CN111030793B

CN111030793B - Method and device for triggering frame transmission in wireless local area network

Info

Publication number: CN111030793B
Application number: CN201911114407.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 于健; 杨讯; 郭宇宸; 林梅露; 张佳胤; 淦明
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2015-09-02
Filing date: 2015-09-02
Publication date: 2023-12-08
Anticipated expiration: 2035-09-02
Also published as: CN106487490A; CN111030793A; WO2017036257A1; CN106487490B

Abstract

The invention discloses a method for triggering frame transmission in a wireless local area network, which comprises the following steps: generating a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame comprises a trigger frame type identifier, the trigger frame type identifier is used for distinguishing different types of trigger frames, and the different types of trigger frames comprise: a trigger frame that does not carry a medium access control MAC function, a trigger frame that carries a single MAC function, or a trigger frame that carries multiple MAC functions. The invention also provides a corresponding device for transmitting the trigger frame, and by adopting the mode, the unified frame format design is carried out on the trigger frames of different types, so that the structure of the trigger frame is simplified, and the complexity of a receiving station is reduced.

Description

Method and device for triggering frame transmission in wireless local area network

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for triggering frame transmission in a wireless local area network.

Background

Currently, the IEEE (English: institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, chinese: institute of Electrical and electronics Engineers) organization is making the standard 802.11ax for the next generation WLAN (English: wireless Local Area Network, chinese: wireless local area network). 802.11ax will introduce OFDMA (english: orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access, chinese: orthogonal frequency division multiple Access) technology, which can support AP (english: access Point, chinese: access Point) to perform multi-user transmission with multiple STAs (english: station, chinese: station) simultaneously, so that a trigger frame needs to be defined, and the trigger frame is sent by the AP for performing resource indication on uplink multi-user transmission.

The standard draft has decided to adopt the trigger frame structure shown in fig. 1 a. The trigger Frame belongs to a MAC (english: media Access Control, chinese: medium access control) Frame, and includes a MAC Frame header (MAC header), a Frame body (Frame body), and a Frame check sequence field, where the Frame body may carry different MAC functions, for example: channel detection, block acknowledgement request BAR, or multi-user request to send MU-RTS. Specifically, the frame body includes a common domain and a site-by-site domain, the common domain includes resource indications to be read by all STAs, and the site-by-site domain includes a resource indication that each STA needs to read.

The prior art has the defects that the common domain of the frame body of the trigger frame contains physical layer function information and MAC layer function information, the physical layer function information and the MAC layer function information are mixed together, which is not beneficial to site reception, and in addition, the prior trigger frame structure only defines the trigger frame carrying one MAC function and does not define the trigger frame carrying a plurality of MAC functions.

Disclosure of Invention

Therefore, the main purpose of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for transmitting trigger frames in a wireless lan, which are used for solving the problem that the physical layer function information and the MAC layer function information of the frame body are mixed together in the existing trigger frame structure, and the problem that only a trigger frame carrying one MAC function is defined, and a trigger frame carrying a plurality of MAC functions is not defined.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for triggering frame transmission in a wireless local area network, including:

generating a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame comprises a trigger frame type identifier, the trigger frame type identifier is used for distinguishing different types of trigger frames, and the different types of trigger frames comprise: a trigger frame which does not carry a Medium Access Control (MAC) function, a trigger frame which carries a single MAC function or a trigger frame which carries a plurality of MAC functions;

and sending the trigger frame.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the trigger frame includes a MAC function number identifier, where the MAC function number identifier is used to indicate a number of MAC functions carried by the trigger frame.

With reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function includes a trigger information field and a MAC function field;

the trigger information field comprises a trigger information public field and a trigger information individual field, and the MAC function field comprises an MAC function public field and an MAC function individual field;

the trigger information common field is located before the MAC function common field, the trigger information individual field is located before the MAC function individual field, and the trigger information common field is located before the trigger information individual field.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function, the common trigger information field is used to instruct one or more stations to transmit common information of a data packet, and the common trigger information field includes at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;

the trigger information separate field is used for indicating separate information of each station in one or more stations for transmitting data packets, and the trigger information separate field comprises at least one of the following parameters: the association identifies the AID or modulation coding set MCS.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the trigger frame type identifier in the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function is further used to determine the MAC function, where the MAC function includes: sounding, block acknowledgement request BAR or random access trigger TF-R,

or, the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function carries an independent frame control field, where the frame control field indicates the MAC function carried by the trigger frame.

With reference to the fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the field of the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function includes a form of an element field, where the element field includes three parts of a type, a length and a value, and the field of the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function includes at least one of the following fields: the trigger information alone field or the MAC function field.

With reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, if the trigger frame is a trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the trigger frame includes a trigger information field and multiple MAC function fields;

the trigger information field comprises a trigger information public field and a trigger information individual field, and each MAC function field in the plurality of MAC function fields comprises a MAC function public field and a MAC function individual field;

With reference to the sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in the trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the common trigger information field is used to instruct one or more stations to transmit common information of a data packet, and the common trigger information field includes at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;

With reference to the seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the trigger frame further includes a trigger frame type sub-identifier, configured to determine a specific function of each MAC function field, where the trigger type sub-identifier is located in a trigger frame header, a MAC function common field, or a trigger information common field,

alternatively, each MAC function field carries an independent frame control field, where the frame control field indicates a specific MAC function, and the MAC functions include: sounding, block acknowledgement request BAR or random access trigger TF-R.

With reference to the eighth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the field of the trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions includes a form of an element field, where the element field includes three parts of a type, a length and a value, and the field of the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function includes at least one of the following fields: the trigger information alone field or the MAC function field.

With reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, if the trigger frame is a trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the trigger frame includes a common information field and a station-by-station field, where the common information field is located before the station-by-station field, the common information field includes a trigger information common field and multiple MAC function common fields, and the station-by-station field includes a trigger information individual field and a MAC function individual field.

With reference to the tenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in an eleventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the trigger information individual field and the MAC function individual field in the station-by-station field are divided according to each station, or,

The first part of the station-by-station fields is all the trigger information individual fields, and the second part of the station-by-station fields is all the MAC function individual fields.

With reference to the eleventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a twelfth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in the trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the common trigger information field is used to instruct one or more stations to transmit common information of a data packet, and the common trigger information field includes at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;

With reference to the twelfth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a thirteenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the trigger frame further includes a trigger frame type sub-identifier, which is used to determine a specific function of each MAC function field, where the trigger type sub-identifier is located in a trigger frame header, a MAC function common field, or a trigger information common field.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus for triggering frame transmission in a wireless local area network, including:

a baseband circuit for generating a trigger frame, the trigger frame including a trigger frame type identifier, the trigger frame type identifier for distinguishing between different types of trigger frames, the different types of trigger frames including: a trigger frame which does not carry a Medium Access Control (MAC) function, a trigger frame which carries a single MAC function or a trigger frame which carries a plurality of MAC functions;

and the radio frequency circuit is used for sending the trigger frame.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the trigger frame generated by the baseband chip includes a MAC function number identifier, where the MAC function number identifier is used to indicate a number of MAC functions carried by the trigger frame.

With reference to the second aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function includes a trigger information field and a MAC function field;

With reference to the second aspect and the second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function, the common trigger information field is used to instruct one or more stations to transmit common information of a data packet, and the common trigger information field includes at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the trigger frame type identifier in the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function is further used to determine the MAC function, where the MAC function includes: sounding, block acknowledgement request BAR or random access trigger TF-R,

With reference to the fourth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the field of the trigger frame carrying the single MAC function includes a form of an element field, where the element field includes three parts of a type, a length and a value, and the field of the trigger frame carrying the single MAC function includes at least one of the following fields: the trigger information alone field or the MAC function field.

With reference to the second aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, if the trigger frame is a trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the trigger frame includes a trigger information field and multiple MAC function fields;

With reference to the sixth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the common trigger information field is used to instruct one or more stations to transmit common information of a data packet, and the common trigger information field includes at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;

With reference to the seventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the trigger frame further includes a trigger frame type sub-identifier, configured to determine a specific function of each MAC function field, where the trigger type sub-identifier is located in a trigger frame header, a MAC function common field, or a trigger information common field,

With reference to the eighth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the fields of the trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions include a form of element fields, where the element fields include three parts of a type, a length and a value, and the fields of the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function include at least one of the following fields: the trigger information alone field or the MAC function field.

With reference to the second aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, if the trigger frame is a trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the trigger frame includes a common information field and a station-by-station field, where the common information field is located before the station-by-station field, the common information field includes a trigger information common field and multiple MAC function common fields, and the station-by-station field includes a trigger information individual field and a MAC function individual field.

With reference to the tenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in an eleventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the trigger information individual field and the MAC function individual field in the station-by-station field are divided according to each station, or,

With reference to the eleventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a twelfth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in the trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the common trigger information field is used to instruct one or more stations to transmit common information of a data packet, and the common trigger information field includes at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;

With reference to the twelfth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a thirteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the trigger frame further includes a trigger frame type sub-identifier, which is used to determine a specific function of each MAC function field, where the trigger type sub-identifier is located in a trigger frame header, a MAC function common field, or a trigger information common field.

In the process of transmitting the trigger frame in the wireless local area network, the trigger frame comprises a trigger frame type identifier, the trigger frame type identifier is used for distinguishing different types of trigger frames, and the different types of trigger frames comprise: by the mode, the unified frame format design is carried out on different types of trigger frames, the structure of the trigger frames is simplified, and the complexity of a receiving station is reduced.

Drawings

Fig. 1a is a frame structure diagram of a trigger frame in the prior art.

Fig. 1b is an application scenario diagram of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of embodiment 1 of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a Frame control field structure diagram in a trigger Frame according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of fig. 1 carrying a single MAC function trigger frame in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a block diagram of fig. 2 carrying a single MAC function trigger frame in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a trigger frame carrying a Sounding function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a trigger frame carrying BAR functionality in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a trigger frame carrying TF-R functions according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 9 is a block diagram of fig. 3 carrying a single MAC function trigger frame in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 10 is a block diagram of element fields in an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 11 is a diagram of a trigger frame structure 1 carrying multiple MAC functions according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 12 is a diagram of a trigger frame structure with multiple MAC functions in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention in fig. 2.

Fig. 13 is a diagram of a trigger frame structure 3 carrying multiple MAC functions according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 14 is a diagram of a trigger frame structure with multiple MAC functions in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention fig. 4.

Fig. 15 is a diagram of a trigger frame structure of fig. 5 carrying multiple MAC functions according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 16 is a simplified MU-RTS trigger frame structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 17 is a diagram showing resource block allocation indication in a common area in units of 20 MHz.

Fig. 18 is a diagram of a unified resource block allocation indication for a unicast/multicast trigger frame.

Fig. 19 is a diagram of a unified resource block allocation indication for a unicast/multicast trigger frame.

Fig. 20 is a block diagram of a physical device in an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

For the purpose of making the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the following detailed description of specific embodiments of the present invention is given with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will be apparent that the embodiments described below are some, but not all, embodiments of the invention. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the invention without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the invention.

The embodiment of the invention can be applied to wireless local area networks (English: wireless Local Area Network, abbreviated as WLAN), and the standard adopted by the WLAN at present is IEEE (English: institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, chinese: institute of Electrical and electronics Engineers) 802.11 series. The WLAN may include a plurality of basic service sets (in english: basic Service Set, abbreviated: BSS), where network nodes in the basic service sets are stations (in english: stations, abbreviated: STAs), and the stations include stations of Access points class (in english: APs), and stations of Non-Access points class (in english: none Access Point Station, abbreviated: non-AP STAs). Each basic service set may include an AP and a plurality of Non-AP STAs associated with the AP.

Access point class stations, also known as wireless access points or hotspots, etc. The AP is an access point for mobile users to enter a wired network, and is mainly deployed in families, buildings and parks, and typically has a coverage radius of several tens meters to hundreds meters, although it may also be deployed outdoors. The AP acts as a bridge connecting the wired network and the wireless network, and is mainly used to connect the wireless network clients together and then access the wireless network to the ethernet. Specifically, the AP may be a terminal device or a network device with a WiFi (english: wireless Fidelity, chinese: wireless fidelity) chip. Optionally, the AP may be a device supporting an 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 Non-access point type station (None Access Point Station, referred to as Non-AP STA) may be a wireless communication chip, a wireless sensor or a wireless communication terminal. For example: the mobile phone supporting the WiFi communication function, the tablet personal computer supporting the WiFi communication function, the set top box supporting the WiFi communication function, the smart television supporting the WiFi communication function, the smart wearable device supporting the WiFi communication function, the vehicle-mounted communication device supporting the WiFi communication function and the computer supporting the WiFi communication function. Optionally, the station may support 802.11ax, and further optionally, the station supports multiple WLAN systems such as 802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, and 802.11 a.

Fig. 1b is a system diagram of a typical WLAN deployment scenario, including an AP and 3 STAs, the AP communicating with STA1, STA2 and STA3, respectively.

In the WLAN system 802.11ax after the OFDMA technique is introduced, the AP may perform uplink and downlink transmission with different STAs on different time-frequency resources. The AP may use different modes for uplink and downlink transmission, such as OFDMA Single-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (SU-MIMO) mode, or OFDMA Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) mode.

The AP may send the downlink physical layer protocol data unit (Physical Layer Protocol Data Unit, abbreviated as PPDU) to multiple stations or multiple station groups simultaneously. The plurality of stations may be referred to herein as stations in SU-MIMO mode, and the plurality of station groups may be referred to as station groups in MU-MIMO mode.

Specifically, the PPDU sent by the AP includes a physical layer convergence protocol (Physical Layer Convergence Procedure, abbreviated PLCP) Header field (Header) and a data field, where the PLCP Header includes a legacy Preamble (L-Preamble) and a high-efficiency Preamble, and the high-efficiency Preamble includes a high-efficiency signaling a (High Efficient signaling A, abbreviated HE-SIGA) portion and a high-efficiency signaling B (High Efficient signaling B, abbreviated HE-SIGB) portion. A medium access control layer (Media Access Control, abbreviated MAC) portion may also be included in the PPDU.

Example 1

The embodiment 1 of the invention provides a method for triggering frame transmission in a wireless local area network, which can be applied to stations, for example: AP and STA1-STA3 in fig. 1b, the station may support next generation WLAN standards such as: 802.11ax standard. Fig. 2 is a flowchart of the method for transmitting identifiers, and the specific steps are as follows:

step 110: generating a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame comprises a trigger frame type identifier, the trigger frame type identifier is used for distinguishing different types of trigger frames, and the different types of trigger frames comprise: a trigger frame that does not carry a medium access control MAC function, a trigger frame that carries a single MAC function, or a trigger frame that carries multiple MAC functions.

Step 120: and sending the trigger frame.

It should be noted that, if the trigger frame is a trigger frame that does not carry the MAC function, the STA waits for a period of time after receiving the trigger frame and then sends a frame carrying uplink data. For example, the latency may include: SIFS (english: short Interframe Space, chinese: short frame interval), DIFS (english: distributed Inter-frame Spacing, chinese: distributed frame interval).

If the trigger frame is a trigger frame carrying a single MAC function, the STA waits for a period of time after receiving the trigger frame and then sends the corresponding type of MAC frame.

If the trigger frame is a trigger frame carrying a plurality of MAC functions, the corresponding STA receives the trigger frame and sends the corresponding type of MAC frame after waiting for a period of time according to the type of the MAC function of the corresponding STA. For all STAs, multiple types of MAC frames are transmitted.

It should be noted that the trigger frame may include only two types: the trigger frames that do not carry MAC functions and trigger frames that carry a single MAC function are not limited in this regard by the present invention.

It should be noted that, the trigger frame may also include only a trigger frame carrying a single MAC function, where the trigger frame type identifier is used to determine a specific MAC function, which is not limited by the present invention.

It should be noted that the Frame control field of one possible MAC Frame header is shown in fig. 3.

It should be noted that the trigger frame type identifier may be located in the MAC frame header. The trigger Frame type identification may be located in the Frame Control field in the MAC Frame header. The MAC Frame is uniquely determined to be a trigger Frame by the type and subtype in the Frame control field. Different types of trigger frames are defined by a 4bit trigger frame extension field. For example, if 8 trigger frames with different MAC functions are defined, "0000" represents that the trigger frames are trigger frames without carrying media access control MAC functions, "0001-1000" represents 8 trigger frames with single MAC functions, "1001" represents that trigger frames with multiple MAC functions, and the rest bits are reserved. The location of the trigger Frame extension field is not limited to the Frame control field, and may be located in other parts of the MAC Frame header, for example, a separate field, in parallel with the Frame control field. In addition, common info common areas in Frame body in FIG. 1a are also possible.

It should be noted that the trigger frame type identifier may be located in the MAC frame header. The trigger Frame type identification may be located in the Frame Control field in the MAC Frame header. By reserving "11" as the trigger Frame in the type field in the Frame control field. Different types of trigger frames are defined by the subtype of 4 bits. For example, if 8 trigger frames with different MAC functions are defined, "0000" represents that the trigger frames are trigger frames without carrying media access control MAC functions, "0001-1000" represents 8 trigger frames with single MAC functions, "1001" represents that trigger frames with multiple MAC functions, and the rest bits are reserved.

It should be noted that, the trigger frame type identification may also be implemented by a Bitmap (english: bitmap). Illustrating: defining 8 trigger frames with different MAC functions, implementing the trigger frames with 8 bit bitmaps, wherein each bit of the bitmaps defines whether the MAC function is used, wherein '00000000' represents the trigger frame which does not carry the MAC function of medium access control, '00010000' represents the trigger frame which carries the 4 th MAC function, and '00010011' represents the trigger frame which carries the 4 th, 7 and 8 th MAC functions. The trigger Frame type identifier in bitmap form may be located in the Frame control field, or may be located in other parts of the MAC Frame header, for example, as a separate field, in parallel with the Frame control field. In addition, common info common areas in Frame body in FIG. 1a are also possible.

Optionally, the trigger frame type identifier may also be implemented by a MAC function number identifier, where the MAC function number identifier is used to indicate the number of MAC functions carried by the trigger frame. Or additionally indicating the number of the MAC functions based on the indication of other trigger frame types, wherein the number of the MAC functions is used for indicating the number of the MAC functions of the multifunctional MAC trigger frame.

Specifically, if the number of MAC functions defined by the trigger frame is M, the number of bits identified by the number of MAC functions is Illustrating: if the number of MAC functions defined by the trigger frame is 8, 4 bits are required to define the MAC function number identifier, "0000" defines the MAC function number to be 0, "0001" defines the MAC function number to be 1, "0010-1000" defines the MAC function number to be 3-8, and "1001-1111" are reserved. The MAC function number identifier may be located in the MAC Frame header, or may be located in other parts of the MAC Frame header, for example, as a separate field, in parallel with the Frame control field, or may be located in a common area of common info in the Frame body in fig. 1 a.

Note that, the trigger frame that does not carry the MAC function and the trigger frame that carries the single MAC function may not include the MAC function number identifier.

The following description will be given of three aspects of trigger frames, which do not carry a medium access control MAC function, trigger frames carrying a single MAC function, and trigger frames carrying multiple MAC functions.

Specifically, the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function includes a trigger information field and a MAC function field, as shown in fig. 3;

It should be noted that, in fig. 4, the ordering of the respective components of the trigger information field and the MAC function field is: a trigger information common field, a trigger information individual field, a MAC function common field, and a MAC function individual field. In addition, the ordering of the various components of the trigger information field and the MAC function field may also employ the arrangement of fig. 5: a trigger information common field, a MAC function common field, a trigger information individual field, and a MAC function individual field.

Specifically, in the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function, the common trigger information field is used to instruct one or more stations to transmit common information of a data packet, and the common trigger information field includes at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;

Optionally, the trigger frame type identifier in the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function is further used to determine the MAC function, where the MAC function includes: sounding, block acknowledgement request BAR or random access trigger TF-R, or the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function carries an independent frame control field, where the frame control field indicates the MAC function carried by the trigger frame.

Specifically, the Sounding frame for channel Sounding is shown in fig. 6, the multiuser block acknowledgement request frame MU-BAR is shown in fig. 7, and the trigger frame TFR for random access is shown in fig. 8.

It should be noted that, the trigger Frame carrying a single MAC function may also carry an independent Frame control field, as shown in fig. 9, where the independent Frame control field is located in a common field of the MAC function.

Optionally, the field of the trigger frame carrying the single MAC function includes a form of an element field, where the element field includes three parts of a type, a length and a value, and the field of the trigger frame carrying the single MAC function includes at least one of the following fields: the trigger information alone field or the MAC function field.

It should be noted that, the form of the element field is shown in fig. 10, in which an element identifier is used to indicate the type of the element, and what the effect of the subsequent information is known by the element identifier. Information indicating the back side such as "00" is trigger information on a site-by-site basis; "01" indicates that the information at the back is the MAC function field used to complete the MU-BAR. The length is used for indicating the byte length of the element, the element identifier is expanded into an optional field, and when the element identifier cannot meet the requirement of indicating the number of the elements, the element identifier expansion is started, the length of the information field is variable, and the value of the element is contained.

It should be noted that, only the trigger information single field may be in the form of an element field, or only the MAC function field may be in the form of an element in the trigger frame, or both the trigger information single field and the MAC function field may be in the form of elements in the trigger frame, which is not limited in this invention.

Note that, the MAC function field may be located before the trigger information field, and in this case, the AID may be located only in the MAC function information field on the front side, or may be present in both the trigger information field and the MAC function field.

Furthermore, for some specific types of trigger frames, the length of each field may be 0, i.e. there is no field, and the above description applies to the following embodiments.

Specifically, if the trigger frame is a trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the trigger frame includes a trigger information field and multiple MAC function fields;

Note that, the trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions is shown in fig. 11.

Optionally, in the trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the common trigger information field is used to instruct one or more stations to transmit common information of a data packet, and the common trigger information field includes at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;

Note that, the MAC function field may be located before the trigger information field, and in this case, the AID may be located only in the MAC function information field on the front side, or may be present in both the trigger information field and the MAC function field. Furthermore, for some specific types of trigger frames, each field may be 0 in length, i.e., there is no field.

Optionally, the trigger frame further includes a trigger frame type sub-identifier for determining a specific function of each MAC function field, the trigger type sub-identifier is located in a trigger frame header, a MAC function common field, or a trigger information common field,

Specifically, if the trigger frame type identifier determines that the trigger frame belongs to a trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, each MAC function field carries a trigger frame type sub-identifier, for example: a trigger frame type sub-identification with 4 bits, where "0001" represents a sounding function, "0010" represents a BAR function, and "0011" represents a TF-R function. The trigger frame type sub-identifier may also take the form of a Bitmap (english: bitmap), which if 4 MAC functions are defined, is represented by a 4-bit Bitmap, for example: "0001" represents sounding function, "0010" represents BAR function, and "0100" represents TF-R function.

It should be noted that each MAC function field carries an independent frame control field as shown in fig. 12.

Optionally, the field of the trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions includes a form of an element field, where the element field includes three parts of a type, a length and a value, and the field of the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function includes at least one of the following fields: the trigger information alone field or the MAC function field.

The frame structure of the element field carrying a plurality of MAC functions is shown in fig. 13. The format of the element field is explained in detail above, only the trigger information single field may be in the form of the element field, only the MAC function field may be in the form of the element field, and both the trigger information single field and the MAC function field may be in the form of the element in the trigger frame, which is not limited in this invention.

Specifically, if the trigger frame is a trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the trigger frame includes a common information field and a station-by-station field, where the common information field is located before the station-by-station field, the common information field includes a trigger information common field and multiple MAC function common fields, and the station-by-station field includes a trigger information individual field and a MAC function individual field.

Optionally, the trigger information individual field and the MAC function individual field in the station-by-station field are divided per station, or,

Note that the case where the trigger information individual field and the MAC function individual field are divided for each station in the station-by-station field is shown in fig. 14.

The first part of the station-by-station fields is all the trigger information individual fields, the second part of the station-by-station fields is all the MAC function individual fields, and the division of the station-by-station fields is shown in fig. 15.

Optionally, the trigger frame further includes a trigger frame type sub-identifier, for determining a specific function of each MAC function field, where the trigger type sub-identifier is located in a trigger frame header, a MAC function common field, or a trigger information common field.

In particular, for trigger frames carrying a single MAC function or carrying multiple MAC functions, the trigger information field may be simplified based on the MAC function characteristics. Illustratively, a trigger frame, such as MU-RTS (english: multiple User Request to Send, chinese: multi-user request to Send), is used to trigger multiple STAs to simultaneously make CTS replies (english: clear to Send, chinese: clear to Send). The frame structure of MU-RTS is shown in fig. 16.

In the prior art, interaction of RTS and CTS is mainly used for setting NAV (English: network Allocation Vector, chinese: network allocation vector), ensuring that non-receiving AP or STA does not perform data transmission, and reducing interference. The CTS is often transmitted in units of a minimum channel bandwidth of 20 MHz. And typically multiple 20MHz duplicate transmissions are made in a conventional physical layer packet structure. In addition, with CTS, there is a Simultaneous CTS (english: simultaneous CTS), that is, a plurality of STAs replies to CTS on the same time-frequency resource, and the same packet structure is adopted, so that it is not necessary to allocate a resource block/channel. In addition, when MU-RTS performs multi-user CTS transmission, there are two modes, one is to perform bandwidth negotiation, that is, the AP tells the STA which 20MHz in the whole bandwidth to reply; another is that no bandwidth negotiation is performed and all STAs reply at all 20 MHz. The two layers are included, firstly, for the resource block scheduling of CTS, the resource block allocation can be simplified, and the allocation is performed in units of 20MHz without all possible resource block combinations; the other layer may be directly without resource block allocation.

In addition, since all STAs need to use the same packet structure within a certain 20MHz, the trigger information indication of each site field such as MCS (english: modulation Coding Set, chinese: modulation Code set), NSTS (english: number of Space-Time Streams, chinese: space-Time stream Number), LDPC (english Low Density Parity Code, chinese: low density parity check Code), STBC (english: space-Time Block Code, chinese: space-Time Block Code), BF (english: beam forming, chinese: beam forming) must be the same, so for these parameters, the trigger information of each site field may be extracted into the trigger information common field, or may not be indicated directly, and default parameters are adopted. Since CTS occupies the same time-frequency resource at the same time, relatively robust transmission is required, it may be default that STA needs to take the lowest MCS, the lowest stream number, etc. for transmission, and therefore, triggering information indication per station field such as MCS, NSTS, LDPC, STBC, BF may not be performed.

Since the trigger frame type will determine the format of the trigger information field, the trigger frame type needs to be located in front of the trigger information field or in front of the entire trigger information field. Because all STAs need to transmit with the same station-by-station information parameters MCS, NSTS, LDPC, BF, etc., such parameters can be extracted into the common field of the trigger information or directly by default without transmission. Further, the trigger information common field may carry a bandwidth negotiation indication indicating whether the site-by-site trigger information field contains a bandwidth negotiation indication. The bandwidth negotiation indication may also be simply a bit map indicating which of the 20MHz transmissions are to be made over the entire bandwidth, rather than the resource block allocation indication of all combinations as is mentioned in the prior art. For the case of resource block allocation indication in the common area, it is also possible to save indication of positive resource block allocation in the common area, because the entire bandwidth is allocated as bandwidth/20 MHz size resource blocks by default.

In addition, for MU-RTS, since the effect of multiple STAs needing to reply to the synchronization CTS at the same time-frequency resource is to set the NAV for the legacy STA, the default CTS is a physical layer structure adopting the legacy format, so UL GI indication can be omitted; because the length of the CTS frame is fixed, the PPDU length can be omitted; since the CTS transmission is performed by default over the entire bandwidth or over the negotiated bandwidth, which is the same as the downstream bandwidth, the upstream bandwidth indication may be omitted.

It should be noted that, for other types of trigger frames, the corresponding simplified design may be performed according to the type of the trigger frame.

Alternatively, as another embodiment, in the downlink resource block allocation indication in the prior art, the indication may be presented in a form of a table index in units of 20 MHz. If a certain resource block is a resource block exceeding 20MHz, 1 Table Index (english: table Index) or repeated Table Index may be used to indicate, where the Table Index is that all possible resource block combinations exist in one Table, and each combination has an Index, and in the resource block allocation indication, the Index number of the combination is indicated by bit information, so as to achieve the effect of resource block indication. The table index here indicates an example, but the indication of resource block allocation may also be done in other ways, here mainly emphasizing the indication of resources per 20 MHz. Fig. 17 gives an example of an 80MHz resource block allocation indication.

Alternatively, for the resource block allocation indication of the trigger frame, the idea can be equally applied to design as shown in fig. 18. In addition, a unified design can be performed for both unicast and multicast trigger frames.

The unicast/multicast trigger frame indication and the resource block allocation number/sequence indication are carried in the common area of the MAC frame header or the trigger information. If the indication is a multicast trigger frame, the resource block allocation number/sequence indication is used for indicating how many sub-public areas exist in the follow-up process, and each sub-public area sequentially indicates the resource blocks which are 20MHz or more than 20MHz one by one; if the indication is a unicast trigger frame, the resource block allocation number/sequence indication is used to indicate the number of 20MHz resource block allocations. Because for a unicast trigger frame, the data of a single STA triggered by it is only on one resource block less than or equal to 20MHz within a certain 20MHz or on a separate resource block greater than 20 MHz.

Fig. 19 is a unified resource block allocation indication for a unicast/multicast trigger frame. Illustratively, for one downlink frame, both a multicast trigger frame and a unicast trigger frame are included. The multicast trigger frame is responsible for the allocation of the whole 80MHz resource block, and the number of the table indexes is indicated as 3 at first, namely the number of the sub-common fields of the subsequent resource block allocation is 3. Then, the subsequent resource indication from the 1 st, the 2 nd and the 3 rd 20MHz are respectively indicated; and a certain STA is at the 2 nd 20MHz, and the unicast trigger frame sent to the STA is only responsible for the allocation of the resource blocks of the 20MHz, and the subsequent 1 table index is indicated by the allocation of the resource blocks from the 2 nd 20 MHz. The resource block allocation over the 20MHz is then indicated by 1 resource block allocation sub-common field.

Example 2

Fig. 20 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for transmitting a trigger frame in a wireless lan according to embodiment 2 of the present invention. The data transmission means are for example a station or a dedicated circuit or chip implementing the relevant functions. The station 1000 includes a processor 1010, memory 1020, baseband circuitry 1030, radio frequency circuitry 1040, and an antenna 1050. The means for transmitting the trigger frame may be the AP or STA1-STA3 shown in fig. 1 b.

Specifically, processor 1010 controls the operation of site 1000. Memory 1020 may include read-only memory and random access memory and provide instructions and data to processor 1010, which may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array, or other programmable logic device. A portion of memory 1020 may also include non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM). Baseband circuit 1030 is used to synthesize a baseband signal to be transmitted or to decode a received baseband signal. The rf circuit 1040 is configured to modulate a low frequency baseband signal to a high frequency carrier signal, which is transmitted through the antenna 1050. The radio frequency circuit is also used to demodulate the high frequency signal received by the antenna 1050 into a low frequency carrier signal. The various components of station 1000 are coupled together by bus 1060, wherein bus system 1060 includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, the various buses are labeled in the drawing as bus system 1060. It should be noted that the above description of the site structure may be applied to the subsequent embodiments.

The baseband circuit 1030 is configured to generate a trigger frame, where the trigger frame includes a trigger frame type identifier, where the trigger frame type identifier is configured to distinguish between different types of trigger frames, where the different types of trigger frames include: a trigger frame which does not carry a Medium Access Control (MAC) function, a trigger frame which carries a single MAC function or a trigger frame which carries a plurality of MAC functions;

and the radio frequency circuit 1040 is configured to send the trigger frame.

It should be noted that, the trigger frame may also include only a trigger frame carrying a single MAC function, which is not limited in this aspect of the present invention.

Optionally, the trigger frame generated by the baseband chip includes a MAC function number identifier, where the MAC function number identifier is used to indicate the number of MAC functions carried by the trigger frame.

Specifically, the trigger frame type identifier may also be implemented by the MAC function number identifier, and a specific implementation manner is described in detail in embodiment 1.

It should be noted that, the trigger frame type identifier and the MAC function number identifier are already explained in detail in embodiment 1, and are not described in detail.

Specifically, the trigger frames generated by the baseband circuit at least include three types, namely, trigger frames without carrying MAC functions, trigger frames carrying single MAC functions and trigger frames carrying multiple MAC functions.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function includes a trigger information field and a MAC function field;

It should be noted that, the present invention does not limit the ordering of the fields in the trigger frame carrying the single MAC function, and the details in embodiment 1 are described and will not be repeated.

Further, in the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function, the common trigger information field is used to instruct one or more stations to transmit common information of a data packet, and the common trigger information field includes at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;

Optionally, the trigger frame type identifier in the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function is further used to determine the MAC function, where the MAC function includes: sounding, block acknowledgement request BAR or random access trigger TF-R,

It should be noted that, the trigger frame carrying the sounding function, the trigger frame carrying the block acknowledgement request function, and the trigger frame carrying the random access trigger are already explained in embodiment 1, and are not described in detail.

Optionally, as another embodiment, if the trigger frame is a trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the trigger frame includes a trigger information field and multiple MAC function fields;

It should be noted that, the present invention does not limit the ordering of the fields in the trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, and the details in embodiment 1 are described in detail and will not be repeated.

It should be noted that, how the trigger frame type sub-identifier is defined is described in detail in embodiment 1, and is not described in detail.

Optionally, as another embodiment, if the trigger frame is a trigger frame carrying multiple MAC functions, the trigger frame includes a common information field and a station-by-station field, where the common information field is located before the station-by-station field, the common information field includes a trigger information common field and multiple MAC function common fields, and the station-by-station field includes a trigger information individual field and a MAC function individual field.

Specifically, the trigger information individual field and the MAC function individual field in the station-by-station field are divided per station, or,

It should be noted that, in each embodiment of the present invention, each functional unit may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units. Specifically, the method may be implemented by means of software plus necessary general-purpose hardware, including general-purpose integrated circuits, general-purpose CPUs, general-purpose Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), general-purpose memories, general-purpose components, and the like, and of course, may also be implemented by special-purpose hardware including Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), special-purpose CPUs, special-purpose memories, special-purpose components, and the like.

The integrated units, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as stand-alone products, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention is essentially or a part contributing to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: u disk, mobile hard disk, read-Only Memory (ROM), random access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), magnetic disk or optical disk, etc.

The software or instructions may also be transmitted over a transmission medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (English: digital Subscriber Line, simply: DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of transmission medium.

Claims

1. A method for triggering frame transmission in a wireless local area network, comprising:

generating a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame comprises a trigger frame type identifier, the trigger frame type identifier is used for indicating that the trigger frame belongs to a trigger frame carrying one or more MAC functions, the trigger frame comprises one or more MAC function fields, and one MAC function field indicates a specific MAC function;

and sending the trigger frame.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger frame includes a trigger frame type sub-identification, the trigger frame sub-type identification indicating a specific function of each MAC function field, the functions comprising: the sounding function, the block acknowledgement request BAR function or the random access trigger TF-R function.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the trigger type sub-identifier is located in a trigger frame header, a MAC function common field, or a trigger information common field.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the trigger frame further comprises a trigger information field;

the trigger information field comprises a trigger information common field and a trigger information individual field, and each of the one or more MAC function fields comprises a MAC function common field and a MAC function individual field;

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the common trigger information field is used to instruct one or more stations to transmit common information of data packets, and wherein the common trigger information field includes at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the fields of the trigger frame comprise a form of element fields, the element fields comprising three parts of a type, a length, and a value, and the fields of the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function comprise at least one of: the trigger information alone field or the MAC function field.

7. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the trigger frame comprises a common information field and a station-by-station field, the common information field preceding the station-by-station field, the common information field comprising a trigger information common field and the plurality of MAC function common fields, the station-by-station field comprising a trigger information individual field and a MAC function individual field.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the trigger information individual field and the MAC function individual field in the station-by-station field are divided per station, or,

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the trigger information common field is used to instruct one or more stations to transmit common information of data packets in the trigger frame, and the trigger information common field includes at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;

10. An apparatus for triggering frame transmission in a wireless local area network, comprising:

the base band circuit generates a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame comprises a trigger frame type identifier, the trigger frame type identifier is used for indicating that the trigger frame belongs to a trigger frame carrying one or more MAC functions, the trigger frame comprises one or more MAC function fields, and one MAC function field indicates a specific MAC function;

and the radio frequency circuit is used for sending the trigger frame.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the trigger frame includes a trigger frame type sub-identification, the trigger frame sub-type identification indicating a specific function of each MAC function field, the functions comprising: the sounding function, the block acknowledgement request BAR function or the random access trigger TF-R function.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the trigger type sub-identifier is located in a trigger frame header, a MAC function common field, or a trigger information common field.

13. The apparatus according to any one of claims 10 to 12, wherein the trigger frame further comprises a trigger information field;

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the common trigger information field is configured to instruct one or more stations to transmit common information of data packets, the common trigger information field comprising at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the fields of the trigger frame comprise a form of element fields, the element fields comprising three parts of a type, a length, and a value, the fields of the trigger frame carrying a single MAC function comprising at least one of: the trigger information alone field or the MAC function field.

16. The apparatus according to any of claims 10 to 12, wherein the trigger frame comprises a common information field and a station-by-station field, the common information field preceding the station-by-station field, the common information field comprising a trigger information common field and the plurality of MAC function common fields, the station-by-station field comprising a trigger information individual field and a MAC function individual field.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the trigger information individual field and the MAC function individual field in the station-by-station field are divided per station, or,

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the common trigger information field is used to indicate common information of data packets transmitted by one or more stations in the trigger frame, and wherein the common trigger information field includes at least one of the following parameters: the length of the data packet, the guard interval GI, the bandwidth BW or the HE-LTF parameters of the high-efficiency long training sequence;