CN110474746B

CN110474746B - Scheduling method and device

Info

Publication number: CN110474746B
Application number: CN201810451338.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李德建; 刘劲楠
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-05-11
Filing date: 2018-05-11
Publication date: 2021-11-19
Anticipated expiration: 2038-05-11
Also published as: WO2019214743A1; CN110474746A

Abstract

The application provides a scheduling method and a scheduling device, relates to the technical field of communication, and can save the transmission overhead of scheduling information and improve the transmission efficiency of the scheduling information. The method comprises the following steps: sending a broadcast frame carrying a structural cell, wherein the structural cell is used for indicating a TDD time slot structure of a Time Division Duplex (TDD) service period SP allocated to a station STA; the structure cell comprises a time slot structure control field and a time slot scheduling field, and does not comprise a time slot structure starting time field and/or an allocation block duration field.

Description

Scheduling method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a scheduling method and apparatus.

Background

In the scheduling of a Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode in the wlan communication standard electronic and electrical engineering association 802.11ay, a timeslot is divided into a three-layer structure, and is sequentially divided into a TDD Service Period (SP), a TDD interval (interval), and a TDD timeslot (slot) according to the size of the timeslot length. The TDD SP may be divided into at least one allocation block, each allocation block includes Q (Q ≧ 2, Q is an integer) identical TDD intervals, each TDD interval includes M (M ≧ 2, M is an integer) TDD timeslots, the length of each TDD interval is identical, and the length of each TDD timeslot is configurable.

At present, a scheduling method based on a TDD timeslot is proposed for a backhaul (backhaul) communication scenario. The method comprises the following steps: an Access Point (AP) sends scheduling information in each sector through a beacon (beacon) frame or an announcement (announcement) frame, where the scheduling information includes an Extended scheduling element (Extended Schedule element), a TDD Slot Structure element (TDD Slot Structure IE), and a TDD Slot Schedule element (TDD Slot Schedule IE). The extended scheduling element includes TDD SPs allocated by the AP to each Station (STA) scheduled this time. Assuming that n STAs are scheduled at this time, the extended scheduling element includes n STA allocation fields, each STA corresponds to one allocation field, and the allocation fields include an allocation identifier (Association ID) allocated by the AP to the corresponding STA, an Association Identifier (AID) of the STA, an allocation start time (i.e., a start time of a TDD SP allocated to the STA), an allocation block duration, an allocation block number, and the like. Each allocation identifier in the extended scheduling element corresponds to a piece of TDD timeslot structure information, where the TDD timeslot structure information includes a corresponding allocation identifier, and the TDD timeslot structure information is used to describe a TDD timeslot structure of the TDD SP indicated by the allocation identifier, such as a timeslot structure start time (i.e., a start time of an allocation block allocated to a corresponding STA), an allocation block duration, timeslot structure control information (including a TDD interval number, a guard time duration, a block period, and the like), and timeslot scheduling information (including a TDD timeslot number and a duration of each TDD timeslot, and the like). Each allocation identifier in the extended scheduling element also corresponds to TDD timeslot scheduling information, the TDD timeslot scheduling information includes a corresponding allocation identifier, the TDD timeslot scheduling information includes a scheduling indication information, and the scheduling indication information is used to indicate a timeslot occupation bitmap and/or a timeslot access type of an STA corresponding to the allocation identifier.

After the STA receives the scheduling information sent by the AP, it may search its own destination association identifier from the extended scheduling element, and determine the allocation identifier corresponding to the destination association identifier, thereby determining which TDD SPs the AP allocates to itself. And then determining the TDD time slot structure information and the TDD time slot scheduling information corresponding to the allocation identifier from the TDD time slot structure information and the TDD time slot scheduling information broadcasted by the AP through the allocation identifier corresponding to the self association identifier. And then, carrying out communication in the TDD SP allocated by the AP based on the corresponding TDD time slot structure information and the TDD time slot scheduling information.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a time slot scheduling method and a time slot scheduling device, which can save the transmission overhead of scheduling information and improve the transmission efficiency of the scheduling information.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a scheduling method, applied to an access device, the method including: sending a broadcast frame carrying a structural cell, wherein the structural cell is used for indicating a TDD time slot structure of a Time Division Duplex (TDD) service period SP allocated to a station STA; the structure cell comprises a time slot structure control field and a time slot scheduling field, and does not comprise a time slot structure starting time field and/or an allocation block duration field.

By adopting the scheduling method provided by the application, whether the unnecessary time slot structure starting time field and/or the unnecessary allocated block duration field appear in the structural cell is flexibly controlled through the frame type of the bearing structural cell, and when the frame type is a broadcast frame, the time slot structure starting time field and/or the unnecessary allocated block duration field do not exist in the structural cell, so that the expense of the scheduling information is saved, and the transmission efficiency of the scheduling information is improved.

Optionally, before sending the broadcast frame carrying the structural information element, the method further includes: in the case where the fabric cell is carried by a broadcast frame, it is determined that the fabric cell does not include the slot fabric start time field and/or the allocated block duration field.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a scheduling method, applied to an STA, including: receiving a structural cell sent by access equipment, wherein the structural cell is carried on a broadcast frame, and comprises a time slot structure control field and a time slot scheduling field, and does not comprise a time slot structure starting time field and/or a time length field of an allocation block; and under the condition that the structural cell does not comprise a time slot structure starting time field and/or an allocation block duration field, acquiring the time for the TDD time slot structure to become effective from the allocation starting field of the received extension cell, and/or acquiring the duration of the allocation block for the TDD time slot structure to become effective from the allocation block duration field of the extension cell.

By adopting the scheduling method provided by the application, when the STA receives the structural cell through the broadcast frame, the structural cell does not comprise the time slot structure starting time field and/or the time length field of the distribution block, thereby saving the expense of the scheduling information and improving the transmission efficiency of the scheduling information.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a scheduling method, applied to an access device, including: determining an extension cell, X structural cells and M scheduling cells to be sent, wherein one extension cell, X structural cells and M scheduling cells are used for scheduling N sites STA to perform time division duplex TDD channel access in a service period SP, N is more than or equal to 2, X is more than or equal to 1 and less than N, M is more than or equal to 1 and less than N, N, X and M are integers; wherein, an allocation field allocated to the N STAs in the extended cell includes a group identifier of a group formed by the N STAs, and the allocation field is used for indicating the TDD SP allocated to the N STAs by the access device; x structural information elements are used for indicating the TDD time slot structure of the TDD SP; the M scheduling cells comprise N scheduling indication fields, the N scheduling indication fields correspond to the N STAs one by one, and the scheduling indication fields are used for indicating the TDD time slot occupation bitmap and/or the TDD time slot access type of the corresponding STAs in the TDD interval contained in the TDD SP; an extension cell, X fabric cells and M scheduling cells are sent to N STAs.

By adopting the scheduling method provided by the application, when N STAs perform channel access in the same TDD SP, the access device can allocate an allocation field for the N STAs in the extension cell, replace the target AID in the allocation field with the group identifier of the group formed by the N STAs, and replace the AID of each STA by the group identifier, so that each STA in the group can identify the allocation field by the group identifier, and each STA in the group does not need to be allocated with an allocation field independently to indicate the allocated TDD SP, thereby saving the overhead of scheduling information and improving the transmission efficiency of the scheduling information.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a scheduling method, applied to an STA, including: receiving an extension cell, X structural cells and M scheduling cells sent by access equipment, wherein the extension cell, the X structural cells and the M scheduling cells are used for scheduling N STAs to perform Time Division Duplex (TDD) channel access in a service period SP, the STA is one of the N STAs, N is more than or equal to 2, X is more than or equal to 1 and less than N, M is more than or equal to 1 and less than N, N, X and M are integers; wherein, an allocation field allocated to the N STAs in the extended cell includes a group identifier of a group formed by the N STAs, and the allocation field is used for indicating the TDD SP allocated to the N STAs by the access device; x structural information elements are used for indicating the TDD time slot structure of the TDD SP; the M scheduling cells comprise N scheduling indication fields, the N scheduling indication fields correspond to the N STAs one by one, and the scheduling indication fields are used for indicating the TDD time slot occupation bitmap and/or the TDD time slot access type of the corresponding STAs in the TDD interval contained in the TDD SP; identifying a distribution field from the expanded cell according to the group identifier, and determining a TDD SP according to the distribution field; determining a TDD time slot structure of the TDD SP according to the X cell structures; and determining a TDD time slot occupation bitmap and/or a TDD time slot access type of the STA in a TDD interval contained in the TDD SP according to a scheduling indication field corresponding to the STA in the M scheduling cells.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides an access device, including a processing unit and a sending unit; the processing unit controls and sends a broadcast frame of a bearing structure cell, and the indication structure cell is used for indicating a TDD time slot structure of a time division duplex TDD service period SP allocated to a station STA; the indication structure information element comprises a time slot structure control field and a time slot scheduling field, and does not comprise a time slot structure starting time field and/or an allocation block duration field.

Optionally, the processing unit is further configured to determine that the structural cell does not include the timeslot structure start time field and/or the allocated block duration field in the case that the structural cell is carried by the broadcast frame before the control transmitting unit transmits the broadcast frame carrying the structural cell.

For technical effects of the access device provided by the present application, reference may be made to the technical effects of the first aspect or each implementation manner of the first aspect, and details are not described here.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides an STA comprising a receiving unit and a processing unit; a receiving unit, configured to receive a structure cell sent by an access device, where the structure cell is carried on a broadcast frame, and the structure cell includes a timeslot structure control field and a timeslot scheduling field, and does not include a timeslot structure start time field and/or an allocation block duration field; and the processing unit is used for determining the TDD time slot structure of the time division duplex TDD service period SP allocated to the STA by the access equipment according to the structure cell received by the receiving unit, and acquiring the time for the TDD time slot structure to become effective from the allocation start field of the received extension cell and/or acquiring the time for the allocation block of the TDD time slot structure to become effective from the allocation block time length field of the extension cell under the condition that the structure cell does not comprise the time slot structure start time field and/or the allocation block time length field.

For technical effects of the access device provided by the present application, reference may be made to the technical effects of the second aspect or each implementation manner of the second aspect, and details are not described here again.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides an access device, including a control unit and a sending unit; the processing unit determines an extension cell, X structural cells and M scheduling cells to be sent, wherein one extension cell, X structural cells and M scheduling cells are used for scheduling N sites STA to perform time division duplex TDD channel access in a service period SP, N is more than or equal to 2, X is more than or equal to 1 and less than N, M is more than or equal to 1 and less than N, N, X and M are integers; wherein, an allocation field allocated to the N STAs in the extended cell comprises a group identifier of a group formed by the N STAs, and the allocation field is used for indicating TDD SPs allocated to the N STAs; x structural information elements are used for indicating the TDD time slot structure of the TDD SP; the M scheduling cells comprise N scheduling indication fields, the N scheduling indication fields correspond to the N STAs one by one, and the scheduling indication fields are used for indicating the TDD time slot occupation bitmap and/or the TDD time slot access type of the corresponding STAs in the TDD interval contained in the TDD SP; the processing unit controls the transmitting unit to transmit an extension cell, X structure cells and M scheduling cells to the N STAs.

For technical effects of the access device provided by the present application, reference may be made to the technical effects of the third aspect or each implementation manner of the third aspect, and details are not described here again.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides an STA, comprising a receiving unit and a processing unit; the receiving unit is used for receiving an extension cell, X structural cells and M scheduling cells sent by the access equipment, wherein the extension cell, the X structural cells and the M scheduling cells are used for scheduling N STAs to perform time division duplex TDD channel access in a service period SP, the STA is one of the N STAs, N is more than or equal to 2, X is more than or equal to 1 and less than N, M is more than or equal to 1 and less than N, N, X and M are integers; wherein, an allocation field allocated to the N STAs in the extended cell includes a group identifier of a group formed by the N STAs, and the allocation field is used for indicating the TDD SP allocated to the N STAs by the access device; x structural information elements are used for indicating the TDD time slot structure of the TDD SP; the M scheduling cells comprise N scheduling indication fields, the N scheduling indication fields correspond to the N STAs one by one, and the scheduling indication fields are used for indicating the TDD time slot occupation bitmap and/or the TDD time slot access type of the corresponding STAs in the TDD interval contained in the TDD SP; the processing unit is used for identifying the distribution field from the expanded cell according to the group identifier and determining the TDD SP according to the distribution field; the processing unit is also used for determining the TDD time slot structure of the TDD SP according to the X cell structures; and the processing unit is further configured to determine, according to the scheduling indication field corresponding to the STA in the M scheduling cells, a TDD timeslot occupation bitmap and/or a TDD timeslot access type of the STA in a TDD interval included in the TDD SP.

For technical effects of the access device provided by the present application, reference may be made to the technical effects of the fourth aspect or each implementation manner of the fourth aspect, and details are not described here again.

Based on the first to eighth aspects, in an optional manner, the structural cell further includes a start time occurrence field, where the start time occurrence field is used to indicate whether the structural cell includes a timeslot structure start time field and/or an allocation block duration field; when the frame carrying the structural cell is a broadcast frame, the starting time appearing field is used for indicating that the structural cell does not contain a time slot structure starting time field and/or a time length field of an allocation block; and/or, when the frame carrying the structure information element is a unicast frame, the starting time appearing field is used for indicating that the structure information element comprises a time slot structure starting time field and/or an allocation block duration field.

Through the optional mode, when the frame carrying the structural cell is a unicast frame, the structural cell includes a time slot structure start time field and/or an allocation block duration field, so that the access device can still reconfigure the TDD time slot structures of other allocation blocks in the TDD SP except for the first allocation block by using the unicast frame, and flexibility of TDD SP configuration is maintained.

Optionally, the timeslot structure control field includes an allocated block duration validity field, where the allocated block duration validity field is used to indicate that the duration of the TDD SP is indicated by SP duration information in an extension cell sent by the access device, and the extension cell is used to indicate the TDD SP allocated to the STA.

Optionally, when the access device sends multiple broadcast frames, the inter-frame interval between two adjacent broadcast frames is greater than 1 microsecond.

Optionally, the inter-frame interval between two adjacent broadcast frames is equal to the guard time length between two adjacent TDD timeslots in the TDD SP, the timeslot structure control field includes a guard time length field, and the guard time length field is used to indicate the guard time length; alternatively, the broadcast frame includes a beacon interval field indicating an inter-frame interval of two adjacent broadcast frames.

With this alternative, by setting the inter-frame interval of two adjacent broadcast frames to a length greater than 1 microsecond, multipath interference between two adjacent broadcast frames is avoided.

In an alternative form based on the first to eighth aspects, X is 1.

Optionally, the N scheduling indication fields correspond to the N STAs one to one, and include: the configuration sequence of the N scheduling indication fields in the M scheduling cells is the same as the arrangement sequence of the N STAs in the group, and the arrangement sequence is the arrangement sequence of the STAs corresponding to the group identification.

Optionally, the extension cell further includes a communication mode field, where the communication mode field is used to instruct the N STAs to transmit in a TDD SP in a TDD channel access manner.

Optionally, the configuration information element includes a field of the number of TDD intervals in the TDD SP and/or a field of whether a plurality of TDD timeslots included in the TDD interval are equal.

By the optional mode, the integrity of the TDD time slot structure for indicating the TDD SP is improved.

Optionally, the structure cell includes a time slot scheduling start time field and the scheduling cell does not include the time slot scheduling start time field; and/or the fabric information element includes a number of TDD intervals field in the bitmap and the scheduling information element does not include the number of TDD intervals field in the bitmap.

The time slot scheduling starting time field in the scheduling cell and/or the TDD interval number field in the bitmap are configured into the structural cell, and the time slot scheduling starting time field in the scheduling cell and/or the TDD interval number field in the bitmap are deleted from the scheduling cell, so that the structural cell can uniformly indicate the information related to the TDD time slot structure of the TDD SP. And when the scheduling mode of the scheduling cell update STA needs to be sent again after BTI, unnecessary information can be avoided to be carried, and therefore the expense of scheduling information is saved.

Optionally, the configuration information element further includes a group user template field, where the group user template field is used to indicate STAs of the N STAs allocated to the same TDD interval in the TDD SP.

Optionally, the configuration cell further includes a subgroup identifier of a subgroup formed by partial STAs of the N STAs, the partial STAs are allocated to the same TDD interval in the TDD SP, and the subgroup identifier is used to identify the partial STAs.

The access device may indicate, through a Group User Mask (Group User Mask) field or a subgroup identifier, STAs allocated to the same TDD interval in the TDD SP from among the N STAs, so as to allocate TDD intervals of different structures to different STAs, thereby enhancing scheduling flexibility.

In a ninth aspect, the present application further provides an access device, including: a processor, a memory, a bus, and a transceiver; the memory for storing computer-executable instructions; the processor is connected to the memory and the transceiver through the bus, and when the access device runs, the processor executes computer execution instructions stored in the memory to implement the scheduling method according to the first aspect and the various implementations of the first aspect, or to implement the scheduling method according to the third aspect and the various implementations of the third aspect.

In a tenth aspect, the present application further provides a STA, including: a processor, a memory, a bus, and a transceiver; the memory for storing computer-executable instructions; the processor is connected to the memory and the transceiver through the bus, and when the STA runs, the processor executes computer execution instructions stored in the memory to implement the scheduling method according to the second aspect and the various implementation manners of the second aspect, or to implement the scheduling method according to the fourth aspect and the various implementation manners of the fourth aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application also provides a computer storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first, second, third or fourth aspect described above.

In a twelfth aspect, the present application also provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first, second, third or fourth aspect described above.

In a thirteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising means for performing the steps of the first, second, third or fourth aspects.

Alternatively, the communication device may be a chip.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) network architecture deployed in a millimeter-wave frequency band according to the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a time slot structure of a Beacon Interval (BI) in the present application;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a conventional format of an extended cell;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a conventional fabric cell format;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a conventional scheduling cell format;

fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a scheduling method provided in the present application;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a first format of a fabric cell according to the present application;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a second format of a fabric cell according to the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of TDD channel access in the same TDD SP according to the present application;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a scheduling method according to another embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a format of an extended cell provided in the present application;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a format of a scheduling cell according to the present application;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a format of an extended cell provided in the present application;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a third format of a fabric cell according to the present application;

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a format of a scheduling cell according to the present application;

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a format of a fabric cell provided in the present application;

FIG. 17 is a fifth diagram illustrating a structure cell format provided in the present application;

fig. 18 is a schematic diagram of multipath interference of a Directional Multi-Gigabit (DMG) beacon frame with an inter-frame interval of 1 microsecond provided by the present application;

fig. 19 is a schematic diagram of the transmission of a DMG beacon frame with an inter-frame interval of 2 microseconds provided by the present application;

fig. 20A is a first schematic structural diagram of an access device provided in the present application;

fig. 20B is a schematic structural diagram of an access device according to the present application;

fig. 20C is a schematic structural diagram of an access device provided in the present application;

fig. 21A is a first schematic structural diagram of an STA provided in the present application;

fig. 21B is a schematic structural diagram of a STA according to the present application;

fig. 21C is a third schematic structural diagram of an STA provided in the present application.

Detailed Description

The terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably herein. The term "and/or" herein means that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B, may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the former and latter related objects are in an "or" relationship.

The scheduling method provided by the application can be suitable for a system using a Time Division Duplex (TDD) communication protocol. Illustratively, as shown in fig. 1, a schematic diagram of a WLAN network architecture deployed in a millimeter wave frequency band provided by the present application includes an access device and multiple Stations (STAs). The access device may be an AP, a personal basic service set control point (PCP), or another network device that provides a network access service for the STA and supports a TDD communication protocol, and is collectively referred to as an access device in this application.

The STA may be a millimeter wave communication device, such as a STA in the 802.11ad standard, or a STA in the 802.11ay standard. The STAs referred to in the present application may specifically include a handheld device, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a computing device, a smart phone, a smart watch, a tablet computer or other processing device connected to a wireless modem supporting TDD communication protocol, and various forms of User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a terminal (terminal), and the like.

For convenience of describing the scheduling method and the technical problem solved by the scheduling method, the following takes a time slot structure of a Beacon Interval (BI) as an example to simply introduce the structure of the TDD SP.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a time slot structure of one BI. One BI includes a Beacon Header Interval (BHI) and a Data Transfer Interval (DTI). The BHI is a broadcast channel, and includes a Beacon Transmission Interval (BTI) for transmitting a beacon frame, an association beamforming training period (a-BFT) for an access device to associate with a newly-accessed STA, and an Announcement Transmission Interval (ATI) for transmitting an announcement frame.

The DTI includes at least one contention-based access period (CBAP) and at least one Service Period (SP) dedicated to a specific STA, where the SP is a time period for granting one or more transmission opportunities to the STA, and the SP for the STA to access the TDD channel is the TDD SP. TDD channel access refers to accessing channels between transceivers in a time division multiplexing manner. Wherein, one SP may be directly divided into Q identical TDD intervals, or may be divided into at least one allocation block, and each allocation block is divided into the same at least one TDD interval. Each TDD interval includes M TDD slots, which may or may not have the same duration, and Guard Times (GTs) between the TDD slots may or may not have the same duration.

When the access device schedules the TDD SP, three types of Information Elements (IEs) are usually sent, which are an extended schedule element (extended schedule element), a TDD slot structure element (TDD slot structure IE), and a TDD slot schedule element (TDD slot schedule IE). For convenience of description, the extension scheduling element is hereinafter referred to as an extension cell, the TDD timeslot structure cell is hereinafter referred to as a structure cell, and the TDD timeslot scheduling cell is hereinafter referred to as a scheduling cell. The extension information element is used to indicate the TDD SP allocated to each STA. The configuration information element is used to indicate the TDD timeslot configuration of the TDD SP assigned to the STA. The scheduling information element is used to indicate a specific scheduling mode, such as information of a time slot bitmap occupied by the STA, an access type, and the like.

As shown in fig. 3, a format diagram of an existing extended cell includes an element id (element id) field, a length (length) field, and an allocation (allocation) field corresponding to each STA that needs to be scheduled. Assuming that n STAs need to be scheduled this time, the extension cell includes n allocation fields. Each allocation field indicates a TDD SP allocated to a corresponding STA, and includes an allocation Control (allocation Control) field, a beamforming Control (BF Control) field, a Source association identifier (Source AID) field, a destination association identifier (destination AID) field, an allocation start (allocation start) field, an allocation block duration (allocation block duration) field, an allocation block number (number of blocks) field, and an allocation block period (allocation block period) field.

Wherein the allocation start field is used to indicate the start time of the allocated TDD SP, and the allocation block duration field indicates the duration of each allocation block in the allocated TDD SP. The allocation control field includes an allocation id (allocation id), an allocation type (allocation type) field, a pseudo-static (pseudo-static) field, a truncatable (truncated) field, an extensible (extensible) field, a PCP validity (PCP active) field, a low power single carrier Used (LP SC Used) field, a TDD compliant sp (TDD application) field, and a reserved (reserved) field. The access device may indicate whether the allocated SP is a TDD SP through a TDD-applicable SP field in the corresponding allocation control field.

The access device broadcasts an extended cell in each sector through a beacon frame or an announcement frame, so that after each STA needing scheduling receives the extended cell, a destination AID field is retrieved in each allocation field, and AID in the destination AID field is determined to be the allocation field of the AID of the access device, so that the access device is determined to be allocated to the TDD SP of the access device, and the access device comprises information such as the allocation ID of the TDD SP.

As shown in fig. 4, the format diagram of the conventional fabric cell includes an element ID field, a length field, an element ID extension (element ID extension) field, a slot structure control (slot structure control) field, a slot structure start time (slot structure start time) field, an allocation block duration field, and a slot scheduling (slot schedule) field. Wherein, the time slot structure start time field indicates the time of the TDD time slot structure which is indicated by the structure information element to start to take effect, and the allocation block duration field indicates the duration of the allocation block which is taken effect by the TDD time slot structure. The slot structure control field indicates the TDD slot structure of one TDD interval in the TDD SP. Since each TDD interval included in the TDD SP is the same, the slot structure control field may also be said to indicate the TDD slot structure of the TDD SP allocated to the STA. The slot structure control field includes a number of TDD slots (TDD slot per TDD interval) field included in each TDD interval, GT Duration (GT Duration) fields included in each TDD interval, an allocation ID field, an allocation block Duration validity (allocation block Duration) field, and a reserved field. The slot scheduling field includes a duration (TDD slot duration) field of each TDD slot in the TDD interval, indicating the duration of each TDD slot in one TDD interval.

Each distribution ID in the extension cell has a corresponding structure cell, and the access device broadcasts the structure cell corresponding to each distribution ID in each sector through a beacon frame or an announcement frame. Or the structural information element to be sent is sent to the corresponding STA in a unicast mode through the notification frame. The STA determines which TDD SP's TDD time slot structure is indicated by the received configuration information element through the allocation fields in the configuration information element and the extension information element corresponding to the allocation ID.

As shown in fig. 5, a format diagram of an existing scheduling cell is shown, which includes an element ID field, a length field, an element ID extension field, a slot scheduling control (slot schedule control) field, a bitmap, and an access type schedule (bitmap and access type schedule) field. The timeslot scheduling control field includes a channel aggregation (channel aggregation) field, a Bandwidth Width (BW) field, a timeslot scheduling Start Time (Slot Schedule Start Time) field, a number of TDD intervals in the bitmap field, an allocation ID field, and a reserved field. The number of bytes occupied by the bitmap and the access type scheduling field is determined according to the TDD interval number Q contained in the TDD SP and the TDD time slot number M contained in each interval, and is

Wherein(symbol)

Indicating rounding up.

Each STA scheduled by the extension cell has a corresponding scheduling cell, and the dedicated scheduling cell indicates the STA to occupy the bitmap and the TDD time slot access type in the TDD interval contained in the TDD SP, specifically, the STA is indicated by the bitmap and the access type scheduling field in the scheduling cell. The access device sends the scheduling information element corresponding to each STA in a unicast or broadcast mode in each sector through a beacon frame or an announcement frame.

Based on the three cell formats shown in fig. 3-5, it can be seen that there is a problem of scheduling information redundancy in the current TDD SP scheduling process. For example, an allocation start field in an allocation field in the extended cell describes a time when a corresponding TDD SP starts and also a first allocation block start time of the TDD SP, and the allocation start field specifically includes a low 4 bytes of a Timing Synchronization Function (TSF) timer at the start time of the TDD SP. The timeslot structure start time field in the structure cell indicates the time when the TDD timeslot structure starts to take effect, i.e. the start time of the first allocation block when the TDD timeslot structure takes effect, and specifically includes the lower 4 bytes of the TSF timer at the start time of the first allocation block when the TDD timeslot structure takes effect. If the first allocation block in which the TDD timeslot structure starts to take effect is the first allocation block in the TDD SP, then the time indicated by the allocation start field and the timeslot structure start time field is the same. And when the time length of each distribution block is the same, the time length information indicated by the distribution block time length field in the extension cell and the distribution block time length field in the structural cell are also the same. This results in the same information being carried in the scheduling information multiple times, resulting in redundancy of the scheduling information.

Therefore, according to an embodiment of the scheduling method provided by the present application, whether a timeslot structure start time field and/or a duration field of an allocation block occurs in a structural cell is flexibly controlled by carrying a frame type of the structural cell, so that the same information repetition in the structural cell and an extended cell is avoided, the overhead of scheduling information is saved, and the transmission efficiency of the scheduling information is improved.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 6, a schematic flow chart of an embodiment of a scheduling method provided in the present application is shown, where the method may include:

step 601, the access device sends a broadcast frame carrying a structural cell, wherein the structural cell includes a slot structure control field and a slot scheduling field, and does not include a slot structure start time field and/or an allocation block duration field.

Step 602, the STA determines the TDD timeslot structure of the TDD SP allocated to the STA by the access device according to the configuration cell, and obtains the time for the TDD timeslot structure to become effective from the allocation start field of the received extended cell and/or obtains the time for the allocation block of the TDD timeslot structure to become effective from the allocation block time field of the extended cell, when the configuration cell does not include the timeslot structure start time field and/or the allocation block time length field.

In this application, a broadcast frame refers to a frame whose destination address or receiving address is a broadcast address, or a frame whose MAC header does not carry a destination address, such as a directional multi-gigabit DMG beacon frame or an announcement (Announce) frame.

The unicast frame is a frame whose destination address or reception address is a unicast address, such as an advertisement frame.

Before transmitting the structure information element, the access device determines whether the structure information element comprises a time slot structure starting time field and/or an allocation block duration field according to the type of the frame carrying the structure information element. In the case where the structural cell is carried by a broadcast frame, it is determined that the structural cell does not include a slot structure start time field and/or an allocation block duration field. In the case where the fabric information element is carried by a unicast frame, it is determined that the fabric information element includes a slot fabric start time field and/or an allocation block duration field.

Illustratively, when the access device needs to schedule the TDD SP, the access device broadcasts a structural cell to be transmitted, an extension cell, a scheduling cell, and other scheduling information through a beacon frame in the BTI. Since in the BTI the access device carries the fabric information element by the broadcast frame, the fabric information element generated by the access device does not include the slot fabric start time field and/or the allocated block duration field. The STA receiving the configuration information element carried by the beacon frame can obtain the time when the TDD timeslot configuration indicated by the configuration information element starts to be valid, i.e. the start time of the first allocation block of the TDD SP, through the allocation start field in the extension information element. And acquiring the time length of the allocation block in the effective TDD time slot structure through the time length field of the allocation block in the expansion cell.

It can be understood that, because a timeslot structure start time field and/or an allocation block duration field is omitted in the beacon frame of each bearer structure cell, repeated transmission of equivalent information in the structure cell and the extension cell is avoided, and thus, the overhead of scheduling information is reduced. For example, taking the slot structure start time field as an example, each beacon frame carrying the structure information element can save 4 bytes without including the slot structure start time field. A total of 256 bytes can be saved when the access device transmits 64 beacon frames to cover all directions.

After BIT, when the access device needs to change the TDD timeslot structure of some allocation blocks after the first allocation block in the TDD SP, the access device may send a new configuration information element in a unicast manner through the advertisement frame, where the configuration information element needs to indicate the time when the TDD timeslot structure starts to take effect, that is, the start time of the first allocation block in the allocation blocks of the TDD timeslot structure needs to be updated, and therefore the configuration information element needs to include a timeslot structure start time field for indicating the start time.

Optionally, if the duration of the allocation block that needs to update the TDD timeslot structure also changes, the structural cell sent in a unicast manner through the announcement frame may also include an allocation block duration field for indicating the updated duration.

It can be understood that the access device in the present application may support to carry the structural information element with a broadcast frame, may support to carry the structural information element with a unicast frame, or may support only one of the manners, and the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, one possible implementation of the access device may be that the access device may determine whether a fabric information element includes a slot structure start time field and/or an allocated block duration field based on the type of frame carrying the fabric information element. In the case where the fabric cell is carried by a broadcast frame, the format of the generated fabric cell may be as shown in fig. 7, excluding the slot structure start time field and the allocated block duration field, as compared to the fabric cell shown in fig. 4.

In the case where the fabric information element is carried by a unicast frame, such as when the access device needs to change the TDD timeslot structure of some allocation blocks following the first allocation block in the TDD SP, the fabric information element includes a timeslot structure control field and a timeslot scheduling field, and includes a timeslot structure start time field and/or an allocation block duration field. Illustratively, when the fabric information element is carried by a unicast frame, the format of the generated fabric information element may include a slot structure start time field and an allocation block duration field as shown in fig. 4.

It can be seen that, in the present application, the access device may still adopt the TDD timeslot structure in which the announcement frame reconfigures other allocation blocks in the TDD SP in a unicast manner, so that flexibility of TDD SP configuration is maintained.

Alternatively, when the fabric information element is carried by the announcement frame, the type of the announcement frame may be set to the type of an unacknowledged Action (Action No Ack). That is, the access device sends the announcement frame to each STA, and after receiving the announcement frame, each STA does not need to send any acknowledgement or response message to the access device, thereby reducing the sending time of the scheduling information and saving the overhead of the scheduling information.

Optionally, a start time occurrence field may also be included in the fabric cell. The start time occurrence field is used to indicate whether the slot structure start time field and/or the allocated block duration field is contained in the structure cell. When the frame of the bearing structure cell is a broadcast frame, the starting time appearing field is used for indicating that the structure cell does not contain a time slot structure starting time field and/or a distribution block duration field; and/or, when the frame carrying the structural information element is a unicast frame, the starting time occurrence field is used for indicating that the structural information element comprises the time slot structure starting time field and/or the allocation block duration field.

Illustratively, in conjunction with fig. 7, as shown in fig. 8, the start time occurrence field may occupy one bit, indicated by being assigned a value of "0" or "1". For example, the field value of 1 indicates that the fabric cell includes a slot fabric start time field and/or an allocated block duration field. After receiving the configuration information element, the STA directly determines the time for starting the effect of the TDD time slot structure from the time slot structure starting time field in the configuration information element according to the indication of the value of 1 of the field, and determines the time length of the allocation block for the effect of the TDD time slot structure from the allocation block time length field. When the field is assigned a value of 0, this indicates that the fabric cell does not include the slot fabric start time field and/or the allocated block duration field. After receiving the configuration cell, the STA determines, according to the indication of the value "0" assigned to the field, the time at which the TDD timeslot structure needs to be obtained from the allocation start field in the extension cell to start to take effect, and determines, from the allocation block duration field in the extension cell, the duration of the allocation block for which the TDD timeslot structure takes effect.

Optionally, the timeslot structure control field of the structure cell includes an assignment block duration validity field. In the present application, the assignment block duration validity field may indicate different information by different assignments, including indicating that the duration of the TDD SP is unlimited in a time range of multiple consecutive BIs, or indicating that the duration of the TDD SP is indicated by an assignment start field in the extension cell.

For example, the allocation block duration validity field may occupy 1 bit, and when the value is assigned to "0", it indicates that the duration of the TDD SP is unlimited in a time range of a plurality of consecutive BIs, i.e., the duration of the TDD SP may be the duration of a plurality of consecutive BIs. When assigned a value of "1", the duration indicating TDD SP is indicated by the SP duration information in the extension cell.

The SP time length information comprises information indicated by an allocation start field, an allocation block time length field, an allocation block number field and an allocation block period field in the extended cell.

In a possible scenario, N STAs may need to perform TDD channel access in the same TDD SP, that is, the N STAs access a channel in the same TDD SP in a time division multiplexing manner to complete transmission. For example, STA a, STA B, STA C, and STA D communicate in the same TDD SP. Taking TDD interval 0 of the TDD SP as an example, as shown in fig. 9, TDD interval 0 includes 6 TDD timeslots, which are TDD timeslots 0-5 in sequence. For STA a, TDD timeslot 0, TDD timeslot 1, and TDD timeslot 2 are timeslots for STA a to send data, STA a sends data to STA B in TDD timeslot 0, STA C in timeslot 1, and STA D in TDD timeslot 2. TDD timeslot 3-5 is a timeslot where STA a receives data, STA a receives data sent by STA B in TDD timeslot 3, receives data sent by STA C in timeslot 4, and receives data sent by STA D in TDD timeslot 5. Similarly, for STA B, TDD timeslot 0 is a timeslot for receiving data, STA B receives data sent by STA a in TDD timeslot 0, TDD timeslot 3 is a timeslot for sending data, and STA B sends data to STA a in TDD timeslot 0.

In this scenario, if the access device needs to indicate the same TDD SP to STA a, STA B, STA C, and STA D through separate allocation fields according to the scheduling procedure of the existing TDD SP, the same information is repeatedly transmitted, resulting in redundant scheduling information. For this reason, the present application further provides another embodiment, in which the target AID in the assignment field is replaced by a group identifier (group ID) of a group formed by STA a, STA B, STA C, and STA D, and the AID of each STA is replaced by the group identifier, so that each STA in the group can identify the assignment field by the group identifier, and it is not necessary to assign an assignment field to each STA in the group separately to indicate an assigned TDD SP, thereby saving the overhead of scheduling information.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 10, a schematic flow chart of another embodiment of a scheduling method provided in the present application is shown, where the method may include:

step 1001, an access device determines an extension cell, X structural cells and M scheduling cells to be transmitted, where the extension cell, the X structural cells and the M scheduling cells are used to schedule N stations STA to perform TDD channel access in SP, where N is greater than or equal to 2, X is greater than or equal to 1 and less than N, M is greater than or equal to 1 and less than N, N, X and M are integers.

Step 1002, the access device sends an extension cell, X fabric cells and M scheduling cells to N STAs.

In step 1003, each STA of the N STAs identifies an allocation field including the group identifier from the extension cell according to the group identifier, and determines the TDD SP allocated to the N STAs by the access device according to the allocation field.

In step 1004, each STA determines the TDD time slot structure of the TDD SP according to the X cell structures.

Step 1005, each STA determines the TDD timeslot occupation bitmap and/or TDD timeslot access type of the STA in the TDD interval included in the TDD SP according to the scheduling indication field corresponding to the STA in the M scheduling cells.

In this example, when N STAs perform channel access in the same TDD SP, the access device allocates an allocation field for the N STAs in the extension cell, where the allocation field is used to indicate the TDD SP allocated to the N STAs by the access device. As shown in fig. 11, the allocation field includes a group identifier of a group formed by the N STAs, and the N STAs can identify the allocation field through the group identifier. Compared with the structure of the extended cell shown in fig. 3, the extended cell provided by the present application enables N STAs performing channel access in the same TDD SP to share one allocation field, and reduces the number of allocation fields in the extended cell, thereby saving the overhead of scheduling information.

It should be noted that the X configuration information elements correspond to a TDD SP, and are used to indicate the TDD timeslot configuration of the TDD SP. The access device may set the specific value of X according to the cell length specified in the specific implementation. For example, if the specified cell length is sufficient to include the fields required to indicate the TDD timeslot structure of one TDD SP (e.g., the fields included in the structure cell shown in fig. 4, or the fields included in the structure cell shown in fig. 7), X may be set to 1. If the prescribed cell length cannot contain all the required fields, the required fields can be divided into X (X > 1) parts, and the X parts are contained in X structural cells for transmission.

Similarly, M scheduling cells in the present application correspond to an allocation field in an extension cell, and the value of M is also set by the access device according to the cell length specified in the implementation process.

In this example, the M scheduling information elements include N scheduling indication fields, the N scheduling indication fields are in one-to-one correspondence with the N STAs, and the scheduling indication fields are used to indicate a TDD timeslot occupation bitmap and/or a TDD timeslot access type of the corresponding STAs in a TDD interval included in the TDD SP.

For example, taking M ═ 1 as an example, the structure of the scheduling information element may be as shown in fig. 12, and includes N scheduling indication fields, each of which indicates a TDD slot occupancy bitmap and/or a TDD slot access type of one STA in the group in a TDD interval included in the TDD SP. That is to say, with the scheduling cell provided by the present application, the scheduling mode of N STAs can be indicated by one scheduling cell, and N STAs do not need to be scheduled one by N scheduling cells, thereby reducing the number of scheduling cells to be sent and saving the overhead of scheduling information.

It is understood that when M > 1, each scheduling information element may include a portion of the N scheduling indication fields. That is, one scheduling information element in the present application may indicate an occupation bitmap and a TDD timeslot access type of at least one STA. Compared with the existing scheduling cell which only indicates the TDD time slot occupation bitmap and/or TDD time slot access type of one STA, the scheduling cell provided by the application can reduce the number of the scheduling cells to be sent and save the overhead of scheduling information under the condition that each scheduling cell indicates the TDD time slot occupation bitmap and/or TDD time slot access type of two or more STAs.

The configuration sequence of the N scheduling indication fields in the M scheduling cells is the same as the arrangement sequence of the N STAs in the group, and the arrangement sequence of the N STAs in the group is the same as the arrangement sequence of the STAs corresponding to the group identifier.

In one example, the access device may divide N STAs performing channel access in the same TDD SP into a group in advance, and set a unique group identifier for the group. In the group, the access device may randomly arrange the order of the N STAs, or may arrange the order of the N STAs accessing the access device. The group identification of each group corresponds to the ranking order of the STAs in the group. Then, when the access device is generating the M scheduling indication fields, the order of the N scheduling indication fields may be configured according to the order of the STAs corresponding to the group identifier.

Optionally, the group identifier may also be used by the access device to identify a group for multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission. When the N STAs in the group do not perform MU-MIMO transmission but perform TDD channel access in one TDD SP, the access device may also perform scheduling of the TDD SP using the group identifier. The access device indicates group information including group identification and the arrangement order of the N STAs in the group through a group standard set (group ID set) information element. When the N STAs perform channel access in one TDD SP, the access device may allocate the TDD SP by using the group identifier, and determine the arrangement order of the STAs corresponding to the group identifier.

In one example, when the group identity is a group identity in MU-MIMO, based on fig. 11, as shown in fig. 13, the extension information element may further include a communication mode field for indicating a communication mode employed by the N STAs within the TDD SP. The access device may indicate different communication modes through different assignments. For example, when the communication mode field is assigned to "1", N STAs corresponding to the group identifier are instructed to perform TDD channel access in the corresponding TDD SP in the TDD transmission mode. And when the communication mode field is assigned to be 0, indicating the N STAs corresponding to the group identification to carry out communication in an MIMO mode.

In one example, information indicated by fields in the fabric information element and the scheduling information element may be divided into public information and private information. Since N STAs perform channel access in the same TDD SP, for the N STAs, the information describing the TDD timeslot structure of the common TDD SP may be divided into common information, and the scheduling manner (e.g., TDD timeslot occupancy bitmap, TDD timeslot access type, channel aggregation, BW, etc.) for each STA may be divided into private information. Public information is indicated by a structure cell and private information is indicated by a scheduling cell.

For example, in the slot scheduling control field of the scheduling cell (see the structure of the slot scheduling control field shown in fig. 5), the slot scheduling start time field is used to indicate the time when the scheduling manner indicated by the scheduling cell starts to take effect, specifically including the lower 4 bytes of the TSF timer at the start time of the first TDD interval in which the scheduling manner takes effect. The number of TDD intervals field in the bitmap is used to indicate the number of TDD intervals in the bitmap immediately after the time indicated by the slot schedule start time field.

I.e., the slot scheduling start time field and the number of TDD intervals field in the bitmap indicate the TDD slot structure of the TDD SP. Then at least one of these two fields may be configured into the fabric cell for a unified indication. That is, the structure cell includes a time slot scheduling start time field and the scheduling cell does not include a time slot scheduling start time field; and/or the fabric information element includes a number of TDD intervals field in the bitmap and the scheduling information element does not include the number of TDD intervals field in the bitmap.

For example, after configuring the slot scheduling start time field and the TDD interval number field in the bitmap into the structural cell and deleting the structural cell from the scheduling cell, the format of the structural cell may be as shown in fig. 14, and the format of the scheduling cell may be as shown in fig. 15.

It can be understood that the configuration information element is made to uniformly indicate information related to the TDD timeslot configuration of the TDD SP by configuring the timeslot scheduling start time field in the scheduling information element and/or the TDD interval number field in the bitmap into the configuration information element, and deleting the timeslot scheduling start time field and/or the TDD interval number field in the bitmap from the scheduling information element. And when the scheduling mode of the scheduling cell updating STA needs to be sent again after BTI, unnecessary information can be avoided, and therefore the expense of scheduling information is saved.

Optionally, in order to indicate the TDD timeslot structure of the TDD SP more completely, as shown in fig. 14, the structure information element may further include a field of the number of TDD intervals in the TDD SP and/or a field of whether multiple TDD timeslots included in the TDD interval are equal. Wherein, the field of the number of TDD intervals in the TDD SP is used for indicating the number of the TDD intervals in the TDD SP, and when the TDD SP repeats the periodic occurrence, the field of the number of the TDD intervals in each TDD SP is indicated. The field of whether the plurality of TDD slots included in the TDD interval are equal is used to indicate whether the plurality of TDD slots within the TDD interval have the same length. When the TDD timeslot equality field indicates that the plurality of TDD timeslots within the TDD interval have different lengths, the duration of each TDD timeslot is indicated by the timeslot schedule field.

In one example, when N STAs perform TDD channel access in the same TDD SP, TDD channel access may not be performed in the same TDD interval in the TDD SP. Then, when the access device needs to allocate a part of the STAs from the N STAs to the same TDD interval for TDD channel access, the access device may indicate, through a group user template (group user mask) field or a subgroup identifier, the STAs allocated to the same TDD interval in the TDD SP from the N STAs, so as to allocate different TDD intervals of different structures to different STAs, thereby enhancing scheduling flexibility.

For example, as shown in fig. 16, the slot structure control field of the structure cell further includes a group user template field, where the group user template field may specifically indicate a bitmap information, N bits in the bitmap correspond to N STAs corresponding to the group identifier one by one, and an arrangement order of the STAs corresponding to each bit is the same as an arrangement order corresponding to the group identifier. For example, the first bit (least significant bit) of the group user template field corresponds to the first STA in the group of N STAs, the second bit corresponds to the second STA, and so on.

Alternatively, as shown in fig. 17, the timeslot structure control field of the structure cell further includes a subgroup identifier of a subgroup, where the subgroup is formed by a part of STAs in the N, and the part of STAs is STAs allocated to the same TDD interval of the TDD SP.

Optionally, because the beacon frame is sent in a directional manner, when N STAs are located in different J (1 ≧ J ≧ N, J is an integer) sectors, and the access device sends the scheduling cell through the beacon frame, the scheduling cell sent in each of the J sectors may include a scheduling indication field corresponding to the STA located in the sector, and does not include a scheduling indication field corresponding to the STA located in another sector. Thereby further saving the overhead of scheduling information sent in each sector.

For example, STA a and STA B are in sector 1, and when the access device transmits the scheduling cell through sector 1, the scheduling cell may include only the scheduling indication field corresponding to STA a and the scheduling indication field corresponding to STA B. TA C and STA D are in sector 1, and then when the access device transmits the scheduling cell through sector 1, the scheduling cell may only include the scheduling indication field corresponding to STA C and the scheduling indication field corresponding to STA D.

It should be noted that the flows in the two embodiments shown in fig. 6 and fig. 7 may be implemented separately or in combination. When the two embodiments as shown in fig. 6 and fig. 7 are implemented in combination, the overhead of the scheduling information can be further reduced.

In addition, since the inter-frame interval of the current broadcast frame is generally 1 microsecond, and as the coverage of a Basic Service Set (BSS) is enlarged, when an STA receives a broadcast frame, the multipath delay of the previous broadcast frame may cause interference to the next broadcast frame. For example, as shown in fig. 18, the inter-frame interval is a multipath interference diagram of a DMG beacon frame of 1 microsecond. When the access device transmits the DMG beacon frame 1, the multi-path time delay of the DMG beacon frame 1 causes the time for receiving the DMG beacon frame 1 and the DMG beacon frame 2 by the STA to overlap, so that the DMG beacon frame 1 and the DMG beacon frame 2 interfere with each other, and the information reception is affected.

For this purpose, in the present application, when the access device carries the scheduling information (including the extension cell, the structure cell, and the scheduling cell) through the broadcast frame and transmits a plurality of broadcast frames, the inter-frame interval between two adjacent broadcast frames is greater than 1 microsecond. Specifically, the access device may set an inter-frame interval between two adjacent broadcast frames to a guard time length between two adjacent TDD timeslots in the TDD SP. The STA can determine the length of the guard time through the field of the length of the guard time in the slot structure control field in the structure information element, thereby determining the inter-frame space of two adjacent broadcast frames. Alternatively, the access device may add a beacon interval field in the broadcast frame to indicate the inter-frame interval between two adjacent broadcast frames. The beacon interval field is specifically configured to carry a Short Beamforming Inter Frame Space (SBIFS) value, and the access device may set the SBIFS value to multiple levels, for example, 1 microsecond, 2 microseconds, 3 microseconds, and the like. When the access device transmits multiple broadcast frames, a rank greater than 1 microsecond may be selected.

Alternatively, the value of SBIFS may be the same as the value of GT2 in fig. 2. This is because the GT2 is a guard time required for an access device to switch from a transmission sector of one STA to a transmission sector of another STA when the access device is continuously transmitting data to a plurality of STAs, as in the case of transmitting a plurality of DMG beacon frames in a scanning manner using multiple sectors.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 19, a DMG beacon frame transmission diagram is shown, in which the inter-frame interval is 2 microseconds. By increasing the SBIFS value to 2 microseconds, even if the DMG beacon frame 1 causes multipath delay, reception of the DMG beacon frame 2 is not affected.

The above-mentioned scheme provided by the present application is mainly introduced from the perspective of interaction between network elements. It is to be understood that each network element, such as an access device, etc., for implementing the above functions, includes corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the respective functions. Those of skill in the art would readily appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

The present application may perform division of function modules for the access device and the like according to the above method examples, for example, each function module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. It should be noted that, the division of the modules in the present application is schematic, and is only a logical function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation.

In the case of dividing each functional module by corresponding functions, fig. 20A shows a possible structural schematic diagram of the access device in the above embodiment, where the access device includes: a processing unit 2001 and a transmitting unit 2002. The processing unit 2001 is configured to support the access device to perform step 601 in fig. 6, and step 1001 and 1002 in fig. 10; the sending unit 2002 is configured to support the access device to perform step 601 in fig. 6 and step 1002 in fig. 10. All relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described herein again.

Fig. 20B shows a schematic diagram of a possible structure of the access device involved in the above embodiment, in the case of an integrated unit. The access device includes: a processing module 2011 and a communications module 2012. The processing module 2011 is configured to control and manage actions of the access device, for example, the processing module 2011 is configured to support the access device to perform step 601 in fig. 6, step 1001 and 1002 in fig. 10, and/or other processes for the techniques described herein. The communication module 2012 is used to support communication between the access device and other network entities. The access device may also include a storage module 2013 for storing program codes and data for the access device.

The Processing module 2011 may be a Processor or a controller, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a general-purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other Programmable logic device, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processor may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, DSPs, and microprocessors, among others. The communication module 2012 may be a transceiver, transceiving circuitry, or a communication interface, etc. The storage module 2013 may be a memory.

When the processing module 2011 is a processor, the communication module 2012 is a transceiver, and the storage module 2013 is a memory, the access device according to the present application may be the access device shown in fig. 20C.

Referring to fig. 20C, the access device includes: a processor 2021, a transceiver 2022, a memory 2023, and a bus 2024. Wherein, the transceiver 2022, the processor 2021 and the memory 2023 are connected to each other via a bus 2024; the bus 2024 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, or the like. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 20C, but it is not intended that there be only one bus or one type of bus.

In the case of dividing each functional module by corresponding functions, fig. 21A shows a possible structural diagram of the STA involved in the above embodiment, where the STA includes: a processing unit 2101 and a receiving unit 2102. The processing unit 2101 is configured to support the STA to perform step 602 in fig. 6, step 1003-; the receiving unit 2102 is configured to support the STA to perform step 601 in fig. 6 and step 1002 in fig. 10. All relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described herein again.

In the case of an integrated unit, fig. 21B shows a possible structural diagram of the STA involved in the above-described embodiment. The STA includes: a processing module 2111 and a communication module 2112. The processing module 2111 is used for controlling and managing actions of the STA, for example, the processing module 2111 is used for supporting the STA to perform step 602 in fig. 6, step 1002 and 1005 in fig. 10, and/or other processes for the techniques described herein. The communication module 2112 is used to support communication of the STA with other network entities. The STA may also include a storage module 2113 for storing program codes and data of the STA.

The processing module 2111 may be a processor or controller, such as a CPU, general purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, transistor logic device, hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processor may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, DSPs, and microprocessors, among others. The communication module 2112 may be a transceiver, transceiving circuitry, or a communication interface, etc. The storage module 2113 may be a memory.

When the processing module 2111 is a processor, the communication module 2112 is a transceiver, and the storage module 2113 is a memory, the STA related to the present application may be the STA shown in fig. 21C.

Referring to fig. 21C, the STA includes: a processor 2121, a transceiver 2122, a memory 2123, and a bus 2124. Wherein the transceiver 2122, the processor 2121, and the memory 2123 are coupled to each other via a bus 2124; bus 2124 may be a PCI bus or EISA bus, etc. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 21C, but it is not intended that there be only one bus or one type of bus.

The present application also provides a communication apparatus, which includes a unit or means for performing each step performed by the above access device or STA. The communication device may be a chip. In specific implementation, the present application further provides a computer storage medium, where the computer storage medium may store a program, and when the program is executed, the program may include some or all of the steps in the embodiments of the scheduling method provided in the present application. The storage medium may be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a read-only memory (ROM) or a Random Access Memory (RAM).

The present application also provides a computer program product containing instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform some or all of the steps in the various embodiments of the scheduling method provided in the present application.

Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that the techniques in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by way of software plus a required general hardware platform. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application may be essentially implemented or a part contributing to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a storage medium, such as a ROM/RAM, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, etc., and includes several instructions for enabling a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute the method described in the embodiments or some parts of the embodiments of the present application.

The same and similar parts in the various embodiments in this specification may be referred to each other. In particular, for the embodiment of the centralized control device, since it is basically similar to the method embodiment, the description is simple, and the relevant points can be referred to the description in the method embodiment.

The above-described embodiments of the present application do not limit the scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A scheduling method applied to an access device is characterized in that the method comprises the following steps:

sending a broadcast frame carrying a structural information element, wherein the structural information element is used for indicating a TDD time slot structure of a Time Division Duplex (TDD) service period SP allocated to a station STA; the structure cell comprises a time slot structure control field and a time slot scheduling field, and does not comprise a time slot structure starting time field and/or a time length field of a distribution block;

and transmitting an extension information element, wherein the extension information element comprises an allocation start field and/or an allocation block duration field, the allocation start field is used for indicating the effective starting time of the allocated TDD SP, and the allocation block duration field is used for indicating the duration of each allocation block in the allocated TDD SP.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to said transmitting a broadcast frame carrying a structural information element, the method further comprises:

in the case where the fabric information element is carried by a broadcast frame, it is determined that the fabric information element does not include a slot fabric start time field and/or an allocation block duration field.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the fabric information element further comprises a start time occurrence field indicating that the slot fabric start time field and/or the allocation block duration field are not included in the fabric information element.

4. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the slot structure control field comprises an allocated block duration validity field indicating that the duration of the TDD SP is indicated by SP duration information in an extension information element sent by the access device, wherein the extension information element indicates the TDD SP allocated to the STA.

5. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein when the access device transmits a plurality of the broadcast frames, an inter-frame spacing between two adjacent broadcast frames is greater than 1 microsecond.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the interframe spacing of two adjacent broadcast frames is equal to a guard time length between two adjacent TDD timeslots in the TDD SP, and wherein the timeslot structure control field comprises a guard time length field, and wherein the guard time length field is used for indicating the guard time length;

alternatively, the broadcast frame includes a beacon interval field indicating an inter-frame interval of the adjacent two broadcast frames.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein before the sending the extended cell, further comprising:

determining an extension cell, X structural cells and M scheduling cells to be sent, wherein the extension cell, the X structural cells and the M scheduling cells are used for scheduling N stations STA to perform time division duplex TDD channel access in a service period SP, N is more than or equal to 2, X is more than or equal to 1 and less than N, M is more than or equal to 1 and less than N, N, X and M are integers; wherein, an allocation field allocated to the N STAs in the extension cell includes a group identifier of a group formed by the N STAs, and the allocation field is used to indicate the TDD SP allocated to the N STAs by the access device;

the X structure information elements are used for indicating the TDD time slot structure of the TDD SP;

the M scheduling cells comprise N scheduling indication fields, the N scheduling indication fields correspond to the N STAs one by one, and the scheduling indication fields are used for indicating a TDD time slot occupation bitmap and/or a TDD time slot access type of the corresponding STAs in a TDD interval contained in the TDD SP;

the transmitting an extended cell includes:

transmitting the one extension cell, the X fabric cells, and the M scheduling cells to the N STAs.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein X-1.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the N scheduling indication fields correspond to the N STAs on a one-to-one basis, and wherein the method comprises:

the configuration sequence of the N scheduling indication fields in the M scheduling cells is the same as the arrangement sequence of the N STAs in the group, where the arrangement sequence is the arrangement sequence of the STAs corresponding to the group identifier.

10. The method of any of claims 7-9, wherein the extension information element further comprises a communication mode field, and wherein the communication mode field is used to instruct the N STAs to transmit in the TDD channel access manner within the TDD SP.

11. The method according to any of claims 7-9, wherein the configuration information element comprises a field of the number of TDD intervals within the TDD SP and/or a field of whether a number of TDD timeslots included in the TDD interval are equal.

12. The method of any of claims 7-9, wherein the fabric information element includes a slot schedule start time field and the scheduling information element does not include the slot schedule start time field; and/or the fabric information element includes a number of TDD intervals field in a bitmap and the scheduling information element does not include the number of TDD intervals field in the bitmap.

13. The method of any of claims 7-9, wherein the fabric information element further comprises a group user template field indicating the ones of the N STAs that are allocated to the same TDD interval in the TDD SP.

14. The method of any of claims 7-9, wherein the fabric information element further comprises a subgroup identification of a subgroup of partial STAs of the N STAs, the partial STAs being assigned a same TDD interval in the TDD SP, the subgroup identification identifying the partial STAs.

15. A scheduling method applied to a Station (STA), the method comprising:

receiving a structural cell sent by access equipment, wherein the structural cell is carried on a broadcast frame, and the structural cell comprises a time slot structure control field and a time slot scheduling field and does not comprise a time slot structure starting time field and/or a time length field of an allocation block;

determining a TDD time slot structure of a Time Division Duplex (TDD) service period SP (service provider) allocated to the STA by the access equipment according to the structure information element;

receiving an extended cell sent by the access equipment, wherein the extended cell comprises an allocation start field and an allocation block duration field;

and acquiring the time for the TDD time slot structure to become effective according to the allocation start field, and/or acquiring the time length of the allocation block for the TDD time slot structure to become effective according to the allocation block time length field.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the fabric information element further comprises a start time occurrence field indicating that the slot fabric start time field and/or the allocated block duration field are not included in the fabric information element.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the slot structure control field comprises an allocated block duration validity field indicating that the duration of the TDD SP is indicated by SP duration information in an extension information element sent by the access device, wherein the extension information element indicates the TDD SP allocated to the STA.

18. The method according to any of claims 15-17, wherein upon receiving a plurality of said broadcast frames transmitted by said access device, the inter-frame spacing of said two adjacent broadcast frames is equal to the guard time length between two adjacent TDD timeslots in said TDD SP, said timeslot structure control field comprises a guard time length field, said guard time length field is used for indicating said guard time length;

19. The method of any of claims 15-17, receiving an extension information element sent by the access device, comprising:

receiving an extension cell, X structural cells and M scheduling cells sent by the access device, wherein the extension cell, the X structural cells and the M scheduling cells are used for scheduling N STAs to perform Time Division Duplex (TDD) channel access in a service period SP, the STA is one of the N STAs, N is more than or equal to 2, X is more than or equal to 1 and less than N, M is more than or equal to 1 and less than N, N, X and M are integers; wherein, an allocation field allocated to the N STAs in the extension cell includes a group identifier of a group formed by the N STAs, and the allocation field is used to indicate the TDD SP allocated to the N STAs by the access device;

identifying the distribution field from the extended cell according to the group identifier, and determining the TDD SP according to the distribution field;

determining the TDD time slot structure of the TDD SP according to the X information element structures;

and determining a TDD time slot occupation bitmap and/or a TDD time slot access type of the STA in a TDD interval contained in the TDD SP according to a scheduling indication field corresponding to the STA in the M scheduling cells.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein X is 1.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the N scheduling indication fields correspond one-to-one to the N STAs, comprising:

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the extension information element further comprises a communication mode field, and wherein the communication mode field is used to instruct the N STAs to transmit in the TDD channel access manner within the TDD SP.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the configuration information element comprises a number of the TDD intervals in the TDD SP and/or a field of whether a plurality of TDD slots included in the TDD interval are equal.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the fabric information element includes a slot schedule start time field and the scheduling information element does not include the slot schedule start time field; and/or the fabric information element includes a number of TDD intervals field in a bitmap and the scheduling information element does not include the number of TDD intervals field in the bitmap.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the fabric information element further includes a group user template field indicating the ones of the N STAs that are allocated to the same one of the TDD SPs.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein the structural information element further includes a subgroup identification of a subgroup of partial STAs of the N STAs, the partial STAs being allocated a same TDD interval of the TDD SPs, the subgroup identification identifying the partial STAs.

27. An access device comprising a processing unit and a transmitting unit;

the processing unit is configured to control the sending unit to send a broadcast frame carrying a structural cell, where the structural cell is used to indicate a TDD timeslot structure of a Time Division Duplex (TDD) service period SP allocated to a station STA; the structure cell comprises a time slot structure control field and a time slot scheduling field, and does not comprise a time slot structure starting time field and/or a time length field of a distribution block;

the sending unit is further configured to send an extension cell, where the extension cell includes an allocation start field and/or an allocation block duration field, the allocation start field is used to indicate a start effective time of the allocated TDD SP, and the allocation block duration field is used to indicate a duration of each allocation block in the allocated TDD SP.

28. The access device of claim 27,

the processing unit is further configured to determine that the structural information element does not include a timeslot structure start time field and/or an allocation block duration field in a case that the structural information element is carried by a broadcast frame before controlling the transmitting unit to transmit the broadcast frame carrying the structural information element.

29. The access device of claim 27, wherein the fabric information element further comprises a start time occurrence field indicating that the slot fabric start time field and/or the allocation block duration field are not included in the fabric information element.

30. The access device of any of claims 27-29, wherein the slot structure control field comprises an allocated block duration validity field indicating that the duration of the TDD SP is indicated by SP duration information in an extension information element sent by the sending unit, the extension information element indicating the TDD SP allocated to the STA.

31. The access device according to any of claims 27-29, wherein when the processing unit controls the transmitting unit to transmit a plurality of the broadcast frames, an inter-frame spacing between two adjacent broadcast frames is greater than 1 μ sec.

32. The access device of claim 31, wherein the interframe spacing of two adjacent broadcast frames is equal to a guard time length between two adjacent TDD timeslots in the TDD SP, wherein the timeslot structure control field includes a guard time length field, and wherein the guard time length field is used to indicate the guard time length;

33. The access device of claim 27,

the processing unit is further configured to determine an extension cell, X structural cells and M scheduling cells to be sent, where the extension cell, the X structural cells and the M scheduling cells are used to schedule N stations STA to perform time division duplex TDD channel access in a service period SP, where N is greater than or equal to 2, X is greater than or equal to 1 and less than N, M is greater than or equal to 1 and less than N, and N, X and M are integers; wherein, an allocation field allocated to the N STAs in the extension cell includes a group identifier of a group formed by the N STAs, and the allocation field is used to indicate TDD SPs allocated to the N STAs;

the sending unit is further configured to send the extension cell, the X fabric cells, and the M scheduling cells to the N STAs; the X structure information elements are used for indicating the TDD time slot structure of the TDD SP; the M scheduling cells comprise N scheduling indication fields, the N scheduling indication fields correspond to the N STAs one by one, and the scheduling indication fields are used for indicating the TDD time slot occupation bitmap and/or the TDD time slot access type of the corresponding STAs in the TDD interval contained in the TDD SP.

34. The access device of claim 33, wherein X-1.

35. The access device of claim 33, wherein the N scheduling indication fields correspond one-to-one with the N STAs, comprising: the configuration sequence of the N scheduling indication fields in the M scheduling cells is the same as the arrangement sequence of the N STAs in the group, where the arrangement sequence is the arrangement sequence of the STAs corresponding to the group identifier.

36. The access device of any of claims 33-35, wherein the extension information element further comprises a communication mode field, and wherein the communication mode field is configured to instruct the N STAs to transmit in the TDD channel access manner within the TDD SP.

37. The access device of any of claims 33-35, wherein the configuration information element comprises a field of the number of TDD intervals within the TDD SP and/or a field of whether a plurality of TDD slots included in the TDD interval are equal.

38. The access device of any of claims 33-35, wherein the fabric information element includes a slot schedule start time field and the scheduling information element does not include the slot schedule start time field; and/or the fabric information element includes a number of TDD intervals field in a bitmap and the scheduling information element does not include the number of TDD intervals field in the bitmap.

39. The access device of any of claims 33-35, wherein the fabric information element further comprises a group user template field, and wherein the group user template field is used to indicate the STAs of the N STAs that are allocated to the same TDD interval in the TDD SP.

40. The access device of any of claims 33-35, wherein the fabric information element further comprises a subgroup identification of a subgroup of partial STAs of the N STAs, the partial STAs being assigned the same TDD interval in the TDD SP, the subgroup identification identifying the partial STAs.

41. A station STA is characterized by comprising a receiving unit and a processing unit;

the receiving unit is configured to receive a structure cell sent by an access device, where the structure cell is carried on a broadcast frame, and the structure cell includes a timeslot structure control field and a timeslot scheduling field, and does not include a timeslot structure start time field and/or an allocation block duration field;

the processing unit is configured to determine, according to the structural information element received by the receiving unit, a TDD timeslot structure of a Time Division Duplex (TDD) service period SP allocated to the STA by the access device;

the receiving unit is further configured to receive an extended cell sent by the access device, where the extended cell includes an allocation start field and an allocation block duration field;

the processing unit is further configured to obtain a time for the TDD timeslot structure to start to take effect according to the allocation start field, and/or obtain a duration of an allocation block for the TDD timeslot structure to take effect according to the allocation block duration field.

42. The STA of claim 41, wherein the fabric information element further comprises a start time occurrence field to indicate that the slot fabric start time field and/or the allocated block duration field are not included in the fabric information element.

43. The STA of claim 42, wherein the slot structure control field includes an allocated block duration validity field to indicate the duration of the TDD SP is indicated by SP duration information in an extension information element sent by the access device, the extension information element to indicate the TDD SP allocated to the STA.

44. The STA of any one of claims 41-43, wherein when the receiving unit receives a plurality of the broadcast frames transmitted by the access device, the inter-frame spacing between two adjacent broadcast frames is equal to the guard time length between two adjacent TDD timeslots in the TDD SP, the timeslot structure control field includes a guard time length field, and the guard time length field is used to indicate the guard time length;

45. The STA of claim 41,

the receiving unit is further configured to receive an extension cell, X structural cells and M scheduling cells sent by the access device, where the extension cell, the X structural cells and the M scheduling cells are used to schedule N STAs to perform TDD channel access in a service period SP, the STA is one of the N STAs, N is greater than or equal to 2, X is greater than or equal to 1 and less than N, M is greater than or equal to 1 and less than N, and N, X and M are integers; wherein, an allocation field allocated to the N STAs in the extension cell includes a group identifier of a group formed by the N STAs, and the allocation field is used to indicate the TDD SP allocated to the N STAs by the access device;

the processing unit is further configured to identify the allocation field from the extended cell according to the group identifier, and determine the TDD SP according to the allocation field; and determining the TDD time slot structure of the TDD SP according to the X cell structures, and determining a TDD time slot occupation bitmap and/or a TDD time slot access type of the STA in a TDD interval contained in the TDD SP according to a scheduling indication field corresponding to the STA in the M scheduling cells.

46. The STA of claim 45 wherein X is 1.

47. The STA of claim 45, wherein the N scheduling indication fields are in one-to-one correspondence with the N STAs, comprising:

48. The STA of claim 45, wherein the extension information element further comprises a communication mode field to instruct the N STAs to transmit in the TDD channel access manner within the TDD SP.

49. The STA of claim 45, wherein the structural information element includes a number of the TDD intervals within the TDD SP and/or a field of whether a number of TDD slots contained in the TDD interval are equal.

50. The STA of claim 45, wherein the structural information element includes a slot schedule start time field and the scheduling information element does not include the slot schedule start time field; and/or the fabric information element includes a number of TDD intervals field in a bitmap and the scheduling information element does not include the number of TDD intervals field in the bitmap.

51. The STA of claim 45, wherein the fabric information element further includes a group user template field to indicate ones of the N STAs that are allocated to a same TDD interval of the TDD SPs.

52. The STA of claim 45, wherein the structural information element further includes a subgroup identification of a subgroup of partial STAs of the N STAs, the partial STAs being allocated a same TDD interval of the TDD SPs, the subgroup identification identifying the partial STAs.

53. A computer storage medium having stored therein instructions that, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the scheduling method of any one of claims 1-14 or to perform the scheduling method of any one of claims 15-26.