WLAN Extended Bandwidth Signaling for Low-Latency STA Operation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wireless communication systems face challenges in accommodating varying bandwidth requirements for delay-sensitive applications like augmented reality, robotics, and unmanned vehicles, necessitating a mechanism to support different applicable bandwidths for stations in WLAN devices.
Innovation Solution
An access point (AP) and station (STA) in a wireless network determine and transmit frames indicating an extended bandwidth, allowing operations to be performed using this extended bandwidth, with features like channel width, duration, and resource unit allocation, enabling efficient channel access and frame exchange.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a fixed nominal bandwidth is used for all operations in a BSS, then system simplicity is maintained, but the ability to support delay-sensitive applications with varying bandwidth requirements is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic bandwidth allocation by allowing the AP to determine an extended bandwidth that exceeds the nominal BSS bandwidth and to indicate this extended bandwidth to specific STAs through control frames. This enables the system to adapt bandwidth resources dynamically based on application requirements while maintaining a fixed nominal bandwidth configuration for overall system management.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by allowing different STAs to access different bandwidths for different operations. Specifically, the AP can grant certain STAs access to extended bandwidth portions while other STAs continue to use the nominal bandwidth, enabling localized bandwidth optimization for specific applications without affecting the entire BSS.
2Productivity
If extended bandwidth is allocated for specific operations, then throughput and latency performance improve, but frame structure and signaling complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the bandwidth into nominal bandwidth (available to all STAs) and extended bandwidth (available to specific STAs for specific operations). This segmentation is implemented through separate bandwidth indication fields in control frames, allowing the system to manage different bandwidth portions independently and reduce overall signaling complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces control frames as intermediary elements that carry bandwidth indication information from the AP to STAs. These control frames serve as a standardized interface for bandwidth allocation, simplifying the signaling process by encapsulating complex bandwidth management information in a structured format that STAs can easily parse and act upon.
3Reliability
If multiple STAs require different bandwidths for different applications, then application performance improves, but channel access coordination becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the bandwidth parameter dynamically by allowing the AP to indicate different extended bandwidth values to different STAs based on their application requirements. This is achieved through bandwidth indication fields in control frames that specify the additional bandwidth available beyond the nominal BSS bandwidth, enabling flexible parameter adjustment without changing the fundamental channel access mechanism.
Data Source
AI summary
An access point (AP) in a wireless network includes a memory and a processor coupled to the memory. The processor is configured to determine an extended bandwidth indicating a maximum operating bandwidth that is different than a nominal bandwidth of a basic service set (BSS) associated with the AP. The processor is further configured to transmit, to one or more STAs, a frame that indicates the extended bandwidth and an operation to be performed using the extended bandwidth.