Techniques to identify packets associated with an overlapping basic service set

• US 10,111,226 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2016
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Barriac, Gwendolyn Denise, Asterjadhi, Alfred, Merlin, Simone, Cherian, George, Zhou, Yan, Ding, Gang, Tian, Qingjiang
• Primary Examiner(s): Agosta, Stephen M D
• Application Number:
  US15/245,891
• Publication Number:
  US 20170064713A1
• Time in Patent Office: 790 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5648 Packet discarding, e.g. EPD, PTD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0062 Avoidance of ingress interference, e.g. ham radio channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• 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]

Abstract

A wireless device may utilize enhanced OBSS identification techniques to determine whether an interfering transmission is associated with an OBSS. In an example, a wireless device may receive a WLAN packet that includes a preamble and a data region. The wireless device may analyze the preamble to determine whether the WLAN packet is an OBSS packet. If the wireless device determines there is insufficient information in the preamble to identify the WLAN packet as an OBSS packet, the wireless device may decode a portion of the data region (e.g., a MAC header) to determine if the WLAN packet is an OBSS packet. Prior to declaring a successful decoding of the MAC header, the wireless device may confirm the MAC header has been received reliably. Additionally or alternatively, BSS identifiers may be included in the data region and used to determine if the WLAN packet is associated with an OBSS.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication at a wireless device associated with an overlapping basic service set (OBSS), comprising:

receiving a wireless local area network (WLAN) packet comprising a preamble and a data region;

attempting to identify whether the preamble comprises a first identification mechanism associated with the OBSS;

determining, based at least in part on the attempting, that there is insufficient information to decide that the wireless local area network (WLAN) packet is associated with the OBSS;

decoding at least a portion of the data region based at least in part on the determining, wherein the decoding comprises decoding a media access control (MAC) header within the data region;

identifying a second OBSS identification mechanism based at least in part on the decoding; and

determining that the WLAN packet is associated with the OBSS based at least in part on the second OBSS identification mechanism and based at least in part on the decoded medium access control (MAC) header.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the OBSS identification mechanism comprises a frame check sequence (FCS) associated with the data region, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) in a delimiter field associated with the data region, a CRC in a service field associated with the data region, or a combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying a frame check sequence (FCS) to a data unit associated with the MAC header; and

wherein decoding the MAC header is based at least in part on the applied FCS.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying, to the MAC header, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) in a delimiter field associated with the MAC header; and

wherein decoding the MAC header is based at least in part on the applied cyclic redundancy check (CRC).

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying, to the MAC header, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) in a service field associated with the WLAN packet; and

wherein decoding the MAC header is based at least in part on the applied CRC.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the decoding comprises:

identifying, in the data region, an indication that the WLAN packet is associated with the OBSS; and

wherein determining that the WLAN packet is associated with the OBSS based at least in part on the indication.

7. A method of wireless communication at a wireless device associated with an overlapping basic service set (OBSS), comprising:

generating a wireless local area network (WLAN) packet comprising a preamble and a data region;

determining whether to include in the preamble a first identification mechanism associated with the OBSS;

generating, based at least in part on the determining, a second identification mechanism associated with the OBSS, wherein the second identification mechanism comprises an indication that the WLAN packet is associated with the OBSS, for a user equipment (UE) to decode the data region to determine that the WLAN packet is associated with the OBSS;

inserting, based at least in part on the generating, the second identification mechanism into a portion of the data region associated with the WLAN packet; and

transmitting the WLAN packet over a channel that is shared with the OBSS.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the inserting comprises inserting a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to decode a MAC header into a delimiter field associated with a MAC header of the portion of the data region.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the inserting comprises inserting a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to decode a MAC header into a service field associated with the portion of the data region of the WLAN packet.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the inserting comprises inserting a BSS identifier into a service field associated with the WLAN packet.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining to include in the preamble the first identification mechanism associated with the OBSS; and

inserting, based at least in part of the determining, the first identification mechanism into the preamble.

12. An apparatus for wireless communication at a wireless device associated with an overlapping basic service set (OBSS), comprising:

a processor;

memory in electronic communication with the processor; and

instructions stored in the memory and operable, when executed by the processor, to cause the apparatus to;

receive a wireless local area network (WLAN) packet comprising a preamble and a data region;

attempt to identify whether the preamble comprises a first identification mechanism associated with the OBSS;

determine, based at least in part on the attempting, that there is insufficient information to decide that the wireless local area network (WLAN) packet is associated with the OBSS;

decode at least a portion of the data region based at least in part on the determining, wherein the decoding comprises decoding a media access control (MAC) header within the data region;

identify a second OBSS identification mechanism based at least in part on the decoding; and

determine that the WLAN packet is associated with the OBSS based at least in part on the second OBSS identification mechanism and based at least in part on the decoded medium access control (MAC) header.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the OBSS identification mechanism comprises a frame check sequence (FCS) associated with the data region.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the OBSS identification mechanism comprises a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) in a delimiter field associated with the data region.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the OBSS identification mechanism comprises a CRC in a service field associated with the data region.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the instructions are operable to cause the processor to:

apply a frame check sequence (FCS) to a data unit associated with the MAC header; and

decode the MAC header is based at least in part on the applied FCS.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the instructions are operable to cause the processor to:

apply, to the MAC header, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) in a delimiter field associated with the MAC header; and

decode the MAC header is based at least in part on the applied cyclic redundancy check (CRC).

18. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the instructions are operable to cause the processor to:

apply, to the MAC header, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) in a service field associated with the WLAN packet; and

decode the MAC header is based at least in part on the applied CRC.

19. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the instructions are operable to cause the processor to:

identify the MAC header is based at least in part on identifying a first bit pattern associated with a first field and a second bit pattern associated with a second field that are both associated with the MAC header.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the instructions are operable to cause the apparatus to:

identify, in the data region, an indication that the WLAN packet is associated with the OBSS; and

determine that the WLAN packet is associated with the OBSS based at least in part on the indication.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the identifying the indication comprises identifying a BSS identifier in a delimiter signature field associated with a MAC header.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the instructions are operable to cause the processor to:

apply, to the delimiter signature field, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) in a delimiter field associated with the MAC header; and

decode the delimiter signature field based at least in part on the applied CRC.

23. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the instructions are operable to cause the processor to:

compare a received signal strength of the WLAN packet with a threshold when it is determined the WLAN packet is associated with the OBSS.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the instructions are operable to cause the processor to:

discard at least one of a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) duration, a transmit opportunity (TXOP) duration, a network allocation vector (NAV) information, or any combination thereof based at least in part on the comparison.

25. An apparatus for wireless communication at a wireless device associated with an overlapping basic service set (OBSS), comprising:

a processor;

memory in electronic communication with the processor; and

instructions stored in the memory and operable, when executed by the processor, to cause the apparatus to;

generate a wireless local area network (WLAN) packet comprising a preamble and a data region;

determine whether to include in the preamble a first identification mechanism associated with the OBSS;

generate, based at least in part on the determining, a second identification mechanism associated with the OBSS, wherein the second identification mechanism comprises an indication that the WLAN packet is associated with the OBSS for a user equipment (UE) to decode the data region to determine that the WLAN packet is associated with the OBSS;

insert, based at least in part on the generating, the second identification mechanism into a portion of the data region associated with the WLAN packet; and

transmit the WLAN packet over a channel that is shared with the OBSS.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the instructions are operable to cause the apparatus to:

insert a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to decode a MAC header into a delimiter field associated with a MAC header of the portion of the data region.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the instructions are operable to cause the apparatus to:

insert a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to decode a MAC header into a service field associated with the portion of the data region of the WLAN packet.

28. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the instructions are operable to cause the apparatus to:

insert a BSS identifier into a service field associated with the WLAN packet.