Scheduling mechanisms for media access control protection and channel sounding

• US 20110149882A1
• Filed: 12/23/2009
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Stacey, Robert J., Gong, Michelle X.
• Granted Patent: US 8,675,575 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• 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: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/04 Scheduled access hybrid access H04W74/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Channel sounding for spatial division multiple access (SDMA) under the IEEE 802.11 protocol is described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting, by a device, at least one data block comprising at least one field to one or more stations, the at least one field comprising an offset value, the offset value of the at least one field differing for each station; and

receiving, by the device, a response responsive to the at least one data block from the one or more stations in a desired order, wherein the offset value of the at least one field indicates the desired order in which the device receives the responses from each of the one or more stations.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising wherein the response comprises a sounding frame, a beamform feedback frame, a medium access control (MAC) protection sequence frame, or any combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one field is a very high throughput signal (VHT-SIG-B) field.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed during a transmission opportunity (TXOP).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the response is a block acknowledgement (BA).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more stations are within a same spatial division multiple access (SDMA) group.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the response comprises channel state information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the response is either implicit or explicit channel sounding.

9. A method comprising:

transmitting simultaneously, by a device, a schedule frame to one or more stations, the schedule frame comprising a plurality of station association identifier fields, each station association identifier field associated with a station of the one or more stations; and

receiving, by the device, a response responsive to the schedule frame from the one or more stations in a desired order, wherein an additional order of the station association identifier fields indicates the desired order in which the device receives the responses from each of the one or more stations.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising wherein the response comprises a sounding frame, a beamform feedback frame, a medium access control (MAC) protection sequence frame, or any combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein transmitting, by the access point, further comprises transmitting a request-to-send frame subsequent to transmitting the data block, and wherein transmitting the response, by the one or more stations, further comprises transmitting a clear-to-send frame.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the method is performed within a transmission opportunity (TXOP).

13. The method of claim 9, wherein a null data packet frame comprises the sounding frame and the response is attached to a block acknowledgement (BA).

14. The method of claim 9, wherein transmitting occurs during a first transmission opportunity (TXOP) and receiving occurs during a second transmission opportunity (TXOP).

15. The method of claim 9, wherein a subset of the one or more stations are within differing spatial division multiple access (SDMA) groups.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the response comprises channel state information.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein transmitting further comprises transmitting omni-directional.

18. The method of claim 9, wherein the response is either implicit or explicit channel sounding.

19. A device comprising:

a processing unit;

a memory coupled to the processing unit;

a transmitter, coupled to the processing unit, to transmit omni-directional a schedule frame, the schedule frame comprising a plurality of station association identifier fields, each station association identifier field associated with a station of one or more stations; and

a receiver, coupled to the processing unit, to receive a response from the one or more stations in a desired order, wherein an additional order of the station association identifier fields indicates the desired order in which the device receives the response from the one or more stations.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the response comprises a sounding frame, a beamform feedback frame, a medium access control (MAC) protection sequence frame, or any combination thereof.

21. A device comprising:

a processing unit;

a memory coupled to the processing unit

a transmitter, coupled to the processing unit, to transmit at least one data block comprising at least one field to each station of one or more stations, the at least one field comprising an offset value, the offset value of each field differing for each station; and

a receiver, coupled to the processing unit, to receive a response from the one or more stations in a desired order, wherein the offset value of the at least one field indicates the order in which the device receives the response from the one or more stations.

22. The device of claim 21, wherein the response comprises a sounding frame, a beamform feedback frame, medium access control (MAC) protection sequences, or any combination thereof.