CN115208517B

CN115208517B - Coding method and device of flow indication map

Info

Publication number: CN115208517B
Application number: CN202210827657.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 童娣; 李宛苡
Original assignee: Shenzhen Lianping Semiconductor Co ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Lianping Semiconductor Co ltd
Priority date: 2022-07-14
Filing date: 2022-07-14
Publication date: 2023-07-14
Anticipated expiration: 2042-07-14
Also published as: CN115208517A

Abstract

The application provides a method and a device for encoding a flow indication map. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring a DTIM count, the number of first STAs and first AIDs corresponding to the first STAs, wherein the first STAs are STAs with cache data at an AP; splitting the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs and each first AID, so that each first AID has a corresponding start identification field and end identification field, wherein the start identification field and the end identification field are used for representing byte intervals of byte positions where each first AID is located. According to the method and the device, the AIDs of the STAs needing to be indicated are split into the bytes of the sections, which are close to the bytes, of the AIDs of the STAs needing to be indicated, and a plurality of partial virtual bitmaps are formed, so that the number of bytes can be saved, resources are saved, and the problem that resources are wasted under the condition that the AIDs of the STAs needing to be indicated in the partial virtual bitmaps in the prior art are scattered is solved.

Description

Coding method and device of flow indication map

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for encoding a flow indication map, a computer readable storage medium, a processor, and an electronic device.

Background

The TIM (Traffic Indication Map ) element is used to indicate to the associated STA (Station) a DTIM (Delivery Traffic Indication Map, transmission traffic indication map) count, a DTIM period, and to indicate to the associated STA whether it has buffered traffic at the AP (Access Point). Traffic buffer indication is mainly achieved by bitmap control and partial virtual bitmaps.

If the AIDs (Association Identifier, association identifiers) of STAs that need to be indicated in the partial virtual bitmap are very scattered, a large number of indication bytes are wasted. For example, if STA AID1 and STA AID88 need to be indicated, the partial virtual bitmap includes traffic indication virtual bitmaps from byte 0 to byte 11, and the STAs in byte 1 to byte 10 in the middle have no buffered traffic at the AP, i.e. the corresponding bit value is 0, and these indicated byte numbers are wasted.

Therefore, there is a need for an efficient method of encoding flow indication maps.

The above information disclosed in the background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background art from the technology described herein and, therefore, may contain some information that does not form the prior art that is already known in the country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

The main objective of the present application is to provide a method, an apparatus, a computer readable storage medium, a processor and an electronic device for encoding a traffic indication map, so as to solve the problem of wasting resources in the case of AID dispersion of STAs that need to be indicated in a partial virtual bitmap in the prior art.

To achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present application, there is provided a method for encoding a traffic indication map, where the traffic indication map includes at least a DTIM count field, a bitmap control field, and a partial virtual bitmap field, the bitmap control field includes a traffic indication bit and a bitmap offset bit, and the partial virtual bitmap field includes at least one AID, including: acquiring a DTIM count, the number of first STAs and first AIDs corresponding to the first STAs, wherein the first STAs are STAs with cache data at an AP; splitting the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs and each first AID, so that each first AID has a corresponding start identification field and end identification field, where the start identification field and the end identification field are used for representing a byte section of a byte position where each first AID is located.

Further, the types of the AID include the first AID and the second AID, the STA corresponding to the second AID does not have cached data in the AP, the DTIM count includes two cases of 0 and not 0, and splitting the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs and the first AID includes: acquiring the byte number of the second AID between any two adjacent first AIDs to obtain at least one first byte number under the condition that the number of the first STAs is greater than or equal to 2; splitting the partial virtual bitmap field if the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers satisfy a first predetermined condition, the first predetermined condition comprising: the DTIM count is 0, the first byte number is greater than 2, the DTIM count is not 0, the first byte number is greater than 3, the DTIM count is not 0, the first byte number is greater than 2, the first byte number is the first byte number between the first two adjacent first AIDs, N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, and the first byte number is the first byte number between any two adjacent first AIDs after the second first AIDs.

Further, splitting the partial virtual bitmap field in the case that the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers satisfy a first predetermined condition includes: and when the first preset condition is that the DTIM count is not 0 and the first number of bytes is greater than 3, or the DTIM count is not 0 and the nth number of bytes is greater than 2, marking the traffic indication bit as a slicing indication bit, wherein the value of the slicing indication bit is 1, adding the end identification field before the first AID, and adding the start identification field and the end identification field before each first AID after the first AID.

Further, splitting the partial virtual bitmap field in the case that the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers satisfy a first predetermined condition includes: and when the first preset condition is that the DTIM count is 0 and each first byte number is greater than 2, the ending identification field is added before the first AID, and the starting identification field and the ending identification field are added before each first AID after the first AID.

Further, the method further comprises: and in the case that the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers do not meet the first predetermined condition, the partial virtual bitmap field is not split.

Further, the method further comprises: and under the condition that the number of the first STAs is smaller than 2, the partial virtual bitmap field is not split.

Further, the splitting of the partial virtual bitmap field is not performed, including: marking the flow indication bit as a slicing indication bit with a value of 0 when the DTIM count is not 0; in case the DTIM count is 0, the end identification field is added after the bitmap control field.

Further, the method further comprises: determining whether the DTIM count is 0 if the number of the first STAs is less than 2; and under the condition that the DTIM count is not 0, controlling the combination of the flow indication bit and the bitmap offset bit to obtain a target bitmap offset, wherein the target bitmap offset is used for representing bytes of the start of the partial virtual bitmap.

According to another aspect of the present application, there is provided an encoding apparatus for a traffic indication map, where the traffic indication map includes at least a DTIM count field, a bitmap control field, and a partial virtual bitmap field, where the bitmap control field includes a traffic indication bit and a bitmap offset bit, and the partial virtual bitmap field includes at least one AID, and the partial virtual bitmap field includes an acquisition unit and a splitting unit, where the acquisition unit is configured to acquire the DTIM count, the number of first STAs, and first AIDs corresponding to the first STAs, where the first STAs are STAs having buffered data at an AP; the splitting unit is configured to split the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs, and the first AID, so that the first AID has a corresponding start identification field and end identification field, where the start identification field and the end identification field are used for characterizing a byte position where the first AID is located.

According to yet another aspect of the present application, there is provided a computer readable storage medium, the computer readable storage medium including a stored program, wherein the program when run controls a device in which the computer readable storage medium is located to perform any one of the methods for encoding the flow indication map.

According to yet another aspect of the present application, a processor is provided for running a program, wherein the program when run performs any of the methods of encoding a flow indication map.

According to another aspect of the present application, there is provided an electronic device including: the system comprises one or more processors, a memory, a display device, and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising an encoding method for performing any of the flow indication maps.

In the method for encoding the flow indication map, firstly, a DTIM count, the number of first STAs and first AID corresponding to the first STAs are obtained, wherein the first STAs are STAs with cache data at an AP; and splitting the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs and each first AID, so that each first AID has a corresponding start identification field and end identification field, wherein the start identification field and the end identification field are used for representing byte intervals of byte positions where each first AID is located. Under the condition that the AIDs of the STAs needing to be indicated in the partial virtual bitmap are scattered, a large amount of indication byte numbers are wasted.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the application and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiments of the application and together with the description serve to explain the application and do not constitute an undue limitation to the application. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a flow chart of a method of encoding a flow indication map according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of an encoding device of a flow indication map according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

It should be noted that, in the case of no conflict, the embodiments and features in the embodiments may be combined with each other. The present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings in conjunction with embodiments.

In order to make the present application solution better understood by those skilled in the art, the following description will be made in detail and with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application, it is apparent that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present application, not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by one of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments herein without making any inventive effort, shall fall within the scope of the present application.

It should be noted that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and claims of the present application and the above figures are used for distinguishing between similar objects and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the data so used may be interchanged where appropriate in order to describe the embodiments of the present application described herein. Furthermore, the terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

It will be understood that when an element such as a layer, film, region, or substrate is referred to as being "on" another element, it can be directly on the other element or intervening elements may also be present. Furthermore, in the description and in the claims, when an element is described as being "connected" to another element, the element may be "directly connected" to the other element or "connected" to the other element through a third element.

As described in the background art, in order to solve the problem of wasting resources in the case of the AID dispersion of the STA to be indicated in the partial virtual bitmap in the prior art, in an exemplary embodiment of the present application, a method, an apparatus, a computer readable storage medium, a processor, and an electronic device for encoding a traffic indication map are provided.

According to an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a method for encoding a traffic indication map, where the traffic indication map includes at least a DTIM count field, a bitmap control field, and a partial virtual bitmap field, where the bitmap control field includes a traffic indication bit and a bitmap offset bit, and the partial virtual bitmap field includes at least one AID.

Fig. 1 is a flow chart of a method of encoding a flow indication map according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the method comprises the steps of:

step S101, acquiring a DTIM count, the number of first STAs and first AIDs corresponding to the first STAs, wherein the first STAs are STAs with cache data at an AP;

step S102, splitting the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs, and each of the first AIDs, so that each of the first AIDs has a corresponding start identifier field and end identifier field, where the start identifier field and the end identifier field are used for characterizing a byte section of a byte position where each of the first AIDs is located.

In the method for encoding the flow indication map, firstly, a DTIM count, the number of first STAs and first AID corresponding to the first STAs are obtained, wherein the first STAs are STAs with cache data at an AP; and splitting the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs and each first AID so that each first AID has a corresponding start identification field and end identification field, wherein the start identification field and the end identification field are used for representing byte intervals of byte positions where each first AID is located. Under the condition that the AIDs of the STAs to be indicated in the partial virtual bitmap are scattered, a large amount of indication byte numbers are wasted.

It should be noted that the steps illustrated in the flowcharts of the figures may be performed in a computer system such as a set of computer executable instructions, and that although a logical order is illustrated in the flowcharts, in some cases the steps illustrated or described may be performed in an order other than that illustrated herein.

In practical applications, the TIM is a basic traffic indication bitmap structure, the format of the TIM element in the prior art is shown in table 1, only unicast information cached by the AP is indicated in the standard TIM, and the DTIM is a special TIM which not only caches unicast information, but also simultaneously indicates multicast information cached by the AP. Typically, each Beacon frame contains a TIM, and the TIM is specifically not DTIM, and needs to be determined according to two parameters, i.e., DTIM count and DTIM period. The DTIM count indicates how many Beacon frames (including the current Beacon frame) are before the next DTIM arrives, e.g., if the DTIM count is 0, then the current TIM is indicated as a DTIM. The DTIM period field indicates the number of Beacon frames between two consecutive DTIMs. For example, if all TIMs are DTIM, then a DTIM period equal to 1 and a DTIM period equal to 0 is reserved. The bitmap control field length is 0 or 1 byte, and the bitmap control field format in the prior art is shown in table 2.

TABLE 1 format of TIM element in the prior art

Field name

Element ID

Length of

DTIM count

DTIM period

Bitmap control

Partial virtual bitmap

Number of bytes

1

0 or 1

0-251

Table 2 format of bitmap control field in the prior art

Field name	Flow indication	Bitmap offset
			Number of bits	1	7

In an embodiment of the present application, the types of the AID include the first AID and the second AID, the STA corresponding to the second AID does not have cache data in the AP, the DTIM count includes two cases of 0 and not 0, and splitting the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs and the first AID includes: acquiring the byte number of the second AID between any two adjacent first AIDs to obtain at least one first byte number when the number of the first STAs is greater than or equal to 2; splitting the partial virtual bitmap field if the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers satisfy a first predetermined condition, the first predetermined condition including: the DTIM count is 0 and each of the first byte numbers is greater than 2, the DTIM count is not 0 and a first one of the first byte numbers is greater than 3, the DTIM count is not 0 and an nth one of the first byte numbers is greater than 2, wherein the first one of the first byte numbers is the first byte number between the first two adjacent first AIDs, N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, and the nth one of the first byte numbers is the first byte number between any two adjacent first AIDs after the second one of the first AIDs. Under the condition that the number of the STAs is large, whether to split the partial virtual bitmap or not is determined by judging the distribution condition of AIDs corresponding to the STAs with cache data at the AP, namely judging the byte number of the second AIDs between two adjacent first AIDs, so that the waste of resources can be further reduced.

In order to facilitate the subsequent STA to parse the TIM element in the Beacon frame, when the DTIM count is not 0, the traffic indication bit is marked as a fragmentation indication bit, and in another embodiment of the present application, splitting the partial virtual bitmap field when the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers satisfy a first predetermined condition includes: when the first predetermined condition is that the DTIM count is not 0 and the first number of first bytes is greater than 3, or the DTIM count is not 0 and the nth number of first bytes is greater than 2, the traffic indication bit is marked as a slice indication bit, the value of the slice indication bit is 1, the end identification field is added before the first AID, and the start identification field and the end identification field are added before each first AID after the first AID. The fragmentation indication bit is used for representing whether the partial virtual bitmap is split or not, and if the value of the fragmentation indication bit is 1, the partial virtual bitmap is split. The start identification field and the end identification field are used for identifying a byte interval where a following first AID is located, and the start identification field of the first AID is a bitmap offset in the bitmap control field. The start identification field and the end identification field are each 1 byte long.

In practical application, for a TIM element with a DTIM count other than 0, i.e. a non-DTIM, the format of the bitmap control field in the TIM element is shown in table 3, the traffic indication bit in the bitmap control field is reserved, and when the number of the first STAs is greater than or equal to 2, the first AID of the kth first STA with buffered traffic at the AP is recorded as X _k : for the case of k=2, if

Splitting the partial virtual bitmap for the first STA and the second first STA for k>2, if->

Splitting a partial virtual bitmap for the kth first STA and the kth-1 first STA, wherein +.>

Representing a rounding down.

Table 3 bitmap control field format of TIM element with DTIM count not 0

Field name	Slice indication	Bitmap offset
			Number of bits	1	7

Specifically, for the traffic indication bitmaps of the first STA and the second STA, if splitting is performed (i.e. there are two partial virtual bitmaps to represent traffic buffering conditions), three bytes are added, which are respectively an end identification field of the first split partial virtual bitmap and a start identification field of the second split partial virtual bitmap, and an end identification field of the second split partial virtual bitmap. Therefore, when the number of bytes between the number of bytes of the first STA and the number of bytes of the second first STA is greater than 3, the splitting is performed with less resources than the original indication method. For the kth STA and the (k-1) th STA, k >2, two bytes are added for each split, which are respectively the start identification field and the end identification field of the added split partial virtual bitmap. Therefore, when the number of bytes between the number of bytes of the kth STA and the number of bytes of the (k-1) th STA is greater than 2, the splitting is performed with less resources than the original indication method. The start identifier field may be a bitmap start offset field, the end identifier field may be a bitmap end offset field or a sub-bitmap length field, as shown in table 4 and table 5, where table 4 is a TIM element format in which a partial virtual bitmap is split into at least two partial virtual bitmaps when the DTIM count is not 0, table 5 is a TIM element format in which a partial virtual bitmap is split when the DTIM count is not 0, and the end identifier field is a sub-bitmap length field.

Table 4 TIM element Format splitting partial virtual bitmap when DTIM count is not 0

Table 5 another TIM element format for splitting partial virtual bitmaps when DTIM count is not 0

In yet another embodiment of the present application, splitting the partial virtual bitmap field when the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers satisfy a first predetermined condition includes: when the DTIM count is 0 and the number of the first bytes is greater than 2, the end flag field is added before the first AID, and the start flag field and the end flag field are added before the first AID after the first AID. When the DTIM count is 0, the traffic indication field is used to indicate whether the STA associated with AID 0 in the partial virtual bitmap has buffered data at the AP, so that the STA can determine whether the subsequent partial virtual bitmap field is split when parsing the TIM element by adding the end identification field before the first AID, that is, after parsing the subsequent partial virtual bitmap according to the end identification field before the first AID, if the STA obtains that the element has not been parsed according to the length field in the TIM element, whether the subsequent partial virtual bitmap is fragmented can be determined.

In practical applications, for a TIM element with a DTIM count of 0, since 1 bit is required to be used as a traffic indication field to indicate whether one or more multicast or broadcast frames are buffered at an AP, the traffic indication bit in the bitmap control field may not be used as a fragmentation indication subfield, and for a DTIM, the bitmap control field is always followed by an end identification field, which may be a bitmap end offset field or a sub-bitmap length field, and the end identification field is in the format of a bitmap end offset field as shown in table 6.

Table 6 TIM element Format splitting partial virtual bitmap with DTIM count of 0

Specifically, for the case where the number of STAs is 2 or more, if

The partial virtual bitmaps for the kth STA and the kth-1 STA are split. The more decentralized the AID of STAs that need to be instructed to cache traffic, the greater this resource saving advantage.

In a specific embodiment of the present application, a fragmentation indication field is added after a bitmap control field, where a value of the fragmentation indication field includes a first symbol and a second symbol, and if the fragmentation indication field is the first symbol, it indicates that a part of virtual bitmap is not split, and only one part of virtual bitmap indicates a traffic buffering condition; the second symbol of the fragment indicating bit indicates that the partial virtual bitmap is fragmented, and at least two partial virtual bitmaps indicate the traffic buffering condition. If the fragment indication bit in the fragment indication field is the second symbol, the format in which the end identification field is the bitmap end offset field is shown in table 7.

Table 7 another TIM element format for splitting partial virtual bitmaps when DTIM count is 0

Specifically, for the case where the number of STAs is 2 or more, for the case where k=2, if

Splitting a partial virtual bitmap for the first STA and the second first STA; for k>2, if

The partial virtual bitmaps for the kth STA and the kth-1 STA are split. The length required by the DTIM without splitting in this embodiment is one byte more than the length of the DTIM under the definition of the protocol, and if the AID of the STA to be indicated is more dispersed and splitting is required, the traffic indication coding method in this embodiment is better than the scheme in the protocol, and the more dispersed the AID, the more obvious the advantage.

In order to further save resources, in still another embodiment of the present application, the method further includes: and if the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers do not satisfy the first predetermined condition, not splitting the partial virtual bitmap field.

In another embodiment of the present application, the method further includes: and under the condition that the number of the first STAs is smaller than 2, the partial virtual bitmap field is not split. When the number of the first STAs is smaller than 2, resources are saved more without splitting.

In order to make the traffic indication coding formats consistent under different situations, in another embodiment of the present application, the splitting of the partial virtual bitmap field does not include: when the DTIM count is not 0, marking the traffic indication bit as a slice indication bit, wherein the value of the slice indication bit is 0; in the case where the DTIM count is 0, the end flag field is added after the bitmap control field.

In practical application, when the DTIM count is not 0, since the traffic indication bit in the bitmap control field is reserved, and the use of the traffic indication bit as the fragmentation indication bit indicates that the fragmentation indication bit is 0, the partial virtual bitmap is not split, and only one partial virtual bitmap indicates the traffic buffering condition, if only zero or one STA has buffering traffic at the AP, the splitting is not required, and the TIM element format is shown in table 8. When the DTIM count is 0, since 1 bit is required to be used as a traffic indication field to indicate whether one or more multicast or broadcast frames are buffered at the AP, the traffic indication bit in the bitmap control field may not be used as a fragmentation indication subfield any more, and additional information is required to indicate whether fragmentation is performed, an end identification field may be added after the bitmap control field, a TIM element format is shown in table 9, and a fragmentation indication field may be added after the bitmap control field, where the fragmentation indication field indicates that a partial virtual bitmap is not split for the first symbol, and the TIM element format is shown in table 10.

Table 8 TIM element Format without splitting partial virtual bitmap when DTIM count is not 0

Table 9 TIM element Format without splitting partial virtual bitmap when DTIM count is 0

Table 10 yet another TIM element format that does not split partial virtual bitmaps when the DTIM count is 0

In order to make the bitmap offset value indicating the partial virtual bitmap larger, in still another embodiment of the present application, the method further includes: determining whether the DTIM count is 0 when the number of the first STAs is less than 2; and under the condition that the DTIM count is not 0, controlling the flow indication bit to be combined with the bitmap offset bit to obtain a target bitmap offset, wherein the target bitmap offset is used for representing bytes of the start of the partial virtual bitmap.

Specifically, when the bitmap offset is set to K, that is, the partial virtual bitmap is indicated to start from k×2 bytes, denoted as N1, and denoted as N2 is the last byte number indicated by the partial virtual bitmap. That is, the traffic virtual bitmaps of workstations whose AID is 1 to n1×8-1 and (n2+1) ×8 to 2007 are all 0. The length of the partial virtual bitmap field is 0-251 bytes, that is, the bitmap field contains 2008 bits at most, and the value of bit N (1.ltoreq.N.ltoreq.2007) in the bitmap indicates whether the STA with AID of N has cache traffic at the AP, 1 represents that cache exists, and 0 represents that no cache exists. The 0 bit is a reserved field and is not allocated to a node to represent all multicast and broadcast. Since the indication of the partial virtual bitmap starts from k×2 bytes, i.e. the number of start bytes of the partial virtual bitmap is always even, then one indication byte is wasted when the number of bytes in which the AID for the STA to be indicated is located is odd. In the above embodiment, for the TIM element with DTIM count not being 0, since the traffic indication bit in the bitmap control field is reserved, it may also be used as the bitmap offset bit. That is, a total of 8 bits is used to indicate the bitmap offset, when the bitmap offset is set to K, that is, when the bitmap offset is set to K, the indication part of the virtual bitmap starts from K bytes, that is, when the number of bytes in which the AID of the STA to be indicated is located is an odd number, one indication byte is saved.

In practical applications, the above method may also be used when the number of the first STAs is greater than or equal to 2.

The embodiment of the application also provides a device for encoding a flow indication map, where the flow indication map at least includes a DTIM count field, a bitmap control field, and a partial virtual bitmap field, where the bitmap control field includes a flow indication bit and a bitmap offset bit, and the partial virtual bitmap field includes at least one AID. The following describes an encoding device of a flow indication map provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an encoding apparatus of a flow indication map according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 2, the apparatus includes:

an obtaining unit 10, configured to obtain a DTIM count, the number of first STAs, and a first AID corresponding to the first STAs, where the first STAs are STAs having buffered data at an AP;

the splitting unit 20 is configured to split the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs, and the first AID, so that the first AID has a corresponding start identifier field and end identifier field, where the start identifier field and the end identifier field are used for characterizing a byte position where the first AID is located.

In the encoding device of the flow indication map, the acquisition unit acquires a DTIM count, the number of first STAs and a first AID corresponding to the first STAs, where the first STAs are STAs having buffered data at an AP; and splitting the partial virtual bitmap field by the splitting unit according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs and each first AID, so that each first AID has a corresponding start identification field and end identification field, wherein the start identification field and the end identification field are used for representing a byte section of a byte position where each first AID is located. Under the condition that the AIDs of the STAs to be indicated in the partial virtual bitmap are scattered, a large amount of indication byte numbers are wasted, and the device splits the AIDs of the STAs to be indicated into a plurality of bytes of the adjacent sections of the bytes of the AIDs of the STAs to be indicated to form a plurality of partial virtual bitmaps, so that the byte numbers can be saved, resources can be saved, and the problem of wasting resources under the condition that the AIDs of the STAs to be indicated in the partial virtual bitmaps are scattered in the prior art is solved.

In practical applications, the TIM is a basic traffic indication bitmap structure, the format of the TIM element in the prior art is shown in table 11, the standard TIM only indicates the unicast information cached by the AP, and the DTIM is a special TIM which indicates the multicast information cached by the AP in addition to the cached unicast information. Typically, each Beacon frame contains a TIM, and the TIM is specifically not DTIM, and needs to be determined according to two parameters, i.e., DTIM count and DTIM period. The DTIM count indicates how many Beacon frames (including the current Beacon frame) are before the next DTIM arrives, e.g., if the DTIM count is 0, then the current TIM is indicated as a DTIM. The DTIM period field indicates the number of Beacon frames between two consecutive DTIMs. For example, if all TIMs are DTIM, then a DTIM period equal to 1 and a DTIM period equal to 0 is reserved. The bitmap control field length is 0 or 1 byte, and the bitmap control field format in the prior art is shown in table 2.

TABLE 11 format of TIM element in Prior Art

Field name

Element ID

Length of

DTIM count

DTIM period

Bitmap control

Partial virtual bitmap

Number of bytes

1

0 or 1

0-251

Table 12 format of bitmap control field in the prior art

Field name	Flow indication	Bitmap offset
			Number of bits	1	7

In an embodiment of the present application, the type of the AID includes the first AID and a second AID, the STA corresponding to the second AID does not have cache data in the AP, the DTIM count includes two cases of 0 and not 0, and the splitting unit includes an acquiring module and a splitting module, where the acquiring module is configured to acquire, when the number of the first STAs is greater than or equal to 2, the number of bytes of the second AID between any two adjacent first AIDs, so as to obtain at least one first byte number; the splitting module is configured to split the partial virtual bitmap field when the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers satisfy a first predetermined condition, where the first predetermined condition includes: the DTIM count is 0 and each of the first byte numbers is greater than 2, the DTIM count is not 0 and a first one of the first byte numbers is greater than 3, the DTIM count is not 0 and an nth one of the first byte numbers is greater than 2, wherein the first one of the first byte numbers is the first byte number between the first two adjacent first AIDs, N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, and the nth one of the first byte numbers is the first byte number between any two adjacent first AIDs after the second one of the first AIDs. Under the condition that the number of the STAs is large, whether to split the partial virtual bitmap or not is determined by judging the distribution condition of AIDs corresponding to the STAs with cache data at the AP, namely judging the byte number of the second AIDs between two adjacent first AIDs, so that the waste of resources can be further reduced.

In order to facilitate the subsequent STA to parse the TIM element in the Beacon frame, when the DTIM count is not 0, the traffic indication bit is marked as a fragmentation indication bit, and in another embodiment of the present application, the splitting module includes a first splitting submodule, where the first splitting submodule is configured to, when the first predetermined condition is that the DTIM count is not 0 and the first number of bytes is greater than 3, or when the DTIM count is not 0 and the nth number of bytes is greater than 2, mark the traffic indication bit as a fragmentation indication bit, a value of the fragmentation indication bit is 1, and increase the end identification field before the first AID, and increase the start identification field and the end identification field before each of the first AIDs after the first AID. The fragmentation indication bit is used for representing whether the partial virtual bitmap is split or not, and if the value of the fragmentation indication bit is 1, the partial virtual bitmap is split. The start identification field and the end identification field are used for identifying a byte interval where a following first AID is located, and the start identification field of the first AID is a bitmap offset in the bitmap control field. The start identification field and the end identification field are each 1 byte long.

In practical application, for a TIM element with a DTIM count other than 0, i.e., a non-DTIM, the format of the bitmap control field in the TIM element is shown in table 13, and the traffic indication bit in the bitmap control field is reserved, and when the number of the first STAs is greater than or equal to 2, the first AID of the kth first STA with buffered traffic at the AP is recorded as X _k : for the case of k=2, if

Representing a rounding down.

Table 13 bitmap control field format of TIM element with DTIM count not 0

Field name	Slice indication	Bitmap offset
			Number of bits	1	7

Specifically, for the traffic indication bitmaps of the first STA and the second STA, if splitting is performed (i.e. there are two partial virtual bitmaps to represent traffic buffering conditions), three bytes are added, which are respectively an end identification field of the first split partial virtual bitmap and a start identification field of the second split partial virtual bitmap, and an end identification field of the second split partial virtual bitmap. Therefore, when the number of bytes between the number of bytes of the first STA and the number of bytes of the second first STA is greater than 3, the splitting is performed with less resources than the original indication method. For the kth STA and the (k-1) th STA, k >2, two bytes are added for each split, which are respectively the start identification field and the end identification field of the added split partial virtual bitmap. Therefore, when the number of bytes between the number of bytes of the kth STA and the number of bytes of the (k-1) th STA is greater than 2, the splitting is performed with less resources than the original indication method. The start identifier field may be a bitmap start offset field, the end identifier field may be a bitmap end offset field or a sub-bitmap length field, as shown in table 14 and table 15, where table 14 splits a partial virtual bitmap when the DTIM count is not 0, at least into two partial virtual bitmaps, the end identifier field is a TIM element format of the bitmap end offset field, table 15 splits a partial virtual bitmap when the DTIM count is not 0, and the end identifier field is a TIM element format of the sub-bitmap length field.

Table 14 TIM element Format for splitting partial virtual bitmap when DTIM count is not 0

Table 15 another TIM element format for splitting partial virtual bitmaps when the DTIM count is not 0

In yet another embodiment of the present application, the splitting module includes a second splitting submodule, where the second splitting submodule is configured to add the end identifier field before a first one of the first AIDs and add the start identifier field and the end identifier field before each one of the first AIDs after the first one of the first AIDs when the first predetermined condition is that the DTIM count is 0 and each one of the first bytes is greater than 2. When the DTIM count is 0, the traffic indication field is used to indicate whether the STA associated with AID 0 in the partial virtual bitmap has buffered data at the AP, so that the STA can determine whether the subsequent partial virtual bitmap field is split when parsing the TIM element by adding the end identification field before the first AID, that is, after parsing the subsequent partial virtual bitmap according to the end identification field before the first AID, if the STA obtains that the element has not been parsed according to the length field in the TIM element, whether the subsequent partial virtual bitmap is fragmented can be determined.

In practical applications, for a TIM element with a DTIM count of 0, since 1 bit is required to be used as a traffic indication field to indicate whether one or more multicast or broadcast frames are buffered at an AP, the traffic indication bit in the bitmap control field may not be used as a fragmentation indication subfield, and for a DTIM, the bitmap control field is always followed by an end identification field, which may be a bitmap end offset field or a sub-bitmap length field, and the end identification field is in the format of a bitmap end offset field as shown in table 16.

Table 16 TIM element Format splitting partial virtual bitmap with DTIM count of 0

Specifically, for the case where the number of STAs is 2 or more, if

In a specific embodiment of the present application, a fragmentation indication field is added after a bitmap control field, where a value of the fragmentation indication field includes a first symbol and a second symbol, and if the fragmentation indication field is the first symbol, it indicates that a part of virtual bitmap is not split, and only one part of virtual bitmap indicates a traffic buffering condition; the second symbol of the fragment indicating bit indicates that the partial virtual bitmap is fragmented, and at least two partial virtual bitmaps indicate the traffic buffering condition. If the fragment indication bit in the fragment indication field is the second symbol, the format in which the end identification field is the bitmap end offset field is shown in table 17.

Table 17 another TIM element format for splitting partial virtual bitmaps when the DTIM count is 0

The partial virtual bitmaps for the kth STA and the kth-1 STA are split. The length of the DTIM in the case of no splitting in this embodiment is one byte more than the length of the DTIM in the protocol definition, and if the AID of the STA to be indicated is more dispersed and splitting is required, the traffic indication coding device in this embodiment is better than the scheme in the protocol, and the more dispersed the AID, the more obvious the advantage.

In order to further save resources, in still another embodiment of the present application, the apparatus further includes a first processing unit, where the first processing unit is configured to not split the partial virtual bitmap field if the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers do not meet the first predetermined condition.

In another embodiment of the present application, the apparatus further includes a second processing unit, where the second processing unit is configured to, in a case where the number of the first STAs is less than 2, not split the partial virtual bitmap field. When the number of the first STAs is smaller than 2, resources are saved more without splitting.

In order to make the traffic indication coding formats consistent in different situations, in another embodiment of the present application, the first processing unit or the second processing unit includes a first processing module and a second processing module, where the first processing module is configured to flag the traffic indication bit as a slice indication bit and the value of the slice indication bit is 0 when the DTIM count is not 0; the second processing module is configured to add the end identifier field after the bitmap control field in the case where the DTIM count is 0.

In practical application, when the DTIM count is not 0, since the traffic indication bit in the bitmap control field is reserved, and the use of the traffic indication bit as the fragmentation indication bit indicates that the fragmentation indication bit is 0, the partial virtual bitmap is not split, and only one partial virtual bitmap indicates the traffic buffering condition, if only zero or one STA has buffered traffic at the AP, the splitting is not required, and the TIM element format is shown in table 18. When the DTIM count is 0, since the traffic indication bit in the bitmap control field is not a reserved bit, but is needed as the traffic indication field of the multicast/broadcast frame, additional information is needed to indicate whether the fragmentation is performed, an end identifier field may be added after the bitmap control field, a TIM element format is shown in table 19, a fragmentation indication field may be added after the bitmap control field, the fragmentation indication field indicates that a part of the virtual bitmap is not split for the first symbol, and the TIM element format is shown in table 20.

Table 18 TIM element format with partial virtual bitmap not split when DTIM count is not 0

Table 19 TIM element Format without splitting partial virtual bitmap when DTIM count is 0

Table 20 yet another TIM element format that does not split partial virtual bitmaps when DTIM count is 0

In order to make the bitmap offset value indicating the partial virtual bitmap larger, in still another embodiment of the present application, the apparatus further includes a determining unit and a third processing unit, where the determining unit is configured to determine whether the DTIM count is 0 when the number of the first STAs is less than 2; and the third processing unit is configured to control the combination of the traffic indicator bit and the bitmap offset bit to obtain a target bitmap offset, where the target bitmap offset is used to represent a byte from which the partial virtual bitmap starts, where the DTIM count is not 0.

In practical applications, the apparatus may be used when the number of the first STAs is greater than or equal to 2.

The coding device of the flow indication map comprises a processor and a memory, wherein the acquisition unit, the splitting unit and the like are stored in the memory as program units, and the processor executes the program units stored in the memory to realize corresponding functions.

The processor includes a kernel, and the kernel fetches the corresponding program unit from the memory. The kernel can set one or more than one kernel parameters to solve the problem of wasting resources under the condition of AID dispersion of the STA to be indicated in the partial virtual bitmap in the prior art.

The memory may include volatile memory, random Access Memory (RAM), and/or nonvolatile memory, such as Read Only Memory (ROM) or flash memory (flash RAM), among other forms in computer readable media, the memory including at least one memory chip.

The embodiment of the invention provides a computer readable storage medium, which comprises a stored program, wherein the program is used for controlling equipment where the computer readable storage medium is positioned to execute the coding method of the flow indication map.

The embodiment of the invention provides a processor, which is used for running a program, wherein the program runs to execute the coding method of the flow indication map.

The embodiment of the invention provides equipment, which comprises a processor, a memory and a program stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor, wherein the processor realizes at least the following steps when executing the program:

The device herein may be a server, PC, PAD, cell phone, etc.

The present application also provides a computer program product adapted to perform a program initialized with at least the following method steps when executed on a data processing device:

The application also provides an electronic device, comprising: the system comprises one or more processors, a memory, a display device, and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising an encoding method for performing any of the flow indication maps described above.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

In one typical configuration, a computing device includes one or more processors (CPUs), input/output interfaces, network interfaces, and memory.

The memory may include volatile memory in a computer-readable medium, random Access Memory (RAM) and/or nonvolatile memory, etc., such as Read Only Memory (ROM) or flash RAM. Memory is an example of a computer-readable medium.

Computer readable media, including both non-transitory and non-transitory, removable and non-removable media, may implement information storage by any method or technology. The information may be computer readable instructions, data structures, modules of a program, or other data. Examples of storage media for a computer include, but are not limited to, phase change memory (PRAM), static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), other types of Random Access Memory (RAM), read Only Memory (ROM), electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), digital Versatile Discs (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transmission medium, which can be used to store information that can be accessed by a computing device. Computer-readable media, as defined herein, does not include transitory computer-readable media (transmission media), such as modulated data signals and carrier waves.

It should also be noted that the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article or apparatus that comprises an element.

From the above description, it can be seen that the above embodiments of the present application achieve the following technical effects:

1) In the coding method of the flow indication map, firstly, a DTIM count, the number of first STAs and a first AID corresponding to the first STAs are obtained, wherein the first STAs are STAs with cache data at an AP; and splitting the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs and each first AID so that each first AID has a corresponding start identification field and end identification field, wherein the start identification field and the end identification field are used for representing byte intervals of byte positions where each first AID is located. Under the condition that the AIDs of the STAs to be indicated in the partial virtual bitmap are scattered, a large amount of indication byte numbers are wasted.

2) In the encoding device of the flow indication map, the acquisition unit acquires the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs and the first AID corresponding to the first STAs, where the first STAs are STAs with cached data at an AP; and splitting the partial virtual bitmap field by the splitting unit according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs and each first AID, so that each first AID has a corresponding start identification field and end identification field, wherein the start identification field and the end identification field are used for representing a byte section of a byte position where each first AID is located. Under the condition that the AIDs of the STAs to be indicated in the partial virtual bitmap are scattered, a large amount of indication byte numbers are wasted, and the device splits the AIDs of the STAs to be indicated into a plurality of bytes of the adjacent sections of the bytes of the AIDs of the STAs to be indicated to form a plurality of partial virtual bitmaps, so that the byte numbers can be saved, resources can be saved, and the problem of wasting resources under the condition that the AIDs of the STAs to be indicated in the partial virtual bitmaps are scattered in the prior art is solved.

The foregoing description is only of the preferred embodiments of the present application and is not intended to limit the same, but rather, various modifications and variations may be made by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principles of the present application should be included in the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for encoding a flow indication map, the flow indication map at least comprising a DTIM count field, a bitmap control field, and a partial virtual bitmap field, the bitmap control field comprising a flow indication bit and a bitmap offset bit, the partial virtual bitmap field comprising at least one AID, the method comprising:

acquiring a DTIM count, the number of first STAs and first AIDs corresponding to the first STAs, wherein the first STAs are STAs with cache data at an AP;

splitting the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs and each first AID, so that each first AID has a corresponding start identification field and end identification field, where the start identification field and the end identification field are used for representing a byte section of a byte position where each first AID is located.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the type of AID includes the first AID and a second AID, the STA corresponding to the second AID has no buffered data in the AP, the DTIM count includes two cases of 0 and not 0, splitting the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs, and the first AID includes:

Acquiring the byte number of the second AID between any two adjacent first AIDs to obtain at least one first byte number under the condition that the number of the first STAs is greater than or equal to 2;

splitting the partial virtual bitmap field if the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers satisfy a first predetermined condition, the first predetermined condition comprising: the DTIM count is 0, the first byte number is greater than 2, the DTIM count is not 0, the first byte number is greater than 3, the DTIM count is not 0, the first byte number is greater than 2, the first byte number is the first byte number between the first two adjacent first AIDs, N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, and the first byte number is the first byte number between any two adjacent first AIDs after the second first AIDs.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein splitting the partial virtual bitmap field if the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers satisfy a first predetermined condition comprises:

And when the first preset condition is that the DTIM count is not 0 and the first number of bytes is greater than 3, or the DTIM count is not 0 and the nth number of bytes is greater than 2, marking the traffic indication bit as a slicing indication bit, wherein the value of the slicing indication bit is 1, adding the end identification field before the first AID, and adding the start identification field and the end identification field before each first AID after the first AID.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein splitting the partial virtual bitmap field if the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers satisfy a first predetermined condition comprises:

and when the first preset condition is that the DTIM count is 0 and each first byte number is greater than 2, the ending identification field is added before the first AID, and the starting identification field and the ending identification field are added before each first AID after the first AID.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

and in the case that the DTIM count and at least one of the first byte numbers do not meet the first predetermined condition, the partial virtual bitmap field is not split.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

and under the condition that the number of the first STAs is smaller than 2, the partial virtual bitmap field is not split.

7. The method of claim 5 or 6, wherein the partial virtual bitmap field is not split, comprising:

marking the flow indication bit as a slicing indication bit with a value of 0 when the DTIM count is not 0;

in case the DTIM count is 0, the end identification field is added after the bitmap control field.

8. The method according to claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether the DTIM count is 0 if the number of the first STAs is less than 2;

and under the condition that the DTIM count is not 0, controlling the combination of the flow indication bit and the bitmap offset bit to obtain a target bitmap offset, wherein the target bitmap offset is used for representing bytes of the start of the partial virtual bitmap.

9. An encoding apparatus of a flow indication map, the flow indication map at least including a DTIM count field, a bitmap control field, and a partial virtual bitmap field, the bitmap control field including a flow indication bit and a bitmap offset bit, the partial virtual bitmap field including at least one AID therein, the encoding apparatus comprising:

The acquisition unit is used for acquiring the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs and the first AIDs corresponding to the first STAs, wherein the first STAs are STAs with cache data at an AP;

the splitting unit is configured to split the partial virtual bitmap field according to the DTIM count, the number of the first STAs, and the first AID, so that the first AID has a corresponding start identification field and end identification field, where the start identification field and the end identification field are used for characterizing a byte position where the first AID is located.

10. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer readable storage medium comprises a stored program, wherein the program when run controls a device in which the computer readable storage medium is located to perform the method of encoding a flow indication map according to any of claims 1 to 8.

11. A processor, characterized in that the processor is configured to run a program, wherein the program when run performs the method of encoding a flow indication map according to any of claims 1 to 8.

12. An electronic device, comprising: one or more processors, a memory, a display device, and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising an encoding method for performing the flow indication map of any of claims 1-8.