Efficient DL OFDMA frequency selectivity harvesting

• US 9,907,073 B2
• Filed: 08/04/2015
• Issued: 02/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Atlas Global Technologies LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Newracom Inc.
• Inventors: Hedayat, Ahmad Reza
• Primary Examiner(s): Jiang, Charles C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Roudani, Oussama
• Application Number:
  US14/818,214
• Publication Number:
  US 20160165607A1
• Time in Patent Office: 938 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0245 according to signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method for communication in a wireless local area network comprises receiving a frame at a first device, the frame being transmitted by a second device. The method further comprises determining, by the first device using the frame, a channel strength for each of a plurality of sub-bands associated with a bandwidth of the frame. A sub-band of the plurality of sub-bands is selected based on the channel strength determinations made using the frame. The first and second devices communicate using the selected sub-band.

Claims

1. A method for communication in a wireless local area network, the method comprising:

receiving a frame at a first device, the frame being transmitted by a second device;

determining, by the first device using the frame, respective channel strengths for a plurality of sub bands associated with a bandwidth of the frame,

determining, by the first device, whether an indication of which information is to be included in a sub-band Channel State Information (CSI) report has been received from the second device;

when the first device determines that the indication of which information is to be included in the sub-band CSI report has been received from the second device, determining the sub-band CSI report according to the received indication of which information is to be included in the sub-band CSI report and the respective channel strengths for the plurality of sub bands;

when the first device determines that the indication of which information is to be included in a sub-band CSI report has not been received from the second device, determining the sub-band CSI report according to a policy of the first device and the respective channel strengths for the plurality of sub bands; and

transmitting, by the first device, the sub-band CSI report to the second device,

wherein the first and second devices communicate using a sub-band selected from the plurality of sub-bands, the sub-band being selected based on the channel strength determinations made using the frame.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second devices are part of a Basic Service Set (BSS), and

wherein the frame is an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Media Access Control (MAC) Data frame including an indication that the channel strengths are to be determined using the frame.

7. The method of claim 1,

wherein the sub band CSI report indicates the channel strength for each of a set of sub bands of the plurality of sub bands, and

wherein the selected sub-band is based on the sub-band CSI report received by the second device.

8. The method of claim 1,

wherein the sub band CSI report includes a combined strength determined using channel strengths of the plurality of sub bands, and

wherein the selected sub-band is based on the combined strength.

9. The method of claim 1,

wherein the sub band CSI report includes a channel strength measure determined using channel strengths of the plurality of sub bands, and

wherein the selected sub-band is based on the channel strength measure.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a sub band CSI report including a first channel strength of the channel strengths for the sub bands only when a previous frame received from the second device includes an indication that the sub band CSI report is to include the first channel strength.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the first device, a polling frame; and

transmitting the sub band CSI report in response to the polling frame.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting the sub band CSI report in response to the frame.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting the sub band CSI report in a field of a High Throughput (HT) Control field of a Medium Access Control (MAC) frame.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting the sub band CSI report in a management frame including an indication that the management frame includes the sub band CSI report, wherein the management frame is an Action frame or an Action No ACK frame.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the frame is a beacon frame transmitted by the second device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the frame is a Quality of Service (QoS) Null frame.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the bandwidth is a widest allowed bandwidth, the widest allowed bandwidth being a maximum bandwidth that can be received by the second device, transmitted by the first device, and sensed by the first and second devices during active channel sensing.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the frame is an ACK frame or a Block ACK (BA) frame.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the frame is transmitted in response to an indication included in a preceding unicast frame transmitted by the second device.

3. A method for communication in a wireless local area network, the method comprising:

receiving an announcement frame by a first device prior to receiving a pre-announced frame, the announcement frame indicating that respective channel strengths for a plurality of sub bands associated with a bandwidth of the pre-announced frame are to be determined using the pre-announced frame;

receiving the pre-announced frame at a first device, the pre-announced frame being transmitted by a second device; and

determining, by the first device using the pre-announced frame, the respective channel strengths for the plurality of sub bands associated with the bandwidth of the pre-announced frame,

wherein the first and second devices communicate using a sub-band selected from the plurality of sub-bands, the sub-band being selected based on the channel strength determinations made using the pre-announced frame, and

wherein the announcement frame includes an indication that a report prepared according to the channels strengths is to be included in a field of a Medium Access Control (MAC) header of a subsequent frame transmitted by the first device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the announcement frame includes a Null Data Packet Announcement (NDPA) frame, and

wherein a Sounding Dialog Token field of the NDPA frame indicates that the channel strengths are for use in a subsequent OFDMA frame exchange.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the first and second devices are part of a Basic Service Set (BSS), the first device being a station and the second device being an access point, and

wherein the announcement frame includes an indication that a group of one or more devices associated with the BSS are to determine respective channel strengths using the pre-announced frame.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the announcement frame includes an indication of whether the report is prepared using an average of channel strengths for a sub band across multiple transmitting antennas, multiple receiving antennas, or combinations of multiple transmitting antennas and multiple receiving antennas.