Method and apparatus for frame exchange in a high efficiency wireless LAN

• US 10,743,309 B2
• Filed: 04/03/2018
• Issued: 08/11/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Atlas Global Technologies LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Newracom Inc.
• Inventors: Seok, Yongho
• Primary Examiner(s): Thier, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mensah, Prince A
• Application Number:
  US15/944,663
• Publication Number:
  US 20180227913A1
• Time in Patent Office: 861 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/322 Intralayer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/044 based on the type of the allocated resource
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A frame exchange in a High Efficiency WLAN (HEW) includes a method for exchanging frames implemented by an access point in a wireless local area network. The method further includes transmitting to one or more stations (STAs) a first frame eliciting a second frame from the one or more STAs in a downlink (DL) Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU), wherein the DL PPDU carrying the first frame includes information indicating a type of a PPDU carrying the second frame from PPDU types including a Single User (SU) PPDU and a Multiple User (MU) PPDU; and receiving from the one or more STAs the second frame in an uplink (UL) PPDU having a type determined based on the information indicating the type of the PPDU.

Claims

1. A method for exchanging frames by an access point (AP) in a wireless local area network, the method comprising:

transmitting, in a downlink (DL) Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) to one or more stations (STAs), a first frame to elicit a second frame from the one or more STAs, wherein the DL PPDU carrying the first frame includes information indicating a type of a PPDU carrying the second frame from a plurality of PPDU types, wherein the plurality of PPDU types include a High-Efficiency (HE) PPDU and a Non-High Throughput (Non-HT) PPDU; and

receiving from the one or more STAs the second frame in an uplink (UL) PPDU having a type determined based on the information indicating the type of the PPDU,

wherein the DL PPDU carrying the first frame further includes information indicating a length of the PPDU carrying the second frame, and

wherein the information indicating the length of the PPDU carrying the second frame indicates a value equal to or greater than a predetermined minimum value.

2. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the information indicating the type of the PPDU is included in a Medium Access Control (MAC) header of the first frame.

3. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the DL PPDU carrying the first frame further includes information indicating a type of High-Efficiency-Long Training Field (HE-LTF) of the PPDU carrying the second frame from HE-LTF types including Compressed HE-LTF and Uncompressed HE-LTF.

4. The method according to claim 3,

wherein the UL PPDU carrying the second frame includes one or more HE-LTF fields having a type determined based on the information indicating the type of HE-LTF.

5. The method according to claim 1,

wherein a symbol duration of High-Efficiency-Short Training Field (HE-STF) of the PPDU carrying the second frame is determined based on whether the second frame is transmitted based on the first frame or not.

6. The method according to claim 5,

wherein the symbol duration of HE-STF is 4.0 μ

s or 8.0 μ

s.

7. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the AP determines a symbol duration of a HE-STF of the PPDU carrying the second frame based on a value of a Length field of a Legacy-SIGNAL (L-SIG) field of the PPDU carrying the second frame.

8. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the plurality of PPDU types further include a Single User (SU) PPDU and a Multiple User (MU) PPDU.

9. The method according to claim 1,

wherein a symbol duration of an High-Efficiency-Short Training Field (HE-STF) of the PPDU carrying the second frame is 8.0 μ

s based on the second frame being transmitted as an immediate response to the first frame.

10. A method for exchanging frames by a station (STA) in a wireless local area network, the method comprising:

receiving a first frame from an access point (AP) in a downlink (DL) Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU), wherein the first frame triggers the STA to transmit a second frame, wherein the DL PPDU carrying the first frame includes information indicating a type of a PPDU carrying the second frame from a plurality of PPDU types, wherein the plurality of PPDU types include a High-Efficiency (HE) PPDU and a Non-High Throughput (Non-HT) PPDU; and

transmitting to the AP the second frame in an uplink (UL) PPDU having a type determined based on the information indicating the type of the PPDU,

wherein the DL PPDU carrying the first frame further includes information indicating a length of the PPDU carrying the second frame, and

wherein the information indicating the length of the PPDU carrying the second frame indicates a value equal to or greater than a predetermined minimum value.

11. The method according to claim 10,

wherein the information indicating the type of the PPDU is included in a Medium Access Control (MAC) header of the first frame.

12. The method according to claim 10,

wherein the DL PPDU carrying the first frame further includes information indicating a type of High-Efficiency-Long Training Field (HE-LTF) of the PPDU carrying the second frame from HE-LTF types including a Compressed HE-LTF and an Uncompressed HE-LTF.

13. The method according to claim 12,

wherein the UL PPDU carrying the second frame includes one or more HE-LTF fields having a type determined based on the information indicating the type of HE-LTF.

14. The method according to claim 10,

wherein the symbol duration of HE-STF is 4.0 μ

s or 8.0 μ

s.

15. The method according to claim 10,

wherein a symbol duration of HE-STF of the PPDU carrying the second frame is determined based on a value of a Length field of Legacy-SIGNAL (L-SIG) of the PPDU carrying the second frame.

16. The method according to claim 10,

wherein a symbol duration of an High-Efficiency-Short Training Field (HE-STF) of the PPDU carrying the second frame is 8.0 μ

s based on the second frame being transmitted as an immediate response to the first frame.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, which includes instruction that when performed by a station (STA) in a wireless local area network causes the STA to:

receive a first frame from an access point (AP) in a downlink (DL) Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU), wherein the first frame triggers the STA to transmit a second frame, wherein the DL PPDU carrying the first frame includes information indicating a type of a PPDU carrying the second frame from a plurality of PPDU types, wherein the plurality of PPDU types include a High-Efficiency (HE) PPDU and a Non-High Throughput (Non-HT) PPDU; and

transmit to the AP the second frame in an uplink (UL) PPDU having a type determined based on the information indicating the type of the PPDU,

wherein the DL PPDU carrying the first frame further includes information indicating a length of the PPDU carrying the second frame, and

wherein the information indicating the length of the PPDU carrying the second frame indicates a value equal to or greater than a predetermined minimum value.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium according to claim 17,

wherein a symbol duration of an High-Efficiency-Short Training Field (HE-STF) of the PPDU carrying the second frame is 8.0 μ

s based on the second frame being transmitted as an immediate response to the first frame.