CN108260180B

CN108260180B - Transmission method, station and access point

Info

Publication number: CN108260180B
Application number: CN201611233302.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吴霁; 林英沛
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2016-12-28
Filing date: 2016-12-28
Publication date: 2020-12-15
Anticipated expiration: 2036-12-28
Also published as: CN108260180A

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a transmission method, a station STA and an access point AP, and can improve the success rate of STA access in the R-TXSS stage. The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that a station STA determines a target backoff number according to the number of SSW frames sent by a scanning SSW time slot in a target sector; the STA determines the initial position of sending an SSW frame in a target SSW time slot according to the target backoff number; the STA sends an SSW frame to the access point AP at the start position.

Description

Transmission method, station and access point

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to a transmission method, a Station (STA), and an Access Point (AP).

Background

Beamforming Training (BFT) of a directional antenna is implemented by transmitting a bidirectional Sector Sweep (SSW) frame by both a transmitter and a receiver. The BFT process is mainly divided into two sub-processes, Sector Level Sweep (SLS) and Beam optimization Protocol (BRP). The SLS phase provides the STA with the beam information necessary to receive and transmit signals, i.e., the beam is relatively wide. After the SLS phase, both the STA and the AP determine the best transmit and receive beams for both via BRP frames. In the Sector-level scanning stage, the scanning stage is divided into an initial Transmit Sector Sweep (I-TXSS) stage of the AP Transmit antenna and a response Transmit Sector Sweep (R-TXSS) stage of the STA Transmit antenna. The I-TXSS may be performed during a Beacon Transmission Interval (BTI) or a Data Transmission Interval (DTI), and the R-TXSS may be performed during an Association Beamforming Training (a-BFT) or a DTI.

The entire a-BFT slot of an 802.11ad may be divided into SSW slots, with the number of SSW frames that each SSW slot is capable of transmitting being indicated in the beacon frames transmitted during the BTI period. All STAs that receive at least one beacon frame during the BTI phase and want to perform R-TXSS at a-BFT will randomly choose an integer from [0, the number of SSW frames that an SSW slot can transmit) as the backoff count value, and subtract 1 at the beginning of each SSW slot and transmit SSW frames at that SSW slot when subtracting 0.

If two STAs, for example, STA a and STA B, compete for access to the channel simultaneously, and when the backoff count values of STA a and STA B are the same, for example, both are 5, they will transmit an SSW frame at the beginning of the 6 th SSW timeslot simultaneously, so that STA a and STA B collide with each other, resulting in failure of R-TXSS, and can only wait until the next a-BFT or DTI process to try the R-TXSS again.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a transmission method, a station STA and an access point AP, which can improve the success rate of STA access in an R-TXSS stage

In a first aspect, a transmission method is provided, including: the method comprises the steps that a station STA determines a target backoff number according to the number of SSW frames sent by a scanning SSW time slot in a target sector; the STA determines the initial position of sending an SSW frame in a target SSW time slot according to the target backoff number; the STA sends an SSW frame to the access point AP at the start position.

Therefore, in the method for transmitting according to the embodiment of the present application, the STA performs backoff in the SSW slot (e.g., the target SSW slot) according to the backoff number (e.g., the target backoff number), and transmits the SSW frame at the start position determined according to the backoff number, instead of starting to transmit the SSW frame immediately after accessing the SSW slot. Because the probability that the multiple STAs simultaneously select the same backoff number is low, the method for transmitting in the embodiment of the present application can avoid the collision of the multiple STAs simultaneously accessing the same SSW slot, or reduce the probability of the collision of the multiple STAs simultaneously accessing the same SSW slot, thereby improving the success rate of access.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining, by the STA, a starting position of an SSW frame to be sent in a target SSW timeslot according to a target backoff number includes: at the frame starting time of each SSW frame of the target SSW time slot, the STA controls the target backoff number to be reduced by 1; when the target backoff number is reduced to 0, the STA performs Clear Channel Assessment (CCA); when detecting that the duration of the channel in the idle state is longer than a short beam frame interval, the STA determines the frame start time of the next frame of the SSW frame whose target backoff number is reduced to 0 as the start position.

And the STA backs off the SSW frame before the target backoff number is reduced to 0, and the STA starts to transmit the SSW frame only when the duration of the idle state of the channel is detected to be greater than one short beam frame interval, so that collision with other STAs can be avoided.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining, by the STA, a starting position of an SSW frame to be sent in a target SSW timeslot according to a target backoff number includes: the STA performs Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) in a target SSW time slot, and controls the target backoff number to be reduced by 1 at the frame starting time of each SSW frame; when the channel is detected to be busy, the STA acquires first parameters in SSW frames of other STAs which send SSW frames in a target SSW time slot, wherein the first parameters in the SSW frames of each other STA are used for indicating the number of the SSW frames which need to be sent by the other STAs; the STA determines an expected initial position according to the first parameter; the STA performs CCA at the frame starting moment of the SSW frame when the estimated starting position or the target backoff number is reduced to 0; when detecting that the duration of the channel in the idle state is longer than a short beam frame interval, the STA determines the frame start time of the frame next to the SSW frame of the expected start position or the frame start time of the frame next to the SSW frame of which the target backoff number is reduced to 0 as the start position.

And the STA performs backoff when other STAs send the SSW frame according to the first parameter. When the target backoff number is decreased to 0 and when the duration of the channel idle state is detected to be greater than one short beam frame interval, the STA starts transmitting the SSW frame, so that collision with other STAs can be avoided.

In one possible implementation, the SSW frame includes the following fields: a frame indication field, a remaining frame number indication field, a radio frequency channel indication field, a feedback information field, an uplink and downlink indication field,

the frame indication field is used for indicating that the SSW frame is a short SSW frame, the remaining frame number indication field is used for indicating the number of the SSW frames to be sent by the STA, the radio frequency channel indication field is used for indicating antenna information of the STA, the feedback information field is used for indicating feedback information of the STA to the AP, and the uplink and downlink indication fields are used for indicating the transmission direction of the SSW frame.

In one possible implementation, the first parameter may be a value in a remaining frame number indication field.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: and the STA receives an SSW feedback frame sent by the AP in the target SSW time slot.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the STA receives an SSW feedback frame sent by the AP in a target declaration time interval ATI period, wherein the target ATI and a target SSW time slot belong to the same beacon interval.

In one possible implementation, the receiving, by the STA, the SSW feedback frame sent by the AP during the target announcement time interval ATI includes: the STA receives an announcement frame sent by the AP in the ATI period, wherein the announcement frame comprises feedback information included in the SSW feedback frame.

In one possible implementation, before the STA sends the SSW frame to the AP at the start position, the method further includes: the STA receives resource indication information sent by the AP, wherein the resource indication information is used for indicating that resources occupied by target association beam forming training A-BFT comprising a target SSW time slot are exclusive resources of the STA; wherein after the STA sends an SSW frame to the AP at the start position, the method further comprises: and the STA receives the SSW feedback frame sent by the AP in the target SSW time slot according to the resource indication information.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the STA determines whether the AP successfully receives all SSW frames sent by the STA according to the SSW feedback frame; when the STA determines that the AP does not successfully receive all SSW frames sent by the STA, the STA retransmits the SSW frames needing to be retransmitted to the AP, wherein the SSW frames needing to be retransmitted are the SSW frames which are not successfully received by the AP in all the SSW frames sent by the STA.

When the AP does not successfully receive all SSW frames transmitted by the STA, the STA can only retransmit the SSW frames which are not successfully received by the AP according to the indication, so that the access efficiency can be improved, and the probability of collision with other STAs in transmission can be further reduced.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining, by the STA, whether the AP successfully receives all SSW frames sent by the STA according to the SSW feedback frame includes: and the STA determines whether the AP successfully receives all SSW frames sent by the STA according to the address field and the reserved field in the SSW feedback frame.

In one possible implementation, before the STA retransmits the SSW frame to the AP, the method further includes: the STA receives a polling frame sent by the AP in a target declaration time interval ATI period, wherein the target ATI and a target SSW time slot belong to the same beacon interval period; the STA sends a resource request message to the AP according to the polling frame, wherein the resource request message is used for requesting the resource for retransmitting the SSW frame needing to be retransmitted; the STA receives a resource response message sent by the AP according to the resource request message, wherein the resource response message is used for indicating resources occupied by a data sending interval (DTI) to the STA to be used for the STA to resend the SSW frame to be resent, and the DTI and the ATI belong to the same beacon period; wherein, the STA resends the SSW frame to be resent to the AP, including: the STA transmits the SSW frame requiring retransmission on the resource for retransmitting the SSW frame requiring retransmission, based on the resource response message.

In a possible implementation manner, before the station STA determines the target backoff number according to the number of SSW frames required to be sent, the method further includes: the STA receives a beacon frame sent by the AP; the STA acquires the number of long SSW frames which can be sent in a target SSW time slot according to the beacon frame, wherein the number of bytes occupied by the long SSW frames is 26 bytes; the STA determines the number of the SSW frames which can be sent in the target SSW time slot according to the number of the long SSW frames which can be sent in the target SSW time slot; and the STA determines that the target backoff number is any integer of [0, k ] according to the number of the SSW frames which can be sent in the target SSW time slot and the number of the SSW frames which need to be sent, wherein k is the difference between the number of the SSW frames which can be sent in the target SSW time slot and the number of the SSW frames which need to be sent.

In one possible implementation, when the number of SSW frames that can be sent in the target SSW slot is not an integer, the frame start time of the first SSW frame of the target SSW slot is not aligned with the frame start time of the first long SSW frame of the target SSW slot, and the frame end time of the last SSW frame of the target SSW slot is aligned with the frame end time of the last long SSW frame of the target SSW slot.

In one possible implementation, the number of bytes occupied by the SSW frame is less than 26 bytes.

In one possible implementation, the number of bytes occupied by the SSW frame is 5 bytes.

In a second aspect, a transmission method is provided, including: an Access Point (AP) receives an SSW frame sent by a Station (STA) at the starting position of the SSW frame in a target sector scanning SSW time slot, wherein the starting position is determined by the STA according to a target backoff number, and the target backoff number is determined by the STA according to the number of the SSW frames needing to be sent.

Therefore, in the method for transmission according to the embodiment of the present application, the STA performs backoff in the SSW slot according to the backoff number, and transmits the SSW frame at the start position determined according to the backoff number, instead of starting to transmit the SSW frame immediately after accessing the SSW slot. Because the probability that the multiple STAs simultaneously select the same backoff number is low, the method for transmitting in the embodiment of the present application can avoid the collision of the multiple STAs simultaneously accessing the same SSW slot, or reduce the probability of the collision of the multiple STAs simultaneously accessing the same SSW slot, thereby improving the success rate of access.

In one possible implementation, the SSW frame includes the following fields:

a frame indication field, a remaining frame number indication field, a radio frequency channel indication field, a feedback information field, an uplink and downlink indication field,

the frame indication field is used for indicating that the SSW frame is a short SSW frame, the remaining frame number indication field is used for indicating the number of SSW frames to be sent by the STA, the radio frequency channel indication field is used for indicating antenna information of the STA, the feedback information field is used for indicating feedback information from the STA to the AP, and the uplink and downlink indication fields are used for indicating the transmission direction of the SSW frame.

In one possible implementation, the method may further include: and the AP sends an SSW feedback frame to the STA in the target SSW time slot.

In one possible implementation, the method may further include: the AP sends an SSW feedback frame to the STA in a target declaration time interval ATI period, wherein the target ATI and the target SSW time slot belong to the same beacon interval.

In one possible implementation, the AP sending an SSW feedback frame to the STA during the target announcement time interval ATI, including: and the AP sends an announcement frame to the STA in the ATI period, wherein the announcement frame comprises the feedback information included in the SSW feedback frame.

In a possible implementation manner, before the access point AP receives the SSW frame sent by the station STA at the start position of the SSW frame in the target sector scanning SSW timeslot, the method may further include: and the AP sends resource indication information to the STA, wherein the resource indication information is used for indicating that the resource occupied by the target associated beamforming training A-BFT comprising the target SSW time slot is the exclusive resource of the STA.

In one possible implementation, the method may further include: and the AP receives the SSW frame which is retransmitted by the STA according to the SSW feedback frame and needs to be retransmitted, wherein the SSW frame which needs to be retransmitted is an SSW frame which is not successfully received by the AP in all the SSW frames transmitted by the STA.

In a possible implementation manner, when the number of SSW frames that can be sent in the target SSW timeslot is not an integer, the frame start time of the first SSW frame of the target SSW timeslot is not aligned with the frame start time of the first long SSW frame of the target SSW timeslot, and the frame end time of the last SSW frame of the target SSW timeslot is aligned with the frame end time of the last long SSW frame of the target SSW timeslot.

In a third aspect, a station STA is provided for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect. In particular, the station STA comprises means for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided an access point, AP, for performing the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect. In particular, the access point AP comprises means for performing the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect, a station STA is provided, where the station STA includes a memory and a processor, the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor is used to call and run the computer program from the memory, so that the station STA performs the method in the first aspect and any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, an access point AP is provided, which comprises a memory for storing a computer program and a processor for invoking and running the computer program from the memory, such that the access point AP performs the method of the second aspect and any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, a computer program product is provided, the computer program product comprising: computer program code for causing a station STA of the first aspect to perform the method of the first aspect and any possible implementation manner of the first aspect when the computer program code is run by a processing unit, a transceiver unit or a processor, a transceiver of the station STA.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising: computer program code which, when run by a processing unit, a transceiver unit or a processor, transceiver of an access point AP in the second aspect, causes the access point AP to perform the method of the second aspect and any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In a ninth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided for storing a computer program comprising instructions for performing the first aspect and the method of any possible implementation of the first aspect.

A tenth aspect provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program comprising instructions for performing the second aspect and the method of any possible implementation of the second aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a millimeter wave communication network according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of time slot allocation in a mmwave WLAN communication network.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a long SSW frame structure.

Fig. 4 is a frame structure diagram of a short SSW frame according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a transmission method according to an embodiment of the application.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a transmission method according to one embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a transmission method according to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a station STA according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of an access point AP according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a station STA according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of an access point AP according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The embodiments of the present application can be applied to Wireless Local Area networks (Wireless Local Area networks,

WLAN), the standard adopted by WLANs at present is the IEEE802.11 family. The WLAN may include a plurality of Basic Service Sets (BSSs), a network node in the BSS is an STA, and the STA includes a Station AP in an Access Point class and a Station (non-AP STA) in a non-Access Point class, and the Station non-AP STA in the non-Access Point class may be referred to as a Station STA for short. Each BSS may contain an AP and a plurality of STAs associated with the AP.

An AP is also referred to as a wireless access point or hotspot, etc. The AP is an access point for a mobile subscriber to enter a wired network, and is mainly deployed in a home, a building, and a campus, and typically has a coverage radius of several tens of meters to hundreds of meters, and may be deployed outdoors. The AP acts as a bridge connecting the network and the wireless network, and mainly functions to connect the wireless network clients together and then to access the wireless network to the ethernet. Specifically, the AP may be a terminal device or a network device with a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) chip. Optionally, the AP may be a device supporting 802.11ax standard, and further optionally, the AP may be a device supporting multiple WLAN standards such as 802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, and 802.11 a.

The STA may be a wireless communication chip, a wireless sensor, or a wireless communication terminal, such as a mobile phone supporting a WiFi communication function, a tablet computer supporting a WiFi communication function, a set-top box supporting a WiFi communication function, a smart television supporting a WiFi communication function, a smart wearable device supporting a WiFi communication function, a vehicle-mounted communication device supporting a WiFi communication function, and a computer supporting a WiFi communication function.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a millimeter wave communication network according to an embodiment of the present application. The millimeter-wave communication network 100 includes a plurality of millimeter-wave network nodes 101-105 that communicate using millimeter-waves. Millimeter-wave communication network nodes 101-105 may utilize their own array antennas to communicate within one or more antenna sectors. Of these network nodes 101-105, the network node 101 may act as a network coordinator, such as an AP, to coordinate communications between the network nodes 101-105 and control access to the wireless medium. The AP may broadcast a Beacon frame (Beacon) indicating the length of a Beacon Interval (BI) in which communication is to occur. The beacon frame may be received by the other network node 102-105 such that the network node 102-105 may know when the next beacon interval will occur. Network node 101 may act as an initiating station to initiate beamforming training with other network nodes (e.g., network node 102 and 105), which may be referred to as responding stations. The initiating station 101 may perform multiple access beamforming training BFT with one or more responding stations, such as responding

stations

104 and 105. The initiating master 101 may advertise the number of SSW slots of the BFT period and the number of SSW frames within each SSW slot. The initiating station 101 may receive one or more SSW frames from two or more of the responding stations within one of the SSW timeslots of the BFT period and may transmit one or more SSW feedback frames to the responding stations within one SSW timeslot, indicating to the responding stations the antenna configuration for the responding stations to communicate with the initiating station 101.

When network node 101 acts as an AP, network nodes 101-105 may act as non-AP STAs. At this time, the network node 101 may be referred to as an AP101, and the network nodes 102-105 may be referred to as STA102, STA104 and STA105, respectively. In one possible communication system, STAs 102, 103 may support the 802.11ad standard and

STAs

104, 105 may support the 802.11ay standard. The 802.11ad standard only supports Single Input Single Output (SISO) communication between the AP and the STA using one antenna over one 2.16GHz channel. 802.11ay is a next generation standard of 802.11ad, and the main difference from 802.11ad is that Single-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (SU-MIMO) and downlink Multi-User MIMO (DL MU-MIMO) communication are supported between an AP and an STA over Multiple 2.16GHz channels.

The time slot allocation method in the mm wave WLAN communication network defined in the 802.11ad standard takes BI as a basic unit. The BI phase can be divided into four different sub-structures in fig. 2 according to different access rules. The beacon transmission interval BTI period, the AP transmits one or more beacon frames. And associating beamforming training A-BFT period, and performing beamforming training between the STA and the AP which receive the beacon frame in the BTI period. An Announcement Time Interval (ATI) period, between the AP and the STA, manages access based on a request response mechanism. And in the DTI period, the AP and the STA carry out data communication in a frame exchange mode.

As shown in fig. 2, the a-BFT period may be divided into 4 SSW slots. In each of the SSW time-slots,

the time slot is used for the STA to send SSW frames,

AP transmission for STA reception in time slotThe SSW feedback frame. The second SSW slot shown in fig. 2 can transmit up to 8 SSW frames. STA104 and STA105 contend for the second SSW timeslot of the access channel at the same time and transmit their respective SSW frames at the beginning of the second SSW timeslot at the same time, so that STA104 and STA105 collide, resulting in R-TXSS failure, which can only wait until the next a-BFT or DTI to try the R-TXSS procedure again.

The SSW frame referred to above is an SSW frame defined by the 802.11ad protocol.

In order to avoid sending collision when the STA is accessed to the same time slot, or reduce the sending collision probability when the STA is accessed, and improve the access success rate, the application provides a transmission method which can be applied to a scene that a plurality of STAs are accessed to the same SSW time slot for collision. Specifically, the method may be applied to a scenario in which backoff count values of multiple STAs are the same (that is, multiple STAs access the same SSW slot at the same time and need to send an SSW frame in the SSW slot), for example, the scenario in which the STA104 and the STA105 send respective SSW frames in a second SSW slot as shown in fig. 2. The method may also be applied to a scenario where only one STA accesses the SSW timeslot to send an SSW frame, which is not particularly limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the STA according to the embodiment of the present application may be an STA supporting the 802.11ay standard. STAs supporting the 802.11ay standard may be referred to as Enhanced directional Multi gigabit STAs (EDMG STAs). The SSW frame sent by the EDMG STA may be a short SSW frame. The length of the short SSW frame is smaller than the length of the SSW frame specified by the 802.11ad protocol, i.e., the length of the short SSW frame is smaller than 26 bytes. In the embodiment of the present application, for convenience of description, an SSW frame specified by the 802.11ad protocol is referred to as a long SSW frame.

The long SSW frame structure is shown in fig. 3. The definition of each field and each field corresponding to the long SSW frame is as follows:

frame control field (Frame control): control information for carrying the Media Access Control (MAC) frame (i.e., the SSW frame).

Duration field (Duration): for indicating the end time of the MAC frame, so that other STAs which hear the MAC frame can perform Network Allocation Vector (NAV) setting.

Receive Address field (RA): the MAC addresses of the receiving STAs (including the AP and the non-APSTA) have uniqueness, so that the STA can conveniently judge whether the MAC frame needs to be unpacked.

Transmit Address field (TA): the MAC addresses of the transmitting STAs (including the AP and non-AP STAs) are unique, and it can be determined which STA transmits the data packet.

SSW field (SSW): the initiating STA sends SSW frames with all sectors of the antenna and the receiving STA determines the best transmit beam by judging the signal-to-noise ratio of different frames.

SSW feedback field (SSW feedback): the feedback STA sends an SSW feedback frame to the receiving STA with a sector of the antenna to inform the receiving STA of the best transmit beam next time it communicates with the feedback STA.

MAC frame CRC check information Field (FCS): and the MAC frame cycle check information is used for verifying whether the MAC frame is intact.

The bits occupied by the above fields of the long SSW frame are: 16. 16, 48, 24, 32. Thus, a long SSW frame occupies 26 bytes in total.

A short SSW frame structure according to one embodiment of the present application is shown in fig. 4. Each field of the short SSW frame and the corresponding definition of each field are as follows:

frame indication field (Packet type): indicating that the PHY frame is a short SSW frame, which functions similar to the frame control field of an SSW frame.

Address field (Addressing): and (4) compressing the TA/RA address by a Hash algorithm and the like.

Remaining frame number indication field (CDOWN): and indicating how many short SSW frames the STA needs to send to complete the whole TXSS process after the SSW frame, and simultaneously, indicating the beam direction of the short SSW frame, wherein after the TXSS process is finished, the feedback STA sends the CDOWN parameter of the best receiving frame to the transmitting STA.

Radio frequency channel indication field (RF chain ID): since 802.11ay indicates MIMO, all antennas need to participate in the BFT procedure, and thus are used to indicate antenna information of the STA.

Feedback information field (Short SSW feedback): CDOWN parameters primarily for feedback of best received SSW

Uplink and downlink indication field (Direction): indicating whether the frame is an uplink frame (STA sent to AP) or a downlink frame (AP sent to STA).

Check information field FCS: and the MAC frame cycle check information is used for verifying whether the MAC frame is intact.

Optionally, the bits occupied by the above fields of the short SSW frame may be: 1. 16, 8, 2, 8, 1, 4. Thus, the short SSW frame occupies 5 bytes in total. It can be seen that the length of the short SSW frame is smaller than the length of the long SSW frame.

It should be understood that the frame structure of the short SSW frame shown in fig. 4 is only a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the present application, and the embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the specific frame structure of the short SSW frame.

It should also be understood that the short SSW frame occupies 5 bytes in total, which is only one possible short SSW frame length, and the length of the short SSW frame is not particularly limited in the embodiments of the present application.

Hereinafter, a transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application is described in conjunction with a schematic flowchart of the transmission method shown in fig. 5.

And S510, the STA determines the backoff number according to the number of SSW frames of the STA, which are required to be sent in the target SSW time slot.

Hereinafter, for convenience of description, the backoff number of the SSW is referred to as a target backoff number. It should be understood that the target backoff number here is different from the backoff count value described above, the backoff count value being used for backoff between SSW slots, and the target backoff number being used for backoff of the STA within a contended SSW slot (i.e., the target SSW slot).

It should also be understood that the SSW frames herein may be short SSW frames as described hereinabove.

Specifically, the STA may select the target backoff number at the same time as the backoff count value, or may select the target backoff number after contending for the SSW slot. The target backoff number may be any integer of [0, k). Where k is the difference between the number X of SSW frames that can be transmitted in the target SSW timeslot and the number Y of SSW frames of the STA that needs to transmit, that is, k is X-Y.

Alternatively, the number of SSW frames that can be sent in the target SSW timeslot can be obtained by:

the STA receives a beacon frame sent by the AP; then, the number of the long SSW frames which can be sent in the target SSW time slot can be obtained according to the beacon frame; finally, based on the fact that the length of the SSW frame is known by the STA, the STA can determine the number X of SSW frames that can be sent in the target SSW slot according to the number of long SSW frames that can be sent in the target SSW slot.

For example, if the number X of SSW frames that can be transmitted in the target SSW slot is 10, and the number Y of SSW frames of the STA that the STA needs to transmit is 6, k is 4. STA may select any integer of [0, 4) as the target backoff number, for example STA may select 2 as the target backoff number.

S520, the STA determines the initial position of the SSW frame for sending the STA in the target SSW time slot according to the target backoff number.

S530, the STA sends an SSW frame to the AP at the start position.

Optionally, as an embodiment of the present application, the STA may specifically determine, according to the target backoff number, a starting position of sending the SSW frame in the target SSW timeslot by a first method or a second method.

In a first mode

At the frame starting time of each SSW frame of the target SSW time slot, the STA controls the target backoff number to be reduced by 1, namely the STA performs backoff; when the target backoff number is reduced to 0, the STA performs CCA (clear channel assessment); when detecting that the duration of the channel being in the idle state is greater than one short beam frame interval (i.e., the interval between two adjacent SSW frames), the STA determines the frame start time of the next frame of the SSW frame whose target backoff number is reduced to 0 as the start position of the SSW frame of the transmitting STA.

For example, referring to fig. 6, the STA performs backoff and CCA in the second SSW slot (i.e., an example of the target SSW slot). In fig. 6, the second SSW slot is capable of transmitting 12 SSW frames, and the frame start time of each SSW frame is t 1-t 12. When Y is 6 and the target backoff number is 2, the STA decreases 1 at time t2, decreases 1 again at time t3, and becomes 0, and then starts CCA at time t 3. If the duration of the idle state of the channel in the time period from the time t3 to the time t4 is longer than one short beam frame interval, for example, if the channel is in the idle state in the time period from the time t31 to the time t4, the STA considers that the channel is idle and can transmit. The STA determines time t4 as the start position of the SSW frame of the transmitting STA and starts transmitting the SSW frame of the STA at time t 4. If the duration of the idle state of the channel is less than or equal to one short beam frame interval in the time period from the time t3 to the time t4, or the channel is busy all the time, the STA continues CCA until it is detected that the duration of the idle state of the channel is less than or equal to one short beam frame interval, and then starts transmitting the SSW frame of the STA. If the channel is busy all the time in this second SSW slot, the STA does not transmit in this slot. If the STA can only transmit a part of the SSW frames, for example, only 4 SSW frames, in the second SSW slot, the STA may transmit the remaining 2 SSW frames when contending for the resource next time, or retransmit the transmitted 4 SSW frames and the remaining 2 SSW frames. When the target backoff number is 0, the STA starts to perform CCA at time t1, and if the duration of the channel being in the idle state is less than or equal to one short beam frame interval in the time period from time t1 to time t2, the STA considers that the channel is idle and can perform transmission, the STA determines time t2 as the starting position of the SSW frame of the transmitting STA and starts to transmit the SSW frame of the STA at time t 2.

Mode two

The STA performs Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) at the beginning of the target SSW time slot, and controls the target backoff number to be reduced by 1 at the frame starting time of each SSW frame; when the STA detects that the channel is busy, the STA acquires a first parameter in SSW frames of other STAs which send the SSW frames in the target SSW time slot, and determines the number of the SSW frames which need to be sent by the other STAs according to the first parameter. It should be understood that there may be one or more other STAs. The first parameter here may be the CDOWN parameter shown in fig. 4. The STA determines whether to send the SSW frame of the STA in the target SSW time slot according to the first parameter. For example, referring to fig. 6, when the STA detects CDOWN ═ 6 at time t6 of the target SSW slot, the STA has no opportunity to transmit an SSW frame in the target SSW slot. For another example, if the STA detects that CDOWN is 2 at time t6 of the target SSW slot, the STA may send the SSW in the target SSW slot, and at this time, the STA determines the predicted start position according to the first parameter, for example, when CDOWN is 2 at time t6, the predicted start position is time t 9. Then, the STA performs the following (1) or (2) alternatively according to the specific situation.

(1) When the target backoff number has decreased to 0 at the estimated starting position.

And when the STA detects that the duration of the idle state of the channel is more than a short beam frame interval in a time period from the frame starting time of the SSW frame where the expected starting position is located to the frame starting time of the next frame of the expected starting position, the STA considers that the channel is idle and can transmit. At this time, the STA determines the frame start time of the frame next to the SSW frame of the expected start position as the start position of the SSW frame of the transmitting STA, and starts transmitting the SSW frame of the STA at the start position.

For example, referring to fig. 6, when the expected start position is time t9, the target backoff number has been reduced to 0, and the STA starts CCA. If the duration of the channel in the idle state in the period from t9 to t10 is greater than one short beam frame interval, the STA determines the time t10 as the start position of the SSW frame of the transmitting STA. The STA may start transmitting the STA's SSW frame at time t 10.

(2) When the target backoff number has not been reduced to 0 at the estimated start position.

And the STA continuously backs off until the target backoff number is reduced to 0, performing CCA at the frame starting time of the SSW frame with the target backoff number reduced to 0, and if the STA detects that the duration of the idle state of the channel is more than one short beam frame interval in the time period of the duration of the SSW frame with the target backoff number reduced to 0 and the frame starting time of the next frame of the SSW frame with the target backoff number reduced to 0, determining the frame starting time of the next frame of the SSW frame with the target backoff number reduced to 0 as the starting position of the SSW frame of the transmitting STA by the STA.

For example, referring to fig. 6, the expected start position is time t9, the target backoff number is decreased to 0 at time t10, and the STA starts CCA at time t 10. If the duration of the channel in the idle state in the period from t10 to t11 is greater than one short beam frame interval, the STA determines the time t11 as the start position of the SSW frame of the transmitting STA. The STA may start transmitting the STA's SSW frame at time t 11.

It should be understood that, according to the target backoff number, the STA in this embodiment of the present application may implement the process of subtracting 1 from the frame start time of each SSW frame by using a backoff counter, or may implement the process by using software, and the specific implementation manner is not particularly limited in this embodiment of the present application.

After the STA successfully sends the SSW frame, the method may further include: s540, the AP sends an SSW feedback frame to the STA.

If the STA does not receive the corresponding SSW feedback frame after transmitting the SSW frame, the STA needs to retransmit the corresponding SSW frame.

Optionally, as an embodiment of the present application, the AP may send, to the STA, an SSW feedback frame for the STA in an SSW feedback slot after a short-frame spacing (SIFS) after the target SSW slot. When the STA does not successfully receive the SSW feedback frame in the target SSW feedback slot, the STA may receive the SSW feedback frame for the STA in a target announcement time interval ATI period, where the target ATI and the target SSW feedback slot belong to the same beacon interval period.

Specifically, in the target timeslot, if only N STAs of other EDMG STAs transmit SSW frames on the same channel with the STA, the AP may transmit an SSW feedback frame for the STA to one of the N STAs in an SSW feedback timeslot of the target SSW timeslot. And, the STA may successfully receive an SSW feedback frame for the STA in the SSW feedback slot. While for other ones of the N STAs, corresponding SSW feedback frames may be received during the ATI period. If the 802.11ad STA, i.e. a Directional Multi Gigabit (DMG) STA, transmits a long SSW frame/SSW frame on the same channel as the STA in the target SSW timeslot, the AP transmits a corresponding SSW feedback frame to the DMG STA in the SSW feedback timeslot, and transmits an SSW feedback frame to the STA in the target announcement timeslot period ATI.

Optionally, the STA receives an SSW feedback frame for the STA during the ATI period, including: and the STA receives an announcement frame sent by the AP at ATI, wherein the announcement frame comprises the feedback information included in the SSW feedback frame for the STA. That is, the STA may receive the announcement frame transmitted by the AP at ATI and may acquire feedback information for the STA in the announcement frame.

Optionally, as another embodiment of the present application, the AP may send, in the BTI phase, indication information to the EDMG STA including the STA, and indicate, to the EDMG STA, that the target a-BFT including the target SSW timeslot is an exclusive a-BFT time-frequency resource of the EDMG STA. The target A-BFT may be different in SSW slot length relative to other A-BFTs. The SSW slot may be longer, allowing more SSW frames to be sent or multiple EDMG STAs to successfully send SSW frames at the same time. The SSW feedback slot length is also variable, thereby enabling the AP to reply to the plurality of EDMG STAs with the corresponding SSW feedback frames in turn.

After receiving the SSW feedback frame or feedback information for the STA sent by the AP, the STA may determine whether the AP successfully receives all the SSW frames sent by the STA. For example, the STA may determine whether the AP successfully receives all SSW frames transmitted by the STA according to the address fields (including the transmit address field and the receive address field) in the SSW feedback frame and the value in the reserved field. When the AP does not successfully receive all SSW frames transmitted by the STA, the STA retransmits the SSW frames needing to be retransmitted to the AP, namely the SSW frames which are not successfully received by the AP in all the SSW frames transmitted by the STA.

Specifically, according to the prior art, in the SSW Feedback frame format, the transmission address field and the reception address field occupy 12 bytes, the reserved field in the SSW Feedback field (SSW Feedback) occupies 7 bits, and the reserved field in the Beam refinement Protocol request field (BRP request) occupies 5 bits. When the SSW frame is a short SSW frame, the transmit address field and the receive address field shown in fig. 4 may occupy 2 bytes in total, and thus 10 bytes in the SSW feedback frame may be multiplexed. The AP may use 10 bytes in the transmit address field and the receive address field, and the reserved field in the SSW feedback field occupies 7 bits and the reserved field in the fine beam protocol request field occupies 5 bits, for a total of 92 bits, to indicate to the STA whether to successfully receive all SSW frames transmitted by the STA. When the AP does not successfully receive all SSW frames transmitted by the STA, the STA can only retransmit the SSW frames which are not successfully received by the AP according to the indication, so that the access efficiency can be improved, and the probability of collision with other STAs in transmission can be further reduced.

Before the STA retransmits the SSW frame requiring retransmission to the AP, the STA may transmit a resource request message to the AP to request resources for retransmitting the SSW frame requiring retransmission, based on a received polling (Poll) frame transmitted by the AP during the ATI period. And the AP sends a resource response message to the STA according to the request of the STA. The STA retransmits the SSW frame that needs to be retransmitted on the resource indicated by the resource response message. Here, the resource indicated by the AP is a resource in the data transmission period DTI, and the STA transmits an SSW frame which the AP has not successfully received in the data transmission period.

The STA in the embodiment of the present application may be an EDMG STA, and the SSW frame sent by the EDMG STA may be a short SSW frame. In the following, embodiments in which the method for transmitting of the present application is applied in specific scenarios are described in detail.

Scene one: DMG STAs only access A-BFT on the primary channel, EDMG STAs access other channels.

The a-BFT procedure of 802.11ay may be performed simultaneously on multiple channels, DMG STAs may only have a-BFT access on the primary channel for compatibility with DMG STAs, and EDMG STAs may have access on other channels. Wherein the length of the SSW slots and the total number of SSW slots are the same on all channels. It should be understood that the primary channel referred to in the embodiments of the present application refers to a channel accessed by the DMG STA. The DMG STA starts transmitting a long SSW frame in the SSW slot in which the backoff counter is decremented to 0. The EDMG STA performs backoff according to the backoff number of the EDMG STA in the SSW slot in which the backoff counter is decremented to 0, and performs CCA simultaneously with the backoff. And if the channel is detected to be in a busy state all the time, giving up sending the short SSW frame in the time slot, and avoiding collision caused by simultaneous access of the STAs. If the channel is detected to be idle after the backoff number is 0, i.e., the duration of the state in which the channel is idle is greater than one short beam frame interval, the transmission of the short SSW frame is started.

Optionally, when the number of short SSW frames that can be sent in the target SSW slot is not an integer, the frame start time of the first short SSW frame of the target SSW slot is not aligned with the frame start time of the first long SSW frame of the target SSW slot, and the frame end time of the last SSW frame of the target SSW slot is aligned with the frame end time of the last long SSW frame of the target SSW slot.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 7, the target SSW timeslot is the second SSW timeslot, the DMG STA performs a-BFT access on the primary channel, and the EDMG STA accesses on other channels. If the number X of SSW frames that can be transmitted in the second SSW slot is not an integer, for example, X is 12.3, the EDMG STA does not count the backoff time at the time between t01 and t02, starts backoff at time t02, and starts to decrease the backoff number by 1 at time t21, in order to end the long SSW frame and the short SSW frame at the end of the second SSW slot at the same time.

After the DMG STA and the EDMG STA successfully send the long SSW frame/the short SSW frame on the main channel and the other channel, respectively, the SSW feedback frame sent by the AP needs to be received in the target SSW slot. The a-BFT procedure in the 802.11ad standard specifies that when the DMG STA does not receive the corresponding SSW feedback frame after sending the long SSW frame, the a-BFT procedure is considered to be failed and contention access needs to be performed again.

Because the AP cannot use the sector of the same antenna to send the SSW feedback frame to multiple STAs simultaneously, if there is a DMG STA among the multiple STAs that need to feed back, the AP preferentially sends the SSW feedback frame to the DMG STA in the target SSW timeslot, and returns the SSW feedback frame to the remaining STAs that have successfully sent in the next ATI stage.

In addition, if a plurality of STAs (including only the EDMG STA) that successfully transmit the SSW frame are far from the AP, if the AP replies to the SSW feedback frame on a plurality of channels simultaneously, since the EDMG STA cannot correctly receive the SSW feedback frame due to the low energy of each feedback signal, the AP may select an EDMG STA close to the AP or having a strong reception beam signal strength to reply to the SSW feedback frame in the SSW feedback slot by its own information, such as the distance information or the reception beam signal strength of the EDMG STA, and reply to the SSW feedback frame for the remaining EDMG STAs in the next ATI.

If the AP does not successfully receive all the short SSW frames sent by the EDMG STA, the AP may send a poll frame on the main channel or other channel on which the short SSW was sent before the EDMG STA during the ATI phase. The EDMG STA may send a request for corresponding channel resources to reissue the erroneous short SSW frame or retransmit all the short SSW frames after the polling frame.

Scene two: the DMG STA and the EDMG STA simultaneously contend on the primary channel to transmit the long/short SSW frame.

If the DMG STA and the EDMG STA contend for the same SSW slot, e.g., a target SSW slot, the DMG STA transmits a long SSW frame immediately at the beginning of the slot, while the EDMG STA backs off during the slot and CCA occurs while backoff. And if the channel is detected to be in a busy state all the time, giving up sending the short SSW frame in the time slot, and avoiding collision caused by simultaneous access of the STAs. And if the channel is detected to be idle after the backoff number is 0, namely the duration of the state that the channel is idle is longer than one short-short beam frame interval, starting to transmit the short SSW frame.

And after the DMG STA and the EDMG STA successfully send the long SSW frame/short SSW frame, waiting for receiving the SSW feedback frame sent by the AP. And the DMG STA receives the SSW feedback frame sent by the AP in the SSW feedback time slot after the short frame interval. And if the DMG STA does not receive the corresponding SSW feedback frame after sending the long SSW frame, the A-BFT flow is considered to fail, and contention access needs to be carried out again.

For an EDMG STA, the AP may reply with an SSW feedback frame at the next ATI. The EDMG STA may determine whether the AP successfully receives according to the corresponding SSW feedback frame. If the AP does not successfully receive, the AP may send a poll frame on the main channel or other channel where the STA sent the short SSW during the ATI phase. The STA may send a request for corresponding channel resources to reissue the erroneous short SSW frame or retransmit all the short SSW frames after the polling frame.

Scene three: the EDMG STA sends short SSW frames on the primary channel and/or other channels and the DMG STA silences.

If the target A-BFT belongs to the exclusive resource of the EDMG STA, in the target A-BFT period, the EDMG STA sends short SSW frame on the main channel and/or other channels, and the DMG STA silences. And the EDMG STA backs off in the target SSW time slot according to the determined target backoff number, and performs CCA while the back-off. And if the channel is detected to be in a busy state all the time, giving up sending the short SSW frame in the time slot, and avoiding collision caused by simultaneous access of the STAs. And if the channel is detected to be idle after the backoff number is 0, namely the duration of the state that the channel is idle is longer than one short-short beam frame interval, starting to transmit the short SSW frame.

The AP may reply with an SSW feedback frame at the next ATI. The EDMG STA may determine whether the AP successfully receives according to the corresponding SSW feedback frame. If the AP does not successfully receive, the AP may send a poll frame on the main channel or other channel where the STA sent the short SSW during the ATI phase. The STA may send a request for corresponding channel resources to reissue the erroneous short SSW frame or retransmit all the short SSW frames after the polling frame.

As shown above, in the method for transmission according to the embodiment of the present application, the DMG STA performs contention access by using the existing mechanism, the EDMG STA performs backoff and CCA in the SSW timeslot, and starts to transmit the SSW frame only when the backoff number is 0 and it is detected that the station is idle. Therefore, when the inter-slot backoff counts of a plurality of STAs are the same, the plurality of STAs can be prevented from transmitting at the start of the slot at the same time, and the probability of collision can be reduced.

In the above, the transmission method according to the embodiment of the present application is described in detail with reference to fig. 2 to 7. Hereinafter, a transmission device according to an embodiment of the present application is described in detail with reference to fig. 8 to 11, where the transmission device includes a station STA and an access point AP.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic block diagram of a station STA 800 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 8, the station STA 800 includes: a processing unit 810 and a transmitting unit 820.

It should be understood that the station STA 800 may correspond to the STA described in the foregoing method, and each module or unit in the station STA 800 is respectively configured to execute each action or processing procedure executed by the STA in the foregoing method, and here, a detailed description thereof is omitted to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic block diagram of an access point AP 900 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, the access point AP 900 includes: a receiving unit 910 and a transmitting unit 920.

It should be understood that the access point AP 900 may correspond to the AP described in the foregoing method, and each module or unit in the station access point AP 900 is respectively configured to execute each action or processing procedure executed by the AP in the foregoing method, and here, a detailed description thereof is omitted to avoid redundant description.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic structural diagram of a station STA 1000 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 10, the station STA 1000 includes: a transceiver 1010, a processor 1020, and a memory 1030. The transceiver 1010, the processor 1020 and the memory 1030 communicate with each other via internal communication paths to transmit control and/or data signals.

Specifically, the station STA 1000 may correspond to the STA described in the above method. When the processor 1020 calls and runs the computer program from the memory, the processor 1020 may be configured to execute the method of the embodiment shown in fig. 5 to 7 and implement the functions of the STA in the embodiment shown in fig. 5 to 7.

Fig. 11 shows a schematic block diagram of an access point AP 1100 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 11, the access point AP 1100 includes: a transceiver 1110, a processor 1120, and a memory 1130. The transceiver 1110, the processor 1120, and the memory 1130 communicate with each other via internal communication paths to transmit control and/or data signals.

In particular, the access point AP 1100 may correspond to the AP described in the above method. When the processor 1120 calls and runs the computer program from the memory, the processor 1120 may be configured to execute the method of the embodiment shown in fig. 5 to 7 and implement the functions of the AP in the embodiment shown in fig. 5 to 7.

The embodiment of the application can be applied to or realized by a processor. The processor may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The Processor may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), or other general-purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other Programmable logic device, discrete Gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware component. The various methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software in the decoding processor. The software may be in ram, flash, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, among other storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and a processor reads information in the memory and completes the steps of the method in combination with hardware of the processor.

It will also be appreciated that the memory in the embodiments of the subject application can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. Among them, the nonvolatile Memory may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash Memory. Volatile Memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache Memory. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static random access memory (Static RAM, SRAM), Dynamic random access memory (Dynamic RAM, DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (Double Data SDRAM), Enhanced Synchronous SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct Rambus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The steps of the method for processing the communication interface fault disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software in the processor. The software may be in ram, flash, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, among other storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and a processor reads information in the memory and completes the steps of the method in combination with hardware of the processor. To avoid repetition, it is not described in detail here.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. 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.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of transmission, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a station STA determines a target backoff number according to the number of SSW frames sent by a scanning SSW time slot in a target sector;

the STA determines the initial position of sending the SSW frame in the target SSW time slot according to the target backoff number;

and the STA sends the SSW frame to an Access Point (AP) at the starting position.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the STA determining a starting position for sending the SSW frame in the target SSW slot based on the target backoff number comprises:

at the frame starting time of each SSW frame of the target SSW time slot, the STA controls the target backoff number to be reduced by 1;

when the target backoff number is reduced to 0, the STA performs CCA (clear channel assessment);

and when the duration that the channel is in the idle state is detected to be longer than one short beam frame interval, the STA determines the frame starting time of the next frame of the SSW frame of which the target backoff number is reduced to 0 as the starting position.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the STA determining a starting position for sending the SSW frame in the target SSW slot based on the target backoff number comprises:

the STA carries out Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) in the target SSW time slot, and controls the target backoff number to be reduced by 1 at the frame starting time of each SSW frame;

when the channel is detected to be busy, the STA acquires first parameters in SSW frames of other STAs which send SSW frames in the target SSW time slot, wherein the first parameters in the SSW frames of the other STAs are used for indicating the number of the SSW frames which need to be sent by the other STAs;

the STA determines an expected initial position according to the first parameter;

the STA performs CCA at the frame starting moment of an SSW frame when the predicted starting position or the target backoff number is reduced to 0;

and when the duration that the channel is in the idle state is detected to be longer than a short beam frame interval, the STA determines the frame starting time of the next frame of the SSW frame of the expected starting position or the frame starting time of the next frame of the SSW frame of which the target backoff number is reduced to 0 as the starting position.

4. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the SSW frame comprises the following fields:

5. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:

and the STA receives an SSW feedback frame sent by the AP in the target SSW time slot.

6. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:

and the STA receives an SSW feedback frame sent by the AP in a target declaration time interval ATI period, wherein the target ATI and the target SSW time slot belong to the same beacon interval.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the STA receiving an SSW feedback frame sent by the AP during a target Announcement Time Interval (ATI) period, comprising:

and the STA receives an announcement frame sent by the AP in the ATI period, wherein the announcement frame comprises the feedback information included in the SSW feedback frame.

8. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein prior to the STA sending the SSW frame to the AP at the starting location, the method further comprises:

the STA receives resource indication information sent by the AP, wherein the resource indication information is used for indicating that resources occupied by target associated beamforming training A-BFT comprising the target SSW time slot are exclusive resources of the STA;

wherein after the STA sends the SSW frame to the AP at the starting position, the method further comprises:

and the STA receives an SSW feedback frame sent by the AP in the target SSW time slot according to the resource indication information.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

the STA determines whether the AP successfully receives all SSW frames sent by the STA according to the SSW feedback frame;

when the STA determines that the AP does not successfully receive all SSW frames sent by the STA, the STA retransmits the SSW frames needing to be retransmitted to the AP, wherein the SSW frames needing to be retransmitted are the SSW frames which are not successfully received by the AP in all the SSW frames sent by the STA.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the STA determining from the SSW feedback frame whether the AP successfully receives all SSW frames sent by the STA comprises:

and the STA determines whether the AP successfully receives all SSW frames sent by the STA according to the address field and the reserved field in the SSW feedback frame.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein before the STA retransmits to the AP an SSW frame that needs to be retransmitted, the method further comprising:

the STA receives a polling frame sent by the AP in a target declaration time interval ATI period, wherein the target ATI and the target SSW time slot belong to the same beacon interval period;

the STA sends a resource request message to the AP according to the polling frame, wherein the resource request message is used for requesting the resource for retransmitting the SSW frame needing to be retransmitted;

the STA receives a resource response message sent by the AP according to the resource request message, wherein the resource response message is used for indicating resources occupied by a Data Transmission Interval (DTI) to the STA to be used for the STA to retransmit the SSW frame needing to be retransmitted, and the DTI and the ATI belong to the same beacon period;

wherein the STA retransmitting to the AP an SSW frame that needs to be retransmitted includes:

and the STA sends the SSW frame needing to be retransmitted on the resource used for retransmitting the SSW frame needing to be retransmitted according to the resource response message.

12. The method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein before the station STA determines a target backoff number based on the number of SSW frames that need to be sent, the method further comprises:

the STA receives a beacon frame sent by the AP;

the STA acquires the number of long SSW frames which can be sent in the target SSW time slot according to the beacon frame, wherein the number of bytes occupied by the long SSW frames is 26 bytes;

the STA determines the number of the SSW frames which can be sent in the target SSW time slot according to the number of the long SSW frames which can be sent in the target SSW time slot;

and the STA determines that the target backoff number is any integer of [0, k ] according to the number of the SSW frames which can be sent in the target SSW time slot and the number of the SSW frames which need to be sent, wherein k is the difference between the number of the SSW frames which can be sent in the target SSW time slot and the number of the SSW frames which need to be sent.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein when the number of SSW frames that can be sent within the target SSW slot is not an integer, a frame start time of a first SSW frame of the target SSW slot is not aligned with a frame start time of a first long SSW frame of the target SSW slot, and a frame end time of a last SSW frame of the target SSW slot is aligned with a frame end time of a last long SSW frame of the target SSW slot.

14. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the number of bytes occupied by the SSW frame is less than 26 bytes.

15. A method of transmission, comprising:

an Access Point (AP) receives an SSW frame sent by a Station (STA) at the starting position of the SSW frame in a target sector scanning SSW time slot, wherein the starting position is determined by the STA according to a target backoff number, and the target backoff number is determined by the STA according to the number of the SSW frames needing to be sent.

16. A Station (STA), comprising:

the processing unit is used for determining a target backoff number according to the number of SSW frames transmitted by the SSW time slot scanned in a target sector as required;

the processing unit is further configured to determine, according to the target backoff number, a starting position at which the SSW frame is sent in the target SSW slot;

and the sending unit is used for sending the SSW frame to an Access Point (AP) at the initial position determined by the processing unit.

17. The STA of claim 16, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

controlling the target backoff number to be reduced by 1 at the frame starting time of each SSW frame of the target SSW time slot;

when the target backoff number is reduced to 0, performing Clear Channel Assessment (CCA);

and when the duration that the channel is in the idle state is detected to be longer than a short beam frame interval, determining the frame starting moment of the next frame of the SSW frame with the target backoff number reduced to 0 as the starting position.

18. The STA of claim 16, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

performing Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) in the target SSW time slot, and controlling the target backoff number to be reduced by 1 at the frame starting time of each SSW frame;

when the channel is detected to be busy, acquiring a first parameter in the SSW frames of other STAs which send the SSW frames in the target SSW time slot, wherein the first parameter in the SSW frames of each other STA is used for indicating the number of the SSW frames which need to be sent by the other STAs;

determining a predicted initial position according to the first parameter;

performing the CCA at the frame starting time of an SSW frame when the estimated starting position or the target backoff number is reduced to 0;

and when the duration that the channel is in the idle state is detected to be longer than a short beam frame interval, determining the frame starting time of the next frame of the SSW frame of the expected starting position or the frame starting time of the next frame of the SSW frame of which the target backoff number is reduced to 0 as the starting position.

19. The STA of any of claims 16 to 18, wherein the SSW frame comprises the following fields:

20. The STA of any one of claims 16 to 18, further comprising:

a first receiving unit, configured to receive, in the target SSW timeslot, an SSW feedback frame sent by the AP.

21. The STA of any one of claims 16 to 18, further comprising:

a second receiving unit, configured to receive an SSW feedback frame sent by the AP during a target announcement time interval ATI, where the target ATI and the target SSW slot belong to the same beacon interval period.

22. The STA of claim 21, wherein the second receiving unit is specifically configured to:

and receiving an announcement frame sent by the AP in the ATI period, wherein the announcement frame comprises the feedback information included in the SSW feedback frame.

23. The STA of any one of claims 16 to 18, further comprising:

a third receiving unit, configured to receive resource indication information sent by the AP, where the resource indication information is used to indicate that a resource occupied by a target associated beamforming training a-BFT including the target SSW timeslot is an exclusive resource of the STA;

and receiving an SSW feedback frame sent by the AP in the target SSW time slot according to the resource indication information.

24. The STA of claim 20, wherein the processing unit is further to:

determining whether the AP successfully receives all SSW frames sent by the STA according to the SSW feedback frame;

when the processing unit determines that the AP does not successfully receive all SSW frames sent by the STA, the sending unit resends the SSW frame to be resent to the AP, where the SSW frame to be resent is an SSW frame that is not successfully received by the AP in all SSW frames sent by the STA.

25. The STA of claim 24, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

and determining whether the AP successfully receives all SSW frames sent by the STA according to the address field and the reserved field in the SSW feedback frame.

26. The STA of claim 24, further comprising:

a fourth receiving unit, configured to receive a polling frame sent by the AP in a target announcement time interval ATI period, where the target ATI and the target SSW timeslot belong to the same beacon interval period;

the transmitting unit is specifically configured to transmit a resource request message to the AP according to the polling frame received by the fourth receiving unit, where the resource request message is used to request a resource for retransmitting the SSW frame that needs to be retransmitted;

the fourth receiving unit is further configured to receive a resource response message sent by the AP according to the resource request message, where the resource response message is used to indicate, to the STA, a resource occupied by a data transmission interval DTI for the STA to retransmit the resource of the SSW frame that needs to be retransmitted, where the DTI and the ATI belong to the same beacon interval period;

the sending unit is further configured to:

and transmitting the SSW frame needing to be retransmitted on the resource for retransmitting the SSW frame needing to be retransmitted according to the resource response message.

27. The STA of any one of claims 16 to 18, further comprising:

a fifth receiving unit, configured to receive a beacon frame sent by the AP;

the processing unit is specifically configured to obtain, according to the beacon frame, the number of long SSW frames that can be sent in the target SSW timeslot, where the number of bytes occupied by the long SSW frames is 26 bytes;

determining the number of the SSW frames which can be sent in the target SSW time slot according to the number of the long SSW frames which can be sent in the target SSW time slot;

determining any integer of the target backoff number [0, k ] according to the number of the SSW frames that can be sent in the target SSW timeslot and the number of the SSW frames that need to be sent, where k is a difference between the number of the SSW frames that can be sent in the target SSW timeslot and the number of the SSW frames that need to be sent.

28. The STA of claim 27, wherein when the number of SSW frames that can be sent within the target SSW slot is not an integer, a frame start time of a first SSW frame of the target SSW slot is not aligned with a frame start time of a first long SSW frame of the target SSW slot, and a frame end time of a last SSW frame of the target SSW slot is aligned with a frame end time of a last long SSW frame of the target SSW slot.

29. The STA of any of claims 16 to 18, wherein a number of bytes occupied by the SSW frame is less than 26 bytes.

30. An access point, AP, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive an SSW frame sent by a STA at a starting position of an SSW frame in a target sector scanning SSW timeslot, where the starting position is determined by the STA according to a target backoff number, and the target backoff number is determined by the STA according to the number of SSW frames that need to be sent.