TRIGGER FRAME RESPONSE WITH NETWORK ALLOCATION VECTOR

• US 20170006635A1
• Filed: 12/21/2015
• Published: 01/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Huang, Po-Kai, Stacey, Robert J., Li, Qinghua
• Granted Patent: US 9,942,920 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0064 Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0816 with collision avoidance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Computer readable media, methods, and apparatuses to deter e whether to respond to a frame based on a network allocation vector. An apparatus of a station comprising memory and processing circuitry coupled to the memory is disclosed. The processing circuity is configured to: decode a frame comprising a first duration and a first transmitter address, if the frame is a trigger frame or a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) frame from a master station of a basic service set (BSS), respond to the trigger frame or the MU-RTS frame if the trigger frame or MU-RTS frame comprises a NAV indicator that indicates not to consider a network allocation vector (NAV). The indication may be an indication in a physical header or an indication in a media access control header.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising memory and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuity configured to:

decode a first frame of a wireless transmission, the frame comprising a first duration and a first transmitter address;

if the first frame is a trigger frame or a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) frame from a master station of a basic service set (BSS), respond to the trigger frame or the MU-RTS frame if the trigger frame or MU-RTS frame comprises an indicator that indicates not to consider a network allocation vector (NAV).

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the indication is one from the following group:

an indication in a physical header and an indication in a media access control header.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

decode a second frame of a wireless transmission comprising a second duration and a second transmitter address;

determine if the NAV is to be set based on the second frame, wherein the NAV comprises an indication of a bandwidth of the NAV; and

if the NAV is to be set, then set the NAV to the second duration, wherein if a physical (PHY) header or a media access control (MAC) header of the second frame indicates a bandwidth of the NAV, then set the bandwidth of the NAV to the bandwidth of the NAV indicated by the PHY header or the MAC header otherwise set the bandwidth to an entire bandwidth occupied by the trigger frame or MU-RTS frame.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the first frame is the trigger frame or the MU-RTS frame and wherein the first frame comprises a resource allocation with a second duration and second bandwidth for the station, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

determine a first throughput by multiplying the second duration with the second bandwidth and determine a second throughput by multiplying the bandwidth of the NAV with a duration of the NAV;

encode a third packet for the resource allocation if the second throughput is less than the first throughput by a threshold value.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

respond to the trigger frame if the resource allocation of the trigger frame indicates a subchannel that does not overlap with the NAV bandwidth.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first frame is the trigger frame or the MU-RTS frame and comprises a resource allocation with a second duration for the station, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

determine an overlapping duration of the NAV with the second duration; and

encode a third packet for the resource allocation if the overlapping duration is less than a threshold.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

receive the threshold from the master station.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

decode the first frame, decode a second frame, wherein the second frame is the MU-RTS;

cause to be transmitted a multi-user clear-to-send (MU-CTS) comprising a duration for other wireless devices to defer in accordance with the MU-RTS; and

if the first frame is the trigger frame and the trigger frame comprises a resource allocation within the duration, then respond to the trigger frame if the NAV is set or if the NAV is not set.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first frame further comprises an indication for the station to respond with an acknowledgement (ACK) or block ACK (BA), and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

respond with the ACK or BA if the NAV is set or if the NAV is not set.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

respond with the ACK or BA if a duration of the ACK or BA is below a threshold.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is one from the following group:

a station, an access point, an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax access point, an IEEE 802.11ax station, and an IEEE station, and an IEEE access point.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:

decode the first frame and respond to the first frame in accordance with orthogonal frequency division multiple-access (OFDMA) and multiple-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO).

13. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the processing circuitry.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors, the instructions to configure the one or more processors to cause an apparatus to:

decode a first frame of a wireless transmission, the frame comprising a first duration and a first transmitter address;

if the first frame is a trigger frame or a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) frame from a master station of a basic service set (BSS), respond to the trigger frame or the MU-RTS frame if the trigger frame or MU-RTS frame comprises an indicator that indicates not to consider a network allocation vector (NAV).

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the indication is one from the following group:

an indication in a physical header and an indication in a media access control header.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions configure the one or more processors to cause the station to:

decode a second frame of a wireless transmission comprising a second duration and a second transmitter address;

determine if the NAV is to be set based on the second frame, wherein the NAV comprises an indication of a bandwidth of the NAV; and

if the NAV is to be set, then set the NAV to the second duration, wherein if a physical (PHY) header or a media access control (MAC) header of the second frame indicates a bandwidth of the NAV, then set the bandwidth of the NAV to the bandwidth of the NAV indicated by the PHY header or the MAC header otherwise set the bandwidth to an entire bandwidth occupied by the trigger frame or MU-RTS frame.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the first frame is the trigger frame or the MU-RTS frame and wherein the first frame comprises a resource allocation with a second duration and second bandwidth for the station, and wherein the instructions configure the one or more processors to cause the station to:

determine a first throughput by multiplying the second duration with the second bandwidth and determine a second throughput by multiplying the bandwidth of the NAV with a duration of the NAV;

encode a third packet for the resource allocation if the second throughput is less than the first throughput by a threshold value.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions configure the one or more processors to cause the station to:

decode the first frame, decode a second frame, wherein the second frame is the MU-RTS;

cause to be transmitted a multi-user clear-to-send (MU-CTS) comprising a duration for other wireless devices to defer in accordance with the MU-RTS; and

if the first frame is the trigger frame and the trigger frame comprises a resource allocation within the duration, then respond to the trigger frame if the NAV is set or if the NAV is not set.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the first frame further comprises an indication for the station to respond with an acknowledgement (ACK) or block ACK (BA), and wherein the instructions configure the one or more processors to cause the station to:

respond with the ACK or BA if the NAV is set or if the NAV is not set.

20. An apparatus of comprising memory and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuity configured to:

encode a trigger frame or a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) frame comprising a first duration and a network allocation vector (NAV) indicator that indicates that one or more stations are not to consider a NAV of the one or more stations.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the indication is one from the following group:

an indication in a physical header and an indication in a media access control header.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

encode a second frame comprising a second duration and a bandwidth that indicates the one or more stations are to set their respective NAVs with the second duration associated with the bandwidth.

23. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the processing circuitry.

24. A method performed by an apparatus, the method comprising:

decoding a frame comprising a first duration and a first transmitter address;

if the frame is a trigger frame or a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) frame from a master station of a basic service set (BSS), responding to the trigger frame or the MU-RTS frame if the trigger frame or MU-RTS frame comprises an indicator that indicates not to consider a network allocation vector (NAV).

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the indication is one from the following group:

an indication in a physical header and an indication in a media access control header.