CN115152297A

CN115152297A - Beam determination method and related device

Info

Publication number: CN115152297A
Application number: CN202080097344.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李帅; 李振宇; 吴毅凌; 李铮
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-03-31
Filing date: 2020-04-18
Publication date: 2022-10-04
Also published as: WO2021196053A1; WO2021196299A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses a beam determining method and a related device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the AP sends a beacon frame by adopting beam polling, and carries a beam identifier of a narrow sending beam used for sending the beacon frame in the beacon frame; the STA selects the optimal sending wave beam facing the STA for the AP according to the receiving signal quality corresponding to different narrow sending wave beams, and informs the AP of the optimal sending wave beam through the authentication frame, thereby improving the signal quality in the communication between the AP and the STA, and realizing long-distance coverage and uplink receiving interference suppression. The AP sends at least one beacon frame and at least M trigger frames, each beacon frame comprises time information of the trigger frame, the STA determines a target trigger frame from the M trigger frames and sends an authentication frame to the AP in a target access time window corresponding to the target trigger frame, so that different STAs are adapted to different access time windows, and the access failure times and the access time delay of a long-distance STA are reduced.

Description

Beam determination method and related device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method for determining a beam and a related apparatus.

Background

In a point-to-multipoint (PMP) networking, an Access Point (AP) may simultaneously access multiple Stations (STAs), where the AP may be a central point, and the STAs may be remote points, and the STAs may be distributed at different locations. In the initial access process, the AP can adopt a wide beam to send a downlink Beacon (Beacon) message to each STA; after each STA receives the Beacon message, an authentication request needs to be initiated to the AP; in turn, the AP may receive these authentication requests over the wide beam to determine whether the STAs may access.

However, the AP transmits the Beacon message by using the wide beam, which may cause an STA far away from the AP to be unable to receive the Beacon message due to insufficient gain of the wide beam, that is, the initial access process has a problem that the long distance cannot be covered. In addition, the AP receives the authentication request with the wide beam, which may cause the AP to receive the interference signal when receiving the authentication frame, and the receive beam gain corresponding to the authentication frame is close to the receive beam gain corresponding to the interference signal, which may cause the authentication frame to be affected by the interference signal, thereby causing the authentication frame to be failed to be received, that is, the initial access process has the problem of uplink reception interference.

Therefore, how to implement long-distance coverage and uplink received interference suppression becomes an urgent problem to be solved in the initial access process.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a beam determination method and a related device, which can realize long-distance coverage and uplink receiving interference suppression.

The present application is described below in terms of various aspects, it being understood that the following embodiments and advantages of the various aspects may be referred to one another.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a beam determination method, where the method is applied to an STA, and the method includes: the STA receives a plurality of Beacon frames from the AP, wherein each Beacon frame comprises a beam identifier of a narrow transmission beam used by the AP for transmitting the Beacon frame; the STA determines a first transmission beam from the narrow transmission beams for transmitting the plurality of Beacon frames; the STA transmits initial access information to the AP, which may be used to instruct the AP to communicate with the STA using the first transmit beam.

Optionally, the determining, by the STA, a first transmission beam from among a plurality of narrow transmission beams for transmitting a plurality of Beacon frames specifically includes: the STA measures, according to each received Beacon frame, a received signal quality (such as SINR or RSRP) corresponding to a narrow transmission beam that transmits the Beacon frame, and determines, according to the received signal qualities corresponding to a plurality of narrow transmission beams, a first transmission beam from the plurality of narrow transmission beams.

According to the embodiment of the application, the wave beam identification of the narrow transmitting wave beam used for transmitting the Beacon frame is carried in the Beacon frame, so that the STA selects the optimal transmitting wave beam facing the STA for the AP according to the receiving signal quality corresponding to different narrow transmitting wave beams, and the optimal transmitting wave beam is informed to the AP through the authentication frame, thereby being beneficial to improving the signal quality in the communication between the AP and the STA, and the optimal transmitting wave beam is the narrow wave beam, being beneficial to providing 3-5 dB receiving wave beam gain and 13dB interference side lobe suppression, further improving the access performance of the long-distance STA, and realizing long-distance coverage and uplink receiving interference suppression.

The initial access information may carry a beam identifier of the first transmission beam, so as to instruct the AP to communicate with the STA by using the first transmission beam. Specifically, the initial access information may be an authentication frame, a physical layer structure of the authentication frame may be a single user physical protocol data unit (SU PPDU), and the authentication frame may include a beam identifier of the first transmission beam.

Optionally, one Beacon frame includes one beam identifier. The multiple Beacon frames are respectively sent by different narrow sending beams, and one Beacon frame can be sent by one narrow sending beam.

Alternatively, the optimal transmission beam may refer to a narrow transmission beam with the best received signal quality among different narrow transmission beams.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, each Beacon frame may further include at least one of the following information: a beam polling time period, a total number of beams polled by a beam within the beam polling time period, or a remaining number of beams polled by a beam within the beam polling time period. Wherein, the beam polling time period and/or the number of remaining beams are used to determine whether the number of Beacon frames received by the STA is equal to the number of Beacon frames transmitted by the AP in the beam polling time period.

According to the method and the device, whether the polling of the AP is completed or not is judged through the beam polling time period, the total number of the beams or the number of the remaining beams carried by the Beacon frame, if the polling is completed, the optimal transmission beam can be determined from a plurality of narrow transmission beams, and the narrow transmission beam with better signal quality can be determined as the optimal transmission beam more accurately.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, each Beacon frame may further include a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame and time information of the Trigger frame. Before the STA sends the initial access information to the AP, the method further includes: the STA receives a plurality of Trigger frames from the AP; the STA sends initial access information to the AP, specifically: and the STA sends initial access information to the AP in the target access time window, wherein the initial access information is used for indicating the AP to adopt the first sending wave beam corresponding to the target access time window to communicate with the STA. The beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame is used for determining a target Trigger frame corresponding to the first sending beam from the multiple Trigger frames, and the time information of the Trigger frame and the target Trigger frame are used for determining a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame.

Optionally, after receiving the multiple Trigger frames, the STA may determine, according to a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame included in any received Beacon frame, a target Trigger frame corresponding to the first transmission beam from the multiple Trigger frames. The STA may determine the transmission start time of the target Trigger frame according to the time information of the Trigger frame included in any received Beacon frame and the receiving time of the target Trigger frame. And the STA determines a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame according to the target Trigger frame and the sending start time of the target Trigger frame. The time starting point of the target access time window is the sum of the sending start time of the target Trigger frame, the frame length of the target Trigger frame and the short inter-frame interval, and the duration (i.e., the size) of the target time window is equal to the size of the access time window included in the target Trigger frame.

According to the embodiment of the application, the wave beam identifier of the transmitting wave beam used for transmitting the Beacon frame is carried in the Beacon frame, so that the STA selects the optimal transmitting wave beam facing the STA for the AP according to the receiving signal quality corresponding to different narrow transmitting wave beams. In the embodiment of the present application, the Beacon frame carries the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame (or the UORA time window, or the random access resource), so that the STA selects the random access resource (here, the access time window) corresponding to the optimal transmission beam for access based on the selected optimal transmission beam, and the AP learns the beam selection result of the STA through the access time window corresponding to the time when the AP receives the uplink access message (here, the authentication frame), so that a new field does not need to be added in the authentication frame to indicate the beam selection result of the STA. Because the beam selection results of different STAs are different and different beams correspond to different random access resources, different STAs can be adapted to different random access resources, so that the successful receiving probability of uplink access messages (such as authentication frames) is improved, and the collision probability of STA access is reduced. In addition, the optimal transmission beam of the beam selection result is a narrow transmission beam with the best received signal quality, so that the signal quality in the communication between the AP and the STA is favorably improved, and the beam is a narrow beam and is favorable for providing 3-5 dB received beam gain and 13dB interference side lobe suppression, thereby improving the access performance of the long-distance STA and realizing long-distance uplink coverage and uplink received interference suppression.

Wherein the multiple Trigger frames are transmitted by at least 2 different narrow beams of the AP. Each Trigger frame in the multiple Trigger frames includes size (instant length) information of an access time window and a frame length of each Trigger frame.

Optionally, the time information of the Trigger frame may include a time offset between the sending time of the first Trigger frame and the sending time of the Beacon frame, and a sending time interval between two adjacent Trigger frames. The beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame may include a start beam identifier and an end beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame.

Optionally, the initial access information may be an authentication frame, and a physical layer structure of the authentication frame may be a Trigger-based physical protocol data unit (TB PPDU).

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another beam determination method, which is applied in an AP, and the method includes: the AP sends a plurality of Beacon frames by adopting beam polling; the AP receives initial access information from the STA; and the AP adopts a first transmitting beam to communicate with the STA according to the received initial access information.

Optionally, the AP communicates with the STA by using a first transmission beam according to the received initial access information, specifically: and the AP analyzes the initial access information to obtain a beam identifier of a first transmitting beam carried in the initial access information, and communicates with the STA by adopting the first transmitting beam.

According to the embodiment of the application, the wave beam identification of the narrow transmitting wave beam used for transmitting the Beacon frame is carried in the Beacon frame, so that the STA selects the optimal transmitting wave beam facing the STA for the AP according to the receiving signal quality corresponding to different narrow transmitting wave beams, and the optimal transmitting wave beam is informed to the AP through the authentication frame, thereby being beneficial to improving the signal quality in the communication between the AP and the STA, being beneficial to providing 3-5 dB receiving wave beam gain and 13dB interference side lobe suppression due to the narrow wave beam, improving the access performance of the long-distance STA, and realizing long-distance uplink coverage and uplink receiving interference suppression.

Each Beacon frame in the plurality of Beacon frames comprises a beam identifier of a narrow transmission beam used for transmitting the Beacon frame, and one Beacon frame comprises one beam identifier. The plurality of Beacon frames are used to determine a first transmit beam from a plurality of narrow transmit beams that transmit the plurality of Beacons.

Optionally, the initial access information may be an authentication frame, a physical layer structure of the authentication frame may be an SU PPDU, and the authentication frame may include a beam identifier of the first transmission beam.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, each Beacon frame may further include at least one of the following information: a beam polling time period, a total number of beams polled by a beam within the beam polling time period, or a remaining number of beams polled by a beam within the beam polling time period. Wherein the beam polling time period and/or the number of remaining beams are used to determine whether the number of Beacon frames received by the STA is equal to the number of Beacon frames transmitted by the AP in the beam polling time period.

According to the method and the device, whether the AP is polled completely is judged through the beam polling time period, the total beam amount or the residual beam amount carried by the Beacon frame, if the polling is completed, the method and the device are favorable for determining the optimal transmitting beam (the first transmitting beam) from a plurality of transmitting beams, and the transmitting beam with better signal quality can be more accurately determined to be used as the optimal transmitting beam.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, each Beacon frame may further include a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame and time information of the Trigger frame. Before the AP receives the initial access information from the STA, the method further includes: the AP sends a plurality of Trigger frames by adopting at least 2 different narrow sending beams, and each narrow sending beam sends at least one Trigger frame; the AP receives initial access information from the STA, specifically: the AP receives initial access information sent by the STA in a target access time window; the AP communicates with the STA by using the first transmission beam according to the received initial access information, which specifically includes: and the AP determines the target access time window corresponding to the receiving time of the initial access information and adopts a first transmitting wave beam corresponding to the target access time window to communicate with the STA. The beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame is used by the STA to determine a target Trigger frame corresponding to the first transmission beam from a plurality of received Trigger frames, and the time information of the Trigger frame and the target Trigger frame are used by the STA to determine a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame.

Each Trigger frame in the multiple Trigger frames includes size (instant length) information of an access time window and frame length of each Trigger frame.

Optionally, the initial access information may be an authentication frame, and a physical layer structure of the authentication frame may be a TB PPDU.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another beam determining method, where the method is applied to an STA, and the method includes: the STA receives a Beacon frame from the AP, wherein the Beacon frame can comprise time information of a Trigger frame; the STA receives M Trigger frames from the AP; the STA determines a target Trigger frame from the M Trigger frames; and if the current time does not exceed the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the STA sends initial access information to the AP in the target access time window, wherein the initial access information is used for indicating the AP to adopt a first sending wave beam corresponding to the target access time window to communicate with the STA. The time information of the target Trigger frame and the Trigger frame is used for determining a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame.

Optionally, the STA may measure, according to each Trigger frame received, the received signal quality (such as RSRP) corresponding to each Trigger frame. And the STA determines a target Trigger frame from the M Trigger frames according to the quality of the received signals corresponding to the M Trigger frames. The target Trigger frame may be a Trigger frame with the largest received signal quality among the M Trigger frames.

According to the embodiment of the application, the time information of the Trigger frame is carried in the Beacon frame, so that the STA selects a random access resource (here, an access time window) corresponding to one Trigger frame from a plurality of received Trigger frames for access, the STA at different positions can be adapted to different random access resources due to the fact that the random access resources selected by the STAs at different positions are possibly different, and the AP is implicitly informed of the optimal sending beam facing the STA through the authentication frame sent on the different random access resources. The method is not only beneficial to improving the signal quality in the communication between the AP and the STA, but also beneficial to providing 3-5 dB of receiving beam gain and 13dB of interference side lobe suppression because the optimal transmitting beam is a narrow beam, thereby improving the access performance of the long-distance STA and realizing long-distance coverage and uplink receiving interference suppression; and the access failure times and the access time delay of the long-distance STA can be reduced, and the overall access efficiency of the STA in the cell is improved.

Each Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames may include information about the size (i.e., the instantaneous length) of an access time window.

Optionally, the time information of the Trigger frame may include a time offset between a transmission time (here, transmission start time) of a first Trigger frame and a transmission time (here, transmission start time) of a Beacon frame, and a transmission time interval (here, interval of transmission start times) of two adjacent Trigger frames.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the Beacon frame may further include a signal quality threshold, and the M Trigger frames may be sent by the wide transmit beam of the AP. The STA determines a target Trigger frame from the M Trigger frames, which specifically includes: if the received signal quality corresponding to at least one Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames is greater than or equal to the signal quality threshold, the STA determines that any Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames is a target Trigger frame.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the Beacon frame may further include a signal quality threshold, where the M Trigger frames include M-N first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames, the M-N first Trigger frames are sent by the wide sending beam of the AP, and the N second Trigger frames are sent by at least 2 different narrow sending beams of the AP. The STA determines a target Trigger frame from the M Trigger frames, which specifically includes: if the received signal quality corresponding to each of the M-N first Trigger frames is less than the signal quality threshold, the STA determines a target Trigger frame from the N second Trigger frames, where the target Trigger frame is a second Trigger frame with the largest received signal quality among the N second Trigger frames.

The signal quality threshold may be used to distinguish a long-distance STA from a short-distance STA. It is understood that the distance herein refers to the distance between the AP and the STA, and the long-distance STA and the short-distance STA are relative concepts, for example, the STA whose received signal quality is greater than or equal to the signal quality threshold is considered as the short-distance STA; otherwise, it is considered as a distant STA.

According to the embodiment of the application, the short-distance STA is adapted to the wide beam for access, the long-distance STA is adapted to the narrow beam for access, the access collision probability of the STAs at different positions can be reduced, and the STA access efficiency is improved. In addition, when the AP communicates with the distant STA, the AP may provide 3 to 5dB receive beam gain and 13dB interference sidelobe suppression through the narrow beam, thereby improving access performance of the distant STA and implementing distant coverage and uplink receive interference suppression.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the Beacon frame may further include quantity information of Trigger frames, where the quantity information of Trigger frames is used to determine M-N first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames from the M Trigger frames.

Optionally, the number information of Trigger frames includes the number of Trigger frames sent using a wide transmit beam and the number of Trigger frames sent using a narrow transmit beam, where M-N may be less than or equal to the number of Trigger frames sent using a wide transmit beam, and N may be less than or equal to the number of Trigger frames sent using a narrow transmit beam.

According to the embodiment of the application, the number information of Trigger frames is carried in the Beacon frame to inform the STA, the Trigger frames received at different times are sent by the wide wave beam or the narrow wave beam, so that the STA can select random access resources corresponding to different wave beams (here, the wide wave or the narrow wave) to access according to the far and near positions of the STA relative to the AP, and the random access resources selected by the far STA and near STAs are different, so that the access collision probability of the STAs at different positions can be reduced, and the access efficiency of the STA is improved.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the Beacon frame may further include a beam identifier corresponding to a Trigger frame, and the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame may be used to determine a first sending beam corresponding to the target Trigger frame. The method further comprises the following steps: if the current time exceeds a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the STA receives a third Trigger frame sent by the AP through the first sending beam; and the STA sends initial access information to the AP in a first access time window corresponding to the third Trigger frame, wherein the initial access information is used for indicating the AP to communicate with the STA by adopting a first sending beam corresponding to the first access time window. And the time information of the third Trigger frame and the third Trigger frame is used for determining a first access time window corresponding to the third Trigger frame.

According to the embodiment of the application, the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame is carried in the Beacon frame, so that the STA determines the first sending beam corresponding to the target Trigger frame, and when the current time exceeds the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the STA receives the third Trigger frame sent on the first sending beam corresponding to the target Trigger frame again, and returns the authentication frame to the AP in the first access time window corresponding to the third Trigger frame. A processing mode under possible conditions is provided, and the beam determination method provided by the embodiment of the application is enriched.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides yet another beam determination method, where the method is applied in an AP, and the method includes: the AP sends at least one Beacon frame, and each Beacon frame can comprise time information of a Trigger frame; the AP sends at least M Trigger frames; when the current time does not exceed a target access time window corresponding to a target Trigger frame, the AP receives initial access information sent by the STA in the target access time window; and the AP determines the target access time window corresponding to the receiving time of the initial access information and adopts a first transmitting beam corresponding to the target access time window to communicate with the STA. The at least M Trigger frames are used by the STA to determine a target Trigger frame, and the time information of the target Trigger frame and the time information of the Trigger frame are used by the STA to determine a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame.

Wherein, each Trigger frame in the at least M Trigger frames includes information of size (instant length) of an access time window.

Optionally, the at least one Beacon frame is transmitted by using beam polling, so that STAs in different locations can receive the at least one Beacon frame.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the Beacon frame may further include a signal quality threshold, and the at least M Trigger frames may include M Trigger frames sent by the wide transmit beam of the AP. When the received signal quality corresponding to at least one Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames is greater than or equal to the signal quality threshold, the target Trigger frame is any Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the Beacon frame may further include a signal quality threshold, where the at least M Trigger frames include M-N first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames, the M-N first Trigger frames are sent by the wide sending beam of the AP, and the N second Trigger frames are sent by at least 2 different narrow sending beams of the AP. When the received signal quality corresponding to each of the M-N first Trigger frames is less than the signal quality threshold, the target Trigger frame is a second Trigger frame with the largest received signal quality in the N second Trigger frames.

The signal quality threshold may be used to distinguish a long-distance STA from a short-distance STA. It is understood that the distance here refers to the distance between the AP and the STA, and the long-distance STA and the short-distance STA are relative concepts, for example, the STA whose received signal quality is greater than or equal to the signal quality threshold is considered as the short-distance STA; otherwise, it is considered as a distant STA.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the Beacon frame may further include quantity information of Trigger frames, where the quantity information of Trigger frames is used to determine M-N first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames from the at least M Trigger frames.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the Beacon frame may further include a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame, and the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame may be used to determine the first transmission beam corresponding to the target Trigger frame. The method further comprises the following steps: when the current time exceeds a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the AP sends a third Trigger frame on the first sending beam; the AP receives initial access information sent by the STA in a first access time window corresponding to the third Trigger frame; and the AP determines the first access time window corresponding to the receiving time of the initial access information and adopts the first transmitting beam corresponding to the first access time window to communicate with the STA.

The time information of the third Trigger frame and the third Trigger frame is used to determine a first access time window corresponding to the third Trigger frame.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides an apparatus, which may be an STA or a chip or a circuit configured to be disposed in the STA, and the apparatus includes a unit and/or a module for performing the beam determination method provided in the first aspect and/or any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect, so that the beneficial effects (or advantages) of the beam determination method provided in the first aspect can also be achieved.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide another apparatus, which may be an AP or a chip or circuit configured to be disposed in an AP, and the apparatus includes a unit and/or a module for performing the beam determination method provided in the foregoing second aspect and/or any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect, so that the beneficial effects (or advantages) provided by the beam determination method provided in the second aspect can also be achieved.

In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a further apparatus, which may be an STA or a chip or a circuit configured to be disposed in an STA, and the apparatus includes means and/or modules for performing the beam determination method provided in any one of the foregoing third aspect and/or possible implementations of the third aspect, so that beneficial effects (or advantages) of the beam determination method provided in the third aspect can also be achieved.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides yet another apparatus, which may be an AP or a chip or circuit configured to be disposed in an AP, and includes means and/or modules for performing the beam determination method provided in any one of the above-mentioned fourth aspect and/or possible implementation manners of the fourth aspect, so that the beneficial effects (or advantages) of the beam determination method provided in the fourth aspect can also be achieved.

In a ninth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide an STA, which may include a processor, a transceiver and a memory, where the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the transceiver is configured to transceive various information, data frames (e.g., trigger frames) or control frames (e.g., beacon frames), and the computer program includes program instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to perform the beam determination method of the first aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners of the first aspect. The transceiver may be a radio frequency module in the STA, or a combination of the radio frequency module and an antenna, or an input/output interface of a chip or a circuit.

In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide an AP, which may include a processor, a transceiver and a memory, where the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the transceiver is configured to transceive various information, data frames (e.g., trigger frames) or control frames (e.g., beacon frames), and the computer program includes program instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to perform the beam determination method of any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect or the second aspect. The transceiver may be a radio frequency module in the AP, or a combination of the radio frequency module and an antenna, or an input/output interface of a chip or a circuit.

In an eleventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide another STA, which may include a processor, a transceiver and a memory, where the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the transceiver is configured to transceive various information, data frames (e.g., trigger frames) or control frames (e.g., beacon frames), and the computer program includes program instructions, and when the processor executes the program instructions, the terminal device is caused to execute the beam determination method of any one of the possible implementations of the third aspect or the third aspect. The transceiver may be a radio frequency module in the STA, or a combination of the radio frequency module and an antenna, or an input/output interface of a chip or a circuit.

In a twelfth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide another AP, which may include a processor, a transceiver, and a memory, where the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the transceiver is configured to transceive various information, data frames (such as trigger frames), or control frames (such as beacon frames), and the computer program includes program instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to perform the beam determination method of any one of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect or the fourth aspect. The transceiver may be a radio frequency module in the AP, or a combination of the radio frequency module and an antenna, or an input/output interface of a chip or a circuit.

In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, including an STA and an AP, where: the STA is the apparatus described in the fifth aspect or the STA described in the ninth aspect, and the AP is the apparatus described in the sixth aspect or the AP described in the tenth aspect.

In a fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another communication system, including an STA and an AP, where: the STA is the apparatus described in the seventh aspect or the STA described in the eleventh aspect, and the AP is the apparatus described in the eighth aspect or the AP described in the twelfth aspect.

In a fifteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer program instructions are stored, which, when run on the computer, cause the computer to perform the beam determination method in the first aspect.

In a sixteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer program instructions are stored, which, when run on the computer, cause the computer to perform the beam determination method in the second aspect.

In a seventeenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer program instructions are stored, which, when run on the computer, cause the computer to perform the beam determination method in the third aspect.

In an eighteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer program instructions are stored, and when the computer program instructions are run on the computer, the computer is caused to execute the beam determination method in the above fourth aspect.

In a nineteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the beam determination method of the first aspect described above.

In a twentieth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the beam determination method of the second aspect described above.

In a twenty-first aspect, the present application provides a computer program product, which includes computer program code to, when run on a computer, cause the computer to execute the beam determination method of the third aspect.

In a twenty-second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the beam determination method of the fourth aspect described above.

In a twenty-third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a chip including a processor. The processor is configured to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory to perform the communication method in any possible implementation manner of the first aspect or the second aspect. Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory, and the memory is connected with the processor through a circuit or a wire. Further optionally, the chip further comprises a communication interface, and the processor is connected to the communication interface. The communication interface is used for receiving data and/or information needing to be processed, the processor acquires the data and/or information from the communication interface, processes the data and/or information, and outputs a processing result through the communication interface. The communication interface may be an input output interface.

Alternatively, the processor and the memory may be physically separate units, or the memory and the processor may be integrated together.

By implementing the embodiment of the application, on one hand, long-distance coverage in a video return scene can be realized, uplink receiving interference can be inhibited, on the other hand, the access efficiency of users (namely STA) in a cell in the initial access process can be improved, and the access collision of the users (namely STA) in the initial access process can be avoided.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a WIFI wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 2a is a schematic data interaction diagram of an access process in passive mode according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2b is a schematic diagram of data interaction in an active mode access process according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a beam determination method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4a is a schematic diagram of a field carried by a Beacon frame according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4b is another schematic diagram of fields carried by a Beacon frame according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of fields carried by an authentication frame according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is another schematic flow chart of a beam determination method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is another schematic diagram of a field carried by a Beacon frame according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a further schematic flow chart of a beam determination method provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is still another schematic diagram of fields carried by a Beacon frame according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a configuration of the apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a schematic view of another embodiment of the apparatus provided in the present application;

FIG. 12 is a schematic view of another embodiment of the apparatus provided in the present application;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of yet another embodiment of an apparatus according to the present disclosure;

fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

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

In order to better understand the beam determination method provided in the embodiments of the present application, a system architecture of the beam determination method provided in the embodiments of the present application will be described below.

The beam determination method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to a wireless fidelity (WIFI) wireless communication system. Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a WIFI wireless communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the WIFI wireless communication system may include at least one AP and at least one STA (e.g., STA1 and STA2 in fig. 1). The AP in the WIFI wireless communication system has beam forming capability; the STA is equipped with a directional antenna and can transmit and receive signals in a specific beam direction, and the STA is also equipped with an omnidirectional antenna and can transmit and receive signals in a plurality of specific beam directions, but the STA does not have beam forming capability. Alternatively, the AP may communicate with the STA using a different beam. The AP and the STAs may be connected wirelessly, and one AP may be connected to one or more STAs and one STA is connected to one AP. The STAs may be fixed location or mobile. The AP in the embodiment of the present application may include a wireless router, a base station, and the like; the STA may include a terminal having a shooting function, such as a mobile phone, a computer, an IPAD, and a camera. The number of the APs and the STAs in the WIFI wireless communication system is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In some possible implementations, the WIFI wireless communication system provided by the embodiment of the present application may support two access technologies. One is an access technology based on Beacon (Beacon) frames or probe request (probe request) frames; another is a Trigger (Trigger) frame based access technique.

The access technology based on the Beacon frame or the probe request frame mainly comprises 3 steps: (1) A scanning (scan) stage, wherein the STA searches for the AP existing nearby through scanning (scanning); (2) In an authentication stage, after an STA selects a certain AP, identity authentication is initiated to the AP; (3) Association (association), the STA after passing identity authentication initiates an association procedure to the AP. The STA may establish a communication link with the AP through the above three steps, that is, the STA accesses the AP through the above three steps. After the communication link between the STA and the AP is established, the STA and the AP may transmit and receive data packets to and from each other.

Optionally, there are 2 scanning modes in the scanning phase, which are active (active) mode and passive (passive) mode respectively. In an active mode, an STA sequentially sends a probe request frame on each channel, where the probe request frame carries Service Set Identifier (SSID) information related to the STA, so as to find an AP with the same SSID. When the STA finds the AP with the same SSID, the authentication stage is entered, and only the STA passing the identity authentication can perform wireless access. In passive mode, the STA discovers the network by monitoring a Beacon frame periodically sent by the AP, where the Beacon identifies Basic Service Set (BSS) information associated with the AP, and the STA selects an AP to enter the authentication phase according to the BSS information identified by the Beacon frame.

Referring to fig. 2a, fig. 2a is a schematic data interaction diagram of an access process in passive mode according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 2a, the access procedure in passive mode comprises steps a-e. Step a, AP sends Beacon frame periodically; step b, STA sends authentication request to AP; step c, the AP returns an authentication response (authentication response) to the STA; step d, the STA sends an association request (association request) to the AP; in step e, the AP returns an association response (association response) to the STA. Referring to fig. 2b, fig. 2b is a schematic diagram of data interaction of an access process in an active mode according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 2b, the access procedure in active mode comprises steps f-k. Step f, the STA sends a probe request; step g, the AP returns a probe response (probe response) to the STA; step h, the STA sends an authentication request (authentication request) to the AP; step i, the AP returns an authentication response (authentication response) to the STA; step j, the STA sends an association request (association request) to the AP; at step k, the AP returns an association response (association response) to the STA.

The access technology based on the Trigger frame may also be referred to as Uplink (UL) random access (UL OFDMA-based random access) based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). When the AP performs uplink scheduling, random access resources may be allocated, and the STA may contend to send uplink data under the bandwidth where the random access resources are located. The AP can perform uplink scheduling by sending a Trigger frame, and the Trigger frame can carry random access resources allocated by the AP. After receiving the Trigger frame, the STA performs contention access according to an OFDMA Backoff (OBO) counter therein. When an OBO counter inside a certain STA is reduced to 0 and the idle channel is detected through a physical carrier and a virtual carrier, the STA sends an authentication frame on a random access resource carried by a Trigger frame.

In the two access technologies supported by the WIFI wireless communication system, on one hand, the STA cannot acquire beam information corresponding to the Beacon frame received at different times, and thus cannot determine the optimal beam for the AP and the STA to communicate. Even if the STA determines the optimal beam for the AP to communicate with the STA, the message reported by the STA in the access process does not carry corresponding beam information, and therefore the AP cannot determine the optimal beam corresponding to the STA. On the other hand, because the WIFI wireless communication system is accessed based on a contention mode, the signal attenuation is large when the signal of the remote STA reaches the AP, so that the remote STA is difficult to preempt the access resource for accessing. In addition, since STAs in different beam directions or different distances compete for access resources in the same beam direction at the same time, the short-range STA may preempt the access opportunity of the long-range STA, resulting in a long-time access failure and a prolonged access time for the long-range STA.

Therefore, the embodiment of the present application provides a beam determining method, which can determine an optimal beam for an AP to communicate with each STA, so as to meet the requirement for long-distance coverage and the requirement for uplink received interference suppression.

Understandably, the beam width of a signal refers to the angle between two maximum radiation directions when the radiation power is reduced by 3 decibels (dB) on both sides of the maximum radiation direction. The beam width may be divided into a horizontal beam width and a vertical beam width. The horizontal beam width refers to an included angle between two maximum radiation directions, wherein the radiation power is reduced by 3dB on two sides of the maximum radiation direction in the horizontal direction. The vertical beam width is the angle between the two maximum radiation directions at which the radiation power is reduced by 3dB on both sides of the maximum radiation direction in the vertical direction.

The wide beam referred to in the embodiments of the present application refers to a beam having a wide horizontal beam width, for example, a horizontal beam width of 45 to 120 degrees. The wide beam has a wide coverage range and is generally used for performing wide coverage of a broadcast signal. In contrast, the narrow beam referred to in the embodiments of the present application refers to a beam with a narrower horizontal beam width, for example, the horizontal beam width is 10 to 20 degrees. The narrow beam has higher beam gain and better sidelobe interference suppression capability than the wide beam, but the coverage range is narrower. Narrow beams are typically used for point-to-point communications.

In some possible embodiments, an AP in the embodiment of the present application may be equipped with a massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna for implementing beamforming; the STA may be equipped with a directional antenna or an omni-directional antenna, and may not have beamforming capability. In the embodiment of the present application, one AP may access multiple STAs simultaneously. For the same STA, the transmit beam and the receive beam of the AP may be the same beam or different beams. In the embodiment of the present application, a transmission beam and a reception beam used when the AP communicates with the STA may be multiplexed, that is, for a certain STA, a transmission beam used by the AP to transmit information/data to the STA and a reception beam used to receive information/data from the STA are the same beam. It is understood that a transmit beam refers to a beam used for transmitting information/data and a receive beam refers to a beam used for receiving information/data. It is also understood that the wide transmission beam mentioned in the embodiments of the present application refers to a wide beam used when information/data is transmitted, and the narrow transmission beam refers to a narrow beam used when information/data is transmitted.

In some possible embodiments, the received signal quality referred to in the embodiments of the present application may be reflected by a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) or a Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP). SINR may refer to a ratio of the received strength of a desired signal to the received strength of an interfering signal (including noise and interference). RSRP may refer to the average of the received signal power over all Resource Elements (REs) carrying reference signals within a certain symbol. Understandably, the larger the SINR or RSRP, the higher the received signal quality, whereas the smaller the SINR or RSRP, the lower the received signal quality.

It is understood that broadcast frames in WIFI wireless communication systems do not require a receiver Acknowledgement (ACK), whereas unicast frames typically require a receiver Acknowledgement (ACK). Therefore, the Beacon frame in the embodiment of the application is a broadcast frame, so that the receiving end does not need to feed back an ACK frame after receiving the Beacon frame; since the authentication frame in the embodiment of the present application is a unicast frame, after receiving the Beacon frame, the receiving end needs to feed back a corresponding ACK frame.

The beam determination method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 3 to 9.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a beam determination method provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 3, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application includes, but is not limited to, the following steps:

s301, the AP sends a plurality of Beacon frames by adopting beam polling. Accordingly, the STA receives a plurality of Beacon frames from the AP.

In some possible embodiments, the Beacon frame sent by the AP may carry a beam (beam) -related indication. Specifically, each Beacon frame transmitted by the AP may include a beam Identity (ID) of a transmission beam used for transmitting the Beacon frame. Wherein, one Beacon frame comprises one beam identifier. For example, if the AP sends a Beacon frame on beam1, the beam identifier included in the Beacon frame is beam1; the AP sends another Beacon frame on beam2, and the beam identifier included in the other Beacon frame is beam2. Optionally, each Beacon frame may further include at least one of the following information: a beam polling time period, a number of beams remaining from a beam poll within a current beam polling time period, or a total number of beams polled by a beam within a current beam polling time period. Wherein, all the beams polled by the AP beam are narrow beams, and the total number of the polled beams is greater than or equal to 2.

It should be noted that, the beam polling time period in the embodiment of the present application is also referred to as a Beacon beam polling period T _ BM (Beacon beam pattern cycle), which refers to a time required by the AP to complete a beam polling transmission of a Beacon frame. It can be understood that the Beacon frame in the embodiment of the present application may be sent periodically, that is, one Beacon frame is sent at intervals (where one interval refers to a Beacon period). For example, the AP has 8 narrow beams beam1-beam8, and the AP polls and transmits the Beacon frame on the 8 narrow beams beam1-beam8 in sequence. That is, the AP sends the 1 st Beacon frame on beam1, and then sends the 2 nd Beacon frame on beam2 after 1 Beacon period interval, and then sends the 3 rd Beacon frame on beam3 after 1 Beacon period interval, and so on, and after the AP sends the 7 th Beacon frame on beam7, it sends the 8 th Beacon frame on beam8 after 1 Beacon period interval. It can be seen that the beam polling time period (i.e., the Beacon beam polling period T _ BM) refers to the time required from when the AP transmits the 1 st Beacon frame on beam1 until after the AP transmits the 8 th Beacon frame on beam8, the time is spaced by 1 Beacon period.

In some possible implementations, the embodiments of the present application may indicate various information related to beams through fields carried by Beacon frames. In particular, a field carried by the Beacon frame may indicate a type of beam-related information. For example, the beam identifier of the transmission beam used by the AP to transmit the Beacon frame may be indicated by a field in the Beacon frame; the total number of beams polled by the beam within the current beam polling time period or the number of remaining beams may be indicated by another field in the Beacon frame; the beam polling time period may be indicated by yet another field in the Beacon frame.

It is understood that one field carried by the Beacon frame may also indicate various information related to the beam (e.g., beam identification, total number of beams, remaining number of beams, or beam polling time period, etc.). It will also be appreciated that the fields of the information associated with the beams that the Beacon frame includes may be newly added fields. It is also understood that the field lengths (unit is bit) of the fields of the various information related to the beam included in the Beacon frame may or may not be the same. It is also understood that the plurality of fields of the various information related to the beam included in the Beacon frame may be adjacent fields or non-adjacent fields.

Referring to fig. 4a, fig. 4a is a schematic diagram of fields carried by a Beacon frame according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 4a, a currentbeam ID (current Beam ID) field carried by a Beacon frame indicates a Beam identifier of a transmission Beam used by an AP to transmit the Beacon frame, and a Total Beam Num (Total number of beams) field carried by the Beacon frame indicates the Total number of beams polled by the beams in the current Beam polling time period; or Remaining Beam Num field carried by the Beacon frame indicates the Remaining number of beams polled for the Beam polling time period. The CurrentBeamID field in FIG. 4a is 3 bits long, and the Total Beam Num field or the Remaining Beam Num field is also 3 bits long.

Referring to fig. 4b, fig. 4b is another schematic diagram of fields carried by a Beacon frame according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4b, a currentbeam id field carried by the Beacon frame indicates a Beam identifier of a transmission Beam used by the AP to transmit the Beacon frame, and a Beacon Beam Pattern Cycle (Beacon Beam polling period) field carried by the Beacon frame indicates a Beam polling time period. In FIG. 4b, the CurrentBeamID field is 3 bits long, and the Beacon Beam Pattern Cycle field is 14 bits long.

It is understood that fig. 4a and 4b are only schematic diagrams, and in practical applications, other fields may be added to the Beacon frame to indicate various information related to the beam. It can also be understood that the length of the newly added field in the Beacon frame can also be set according to the actual application scenario. The embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

In some possible embodiments, the AP transmits multiple Beacon frames using beam polling, and the AP transmits one Beacon frame on one narrow transmission beam during one beam polling time period. Assuming that the AP has K different narrow transmission beams, the AP transmits K Beacon frames in total within one beam polling time period, and each Beacon frame of the K Beacon frames is transmitted by a different narrow transmission beam of the AP. Accordingly, the STA receives a plurality of Beacon frames from the AP. Because the AP uses a plurality of different narrow transmission beams to poll and transmit the Beacon frame, and the horizontal beam width of the narrow transmission beams is narrow (for example, the horizontal beam width is 10 to 20 degrees), and the coverage area is limited (that is, the coverage area is narrow), the number of Beacon frames received by STAs in different positions (the position here refers to a geographical position) or in different distances (the distance here refers to a distance between the STA and the AP) may be different. Each Beacon frame includes a beam identifier of a transmission beam used by the AP to transmit the Beacon frame. Optionally, each Beacon frame may further include at least one of a beam polling time period, a total number of beams polled by the beam in the current beam polling time period, or a remaining number of beams.

The embodiment of the application adopts the beam polling to send the Beacon frame so as to ensure that the STAs in different geographic positions or different distances can receive one or more Beacon frames.

For example, K equals 8 and the AP has 8 different narrow transmit beams, e.g., beam1-beam8. The AP sequentially transmits the Beacon frames on the 8 narrow transmission beams of beam1-beam8, and the AP transmits 8 Beacon frames in total in the beam polling time period. Taking 3 STAs as an example, the 3 STAs (e.g., STA1, STA2, and STA 3) are located in different geographical locations or at different distances from the AP. STA1 receives beam1, beam2 and the Beacon frame sent on beam3 from AP, and STA1 receives 3 Beacon frames in total; STA2 receives the Beacon frames sent by beam3 and beam4 from AP, and STA2 receives 2 Beacon frames in total; STA3 receives the Beacon frames sent on beam1-beam8 from the AP, and STA3 receives 8 Beacon frames in total. It is to be understood that, for convenience of description, the following description will be made by taking one STA as an example.

S302, the STA determines a first transmission beam from a plurality of transmission beams identified by a plurality of beam identifiers included in a plurality of Beacon frames.

In some possible embodiments, since each Beacon frame includes a beam identifier of a narrow transmission beam used by the AP to transmit the Beacon frame, the STA may measure, according to each received Beacon frame, a received signal quality (e.g., SINR or RSRP) corresponding to the narrow transmission beam identified by the beam identifier included in the Beacon frame. Because the STA measures the received signal quality corresponding to one narrow transmission beam according to one received Beacon frame, the STA can measure the received signal quality corresponding to a plurality of narrow transmission beams according to a plurality of received Beacon frames. The STA determines a first transmission beam (i.e., an optimal transmission beam) from a plurality of narrow transmission beams identified by a plurality of beam identifications included in a plurality of received Beacon frames according to received signal quality corresponding to the plurality of narrow transmission beams. Optionally, the STA may determine, as the first transmission beam, a narrow transmission beam with a largest received signal quality among the received signal qualities corresponding to the plurality of narrow transmission beams.

According to the embodiment of the application, the beam identifier of the narrow transmitting beam used for transmitting the Beacon frame is included in the Beacon frame, so that when the STA receives the Beacon frames at different moments, the STA can know the beam information corresponding to the Beacon frames at different moments, and the optimal transmitting beam (namely the first transmitting beam) for the communication between the AP and the STA is determined according to the quality of the receiving signals corresponding to the different narrow transmitting beams.

For example, suppose a STA receives 3 Beacon frames, the beam identifier included in the 1 st Beacon frame is beam1, the beam identifier included in the 2 nd Beacon frame is beam2, and the beam identifier included in the 3 rd Beacon frame is beam3. The STA measures the SINR corresponding to the beam1 according to the received 1 st Beacon frame, measures the SINR corresponding to the beam2 according to the received 2 nd Beacon frame, and measures the SINR corresponding to the beam3 according to the received 3 rd Beacon frame. The STA compares the size relationship among SINRs corresponding to beam1, beam2 and beam3. If the SINR corresponding to beam2 is the maximum, the STA uses beam2 as the optimal transmission beam (i.e., the first transmission beam) for the AP to communicate with the STA.

Optionally, each time the STA receives a Beacon frame, the STA may measure, based on the Beacon frame, the received signal quality corresponding to the narrow transmission beam identified by the beam identifier included in the Beacon frame. For example, each Beacon frame received by the STA includes a beam identifier of a narrow transmission beam transmitting the Beacon frame. Therefore, when the STA receives the 1 st Beacon frame, the STA measures the quality of a received signal corresponding to the beam1 for transmitting the 1 st Beacon frame according to the 1 st Beacon frame; and when the STA receives the 2 nd Beacon frame, measuring the quality of the received signal corresponding to the beam2 for transmitting the 2 nd Beacon frame according to the 2 nd Beacon frame. Therefore, the STA does not need to wait for all Beacon frames to be received, and then measures the quality of the received signal corresponding to the transmission beam according to each received Beacon frame.

In some possible embodiments, each Beacon frame includes not only the beam identifier of the narrow transmission beam used by the AP to transmit the Beacon frame, but also the total number of beams polled by the beam in the current beam polling time period or the remaining number of beams. The STA may detect whether the number of Beacon frames corresponding to different currently received beams is equal to the total number of beams included in any Beacon frame. And if the number of Beacon frames corresponding to the currently received different beams is equal to the total number of the beams, the STA determines that all the narrow transmission beams of the AP complete beam polling. When it is determined that all the narrow transmission beams of the AP have completed the beam polling, the STA determines, as the first transmission beam, a narrow transmission beam having the largest received signal quality among the received signal qualities corresponding to the plurality of narrow transmission beams. And if the number of Beacon frames corresponding to the currently received different beams is less than the total number of the beams, the STA determines that all the narrow transmission beams of the AP do not complete beam polling. Under the condition that it is determined that all narrow transmission beams of the AP do not complete beam polling, the STA continues to receive Beacon frames transmitted by the AP through beam polling until the number of Beacon frames corresponding to different beams received by the STA is equal to the total number of beams.

Optionally, the STA detects whether the number of remaining beams included in the currently received Beacon frame is 0. If the number of remaining beams included in the currently received Beacon frame is 0, the STA determines that all narrow transmission beams of the AP complete beam polling. When it is determined that all the narrow transmission beams of the AP have completed the beam polling, the STA determines, as the first transmission beam, a narrow transmission beam having the largest received signal quality among the received signal qualities corresponding to the plurality of narrow transmission beams. If the number of remaining beams included in the currently received Beacon frame is greater than 0, the STA determines that all the narrow transmission beams of the AP do not complete beam polling. Under the condition that all narrow transmission beams of the AP are determined not to complete beam polling, the STA continues to receive the Beacon frame transmitted by the AP by adopting the beam polling until the number of the residual beams included in the Beacon frame received by the STA is 0.

In other possible embodiments, each Beacon frame includes not only the beam identifier of the narrow transmission beam used by the AP to transmit the Beacon frame, but also a beam polling time period. Because the Beacon frame is periodically transmitted and includes a Beacon period (Beacon interval), the STA may calculate the total number of beams polled by the beam in the current beam polling time period according to the beam polling time period and the Beacon period (here, the transmission time interval of 2 adjacent Beacon frames) included in the Beacon frame. The STA may determine whether all the transmission beams of the AP complete beam polling according to the number of Beacon frames currently received and the total number of the beams.

Optionally, the STA may also start timing after receiving the first Beacon frame, and when the duration of the timing is greater than or equal to a beam polling time period included in any Beacon frame, the STA may determine that all narrow transmission beams of the AP complete beam polling. When the time length of the timing is less than the beam polling time period included in any Beacon frame, the STA may determine that all narrow transmission beams of the AP do not complete beam polling. If it is determined that all the narrow transmission beams of the AP complete the beam polling, the STA may determine, as the first transmission beam, a narrow transmission beam having a largest received signal quality among the received signal qualities corresponding to the plurality of narrow transmission beams. If it is determined that the beam polling is not completed by all the narrow transmission beams of the AP, the STA continues to receive the Beacon frame transmitted by the AP by adopting the beam polling until all the narrow transmission beams of the AP complete the beam polling.

Wherein, the total number of beams may be equal to a value obtained by rounding a quotient value of the beam polling time period and the Beacon period. For example, the beam polling time period is 20ms, the beacon period is 5ms, and the total number of beams is [20/5] =4. For another example, if the beam polling time period is 20ms and the beacon period is 3ms, the total number of beams is [20/3] =6, and [ x ] represents rounding x.

In some possible embodiments, each time an STA receives a Beacon frame, the STA measures, according to the received Beacon frame, a received signal quality (such as SINR or RSRP) corresponding to a narrow transmission beam corresponding to the Beacon frame, and compares a magnitude relationship between the received signal quality corresponding to the narrow transmission beam corresponding to the Beacon frame and a quality threshold. And if the quality of the received signal corresponding to the narrow transmission beam is greater than or equal to the quality threshold value, the STA determines the narrow transmission beam corresponding to the Beacon frame as the first transmission beam. Optionally, after the STA determines the first transmission beam, it may not receive the Beacon frame from the AP any more or discard the subsequently received Beacon frame. The quality threshold may be set according to actual service requirements. The quality threshold value may also be carried in a Beacon frame and notified to the STA by the AP. The quality threshold may be used to reflect whether the measured received signal quality meets the service requirement, that is, if the measured received signal quality is greater than or equal to the quality threshold, the measured received signal quality is considered to meet the service requirement; and if the measured received signal quality is less than the quality threshold value, the measured received signal quality is considered not to meet the service requirement.

For example, suppose the AP transmits a Beacon frame on the 8 narrow transmit beams beam1-beam8 in sequence. Each Beacon frame includes a beam identifier of a transmission beam for transmitting the Beacon frame. After receiving the 1 st Beacon frame, the STA measures the SINR corresponding to the beam1 for transmitting the 1 st Beacon frame according to the 1 st Beacon frame. Assuming that the SINR corresponding to beam1 is less than the preset quality threshold, the STA waits for receiving the 2 nd Beacon frame. After the STA receives the 2 nd Beacon frame, the STA measures the SINR corresponding to the beam2 for transmitting the 2 nd Beacon frame according to the 2 nd Beacon frame. And if the SINR corresponding to the beam2 is still smaller than the preset quality threshold value, the STA waits for receiving the 3 rd Beacon frame. After the STA receives the 3 rd Beacon frame, the STA measures the SINR corresponding to the beam3 for sending the 3 rd Beacon frame according to the 3 rd Beacon frame. Assuming that SINR corresponding to beam3 is greater than or equal to a preset quality threshold, the STA uses the beam3 for transmitting the 3 rd Beacon frame as an optimal transmission beam (i.e., a first transmission beam) for the AP to communicate with the STA, and does not wait for receiving the Beacon frame, or discard the subsequently received Beacon frame (e.g., the 4 th or 5 th Beacon frame), or does not process the subsequently received Beacon frame.

S303, the STA sends the initial access information to the AP. Accordingly, the AP receives initial access information from the STA.

In some possible embodiments, the initial access information may be an authentication frame, and a physical layer structure of the authentication frame may be a single user physical protocol data unit (SU PPDU). The initial access information may include the beam identifier of the first transmission beam, that is, the authentication frame includes the beam identifier of the first transmission beam.

In some possible implementations, the beam identifier of the first transmission beam may be indicated by a field carried by the authentication frame in the embodiments of the present application. Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of fields carried by an authentication frame according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5, the BestBeamID (optimal beam identification) field carried by the authentication frame indicates the beam identification of the first transmission beam. The BestBeamID field in fig. 5 is 3 bits in length. It is understood that fig. 5 is only a schematic diagram, and in practical applications, other fields may be added to the authentication frame to indicate the beam identification of the first transmission beam. It is also understood that the length of the newly added field in the authentication frame can also be set according to the actual application scenario. The embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

In some possible embodiments, the STA may transmit an authentication frame (i.e., initial access information) to the STA after determining the first transmission beam. Accordingly, the AP receives an authentication frame from the STA. In the embodiment of the application, the determined optimal transmission beam (i.e., the first transmission beam) is notified to the AP through the authentication frame, so that the AP determines the optimal transmission beam (i.e., the first transmission beam) corresponding to the STA, thereby ensuring the quality of a received signal communicated with the STA by using the optimal transmission beam (i.e., the first transmission beam), and further realizing long-distance coverage and suppressing uplink reception interference.

In some possible embodiments, since the authentication frame is a unicast frame, after the AP receives the authentication frame, an ACK frame may be returned to the STA, which is used to confirm that the AP has received the authentication frame. Optionally, the AP may use a default cell-level beam (e.g., a wide transmit beam) to transmit an ACK frame corresponding to the authentication frame.

S304, the AP analyzes the initial access information to obtain the beam identification of the first sending beam carried in the initial access information.

S305, the AP communicates with the STA using a first transmission beam.

In some possible embodiments, after receiving the authentication frame (i.e., the initial access information), the AP may parse the authentication frame to obtain the beam identifier of the first transmission beam carried by the authentication frame. It can be understood that the authentication frame transmitted by the STA may also be referred to as an authentication request, so the AP may use the first transmission beam to return an authentication response to the STA. Optionally, after receiving the authentication response, the STA may send an association request to the STA. After receiving the association request, the AP may return an association response using the first transmit beam. At this time, the communication link establishment between the AP and the STA is completed. After the communication link between the STA and the AP is established, the AP may transmit a data packet to the STA by using the first transmission beam.

In some possible embodiments, if the geographical location of a certain STA changes or the distance between a certain STA and the AP changes, the STA performs the steps S302 to S304 again, that is, the STA determines the optimal transmission beam again according to the received Beacon frame and reports the optimal transmission beam to the AP again. And the AP takes the optimal sending beam newly reported by the STA as a sending beam for subsequently scheduling the STA, namely the AP adopts the optimal sending beam newly reported by the STA to communicate with the STA.

As an alternative, the AP uses beam polling to transmit multiple Beacon frames, and because of the geographical location of the STA, the STA may only receive one Beacon frame. If the STA receives only one Beacon frame from the AP, the STA may determine the narrow transmission beam identified by the beam identifier included in the received Beacon frame as the first transmission beam (i.e., the optimal transmission beam). The STA may carry the beam id of the first transmission beam in an authentication frame and transmit the authentication frame to the AP. After receiving the authentication frame, the AP may analyze the authentication frame to obtain a beam identifier of the first transmission beam carried by the authentication frame, and may communicate with the STA by using the first transmission beam, that is, the first transmission beam is used as a transmission beam for subsequently scheduling the STA.

In the embodiment of the application, the AP sends a plurality of Beacon frames by adopting beam polling, and each Beacon frame carries a narrow sending beam used for sending the Beacon frame; the STA receives a plurality of Beacon frames from the AP, measures the quality of a received signal corresponding to the narrow transmitting beam according to each received Beacon frame, and determines an optimal transmitting beam (namely a first transmitting beam) from the narrow transmitting beams according to the quality of the received signal corresponding to the narrow transmitting beams; the STA carries the beam identification of the optimal transmission beam (namely the first transmission beam) in an authentication frame and transmits the authentication frame to the AP; the AP parses the authentication frame received from the STA and determines the optimal transmit beam (i.e., the first transmit beam) for subsequently scheduling the STA. According to the embodiment of the application, the wave beam identification of the narrow transmitting wave beam used for transmitting the Beacon frame is carried in the Beacon frame, so that the STA selects the optimal transmitting wave beam facing the STA for the AP according to the receiving signal quality corresponding to different narrow transmitting wave beams, and the optimal transmitting wave beam is informed to the AP through the authentication frame, thereby being beneficial to improving the signal quality in the communication between the AP and the STA, and the optimal transmitting wave beam is the narrow wave beam, being beneficial to providing 3-5 dB receiving wave beam gain and 13dB interference side lobe suppression, further improving the access performance of the long-distance STA, and realizing long-distance coverage and uplink receiving interference suppression.

As an optional embodiment, the beam determination method provided in the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to an access technology based on a Trigger frame. Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is another schematic flow chart of a beam determination method provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application includes, but is not limited to, the following steps:

s401, the AP sends a plurality of Beacon frames by adopting beam polling. Accordingly, the STA receives a plurality of Beacon frames from the AP.

In some possible implementations, the implementation manner of step S401 in the embodiment of the present application may refer to the implementation manner of step S301 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and is not described herein again.

S402, the AP sends multiple Trigger frames using at least 2 different narrow sending beams. Accordingly, the STA receives multiple Trigger frames from the AP.

In some possible embodiments, each Beacon frame may include not only a beam identifier of a narrow transmission beam used by the AP to transmit the Beacon frame, but also time information of the Trigger frame and a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame. One of the Beacon frames includes a beam id. The time information of the Trigger frame may include a time offset between the transmission time (here, transmission start time) of the first Trigger frame and the transmission time (here, transmission start time) of the Beacon frame, and a transmission time interval (here, interval of transmission start times) of two adjacent Trigger frames. For example, the time information of the Trigger frame included in the 1 st Beacon frame sent by the AP is: the time offset between the sending start time of the first Trigger frame and the sending start time of the 1 st Beacon frame, and the interval between the sending start times of two adjacent Trigger frames. Similarly, the time information of the Trigger frame included in the 2 nd Beacon frame sent by the AP is: the time offset between the sending start time of the first Trigger frame and the sending start time of the 2 nd Beacon frame, and the interval between the sending start times of two adjacent Trigger frames. The beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame may include a start beam identifier and an end beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame.

For example, assuming that the start beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame is beam3 and the end beam identifier is beam8, the beam identifier corresponding to the 1 st Trigger frame is beam3, the beam identifier corresponding to the 2 nd Trigger frame is beam4, the beam identifier corresponding to the 3 rd Trigger frame is beam5, and so on, and the beam identifier corresponding to the 6 th Trigger frame is beam8.

Alternatively, the time information of the Trigger frame may directly include the transmission time (here, transmission start time) of each Trigger frame. It can be understood that, since the Beacon frame carries a complete broadcast message, and the frame length in the time domain is about 400us (microseconds), the Beacon frame includes the time offset and the time interval of the Trigger frame, and the frame length of the Beacon frame can be reduced compared with the transmission time directly including each Trigger frame.

Optionally, each Beacon frame may equivalently indicate a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame by carrying a beam identifier corresponding to an access time window (i.e., a UORA time window). Since information of an access time window (referred to as a UORA time window) is carried in a Trigger frame, that is, the access time window and the Trigger frame are in a one-to-one correspondence relationship, a beam identifier corresponding to the access time window (referred to as the UORA time window) carried by the Beacon frame is equivalent to a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame. Optionally, the beam identifier corresponding to the access time window (i.e. the UORA time window) may include a start beam identifier and an end beam identifier corresponding to the access time window (i.e. the UORA time window).

For example, assume that the start beam identifier is beam3 and the end beam identifier is beam8 corresponding to the access time window. The beam identifier corresponding to the 1 st access time window is beam3, which indicates that the beam identifier corresponding to the 1 st Trigger frame is also beam3; a beam identifier corresponding to the 2 nd access time window is beam4, which indicates that a beam identifier corresponding to the 2 nd Trigger frame is also beam4; the beam identifier corresponding to the 3 rd access time window is beam5, which means that the beam identifier corresponding to the 3 rd Trigger frame is also beam5, and so on, the beam identifier corresponding to the 6 th access time window is beam8, which means that the beam identifier corresponding to the 6 th Trigger frame is also beam8.

In some feasible embodiments, the time information of the Trigger frame and the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame (or the beam identifier corresponding to the UORA time window) may be indicated by a field carried by the Beacon frame in the embodiments of the present application. Specifically, the time information of the Trigger frame may be indicated by one or more fields carried by the Beacon frame, and the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame (or the beam identifier corresponding to the UORA time window) may also be indicated by another one or more fields carried by the Beacon frame.

It can be understood that the field lengths of the fields in the Beacon frame, which are used for indicating the time information of the Trigger frame, and the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame (or the beam identifier corresponding to the UORA time window) may be the same or different. It is further understood that one or more fields in the Beacon frame indicating the time information of the Trigger frame and indicating the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame (or the beam identifier corresponding to the UORA time window) may be newly added fields. It is further understood that the field in the Beacon frame indicating the time information of the Trigger frame and the field indicating the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame (or the beam identifier corresponding to the UORA time window) may be adjacent fields, or may be non-adjacent fields. It is also understood that one or more fields in the Beacon frame indicating the time information of the Trigger frame and one or more fields indicating the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame are not limited in the sequence of the Beacon frame.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is another schematic diagram of fields carried by a Beacon frame according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 7, the Trigger Uora Offset field carried by the Beacon frame indicates the time Offset between the sending time of the first Trigger frame and the sending time of the Beacon frame; a Trigger Uora Interval field carried by the Beacon frame indicates the transmission time Interval of two adjacent Trigger frames. The UORA Start Beam Index (UORA Start Beam number) field carried by the Beacon frame indicates the Start Beam ID corresponding to the UORA time window, and the UORA End Beam Index (UORA End Beam number) field carried by the Beacon frame indicates the End Beam ID corresponding to the UORA time window. Both the length of the Trigger Uora Offset field and the length of the Trigger Uora Interval field in fig. 7 are 14 bits; the UORA Start Beam Index field and the UORA End Beam Index field are both 6 bits in length.

It can be understood that fig. 7 is only a schematic diagram, and in practical applications, other fields may be added to the Beacon frame to indicate the time information of the Trigger frame and the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame (or the beam identifier corresponding to the UORA time window). It can also be understood that the length of the newly added field in the Beacon frame can also be set according to the actual application scenario. The embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

In some possible embodiments, the AP may send the Trigger frame using a narrow transmit beam corresponding to the Trigger frame (or UORA time window) configured in the Beacon frame by itself. The narrow transmission beams corresponding to Trigger frames (or UORA time windows) configured in the Beacon frame include at least 2 different narrow transmission beams, and each narrow transmission beam transmits at least one Trigger frame. Specifically, assuming that a narrow transmission beam corresponding to a Trigger frame configured by the AP is beam3-beam8, the AP uses beam3 to transmit a1 st Trigger frame, uses beam4 to transmit a2 nd Trigger frame, uses beam5 to transmit a3 rd Trigger frame, uses beam6 to transmit a 4 th Trigger frame, uses beam7 to transmit a 5 th Trigger frame, uses beam8 to transmit a 6 th Trigger frame, and the AP transmits 6 Trigger frames in total.

It can be understood that when the AP sends the Trigger frame, the AP may also send the Trigger frame periodically, that is, after the AP sends a Trigger frame, another Trigger frame is sent at a certain time interval, that is, a time interval may exist between the sending completion time of the previous Trigger frame and the sending start time of the next Trigger frame. The time interval may be the size of an access time window corresponding to a previous Trigger frame.

Accordingly, the STA may receive multiple Trigger frames from the AP and may record the time of receipt of each Trigger frame. Because the AP uses the narrow transmission beam to transmit the Trigger frame, and the horizontal beam width of the narrow transmission beam is narrow (for example, the horizontal beam width is 10 to 20 degrees), and the coverage is limited (that is, the coverage is narrow), the number of Trigger frames received by STAs in different positions (where the position refers to a geographical position) or different distances (where the distance refers to a distance between the STA and the AP) may be different. Each Trigger frame may carry a frame length of the Trigger frame and a duration (i.e., a size) of an access time window (or UORA time window).

S403, the STA determines a first transmission beam from a plurality of transmission beams identified by a plurality of beam identifications included in a plurality of Beacon frames.

In some possible implementations, the implementation manner of step S403 in the embodiment of the present application may refer to the implementation manner of step S302 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and is not described herein again.

In some possible embodiments, step S402 may be performed before step S403, step S402 may be performed after step S403, step S402 may be performed at the same time as step S403, and so on in the present embodiment. The execution sequence between step S402 and step S403 is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

And S404, the STA determines a target Trigger frame corresponding to a first sending beam from the received multiple Trigger frames according to the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame included in the Beacon frame.

In some possible embodiments, the STA determines the expected receiving time of each Trigger frame according to the time information of the Trigger frame included in any received Beacon frame. And the STA determines a target Trigger frame corresponding to the first transmitting beam from the received multiple Trigger frames according to the expected receiving time of each Trigger frame and the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame included in any received Beacon frame.

For example, assuming that the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame is beam3-beam8, the beam identifier corresponding to the 1 st Trigger frame is beam3, the beam identifier corresponding to the 2 nd Trigger frame is beam4, the beam identifier corresponding to the 3 rd Trigger frame is beam5, and so on, and the beam identifier corresponding to the 6 th Trigger frame is beam8. The time information of the Trigger frame included in the Beacon frame i is assumed as follows: the time offset between the sending time of the 1 st Trigger frame and the sending time of the Beacon frame i is 10ms, and the sending time interval of the adjacent 2 Trigger frames is 2ms. Suppose that the time when the STA receives Beacon frame i is 15ms. Therefore, the expected receiving time of the 1 st Trigger frame is the sum of the time when the STA receives the Beacon frame i and the time offset, that is, at 15+10= 25ms. The expected receiving time of the 2 nd Trigger frame is the sum of the expected receiving time and the sending time interval of the 1 st Trigger frame, i.e. at 25+2= 27ms. The expected receiving time of the 3 rd Trigger frame is the sum of the expected receiving time and the sending time interval of the 2 nd Trigger frame, that is, 27+2= 29ms. By analogy, the expected receiving time of the 6 th Trigger frame is the sum of the expected receiving time and the sending time interval of the 5 th Trigger frame, that is, 33+2= 35ms. Assuming that the first transmission beam is beam5, the target Trigger frame corresponding to the first transmission beam is the 3 rd Trigger frame, that is, the target Trigger frame corresponding to the first transmission beam is the Trigger frame received by the STA between 29ms and 31 ms.

S405, the STA determines the sending start time of the target Trigger frame according to the time information of the Trigger frame included by the Beacon frame and the receiving time of the target Trigger frame.

And S406, the STA determines a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame according to the target Trigger frame and the sending start time of the target Trigger frame.

In some possible embodiments, each time the STA receives a Trigger frame, the time of receiving the Trigger frame may be recorded (where the time of receiving is the time when the STA actually receives the Trigger frame). The STA may determine the transmission start time of the target Trigger frame according to the reception time of the target Trigger frame and the time information of the Trigger frame included in any received Beacon frame.

For example, suppose that the time information of the Trigger frame included in the Beacon frame i is: the time offset between the sending time of the 1 st Trigger frame and the sending time of the Beacon frame i is 10ms, and the sending time interval of the adjacent 2 Trigger frames is 2ms. Suppose that the time when the STA receives Beacon frame i is 15ms. Therefore, the expected receiving time of the 1 st Trigger frame may be the sum of the time when the STA receives the Beacon frame i and the time offset, that is, at 15+10= 25ms. The expected receiving time of the 2 nd Trigger frame is the sum of the expected receiving time and the sending time interval of the 1 st Trigger frame, that is, 25+2= 27ms. The expected receiving time of the 3 rd Trigger frame is the sum of the expected receiving time and the sending time interval of the 2 nd Trigger frame, that is, 27+2= 29ms. By analogy, the expected receiving time of the 6 th Trigger frame sent by the AP is the sum of the expected receiving time of the 5 th Trigger frame and the sending time interval, that is, 33+2= 35ms. Assuming that the actual receiving time of the target Trigger frame is 30ms, the STA matches the actual receiving time of the target Trigger frame in the expected receiving time of each Trigger frame to find the sending start time of the target Trigger frame. Since the actual receiving time 30ms of the target Trigger frame is between the expected receiving time 29ms and the expected receiving time 31ms, the sending start time of the target Trigger frame is 29ms.

Optionally, if the actual receiving time of the target Trigger frame is the same as a certain expected receiving time, the sending start time of the target Trigger frame is the expected receiving time. For example, the actual receiving time of the target Trigger frame is 25ms, and the sending start time of the target Trigger frame is 25ms.

After the STA determines the transmission start time of the target Trigger frame, the STA may determine the sum of the transmission start time of the target Trigger frame and a frame length (here, a frame length in a time domain, and a unit is a time unit, such as us, ms, and the like) included in the target Trigger frame as the transmission completion time of the target Trigger frame. The STA may obtain a preset short interframe space (SIFS), and may use the sum of the transmission completion time of the target Trigger frame and the SIFS as the starting point position of a target access time window (or target UORA time window) corresponding to the target Trigger frame (where the starting point position refers to the time starting point of the access time window). The STA may determine the target access time window according to the starting position of the target access time window and the size (instantaneous length) of the target access time window included in the target Trigger frame.

The end position of the target access time window (here, the end position refers to the time end of the access time window) may be the sum of the start position of the target access time window and the size (i.e., the length) of the target access time window. For example, if the starting position of the target access time window is at 4ms, and the size (i.e. the length) of the target access time window is 200us, the target access time window is 4ms-4.2ms. SIFS may be used to separate frames belonging to a conversation. Frame types using SIFS are: ACK frame, clear To Send (CTS) frame, data frame fragmented by MAC frame that is too long, and all frames that answer AP polling, etc.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the length of the physical layer signal carried by the Trigger frame (where the length of the physical layer signal carried by the Trigger frame is equal to the frame length of the Trigger frame) is indicated by the L-SIG. The size (i.e., the instantaneous Length) of the access time window included in the Trigger frame may be indicated by an uplink Length subfield (UL Length subfield of the common field) of the common information field.

S407, the STA sends initial access information to the AP in the target access time window. Accordingly, the AP receives the initial access information transmitted by the STA within the target access time window.

In some possible embodiments, the initial access information may be an authentication frame, and a physical layer structure of the authentication frame may be a Trigger-based physical protocol data unit (TB PPDU).

In some possible embodiments, after determining the target access time window, the STA may send an authentication frame (i.e., initial access information) to the AP within the target access time window. Accordingly, the AP receives the authentication frame sent by the STA within the target access time window.

According to the method and the device, the authentication frame is returned to the AP in the target access time window to implicitly inform the AP and the STA of the determined optimal sending wave beam (namely the first sending wave beam), a field does not need to be added in the authentication frame to indicate the determined optimal sending wave beam of the STA, and different STAs can be adapted to different random access resources (here, the access time window), so that the successful receiving probability of uplink access information (such as the authentication frame) is improved, and the collision probability of STA access is reduced.

S408, the AP determines a target access time window corresponding to the receiving time of the initial access information.

And S409, the AP communicates with the STA by adopting the first transmitting beam corresponding to the target access time window.

In some possible embodiments, the AP may record the reception time of the authentication frame (i.e., the initial access information). Since the AP knows the time information of the Trigger frame configured by the AP and the size (instantaneous length) of the access time window configured for each Trigger frame, the AP can determine the access time window corresponding to each Trigger frame. Therefore, the AP may use an access time window including the receiving time of the authentication frame in the access time windows corresponding to the multiple Trigger frames as the target access time window. Since the AP knows the transmission beam used for transmitting each Trigger frame, that is, the transmission beam corresponding to each access time window (or UORA time window), the AP can determine the transmission beam corresponding to the target access time window (i.e., the first transmission beam). The AP may communicate with the STA using the first transmit beam.

The embodiment of the application determines the optimal sending wave beam for the communication between the AP and the STA directly according to the time for receiving the authentication frame by the AP, and can ensure the quality of the received signals for the communication between the AP and the STA by adopting the optimal sending wave beam, thereby realizing remote coverage and inhibiting uplink receiving interference.

For example, suppose that the AP respectively uses beam3-beam5 to send Trigger frames, and each beam sends 1 Trigger frame, and totally 3 Trigger frames. An access time window corresponding to the 1 st Trigger frame is assumed to be 25ms-26ms, an access time window corresponding to the 2 nd Trigger frame is assumed to be 27ms-28ms, and an access time window corresponding to the 3 rd Trigger frame is assumed to be 29ms-30ms. Assuming that the time for receiving the authentication frame by the AP is 25.1ms, the AP determines that the access time window including the 25.1ms is 25ms to 26ms, i.e., the target access time window is 25ms to 26ms. Since the transmission beam used by the AP to transmit the 1 st Trigger frame is beam3, that is, the transmission beam corresponding to the access time window (i.e., the access time window corresponding to the 1 st Trigger frame) 25ms-26ms is beam3, the transmission beam corresponding to the target access time window 25ms-26ms (i.e., the first transmission beam) is beam3. The AP uses beam3 as a transmission beam for subsequently scheduling the STA, that is, the AP uses beam3 to communicate with the STA.

In the embodiment of the application, the AP sends a plurality of Beacon frames by adopting beam polling, and continuously sends a plurality of Trigger frames by adopting at least 2 different sending beams, wherein each Beacon frame carries the sending beam used for sending the Beacon frame; the STA measures the quality of a received signal on a transmitting beam according to each received Beacon frame, and determines an optimal transmitting beam (namely a first transmitting beam) from a plurality of transmitting beams according to the quality of the received signal on the plurality of transmitting beams; the STA determines a target Trigger frame corresponding to a first transmitting beam from a plurality of received Trigger frames according to a beam identifier corresponding to a Trigger frame included in any Beacon frame, and determines the transmitting start time of the target Trigger frame according to the receiving time of the target Trigger frame and the time information of the Trigger frame included in any Beacon frame; the STA calculates a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame according to the target Trigger frame, the SIFS and the sending start time of the target Trigger frame; the STA sends an authentication frame to the AP in a target access time window; the AP determines the optimal transmit beam for the AP to communicate with the STA directly from the time of receiving the authentication frame. In the embodiment of the application, the sending beam used for sending the Beacon frame and the sending beam corresponding to the Trigger frame (or the UORA time window or the random access resource) are carried in the Beacon frame, and the STA selects the corresponding random access resource (herein, the access time window) for access based on the beam selection result without adding a field in the authentication frame to indicate the beam selection result of the STA. Not only can different STAs be adapted to different random access resources, the successful receiving probability of uplink access messages (such as authentication frames) is improved, and the collision probability of STA access is reduced; the quality of received signals communicated with the STA by adopting the optimal transmitting beam in the beam selection result can be ensured, 3-5 dB of receiving beam gain and 13dB of interference side lobe suppression are provided through the narrow beam, the access performance of the long-distance STA is improved, the uplink coverage is enhanced, and therefore the long-distance coverage and the uplink receiving interference suppression are achieved.

As another optional embodiment, the beam determining method provided in the embodiment of the present application may determine an optimal beam for the AP to communicate with each STA, so as to meet the requirement for long-distance coverage and the requirement for uplink interference suppression; the STA with different beam directions or different distances can be adapted to different access resources, so that the access failure times and the access time delay of the remote STA are reduced, and the overall access efficiency of the STA in the cell is improved.

Referring to fig. 8, fig. 8 is a further schematic flowchart of a beam determination method provided in the embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 8, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application includes, but is not limited to, the following steps:

s501, the AP sends a Beacon frame by adopting beam polling. Accordingly, the STA receives at least one Beacon frame from the AP.

In some possible embodiments, each Beacon frame may carry an indication related to a Trigger frame. Specifically, the Beacon frame may include time information of a Trigger frame and number information of the Trigger frame. The time information of Trigger frames may include a time offset between a transmission time (here, transmission start time) of a first Trigger frame and a transmission time (here, transmission start time) of a Beacon frame, and a transmission time interval (here, interval of transmission start times) of two adjacent Trigger frames. The number information of the Trigger frames comprises the number of Trigger frames transmitted by adopting wide transmission beams and the number of Trigger frames transmitted by adopting narrow transmission beams.

Optionally, each Beacon frame may further include a signal quality threshold (i.e., RSRPthres). The signal quality threshold may be used to distinguish between long-range STAs and short-range STAs. It is understood that the distance here refers to the distance between the AP and the STA, and the long-distance STA and the short-distance STA are relative concepts, for example, the STA whose received signal quality is greater than or equal to the signal quality threshold is considered as the short-distance STA; otherwise, it is considered as a distant STA.

Optionally, each Beacon frame may equivalently indicate the number information of Trigger frames by carrying the number information of an access time window (i.e., a UORA time window). Since one piece of access time window (referred to as a UORA time window) information is carried in one Trigger frame, the number information of the access time windows (i.e., the UORA time windows) is the same as the number information of the Trigger frames. Alternatively, the information on the number of access time windows (i.e., UORA time windows) may include the number of access time windows (i.e., UORA time windows) transmitted using the wide transmission beam and the number of access time windows (i.e., UORA time windows) transmitted using the narrow transmission beam.

For example, if the number of access time windows transmitted by using the wide transmission beam is 4 and the number of access time windows transmitted by using the narrow transmission beam is 5, it is described that the number of Trigger frames transmitted by using the wide transmission beam is 4 and the number of Trigger frames transmitted by using the narrow transmission beam is 5.

In some possible embodiments, the information related to the Trigger frame and the signal quality threshold value may be indicated by a field carried by the Beacon frame in the embodiments of the present application. Specifically, the time information of the Trigger frame may be indicated by one or more fields carried by the Beacon frame, and the number information of the Trigger frame (or the number information of the UORA time window) may also be indicated by another one or more fields carried by the Beacon frame. The signal quality threshold value may be indicated by yet another field carried by the Beacon frame.

It can be understood that the field lengths of the fields in the Beacon frame for indicating the Trigger frame correlation information and the signal quality threshold may be the same or different. It is further understood that the fields in the Beacon frame indicating the Trigger frame related information and the signal quality threshold may be newly added fields. It is further understood that the field indicating the time information of the Trigger frame, the field indicating the number information of the Trigger frame, and the field indicating the signal quality threshold in the Beacon frame may be adjacent fields or non-adjacent fields. It can also be understood that the fields in the Beacon frame indicating the time information of the Trigger frame, the fields indicating the number information of the Trigger frame, and the fields indicating the signal quality threshold value are not limited in the front-back order in the Beacon frame.

Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 is still another schematic diagram of fields carried by a Beacon frame according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, a Trigger Uora Offset field carried by a Beacon frame indicates a time Offset between the sending time of the first Trigger frame and the sending time of the Beacon frame; a Trigger Uora Interval field carried by the Beacon frame indicates a transmission time Interval between two adjacent Trigger frames. The WbeamRecvWindowNum (the number of wide beam receiving windows) field carried by the Beacon frame indicates the number of UORA time windows transmitted by adopting wide transmitting beams; the nbeamrecvwindownnum (number of narrow beam receive windows) field carried by the Beacon frame indicates the number of UORA time windows transmitted using the narrow transmit beam. The RSRPthres (RSRP threshold) field carried by the Beacon frame indicates the signal quality threshold value. Both the length of the Trigger Uora Offset field and the length of the Trigger Uora Interval field in fig. 9 are 14 bits; the length of the WbeamRecvWindowNum field and the NbeamRecvWindowNum field are both 3 bits; the RSRPthres field is 7 bits long.

It can be understood that fig. 9 is only a schematic diagram, and in practical applications, other fields may be added to the Beacon frame to indicate Trigger frame related information and a signal quality threshold. It can also be understood that the length of the newly added field in the Beacon frame can also be set according to the actual application scenario. The embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

In some possible embodiments, the AP transmits the Beacon frame using beam polling, and the AP transmits a Beacon frame on a narrow transmission beam during a beam polling time period (i.e., beacon beam polling period T _ BM). Assuming that the AP has K different narrow transmission beams, the AP transmits K Beacon frames in total within one beam polling time period, and each Beacon frame of the K Beacon frames is transmitted by a different narrow transmission beam of the AP. Accordingly, the STA receives at least one Beacon frame from the AP. Since the AP uses a plurality of different narrow transmission beams to poll and transmit the Beacon frame, and since the horizontal beam width of the narrow transmission beam is narrow (for example, the horizontal beam width is 10 to 20 degrees), and the coverage is limited (that is, the coverage is narrow), the number of Beacon frames received by STAs in different positions (where the position is a geographic position) or different distances (where the distance is a distance between the STA and the AP) may be different. According to the embodiment of the application, the Beacon frame is transmitted by adopting the beam polling so as to ensure that STAs in different geographic positions or different distances can receive at least one Beacon frame.

S502, the AP sends one or more Trigger frames using a wide transmission beam, and sends one or more Trigger frames using beam polling. Accordingly, the STA receives M Trigger frames from the AP.

In some feasible embodiments, after the beam polling is completed, the AP may send Trigger frames, which are the number of Trigger frames sent by using the wide sending beam and configured in the Beacon frame by using the wide sending beam, and may send Trigger frames, which are the number of Trigger frames sent by using the narrow sending beam and configured in the Beacon frame by using the beam polling. All the beams polled by the AP beam are narrow transmission beams, and the number of Trigger frames transmitted by the narrow transmission beams is greater than or equal to 2, namely the total number of polled beams is greater than or equal to 2. And transmitting a Trigger frame on each narrow transmission beam.

It can be understood that when the AP sends a Trigger frame, the AP may also send the Trigger frame periodically, that is, after the AP sends a Trigger frame, another Trigger frame is sent at an interval, that is, there may be a time interval between the sending completion time of the previous Trigger frame and the sending start time of the next Trigger frame. The time interval may be the size of an access time window corresponding to a previous Trigger frame.

For example, it is assumed that the number of Trigger frames transmitted by using a wide transmission beam and configured in the Beacon frame by the AP itself is 4, and the number of Trigger frames transmitted by using a narrow transmission beam is 5. Suppose that the AP has 5 different narrow transmit beams, beam1-beam5 respectively. Because only 1 wide transmission beam exists in one AP, the AP repeatedly uses the same wide transmission beam to transmit 4 Trigger frames, and the AP transmits 1 Trigger frame using the wide transmission beam each time, and totally uses the same wide transmission beam4 times. After the AP finishes sending 4 Trigger frames by adopting a wide sending beam, the AP sends 1 Trigger frame on beam1, sends 1 Trigger frame on beam2, sends 1 Trigger frame on beam3, sends 1 Trigger frame on beam4, sends 1 Trigger frame on beam5, and sends 5 Trigger frames in total by adopting beam polling.

Accordingly, the STA may receive M Trigger frames from the AP and may record the reception time of each received Trigger frame. Wherein, M may be less than or equal to the number of Trigger frames actually sent by the AP. Because one AP only has one wide transmit beam, the AP repeatedly uses the wide transmit beam to transmit Trigger frames, and the AP transmits one Trigger frame at a time using the wide transmit beam. The horizontal beam width of the wide transmitting beam is wide (the horizontal beam width is 45-120 degrees), the coverage range is wide, but the coverage distance is short; the horizontal beam width of the narrow transmission beam is narrow (for example, the horizontal beam width is 10 to 20 degrees), the coverage is narrow, but the coverage distance is long; the number of Trigger frames received by STAs in different locations (where location refers to geographical location) or different distances (where distance refers to the distance between the STA and the AP) may not be the same. Each Trigger frame may carry the frame length of the Trigger frame and the duration (i.e., size) information of an access time window (or UORA time window). M may be a natural number greater than or equal to 1.

Optionally, the total number of beams polled by the AP beam may be equal to the number of Trigger frames transmitted by using a narrow transmission beam included in the Beacon frame.

S503, the STA determines a target Trigger frame from the received M Trigger frames.

In some possible embodiments, the STA may determine the expected receiving time of each Trigger frame according to the time information of the Trigger frame included in any received Beacon frame. And the STA determines whether the Trigger frame sent by the wide sending beam exists in the M received Trigger frames or not according to the expected receiving time of each Trigger frame and the quantity information of the Trigger frames included in any received Beacon frame. If it is determined that there is a Trigger frame sent by a wide sending beam in the M Trigger frames received, the STA may use a Trigger frame sent by a wide sending beam in the M Trigger frames as a first Trigger frame, and may use a Trigger frame sent by a narrow sending beam in the M Trigger frames as a second Trigger frame. For convenience of description, the following description takes an example that at least one Trigger frame received by the STA includes M first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames. If it is determined that there is no Trigger frame transmitted by the wide transmission beam in the M received Trigger frames, it indicates that all the M Trigger frames received by the STA are transmitted by the narrow transmission beam. The number of Trigger frames sent by using a wide sending beam included in the Beacon frame may be less than or equal to M-N, and the number of Trigger frames sent by using a narrow sending beam included in the Beacon frame may be less than or equal to N.

For example, it is assumed that the Beacon frame includes 2 Trigger frames transmitted using a wide transmission beam and 3 Trigger frames transmitted using a narrow transmission beam. The time information of the Trigger frame included in the Beacon frame i is assumed as follows: the time offset between the sending time of the 1 st Trigger frame and the sending time of the Beacon frame i is 10ms, and the sending time interval of the adjacent 2 Trigger frames is 2ms. Suppose that the time when the STA receives Beacon frame i is 15ms. Therefore, the expected receiving time of the 1 st Trigger frame is the sum of the time when the STA receives the Beacon frame i and the time offset, that is, at 15+10= 25ms. The expected receiving time of the 2 nd Trigger frame is the sum of the expected receiving time and the sending time interval of the 1 st Trigger frame, that is, 25+2= 27ms. The expected receiving time of the 3 rd Trigger frame is the sum of the expected receiving time and the sending time interval of the 2 nd Trigger frame, that is, 27+2= 29ms. By analogy, the expected receiving time of the 4 th Trigger frame is 31ms, and the expected receiving time of the 5 th Trigger frame is 33 ms. According to the number information of Trigger frames included in the Beacon frame, the 1 st Trigger frame and the 2 nd Trigger frame are sent by wide sending beams, and the 3 rd Trigger frame and the 5 th Trigger frame are sent by narrow sending beams.

Therefore, the STA detects whether there is a Trigger frame whose receiving time (herein, the actual receiving time when the STA receives the Trigger frame) in the received M Trigger frames is after the expected receiving time of the 1 st Trigger frame and before the expected receiving time of the 3 rd Trigger frame, that is, between 25ms and 29ms. If there is a Trigger frame with the receiving time between 25ms and 29ms in the M Trigger frames, it is indicated that there is a Trigger frame sent by a wide transmit beam in the M Trigger frames received by the STA, and the STA uses the Trigger frame with the receiving time between 25ms and 29ms in the M Trigger frames as a first Trigger frame. Because the Trigger frames received by the STA only have two types, namely Trigger frames sent by using wide sending beams and Trigger frames sent by using narrow sending beams, the STA takes other Trigger frames except the first Trigger frame in the M received Trigger frames as second Trigger frames. If there is no Trigger frame with the receiving time between 25ms and 29ms in the M Trigger frames received by the STA, which indicates that there is no Trigger frame sent by the wide sending beam in the M Trigger frames received by the STA, the STA determines that all the M Trigger frames received are sent by the narrow sending beam.

In some possible embodiments, in a case that each of the M Trigger frames received by the STA is sent by a narrow transmit beam, the STA may measure, according to each received Trigger frame, a received signal quality (e.g., RSRP) corresponding to each Trigger frame. And the STA determines a target Trigger frame from the M Trigger frames according to the quality of the received signals corresponding to the M Trigger frames. Specifically, the STA may use, as a target Trigger frame, a Trigger frame with the highest received signal quality (e.g., the highest RSRP) among the M received Trigger frames. Optionally, the STA may use any Trigger frame, of the M received Trigger frames, whose received signal quality (such as RSRP) is greater than or equal to a preset threshold as a target Trigger frame. The preset threshold may be set according to actual service requirements. The preset threshold value can also be carried in a Beacon frame and is notified to the STA by the AP. The preset threshold may be used to reflect whether the measured received signal quality meets the service requirement, that is, if the measured received signal quality is greater than or equal to the preset threshold, the measured received signal quality is considered to meet the service requirement; and if the measured received signal quality is less than the preset threshold value, the measured received signal quality is considered not to meet the service requirement.

In some possible embodiments, when there is a Trigger frame transmitted by a wide transmit beam in M Trigger frames received by an STA, the M Trigger frames include M-N (M is a natural number greater than or equal to 1) first Trigger frames, and the M-N first Trigger frames are transmitted by the wide transmit beam of the AP. The STA may measure, according to each first Trigger frame, the received signal quality corresponding to the first Trigger frame. The STA may compare a magnitude relationship between the received signal quality corresponding to each first Trigger frame and a signal quality threshold included in any received Beacon frame. If the received signal quality corresponding to at least one first Trigger frame in the M-N first Trigger frames is greater than or equal to the signal quality threshold, which indicates that the STA is a short-distance STA with respect to the AP, the STA may select one first Trigger frame from the M-N first Trigger frames as a target Trigger frame.

Optionally, the M Trigger frames received by the STA further include N (N is a natural number greater than or equal to 1) second Trigger frames, and the N second Trigger frames are sent by at least 2 different narrow sending beams of the AP. If the received signal quality corresponding to each first Trigger frame is less than the signal quality threshold, which indicates that the STA is a distant STA with respect to the AP, the STA measures the received signal quality (such as RSRP) corresponding to each second Trigger frame according to each second Trigger frame. The STA may use, as the target Trigger frame, a second Trigger frame with the largest received signal quality (e.g., the largest RSRP) among the N second Trigger frames. Optionally, the STA may use any one of the N second Trigger frames whose received signal quality (such as RSRP) is greater than or equal to a preset threshold as a target Trigger frame.

And S504, the STA determines the sending start time of the target Trigger frame according to the time information of the Trigger frame included by the Beacon frame and the receiving time of the target Trigger frame.

And S505, the STA determines an access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame according to the target Trigger frame and the sending start time of the target Trigger frame.

In some possible embodiments, the implementation manners of step S504 to step S505 in the embodiment of the present application may refer to the implementation manners of step S405 to step S406 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and are not described herein again.

And S506, if the current time does not exceed the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the STA sends initial access information to the AP in the target access time window. Accordingly, the AP receives initial access information from the STA.

In some feasible embodiments, after determining the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the STA may detect whether the current time exceeds the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame. If the current time does not exceed the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the STA may send an authentication frame (i.e., initial access information) to the AP within the target access time window. Accordingly, the AP receives the authentication frame sent by the STA within the target access time window.

For example, the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame is 25ms-28ms, and if the current time is 24ms, the current time 24ms does not exceed the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame by 25ms-28ms. If the current time is 27ms, the current time 27ms does not exceed the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame by 25ms to 28ms. For another example, if the current time is 30ms, the current time 30ms already exceeds the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame by 25ms-28ms.

In some feasible embodiments, if the current time exceeds the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the STA may determine the target Trigger frame from the received M Trigger frames again, and may detect whether the current time exceeds the access time window corresponding to the newly determined target Trigger frame. If the current time does not exceed the access time window corresponding to the re-determined target Trigger frame, the STA authenticates the frame (i.e., initial access information) within the access time window corresponding to the re-determined target Trigger frame. Correspondingly, the AP receives the authentication frame sent by the STA in the access time window corresponding to the re-determined target Trigger frame.

Optionally, the determining, by the STA, a target Trigger frame from the received M Trigger frames includes: the STA selects any one of (M-N) -1 first Trigger frames (where the (M-N) -1 first Trigger frame is to remove the target Trigger frame from the M-N first Trigger frames) as a re-determined target Trigger frame. Or, the STA selects the second Trigger frame with the maximum received signal quality from the N-1 second Trigger frames (where the N-1 second Trigger frames refer to removing the target Trigger frame from the N second Trigger frames) as the re-determined target Trigger frame. Optionally, if the current time exceeds the access time window corresponding to the re-determined target Trigger frame, the STA may re-determine the target Trigger frame from the received M Trigger frames again.

S507, the AP determines a target access time window corresponding to the receiving time of the initial access information.

And S508, the AP adopts the first transmitting beam corresponding to the target access time window to communicate with the STA.

In some feasible embodiments, the implementation manners of steps S507 to S508 in the embodiment of the present application may refer to the implementation manners of steps S408 to S409 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and are not described herein again.

In the embodiment of the present application, an AP configures random access resources (here, an access time window or a UORA time window) of a wide beam and a narrow beam, respectively, and indicates the number of the random access resources and a signal quality threshold in a broadcast message (e.g., a Beacon frame); and the STA judges the distance of the position of the STA relative to the AP according to the signal quality threshold and selects a corresponding random access resource for access. According to the embodiment of the application, the short-distance STA is adapted to the wide beam for access, the long-distance STA is adapted to the narrow beam for access, the collision probability of STA access can be reduced, and the STA access efficiency is improved. The embodiment of the application also provides 3-5 dB of receiving wave beam gain and 13dB of interference side lobe suppression through the narrow wave beam, improves the access performance of the long-distance STA, and enhances the uplink coverage, thereby meeting the requirements of long-distance coverage and uplink receiving interference suppression.

As an optional embodiment, the Beacon frame may further include a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame (or a beam identifier corresponding to the UORA time window). If the current time exceeds the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the STA may determine a first transmission beam corresponding to the target Trigger frame according to a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame (or a beam identifier corresponding to the UORA time window) included in any received Beacon frame. And the AP adopts the wide transmission beam to transmit one or more Trigger frames again, and adopts the beam polling to transmit one or more Trigger frames again. The STA re-receives at least one Trigger frame from the AP. And the STA takes the Trigger frame sent by the first sending beam in the at least one Trigger frame received again as a third Trigger frame according to the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame included in any newly received Beacon frame. And the STA determines the sending start time of the third Trigger frame according to the time information of the Trigger frame included in any newly received Beacon frame and the receiving time of the third Trigger frame. And the STA determines a first access time window corresponding to the third Trigger frame according to the frame length, the duration (i.e. the size) of the access time window, the SIFS and the sending start time of the third Trigger frame included in the third Trigger frame. And if the current time does not exceed the first access time window corresponding to the third Trigger frame, the STA sends an authentication frame (the physical layer structure of the authentication frame is TB PPDU) to the AP within the first access time window. And the AP determines a first access time window corresponding to the receiving time of the authentication frame and adopts a first transmitting wave beam corresponding to the first access time window to communicate with the STA.

The foregoing details illustrate the beam determining method according to the embodiment of the present application, and in order to better implement the foregoing solution according to the embodiment of the present application, the embodiment of the present application further provides a corresponding apparatus.

Referring to fig. 10, fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of the device provided in the embodiment of the present application. The apparatus may be an STA or a chip or circuit that may be disposed in the STA. As shown in fig. 10, the apparatus 1 may include:

a transceiver unit 11, configured to receive multiple Beacon frames from an access point AP, where each Beacon frame in the multiple Beacon frames includes a beam identifier of a transmission beam of each Beacon frame; a determining unit 12, configured to determine a first transmission beam from multiple transmission beams identified by multiple beam identifiers included in the multiple Beacon frames; the transceiver unit 11 is configured to send initial access information to the AP, where the initial access information is used to instruct the AP to communicate with the STA by using the first sending beam.

In some possible embodiments, each Beacon frame further includes at least one of the following information: a beam polling time period, or a remaining number of beams polled by a beam within the beam polling time period. Wherein the beam polling time period and/or the number of remaining beams are used to determine whether the number of Beacon frames received by the STA is equal to the number of Beacon frames transmitted by the AP within the beam polling time period.

In some possible embodiments, each Beacon frame further includes a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame and time information of the Trigger frame. The transceiver unit 11 is further configured to receive multiple Trigger frames from the AP, where the multiple Trigger frames are sent by at least 2 different sending beams of the AP, each Trigger frame in the multiple Trigger frames includes size information of an access time window, a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame is used to determine a target Trigger frame corresponding to the first sending beam from the multiple Trigger frames, and the time information of the Trigger frame and the target Trigger frame are used to determine a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame; the transceiver unit 11 is specifically configured to send initial access information to the AP within the target access time window, where the initial access information is used to instruct the AP to communicate with the STA by using the first sending beam corresponding to the target access time window.

The determining unit 12 may be a processing unit.

In a specific implementation, the implementation of each module or unit may also correspond to the corresponding description of the STA in the embodiment shown in fig. 3 or fig. 6, and perform the method and the function performed by the STA in the above embodiment.

The device 1 (STA) of the embodiment of the present application can ensure the quality of the received signal communicated with the STA by using the optimal transmit beam (i.e., the first transmit beam) by indicating the transmit beam used for transmitting the current Beacon frame in the Beacon frame and informing the AP of the determined optimal transmit beam (i.e., the first transmit beam) through the authentication frame, and provide a receive beam gain of 3 to 5dB and interference side lobe suppression of 13dB through the narrow beam, thereby improving the access performance of the remote STA, enhancing uplink coverage, and realizing remote coverage and suppressing uplink receive interference.

Referring to fig. 11, fig. 11 is another schematic structural diagram of the apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present application. The apparatus may be an AP or a chip or circuit that may be disposed in an AP. As shown in fig. 11, the apparatus 2 may include:

the receiving and sending unit 21 is configured to send multiple Beacon frames by using beam polling, where each Beacon frame in the multiple Beacon frames includes a beam identifier of a sending beam of the each Beacon frame, and the multiple Beacon frames are used to determine a first sending beam from multiple sending beams identified by multiple beam identifiers included in the multiple Beacon frames; the transceiver unit 21 is further configured to receive initial access information from the STA by the AP; a communication unit 22, configured to communicate with the STA by using the first transmission beam according to the received initial access information.

In some possible embodiments, each Beacon frame further includes a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame and time information of the Trigger frame. The transceiver unit 21 is further configured to transmit multiple Trigger frames using at least 2 different transmission beams, where each Trigger frame in the multiple Trigger frames includes size information of an access time window; the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame is used for determining a target Trigger frame corresponding to the first transmitting beam from the multiple Trigger frames, and the time information of the Trigger frame and the target Trigger frame are used for determining a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame; the transceiver unit 21 is specifically configured to receive, by the AP, initial access information sent by the STA in the target access time window; the communication unit 22 is specifically configured to determine the target access time window corresponding to the receiving time of the initial access information, and communicate with the STA by using the first transmission beam corresponding to the target access time window.

The communication unit 22 may be a processing unit.

In a specific implementation, the implementation of each module or unit may also correspond to the corresponding description of the AP in the embodiment shown in fig. 3 or fig. 6, and execute the method and the function executed by the AP in the above embodiment.

Referring to fig. 12, fig. 12 is a schematic view of another structure of the apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present application. The apparatus may be an STA or a chip or circuit that may be disposed in an STA. As shown in fig. 12, the apparatus 3 may include:

a transceiving unit 31, configured to receive a Beacon frame from an AP, where the Beacon frame includes time information of a Trigger frame; the transceiver unit 31 is further configured to receive M Trigger frames from the AP, where each Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames includes size information of an access time window; a determining unit 32, configured to determine a target Trigger frame from the M Trigger frames, where time information of the target Trigger frame and the Trigger frame is used to determine a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame; the transceiver unit 31 is further configured to send initial access information to the AP within the target access time window when the current time does not exceed the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, where the initial access information is used to instruct the AP to communicate with the STA by using a first sending beam corresponding to the target access time window.

In some possible embodiments, the Beacon frame further includes a signal quality threshold, and the M Trigger frames are transmitted by a wide transmit beam of the AP. The determining unit 32 is specifically configured to determine, when the received signal quality corresponding to at least one Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames is greater than or equal to the signal quality threshold, any Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames as a target Trigger frame.

In some feasible embodiments, the Beacon frame further includes a signal quality threshold, where the M Trigger frames include M-N first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames, the M-N first Trigger frames are sent by the wide sending beam of the AP, and the N second Trigger frames are sent by at least 2 different sending beams of the AP. The determining unit 32 is further specifically configured to determine a target Trigger frame from the N second Trigger frames when the received signal quality corresponding to each of the M-N first Trigger frames is less than the signal quality threshold, where the target Trigger frame is a second Trigger frame with a largest received signal quality from the N second Trigger frames.

In some feasible embodiments, the Beacon frame further includes number information of Trigger frames, and the number information of Trigger frames is used to determine M-N first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames from the M Trigger frames.

In some possible embodiments, the number information of Trigger frames includes the number of Trigger frames transmitted using a wide transmit beam and the number of Trigger frames transmitted using a narrow transmit beam, where M-N is less than or equal to the number of Trigger frames transmitted using a wide transmit beam, and N is less than or equal to the number of Trigger frames transmitted using a narrow transmit beam.

In some feasible embodiments, the Beacon frame further includes a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame, where the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame is used to determine a first transmission beam corresponding to the target Trigger frame. The transceiver unit 31 is further configured to receive a third Trigger frame sent by the AP through the first sending beam when the current time exceeds a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, where time information of the third Trigger frame and the third Trigger frame is used to determine a first access time window corresponding to the third Trigger frame; the transceiver unit 31 is further configured to send initial access information to the AP in the first access time window, where the initial access information is used to instruct the AP to communicate with the STA by using a first sending beam corresponding to the first access time window.

The determining unit 32 may be a processing unit.

In a specific implementation, the implementation of each module or unit may also correspond to the corresponding description of the STA in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, and perform the method and the function performed by the STA in the above embodiment.

The device 3 (STA) adapts the short-distance STA to the wide beam for access, adapts the long-distance STA to the narrow beam for access, can reduce the collision probability of STA access, and improves the STA access efficiency. The device 3 (STA) of the embodiment of the application also provides 3-5 dB of receiving wave beam gain and 13dB of interference side lobe suppression through narrow wave beams, improves the access performance of the long-distance STA, and enhances uplink coverage, thereby meeting the requirements of long-distance coverage and uplink receiving interference suppression.

Referring to fig. 13, fig. 13 is a schematic view of still another structure of the apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present application. The apparatus may be an AP or a chip or circuit that may be disposed in an AP. As shown in fig. 13, the apparatus 4 may include:

a transceiving unit 41, configured to send at least one Beacon frame, where each Beacon frame in the at least one Beacon frame includes time information of a Trigger frame; the transceiver unit 41 is further configured to send at least M Trigger frames, where each Trigger frame in the at least M Trigger frames includes size information of an access time window, the at least M Trigger frames are used to determine a target Trigger frame, and the time information of the Trigger frame and the target Trigger frame are used to determine a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame; the transceiver unit 41 is further configured to receive initial access information sent by the STA in a target access time window when the current time does not exceed the target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame; a determining unit 42, configured to determine the target access time window corresponding to the receiving time of the initial access information; a communication unit 43, configured to communicate with the STA by using the first transmission beam corresponding to the target access time window.

In some feasible embodiments, the Beacon frame further includes a signal quality threshold, and the at least M Trigger frames include M Trigger frames sent by the wide transmit beam of the AP; when the received signal quality corresponding to at least one Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames is greater than or equal to the signal quality threshold, the target Trigger frame is any Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames.

In some feasible embodiments, the Beacon frame further includes a signal quality threshold, where the at least M Trigger frames include M-N first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames, the M-N first Trigger frames are sent by the wide sending beam of the AP, and the N second Trigger frames are sent by at least 2 different sending beams of the AP; when the received signal quality corresponding to each of the M-N first Trigger frames is smaller than the signal quality threshold, the target Trigger frame is a second Trigger frame with the largest received signal quality among the N second Trigger frames.

In some possible embodiments, the Beacon frame further includes number information of Trigger frames, where the number information of Trigger frames is used to determine M-N first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames from the at least M Trigger frames.

In some possible embodiments, the number information of Trigger frames includes the number of Trigger frames transmitted by using a wide transmission beam and the number of Trigger frames transmitted by using a narrow transmission beam, where M-N is less than or equal to the number of Trigger frames transmitted by using a wide transmission beam, and N is less than or equal to the number of Trigger frames transmitted by using a narrow transmission beam.

In some feasible embodiments, the Beacon frame further includes a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame, where the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame is used to determine a first transmission beam corresponding to the target Trigger frame. The transceiver unit 41 is further configured to send a third Trigger frame on the first sending beam when the current time exceeds a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, where time information of the third Trigger frame and the third Trigger frame is used to determine a first access time window corresponding to the third Trigger frame; the determining unit 42 is specifically configured to determine the first access time window corresponding to the receiving time of the initial access information; the communication unit 43 is specifically configured to communicate with the STA by using the first transmission beam corresponding to the first access time window.

The determining unit 42 and the communicating unit 43 may be a single unit, such as a processing unit.

In a specific implementation, the implementation of each module or unit may also correspond to the corresponding description of the AP in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, and perform the method and the function performed by the AP in the foregoing embodiment.

Referring to fig. 14, fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 14, a communication device 1000 provided in the embodiment of the present application includes a processor 1001, a memory 1002, a transceiver 1003, and a bus system 1004. The communication device provided by the embodiment of the application can be an STA or an AP.

The processor 1001, the memory 1002, and the transceiver 1003 are connected by a bus system 1004.

The memory 1002 stores programs. In particular, the program may include program code including computer operating instructions. The memory 1002 includes, but is not limited to, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), or a portable read-only memory (CD-ROM). Only one memory is shown in fig. 14, but of course, the memory may be provided in plural numbers as necessary. The memory 1002 may also be a memory in the processor 1001, which is not limited herein.

The memory 1002 stores the following elements, executable units or data structures, or a subset thereof, or an expanded set thereof:

and (3) operating instructions: including various operational instructions for performing various operations.

Operating the system: including various system programs for implementing various basic services and for handling hardware-based tasks.

The processor 1001 controls the operation of the communication device 1000, and the processor 1001 may be one or more Central Processing Units (CPUs), and in the case where the processor 1001 is one CPU, the CPU may be a single-core CPU or a multi-core CPU.

In a particular application, the various components of the communications device 1000 are coupled together by a bus system 1004, where the bus system 1004 may include a power bus, a control bus, a status signal bus, and the like, in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are identified in fig. 14 as the bus system 1004. For ease of illustration, it is only schematically drawn in fig. 14.

Any one of fig. 3, fig. 6 or fig. 8 provided in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, or the method of the STA disclosed in each of the foregoing embodiments; or any one of fig. 3, fig. 6, or fig. 8 provided in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, or the AP methods in the foregoing embodiments may be applied to the processor 1001, or implemented by the processor 1001. The processor 1001 may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method may be implemented by integrated logic circuits of hardware or instructions in the form of software in the processor 1001. The processor 1001 may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, or discrete hardware components. The various methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 1002, and the processor 1001 reads the information in the memory 1002 and, in conjunction with hardware thereof, performs the method steps of the STA described in any of fig. 3, fig. 6, or fig. 8; or in combination with hardware thereof, to perform the method steps of the AP as described in any of fig. 3, 6 or 8.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method steps of the STA described in fig. 3, 6 or 8; or cause the computer to perform the method steps of the AP described in fig. 3, 6 or 8 when the computer program code is run on the computer.

The embodiment of the application also provides a device which can be a chip. The chip includes a processor. The processor is configured to read and execute a computer program stored in the memory to perform the beam determination method in any possible implementation of fig. 3, 6 or 8. Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory, and the memory is connected with the processor through a circuit or a wire. Further optionally, the chip further comprises a communication interface, and the processor is connected to the communication interface. The communication interface is used for receiving data and/or information needing to be processed, and the processor acquires the data and/or information from the communication interface, processes the data and/or information and outputs a processing result through the communication interface. The communication interface may be an input output interface.

In another embodiment of the present application, a communication system is also provided, which includes a STA and an AP. Illustratively, the STA may be the STA in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, fig. 6 or fig. 8, and the AP may be the AP in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, fig. 6 or fig. 8.

Those skilled in the art can understand that all or part of the processes in the methods of the embodiments described above can be implemented by a computer program, which can be stored in a computer readable storage medium and can include the processes of the method embodiments described above when executed. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as ROM or RAM, magnetic or optical disks, etc.

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

Claims

A method for beam determination, comprising:

a station STA receives a plurality of Beacon frames from an access point AP, wherein each Beacon frame in the plurality of Beacon frames comprises a beam identifier of a transmitting beam of each Beacon frame;

the STA determines a first transmission beam from a plurality of transmission beams identified by a plurality of beam identifications included in the plurality of Beacon frames;

and the STA sends initial access information to the AP, wherein the initial access information is used for indicating the AP to adopt the first sending wave beam to communicate with the STA.
The method of claim 1, wherein each Beacon frame further comprises at least one of the following information: a beam polling time period, or a remaining number of beams polled by a beam within the beam polling time period;

wherein the beam polling time period and/or the number of remaining beams is used to determine whether the number of Beacon frames received by the STA is equal to the number of Beacon frames transmitted by the AP within the beam polling time period.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein each Beacon frame further comprises a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame and time information of the Trigger frame;

before the STA sends the initial access information to the AP, the method further includes:

the STA receives a plurality of Trigger frames from the AP, the Trigger frames are sent by at least 2 different sending beams of the AP, each Trigger frame in the Trigger frames comprises size information of an access time window, a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame is used for determining a target Trigger frame corresponding to the first sending beam from the Trigger frames, and the time information of the Trigger frame and the target Trigger frame are used for determining a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame;

the STA sending initial access information to the AP, including:

and the STA sends initial access information to the AP in the target access time window, wherein the initial access information is used for indicating the AP to communicate with the STA by adopting the first sending wave beam corresponding to the target access time window.
A method for beam determination, comprising:

the STA receives a Beacon frame from the AP, wherein the Beacon frame comprises time information of a Trigger frame;

the STA receives M Trigger frames from the AP, wherein each Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames comprises the size information of an access time window;

the STA determines a target Trigger frame from the M Trigger frames, and the time information of the target Trigger frame and the time information of the Trigger frame are used for determining a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame;

and if the current time does not exceed a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the STA sends initial access information to the AP in the target access time window, wherein the initial access information is used for indicating the AP to communicate with the STA by adopting a first sending wave beam corresponding to the target access time window.
The method of claim 4, wherein the Beacon frame further comprises a signal quality threshold, and wherein the M Trigger frames are transmitted by the wide transmit beam of the AP;

the STA determines a target Trigger frame from the M Trigger frames, including:

if the received signal quality corresponding to at least one Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames is greater than or equal to the signal quality threshold, the STA determines that any Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames is a target Trigger frame.
The method of claim 4, wherein the Beacon frame further comprises a signal quality threshold, the M Trigger frames comprise M-N first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames, the M-N first Trigger frames are transmitted by the wide transmit beam of the AP, and the N second Trigger frames are transmitted by at least 2 different transmit beams of the AP;

the STA determines a target Trigger frame from the M Trigger frames, and the method comprises the following steps:

if the received signal quality corresponding to each of the M-N first Trigger frames is less than the signal quality threshold, the STA determines a target Trigger frame from the N second Trigger frames, where the target Trigger frame is a second Trigger frame with the largest received signal quality in the N second Trigger frames.
The method according to claim 6, wherein the Beacon frame further includes number information of Trigger frames, and the number information of Trigger frames is used to determine M-N first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames from the M Trigger frames.
The method of claim 7, wherein the number of Trigger frames comprises the number of Trigger frames transmitted using a wide transmission beam and the number of Trigger frames transmitted using a narrow transmission beam, wherein M-N is less than or equal to the number of Trigger frames transmitted using a wide transmission beam, and wherein N is less than or equal to the number of Trigger frames transmitted using a narrow transmission beam.
The method according to claim 4, wherein the Beacon frame further includes a beam identifier corresponding to a Trigger frame, and the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame is used to determine a first transmission beam corresponding to the target Trigger frame;

the method further comprises the following steps:

if the current time exceeds a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the STA receives a third Trigger frame sent by the AP through the first sending beam, and the time information of the third Trigger frame and the third Trigger frame is used for determining a first access time window corresponding to the third Trigger frame;

and the STA sends initial access information to the AP in the first access time window, wherein the initial access information is used for indicating the AP to communicate with the STA by adopting a first sending beam corresponding to the first access time window.
A method for beam determination, comprising:

the AP adopts beam polling to transmit a plurality of Beacon frames, each Beacon frame in the plurality of Beacon frames comprises a beam identifier of a transmission beam of each Beacon frame, and the plurality of Beacon frames are used for determining a first transmission beam from a plurality of transmission beams identified by a plurality of beam identifiers comprised by the plurality of Beacon frames;

the AP receives initial access information from an STA;

and the AP adopts the first sending beam to communicate with the STA according to the received initial access information.
The method of claim 10, wherein each Beacon frame further comprises at least one of the following information: a beam polling time period, or a remaining number of beams polled by a beam within the beam polling time period;

wherein the beam polling time period and/or the number of remaining beams are used to determine whether the number of Beacon frames received by the STA is equal to the number of Beacon frames transmitted by the AP in the beam polling time period.
The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein each Beacon frame further includes a beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame and time information of the Trigger frame;

before the AP receives initial access information from a STA, the method further includes:

the AP sends a plurality of Trigger frames by adopting at least 2 different sending beams, wherein each Trigger frame in the plurality of Trigger frames comprises the size information of an access time window;

the beam identifier corresponding to the Trigger frame is used for determining a target Trigger frame corresponding to the first transmitting beam from the multiple Trigger frames, and the time information of the Trigger frame and the target Trigger frame are used for determining a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame;

the AP receives initial access information from the STA, and comprises the following steps:

the AP receives initial access information sent by the STA in the target access time window;

the AP communicating with the STA using the first transmission beam according to the received initial access information, including:

and the AP determines the target access time window corresponding to the receiving time of the initial access information and communicates with the STA by adopting the first transmitting beam corresponding to the target access time window.
A method for beam determination, comprising:

the AP sends at least one Beacon frame, wherein each Beacon frame in the at least one Beacon frame comprises time information of a Trigger frame;

the AP sends at least M Trigger frames, each Trigger frame in the at least M Trigger frames comprises size information of an access time window, the at least M Trigger frames are used for determining a target Trigger frame, and the time information of the Trigger frames and the target Trigger frames are used for determining a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame;

when the current time does not exceed a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the AP receives initial access information sent by the STA in the target access time window;

and the AP determines the target access time window corresponding to the receiving time of the initial access information and communicates with the STA by adopting the first transmitting beam corresponding to the target access time window.
The method of claim 13, wherein the Beacon frame further comprises a signal quality threshold, and wherein the at least M Trigger frames comprise M Trigger frames transmitted by a wide transmit beam of the AP;

when the received signal quality corresponding to at least one Trigger frame in the M Trigger frames is greater than or equal to the signal quality threshold value, the target Trigger frame is any one of the M Trigger frames.
The method according to claim 13, wherein the Beacon frame further includes a signal quality threshold, the at least M Trigger frames include M-N first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames, the M-N first Trigger frames are transmitted by the wide transmit beam of the AP, and the N second Trigger frames are transmitted by at least 2 different transmit beams of the AP;

and when the received signal quality corresponding to each of the M-N first Trigger frames is smaller than the signal quality threshold, the target Trigger frame is a second Trigger frame with the largest received signal quality in the N second Trigger frames.
The method according to claim 15, wherein the Beacon frame further includes number information of Trigger frames, and the number information of Trigger frames is used to determine M-N first Trigger frames and N second Trigger frames from the at least M Trigger frames.
The method of claim 16, wherein the number of Trigger frames comprises the number of Trigger frames transmitted using a wide transmit beam and the number of Trigger frames transmitted using a narrow transmit beam, wherein M-N is less than or equal to the number of Trigger frames transmitted using a wide transmit beam, and wherein N is less than or equal to the number of Trigger frames transmitted using a narrow transmit beam.
The method according to claim 13, wherein the Beacon frame further includes a beam id corresponding to a Trigger frame, and the beam id corresponding to the Trigger frame is used to determine a first transmission beam corresponding to the target Trigger frame;

the method further comprises the following steps:

when the current time exceeds a target access time window corresponding to the target Trigger frame, the AP sends a third Trigger frame on the first sending beam, and time information of the third Trigger frame and the third Trigger frame is used for determining a first access time window corresponding to the third Trigger frame;

the AP receives initial access information sent by the STA in the first access time window;

and the AP determines the first access time window corresponding to the receiving time of the initial access information and communicates with the STA by adopting the first transmitting beam corresponding to the first access time window.
An apparatus, being a STA or a chip or circuit for being provided in a STA, comprising means or modules for performing the method according to any of claims 1-3.
An apparatus, being a STA or a chip or circuit for being provided in a STA, comprising means or modules for performing the method according to any of claims 4-9.
An apparatus, which is an AP or a chip or circuit for being provided in an AP, comprising means or modules for performing the method according to any one of claims 10-12.
An apparatus, which is an AP or a chip or circuit for being provided in an AP, comprising means or modules for performing the method according to any one of claims 13-18.
A STA comprising a processor, a transceiver and a memory, wherein the memory is for storing a computer program and the transceiver is for transceiving information or messages, the computer program comprising program instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 3 or any of claims 4 to 9.
An AP comprising a processor, a transceiver and a memory, wherein the memory is for storing a computer program, the transceiver is for transceiving information or messages, the computer program comprising program instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the network device to perform the method of any of claims 10-12 or any of claims 13-18.
A communication system comprising a STA and an AP, wherein:

the STA is the apparatus of claim 19 or 20;

the AP is the apparatus of claim 21 or 22.
A readable storage medium, having stored therein program instructions, which when executed, cause the method of any one of claims 1-3 to be performed.
A readable storage medium, having stored therein program instructions which, when executed, cause the method of any one of claims 4-9 to be performed.
A readable storage medium, in which program instructions are stored which, when executed, cause the method of any one of claims 10-12 to be performed.
A readable storage medium, having stored therein program instructions, which when executed, cause the method of any one of claims 13-18 to be performed.