Enhanced scheduling procedure for full duplex access point

• US 9,647,823 B2
• Filed: 05/19/2015
• Issued: 05/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Bhat, Aimer, Pakalapaty, Venu
• Primary Examiner(s): YEUNG, MANG HANG
• Application Number:
  US14/715,839
• Publication Number:
  US 20160344532A1
• Time in Patent Office: 721 Days
• Field of Search: 370277
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0864 Round trip delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/121 for groups of terminals or users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1263 Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices are described for wireless communication at an access point (AP). A scheduling procedure for using a full duplex wireless local area network (WLAN) AP with legacy station (STA) compatibility (e.g., half duplex) may be implemented. For example, a system may include a full duplex AP and have half duplex STAs with two antennas each. The scheduling procedure may involve dynamic grouping of STAs into half duplex sets, for example, based at least in part on location information of the STAs. The STAs may be grouped such that the AP is able to transmit to one of the half duplex sets while concurrently receiving from another of the half-duplex sets. The AP may employ beamforming, via the STAs, to reduce interference between full duplex in-band communications.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication, comprising:

obtaining by an access point (AP) location information of a first station (STA) and a second STA;

identifying the first STA as belonging to a first half duplex set of STAs based at least in part on the location information of the first STA;

identifying the second STA as belonging to a second half duplex set of STAs based at least in part on the location information of the second STA;

receiving by the AP an uplink transmission from the first STA; and

sending a downlink transmission from the AP to the second STA, wherein at least a portion of time for sending the downlink transmission is concurrent with at least a portion of time for receiving the uplink transmission.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a second downlink transmission from the AP to a STA of the first half duplex set of STAs; and

receiving a second uplink transmission from a STA of the second half duplex set of STAs, wherein at least a portion of time for sending the second downlink transmission is concurrent with at least a portion of time for receiving the second uplink transmission.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information of the first STA, the location information of the second STA, or both, is based at least in part on at least one selected from the group consisting of:

round trip time (RTT) and direction of arrival (DoA) of signals relative to the AP.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the first STA as belonging to the first half duplex set is based at least in part on an average physical distance between STAs of the first half duplex set and STAs of the second half duplex set.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first STA is identified as belonging to the first half duplex set if the average physical distance between the STAs of the first half duplex set and the STAs of the second half duplex set is greater than a threshold distance.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the first STA is identified as belonging to the first half duplex set if the average physical distance between the STAs of the first half duplex set and the STAs of the second half duplex set is maximized.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

excluding at least one STA from both the first half duplex set and the second half duplex set based at least in part on location information for the at least one STA.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing beamforming parameters to STAs of the first half duplex set, the second half duplex set, or both, wherein the AP performs full duplex operations using the beamforming parameters to reduce interference between the first half duplex set and the second half duplex set.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining, using a sounding operation, channel state information (CSI) of at least one selected from the group consisting of;

a channel between the AP and the first STA, a channel between the AP and the second STA and a channel between the first STA and the second STA; and

determining the beamforming parameters based at least in part on the determined CSI.

10. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

a receiver of an access point (AP) to obtain location information of a first station (STA) and a second STA and receive an uplink transmission from the first STA;

a communications manager of the AP to identify the first STA as belonging to a first half duplex set of STAs based at least in part on the location information of the first STA and identify the second STA as belonging to a second half duplex set of STAs based at least in part on the location information of the second STA; and

a transmitter of the AP to send a downlink transmission from the AP to the second STA, wherein at least a portion of time for sending the downlink transmission is concurrent with at least a portion of time for receiving the uplink transmission.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein:

the transmitter further sends a second downlink transmission from the AP to a STA of the first half duplex set; and

the receiver receives a second uplink transmission from a STA of the second half duplex set, wherein at least a portion of time for sending the second downlink transmission is concurrent with at least a portion of time for receiving the second uplink transmission.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the receiver is to obtain the location information of the first STA, the location information of the second STA, or both, based at least in part on at least one selected from the group consisting of:

round trip time (RTT) and direction of arrival (DoA) of signals relative to the AP.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the communications manager is to identify the first STA as belonging to the first half duplex set based at least in part on an average physical distance between STAs of the first half duplex set and STAs of the second half duplex set.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the communications manager is to identify the first STA as belonging to the first half duplex set if the average physical distance between the STAs of the first half duplex set and the STAs of the second half duplex set is greater than a threshold distance.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the communications manager is to identify the first STA as belonging to the first half duplex set if the average physical distance between the STAs of the first half duplex set and the STAs of the second half duplex set is maximized.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the communications manager is to exclude at least one STA from both the first half duplex set and the second half duplex set based at least in part on location information for the at least one STA.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein:

the receiver is to provide beamforming parameters to STAs of the first half duplex set, the second half duplex set, or both, wherein the receiver and the transmitter of the AP perform full-duplex operations using the beamforming parameters to reduce interference between the first half duplex set and the second half duplex set.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein:

the communications manager is to;

determine, using a sounding operation, channel state information (CSI) of at least one selected from the group consisting of;

a channel between the AP and the first STA, a channel between the AP and the second STA and a channel between the first STA and the second STA, and

determine the beamforming parameters based at least in part on the determined CSI.

19. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

means for obtaining by an access point (AP) location information of a first station (STA) and a second STA;

means for identifying the first STA as belonging to a first half duplex set of STAs based at least in part on the location information of the first STA and identifying the second STA as belonging to a second half duplex set of STAs based at least in part on the location information of the second STA;

means for receiving by the AP an uplink transmission from the first STA; and

means for sending a downlink transmission from the AP to the second STA, wherein at least a portion of time for sending the downlink transmission is concurrent with at least a portion of time for receiving the uplink transmission.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the location information of the first STA, the location information of the second STA, or both, is based at least in part on at least one selected from the group consisting of:

round trip time (RTT) and direction of arrival (DoA) of signals relative to the AP.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the means for identifying identifies the first STA as belonging to the first half duplex set based at least in part on an average physical distance between STAs of the first half duplex set and STAs of the second half duplex set.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the means for identifying identifies the first STA as belonging to the first half duplex set if the average physical distance between the STAs of the first half duplex set and the STAs of the second half duplex set is greater than a threshold distance.

23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the means for identifying identifies the first STA as belonging to the first half duplex set if the average physical distance between the STAs of the first half duplex set and the STAs of the second half duplex set is maximized.

24. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

means for excluding at least one STA from both the first half duplex set and the second half duplex set based at least in part on location information for the at least one STA.

25. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

means for providing beamforming parameters to STAs of the first half duplex set, the second half duplex set, or both, wherein the AP performs full duplex operations using the beamforming parameters to reduce interference between the first half duplex set and the second half duplex set.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, further comprising:

means for determining, using a sounding operation, channel state information (CSI) of at least one selected from the group consisting of;

a channel between the AP and the first STA, a channel between the AP and the second STA and a channel between the first STA and the second STA; and

means for determining the beamforming parameters based at least in part on the determined CSI.

27. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for communication at a wireless device, the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to cause the wireless device to:

obtain by an access point (AP) location information of a first station (STA) and a second STA;

identify the first STA as belonging to the first half duplex set of STAs based at least in part on the location information of the first STA;

identify the second STA as belonging to the second half duplex set of STAs based at least in part on the location information of the second STA;

receive by the AP an uplink transmission from the first STA; and

send a downlink transmission from the AP to the second STA, wherein at least a portion of time for sending the downlink transmission is concurrent with at least a portion of time for receiving the uplink transmission.