Multi-bandwidth OFDMA Tone Plan Tile Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing IEEE 802.11ax tone plan is inefficient when clients operate at bandwidths less than the PPDU bandwidth, leading to unallocated resource units and significant throughput loss, particularly in scenarios where clients are in power-save mode or using 20 MHz or 40 MHz bandwidths, due to overlapping DC tones and guard tones.
Innovation Solution
A tone plan that replicates a fundamental 20 MHz tile across various bandwidths, including 40, 80, and 160 MHz, with strategically placed DC tones and reused guard tones to form wider bandwidth channels, allowing for flexible resource unit allocation and supporting devices operating at different bandwidths, thereby maximizing spectral efficiency and minimizing unusable subcarriers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the existing IEEE 802.11ax tone plan is used with PPDU bandwidth greater than client bandwidth, then wider bandwidth channels can be formed, but resource units become unallocated and throughput is significantly lost
Solution Approach 1:
The frequency band is segmented into multiple fundamental tiles, each corresponding to a specific bandwidth (20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz). Each tile contains independently allocated resource units with properly positioned DC tones and guard tones. This segmentation allows clients to receive only the tile matching their bandwidth capability, eliminating the throughput loss caused by unallocated resource units in wider bandwidths.
Solution Approach 2:
Each fundamental tile is designed with local quality optimization, where DC tones and guard tones are strategically positioned within each tile to prevent overlap and interference. This local optimization ensures that resource units within each tile are properly allocable to clients operating at that specific bandwidth, while maintaining the overall multi-bandwidth channel structure.
2Reliability
If DC tones and guard tones are placed in the tone plan, then spectral interference is reduced, but resource units become unallocated when client bandwidth is less than PPDU bandwidth
Solution Approach 1:
The frequency band is divided into multiple fundamental tiles, each optimized for a specific bandwidth. DC tones and guard tones are positioned within each tile to ensure spectral efficiency for clients operating at that bandwidth. This segmentation allows the system to maintain proper DC and guard tone placement for each bandwidth segment while enabling clients to operate at their native bandwidth without encountering unallocated resource units.
Solution Approach 2:
The tone plan structure serves multiple bandwidths simultaneously through the fundamental tile replication approach. Each tile can function independently for clients operating at that specific bandwidth, while also being part of a larger bonded structure for wider bandwidth operations. This multi-functionality allows the same tone plan design to serve clients across different bandwidth capabilities (20, 40, 80, 160 MHz) without compromising spectral efficiency or adaptability.
3Productivity
If a fixed tone plan is used for a specific bandwidth, then spectral efficiency is optimized for that bandwidth, but devices operating at different bandwidths experience throughput loss
Solution Approach 1:
The frequency band is segmented into multiple fundamental tiles, each optimized for a specific bandwidth (20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz). Each tile maintains the spectral efficiency characteristics of its designated bandwidth through proper DC tone and guard tone placement. Clients operating at different bandwidths can be assigned to the appropriate tile, ensuring optimal spectral efficiency for each device while maintaining multi-bandwidth support.
Solution Approach 2:
The fundamental tile design serves as a universal building block that can function at multiple bandwidth levels. By replicating and bonding fundamental tiles, the system creates a universal tone plan structure that maintains spectral efficiency across different bandwidths. This approach allows a single tone plan design to universally support devices operating at 20, 40, 80, and 160 MHz bandwidths without sacrificing the spectral efficiency optimizations for each specific bandwidth.
Data Source
AI summary
Presented herein is a tone plan that can accommodate multiple bandwidth options. This tone plan may be designed around a fundamental tile, such as 20 MHz tile, that is replicated to 40 and 80 MHz (and 160 MHz and beyond). For wider bandwidths, the otherwise-unused guard tones between the 20 MHz tiles are filled by a new resource unit and DC tones. There are DC tones placed to support any client, for all defined and plausible future values of its current operating bandwidth and center frequency (i.e. any 20 MHz, any 40 MHz, any 80 MHz, 160 MHz and 80+80 MHz, 320, 160+80 etc.), as well as plausible future preamble puncturing cases.