CN109525293B

CN109525293B - Method and device for beamforming training

Info

Publication number: CN109525293B
Application number: CN201710852596.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李彦淳
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-09-19
Filing date: 2017-09-19
Publication date: 2022-05-10
Anticipated expiration: 2037-09-19
Also published as: CN109525293A

Abstract

The invention discloses a method and a device for beamforming training, which are applied to the field of wireless communication. The method comprises the following steps: in the initiator sector scanning ISS phase, the initiator sends one or more first sector scanning SSW frames to the responder, where the first SSW frames include: an antenna configuration index for indicating antenna combination information; the antenna combination information is the antenna combination of m antennas used when the first SSW frame is sent in a cyclic shift delay CSD mode, different antenna combinations correspond to different antenna configuration indexes, m is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and N is the number of the antennas of the initiator; and the initiator receives a second sector scanning SSW frame sent by the responder, wherein the second SSW frame contains the optimal antenna configuration index. Therefore, in the application, the initiator performs sector scanning in parallel by adopting a CSD mode, and the efficiency of sector-level scanning is improved.

Description

Method and device for beamforming training

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of wireless communications, and more particularly, to beamforming training techniques.

Background

In the millimeter wave communication standard, a Beamforming Training (BFT) is composed of two parts, namely, Sector Level Scanning (SLS) and Beam optimization Protocol (Beam optimization Protocol BRP). The SLS process may establish a link between the data originator and the responder that can communicate using the base transmission rate. In the SLS process, one party initiating beam training is the initiator and the other party participating in beam training is the responder. Generally, in the beamforming training, a sector level scanning, SLS, step is performed first.

Generally, the sector level scan SLS specifically includes 4 steps of Initiator sector scan (ISS or I-SS), Responder sector scan (RSS or R-SS), sector scan feedback, and sector scan confirmation.

Specifically, in the ISS process, the initiator sends Sector Sweep (SSW) frames in different Sector directions, and the responder receives the SSW frames omnidirectionally and can know which SSW frame sent by the initiator has the best quality; in the course of RSS, the responder can scan the RSS by the responder sector and feed back the strongest sector direction received in the ISS stage to the initiator. In the sector scanning feedback process, the initiator sends a sector scanning feedback frame to the responder at the end of the corresponding response SSW time slot sent by the responder.

However, in the prior art, the efficiency and reliability of beamforming training are to be further improved.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the above problems, the present application provides a method and an apparatus for beamforming training to improve efficiency and reliability of beamforming training.

In order to achieve the above object, the embodiments of the present application provide the following technical solutions:

in a first aspect, a method for beamforming training is provided, where the method is applied to an initiator, and the method includes:

in the initiator sector scanning ISS phase, the initiator sends one or more first sector scanning SSW frames to the responder, where the first SSW frames include: an antenna configuration index for indicating antenna combination information; the antenna combination information is the antenna combination of m antennas used when the first SSW frame is sent, different antenna combinations correspond to different antenna configuration indexes, m is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and N is the number of the antennas of the initiator;

and the initiator receives a second sector scanning SSW frame sent by the responder, wherein the second SSW frame contains the optimal antenna configuration index.

In a second aspect, a method for beamforming training is provided, which is applied to a responder, and includes:

in an initiator sector scanning ISS stage, a responder receives a first sector scanning SSW frame in an omnidirectional manner, wherein the first SSW frame comprises: the antenna configuration index is used for indicating antenna combination information, wherein the antenna combination information is antenna combinations of m antennas used when the first SSW frame is sent, different antenna combinations correspond to different antenna configuration indexes, m is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and N is the number of antennas of an initiator;

the responder determines an optimal antenna configuration index according to the first SSW frame in the ISS stage;

in the stage of scanning RSS by the responder sector, the responder sends a second sector scanning SSW frame to the initiator, wherein the second SSW frame comprises an optimal antenna configuration index.

In a third aspect, an apparatus for beamforming training is provided, which is applied to an initiator, and the apparatus includes:

transmission unit (201): for sending one or more first sector sweep SSW frames to a responder during an initiator sector sweep ISS phase, the first SSW frames comprising: an antenna configuration index for indicating antenna combination information; the antenna combination information is the antenna combination of m antennas used when the first SSW frame is sent, different antenna combinations correspond to different antenna configuration indexes, m is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and N is the number of the antennas of the initiator;

receiving unit (202): and the second sector scanning SSW frame is used for receiving the sending of the responder, wherein the second SSW frame comprises the optimal antenna configuration index.

In a fourth aspect, an apparatus for beamforming training is provided, applied to a responder, the apparatus comprising:

receiving unit (205): the method is used for omni-directionally receiving a first sector scanning SSW frame in an initiator sector scanning ISS phase, wherein the first SSW frame comprises: the antenna configuration index is used for indicating antenna combination information, wherein the antenna combination information is antenna combinations of m antennas used when a first SSW frame is sent, different antenna combinations correspond to different antenna configuration indexes, m is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and N is the number of antennas of an initiator;

determination unit (206): the antenna configuration index determining unit is used for determining an optimal antenna configuration index according to the first SSW frame in the ISS stage;

transmission unit (204): and the receiver is configured to send a second sector scanning SSW frame to the initiator in a sector scanning RSS phase of the responder, where the second SSW frame includes an optimal antenna configuration index.

In yet another aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions, which when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the above aspects.

In yet another aspect, the present application provides a computer program product containing instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the above aspects.

In yet another aspect, the present application provides a chip system comprising a processor for enabling a data transmission apparatus to implement the functions referred to in the above aspects, e.g. to generate or process data and/or information referred to in the above methods. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the data transmission device. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

Therefore, the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention has the following beneficial effects: in the ISS stage, the initiator adopts multiple antennas to transmit a first SSW frame in parallel in a Cyclic phase Delay (CSD) CSD mode, so that the reliability of sector scanning frame transmission in sector scanning of the initiator is improved, and the effect of transmitting diversity is obtained;

in addition, in the RSS stage, an unassociated responder can select a short sector scanning frame with the length shorter than that of a traditional sector scanning frame to perform responder sector scanning, compared with the prior art that an unassociated responder can only select the traditional sector scanning frame, the unassociated responder shortens the time of unassociated responder sector scanning, and increases the number of the scannable sectors in unit time, so that the efficiency of the unassociated station responder sector scanning is improved, and further, the unassociated station identification information is added in the sector scanning feedback frame by the initiator, and the feedback to the unassociated station adopting a random short address is supported.

In the sector scanning feedback stage, the initiator can be supported to perform sector scanning feedback on multiple users in one SSW time slot, so that the efficiency of sector scanning feedback is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed for the embodiments will be briefly described below, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to acquire other drawings without inventive efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a beamforming training process;

fig. 2a-2b are exemplary block diagrams of a beamforming training device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a beam training method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating a beamforming training method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a timing diagram illustrating an initiator sector scanning method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a timing diagram illustrating another initiator sector scanning method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a timing diagram illustrating another initiator sector scanning method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for unassociated responder sector scanning according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of bits of unassociated responder identification information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a timing diagram illustrating a method for sending a multi-user SSW feedback frame by an initiator according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a timing diagram illustrating another method for sending a multi-user SSW feedback frame by an initiator according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic flowchart of a method for sending a multi-user SSW feedback frame by an initiator according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of a frame structure of an SSW feedback frame according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 14 is a frame structure diagram of another SSW feedback frame according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of a beamforming training device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of another beamforming training apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention better understood and make the above objects, processes, features and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer and more understandable. It is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments, and all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without any inventive work are within the scope of the present invention based on the embodiments of the present invention.

Beamforming is a method by which two or more communicating parties can achieve the necessary transmission link budget for subsequent communication procedures. Beamforming, also known as beamforming, improves the quality of the communication signal by enhancing the signal by focusing the transmit or receive signal in the direction of a beam directed to the receiver or transmitter.

Beamforming training is a bi-directional beamforming frame transmission sequence flow that enables the initiator and responder to determine the appropriate antenna system settings for transmission and reception by beamsweeping and providing the necessary signaling.

In the millimeter wave communication standard, a Beamforming Training (BFT) is composed of two parts, namely, a Sector Level scanning (SLS, or simply referred to as Sector scanning) and a Beam optimization Protocol (BRP). Typically, a sector level scanning step is performed first.

Generally, a complete sector-level SLS scanning process specifically includes 4 steps of Initiator sector scan (ISS or I-SS), Responder sector scan (RSS or R-SS), sector scan feedback, and sector scan confirmation. For an initial access site, multiple steps of SLS are respectively implemented at multiple specific intervals in one Beacon Interval (BI), where ISS is implemented at a Beacon Transmission Interval (BTI), and RSS and sector scanning feedback are implemented in Association beam Training (a-BFT).

Taking an AP as an initiator, a STA as a responder, and the AP having a multi-antenna scenario as an example, a schematic diagram of four steps of the sector-level scanning process is shown in fig. 1, and specifically includes:

initiator sector scanning ISS: the AP adopts multiple antennas to sequentially send Sector Scanning (SSW) frames to different Sector directions, and the STA receives the SSW frames omnidirectionally and can know which SSW frame sent by the AP has the best quality;

responder sector scan RSS: the STA feeds back the strongest sector direction received in the ISS stage to the AP, and the AP adopts multiple antennas to scan and receive sector scanning frames sent by the STA in sequence;

sector scanning feedback: in the sector scanning feedback process, after receiving the sector scanning frame of the STA, the AP sends a sector scanning feedback frame to the STA at the end of the corresponding response SSW slot sent by the AP.

Sector scan confirmation: and after receiving the sector scanning feedback frame sent by the AP, the STA replies a sector scanning confirmation to the AP.

The beamforming training method and device provided by the embodiment of the application can solve the problem of low efficiency in the existing beamforming, and effectively improve the efficiency of sector-level scanning SLS in beamforming training.

The technical scheme and the process in the embodiment of the invention are further described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The beamforming training device as an initiator or a responder according to the embodiments of the present invention may be a device in a base station, an access point, or an access network that communicates with a wireless terminal over one or more sectors on an air interface. For example, the Base Station may be a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in GSM or CDMA, a Base Station (NodeB) in WCDMA, an evolved Node B (eNB or e-NodeB) in LTE, or a WiFi router, or a Base Station or access point conforming to other communication protocols, which is not limited in this application.

Of course, the beamforming training device may be a device providing voice and/or data connectivity to a user, a handheld device with wireless connectivity, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem. The wireless terminals may be, among other things, mobile terminals such as mobile telephones (or "cellular" telephones) and computers with mobile terminals, such as portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included, or vehicle-mounted mobile devices, that exchange language and/or data with a radio access network. For example, Personal Communication Service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and the like. A wireless Terminal may also be referred to as a system, a Subscriber Unit (Subscriber Unit), a Subscriber Station (Subscriber Station), a Mobile Station (Mobile), a Remote Station (Remote Station), an Access Point (Access Point), a Remote Terminal (Remote Terminal), an Access Terminal (Access Terminal), a User Terminal (User Terminal), a User Agent (User Agent), a User Device (User Device), or a User equipment (User eqbippment).

Fig. 2a shows an exemplary structure of the beamforming training apparatus as an initiator, including: a transmitting unit 201, a receiving unit 202 and a determining unit 203. The function of each unit will be described later herein in connection with the method section.

Fig. 2b shows an exemplary structure of the beamforming training device as a responder, including: a transmitting unit 204, a receiving unit 205 and a determining unit 206.

Of course, since a beamforming training device may serve as an initiator in a certain scenario and as a responder in another scenario, one beamforming training device may simultaneously include the transmitting unit 201, the receiving unit 202, the determining unit 203, the transmitting unit 204, the receiving unit 205, and the determining unit 206.

The function of each unit will be described later herein in connection with the method section.

First, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for training beam forming, and referring to fig. 3, a flow diagram of the method for training a beam provided in the embodiment of the present invention is shown. The method can comprise the following steps:

s301: in the initiator sector scanning ISS phase, the initiator sends one or more first sector scanning SSW frames to the responder, where the first SSW frames include: an antenna configuration index for indicating antenna combination information; the antenna combination information is an antenna combination of m antennas used when the first SSW frame is sent in a CSD mode, different antenna combinations correspond to different antenna configuration indexes, m is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and N is the number of antennas of the initiator.

The Cyclic Shift Delay (CSD) scheme is that an initiator has N transmit antennas, where N is greater than or equal to 2, a radio frequency RF chain of the initiator is respectively connected to m antennas of the N transmit antennas, and the m antennas or RF chains transmit SISO signals, but signals transmitted on different antennas or RF chains have different Cyclic Shift Delays (CSD).

Specifically, the ISS process may or may not occur within the BTI.

Optionally, when the ISS process does not occur in the BTI, the RF chain of the initiator is connected to m of the N transmit antennas, and the antennas connected to each RF chain transmit the first SSW frame in parallel in different sector directions, where Cyclic Shift Delays (CSDs) for transmitting the first SSW frame by the antennas connected to each RF chain are different, and SSW frames transmitted on each RF chain are the same.

For example, in the initiator, there are two RF chains, which are numbered a and B, and there are 2 transmit antennas, where RF chain a is connected to transmit antenna 1 and directly transmits the first SSW frame without delay, RF chain B is connected to antenna 2, and transmits the same first SSW frame after antenna 1 transmits the first SSW frame with delay of 50 ns. Because the time delay of the antenna 1 and the antenna 2 is very small, the antennas almost transmit at the same time in the view of the initiator, and the effect of transmit diversity can be obtained, in the view of the traditional responder, the two antennas transmit the first SSW frame, and when only one antenna has poor channel state, the first SSW frame cannot be normally received by the responder, or the signal quality of the received first SSW frame is poor, the first SSW frame transmitted on the other antenna can still be successfully received, so that the reliability and robustness of sector scanning are improved.

Optionally, for the initial access site, the ISS procedure occurs in the BTI when the initiator and responder have not established a connection. The initiator may select m antennas to transmit a beacon frame in a CSD manner for initiator sector scanning within the BTI, where the beacon frame transmitted on each antenna is the same. The beacon frame includes time indicating the start of associated beam training a-BFT, the number of timeslots in associated beam training in a-BFT, and the number of SSW frames supported in each timeslot.

In the ISS process, when the initiator uses multiple antennas to transmit the first SSW frame or beacon frame in parallel in the CSD manner, the first SSW frame or beacon frame includes an antenna configuration index indicating antenna combination information because more than one transmitting antenna is used and may be a combination of multiple antennas. For example, the Antenna ID field in the conventional first SSW frame or beacon frame is not sufficient to indicate the IDs of all m antennas transmitted in the CSD manner. Therefore, when the initiator performs sector scanning in a CSD manner using m antennas, the Antenna ID field may be used to indicate an Antenna configuration index of specific Antenna combination information, where the Antenna combination information may include a single Antenna information or may include Antenna combination information of multiple antennas, and different Antenna combination information corresponds to different Antenna configuration indexes, for example, m, where m > 1. The antenna configuration index indicates which m antenna combination form of the corresponding N transmitting antennas can be determined by the initiator according to a predetermined mapping rule, and when the initiator changes the antenna configuration connected to the radio frequency link, the antenna configuration index values are also different, and the specific mapping rule is not limited herein. And it is understood that the antenna configuration index information may also be included in other reserved fields or extension fields of the first SSW frame or beacon frame.

For example, when the initiator has two RF links, which are respectively numbered as a and B, and 3 transmitting antennas, which are respectively numbered as Antenna 1, Antenna 2, and Antenna 3, where the RF link a is connected to the transmitting Antenna 1, the RF link B is connected to the transmitting Antenna 2, and the transmitting Antenna 1 and the transmitting Antenna 2 are combined to send the first SSW frame in the CSD manner, the initiator may set the Antenna configuration index represented by the Antenna ID to 0; when the RF link a is connected to the transmitting Antenna 1, the RF link B is connected to the transmitting Antenna 3, and the transmitting Antenna 1 and the transmitting Antenna 3 are combined to transmit the sector scanning frame in the CSD manner, the Antenna configuration connected to the radio frequency link of the initiator is changed, and the initiator may set the Antenna configuration index represented by the Antenna ID to 1, as described in table 1 below. The above-mentioned radio frequency link number, the antenna configuration index value corresponding to the antenna number, and the like are only exemplary, and other values may be used in this embodiment.

TABLE 1

Antenna configuration index	0	1	2
				Antenna configuration information	Antenna		1,2	Antennas 1,3	Antennas 2,3

In the beacon frame or the first SSW frame, one or more combinations of a sector scanning direction id (sector id), a radio frequency Chain id (rf Chain id), and an antenna id (antenna id) of the initiator may be included.

Optionally, when the initiator performs sector scanning in the CSD manner, in the ISS process, the initiator may use a 1-bit multi-antenna transmission flag to identify whether the initiator uses multiple antennas to transmit the identifier of the first SSW frame in the CSD or digital pre-coding manner in the first SSW frame or the beacon frame. For example, when the sender uses m antennas (when m is greater than 2), and sends the first SSW frame or beacon frame in a CSD manner or a digital precoding manner, the above flag is true; otherwise, the flag is false. For example, the initiator may set the above-mentioned multi-antenna transmission flag in a reserved bit in a Dynamic Allocation Info Filtered (DAIF) field of the first SSW frame, where the reserved bit is shown in table 2. For example, when the reserved bit in the DAIF field is 1, it indicates that the initiator employs the multi-antenna CSD scheme or the digital precoding scheme for transmission, and when the reserved bit in the DAIF field is 0, it indicates that the initiator does not employ the multi-antenna CSD scheme or the digital precoding scheme for transmission. Of course, other reserved bits in the first SSW frame may also be used to indicate whether the initiator uses the multi-antenna method, which is not specifically limited herein.

TABLE 2

Optionally, in the ISS process, when the initiator uses multiple antennas to concurrently transmit the first SSW frame or the beacon frame in the CSD manner, the initiator may further indicate, in an extension field or a reserved field of the beacon frame or the first SSW frame, IDs of multiple antennas used when the first SSW frame or the beacon frame is transmitted in the CSD manner. For example, optionally, the initiator may include IDs of multiple antennas in a reserved field in a Sector Sweep Feedback field in the first SSW frame, where the reserved bit field is located as shown in table 3:

TABLE 3

Optionally, when the initiator needs to send multi-sector feedback information, or the initiator needs to perform reception measurement on multiple antennas or multiple RF chains or multiple sectors, the initiator does not adopt a CSD method to perform sector scanning, and may sequentially adopt multiple antennas to send first SSW frames in different sector directions, where the first SSW frame includes an antenna ID of a physical antenna that sends the sector scanning frame. The multi-sector feedback information may include one or a combination of an optimal antenna ID, an optimal sector direction ID, and an optimal RF chain ID of the initiator.

Optionally, the first SSW frame or the beacon frame may further include an identifier for indicating whether the initiator requests the responder to feed back the multi-sector scanning information, and when the initiator does not need the responder to send the multi-sector feedback information, the initiator may utilize the identifier to avoid the responder from feeding back the multi-sector information. For example, the initiator may set a bit in the first SSW frame to indicate the indication of the multi-sector information feedback request, may indicate the responder not to perform multi-sector information feedback when the multi-sector information feedback request is set to 0, and may indicate the responder to perform multi-sector information feedback when the multi-sector information feedback request is set to 1.

Therefore, it can be understood that, when the first SSW frame is not transmitted in the CSD manner, optionally, the antenna ID field may represent an antenna ID of a physical antenna used when the first SSW frame is transmitted; when the sector scanning is performed in the CSD mode, since the number of antennas used is greater than or equal to 2, in order to avoid ambiguity of antenna ID usage, one or more of the following modes may be used:

when the initiator sends the first SSW frame in the CSD manner, the first SSW frame may include: an antenna configuration index for indicating antenna combination information;

when the initiator sends the first SSW frame in the CSD manner, the first SSW frame may include: a sending mode identifier for indicating whether the initiator performs sector scanning in a CSD mode;

when the initiator sends the first SSW frame in the CSD manner, the first SSW frame may include: for indicating an antenna ID used when the first SSW frame is transmitted in a CSD manner;

it should be noted that the frame structure of the first SSW frame in the protocol may be a Sector scan frame fan (SSW) frame, a Beacon frame, or a Short Sector scan (Short Sector scan) frame. The signal transmission mode of the first SSW frame may be a DMG Control mode, an EDMG Control mode, a spread spectrum transmission mode, or other modes.

For 802.11ad station compatibility, the countdown value CDown, DMG Antenna ID, contained in the Sector Sweep field in the beacon frame or the first SSW frame may also be used to indicate a combination of the following:

CDown is the actual countdown value;

the Sector ID may be used to identify Sector combination information when the multi-antenna CSD mode is simultaneously transmitted, or a Sector ID of a first transmitting antenna in the CSD mode;

the Antenna ID may be used to identify an Antenna configuration index of the multi-Antenna combination information, or an ID of a first transmitting Antenna in the CSD mode, or an Antenna ID with a minimum number, or a main Antenna that is necessary to perform channel transmission.

The SSW extension field or the reserved field contains all antenna IDs used when the current sector sweep frame is transmitted in the CSD mode, or contains other antenna IDs except for IDs of all antennas in the CSD mode, a sector ID, and an RF chain ID.

S301 may be performed by the aforementioned determination unit 203 and transmission unit 201.

S302: in the stage of initiating side sector scanning ISS, the responding side receives a first sector scanning SSW frame in an omnidirectional way, and the first SSW frame comprises: and an antenna configuration index used for indicating antenna combination information, wherein the antenna combination information is an antenna combination of m antennas used when the first SSW frame is sent, different antenna combinations correspond to different antenna configuration indexes, m is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and N is the number of antennas of an initiator.

Specifically, when the ISS process occurs in the BTI, the responder receives the beacon frame sent by the initiator in an omnidirectional manner, and when the initiator indicates that the current BI includes associated beam training, the responder obtains the start time of the a-BFT associated beam training, the number of timeslots in the a-BFT associated beam training, and the number of SSW frames supported in each timeslot. The responder may derive the duration of each timeslot based on the number of SSW frames supported in each timeslot. Further, according to the starting time of the A-BFT associated beam training, the starting time and the ending time of each time slot can be obtained.

When the ISS procedure does not occur within the BTI, the responder omnidirectionally receives the first SSW frame sent by the initiator.

S302 may be performed by the receiving unit 205 as described above.

S303: and the responder determines the optimal antenna configuration index according to the first SSW frame in the ISS stage.

In the RSS process, when the initiator sends the first SSW frame in the CSD manner, the first SSW frame includes an antenna configuration index indicating antenna combination information, and the responder may determine the optimal antenna configuration index of the initiator according to the antenna configuration index included in the first SSW frame sent by the initiator. Of course, while determining the optimal antenna configuration index, one or more of the initiator optimal sector and the optimal RF chain corresponding to the optimal antenna configuration index are also determined.

S303 may be performed by the aforementioned determination unit 206.

S304: in the stage of scanning RSS by the responder sector, the responder sends a second sector scanning SSW frame to the initiator, wherein the second SSW frame comprises an optimal antenna configuration index.

In the foregoing, while the responder determines the optimal antenna configuration index, it also determines one or more of the initiator optimal sector and the optimal RF chain corresponding to the optimal antenna configuration index.

Therefore, optionally, the second SSW frame may also carry one or more of the initiator best sector and the best RF chain corresponding to the optimal antenna configuration index.

Optionally, when the responder determines that the sender does not use multiple antennas to perform sector scanning in a CSD manner or a digital precoding manner or the initiator requests the responder to send multi-sector information feedback in the first SSW frame, the responder may perform reception measurement on a beacon frame or a first SSW frame sent by the initiator sequentially using multiple antennas or multiple RF chains, and determine an optimal sector direction number ID corresponding to one or more radio frequency RF chains used when the initiator sends the first SSW frame, and may also determine an optimal sector direction number ID corresponding to one or more antennas used when the initiator sends the first SSW frame, and the responder may also determine an optimal antenna number ID to send the first SSW frame, and an optimal radio frequency RF chain number ID, and further, the responder may use the optimal antenna ID or the optimal RF chain ID, or a combination of one or more of the optimal sector direction IDs corresponding to the multiple RF chains or multiple antennas as the multi-sector scanning feedback information, and the data is carried in a second SSW frame and is sent to the initiator.

When a responder determines that a sender performs sector scanning in a CSD mode or a digital pre-coding mode by using multiple antennas or an initiator does not request the responder to send multi-sector information feedback in a first SSW frame, the responder learns that the Antenna ID of the first SSW frame does not correspond to the physical Antenna ID sent by a current frame, at the moment, the responder can identify the multiple Antenna ID contained in an extension field or a reserved field of the first SSW frame, and the responder can determine the optimal receiving Antenna ID for receiving the first SSW, the optimal sector direction and the like, so that the second SSW frame can also contain the optimal receiving Antenna for receiving the first SSW frame, the optimal sector direction and the like.

It can be understood that, optionally, the responder may learn, in the extension field of the first SSW frame, the antenna ID used when the initiator transmits the first SSW frame in the CSD manner, and these antennas for transmitting the first SSW frame are also used for receiving in the RSS process. Therefore, the responder can transmit the second SSW frame in the RSS process using the optimal receive antenna.

For a conventional responder which does not know the CSD method, the initiator has no influence on the conventional responder by using the CSD method, and the conventional responder cannot sense that the initiator uses the CSD method, and can normally decode a sector scan frame or other data packets transmitted by using the CSD method.

S304 may be performed by the aforementioned sending unit 204.

S305: and the initiator receives a second sector scanning SSW frame sent by the responder, wherein the second SSW frame contains the optimal antenna configuration index.

Specifically, when the ISS is generated in the BTI, the initiator may use multiple antennas that transmit the first sector sweep frame in the CSD manner as receiving antennas at the a-BFT stage corresponding to the BTI, and perform parallel receiving at the same time, so as to obtain the effect of receiving diversity. For example, in the BTI phase, the initiator uses the transmitting antenna 1 and the transmitting antenna 3 to send the first SSW frame in the CSD manner, and in the corresponding a-BFT phase, the initiator also uses the transmitting antenna 1 and the transmitting antenna 3 to receive the second SSW frame sent by the responder in parallel, as shown in fig. 4.

Optionally, the initiator may further use a set including multiple antennas for transmitting the first SSW frame in the CSD mode as receiving antennas, and receive in parallel to obtain the effect of receive diversity. For example, the initiator uses transmitting antenna 1 and transmitting antenna 2 to send the first SSW frame in a CSD manner, and in the corresponding a-BFT stage, the initiator uses an antenna set including transmitting antenna 1, transmitting antenna 2, and transmitting antenna 3 to perform parallel reception, where the receiving antenna set includes transmitting antenna 1 and transmitting antenna 2. In the RSS stage, the initiator adopts multiple antennas to simultaneously receive, so that the effect of receiving diversity can be obtained, and the reliability and the robustness of receiving the second SSW frame of the responder by the initiator are improved.

S305 may be performed by the receiving unit 202 as described above.

In this embodiment, in the ISS stage, the initiator uses multiple antennas to concurrently send the first SSW frame in the CSD manner, so that the efficiency of transmitting the sector scan frame in the sector scan of the initiator is improved, and the transmit diversity effect is obtained, and in the ISS stage, the sector scan frame includes the antenna configuration index corresponding to the antenna combination information, so that the ambiguous use of the antenna ID when the sector scan frame is sent in the CSD manner is avoided, and the reliability of the sector scan is improved; in the RSS stage, the antenna set at least comprising the multiple antennas for sending the first SSW frame is adopted for simultaneous reception of the multiple antennas, so that the effect of receiving analysis can be obtained, and the efficiency of sector scanning is improved.

In another optional embodiment of the present invention, in the ISS phase, the initiator may further divide a plurality of antennas of the initiator into a plurality of antenna groups, and the initiator may transmit the first SSW frame in parallel in a CSD manner by using the antennas in each group in turn. For example, as shown in fig. 5, when the initiator needs to scan all transmitting antennas in a traversal manner, assuming that the initiator has 4 transmitting antennas and 2 radio frequency links, first, the initiator uses a first packet to connect an RF link a to an antenna 1 and connect an RF link B to an antenna 3, and simultaneously sends a first SSW frame with a countdown/countdown Count Down (CDOWN) of 9,8,7,6, and 5 respectively; then, the initiator switches to the second antenna group, switches the antenna connected to RF link a to antenna 2, switches the antenna connected to RF link B to antenna 4, and simultaneously transmits a sector sweep frame with CDOWN ═ 4,3,2,1, 0. If each antenna of the initiator needs to sweep through 5 sector directions, a total of 10 slots (slots) are needed for the 4 antennas to complete the scanning. In the prior art, if 4 transmitting antennas are used to sequentially scan 5 sectors, a total of 20 time slots are required to complete the scanning. Obviously, in the embodiment of the present invention, the SSW frame is transmitted by using multiple antennas in a CSD manner, which can effectively improve the efficiency of sector scanning performed by the initiator.

Correspondingly, in the RSS phase, the initiator may select multiple antennas in the antenna group used when transmitting the sector sweep frame to receive the sector sweep frame transmitted by the responder in parallel. The initiator may also select a set of antennas containing the antenna grouping employed in transmitting the sector sweep frame to receive in parallel the sector sweep frame transmitted by the responder.

The ISS phase in this embodiment may or may not occur in the BTI interval.

Optionally, when the ISS phase is in the BI interval, the initiator may complete the polling CSD transmission of multiple antenna groups in one BTI interval, as shown in fig. 6. For example, when the initiator has 2 antenna groups for polling transmission, in the ISS phase, the initiator may switch to the second antenna group for CSD transmission after performing CSD transmission by using the first antenna group in the BTI of the first BI

Optionally, the initiator may also complete the polling CSD transmission of multiple antenna groups within the BTI intervals of multiple BIs, as shown in fig. 7. For example, the initiator may perform CSD transmission using the first antenna packet in the BTI of the first BI interval and then perform CSD transmission using the second antenna packet in the BTI of the second BI interval.

It should be noted that the multi-antenna CSD transmission mode may be implemented in multiple antennas of one initiator; in a plurality of initiators, each initiator adopts one antenna to perform CSD transmission with one antenna of other initiators; one initiator may also use one antenna, and another initiator or multiple initiators use a combination of multiple antennas to perform CSD transmission, where the delay time of each initiator antenna using the CSD is different, and the specific delay may be determined by mutual negotiation of the initiators, which is not limited specifically herein.

The method described in the present embodiment may be performed by the aforementioned transmitting unit 201 and receiving unit 202.

Compared with the previous embodiment, in the ISS stage in this embodiment, the initiator may switch the transmit antenna groups, and when the initiator needs to traverse all the transmit antennas, the efficiency of sector scanning in the ISS stage may be improved by performing sector scanning in a CSD manner using multiple antennas.

In another embodiment of the present invention, referring to the flow diagram of FIG. 8, a method for performing a responder sector scan with an unassociated responder is provided.

The method can comprise the following steps:

s801: in the ISS phase, the responder receives the first SSW frame sent by the initiator.

Specifically, the initiator transmits a beacon Frame on each antenna sector in the BTI, where each beacon Frame includes a start time indicating associated beam training a-BFT (association Beamforming training), the number of time slots in the a-BFT associated beam training, and the number of sector sweep frames (sector sweep frames) supported in each time slot.

Optionally, in the ISS process, the initiator may employ multiple antennas, and transmit the beacon frame in the beacon transmission interval BTI in a cyclic shift delay csd (cyclic Shifted delay) manner or a digital precoding manner, where the first SSW frame or specific information included in the beacon frame is described in detail in step S201 of the first embodiment, and is not described herein again.

Specifically, after receiving a beacon Frame sent by an initiator, a responder acquires the time for starting a-BFT indicated in the beacon Frame, the number of timeslots in a-BFT associated beam training, and the number of sector sweep frames (sector sweep frames) supported in each timeslot. The responder may derive the duration length of each slot based on the number of sector sweep SSW frames supported in each slot. Further, the responder can obtain the start time and the end time of each time slot according to the start time of the A-BFT associated beam training.

S801 may be performed by the aforementioned receiving unit 205 and determining unit 206.

S802: in the RSS phase, the responder sends a second sector scanning SSW frame to the initiator, and for unassociated responders, the second SSW frame includes: a temporary identification for indicating unassociated responders; wherein the temporary identifier comprises a short address of less than 48 bits in length and a randomly selected scrambler initialization bit sequence.

In the RSS phase, the responder sends a second sector scanning SSW frame to the initiator, where the second SSW frame may include an ID of a sector direction of the responder itself during sector scanning of the responder, or a combination of one or more of a sending antenna ID and a radio frequency chain ID, and may also simultaneously feed back a combination of one or more of a sector direction ID, an antenna ID and a radio frequency chain ID of the initiator preferred by the responder.

Taking the AP as an initiator and the STA as a responder, for the associated STA, the length of the second SSW may also be shorter than the conventional sector sweep frame, and in the second SSW frame of the associated STA, other information such as an association identifier AID or a MAC address of the associated STA may be used to identify the associated STA.

For an unassociated STA, since the STA is not associated with the AP, no association identifier AID is assigned. During a-BFT, the unassociated STA may randomly select a scrambler initialization bit sequence and generate a second SSW frame based on the scrambler initialization bit sequence, which may be shorter in length than a conventional sector sweep frame, referred to as a Short sector sweep frame (Short SSW).

Optionally, the preamble of the Short SSW includes three parts, namely a Short training field, a channel estimation field and a Header. The Header portion in the preamble of the Short SSW frame contains the scrambler initialization bit sequence described above. Wherein the scrambler initialization bit sequence is used for scrambling a data part at a transmitting side and descrambling according to the sequence at a receiving side. In this embodiment, the scrambler initialization bit sequence may be used as a feature to identify an unassociated STA.

In addition, the Short SSW frame further includes a Short address for identifying the unassociated STA, wherein the length of the Short address is less than 48 bits. Alternatively, the short address may be generated by a 48-bit MAC address of the unassociated STA according to a predetermined mapping rule, or may be generated by randomly selecting one short address by the unassociated STA.

It will be appreciated that the combination of the scrambler initialization bit sequence and the short address of an unassociated STA may be used as a temporary identifier for an unassociated STA. For example, assuming that the Short address is 8 bits in length, the unassociated STA may fill in the address field of the Short SSW with the 8-bit Short address and may identify the unassociated STA along with a randomly selected scrambler initialization bit sequence. Also for example, if the short address is 12 bits in length, the unassociated STA may fill part of the address into the 8-bit address field in the short SSW frame and use the remaining 4 bits of the short address as the scrambler initialization bit sequence.

Optionally, the initiator may also receive the second SSW frame in parallel by using multiple antennas in the RSS phase to obtain receive diversity, thereby improving the reliability of sector scanning. Similar to the aforementioned S305, the detailed description is omitted here.

S802 may be executed by the sending unit 204 and the receiving unit 202.

S803: in the RSS stage, the initiator sends a sector scanning feedback frame to the responder, and for the unassociated responder, the SSW feedback frame contains the identifier of the unassociated responder, and the identifier at least contains the temporary identifier of the unassociated responder.

Specifically, in the RSS process, after receiving the second SSW frame sent by the responder, the initiator scans the sending sector for the SSW feedback frame, where the sending time of the SSW feedback frame is required to be aSSFBDuration + MBIFS before the end of the SSW timeslot where the Short SSW frame is located and the first symbol start time of the SSW feedback frame occurs. assflocation is the air interface transmission time of an SSW feedback frame. The SSW feedback frame also contains a combination of one or more of initiator preferred responder sector direction IDs, antenna IDs, or RF chain IDs.

For the unassociated responder, the SSW feedback frame contains identification information for identifying the unassociated responder, wherein the identification information at least contains a short address less than 48 bits and a scrambler initialization bit sequence obtained from the short SSW frame. The scrambler initialization bit sequence may be notified to the MAC layer by the PHY layer of the initiator through an RXvector message, and may be obtained from the received Short SSW frame.

Taking the Short address length as 8 bits and the scrambler initialization bit sequence as 4 bits as an example, the bitmap of the optional fields that the identification information may include may be as shown in fig. 9, where the 8-bit Short address is as Source AID field in fig. 9, and the 4-bit scrambler initialization bit sequence is as Short SSW script Seed field in fig. 9.

Optionally, the identification information may further include a CDOWN value (e.g., the CDOWN field in fig. 9) in the received best short SSW frame.

Optionally, the identification information may also include a sub-slot value (e.g., FSS slot ID field in fig. 9) in the best short SSW frame received in the SSW slot.

Optionally, the identification information may further include an SSW slot value (e.g., a-BFT slot ID field in fig. 9).

Optionally, the initiator may send the downlink frame to the responder station using the above identification information as the target address in the announcement transmission interval ATI.

S803 may be executed by the aforementioned transmitting unit 201.

Obviously, in the RSS process of this embodiment, the unassociated responder may select a short sector scan frame with a length shorter than that of the conventional sector scan frame to perform responder sector scan, and compared with the prior art in which the unassociated responder may only select the conventional sector scan frame, the time for unassociated responder sector scan is shortened, and the number of sectors that can be scanned in unit time is increased, so as to improve the efficiency of unassociated responder sector scan, and further, by adding unassociated site identification information in the sector scan feedback frame, the initiator is enabled to support feedback to unassociated sites using random short addresses.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a method for sector sweep feedback to multiple responders simultaneously by an initiator is provided.

An access point AP is taken as an initiator, and a station STA is taken as a responder. The STA station randomly selects a timeslot from multiple SSW timeslots to send a sector scanning frame to the AP, so there may be a case where multiple STA stations select the same timeslot. Further, when the optimal transmission sector directions from different STA stations to the AP access point are different, multiple STA stations may scan their optimal sector directions in different sub-slots of an SSW slot, so that the AP access point may receive SSW frames from multiple STA stations in one SSW slot, respectively. At this time, the AP access point needs to send an SSW feedback frame to perform sector feedback for multiple STA stations.

When the AP performs sector scanning feedback on multiple STA stations, multiple modes may be adopted:

alternatively, the AP access point may send SSW feedback frames in parallel using a multi-user control frame format, as shown in fig. 10. Specifically, the method comprises the following steps: the AP sends a plurality of multi-user control frames to a plurality of STAs for sector scanning feedback, wherein different spread spectrum codes are adopted by information sent by different STAs in the multi-user control frame format to distinguish different users, so that the sector scanning feedback of the AP on the plurality of STAs is realized. For example, the AP access point sends two user control frames, with a Short Training Field (STF) in the preamble of the first user using 48 repetitions of Gb128 followed by-Ga 128. The Channel Estimation Field (CEF) adopts Gu512, Gv 128. Wherein the short training field STF in the preamble of another user uses 48 repetitions of Ga128 followed by-Gb 128. CEF used [ Gv512, Gu512, Gv128 ].

Alternatively, the AP may sequentially send a plurality of sector sweep feedback frames to a plurality of STAs in series in one SSW timeslot, as shown in fig. 11.

The sector sweep feedback frame may include a combination of one or more of an RF chain ID, an antenna ID, or a sector direction ID of the initiator preferred by the responder.

It can be understood that, for the unassociated STA, the sector scanning feedback frame address field includes identification information for identifying the unassociated STA, and the identification information has been described in detail in step S803 of the previous embodiment, and is not described herein again.

The above-mentioned multi-user sector sweep feedback frame transmission may be performed by the aforementioned transmitting unit 201.

In this embodiment, in the sector scanning feedback phase, the initiator may be supported to perform sector scanning feedback on multiple users in one SSW timeslot, so as to improve the efficiency of sector level scanning.

Different from the foregoing embodiments, in this embodiment, by changing the frame structure of the sector sweep SSW feedback frame, the initiator performs sector sweep feedback to multiple responders at the same time.

S1201, in the RSS process, the response party sends a second SSW frame to the initiator, wherein the second SSW frame comprises: an identification to indicate whether the responder supports a wide beam sector sweep feedback frame.

In the ISS stage, when a responder receives a first SSW frame sent by an initiator, the responder performs received beam training to find the optimal receiving sector direction. In the RSS phase, the responder sends a second SSW frame to the initiator, where the responder includes an identification in the second SSW frame indicating whether the responder supports the wide beam sector sweep feedback frame. For example, the flag, in state 1, indicates that the responder supports a wide beam sector scanning feedback frame sent by the access point; in state 2, this indicates that the responder does not support the wide beam sector sweep feedback frame sent by the access point. It will be appreciated that the beam width of the wide beam used when transmitting the sector sweep feedback frame is wider than the beam width used when transmitting the first SSW frame.

S1201 may be executed by the aforementioned transmission unit 204.

And S1202, when the number of the responders supporting the initiator to perform the wide beam sector scanning feedback is more than 1 in the multiple responders corresponding to the received second SSW frame, the multiple responders supporting the wide beam sector scanning feedback in the initiating direction send the same wide beam sector scanning feedback frame.

When the number of the responders supporting the wide-beam sector scanning feedback frame is greater than 1, the initiator may include the identifiers of the multiple responders in the receiving address portion of the multi-user SSW feedback frame, and transmit the sector scanning feedback frame using the wide beam. Optionally, for the associated responder, the identifier may be an AID or a MAC address of the responder, and for the unassociated responder, the identifier may be identification information of the unassociated responder, where the identification information at least includes a short address with a length less than 48 bits and a randomly selected scrambler initialization bit sequence, and the identification information is described in detail in S803 and is not described herein again. In the feedback field of the sector scanning feedback frame, sector scanning feedback information of multiple respondents may be included, where the responder sector scanning feedback information corresponds to responder identifiers one to one. The sector scan feedback information may be a set of one or more of sector direction ID, antenna ID, CDOWN value, RF chain ID of the responder preferred by the initiator. A frame structure diagram of the sector sweep feedback frame may be as shown in fig. 13.

Optionally, a frame structure diagram of the sector sweep feedback frame may also be shown in fig. 14. The Source AID is an initiator identifier, the identifier information of the multiple responders may be respectively distributed in the multiple Destination AID fields, and correspondingly, the sector scan feedback information, such as the CDOWN value, of the multiple responders may be stored in the subsequent fields next to the Destination AID fields of each responder, and the identifiers of the responders and the feedback information are in one-to-one correspondence.

Optionally, the initiator may further determine whether to send the multi-user sector sweep feedback frame by using the SNR value of the sector sweep frame sent by the responder. For example, when there are a plurality of (at least two) responders sending sector sweep frames whose SNR values satisfy a certain requirement, e.g., satisfy a certain threshold value, the initiator may perform multi-user sector feedback in parallel, and the frame structure diagrams of the sector sweep feedback frames may be as shown in fig. 13 and 14.

Optionally, the initiator may further determine whether to send the multi-user sector scanning feedback frame by combining the two manners, for example, when there are multiple (greater than or equal to two) responders that both support the wide beam sector scanning feedback frame and the SNR value of the sector scanning feedback frame meets a certain requirement, the initiator may perform the multi-user sector scanning feedback in parallel.

Optionally, the initiator may further use multiple antennas to send the sector scanning feedback frame in a CSD manner, so as to improve the efficiency of sector scanning feedback.

It will also be appreciated that the sector sweep feedback frame may include a combination of one or more of the initiator's RF chain ID, antenna ID, or sector direction ID as preferred by the responder.

S1202 may be executed by the aforementioned receiving unit 202, transmitting unit 201, and determining unit 203.

S1203: in the sector scanning feedback stage, the responder receives in the optimal receiving sector direction at the corresponding time of the SSW feedback frame.

S1203 may be performed by the aforementioned receiving unit 205.

The same as the previous embodiment, the embodiment of the present invention can also support the initiator to perform sector scanning feedback on multiple users in one SSW timeslot, thereby improving the efficiency of sector level scanning.

In another embodiment of the present invention, another structural diagram for the beamforming training device 1500 is provided.

Fig. 15 shows an exemplary structure of the beamforming training apparatus 1500, which includes:

a bus 1501, a controller/processor 1502, memory 1503, and a transceiver 1504.

Optionally, the control terminal device described above may further include an input device 1505 and an output device 1506.

The processor 1502, memory 1503, transceiver 1504, input device 1505, and output device 1506 are interconnected via a bus 1501. Embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the specific connection medium between the above components. The bus is illustrated schematically in fig. 15 and is not intended to be limiting. The bus 1501 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 15, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

The controller/Processor 1502 may be a general-purpose Processor, such as a general-purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), a microprocessor, etc., an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of programs according to aspects of the present disclosure. But also a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other Programmable logic device, discrete Gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware component. The controller/processor can also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, DSPs, and microprocessors, among others.

The processor 1502 may be configured to implement the functionality of the determination unit 203 and the determination unit 206 described above.

The memory 1503 stores therein a program for executing the present invention, and may store therein an operating system and other application programs. In particular, the program may include program code including computer operating instructions. More specifically, memory 1503 may be a read-only memory (ROM), other types of static storage devices that may store static information and instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM), other types of dynamic storage devices that may store information and instructions, a disk memory, and so forth. Memory 209 may be a combination of the above memory types.

A transceiver 1504 to support controlling the terminal device to communicate with other devices or communication networks. The transceiver 1504 may be used to implement the functions of the aforementioned transmitting unit 201, receiving unit 202, transmitting unit 204, and receiving unit 205.

It will be appreciated that fig. 15 only shows a simplified design of the control terminal device. In practical applications, the control terminal device may include any number of transmitters, receivers, processors, controllers, memories, etc., and all control terminal devices that can implement the present application are within the scope of the present application.

The processor 1502 executes the programs stored in the memory 1503 and invokes other devices that may be used to implement the methods of beamforming training provided by the embodiments shown in fig. 3-14.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a schematic structural diagram for a beamforming training device 1600 is provided.

It should be noted that the beamforming training device may be a chip, a circuit or other product with WLAN function. It is understood that the WLAN antenna may be integrated in the WiFi chip, or on the circuit board, or external to the WiFi chip, or placed in other forms. For example, the training apparatus 1600 for beamforming in this embodiment may include a MAC layer protocol processor 1601, a PHY signal processor 1602, a radio frequency RF chain 1603, and an antenna 1604. Wherein the antenna 1604 is used for transmitting and receiving signals of a specific frequency band to and from a specific direction. The radio frequency RF chain 1603 will filter and analog-to-digital-to-analog (AD-DA) convert the signal. The PHY signal processor 1602 performs synchronization, channel estimation and equalization, modulation and demodulation, encoding and decoding, and the like. The MAC layer protocol processor 1601 performs packet processing such as MAC header addition, packet encapsulation, AMPDU framing, ARQ (automatic repeat request), beam training protocol, and MAC protocol processing. Taking an example where an initiator or a responder has 2 transmitting antennas and 2 radio frequency chains, a schematic diagram of the structure of the apparatus 1600 can be shown in fig. 16, and it can be understood that the apparatus can be used as both an initiator and a responder. May be used to implement the beamforming training methods provided by the embodiments shown in fig. 3-14.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the disclosure herein may be embodied in hardware or in software instructions executed by a processor. The software instructions may consist of corresponding software modules that may be stored in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium may also be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. Additionally, the ASIC may reside in user equipment. Of course, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in user equipment.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that in one or more of the examples described above, the functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

The above-mentioned embodiments, objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application are further described in detail, it should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are only examples of the present application, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application, and any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements and the like made on the basis of the technical solutions of the present application should be included in the scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for beam training, the method comprising:

in an initiator sector scanning ISS phase, an initiator sends one or more first sector scanning SSW frames to a responder, where the first SSW frames include: an antenna configuration index for indicating antenna combination information; the antenna combination information is an antenna combination of m antennas used when the first SSW frame is sent in a cyclic shift delay CSD manner, different antenna combinations correspond to different antenna configuration indexes, and m is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, where N is the number of the initiator antennas;

the initiator receives a second sector scanning SSW frame sent by the responder, wherein the second SSW frame comprises an optimal antenna configuration index; if the responder is an unassociated responder, the second SSW frame further includes: a temporary identification for indicating the unassociated responder; wherein the temporary identity comprises a short address of less than 48 bits in length and a randomly selected scrambler initialization bit sequence.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first SSW frame contains transmission status information of the initiator, wherein the transmission status information contains one or more of:

a sending mode identifier for indicating whether the first SSW frame is sent in a CSD mode;

and transmitting the antenna IDs of the m antennas used in the first SSW frame.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first SSW frame comprises an antenna ID of a physical antenna used for transmitting the first SSW frame when the first SSW frame is not transmitted in a Cyclic Shift Delay (CSD) manner.

4. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the first SSW frame comprises: an identifier for indicating whether the initiator requests the responder to feed back multi-sector scanning information;

when the first SSW frame requests a responder to feed back multi-sector scanning information, the second SSW frame carries multi-sector scanning feedback information, where the multi-sector scanning feedback information includes an optimal sector direction corresponding to one or more RF chains that send the first SSW frame, and/or an optimal sector direction corresponding to one or more antennas that send the first SSW frame;

when the first SSW frame does not request the responder to feed back the multi-sector scanning information, the second SSW frame is sent by an optimal receiving antenna of the responder, wherein the optimal receiving antenna is an optimal receiving antenna for the responder to receive the first SSW frame.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second SSW frame comprises: an indication of whether the responder supports the initiator's transmission of a wide beam sector scanning feedback frame, the method further comprising, after the initiator receives the second SSW frame:

when the number of the responders supporting the initiator to perform the wide beam sector scanning feedback is more than 1 in the multiple responders corresponding to the received second SSW frame, the multiple responders supporting the wide beam sector scanning feedback in the initiating direction send the same wide beam sector scanning feedback frame;

wherein the wide beam sector sweep feedback frame carries an identifier indicating the plurality of respondents supporting wide beam sector sweep feedback, and for unassociated respondents, the identifier at least includes the temporary identifier of the unassociated respondents.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein after the initiator receives the second SSW frame, the method further comprises:

the initiator adopts a multi-user control frame format and simultaneously and respectively sends different sector scanning feedback frames to a plurality of responders receiving the second SSW frame, wherein the sector scanning feedback frames sent to each responder adopt different spread spectrum codes; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the initiator sequentially and serially sends sector sweep feedback frames to the plurality of responders receiving the second SSW frame.

7. A beamforming training method, the method comprising:

in an initiator sector scanning ISS phase, a responder receives a first sector scanning SSW frame, wherein the first SSW frame comprises: an antenna configuration index used for indicating antenna combination information, where the antenna combination information is an antenna combination of m antennas used when the first SSW frame is sent in a cyclic shift delay CSD manner, different antenna combinations correspond to different antenna configuration indexes, and m is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, where N is the number of the initiator antennas;

in a stage of scanning RSS by a responder sector, the responder sends a second sector scanning SSW frame to the initiator, where the second SSW frame includes the optimal antenna configuration index; if the responder is an unassociated responder, the second SSW frame further includes: a temporary identification for indicating the unassociated responder; wherein the temporary identifier comprises a short address with a length of less than 48 bits and a randomly selected scrambler initialization bit sequence.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first SSW frame contains transmission status information of the initiator, wherein the transmission status information contains one or more of:

and transmitting the antenna IDs of the m antennas used in the first SSW frame.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the first SSW frame comprises an antenna ID of a physical antenna used for transmitting the first SSW frame when the first SSW frame is not transmitted in a Cyclic Shift Delay (CSD) manner.

10. The method of any of claims 7 to 9, wherein the first SSW frame comprises: an identifier for indicating whether the initiator requests the responder to feed back multi-sector scanning information;

when the first SSW frame does not request a responder to feed back multi-sector scanning information, the responder determines an optimal receiving antenna for receiving the first SSW frame, and sends the second sector scanning SSW frame by using the optimal receiving antenna.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the second SSW frame comprises: an indication of whether the responder supports the initiator sending a wide beam sector sweep feedback frame, the method further comprising, after the responder sends the second SSW frame:

when the number of the responders supporting the initiator to perform the wide beam sector scanning feedback is more than 1 in the plurality of responders transmitting the second SSW frame, the responder supporting the wide beam sector scanning feedback receives the wide beam sector scanning feedback frame transmitted by the initiator;

wherein the wide beam sector sweep feedback frame carries an identifier indicating a plurality of respondents supporting wide beam sector sweep feedback, and for unassociated respondents, the identifier at least includes the temporary identifier of the unassociated respondents.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein after the responder sends the second SSW frame, the method further comprises:

the responder receives different sector scanning feedback frames which are simultaneously sent by the initiator by adopting a multi-user control frame format on an optimal receiving sector, wherein the sector scanning feedback frames sent to each responder adopt different spread spectrum codes; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and the responder receives the sector scanning feedback frames which are sequentially sent by the initiator in series on the optimal receiving sector.

13. An initiator apparatus for beamforming training, the initiator apparatus comprising:

transmission unit (201): for sending one or more first sector sweep SSW frames to a responder during an initiator sector sweep ISS phase, the first SSW frames comprising: an antenna configuration index for indicating antenna combination information; the antenna combination information is an antenna combination of m antennas used when the first SSW frame is sent by using cyclic shift delay CSD, different antenna combinations correspond to different antenna configuration indexes, and m is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, where N is the number of the initiator antennas;

receiving unit (202): the receiver is used for receiving a second sector scanning SSW frame sent by the responder, wherein the second SSW frame contains an optimal antenna configuration index; if the responder is an unassociated responder, the second SSW frame further includes: a temporary identification for indicating the unassociated responder; wherein the temporary identifier comprises a short address with a length of less than 48 bits and a randomly selected scrambler initialization bit sequence.

14. The initiator apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first SSW frame comprises transmission status information of the initiator, wherein the transmission status information comprises one or more of:

and transmitting the antenna IDs of the m antennas used in the first SSW frame.

15. The initiator apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first SSW frame comprises an antenna ID of a physical antenna used for transmitting the first SSW frame when the first SSW frame is not transmitted in a cyclic shift delay CSD manner.

16. The initiator apparatus of any of claims 13-15, wherein the first SSW frame comprises: an identifier indicating whether the initiator requests the responder to feed back multi-sector scanning information is used;

17. The initiator apparatus of claim 13, wherein the second SSW frame comprises: an indication indicating whether the responder supports the initiator's transmission of a wide beam sector scanning feedback frame, the initiator apparatus further comprising, after the initiator receives the second SSW frame:

determination unit (203): the sending unit (201) is configured to send the same wide beam sector scanning feedback frame to multiple responders supporting wide beam sector scanning feedback when the number of responders supporting the initiator to perform wide beam sector scanning feedback is greater than 1, among multiple responders corresponding to the received second SSW frame;

18. The initiator apparatus according to claim 13, wherein after the initiator receives the second SSW frame, the sending unit (201) is further configured to:

adopting a multi-user control frame format, and simultaneously and respectively sending different sector scanning feedback frames to a plurality of responders receiving the second SSW frame, wherein the sector scanning feedback frames sent to each responder are different in spread spectrum codes; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

sequentially and serially transmitting a sector sweep feedback frame to the plurality of responders receiving the second SSW frame.

19. A responder apparatus for beamforming training, the responder apparatus comprising:

receiving unit (205): for receiving, during an Initiator Sector Sweep (ISS) phase, a first SSW frame comprising: an antenna configuration index used for indicating antenna combination information, where the antenna combination information is an antenna combination of m antennas used when the first SSW frame is sent in a cyclic shift delay CSD manner, different antenna combinations correspond to different antenna configuration indexes, and m is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, where N is the number of antennas of the initiator;

transmission unit (204): the receiver is configured to send a second sector scanning SSW frame to the initiator in a sector scanning RSS phase of a responder, where the second SSW frame includes the optimal antenna configuration index; if the responder is an unassociated responder, the second SSW frame further includes: a temporary identification for indicating the unassociated responder; wherein the temporary identifier comprises a short address with a length of less than 48 bits and a randomly selected scrambler initialization bit sequence.

20. The responder device of claim 19, wherein the first SSW frame contains transmit status information for the initiator, the transmit status information containing one or more of:

and transmitting the antenna IDs of the m antennas used in the first SSW frame.

21. The responder device of claim 19, wherein the first SSW frame includes an antenna ID for a physical antenna used in transmitting the first SSW frame when the first SSW frame is not transmitted in a cyclic shift delay CSD manner.

22. The responder device of any of claims 19-21, wherein the first SSW frame includes: an identifier for indicating whether the initiator requests the responder to feed back multi-sector scanning information;

when the first SSW frame requests a responder to feed back multi-sector scanning information, the second SSW frame carries multi-sector scanning feedback information, where the multi-sector scanning feedback information is an optimal sector direction corresponding to one or more RF chains that send the first SSW frame and/or an optimal sector direction corresponding to one or more antennas that send the first SSW frame;

the determination unit (206): and when the first SSW frame does not request the responder to feed back the multi-sector scanning information, determining an optimal receiving antenna for receiving the first SSW frame, wherein the sending unit (204) sends the second sector scanning SSW frame by using the optimal receiving antenna.

23. The responder device of claim 22, wherein the second SSW frame includes: an indication indicating whether the responder supports the initiator's transmission of a wide beam sector sweep feedback frame, the receiving unit (205) further configured to, after the responder transmits the second SSW frame:

when the number of responders supporting the initiator to perform the wide beam sector scanning feedback is more than 1 in a plurality of responders transmitting the second SSW frame, receiving a wide beam sector scanning feedback frame transmitted by the initiator;

24. The responder apparatus according to claim 22, wherein after the responder transmits the second SSW frame, the receiving unit (205) is further configured to:

receiving, on an optimal receiving sector, a different sector scanning feedback frame simultaneously transmitted by the initiator in a multi-user control frame format, wherein the sector scanning feedback frame transmitted to each responder uses different spreading codes; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and receiving the sector scanning feedback frames which are sequentially sent by the initiator in series on the optimal receiving sector.