METHODS FOR UPLINK MULTIUSER SIGNALING AND TRANSMISSION

• US 20160360443A1
• Filed: 06/02/2016
• Published: 12/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Atlas Global Technologies LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Newracom Inc.
• Inventors: HEDAYAT, Ahmad Reza
• Granted Patent: US 10,116,361 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0404 the mobile station comprising multiple antennas, e.g. to provide uplink diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/006 in the downlink, i.e. towards the terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A method implemented by an Access Point (AP) in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) to initiate an uplink (UL) multi-user (MU) simultaneous transmission. The method includes generating a trigger frame that initiates the UL MU simultaneous transmission, where the trigger frame includes (1) a UL MU Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) attributes field to indicate attributes pertaining to a UL MU PPDU transmitted to the AP during the UL MU simultaneous transmission that are common to a plurality of stations (STAs) that are scheduled to participate in the UL MU simultaneous transmission and (2) a STA Physical Layer Service Data Unit (PSDU) attributes field for a particular STA from the plurality of STAs to indicate attributes pertaining to the UL MU PPDU that are specific to the particular STA. The method further includes transmitting the trigger frame through a wireless medium.

Claims

1. A method implemented by an Access Point (AP) in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) to initiate an uplink (UL) multi-user (MU) simultaneous transmission, the method comprising:

generating a trigger frame that initiates the UL MU simultaneous transmission, wherein the trigger frame includes (1) a UL MU Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) attributes field to indicate attributes pertaining to a UL MU PPDU transmitted to the AP during the UL MU simultaneous transmission that are common to a plurality of stations (STAs) that are scheduled to participate in the UL MU simultaneous transmission and (2) a STA Physical Layer Service Data Unit (PSDU) attributes field for a particular STA from the plurality of STAs to indicate attributes pertaining to the UL MU PPDU that are specific to the particular STA,

wherein the UL MU PPDU attributes field includes a guard interval subfield to indicate a guard interval that the plurality of STAs are to apply to one or more portions of the UL MU PPDU and wherein the STA PSDU attributes field for the particular STA includes an assignment subfield to indicate a transmission resource unit that the particular STA is to use to transmit a set of Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) within the UL MU PPDU to the AP during the UL MU simultaneous transmission; and

transmitting the trigger frame through a wireless medium.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the UL MU PPDU attributes field further includes a persistent trigger subfield to indicate whether one or more of the attributes pertaining to the UL MU PPDU is the same as indicated in a previously transmitted trigger frame.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the STA PSDU attributes field for the particular STA includes a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) subfield to indicate an MCS level that the particular STA is to use for one or more portions of the UL MU PPDU.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the UL MU PPDU attributes field further includes a bandwidth subfield to indicate a bandwidth of the UL MU PPDU.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the UL MU PPDU attributes field further includes a duration subfield to indicate a length of the UL MU PPDU.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the UL MU PPDU attributes field further includes an access category subfield to indicate an access category for data included in the UL MU PPDU.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the STA PSDU attributes field for the particular STA further includes a STA identifier subfield to indicate an association identifier that identifies the particular STA.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the STA PSDU attributes field for the particular STA further includes a number of spatial streams subfield to indicate a number of spatial streams that the particular STA is to use to transmit the UL MU PPDU to the AP during the UL MU simultaneous transmission.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the STA PSDU attributes field for the particular STA further includes a P matrix rows subfield to indicate a set of rows of a P matrix that the particular STA is to use to generate a set of High Efficiency (HE) Long Training Field (LTF) symbols in the UL MU PPDU.

10. A method implemented by a station (STA) in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) to participate in an uplink (UL) multi-user (MU) simultaneous transmission to an access point (AP) with one or more other STAs, the method comprising:

receiving a trigger frame that initiates the UL MU simultaneous transmission from the AP, wherein the trigger frame includes (1) a UL MU Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) attributes field to indicate attributes pertaining to a UL MU PPDU transmitted to the AP during the UL MU simultaneous transmission that are common to the STA and the one or more other STAs and (2) a STA Physical Layer Service Data Unit (PSDU) attributes field for the STA to indicate attributes pertaining to the UL MU PPDU that are specific to the STA, wherein the UL MU PPDU attributes field includes a guard interval subfield to indicate a guard interval that the STA and the one or more other STAs are to apply to one or more portions of the UL MU PPDU and wherein the STA PSDU attributes field for the STA includes an assignment subfield to indicate a transmission resource unit that the STA is to use to transmit a set of Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) within the UL MU PPDU to the AP during the UL MU simultaneous transmission;

determining the guard interval that the STA is to apply to one or more portions of the UL MU PPDU based on an indication in the guard interval subfield;

applying the determined guard interval to one or more portions of the UL MU PPDU;

determining the transmission resource unit that the STA is to use to transmit the set of MPDUs within the UL MU PPDU; and

transmitting the UL MU PPDU to the AP through a wireless medium during the UL MU simultaneous transmission using the determined transmission resource unit.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the UL MU PPDU attributes field further includes a persistent trigger subfield to indicate whether one or more of the attributes pertaining to the UL MU PPDU is the same as indicated in a previously transmitted trigger frame, the method further comprising:

determining that one or more attributes pertaining to the UL MU PPDU is the same as indicated in the previously transmitted trigger frame based on an indication in the persistent trigger subfield; and

applying one or more attributes indicated in the previously transmitted trigger frame to the UL MU PPDU.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the STA PSDU attributes field for the STA further includes a modulation coding scheme (MCS) subfield to indicate an MCS level that the STA is to use for one or more portions of the UL MU PPDU, the method further comprising:

determining the MCS level that the STA is to use for one or more portions of the UL MU PPDU based on an indication in the MCS subfield; and

applying the determined MCS level to one or more portions of the UL MU PPDU.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the UL MU PPDU attributes field further includes a duration subfield to indicate a length of the UL MU PPDU and a bandwidth subfield to indicate a bandwidth of the UL MU PPDU, the method further comprising:

determining the length of the UL MU PPDU based on an indication in the duration subfield, wherein the STA generates the UL MU PPDU such that the UL MU PPDU has the determined length of the UL MU PPDU; and

determining the bandwidth of the UL MU PPDU based on an indication in the bandwidth subfield, wherein the STA transmits the UL MU PPDU to the AP based on the determined bandwidth of the UL MU PPDU.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the UL MU PPDU attributes field further includes an access category subfield to indicate an access category for data included in the UL MU PPDU, the method further comprising:

determining the access category for data included in the UL MU PPDU based on an indication in the access category subfield; and

providing data in the UL MU PPDU that belongs to the access category.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the STA PSDU attributes field for the STA further includes a STA identifier subfield to indicate an association identifier that identifies the STA, the method further comprising:

determining the association identifier based on an indication in the STA identifier subfield; and

determining that the STA PSDU attributes field for the STA indicates attributes pertaining to the UL MU PPDU that are specific to the STA based on a determination that the determined association identifier is an association identifier associated with the STA.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the STA PSDU attributes field for the STA further includes a spatial streams (SS) allocation subfield that includes a number of spatial streams subfield to indicate a number of spatial streams that the STA is to use to transmit the UL MU PPDU to the AP during the UL MU simultaneous transmission, the method further comprising:

determining the number of spatial streams that the STA is to use to transmit the UL MU PPDU to the AP during the UL MU simultaneous transmission based on an indication in the number of spatial streams subfield, wherein the STA transmits the UL MU PPDU to the AP using the determined number of spatial streams.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the SS allocation subfield further includes a P matrix rows subfield to indicate a set of rows of a P matrix that the STA is to use to generate a set of High Efficiency (HE) Long Training Field (LTF) symbols in the UL MU PPDU, the method further comprising:

determining the set of rows of the P matrix that the STA is to use to generate a set of HE LTE symbols in the UL MU PPDU based on an indication in the P matrix rows subfield; and

generating a set of HE LTE symbols in the UL MU PPDU based on the determined set of rows of the P matrix.

18. A network device to function as an Access Point (AP) in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) to initiate an uplink (UL) multi-user (MU) simultaneous transmission, the network device comprising:

a Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver;

a set of one or more processors; and

a non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored therein a UL MU simultaneous transmission module, which when executed by the set of one or more processors, cause the network device to generate a trigger frame that initiates the UL MU simultaneous transmission, wherein the trigger frame includes (1) a UL MU Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) attributes field to indicate attributes pertaining to a UL MU PPDU transmitted to the AP during the UL MU simultaneous transmission that are common to a plurality of STAs that are scheduled to participate in the UL MU simultaneous transmission and (2) a STA Physical Layer Service Data Unit (PSDU) attributes field for a particular STA from the plurality of STAs to indicate attributes pertaining to the UL MU PPDU that are specific to the particular STA, wherein the UL MU PPDU attributes field includes a P matrix size subfield to indicate a size of a P matrix that the plurality of STAs are to use to generate their respective set of High Efficiency (HE) Long Training Field (LTF) symbols in the UL MU PPDU and wherein the STA PSDU attributes field for the particular STA includes a modulation coding scheme (MCS) subfield to indicate an MCS level that the particular STA is to use for one or more portions of the UL MU PPDU and transmit the trigger frame through a wireless medium.

19. The network device of claim 18, wherein the UL MU PPDU attributes field further includes a persistent trigger subfield to indicate whether one or more of the attributes pertaining to the UL MU PPDU is the same as indicated in a previously transmitted trigger frame.

20. The network device of claim 18, wherein the UL MU PPDU attributes field further includes an access category subfield to indicate an access category for data included in the UL MU PPDU.