Systems and methods for generating and decoding short control frames in wireless communications

• US 9,781,627 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2013
• Issued: 10/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Merlin, Simone, Abraham, Santosh Paul, Wentink, Maarten Menzo, Quan, Zhi, Asterjadhi, Alfred
• Primary Examiner(s): Mesfin, Yemane
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chen, Peter
• Application Number:
  US14/097,111
• Publication Number:
  US 20140301208A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,399 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0025 Transmission of mode-switching indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0029 Reduction of the amount of signalling, e.g. retention of useful signalling or differential signalling power control H04W52/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0073 Special arrangements for feedback channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0079 Formats for control data H04L1/16 takes precedence; training sequences H04L25/00 and H04L27/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0273 adapting protocols for flow control or congestion control to wireless environment, e.g. adapting transmission control protocol [TCP] wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation, e.g. wireless application protocol H04W80/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/002 Transmission of channel access control information

Abstract

Systems, methods, and devices for communicating short control frames are described herein. In some aspects, a method of wireless communication includes generating a control frame comprising a contention free end (CF-end) frame, the CF-end frame comprising a physical layer preamble having a type field, the type field including an indicator indicating the CF-end frame is a null data packet (NDP). The method further includes transmitting the control frame.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

generating, at a first device, a control frame comprising a null data packet acknowledgement (NDP ACK) frame or NDP modified ACK frame, the NDP ACK frame or NDP modified ACK frame comprising a duration field and a duration indication field, wherein the duration indication field provides signaling information for the NDP ACK or the NDP modified ACK, wherein the NDP ACK further comprises a relayed frame field, wherein providing signaling information comprises setting the duration indication field equal to 1, setting the relayed frame field equal to 1, and setting the duration field to a non-zero value to indicate to an intended station (STA) not to transmit any data frames for a time period equal to the non-zero value; and

transmitting the control frame to a second device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the null data packet acknowledgement (NDP ACK) frame or NDP modified ACK frame further comprise a type field, an identifier field, and a field for storing additional data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein providing signaling information comprises setting the duration indication field equal to 1 to indicate an idle period.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a control frame comprises generating a 1 MHz NDP ACK frame or 1 MHz NDP modified ACK frame.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a control frame comprises generating a NDP ACK frame that has a bandwidth greater than or equal to 2 MHz or a NDP modified ACK frame that has a bandwidth greater than or equal to 2 MHz.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the duration indication field indicates whether a network allocation vector (NAV) is present.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the duration field indicates non-NAV value.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the duration field indicates a sleep duration value.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the duration field includes an identification (ID) extension field.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the NDP ACK frame or NDP modified ACK frame further comprises a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field to validate the control frame is correctly received.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the NDP ACK frame or NDP modified ACK frame further comprises a transmit (TX) power indication field to estimate pathloss or change behavior of a device receiving the control frame.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein the type field includes 3 bits, the identifier field includes 9 bits, the duration indication field includes 1 bit, the duration field includes 10 bits, and the field for storing additional data includes 1 bit.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein the type field includes 3 bits, the identifier field includes 16 bits, the duration indication field includes 1 bit, the duration field includes 14 bits, and the field for storing additional data includes 1 bit.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein a value of the identifier field is based on one or more of a partial frame check sequence (FCS) of a received frame and a scrambler seed of the received frame.

15. The method of claim 2, wherein a value of the identifier field is based on one or more of a partial basic service set identifier (PBSSID), a partial association identifier (PAID), and a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) for a null data packet power save poll (NDP PS-Poll) frame.

16. The method of claim 2, wherein the type field indicates a buffer status.

17. The method of claim 2, wherein the duration field indicates a time delay value.

18. A device for communicating in a wireless network, the device comprising:

a processor configured to generate a control frame comprising a null data packet acknowledgement (NDP ACK) frame or NDP modified ACK frame, the NDP ACK frame or NDP modified ACK frame comprising a duration field and a duration indication field, wherein the duration indication field provides signaling information for the NDP ACK or the NDP modified ACK, wherein the NDP ACK further comprises a relayed frame field, wherein providing signaling information comprises setting the duration indication field equal to 1, setting the relayed frame field equal to 1, and setting the duration field to a non-zero value to indicate to an intended station (STA) not to transmit any data frames for a time period equal to the non-zero value; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the control frame to a second device.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the null data packet acknowledgement (NDP ACK) frame or NDP modified ACK frame further comprise a type field, an identifier field, and a field for storing additional data.

20. The device of claim 18, wherein the signaling information comprises the duration indication field set to 1 to indicate an idle period.

21. The device of claim 18, wherein the NDP ACK frame and NDP modified ACK frame comprise a 1 MHz bandwidth frame.

22. The device of claim 18, wherein the NDP ACK frame and NDP modified ACK frame comprise a bandwidth frame that is greater than or equal to 2 MHz.

23. The device of claim 18, wherein the duration indication field indicates whether a network allocation vector (NAV) is present.

24. The device of claim 18, wherein the duration field indicates non-NAV value.

25. The device of claim 24, wherein the duration field indicates a sleep duration value.

26. The device of claim 24, wherein the duration field includes an identification (ID) extension field.

27. The device of claim 24, wherein the duration field indicates a time delay value.

28. The device of claim 18, wherein the NDP ACK frame or NDP modified ACK frame further comprises a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field to validate the control frame is correctly received.

29. The device of claim 18, wherein the NDP ACK frame or NDP modified ACK frame further comprises a transmit (TX) power indication field to estimate pathloss or change behavior of a device receiving the control frame.

30. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

receiving, at a first device, a control frame from a second device, the control frame comprising a null data packet acknowledgement (NDP ACK) frame or NDP modified ACK frame, the NDP ACK frame or NDP modified ACK frame comprising a duration field and a duration indication field, wherein the duration indication field provides signaling information for the NDP ACK or the NDP modified ACK, wherein the NDP ACK further comprises a relayed frame field, wherein providing signaling information comprises setting the duration indication field equal to 1, setting the relayed frame field equal to 1, and setting the duration field to a non-zero value to indicate to an intended station (STA) not to transmit any data frames for a time period equal to the non-zero value; and

processing the control frame.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the null data packet acknowledgement (NDP ACK) frame or NDP modified ACK frame further comprise a type field, an identifier field, and a field for storing additional data.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein processing the control frame comprises decoding the duration field such that it indicates a time delay value.

33. The method of claim 31, further comprising delaying transmission of a first frame based on a value of the duration field.

34. The method of claim 30, wherein processing the control frame comprises decoding a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field of the control frame to validate the control frame is correctly received.

35. The method of claim 30, wherein processing the control frame comprises decoding a transmit (TX) power indication field to estimate pathloss or change behavior of the first device.

36. The method of claim 30, further comprising entering a sleep mode based on a value of the duration indication field.

37. A device for communicating in a wireless network, the device comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a control frame from a second device, the control frame comprising a null data packet acknowledgement (NDP ACK) frame or NDP modified ACK frame, the NDP ACK frame or NDP modified ACK frame comprising a duration field and a duration indication field, wherein the duration indication field provides signaling information for the NDP ACK or the NDP modified ACK, wherein the NDP ACK further comprises a relayed frame field, wherein providing signaling information comprises setting the duration indication field equal to 1, setting the relayed frame field equal to 1, and setting the duration field to a non-zero value to indicate to an intended station (STA) not to transmit any data frames for a time period equal to the non-zero value; and

a processor configured to process the control frame.

38. The device of claim 37, wherein the null data packet acknowledgement (NDP ACK) frame or NDP modified ACK frame further comprise a type field, an identifier field, and a field for storing additional data.

39. The device of claim 37, wherein the processor is further configured to decode the duration field such that it indicates a time delay value.

40. The device of claim 37, wherein the processor is further configured to decode a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field of the control frame to validate the control frame is correctly received.

41. The device of claim 37, wherein the processor is further configured to decode a transmit (TX) power indication field to estimate pathloss or change behavior of the first device.

42. The device of claim 37, wherein the processor is further configured to delay transmission of a first frame based on a value of the duration field.

43. The device of claim 37, wherein the processor is further configured to enter a sleep mode based on a value of the duration indication field.