OFDMA with block tone assignment for WLAN
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- assigning, at a first communication device, a plurality of different orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) sub-channel blocks to a plurality of other communication devices including a second communication device and a third communication device, wherein the plurality of OFDM sub-channel blocks includes a first OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the second communication device and a second OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the third communication device, and wherein the second communication device and the third communication device are members of a wireless local area network (WLAN);
receiving, at the first communication device, data for the second communication device;
receiving, at the first communication device, data for the third communication device; and
generating, at the first communication device, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) data unit, including generating a plurality of OFDM data units corresponding to the plurality of OFDM sub-channel blocks, wherein each OFDM data unit includes a respective preamble that occupies a bandwidth equal to or less than a bandwidth of the corresponding OFDM sub-channel block, and wherein the data received for the second communication device is modulated on sub-channels in the first OFDM sub-channel block and the data received for the third communication device is modulated on sub-channels in the second OFDM sub-channel block;
wherein the data for the second communication device is independent of the data for the third communication device; and
wherein at least one of the OFDM sub-channel blocks is formatted to substantially conform to a physical layer specification of a WLAN communication protocol having a maximum channel bandwidth smaller than a bandwidth of the generated OFDMA data unit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A plurality of different orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) sub-channel blocks are assigned to a plurality of devices including a first device and a second device. The plurality of OFDM sub-channel blocks includes a first OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the first device and a second OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the second device. Data for the first device and data for the second device are received. OFDM data units are generated, wherein data for the first device is modulated on sub-channels in the first OFDM sub-channel block and data for the second device is modulated on sub-channels in the second OFDM sub-channel block. At least one of the OFDM sub-channel blocks is formatted to substantially conform to a physical layer specification of a WLAN communication protocol having a maximum channel bandwidth smaller than a bandwidth of the generated OFDM data units.
64 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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assigning, at a first communication device, a plurality of different orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) sub-channel blocks to a plurality of other communication devices including a second communication device and a third communication device, wherein the plurality of OFDM sub-channel blocks includes a first OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the second communication device and a second OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the third communication device, and wherein the second communication device and the third communication device are members of a wireless local area network (WLAN); receiving, at the first communication device, data for the second communication device; receiving, at the first communication device, data for the third communication device; and generating, at the first communication device, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) data unit, including generating a plurality of OFDM data units corresponding to the plurality of OFDM sub-channel blocks, wherein each OFDM data unit includes a respective preamble that occupies a bandwidth equal to or less than a bandwidth of the corresponding OFDM sub-channel block, and wherein the data received for the second communication device is modulated on sub-channels in the first OFDM sub-channel block and the data received for the third communication device is modulated on sub-channels in the second OFDM sub-channel block; wherein the data for the second communication device is independent of the data for the third communication device; and wherein at least one of the OFDM sub-channel blocks is formatted to substantially conform to a physical layer specification of a WLAN communication protocol having a maximum channel bandwidth smaller than a bandwidth of the generated OFDMA data unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apparatus, comprising:
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a wireless local area network (WLAN) network interface device having one or more integrated circuit (IC) devices; and a physical layer (PHY) processing unit implemented on the one or more IC devices, the PHY processing unit configured to; assign a plurality of different orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) sub-channel blocks to a plurality of other communication devices including a first communication device and a second communication device, wherein the plurality of different OFDM sub-channel blocks includes a first OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the first communication device and a second OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the second communication device, and form, using data received for the first communication device and data received for the second communication device, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) data unit that includes a first OFDM data unit corresponding to the first OFDM sub-channel block and a second OFDM data unit corresponding to the second OFDM sub-channel block, wherein each of the first OFDM data unit and the second OFDM data unit includes a respective preamble that occupies a bandwidth equal to or less than a bandwidth of the corresponding OFDM sub-channel block, and wherein the data received for the first communication device is modulated on sub-channels in the first OFDM sub-channel block and the data received for the second communication device is modulated on sub-channels in the second OFDM sub-channel block; wherein the data for the first communication device is independent of the data for the second communication device; and wherein each of the first OFDM data unit and the second OFDM data unit is formatted to substantially conform to a physical layer specification of a WLAN communication protocol having a maximum channel bandwidth smaller than a bandwidth of the generated OFDMA data unit. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 29, 30)
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17. A method, comprising:
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assigning, at a first communication device, a plurality of different orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) sub-channel blocks to a plurality of other communication devices including a second communication device and a third communication device, wherein the plurality of OFDM sub-channel blocks includes a first OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the second communication device and a second OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the third communication device, and wherein the second communication device and the third communication device are members of a wireless local area network (WLAN); receiving data for the second communication device; receiving data for the third communication device; and generating an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) data unit that includes a first OFDM data unit and second OFDM data unit respectively corresponding to the first OFDM sub-channel block and the second OFDM sub-channel block, wherein the data received for the second communication device is included in the first OFDM data unit corresponding to the first OFDM sub-channel block, and wherein the data received for the third communication device is included in the second OFDM data unit corresponding to the second OFDM sub-channel block; wherein each of the first OFDM data unit and the second OFDM data unit includes a respective indication of a duration of the OFDMA data unit, and wherein at least one of (i) the first OFDM data unit and (ii) the second OFDM data unit has a respective duration different than the duration of the OFDMA data unit; and wherein at least one of the OFDM sub-channel blocks is formatted to substantially conform to a physical layer specification of a WLAN communication protocol having a maximum channel bandwidth smaller than a bandwidth of the generated OFDMA data unit. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. An apparatus, comprising:
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a wireless local area network (WLAN) network interface device having one or more integrated circuit (IC) devices; and a physical layer (PHY) processing unit implemented on the one or more IC devices, the PHY processing unit configured to; assign a plurality of different orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) sub-channel blocks to a plurality of other communication devices including a first communication device and a second communication device, wherein the plurality of OFDM sub-channel blocks includes a first OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the first communication device and a second OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the second communication device, and wherein the first communication device and the second communication device are members of a wireless local area network (WLAN), receive data for the first communication device, receive data for the second communication device, and generate an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) data unit that includes a first OFDM data unit and second OFDM data unit respectively corresponding to the first OFDM sub-channel block and the second OFDM sub-channel block, wherein the data received for the first communication device is included in the first OFDM data unit corresponding to the first OFDM sub-channel block, and wherein the data received for the second communication device is included in the second OFDM data unit corresponding to the second OFDM sub-channel block; wherein each of the first OFDM data unit and the second OFDM data unit includes a respective indication of a duration of the OFDMA data unit, and wherein at least one of (i) the first OFDM data unit and (ii) the second OFDM data unit has a respective duration different than the duration of the OFDMA data unit; and wherein at least one of the OFDM sub-channel blocks is formatted to substantially conform to a physical layer specification of a WLAN communication protocol having a maximum channel bandwidth smaller than a bandwidth of the generated OFDM data units. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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Specification