Management frame map directed operational parameters within multiple user, multiple access, and/or MIMO wireless communications

• US 8,885,535 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2010
• Issued: 11/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fischer, Matthew James, Erceg, Vinko, Kim, Joonsuk, Lauer, Joseph Paul, Amini, Peiman
• Primary Examiner(s): Scheibel, Robert C
• Application Number:
  US12/852,435
• Publication Number:
  US 20110013616A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,558 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/312
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0669 using different channel coding between antennas space-time coding H04L1/0618
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0009 by adapting the channel coding H04L1/1812 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0031 Multiple signaling transmission H04L1/1664, F15 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0065 Serial concatenated codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0618 Space-time coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0637 Properties of the code
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

Management frame map directed operational parameters within multiple user, multiple access, and/or MIMO wireless communications. A management frame map may be generated within and transmitted from a first wireless communication device to a number of other wireless communication devices. Thereafter, certain subsequently transmitted packets may be analyzed and processed by the receiving wireless communication devices based on that earlier received management frame map. One or more operational parameters are determined for a subsequently transmitted packet based on the previously received management frame map; such operational parameters then govern the manner in which at least a portion of the subsequently transmitted packet is processed. Some examples of such operational parameters include a cluster on which a least a portion of the packet is transmitted, a modulation coding scheme (MCS), a forward error correction (FEC) coding scheme, space time block coding (STBC), an antenna configuration within the wireless communication device, etc.

Claims

1. A method for operating a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

transmitting a management frame map to a plurality of other wireless communication devices, the management frame map including operational parameters for a first and a second of the plurality of the other wireless communication devices, the operational parameters associated with a map index, wherein at least one of first operational parameters for the first wireless communication device of the other wireless communication devices are different than at least one of second operational parameters for the second wireless communication device of the other wireless communication devices;

transmitting a multi-user packet to the plurality of other wireless communication devices of at least one of a plurality of clusters, the at least one cluster based on a tone mapping among one or more channels of one or more frequency bands, wherein the multi-user packet including the map index indicating, based on the management frame map, the at least one of the first operational parameters determined to be relevant to the first of the plurality of other wireless communication devices, and when relevant, the first of the plurality of other wireless communication devices employs the at least one of the first operational parameters to process at least one field of a subsequent multi-user packet based on the map index within the multi-user packet; and

the map index further indicating;

the at least one of the second operational parameters determined to be relevant to the second of the plurality of other wireless communication devices, and when relevant, the second of the plurality of other wireless communication devices employs the at least one of the second operational parameters to process at least another field based on the map index within the multi-user packet.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the multi-user packet being a multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) packet or an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) packet.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the map index indicating the multi-user packet being intended only for a subset of the plurality of other wireless communication devices; and

the multi-user packet being discarded by those of the plurality of other wireless communication devices not being within the subset of the plurality of other wireless communication devices.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, operating another one of the plurality of other wireless communication devices for:

receiving the multi-user packet including the map index;

processing a header of the multi-user packet in accordance with the at least one of the first operational parameters, wherein the header including the map index; and

processing a data field of the multi-user packet in accordance with the at least one of the second operational parameters, wherein the data field following the map index within the multi-user packet.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one field following the map index within the multi-user packet being a data field including information bits intended for at least one of the plurality of other wireless communication devices.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the operational parameters each comprising at least one of:

a cluster on which the at least one field following the map index within the multi-user packet being transmitted;

a modulation coding scheme (MCS);

a forward error correction (FEC) coding scheme;

space time block coding (STBC); and

an antenna configuration of a plurality of antennae within the wireless communication device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the operational parameters being a cluster on which the at least one field following the map index within the multi-user packet being transmitted; and

the cluster being composed of at least one channel within at least one band.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one of the first operational parameters being a first cluster on which the at least one field following the map index within the multi-user packet being transmitted; and

the at least one of the second operational parameters being a second cluster on which at least one additional field following the map index within the multi-user packet being transmitted.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the first cluster being composed of at least one channel within a first band; and

the second cluster being composed of at least one channel within a second band.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the first cluster being composed of a first plurality of channels among a first band and a second band; and

the second cluster being composed of a second plurality of channels among a third band and a fourth band.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the wireless communication device being an access point (AP); and

the plurality of other wireless communication devices being a plurality of wireless stations (STAs).

12. A method for operating a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

transmitting at least one management frame map to a plurality of other wireless communication devices, the at least one management frame map including operational parameters for at least a first and a second of the plurality of other wireless communication devices and the operational parameters associated with a map index, wherein one or more first operational parameters for the first wireless communication device are different than one or more second operational parameters for the second wireless communication device; and

transmitting a multi-user packet to the plurality of other wireless communication devices, wherein the first multi-user packet including the map index indicating, based on the at least one management frame map;

the one or more first operational parameters determined to be relevant to at least the first of the plurality of other wireless communication devices, and when relevant, the first of the plurality of other wireless communication devices employs the one or more first operational parameters to process a first field based on the map index within the first multi-user packet; and

the map index further indicating;

the one or more second operational parameters determined to be relevant to at least the second of the plurality of other wireless communication devices, and when relevant, the second of the plurality of other wireless communication devices employs the one or more second operational parameters to process a second field based on the map index within a second multi-user packet.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the multi-user packet being a multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) packet or an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) packet.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the first field following the map index within the first multi-user packet being a first data field including information bits intended for the first of the plurality of other wireless communication devices; and

the second field following the map index within the second multi-user packet being a second data field including information bits intended for the second of the plurality of other wireless communication devices.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more of first operational parameters and the one or more of the second operational parameters each comprising at least one of:

a cluster on which the first field or the second field following the map index within the first or second multi-user packet being transmitted;

a modulation coding scheme (MCS);

a forward error correction (FEC) coding scheme;

space time block coding (STBC); and

an antenna configuration of a plurality of antennae within the wireless communication device.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the the one or more of the first operational parameters being a first cluster on which the first field following the map index within the first multi-user packet being transmitted;

the one or more of the second operational parameters being a second cluster on which the second field following the map index within the second multi-user packet being transmitted; and

at least one of the first cluster and the second cluster being composed of at least one channel within at least one band.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the wireless communication device being an access point (AP); and

the plurality of other wireless communication devices being a plurality of wireless stations (STAs).

18. An apparatus, comprising:

a baseband processing module for generating a management frame map and a multi-user packet;

at least one antenna for transmitting;

the management frame map to a plurality of other wireless communication devices associated with a cluster based on a tone mapping among one or more channels of one or more frequency bands, the management frame map including operational parameters for a first and a second of the other wireless communication devices, the operational parameters associated with a map index, wherein at least one of first operational parameters for the first wireless communication device of the plurality of other wireless communication devices are different than at least one of second operational parameters for the second wireless communication device of the plurality of other wireless communication devices; and

the multi-user packet to the plurality of other wireless communication devices; and

wherein;

the multi-user packet including the map index indicating, based on the management frame map, the at least one of the first operational parameters determined to be relevant to the first of the plurality of other wireless communication devices, and when relevant, the first of the plurality of other wireless communication devices employs the at least one of the first operational parameters to process at least one field of a subsequent multi-user packet based on the map index within the multi-user packet; and

the map index further indicating;

the at least one of the second operational parameters determined to be relevant to the second of the plurality of other wireless communication devices, and when relevant, the second of the plurality of other wireless communication devices employs the at least one of the second operational parameters to process at least another field based on the map index within the multi-user packet.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein:

the multi-user packet being a multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) packet or an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) packet.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein:

the map index indicating the multi-user packet being intended only for a subset of the plurality of other wireless communication devices; and

the multi-user packet being discarded by those of the plurality of other wireless communication devices not being within the subset of the plurality of other wireless communication devices.

21. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein, another one of the plurality of other wireless communication devices:

receiving the multi-user packet including the map index;

processing a header of the multi-user packet in accordance with a first of the plurality of operational parameters, wherein the header including the map index; and

processing a data field of the multi-user packet in accordance with the at lease one of the second operational parameters, wherein the data field following the map index within the multi-user packet.

22. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein:

the at least one field following the map index within the multi-user packet being a data field including information bits intended for at least one of the plurality of other wireless communication devices.

23. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the at least one of the first and the second operational parameters each comprising at least one of:

a cluster on which the at least one field following the map index within the multi-user packet being transmitted;

a modulation coding scheme (MCS);

a forward error correction (FEC) coding scheme;

space time block coding (STBC); and

an antenna configuration of the at least one antenna and at least one additional antenna, also within the apparatus, for transmitting the management frame map and the multi-user packet.

24. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein:

the at least one of the operational parameters being a cluster on which the at least one field following the map index within the multi-user packet being transmitted; and

the cluster being composed of at least one channel within at least one band.

25. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein:

the at least one of the first operational parameters being a first cluster on which the at least one field following the map index within the multi-user packet being transmitted; and

the at least one of the second operational parameters being a second cluster on which at least one additional field following the map index within the multi-user packet being transmitted.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein:

the first cluster being composed of at least one channel within a first band; and

the second cluster being composed of at least one channel within a second band.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein:

the first cluster being composed of a first plurality of channels among a first band and a second band; and

the second cluster being composed of a second plurality of channels among a third band and a fourth band.

28. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein:

the apparatus being an access point (AP); and

the plurality of other wireless communication devices being a plurality of wireless stations (STAs).