Sounding And Steering Protocols For Wireless Communications

• US 20100248635A1
• Filed: 03/30/2010
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marvell Asia Pte Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Marvell World Trade Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Inventors: Zhang, Hongyuan, Liu, Yong, Nabar, Rohit U., Lou, Hui-Ling
• Granted Patent: US 8,270,909 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/63.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0413 MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0456 Selection of precoding matrices or codebooks, e.g. using matrices antenna weighting
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0619 using feedback from receiving side feedback signaling for adaptive modulation/coding H04L1/0001
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0626 Channel coefficients, e.g. channel state information [CSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0634 Antenna weights or vector/matrix coefficients
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0697 using spatial multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver

Abstract

The present disclosure includes systems, apparatuses, and techniques relating to wireless local area network devices. Systems, apparatuses, and techniques include communicating with multiple wireless communication devices to determine characteristics of spatial wireless channels, determining steering matrices based on one or more outputs of the communicating, and transmitting signals that concurrently provide data to the wireless communication devices via different spatial wireless channels. The signals can be spatially steered to the wireless communication devices based on the steering matrices.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

communicating with multiple wireless communication devices to determine characteristics of spatial wireless channels, wherein the spatial wireless channels are respectively associated with the wireless communication devices;

determining steering matrices based on one or more outputs of the communicating, wherein the steering matrices are respectively associated with the wireless communication devices; and

transmitting signals that concurrently provide data to the wireless communication devices via different spatial wireless channels, wherein the signals are spatially steered to the wireless communication devices based on the steering matrices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating with the wireless communication devices comprises:

transmitting, in a frequency band, one or more sounding packets to the wireless communication devices; and

receiving, in response to the one or more sounding packets, feedback packets from the wireless communication devices, wherein a feedback packet is derived from a wireless channel estimation that is based on a received sounding packet.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving the feedback packets comprises (i) receiving a first channel state information from a first device of the wireless communication devices and (ii) receiving a second channel state information from a second device of the wireless communication devices,

wherein determining the steering matrices comprises

determining a first steering matrix based at least on the second channel state information, and

determining a second steering matrix based at least on the first channel state information.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving feedback packets comprises (i) receiving beam forming information indicative of a first feedback matrix from a first device of the wireless communication devices and (ii) receiving beam forming information indicative of a second feedback matrix from a second device of the wireless communication devices,

wherein determining the steering matrices comprises

determining a first steering matrix based at least on the first feedback matrix, and

determining a second steering matrix based at least on the second feedback matrix.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving feedback packets comprises (i) receiving interference rejection information indicative of a first interference matrix from a first device of the wireless communication devices and (ii) receiving interference rejection information indicative of a second interference matrix from a second device of the wireless communication devices,

wherein the first interference matrix is based on a null space of a wireless channel matrix associated with the first device, wherein the second interference matrix is based on a null space of a wireless channel matrix associated with the second device,

wherein determining the steering matrices comprises

determining a first steering matrix based at least on the second interference matrix, and

determining a second steering matrix based at least on the first interference matrix.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating with the wireless communication devices comprises:

transmitting, in a frequency band, one or more sounding requests to the wireless communication devices; and

receiving, in response to the one or more sounding requests, sounding packets from the wireless communication devices,

wherein determining the steering matrices comprises estimating wireless channel matrices based on the received sounding packets.

7. An apparatus comprising:

transceiver electronics to transmit and receive signals; and

processor electronics configured to (i) communicate with multiple wireless communication devices to determine information associated with spatial wireless channels, the spatial wireless channels being respectively associated with the wireless communication devices, (ii) determine steering matrices based on the information, the steering matrices being respectively associated with the wireless communication devices, and (iii) cause the transceiver electronics to transmit signals that concurrently provide data to the wireless communication devices via different spatial wireless channels, wherein the signals are spatially steered to the wireless communication devices based on the steering matrices.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor electronics are configured to cause the transceiver electronics to (i) transmit, in a frequency band, one or more sounding packets to the wireless communication devices, and (ii) receive, in response to the one or more sounding packets, feedback packets from the wireless communication devices, wherein a feedback packet is derived from a wireless channel estimation that is based on a received sounding packet.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor electronics are configured to (i) receive a first channel state information from a first device of the wireless communication devices, (ii) receive a second channel state information from a second device of the wireless communication devices, (iii) determine a first steering matrix based at least on the second channel state information, and (iv) determine a second steering matrix based at least on the first channel state information.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor electronics are configured to (i) receive beam forming information indicative of a first feedback matrix from a first device of the wireless communication devices, (ii) receive beam forming information indicative of a second feedback matrix from a second device of the wireless communication devices, (iii) determine a first steering matrix based at least on the first feedback matrix, and (iv) determine a second steering matrix based at least on the second feedback matrix.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor electronics are configured to (i) receive interference rejection information indicative of a first interference matrix from a first device of the wireless communication devices, (ii) receive interference rejection information indicative of a second interference matrix from a second device of the wireless communication devices, (iii) determine a first steering matrix based at least on the second interference matrix, and (iv) determine a second steering matrix based at least on the first interference matrix, wherein the first interference matrix is based on a null space of a wireless channel matrix associated with the first device, wherein the second interference matrix is based on a null space of a wireless channel matrix associated with the second device,

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor electronics are configured to cause the transceiver electronics to (i) transmit, in a frequency band, one or more sounding requests to the wireless communication devices, and (ii) receive, in response to the one or more sounding requests, sounding packets from the wireless communication devices, wherein determining the steering matrices comprises estimating wireless channel matrices based on the received sounding packets.

13. A system comprising:

an access point configured to (i) communicate with multiple wireless communication devices to determine information associated with spatial wireless channels, the spatial wireless channels being respectively associated with the wireless communication devices, (ii) determine steering matrices based on the information, the steering matrices being respectively associated with the wireless communication devices, and (iii) transmit signals that concurrently provide data to the wireless communication devices via different spatial wireless channels, wherein the signals are spatially steered to the wireless communication devices based on the steering matrices.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the access point is configured to (i) transmit, in a frequency band, one or more sounding packets to the wireless communication devices, and (ii) receive, in response to the one or more sounding packets, feedback packets from the wireless communication devices, wherein a feedback packet is derived from a wireless channel estimation that is based on a received sounding packet.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the access point is configured to (i) receive a first channel state information from a first device of the wireless communication devices, (ii) receive a second channel state information from a second device of the wireless communication devices, (iii) determine a first steering matrix based at least on the second channel state information, and (iv) determine a second steering matrix based at least on the first channel state information.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the access point is configured to (i) receive beam forming information indicative of a first feedback matrix from a first device of the wireless communication devices, (ii) receive beam forming information indicative of a second feedback matrix from a second device of the wireless communication devices, (iii) determine a first steering matrix based at least on the first feedback matrix, and (iv) determine a second steering matrix based at least on the second feedback matrix.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the access point is configured to (i) receive interference rejection information indicative of a first interference matrix from a first device of the wireless communication devices, (ii) receive interference rejection information indicative of a second interference matrix from a second device of the wireless communication devices, (iii) determine a first steering matrix based at least on the second interference matrix, and (iv) determine a second steering matrix based at least on the first interference matrix, wherein the first interference matrix is based on a null space of a wireless channel matrix associated with the first device, wherein the second interference matrix is based on a null space of a wireless channel matrix associated with the second device,

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the access point is configured to (i) transmit, in a frequency band, one or more sounding requests to the wireless communication devices, and (ii) receive, in response to the one or more sounding requests, sounding packets from the wireless communication devices, wherein determining the steering matrices comprises estimating wireless channel matrices based on the received sounding packets.

19. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a first group of antennas; and

a second group of antennas,

wherein the access point is configured to (i) transmit a first sounding packet to perform sounding on the first group of antennas, and (ii) transmit a second sounding packet to perform sounding on the second group of antennas.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the access point is configured to transmit signaling information that causes one or more legacy devices to ignore processing a space division multiple access (SDMA) frame and to prevent the one or more legacy devices from transmitting during a transmission of the SDMA frame.