CN115484677A

CN115484677A - Time distribution method and device, access point and station

Info

Publication number: CN115484677A
Application number: CN202110606218.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 顾祥新; 沈兴亚; 韩立锋
Original assignee: Spreadtrum Communications Shanghai Co Ltd
Current assignee: Spreadtrum Communications Shanghai Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-05-31
Filing date: 2021-05-31
Publication date: 2022-12-16
Also published as: WO2022252543A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses a time distribution method and device, an access point and a site; the method comprises the following steps: the access point sends a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame is used for allocating transmission time in transmission opportunity TXOP to L sites to transmit a wireless frame, the trigger frame comprises a public information field and at least one user information field, and the value of L is an integer which is greater than or equal to 1; the station acquires the trigger frame. Because the common information field carries first information used for indicating first transmission time and the user information field carries second information used for configuring transmission time allocated to a site in L sites corresponding to the user information field in the first transmission time, the trigger frame is used for realizing that each site in the L sites is allocated with respective transmission time in the first transmission time, compatibility and consistency among frame structures of the trigger frame are ensured, a plurality of wireless frame transmissions are triggered through one trigger frame, and further the utilization efficiency of a channel is improved.

Description

Time distribution method and device, access point and station

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a time allocation method and apparatus, an access point, and a station.

Background

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) organization establishes related transmission opportunity (TXOP) mechanisms in relation to the IEEE802.11 series of protocol standards for Wireless Local Access Networks (WLANs). If a non-access point (non-AP STA, also referred to as STA or station for short) acquires a time slice (i.e., transmission time in the TXOP) in the allocated TXOP, the station may not need to contend for the channel to transmit data in the time slice in the TXOP, thereby improving the channel utilization efficiency.

Currently, the IEEE802.11ax protocol standard only specifies a scenario in which a Trigger Frame (TF) triggers transmission of a radio frame to an access point (AP STA, also referred to as AP or access point). However, the next generation WLAN protocol standard (e.g., IEEE802.11 be) currently being developed by IEEE may have a scenario where one trigger frame triggers the transmission of multiple radio frames. Since each WLAN protocol standard needs to have backward compatibility, when the next-generation WLAN protocol standard such as IEEE802.11be needs to be compatible with the IEEE802.11ax protocol standard, how to allocate transmission time in TXOP to at least one station needs to be further studied.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a time allocation method and device, an access point and a station, which are used for allocating transmission time in a TXOP to at least one station through a trigger frame, ensuring compatibility and consistency among frame structures of the trigger frame specified by each WLAN protocol standard, triggering transmission of a plurality of wireless frames through one trigger frame and improving channel utilization efficiency.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a time allocation method, including:

an access point sends a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame is used for allocating transmission time in transmission opportunity TXOP to L sites to transmit a wireless frame, the trigger frame comprises a public information field and at least one user information field, and the value of L is an integer which is greater than or equal to 1; wherein,

the public information field carries first information, and the first information is used for indicating the first transmission time;

the user information field carries second information, and the second information is used for configuring the transmission time allocated to the station in the L stations corresponding to the user information field in the first transmission time.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a time allocation method, including:

the method comprises the steps that a station acquires a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame is used for allocating transmission time in transmission opportunity (TXOP) to L stations so as to transmit a wireless frame, the trigger frame comprises a public information field and at least one user information field, and L is an integer larger than or equal to 1; wherein,

the user information field carries second information, and the second information is used for configuring the transmission time allocated to the site in the L sites corresponding to the user information field in the first transmission time.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a time allocation apparatus, where the apparatus includes a processing unit and a communication unit, where the processing unit is configured to:

sending a trigger frame through the communication unit, wherein the trigger frame is used for allocating transmission time in a transmission opportunity (TXOP) to L sites to transmit a wireless frame, the trigger frame comprises a public information field and at least one user information field, and the value of L is an integer greater than or equal to 1; wherein,

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a time distribution apparatus, where the apparatus includes a processing unit and a communication unit, where the processing unit is configured to:

acquiring a trigger frame through the communication unit, wherein the trigger frame is used for allocating transmission time in transmission opportunity (TXOP) to L sites to transmit a wireless frame, the trigger frame comprises a public information field and at least one user information field, and L is an integer greater than or equal to 1; wherein,

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide an access point, comprising a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, the one or more programs including instructions for performing the steps of the first aspect of embodiments of the present application.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a station comprising a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, the one or more programs including instructions for performing the steps of the second aspect of embodiments of the present application.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, where the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program for electronic data exchange, where the computer program makes a computer perform some or all of the steps as described in the first aspect or the second aspect of the embodiment of the present application.

In an eighth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program, where the computer program is operable to cause a computer to perform some or all of the steps as described in the first or second aspect of embodiments of the present application. The computer program may be a software installation package.

It can be seen that the access point sends a trigger frame, where the trigger frame is used to allocate transmission time in TXOP to L stations to transmit a radio frame, where the trigger frame includes a common information field and at least one user information field, and a value of L is an integer greater than or equal to 1; the station acquires the trigger frame. Because the common information field of the trigger frame carries first information used for indicating the first transmission time, and the user information field of the trigger frame carries second information used for configuring the transmission time allocated to the station in the L stations corresponding to the user information field in the first transmission time, the trigger frame is used for realizing that each station in the L stations is allocated with respective transmission time in the first transmission time, compatibility and consistency among frame structures of the trigger frame specified by each WLAN protocol standard are ensured, the trigger frame is used for triggering the transmission of a plurality of wireless frames, and further the utilization efficiency of a channel is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments or the prior art descriptions will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings without creative efforts.

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

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a frame structure of a trigger frame according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is a schematic frame structure diagram of a common information field in an MU-RTS trigger frame according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a frame structure diagram of a user information field in an MU-RTS trigger frame according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

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

fig. 6 to fig. 13 are schematic structural diagrams illustrating a trigger frame allocating transmission opportunity time to a station according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a block diagram illustrating functional units of a time distribution apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating functional units of another time distribution apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of an access point according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a station provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to better understand the technical solutions of the present application for those skilled in the art, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application are described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. It should be apparent that the embodiments described are some, but not all embodiments of the present application. All other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art without making any creative effort for the embodiments in the present application belong to the protection scope of the present application.

The terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and claims of the present application and in the above-described drawings are used for distinguishing between different objects and not for describing a particular order. Furthermore, the terms "include" and "have," as well as any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, software, product, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not limited to those listed but may include other steps or elements not listed or inherent to such process, method, product, or apparatus.

Reference herein to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the application. The appearances of the phrase in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. It is explicitly and implicitly understood by one skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments.

It should be noted that "connection" in the embodiments of the present application refers to various connection methods such as direct connection or indirect connection, so as to implement communication between devices, and is not limited in any way. In the embodiments of the present application, "network" and "system" represent the same concept, and a communication system is a communication network.

The embodiment of the application can be applied to a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). Currently, the protocol standards adopted by WLANs are the IEEE802.11 family. The WLAN may include a plurality of Basic Service Sets (BSSs), and devices in the BSS may include an access point station (AP STA, also referred to as AP or access point) and a non-access point station (non-AP STA, also referred to as STA or station). In addition, each basic service set may include one access point and at least one station.

In particular, an access point may be an entity that provides network access to stations connected thereto via a wireless medium. The access point may access the ethernet for each wireless network client. The access point may be a network device of a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) chip. An access point may be a device that supports various IEEE802.11 protocol standards. For example, an access point may support devices of IEEE802.11 ac, IEEE802.11 n, IEEE802.11 g, IEEE802.11b, IEEE802.11ax, IEEE802.11be, a next generation WLAN protocol standard, and so forth. An access point may include a centralized controller, a Base Station (BS), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a site controller, a switch, and the like.

Further, the access point may include a device, such as a system-on-chip, that provides wireless communication capabilities for the station. The chip system may include a chip, and may further include other discrete devices, such as a transceiver device.

Further, the access point may communicate with an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Such as the internet (internet), a private IP network, or other data network, etc.

Specifically, the station may be a wireless communication chip, a wireless sensor, or a wireless communication terminal. For example, a User Equipment (UE) supporting Wi-Fi communication functions, a remote/remote terminal (remote UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile device, a user terminal, a smart terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent or user equipment/cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, and the like, which are not particularly limited.

Further, stations may include non-access point enhanced high throughput stations (non-AP EHT STAs), non-access point high efficiency stations (non-AP high efficiency STAs), and so on.

Further, the station may include a device having a transmitting and receiving function, such as a system-on-chip. The chip system may include a chip, and may further include other discrete devices, such as a transceiver device.

In conjunction with the above description, the following embodiments of the present application provide an exemplary illustration of a wireless communication system with access points and stations in a basic service set.

For an exemplary wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present application, please refer to fig. 1. Wireless communication system 10 may include an access point 110, a station 120, and a station 130. Access point 110 may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area and may communicate with

stations

120 and 130 located within communication coverage, among other things.

Optionally, the wireless communication system 10 may further include a plurality of access points, and each access point may include a certain number of stations within a communication coverage area, which is not particularly limited.

Optionally, the wireless communication system 10 may further include other network entities such as a Radio Access Network (RAN) device, a Core Network (CN) device, a network controller, a mobility management entity, and the like, which is not limited in this respect.

Alternatively, the communication between the access point and the station in the wireless communication system 10 may be wireless communication or wired communication, which is not particularly limited.

Before describing the time allocation method provided by the embodiment of the present application in detail, relevant contents related to the embodiment of the present application are described.

1. Trigger frame (trigger frame, TF)

The trigger frame belongs to a Medium Access Control (MAC) frame. As shown in fig. 2, the Frame structure (Frame format) of the trigger Frame may include a Frame Control (FC) field, a Duration (Duration) field, a Receiver Address (RA) field, a Transmitter Address (TA) field, a Common Information (Common Information) field, at least one User Information (User Information, user Info) field, a Padding (Padding) field, and a Frame Check Sequence (FCs) field.

It should be noted that different IEEE802.11 protocol standards may have different specifications for the fields carried by the trigger frame.

The RA field may indicate a receiver address of the trigger frame. The RA field may indicate a MAC address of a station when a trigger frame needs to trigger the station to transmit data. The RA field may indicate a broadcast address when the trigger frame needs to trigger at least one station to transmit data.

The TA field may indicate the transmitter address of the trigger frame. When the access point that sent the trigger frame does not use multiple BSSIDs, the TA field may indicate the MAC address of the access point.

The common information field may indicate information that at least one station triggered by the trigger frame needs to read.

The user information field may respectively indicate information required for each of a plurality of stations triggered by the trigger frame to transmit a response to the trigger frame. In particular, the trigger frame may include at least one user information field.

The user information field may indicate a station triggered by the trigger frame. That is, the user information field has a correspondence with the site. When the user information field includes Association Identifier (AID) information, a station indicated by the AID information may be a station triggered by a trigger frame or a station corresponding to the user information field. For example, the AID12 subfield in the user information field may indicate 12 Least Significant Bits (LSBs) of the AID of the station triggered by the trigger frame.

The user information field may indicate a Resource Unit (RU) allocated to a station triggered by the trigger frame. Wherein the RU may indicate a plurality of subcarriers for uplink and downlink transmissions. In addition, an RU allocation subfield (RU allocation subfield) in the user information field may indicate a starting RU of one or more consecutive RUs allocated by the user information field.

The padding field may include padding bits. The padding field may be used to ensure that a station transmitting a response frame to the trigger frame is ready for transmission of the response frame. Therefore, the length of the padding field may be determined according to the capability of a station transmitting a response frame for the trigger frame. In addition, the trigger frame may not include a padding field.

The access point may use the trigger frame to trigger the station to perform data transmission, such as data transmission of an uplink, and data transmission of a point-to-point (P2P) link. In the uplink data transmission, it can be understood that a station transmits data to an access point; data transmission of a P2P link may be understood as data transmission from one station to another station over the P2P link.

2. Multi-user request to send (MU-RTS) trigger frame

A trigger type (trigger type) subfield in a common information field of a trigger frame may indicate a type of the trigger frame. For example, in table 1, if the value of the trigger type subfield is set to 3, the type of the trigger frame is MU-RTS, that is, the trigger frame is a MU-RTS trigger frame.

In the IEEE802.11ax protocol standard, the frame structure of the common information field in the MU-RTS trigger frame is shown in fig. 3. Wherein a frame structure of the common information field includes a Trigger Type (Trigger Type) subfield, an uplink Length (UL Length) subfield, a More TF subfield, a Required carrier sense (CS Required) subfield, an uplink bandwidth (UL BW) subfield, a guard interval + long training sequence Type (GI And LTF Type) subfield, a MU-MIMO LTF Mode (MU-MIMO LTF Mode) subfield, a HE-LTF symbol Number And Midamble period (Number of HE-LTF Symbols And Midamble Periodicity) subfield, an uplink STBC (UL STBC), an LPC, an AP transmit Power (AP Power) subfield, a packet spreading ambiguity (PE diversity) subfield, an uplink Spatial Reuse (UL) subfield, a Doppler (Doppler) subfield, a high efficiency/throughput very high P160 (HE/EHT sub P) subfield, an EHT field 160 subfield, and the like.

In IEEE802.11ax, the frame structure of the user information field in the MU-RTS trigger frame is shown in fig. 4. The frame structure of the user information field includes an association identifier 12 (AID 12) subfield, a resource unit Allocation (RU Allocation) subfield, an uplink forward error correction code Coding Type (UL FEC Coding Type) subfield, an uplink high efficiency modulation and Coding strategy (UL HE-MCS) subfield, an uplink DCM subfield, an SS Allocation/RA-RU information subfield, an uplink Target received Power (UL Target Receive Power) subfield, a Reserved (Reserved) subfield, and the like.

TABLE 1

3. Access point assisted single user PHY protocol data unit (SU PPDU) transmission (AP asserted SU PPDU)

The IEEE802.11be protocol standard needs to define a mechanism such that an access point may send a modified MU-RTS trigger frame (a modified MU-RTS trigger frame) that may be used to allocate transmission time within a TXOP to transmit at least one non-triggered PPDU (non-TB PPDU). Wherein,

(1) The allocated intra-TXOP transmission time begins with the end of the transmission of the modified MU-RTS trigger frame;

(2) Whether the access point can request a station to respond to a Clear To Send (CTS) frame via the modified MU-RTS trigger frame is pending;

(3) The non-triggered PPDU may be sent by a station to an access point; alternatively, the non-triggered PPDU may be transmitted by a station to other stations over a peer-to-peer (P2P) link.

Currently, the IEEE802.11ax protocol standard only specifies that one trigger frame can only allocate a time slice within a TXOP (i.e., an intra-TXOP transmission time) for a scenario where one or more stations send a radio frame to an access point in an OFDMA manner (i.e., one trigger frame triggers transmission of one radio frame to the access point). However, the next generation WLAN protocol standard (e.g., IEEE802.11 be) currently being developed by IEEE may have a scenario where a trigger frame allocates consecutive time slices in a TXOP for a station to send a radio frame to an access point or other stations (i.e., a trigger frame triggers transmission of multiple radio frames). Since each WLAN protocol standard needs to have backward compatibility, when the next-generation WLAN protocol standard such as IEEE802.11be needs to be compatible with the IEEE802.11ax protocol standard, how to allocate transmission time in TXOP to at least one station needs to be further studied.

For example, the IEEE802.11be protocol standard may specify that 7 reserved bits (B25-B31) in the user information field of the modified MU-RTS trigger frame are used to allocate intra-TXOP transmission time to at least one station, and the UL Length subfield (B4-B15) originally used to allocate transmission time to one station in the common information field of the MU-RTS trigger frame specified by the IEEE802.11ax protocol standard is changed to the reserved bits. However, the above-described manner of using the 7 reserved bits (B25-B31) in the user information field for allocating the transmission time to at least one station has the following problems:

(1) The frame structure of the modified MU-RTS trigger frame will not be consistent with the frame structures of the existing other trigger frames, resulting in implementation complexity;

(2) After all 7 reserved bits (B25-B31) in the user information field are used, only one reserved bit (B39) in the user information field is left, which is not favorable for the evolution of the future standard protocol.

In conjunction with the above description, an embodiment of the present application provides a schematic flow chart of time allocation, please refer to fig. 5, where the method includes:

s510, an access point sends a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame is used for allocating transmission time in transmission opportunity (TXOP) to L sites to transmit a wireless frame, the trigger frame comprises a public information field and at least one user information field, and the value of L is an integer which is greater than or equal to 1.

The public information field carries first information, and the first information is used for indicating first information of the first transmission time; the user information field carries first information, and the second information is used for configuring second information of transmission time allocated to a station in the L stations corresponding to the user information field in the first transmission time.

And S520, the station acquires the trigger frame.

It should be noted that, first, the IEEE802.11ax protocol standard only provides one trigger frame to trigger transmission of one wireless frame to the access point, and the next-generation WLAN protocol standard such as IEEE802.11be may need to modify the trigger frame to trigger transmission of multiple wireless frames.

Based on this, the Access Point (AP) in the embodiment of the present application may assist (associate) at least one Station (STA) (i.e., L ≧ 1) in transmitting the radio frame. The access point may send a trigger frame, and the trigger frame may be configured to allocate transmission time to the L stations to transmit the wireless frame, so that the L stations may transmit the wireless frame without contending for the channel within the respective allocated transmission time, and a plurality of wireless frame transmissions are triggered by one trigger frame, thereby improving channel utilization efficiency.

Secondly, in the respective allocated transmission time, a station in the L stations may send a wireless frame to the access point, and may also send a wireless frame to other stations in the L stations through the P2P link. As can be seen, the access point may assist L stations in wireless frame transmission by allocating transmission times to the L stations.

Finally, in order to ensure consistency between frame structures of trigger frames specified by respective WLAN protocol standards and to implement allocation of transmission time to at least one station, the embodiment of the present application considers modifying the trigger frame and simultaneously ensures that the frame structure of the modified trigger frame is compatible or consistent with frame structures of other trigger frames (trigger frames of the same type or different types specified by different protocol versions). The common information field of the modified trigger frame carries first information used for indicating first transmission time allocated to the L stations, and the user information field of the modified trigger frame carries second information used for configuring the transmission time allocated to the station corresponding to the user information field in the first transmission time, so that the fact that each station in the L stations is allocated with respective transmission time in the first transmission time is achieved through the first information and the second information.

Specifically, the first transmission time may be used to indicate a total duration of transmission time in the TXOP allocated to the L stations by the trigger frame.

It will be appreciated that the access point sends a trigger frame that is used to allocate intra-TXOP transmission times to the L stations. Wherein, the first information in the common information field of the trigger frame is used for indicating the total duration of transmission time in TXOP allocated to L sites; and the second information in the user information field of the trigger frame is used for configuring the transmission time allocated to the station corresponding to the user information field in the total time length.

Specifically, the first information may be a subfield in a common information field of the trigger frame. The subfield may be a subfield in an existing 802.11 protocol standard, and may be a redefined, newly defined, or newly added subfield in the 802.11 protocol standard, which is not particularly limited. For example, as shown in fig. 3, the first information may be an uplink length subfield (B4-B15) in the common information field.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the subfield carried by the common information field of the trigger frame may be modified, redefined, newly defined, or newly added to obtain the first information, where the first information may be used to indicate the first transmission time allocated to the L stations.

Specifically, the second information may be a subfield in a user information field of the trigger frame. The subfield may be a subfield in an existing 802.11 protocol standard, and may be a redefined, newly defined, or newly added subfield in the 802.11 protocol standard, which is not particularly limited.

For example, as shown in fig. 3, the second information may be a time allocation subfield (B25-B31) in the user information field.

Specifically, the second information may be N pieces of reserved bit information in a user information field of the trigger frame, where a value of N is an integer greater than or equal to 1. The N reserved bits information may be reserved bits in the existing 802.11 protocol standard, and may be redefined, newly defined, or newly added reserved bits, which is not limited in this respect.

For example, as shown in fig. 3, in the embodiment of the present application, 7 reserved bits (B25-31) of the user information field may be modified into N (1 ≦ N < 7) reserved bits, so as to save the number of bits occupied by the user information field.

Specifically, the user information field has a correspondence with a site of the L sites, and the correspondence may be indicated by the association identifier information in the user information field.

Wherein the association identifier information may be the association identifier 12 sub-field (B0-B11).

It should be noted that the AID12 subfield in the user information field of the trigger frame may indicate a station to which the AID12 subfield corresponds. For example, as shown in fig. 2, the trigger frame carries L user information fields, where the L user information fields have a certain arrangement order in a frame structure of the trigger frame, and AID12 subfields of the user information fields in the L user information fields indicate a station, that is, the L user information fields correspond to L stations one to one, so that the L stations are triggered by the trigger frame.

Specifically, the first transmission time starts from a time point when a station of the L stations starts to transmit the radio frame.

It should be noted that the access point may send a trigger frame to trigger the L stations, allocate a first transmission time to the triggered L stations through the trigger frame, and allocate respective transmission times to the stations in the triggered L stations within the total time duration through the trigger frame to transmit the radio frame. In this embodiment, a time when a station of the L stations starts to transmit a radio frame may be used as a starting time of the first transmission time.

Specifically, the first transmission time starts from a time when a first site of the L sites starts to transmit the radio frame, and an arrangement order position of a user information field corresponding to the first site in all non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is the first.

It should be noted that all the user information fields of the trigger frame have a certain arrangement order in the frame structure of the trigger frame, and a special user information field (special user info field) may exist in all the user information fields of the trigger frame, and the special user information field will not be used to indicate a station, i.e. the special user information field does not correspond to a station. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, the remaining user information fields except for the special user information field in all the user information fields of the trigger frame are referred to as all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame.

Then, in the embodiment of the present application, a first site may be determined from L sites triggered by the trigger frame, where an arrangement order position of a user information field corresponding to the first site in all non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is the first, so that a time when the first site starts to transmit a radio frame is taken as a starting time of the first transmission time.

Specifically, the transmission time of each site in the L sites is sequentially allocated according to the location information; the location information is used to indicate the arrangement sequence location of the user information field corresponding to each of the L sites in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame.

It should be noted that, because the user information fields corresponding to the stations have a certain arrangement order in all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame, the trigger frame in the embodiment of the present application may allocate the transmission time of the station back and forth according to the arrangement order of the user information fields corresponding to the stations in all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame, thereby improving the efficiency and accuracy of transmission time allocation in the TXOP.

For example, a trigger frame sent by an access point triggers station 1, station 2, and station 3, i.e., the access point assists station 1, station 2, and station 3 in wireless frame transmission. The position of the sequence of the user information fields corresponding to the site 1 in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is before the site 2, and the position of the sequence of the user information fields corresponding to the site 2 in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is before the site 3. Therefore, within the first transmission time indicated by the trigger frame, the trigger frame allocates the transmission time of station 1 first, reallocates the transmission time of station 2, and finally allocates the transmission time of station 3.

With reference to the above description, the following embodiments of the present application specifically describe how to allocate transmission time of each of the L stations through a trigger frame.

The first method is as follows:

specifically, the transmission time of each of the L stations is determined by the first transmission time, a parameter value indicated by the second information, the third information, and the fourth information; the third information is used for indicating the arrangement sequence positions of the user information fields corresponding to all the sites in all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame; the fourth information is used for indicating whether an inter-frame space exists between wireless frames transmitted by each station.

The inter-frame space may include a Short Inter Frame Space (SIFS), among others.

It should be noted that the parameter value indicated by the second information may be a parameter value (value) indicated by N pieces of reserved bit information in the user information field of the trigger frame, and the parameter value may be used to configure the transmission time of the station corresponding to the user information field. Meanwhile, the trigger frame may include a plurality of user information fields, and the parameter values indicated by the N pieces of reserved bit information in different user information fields may be different, so that the transmission times allocated to the stations corresponding to different user information fields by the trigger frame may be different.

For example, a trigger frame sent by the access point triggers

stations

1 and 2, i.e., the access point assists

stations

1 and 2 in wireless frame transmission. The position of the user information field corresponding to the station 1 in the arrangement order of all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is before the station 2, and the parameter value indicated by the second information in the user information field corresponding to the station 1 is different from the parameter value indicated by the second information in the user information field corresponding to the station 2. Therefore, the transmission time of the trigger frame allocation station 1 may be different from the transmission time of the allocation station 2 within the first transmission time indicated by the trigger frame.

In addition, in order to avoid collision of radio frames transmitted by each station on a channel, an inter-frame space generally needs to be set between the radio frames transmitted by each station. However, since the stations according to the embodiment of the present invention may transmit the radio frame and may also receive the radio frame, if two adjacent stations do not need to perform transceive immediately, the radio frame transmitted by the two adjacent stations may not set an inter-frame space (specifically, described below). Based on this, when allocating the transmission time of each station, the embodiment of the present application further needs to consider whether an inter-frame space exists between the radio frames transmitted by each station.

As can be seen, in the "mode one", the transmission time of each of the L stations is determined by the first transmission time indicated by the first information in the trigger frame, the parameter value indicated by the second information in the trigger frame, the third information, and the fourth information, which is beneficial to ensuring the efficiency and accuracy of transmission time allocation and improving the robustness of the communication process.

Examples are 1: as shown in fig. 6, the trigger frame sent by the access point triggers

stations

1, 2 and 3, i.e., the access point assists

stations

1, 2 and 3 in wireless frame transmission. Wherein the following conditions are satisfied:

the trigger frame is used to allocate transmission times to station 1, station 2 and station 3 for the transmission of radio frames;

the total duration of the transmission time indicated by the first information in the common information field of the trigger frame is T;

the user information field of the trigger frame includes 3 non-specific user information fields; wherein, the position of the sequence of the user information fields corresponding to the site 1 in all the fields of the non-specific user information of the trigger frame is before the site 2, and the position of the sequence of the user information fields corresponding to the site 2 in all the fields of the non-specific user information of the trigger frame is before the site 3;

the parameter value indicated by the second information in the user information field corresponding to the station 1 is 2, the parameter value indicated by the second information in the user information field corresponding to the station 2 is 4, and the parameter value indicated by the second information in the user information field corresponding to the station 3 is 4;

SIFS exists between the wireless frames transmitted by site 1 and site 2, and SIFS exists between the wireless frames transmitted by site 2 and site 3;

the total duration T of the transmission time allocated by the trigger frame starts at the moment when the station 1 starts to transmit a radio frame;

SIFS exists between the time when the transmission of the trigger frame ends and the time when the station 1 starts to transmit the radio frame;

therefore, within the first transmission time T (i.e. the total duration is T) indicated by the trigger frame, the trigger frame allocates the transmission time of station 1 to be "T/2", the transmission time of reallocated station 2 to be "T/4-SIFS", and the transmission time of last allocating station 3 to be "T/4-SIFS".

As described in "example 1", if SIFS exists between radio frames transmitted by each station, the transmission time of each station satisfies the following relationship:

transmission time of a station = T/(value _ 1);

transmission time of other station = (T/(value _ 2)) -SIFS;

the arrangement sequence position of the user information field corresponding to the site in all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame is the first one; t represents a first transmission time indicated by first information in a public information field of the trigger frame; value _1 represents parameter values indicated by N reserved bit information in a user information field corresponding to the site; value _2 represents parameter values indicated by N pieces of reserved bit information in the user information field corresponding to the other station.

For example, 2: as shown in fig. 7, the trigger frame sent by the access point triggers

stations

1, 2 and 3, i.e., the access point assists

stations

the trigger frame is used to allocate transmission times to station 1, station 2 and station 3 for transmission of the radio frame;

the user information field of the trigger frame includes 3 non-specific user information fields; the arrangement sequence of the user information fields corresponding to the site 1 in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is before the site 2, and the arrangement sequence of the user information fields corresponding to the site 2 in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is before the site 3;

SIFS does not exist between the wireless frames transmitted by site 1 and site 2, and SIFS exists between the wireless frames transmitted by site 2 and site 3;

therefore, within the first transmission time T indicated by the trigger frame, the trigger frame allocates the transmission time of the station 1 to be "T/2", the transmission time of the reassignment station 2 to be "T/4", and the transmission time of the last allocation station 3 to be "T/4-SIFS".

As described in "example 2", if there is SIFS between the wireless frames transmitted by a station and another station, the SIFS is not set for the transmission time of the other station.

The second method comprises the following steps:

specifically, the transmission time of each of the L stations is determined by the time unit information, the parameter value indicated by the second information, the third information, and the fourth information; the time unit information is determined by the first transmission time and a preset parameter, and the value of the preset parameter is greater than or equal to the value of N; the third information is used for indicating the arrangement sequence positions of the user information fields corresponding to all the sites in all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame; the fourth information is used for indicating whether an inter-frame space exists between wireless frames transmitted by each station.

Wherein the preset parameter may be specified by the 802.11 standard protocol.

As can be seen, in the "mode two", the transmission time of each of the L stations is determined by the first transmission time indicated by the first information in the trigger frame, the preset parameter, the parameter value indicated by the second information in the trigger frame, the third information, and the fourth information, which is beneficial to ensuring the efficiency and accuracy of transmission time allocation and improving the robustness of the communication process.

Further, the time unit information may satisfy the following:

TU＝T/(2 ^M ) Or T/(2) ^M -1)；

Wherein TU represents time unit information; t represents a first transmission time indicated by first information in a public information field of the trigger frame; m represents a preset parameter.

Wherein M = N, or M = N +1, or M > N.

It should be noted that, if the second information is N pieces of reserved bit information in the user information field, the N pieces of reserved bit information are N pieces of informationThe maximum value of the parameter value indicated by the reserved bit information may be 2 ^N -1. When the transmission time allocated to a station is "TU value _3" and value _3 represents the parameter value indicated by the second information in the user information field corresponding to the station, the TU is equal to T divided by (2) ^M -1) and a maximum value of value _3 of 2 ^N 1, so that it can be guaranteed that the transmission time allocated to the one station does not exceed the total duration T of the TXOP transmission.

For example, 3: as shown in fig. 8, the trigger frame sent by the access point triggers station 1, station 2, and station 3, that is, the access point assists station 1, station 2, and station 3 in wireless frame transmission. Wherein the following conditions are satisfied:

the parameter value indicated by the second information in the user information field corresponding to the station 1 is 8, the parameter value indicated by the second information in the user information field corresponding to the station 2 is 4, and the parameter value indicated by the second information in the user information field corresponding to the station 3 is 4;

therefore, within the first transmission time T indicated by the trigger frame, the trigger frame allocates the transmission time of the station 1 as "TU × 8", the transmission time of the reassigned station 2 as "TU × 4-SIFS", and the transmission time of the last assigned station 3 as "TU × 4-SIFS".

As described in "example 1", if SIFS exists between the wireless frames transmitted by each station, the transmission time of each station satisfies the following relationship:

transmission time of one station = TU (value _ 3);

transmission time of other stations = TU (value _ 4) -SIFS;

TU＝T/(2 ^M ) Or T/(2) ^M -1), and M is greater than or equal to N;

the arrangement sequence position of the user information field corresponding to the site in all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame is the first one; t represents a first transmission time indicated by first information in a public information field of the trigger frame; value _3 represents parameter values indicated by N reserved bit information in the user information field corresponding to the one site; value _4 represents parameter values indicated by the N reserved bits information in the user information field corresponding to the other station.

For example, 4: as shown in fig. 9, the trigger frame sent by the access point triggers

stations

1, 2 and 3, i.e., the access point assists

stations

therefore, within the first transmission time T indicated by the trigger frame, the trigger frame allocates the transmission time of the station 1 to be "TU × 8", the transmission time of the reassigned station 2 to be "TU × 4", and the transmission time of the last assigned station 3 to be "TU × 4-SIFS".

As described in "example 4", if there is SIFS between the wireless frames transmitted by a station and another station, the SIFS is not set for the transmission time of the other station.

With reference to the above description, it is specifically described below whether an inter-frame space exists between the radio frames transmitted by each station.

Specifically, the L sites include a second site and a third site, the order of the wireless frame transmission by the second site is before the wireless frame transmission by the third site, and the arrangement order position of the user information field corresponding to the second site in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is the previous one of the third site; if the receiver address RA of the wireless frame transmitted by the second site is not the MAC address of the third site, the RA of the wireless frame transmitted by the third site is not the MAC address of the second site, and the sub-field requiring carrier sensing in the common information field is not, no inter-frame space exists between the wireless frame transmitted by the second site and the wireless frame transmitted by the third site.

It should be noted that, a station needs to have a certain time to perform transceiving conversion in the process of transmitting or receiving a wireless frame, so as to ensure successful transmission or reception. If the RA of the wireless frame transmitted by the third site is the MAC address of the second site, that is, the third site needs to transmit the wireless frame to the second site, since the wireless frame transmission sequence of the second site is before the wireless frame transmission of the third site, in order to ensure a certain time interval for the transceiving conversion of the second site, an inter-frame interval is needed between the adjacent wireless frames transmitted by the second site and the third site.

In addition, if the required carrier sense subfield (CS required subfield) in the common information field of the trigger frame is set to 0, that is, if the required carrier sense subfield is no (false), it indicates that the station triggered by the trigger frame does not need to perform carrier sense.

As can be seen, if the RA of the wireless frame transmitted by the second site is not the MAC address of the third site, the RA of the wireless frame transmitted by the third site is not the MAC address of the second site, and the required carrier sense subfield in the common information field is negative, there is no inter-frame space between the wireless frame transmitted by the second site and the wireless frame transmitted by the third site, thereby saving overhead of the inter-frame space.

As shown in fig. 7 and fig. 9, if the second station is "station 1", the third station is "station 2", the RA of the wireless frame transmitted by station 1 is not the MAC address of station 2, and the RA of the wireless frame transmitted by station 2 is not the MAC address of station 1, then there is no SIFS between the wireless frames transmitted by station 1 and station 2.

In conjunction with the above description, in the "manner one", the transmission time of the station may be equal to T divided by value _1, and value _1 is guaranteed to be a non-0 value, i.e., the parameter value indicated by the second information is a non-0 value. Next, a case where the parameter value indicated by the second information is 0 will be described.

Specifically, the L sites include a fourth site and a fifth site, and the arrangement order position of the user information field corresponding to the fourth site in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is the previous one of the fifth site; if the parameter value indicated by the second information corresponding to the fifth station is 0, the transmission time allocated to the fifth station and the transmission time allocated to the fourth station are the same time period with the overlapping.

It can be understood that the access point may allocate the same overlapping time periods to the stations corresponding to the user information field through the second information in the user information field of the trigger frame, thereby being beneficial to ensuring the flexibility of transmission time allocation, optimizing the allocation manner of transmission time, improving the efficiency of transmission time allocation, and saving transmission time.

For example, a trigger frame sent by the access point triggers station 1, station 2, and station 3, i.e., the access point assists station 1, station 2, and station 3 in wireless frame transmission. Wherein the following conditions are satisfied:

the position of the user information field corresponding to the station 1 in the sequence of all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is before the station 2, and the position of the user information field corresponding to the station 2 in the sequence of all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is before the station 3;

the parameter value indicated by the second information in the user information field corresponding to the station 1 is not 0, the parameter value indicated by the second information in the user information field corresponding to the station 2 is 0, and the parameter value indicated by the second information in the user information field corresponding to the station 1 is not 0;

therefore, the transmission time allocated to station 1 by the trigger frame is the same time period that overlaps with the transmission time allocated to station 2 during the first transmission time indicated by the trigger frame.

Further, a Resource Unit (RU) allocated to the fifth site is different from a resource unit allocated to the fourth site.

It can be appreciated that, although the transmission time allocated to the fourth station and the transmission time allocated to the fifth station are the same time period that overlaps in the time domain, the resource unit allocated to the fourth station and the resource unit allocated to the fifth station are different in the frequency domain, thereby being beneficial to avoiding the radio frames transmitted by the fourth station and the fifth station from interfering with each other in the time-frequency domain and improving the utilization efficiency of the time-frequency domain resources.

In conjunction with the above description, the trigger frame may allocate the same time period of overlap to a portion of the L stations. In addition, since a station of the L stations transmits a radio frame mainly according to the symbol amount (symbol) in the radio frame, the station may have an amount of symbols that cannot be transmitted within its allocated transmission time. This will be explained below.

Specifically, the L sites include a first site group; the transmission time allocated to all the sites in the first site group is the same overlapped time period, and the arrangement sequence position of the user information fields corresponding to all the sites in the first site group in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is not the last one; stations in the first station group truncate the number of symbols in the incompletely transmitted radio frame during the same time period of the overlap.

It can be understood that, in a non-last station of the L stations (where the user information field corresponding to the last station is arranged in the last order among all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame), there may be a same time period in which transmission times allocated by a part of stations overlap. Therefore, the embodiment of the present application may regard the part of the sites as the first site group. In addition, since there may be some symbol amounts that cannot be completely transmitted by the station in the overlapping same time period in the first station group, the embodiment of the present application considers that the station discards the symbol amounts that cannot be completely transmitted, so as to avoid data transmission errors in the allocated transmission time.

For example, as shown in fig. 10, a trigger frame sent by an access point triggers

stations

1, 2, and 3, i.e., the access point assists

stations

1, 2, and 3 in wireless frame transmission. Where the first site group includes site 1 and site 2, and site 3 is considered the last site. Meanwhile, the transmission time allocated to the station 1 for the trigger frame is the same time period ("T/2") overlapping the transmission time allocated to the station 2, and the transmission time allocated to the station 3 for the trigger frame is "T/2-SIFS". If the station 2 has data that cannot be completely transmitted in the same overlapping time period, the station 2 discards the data that cannot be completely transmitted, i.e., does not transmit the data.

With reference to the above description, the following describes that the transmission time allocated to the last station (the last station has the last position of the sequence of the user information fields corresponding to the last station in all the unspecified user information fields of the trigger frame) needs to occupy the remaining time of the entire first transmission time.

Specifically, the L sites include a second site group; the transmission time allocated to each of all stations in the second station group is the same overlapped time period, and the arrangement sequence position of the user information field corresponding to one station in the second station group in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is the last one; the same period of overlap takes up the remaining length of time in the first transmission time.

It will be appreciated that the transmission time allocated to the last station in the L stations may overlap a portion of the non-last station's allocated transmission time for the same period of time. Therefore, the non-last site and the last site of the part can be regarded as the second site group by the embodiment of the present application. Meanwhile, the same overlapped time period needs to occupy the remaining time length in the whole first transmission time indicated by the trigger frame, thereby being beneficial to ensuring the accuracy of transmission time allocation.

For example, as shown in fig. 11, a trigger frame sent by an access point triggers

stations

1, 2, and 3, i.e., the access point assists

stations

1, 2, and 3 in wireless frame transmission. Wherein the second site group includes site 2 and site 3, and site 3 is considered the last site. Meanwhile, the transmission time allocated to the station 1 by the trigger frame is "T/2", and the transmission time allocated to the station 2 by the trigger frame overlaps with the transmission time allocated to the station 3 by the same time period ("T/2-SIFS"), which overlaps the same time period for the remaining time period of the end T.

In conjunction with the above description, since the non-last station of the L stations transmits the radio frame mainly according to the symbol amount (symbol) in the radio frame, the station may have an amount of symbols that cannot be transmitted within its allocated transmission time. This will be explained below.

Specifically, a sixth station of the L stations discards the symbol amount in the radio frame which cannot be completely transmitted in the transmission time allocated to the sixth station in the first transmission time; the position of the user information field corresponding to the sixth station in the arrangement sequence of all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is not the last one.

It will be appreciated that the sixth site may be considered a non-last site. Since the non-last station may have the amount of symbols that can not be transmitted in the allocated transmission time, the embodiment of the present application considers that the non-last station discards the amount of symbols that can not be transmitted, thereby avoiding data transmission errors in the allocated transmission time.

In conjunction with the above description, the remaining time period in which the transmission time allocated to the last station needs to occupy the entire first transmission time will be described below.

Specifically, the transmission time allocated to the seventh station among the L stations in the first transmission time occupies the remaining duration of the first transmission time; the arrangement order position of the user information field corresponding to the seventh station in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is the last one.

It is to be understood that the seventh site can be considered the last site. Therefore, the transmission time allocated to the last station needs to occupy the remaining time duration in the entire first transmission time indicated by the trigger frame, thereby being advantageous to ensure the accuracy of the transmission time allocation.

With the above description, a case will be described below where a radio frame transmitted by a part of L stations does not use its allocated transmission time.

Specifically, if the radio frame transmitted by the eighth site of the L sites is not enough to use up the transmission time allocated to the eighth site in the first transmission time, padding data is added to the radio frame transmitted by the eighth site; the arrangement sequence positions of the user information fields corresponding to the eighth station in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame are any one.

It is understood that the eighth site can be regarded as any one of the L sites. Therefore, the embodiment of the application can perform data padding (padding) on the radio frame transmitted by the eighth site, and ensure that the padded radio frame can use up the allocated transmission time, thereby being beneficial to ensuring the accuracy of transmission time allocation.

In conjunction with the above description, the trigger frame of the embodiment of the present application may further include information indicating that a station in the L stations responds to a Clear To Send (CTS) frame.

It should be noted that, in order to solve the problem of hidden Stations (hidden states), the 802.11 protocol standard proposes an RTS/CTS mechanism. Therefore, the trigger frame in the embodiment of the present application may indicate whether L stations triggered by the trigger frame respond to the CTS frame, so as to determine whether the channel is idle, and avoid data collision or collision.

Next, the allocation of transmission time for each station when the L station needs to respond to the CTS frame to the access point will be described as an example.

For example, as shown in fig. 12 and 13. Since the first transmission time indicated by the trigger frame starts from the time when the station of the L stations starts to transmit the radio frame, whether the L stations respond to the CTS frame may not affect the allocation of the transmission time of each station.

In combination with the above description, the trigger frame in the embodiment of the present application may be an MU-RTS trigger frame.

It should be noted that, as shown in fig. 2 and table 1, if the value of the trigger type (trigger type) sub-fields (B0-B3) in the common information field of the trigger frame is set to 3, the trigger frame is an MU-RTS trigger frame.

In combination with the above description, the radio frame of the embodiment of the present application may include one of a management frame, a single user physical layer protocol data unit (SU PPDU), or a non-triggered physical layer protocol data unit (non-TB PPDU).

It should be noted that the management frame may be sent by the station to the access point; alternatively, the management frame may be sent by the station to other stations via a P2P link; alternatively, the non-triggered PPDU may be sent by the station to the access point; alternatively, the non-triggered PPDU may be transmitted by a station to other stations over a P2P link.

The above description has been directed primarily to the embodiments of the present application from a method-side perspective. It will be appreciated that the access point or station, in order to carry out the above-described functions, may comprise corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the respective functions. Those of skill in the art would appreciate that the various illustrative methods, modules, units, or algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or in combination with computer software. Whether a method, function, module, unit or step is performed by hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the technical solution. A person skilled in the art may use different methods to implement the described methods, functions, modules, units or steps for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered as beyond the scope of the present application.

The embodiment of the present application may perform functional unit/module division on an access point or a station according to the above method example. For example, each functional unit/module may be divided for each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one functional unit/module. The integrated functional units/modules may be implemented in a hardware manner or a software program manner. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the functional units/modules is illustrative, and is only one logical functional division, and when the division is actually implemented, another division manner may be provided.

In the case of integrated units/modules, fig. 14 provides a block diagram of the functional units of a time distribution device. The time distribution apparatus 1400 includes: a processing unit 1402 and a communication unit 1403. The processing unit 1402 is configured to control and manage actions of an access point. For example, processing unit 1402 is configured to enable the access point to perform the steps of fig. 5 and other processes for the solutions described herein. A communication unit 1403 is used to support communication between the access point and other devices in the wireless communication system. The time distribution apparatus 1400 may further include a storage unit 1401 for the program code executed by the time distribution apparatus 1400 and the transmitted data.

It should be noted that the time distribution device 1400 may be a chip or a chip module.

The processing unit 1402 may be a processor or a controller, and may be, for example, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), 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, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. Processing unit 1402 may also be a combination that performs a computing function, e.g., including one or more microprocessors in conjunction with one or more DSPs and microprocessors, and the like. The communication unit 1403 may be a communication interface, a transceiver circuit, etc., and the storage unit 1401 may be a memory. When the processing unit 1402 is a processor, the communication unit 1403 is a communication interface, and the storage unit 1401 is a memory, the time distribution apparatus 1400 according to the embodiment of the present application may be an access point shown in fig. 16.

Specifically, the processing unit 1402 is configured to perform any one of the steps performed by the access point in the above method embodiments, and when performing data transmission such as sending, optionally invokes the communication unit 1403 to complete the corresponding operation. The details will be described below.

The processing unit 1402 is configured to: sending a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame is used for allocating transmission time in transmission opportunity TXOP to L sites to transmit a wireless frame, the trigger frame comprises a public information field and at least one user information field, and the value of L is an integer greater than or equal to 1; the public information field carries first information, and the first information is used for indicating first transmission time; the user information field carries second information, and the second information is used for configuring transmission time allocated to sites in the L sites corresponding to the user information field in the first transmission time.

It can be seen that the time allocation apparatus 1400 sends a trigger frame, where the trigger frame is used to allocate the intra-TXOP transmission time to L stations for transmitting a radio frame, and the trigger frame includes one common information field and at least one user information field, and a value of L is an integer greater than or equal to 1. Because the common information field of the trigger frame carries first information used for indicating the first transmission time, and the user information field of the trigger frame carries second information used for configuring the transmission time allocated to the station in the L stations corresponding to the user information field in the first transmission time, the trigger frame is used for realizing that each station in the L stations is allocated with respective transmission time in the first transmission time, compatibility and consistency among frame structures of the trigger frame specified by each WLAN protocol standard are ensured, the trigger frame is used for triggering the transmission of a plurality of wireless frames, and further the utilization efficiency of a channel is improved.

It should be noted that specific implementation of each operation in the embodiment shown in fig. 14 may be described in detail in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, and is not described again here.

Specifically, the first information is an uplink length subfield in the common information field.

Specifically, the user information field has a correspondence with a site of the L sites, and the correspondence is indicated by the association identifier information in the user information field.

Specifically, the first transmission time starts from a time when a station of the L stations starts to transmit a radio frame; or, the first transmission time starts from a time when a first site of the L sites starts to transmit the radio frame, and the arrangement order position of the user information field corresponding to the first site in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is the first.

Specifically, the transmission time of each site in the L sites is sequentially allocated according to the location information; the position information is used for indicating the arrangement sequence position of the user information field corresponding to each site in the L sites in all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame.

Specifically, the second information is N reserved bits of information in the user information field, and a value of N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

Specifically, the transmission time of each of the L stations is determined by the time unit information, the parameter value indicated by the second information, the third information, and the fourth information; the time unit information is determined by the first transmission time and a preset parameter, and the value of the preset parameter is greater than or equal to the value of N.

Specifically, the resource unit allocated to the fifth site is different from the resource unit allocated to the fourth site.

Specifically, the L sites include a first site group; the transmission time allocated to all the sites in the first site group is the same overlapped time period, and the arrangement sequence position of the user information fields corresponding to all the sites in the first site group in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is not the last one; stations in the first station group discard the number of symbols in the untransmitted radio frame in the same overlapping time period.

Specifically, the L sites include a second site group; the transmission time allocated to each of all stations in the second station group is the same overlapped time period, and the arrangement sequence position of the user information field corresponding to one station in the second station group in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is the last one; the same period of overlap takes up the remaining time in the first transmission time.

Specifically, a sixth station of the L stations discards the symbol amount in the radio frame which cannot be completely transmitted in the transmission time allocated to the sixth station in the first transmission time; and the arrangement sequence position of the user information field corresponding to the sixth station in all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame is not the last one.

Specifically, the trigger frame further includes information for instructing a station of the L stations to reply to the clear to send CTS frame.

Specifically, the trigger frame is an MU-RTS trigger frame.

Specifically, the radio frame includes one of a management frame, a single user physical layer protocol data unit SU PPDU, or a non-triggered physical layer protocol data unit non-TB PPDU.

In the case of integrated units/modules, fig. 15 provides a block diagram of the functional unit composition of yet another time distribution device. The time distribution apparatus 1500 includes: a processing unit 1502 and a communication unit 1503. The processing unit 1502 is used for controlling and managing actions of the station. For example, the processing unit 1502 is used to support the station to perform the steps in fig. 5 and other processes for the solution described in this application. A communication unit 1503 is used to support communication between the station and other devices in the wireless communication system. The time distribution apparatus 1500 may further include a storage unit 1501 for storing program codes executed by the time distribution apparatus 1500 and transmitted data.

It should be noted that the time distribution apparatus 1500 may be a chip or a chip module.

The processing unit 1502 may be a processor or a controller, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), 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, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processing unit 1502 may also be a combination that performs computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, a combination of DSPs and microprocessors, or the like. The communication unit 1503 may be a communication interface, a transceiver, a transmitting and receiving circuit, or the like, and the storage unit 1501 may be a memory. When the processing unit 1502 is a processor, the communication unit 1503 is a communication interface, and the storage unit 1501 is a memory, the time distribution apparatus 1500 according to the embodiment of the present application may be a station shown in fig. 17.

In particular implementation, the processing unit 1502 is configured to perform any step performed by a station in the above method embodiment, and when performing data transmission such as sending, the communication unit 1503 is optionally invoked to complete the corresponding operation. The details will be described below.

The processing unit 1502 is configured to: acquiring a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame is used for allocating transmission time in transmission opportunity TXOP to L sites to transmit a wireless frame, the trigger frame comprises a public information field and at least one user information field, and L is an integer greater than or equal to 1; the public information field carries first information, and the first information is used for indicating first transmission time; the user information field carries second information, and the second information is used for configuring transmission time allocated to sites in the L sites corresponding to the user information field in the first transmission time.

It should be noted that specific implementation of each operation in the embodiment shown in fig. 15 may be described in detail in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, and is not described again here.

It can be seen that the time allocation apparatus 1500 obtains the trigger frame, where the trigger frame is used to allocate the intra-TXOP transmission time to L stations for transmitting a radio frame, and the trigger frame includes a common information field and at least one user information field, and a value of L is an integer greater than or equal to 1. Because the common information field of the trigger frame carries first information used for indicating the first transmission time, and the user information field of the trigger frame carries second information used for configuring the transmission time allocated to the station in the L stations corresponding to the user information field in the first transmission time, the trigger frame is used for realizing that each station in the L stations is allocated with respective transmission time in the first transmission time, compatibility and consistency among frame structures of the trigger frame specified by each WLAN protocol standard are ensured, the trigger frame is used for triggering the transmission of a plurality of wireless frames, and further the utilization efficiency of a channel is improved.

Specifically, the user information field has a correspondence with a site of the L sites, and the correspondence is indicated by the association identifier subfield in the user information field.

Specifically, the first transmission time starts from a time when a station of the L stations starts to transmit a radio frame; or, the first transmission time starts from a time when a first site of the L sites starts to transmit the radio frame, and the arrangement order position of the user information field corresponding to the first site in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is the first one

Specifically, the transmission time of each site in the L sites is sequentially allocated according to the location information; the location information is used to indicate the arrangement sequence position of the user information field corresponding to each of the L stations in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame.

Specifically, the transmission time of each of the L stations is determined by the first transmission time, a parameter value indicated by the second information, the third information, and the fourth information; the third information is used for indicating the arrangement sequence positions of the user information fields corresponding to all the sites in all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame; the fourth information is used for indicating whether an inter-frame space exists between the radio frames transmitted by each station.

Specifically, the L sites include a second site group; the transmission time allocated to each of all the sites in the second site group is the same overlapped time period, and the arrangement sequence position of the user information field corresponding to one site in the second site group in all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame is the last one; the same period of overlap takes up the remaining length of time in the first transmission time.

Specifically, the transmission time allocated to the seventh station among the L stations in the first transmission time runs out of the remaining duration in the first transmission time; the arrangement order position of the user information field corresponding to the seventh station in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is the last one.

Specifically, the trigger frame is an MU-RTS trigger frame.

Specifically, the radio frame includes one of a single user physical layer protocol data unit SU PPDU or a non-triggered physical layer protocol data unit non-TB PPDU.

Referring to fig. 16, fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of an access point according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Access point 1600 includes a processor 1610, a memory 1620, a communication interface 1630, and a communication bus connecting processor 1610, memory 1620, and communication interface 1630.

Memory 1620 includes, but is not limited to, random Access Memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), or portable read-only memory (CD-ROM), and is used for storing program codes executed by access point 1600 and data transmitted by access point 1620.

Communication interface 1630 is used to receive and transmit data.

Processor 1610 may be one or more CPUs. In the case where processor 1610 is a CPU, the CPU may be a single core CPU or a multi-core CPU.

The processor 1610 in the access point 1600 is configured to read the one or more programs 621 stored in the memory 1620 and perform the following operations: sending a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame is used for allocating transmission time in transmission opportunity TXOP to L sites to transmit a wireless frame, the trigger frame comprises a public information field and at least one user information field, and the value of L is an integer greater than or equal to 1; the public information field carries first information, and the first information is used for indicating first transmission time; the user information field carries second information, and the second information is used for configuring transmission time allocated to sites in the L sites corresponding to the user information field in the first transmission time.

It should be noted that the specific implementation of each operation may adopt the corresponding description of the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, and the access point 1600 may be configured to execute the method on the access point side of the method embodiment of the present application, which is not described herein again in detail.

Referring to fig. 17, fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a station according to an embodiment of the present application. The station 1700 includes, among other things, a processor 1710, a memory 1720, a communication interface 1730, and a communication bus connecting the processor 1710, the memory 1720, and the communication interface 1730.

Memory 1720 includes, but is not limited to, random Access Memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), or portable read-only memory (CD-ROM), and memory 1720 is used to store program code executed by and data transferred from station 1700.

Communication interface 1730 is used to receive and transmit data.

The processor 1710 may be one or more CPUs, and in the case where the processor 1710 is one CPU, the CPU may be a single-core CPU or a multi-core CPU.

A processor 1710 in the station 1700 is configured to read one or more programs 1721 stored in the memory 1720, to: acquiring a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame is used for allocating transmission time in transmission opportunity (TXOP) to L sites so as to transmit a wireless frame, the trigger frame comprises a public information field and at least one user information field, and L is an integer greater than or equal to 1; the public information field carries first information, and the first information is used for indicating first transmission time; the user information field carries second information, and the second information is used for configuring the transmission time allocated to the site in the L sites corresponding to the user information field in the first transmission time.

It should be noted that the specific implementation of each operation may adopt the corresponding description of the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, and the site 1700 may be configured to execute the method on the site side of the method embodiment of the present application, which is not described in detail herein.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium, where the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program for electronic data exchange, where the computer program makes a computer perform some or all of the steps described in the above method embodiments for a station or an access point.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product, where the computer program product includes a computer program, and the computer program is operable to cause a computer to perform some or all of the steps described in the station or the access point in the above method embodiments. The computer program product may be a software installation package.

For simplicity of description, the above embodiments are described as a series of combinations of operations. It will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the present application is not limited by the order of acts described, as some steps in the embodiments of the present application may occur in other orders or concurrently. In addition, those skilled in the art should also appreciate that the embodiments described in the specification all belong to the preferred embodiments, and the related actions, steps, modules or units are not necessarily required by the embodiments of the present application.

In the foregoing embodiments, the descriptions of the embodiments of the present application have respective emphasis, and for parts that are not described in detail in a certain embodiment, reference may be made to related descriptions of other embodiments.

It should be clear to a person skilled in the art that the methods, steps or functions of related modules/units described in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, it may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product or in the form of computer program instructions executed by a processor. Wherein the computer program product comprises at least one computer program instruction, which may consist of corresponding software modules, which may be stored in RAM, flash memory, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, registers, hard disk, a removable hard disk, a compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), or any other form of storage medium known in the art. The computer program instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium. For example, the computer program instructions may be transmitted from one website site, computer, server, or data center to another website site, computer, server, or data center by wired or wireless means. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that includes one or more of the available media. The available media may be magnetic media (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks, tapes), optical media, or semiconductor media (e.g., SSDs), among others.

Each module/unit included in each apparatus or product described in the above embodiments may be a software module/unit, a hardware module/unit, or a part of the module/unit may be a software module/unit and another part may be a hardware module/unit. For example, for each device or product applied to or integrated on a chip, each module/unit included in the device or product may be implemented by using hardware such as a circuit; alternatively, a part of the modules/units included in the method may be implemented by using a software program running on a processor integrated inside a chip, and another part (if any) of the modules/units may be implemented by using hardware such as a circuit. The same applies to individual devices or products applied to or integrated in a chip module, or to individual devices or products applied to or integrated in a terminal.

The above-mentioned embodiments are intended to illustrate the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application in further detail, and it should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are only specific embodiments of the present application, and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement and the like made on the basis of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application should be included in the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A method of time allocation, comprising:

the public information field carries first information, and the first information is used for indicating first transmission time;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information is an uplink length subfield in the common information field.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the user information field has a correspondence with a site of the L sites, the correspondence being indicated by association identifier information in the user information field.

4. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the first transmission time starts at a time when a station of the L stations starts to transmit the radio frame; or,

the first transmission time starts from a time when a first site of the L sites starts to transmit the radio frame, and an arrangement order position of the user information field corresponding to the first site in all non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is a first one.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the transmission times of each of the L stations are allocated in sequence according to location information;

the location information is used to indicate the arrangement sequence location of the user information field corresponding to each of the L sites in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame.

6. The method according to any of claims 1-5, wherein the second information is N reserved bits of information in the user information field, and the value of N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the transmission time of each of the L stations is determined by the first transmission time, a parameter value indicated by the second information, third information, and fourth information;

the third information is used for indicating the arrangement sequence positions of the user information fields corresponding to the stations in all non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame;

the fourth information is used for indicating whether an inter-frame space exists between the radio frames transmitted by the stations.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the transmission time of each of the L stations is determined by time unit information, a parameter value indicated by the second information, the third information, and the fourth information;

the time unit information is determined by the first transmission time and a preset parameter, and the value of the preset parameter is greater than or equal to the value of the N.

9. The method according to any of claims 1-8, wherein the L stations include a second station and a third station, the second station transmits the radio frame in a sequence before the third station transmits the radio frame, and the sequence position of the user information field corresponding to the second station in all non-special user information fields of the trigger frame is one before the third station;

if the receiver address RA of the wireless frame transmitted by the second station is not the MAC address of the third station, the RA of the wireless frame transmitted by the third station is not the MAC address of the second station, and the carrier sense required subfield in the common information field is no, the interframe space does not exist between the wireless frame transmitted by the second station and the wireless frame transmitted by the third station.

10. The method according to any of claims 1-9, wherein the L stations include a fourth station and a fifth station, and an arrangement order position of the user information field corresponding to the fourth station in all non-special user information fields of the trigger frame is a previous position of the fifth station;

if the parameter value indicated by the second information corresponding to the fifth station is 0, the transmission time allocated to the fifth station and the transmission time allocated to the fourth station are overlapped for the same time period.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the resource units allocated to the fifth site are different from the resource units allocated to the fourth site.

12. The method of any one of claims 1-11, wherein the L sites comprise a first site group;

the transmission time allocated to all stations in the first station group is the same overlapping time period, and the arrangement sequence position of the user information fields corresponding to all stations in the first station group in all non-special user information fields of the trigger frame is not the last one;

stations in the first station group discard the amount of symbols in the radio frame that are not completely transmitted in the same overlapping time period.

13. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the L sites comprise a second site group;

the transmission time allocated to each of all stations in the second station group is the same overlapping time period, and the arrangement order position of the user information field corresponding to one station in the second station group in all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame is the last one;

the overlapping same time period occupies the remaining duration of the first transmission time.

14. The method according to any of claims 1-13, wherein a sixth station of said L stations discards the amount of symbols in said radio frame that are not completely transmitted in the transmission time allocated to said sixth station during said first transmission time;

and the arrangement sequence position of the user information field corresponding to the sixth station in all the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame is not the last one.

15. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein the transmission time allocated to a seventh station of said L stations during said first transmission time takes up a remaining length of time in said first transmission time;

the order position of the user information field corresponding to the seventh station in all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame is the last one.

16. The method according to any of claims 1-15, wherein if said radio frame transmitted by an eighth site of said L sites is insufficient to use up the transmission time allocated to said eighth site within said first transmission time, padding data is added to said radio frame transmitted by said eighth site;

the user information field corresponding to the eighth site is any one of the arrangement order positions of all the non-specific user information fields of the trigger frame.

17. A method according to any of claims 1-16, wherein the trigger frame further comprises information indicating that a station of the L stations acknowledges a clear to send, CTS, frame.

18. The method of any one of claims 1-17, wherein the trigger frame is a MU-RTS trigger frame.

19. The method of any one of claims 1-18, wherein the radio frame comprises one of a management frame, a single user physical layer protocol data unit (SU PPDU), or a non-triggered physical layer protocol data unit (non-TB PPDU).

20. A method of time allocation, comprising:

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first information is an uplink length subfield in the common information field.

22. A method according to claim 20 or 21, wherein said user information field has a correspondence with a station of said L stations, said correspondence being indicated by an association identifier subfield in said user information field.

23. The method according to any of claims 20-22, wherein the first transmission time starts at a time when a station of the L stations starts to transmit the radio frame; or,

24. A method according to any of claims 20-23, wherein the transmission times of each of said L stations are allocated in turn according to location information;

the location information is used to indicate the arrangement sequence location of the user information field corresponding to each of the L sites in all non-special user information fields of the trigger frame.

25. The method according to any of claims 20-24, wherein the second information is N reserved bits of information in the user information field, and a value of N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the transmission time of each of the L stations is determined by the first transmission time, a parameter value indicated by the second information, third information, and fourth information;

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the transmission time of each of the L stations is determined by time unit information, a parameter value indicated by the second information, the third information, and the fourth information;

28. The method of any of claims 20-27, wherein the L stations include a second station and a third station, the second station transmits the radio frame in a sequence before the third station transmits the radio frame, and the sequence of the user information fields corresponding to the second station in all of the non-special user information fields of the trigger frame is one before the third station;

29. The method according to any of claims 20-28, wherein the L stations include a fourth station and a fifth station, and an arrangement order position of the user information field corresponding to the fourth station in all non-special user information fields of the trigger frame is a previous position of the fifth station;

if the parameter value indicated by the second information corresponding to the fifth station is 0, the transmission time allocated to the fifth station and the transmission time allocated to the fourth station are the same time period in which they overlap.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the resource units allocated to the fifth site are different from the resource units allocated to the fourth site.

31. A method according to any one of claims 20 to 30, wherein the L sites comprise a first site group;

32. The method of any one of claims 20-31, wherein the L sites comprise a second site group;

33. A method according to any one of claims 20 to 32, wherein a sixth station of said L stations discards the amount of symbols in said radio frame that are not completely transmitted in the transmission time allocated to said sixth station during said first transmission time;

34. A method according to any one of claims 20 to 33, wherein the transmission time allocated to a seventh one of the L stations during the first transmission time runs out of the remaining duration of the first transmission time;

35. The method according to any of claims 20-34, wherein if said radio frame transmitted by an eighth site of said L sites is insufficient to use up the transmission time allocated to said eighth site within said first transmission time, padding data is added to said radio frame transmitted by said eighth site;

36. A method according to any of claims 20-35, wherein the trigger frame further comprises information indicating that a station of the L stations acknowledges a clear to send, CTS, frame.

37. The method according to any of claims 20-36, wherein the trigger frame is a MU-RTS trigger frame.

38. The method of any of claims 20-37, wherein the radio frame comprises one of a single user physical layer protocol data unit (SU PPDU) or a non-triggered physical layer protocol data unit (non-TB PPDU).

39. A time allocation apparatus, characterized in that the apparatus comprises a processing unit and a communication unit, the processing unit being configured to:

40. A time distribution apparatus, characterized in that the apparatus comprises a processing unit and a communication unit, the processing unit is configured to:

41. An access point, wherein the network device is a first network device comprising a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, the programs comprising instructions for performing the steps in the method of any of claims 1-19.

42. A station comprising a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, the programs comprising instructions for performing the steps of the method of any of claims 20-38.

43. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that it stores a computer program for electronic data exchange, wherein the computer program causes a computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-38.