CN115134015A

CN115134015A - Antenna test method and related equipment

Info

Publication number: CN115134015A
Application number: CN202110332896.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 汪明月; 王凡; 肖峻峰; 潘淳
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-03-29
Filing date: 2021-03-29
Publication date: 2022-09-30
Anticipated expiration: 2041-03-29
Also published as: CN115134015B

Abstract

An antenna test method and related apparatus are disclosed, which are used for switching antennas in a PPDU and measuring time domain symbols in the PPDU to obtain corresponding measurement results. The method comprises the following steps: the method includes measuring a time domain symbol before a guard interval of a first time domain symbol with a first antenna to obtain a first measurement result, starting and completing a switch from the first antenna to a second antenna within a time of the guard interval of the first time domain symbol, measuring a time domain symbol after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol with a second antenna, and obtaining a second measurement result.

Description

Antenna test method and related equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications. And more particularly, to an antenna testing method and related apparatus.

Background

The selection of an antenna of a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) device has a large impact on the performance of the uplink and downlink. The access point needs to test the antenna according to the received data, so as to obtain a measurement result corresponding to the antenna.

After determining the antenna to be tested, the access point sends a request message to the terminal through the antenna, and then receives a message returned by the terminal according to the antenna, so as to obtain a measurement result corresponding to the antenna. However, this method can only determine the measurement result of one set of antennas in one receiving process, which is inefficient.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides an antenna test method and related equipment, which are used for improving the efficiency of antenna test.

The first aspect of the present application provides an antenna testing method:

the first WLAN device may receive PPDUs from one or more second WLAN devices. In the received PPDU, the first WLAN device includes a plurality of time domain symbols, where the first time domain symbol is also included, and a guard interval is set at a head of the first time domain symbol. The first WLAN device is provided with a plurality of antennas, including a first antenna and a second antenna. The first WLAN device measures a time domain symbol before a guard interval of the first time domain symbol with a first antenna to obtain a first measurement result. Thereafter, the first WLAN device starts and completes the switch from the first antenna to the second antenna within the time of the guard interval of the first time domain symbol. The first WLAN device may measure the time domain symbol after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol with the second antenna to obtain a second measurement result.

In the process of receiving the PPDU once, the first WLAN device may complete switching of antennas within a time of a guard interval of the first time domain symbol, and may obtain at least two measurement results by measuring the time domain symbol with at least two antennas, thereby improving efficiency of antenna testing, and reducing an influence on a service because the switching of the antennas is completed within the time of the guard interval.

In the first aspect, the first WLAN device and the second WLAN device may be Access Points (APs), the first WLAN device and the second WLAN device may also be terminals, and the time domain symbol after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol may also be the first time domain symbol itself.

In a possible implementation manner, the multiple antennas on the first WLAN device may further include a third antenna, the PPDU received by the first WLAN device may further include a second time domain symbol, where the second time domain symbol is a time domain symbol after the time domain symbol measured by the second antenna by the first WLAN device, within a time of a guard interval of the second time domain symbol, the first WLAN device may start and complete a handover from the second antenna to the third antenna, and after the handover, the first WLAN device measures the time domain symbol after the guard interval of the second time domain symbol by the third antenna to obtain a third measurement result.

In the application, in the process of receiving the PPDU once, the first WLAN device may perform antenna switching and measurement for more times, so that the flexibility of the scheme is improved.

In a possible implementation manner, the PPDU received by the first WLAN device may be from multiple second WLAN devices, where the PPDU includes multiple time domain symbol groups, the multiple time domain symbol groups occupy different resource units respectively, and the multiple time domain symbol groups are from different second WLAN devices respectively, each time domain symbol group in the multiple time domain symbol groups includes the first time domain symbol, and correspondingly, a first measurement result obtained by the first WLAN device includes measurement results of time domain symbols belonging to at least two time domain symbol groups before a guard interval of the first time domain symbol.

In the application, the first WLAN device may perform the antenna test by using the time domain symbol groups from the multiple second WLAN devices at the same time, so that the efficiency of the antenna test is further improved.

In one possible implementation, the first measurement result may include one or more of the following: received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR), Received Signal Reference Power (RSRP), channel matrix, and Bit Error Rate (BER), and the second measurement may include one or more of: RSSI, SNR, SIR, SINR, RSRP, channel matrix, and BER.

In the application, specific forms of the first measurement result and the second measurement result are defined, and the realizability of the scheme is improved.

In one possible implementation, the first measurement result and the second measurement result may be used to select a target antenna.

In the application, specific purposes of the first measurement result and the second measurement result are limited, and the practicability of the scheme is improved.

A second aspect of the present application provides a first WLAN device, including a measurement unit and a handover unit, where the measurement unit is configured to measure, by using a first antenna, a time domain symbol before a guard interval of a first time domain symbol in a PPDU to obtain a first measurement result, where the first WLAN device includes multiple antennas, the multiple antennas include the first antenna and a second antenna, the PPDU is from one or more second WLAN devices, and the PPDU includes the first time domain symbol; the switching unit is used for starting and completing switching from the first antenna to the second antenna within the time of the guard interval of the first time domain symbol; the measurement unit is further configured to measure, with the second antenna, a time domain symbol after a guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU to obtain a second measurement result.

In a possible implementation manner, the multiple antennas of the first WLAN device further include a third antenna, and the PPDU further includes a second time domain symbol, where the second time domain symbol is subsequent to the time domain symbol corresponding to the second measurement result. The switching unit is further configured to start and complete switching from the second antenna to the third antenna within a time of a guard interval of a second time domain symbol; the measurement unit is further configured to measure, with a third antenna, a time domain symbol after a guard interval of a second time domain symbol in the PPDU to obtain a third measurement result.

In a possible implementation manner, the PPDU is from a plurality of second WLAN devices, the PPDU includes a plurality of time domain symbol groups, the plurality of time domain symbol groups occupy different resource units respectively, the plurality of time domain symbol groups are from the plurality of second WLAN devices respectively, one time domain symbol group of the plurality of time domain symbol groups includes a first time domain symbol, and the first measurement result includes a measurement result of a time domain symbol belonging to at least two time domain symbol groups of the plurality of time domain symbol groups before a guard interval of the first time domain symbol.

In one possible implementation, the first measurement result includes one or more of the following: RSSI, SNR, SIR, SINR, RSRP, channel matrix, and BER, the second measurement comprising one or more of: RSSI, SNR, SIR, SINR, RSRP, channel matrix, and BER.

In one possible implementation, the first measurement result and the second measurement result are used for selecting a target antenna group.

A third aspect of the present application provides a chip, which includes a processing circuit and a switching circuit, where the processing circuit is configured to measure, with a first antenna, a time domain symbol before a guard interval of a first time domain symbol in a PPDU to obtain a first measurement result, where the first WLAN device includes multiple antennas, the multiple antennas include the first antenna and a second antenna, the PPDU is from one or more second WLAN devices, and the PPDU includes the first time domain symbol; the switching circuit is configured to start and complete switching from the first antenna to the second antenna within a time of a guard interval of the first time domain symbol, and the processing circuit is further configured to measure a time domain symbol after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU with the second antenna to obtain a second measurement result.

A fourth aspect of the present application provides a first WLAN device, which includes multiple antennas and the chip as in the third aspect, where the chip is configured to perform the method of the foregoing first aspect.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a PPDU in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a time domain symbol in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an antenna testing method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4a is a schematic diagram of a first WLAN device receiving a PPDU in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4b is another schematic diagram of the first WLAN device receiving PPDU in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic flowchart of an antenna testing method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a first time domain symbol in a PPDU in the present embodiment;

fig. 7 is another schematic flow chart of an antenna testing method in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the embodiment of the present application switching from the second antenna to the third antenna;

fig. 9 is another schematic flow chart of an antenna testing method in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a diagram illustrating a CTS frame in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is another schematic flow chart of an antenna testing method in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 12 is a diagram of a TB frame in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of a plurality of time domain symbol groups in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a first WLAN device in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15 is another schematic structural diagram of the first WLAN device in the embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and in the claims of the present application and in the above-described drawings are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It will be appreciated that the data so used may be interchanged under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments described herein may be implemented in other sequences than those illustrated or described herein. Moreover, the terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed, but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

The embodiment of the application provides an antenna test method, which is used for switching antennas in a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) and measuring a time domain symbol in the PPDU to obtain a corresponding measurement result, so as to improve the efficiency of antenna test.

A Protocol Data Unit (PDU) is an information unit transmitted by a peer entity in a network, and includes control information, address information or data, and refers to a data unit transmitted on a specified protocol layer in a protocol system, and includes protocol control information and user information of the layer. The PDU in the data link layer is a data frame, the PDU in the network layer is a data packet, the PDU in the transport layer is a data segment, and the PDU in the physical layer, i.e., a PPDU, is a data bit. Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a PPDU, as shown in fig. 1, the PPDU includes a plurality of time domain symbols, and referring to fig. 2, in the PPDU, a guard interval is inserted into a head of each time domain symbol, the guard interval may be used to avoid multipath interference between the time domain symbols, and the guard interval does not carry any data, so that the antenna switching is completed within a time of the guard interval of the time domain symbol, and an influence of the antenna switching on data reception may be reduced.

Referring to fig. 3, the antenna testing method according to the embodiment of the present application is based on switching antennas within a time of a guard interval of a time domain symbol in a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), so that the time domain symbol can be measured by using the antennas multiple times in one PPDU, and a corresponding measurement result is obtained.

Referring to fig. 4a, fig. 4a is a schematic diagram of a first WLAN device receiving a PPDU in an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 4a, the first WLAN device receives the PPDU through a first antenna and converts the PPDU into a radio frequency signal and a baseband signal, and the first WLAN device may obtain a first measurement result corresponding to measurement performed on a time domain symbol in the PPDU by using the first antenna according to the radio frequency signal or the baseband signal, or may also obtain the first measurement result according to the radio frequency signal and the baseband signal, which is not limited herein. Then, in the subsequent time domain symbol, the first WLAN device completes the switching from the first antenna to the second antenna within the time of the guard interval of the first time domain symbol, and measures the subsequent time domain symbol with the second antenna to obtain a second measurement result, and the first WLAN device may further acknowledge the first WLAN device sending the PPDU according to the mac address carried in the PPDU.

As shown in fig. 4b, the first WLAN device includes a radio frequency channel 1 and a radio frequency channel 2, where the radio frequency channel 1 may be used to execute the antenna testing method in the present application, and the radio frequency channel 2 may be used to execute other services, it is understood that, in an actual implementation, the radio frequency channel 1 may include one or more radio frequency channels, and the radio frequency channel 2 may also include one or more radio frequency channels, which is not limited herein.

In the above description of the antenna testing method in the embodiment of the present application, please refer to fig. 5, and a flow of the antenna testing method in the embodiment of the present application is described in detail as follows:

501. the first WLAN device measures a time domain symbol before a guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU with the first antenna to obtain a first measurement result.

Specifically, referring to fig. 6, the first time domain symbol may be any time domain symbol except the last time domain symbol and the first time domain symbol in the PPDU. It should be noted that the first measurement result includes one or more of a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), a signal-to-interference noise ratio (SINR), a Received Signal Reference Power (RSRP), a channel matrix, and a Bit Error Rate (BER), the first measurement result may include one or more measurements corresponding to different time domain symbols, and the first WLAN device and the one or more other second WLAN devices may or may not support the 802.11ax protocol, which is not limited herein.

502. The first WLAN device starts and completes a handoff from the first antenna to the second antenna within a guard interval time of the first time domain symbol.

The first WLAN device starts and completes switching from the first antenna to the second antenna within the guard interval of the first time domain symbol, and it should be noted that switching from the first antenna to the second antenna may include switching of a single antenna, or may also include switching of an antenna group, for example, the antenna group 1 includes a first antenna, a fourth antenna, and a fifth antenna, and the antenna group 2 includes a second antenna, a fourth antenna, and a fifth antenna, and then switching from the antenna group 1 to the antenna group 2 may also be understood as switching from the first antenna to the second antenna.

503. The first WLAN device measures a time domain symbol after a guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU with the second antenna to obtain a second measurement result.

The first WLAN device measures one or more time domain symbols after a guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU with the second antenna to obtain a second measurement result. The time domain symbol after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol may also include the first time domain symbol. The second measurement result may include one or more of RSSI, SNR, SINR, RSRP, channel matrix, and BER, and the second measurement result may include one or more measurement results corresponding to different time domain symbols, where the first measurement result and the second measurement result may be used by the first WLAN device to select the target antenna, for example, if the first measurement result is a signal-to-noise ratio value of 10dB and the second antenna is a signal-to-noise ratio value of 20dB, the second antenna may be considered as a target antenna group.

In this embodiment of the application, the first WLAN device may obtain, in one PPDU, a first measurement result corresponding to the first antenna measurement time domain symbol and a second measurement result corresponding to the second antenna measurement time domain symbol, thereby improving the efficiency of the antenna test.

In the above description of the antenna testing method in the embodiment of the present application, in a PPDU, a scheme of measuring a time domain symbol by using two antennas, namely, a first antenna and a second antenna, to obtain a first measurement result and a second measurement result is described, in an actual implementation, switching of more antennas may also be performed in a PPDU, and a time domain symbol is measured by using the switched antennas to obtain a measurement result, specifically, please refer to fig. 7, and a further flow of the antenna measuring method in the embodiment of the present application is described in detail below:

701. the first WLAN device measures a time domain symbol before a guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU with the first antenna to obtain a first measurement result.

Specifically, referring to fig. 8, the first time domain symbol may be any time domain symbol except for the last time domain symbol in the PPDU. It should be noted that the first measurement result includes one or more of RSSI, SNR, SIR, SINR, RSRP, channel matrix, and BER, the first measurement result may include one or more measurement results corresponding to different time domain symbols, and the first WLAN device and one or more other second WLAN devices may or may not support the 802.11ax protocol, which is not limited herein.

702. The first WLAN device starts and completes a handoff from the first antenna to the second antenna within a guard interval time of the first time domain symbol.

The first WLAN device starts and completes switching from the first antenna to the second antenna within the guard interval time of the first time domain symbol, it should be noted that switching from the first antenna to the second antenna may include switching of a single antenna, or may also include switching of an antenna group, for example, including the first antenna, the fourth antenna, and the fifth antenna in antenna group 1, and including the second antenna, the fourth antenna, and the fifth antenna in antenna group 2, and then switching from antenna group 1 to antenna group 2 may also be understood as switching from the first antenna to the second antenna.

703. The first WLAN device measures a time domain symbol after a guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU with the second antenna to obtain a second measurement result.

The first WLAN device measures, with the second antenna, one or more time domain symbols after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU to obtain a second measurement result, where the time domain symbols after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol also include the first time domain symbol, the second measurement result may include one or more of RSSI, SNR, SINR, RSRP, channel matrix, and BER, and the second measurement result may include one or more measurement results corresponding to different time domain symbols.

704. The first WLAN device starts and completes the switch from the second antenna to the third antenna within the time of the guard interval of the second time domain symbol.

Referring to fig. 8, the first WLAN device starts and completes switching from the second antenna to the third antenna within the guard interval time of the second time domain symbol, and it should be noted that switching from the second antenna to the third antenna may include switching of a single antenna, or may also include switching of an antenna group, for example, when the antenna group 1 includes the second antenna, the fourth antenna, and the fifth antenna, and the antenna group 2 includes the third antenna, the fourth antenna, and the fifth antenna, switching from the antenna group 1 to the antenna group 2 may also be understood as switching from the second antenna to the third antenna.

705. The first WLAN device measures, with the third antenna, a time domain symbol after a guard interval of the second time domain symbol in the PPDU to obtain a third measurement result.

The first WLAN device measures, with a third antenna, one or more time domain symbols after a guard interval of a second time domain symbol in the PPDU to obtain a third measurement result, it should be noted that the time domain symbols after the guard interval of the second time domain symbol also include the second time domain symbol, the second measurement result may include one or more of RSSI, SNR, SINR, RSRP, a channel matrix, and BER, and the third measurement result may include one or more measurement results corresponding to different time domain symbols, where the first measurement result, the second measurement result, and the third measurement result may be used for the first WLAN device to select a target antenna, for example, if the first measurement result is a signal-to-noise ratio value of 10dB, the second antenna is a signal-to-noise ratio value of 20dB, and the third measurement result is a signal-to-noise ratio value of 15dB, the second antenna may be considered as a target antenna group.

In the embodiment of the present application, in addition to measuring the time domain symbol by using the first antenna group and the second antenna group and obtaining the first measurement result and the second measurement result, the time domain symbol may also be measured by using the third antenna group and obtaining a corresponding third measurement result, and the first measurement result is obtained. The second measurement result and the third measurement result are both used for selecting the target antenna group, and the completeness and flexibility of the scheme are improved.

In an actual implementation, the first WLAN device may interact with one or more second WLAN devices through different frame sequences, so as to schedule the one or more second WLAN devices to send PPDUs to the first WLAN device, which is described in detail below:

request To Send (RTS) frames and Clear To Send (CTS) frames may be utilized to address hidden node issues in wireless networks. When a sender needs to send data to a receiver, the sender firstly sends an RTS frame, after receiving the RTS frame, hosts around the sender except the receiver keep a silent state, after receiving the RTS frame, the receiver returns a CTS frame to the sender, after receiving the CTS frame, the hosts around the sender keep the silent state, and then the receiver and the sender can start to communicate.

In this embodiment of the present application, the first WLAN device may enable the second WLAN device to reply to the first WLAN device with a CTS frame by sending an RTS frame to the second WLAN device, where the CTS frame is a PPDU, and then the first WLAN device may obtain a measurement result according to the CTS frame, specifically, please refer to fig. 9, where another flow of the antenna testing method in this embodiment of the present application is described as follows:

901. the first WLAN device sends an RTS frame to the second WLAN device.

The first WLAN device sends an RTS frame to the second WLAN device, and the first WLAN device is provided with multiple antennas, and when it needs to be described, the first WLAN device and the second WLAN device may support an 802.11ax protocol or may not support the 802.11ax protocol, which is not limited herein.

902. The first WLAN device receives a CTS frame from the second WLAN device.

The first WLAN device may receive a CTS frame, that is, a PPDU, from the second WLAN device, and it should be noted that after receiving the CTS frame from the second WLAN device, the first WLAN device may also analyze the CTS frame to obtain the number of time domain symbols in the CTS frame, so as to determine the number of times for subsequently measuring the time domain symbols with an antenna.

903. The first WLAN device measures a time domain symbol before a guard interval of a first time domain symbol in a CTS frame with a first antenna to obtain a first measurement result.

Referring to fig. 10, in the CTS frame, a plurality of time domain symbols, such as an LLTF, an L-SIG, or a Data-sym, may be included, the first WLAN device may select one of the time domain symbols as a first time domain symbol, for example, the first WLAN device may select the time domain symbol of the L-SIG as the first time domain symbol, and measure, by using the first antenna, one or more time domain symbols before a guard interval of the time domain symbol of the L-SIG, and obtain a first measurement result, where the first measurement result may include one or more measurement results corresponding to different time domain symbols.

904. The first WLAN device starts and completes a switch from the first antenna to the second antenna within the time of the guard interval of the first time domain symbol.

In the time of the guard interval of the first time domain symbol, the first WLAN device starts and completes switching from the first antenna to the second antenna, it should be noted that switching from the first antenna to the second antenna may include switching of a single antenna, or may also include switching of an antenna group, for example, when the antenna group 1 includes a first antenna, a fourth antenna, and a fifth antenna, and the antenna group 2 includes a second antenna, a fourth antenna, and a fifth antenna, switching from the antenna group 1 to the antenna group 2 may also be understood as switching from the first antenna to the second antenna.

905. The first WLAN device measures the time domain symbol after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol with the second antenna to obtain a second measurement result.

The first WLAN device may measure one or more time domain symbols after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol with the second antenna and obtain a second measurement result, where the second measurement result may include one or more measurement results corresponding to different time domain symbols. It should be noted that the time domain symbol after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol also includes the first time domain symbol, taking the first time domain symbol as L-SIG as an example, after the first WLAN device switches to the second antenna within the time of the guard interval of the time domain symbol of L-SIG, the second antenna may be used to measure L-SIG, or the second antenna may be used to measure the time domain symbol after L-SIG, or both of them are measured, so as to obtain the second measurement result.

906. The first WLAN device starts and completes the switch from the second antenna to the third antenna within the time of the guard interval of the second time domain symbol.

The first WLAN device may continue to perform antenna switching, and the first WLAN device may start and complete switching from the second antenna to the third antenna within a time of a guard interval of a second time domain symbol after the first time domain symbol, for example, the first WLAN device may use Data-sym as the second time domain symbol, and the first WLAN device switches to the third antenna within the time of the guard interval of Data-sym, it should be noted that switching from the second antenna to the third antenna may include switching of a single antenna, or may also include switching from the second antenna, the fourth antenna and the fifth antenna in the antenna group 1, and the third antenna, the fourth antenna and the fifth antenna in the antenna group 2, and then switching from the antenna group 1 to the antenna group 2 may also be understood as switching from the second antenna to the third antenna.

907. The first WLAN device measures the time domain symbol after the guard interval of the second time domain symbol with the third antenna to obtain a third measurement result.

The first WLAN device measures one or more time domain symbols after the guard interval of the second time domain symbol, that is, measures one or more time domain symbols after the guard interval of the Data-sym, with a third antenna, and obtains a third measurement result, where the third measurement result may include one or more measurement results corresponding to different time domain symbols, where the first measurement result, the second measurement result, and the third measurement result may be used by the first WLAN device to select a target antenna, for example, the first measurement result is a signal-to-noise ratio value of 10dB, the second antenna is a signal-to-noise ratio value of 20dB, and the third measurement result is a signal-to-noise ratio value of 15dB, and then the second antenna may be considered as a target antenna group, it can be understood that, in this embodiment of the present application, after the second time domain symbol, at least one subsequent antenna switching may also be performed, and a subsequent time domain symbol is measured according to the switched antenna, and obtain the corresponding measurement result, which is not described in detail due to space limitation.

In another implementation, the first WLAN device may further interact with the second WLAN device through the Trigger frame and the TB frame, and measure the time domain symbol in the TB frame sent by the second WLAN device through the antenna to obtain a measurement result. The Trigger frame and the TB frame may be applied in an uplink multi-user multiple-input multiple-output transmission scenario, and because the multi-user uplink has a high requirement for the transmission power and transmission capability of the terminal, the first WLAN device may first send the Trigger frame to the second WLAN device, where the Trigger frame may declare a requirement of the second WLAN device for replying to a PPDU from the first WLAN device, and after receiving the Trigger frame, the second WLAN device may reply to the first WLAN device with a TB frame, where the TB frame is a PPDU, and the PPDU needs to meet the requirement of the Trigger frame that the terminal replies to a PPDU from the first WLAN device.

Referring to fig. 11, another process of the antenna testing method in the embodiment of the present application is described as follows:

1101. the first WLAN device sends a Trigger frame to the second WLAN device.

The first WLAN device sends a Trigger frame to the second WLAN device, where the Trigger frame includes information indicating the number of time domain symbols that the second WLAN device needs to include in a TB frame for replying to the first WLAN device, so that the first WLAN device may determine in advance the number of times the antenna measures the time domain symbols in the TB frame. The first WLAN device is provided with a plurality of antennas, and the first WLAN device and the second WLAN device may or may not support the 802.11ax protocol, which is not limited herein.

1102. The first WLAN device receives a TB frame from the second WLAN device.

After sending the Trigger frame to the second WLAN device, the access point may receive a TB frame, i.e., a PPDU, from the second WLAN device.

1103. The first WLAN device measures a time domain symbol before a guard interval of a first time domain symbol in the TB frame with a first antenna to obtain a first measurement result.

Referring to fig. 12, in the TB frame, a plurality of time domain symbols, such as an LLTF, an L-SIG, or an RL-SIG, may be included, an AP may select one of the time domain symbols as a first time domain symbol, for example, a first WLAN device may select the LLTF time domain symbol as the first time domain symbol, and the first WLAN device measures one or more time domain symbols before a guard interval of the LLTF time domain symbol by using a first antenna and obtains a first measurement result, where the first measurement result may include one or more measurement results corresponding to different time domain symbols.

1104. The first WLAN device starts and completes a handoff from the first antenna to the second antenna within the time of the guard interval of the first time domain symbol.

In the time of the guard interval of the first time domain symbol, the first WLAN device starts and completes switching from the first antenna to the second antenna, and the switching from the first antenna to the second antenna may include switching of a single antenna, or may also include switching of an antenna group, for example, the antenna group 1 includes a first antenna, a fourth antenna, and a fifth antenna, and the antenna group 2 includes a second antenna, a fourth antenna, and a fifth antenna, and then switching from the antenna group 1 to the antenna group 2 may also be understood as switching from the first antenna to the second antenna.

1105. The first WLAN device measures the time domain symbol after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol with the second antenna to obtain a second measurement result.

1106. The first WLAN device starts and completes the switch from the second antenna to the third antenna within the time of the guard interval of the second time domain symbol.

The first WLAN device may continue to perform antenna switching, and the first WLAN device may start and complete switching from the second antenna to the third antenna within a time of a guard interval of a second time domain symbol after the first time domain symbol, for example, the first WLAN device may use SIGA2 as the second time domain symbol, the first WLAN device switches to the third antenna within a time of a guard interval of SIGA2, and the switching from the first antenna to the second antenna may include switching of a single antenna, or may also include switching of an antenna group, for example, including the second antenna, the fourth antenna, and the fifth antenna in antenna group 1, and including the third antenna, the fourth antenna, and the fifth antenna in antenna group 2, and then switching from antenna group 1 to antenna group 2 may also be understood as switching from the second antenna to the third antenna.

1107. The first WLAN device measures the time domain symbol after the guard interval of the second time domain symbol with the third antenna to obtain a third measurement result.

The first WLAN device measures one or more time domain symbols after the guard interval of the second time domain symbol, that is, measures one or more time domain symbols after the guard interval of the Data-sym, with the third antenna, and obtains a third measurement result, where the third measurement result may include one or more measurement results corresponding to different time domain symbols, where the first measurement result, the second measurement result, and the third measurement result may be used by the first WLAN device to select a target antenna, for example, the first measurement result is a signal-to-noise ratio value of 10dB, the second measurement result is a signal-to-noise ratio value of 20dB, the third measurement result is a signal-to-noise ratio value of 15dB, and then the second antenna may be considered as a target antenna group, it can be understood that, in this embodiment of the present application, after the second time domain symbol, at least one subsequent antenna switching may be performed, and a subsequent time domain symbol is measured according to the switched antenna, and obtain the corresponding measurement result, which is not described herein for reasons of space and space.

It should be noted that, in addition to the frame combination of the RTS frame and the CTS frame and the frame combination of the Trigger frame and the TB frame, the antenna testing method according to the embodiment of the present application may be executed according to an ACK frame, an NDPA sounding frame, an ERSU frame, or a Midamble frame.

In the above, the first WLAN device interacts with the second WLAN device through Trigger frames and TB frames, and describes the manner in which the antennas are used to measure the time domain symbols in the TB frame to obtain the measurement result, in another implementation, based on the antenna testing method shown in fig. 11, the first WLAN device may schedule multiple second WLAN devices simultaneously through Trigger frames, in the case where a first WLAN device schedules multiple second WLAN devices simultaneously through a Trigger frame, referring to fig. 13, a TB frame received by a first WLAN device includes a plurality of time domain symbol groups, wherein each time domain symbol group occupies a different resource unit, each time domain symbol group comprises a plurality of time domain symbols, wherein, the first time domain symbol is also included, and the plurality of time domain symbol groups are respectively from the plurality of second WLAN devices, it should be noted that, in such an implementation, the first WLAN device and the other plurality of second WLAN devices need to support the 802.11ax protocol.

The first WLAN device may simultaneously complete switching from the first antenna to the second antenna within a time of a guard interval of a first time domain symbol in each time domain symbol group, measure, with the first antenna, a time domain symbol before the guard interval of the first time domain symbol in at least two time domain symbol groups in the plurality of time domain symbol groups to obtain a first measurement result, where the first measurement result includes measurement results of time domain symbols belonging to the at least two time domain symbol groups in the plurality of time domain symbol groups, measure, with the second antenna, a time domain symbol after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the at least two time domain symbol groups in the plurality of time domain symbol groups to obtain a second measurement result, where the second measurement result includes measurement results of time domain symbols belonging to the at least two time domain symbol groups in the plurality of time domain symbol groups. For example, for the time domain symbol group 1 and the time domain symbol group 2, a first antenna may be used to measure a time domain symbol before a guard interval of a first time domain symbol of the time domain symbol group 1 to obtain a first measurement result, and a second antenna may be used to measure a time domain symbol after the guard interval of the first time domain symbol of the time domain symbol group to obtain a second measurement result, where the first measurement result includes a first measurement result corresponding to the time domain symbol group 1 and a first measurement result corresponding to the time domain symbol group 2, and the second measurement result includes a second measurement result corresponding to the time domain symbol group 1 and a second measurement result corresponding to the time domain symbol group 2.

It can be understood that the first WLAN device may also continue to perform antenna switching and measure a subsequent time domain symbol by using the antenna after the antenna switching, and the specific implementation manner is similar to the method in the embodiment shown in fig. 11, and is not described herein again.

In the embodiment of the application, the first WLAN device can simultaneously perform the antenna test by using a plurality of second WLAN devices, thereby improving the efficiency of the antenna test.

The above describes the antenna testing method in the embodiment of the present application, and the following begins to describe the first WLAN device in the embodiment of the present application:

referring to fig. 14, the first WLAN device 1400 in the embodiment of the present application includes a measurement unit 1401 and a switching unit 1402.

A measuring unit 1401, configured to measure, by a first antenna, a time domain symbol before a guard interval of a first time domain symbol in a PPDU to obtain a first measurement result, where the first WLAN device includes multiple antennas, the multiple antennas include a first antenna and a second antenna, the PPDU is from one or more second WLAN devices, and the PPDU includes the first time domain symbol.

A switching unit 1402, configured to start and complete switching from the first antenna to the second antenna within the time of the guard interval of the first time domain symbol.

The measurement unit 1401 is further configured to measure, by using the second antenna, a time domain symbol after a guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU, so as to obtain a second measurement result.

When a third antenna is included on the plurality of antennas of the first WLAN device,

a switching unit 1402, further configured to start and complete switching from the second antenna to the third antenna within the time of the guard interval of the second time domain symbol.

The measurement unit 1401 is further configured to measure, by using a third antenna, a time domain symbol after a guard interval of a second time domain symbol in the PPDU, so as to obtain a third measurement result.

It should be noted that the PPDU may be from multiple second WLAN devices, and the PPDU includes multiple time domain symbol groups, where the multiple time domain symbol groups occupy different resource units, respectively, and the multiple time domain symbol groups are from multiple first WLAN devices, where one time domain symbol group in the multiple time domain symbol groups includes a first time domain symbol, and the first measurement result includes a measurement result of a time domain symbol belonging to at least two time domain symbol groups in the multiple time domain symbol groups before a guard interval of the first time domain symbol.

The first measurement and the second measurement may include one or more of the following: RSSI, SNR, SIR, SINR, RSRP, channel matrix, BER.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, where the chip includes a processing circuit and a switching circuit, where the processing circuit is configured to measure, by using a first antenna, a time domain symbol before a guard interval of a first time domain symbol in a PPDU to obtain a first measurement result, where the first WLAN device includes multiple antennas, the multiple antennas include the first antenna and a second antenna, the PPDU is from one or more second WLAN devices, and the PPDU includes the first time domain symbol; a switching circuit for starting and completing a switch from a first antenna to the second antenna within a time of a guard interval of a first time domain symbol; the processing circuit is further configured to measure a time domain symbol following a guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU with the second antenna to obtain a second measurement result. The chip may be configured to perform the operations of the first WLAN device in the embodiments shown in fig. 3, fig. 4a, fig. 4b, fig. 5, fig. 7, fig. 8, fig. 9, fig. 11, and fig. 13, it is to be understood that the chip may be one chip, that is, the processing circuit and the switching circuit are integrated on one chip, or the chip may include multiple chips, that is, the processing circuit and the switching circuit are respectively located on multiple chips, which is not limited herein.

Fig. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of a first WLAN device according to an embodiment of the present application, where the first WLAN device includes multiple antennas and the chip, where the multiple antennas may be used to implement receiving of a PPDU from a second WLAN device, and the chip may be used to implement antenna switching within a guard interval time of a time domain symbol and processing of the PPDU received by the antennas, and the first WLAN device may perform operations of the first WLAN device in the embodiments shown in fig. 3, 4a, 4b, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 13, which are not described herein again specifically.

It should be noted that, in another implementation, the functions performed by the chip in the first WLAN device shown in fig. 15 may also be implemented by corresponding circuits in the first WLAN device, and need not rely on the chip.

It can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and simplicity 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 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.

Claims

1. An antenna test method, comprising:

a first Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) device measures a time domain symbol before a guard interval of a first time domain symbol in a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) by using a first antenna to obtain a first measurement result, wherein the first WLAN device comprises a plurality of antennas, the plurality of antennas comprise the first antenna and a second antenna, the PPDU comes from one or more second WLAN devices, and the PPDU comprises the first time domain symbol;

the first WLAN device starts and completes a handover from the first antenna to the second antenna within a time of a guard interval of the first time domain symbol;

and the first WLAN device measures a time domain symbol after a guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU by using the second antenna to obtain a second measurement result.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of antennas further comprises a third antenna, wherein the PPDU further comprises a second time domain symbol, wherein the second time domain symbol follows the time domain symbol corresponding to the second measurement,

the method further comprises the following steps:

the first WLAN device starts and completes a switch from the second antenna to the third antenna within a time of a guard interval of the second time domain symbol;

and the first WLAN device measures the time domain symbol after the guard interval of the second time domain symbol in the PPDU by using the third antenna to obtain a third measurement result.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the PPDU is from a plurality of second WLAN devices, the PPDU includes a plurality of time domain symbol groups that respectively occupy different resource units, the plurality of time domain symbol groups are respectively from the plurality of second WLAN devices, one of the plurality of time domain symbol groups includes the first time domain symbol, and the first measurement result includes a measurement result of time domain symbols belonging to at least two of the plurality of time domain symbol groups before a guard interval of the first time domain symbol.

4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first measurement comprises one or more of: the received signal strength indicator RSSI, the signal-to-noise ratio SNR, the signal-to-interference ratio SIR, the signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio SINR, the received signal reference power RSRP, the channel matrix and the bit error rate BER;

the second measurement comprises one or more of: RSSI, SNR, SIR, SINR, RSRP, channel matrix, BER.

5. The method according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first measurement result and the second measurement result are used to select a target antenna.

6. A first wireless local area network, WLAN, device, comprising:

a measurement unit, configured to measure, with a first antenna, a time domain symbol before a guard interval of a first time domain symbol in a physical layer protocol data unit PPDU to obtain a first measurement result, where the first WLAN device includes multiple antennas, the multiple antennas include the first antenna and a second antenna, the PPDU is from one or more second WLAN devices, and the PPDU includes the first time domain symbol;

a switching unit configured to start and complete switching from the first antenna to the second antenna within a time of a guard interval of the first time domain symbol;

the measurement unit is further configured to measure, by the second antenna, a time domain symbol after a guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU to obtain a second measurement result.

7. The first WLAN device of claim 6, wherein the plurality of antennas further includes a third antenna, wherein the PPDU further includes a second time domain symbol, and wherein the second time domain symbol follows the time domain symbol to which the second measurement corresponds;

the switching unit is further configured to start and complete switching from the second antenna to the third antenna within a time of a guard interval of the second time domain symbol;

the measurement unit is further configured to measure, by using the third antenna, a time domain symbol after a guard interval of the second time domain symbol in the PPDU, so as to obtain a third measurement result.

8. The first WLAN device of claim 6 or 7, wherein the PPDU is from a plurality of second WLAN devices, wherein the PPDU includes a plurality of time domain symbol groups that respectively occupy different resource units, wherein the plurality of time domain symbol groups are respectively from the plurality of second WLAN devices, wherein one of the plurality of time domain symbol groups includes the first time domain symbol, and wherein the first measurement result includes a measurement result of a time domain symbol belonging to at least two of the plurality of time domain symbol groups before a guard interval of the first time domain symbol.

9. The first WLAN device of any one of claims 6-8, wherein the first measurement result includes one or more of: the received signal strength indicator RSSI, the signal-to-noise ratio SNR, the signal-to-interference ratio SIR, the signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio SINR, the received signal reference power RSRP, the channel matrix and the bit error rate BER;

10. The first WLAN device of any one of claims 6-9, wherein the first measurement result and the second measurement result are used to select a target antenna.

11. A chip, comprising processing circuitry and switching circuitry;

the processing circuit is configured to measure, with a first antenna, a time domain symbol before a guard interval of a first time domain symbol in a physical layer protocol data unit PPDU to obtain a first measurement result, where the first WLAN device includes multiple antennas, the multiple antennas include the first antenna and a second antenna, the PPDU is from one or more second WLAN devices, and the PPDU includes the first time domain symbol;

the switching circuit is configured to start and complete switching from the first antenna to the second antenna within a time of a guard interval of the first time domain symbol;

the processing circuit is further configured to measure, by the second antenna, a time domain symbol after a guard interval of the first time domain symbol in the PPDU, so as to obtain a second measurement result.

12. A first wireless local area network, WLAN, device comprising a plurality of antennas and the chip of claim 11, the chip being configured to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 5.