阅读说明：本技术 联合传输方法及装置 (Joint transmission method and device ) 是由 杨博 徐月巧 冯冰 王军辉 陈鹏 于 2020-05-21 设计创作，主要内容包括：本申请实施例提供了一种联合传输方法及装置,涉及通信领域,该方法包括：获取多个第二AP中的每个第二AP的用户信息和公共控制信息,用户信息用于指示第二AP向对应的至少一个站点STA传输数据时,每个STA对应的资源分配方式,公共控制信息包括指示第二AP对应的至少一个STA接收并解调数据所需的至少一个公共控制参数；向每个第二AP指示至少一个目标公共控制参数和各第二AP的用户信息,用于指示每个第二AP生成包括至少一个目标公共控制参数与各第二AP的用户信息的控制字段；目标公共控制参数为各第二AP的具有相同类型的公共控制参数中符合预设条件的公共控制参数。本申请能够有效消除AP间的相互干扰,提高数据传输的准确性。(The embodiment of the application provides a joint transmission method and a device, which relate to the field of communication, and the method comprises the following steps: acquiring user information and public control information of each second AP in the plurality of second APs, wherein the user information is used for indicating a resource allocation mode corresponding to each STA when the second AP transmits data to the corresponding at least one STA, and the public control information comprises at least one public control parameter required for indicating the at least one STA corresponding to the second AP to receive and demodulate the data; indicating at least one target common control parameter and user information of each second AP to each second AP, and indicating each second AP to generate a control field comprising the at least one target common control parameter and the user information of each second AP; the target common control parameter is a common control parameter which meets a preset condition in common control parameters with the same type of each second AP. The method and the device can effectively eliminate the mutual interference between the APs and improve the accuracy of data transmission.)

1. A joint transmission method applied to a first Access Point (AP) comprises the following steps:

acquiring user information and public control information of each second AP in a plurality of second APs, wherein the user information is used for indicating a resource allocation mode corresponding to each STA when the second AP transmits data to the corresponding at least one station STA, and the public control information comprises at least one public control parameter required for indicating the at least one STA corresponding to the second AP to receive and demodulate the data;

indicating at least one target common control parameter and user information of each second AP to each second AP, and indicating each second AP to generate a control field comprising the at least one target common control parameter and the user information of each second AP; the target common control parameter is a common control parameter which meets a preset condition in common control parameters of the same type of each second AP.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user information of the second AP comprises identification information of each STA of the at least one STA corresponding to the second AP, and resource information occupied by data transmitted to the corresponding at least one STA by the second AP.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the preset condition is a maximum or a minimum of each common control parameter of the same type.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the type of the common control parameter comprises at least one of:

a protocol data unit (PPDU) length parameter of the second AP;

channel state parameters between the second AP and the at least one STA;

coding and decoding capability parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the second AP;

and the channel resource parameter of the second AP is used for indicating the dividing mode of the channel resource.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the preset condition comprises at least one of:

the target common control parameter is the maximum value in the PPDU length parameters corresponding to each second AP;

the target common control parameter is the minimum value in the channel state parameters corresponding to the second APs;

the target common control parameter is the minimum value in the coding and decoding capability parameters of at least one STA corresponding to each second AP;

the target common control parameter is the maximum value in the channel resource parameters corresponding to the second APs.

6. The method according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the obtaining user information and common control information of each of the plurality of second APs comprises:

receiving configuration information sent by each second Access Point (AP) in a plurality of second APs, wherein the configuration information comprises configuration parameters of the second AP, configuration parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the second AP and parameters corresponding to data transmitted to the corresponding at least one STA by the second AP;

and generating user information and common control information of each second AP in response to the received configuration information of each second AP.

7. The method according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the obtaining user information and common control information of each of the plurality of second APs comprises:

determining first user information and first common control information of the first AP based on configuration information of the first AP, wherein the configuration information comprises configuration parameters of the first AP, configuration parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the first AP and parameters corresponding to data transmitted by the at least one STA corresponding to the first AP;

receiving second user information and second common control information sent by each second AP in a plurality of second Access Points (APs);

wherein the first user information and the second user information belong to the user information, and the first common control information and the second common control information belong to the common control information.

8. An apparatus for joint transmission, comprising: a transceiver and a processor;

the processor is configured to obtain user information and common control information of each second AP in the plurality of second APs, where the user information is used to indicate a resource allocation manner corresponding to each STA when the second AP transmits data to the corresponding at least one STA, and the common control information includes at least one common control parameter that indicates the at least one STA corresponding to the second AP to receive and demodulate data;

the transceiver is configured to indicate at least one target common control parameter and user information of each second AP to each second AP, and indicate each second AP to generate a control field including the at least one target common control parameter and the user information of each second AP; the target common control parameter is a common control parameter which meets a preset condition in common control parameters of the same type of each second AP.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the user information of the second AP comprises identification information of each STA of the at least one STA corresponding to the second AP, and resource information occupied by data transmitted to the corresponding at least one STA by the second AP.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the preset condition is a maximum value or a minimum value of each of common control parameters having the same type.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the type of the common control parameter comprises at least one of:

a protocol data unit (PPDU) length parameter of the second AP;

channel state parameters between the second AP and the at least one STA;

coding and decoding capability parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the second AP;

and the channel resource parameter of the second AP is used for indicating the dividing mode of the channel resource.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the preset condition comprises at least one of:

the target common control parameter is the maximum value in the PPDU length parameters corresponding to each second AP;

the target common control parameter is the minimum value in the channel state parameters corresponding to the second APs;

the target common control parameter is the minimum value in the coding and decoding capability parameters of at least one STA corresponding to each second AP;

the target common control parameter is the maximum value in the channel resource parameters corresponding to the second APs.

13. The apparatus according to any one of claims 8 to 12,

the transceiver is configured to receive configuration information sent by each of a plurality of second Access Points (APs), where the configuration information includes configuration parameters of the second AP, configuration parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the second AP, and parameters corresponding to data transmitted by the second AP to the corresponding at least one STA;

and the processor is used for responding to the received configuration information of each second AP and generating user information and common control information of each second AP.

14. The apparatus according to any one of claims 8 to 12,

the processor is configured to determine first user information and first common control information of the first AP based on configuration information of the first AP, where the configuration information includes configuration parameters of the first AP, configuration parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the first AP, and parameters corresponding to data transmitted by the at least one STA corresponding to the first AP;

the transceiver is configured to receive second user information and second common control information sent by each of a plurality of second Access Points (APs);

wherein the first user information and the second user information belong to the user information, and the first common control information and the second common control information belong to the common control information.

15. A chip, comprising: an interface and at least one processor;

the processor is configured to obtain user information and common control information of each second AP in the plurality of second APs, where the user information is used to indicate a resource allocation manner corresponding to each STA when the second AP transmits data to the corresponding at least one STA, and the common control information includes at least one common control parameter that indicates the at least one STA corresponding to the second AP to receive and demodulate data;

the interface is configured to indicate at least one target common control parameter and user information of each second AP to each second AP, and indicate each second AP to generate a control field including the at least one target common control parameter and the user information of each second AP; the target common control parameter is a common control parameter which meets a preset condition in common control parameters of the same type of each second AP.

16. The chip of claim 15, wherein the user information of the second AP includes identification information of each STA of the at least one STA corresponding to the second AP, and resource information occupied by data transmitted to the corresponding at least one STA by the second AP.

17. The chip of claim 15, wherein the preset condition is a maximum value or a minimum value of each common control parameter having the same type.

18. The chip of claim 15, wherein the type of the common control parameter comprises at least one of:

a protocol data unit (PPDU) length parameter of the second AP;

channel state parameters between the second AP and the at least one STA;

coding and decoding capability parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the second AP;

and the channel resource parameter of the second AP is used for indicating the dividing mode of the channel resource.

19. The chip of claim 18, wherein the preset condition comprises at least one of:

the target common control parameter is the maximum value in the PPDU length parameters corresponding to each second AP;

the target common control parameter is the minimum value in the channel state parameters corresponding to the second APs;

the target common control parameter is the minimum value in the coding and decoding capability parameters of at least one STA corresponding to each second AP;

the target common control parameter is the maximum value in the channel resource parameters corresponding to the second APs.

20. The chip according to any of claims 15 to 18,

the interface is configured to input, to the processor, configuration information sent by each of a plurality of second Access Points (APs), where the configuration information includes configuration parameters of the second AP, configuration parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the second AP, and parameters corresponding to data transmitted by the second AP to the corresponding at least one STA;

and the processor is used for responding to the received configuration information of each second AP and generating user information and common control information of each second AP.

21. The chip according to any of claims 15 to 18,

the processor is configured to determine first user information and first common control information of the first AP based on configuration information of the first AP, where the configuration information includes configuration parameters of the first AP, configuration parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the first AP, and parameters corresponding to data transmitted by the at least one STA corresponding to the first AP;

the interface is used for inputting second user information and second common control information which are sent by each second AP in a plurality of second Access Points (APs) to the processor;

wherein the first user information and the second user information belong to the user information, and the first common control information and the second common control information belong to the common control information.

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the field of communication, in particular to a joint transmission method and device.

Background

Currently, a physical frame in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) generally includes two parts: a physical frame header and a physical frame body. The physical frame body is used for carrying data fields including data information, and the physical frame header is used for carrying control fields including control information enabling the terminal to successfully receive the data fields.

In the joint transmission mode in the prior art, because the control fields of the APs are partially or completely different, the control fields of the APs may interfere with each other during the data transmission process of the APs.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a joint transmission method and device, which can reduce mutual interference among APs to a certain extent.

In order to achieve the purpose, the technical scheme is as follows:

in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a joint transmission method, including: the first AP acquires user information and common control information of each second AP in the plurality of second APs, wherein the user information is used for indicating a resource allocation mode corresponding to each STA when the second AP transmits data to the corresponding at least one STA, and the common control information comprises at least one common control parameter required for indicating the at least one STA corresponding to the second AP to receive and demodulate the data. And then, the first AP indicates at least one target common control parameter and user information of each second AP to each second AP, and the target common control parameter is a common control parameter which meets a preset condition in common control parameters with the same type of each second AP and is used for indicating each second AP to generate a control field comprising at least one target common control parameter and the user information of each second AP.

Based on the mode, the control fields of the multiple APs are the same, so that mutual interference among the APs can be effectively eliminated, and the accuracy of data transmission is improved.

In a possible implementation manner, the user information of the second AP includes identification information of each STA in the at least one STA corresponding to the second AP, and resource information occupied by data transmitted to the corresponding at least one STA by the second AP.

Based on the above manner, the user fields in the control fields of the multiple APs can include the user information of the multiple APs, so that the user fields of the multiple APs are kept consistent, and a frame format similar to a single AP to multiple users can be realized, thereby eliminating mutual interference among the APs.

In one possible implementation, the preset condition is a maximum or minimum value of each of the common control parameters having the same type.

Based on the mode, a unified mode is realized, different public control parameters in the APs can be unified, and the same public control field can be obtained.

In one possible implementation, the type of the common control parameter comprises at least one of: a protocol data unit (PPDU) length parameter of the second AP; channel state parameters between the second AP and the at least one STA; coding and decoding capability parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the second AP; and the channel resource parameter of the second AP is used for indicating the dividing mode of the channel resource.

Based on the mode, a uniform mode for different types of common control parameters is realized to obtain the target common control parameters.

In one possible implementation, the preset condition includes at least one of: the target common control parameter is the maximum value in the PPDU length parameters corresponding to each second AP; the target common control parameter is the minimum value in the channel state parameters corresponding to the second APs; the target common control parameter is the minimum value in the coding and decoding capability parameters of at least one STA corresponding to each second AP; the target common control parameter is the maximum value in the channel resource parameters corresponding to the second APs.

Based on the mode, a uniform mode for different types of common control parameters is realized to obtain the target common control parameters.

In one possible implementation manner, the obtaining the user information and the common control information of each of the plurality of second APs includes: the first AP receives configuration information sent by each second AP in a plurality of second AP, the configuration information comprises configuration parameters of the second AP, configuration parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the second AP and parameters corresponding to data transmitted to the corresponding at least one STA by the second AP, and then the first AP responds to the received configuration information of the second APs to generate user information and common control information of the second APs.

Based on the above manner, the first AP can generate corresponding user information and common control information based on the configuration information of each second AP, and the first AP performs unified scheduling to save time and resources occupied by interaction of each second AP.

In one possible implementation manner, the obtaining the user information and the common control information of each of the plurality of second APs includes: the first AP determines first user information and first common control information of the first AP based on configuration information of the first AP, wherein the configuration information comprises configuration parameters of the first AP, configuration parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the first AP and parameters corresponding to data transmitted by the at least one STA corresponding to the first AP; the first AP receives second user information and second common control information sent by each second AP in a plurality of second Access Points (APs); the first user information and the second user information belong to user information, and the first common control information and the second common control information belong to common control information.

Based on the mode, the AP self-scheduling is realized, and the scheduling results of the APs, namely the generated public control information and the user information, are unified by the first AP, so that the scheme can be applied to application scenes of small enterprises and the like, and the equipment cost is reduced.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an apparatus for joint transmission, where the apparatus includes: a transceiver and a processor. The processor is configured to obtain user information and common control information of each second AP in the plurality of second APs, where the user information is used to indicate a resource allocation manner corresponding to each STA when the second AP transmits data to the corresponding at least one station STA, and the common control information includes at least one common control parameter that indicates that the at least one STA corresponding to the second AP needs to receive and demodulate data. The transceiver is used for indicating at least one target common control parameter and user information of each second AP to each second AP and indicating each second AP to generate a control field comprising the at least one target common control parameter and the user information of each second AP; the target common control parameter is a common control parameter which meets a preset condition in common control parameters with the same type of each second AP.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip, including: an interface and at least one processor. The processor is configured to obtain user information and common control information of each second AP in the plurality of second APs, where the user information is used to indicate a resource allocation manner corresponding to each STA when the second AP transmits data to the corresponding at least one station STA, and the common control information includes at least one common control parameter that indicates that the at least one STA corresponding to the second AP needs to receive and demodulate data. The interface is used for indicating at least one target public control parameter and the user information of each second AP to each second AP and indicating each second AP to generate a control field comprising the at least one target public control parameter and the user information of each second AP; the target common control parameter is a common control parameter which meets a preset condition in common control parameters with the same type of each second AP.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an AP, including an obtaining module and an indicating module. The system comprises an obtaining module, a resource allocation module and a processing module, wherein the obtaining module is used for obtaining user information and common control information of each second AP in a plurality of second APs, the user information is used for indicating a resource allocation mode corresponding to each STA when the second AP transmits data to at least one corresponding station STA, and the common control information comprises at least one common control parameter required for indicating the at least one STA corresponding to the second AP to receive and demodulate data. An indicating module, configured to indicate at least one target common control parameter and user information of each second AP to each second AP, and to indicate each second AP to generate a control field including the at least one target common control parameter and the user information of each second AP; the target common control parameter is a common control parameter which meets a preset condition in common control parameters of the same type of each second AP.

In a possible implementation manner, the obtaining module further includes: the wireless communication device comprises a receiving unit and a processing unit, wherein the receiving unit is used for receiving configuration information sent by each second AP in a plurality of second Access Points (APs), and the configuration information comprises configuration parameters of the second AP, configuration parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the second AP and parameters corresponding to data transmitted to the corresponding at least one STA by the second AP; and the processing unit is used for responding to the received configuration information of each second AP and generating the user information and the common control information of each second AP.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing unit is further configured to determine first user information and first common control information of the first AP based on configuration information of the first AP, where the configuration information includes configuration parameters of the first AP, configuration parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the first AP, and parameters corresponding to data transmitted by at least one STA corresponding to the first AP. And the receiving unit is further configured to receive second user information and second common control information sent by each of the plurality of second APs. Wherein the first user information and the second user information belong to the user information, and the first common control information and the second common control information belong to the common control information.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an apparatus for joint transmission, where the apparatus includes a processor and a memory, the memory is coupled to the processor, and the memory stores program instructions, and the program instructions are executed by the processor, so that the apparatus performs the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable medium for storing a computer program comprising instructions for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a seventh aspect, this application embodiment provides a computer program including instructions for executing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, where the communication system includes the first AP and multiple second APs related to the first aspect.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments of the present application will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without inventive exercise.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary physical frame format;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary physical frame format;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an application scenario of multi-AP cooperative transmission;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary data resource allocation;

fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary physical frame format;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is an interaction diagram provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary data transmission;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a physical frame format according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary physical frame format;

fig. 11 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary physical frame format;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary application scenario;

fig. 13 is a schematic flowchart of a joint transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary application scenario;

fig. 15 is a schematic flowchart of a joint transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary application scenario;

fig. 17 is a schematic flowchart of a joint transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of an AP provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 19 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 20 is a schematic structural diagram of a chip system according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the present application. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

The term "and/or" herein is merely an association describing an associated object, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B, may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone.

The terms "first" and "second," and the like, in the description and in the claims of the embodiments of the present application are used for distinguishing between different objects and not for describing a particular order of the objects. For example, the first target object and the second target object, etc. are specific sequences for distinguishing different target objects, rather than describing target objects.

In the embodiments of the present application, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" or "e.g.," is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, use of the word "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present concepts related in a concrete fashion.

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the meaning of "a plurality" means two or more unless otherwise specified. For example, a plurality of processing units refers to two or more processing units; the plurality of systems refers to two or more systems.

For those skilled in the art to better understand the technical solutions of the present application, a brief description will first be made of the background art that may be involved:

the WLAN is an asynchronous communication system that performs wireless transmission based on a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) mechanism, and has no dedicated control channel during communication, that is, control information and data information are mixed in one physical frame for transmission.

Referring to fig. 1, the physical frame format in 802.11ax is shown schematically, and the physical frame includes a physical frame header and a physical frame body, where the physical frame header is used for carrying the control field and the physical frame body is used for carrying the data field.

Specifically, the control field carries control information, and the control information is used to instruct the STA to correctly receive the data field, where correctly receiving means: the STA can recognize the position of the data field on the frequency domain resources and the spatial domain resources to receive the data field and can correctly demodulate (or parse) the data field to obtain data information.

Illustratively, in the physical frame in 802.11ax shown in fig. 1, the control field includes: a Legacy-Short-Training Field (L-STF), a Legacy-Long-Training Field (L-LTF), a Legacy-Signal (L-SIG), and Repeated Legacy-Signal (RL-SIG), a High-efficiency-signaling-a Field (HE-SIG-a), a High-efficiency Short-Training Field (HE-STF), and a High-efficiency Long-Training Field (HE-LTF).

The meaning of the above fields is briefly described as follows:

an L-STF field for indicating a start position of a physical frame, a physical frame type, and a received signal strength to a receiving side. For example, the STA may identify a start position of each physical frame based on the L-STF field, i.e., perform frame start detection, and identify a type of the physical frame, e.g., a wireless-fidelity (WiFi) frame format type. And, the receiving side can also judge the received signal strength according to the L-STF field to select an appropriate power amplification parameter for demodulation of the control field.

And an L-LTF field for indicating the frame timing estimation parameter and the frequency offset estimation parameter.

An L-SIG field and an RL-SIG field for indicating the length, i.e., the duration, of a Physical layer Data Unit (PPDU).

An HE-SIG-a field for indicating parameters required for the STA to demodulate the data field. Illustratively, the HE-SIG-a field may include Doppler (Doppler) and Guard Interval (GI), Pre-Error Correction padding factor (Pre-Forward Error Correction padding factor), low density parity check Extra Symbol Segment (LDPC Extra Symbol Segment), and the like.

An HE-STF field for indicating a new received signal strength to the STA to reselect an appropriate power amplification parameter for demodulation of the data part.

An HE-LTF field for the STA to estimate a channel and to use the channel information for demodulation of the data part.

The physical frame format shown in fig. 1 is a frame format used when a single AP transmits data to a single user (STA). When the AP schedules multiple users, namely a single AP sends data to the multiple users, the data of different users correspond to different resource allocation modes, the resources refer to frequency domain resources and space domain resources, and the data of different users are orthogonal on the frequency domain resources and the space domain resources, so that the data of different users are not interfered with each other.

Physical frame format for single AP multiple users in 802.11ax as shown in fig. 2, referring to fig. 2, a physical frame includes a physical frame header and a physical frame body, the physical frame header carries a control field, and the physical frame body carries a data field.

In a multi-user scenario, the control field in the physical frame of 802.11ax may further include a common control field and a user information field, where the common control field includes common control information for instructing the STA to receive and parse at least one common control parameter of the data field, and the user information field includes user information for instructing the AP to transmit data to the STA, and a resource allocation manner corresponding to the STA. Illustratively, in one mode, the user information includes resource allocation mode indication information and user identification information; the resource allocation mode indication information and the user identification information have a mapping relation, so that the STA corresponding to the user identification information can acquire resources related to the STA from the resources indicated by the resource allocation mode indication information; in another mode, the user information includes identification information of the STA and resource allocation manner indication information of the STA, where the resource allocation manner indication information is used to indicate resources occupied by data transmitted to the STA by the AP. Accordingly, the STA may determine the location of the data of the STA on the frequency domain, the time domain, and/or the spatial domain resources based on the identification information of the STA in the user information and the corresponding resource allocation manner indication information.

Referring to fig. 2, the common control field includes: an L-STF field, an L-LTF field, an L-SIG field, an RL-SIG field, an HE-SIG-A field, an HE-STF field, and an HE-LTF field. The meaning of each field can be referred to above, and is not described herein. In the multi-user scenario, the HE-STF field and the HE-LTF field use the same resource allocation method as the data field of the STA.

Illustratively, in an 802.11ax physical frame, the user information field is an HE-SIG-B field, and is used to carry user information and indicate a resource allocation manner corresponding to each STA when the AP transmits data to multiple STAs. Illustratively, the user information includes identification information of the STA and corresponding resource information, where the resource information is used to indicate resources occupied by data transmitted by the AP to the STA. Accordingly, the STA may determine the location of the data of the STA on the frequency domain, the time domain, and/or the spatial domain resources based on the identification information of the STA in the user information and the corresponding resource information.

In the existing protocol, for example, 802.11ax, the communication mode between the AP and the STA is to schedule a single STA for a single AP or schedule multiple STAs for a single AP, and the above mechanism can ensure normal communication between WLAN devices. However, as the WLAN network is widely applied and deployed, the interference between the AP and the AP becomes more and more serious, and the experience of the WLAN is seriously affected, so that the trend of the WLAN going from a single AP to a multi-AP cooperation is a necessary trend.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an application scenario of multi-AP cooperative transmission, and referring to fig. 3, AP1 transmits data to STA1 and STA2, and AP2 transmits data to STA3, STA4, and STA 5. Taking the example of the AP1 and the AP2 cooperating with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), the DATA transmitted by the AP1 and the AP2 are Orthogonal in the Frequency domain, as shown in fig. 4, where DATA: STA represents DATA corresponding to STA, referring to FIG. 4, DATA STA1 occupies RU5 on frequency domain resources, DATA STA2 occupies RU4 on frequency domain resources, DATA STA3 occupies RU3 on frequency domain resources, DATA STA4 occupies RU2 on frequency domain resources, and DATA STA5 occupies RU1 on frequency domain resources to achieve frequency domain orthogonality of DATA, i.e. DATA fields do not interfere with each other.

Referring to fig. 3 and 4, fig. 5 shows an exemplary physical frame format in 802.11be, where, similar to 802.11ax, the physical frame header is used to carry the control field and the physical frame body is used to carry the data field. The control field further includes a common control field including: an L-STF field, an L-LTF field, an L-STG field, an RL-SIG field, a Universal-Signal-symbol (U-SIG-SYM) 1 field, a U-SIG-SYM2 field, an extreme High Throughput signaling (EHT-SIG) field, and EHT-STF field, an EHT-LTF field, and so forth.

In one possible implementation, the EHT-SIG field includes an EHT-SIG common field and an EHT-SIG user specific field, where the EHT-SIG includes a field for indicating a resource allocation situation. In another possible implementation, the EHT-SIG field includes a user field indicating resource allocation. The meanings of the other fields can be referred to the description of 802.11ax above, and are not described herein. It should be noted that, the present application only takes the physical frame formats in 802.11ax and 802.11be as examples, and in other embodiments, the positions and the carrying contents of the common control field and the user information field may be set according to the current or future protocol specification. For example, the identification information of the STA in the user information field may be located in front of the resource information, or located behind the resource information (front/rear refers to a position in the time domain), and the like, which is not limited in the present application.

That is, in 802.11ax or 802.11be, the data fields of the APs are orthogonal in frequency domain resources or spatial domain resources, and the control fields are transmitted in a broadcast manner, so that the control fields between the APs will cause mutual interference. The specific reasons are as follows: with reference to the scenario shown in fig. 3, the data fields of the AP1 and the AP2 are orthogonal in frequency domain resources in the manner shown in fig. 4, so as to ensure that the data fields do not interfere with each other, and during transmission, a signal transmitted by the AP1 may also reach the STA3, and since part of control information in the control fields transmitted by the AP1 and the AP2 are different, the STA3 may be interfered by a signal transmitted by the AP1 when receiving the signal of the AP 2.

The present application proposes a joint transmission method to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks in the prior art. In the embodiment of the present application, the access point may be used for a terminal device (such as a mobile phone) to enter a wired (or wireless) network, and is mainly deployed in a home, a building, and a garden, where a typical coverage radius is several tens of meters to hundreds of meters, and certainly, may also be deployed outdoors. The access point is equivalent to a bridge connected with a network and a wireless network, and is mainly used for connecting various wireless network clients together and then connecting the wireless network to the Ethernet.

Specifically, the access point may be a terminal device (e.g., a handset) or a network device (e.g., a router) with a WiFi chip. The access point may be a device supporting 802.11be system. The access point may also be a device supporting multiple Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) systems of 802.11 families, such as 802.11be, 802.11ax, 802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, and 802.11 a. The access point in the application can be an HE-AP or an EHT-AP, and can also be an access point suitable for a future WiFi standard.

The terminal device may be a wireless communication chip, a wireless sensor, a wireless communication terminal, or the like, and may also be referred to as a user, a station, or a terminal. For example, the website may be a mobile phone supporting a WiFi communication function, a tablet computer supporting a WiFi communication function, a set top box supporting a WiFi communication function, a smart television supporting a WiFi communication function, a smart wearable device supporting a WiFi communication function, a vehicle-mounted communication device supporting a WiFi communication function, a computer supporting a WiFi communication function, and the like. Alternatively, the station may support the 802.11be system. The station can also support multiple WLAN systems of 802.11 families such as 802.11be, 802.11ax, 802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, 802.11a and the like.

For example, the access point and the station may be devices applied to a car networking, internet of things nodes, sensors, etc. in an internet of things (IoT), smart cameras in smart homes, smart remote controllers, smart water meter meters, sensors in smart cities, etc.

It should be noted that the AP station and the non-AP station in this application may also be a wireless communication device supporting multiple links for parallel transmission, for example, referred to as a multi-link device (multi-link device) or a multi-band device (multi-band device). The multi-link device has higher transmission efficiency and higher throughput than a device supporting only single link transmission.

The multilink device includes one or more subordinate stations STA (aftertrained STA), which is a logical station and can operate on a link.

Although the embodiments of the present application are described primarily with reference to a network that deploys IEEE 802.11, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the various aspects of the present application may be extended to other networks that employ various standards or protocols, such as BLUETOOTH, high performance wireless LAN (HIPERLAN), a wireless standard similar to the IEEE 802.11 standard, used primarily in europe, and Wide Area Networks (WAN), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), Personal Area Networks (PAN), or other now known or later developed networks. Thus, the various aspects provided herein may be applicable to any suitable wireless network, regardless of the coverage and radio access protocol used.

Referring to fig. 6, the communication system according to the embodiment of the present invention may include one or more Access Point (AP) stations and one or more non-AP stations (non-AP STAs). For convenience of description, a station of an access point type is referred to herein as an Access Point (AP), and a station of a non-access point type is referred to herein as a Station (STA).

The explanation will be given taking as an example a communication system including two APs (AP1 and AP2) and two stations (STA 1 and STA2) in fig. 6.

The technical solution provided by the present invention will be described and explained by several embodiments with reference to fig. 6.

Specifically, with reference to fig. 6, as shown in fig. 7, an interaction schematic diagram of an access point AP and a station STA in the embodiment of the present application is shown, in fig. 7:

in step 101, the AP sends a physical frame to the STA.

Specifically, the AP needs to monitor the channel status before sending the physical frame, and sends the physical frame after detecting that the channel is idle.

Illustratively, referring to fig. 8, which illustrates a data transmission diagram, AP1 schedules STA1, i.e., transmits data of STA1, AP2 schedules STA2, i.e., transmits data of STA2, and, in conjunction with the above, STA1 receives a physical frame transmitted by AP2, and STA2 also receives a physical frame transmitted by AP 1.

In the present application, the control fields of the physical frames transmitted by AP1 and AP2 are the same, and the data fields carried by the physical frame body are orthogonal in frequency domain resources and spatial domain resources.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 9, which is a schematic diagram of a physical frame format provided in the present application, referring to fig. 9, the control field includes a common control field and a user information field, where the common control field carries common control information, and the common control information includes at least one common control parameter required for instructing the STA to receive and parse the data field. The user information field carries user information, and the user information is used for indicating a resource allocation mode corresponding to data of each STA. It should be noted that the positions of the common control field and the user information field shown in this application are only illustrative examples, and this application does not limit this.

It should be noted that the embodiments in the present application can be applied to existing protocols and future protocols, and the fields included in the common control field and the user information field may be different for different frame formats specified by different protocols. In one example, for 802.11ax, the fields contained in the common control field may refer to fig. 2, and in another example, for 802.11be, the fields contained in the common control field may refer to fig. 5.

With reference to fig. 6 and 9, fig. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating physical frame formats of the AP1 and the AP2, specifically, physical frames transmitted by the AP1 and the AP2 include a control field and a data field, where the control field further includes a common control field and a user information field, and the common control field and the user information field of the AP1 and the AP2 are the same, that is, the same common control information and the same user information are used to construct a physical frame header. In the present embodiment, taking the cooperative transmission of the AP1 and the AP2 based on OFDMA as an example, referring to fig. 10, the data field of the AP1 includes data of the STA1, the data field of the AP2 includes data of the STA2, and the number field of the AP1 is orthogonal to the data field of the AP2 in frequency domain resources.

As described above, the frame header part, i.e., the control field, of the physical frame transmitted by each AP in the present application is the same, and for this purpose, each AP in the present application needs to unify the control information in the control field before generating the control field, so that each AP generates the same control field based on the same control information (including common control information and user information).

In the present application, the operation of unifying the control information may be performed by the central scheduler, may be performed by each AP through negotiation, or may be performed by a master AP designated in the APs.

In a possible implementation manner, the central scheduler may schedule the APs based on the configuration information of each AP to generate common control information and user information of each AP, the central scheduler unifies the common control information and the user information of each AP and then sends the unified common control information and the unified user information to each AP, each AP may generate a control field based on the obtained common control information and the obtained user information, and the specific details may refer to the first scenario.

In another possible implementation manner, each AP performs scheduling by itself based on its own configuration information to generate respective common control information and user information, and each AP may obtain unified common control information and user information through negotiation, where the specific details may refer to scenario two.

In yet another possible implementation manner, each AP performs scheduling by itself based on its own configuration information to generate respective common control information and user information, the master AP may acquire the common control information and the user information of each AP, unify the common control information and the user information of each AP, and then send the unified information to each AP, each AP may generate a control field based on the acquired common control information and the user information, and the specific details may refer to scenario three.

In step 102, the STA receives and parses the physical frame.

Specifically, after the STAs 1 and 2 receive the physical frames sent by the APs 1 and 2, for the STAs 1 and 2, the received physical frames are as shown in fig. 11, that is, in a collaborative scenario, the physical frames received by the STAs 1 and 2 are the same, and the frame structure of the physical frames is similar to that of a physical frame in which a single AP schedules multiple users, specifically, the STAs (including the STA1 and the STA2) may read the common control field, obtain the common control information, read the user field, and obtain the user information.

In summary, in the present application, a plurality of APs transmit physical frames with the same control field, so as to eliminate mutual interference to the control field in the multi-AP cooperative transmission process, so that the STA can accurately acquire control information and correctly demodulate a data field, thereby improving accuracy and reliability of data transmission.

Scene one

With reference to fig. 6, fig. 12 exemplarily shows an application scenario diagram, where the central scheduler is connected to the AP1 and the AP2 in a wired manner, and optionally, the central scheduler may be deployed on the AP, may also be deployed on an Access Controller (AC), and may also be deployed in other network devices to serve as an independent device. Alternatively, the application scenario may be any wired connection scenario such as an enterprise campus, a mall, a supermarket, an airport, and the like. With reference to fig. 12, as shown in fig. 13, a schematic flow chart of the joint transmission method in the embodiment of the present application is shown, in fig. 13:

in step 201, the central scheduler receives configuration information of an AP.

Specifically, the APs (including AP1 and AP2) send respective configuration information to the central scheduler. Configuration information includes, but is not limited to: traffic information, AP information, and STA information. Configuration information may be understood as input information on the basis of which devices (including the central scheduler or AP) may generate output information, which may also be referred to as scheduling information, including common control information and user information as described herein.

Illustratively, the service information is used to indicate information corresponding to data to be sent by the AP, and includes but is not limited to: data size, latency, traffic priority, etc.

Illustratively, the AP information includes capability information of the AP and channel state information of the AP, wherein the capability information of the AP includes but is not limited to: coding capability of the AP. The channel state information of the AP is used to indicate the state of the channel between the AP and its scheduled STAs.

Illustratively, the STA information includes, but is not limited to, capability information of the STA, e.g., decoding capability of the STA.

Step 202, the central scheduler generates user information and common control information of the AP based on the configuration information, where the user information is used to indicate a resource allocation manner corresponding to each STA when the AP transmits data to the corresponding at least one STA, and the common control information includes at least one common control parameter required to indicate the at least one STA corresponding to the AP to receive and demodulate data.

Specifically, the central scheduler may generate user information and common control information for each AP (including AP1 and AP2) in response to received configuration information for each AP.

It should be noted that, taking the frame structure of 802.11ax (fig. 3) as an example, the common control field includes a plurality of fields, for example: fields such as L-LTF, L-STA and HE-SIG-a, each of which further includes a plurality of subfields (not shown in the figure), each of which carries a corresponding common control parameter, that is, the common control information is a set of all common control parameters carried in the common control field.

In one possible implementation manner, two or more common control parameters having a dependency relationship exist in the common control information, for example, the common control parameter B may be obtained based on the common control parameter a, the common control parameter a may be referred to as a parent parameter of the common control parameter B, and the common control parameter B is a child parameter of the common control parameter a.

In one example, the common control information generated by the central scheduler may only include the common control parameter without a dependency relationship and the parent parameter with the dependency relationship, and after the central scheduler unifies the common control information and sends the common control information to each AP, each AP may obtain the child parameter based on the parent parameter, and since the parent parameter obtained by each AP is the same, the obtained child parameter is also necessarily the same.

In another example, the common control information generated by the central scheduler may include all common control parameters, that is, the common control information includes a common control parameter without a dependency relationship and a parent parameter and a child parameter with a dependency relationship, and the central scheduler unifies the common control information and then sends the unified common control information to the APs.

In another possible implementation manner, the common control information includes a fixed common control parameter and a variable common control parameter, where the fixed common control parameter refers to a parameter negotiated in advance by each AP, and the parameter is generated without a scheduling algorithm, for example: parameters in the L-LTF that indicate the start of a frame. The variable common control parameter refers to a parameter generated through a scheduling algorithm, and it is also understood that the variable common control parameters of the APs may be different, for example, the length of the PPDU.

In one example, the common control information generated by the central scheduler may only include the variable common control parameter, and after unifying the variable common control parameter, the common control information is sent to each AP, and each AP may obtain the common control parameter based on the fixed common control parameter and the received variable common control parameter.

In another example, the common control information generated by the central scheduler may include a fixed common control parameter and a variable common control parameter, and the common control information is unified and then sent to the APs.

In the following, common control information that may be included in the 802.11 protocol is described as an example. For example, in this embodiment, it is described by taking an example that the common control information includes a variable common control parameter, specifically, the common control information includes at least one common control parameter, and the type of the common control parameter includes but is not limited to at least one of the following: a PPDU length parameter, a channel state parameter between the AP and the STA, a coding and decoding capability parameter of the STA, a transmission capability parameter of the AP, and a channel resource parameter of the AP.

Illustratively, the PPDU length parameter is used to indicate the PPDU length of each AP.

For example, the channel state parameter between the AP and the STA is used to indicate the state of the channel between the AP and the STA, and may include, but is not limited to: doppler (Doppler) and Guard Interval (GI) and the like.

For example, the coding capability parameter of the STA is used to indicate the coding capability of the STA, and may include, but is not limited to: a Pre-term Error Correction padding factor (Pre-Forward Error Correction padding factor), a low density parity check Extra Symbol Segment (LDPC Extra Symbol Segment), and the like.

Illustratively, the channel resource parameter of the AP is used to indicate the partition manner of the channel resource, or may be understood as the usage of the channel resource, including but not limited to: resource Unit allocation (RU allocation).

In the present application, the user information of the AP1 is used to indicate the resource allocation manner of the data transmitted by the AP1 to the STA1 in the frequency domain resources and the spatial domain resources, and the user information of the AP2 is used to indicate the resource allocation manner of the data of each STA2 in the frequency domain resources and the spatial domain resources. For example, the user information includes identification information of the STA and corresponding resource information, and the resource information may include a location parameter of a frequency band, which is not limited in this application.

It should be noted that the common control parameter and the user information are generated based on a radio resource scheduling algorithm, and a specific generation manner is common knowledge of those skilled in the art, which is not described in detail herein.

It should be further noted that the common control information and the user information described in the present application are only illustrative examples, and the fields included in the physical frame headers in the existing protocol and the future protocol and the information carried by the fields may all adopt the embodiments of the present application, which is not limited in this application.

Step 203, the central scheduler sends at least one target common control parameter and user information of each AP to the APs for instructing each AP to generate a control field including the at least one target common control parameter and the user information of each AP; the target common control parameter is a common control parameter which meets a preset condition in common control parameters with the same type of each AP.

Specifically, after acquiring the common control information and the user information of each AP (including AP1 and AP2), the central scheduler may unify the common control information of each AP, or may understand that the common control information of each AP is aligned to obtain at least one target common control parameter.

Specifically, the way for the central scheduler to unify the common control information of the APs is as follows: the central scheduler selects a target common control parameter meeting a preset condition from each common control parameter with the same type based on the type of at least one common control parameter of each AP, that is, the target common control parameter is a common control parameter meeting the preset condition from the common control parameters with the same type of each AP.

Alternatively, the preset condition is a maximum value or a minimum value of each of the common control parameters having the same type. That is, the central scheduler selects a minimum value or a maximum value from the common control parameters having the same type for each AP as a target common control parameter corresponding to the common control parameter having the same type.

For example, the preset condition may include at least one of: the target common control parameter is the maximum value in the length parameter of the PPDU corresponding to each AP, the target common control parameter is the minimum value in the channel state parameter corresponding to each AP, the target common control parameter is the minimum value in the coding and decoding capability parameter of at least one STA corresponding to each AP, and the target common control parameter is the minimum value in the channel resource parameter corresponding to each AP.

It should be noted that the preset condition is set based on a type corresponding to a common control parameter that may be included in an existing protocol, in other embodiments, other types of common control parameters may also be included, and the design purpose of the corresponding preset condition is to unify the common control parameters of the APs.

It should be further noted that, the preset conditions of the present application are all for variable common control parameters (refer to the above related concepts), and if the common control information generated by the central scheduler includes fixed common control parameters, since the fixed common control parameters of the APs are consistent, the present application does not consider the processing of such parameters, and can send the parameters to the APs together with the unified common control parameters in step 204.

Illustratively, the following examples of the common control parameter generated in step 202 are used to illustrate a uniform manner of the different parameters:

1) PPDU length. And under the condition that the PPDU lengths of the APs are different, selecting the maximum value of the PPDU length as a target PPDU length parameter. Note that, for an AP whose PPDU length is smaller than the target PPDU length, when generating a physical frame according to the PPDU length, the difference between the PPDU length and the target PPDU length may be complemented by invalid data, and the invalid data may be 0000, for example.

2) Channel state parameters between the AP and the STA. Specifically, the minimum value of the channel state parameters of each AP is the target channel state parameter, and it can also be understood that the channel state parameter corresponding to the minimum value of the channel state parameters is the worst value of each AP. Illustratively, taking Doppler as an example, if Doppler values of AP1 and AP2 are 1 and 0, wherein a channel state corresponding to Doppler value of 1 is worse than a channel state corresponding to Doppler value of 0, and thus, the target Doppler parameter is 1.

3) Coding and decoding capability parameters of the STA corresponding to the AP. Specifically, the minimum value of the coding and decoding capability parameters of the STA corresponding to each AP is used as the target coding and decoding capability parameter, and it can be understood that the coding and decoding capability corresponding to the minimum value is the worst value among the APs. Illustratively, if the pre-FEC padding factors of STA1 and STA2 are 1 and 2, respectively, where the coding capability corresponding to the pre-FEC padding factor value of 2 is worse than the coding capability corresponding to the pre-FEC padding factor value of 1, the target pre-FEC padding factor is 2.

4) Channel resource parameters of the AP. Specifically, the maximum value of the channel resource parameters corresponding to each AP is a target channel resource parameter. For example, if both AP1 and AP2 allocate two RUs of 52 subcarriers, the RU allocation value of AP1 is 5, and the corresponding RU allocation manner is: 26/26/52/26/26/26/52, the value of RU allocation of AP2 is 9, and the corresponding RU division mode is as follows: 52/26/26/26/52/26/26 sub-carriers, the target RU allocation parameter is 15, and the corresponding RU division mode is: 52/52/26/52/52/26 subcarriers.

Specifically, after acquiring the unified at least one target common control parameter, the central scheduler sends the at least one target common control parameter and the user information of each AP to each AP (including AP1 and AP 2).

In step 204, the AP generates a control field in response to the received at least one target common control parameter and the user information.

Specifically, after receiving at least one target common control parameter and user information of each AP sent by the central scheduler, the AP (including AP1 and AP2) may generate a control field, and when sending a physical frame to the STA, a header of the physical frame carries the generated control field.

For example, if the at least one target common control parameter received by the AP is all parameters required by the STA to demodulate the data field, the AP may generate the control field based on the at least one target common control parameter and the user information.

For example, if the at least one target common control parameter received by the AP includes a variable common control parameter (the related concepts may refer to the above), the AP may generate the control field based on the configured fixed common control parameter, the received at least one target common control parameter, and the user information.

For example, if the at least one target common control parameter received by the AP includes at least one common control parameter without a dependency relationship and a parent parameter with a dependency relationship (the related concepts may refer to the above), the AP may obtain a child parameter based on the parent parameter, and generate a control field based on the at least one common control parameter without a dependency relationship, the parent parameter, the child parameter, and the user information, where a format of the generated control field may refer to fig. 9.

In summary, in this embodiment, the central scheduler performs unified scheduling on the control information of each AP, and transmits the control information to each AP in a wired manner, so that the interaction flow between the APs of the device can be effectively shortened, and the overall transmission efficiency is improved.

Scene two

With reference to fig. 6, fig. 14 exemplarily shows an application scenario diagram, where for example, in a scenario where a central scheduler is not deployed, such as a small-enterprise WLAN network or a home WLAN network, each AP may interact with its own information through air interface resources to obtain unified control information. Referring to fig. 14, as shown in fig. 15, a schematic flow chart of a joint transmission method in the embodiment of the present application is shown, where in fig. 15:

in step 301, the AP1 and the AP2 generate common control information and user information based on respective configuration information, where the user information is used to indicate a resource allocation manner corresponding to each STA when the AP transmits data to a corresponding at least one STA, and the common control information includes at least one common control parameter required to indicate the at least one STA corresponding to the AP to receive and demodulate data.

Specifically, the APs (including the AP1 and the AP2) may generate the scheduling information, i.e., including the common control information and the user information, based on the respective configuration information.

For details, reference may be made to step 201 and step 202, which are not described herein.

The AP1 and the AP2 interact with their respective common control information and user information, step 302.

Specifically, the APs (including the AP1 and the AP2) transmit respective common control information and user information to other APs, for example, the AP1 transmits the common control information and user information of the AP1 to the AP2, and the AP2 transmits the common control information and user information of the AP2 to the AP 1.

Optionally, a response message may also be sent during the AP interaction process to determine whether the AP correctly receives the information.

303, the AP1 and the AP2 acquire at least one target common control parameter and user information of each AP; the target common control parameter is a common control parameter which meets a preset condition in common control parameters with the same type of each AP.

Specifically, taking the AP1 as an example, after acquiring the own common control information and user information and the common control information and user information of the AP2, the AP1 may unify the acquired common control information to acquire at least one target common control parameter, and the specific manner may refer to step 203, which is not described herein again. The actions of AP2 are the same as those of AP1, and are not described in detail here.

It should be noted that, each AP has pre-stored preset conditions, and therefore, when the common control information acquired by each AP is consistent with the user information, at least one target common control parameter selected based on the same preset conditions is also consistent.

Optionally, to further ensure consistency of the at least one target common control parameter determined by each AP, each AP may send an indication message to send a unified result, that is, the at least one target common control parameter, to other APs, and after receiving the response message, determine that the unified result is consistent with the unified result of other APs.

At step 304, the AP1 and the AP2 generate a control field based on the at least one target common control parameter and the user information.

For details, reference may be made to step 204, which is not described herein.

Scene three

With reference to fig. 6, fig. 16 is a schematic diagram illustrating an application scenario, where, for example, in a scenario where a central scheduler is not deployed, such as a small-enterprise WLAN network or a home WLAN network, a master AP may be pre-specified (or configured) to obtain unified control information through the master AP. For example, in the present embodiment, the AP1 is taken as a master AP, and the AP2 is taken as a slave AP for illustration, and in other embodiments, the master AP may be any AP in the system. It should be noted that the master AP may be configured dynamically or statically, where the static configuration is configured by an operator in advance, and the dynamic configuration refers to determining the master AP by multiple APs through contention.

With reference to fig. 16, as shown in fig. 17, a schematic flow chart of the joint transmission method in the embodiment of the present application is shown, in fig. 17:

in step 401, the AP1 indicates corresponding air interface resources to the AP 2.

For example, the network side may allocate available air interface resources to the system to which the AP1 belongs, and then the AP1 may allocate corresponding air interface resources to the AP1 and the AP2 based on the available air interface resources, so that each AP transmits data on the air interface resources allocated to the AP.

In step 402, the AP1 and the AP2 generate common control information and user information based on their respective configuration information and air interface resources, where the user information is used to indicate a resource allocation manner corresponding to each STA when the AP transmits data to the corresponding at least one STA, and the common control information includes at least one common control parameter that indicates that the at least one STA corresponding to the AP needs to receive and demodulate data.

Specifically, the APs (including the AP1 and the AP2) may generate the scheduling information based on their respective configuration information and air interface resources, that is, the scheduling information includes common control information and user information.

For example, taking an OFDMA cooperative transmission scenario as an example, the bandwidth configured by the network side to the system to which the AP1 belongs is 40MHz, in step 401, the AP1 may allocate 20MHz of the system to the AP2, and the AP1 uses the remaining 20 MHz. The AP1 and the AP2 schedule, i.e., allocate frequency domain resources, for the belonging users within 20M, respectively, when generating the scheduling information.

The details are similar to those of step 201 and step 202, and are not described herein.

In step 403, the AP2 transmits common control information and user information to the AP 1.

Specifically, in the present embodiment, the slave AP (AP2) transmits common control information and user information to the master AP (AP 1).

Optionally, a response message may also be sent during the AP interaction process to determine whether the AP correctly receives the information.

Step 404, the AP1 sends at least one target common control parameter and user information of each AP to the AP 2; the target common control parameter is a common control parameter which meets a preset condition in common control parameters with the same type of each AP.

Specifically, after acquiring the own common control information and the user information, and the common control information and the user information of the AP2, the AP1 may unify the acquired common control information to acquire at least one target common control parameter, and send the at least one target common control parameter and the user information of the AP1 and the AP2 to the AP2, which may refer to step 203 and is not described herein again.

At step 405, the AP1 and the AP2 generate a control field based on at least one target common control parameter and user information.

For details, reference may be made to step 204, which is not described herein.

The above-mentioned scheme provided by the embodiment of the present application is introduced mainly from the perspective of interaction between network elements. It is understood that the AP includes corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the respective functions in order to implement the above-described functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, functional modules of the AP may be divided according to the above method example, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the module is schematic, and is only one logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation.

In the case of dividing each functional module by corresponding functions, fig. 18 shows a possible structural schematic diagram of the AP100 according to the foregoing embodiment, as shown in fig. 18, the AP100 may include: an acquisition module 101 and an indication module 102.

In an example, the AP100 may be configured to implement the method shown in fig. 13 in the foregoing embodiment, specifically, the obtaining module 101, specifically, the receiving unit 1011 in the obtaining module 101, may be configured to perform the step of "receiving the configuration information of the AP", for example, the receiving unit 1011 may be configured to support the AP to perform step 201 in the foregoing method embodiment. The obtaining module 101, specifically the processing unit 1012 in the obtaining module 101, may be configured to execute "generating user information and common control information of an AP based on configuration information", where the user information is used to indicate a resource allocation manner corresponding to each STA when the AP transmits data to a corresponding at least one STA, and the common control information includes at least one common control parameter that is required to indicate the at least one STA corresponding to the AP to receive and demodulate data. For example, the processing unit 1012 may be configured to enable the AP to perform step 202 in the above-described method embodiment. The indicating module 102 is configured to perform a step of "sending at least one target common control parameter and user information of each AP to an AP", so as to instruct each AP to generate a control field including the at least one target common control parameter and the user information of each AP, where the target common control parameter is a common control parameter that meets a preset condition among common control parameters of the same type of each AP. For example, the indication module 102 may be configured to support the AP to perform step 203 in the above method embodiment.

In another example, the AP100 may be configured to implement the method shown in fig. 15 in the foregoing embodiment, specifically, the obtaining module 101, specifically, the processing unit 1012 in the obtaining module 101, may be configured to perform "determining the first user information and the first common control information of the first AP based on the configuration information of the first AP," where the configuration information includes configuration parameters of the first AP, configuration parameters of at least one STA corresponding to the first AP, and parameters corresponding to data transmitted by at least one STA corresponding to the first AP, and for example, the processing unit 1012 may be configured to support the AP to perform step 301 and step 402 in the foregoing method embodiment. The obtaining module 101, specifically the receiving unit 1011 in the obtaining module 101, may be configured to perform a step of "receiving second user information and second common control information sent by each of a plurality of second APs in the second access point AP", where the first user information and the second user information belong to user information, and the first common control information and the second common control information belong to common control information, for example, the receiving unit 1011 may be configured to support the APs to perform the steps 302 and 403 in the foregoing method embodiments. An indicating module 102, configured to perform "indicating at least one target common control parameter and user information of each second AP to each second AP, and configured to instruct each second AP to generate a control field including the at least one target common control parameter and the user information of each second AP; the target common control parameter is a common control parameter which meets a preset condition in common control parameters with the same type of each second AP. "for example, the indication module 102 may be configured to support the AP to perform the steps 303 and 404 in the above method embodiments.

An apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application is described below. As shown in fig. 19:

fig. 19 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 19, the communication apparatus 200 may include: a processor 201, a transceiver 205, and optionally a memory 202.

The transceiver 205 may be referred to as a transceiving unit, a transceiver, or a transceiving circuit, etc. for implementing transceiving functions. The transceiver 205 may include a receiver and a transmitter, and the receiver may be referred to as a receiver or a receiving circuit, etc. for implementing a receiving function; the transmitter may be referred to as a transmitter or a transmission circuit, etc. for implementing the transmission function.

The memory 202 may have stored therein computer programs or software codes or instructions 204, which computer programs or software codes or instructions 204 may also be referred to as firmware. The processor 201 may control the MAC layer and the PHY layer by running a computer program or software code or instructions 203 therein, or by calling a computer program or software code or instructions 204 stored in the memory 202, to implement the OM negotiation method provided by the embodiments described below in the present application. The processor 201 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and the memory 202 may be, for example, a read-only memory (ROM) or a Random Access Memory (RAM).

The processor 201 and transceiver 205 described herein may be implemented on an Integrated Circuit (IC), an analog IC, a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), a mixed signal IC, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), an electronic device, or the like.

The communication device 200 may further include an antenna 206, and the modules included in the communication device 200 are only for illustration and are not limited in this application.

As described above, the communication apparatus in the above description of the embodiment may be an access point or a station, but the scope of the communication apparatus described in the present application is not limited thereto, and the structure of the communication apparatus may not be limited by fig. 19. The communication means may be a stand-alone device or may be part of a larger device. For example, the communication device may be implemented in the form of:

(1) a stand-alone integrated circuit IC, or chip, or system-on-chip or subsystem; (2) a set of one or more ICs, which optionally may also include storage components for storing data, instructions; (3) a module that may be embedded within other devices; (4) others, and so forth.

For the case that the implementation form of the communication device is a chip or a chip system, the schematic structural diagram of the chip shown in fig. 20 can be referred to. The chip shown in fig. 20 comprises a processor 301 and an interface 302. The number of the processors 301 may be one or more, and the number of the interfaces 302 may be more. Optionally, the chip or system of chips may include a memory 303.

All relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described herein again.

Based on the same technical concept, embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program, where the computer program includes at least one code, and the at least one code is executable by a terminal to control an AP to implement the foregoing method embodiments.

Based on the same technical concept, the embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program, which is used to implement the above method embodiments when the computer program is executed by the AP.

The program may be stored in whole or in part on a storage medium packaged with the processor, or in part or in whole on a memory not packaged with the processor.

Based on the same technical concept, the embodiment of the present application further provides a processor, and the processor is configured to implement the above method embodiment. The processor may be a chip.

Based on the same technical concept, the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, where the communication system includes the AP and the STA in the above method embodiments.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the disclosure of the embodiments of the application may be embodied in hardware or in software instructions executed by a processor. The software instructions may be comprised of corresponding software modules that may be stored in Random Access Memory (RAM), flash Memory, Read Only Memory (ROM), Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, a compact disc Read Only Memory (CD-ROM), or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium may also be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. Additionally, the ASIC may reside in a network device. Of course, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a network device.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that, in one or more of the examples described above, the functions described in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

While the present embodiments have been described with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise embodiments described above, which are meant to be illustrative and not restrictive, and that various changes may be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.