LEGACY COMPATIBLE SIGNALING FOR CHANNEL BONDING

• US 20160316455A1
• Filed: 03/31/2016
• Published: 10/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: ASTERJADHI, Alfred, MERLIN, Simone
• Granted Patent: US 10,425,917 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0466 the resource being a scrambling code
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/121 for groups of terminals or users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0816 with collision avoidance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method and apparatus for providing legacy compatible signaling for channel bonding. An example apparatus generally includes a processing system configured to generate a frame having channel bonding information indicating one or more channels available for multi-user (MU) communication by one or more wireless nodes and a first interface configured to output the frame for transmission.

Claims

1. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

a processing system configured to generate a frame having channel bonding information indicating one or more channels available for multi-user (MU) communication by one or more wireless nodes; and

a first interface configured to output the frame for transmission.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the channel bonding information comprises at least one bit indicating whether or not the one or more channels are available for MU communication.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the at least one bit comprises a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more channels, each bit indicating whether or not the corresponding one or more channels are available for MU communication.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the frame is decodable by at least one wireless node of a first type and at least one wireless node of a second type; and

the channel bonding information is decodable by the at least one second type wireless node but not decodable by the least one first type wireless node.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the frame comprises a request to send (RTS) or a clear to send (CTS) frame.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the channel bonding information is provided via one or more bits of a service field of the frame.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the one or more bits of the service field are used by the apparatus for scrambler initialization.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein at least one of the one or more bits of the service field is used as a parity bit by the apparatus to detect any error in the channel bonding information.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the channel bonding information comprises an index, wherein different values of the index map to different combinations of one or more channels available for MU communication by the one or more wireless nodes.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein a number of bits in the index is based, at least in part, on a basic service set (BSS) bandwidth.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the channel bonding information comprises a bitmap, wherein each bit in the bitmap indicates whether a corresponding channel is available for MU communication.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a second interface for obtaining a request from another apparatus, and wherein the processing system is configured to generate the frame having the channel bonding information after obtaining the request.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a third interface configured to obtain data transmitted on the one or more channels indicated as available for MU communication by the channel bonding information.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

the third interface is configured to obtain data transmitted on the one or more channels from multiple wireless nodes.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first interface is further configured to provide an indication of an assignment of the one or more channels to the one or more wireless nodes.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the indication is provided in at least one of a beacon, a target wakeup time (TWT) element, or the frame.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the indication is valid for an amount of time.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first interface is further configured to output data to be transmitted on the one or more channels indicated as available for MU transmissions by the channel bonding information.

19. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

a first interface configured to obtain a frame comprising channel bonding information;

a processing system configured to determine, based on the channel bonding information contained in the frame, one or more channels available for multi-user (MU) communication; and

a second interface configured to output data for transmission on the one or more of the channels determined to be available for MU communication.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the determination is based at least on one bit in the channel bonding information.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the at least one bit comprises a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more channels, each bit indicating whether or not the corresponding one or more channels are available for MU communication.

22. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the processing system is configured to obtain the channel bonding information via one or more bits of a service field of the frame, and wherein at least one of:

the processing system is configured to use the one or more bits of the service field for scrambler initialization;

or

at least one bit of the one or more bits of the service field comprise a parity bit and the processing system is configured to use the parity bit for detecting errors in the channel bonding information.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein:

the channel bonding information comprises an index;

different values of the index map to different combinations of one or more channels available for MU communication by the apparatus;

a number of bits in the index is based, at least in part, on a basic service set (BSS) bandwidth; and

the processing system is configured to determine the one or more channels available for MU communication based, at least in part, on the index.

24. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein:

the channel bonding information comprises a bitmap; and

the processing system determines, based on each bit in the bitmap, whether a corresponding channel is available for MU communication.

25. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein:

the first interface is further configured to obtain at least one of a beacon or a target wakeup time (TWT) element; and

the processing system is configured to determine an assignment of the one or more channels to the apparatus based on an indication in at least one of the beacon, the TWT element, or the frame, and wherein the indication is valid for an amount of time.

26. A method for wireless communications by an apparatus, comprising:

generating a frame having channel bonding information indicating one or more channels available for multi-user (MU) communication by one or more wireless nodes; and

outputting the frame for transmission.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the channel bonding information comprises at least one bit indicating whether or not the one or more channels are available for MU communication.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the at least one bit comprises a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more channels, each bit indicating whether or not the corresponding one or more channels are available for MU communication.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein:

the frame is decodable by at least one wireless node of a first type and at least one wireless node of a second type; and

the channel bonding information is decodable by the at least one second type wireless node but not decodable by the least one first type wireless node.

30-43. -43. (canceled)

44. A method for wireless communications by an apparatus, comprising:

obtaining a frame comprising channel bonding information;

determining, based on the channel bonding information contained in the frame, one or more channels available for multi-user (MU) communication; and

outputting data for transmission on the one or more of the channels determined to be available for MU communication.

45-79. -79. (canceled)