CN117083950A

CN117083950A - Method and device for transmitting demand indication

Info

Publication number: CN117083950A
Application number: CN202280024116.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 郭宇宸; 李云波; 淦明; 德米特里·班科夫; 伊利亚•莱维茨基; 埃夫根尼·米哈伊洛维奇·霍罗夫
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-04-08
Filing date: 2022-04-01
Publication date: 2023-11-17
Also published as: WO2022213891A1

Abstract

The application provides a method and a device for transmitting a demand indication, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the first access point AP generates a radio frame including transmission requirement indication information for indicating that the first AP needs to be shared with transmission resources. The first AP transmits the radio frame. The method for indicating the transmission requirement provided by the application enables the sharing AP to acquire the transmission requirement of the shared AP, thereby determining the transmission resource required by the shared AP and improving the transmission efficiency of multi-AP cooperation.

Description

Method and device for transmitting demand indication

The application claims priority from russian patent application filed on month 08 of 2021, under the application number RU2021109661, entitled "method and apparatus for indicating a transmission need", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for transmitting a demand indication.

Background

With the development of wireless networks and the continuous popularization of wireless local area network (wireless local area network, WLAN) technologies, more and more sites need to deploy Access Points (APs), an AP can serve multiple Stations (STAs) within the coverage area of the AP, and the AP and the STAs served by the AP form a basic service set (basic service set, BSS). More and more APs serve more stations and overlap areas exist between different BSSs, so that more inter-cell interference is brought. In order to reduce interference, multi-AP cooperative transmission methods are proposed in the industry.

In general, an AP that initiates a multi-AP cooperative transmission may be referred to as a shared AP (sharing AP), and other APs that are shared with transmission resources or transmission opportunities (transmit opportunity, TXOPs) may be referred to as shared APs. In uplink single cell multi-user transmission between an AP and multiple stations, the stations may send a first buffer status report (buffer status report, BSR) to the AP to inform the AP of the status of its buffers, i.e., how many bytes of data in the buffers to send. Since all transmission parameters adopted by the station to transmit the data frame are determined by the AP, the AP can calculate the transmission duration required by the STA. Therefore, the AP can allocate reasonable transmission time to the STA, and ensure that the data in the buffer zone of the STA can be transmitted completely. However, in multi-AP cooperative transmission, each AP determines its own transmission parameters, so even if the shared AP informs the shared AP of its buffer status, the shared AP cannot determine the transmission resources required by the shared AP.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method for indicating transmission requirements, which enables a sharing AP to acquire the transmission requirements of the shared AP, so as to determine transmission resources required by the shared AP and improve the transmission efficiency of multi-AP cooperation.

In a first aspect, a method of transmitting a demand indication is provided, the method comprising: the first access point AP generates a radio frame including transmission requirement indication information for indicating that the first AP needs to be shared with transmission resources. The first AP transmits the radio frame.

According to the transmission demand indication method provided by the application, the first AP can send the transmission demand indication information to the second AP, and the transmission demand indication information is used for indicating that the first AP needs to share transmission resources, so that the second AP can acquire the transmission demand of the first AP, so that a proper amount of resources are allocated to the first AP in the subsequent multi-AP cooperative transmission, and the transmission efficiency of multi-AP cooperation can be improved.

It should be appreciated that the first AP's need to be shared transmission resources may include at least one of the following:

in case one, the first AP has a need for transmission resources. That is, the transmission requirement indication information may be used to indicate whether the first AP has a need for transmission resources.

And in the second case, the transmission resources required by the first AP. In other words, the transmission requirement indicating information may be used to indicate specific information of the transmission requirement of the first AP, such as the size of a required transmission resource, a time period of the required transmission resource, a required transmission channel to be used, and the like.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the first AP has a transmission requirement.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first indication information is carried in a U-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or an EHT-SIG field of the physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a transmission duration required by the first AP.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the second indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the second indication information is carried in a U-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or an EHT-SIG field of the physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a transmission bandwidth required by the first AP.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the third indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the third indication information is carried in a U-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or an EHT-SIG field of the physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate at least one of: the method comprises the steps of determining a period of a transmission requirement of a first AP, a direction of the transmission requirement of the first AP, a type of data to be transmitted in the transmission requirement of the first AP, a cooperation mode required by the first AP, a transmission power required by the first AP, a transmission channel required by the first AP and an identification of a second AP, wherein the second AP is a sharing AP.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the fourth indication information is carried in a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the first AP receives a request frame for requesting the first AP to transmit the radio frame.

In a second aspect, there is provided a method of transmitting a demand indication, the method comprising: the second access point AP receives a radio frame from the first AP, where the radio frame includes transmission requirement indication information, where the transmission requirement indication information is used to indicate that the first AP needs to share transmission resources. The second AP determines a first transmission resource according to the transmission requirement indication information, wherein the first transmission resource is a transmission resource which the first AP needs to be shared.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the first AP has a transmission requirement.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the second AP analyzes the first indication information from the physical frame head of the wireless frame.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the second AP parses the first indication information from a physical frame header of the radio frame, including: the second AP parses the first indication information from a U-SIG field of a physical layer header of the wireless frame or an EHT-SIG field of the physical layer header of the wireless frame.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a transmission duration required by the first AP.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the determining, by the second AP, the first transmission resource according to the transmission requirement indication information includes: the second AP determines the first transmission resource according to the transmission duration and the preset bandwidth value required by the first AP.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the second AP analyzes the second indication information from a physical layer frame header of the wireless frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the wireless frame.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the second AP parsing the second indication information from a physical layer frame header of the radio frame includes: the second AP parses the second indication information from a U-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the wireless frame or an EHT-SIG field of the physical layer frame header of the wireless frame.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a transmission bandwidth required by the first AP.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the determining, by the second AP, the first transmission resource according to the transmission requirement indication information includes: the second AP determines the first transmission resource according to the transmission bandwidth required by the first AP and a preset duration value.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the second AP analyzes the third indication information from a physical layer frame header of the wireless frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the wireless frame.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the second AP parses the third indication information from a physical layer frame header of the radio frame, including: the second AP parses the third indication information from a U-SIG field of a physical layer header of the wireless frame or an EHT-SIG field of the physical layer header of the wireless frame.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate at least one of: the method comprises the steps of determining a period of transmission requirements of a first AP, a direction of the transmission requirements of the first AP, a type of data to be transmitted in the transmission requirements of the first AP, a cooperation mode required by the first AP, a transmission power required by the first AP, a transmission channel required by the first AP and an identification of a second AP.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the second AP parses the fourth indication information from a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the second AP transmits a request frame to the first AP, the request frame requesting the first AP to transmit the radio frame.

In a third aspect, an apparatus for transmitting a demand indication is provided, the apparatus comprising: a processing unit and a transceiver unit. And the processing unit is used for generating a wireless frame, wherein the wireless frame comprises transmission requirement indication information, and the transmission requirement indication information is used for indicating that the first AP needs to share transmission resources. And the receiving and transmitting unit is used for transmitting the wireless frame.

Alternatively, the apparatus may correspond to the first AP in the first aspect to the second aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners of the first aspect to the second aspect.

The device for indicating the transmission requirement can send the transmission requirement indicating information to the second AP, wherein the transmission requirement indicating information is used for indicating that the first AP needs to share transmission resources, so that the second AP can acquire the transmission requirement of the first AP, so that a proper amount of resources are allocated to the first AP in the subsequent multi-AP cooperative transmission, and the transmission efficiency of multi-AP cooperation can be improved.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the first AP has a transmission requirement.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first indication information is carried in a U-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or an EHT-SIG field of the physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a transmission duration required by the first AP.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the second indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the second indication information is carried in a U-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or an EHT-SIG field of the physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a transmission bandwidth required by the first AP.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the third indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the third indication information is carried in a U-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or an EHT-SIG field of the physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate at least one of: the method comprises the steps of determining a period of a transmission requirement of a first AP, a direction of the transmission requirement of the first AP, a type of data to be transmitted in the transmission requirement of the first AP, a cooperation mode required by the first AP, a transmission power required by the first AP, a transmission channel required by the first AP and an identification of a second AP, wherein the second AP is a sharing AP.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the fourth indication information is carried in a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the transceiver unit is further configured to: a request frame is received requesting the first AP to transmit the radio frame.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided an apparatus for transmitting a demand indication, the apparatus comprising: a receiving and transmitting unit and a processing unit. And the receiving and transmitting unit is used for receiving a wireless frame from the first AP, wherein the wireless frame comprises transmission requirement indicating information which is used for indicating that the first AP needs to share transmission resources. And the processing unit is used for determining a first transmission resource according to the transmission requirement indication information, wherein the first transmission resource is a transmission resource which needs to be shared by the first AP.

Alternatively, the apparatus may correspond to the second AP in the first to second aspects or any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects.

The device for indicating the transmission requirement can receive the transmission requirement indicating information from the first AP, wherein the transmission requirement indicating information is used for indicating that the first AP needs to share transmission resources, so that the second AP can acquire the transmission requirement of the first AP, so that a proper amount of resources are allocated to the first AP in the subsequent multi-AP cooperative transmission, and the transmission efficiency of multi-AP cooperation can be improved.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transmission requirement indicating information includes first indicating information, where the first indicating information is used to indicate that the first AP has a transmission requirement.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transceiver unit is further configured to: the first indication information is parsed from a physical frame header of the radio frame.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the processing unit is specifically configured to: the first indication information is parsed from a U-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the wireless frame or an EHT-SIG field of the physical layer frame header of the wireless frame.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a transmission duration required by the first AP.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the processing unit is specifically configured to: and determining the first transmission resource according to the transmission duration required by the first AP and a preset bandwidth value.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the processing unit is further configured to: the second indication information is parsed from a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the processing unit is specifically configured to: the second indication information is parsed from a U-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the wireless frame or an EHT-SIG field of the physical layer frame header of the wireless frame.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a transmission bandwidth required by the first AP.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the processing unit is specifically configured to: and determining the first transmission resource according to the transmission bandwidth required by the first AP and a preset duration value.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the processing unit is further configured to: and analyzing the third indication information from a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the processing unit is specifically configured to: the third indication information is parsed from a U-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the wireless frame or an EHT-SIG field of the physical layer frame header of the wireless frame.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transmission requirement indication information includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate at least one of: the method comprises the steps of determining a period of transmission requirements of a first AP, a direction of the transmission requirements of the first AP, a type of data to be transmitted in the transmission requirements of the first AP, a cooperation mode required by the first AP, a transmission power required by the first AP, a transmission channel required by the first AP and an identification of a second AP.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the processing unit is further configured to: and analyzing the fourth indication information from the medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the wireless frame.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transceiver unit is further configured to: the second AP transmits a request frame to the first AP, the request frame requesting the first AP to transmit the radio frame.

In a fifth aspect, an apparatus is provided that includes a processor. The processor is coupled to the memory and operable to execute instructions in the memory to cause the apparatus to perform the method of the first aspect to the second aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect to the second aspect. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a memory. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises an interface circuit, the processor being coupled to the interface circuit.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a processor comprising: input circuit, output circuit and processing circuit. The processing circuit is configured to receive a signal via the input circuit and transmit a signal via the output circuit, such that the processor performs the method of the first aspect to the second aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners of the first aspect to the second aspect.

In a specific implementation process, the processor may be a chip, the input circuit may be an input pin, the output circuit may be an output pin, and the processing circuit may be a transistor, a gate circuit, a trigger, various logic circuits, and the like. The input signal received by the input circuit may be received and input by, for example and without limitation, a receiver, the output signal may be output by, for example and without limitation, a transmitter and transmitted by a transmitter, and the input circuit and the output circuit may be the same circuit, which functions as the input circuit and the output circuit, respectively, at different times. The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific implementation modes of the processor and various circuits.

In a seventh aspect, a processing apparatus is provided that includes a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to read instructions stored in the memory and is configured to receive a signal via the receiver and to transmit a signal via the transmitter to perform the method of the first aspect to the second aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect to the second aspect.

Optionally, the processor is one or more, and the memory is one or more.

Alternatively, the memory may be integrated with the processor or the memory may be separate from the processor.

In a specific implementation process, the memory may be a non-transient (non-transitory) memory, for example, a Read Only Memory (ROM), which may be integrated on the same chip as the processor, or may be separately disposed on different chips.

The processing means in the seventh aspect may be a chip, and the processor may be implemented by hardware or software, and when implemented by hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like; when implemented in software, the processor may be a general-purpose processor, implemented by reading software code stored in a memory, which may be integrated in the processor, or may reside outside the processor, and exist separately.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising: a computer program (which may also be referred to as code, or instructions) which, when executed, causes a computer to perform the method of the first to second aspects or any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects.

In a ninth aspect, a computer readable medium is provided, which stores a computer program (which may also be referred to as code, or instructions) which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the first to second aspects or any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a chip system comprising a processor and an interface for supporting a communication device to implement the functionality referred to in the first to second aspects or any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for holding the necessary information and data for the aforementioned communication device. The chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices.

In an eleventh aspect, a communication system is provided, including the aforementioned first AP and second AP.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a method of transmission need indication according to an embodiment of the application.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a frame format of transmission requirement indication information according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for indicating transmission requirements according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for indicating transmission requirements according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus for indicating transmission requirements according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a chip according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

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

Embodiments of the present application may be applied to wireless local area networks (wireless local area network, WLAN) which may include multiple basic service sets (basic service set, BSS). The network nodes of the BSS include APs and STAs. Each BSS may include an AP and a plurality of STAs associated with the AP. The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can also be applied to various communication systems, such as: wireless local area network (Wireless Fidelity, wi-Fi) systems, global system for mobile communications (Global System of Mobile communication, GSM) systems, code division multiple access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA) systems, wideband code division multiple access (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA) systems, general packet Radio service (General Packet Radio Service, GPRS), long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (Frequency Division Duplex, FDD) systems, LTE time division duplex (Time Division Duplex, TDD), universal mobile telecommunications system (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, wiMAX) communication systems, future fifth generation (5th Generation,5G) systems or New wireless (New Radio, NR), and the like.

The above-mentioned APs may also be referred to as wireless access points, hotspots, etc. The AP is an access point for a user terminal to enter a wired network, and is mainly deployed in a home, a building, and a campus. Typical AP coverage radii are tens to hundreds of meters. It should be understood that the AP may also be deployed outdoors. The AP acts as a bridge connecting the wired network and the wireless network, and is mainly used to connect clients of each wireless network together and then access the wireless network to the ethernet. The standard currently mainly adopted by APs is the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (institute of electrical and electronics engineers, IEEE) 802.11 family. In particular, the AP may be a terminal device or a network device with a wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, wiFi) chip. Alternatively, the AP may be a device supporting WLAN standards.

STA means a user terminal in the present application, and thus may be referred to as a user terminal or a user directly hereinafter. The STA may be a wireless communication chip, a wireless sensor, or a wireless communication terminal. For example, a mobile phone supporting a WiFi communication function, a tablet computer supporting a WiFi communication function, a set top box supporting a WiFi communication function, a smart television supporting a WiFi communication function, a smart wearable device supporting a WiFi communication function, and a computer supporting a WiFi communication function. Alternatively, the STA may be a device supporting the WLAN system.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario 100 according to an embodiment of the present application. In fig. 1, the system 100 includes an access point AP110 and an access point AP120, and optionally, the system may further include stations STA111, STA 112, STA 113 associated with the access point AP110, and stations STA 121, STA 122, STA 123 associated with the access point AP 2. Wherein, access point AP1, stations STA111, STA 112, STA 113 constitute basic service set BSS1, and access point AP2, STA 121, STA 122, STA 123 constitute basic service set BSS2. In one example, AP110 and AP120 may cooperate to provide uplink or downlink transmission services for the same or different users. It should be understood that fig. 1 is a simplified schematic diagram merely for easy understanding, and other APs may be included in the communication system or other STAs may be included in the communication system, which is not limited by the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a method 200 of transmission need indication according to an embodiment of the application. The method 200 may be performed by the system 100 shown in fig. 1.

S210, the first access point AP generates a radio frame, where the radio frame includes transmission requirement indication information, where the transmission requirement indication information is used to indicate that the first AP needs to share transmission resources.

In other words, in the embodiment of the present application, the transmission requirement indication information in the radio frame generated by the first AP may be used to indicate that the first AP has a transmission requirement, or may be used to indicate specific information of the transmission requirement of the first AP, or may be used to indicate that the first AP has a transmission requirement and that the first AP has a specific transmission requirement, which is not limited in the present application.

In one possible implementation, the first AP may send a first radio frame, with transmission need indication information in the first radio frame for the first AP having transmission needs and/or specific transmission needs of the first AP.

In another possible implementation manner, the first AP may also send a first radio frame first, where the transmission requirement indication information in the first radio frame is used to indicate that the first AP has a transmission requirement, and then send a second radio frame, where the transmission requirement indication information in the second radio frame is used to indicate specific information of the transmission requirement of the first AP.

S220, the first AP transmits the radio frame. The second AP receives the radio frame from the first AP.

It should be understood that, the radio frame sent by the first AP may not be sent to the second AP, and in one possible implementation, when the first AP sends the radio frame to the STA of the station, the transmission requirement indication information is carried in the physical layer frame header of the radio frame. After receiving the radio frame, the second AP may analyze the physical layer frame header of the radio frame, so as to obtain the transmission requirement of the first AP, i.e. whether the first AP has the transmission requirement or specific information of the transmission requirement of the first AP.

The radio frame sent by the first AP may also be sent to the second AP, and in one possible implementation, when the first AP sends the radio frame to the second AP, the transmission requirement indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or in a medium access control (medium access control, MAC) protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) MPDU. After receiving the radio frame, the second AP may parse the fields in the physical layer header or MPDU, thereby obtaining the transmission requirement of the first AP.

And S230, the second AP determines a first transmission resource according to the transmission requirement indication information, wherein the first transmission resource is a transmission resource which the second AP needs to share with the first AP, and is also a transmission resource which the first AP needs to be shared.

The second AP can analyze the wireless frame to obtain the transmission requirement of the first AP, and further determine the transmission resource required by the first AP according to the transmission requirement.

According to the method for indicating the transmission requirement, the first AP can send the wireless frame, the wireless frame comprises the transmission requirement indicating information of the first AP, the transmission requirement indicating information is used for indicating that the first AP needs to share transmission resources, so that the second AP can know the transmission requirement of the first AP, a proper amount of resources can be distributed to the first AP in the subsequent multi-AP cooperative transmission, and the transmission efficiency of multi-AP cooperation can be improved.

In one possible implementation, the transmission requirement indication information may include first indication information, where the first indication information may be used to indicate that the first AP has a transmission requirement.

As an example, the first indication information indicates that the first AP has a transmission requirement may be implemented in the following manner.

The first indication information may be a 1-bit (bit) field, where the value of the field is a first value (e.g., 0) and indicates that the first AP has no transmission requirement, and where the value of the field is a second value (e.g., 1) and indicates that the first AP has a transmission requirement. Or when the value of the field is the first value, the first AP is indicated to have no transmission requirement. When the value of the field is the second value, it indicates that the first AP has a transmission requirement, and the second AP needs to send a request frame to the first AP to obtain the specific transmission requirement of the first AP.

The first indication information may be a 2-bit field, where the value of the field is a first value (e.g. 00) and indicates that the first AP has no transmission requirement, and the value of the field is a second value (e.g. 01) and indicates that the first AP has a transmission requirement. When the value of the field is a third value (e.g., 10), it indicates that the first AP has a transmission requirement, and the second AP needs to send a request frame to the first AP to obtain the size of the transmission requirement of the first AP.

It should be understood that if the first indication information indicates that the first AP has a transmission requirement, the second AP may send a request frame to the first AP to request the first AP to send a detailed requirement to the second AP, and further, the first AP sends a second radio frame carrying a specific transmission requirement of the first AP, so that the second AP determines a first transmission resource according to the specific requirement of the first AP, shares a resource matched with the requirement of the first AP as much as possible for the first AP, and improves a resource utilization rate of multi-AP cooperation. That is, the first AP may first send a first radio frame, where the transmission requirement indication information of the first radio frame includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the first AP has a transmission requirement, and after the second AP receives the first radio frame, if it determines that the second AP has a suitable resource, the second AP may send a request frame to the first AP to request the first AP to send the second radio frame, where the second radio frame carries the transmission requirement indication information, and the transmission requirement indication information may indicate a specific transmission requirement of the first AP.

It should be understood that after knowing that the first AP has a transmission requirement, the second AP may directly determine the first transmission resource according to information such as its idle or remaining transmission resources, and share a proper amount of resources for the first AP, so that the first AP may obtain the transmission resource faster, and reduce communication delay.

Therefore, the embodiment of the application can indicate whether the first AP has transmission requirements or not in the transmission requirement indication information, so that the second AP can determine whether transmission resources need to be shared with the first AP or not according to the indication, and the transmission efficiency of multi-AP cooperation is improved.

It should be understood that the foregoing is merely illustrative of how the first AP may indicate that there is a transmission requirement through the first indication information, and is not meant to limit the present application.

As a possible implementation manner, the transmission requirement indication information may include second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a transmission duration (duration) required by the first AP. As an example, this can be achieved in the following manner.

Mode one

A fixed time length unit U may be set, and the first AP maps the required transmission time length T to the time length number N according to the fixed time length unit U. The second indication information may include a first field, where a value of the first field is used to indicate the duration number N, and the first field may be 2 bits, 3 bits, 4 bits, and the like. After receiving the second indication information, the second AP determines the duration number N according to the value of the first field, and further obtains the transmission duration required by the first AP.

Alternatively, the mapping relationship between the required transmission duration T and the duration number N may be expressed by formula (1).

T＝N*U (1)

Alternatively, the mapping relationship between the required transmission duration T and the duration number N may be expressed by the formula (2).

In the formula (1) and the formula (2), N is 0 or a positive integer. When n=0, t=0, indicating that the first AP has no transmission requirement.

It should be understood that the formulas (1) and (2) are merely for illustration, and the mapping relationship between the required transmission duration T and the duration number N may be represented by other formulas, which are not limited in the present application.

Alternatively, the first field may also indicate a range of the duration number N, for example, the length of the first field is 2 bits, the value of the first field may be 0,1,2,3, when the value of the first field is 0-2, the duration number N is 0,1,2, and when the value of the first field is 3, the duration number N is a value greater than or equal to 3. The indication mode may also be that the value of the first field is 0, the range of the duration number N is 0-4, the value of the first field is 1, the range of the duration number is 5-9, the value of the first field is 1, the range of the duration number N is 10-14, the value of the first field is 2, and the range of the duration number is 15-19.

The fixed time length unit U may be a value specified in the standard, for example, a length of the time unit TU specified in the 802.11 standard, i.e., u=tu=1024 us. The fixed time duration unit U may also be set to other time durations. The application is not limited in this regard. It should be appreciated that the time duration unit U may also be indicated with scaling factor (scaling factor) bits.

As a possible implementation, the fixed time period unit U may be indicated by the first AP to the second AP. That is, the first indication information may also include a second field for indicating the fixed time period unit U. For example, when a 3-bit field is used to indicate a fixed time unit U, the mapping relationship between the value of the field and the time unit U may be as shown in table 1. When a 1-bit or 2-bit field is used to indicate a fixed time length unit U, the value of the field may also indicate that the time length unit U is part of 8us,16us,32us,64us,128us,256us,512us,1024us, respectively.

TABLE 1

Bit position	Duration unit U
‘000’	8us
‘001’	16us
‘010’	32us
‘011’	64us
‘100’	128us
‘101’	256us
‘110’	512us
‘111’	1024us

It should be understood that, the correspondence between the time unit U and the second field is only illustrated in table 1, the time unit U in table 1 may be other values, the bits of the second field may be other values, and the correspondence between the second field and the time unit U may be other manners, which is not limited in this disclosure.

Mode two

The value of the second indication information may represent the number of bytes M, which is not the number of bytes to be transmitted by the first AP, but the number of bytes calculated according to the transmission duration T required by the first AP and the channel quality between the first AP and the second AP, that is, the number of bytes M has a correspondence with the transmission duration T required by the first AP. The first AP can map the required transmission time length into the byte number M according to the channel quality between the first AP and the second AP, then the byte number M is represented by the value of the first indication information, and the second AP acquires the required transmission time length T of the first AP according to the byte number M after receiving the second indication information.

As an example, the mapping relationship between the required transmission time period T and the number of bytes M can be expressed by formula (3).

In formula (3), K represents the number of bytes that can be transmitted per unit time under the channel quality condition between the first AP and the second AP at a specified bandwidth. Wherein M is 0 or a positive integer. When m=0, t=0, indicating that the first AP has no transmission requirement.

It should be understood that the mapping relationship between the required transmission duration T and the number of bytes M may be represented by other common expressions, which is not limited by the present application.

As a possible implementation manner, a bandwidth value may be preset in the first AP and the second AP, the transmission duration indicated by the first AP is based on the preset bandwidth value, and the second AP may determine, according to the second indication information and the preset bandwidth value, a first transmission resource, where the first transmission resource is a transmission resource that the second AP needs to share with the first AP. The preset bandwidth value may be a value specified in a standard, or may be other preset values, such as 20MHz, which is not limited by the present application.

For example, the bandwidth value may be preset to be 20MHz, and when the value of the field in the first indication information is 8, the second AP may determine that the first transmission resource is a resource block with a transmission duration of 8TU and a bandwidth of 20MHz according to the transmission duration and the preset bandwidth value. The second AP may also equivalent the first transmission resource to a resource block with a transmission duration of 4TU and a bandwidth of 40MHz, and then flexibly allocate the second AP according to the information such as the first transmission resource and the idle transmission resource of the second AP.

It should be understood that when the value of the duration number N indicates a range, the second AP may determine the transmission duration required by the first AP according to the remaining transmission resources of the second AP, or may determine the transmission duration required by the first AP according to the transmission resources shared with the first AP when the first AP performs cooperative transmission for the previous time, so as to determine the first transmission resources.

As a possible implementation manner, the transmission requirement indication information may include third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a transmission bandwidth (bandwidth) required by the first AP. As an example, this can be achieved in the following manner.

The value of the third indication information may be used to represent different bandwidth sizes. For example, when the length of the third indication information is 2bits or 3bits, the mapping relationship between the value of the third indication information and the transmission bandwidth may be as shown in table 2.

TABLE 2

Bit (2 bits)	Bit (3 bits)	Transmission bandwidth
‘00’	‘000’	20MHz
‘01’	‘001’	40MHz
‘10’	‘010’	80MHz
‘11’	‘011’	160MHz
	‘100’	320MHz

It should be understood that, how to indicate the transmission bandwidths is only described in table 2, the transmission bandwidths in table 2 may be other values, and the bits of the third indication information may be other values, which is not limited by the present application.

It should be understood that a duration value may be preset in the first AP and the second AP, the transmission bandwidth indicated by the first AP is based on the preset duration value, and the second AP may determine the first transmission resource according to the second indication information and the preset duration value. The preset duration value may be specified by a standard or may be another preset value, for example, 16us. After the second AP determines the first transmission resource, it should be ensured as much as possible that the bandwidth allocated to the first AP is not smaller than the required bandwidth in the subsequent multi-AP cooperative transmission. If not, compensation should be made for the allocated transmission duration. The specific compensation method comprises the step of distributing more transmission time periods so that the product of the bandwidth and the time period is satisfied.

As a possible implementation manner, the transmission requirement indication information may include both second indication information and third indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a transmission duration required by the first AP, and the third indication information is used to indicate a transmission bandwidth required by the first AP. The second AP determines a first transmission resource according to the transmission duration and the transmission bandwidth, wherein the first transmission resource is a transmission resource which the second AP needs to share with the first AP.

As one possible implementation, the transmission requirement indication information may include fourth indication information, and the fourth indication information may be used to indicate at least one of the following: the method comprises the steps of determining a period of transmission requirements of a first AP, a direction of the transmission requirements of the first AP, a type of data to be transmitted in the transmission requirements of the first AP, a cooperation mode required by the first AP, a transmission power required by the first AP, a transmission channel required by the first AP and an identification of a second AP.

As an example, the fourth indication information may include a third field for indicating a deadline (delay) of a transmission requirement of the first AP. It should be understood that the term of the transmission requirement of the first AP may be understood as the time limit requirement of the transmission resources required by the first AP, i.e. how long the first AP needs to obtain the required transmission resources. Alternatively, it may be understood whether the transmission resource required by the first AP is a time sensitive (time active) requirement.

The third field may be 1 bit that when taken a first value indicates that the transmission requirement of the first AP is a low latency requirement and when taken a second value indicates that the requirement of the first AP is a non-low latency requirement.

It should be appreciated that in this case, the second AP may not know the specific deadline of the transmission requirement of the first AP according to the transmission requirement indication information, but when the second AP determines that the transmission requirement of the first AP is a requirement of low latency, the second AP allocates resources to the second AP as soon as possible.

The value of the third field may also be used to indicate a period of transmission requirement of the first AP, where the period indicates that the first AP needs to obtain transmission resources in the period. For example, when the value of the third field is 8, it indicates that the first AP needs to obtain the transmission resource in 8 TUs. For example, a correspondence between the value of the third field and the deadline may be further configured, where different values of the third field correspond to different deadline values, for example, the value of the third field is 0, which indicates that the deadline of the transmission requirement of the first AP is 5ms, and the value of the third field is 1, which indicates that the deadline of the transmission requirement of the first AP is 10ms. Alternatively, different values of the third field may correspond to different deadline ranges, for example, a value of 0 in the third field indicates that the deadline of the transmission requirement of the first AP is 1-4ms, and a value of 1 in the third field indicates that the deadline of the transmission requirement of the first AP is 5-8ms.

It should be understood that the foregoing is only illustrative and is not to be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present application.

When the second AP receives the radio frame, the second AP may determine a period of the transmission requirement of the first AP according to the third field in the fourth indication information, and may further allocate transmission resources to the first AP as much as possible before the period arrives.

As an example, the fourth indication information may include a fourth field for indicating a direction (direction) of the transmission requirement of the first AP. The direction of the transmission demand includes at least one of: the transmission resources required by the first AP are for Uplink (UL) transmission, the transmission resources required by the first AP are for Downlink (DL) transmission, the transmission resources required by the first AP are for bi-directional (UL and DL) transmission, and the transmission resources required by the first AP are for device-to-device (D2D) transmission. The direction of the transmission requirement of the first AP may be indicated by the value of the fourth field, for example, a 1-bit field may be indicated, or a 2-bit field may be indicated, and the mapping relationship between the value of the field and the direction of the transmission requirement may be as shown in table 3.

TABLE 3 Table 3

Bit (1 bit)	Bit (2 bits)	Direction
‘0’	‘00’	The transmission requirement of the first AP is used for uplink transmission
‘1’	‘01’	The transmission requirement of the first AP is used for downlink transmission
	‘10’	Transmission requirements of a first AP for bidirectional transmission
	‘11’	Transmission requirements of a first AP for D2D transmission

After the second AP receives the radio frame, the direction of the transmission requirement of the first AP may be determined according to the fourth field in the fourth indication information, and in the subsequent multi-AP cooperative transmission, a transmission resource matched with the direction of the requirement of the first AP may be allocated to the first AP, so as to improve the transmission efficiency of multi-AP cooperation.

As an example, the fourth indication information may include a fifth field for indicating a type of data to be transmitted in a transmission requirement of the first AP.

Optionally, the type of data to be transmitted may include an access type (AC) to which the data to be transmitted belongs, or the data may include a Traffic Identity (TID). That is, the fifth field may be used to indicate specific information of the AC, including one or more access types, and may also be used to indicate the number of TIDs, including one or more TIDs.

Among the four different access types (AC) provided by standard 802.11 are voice traffic (ac_vo), video traffic (ac_vi), best effort traffic (best effort traffic, ac_be) and background traffic (background traffic, ac_bk), respectively. In addition, the standard 802.11 provides 8 different service identities (TIDs), which are 0-7 in number, indicating different service types. The correspondence between AC and TID is shown in table 4.

TABLE 4 Table 4

In one possible implementation, the fifth field may include two subfields, an AC indication (ACI) bitmap (bitmap) and a Delta ITD (Delta). The ACI bitmap occupies 4 bits and is used for indicating detailed information of ACs, namely, the state of each AC service. Delta TID occupies 2 bits, and ACI bitmap (bitmap) and Delta ITD collectively indicate the number of TIDs. In this manner, the definition of the ACI bitmap subfield and the definition of the Delta ITD may refer to the specifications in standard 802.11 ax.

In one possible implementation, the fifth field may include an ACI bitmap (bitmap) and a number N of TIDs _ITD Two subfields. The ACI bitmap occupies 4 bits and is used for indicating detailed information of ACs, namely, the state of each AC service. N (N) _TID Takes up 3 bits for indicating the number of TIDs, N _TID The values of the subfields are respectively 0-7, and each value indicates the number of TIDs, so that the number of TIDs can be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. In this manner, the definition of the ACI bitmap subfield may refer to the provision in standard 802.11 ax.

In one possible implementation, the fifth field may be in the form of a TID bitmap (bitmap), which takes 8 bits for indicating detailed information of TIDs, i.e., the status of corresponding traffic per TID.

After the second AP receives the radio frame, the type of data to be transmitted in the transmission requirement of the first AP may be determined according to the fifth field in the fourth indication information, so as to determine the information of the service that the resources required by the first AP are used to transmit, that is, which type of data is used to transmit. In the subsequent multi-AP cooperative transmission, the second AP can schedule transmission resources matched with the data type to be transmitted by the first AP in time, so that the transmission efficiency of multi-AP cooperation can be improved.

As an example, the fourth indication information may include a sixth field for indicating a cooperative mode (mode) required by the first AP. It should be appreciated that the required cooperative mode of the first AP indicates which cooperative mode the first AP wishes to employ for multi-AP cooperative transmission.

Common transmission coordination modes (modes) mainly include: coordinated Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) coordinated orthogonal frequency division multiple access, co-OFDMA), coordinated time division multiple access (coordinated time division multiple access, co-TDMA), coordinated spatial multiplexing (coordinated spatial reuse, co-SR), coordinated beamforming (coordinated beamforming, co-BF), and joint transmission.

The value of the sixth field may be used to indicate a desired cooperative mode for the first AP, in which case the sixth field indicates a desired cooperative mode for the first AP. For example, it may be indicated by a 2-bit or 3-bit field, and the mapping relationship between the value of the field and the required collaboration mode may be as shown in table 5.

TABLE 5

Bit (2 bits)	Bit (3 bits)	Collaborative mode
‘00’	‘000’	co-OFDMA
‘01’	‘001’	co-TDMA
‘10’	‘010’	co-SR
‘11’	‘011’	co-BF
	‘100’	Joint transmission

A bitmap (bitmap) format may also be used, each bit corresponding to a collaboration mode. For example, the first bit in this field represents co-OFDMA, the second represents co-TDMA, and the third represents co-SR. The value of each bit indicates whether the cooperation mode corresponding to the bit is the cooperation mode required by the first AP. If a bitmap form is used, the sixth field may indicate one or more collaboration modes. I.e. the first AP may use any of these cooperation modes for multi-AP cooperation transmission.

It should be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative only and is not to be construed as limiting the embodiments of the application.

After the second AP receives the radio frame, a transmission mode required by the first AP may be determined according to a sixth field in the fourth indication information, and in the subsequent multi-AP cooperative transmission, the multi-AP cooperation may be performed with the first AP by using the cooperation mode required by the first AP as much as possible, so that the transmission efficiency of the multi-AP cooperation may be improved.

As an example, the fourth indication information may include a seventh field for indicating a transmission power required by the first AP. The transmission power required by the first AP may be represented by a value of the seventh field. For example, it may be indicated by a 2-bit field whose value and required transmission power are mapped as shown in table 6.

TABLE 6

Bit (2 bits)	Transmission power
‘00’	Is not limited to
‘01’	At least 5dBm
‘10’	At least 10dBm
‘11’	At least 15dBm

It should be understood that table 6 is only for illustration, and the seventh field may be used to indicate the total power of transmission required by the first AP (as shown in table 6), and may also be used to indicate the power of the first AP under different bandwidths, for example, the indicated transmission power is at least 10dBm/20MHz, which is not limited by the present application. In addition, the seventh field may occupy more bits, may indicate more different transmission powers, may be 1 bit, indicate two different transmission powers, or indicate whether the first AP has a requirement for transmission power.

After receiving the radio frame, the second AP may determine the transmission power required by the first AP according to the seventh field in the fourth indication information, and in the subsequent multi-AP cooperative transmission, the second AP makes the transmission power of the first AP meet the requirement as much as possible, so as to improve the transmission efficiency of multi-AP cooperation.

As an example, the fourth indication information may include an eighth field for indicating a transmission channel required by the first AP. The transmission channels required by the first AP may include any one or more of 20MHz channels in which the first AP operates, any one or more of 40MHz channels in which the first AP operates, any one or more of 80MHz channels in which the first AP operates, any one or more of 160MHz channels in which the first AP operates, or any one or more of 320MHz channels in which the first AP operates.

The transmission channel required by the first AP may be represented by a value of the eighth field. For example, the mapping relationship between the value of the field and the transmission channel may be as shown in table 7.

TABLE 7

It is to be understood that table 7 is for illustration only and is not to be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present application.

After the second AP receives the radio frame, a transmission channel required by the first AP can be determined according to an eighth field in the fourth indication information, and in the subsequent multi-AP cooperative transmission, the first AP can use the transmission channel required by the first AP to perform multi-AP cooperation as much as possible, so that the transmission efficiency of multi-AP cooperation can be improved.

As an example, the fourth indication information may include a ninth field for indicating an identification of the second AP. The first AP may determine, according to the previous cooperative transmission record, that the quality of the transmission resource allocated by the second AP is better, so that the ninth field in the fourth indication information indicates, by using the identifier of the second AP, that the first AP wishes to obtain the transmission resource of the second AP. It should be understood that in this case, the second AP may not have idle transmission resources, and after receiving the radio frame, the second AP may allocate appropriate transmission resources to the first AP or may not allocate transmission resources to the first AP according to the identifier indicated by the ninth field in the fourth indication information and the resource utilization of the second AP.

It should be understood that the fourth indication information may not include the ninth field, that is, the first AP determines that there is a transmission requirement and specific information of the transmission requirement, but the first AP does not limit which sharing AP is specific, so the transmission requirement indication information of the wireless frame indicates the transmission requirement of the first AP, but the transmission requirement indication information may not include the identifier of the second AP.

It should be understood that the fourth indication information may include at least one field from the third field to the ninth field, which indicates at least one of a period of a transmission requirement of the first AP, a direction of the transmission requirement of the first AP, a type of data to be transmitted in the transmission requirement of the first AP, a cooperative mode required by the first AP, a transmission power required by the first AP, a transmission channel required by the first AP, and an identifier of the second AP.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the indication manner of each field in the transmission requirement indication information and the number of bits occupied by each field are not limited.

In the embodiment of the present application, the transmission requirement indicating information in the radio frame may include a plurality of pieces, where the transmission requirement carried by each piece of transmission requirement indicating information may be different. For example, different transmission requirement indication information may be used for transmission requirements of different directions, e.g., a radio frame may include four transmission requirement indication information, each for uplink, downlink, bi-directional and D2D transmission requirements, respectively. Similarly, the plurality of transmission requirement indicating information may be for different data types to be transmitted, for different access types, or for different collaboration modes, and the like, which is not limited by the present application.

As a possible implementation manner, the first AP may divide the required transmission requirement into a low-latency requirement and a non-low-latency requirement according to the latency requirement of the data to be transmitted or the deadline of the transmission requirement. The first AP may include first transmission requirement indication information for indicating a requirement of the first AP for low latency and second transmission requirement indication information for indicating all requirements of the first AP in the radio frame.

For example, the first AP determines that the current transmission requirement includes a transmission resource with a transmission duration of 8s and a transmission bandwidth of 40MHz, where the resource requirement with a transmission duration of 1s and a transmission bandwidth of 40MHz is allocated within 2s, and the total requirement with a transmission duration of 8s and a bandwidth of 40MHz is allocated within 10s. If the third field is 4 bits, the first transmission requirement indicating information may include a fourth indicating information, the fourth indicating information may include the third field, the third field may be "0000", converted into decimal, the value is 1, the time limit indicating the requirement in the indicating information is 1s, the second transmission requirement indicating information may include the fourth indicating information, the fourth indicating information may include the third field, the third field may be "1001", converted into decimal, the value is 10, and the time limit indicating the requirement in the indicating information is 10s. If the third field is 1 bit, the third field in the first transmission requirement indicating information may be "1" to indicate that the requirement is a low latency requirement, and the third field in the second transmission requirement indicating information may be "0" to indicate that the requirement is a non-low latency requirement. The first transmission requirement indication information may include second indication information and/or third indication information, so as to indicate a resource with a transmission duration of 1s and a transmission bandwidth of 40MHz, and the second transmission requirement indication information may include second indication information and/or third indication information, so as to indicate a resource with a transmission duration of 8s and a transmission bandwidth of 40 MHz.

As an example, the first indication information may be carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame. The second indication information may be carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or in a medium access control (medium access control, MAC) protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) MPDU of the radio frame. The third indication information may be carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame, or may be carried in an MPDU of the radio frame. The fourth indication information may be carried in MPDUs of the radio frame. The transmission requirement indication information may include at least one of the first indication information, the second indication information, the third indication information, and the fourth indication information.

Thus, the second AP may parse the first indication information from the physical layer header of the radio frame, may parse the second indication information from the physical layer header of the radio frame or the MPDU of the radio frame, may parse the third indication information from the physical layer header of the radio frame or the MPDU of the radio frame, and may parse the fourth indication information from the MPDU of the radio frame.

Optionally, the transmission requirement indication information in the radio frame may include the first indication information and the second indication information, where the first indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame, and the second indication information is carried in an MPDU of the radio frame.

Therefore, after receiving the radio frame, the second AP may parse the first indication information from the physical layer frame header of the radio frame, thereby knowing that the first AP has a transmission requirement, and then parse the second indication information in the MPDU of the radio frame, thereby obtaining a transmission duration required by the first AP, and further determining the first transmission resource.

It should be understood that the first indication information and the second indication information may be carried in the first radio frame and the second radio frame, respectively, or may be carried in the same radio frame.

Optionally, the transmission requirement indication information in the radio frame may include the second indication information and the third indication information, where the second indication information and the third indication information are both carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

Therefore, after receiving the radio frame, the second AP may parse the radio frame from the physical layer frame header of the radio frame to the second indication information and the third indication information, so as to obtain the transmission duration and the transmission bandwidth required by the first AP, and further determine the first transmission resource.

Optionally, the first radio frame sent by the first AP may include first indication information, where the first indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the first radio frame, and the second AP parses the first indication information from the physical layer frame header of the first radio frame to learn that the first AP has a transmission requirement, so that a request frame may be sent to the first AP to request the first AP to send the second radio frame. Further, the first AP carries transmission requirement indication information in the second radio frame, where the transmission requirement indication information may include the second indication information, the third indication information, and the fourth indication information, where the second indication information, the third indication information, and the fourth indication information are all carried in MPDUs of the first radio frame. Therefore, after receiving the second radio frame, the second AP may parse the second indication information, the third indication information and the fourth indication information from the MPDU of the second radio frame, thereby obtaining a transmission duration and a transmission bandwidth required by the first AP, further determining the first transmission resource, and further obtaining, according to the fourth indication information, at least one of a period of a transmission requirement of the first AP, a direction of the transmission requirement of the first AP, a type of data to be transmitted in the transmission requirement of the first AP, a cooperation mode required by the first AP, a transmission power required by the first AP, a transmission channel required by the first AP and an identifier of the second AP.

It should be understood that the above information included in the transmission requirement indication information and the location carried by each indication information are for illustration only, and the present application is not limited thereto.

As an example, when at least one of the first indication information, the second indication information, and the third indication information is carried in the physical layer frame header, specifically, a universal signal (U-SIG) portion carried in the physical layer frame header, or an extremely high throughput signal (extremely high throughput, EHT-SIG) portion carried in the physical layer frame header may be carried. Undefined bits (Dis-record bits) therein are used. As shown in table 8, may be carried in reserved (reserved) bits in table 8.

TABLE 8

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, the first indication information and/or the second indication information and/or the third indication information in the transmission requirement indication information of the first AP are carried in the physical layer frame header, so that any one device can receive the transmission requirement, and therefore, the transmission resource required by the first AP can be satisfied faster, and the efficiency of cooperative transmission can be improved.

As an example, when at least one of the second indication information, the third indication information, and the fourth indication information is carried in an MPDU of a radio frame, in particular, the transmission duration, the transmission bandwidth, the delay/deadline, and the like may be indicated by some fields in a MAC header (header) of the MPDU.

As an example, the transmission requirement indication information may be carried in an HT control field (field) in a MAC Header in the MPDU, and in particular, an a-control subfield in an HE variant (HE variable) of the HT control field may be used. It should be noted that the HE variant includes an a-Control subfield, where the a-Control subfield includes a Control List subfield and a Padding subfield, and the Control List subfield includes one or more Control subfields (subfields). The Control subfield includes Control ID (Control ID) and Control information (Control information), wherein the Control ID is a meaning defined in the standard representing different types of Control information. In the present application, more specifically, the transmission requirement indication information may be carried in the Control information (Control information), and as an example, the format of the Control subfield and the frame structure of the transmission requirement indication information may be the format shown in fig. 3.

It should be appreciated that in fig. 3, ACIs are AC indications (AC indexes), one ACI corresponding to each AC. The ACI bitmap (ACI bitmap) subfield may occupy 4 bits, and the value of each bit indicates the buffer status of the corresponding AC service, for example, bit 1 of the ACI bitmap is 1, which indicates that there is ac_bk service to be transmitted, and bit 1 is 0, which indicates that there is no ac_bk service to be transmitted. The high priority ACI subfield is used to indicate a high priority AC among AC traffic to be transmitted, which indicates an AC traffic, which may be represented by two bits. For example, the bit of the high priority ACI is "10", indicating that the high priority AC traffic is ac_vi. The Delt TID subfield may indicate the number of TIDs together with the ACI bitmap subfield, indicating how many TIDs of traffic to send. The definition of ACI bitmap and Delt TID can adopt the meaning in standard 802.11ax, and other definition modes can be used, and the application is not limited to the definition. The meaning of each field and the indication information in fig. 3 may refer to the above description, and will not be repeated here.

It should be understood that the frame format in fig. 3 is only an example of a format of the transmission requirement indicating information, and the transmission requirement indicating information in the present application may also carry more or less information, may include some or all of the fields in fig. 3, and may also include other fields, which is not limited in this respect.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, the transmission requirement indication information of the first AP is carried in the MPDU of the wireless frame, so that the first AP can indicate more accurate transmission requirements by using more bits, and the efficiency of cooperative transmission can be improved.

As an example, the transmission requirement indication information included in the radio frame of the first AP may also be referred to as a second buffer status report (buffer status report, BSR), but it should be noted that the format of the second BSR defined in the present application and the format of the first BSR transmitted by the station STA to the AP may be similar, but the carried information may be changed in some ways. Therefore, the embodiment of the application can utilize the existing first BSR, and the format of the first BSR is changed to enable the first BSR to carry the transmission requirement indication information of the first AP, so that the second AP can acquire the transmission requirement of the first AP in multi-AP cooperation and allocate a proper amount of resources for the first BSR, and the transmission efficiency of the multi-AP cooperation can be improved.

Optionally, in one possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the second AP transmits a request frame to the first AP, the request frame requesting the first AP to transmit the radio frame.

It should be understood that, after the second AP initiates the multi-AP transmission, the second AP may actively send a request frame to the first AP, or may send a request frame to the first AP when the second AP determines that the first AP has a transmission requirement according to the transmission requirement indication information of the first AP, so as to request the first AP to send a radio frame, thereby obtaining a specific transmission requirement of the first AP.

It should also be appreciated that if the second AP transmits a request frame to the first AP, the radio frame transmitted by the first AP may also be referred to as a response frame.

As an example, the request frame sent by the second AP may be a BSRP Trigger frame.

The method for indicating transmission requirements according to the embodiment of the present application is described in detail above with reference to fig. 2 to 3. The following describes in detail the apparatus for indicating transmission requirements according to the embodiment of the present application with reference to fig. 4 and 5. It is to be understood that the description of the method embodiments corresponds to the description of the device embodiments, and that parts not described in detail can therefore be seen in the preceding method embodiments.

Fig. 4 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 400 for transmission need indication provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4, the apparatus 400 may include a processing unit 410 and a transceiving unit 420.

In one implementation, the apparatus 400 may correspond to the first AP in the method 200, for example, may be the first AP or a chip configured in the first AP. And, each unit in the communication apparatus 400 is respectively for implementing the operations performed by the first AP in the method 200.

Specifically, the processing unit 410 is configured to generate a radio frame, where the radio frame includes transmission requirement indication information, where the transmission requirement indication information is used to indicate that the first AP needs to share transmission resources.

And a transceiver unit 420, configured to transmit the radio frame.

Optionally, the transmission requirement indication information includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the first AP has a transmission requirement.

Optionally, the first indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

Optionally, the first indication information is carried in a U-SIG field or an EHT-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

Optionally, the transmission requirement indication information includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a transmission duration required by the first AP.

Optionally, the second indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

Optionally, the second indication information is carried in a U-SIG field or an EHT-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

Optionally, the transmission requirement indication information includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a transmission bandwidth required by the first AP.

Optionally, the third indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

Optionally, the third indication information is carried in a U-SIG field or an EHT-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

Optionally, the transmission requirement indication information includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following:

the method comprises the steps of determining a period of transmission requirements of a first AP, a direction of the transmission requirements of the first AP, a type of data to be transmitted in the transmission requirements of the first AP, a cooperation mode required by the first AP, transmission power required by the first AP, a transmission channel required by the first AP and identification of a second AP, wherein the second AP is a sharing AP.

Optionally, the fourth indication information is carried in a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 420 is further configured to: and receiving a request frame, wherein the request frame is used for requesting the first AP to send the wireless frame.

Fig. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 500 for transmission need indication provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5, the apparatus 500 may include a processing unit 510 and a transceiving unit 520.

In one implementation, the apparatus 500 may correspond to the second AP in the method 200, for example, may be the second AP or a chip configured in the second AP. And, each unit in the communication device 500 is configured to implement the operations performed by the second AP in the method 200.

Specifically, the transceiver unit 520 is configured to receive a radio frame from the first AP, where the radio frame includes transmission requirement indication information, where the transmission requirement indication information is used to indicate that the first AP needs to share transmission resources.

The processing unit 510 is configured to determine, according to the transmission requirement indication information, a first transmission resource, where the first transmission resource is a transmission resource that the first AP needs to be shared.

Optionally, the processing unit 510 is further configured to: the first indication information is parsed from a physical frame header of the radio frame.

Optionally, the processing unit 510 is specifically configured to: the first indication information is parsed from a U-SIG field or an EHT-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

Optionally, the processing unit 510 is specifically configured to: and determining a first transmission resource according to the transmission duration required by the first AP and a preset bandwidth value.

Optionally, the processing unit 510 is further configured to: and analyzing the second indication information from a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.

Optionally, the processing unit 510 is specifically configured to: the second indication information is parsed from a U-SIG field or an EHT-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

Optionally, the processing unit 510 is specifically configured to: and determining a first transmission resource according to the transmission bandwidth required by the first AP and a preset duration value.

Optionally, the processing unit 510 is further configured to: and analyzing the third indication information from a physical layer frame header of the wireless frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the wireless frame.

Optionally, the processing unit 510 is specifically configured to: the third indication information is parsed from a U-SIG field or an EHT-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.

the method comprises the steps of determining a period of transmission requirements of a first AP, a direction of the transmission requirements of the first AP, a type of data to be transmitted in the transmission requirements of the first AP, a cooperation mode required by the first AP, a transmission power required by the first AP, a transmission channel required by the first AP and an identification of a second AP.

Optionally, the processing unit 510 is further configured to: and analyzing fourth indication information from the medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the wireless frame.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 520 is further configured to: and sending a request frame to the first AP, wherein the request frame is used for requesting the first AP to send the wireless frame.

It should be understood that the specific process of each unit performing the corresponding steps has been described in detail in the above method embodiments, and is not described herein for brevity.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus for transmitting a demand indication according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6, the apparatus 600 may include: processor 601, transceiver 605, and optionally memory 602. The apparatus may be used as a transmitting apparatus of a radio frame in the present application, or may be used as a receiving apparatus of a radio frame in the present application.

The transceiver 605 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver circuitry, or the like, for implementing the transceiver function. The transceiver 605 may include a receiver, which may be referred to as a receiver or a receiving circuit, etc., for implementing a receiving function, and a transmitter, which may be referred to as a transmitter or a transmitting circuit, etc., for implementing a transmitting function.

The memory 602 may store a computer program or software code or instructions 604, which computer program or software code or instructions 604 may also be referred to as firmware. The processor 601 may control the MAC layer and the PHY layer by running a computer program or software code or instructions 603 therein or by calling a computer program or software code or instructions 604 stored in the memory 602 to implement the method of transmission need indication provided by the embodiments of the present application described below. The processor 601 may be a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), and the memory 602 may be a read-only memory (ROM), or a random access memory (random access memory, RAM), for example.

The processor 601 and transceiver 605 described in the present application may be implemented on an integrated circuit (integrated circuit, IC), analog IC, radio frequency integrated circuit RFIC, mixed signal IC, application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), printed circuit board (printed circuit board, PCB), electronic device, etc.

The communication device 600 may further include an antenna 606, and the modules included in the communication device 600 are only exemplary, and the present application is not limited thereto.

The apparatus 600 in the above embodiment description may be the first AP or the second AP, but the scope of the apparatus described in the present application is not limited thereto, and the structure of the apparatus 600 may not be limited by fig. 6, and may include a hardware structure, a software module, or a combination of a hardware structure and a software module to implement the above functions. Some of the functions described above may be implemented in a hardware structure, a software module, or a combination of a hardware structure and a software module.

The AP may be multi-antenna/multi-radio or single-antenna/single-radio, which is used to transmit/receive data packets. In one implementation, the antenna or radio frequency portion of the AP may be separate from the main body portion of the AP in a remote configuration. In one implementation, the STA may be a single antenna/radio frequency, or multiple antennas/multiple radio frequencies, and may be a device of more than two antennas, the antennas/radio frequencies being used to transmit/receive data packets. In one implementation, the antenna or radio frequency portion of the STA may be separate from the main body portion of the STA in a remote configuration.

The means of transmission need indication referred to in the present application may also be a stand-alone device or may be part of a larger device. For example, the implementation form of the device may be:

(1) A stand-alone integrated circuit IC, or chip, or a system-on-a-chip or subsystem; (2) A set of one or more ICs, optionally including storage means for storing data, instructions; (3) modules that may be embedded within other devices; (4) A receiver, an intelligent terminal, a wireless device, a handset, a mobile unit, a vehicle-mounted device, a cloud device, an artificial intelligent device, and the like; (5) others, and so forth.

For the case where the implementation form of the device is a chip or a chip system, reference may be made to the schematic structural diagram of the chip shown in fig. 7. The chip shown in fig. 7 includes a processor 701 and an interface 702. Wherein the number of processors 701 may be one or more, and the number of interfaces 702 may be a plurality. The interface 702 is used for reception and transmission of signals. Optionally, the chip or system of chips may include a memory 703. The memory 703 is used to store program instructions and data necessary for the chip or chip system. The chip system provided by the embodiment of the application can be used for supporting the communication equipment to realize the functions related to the access point in the embodiment of the method, for example, at least one of data and information related to the method is determined or processed.

The embodiments of the application are not to limit the scope or applicability of the claims. Those skilled in the art may adapt a particular situation to the teachings of the application without departing from the scope thereof, or omit, substitute, or add various procedures or components as appropriate.

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which when executed by a computer realizes the functions of the above-mentioned method embodiments.

The present application also provides a computer program product which, when executed by a computer, implements the functions of the above-described method embodiments.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication system which comprises the first AP and the second AP.

It should also be understood that the first, second, third, fourth and various numerical numbers referred to herein are merely descriptive convenience and are not intended to limit the scope of the application.

It should be understood that the term "and/or" is merely an association relationship describing the associated object, and means that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the front and rear associated objects are an "or" relationship.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the foregoing processes do not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes should be determined by the functions and internal logic thereof, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

In the several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a random access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present application, and the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily recognize that variations or substitutions are within the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

A method of transmitting a demand indication, comprising:

a first Access Point (AP) generates a wireless frame, wherein the wireless frame comprises transmission requirement indication information, and the transmission requirement indication information is used for indicating that the first AP needs to share transmission resources;

the first AP transmits the radio frame.
The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission need indication information includes first indication information, the first indication information being used to indicate that the first AP has a transmission need.
The method of claim 2, wherein the first indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.
The method of claim 3, wherein the first indication information is carried in a universal signal U-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or an extremely high throughput signal EHT-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the transmission requirement indication information includes second indication information, the second indication information being used to indicate a transmission duration required by the first AP.
The method of claim 5, wherein the second indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the transmission requirement indication information includes third indication information, the third indication information being used to indicate a transmission bandwidth required by the first AP.
The method of claim 7, wherein the third indication information is carried in a physical layer frame header of the radio frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the transmission demand indication information includes fourth indication information for indicating at least one of:

the method comprises the steps of determining a transmission requirement period of a first AP, a transmission requirement direction of the first AP, a type of data to be transmitted in the transmission requirement of the first AP, a cooperation mode required by the first AP, transmission power required by the first AP, a transmission channel required by the first AP and an identifier of a second AP, wherein the second AP is a sharing AP.
The method of claim 9, wherein the fourth indication information is carried in a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the radio frame.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, further comprising:

the first AP receives a request frame, wherein the request frame is used for requesting the first AP to send the wireless frame.
A method of transmitting a demand indication, comprising:

a second Access Point (AP) receives a wireless frame from a first AP, wherein the wireless frame comprises transmission requirement indication information, and the transmission requirement indication information is used for indicating that the first AP needs to share transmission resources;

and the second AP determines a first transmission resource according to the transmission demand indication information, wherein the first transmission resource is the transmission resource which the first AP needs to be shared.
The method of claim 12, wherein the transmission need indication information includes first indication information, the first indication information being used to indicate that the first AP has a transmission need.
The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

and the second AP analyzes the first indication information from a physical frame head of the wireless frame.
The method of claim 14, wherein the second AP parsing the first indication information from a physical frame header of the radio frame comprises:

the second AP parses the first indication information from a universal signal U-SIG field of a physical frame header of the radio frame or an extremely high throughput signal EHT-SIG field of a physical layer frame header of the radio frame.
The method according to any one of claims 12 to 15, wherein the transmission requirement indication information includes second indication information for indicating a transmission duration required by the first AP.
The method of claim 16, wherein the second AP determining the first transmission resource according to the transmission requirement indication information comprises:

and the second AP determines the first transmission resource according to the transmission duration and a preset bandwidth value.
The method according to claim 16 or 17, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the second AP analyzes the second indication information from a physical layer frame header of the wireless frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the wireless frame.
The method according to any one of claims 12 to 18, wherein the transmission requirement indication information includes third indication information, the third indication information being used to indicate a transmission bandwidth required by the first AP.
The method of claim 19, wherein the second AP determining the first transmission resource according to the transmission requirement indication information comprises:

and the second AP determines the first transmission resource according to the transmission bandwidth and a preset duration value.
The method according to claim 19 or 20, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the second AP analyzes the third indication information from a physical layer frame header of the wireless frame or a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the wireless frame.
The method according to any one of claims 12 to 21, wherein the transmission demand indication information includes fourth indication information for indicating at least one of:

the method comprises the steps of determining a period of transmission requirements of a first AP, a direction of the transmission requirements of the first AP, a type of data to be transmitted in the transmission requirements of the first AP, a cooperation mode required by the first AP, transmission power required by the first AP, a transmission channel required by the first AP and identification of a second AP.
The method of claim 22, wherein the method further comprises:

and the second AP analyzes the fourth indication information from a medium access control protocol data unit MPDU of the wireless frame.
The method according to any one of claims 12 to 23, further comprising:

the second AP sends a request frame to the first AP, wherein the request frame is used for requesting the first AP to send the wireless frame.
An apparatus for transmitting a demand indication, comprising: a unit for implementing the method of any one of claims 1 to 24.
A chip, comprising: a processor and a memory for storing a program or instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the chip to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 24.
A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program or instructions, which when executed cause a computer to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 24.