SPATIAL REUSE OF WI-FI CHANNELS WITH INTERFERENCE ESTIMATION AND CONTROL

• US 20150382360A1
• Filed: 06/26/2014
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Huang, Po-Kai, Yang, Rongzhen, Stacey, Robert J., Yin, Hujun
• Granted Patent: US 9,825,729 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/00 Monitoring; Testing of line transmission systems H04B3/46; arrangements for monitoring or testing transmission systems employing electromagnetic waves other than radio waves H04B10/07
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/345 Interference values signal-to-interference ratio [SIR] or carrier-to-interference ratio [CIR] H04B17/336
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/04 using two or more spaced independent antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0632 Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/00 Arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received correcting synchronisation H04L7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/18 between terminal devices

Abstract

A transmitter/receiver pair may estimate a first channel interference caused during the spatial reuse phase by the transmitter/receiver pair to other transmitter/receiver pairs over a channel. A second channel interference experienced by the transmitter/receiver pair may be estimated during the spatial reuse phase by the transmitter/receiver pair from the other transmitter/receiver pairs. An interference margin may be estimated for the channel based on the first and second channel interferences. The interference margin may be announced to the other transmitter/receiver pairs in frame. The interference margin may then be complied with while communicating over the channel in order to control the interference.

Claims

1. A wireless device including a processor and circuitry to estimate a first channel interference caused, during a spatial reuse phase, by the wireless device to other wireless devices over a channel, to estimate a second channel interference experienced, during the spatial reuse phase, by the wireless device from the other wireless devices over the channel, to estimate an interference margin for the channel based on the first and second channel interferences, to announce the interference margin to the other wireless devices, and to comply with the interference margin while communicating over the channel.

2. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the wireless device is further configured to estimate if a transmission over the channel will be successful based on the interference margin and to perform a frame exchange with a receiver when the estimate is greater than a threshold.

3. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the wireless device is a transmitter and further comprising a receiver paired with the transmitter, wherein the transmitter is further configured to exchange frames with the receiver to estimate the first and second channel interferences.

4. The wireless device of claim 3, wherein the transmitter is further configured to estimate the first channel interference in response to P_TX(RX_E/P_RX) where P_TX is an indication of a transmit power of the transmitter, RX_E is an indication of energy received by the transmitter from the receiver, and P_RX is an indication of a transmit power of the receiver.

5. The wireless device of claim 4, wherein the transmitter is further configured to estimate the second channel interference by the receiver monitoring a received energy resulting from a transmitter transmission.

6. The wireless device of claim 4, wherein the transmitter is configured to estimate the interference margin for the channel in response to Max_M/α

where Max_M is an indication of a maximum allowed interference margin for the channel and α

is an indication of a maximum quantity of transmissions on the channel.

7. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the wireless device and a receiver are configured to exchange management frames to estimate the first and second channel interferences.

8. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the wireless device is further configured to announce the interference margin by transmitting a dedicated frame.

9. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the wireless device is further configured to announce the interference margin by embedding the interference margin into a frame that has a purpose other than explicitly announcing the interference margin.

10. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the wireless device is one of an access point (AP) or a wireless station (STA).

11. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the wireless device includes a memory and at least one radio.

12. The wireless device of claim 11, wherein the wireless device includes one or more antennas.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by processing circuitry in determining and controlling channel interference during a spatial reuse phase, the operations to perform the channel interference determination and control:

estimate a first channel interference caused, during the spatial reuse phase, by a wireless device pair to other wireless device pairs over a channel;

estimate a second channel interference experienced, during the spatial reuse phase, by the wireless device pair from the other wireless device pairs over the channel;

estimate an interference margin for the channel based on the first and second channel interferences; and

announce the interference margin to the other wireless device pairs.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further transmit the interference margin to the other wireless device pairs in one of a dedicated frame or embedded in a frame.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further define the interference margin to be represented by M and determined by ƒ

(S)<

α

*ƒ

(S/I) where α

is an indication of a maximum quantity of transmissions on the channel, ƒ

is an indication of the function that maps signal-to-interference and noise ratio of the channel to a data rate, S is an indication of a signal-to-noise ratio of the channel, I=α

*M is an indication of a potential interference-to-noise ratio of the channel.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further increases a gain of the spatial reuse phase by determining interference margin M through G*ƒ

(S)<

α

*ƒ

(S/I) where G is an indication of a gain.

17. A method for channel interference estimation and control during spatial reuse of wireless channels, the method comprising:

estimating a first channel interference caused, during the spatial reuse phase, by a wireless device pair to other wireless device pairs over a channel;

estimating a second channel interference experienced, during the spatial reuse phase, by the wireless device pair from the other wireless device pairs over the channel;

estimating an interference margin for the channel based on the first and second channel interferences; and

transmitting the interference margin in a frame to the other wireless device pairs.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein estimating the first channel interference comprises the wireless device pair exchanging management frames.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein estimating the second channel interference comprises the receiver of the wireless device pair monitoring a received energy on the channel resulting from transmissions from the other wireless device pairs.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein estimating the interference margin in response to Max_M/α

where Max_M is an indication of a maximum allowed interference margin for the channel and α

is an indication of a maximum quantity of transmissions on the channel.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising defining the interference margin M by ƒ

(S)<

α

*ƒ

(S/I) where α

is an indication of a maximum quantity of transmissions on the channel, ƒ

is an indication of a function that maps signal-to-interference and noise ratio of the channel to a data rate, S is an indication of a signal-to-noise ratio of the channel, I=α

*M is an indication of a potential interference-to-noise ratio of the channel.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising increasing a channel performance of the channel by determining interference margin M through G*ƒ

(S)<

α

*ƒ

(S/I) where G is an indication of a gain of the channel.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the wireless device pairs comprise access points/wireless stations, wireless stations/access points, and/or wireless stations/wireless stations.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the wireless device complies with Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax standard.