Efficient uplink SDMA operation

• US 10,243,714 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2016
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Gong, Michelle X., Stacey, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Renner, Brandon M
• Application Number:
  US15/274,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20170078070A1
• Time in Patent Office: 914 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1621 Group acknowledgement, i.e. the acknowledgement message defining a range of identifiers, e.g. of sequence numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1671 the supervisory signal being transmitted together with control information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1685 the supervisory signal being transmitted in response to a specific request, e.g. to a polling signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/06 using polling

Abstract

According to various embodiments, a computer-implemented method is disclosed that allows an AP to efficiently poll various information from STAs belonging to a SDMA group. Each STA may transmit uplink frames using uplink SDMA mechanism.

Claims

1. An apparatus of an access point, the apparatus comprising:

memory, and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to;

generate a frame for transmission to a plurality of stations, the frame to coordinate an uplink (UL) multiple user (MU) wireless transmission from the plurality of stations to the access point, the frame comprising association identifications (AIDs) of the plurality of stations and a duration for the plurality stations for transmission of UL media access control protocol data units (MPDUs) (UL MPDUs);

configure the access point to transmit the frame; and

receive an UL MU wireless transmission comprising UL MPDUs simultaneously received from the plurality of stations to the access point, the UL MPDUs received in response to transmission of the frame.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

generate block acknowledgement (BA) frames to acknowledge each of the UL MPDUs to be received from the plurality of stations; and

configure the access point to transmit the BA frames simultaneously in accordance with orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), each BA frame being transmitted to a corresponding one of the plurality stations, the BA frames to be transmitted a short interframe space (SIFS) after the access point receives the UL MPDUs.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

receive the UL MPDUs from the plurality of stations, wherein the UL MPDUs are to be received in response to the completion of the transmission of the frame a short interframe space (SIFS) time plus a first travel time between the access point and a corresponding station of the plurality of stations and a second travel time from the corresponding station to the access point.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

generate a second frame for transmission to a second plurality of stations, the frame to coordinate a second UL MU wireless transmission from the second plurality of stations, the second frame comprising AIDs of the second plurality of stations and a second duration for the plurality of stations for transmission of UL MPDUs;

configure the access point to transmit the second frame; and

receive the second UL MU wireless transmission comprising second UL MPDUs simultaneously received from the second plurality of stations, the second UL MPDUs received in response to transmission of the second frame.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

configure the access point to transmit the second frame the SIFS time after the second UL MPDUs are to be received by the access point.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the frame further comprises an indication of a spatial stream allocation for each of the plurality of stations.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the UL MU transmission comprises the access point receiving two or more UL MPDUs simultaneously on a same frequency band in accordance with space-division multiple access (SDMA).

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a size of the UL MPDUs are based on the duration.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the UL MPDUs comprise data from the stations.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the UL MU transmission is a transmission opportunity (TXOP).

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the access point is an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 access point or an IEEE 802.11 station.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising transceiver circuitry coupled to the physical circuitry.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising a plurality of antennas coupled to the transceiver circuitry.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the access point is to transmit the frame in accordance with one of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO).

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the UL MU transmission is to be contention free.

16. A method performed by an apparatus of an access point, the method comprising:

generating a frame for transmission to a plurality of stations, the frame to coordinate an uplink (UL) multiple user (MU) wireless transmission from the plurality of stations to the access point, the frame comprising association identifications (AIDs) of the plurality of stations and a duration for the stations for transmission of UL media access control protocol data units (MPDUs) (UL MPDUs);

configuring the access point to transmit the frame; and

receiving an UL MU wireless transmission comprising UL MPDUs simultaneously received from the plurality of stations to the access point, the UL MPDUs received in response to transmission of the frame.

17. The method of claim 16, the method further comprising:

generating block acknowledgement (BA) frames to acknowledge each of the UL MPDUs to be received from the plurality of stations; and

configuring the access point to transmit the BA frames simultaneously in accordance with orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), each BA frame being transmitted to a corresponding one of the plurality stations, the BA frames being transmitted a short interframe space (SIFS) after the access point receives the UL MPDUs.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of an apparatus of an access point, the instructions to configure the one or more processors to:

generate a frame for transmission to a plurality of stations, the frame to coordinate an uplink (UL) multiple user (MU) wireless transmission from the plurality of stations, the frame comprising association identifications (AIDs) of the plurality of stations and a duration for the stations for transmission of UL media access control protocol data units (MPDUs) (UL MPDUs);

configure the access point to transmit the frame; and

receive an UL MU wireless transmission comprising UL MPDUs simultaneously received from the plurality of stations to the access point, the UL MPDUs received in response to transmission of the frame.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions are to further configure the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:

generate block acknowledgement (BA) frames to acknowledge each of the UL MPDUs to be received from the plurality of stations; and

configure the access point to transmit the BA frames simultaneously in accordance with orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), each BA frame being transmitted to a corresponding one of the plurality stations, the BA frames being transmitted a short interframe space (SIFS) after the access point receives the UL MPDUs.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions are to further configure the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:

receive the UL MPDUs from the plurality of stations, wherein the UL MPDUs are to be received in response to the completion of the transmission of the frame a short interframe space (SIFS) time plus a first travel time between the access point and a corresponding station of the plurality of stations and a second travel time from the corresponding station to the access point.

21. An apparatus of a second wireless device, the apparatus comprising:

memory; and

processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to;

receive a frame from a first wireless device, the frame to coordinate an uplink (UL) multiple user (MU) wireless transmission opportunity, wherein the frame comprises an association identification (AID) of a second wireless device and a duration for the second wireless to transmit UL media access control protocol data units (MPDUs) (UL MPDUs) to the first wireless device in the UL MU transmission opportunity;

generate an UL MPDU in accordance with the duration; and

configure the second wireless device to transmit the UL MPDU to the first wireless device in accordance with the duration a short interframe space (SIFS) after the station receives the frame.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

receive a block acknowledgement (BA) frame that acknowledges the UL MPDU, wherein the BA frame is to be received from the first wireless device.

23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the UL MU transmission comprises the second wireless device transmitting simultaneously with at least one other wireless device on a same frequency band in accordance with space-division multiple access (SDMA).

24. The apparatus of claim 21, further comprising transceiver circuitry coupled to the physical circuitry;

and, one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver circuitry.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the frame further comprises an indication of a spatial stream allocation for the second wireless device, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

generate an UL MPDU in accordance with the duration; and

configure the second wireless device to transmit the UL MPDU in accordance with the duration and the spatial stream allocation the SIFS after the station receives the frame.