PHY Header Group ID Allocation for WLAN Power Savings
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless local area networks (WLANs) face challenges in achieving high data throughput while maintaining backward compatibility with legacy devices and efficiently managing power consumption, especially in multiple user, multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) wireless communications.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a WLAN device that uses a PHY header with a group identification field and modulation coding parameters to determine intended recipients, allowing for early packet processing termination and power-saving modes in devices not intended for multi-user packets, thereby optimizing data throughput and power usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If legacy devices process complete packets to ensure compatibility, then backward compatibility is maintained, but power consumption increases and processing time is wasted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by placing recipient identification information (group ID or association ID) in the PHY header before the data payload. This allows devices to check the header first and determine early whether the packet is intended for them, avoiding complete packet processing when not needed, thus reducing power consumption while maintaining compatibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the packet processing into two stages: first processing the PHY header to check recipient identification, then conditionally processing the complete packet only if needed. This segmentation allows legacy devices to maintain compatibility by processing headers while enabling power savings by avoiding unnecessary full packet processing.
2Reliability
If all devices process complete multi-user packets to ensure reliable reception, then reception reliability is improved, but processing time is increased and throughput is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables preliminary verification of packet relevance through the PHY header containing group ID or association ID. Devices can quickly determine if a packet is intended for them before committing to full processing, reducing unnecessary processing time and improving overall throughput while maintaining reliability for relevant packets.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic processing behavior where devices adapt their processing depth based on the PHY header information. If the header indicates the packet is not intended for the device, processing is terminated early; otherwise, full processing proceeds. This dynamic approach optimizes throughput by avoiding static full-processing of all packets.
3Loss of information
If legacy devices continuously monitor all transmissions to maintain network awareness, then network awareness is maintained, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables legacy devices to maintain network awareness by monitoring PHY headers for group ID or association ID information. Devices can quickly identify packets not intended for them through header inspection and enter power-saving modes, reducing energy consumption while maintaining necessary network awareness through selective monitoring.
Data Source
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AI summary
Preamble and header bit allocation for power savings within multiple user, multiple access, and/or MIMO wireless communications. Within a multi-user packet, information (e.g., partial address information) related to a recipient group of wireless communication devices (e.g., as few as one wireless communication device or any subset of a number of wireless communication devices, sometimes including all of the wireless communication devices) is emplaced within a PHY (e.g., physical layer) header of such a multi-user packet to be communicated within a multi-user (MU) environment. Such recipient indicating information can be encoded with relatively higher robustness (e.g., lower coding rates, lower ordered modulation, cyclic redundancy check (CRC), etc.) than remaining portions of the multi-user packet, and facilitates an early determination whether the recipient is intended or not, thus providing an earlier termination of power consuming processing. Various portions of the remainder of the multi-user packet may respectively correspond to different wireless communication devices (e.g., a first field for a first wireless communication device, a second field for a second wireless communication device, etc.).