Wireless Trigger Frame Versioning for Multi-Protocol Support
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional trigger frames in wireless communication systems have limited capacity in the common and user-specific information fields, hindering the accommodation of new features required by evolving IEEE 802.11 standards, particularly for delay-sensitive applications like augmented reality, robotics, and unmanned vehicles.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves trigger frames with expanded common and user-specific information fields, utilizing bits in the common information field to indicate communication protocol versions and special user information fields to provide specific information to recipients, allowing for backward compatibility and additional follow-up fields as needed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional trigger frames with limited information fields are used, then device complexity is reduced and ease of operation is maintained, but the ability to accommodate new features and support multiple communication protocols is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The trigger frame is segmented into distinct information fields including a common information field and multiple user information fields. Each field serves a specific function and can be independently configured. Version information subfields are embedded within specific segments to indicate protocol versions without requiring changes to the entire frame structure, enabling multi-protocol support while maintaining manageable complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a versioning dimension to the trigger frame structure by incorporating version information subfields within existing information fields. This allows the same frame format to support multiple communication protocol versions (e.g., first, second, and third versions) without creating entirely separate frame structures, effectively adding a protocol-version dimension to the existing frame architecture.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the common information field and user information field are expanded to accommodate new features, then adaptability to new communication protocols is improved, but the device complexity and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The trigger frame structure is designed with universal information fields that can serve multiple communication protocol versions. The common information field and user information fields are configured to carry version information subfields that indicate which protocol version is being used. This allows a single frame structure to universally support multiple protocols (first, second, and third versions) without requiring separate specialized structures for each protocol.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes parameter changes within the information fields, specifically incorporating version information subfields that can take different values to indicate different communication protocol versions. By changing the parameter values within the existing frame structure rather than modifying the structure itself, the system can adapt to new protocols while keeping processing complexity manageable through parameter variation rather than structural transformation.
3Reliability
If version information subfields are added to indicate communication protocol versions, then protocol compatibility and backward compatibility are improved, but the information field capacity is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Version information subfields are preliminarily embedded within the common information field and user information fields at predetermined locations. This preliminary placement of version indicators allows receiving devices to quickly identify the protocol version before processing the rest of the frame content, ensuring backward compatibility with existing standards while efficiently utilizing the information field capacity through pre-planned field configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The version information subfields are nested within the existing common information field and user information field structures. Rather than adding separate top-level fields that would consume additional capacity, the version information is nested as subfields within the existing information fields. This nested structure allows protocol version indication while preserving the overall information field capacity and maintaining compatibility with existing frame processing mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
A trigger frame recipient includes a memory and a processor, the processor to receive, from a trigger frame transmitter, a trigger frame that solicits one or more responses from the trigger frame recipient, where the trigger frame includes a common information field providing information that is common to the trigger frame, one or more user information fields where each user information field provides information that is specific to the trigger frame recipient, and one or more special user information fields The processor is further to decode the trigger frame and determine a respective one of a plurality of communication protocol versions associated with the common information field based on (i) a first bit and a second bit of the common information field and (ii) a version information subfield of a special user information field, the version information subfield indicating a particular communication protocol version.