阅读说明：本技术 无线通信传输方法及相关装置 (Wireless communication transmission method and related device ) 是由 淦明 周逸凡 梁丹丹 于健 李云波 郭宇宸 狐梦实 于 2020-04-30 设计创作，主要内容包括：本申请涉及无线通信传输方法及相关装置。本申请提供了一种无线局域网中发送触发帧的方法,其中,AP生成物理层协议数据单元PPDU,所述PPDU包含一个或者多个触发帧,每个触发帧对应一个频域分段；每个触发帧至少用于调度停靠在对应的频域分段上的一个或多个站点；发送该PPDU中的一个或者多个触发帧,其中每个触发帧承载在对应的频域分段上。(The application relates to a wireless communication transmission method and a related device. The application provides a method for sending a trigger frame in a wireless local area network, wherein an AP generates a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), the PPDU comprises one or more trigger frames, and each trigger frame corresponds to a frequency domain segment; each trigger frame is at least for scheduling one or more stations that are parked on a corresponding frequency domain segment; and transmitting one or more trigger frames in the PPDU, wherein each trigger frame is carried on a corresponding frequency domain segment.)

1.A method for transmitting a trigger frame in a wireless local area network, wherein,

an AP generates a physical layer protocol data unit PPDU (PPDU), wherein the PPDU comprises one or more trigger frames, and each trigger frame corresponds to one frequency domain segment; each trigger frame is at least for scheduling one or more stations that are parked on a corresponding frequency domain segment;

and transmitting one or more trigger frames in the PPDU, wherein each trigger frame is carried on a corresponding frequency domain segment.

2. The method of claim 1,

each trigger frame is used only to schedule one or more stations that are parked on the corresponding frequency domain segment.

3. The method of claim 1,

the content in different trigger frames is different, but the length of different trigger frames is the same.

4. A method for transmitting an uplink PPDU, characterized in that,

transmitting the uplink common physical layer preamble only on each 20MHz channel in the frequency domain section where the common physical layer preamble of the uplink PPDU of the station indicated in the trigger frame is located, or only on each 20MHz channel in one or more 80MHz channels where the allocated resource block is located;

and transmitting the data part of the uplink PPDU on the resource block allocated to the station.

5. A method of transmitting an acknowledgement frame,

the AP receives an uplink multi-user PPDU;

and replying the acknowledgement information of the uplink multi-user PPDU based on the frequency domain segmentation.

6. The method of claim 5,

and respectively replying different acknowledgement frames in different frequency domain segments.

7. The method of claim 5,

an acknowledgement frame may be sent within the frequency domain segment for only the uplink PPDUs of the parked stations within the frequency domain segment.

8. The method of claim 6,

the acknowledgement frame content is different but the length is the same on different frequency domain segments.

9. A method for receiving a trigger frame in a wireless local area network, wherein,

the station receives the trigger frame only on the intercepted frequency domain segment of 20 MHz;

and determining whether the station is scheduled according to the trigger frame.

10. The method of claim 9,

sending the uplink common physical layer preamble only on each 20MHz channel in the frequency domain section where the common physical layer preamble of the uplink PPDU of the station indicated in the trigger frame is located, or only on each 20MHz channel in one or more 80MHz channels where the resource block allocated to the station is located;

and transmitting the data part of the uplink PPDU on the resource block allocated to the station.

11. The method of claim 9,

and after the uplink PPDU is sent, receiving the acknowledgement information of the uplink PPDU only on the frequency domain segment where the 20MHz monitored by the station is located.

12. A communications apparatus, comprising one or more modules configured to perform the method of any one of claims 1-8.

13. A communications apparatus, comprising one or more modules configured to perform the method of any one of claims 9-11.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a wireless communication method and a related apparatus.

Background

WLANs (Wireless Local Area networks) start from 802.11a/g, go through 802.11n, 802.11ac, to 802.11ax and 802.11be now under discussion, which allow the following bandwidth and number of space-time streams to be transmitted, respectively:

TABLE 1 IEEE versions allow maximum bandwidth and maximum transmission rate for transmission

The 802.11n standard is also called HT (High Throughput), the 802.11ac standard is called VHT (Very High Throughput), the 802.11ax (Wi-Fi6) is called HE (High efficiency), the 802.11be (Wi-Fi7) is called EHT (extreme High Throughput), and for the standard before HT, such as 802.11a/b/g, it is called Non-HT (Non-High Throughput). Of these, 802.11b uses a non-OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) mode, and is therefore not listed in table 1.

Further flexibility or efficiency in improving the utilization of resources has been a concern in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to improve the flexibility or efficiency of resource utilization, an aspect of the present application provides a method for sending a trigger frame in a wireless local area network, where an AP generates a physical layer protocol data unit PPDU, the PPDU includes one or more trigger frames, and each trigger frame corresponds to a frequency domain segment; each trigger frame is at least for scheduling one or more stations that are parked on a corresponding frequency domain segment; and transmitting one or more trigger frames in the PPDU, wherein each trigger frame is carried on a corresponding frequency domain segment. Preferably, each trigger frame is used only to schedule one or more stations that are parked on the corresponding frequency domain segment. Specifically, the content in different trigger frames may be different, but the length of different trigger frames is the same.

In a corresponding further aspect, a station may receive a trigger frame only on a frequency domain segment where 20MHz is listened to; and determining whether the station is scheduled according to the trigger frame. If the uplink common physical layer preamble is scheduled, the uplink common physical layer preamble can be sent only on each 20MHz channel in the frequency domain section where the bandwidth of the uplink PPDU of the station indicated in the trigger frame is located, or only on each 20MHz channel in the frequency domain section where the allocated resource block is located; of course, the data portion of the uplink PPDU is correspondingly transmitted on the resource blocks allocated to the stations.

In another aspect, the AP may reply to the acknowledgement information of the uplink multi-user PPDU based on frequency domain segmentation, where the uplink multi-user PPDU is sent by a station. For example, different acknowledgement frames are respectively replied at different frequency domain segments. Preferably, only acknowledgement frames for uplink PPDUs of stations parked within the frequency domain segment may be transmitted within the frequency domain segment. In particular, the acknowledgment frame content may be different on different frequency domain segments, but the length is the same.

On the other hand, after the station sends the uplink PPDU, the station may receive the acknowledgement information of the uplink PPDU only on the frequency domain segment where the 20MHz is listened by the station.

In accordance with other aspects, a communication device is provided that can perform the foregoing method as an access point, such as an access point or chip in a wireless local area network.

In accordance with other aspects, a communication apparatus is provided that can perform the foregoing method as a station, such as a non-AP station or chip in a wireless local area network.

The foregoing aspects are achieved by adopting a frequency domain segmentation method, so that the flexibility or efficiency of resource utilization can be improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1A is a schematic diagram of a network structure provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 1B is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 1C is a schematic structural diagram of a chip provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example of channel allocation in an 802.11 system;

FIG. 3 is a simplified diagram of frequency domain segmentation and docking stations in one embodiment;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a flow and a simple frame structure of uplink transmission in an embodiment (an AP sends a trigger frame, a station sends an uplink multi-user PPDU based on the trigger frame, and the AP sends an acknowledgement frame of the uplink multi-user PPDU);

FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram of the structure of a trigger frame in one embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a simplified diagram of the structure of a user information field in a trigger frame, in one embodiment;

FIGS. 7 a-7 b are simplified diagrams of the location of resource blocks in one embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a simplified diagram of a frame structure of an uplink multi-user PPDU in one embodiment;

fig. 9 is a simplified diagram of 6 puncturing patterns at 80MHz bandwidth in one embodiment;

fig. 10 is a simplified diagram of the structure of an acknowledgment frame in one embodiment.

Detailed Description

Specific embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1A is a diagram illustrating a network structure to which the data transmission method described in the present application is applicable. Fig. 1A is a schematic diagram of a network structure provided in this embodiment, where the network structure may include one or more Access Point (AP) class stations and one or more non-AP STA (non-AP STA) class stations. 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 APs are, for example, AP1 and AP2 in fig. 1A, and the STAs are, for example, STA1, STA2 and STA3 in fig. 1A.

The access point may be an access point where a terminal device (e.g., a mobile phone) enters a wired (or wireless) network, and is mainly deployed in a home, a building, and a garden, and typically has a coverage radius of several tens of meters to hundreds of meters, or may 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 mobile phone) or a network device (e.g., a router) with a wireless-fidelity (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 present application may be a high-efficiency (HE) AP or an Extra High Throughput (EHT) AP, and may also be an access point suitable for a WiFi standard of a future generation.

An access point may include a processor for controlling and managing the actions of the access point and a transceiver for receiving or transmitting information.

The station can be a wireless communication chip, a wireless sensor or a wireless communication terminal, and can also be called a user. 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. A station may also support 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.

A station may include a processor for controlling and managing the actions of an access point and a transceiver for receiving or transmitting information.

The access point in the present application may be a High Efficiency (HE) STA or an Extra High Throughput (EHT) STA, and may also be an STA suitable for a WiFi standard of a future generation.

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.

The access point and the station referred to in the embodiments of the present application may also be collectively referred to as a communication device, and may include a hardware structure and a software module, and implement the functions in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure and a software module. Some of the above functions may be implemented by a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure and a software module.

Fig. 1B is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 1B, the communication device 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 data transmission methods provided by the various embodiments described below in the present application. The processor 201 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and the memory 302 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 200 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. 1B. 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) receivers, smart terminals, wireless devices, handsets, mobile units, in-vehicle devices, cloud devices, artificial intelligence devices, and the like; (5) others, and so forth.

For the case that the implementation form of the communication device is a chip or a chip system, reference may be made to the schematic structural diagram of the chip shown in fig. 1C. The chip shown in fig. 1C 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.

The embodiments of the present application do not limit the scope and applicability of the claims. Those skilled in the art may adapt the function and arrangement of elements involved in the present application or omit, substitute, or add various procedures or components as appropriate without departing from the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Example one

For channel allocation in a wireless local area network, an example of channel allocation of 802.11 is shown in fig. 2, which is a channel distribution situation when the bandwidth is 160 MHz.

The channels of the whole wireless lan are divided into a Primary 20MHz channel (or simply Primary 20MHz, simply P20), a Secondary 20MHz channel (Secondary 20MHz, simply S20), a Secondary 40MHz channel (simply S40), and a Secondary 80MHz channel (simply S80). In addition, a main 40MHz channel (abbreviated as P40) and a main 80MHz channel (abbreviated as P80) exist correspondingly. As the bandwidth increases, the data rate of data transmission also increases (refer to table 1). Thus, in the next generation of standards, larger bandwidths (e.g., 240MHz, 320MHz) greater than 160MHz are contemplated. The scenario for which the embodiments of the present application are directed is a larger bandwidth scenario of IEEE 802.11be or other standards.

Before 802.11ax, only non-punctured mode PPDU (physical layer Protocol Data Unit) transmission was supported. In other words, the condition that 20MHz transmission can be made is that P20 is idle; the conditions under which 40Mhz transmission can be performed are P20 and S20 idle; the conditions under which 80MHz transmission can be made are P20, S20, and S40 idle; the conditions under which 160Mhz transmission can be made are P20, S20, S40, and S80 idle. The condition for transmission with larger bandwidth is to detect channels in the order of P20, S20, S40, S80, all channels within the bandwidth being free for use. If some channels have interference or radar signals, etc., a larger bandwidth cannot be used.

In 802.11ax, a preamble puncturing transmission method is introduced, which allows PPDUs to be still transmitted under the condition that a part of 20MHz channels do not transmit preambles (and subsequent data), and increases the utilization rate of the channels under the condition that the part of channels have interference. 802.11ax defines the preamble non-punctured and punctured bandwidth pattern for the following PPDUs:

TABLE 1a Bandwidth indication field

The IEEE 802.11ax standard revision allows an Access Point (Access Point, AP) and a non-Access Point Station (non-AP Station, non-AP STA, STA for short) to temporarily switch the STA to another 20MHz or 80MHz channel for monitoring and obtaining the Service of the AP through a Target Wakeup Time (TWT) negotiation mechanism, which is called sub-channel Selective Transmission (SST). IEEE 802.11be may also introduce an SST mechanism that allows one or more STAs to camp (park) on different channels. Furthermore, in downlink multi-user transmission, 802.11be intends to introduce a multi-slice preamble transmission mechanism, and in downlink multi-user transmission, such as OFDMA, the contents of EHT physical layer preamble (including U-sig (non-received signaling) field and EHT (explicit high throughput) field) of every 80MHz transmission are different. When large bandwidth (e.g., 160Mhz,240Mhz, and 320Mhz) transmission is employed, different physical layer preambles U-SIG and EHT-SIG are used per 80Mhz unit, thereby dispersing the total physical layer signaling field for transmission over every 80Mhz, thereby saving preamble transmission time, which can also be understood as reducing overhead. In addition, the STA residing in a certain 80MHz can acquire resource allocation information, such as resource allocation for OFDMA transmission, by only receiving the U-SIG and EHT-SIG corresponding to the 80 MHz.

It is noted that the physical layer preamble of each EHT PPDU further includes a legacy preamble (L-STF, legacy short training field), a legacy long training field (L-LTF), and a legacy signaling field (L-SIG) and a repeated signaling field RL-SIG field), all preceding the EHT preamble. Both the legacy preamble field and the repeated signaling field are duplicated transmissions every 20MHz within the PPDU bandwidth (regardless of the twiddle factor applied at every 20 MHz).

The problems of whether to perform flexible frequency multi-segment transmission for uplink multi-user transmission, such as uplink OFDMA, how to support transmission for small bandwidth stations (such as 80MHz stations) in a large bandwidth PPDU (such as 320MHz), and the like are not considered.

Example one

In the first embodiment of the present application, a channel bandwidth for transmitting an uplink PPDU in a wireless local area network is also divided into a plurality of frequency domain slices, and each frequency domain slice is parked at a plurality of stations. Specifically, the docking refers to a correspondence relationship determined or known by the system, and may be semi-static, that is, the correspondence relationship between the frequency domain slice and one or more parked stations is configured and remains unchanged for a certain time; or dynamic, the AP dynamically adjusts according to certain rules. In a more specific example, a frequency domain slice may be composed of one or more frequency domain slice base units, where the frequency domain slice may be specified by a protocol, or AP-specified. For example, the frequency domain is divided into 80MHz segments, but other sizes are also possible, such as 160MHz,240MHz, or 320 MHz. Subsequent embodiments do not relate to a specific process of configuring a docking relationship, and thus are not described in detail. In this embodiment, a frequency domain segment may also be referred to as a frequency domain segment (frequency segment) or the like. It should be understood that the station docking (docking) described herein is in a certain frequency domain slice, and may also be referred to as a station residing in a certain frequency domain slice, or being located in or belonging to a certain frequency domain slice. The PPDU sent by a station or an AP is composed of sub PPDUs in one or more frequency band segments, where the size of each frequency band segment may be the same or different.

During the association phase or some phase after association, the station may report to the AP the information of the channel it listens to (e.g., which 20MHz), the operating bandwidth of the station (or the current operating bandwidth range, which is the bandwidth the station can currently transmit and receive information), and the supported bandwidth of the station. The frequency domain segment of the station stop is: including the frequency domain segment in which the station listens to the 20MHz channel. The channel sensed by the station may be any one or more channels in the operating bandwidth, or may be one or more channels selected from a set of sensed channels designated by the AP. The supported bandwidth of a station generally represents the receiving capability of the station, and is the maximum bandwidth of communication that the station can support. The operating bandwidth of the station is generally less than or equal to the supported bandwidth of the station, and the frequency domain segment in which the station listening channel is located is generally less than or equal to the operating bandwidth of the station.

Referring to fig. 3, a simplified diagram of a frequency domain segment and docked stations is shown. Taking frequency domain segmentation (or frequency domain segmentation granularity/minimum frequency domain segmentation) as 80MHz as an example, the sequence number of each 20MHz is counted from bottom to top (the sequence number may increase from low frequency to high frequency, or from high frequency to low frequency, and hereinafter, the sequence number may increase from low frequency to high frequency, where 20MHz may be punctured and is not described any more). In the example of fig. 3, station 1 to station 5 listen to the first 20MHz, and the operating bandwidth is the primary 80 MHz; the site 6-site 10 listen to the first 20MHz, and the working bandwidth is the main 160 MHz; and the sites 11 to 20 listen to the fifth 20MHz, and the working bandwidth is 80MHz for the first time. The frequency domain segment where a station camps is the frequency domain segment where the 20MHz channel is listened to by the station, and the frequency domain segment size or range may be determined by the frequency domain segment selected when the AP transmits the PPDU. For example, the bandwidth of a PPDU sent by a sending end AP is 320MHz, and there are 4 frequency domain segments, which are mainly 80MHz, 80MHz for the first time, 80MHz for the second time, and 80MHz for the third time, at this time, the frequency domain segments where stations 1 to 5 stop are mainly 80MHz, the frequency domain segments where stations 6 to 10 stop are mainly 80MHz, and the frequency domain segments where stations 11 to 20 stop are 80MHz for the first time. For another example, the bandwidth of the PPDU sent by the sending end is 320MHz, there are 3 frequency domain segments, which are mainly 160MHz, the second 80MHz and the third 80MHz, at this time, the frequency domain segments where the station 1 to the station 5 stop are mainly 160MHz, the frequency domain segments where the station 6 to the station 10 stop are mainly 160MHz, and the frequency domain segments where the station 11 to the station 20 stop are mainly 160 MHz. It can be seen that a frequency domain segment is a division method in the frequency domain of the PPDU bandwidth, and one or more adjacent frequency domain segments constitute the complete PPDU bandwidth, although there may be 20MHz punctured in the frequency domain segment or the bandwidth.

The frequency domain segments determined by the AP may include multiple frequency domain segments of different sizes or multiple frequency domain segments of the same size, or not be limited. Of course, in a simplified approach, the standard may specify the granularity of the frequency domain segments, or the smallest frequency domain segment, by default the frequency domain segment of the bandwidth of the PPDU: the bandwidth of the PPDU is divided into respective smallest frequency domain segments, where the smallest frequency domain segment size is, for example, 80 MHz. It can be understood that, when determining the frequency domain segment, the AP may consider information of the listening channel of each associated station, and may also consider information of the operating bandwidth of the station, so as to make the determined frequency domain segment meet the service requirement as much as possible. Correspondingly, the station can flexibly adjust the monitored channel and the working bandwidth according to the service requirement, so as to save energy or improve the transmission efficiency.

In one example, a method of obtaining/updating a channel sensed by a station is provided:

specifically, the AP may send a recommended listening channel set through a management frame or other frames, and the station feeds back the selected listening channel according to the received listening channel set. The listening channel set carries a management frame, such as a beacon frame, sent by the AP, and since the AP needs to send information on at least a listening channel selected by a station when sending a PPDU, the listening channel cannot be punctured. Of course, negotiation may also be used, for example: a site sends a request frame, wherein the request frame carries a selected intercepted channel; the AP replies with a response frame carrying status including reject, accept, etc. If the channel is rejected, one or more recommended listening channels can also be carried. In another example, a method of notifying/updating an operating bandwidth of a station is provided that includes transmitting an operating bandwidth indication of the station. Specifically, the possible operating bandwidths of the station include one or more of 20MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz,240MHz, and 320MHz, and the operating bandwidth of the station may be indicated by using a bitmap or an index, which is specifically as follows:

the first method is as follows: the bitmap size is fixed, and each bit in the bitmap corresponds to 20 MHz. For example, the maximum bandwidth includes 20MHz, the maximum bandwidth of the BSS is 320MHz, and the bitmap size is 16 bits. Each bit in the bitmap indicates whether the 20MHz is within the operating bandwidth range, such as a first value (e.g., 1) indicating that the corresponding 20MHz is within the operating bandwidth range and a second value (e.g., 0) indicating that the corresponding 20MHz is not within the operating bandwidth range. For example, the bitmap 1111000000000000 indicates that the operating bandwidth of the station is the first 80 MHz; for another example, bitmap 1000000000000000 indicates that the operating bandwidth is the first 20 MHz. In addition, the size of the bitmap can also change with the BSS bandwidth, for example, the BSS bandwidth is 80MHz, and the number of bitmaps at this time is 4 bits; for example, the BSS bandwidth is 160MHz, and the number of the bitmap is 8 bits at this time.

The second method comprises the following steps: the bitmap size is fixed, and each bit in the bitmap corresponds to one 80 MHz. For example, the maximum supported bandwidth of the EHT PPDU is 320MHz, and the bit bitmap length is 4 bits at this time. Each bit in the bitmap indicates whether the corresponding 80MHz is within the operating bandwidth range. Such as a first value (e.g., 1) indicating that the corresponding 80MHz is within the operating bandwidth range and a second value (e.g., 0) indicating that the corresponding 80MHz is not within the operating bandwidth range. For example, bitmap 1000 indicates that the operating bandwidth of a station is the first 80 MHz; for another example, bitmap 1100 indicates that the operating bandwidth of the station is the first 160 MHz; another example is a special bitmap 0000 indicating that the operating bandwidth of the station is 20MHz for listening. In addition, the size of the bitmap can also change with the BSS bandwidth, for example, the BSS bandwidth is 80MHz, and at this time, the number of bitmaps is 1 bit; for example, the BSS bandwidth is 160MHz, and the number of the bitmap bits is 2 bits at this time.

The third method comprises the following steps: and indicating the working bandwidth of the station by using the index.

Referring to table 2, the operating bandwidth of a station may be indicated by 3 or 4 bits. The operating bandwidth of the station includes:

20MHz, primary 80MHz, secondary 80MHz, tertiary 80MHz, primary 160MHz, secondary 160MHz, primary 240MHz, or secondary 240MHz, 320MHz, or the like. Wherein some or all of the 8-16 values in 3 or 4 bits indicate one or more of the above-mentioned operating bandwidths, respectively, and the remaining values may be reserved.

Table 2 is an indication of the operating bandwidth of a station

Bandwidth field	Means of
		0	20MHz
1	Major 80MHz
		2	First 80MHz
3	Second time 80MHz
		4	Third 80MHz
5	Primary 160MHz
		6	Sub 160MHz
7	Main 240MHz
		8	Sub 240MHz
9	320MHz

The 20MHz channel listened by the STA may be located in any channel in the BSS bandwidth, which may improve the transmission efficiency of the trigger frame when the AP sends the uplink schedule, that is, the content carried by the transmission trigger frame on each frequency domain segment may be different. In addition, the STAs with different operating bandwidths are placed in different frequency domain segments, for example, sites with an operating bandwidth of 80MHz, uplink transmission resources can be more evenly allocated to different STAs on the frequency resources of the whole bandwidth, so that it is prevented that all STAs with an operating bandwidth of 80MHz are camped on the main 80MHz, which causes insufficient frequency resources on the main 80MHz and waste of frequency resources on other 80 MHz.

In the normal case of uplink transmission, all STAs reside in P20 to listen and receive scheduling information (e.g., trigger frame) for uplink transmission. The rule for sending data by the sending end is as follows: when P20 can transmit, it further analyzes whether other channels can transmit, for example, if the trigger frame usually adopts Non-HT format, its physical layer preamble needs to transmit the same content every 20MHz, and the trigger frame itself needs to transmit the same content every 20 MHz. In this embodiment, the station may change the listening channel and/or the operating bandwidth and inform the AP of the change, depending on channel conditions, power savings, or other factors. Compared with the scheme that the station only resides in P20 to listen and receive the scheduling information, the scheme of adjusting the listening channel or the so-called camping scheme based on the above flexibility can enable different trigger frames to be transmitted in different frequency domain segments (such as 80MHz), that is, the content of the total trigger frame is divided into different 80MHz, so that the trigger frame overhead is reduced.

Of course, the flexible camping method is not limited to be applied in uplink scheduling, but may also be applied in downlink transmission, and the scheme of downlink transmission is not described in detail in this application.

Example two

Referring to fig. 4, a method for transmitting or receiving a trigger frame is provided, which is based on frequency domain segmentation, or referred to as a method for performing uplink scheduling on frequency domain segmentation.

The AP generates a PPDU (PPDU), wherein the PPDU comprises one or more trigger frames, and each trigger frame corresponds to one frequency domain segment; each trigger frame is at least used for scheduling one or more stations parked on the corresponding frequency domain segment, so that the stations transmit the uplink PPDU, or each trigger frame is at least used for one or more stations located in the frequency domain segment where the trigger frame is located to transmit the uplink PPDU (where one or more stations located in the frequency domain segment where the trigger frame is located may also be regarded as listening channels of the stations located in the frequency domain segment where the trigger frame is located). The frequency domain segment where the station is parked is the frequency domain segment where the 20MHz channel is listened to by the station, and the size or range of the frequency domain segment may be determined by the frequency domain segment selected when the PPDU is transmitted by the AP. The AP may determine, according to factors such as a channel sensed by a station(s) to be scheduled, one or more frequency domain segments and sizes of the frequency domain segments included in the transmitted PPDU, and optionally, the AP may also determine, according to factors such as a working bandwidth of the station(s) to be scheduled, one or more frequency domain segments and sizes of the frequency domain segments included in the transmitted PPDU, which is referred to in the first embodiment and is not described herein again.

Specifically, the AP obtains information of a station parked on each frequency domain segment, and generates one or more trigger frames in combination with the frequency domain resources and the obtained uplink service requirements of the station, where the trigger frames include information of a scheduled station and frequency domain resources allocated by the station.

The AP sends one or more trigger frames in the PPDU, each trigger frame being carried on a corresponding frequency domain segment. The specific mode is as follows: the trigger frame is transmitted separately at each 20MHz of the corresponding frequency domain segment, and the other way is to transmit the trigger frame on the entire corresponding frequency domain segment or on a resource block, such as the largest resource block, in the frequency domain segment.

103. And the station sends the uplink PPDU according to the received trigger frame. Generally, the uplink PPDU may be an uplink PPDU with multiple users, and of course, in a special scenario, only one station is scheduled to perform uplink transmission by using the above method.

The sending method for sending the uplink multi-user PPDU in 103 may adopt: the uplink multi-user PPDU is referred to as trigger-based PPDU (TB PPDU) for short by MU-MIMO technology and/or OFMDA technology.

In the embodiment of 101-103, the content of different trigger frames may be different, so that the content of the whole trigger frame may be dispersed on different frequency domain segments, thereby reducing the waste of trigger frame transmission resources. Further, in a preferred embodiment, the trigger frame may be used only for scheduling information of one or more stations docked on the corresponding frequency domain segment, that is, scheduling information of any one station docked on other frequency domain segments is not included. Thus, the content of the whole trigger frame can be dispersed to the maximum extent, and the waste of trigger frame transmission resources can be reduced to the maximum extent.

The trigger frame generated in the foregoing 101 may be carried in a PPDU (which may be referred to as an EHT MU PPDU or other names) adopting an OFDMA format, may also be carried in a Non HT PPDU (that is, a preamble of the PPDU only includes a legacy preamble), or use a single-user PPDU format conforming to standards such as 11n, 11ac, 11ax, or 11 be. The aforementioned trigger frame may also be transmitted in aggregate with other MAC frames, such as data frames or control frames.

The structure of the trigger frame in one example is shown in fig. 5, and may include one or any combination (not limited to the positions of the fields shown in fig. 5) of the following fields: a frame control field, a duration field, a receive address field, a transmit address field, a common information field, a plurality of user information fields, a bit-stuffing field, or a frame check sequence field.

The common information field is used for indicating common parameters of uplink multi-user transmission, and the user information field is used for indicating parameters of uplink PPDU transmission of a single station, such as a resource block including a resource allocation field indication. For example, the common information field includes one or any combination of the following fields (not limited to the positions of the fields shown in fig. 5): trigger frame Type field (Trigger Type), uplink Length field (UL Length), More frame Trigger fields (More TF), carrier sense Required field (CS Required), uplink bandwidth field (UL BW), GI (guard interval) and EHT-LTF Type field, Pre-FEC fill factor, PE ambiguity and transmit Power (AP TX Power), and so on.

Wherein, the uplink length field (UL bandwidth): length in L-SIG field in legacy preamble of uplink TB PPDU for indicating triggering frame scheduling.

More frame trigger field (More TF): indicating whether there are more trigger frames to be sent.

GI (guard interval) and EHT-LTF type fields: indicating the length of the GI and the type of EHT-LTF.

Pre-FEC padding factor field and PE ambiguity field: and the physical layer padding length used for jointly indicating the EHT PPDU comprises a post-FEC padding length and a PE field length (FEC: Forward Error Correction, Forward Error Correction, PE: packet extension).

A transmission power field: the power used to indicate the station transmission is in dBm, where the value of the power is typically normalized to a 20MHz frequency.

Optionally, the common field of the trigger frame may further include a common information field based on the trigger type. For example, in the basic trigger frame type, the common information field based on the trigger type includes MPDU space factor, tid (traffic identifier) aggregation restriction, preferred ac (access category), and other fields.

Optionally, the common field of the trigger frame may further include: uplink space-time block coding or uplink spatial multiplexing, etc.

Preferably, different trigger frames in the PPDU bandwidth carrying the trigger frame may also carry: a puncturing information field for indicating the PPDU bandwidth. E.g., a puncturing bitmap, for indicating which 20MHz s are punctured within the bandwidth. Punctured means that no physical layer preamble and no data field (including MAC frame) are transmitted at the corresponding 20MHz in the PPDU. The number of bits of the punctured bitmap may be fixed, such as the number of bits and the like, and the number of 20MHz included in the maximum bandwidth of the PPDU, for example, 320MHz includes 16 20 MHz. The bit number of the bit bitmap is changed along with the bandwidth of the PPDU, for example, when the bandwidth of the PPDU is 80MHz, the bit number of the bit bitmap is 4; for example, when the bandwidth of the PPDU is 160MHz, the number of bits of the punctured bitmap is 8. Correspondingly, after receiving the trigger frame, when transmitting an uplink PPDU, the station may transmit a U-SIG in a preamble of a physical layer in a frequency domain segment corresponding to the station according to a puncturing information field of a bandwidth of the PPDU, where the U-SIG includes puncturing information in the frequency domain segment.

Alternatively, the puncturing information field may also indicate the possible puncturing modes, and the index value in table 3 indicates one puncturing mode, which is shown in the following table

TABLE 3 perforation modes

The above table 3 includes a pattern requiring only 6 bits for indication due to the limited puncturing patterns indicated by the puncturing bandwidth pattern field, and if more puncturing patterns are subsequently included, the puncturing bandwidth pattern field may also be 7 bits, 8 bits, 9 bits or other bits in length. Further alternatively, the plurality of puncturing patterns indicated by the puncturing bandwidth mode field varies with a bandwidth indicated by the bandwidth field in the trigger frame, and specifically, when the bandwidth is 20MHz or 40MHz and there is no puncturing pattern, the puncturing bandwidth mode field may be 0 bit; when the bandwidth is 80MHz, the mode indicated by the punched bandwidth mode field comprises mode numbers of 1-4, and 2 bits are needed; when the bandwidth is 160MHz, the mode indicated by the punched bandwidth mode field comprises a mode number of 5-16, and 4 bits are needed; when the bandwidth is 240MHz, the mode indicated by the punched bandwidth mode field comprises a mode number of 17-25, and 4 bits are needed; when the bandwidth is 320MHz, the mode indicated by the punched bandwidth mode field comprises a mode number of 26-37, and 4 bits are needed; preferably, the pattern indicated by the punctured bandwidth mode field varies with the bandwidth, but the length does not vary, in the above example, the length of the punctured bandwidth mode field is 4, which is the maximum number of bits required for all the bandwidths, for example, when the bandwidth is 80MHz, the pattern indicated by the punctured bandwidth mode field includes pattern numbers 1 to 4, punctured bandwidth mode field values 0 to 3 with a length of 4 bits indicate pattern numbers 1 to 4, respectively, and the other values are reserved values.

In another mode: the puncturing information field may also carry partial puncturing information within the PPDU bandwidth, and includes a bitmap with 2, 3, or 4 bits and 80MHz granularity (or an 80MHz bitmap fixed to 4 bits) according to the size of the bandwidth, where the first value (1) indicates that the puncturing information corresponding to 80MHz is included, and the second value (0) indicates that the puncturing information corresponding to 80MHz is not included. The puncturing information for every 80MHz is the puncturing information indication method in the U-SIG field in the third embodiment, and is not described herein again. Part of the punching information carried by the punching information field needs to include punching information of a frequency bandwidth occupied by a station which is scheduled by the trigger frame and transmits the uplink physical layer lead code.

Optionally, the common field of the trigger frame may also carry: information/field indicating the bandwidth of the frequency domain segment in which the trigger frame is located.

In one example, the trigger frame does not include information/field indicating the frequency domain segment in which the trigger frame is located, and the station receives the trigger frame only according to the frequency domain segment in which the (default) listening channel is located (e.g., the smallest frequency domain segment specified by the standard or the frequency domain segment granularity specified by the standard, such as 80 MHz). Preferably, the triggering frame may further include: information/field indicating the bandwidth of the frequency domain segment in which it is located. The station may receive trigger frames according to the indicated frequency domain segments, e.g., combine individual trigger frames within the frequency domain segments in order to increase robustness. At this time, the aforementioned indication of UL bandwidth of the entire uplink multi-user PPDU may be omitted. Of course, the trigger frame may also include UL bandwidth and the information/field for indicating the bandwidth of the frequency domain segment where the uplink PPDU of the scheduling station is located in the trigger frame.

Preferably, the site information field of the trigger frame may further carry: and information/field for indicating the bandwidth of the frequency domain section where the common physical layer preamble of the uplink PPDU of the scheduling station is located in the trigger frame. Of course, the bandwidth of the frequency domain segment where the common physical layer preamble of the uplink PPDU is located needs to be within the working bandwidth of the station that transmits the uplink PPDU. Alternatively, the information of the bandwidth of the frequency domain segment where the common physical layer preamble of the uplink PPDU is located may not be carried.

The bandwidth of the frequency domain segment may be 80MHz, 160MHz, 320MHz, and the like, and optionally, the bandwidth of the frequency domain segment further includes 240 MHz. The segmentation in the embodiment of the present invention is taking 80MHz as an example, for example, it is mentioned that the content of the U-SIG field of the trigger frame/acknowledgement frame/uplink common physical layer preamble transmitted at different 80MHz is different, and the content of the U-SIG field of the trigger frame/acknowledgement frame/uplink common physical layer preamble transmitted at every 20MHz within 80MHz is the same. There may also be frequency domain segments of different sizes in the same PPDU. For example, for a 320MHz PPDU, one 160MHz segment and 2 80MHz segments are included.

As shown in fig. 6, which is a simple diagram of the structure of the user information field, the user information field may include one or any combination (not limited to the location of the fields shown in fig. 6) of the following fields: an association identification field, a resource unit allocation field, an uplink coding type field, an uplink coding modulation strategy field, an uplink dual carrier modulation field, a spatial stream allocation or random access resource unit information field, an uplink received signal strength indication field, a reserved field, and one or more of a plurality of user information fields based on a trigger frame type.

Specifically, in a case that a bandwidth of a PPDU carrying a trigger frame is greater than a frequency domain segmentation granularity (e.g., 80MHz), taking a PPDU of a Non-HT format as an example, a physical layer preamble (only including a legacy preamble) of the PPDU is transmitted over the bandwidth of the PPDU, and generally, taking 20MHz as a unit, content of the physical layer preamble carried on each 20MHz in the bandwidth of the PPDU is the same; however, the transmission of the trigger frame is in units of frequency domain segmentation granularity. That is, the trigger frames carried on different frequency domain segments are transmitted separately in the frequency domain independently of each other. That is, the trigger frame content transmitted on different frequency domain segments may be different, not excluding the same as the trigger frame content transmitted on multiple 80MHz segments, where one frequency domain segment may include one or more frequency domain segment granularities.

The bandwidth of the PPDU falls at least partially within the operating bandwidth range of the station, e.g., the bandwidth of the PPDU encompasses 20MHz that the station listens to. Referring to fig. 5 or fig. 6, in a specific example, the trigger frame is transmitted in a Non-HT format, where the physical layer preamble of the PPDU includes only a legacy preamble, and the content of the physical layer preamble at each 20MHz is the same for every 20MHz transmission over the bandwidth of the PPDU. Wherein the content of the trigger frames transmitted at different 80MHz is different, but the content of the trigger frames transmitted at each 20MHz within the 80MHz is the same.

For example, the site fields carried by trigger frames sent every 20MHz in the primary 80MHz are the site information fields of site 1 and site 6, and the trigger frames sent every 20MHz in the secondary 80MHz carry the site information fields of sites 11 to 14. In this way, each trigger frame transmitted at 20MHz does not need to carry all the station information fields to be scheduled in the transmission bandwidth 160MHz of the PPDU where the trigger frame is located, that is, the station information fields of the station 1, the station 6, the station 11 to the station 14, thereby saving overhead.

It should be noted that the trigger frames carried by different 80MHz have different site information fields, but different trigger frames in different segments within the bandwidth need to trigger a complete uplink multi-user PPDU, instead of different uplink multi-user PPDUs of multiple 80MHz segments, so that different trigger frames on different segments need to be aligned to facilitate the transmission of the complete uplink multi-user PPDU. That is to say, a complete uplink multi-user PPDU formed by uplink PPDUs respectively transmitted by multiple scheduled stations needs to align uplink PPDU transmission times, including start time alignment and end time alignment. Different trigger frames on different segments need to be aligned, and the uplink PPDU is sent after receiving a certain interval (a fixed value, for example, SIFS) of the trigger frame, so that the start times of the uplink PPDUs are aligned.

In a specific example, the station information fields carried by the trigger frames may be different between different 80MHz (here, the frequency domain segments are taken as examples), which may cause the lengths of the information portions (without padding portions) of the trigger frames transmitted on different 80MHz to be different, however, in this embodiment, the length of the trigger frame transmitted on each 80MHz is preferably the same. Specifically, the trigger frames transmitted at each 80MHz can be aligned by padding (padding).

Embodiments for aligning trigger frames by padding are provided as follows:

method 1 dummy (dummy) site information fields are included or set anywhere in the trigger frame where the information part is short (part essentially indicating scheduling information) so that the length of the trigger frame transmitted every 80MHz is the same. Specifically, the dummy station information field has the same length as the station information field specified by the standard, but is prevented from being misread as the station information field by the receiving end through special setting. For example, the value in the AID field in the dummy station information field is a special value, or the value on the resource allocation indication field in the dummy station information field is a special value, such as 2047. The value in the dummy station information field other than the above special value may be any information, and may be reduced to bits of all 0's or all 1's. By adopting the alignment mode, dummy site information fields can be placed between real site information fields, and the flexibility during alignment is improved.

Method 2. add at the end of the trigger frame with shorter information part: the first dummy site information field, followed by a location filled with all 0's or all 1's or other padding information, such that the trigger frames transmitted every 80MHz are the same length.

Method 3. add at the end of the trigger frame with shorter information part (after the last scheduled station info field): a special AID identifier, such as 2047, is then padded with all 0's or all 1's or other padding information so that the trigger frames transmitted every 80MHz are the same length.

4. The MPDU delimiter is included in the trigger frame where the information portion is short, so that the length of the trigger frame transmitted every 80MHz is the same.

In a specific example, values of GI + EHT-LTF types, PE related parameters (including a Pre-FEC padding factor field and a PE ambiguity field), parameter fields such as the number of EHT-LTF symbols or uplink length, and the like carried in common fields in different trigger frames within a bandwidth of a PPDU need to be the same, respectively, so that uplink OFDMA PPDUs transmitted on each frequency domain segment are aligned, including end time alignment, EHT-LTF field alignment, and the like.

The frequency domain segments take 80MHz as an example, and the values of the uplink PPDU length fields included in the trigger frames on different frequency domain segments are the same, so that the uplink PPDU transmission time of each station is the same, and the start time of the uplink PPDU is the same due to the alignment of the trigger frames transmitted on different segments, so that the end time of the uplink PPDU transmission is aligned. The values of the number fields of the uplink EHT-LTF symbols contained in different trigger frames are the same, so that the number of the OFDM symbols of the EHT-LTF of the uplink PPDU of each station is the same. The values of the GI + EHT-LTF type fields included in different trigger frames are the same, so that the lengths of the single OFDM symbols of the EHT-LTFs of the uplink PPDUs transmitted by each station may be the same (the length of the OFDM symbol herein includes the length of the GI, and hereinafter, the same is not described in detail), or the lengths of the single OFDM symbols included in the data fields of the uplink PPDUs transmitted by each station may be the same. The same Pre-FEC padding factor field and PE ambiguity field may make the physical layer padding length of the uplink PPDU of each station the same. Since the protocol specifies 12.8us for OFDM length without GI and the GI + EHT-LTF type field is the same, the GI length of the OFDM symbols of the data field may be the same. By adopting the scheme, the duration of the uplink PPDU, the alignment of the EHT symbol field and the alignment of the end time of the uplink PPDU facilitate the AP to send the acknowledgement frame aiming at the uplink PPDU.

Here, the alignment means start time and/or end time alignment. End time alignment means: the end times are the same or the difference between the end times is within a specified interval, where the specified interval is specified by a protocol or otherwise. The start time alignment means: the start times are the same or the difference between the start times is within a specified interval. The present invention mentions alignment elsewhere and its meaning is not described again.

The resource allocation indication field in the site information field of the trigger frame can allocate one resource block to the site for transmitting the uplink frame, and can also allocate a plurality of resource blocks to the site for transmitting the uplink frame. The 802.11ax protocol lists resource block indexes in 80MHz bandwidth, 40M bandwidth, and 20MHz bandwidth, and the resource block indexes form a 7-bit table, where each resource block index corresponds to one resource block, and includes 26 subcarrier resource blocks, 52 subcarrier resource blocks, 106 subcarrier resource blocks, 242 subcarrier resource blocks (maximum resource blocks in 20MHz bandwidth), 484 subcarrier resource blocks (maximum resource blocks in 40MHz bandwidth), and 996 subcarrier resource blocks (maximum resource blocks in 80MHz bandwidth). Resource blocks within the 160MHz bandwidth are indicated by adding additional 1 bit and 7 bits of resource block index within the 80MHz bandwidth, the additional 1 bit indicating whether the resource block is a primary or secondary 80MHz resource block. A7-bit resource allocation table in 80MHz is shown in an 802.11ax protocol, and is shown in a table 4 below, wherein RU serial numbers 0-36 are 26 subcarrier resource block index numbers in 80MHz, 37-52 are 52 subcarrier resource block index numbers in 80MHz bandwidth, 53-60 are 106 subcarrier resource block index numbers in 80MHz bandwidth, 61-64 are 242 subcarrier resource block index numbers in 80MHz bandwidth, 65-66 are 484 subcarrier resource block index numbers in 80MHz bandwidth, and 67 is 996 subcarrier resource block index numbers in 80MHz bandwidth. Wherein, the descriptions of 26 subcarrier resource blocks are RU 1-RU 37, 52 subcarrier resource blocks are RU 1-RU 16, 106 subcarrier resource blocks are RU 1-RU 8, 242 subcarrier resource block index is RU 1-RU 4, 484 subcarrier resource block description is RU 1-RU 2, 996 subcarrier resource block description is RU1 recorded in the standard protocol of 802.11ax, and the description is not repeated here

Table 47 bit single resource allocation table

In order to support 320MHz bandwidth, referring to table 4, the present embodiment includes new resource blocks 2 × 996 subcarrier resource blocks, 3 × 996 subcarrier resource blocks, and 4 × 996 subcarrier resource blocks. The resource allocation table within 80MHz with 7 bits can be respectively added with the indexes of the above 3 resource blocks (referred to as single resource block allocation table for short).

In another example, in order to support allocation of multiple resource blocks to a single station and reduce signaling overhead, resource block indexes are defined, as shown in fig. 7a, including 16 kinds of multiple small resource block allocations, including 52+26 resource blocks and 106+26 resource blocks, specific locations of which are shown in the gray square in the upper half of fig. 7a, and 33 kinds of multiple large resource block allocations, which total 49 kinds of multiple resource block allocations, including 484+242 resource blocks, 996+484 resource blocks, 2X996+484 resource blocks, 3X996+484 resource blocks and 3X996 resource blocks, specific locations of which are shown in the gray square in the lower half of fig. 7 a. Of course, it may also be a subset of the 49 multi-resource block allocations, for example, not including 2X996+484 or 3X996+484 resource blocks, or introducing other multi-resource block allocation combinations.

Specifically, the multi-resource block combinations (for short, multi-resource block allocation tables) shown in fig. 7a and 7b may be respectively indicated according to two different table indexes of 7 bits. In one example, 1 bit is used to indicate whether a station is allocated a resource block as a single resource block or multiple resource blocks, i.e., using a single resource block allocation table index or using a multiple resource block allocation table index. Of course, it is possible to use the same table to include the contents of the single resource block allocation table and the multiple resource block allocation table. The length of the bits required for the table depends on the number of entries of the resource block that need to be indicated. A

In another example, it is proposed to use 2 bits to indicate which 80MHz of 320MHz, the sequence number may be from low frequency to high frequency, or from high frequency to low frequency, and the index in the table may be based on 80MHz (fig. 7a or fig. 7b), that is, the index includes indexes of various resource blocks in the 80MHz range.

The resource allocation indication field in the station information field of the trigger frame allocates one or more resource blocks to the station, which are required to be within the working bandwidth of the station.

EXAMPLE III

Referring to the uplink multi-user PPDU frame structure shown in fig. 8, a method for transmitting an uplink PPDU based on frequency domain segmentation is provided.

201. And the station sends the uplink PPDU based on the received trigger frame. And the data part of the uplink PPDU is transmitted on the resource block allocated to the station.

Specifically, a station may receive a trigger frame sent by an AP in a frequency domain segment where an interception channel is located, and if one station information field in the trigger frame is matched with its AID, the station sends an uplink multi-user PPDU according to resource block allocation information and a common field in the station information field, which is matched with its AID, of the trigger frame. For example, an uplink information frame, e.g., a data frame, of the station is transmitted on the resource block indicated by the resource allocation indication field in the station information field. Specifically, the uplink PPDU transmitted by the station includes a common physical layer preamble, a post physical layer preamble (including an EHT-STF field and an EHT-LTF field), and a data portion field (including a MAC frame, e.g., a data frame). The common physical layer preamble can be transmitted in a bandwidth of an uplink PPDU by using 20MHz, and the post physical layer preamble and the data field are transmitted on a resource block.

And 202, the AP receives the data part in the uplink PPDU sent by the station according to the allocated resources in the trigger frame.

Specifically, the AP receives an uplink information frame sent by the station on a resource block indicated by a resource allocation indication field in a station information field in the trigger frame, and decodes the uplink information frame sent by the station according to parameters such as MCS (modulation and coding scheme) in the station information field in the trigger frame. The specific allocation method of the resource blocks need not be described in detail in this application.

The uplink common physical layer preamble transmission method in step 201 includes the following specific examples:

the method comprises the following steps: according to the information of the bandwidth of the frequency domain section where the common physical layer preamble of the uplink PPDU carried in the trigger frame is located, the station may send the uplink common physical layer preamble only in each 20MHz channel in the frequency domain section where the uplink PPDU scheduled by the station is located. Specifically, if the bandwidth of the uplink multi-user PPDU is greater than the frequency domain segment where the station is parked, the common physical layer preamble may not be sent on the 20MHz channel outside the frequency domain segment, which may reduce interference and increase the frequency domain multiplexing opportunity, and improve the resource utilization efficiency. The frequency domain segment where the uplink PPDU scheduled by the station is located needs to be located within the working bandwidth range of the station. It is understood that the frequency domain segment where the uplink PPDU indicated herein is located and the frequency domain segment where the trigger frame is located may be different, where the frequency domain segment where the trigger frame is located may be larger than the operating bandwidth of the station, but needs to include 20MHz to which the station listens. And the site receives the trigger frame in the frequency domain section where the 20MHz is monitored in the working bandwidth of the site, and transmits the uplink common physical layer lead code in each 20MHz channel in the frequency domain section where the uplink bandwidth indicated by the trigger frame is located.

The common physical layer preamble may include a legacy preamble (L-STF, L-LTF, L-SIG), a repetition signaling field (RL-SIG), and a U-SIG field.

Taking the communication system shown in fig. 3 as an example, as shown in fig. 7, it is assumed that DATA #1 is transmitted by the station 11 on the corresponding resource block according to the indication in the received trigger frame, and the common physical layer preamble of the uplink PPDU of the station 11 is a frequency domain transmission preamble indicated by the information/field of the bandwidth of the frequency domain segment where the common physical layer preamble of the uplink PPDU of the scheduling station in the station information field in the trigger frame is located, for example, 80MHz for the first time. Specifically, duplicate transmissions may be performed at each 20MHz of the first 80MHz (where duplicate transmissions may include multiplying the other 20MHz than the first 20MHz by a rotation factor, respectively, and are not described herein). In another example, it is assumed that DATA #1 is transmitted by the station 6 on the corresponding resource block according to the received trigger frame, and the common physical layer preamble of the station 6 is transmitted according to the frequency domain indicated by the information/field of the bandwidth of the frequency domain segment where the common physical layer preamble of the uplink PPDU of the scheduling station in the station information field in the trigger frame is located, for example, the frequency domain is mainly 160 MHz. Specifically, the common physical layer preamble for each 20MHz transmission within 80MHz is a duplicate transmission. The U-SIG may be different in common physical layer preambles transmitted in different 80MHz, such as carrying different puncturing information indicating whether each 20MHz in the 80MHz is punctured. In addition, the legacy preamble and repeated signaling fields are still 20MHz duplicate transmissions.

Mode 2: referring to fig. 8, according to the information of the resource blocks allocated to the station in the trigger frame, the station may transmit the uplink common physical layer preamble only in the frequency domain segment (taking 80MHz as an example) in which the allocated resource blocks (the resource blocks in which the data portion of the uplink PPDU is located) are located. When the allocated resource block is larger than one frequency domain segment (e.g., 80MHz), the station may transmit the uplink common physical layer preamble only in a plurality of frequency domain segments (e.g., 80MHz) where the allocated resource block is located (or staggered overlap). The uplink common physical layer preamble comprises a legacy preamble, a repeated signaling field, or a U-SIG field.

For example, taking the frequency domain segmentation granularity as 80MHz as an example, if the resource block is greater than 80MHz, the transmitted uplink physical layer preamble includes a corresponding plurality of 80 MHz. Taking the station in fig. 3 as an example, the uplink multi-user PPDU transmission method shown in fig. 8. The method comprises the following steps: the station 11 transmits DATA #1 on the corresponding resource block according to the received trigger frame, and the station 11 transmits the common physical layer preamble on the first 80 MHz. Specifically, duplicate transmissions are made at each 20MHz of the first 80MHz (which may include steps such as rotation as necessary and are not described further herein). As another example, station 6 transmits DATA #2 on the resource blocks indicated in the received trigger frame, and station 6 transmits the common physical layer preamble on the primary 80 MHz. Specifically, duplicate transmissions are made at each 20MHz of the primary 80 MHz.

Mode 3: the station may transmit the uplink common physical layer preamble only within one or more 20MHz bandwidths of the allocated resource blocks. For example, a legacy preamble (L-STF, L-LTF, L-SIG), a repeated signaling field (RL-SIG), and a U-SIG field are included. If the allocated resource blocks are greater than 20MHz, the transmitted uplink physical layer preamble includes a corresponding plurality of 20 MHz. Optionally, the uplink physical layer preamble may also be sent on 20MHz that the station listens to.

It is noted that the uplink physical layer preamble mentioned in the above manner is transmitted in 20MHz units.

Wherein the uplink common physical layer preamble transmitted by the station is a duplicate transmission every 20MHz within 80 MHz.

In the uplink multi-user PPDU, the uplink common physical layer preamble transmitted on different 80MHz may be different. In particular, the puncturing information field, which may be carried in the U-SIG field, of different uplink PPDUs may be different, and may indicate only 4 20MHz channel puncturing patterns within 80MHz where the puncturing information field is located. So as to inform other stations of the puncturing information of the frequency domain segment in which the station is located. For example, it may be indicated with a3 or 4 bit bitmap. For example, 1110 indicates that the 4 th 20MHz from low frequency to high frequency within the 80MHz is punctured (or high frequency to low frequency is also possible), and the embodiments are not limited. In another example, it may be specified that 20MHz monitored by a station cannot be punctured, at this time, the punctured bit map only needs to indicate whether other 320MHz within 80MHz are punctured, at this time, 3 bits are needed, and further, if a 20MHz channel monitored by the station is busy, at this time, the station cannot send an uplink PPDU.

Another way may be indicated by the puncturing pattern, referring to the 6 puncturing patterns in the 80MHz bandwidth shown in fig. 9, 3 bits are needed, where white resource blocks are punctured resource blocks, and gray resource blocks are non-punctured resource blocks.

If the resource blocks for a single station are at different 80MHz or more than 80MHz, the U-SIG fields in the uplink common physical layer preamble transmitted by the station at multiple 80MHz may be different. It is worth noting that in the uplink multi-user PPDU, the legacy preamble field and the repeated signaling field RL-SIG in the uplink common physical layer preamble transmitted by each station are the same.

The uplink physical layer preamble transmitted by the station may include, in addition to the common physical layer preamble and the data portion, an EHT-STF (extra high throughput-short training field) field and an EHT-LTF (extra high throughput-long training field) field, where the number of OFDM symbols included in the EHT-LTF field is related to the number of streams to be transmitted. Specifically, the EHT-STF field, the EHT-LTF field, and the data field may be transmitted only on a resource block allocated to the station, which is indicated by the trigger frame.

Example four

The embodiment provides a method for transmitting an acknowledgement frame by an AP.

And 301, the AP receives the uplink multi-user PPDU.

302. And generating and replying the acknowledgement information of the uplink multi-user PPDU based on the frequency domain segmentation. Specifically, different acknowledgement frames are respectively replied in different frequency domain segments. For example, only acknowledgement frames for the upstream PPDUs of the parked stations within the frequency domain segment may be transmitted within the frequency domain segment. The acknowledgement frame comprises an Ack and a Block Ack, which in turn comprises a compressed Block Ack and a Multi-STA Block Ack. Referring to fig. 4, the AP receives a TBPPDU (uplink PPDU) and then transmits a Multi-STA Block Ack.

The multi-user acknowledgement frame replied by the AP may be transmitted in an OFDMA format (e.g., MU PPDU of EHT), may be transmitted in a Non-HT format (the preamble is only a legacy preamble), and may be transmitted in a single-user PPDU format such as 11n, 11ac, 11ax, 11be, and the like.

Example 1: the multi-user acknowledgement frame replied by the AP is in an OFDMA mode, when a bandwidth of an OFDMA acknowledgement frame PPDU is greater than 80MHz, a U-SIG field and an EHT-SIG field in a downlink physical layer preamble of every 80MHz are different, a U-SIG field in a downlink physical layer preamble of every 20MHz within the 80MHz is the same, and the EHT-SIG fields may be the same or different, for example, a [ 1212 ] structure of an HE-SIG B of 802.11ax is adopted. In addition, the legacy preamble and repeated signaling field RL-SIG of the OFDMA acknowledgment frame PPDU are duplicated for transmission at every 20MHz within the PPDU bandwidth.

In a specific example, the AP may send an acknowledgement frame to a station on one or more resource blocks within 20MHz of an uplink common physical layer preamble sent by the station. The number of the 20MHz may be multiple, and depends on the number of 20MHz of common physical layer preamble transmission of the uplink PPDU sent by the station. In addition, since the U-SIG field in the preamble of the downlink physical layer of each 80MHz of the downlink OFDMA PPDU may be different, in another specific example, the AP may further send an acknowledgement frame to a station on 20MHz monitored by the station or on one or more resource blocks in the 80MHz frequency domain segment where the station sends the data field of the uplink PPDU.

The MU PPDU of the EHT carries information of the RU allocated to the acknowledgement frame, and fig. 4 may be referred to.

More specifically, the sub-PPDUs transmitted by the stations at every 80MHz need to be aligned, such as end time alignment.

Example 2: the multi-user acknowledgement frame returned by the AP is sent in Non-HT format.

The implementation proposes that the multi-user acknowledgement information carried by every 80MHz can be different, and the multi-user acknowledgement information transmitted by every 20MHz in the 80MHz is the same. For example, a first Non-HT acknowledgement frame, such as a Multi-STA Block Ack, transmitted over primary 80MHz carries acknowledgement information for stations 1-4. And transmitting a second Non-HT acknowledgement frame, such as a Multi-STA Block Ack, at the next 80MHz, wherein the second Non-HT acknowledgement frame carries acknowledgement information for the stations 5-6. Compared with the prior Non-HT format, the method needs to perform copy transmission every 20MHz in a large bandwidth, and the embodiment further reduces the overhead of downlink multi-user acknowledgement frames.

Specifically, transmitting the acknowledgment frame in the Non-HT format includes one of the following two methods

The method comprises the following steps: the AP sends an acknowledgement frame to the station on the frequency domain segment channel where the 20MHz channel that the station listens to is located. Frequency domain segmentation, e.g. 80MHz, 160MHz,240MHz or 320MHz

The second method comprises the following steps: the AP sends an acknowledgement frame to the station on the frequency domain segment or one or more channels within the 80MHz frequency in which the station transmits the uplink data field.

The third method comprises the following steps: the AP sends an acknowledgement frame to the station on one or more 20MHz in-frequency channels on which the station transmits the uplink data field.

Referring to the simple schematic diagram of the structure of the acknowledgement frame shown in fig. 10, the Multi-STA Block Ack frame transmitted by the AP every 20MHz includes one or more Block acknowledgement/confirmation information, each of which is acknowledgement information of a PPDU transmitted to one station. The Multi-STA Block Ack frame comprises: frame Control (Control Frame), duration/identification (duration/ID), Receiving Address (RA), Transmitting Address (TA), Block Acknowledgement Control (BA Control), Block Acknowledgement/Acknowledgement Information (Block Acknowledgement/Acknowledgement Information, BA/ACK Info) and Frame Check Sequence (FCS). Wherein, BA/ACKInfo comprises: for each association or service identification Information (Per AID Identifier Information, abbreviated as Per AID TID Info), when the BA/ACK Info is BA, the BA/ACK Info further includes a Block Acknowledgement Starting Sequence Control (Block Acknowledgement Starting Sequence Control) and a Block Acknowledgement bitmap (Block Acknowledgement bitmap), wherein a fragmentation field of the Block Acknowledgement Starting Sequence Control may be used to indicate a length of the Block Acknowledgement bitmap. Further, an association identifier AID (association identifier) of the STA is set in the first 11 bits of the Per AID TID Info to indicate to which station the AP is to transmit the acknowledgement frame. Bit 12 is a block acknowledgement/acknowledgement Indication (BA/ACK Indication), and bits 13 to 16 are traffic identifiers tid (traffic identifier), as shown in the following figure.

The Non-HT Multi-STA ack frames sent by the AP in different frequency domain segments (e.g., 80MHz) carry different station ack information. In other words, the length of the acknowledgment frame may be different across different frequency domain segments. Referring to embodiment one, an acknowledgement frame on a different frequency domain segment may only carry acknowledgement information for stations that are parked on that frequency domain segment.

Specifically, the Non-HT Multi-STA acknowledgment frames transmitted at each 20MHz on the frequency domain segment typically need to be aligned.

The AP may enable each Non-HT Multi-STA transmitting on 20MHz to confirm frame alignment by padding, which may specifically include one of the following methods:

method 1.a dummy block ack/ack info field is included in the Non-HT Multi-STA ack frame to fill the Non-HT Multi-STA ack frame for alignment. The length of the dummy block ack/ack information field is the same as that of the block ack/ack information field specified by the standard, but the AID field in the dummy block ack/ack information field is set to a special value, e.g., 2046.

Method 2.Non-HT Multi-STA acknowledgment frame provides a longer block acknowledgment/acknowledgment information field. For example, a middle segmentation field of the control field indicates a longer block acknowledgement bitmap length by block acknowledgement starting sequence.

Method 3.Non-HT Multi-STA acknowledgement frame includes block acknowledgement/acknowledgement information for one or more stations that are repeated. Wherein the block ack/ack information of the last station is repeated one or more times in order to align the Non-HT Multi-STA ack frames.

The frequency domain segmentation in one or more of embodiments one through four may also be simplified to a special case where each frequency domain segment is fixed to a size, such as 80MHz, which may reduce the indication of information about the frequency domain segment. In the first to fourth embodiments, the uplink multi-user PPDU is composed of uplink PPDUs sent by one or more stations, where the one or more stations send a physical layer preamble and a data field on a corresponding resource block indicated by a trigger frame sent by the AP, and the uplink PPDU sent by a station may be understood as a sub PPDU of the uplink multi-user PPDU. It is also to be understood that the above embodiments can be combined arbitrarily without technical conflict. For example, after the frequency domain segmentation is flexibly performed in the first embodiment, the trigger frame is sent according to the second embodiment, the uplink PPDU is sent based on the trigger frame according to the third embodiment, and then the acknowledgement frame for the uplink PPDU is fed back according to the fourth embodiment. Of course, it is possible that one embodiment may be replaced by another, and details are not described here.

Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks and steps (step) set forth in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design requirements of the overall system. 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 embodiments of the present application.

The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a computer, implements the functionality of any of the above-described method embodiments.

The present application also provides a computer program product which, when executed by a computer, implements the functionality of any of the above-described method embodiments.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the application to occur, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that incorporates one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: the various numbers of the first, second, etc. mentioned in this application are only used for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application, but also to indicate the sequence.

The correspondence shown in the tables in the present application may be configured or predefined. The values of the information in each table are only examples, and may be configured to other values, which is not limited in the present application. When the correspondence between the information and each parameter is configured, it is not always necessary to configure all the correspondences indicated in each table. For example, in the table in the present application, the correspondence shown in some rows may not be configured. For another example, appropriate modification adjustments, such as splitting, merging, etc., can be made based on the above tables. The names of the parameters in the tables may be other names understandable by the communication device, and the values or the expression of the parameters may be other values or expressions understandable by the communication device. When the above tables are implemented, other data structures may be used, for example, arrays, queues, containers, stacks, linear tables, pointers, linked lists, trees, graphs, structures, classes, heaps, hash tables, or hash tables may be used.

Predefinition in this application may be understood as defining, predefining, storing, pre-negotiating, pre-configuring, curing, or pre-firing.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. 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.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

The above description is only for the specific embodiment of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.