SYNCHRONIZATION IN ACCESS POINT (AP) COORDINATION

• US 20200137702A1
• Filed: 10/10/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: PATIL, Abhishek Pramod, CHERIAN, George, ASTERJADHI, Alfred
• Granted Patent: US 11,412,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/10 Polarisation diversity; Directional diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/001 Synchronization between nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/002 Mutual synchronization
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/20 between access points

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes a processing system configured to generate a message comprising coordination information, wherein the apparatus is associated with a first AP, the message to be used for coordinated communications by the first AP and a second AP, wherein the first AP and the second AP are associated with different basic service sets (BSSs), and an interface configured to output the message for transmission during a networking coordination window of a networking cluster.

Claims

1. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

a processing system configured to generate a message comprising coordination information, wherein the apparatus is associated with a first access point (AP), the message to be used for coordinated communications by the first AP and a second AP, wherein the first AP and the second AP are associated with different basic service sets (BSSs); and

a first interface configured to output the message for transmission during a networking coordination window of a networking cluster.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the coordination information comprises service period (SP) information or synchronization information.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to assign a wireless node to participate in the networking cluster to synchronize clocks of the first AP and the second AP, wherein the message is outputted for transmission to the wireless node.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processing system is further configured to select the wireless node from a plurality of wireless nodes based on a condition of the wireless node.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing system is configured to align or orthogonalize at least one of downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) transmissions for the first AP and the second AP in one or more SPs in accordance with the coordination information.

4. (canceled)

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11. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

a processing system configured to generate a first message for polling one or more wireless nodes to gather synchronization information from a first access point (AP), the apparatus being associated with a second AP, the first AP and the second AP being associated with different basic service sets (BSSs);

a first interface configured to output the first message for transmission to the one or more wireless nodes; and

a second interface configured to obtain a second message from the one or more wireless nodes comprising the synchronization information.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the synchronization information comprises a beacon report.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein:

the synchronization information comprises a timing synchronization function (TSF); and

the second interface is configured to obtain a third message from each of the one or more wireless nodes after obtaining the second message, the third message comprising a partial TSF having a fewer number of bits than the TSF.

21. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein:

the processing system is further configured to generate a third message comprising service period (SP) information for aligning or orthogonalizing at least one of downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) transmissions for the first AP and the second AP in one or more SPs; and

the first interface is configured to output the third message for transmission after obtaining the second message.

13. (canceled)

15. (canceled)

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18. (canceled)

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22. (canceled)

23. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

a first interface configured to;

obtain, from a first access point (AP), a first message, wherein the apparatus is associated with a wireless node, the first message assigning the wireless node to participate in a networking cluster for synchronizing clocks of the first AP and a second AP, the first AP and the second AP being associated with different basic service sets (BSSs); and

obtain, from the first AP, a second message during a first networking coordination window of the networking cluster comprising coordination information to be used for coordinated communications by the first AP and the second AP;

a processing system configured to generate a third message comprising the coordination information; and

a second interface configured to output the third message for transmission.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the coordination information comprises service period (SP) information or synchronization information.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the SP information comprise an update to a previously scheduled SP.

26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the processing system is configured to generate a synchronization beacon for the synchronization of the clocks, and wherein the second interface is configured to output the synchronization beacon for transmission during the first networking coordination window.

27. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein:

the first interface is further configured to obtain a fourth message from the second AP;

the processing system is further configured to generate a fifth message comprising information in the fourth message; and

the second interface is further configured to output the fifth message for transmission to the first AP during a second networking coordination window of the networking cluster, the wireless node and the first AP being part of the same BSS.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the information in the fourth message comprises other SP information or other synchronization information.

29. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the processing system is further configured to determine whether another wireless node will forward the coordination information, wherein the generating of the third message and the outputting of the third message are performed if the other wireless node is not forwarding the coordination information.

30. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the coordination information comprises a timing synchronization function (TSF).

31. The apparatus of claim 23, further comprising at least one antenna, wherein the first message and the second message are obtained via the at least one antenna, wherein third message is outputted for transmission via the at least one antenna, the apparatus being configured as the wireless node.

32. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

a first interface configured to obtain, from a first access point (AP), a first message, wherein the apparatus is associated with a wireless node, the first message polling the wireless node to gather synchronization information from a second AP, the first AP and the second AP being associated with different basic service sets (BSSs), wherein the first interface is further configured to obtain, from the second AP, a second message comprising the synchronization information in response to obtaining the first message;

a processing system configured to generate a third message comprising the synchronization information; and

a second interface configured to output the third message for transmission to the first AP.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the synchronization information comprises a beacon report.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the beacon report comprises at least one of a target wake time (TWT) element or a timing synchronization function (TSF) advertised by the second AP.

35. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein:

the synchronization information comprises a TSF;

the first interface is configured to obtain a fourth message from the second AP after obtaining the second message, the fourth message comprising a partial TSF having a fewer number of bits than the TSF;

the processing system is further configured to generate a fifth message comprising the partial TSF; and

the second interface is configured to output the fifth message for transmission to the first AP.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the first interface is configured obtain a trigger frame from the first AP, and wherein the fifth message comprising a trigger based (TB) data unit generated in response to the trigger frame.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the trigger frame comprises a time stamp corresponding to a time at which TB data unit is outputted for transmission by the apparatus.

38. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the trigger frame comprises an indication of whether one or more fields of the trigger frame has been encoded with a partial TSF.

39. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the fifth message comprises a preamble, the preamble having the partial TSF.

40. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the fifth message comprises one or more SIG fields, the partial TSF being part of the one or more SIG fields.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the fifth message comprises a TB physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU).

42. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the fifth message comprises one or more spatial reuse (SR) fields for indicating SR criteria for one or more subbands, the SR fields comprising the partial TSF.

43. The apparatus of claim 32, further comprising at least one antenna, wherein the first message and the second message are obtained via the at least one antenna, wherein the third message is outputted for transmission via the at least one antenna, the apparatus being configured as the wireless node.