CN116896789A - Wireless communication method and wireless communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

A wireless communication method and wireless communication device are described in which techniques related to preamble design for a next generation Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) in the 60GHz band are described. The first device wirelessly communicates with the second device in the 60GHz band by transmitting a first physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) to the second device and/or receiving a second PPDU from the second device. Each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU and the corresponding preamble of the first PPDU and the second PPDU may or may not have at least partial backward compatibility with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles.

Description

Wireless communication method and wireless communication device

Cross-reference to related patent applications

The present invention claims priority from U.S. provisional patent application No.63/325,168, filed on 3 months at 2022, 30, and U.S. patent application No.18/127,680, filed on 29 months at 2023, 3, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to preamble design for next generation wireless local area networks (wireless local area network, WLAN) in the 60GHz band.

Background

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims listed and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

In wireless communications such as Wi-Fi (or WiFi), the 60GHz band has been used and standardized in institute of electrical and electronics engineers (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer, IEEE) 802.11ad/ay oriented multi-gigabit (directional multi-gigabit, DMG) and enhanced oriented multi-gigabit (enhanced directional multi-gigabit, EDMG) systems to achieve higher throughput by utilizing a wide bandwidth of 60 GHz. On the other hand, metaverse (metaverse) type applications such as augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) applications and Virtual Reality (VR) applications typically require high data rates with low latency. To meet the high data rate and low latency requirements of emerging metauniverse type applications, the 60GHz millimeter wave (mmWave) band has been considered as one of the potential technologies for next generation wireless connections (e.g., wi-Fi 8 and beyond). The preamble in the IEEE 802.11ad DMG system includes a short training field (short training field, STF), a channel estimation field (channel estimation field, CEF), and a header, which are used for packet detection, automatic gain control (automatic gain control, AGC), synchronization, channel estimation, and the like. IEEE 802.11ay reserves a non-EDMG part that is backward compatible with IEEE 802.11ad (e.g., legacy STF, L-STF, legacy CEF, L-CEF) and legacy header fields identical to corresponding fields of IEEE 802.11 ad) and has only a Single Carrier (SC) mode. In this regard, the design of the preamble of the next generation WLAN in the 60GHz band is currently still to be defined. Therefore, a solution for preamble design for the next generation WLAN in the 60GHz band is needed.

Disclosure of Invention

The following summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. That is, the following summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts, benefits, and advantages of the novel and non-obvious techniques described herein. The implementation of the selection is further described in the detailed description below. Accordingly, the following summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to determine the scope of the claimed subject matter.

It is an object of the present invention to provide schemes, concepts, designs, techniques, methods and devices related to preamble design for next generation WLANs in the 60GHz band. Under various proposed schemes according to the present invention, a preamble in a physical-layer protocol data unit (PPDU) transmitted in a next-generation WLAN in a 60GHz band may or may not be at least partially backward compatible with pre-existing IEEE 802.11 standards (e.g., IEEE 802.11ad and/or IEEE 802.11 ay).

In one aspect, a wireless communication method is provided, which may include: the processor of the first device wirelessly communicates with the second device in the 60GHz band by either or both of: (a) transmitting the first PPDU to the second device; and (b) receiving a second PPDU from the second device. Each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU and the corresponding preamble of the first PPDU and the second PPDU may or may not have at least partial backward compatibility with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles.

In another aspect, a wireless communication device is provided, which may include: a transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate, and a processor coupled to the transceiver. The processor may communicate wirelessly with one other device in the 60GHz band via the transceiver by either or both of: (a) transmitting the first PPDU to the second device; and (b) receiving a second PPDU from the second device. Each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU and the corresponding preamble of the first PPDU and the second PPDU may or may not have at least partial backward compatibility with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles.

Notably, while the description provided herein may be in the context of certain radio access technologies, networks, and network topologies (such as Wi-Fi), the proposed concepts, schemes, and any variations/derivatives thereof may be implemented in, for, and by other types of radio access technologies, networks, and network topologies such as (for example and without limitation): bluetooth, zigBee, fifth generation (5) ^th Generation, 5G)/New Radio (NR), long-Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced Pro, internet-of-things (IoT), industrial IoT (IIoT), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT). Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited to the examples described herein.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The accompanying drawings illustrate an implementation of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. It will be appreciated that the drawings are not necessarily to scale, since some components may be shown out of scale from actual implementations in order to clearly illustrate the concepts of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example network environment in which various solutions and schemes according to the invention may be implemented.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an example design under the proposed solution according to the invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an example design under the proposed solution according to the invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an example design under the proposed solution according to the invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an example design under the proposed solution according to the invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an example design under the proposed solution according to the invention.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of an example design under the proposed solution according to the invention.

Fig. 8 is a block diagram of an example communication system in accordance with an implementation of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an example process according to an implementation of the invention.

Detailed Description

Detailed embodiments and implementations of the claimed subject matter are disclosed herein. It is to be understood, however, that the disclosed embodiments and implementations are merely exemplary of the claimed subject matter, which may be embodied in various forms. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments and implementations set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments and implementations are provided so that this description will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the following description, details of known features and/or techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presented embodiments and implementations.

SUMMARY

Implementations consistent with the invention relate to various techniques, methods, schemes and/or solutions related to preamble design for next generation WLANs in the 60GHz band. According to the invention, many possible solutions may be implemented individually or in combination. That is, although these possible solutions may be described separately below, two or more of these possible solutions may be implemented in one combination or another.

Notably, in the present invention, regular RU (rRU) refers to RU with tones (tone) that are contiguous (e.g., adjacent to each other) and not interleaved, staggered, or otherwise distributed. Further, a 26-tone rule RU may be interchangeably represented as RU26 (or rRU), a 52-tone rule RU may be interchangeably represented as RU52 (or rRU 52), a 106-tone rule RU may be interchangeably represented as RU106 (or rRU 106), a 242-tone rule RU may be interchangeably represented as RU242 (or rRU 242), and so on. Furthermore, a regular multi-RU (multi-RU, MRU) of aggregated (26+52) tones may be interchangeably represented as MRU78 (or rMRU 78), a regular MRU of aggregated (26+106) tones may be interchangeably represented as MRU132 (or rMRU 132), and so on.

Since the above examples are merely illustrative examples, and not an exhaustive list of all possibilities, the same applies to regular RUs, distributed-tone (RU), MRU, and MRU of distributed tones having different sizes (or different numbers of tones). It is also worth noting that in the present invention, a bandwidth of 20MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW20 or BW20M, a bandwidth of 40MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW40 or BW40M, a bandwidth of 80MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW80 or BW80M, a bandwidth of 160MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW160 or BW160M, a bandwidth of 240MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW240 or BW240M, a bandwidth of 320MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW320 or BW320M, a bandwidth of 480MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW480 or BW480M, a bandwidth of 640MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW960 or BW960M, a bandwidth of 1280MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW1280 or BW1280M, and a bandwidth of 2560MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW2560 or BW2560M.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example network environment 100 in which various solutions and methods according to the present invention may be implemented. Fig. 2-9 illustrate examples of implementations of various proposed schemes in a network environment 100 according to the present invention. The following description of the various proposed schemes is provided with reference to fig. 1 to 9.

Referring to fig. 1, a network environment 100 may involve at least one Station (STA) 110 in wireless communication with a STA 120. Each of STA110 and STA120 may be a non-access point (non-AP) STA, or alternatively, either of STA110 and STA120 may be an Access Point (AP) STA. In some cases, STA110 and STA120 may be associated with a basic service set (basic service set, BSS) according to one or more IEEE 802.11 standards (e.g., IEEE 802.11be and standards developed in the future). Each of STA110 and STA120 may be configured to communicate with each other by utilizing a preamble design of a next generation WLAN in the 60GHz band according to various proposed schemes described below. It is noted that while various of the proposed schemes may be described below, individually or separately, in actual implementations, some or all of the proposed schemes may be utilized or otherwise jointly implemented. Of course, each of the proposed solutions may be used separately or implemented in other ways.

Notably, in IEEE 802.11ad, supported PPDU formats include formats for DMG control MODE (dmg_c_mode), DMG single carrier MODE (dmg_sc_mode), NON-EDMG copy control MODE (NON-edmg_dup_c_mode), and NON-EDMG copy single carrier MODE (NON-edmg_dup_sc_mode). In IEEE 802.11ay, supported PPDU formats include formats for an EDMG control MODE (edmg_c_mode), an EDMG single carrier MODE (edmg_sc_mode), and an EDMG Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) MODE (edmg_ofdm_mode).

In a PPDU format for IEEE 802.11ad DMG, the preamble may be a control physical-layer (C-PHY) preamble, a single-carrier PHY (SC-PHY) preamble, or an OFDM PHY (OFDM-PHY) preamble, and a common preamble may be used for SC-PHY packets (packet) and OFDM-PHY packets. In addition, the preamble may be used for packet detection (packet detection), automatic gain control (automatic gain control, AGC), carrier frequency offset (carrier frequency offset, CFO) estimation, synchronization, indication of SC or OFDM mode, and channel estimation. Also, in the header of the C-PHY packet in IEEE 802.11ad DMG, bits B22 and B23 are reserved bits, in the header of the SC-PHY packet in IEEE 802.11ad DMG, bits B44-B47 are reserved bits, and in the header of the OFDM-PHY packet in IEEE 802.11ad DMG, bits B46 and B47 are reserved bits.

In the PPDU format for IEEE 802.11ay EDMG, there are typically several fields. These fields include: an L-STF field, an L-CEF field, a legacy header field, an EDMG header-A field, an EDMG-STF field, an EDMG-CEF field, an optional EDMG header-B field, a data field, and an optional Truncate (TRN) field. The L-CEF field may be the same as an L-CEF field of an SC mode in IEEE 802.11ad DMG, and the L-header field may be the same as an L-header field of an SC mode in IEEE 802.11ad DMG. Bit B46 in the L-header field having a value of 1 may be used to indicate the presence of the EDMG header-a field (e.g., in an EDMGP PDU). The EDMG header-A field may be the same as the EDMG header-A field of the SC mode and the OFDM mode in IEEE 802.11ad DMG, and may be transmitted using the SC mode. The EDMG-CEF field may be different for the SC mode and the OFDM mode. In the SC mode, the EDMG-CEF field may not exist for a bandwidth of 2.16 GHz. For a multi-user (MU) PPDU, only the EDMG header-B field may be present.

Although the transmission bandwidth in the IEEE 802.11ad DMG may be up to 2.16GHz, the transmission bandwidth in the IEEE 802.11ay EDMG may be 2.16GHz, 4.32GHz, 6.48GHz, and up to 8.64GHz. Thus, in the case where the transmission is 4.32GHz, 6.48GHz, or 8.64GHz, the 2.16GHz sub-channel may be replicated multiple times over the transmission bandwidth (e.g., twice for 4.32GHz, three times for 6.48GHz, and four times for 8.64 GHz). Further, in the IEEE 802.11ay EDMG transmission, although the L-STF field, the L-CEF field, the L-header field, and the EDMG header-A field may be the same for the SC mode and the OFDM mode, the EDMG-STF field, the EDMG-CEF field, the data field, and the TRN field may be different for the SC mode and the OFDM mode.

The transmission of the L-STF field, L-CEF field, and L-header field may remain the same as in IEEE 802.11ad and/or IEEE 802.11ay under the first proposed scheme according to the present invention regarding preamble design for next generation WLANs in the 60GHz band, which are at least partially backward compatible with some of the pre-existing IEEE 802.11 standards. Fig. 2 illustrates an example design 200 under the first proposed solution. Referring to fig. 2, in design 200, the preamble of the next generation WLAN in the 60GHz band may include the following fields: L-STF, L-CEF, L-header, universal signaling (universal signaling, U-SIG) field, extremely high-throughput (EHT) signaling (EHT-SIG) field, EHT short training field (EHT short training field, EHT-STF), EHT long training field (EHT long training field, EHT-LTF), and data (and optionally TRN). The L-STF field, the L-CEF field, and the L-header field may be the same as those in the IEEE 802.11ad DMG, and transmission of the L-STF field, the L-CEF field, and the L-header field may be in SC mode. These fields may be used for spoofing purposes (bootstrapping purpose) to inform legacy STAs (e.g., STAs operating in accordance with the IEEE 802.11ad and/or IEEE 802.11ay specifications) about the transmission of the preamble. In the L-header field, bits B46 and B47 (e.g., b46=0 and b47=1) may be redefined to indicate the presence of the U-SIG field. Further, the formats of the respective fields of the U-SIG field, EHT-STF field, EHT-LTF field, and data field may be similar to the corresponding formats in IEEE 802.11be, except that the subcarrier spacing (subcarrier spacing, SCS) and bandwidth (to be redefined) of these fields may be different from the corresponding fields in IEEE 802.11 be. The transmissions of the U-SIG field, the EHT-STF field, the EHT-LTF field, and the data field may be in an OFDM mode.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example design 300 relating to a situation where the transmission bandwidth is greater than 2.16GHz under the first proposed scheme. Referring to fig. 3, in design 300, the preamble of the next generation WLAN in the 60GHz band may include the following fields: L-STF, L-CEF, L-header, U-SIG, EHT-STF, EHT-LTF, and data (and optionally TRN). The L-STF field, the L-CEF field, and the L-header field may be backward compatible with corresponding fields in IEEE 802.11ad DMG and IEEE 802.11ay EDMG, and transmission of the L-STF field, the L-CEF field, and the L-header field may be in SC mode. In design 300, the L-STF field, L-CEF field, L-header field, U-SIG field, and EHT-SIG field may be transmitted in one or more of a plurality of subchannels over a 2.16GHz bandwidth, while the EHT-STF field, EHT-LTF field, data field, and TRN field may be transmitted over the entire 2.16GHz bandwidth. Further, the U-SIG field and the EHT-SIG field may have the same format as corresponding fields in IEEE 802.11be, and in some cases may be transmitted in an OFDM mode. Also, the formats of the respective fields of the U-SIG field, EHT-STF field, EHT-LTF field, and data field may be similar to the corresponding formats in IEEE 802.11be, except that SCS and bandwidths (to be redefined) of these fields may be different from the corresponding fields in IEEE 802.11 be.

Under a second proposed scheme according to the present invention regarding preamble design of next generation WLANs in the 60GHz band with at least partial backward compatibility with some of the pre-existing IEEE 802.11 standards, the transmission of the L-STF field, L-CEF field and L-header field may remain the same as the transmission in IEEE 802.11ad and/or IEEE 802.11 ay. Fig. 4 illustrates an example design 400 under a second proposed solution. Referring to part (a) in fig. 4, a preamble of a next generation WLAN in a 60GHz band may include the following fields: L-STF, L-CEF, L-header, U-SIG, EHT-STF, EHT-LTF, and data (and optionally TRN). The L-STF field, the L-CEF field, and the L-header field may be backward compatible with corresponding fields in IEEE 802.11ad DMG and IEEE 802.11ay EDMG. The transmission of the L-STF field, the L-CEF field, and the L-header field may be in a 2.16GHz bandwidth. In addition, the format of each of the EHT-STF field, the EHT-LTF field, and the data field may be similar to the corresponding format in IEEE 802.11be, except that SCS and bandwidth (to be redefined) of these fields may be different from the corresponding fields in IEEE 802.11 be. The transmissions of the U-SIG field and the EHT-SIG field may be transmitted in one or more of a plurality of subchannels (e.g., each subchannel employing a 320MHz bandwidth) on a 2.16GHz bandwidth having scs=5 MHz and a number of fast fourier transforms (number of fast Fourier transform, nfft) =64. The EHT-STF field, the EHT-LTF field, the data field, and the TRN field may be transmitted in a 1280MHz PPDU.

Referring to part (B) in fig. 4, a preamble of a next generation WLAN in a 60GHz band may include the following fields: L-STF, L-CEF, L-header, U-SIG, EHT-STF, EHT-LTF, and data (and optionally TRN). The L-STF field, the L-CEF field, and the L-header field may be at least partially backward compatible with corresponding fields in IEEE 802.11ad DMG and IEEE 802.11ay EDMG. In addition, the format of each of the EHT-STF field, the EHT-LTF field, and the data field may be similar to the corresponding format in IEEE 802.11be, except that SCS and bandwidth (to be redefined) of these fields may be different from the corresponding fields in IEEE 802.11 be. The transmission of the L-STF field, the L-CEF field, and the L-header field may be in a 1.08GHz bandwidth. Transmissions of the U-SIG field and the EHT-SIG field may be sent in one or more of a plurality of subchannels on a 1.08GHz bandwidth. The EHT-STF field, the EHT-LTF field, the data field, and the TRN field may be transmitted in a 640MHz PPDU.

Under a third proposed scheme according to the present invention regarding preamble design of a next generation WLAN in a 60GHz band without backward compatibility with a pre-existing IEEE 802.11ad/ay standard, a preamble or PPDU format may reuse any one of a legacy IEEE 802.11n (high-throughput (HT) mixed or HT-green field format), an IEEE 802.11ac or IEEE 802.11ax/be format. Fig. 5 illustrates an example design 500 under a third proposed solution. Under the proposed scheme, for supported spatial streams (N _ss ) In the case of single-user multiple-input-multiple-output (SU-MIMO) transmission of up to 4 numbers, the IEEE 802.11n HT system PPDU format and preamble may be used, except that SCS and bandwidth (to be redefined) of these fields may be different from the corresponding fields in IEEE 802.11 n. Part (a) of fig. 5 shows an example preamble employing an HT mixed format and another example preamble employing an HT-green field format. Furthermore, under the proposed scheme, for the case of supporting multi-user multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission over the entire operating bandwidth without orthogonal frequency division multiple access (orthogonal frequency-division multiple access, OFDMA), the IEEE 802.11ac ultra high throughput (VHT) system PPDU format and preamble may be used, except that SCS and bandwidth (to be redefined) of these fields may be different from those in IEEE 802.11acThe shall field. Part (B) of fig. 5 shows an example preamble in VHT format.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example design 600 under a third proposed solution. Under the proposed scheme, for the case of supporting large RU-based OFDMA, an IEEE 802.11ax PPDU format and a preamble may be used, except that SCS and bandwidths (to be redefined) of these fields may be different from corresponding fields in IEEE 802.11 ax. Part (a) of fig. 6 shows an example preamble employing a high-efficiency multi-user (HE-MU) format and a high-efficiency transport block (HE-efficiency transport block, HE-TB) format. Furthermore, under the proposed scheme, for the case of supporting large RU and/or MRU based OFDM, the IEEE 802.11be PPDU format and preamble may be used, except that SCS and bandwidth (to be redefined) of these fields may be different from corresponding fields in IEEE 802.11 be. Part (B) of fig. 6 shows an example preamble in an EHT multi-user (EHT-MU) format and another example preamble in an EHT transport block (EHT transport block, EHT-TB) format.

Under a fourth proposed scheme according to the present invention regarding preamble design of a next generation WLAN in a 60GHz band that does not have backward compatibility with the pre-existing IEEE 802.11ad/ay standard, the minimum bandwidth for the next generation WLAN in the 60GHz band may be 320MHz (or other bandwidths such as 80MHz or 160MHz or 640MHz or 1280 MHz). Under the fourth proposed scheme, for the case of supporting RU and/or MRU based OFDMA, IEEE 802.11ax or IEEE 802.11be PPDU formats and preambles may be used, except that SCS and bandwidths (to be redefined) of these fields may be different from corresponding fields in IEEE 802.11 ax/be. Fig. 7 illustrates an example design 700 under a fourth proposed solution. Under the proposed scheme, the legacy preamble (per 320 MHz) can be duplicated twice for the case where the transmission channel bandwidth is 640 MHz. Part (a) of fig. 7 shows an example preamble in which an L-STF field, an L-LTF field, and a SIG field may be transmitted in each of two (duplicate) 320MHz subchannels, while the STF field, LTF field, and data field may be transmitted over the entire 640MHz bandwidth. The SIG field may be a general signaling field and may include several symbols and some types of L-SIG, VHT-SIG, HE-SIG, U-SIG, etc. The L-STF field, the L-LTF field, and the SIG field may be transmitted with scs=5 MHz and nfft=64. The STF field, LTF field, and data field may be transmitted using scs=0.625 MHz, 1.25MHz, 2.5MHz, or 5 MHz. Alternatively, under the proposed scheme, the legacy preamble (per 320 MHz) may be duplicated four times for the case where the transmission channel bandwidth is 1280 MHz. Part (B) of fig. 7 shows an example preamble in which an L-STF field, an L-LTF field, and a SIG field may be transmitted in each of four (duplicate) 320MHz subchannels, and the STF field, LTF field, and data field may be transmitted over the entire 1280MHz bandwidth. The SIG field may be a general signaling field and may include several symbols and some types of L-SIG, VHT-SIG, HE-SIG, U-SIG, etc. The L-STF field, the L-LTF field, and the SIG field may be transmitted with scs=5 MHz and nfft=64. The STF field, LTF field, and data field may be transmitted using scs=0.625 MHz, 1.25MHz, 2.5MHz, or 5 MHz.

Exemplary implementation

Fig. 8 illustrates an example system 800 having at least an example device 810 and an example device 820 in accordance with implementations of the invention. Various of the devices 810 and 820 may perform various functions to implement the schemes, techniques, processes, and methods described herein in connection with preamble design for next generation WLANs in the 60GHz band, including the various schemes described above with reference to the various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems, and methods described above, and the processes described below. For example, device 810 may be implemented in STA 110 and device 820 may be implemented in STA 120, or vice versa.

Each of devices 810 and 820 may be part of an electronic device, which may be a non-AP STA or an AP STA, such as a portable or mobile device, a wearable device, a wireless communication device, or a computing device. When implemented in a STA, each of devices 810 and 820 may be implemented in a smart phone, a smart watch, a personal digital assistant, a digital camera, or a computing device such as a tablet computer, a laptop computer, or a notebook computer. Each of devices 810 and 820 may be part of a machine-type device, which may be an IoT device such as a stationary or fixed device, a home device, a wired communication device, or a computing device. For example, each of devices 810 and 820 may be implemented in a smart thermostat, a smart refrigerator, a smart door lock, a wireless speaker, or a home control center. When implemented in or as a network device, device 810 and/or device 820 may be implemented in a network node, such as an AP in a WLAN.

In some implementations, each of devices 810 and 820 may be implemented in the form of one or more integrated-circuit (IC) chips, such as, for example and without limitation, one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more reduced-instruction-set-instruction set computing (RISC) processors, or one or more complex instruction-set-computing (CISC) processors. In the various aspects described above, each of devices 810 and 820 may be implemented in or as a STA or AP. For example, each of devices 810 and 820 may include at least some of those components shown in fig. 8, such as processor 812 and processor 822, respectively. Each of the devices 810 and 820 may also include one or more other components (e.g., internal power supplies, display devices, and/or user interface devices) that are not relevant to the proposed solution of the present invention, and thus, such components of the devices 810 and 820 are neither shown in fig. 8 nor described below for simplicity and brevity.

In one aspect, each of processor 812 and processor 822 may be implemented in the form of one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more RISC processors, or one or more CISC processors. That is, even though the singular term "processor" is used herein to refer to the processor 812 and the processor 822, each of the processor 812 and the processor 822 may include multiple processors in some implementations, and may include a single processor in other implementations consistent with the invention. In another aspect, each of the processors 812 and 822 may be implemented in hardware (and optionally firmware) with electronic components including, for example and without limitation, one or more transistors, one or more diodes, one or more capacitors, one or more registers, one or more inductors, one or more memristors, and/or one or more varactors, configured and arranged to achieve a particular objective in accordance with the present invention. In other words, in at least some implementations, each of processor 812 and processor 822 is a special purpose machine specifically designed, set up, and configured to perform specific tasks, including those tasks related to preamble design of the next generation WLAN in the 60GHz band, according to various implementations of the invention.

In some implementations, the device 810 may also include a transceiver 816 coupled to the processor 812. The transceiver 816 may include a transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting and a receiver capable of wirelessly receiving data. In some implementations, the device 820 may also include a transceiver 826 coupled to the processor 822. Transceiver 826 may include a transmitter capable of wireless transmission and a receiver capable of wireless reception of data. Notably, although transceiver 816 and transceiver 826 are illustrated as being external to and separate from processor 812 and processor 822, respectively, in some implementations transceiver 816 may be part of processor 812 as a system on chip (SoC) and transceiver 826 may be part of processor 822 as a SoC.

In some implementations, the device 810 may also include a memory 814 coupled to the processor 812 and capable of being accessed by the processor 812 and storing data therein. In some implementations, the device 820 may also include a memory 824 coupled to the processor 822 and capable of being accessed by the processor 822 and storing data therein. Each of the memory 814 and the memory 824 may include a Random Access Memory (RAM) type, such as Dynamic RAM (DRAM), static RAM (SRAM), thyristor RAM (T-RAM), and/or zero-capacitor RAM (Z-RAM). Alternatively or additionally, each of memory 814 and memory 824 can include Read Only Memory (ROM) types, such as mask ROM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (erasable programmable ROM, EPROM), and/or electrically erasable programmable ROM (electrically erasable programmable ROM, EEPROM). Alternatively or additionally, each of the memory 814 and the memory 824 may include a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) type, such as flash memory, solid state memory, ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), and/or phase change memory.

Each of device 810 and device 820 may be communication entities capable of communicating with each other using various proposed schemes according to the invention. For illustrative purposes and without limitation, a description of the capabilities of device 810 as STA 110 and device 820 as STA 120 is provided below. It is noted that while a detailed description of the capabilities, functions and/or technical features of device 820 is provided below, it is equally applicable to device 810, although a detailed description of device 810 is not provided separately for the sake of brevity. It is also worth noting that while the example implementations described below are provided in the context of a WLAN, they may also be implemented in other types of networks.

Under various proposed schemes in connection with preamble design of next generation WLAN in 60GHz band according to various implementations of the invention, with device 810 implemented in STA 110 or as STA 110 in network environment 100 and device 820 implemented in STA 120 or as STA 120 in network environment, a processor of device 810 may communicate wirelessly with device 820 via transceiver 816 in 60GHz band by either or both of: (i) transmitting the first PPDU to the device 820; and (ii) receiving a second PPDU from the device 820. Each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU and the corresponding preamble of the first PPDU and the second PPDU may or may not have at least partial backward compatibility with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles.

In some implementations, each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU and the respective preambles of the first PPDU and the second PPDU may be at least partially backward compatible with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles according to either or both of the IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.11ay specifications. Further, each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU includes a plurality of fields including: an L-STF field, an L-CEF field, an L-header field, a U-SIG field, an EHT-STF field, an EHT-LTF, and a data field.

In some implementations, the transmissions of the L-STF field, the L-CEF field, and the L-header field are in SC mode and remain the same as transmissions according to either or both of the IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.11ay specifications. Further, bits B46 and B47 in the L-header field may be set to indicate the presence of the U-SIG field.

In some implementations, the formats of the respective ones of the U-SIG field, EHT-STF field, EHT-LTF field, and data field may be similar to the format according to the IEEE 802.11be specification, but with different subcarrier spacing and different bandwidths. Further, the U-SIG field, the EHT-STF field, the EHT-LTF field, and the data field may be transmitted in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing, OFDM) mode.

In some implementations, the EHT-STF field and the data field may be transmitted over the entire transmission channel bandwidth without duplication. Also, the L-STF field, L-CEF field, L-header field, U-SIG field, and EHT-SIG field may be transmitted in multiple sub-channels replicated over the entire transmission channel bandwidth.

In some implementations, the L-STF, L-CEF, L-header field, EHT-STF, and data fields may be transmitted over the entire transmission channel bandwidth without duplication. In addition, the U-SIG field and the EHT-SIG field may be transmitted in multiple sub-channels that are replicated across the entire transmission channel bandwidth.

In some implementations, each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU and the respective preambles of the first PPDU and the second PPDU may not be backward compatible with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles according to either or both of the IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.11ay specifications. Further, either or both of a corresponding preamble and PPDU format according to IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11ax, or IEEE 802.11be may be used for the preamble or PPDU format of each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU.

In some implementations, in response to SU-MIMO transmissions supporting up to 4 spatial streams, corresponding preambles and PPDU formats in the HT system according to the IEEE 802.11n specification may be used for the preambles and PPDU formats of each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU.

In some implementations, in response to MU-MIMO transmission over the entire transmission channel bandwidth that does not support OFDMA, respective preambles and PPDU formats in a VHT system according to the IEEE 802.11ac specification may be used for the preambles and PPDU formats of respective PPDUs in the first PPDU and the second PPDU.

In some implementations, in response to a large RU-based transmission supporting OFDMA, a corresponding preamble and PPDU format according to the IEEE 802.11ax specification may be used for the preamble and PPDU format of each of the first and second PPDUs.

In some implementations, in response to a large RU or MRU-based transmission supporting OFDMA, a corresponding preamble and PPDU format according to the IEEE 802.11be specification may be used for the preamble and PPDU format of each of the first and second PPDUs.

In some implementations, the first PPDU and the second PPDU may each contain a plurality of fields including an L-STF field, an L-LTF field, a SIG field, an STF field, an LTF field, and a data field. In such a case, in response to the transmission channel bandwidth being greater than 80MHz or 160MHz or 320MHz, the STF field, LTF field, and data field may be transmitted over the entire transmission channel bandwidth without duplication, while the L-STF field, L-LTF field, and SIG field may be transmitted over a plurality of 320MHz subchannels that are duplicated over the entire transmission channel bandwidth.

Exemplary processing

FIG. 9 illustrates an example process 900 in accordance with implementations of the invention. Process 900 may represent aspects of implementing the various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems, and methods described above. More particularly, process 900 may represent aspects of the proposed concepts and schemes related to preamble design for a next generation WLAN in the 60GHz band in accordance with various implementations of the invention. Process 900 may include one or more operations, actions, or functions as illustrated by block 910 and one or more of sub-blocks 912 and 914. While illustrated as separate blocks, the various blocks of process 900 may be divided into additional blocks, combined into fewer blocks, or eliminated, depending on the desired implementation. Further, the blocks/sub-blocks of process 900 may be performed in the order shown in fig. 9, or alternatively, in a different order. Moreover, one or more of the blocks/sub-blocks of process 900 may be performed repeatedly or iteratively. Process 900 may be implemented by or in device 310 and device 320 and any variations thereof. For illustrative purposes only and without limiting the scope, process 900 is described below in the context of a network environment 100 according to one or more of the IEEE 802.11 standards, a device 810 implemented in STA 110 that acts as a non-AP STA for a wireless network (such as a WLAN) or as non-STA 110, and a device 820 implemented in STA 120 that acts as an AP STA or as STA 120. Process 900 may begin at block 910.

At 910, process 900 may include: the processor of device 810 communicates wirelessly with device 820 in the 60GHz band via transceiver 816. Each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU and the corresponding preamble of the first PPDU and the second PPDU may or may not have at least partial backward compatibility with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles. Communication between device 810 and device 820 may be represented by 912 and 914.

At 912, process 900 may include: the processor 812 sends the first PPDU to the device 820.

At 914, process 900 may include: processor 812 receives the second PPDU from device 820.

In some implementations, each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU and the respective preambles of the first PPDU and the second PPDU may be at least partially backward compatible with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles according to either or both of the IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.11ay specifications. Further, each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU includes a plurality of fields including: an L-STF field, an L-CEF field, an L-header field, a U-SIG field, an EHT-STF field, an EHT-LTF field, and a data field.

In some implementations, the transmissions of the L-STF field, the L-CEF field, and the L-header field are in SC mode and remain the same as transmissions according to either or both of the IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.11ay specifications. Further, bits B46 and B47 in the L-header field may be set to indicate the presence of the U-SIG field.

In some implementations, the formats of the respective ones of the U-SIG field, EHT-STF field, EHT-LTF field, and data field may be similar to the format according to the IEEE 802.11be specification, but with different subcarrier spacing and different bandwidths. Further, the U-SIG field, the EHT-STF field, the EHT-LTF field, and the data field may be transmitted in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) mode.

In some implementations, the EHT-STF and the data field may be transmitted over the entire transmission channel bandwidth without duplication. Also, the L-STF field, L-CEF field, L-header field, U-SIG field, and EHT-SIG field may be transmitted in multiple sub-channels replicated over the entire transmission channel bandwidth.

In some implementations, the L-STF field, L-CEF field, L-header field, EHT-STF field, and data field may be transmitted over the entire transport channel bandwidth without duplication. In addition, the U-SIG field and the EHT-SIG field may be transmitted in multiple sub-channels that are replicated across the entire transmission channel bandwidth.

In some implementations, each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU and the respective preambles of the first PPDU and the second PPDU may not be backward compatible with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles according to either or both of the IEEE802.11 ad and IEEE802.11 ay specifications. Further, either or both of a corresponding preamble and PPDU format according to IEEE802.11 n, IEEE802.11 ac, IEEE802.11ax, or IEEE802.11 be may be used for the preamble or PPDU format of each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU.

In some implementations, in response to SU-MIMO transmissions supporting up to 4 spatial streams, corresponding preambles and PPDU formats in the HT system according to the IEEE802.11 n specification may be used for the preambles and PPDU formats of each of the first PPDU and the second PPDU.

In some implementations, in response to MU-MIMO transmission over the entire transmission channel bandwidth that does not support OFDMA, respective preambles and PPDU formats in a VHT system according to the IEEE802.11 ac specification may be used for the preambles and PPDU formats of respective PPDUs in the first PPDU and the second PPDU.

In some implementations, in response to a large RU-based transmission supporting OFDMA, a corresponding preamble and PPDU format according to the ieee802.11ax specification may be used for the preamble and PPDU format of each of the first and second PPDUs.

In some implementations, in response to a large RU or MRU-based transmission supporting OFDMA, a corresponding preamble and PPDU format according to the IEEE 802.11be specification may be used for the preamble and PPDU format of each of the first and second PPDUs.

In some implementations, each of the first and second PPDUs may contain a plurality of fields including an L-STF, an L-LTF, a SIG field, an STF, an LTF, and a data field. In such a case, in response to the transmission channel bandwidth being greater than 80MHz or 160MHz or 320MHz, the STF, LTF, and data fields may be transmitted over the entire transmission channel bandwidth without duplication, while the L-STF, L-LTF, and SIG fields may be transmitted over a plurality of 320MHz subchannels that are duplicated over the entire transmission channel bandwidth.

Additional notes

The subject matter described herein sometimes illustrates different components contained within, or connected with, different other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are merely exemplary, and that in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively "associated" such that the desired functionality is achieved. Thus, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can be seen as "associated with" each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being "operably connected," or "operably coupled," to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewed as being "operably couplable," to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably coupled include, but are not limited to, components capable of physically mating and/or physically interacting and/or components capable of wirelessly interacting and/or components capable of logically interacting and/or logically interacting.

Furthermore, those of skill in the art may translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. For clarity, various singular/plural permutations may be explicitly set forth herein.

Furthermore, it will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms such as used herein, and in particular, terms such as used in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as "open" terms (e.g., the term "comprising" should be interpreted as "including but not limited to," the term "having" should be interpreted as "having at least," the term "comprising" should be interpreted as "including but not limited to," etc.). Those skilled in the art will also understand that if a specific number of a introduced claim is intended, such intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases "at least one" and "one or more" to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles "a" or "an" limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to implementations containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases "one or more" or "at least one" and indefinite articles such as "a" or "an" (e.g., "a" or "an" should be interpreted to mean "at least one" or "one or more"); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to refer to the claims. In addition, even if a specific number of a introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of "two recitations," without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Moreover, in those instances where a convention analogous to "at least one of A, B and C, etc." is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand that such a convention would work (e.g., "a system having at least one of A, B and C" would include but not be limited to systems having a alone, B alone, C, A and B together alone, a and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to "at least one of A, B or C, etc." is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand that such a convention is in the sense (e.g., "a system having at least one of A, B or C" would include but not be limited to systems having a alone a, B alone, C, A and B together, a and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that, in fact, any inflections and/or phrases presenting two or more alternative terms (whether in the specification, claims, or drawings) should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase "a or B" should be understood to include the possibility of "a" or "B" or "a and B".

From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that various implementations of the invention have been described for purposes of illustration, and that various modifications may be made without deviating from the scope and spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the implementations described herein are not intended to be limiting, and the true scope and spirit is indicated by the following claims.

Claims (20)

1. A method of wireless communication, the method comprising:

wirelessly communicating, by a first device, with a second device in a 60GHz band by either or both of:

transmitting a first physical layer protocol data unit, PPDU, to the second device; and

a second PPDU is received from the second device,

wherein the first and second PPDUs and their respective preambles are or are not at least partially backward compatible with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles.

2. The wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein the first and second PPDUs and their respective preambles are at least partially backward compatible with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles according to either or both of the institute of electrical and electronics engineers IEEE802.11ad and IEEE802.11 ay specifications, and wherein the first and second PPDUs each contain a plurality of fields including a legacy short training field L-STF, a legacy channel estimation field L-CEF, a legacy header L-header field, a universal signaling U-SIG field, a very high throughput signaling EHI-SIG field, an EHT short training field EHT-STF, an EHT long training field EHT-LTF, and a data field.

3. The wireless communication method of claim 2, wherein transmissions of the L-STF field, L-CEF field, and L-header field are in a single carrier SC mode and remain the same as transmissions according to either or both of IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.11ay specifications, and wherein bits B46 and B47 in the L-header field are set to indicate the presence of the U-SIG field.

4. The wireless communication method of claim 3, wherein the formats of each of the U-SIG field, EHT-STF field, EHT-LTF field, and data field are similar to the format according to the IEEE 802.11be specification, but have different subcarrier spacing and different bandwidths, and wherein the U-SIG field, EHT-STF field, EHT-LTF field, and data field are transmitted in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM, mode.

5. The wireless communication method of claim 3, wherein the EHT-STF field and data field are transmitted over an entire transmission channel bandwidth without duplication, and wherein the L-STF field, L-CEF field, L-header field, U-SIG field, and EHT-SIG field are transmitted over a plurality of subchannels duplicated over the entire transmission channel bandwidth.

6. The wireless communication method of claim 3, wherein the L-STF field, L-CEF field, L-header field, EHT-STF field, and data field are transmitted over an entire transmission channel bandwidth without duplication, and wherein the U-SIG field and EHT-SIG field are transmitted in a plurality of subchannels duplicated over the entire transmission channel bandwidth.

7. The wireless communication method of claim 1, wherein the first and second PPDUs and their respective preambles are not backward compatible with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles of either or both of the IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.11ay specifications, and wherein the preamble or PPDU format of each of the first and second PPDUs is used in accordance with either or both of the respective preambles and PPDU formats of IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11ax, or IEEE 802.11 be.

8. The wireless communication method of claim 7, wherein the respective preamble and PPDU formats in a high throughput HT system according to the IEEE 802.11n specification are used for the preamble and PPDU formats of each of the first and second PPDUs in response to a single-user multiple-input multiple-output SU-MIMO transmission supporting a number of spatial streams up to 4.

9. The wireless communication method of claim 7, wherein the respective preamble and PPDU formats in an ultra-high throughput VHT system according to an IEEE 802.11ac specification are used for the preamble and PPDU formats of each of the first and second PPDUs in response to a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output MU-MIMO transmission over an entire transmission channel bandwidth that does not support orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA.

10. The wireless communication method of claim 7, wherein the respective preamble and PPDU formats according to the IEEE 802.11ax specification are used for the preamble and PPDU formats of each of the first and second PPDUs in response to the transmission of the OFDMA-supported large resource unit RU.

11. The wireless communication method of claim 7, wherein the respective preamble and PPDU formats according to the IEEE 802.11be specification are used for the preamble and PPDU formats of each of the first and second PPDUs in response to the transmission of the OFDMA-based large resource unit RU or multi-resource unit MRU.

12. The wireless communication method of claim 7, wherein the first PPDU and the second PPDU each include a plurality of fields including a legacy short training field L-STF, a legacy long training field L-LTF, a signaling SIG field, a short training field STF, a long training field LTF, and a data field, and wherein the STF field, LTF field, and data field are transmitted over an entire transmission channel bandwidth without duplication and the L-STF field, L-LTF field, and SIG field are transmitted in a plurality of 320MHz subchannels duplicated over the entire transmission channel bandwidth in response to a transmission channel bandwidth being greater than 80MHz or 160MHz or 320 MHz.

13. A wireless communication device, the wireless communication device comprising:

a transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate; and

a processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform operations comprising:

wirelessly communicating, by a processor of a first device, with a second device in a 60GHz band by either or both of:

transmitting a first PPDU to the second device; and

a second PPDU is received from the second device,

wherein the first and second PPDUs and their corresponding preambles have or do not have at least partial backward compatibility with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles.

14. The wireless communication device of claim 13, wherein the first and second PPDUs and their respective preambles are at least partially backward compatible with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles according to either or both of IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.11ay specifications, and wherein the first and second PPDUs each contain a plurality of fields including a legacy short training field L-STF, a legacy channel estimation field L-CEF, a legacy header L-header field, a universal signaling U-SIG field, an extremely high throughput EHT signaling EHI-SIG field, an EHT short training field EHT-STF, an EHT long training field EHT-LTF, and a data field.

15. The wireless communication device of claim 13, wherein the first and second PPDUs and their respective preambles are not backward compatible with one or more pre-existing PPDU formats and preambles according to either or both of the IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.11ay specifications, and wherein either or both of the respective preambles and PPDU formats according to IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11ax, or IEEE 802.11be are used for the preambles or PPDU formats of the first and second PPDUs.

16. The wireless communication device of claim 15, wherein the respective preamble and PPDU formats in a high throughput HT system according to the IEEE 802.11n specification are used for the preamble and PPDU formats of each of the first and second PPDUs in response to a single-user multiple-input multiple-output SU-MIMO transmission supporting a number of spatial streams up to 4.

17. The wireless communication device of claim 15, wherein the respective preamble and PPDU formats in an ultra-high throughput VHT system according to an IEEE 802.11ac specification are used for the preamble and PPDU formats of each of the first and second PPDUs in response to a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output MU-MIMO transmission over an entire transmission channel bandwidth that does not support orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA.

18. The wireless communication device of claim 15, wherein the respective preamble and PPDU formats according to the IEEE 802.11ax specification are used for the preamble and PPDU formats of the first and second PPDUs in response to a large resource unit RU-based transmission supporting orthogonal frequency division multiple access, OFDMA.

19. The wireless communication device of claim 15, wherein the respective preamble and PPDU formats according to an IEEE 802.11be specification are used for the preamble and PPDU formats of the first and second PPDUs in response to a large resource unit RU or multi-resource unit MRU-based transmission supporting orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA.

20. The wireless communication device of claim 15, wherein the first PPDU and the second PPDU each contain a plurality of fields including a legacy short training field L-STF, a legacy long training field L-LTF, a signaling SIG field, a short training field STF, a long training field LTF, and a data field, and wherein the STF field, LTF field, and data field are transmitted over an entire transmission channel bandwidth without duplication and the L-STF field, L-LTF field, and SIG field are transmitted in a plurality of 320MHz subchannels duplicated over the entire transmission channel bandwidth in response to a transmission channel bandwidth being greater than 80MHz or 160MHz or 320 MHz.