Master station and method for HEW communication using a transmission signaling structure for a HEW signal field

• US 9,544,914 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2014
• Issued: 01/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ax Wireless LLC (SY Ventures)
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Azizi, Shahrnaz, Kenney, Thomas J., Li, Guoqing C., Perahia, Eldad, Stacey, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): KHIRODHAR, MAHARISHI V
• Application Number:
  US14/458,000
• Publication Number:
  US 20150139119A1
• Time in Patent Office: 882 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0006 by adapting the transmission format
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2601 Multicarrier modulation systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/003 Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Embodiments of a transmission signaling structure for HEW are defined to carry packet information to configure OFDMA receivers for demodulation of a specific portion of the packet and/or to configure receivers for transmission using specific OFDMA and MU-MIMO resources. In some embodiments, the specific portion of the packet comprises one or more minimum bandwidth units of one or more 20 MHz channels. Each 20 MHz bandwidth structure may comprise several minimum bandwidth units to allow each 20 MHz channel to have a have smaller granularity than 20 MHz.

Claims

1. A communication station arranged to operate as a high-efficiency (HE) master station in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the communication station comprising:

transceiver circuitry; and

processing circuitry to configure the transceiver circuitry to;

generate a packet that includes a transmission signaling structure to configure scheduled HE stations for communication on channel resources in accordance with an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technique, the channel resources comprising a plurality of OFDMA blocks within a 20 MHz channel, wherein each scheduled HE station is assigned one of the OFDMA blocks; and

transmit the packet including the transmission signaling structure, wherein each OFDMA block comprises one or more resource units having a predetermined bandwidth, the transmission signaling structure configurable to allocate to, the scheduled HE stations, OFDMA blocks having different numbers of the resource units.

2. The master station of claim 1 further comprising:

one or more antennas; and

one or more memories, wherein the transceiver circuitry comprises one or more radios coupled to the one or more antennas for communicating with the scheduled HE stations.

3. A communication station arranged to operate as a high-efficiency (HE) master station in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the communication station comprising:

transceiver circuitry; and

processing circuitry to configure the transceiver circuitry to;

generate a packet that includes a transmission signaling structure to configure scheduled HE stations for communication on channel resources in accordance with an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technique, the channel resources comprising one or more OFDMA subchannels within a 20 MHz channel; and

transmit the packet including the transmission signaling structure, wherein each OFDMA subchannel comprises one or more resource units having a predetermined bandwidth, the transmission signaling structure configurable to allocate to, the scheduled HE stations, OFDMA subchannels having different numbers of the one or more resource units, wherein the transmission signaling structure comprises a separate HE signal field for each of a plurality of 20 MHz channels, each HE signal field to configure one or more of the scheduled HE stations for communication on the one or more OFDMA subchannels of an associated one of the 20 MHz channels in accordance with the OFDMA technique.

4. The communication station of claim 3 wherein each HE signal field is a 20 MHz transmission on an associated one of the 20 MHz channels, and wherein each of the separate HE signal fields are configured to be transmitted concurrently on an associated one of the 20 MHz channels.

5. The communication station of claim 4 wherein each HE signal field is arranged to configure the scheduled HE stations for communication on up to four of the OFDMA subchannels within each one of the 20 MHz channels.

6. The communication station of claim 5 wherein each OFDMA subchannel comprises between one and four resource units of the predetermined bandwidth within each 20 MHz channel.

7. The communication station of claim 6 wherein the predetermined bandwidth is 4.375 MHz, wherein the predetermined number of subcarriers is fourteen and the predetermined subcarrier spacing is 312.5 KHz.

8. The communication station of claim 6 wherein the predetermined bandwidth is defined by a predetermined number of subcarriers and predetermined subcarrier spacing.

9. The communication station of claim 6 wherein up to fifty-two subcarriers of a 20 MHz channel are used for data communication in accordance with the OFDMA technique during an OFDMA control period.

10. The communication station of claim 9 wherein each 20 MHz subchannel is configurable to include one or more fields that follow the HE signal field, the one of more fields configurable to include a minimum of four resource units of the predetermined bandwidth that are interleaved with null subcarriers in addition to a null subcarrier at DC and further configured to include one or more null subcarriers around DC and at band edges to cover a 20 MHz bandwidth of each 20 MHz channel.

11. The master station of claim 6 wherein the master station is configured to allocate bandwidth to the scheduled HE stations based on the resource unit for communication with the master station during an OFDMA control period during which the master station has exclusive control of a wireless medium, wherein the resource units are configurable to be time and frequency multiplexed within the control period, and wherein during the control period, packets are either received from the scheduled HE stations in accordance with an uplink spatial-division multiple access (SDMA) technique using OFDMA, or transmitted to the scheduled HE stations in accordance with downlink multiplexing technique using OFDMA.

12. The communication station of claim 5 wherein the HE signal field for each 20 MHz channel is generated to include:

an indicator to indicate a subchannel configuration of the associated 20 MHz channel, the subchannel configuration including at least a number of the resource units; and

information for communicating within the subchannels during an (OFDMA control period including a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) indicator and length indicator for the resource units.

13. The communication station of claim 12 wherein the indicator in the HE field to indicate the subchannel configuration indicates one of:

a subchannel configuration comprising four OFDMA subchannels wherein each OFDMA subchannel comprises a single resource unit;

a subchannel configuration comprising two OFDMA subchannels wherein each OFDMA subchannel comprises two adjacent resource units; and

a subchannel configuration comprising a single OFDMA subchannel comprising four adjacent resource units.

14. The communication station of claim 5 wherein the transmission signaling structure is further configured to include an HE schedule (SCH) field to indicate the particular time and frequency resources of the OFDMA subchannels for each scheduled HE station for communicating with the master station in accordance with the OFDMA technique during the OFDMA control period.

15. The HE master station of claim 3, further comprising:

one or more antennas; and

one or more memories, wherein the transceiver circuitry comprises one or more radios coupled to the one or more antennas for communicating with the scheduled HE stations.

16. A method for communication performed by a communication station arranged to operate as a high-efficiency (HE) master station for operation in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the method comprising:

generating a packet that includes a transmission signaling structure to configure scheduled HE stations for communication on channel resources in accordance with an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technique, the channel resources comprising a plurality of OFDMA blocks within a 20 MHz channel, wherein each OFDMA blocks comprises one or more resource units having a predetermined bandwidth, the transmission signaling structure configurable to allocate to the scheduled HE stations OFDMA blocks having different numbers of the resource units.

17. A method for communication performed by a communication station arranged to operate as a high-efficiency (HE) master station, the method comprising:

generating a packet that includes a transmission signaling structure to configure scheduled HE stations for communication on channel resources in accordance with an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technique, the channel resources comprising one or more OFDMA subchannels within a 20 MHz channel; and

generating the transmission signaling structure to include a separate HE signal field (HE-SIG-A) for each of a plurality of 20 MHz channels, each HE signal field to configure one or more of the scheduled HE stations for communication on the one or more OFDMA subchannels of an associated one of the 20 MHz channels in accordance with the OFDMA technique, wherein each OFDMA subchannel comprises one or more resource units having a predetermined bandwidth, wherein the transmission signaling structure is configurable to allocate to the scheduled HE stations, OFDMA subchannels having different numbers of the one or more resource units, wherein each HE signal field is a 20 MHz transmission on an associated one of the 20 MHz channels, and wherein each of the separate HE signal fields are configured to be transmitted concurrently on an associated one of the 20 MHz channels.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein each HE signal field is arranged to configure the scheduled HE stations for communication on up to four of the OFDMA subchannels within each one of the 20 MHz channels.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the transmission signaling structure is further configured to include an HE schedule (SCH) field to indicate the particular time and frequency resources of the OFDMA subchannels for each scheduled HE station for communicating with the master station in accordance with the OFDIMA technique during the OFDMA control period.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the HE signal field for each 20 MHz channel is generated to include:

an indicator to indicate a subchannel configuration of the associated 20 MHz channel, the subchannel configuration including at least a number of the resource units; and

information for communicating within the subchannels during an OFDMA control period including a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) indicator and length indicator for the resource units.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the indicator in the HE signal field to indicate the subchannel configuration indicates one of:

a subchannel configuration comprising four OFDMA subchannels wherein each OFDMA subchannel comprises a single resource unit;

a subchannel configuration comprising two OFDMA subchannels wherein each OFDMA subchannel comprises two adjacent resource units; and

a subchannel configuration comprising a single OFDMA subchannel comprising four adjacent resource units.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors to perform operations for high-efficiency (HE) communications by a master station operating in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the operations to configure the master station to:

generate a packet that includes a transmission signaling structure to configure scheduled HE stations for communication on channel resources in accordance with an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technique, the channel resources comprising a plurality of OFDMA blocks within a 20 MHz channel, wherein each scheduled HE station is assigned one of the OFDMA blocks, wherein each OFDMA block comprises one or more resource units having a predetermined bandwidth, the transmission signaling structure configurable to allocate to the scheduled HE stations OFDMA blocks having different numbers of the resource units.

23. A high-efficiency (HE) station comprising:

transceiver circuitry; and

processing circuitry to configure the transceiver circuitry to;

receive an HE signal field (HE-SIG-A) on one of a plurality of 20 MHz channels from a master station, the HE signal field to configure the HE station for communication within an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) block of an associated one of the 20 MHz channels in accordance with an OFDMA technique; and

communicate data with the master station the indicated OFDMA block based on configuration information received in the HE signal field, wherein each OFDMA block comprises one or more resource units having a predetermined bandwidth, the HE signal field comprising a transmission signaling structure configurable to allocate to the scheduled HE stations OFDMA blocks having different numbers of the resource units.

24. A high-efficiency (HE) station comprising:

transceiver circuitry; and

processing circuitry to configure the transceiver circuitry to;

receive an HE signal field on one of a plurality of 20 MHz channels from a master station, the HE signal field to configure the HE station for communication on channel resources of an associated one of the 20 MHz channels in accordance with an orthogonal division multiple access (OFDMA) technique, the channel resources comprising one or more OFDMA subchannels within a 20 MHz channel; and

communicate data with the master station the indicated OFDMA subchannel based on configuration information received in the HE signal field, wherein each OFDMA subchannel comprises one or more resource units having a predetermined bandwidth, the transmission signaling structure configurable to allocate to the scheduled HE stations OFDMA subchannels having different numbers of the one or more resource units, and wherein the transceiver circuitry is further configured to;

receive downlink data received from the master station on the indicated OFDMA subchannel; and

demodulate the received downlink data based on the configuration information received in the HE signal field;

configure uplink data based on the configuration information received in the HE signal field; and

transmit the configured uplink data to the master station on the indicated OFDMA channel.

25. A high-efficiency (HE) station comprising:

transceiver circuitry; and

processing circuitry to configure the transceiver circuitry to;

receive an HE signal field on one of a plurality of 20 channels from a master station, the HE signal field to configure the HE station for communication on channel resources of an associated one of the 20 MHz channels in accordance with an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technique, the channel resources comprising one or more OFDMA subchannels within a 20 MHz channel; and

communicate data with the master station the indicated OFDMA subchannel based on configuration information received in the HE signal field, wherein each OFDMA subchannel comprises one or more resource units having a predetermined bandwidth, the transmission signaling structure configurable to allocate to, the scheduled HE stations, OFDMA subchannels having different numbers of the one or more resource units, and wherein the transceiver circuitry received HE signal field includes;

an indicator to indicate a subchannel configuration of the associated 20 MHz channel, the subchannel configuration including at least a number of the resource units; and

information for communicating within the subchannels during an OFDMA control period including a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) indicator and length indicator for the resource units.