted target wake-up time mechanism. If it only includes the cooperation-restricted target wake-up time mechanism, method 1100 proceeds to sub-step S153 and performs NPCA handover. If it does not only include the cooperation-restricted target wake-up time mechanism, method 1100 proceeds to sub-step S151. The STA operations corresponding to sub-steps S135 to S153 have been described above with reference to Figures 9A to 9D, and will not be repeated here to avoid repetition.

[0151] Figure 14 illustrates a sub-step of step S150 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0152] Referring to Figure 14, step S150 in Figure 11, in addition to sub-steps S151 to S153, may also include sub-step S136, which is performed before sub-step S151. In step S136, the STA determines whether the non-primary channel access support information corresponding to the non-associate AP is a first value or a second value based on the third sub-advertisement message received from its associated AP. The first value indicates that when the STA receives an OBSS PPDU from the non-associate AP, immediate NPCA handover is supported; the second value indicates that when the STA receives an OBSS PPDU from the non-associate AP, immediate NPCA handover is not supported. If the non-primary channel access support information corresponding to the non-associate AP is determined to be the first value, method 1100 proceeds to sub-step S153 to perform NPCA handover. If the non-primary channel access support information corresponding to the non-associate AP is determined to be the second value, method 1100 proceeds to step S151. The operations of STA corresponding to sub-steps S136 to S154 have been described above with reference to Figures 10A to 10D. To avoid repetition, they will not be described again here.

[0153] Figure 15 is a schematic flowchart illustrating a wireless communication method performed by an AP according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0154] In the description of Figures 15-17 below, the AP is an associated AP connected to the STA. Referring to Figure 15, the wireless communication method 1500 performed by the associated AP may include steps S210 to S250. In step S210, the associated AP sends an announcement message to the STA indicating one or more cooperating APs that have negotiated MAP cooperation with the associated AP. In step S220, a non-master channel access handover trigger signal is received from a non-associated AP that is not connected to the STA, explicitly or implicitly indicating that the associated AP's master channel is busy, the destination of which includes the associated AP. In step S230, it is determined whether the non-associated AP is different from each of the one or more cooperating APs. If the non-associated AP is different from each of the one or more cooperating APs, method 1500 proceeds to step S240 to perform an NPCA handover. If the non-associated AP is the same as at least one of the one or more cooperating APs, method 1500 proceeds to step S250, and NPCA handover is not performed or is delayed. The operations of the associated APs corresponding to steps S210 to S250 have been described above with reference to Figure 6, and will not be repeated here to avoid repetition.

[0155] Figure 16 illustrates a sub-step of step S250 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0156] Referring to Figure 16, step S250 in Figure 15 may include substeps S251 to S254. In substep S251, the AP determines whether to initiate MAP collaboration with the cooperating AP. If the AP determines to initiate MAP collaboration with the cooperating AP, method 1500 proceeds to substep S254, sends a message indicating that MAP collaboration with the cooperating AP will be initiated (e.g., an ICR indicating that MAP collaboration with the cooperating AP will be initiated) and does not perform NPCA handover. If the AP determines not to initiate MAP collaboration with the cooperating AP, method 1500 proceeds to substep S252, and the AP sends a message indicating that MAP collaboration with the cooperating AP will not be initiated (e.g., an ICR indicating that MAP collaboration with the cooperating AP will not be initiated). Then, method 1500 proceeds to substep S253, and the AP performs NPCA handover. It should be understood that in an alternative scenario where the ICR message is designed only to indicate that MAP collaboration will be initiated, and the AP determines not to initiate MAP collaboration and therefore does not send an ICR, substep S252 may be skipped. Similarly, in an alternative scenario where the ICR message is designed only to indicate that MAP collaboration will not be initiated, and the AP determines to initiate MAP collaboration without sending an ICR, sub-step S254 can be skipped. The operations of the associated APs corresponding to sub-steps S251 to S254 have already been described above with reference to Figure 7, and will not be repeated here to avoid repetition.

[0157] Additionally, considering the one-to-many MAP cooperation scenario described above in conjunction with FIG8C, a non-associate AP can simultaneously initiate MAP cooperation with multiple cooperating APs. The non-master channel access handover trigger signal is the ICF (Initial Channel Fault) used by the non-associate AP to initiate its MAP cooperation. In this case, in addition to sub-steps S251 to S253 as shown in FIG16, step S250 of the wireless communication method 1500 executed by the associated AP may further include, between step S230 and step S251, an additional step for determining whether the MAP cooperation to be initiated by the ICF includes MAP cooperation between the non-associate AP and the associated AP. The process proceeds to sub-step S251 only if it is determined that the MAP cooperation to be initiated by the ICF includes MAP cooperation between the non-associate AP and the associated AP; otherwise, it proceeds to sub-step S253. The operation of the AP corresponding to this additional step has been described above in conjunction with FIG8C, and will not be repeated here to avoid repetition. FIG17 illustrates the sub-steps of step S250 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0158] Referring to Figure 17, step S250 in Figure 15, in addition to sub-steps S251 to S254, may also include sub-step S235, which is implemented before sub-step S251. In sub-step S235, the associated AP can determine whether the cooperation mechanism negotiated with the non-associated AP only includes the cooperation-restricted target wake-up time mechanism. If it is determined that the cooperation mechanism negotiated between the associated AP and the non-associated AP only includes the cooperation-restricted target wake-up time mechanism, then method 1500 proceeds to sub-step S253 and performs NPCA switching. If it is determined that the cooperation mechanism negotiated between the associated AP and the non-associated AP does not only include the cooperation-restricted target wake-up time mechanism, then method 1500 proceeds to sub-step S251. The operations of the associated AP corresponding to steps S235 to S254 have been described above with reference to Figures 9A to 9D and Figures 10A to 10D, and will not be repeated here to avoid repetition.

[0159] It should be understood that the absence of NPCA switching shown in Figures 12 to 14, as well as Figures 16 and 17, means that no action needs to be taken.

[0160] The above description, in conjunction with Figures 11 to 14, only covers a portion of the wireless communication method 1100 performed by the client device, and the wireless communication method 1100 can refer to and incorporate the STA and its various operations described above in conjunction with Figures 6 to 10D. For example, the STA and its aspects described above can be modified to implement one or more steps of the wireless communication method 1100.

[0161] The above description, in conjunction with Figures 15 to 17, only covers a portion of the wireless communication method 1500 performed by the access point device, and the wireless communication method 1500 can refer to and incorporate various operations of the AP described above in conjunction with Figures 6 to 10D. For example, the associated AP and its aspects described above can be modified to implement one or more steps of the wireless communication method 1500.

[0162] Figure 18 shows a schematic block diagram of a client device according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0163] As shown in FIG18, the client device 1800 may include a transceiver 1810, a memory 1820, and a processor 1830. The memory 1820 stores computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor 1830, can perform the steps of the wireless communication method 1100 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure as described above.

[0164] Figure 19 shows a schematic block diagram of an access point device according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0165] As shown in FIG19, the access point device 1900 may include a transceiver 1910, a memory 1920, and a processor 1930. The memory 1920 stores computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor 1930, can perform the steps of the wireless communication method 1500 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure as described above.

[0166] Some embodiments of this disclosure also provide a computer program product or computer program including computer instructions stored in a computer-readable storage medium. A processor of a computer device reads the computer instructions from the computer-readable storage medium and executes the computer instructions, causing the computer device to perform a method according to some embodiments of this disclosure.

[0167] In some embodiments of this disclosure, the processor can be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capabilities. The processor can be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, or discrete hardware components. It can implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in some embodiments of this disclosure. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor, and can be based on an x86 architecture or an ARM architecture.

[0168] In general, the various exemplary embodiments of this disclosure can be implemented in hardware or dedicated circuitry, software, firmware, logic, or any combination thereof. Some aspects can be implemented in hardware, while others can be implemented in firmware or software that can be executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device. When aspects of some embodiments of this disclosure are illustrated or described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other graphical representation, it will be understood that the blocks, apparatuses, systems, techniques, or methods described herein can be implemented as non-limiting examples in hardware, software, firmware, dedicated circuitry or logic, general-purpose hardware or controllers or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0169] It should be noted that the flowcharts and block diagrams in the accompanying drawings illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products according to various embodiments of this disclosure. In this regard, each block in a flowchart or block diagram may represent a module, segment, or portion of code containing one or more executable instructions for implementing a specified logical function. It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions indicated in the blocks may occur in a different order than those indicated in the drawings. For example, two consecutively indicated blocks may actually be executed substantially in parallel, and they may sometimes be executed in reverse order, depending on the functions involved. It should also be noted that each block in the block diagrams and / or flowcharts, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and / or flowcharts, can be implemented using a dedicated hardware-based system that performs the specified function or operation, or using a combination of dedicated hardware and computer instructions.

[0170] The exemplary embodiments of this disclosure described in detail above are merely illustrative and not restrictive. Those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and combinations can be made to these embodiments or their features without departing from the principles and spirit of this disclosure, and such modifications should fall within the scope of this disclosure.

Claims

1. A wireless communication method executed by a client device, comprising: Receive a notification message from an associated access point device associated with the client device, the notification message indicating one or more cooperating access point devices that have negotiated multi-access point cooperation with the associated access point device; In response to receiving a non-primary channel access switching trigger signal from a non-associate access point device that is not associated with the client device, explicitly or implicitly indicating that the primary channel of the associated access point device is busy, and the destination of the non-primary channel access switching trigger signal includes the associated access point device, it is determined, based on the announcement message and the non-primary channel access switching trigger signal, whether the non-associate access point device is different from each of the one or more cooperating access point devices; In response to determining that the non-associative access point device is different from each of the one or more cooperating access point devices, a non-primary channel access handover is performed; and In response to determining that the non-associative access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, a non-primary channel access handover is not performed or is delayed.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, In response to determining that the non-associative access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, not performing or delaying the non-primary channel access handover includes: In response to determining that the non-associate access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, a message indicating whether multi-access point cooperation between the non-associate access point device and the associated access point device will be started or not is monitored for a predetermined delay period. Based on the absence of the message detected within the predetermined delay period, or the detection of the message indicating that multi-access point cooperation between the non-associated access point device and the associated access point device will not be initiated within the predetermined delay period, a non-primary channel access handover is performed; and Based on the detection of the message indicating that multi-access point cooperation between the non-associated access point device and the associated access point device will be initiated within the predetermined delay period, no non-primary channel access handover is performed.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein, The announcement message includes a first sub-announcement message, which includes one or more basic service set information corresponding one-to-one with the one or more cooperative access point devices; and The non-associate access point device is determined to be different from each of the one or more cooperating access point devices by determining that the basic service set information of the non-associate wireless device included in the non-master channel access handover trigger signal is different from the basic service set information of each of the one or more cooperating access point devices included in the first sub-announcement message.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein, The announcement message also includes a second sub-announcement message, which includes one or more cooperation feature information corresponding to the one or more cooperative access point devices, and the cooperation feature information includes a cooperation mechanism for multi-access point cooperation negotiated between the corresponding cooperative access point device and the associated access point device.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein, In response to determining that the non-associative access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, and not performing or delaying the non-primary channel access handover, the method further includes: In response to determining that the non-associate access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, a cooperation mechanism for multi-access point cooperation negotiated by the non-associate access point device and the associated access point device is determined based on the second sub-announcement message. Specifically, the process of monitoring the message indicating whether multi-access point cooperation between the non-associated access point device and the associated access point device will be started or not will be executed during a predetermined delay period only if the determined cooperation mechanism does not include only the cooperation-limited target wake-up time mechanism; otherwise, a non-master channel access handover will be performed.

6. The method according to claim 3, wherein, The announcement message also includes a third sub-announcement message, which includes non-primary channel access support information corresponding to each of the one or more cooperative access point devices. For each cooperative access point device, if the cooperation mechanism for multi-access point cooperation negotiated between the cooperative access point device and the associated access point device only includes a cooperation-limited target wake-up time mechanism, the non-primary channel access support information corresponding to the cooperative access point device is set to a first value; otherwise, it is set to a second value.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein, In response to determining that the non-associative access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, and not performing or delaying the non-primary channel access handover, the method further includes: In response to determining that the unassociated access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperative access point devices, determine whether the non-primary channel access support information corresponding to the unassociated access point device in the third sub-announcement message is a first value or a second value; Specifically, the process of monitoring the message indicating whether multi-access point cooperation between the non-associate access point device and the associated access point device will be started or not will be executed only if the non-primary channel access support information corresponding to the non-associate access point device is a second value; otherwise, a non-primary channel access handover will be performed.

8. The method according to claim 3, wherein, The non-master channel access switching trigger signal is a start control frame used by the non-associated access point device to initiate its multi-access point cooperation. The step of not performing or delaying the non-primary channel access handover in response to determining that the non-associative access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices further includes: In response to determining that the non-associated access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, it is determined whether the multi-access point cooperation to be initiated by the start control frame includes multi-access point cooperation between the non-associated access point device and the associated access point device. The process of monitoring the message indicating whether or not the multi-access point cooperation between the non-associated access point device and the associated access point device will be started or not will be executed only if it is determined that the multi-access point cooperation to be started by the start control frame includes multi-access point cooperation between the non-associated access point device and the associated access point device. Otherwise, a non-primary channel access handover will be performed.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein: The first sub-announcement message also includes one or more access point device identifiers that correspond one-to-one with the one or more cooperating access point devices, each access point device identifier being assigned to the associated access point device by the corresponding cooperating access point device; The startup control frame includes the access point device identifier of one or more shared access point devices that the non-associated access point device intends to initiate multi-access point cooperation with. The non-associated access point device negotiates multi-access point cooperation with multiple access point devices including the one or more shared access point devices and assigns an access point device identifier to each of them. In response to determining that the non-associated access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, the multi-access point cooperation to be initiated by the initiation control frame is determined to include multi-access point cooperation between the non-associated access point device and the associated access point device by determining that the access point device identifier corresponding to the non-associated access point device included in the first sub-announcement message is the same as one of the access point device identifiers included in the initiation control frame.

10. The method according to claim 3, wherein, The first sub-announcement message is included in any one of the beacon frame, probe response frame, association response frame, or non-master channel access operation information sent by the associated access point device.

11. The method according to claim 4, wherein, The first sub-announcement message and the second sub-announcement message are included separately or jointly in a beacon frame, probe response frame, association response frame, or non-master channel access operation information sent by the associated access point device.

12. The method according to claim 6, wherein, The first sub-announcement message and the third sub-announcement message are included separately or jointly in a beacon frame, probe response frame, association response frame, or non-master channel access operation information sent by the first access point device.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein, The non-master channel access trigger signal includes the Overlapping Basic Service Set Physical Protocol Data Unit.

14. The method according to claim 2, wherein, The message indicating whether multi-access point collaboration between the non-associated access point device and the associated access point device will be enabled or disabled is included in the basic service report frame or the multi-site block acknowledgment frame.

15. The method according to claim 3, wherein, The basic service set information includes basic service set coloring and / or basic service set identifier.

16. The method according to claim 4, wherein, The collaboration mechanism includes one or more of the following: Cooperative Time Division Multiple Access (Co-TDMA) cooperation mechanism; Co-Size Reuse (Co-SR) collaboration mechanism; Cooperative beamforming (Co-BF) cooperation mechanism; Cooperatively Constrained Target Wake-Time (Co-RTWT) cooperation mechanism.

17. A wireless communication method performed by an access point device, the access point device being an associated access point device associated with a client device, the method comprising: Send a notification message to the client device, the notification message indicating one or more cooperating access point devices that have negotiated multi-access point cooperation with the associated access point device; as well as In response to receiving a non-primary channel access switching trigger signal from a non-associate access point device that is not associated with the client device, which explicitly or implicitly indicates that the primary channel of the associated access point device is busy, and the destination of the non-primary channel access switching trigger signal includes the associated access point device, it is determined whether the non-associate access point device is different from each of the one or more cooperating access point devices; In response to determining that the non-associative access point device is different from each of the one or more cooperating access point devices, a non-primary channel access handover is performed; and In response to determining that the non-associative access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, a non-primary channel access handover is not performed or is delayed.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein, In response to determining that the non-associative access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, not performing or delaying the non-primary channel access handover includes: In response to determining that the non-associated access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, determine whether to enable or not to enable multi-access point collaboration with the cooperating access point device; Based on the determination that multi-access point cooperation with the cooperating access point device will not be initiated, a non-primary channel access handover will be performed; and Based on the determination to initiate multi-access point cooperation with the cooperating access point device, no non-primary channel access handover is performed.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein, In response to determining that the non-associative access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, and not performing or delaying the non-primary channel access handover, the method further includes: Based on the determination that multi-access point collaboration with the cooperating access point device will not be initiated, a message is sent to the client device indicating that multi-access point collaboration with the cooperating access point device will not be initiated; and / or Based on the determination to initiate multi-access point collaboration with the cooperating access point device, a message is sent to the client device to indicate that multi-access point collaboration with the cooperating access point device will be initiated.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein, The announcement message includes a first sub-announcement message, which corresponds one or more basic service set information to one or more of the one or more cooperative access point devices.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein, The announcement message also includes a second sub-announcement message, which includes one or more cooperation feature information corresponding to the one or more cooperating access point devices, and the cooperation feature information includes a cooperation mechanism for multi-access point cooperation negotiated by the associated access point device and the corresponding cooperating access point device.

22. The method according to claim 20, wherein, The announcement message further includes a third sub-announcement message, which includes non-primary channel access support information corresponding to each of the one or more cooperative access point devices. For each cooperative access point device, if the cooperative access point device negotiates a cooperative mechanism for multi-access point cooperation with the cooperative access point device, which only includes a cooperative limited target wake-up time mechanism, the access point device sets the non-primary channel access support information corresponding to the cooperative access point device to a first value; otherwise, the access point device sets the non-primary channel access support information corresponding to the cooperative access point device to a second value.

23. The method of claim 21 or 22, further comprising, in response to determining that the non-associative access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, not performing or delaying the non-primary channel access handover, further comprising: In response to determining that the non-associated access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, it is determined whether the cooperation mechanism for multi-access point cooperation negotiated by the associated access point device and the non-associated access point device only includes a cooperation-limited target wake-up time mechanism. Specifically, the determination of whether to start or not to start multi-access point cooperation with the cooperating access point device is only performed if the cooperation mechanism negotiated between the associated access point device and the non-associated access point device does not only include the cooperation-limited target wake-up time mechanism; otherwise, a non-master channel access handover is performed.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein: The non-master channel access switching trigger signal is the start control frame used by the non-associated access point device to initiate its multi-access point cooperation. The step of not performing or delaying the non-primary channel access handover in response to determining that the non-associative access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices further includes: In response to determining that the non-associated access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, it is determined whether the multi-access point cooperation to be initiated by the start control frame includes multi-access point cooperation between the non-associated access point device and the associated access point device. The process of determining whether to initiate or not to initiate multi-access point cooperation with the cooperating access point device is only performed if it is determined that the multi-access point cooperation to be initiated by the initiation control frame includes multi-access point cooperation between the non-associated access point device and the associated access point device; otherwise, a non-primary channel access handover is performed.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein: The first sub-announcement message also includes one or more first access point device identifiers that correspond one-to-one with the one or more cooperating access point devices, each first access point device identifier being assigned to the associated access point device by the corresponding cooperating access point device; The startup control frame includes one or more second access point device identifiers of one or more shared access point devices with which the non-associated access point device intends to initiate multi-access point cooperation, wherein the one or more shared access point devices are part or all of one or more access point devices with which the non-associated access point device has negotiated multi-access point cooperation and with which it has been assigned second access point device identifiers; and In response to determining that the non-associated access point device is the same as one of the one or more cooperating access point devices, the multi-access point cooperation to be initiated by the start control frame is determined to include multi-access point cooperation between the non-associated access point device and the associated access point device by determining that the first access point device identifier assigned by the non-associated access point device to the associated access point device is the same as one of the second access point device identifiers included in the start control frame.

26. A client device for wireless communication, comprising: transceiver; Memory on which computer-readable instructions are stored; as well as A processor, coupled to the transceiver and the memory, causes the client device to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-16 when the computer-readable instructions are executed by the processor.

27. An access point device for wireless communication, comprising: transceiver; Memory on which computer-readable instructions are stored; A processor, coupled to the transceiver and the memory, causes the access point device to perform the method according to any one of claims 17-25 when the computer-readable instructions are executed by the processor.

28. A computer program product comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-16.

29. A computer program product comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method according to any one of claims 17-25.

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