SIGNALING OF TRANSMISSION SETTINGS IN MULTI-USER SYSTEMS

• US 20110002319A1
• Filed: 03/02/2009
• Published: 01/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Wang, Ying, Serbetli, Semih, Husen, Sri Andari
• Granted Patent: US 9,497,744 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

The present invention relates to a transmitting apparatus, a receiving apparatus, a system, a signal, and a method of multi-user transmission, wherein transmission settings are divided into common signal information, containing settings/information relevant for multiple receivers and user stream specific information, containing settings/information relevant only to a related user stream. Furthermore, the common signal information may comprise at least one of a duration of the longest user stream field and multi-user resource allocation field, so that the receivers know the mapping of user streams to receivers.

Claims

1. A transmitting apparatus for performing multi-user transmission to a plurality of receivers (21-24), said apparatus (10) being adapted:

a) to divide transmission settings of said multi-user transmission into common signal information, which contains common information relevant for multiple ones of said receivers, and user stream specific information, which contains user stream specific information relevant only to a related user stream; and

b) to convey said common signal information and said user stream specific information in separate dedicated fields of a preamble portion of said multi-user transmission.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said apparatus (10) is adapted to provide in said common information at least one of a duration information which indicates a duration of the longest user steam field, and a resource allocation information which indicates a mapping of user streams to said receivers.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said apparatus (10) is adapted to transmit said user stream specific information in a multi-user fashion.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said apparatus (10) is adapted to map a user stream to be transmitted to a user or receiver by demultiplexing the stream into multiple transmission streams.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said user stream is a spatial user stream.

6. A receiving apparatus for receiving a multi-user transmission signal, said apparatus (21-24) being adapted:

a) to detect in separate dedicated fields of a preamble portion of said multi-user transmission a common signal information and a user stream specific information; and

b) to derive from said common signal information a transmission setting relevant for multiple receivers, and from said user stream specific information a dedicated user stream specific information relevant only to a user stream related to said apparatus.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said apparatus (21-24) is adapted to derive from said common information at least one of a duration information which indicates a duration of the longest user steam field, and a resource allocation information which indicates a mapping of user streams to users or receivers.

8. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said user stream is a spatial user stream.

9. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said apparatus (21-24) is adapted to receive said user stream specific information in a multi-user fashion.

10. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said apparatus (21-24) is adapted to check an assignment field of said preamble portion, to independently decode user specific stream indicated by said assignment information as being assigned to different users or receivers, and to discard those user specific streams not intended for said apparatus.

12. A system for multi-user transmission comprising at least one transmitting apparatus for performing multi-user transmission to a plurality of receivers (21-24), said apparatus (10) being adapted:

a) to divide transmission settings of said multi-user transmission into common signal information, which contains common information relevant for multiple ones of said receivers, and user stream specific information, which contains user stream specific information relevant only to a related user stream; and

b) to convey said common signal information and said user stream specific information in separate dedicated fields of a preamble portion of said multi-user transmission and at least one receiving apparatus according to claim 6.

13. A system according to claim 12, wherein said at least one transmitting apparatus (10) and said at least one receiving apparatus (21-24) are at least part of a wireless network with a random access mechanism.

11. A method for performing multi-user transmission between a transmitter (10) and a plurality of receivers (21-24), said method comprising:

a) dividing transmission settings of said multi-user transmission into common signal information, which contains common information relevant for multiple ones of said receivers, and user stream specific information, which contains user stream specific information relevant only to a related user stream; and

b) conveying said common signal information and said user stream specific information in separate dedicated fields of a preamble portion of said multi-user transmission.

14. A computer program product comprising code means for generating the steps of claim 11 when run on a computer device.

15. A multi-user transmission signal comprising a preamble portion having a first field which contains common signal information indicating a transmission setting relevant for multiple receivers, and a second field which contains user stream specific information relevant only to a related user stream.

16. A signal according to claim 15, wherein said first part is a single-user transmission part and said second part is a multi-user transmission part.