Medium access protection and bandwidth negotiation in a wireless local area network

• US 9,853,791 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2015
• Issued: 12/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marvell Asia Pte Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Marvell World Trade Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Inventors: Chu, Liwen, Lou, Hui-Ling, Zhang, Hongyuan, Sun, Yakun, Zheng, Xiayu, Cao, Rui
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Chi H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lopata, Robert
• Application Number:
  US14/968,255
• Publication Number:
  US 20160099798A1
• Time in Patent Office: 743 Days
• Field of Search: 370336
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0224 using sounding signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2626 Arrangements specific to the transmitter only
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/002 Transmission of channel access control information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0816 with collision avoidance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A first communication device transmits a first control frame to multiple second communication devices via a wireless communication medium, wherein the first control frame i) indicates to other communication devices that the wireless communication medium is reserved for a first time period, and ii) indicates that the second communication devices are requested to simultaneously transmit respective second control frames to the first communication device via the wireless communication medium, wherein the second control frames are to include information indicating to other communication devices that the wireless communication medium is reserved for a second time period that is a subset of the first time period.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

transmitting, with a first communication device, a first control frame to two or more second communication devices via a wireless communication medium, wherein the first control frame

i) indicates to other communication devices that the wireless communication medium is reserved for a first time period, and

ii) indicates that the two or more second communication devices are requested to simultaneously transmit respective second control frames to the first communication device via the wireless communication medium, wherein the second control frames are to include information indicating to other communication devices that the wireless communication medium is reserved for a second time period that is a subset of the first time period;

receiving, at the first communication device from at least some of the two or more second communication devices, respective second control frames, the received second control frames having been transmitted by the at least some of the two or more second communication devices via the wireless communication medium, wherein the received second control frames include the information indicating to other communication devices that the wireless communication medium is reserved for the second time period; and

transmitting, with the first communication device, a multi-user data unit to the at least some of the two or more second communication devices via the wireless communication medium during the first time period and the second time period.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, to the two or more second communication devices, indications of respective sub-channels allocated to the two or more second communication devices;

wherein the received second control frames are received in respective sub-channels allocated to the at least some of the two or more second communication devices.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein providing, to the two or more second communication devices, the indication of the respective sub-channels allocated to the two or more second communication devices comprises providing the indications prior to transmission of the first control frame to the two or more second communication devices.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein providing, to the two or more second communication devices, the indication of the respective sub-channels allocated to the two or more second communication devices comprises including the indications in the first control frame transmitted to the two or more second communication devices.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising allocating, to a set of multiple second communication devices, multiple sub-channels having respective bandwidths less than 20 MHz.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising including, in the first control frame, an indication, corresponding to one of the second communication devices in the set, to indicate that the one of the second communication devices in the set is requested to transmit the second control frame using a bandwidth spanning the multiple sub-channels allocated to the set.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein:

receiving the respective second control frames includes receiving a second control frame that spans only a portion of the sub-channel allocated to a particular second communication device; and

transmitting the multi-user data unit includes transmitting data to the particular second communication device in only the portion of the sub-channel.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

transmitting, in another portion of the sub-channel allocated to the particular second communication device, a contention free end (CF-end) frame during the first time period and the second time period.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first control frame further indicates one of (i) that static bandwidth allocation is being utilized for transmission of the multi-user data unit or (ii) that dynamic bandwidth negotiation is being utilized for transmission of the multi-user data unit.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first control frame is a request to send (RTS) frame, and

the second control frame is a clear to send (CTS) frame.

11. A first communication device, comprising:

a network interface having one or more integrated circuits configured to

generate a first control frame that

i) indicates to other communication devices that the wireless communication medium is reserved for a first time period, and

ii) indicates that the two or more second communication devices are requested to simultaneously transmit respective second control frames to the first communication device via the wireless communication medium, wherein the second control frames are to include information indicating to other communication devices that the wireless communication medium is reserved for a second time period that is a subset of the first time period,

cause the network interface to transmit the first control frame,

process respective second control frames received at the first communication device from at least some of the two or more second communication devices, the received second control frames having been transmitted by the at least some of the two or more second communication devices via the wireless communication medium, wherein the received second control frames include the information indicating to other communication devices that the wireless communication medium is reserved for the second time period,

generate a multi-user data unit, and

cause the network interface to transmit the multi-user data unit to the at least some of the two or more second communication devices via the wireless communication medium during the first time period and the second time period.

12. The first communication device of claim 11, wherein:

the one or more integrated circuits are further configured to provide, to the two or more second communication devices, indications of respective sub-channels allocated to the two or more second communication devices; and

the received second control frames are received in respective sub-channels allocated to the at least some of the two or more second communication devices.

13. The first communication device of claim 12, wherein the one or more integrated circuits are configured to:

generate communication frame that includes the indications of the respective sub-channels allocated to the two or more second communication devices; and

cause the network interface device to transmit the communication frame to the two or more second communication devices prior to transmission of the first control frame.

14. The first communication device of claim 12, wherein the one or more integrated circuits are configured to include the indications of the respective sub-channels allocated to the two or more second communication devices in the first control frame transmitted to the two or more second communication devices.

15. The first communication device of claim 11, wherein the one or more integrated circuits are further configured to allocate, to a set of multiple second communication devices, multiple sub-channels having respective bandwidths less than 20 MHz.

16. The first communication device of claim 15, wherein the one or more integrated circuits are configured to include, in the first control frame, an indication, corresponding to one of the second communication devices in the set, to indicate that the one of the second communication devices in the set is requested to transmit the second control frame using a bandwidth spanning the multiple sub-channels allocated to the set.

17. The first communication device of claim 16, wherein the one or more integrated circuits are configured to:

determine that a second control frame was received from a particular second communication device spans only a portion of the sub-channel allocated to the particular second communication device; and

in response to determining that the second control frame spans only the portion of the sub-channel allocated to the particular second communication device, generate the multi-user data unit so that a portion of the multi-user data unit corresponding to the particular second communication device spans only the portion of the sub-channel.

18. The first communication device of claim 17, wherein the one or more integrated circuits are configured to cause the network interface to transmit, in another portion of the sub-channel allocated to the particular second communication device, a contention free end (CF-end) frame during the first time period and the second time period.

19. The first communication device of claim 11, wherein the one or more integrated circuits are configured to generate the first control frame to further indicate one of (i) that static bandwidth allocation is being utilized for to transmission of the multi-user data unit or (ii) that dynamic bandwidth negotiation is being utilized for transmission of the multi-user data unit.

20. The first communication device of claim 11, wherein:

the first control frame is a request to send (RTS) frame, and

the second control frame is a clear to send (CTS) frame.