CN117527505A - Method for transmitting resource unit replication and tone repetition for enhanced long-distance communication - Google Patents

Abstract

A transmission method for resource unit replication and tone repetition for enhanced long-range communication. Techniques for transmission methods with Resource Unit (RU) duplication and tone repetition for Enhanced Long Range (ELR) communications are described. A device (e.g., a Station (STA)) generates a Resource Unit (RU) or Multiple RUs (MRU). The device then wirelessly performs ELR communication using either or both of: (a) repetition of RU or MRU; and (b) repetition of tones of RU or MRU.

Description

Method for transmitting resource unit replication and tone repetition for enhanced long-distance communication

Cross-reference to related patent applications

The present disclosure is part of a non-provisional patent application claiming the benefit of priority from U.S. provisional patent application No.63/370,288 filed on month 8 of 2022, and claiming the benefit of priority from U.S. patent application No.18/226,828 filed on month 7 of 2023, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to a transmission method for Resource Unit (RU) duplication and tone repetition for enhanced long-range (Enhanced Long Range, ELR) communications.

Background

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

In wireless communications such as Wi-Fi (or WiFi) according to the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE) 802.11 standard, increased reliability and coverage enhancement are key targets for next generation wireless local area network (wireless local area network, WLAN) connections. However, it is not yet defined how to achieve reliable transmission with RU replication and frequency domain tone repetition for ELR communications. Accordingly, a solution for a transmission method of RU duplication and tone repetition for ELR communication is needed.

Disclosure of Invention

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

It is an object of the present disclosure to provide schemes, concepts, designs, techniques, methods and apparatuses related to RU duplication and tone repeat transmission for ELR communications.

In one aspect, a method may include: RU or Multiple RU (MRU) is generated. The method may further include wirelessly performing ELR communications using either or both of: (a) repetition of RU or MRU; and (b) repetition of tones of RU or MRU.

In another aspect, an apparatus may include: a transceiver configured to communicate wirelessly and a processor coupled to the transceiver. The processor may generate RU or MRU. The processor may also wirelessly perform ELR communications using either or both of: (a) replication of RU or MRU; and (b) repetition of tones of RU or MRU.

Notably, while the description provided herein may be in the context of certain radio access technologies, networks, and network topologies (such as WiFi), the proposed concepts, schemes, and any variations/derivatives thereof may be implemented in, and through, other types of radio access technologies, networks, and network topologies, such as, but not limited to bluetooth, zigBee, 5 ^th Generation (5G)/New Radio (NR), long-Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced Pro, internet-of-Things (IoT), industrial IoT (IIoT), and narrowband IoT (NB-IoT). Accordingly, the scope of the disclosure is not limited to the examples described herein.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this disclosure. The accompanying drawings illustrate implementations of the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain principles of the present disclosure. It may be clear that the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale, as some components may be shown out of scale with respect to the dimensions in an actual implementation in order to clearly illustrate the concepts of the present disclosure.

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

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

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

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an example scenario under a proposed solution according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an example scenario under a proposed solution according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an example scenario under a proposed solution according to the present disclosure.

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

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of an example design under a proposed solution according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of an example design under a proposed solution according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of an example design under a proposed solution according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of an example scenario under a proposed solution according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of an example scenario under a proposed solution according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of an example design under a proposed solution according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 14 is a schematic diagram of an example design under a proposed solution according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 15 is a schematic diagram of an example design under a proposed solution according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 16 is a schematic diagram of an example design under the proposed solution according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 17 is a block diagram of an example communication system according to an implementation of the present disclosure.

Fig. 18 is a flowchart of an example process according to an implementation of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

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

SUMMARY

Implementations consistent with the present disclosure relate to various techniques, methods, schemes, and/or solutions related to RU duplication and tone repetition transmission methods for ELR communications. Many possible solutions may be implemented individually or jointly in accordance with the present disclosure. That is, although these possible solutions may be described below separately, two or more of these possible solutions may be implemented in one combination or another.

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

Notably, in the present disclosure, a bandwidth of 20MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW20 or BW20M, a bandwidth of 40MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW40 or BW40M, a bandwidth of 80MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW80 or BW80M, a bandwidth of 160MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW160 or BW160M, a bandwidth of 240MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW240 or BW240M, a bandwidth of 320MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW320 or BW320M, a bandwidth of 480MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW480 or BW480M, a bandwidth of 500MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW500 or BW500M, a bandwidth of 520MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW520 or BW520M, a bandwidth of 540MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW540 or BW540M, and a bandwidth of 640MHz may be interchangeably represented as BW640 or BW640M.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example network environment 100 in which various solutions and schemes according to the present disclosure may be implemented. Fig. 2-18 illustrate examples of implementations of various proposed schemes in a network environment 100 according to the present disclosure. A description of various proposed schemes is provided below with reference to fig. 1-18.

Referring to fig. 1, a network environment 100 may involve at least a Station (STA) 110 in wireless communication with STA 120. Either of STA 110 and STA 120 may be an Access Point (AP) STA, or alternatively either of STA 110 and STA 120 may function as a non-AP STA. In some cases, STA 110 and STA 120 may be associated with a basic service set (basic service set, BSS) according to one or more IEEE 802.11 standards (e.g., IEEE 802.11be and standards developed in the future). Each of STA 110 and STA 120 may be configured to communicate with each other by using RU duplication and tone repetition transmission methods for ELR communication according to various proposed schemes described below. That is, either or both of STA 110 and STA 120 may serve as "users" in the proposed schemes and examples described below. It is noted that while various proposed schemes may be described below, singly or separately, in actual implementations some or all of the proposed schemes may be utilized or otherwise jointly implemented. Of course, each of the proposed schemes may be utilized or otherwise implemented singly or individually.

According to the IEEE 802.11ax specification, enhanced Range (ER) mode is supported only for single-user (SU) scenarios and only for the main 20MHz frequency sub-block. Further, the transmission of a 242 tone RU (ER-SU-242) in ER mode for SU is in the main 20MHz frequency sub-block, and the transmission of a 106 tone RU (ER-SU-106) in ER mode for SU is for the higher frequency 106 tone RU in the main 20MHz frequency sub-block. Further, the supported Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) scheme is mcs=0, 1, 2 (e.g., MCS0 of ER-SU-106) having only one spatial stream (1 ss), with a data rate of 1.6Mbps to 25.8Mbps.

According to the IEEE 802.11be specification, support for the DUP mode is only used for the 6GHz band, only for SU scenarios, and only for 80MHz, 160MHz and 320MHz bandwidths. Furthermore, the supported MCS scheme is only MCS14 with binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) + dual-carrier modulation (dual-carrier modulation, DCM), with an effective coding rate (effective coding rate, eR) of 1/8. Further, the DUP mode is used only for 1ss, where the data rate is 7.3Mbps to 36Mbps.

With various proposed schemes according to the present disclosure, regarding RU duplication (or repetition) of next generation WLAN, ER according to IEEE 802.11ax and DUP according to IEEE 802.11be can be extended with some consideration. For example, ELR transmission may be performed based on IEEE 802.1be tone plan, RU, and MRU, and IEEE 802.11be DUP mode of BPSK or bpsk+dcm may be extended to 20MHz bandwidth and RU/MRU. Furthermore, multiple repetitions (e.g., 2x, 3x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 9 x) may be utilized to achieve a low effective coding rate for coverage enhancement. Furthermore, in order to enable support for multi-user (MU) scenarios with orthogonal frequency division multiple access (orthogonal frequency-division multiple-access, OFDMA), the proposed scheme may: (i) reuse the IEEE 802.11be RU/MRU tone plan; (ii) not introducing any new RU/MRU size; (iii) reusing an existing RU/MRU allocation sub-field table; (iv) Flexibly scheduling different RU sizes and coding rates (e.g., by repetition number (Nx)); (v) Enabling ELR for both non-OFDMA and OFDMA operations with simpler signaling; and (vi) reuse existing coding and padding designs.

Fig. 2 shows an example design 200 under the proposed solution according to the present disclosure. Design 200 may relate to non-OFDMA with RU replicated/duplicated SU ELR. Part (a) of fig. 2 shows two (2 x) repetitions (BPSK-DCM-Rep 2 x) with bpsk+dcm on 106 tone RU (RU 106) with er=1/8. Part (B) of fig. 2 shows three (3 x) repetitions (BPSK-DCM-Rep 3 x) with bpsk+dcm on 78 tones MRU (MRU 78) with er=1/12. Part (C) of fig. 2 shows four (4 x) repetitions with bpsk+dcm (BPSK-DCM-Rep 4 x) on a 52 tone RU (RU 52) with er=1/16. Part (D) of fig. 2 shows eight (8 x) repetitions (BPSK-DCM-Rep 8 x) with bpsk+dcm on 26 tone RU (RU 26) with er=1/32. Part (E) of fig. 2 shows nine (9 x) repetitions with bpsk+dcm (BPSK-DCM-Rep 9 x) on 26 tone RU (RU 26) with er=1/36. In the example of fig. 2, BPSK may also be used with RU replication/duplication.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example design 300 under the proposed solution according to this disclosure. Design 300 may relate to OFDMA with RU duplicated/repeated MU ELR. Part (a) of fig. 3 shows two (2 x) repetitions of RU26 (BPSK-DCM-Rep 2 x) with bpsk+dcm on a 52 tone RU (RU 52) with er=1/8. Part (B) of fig. 3 shows three (3 x) repetitions of RU26 (BPSK-DCM-Rep 3 x) with bpsk+dcm over 78 tones MRU (MRU 78) with er=1/12. Part (C) of fig. 3 shows two (2 x) repetitions of RU52 (BPSK-DCM-Rep 2 x) with bpsk+dcm on 106 tone RU (RU 106) with er=1/8. Part (D) of fig. 3 shows four (4 x) repetitions of RU26 (BPSK-DCM-Rep 4 x) with bpsk+dcm on RU106 with er=1/16. In the example of fig. 3, BPSK may also be used with RU replication/duplication. Fig. 4 illustrates an example scenario 400 under the proposed solution according to this disclosure. The scenario 400 may relate to OFDMA with RU repeated/repeated MU ELR for two users. Part (a) of fig. 4 shows an example of two OFDMA users each having er=1/16. Part (B) of fig. 4 shows an example of two OFDMA users each having er=1/8. In the example of fig. 4, BPSK may also be used with RU replication/duplication.

Fig. 5 illustrates an example scenario 500 under the proposed solution according to this disclosure. The scenario 500 may relate to OFDMA with RU repeated/repeated MU ELR for three users. Part (a) of fig. 5 shows an example of three OFDMA users each having er=1/8. Part (B) of fig. 5 shows an example of three OFDMA users, each having a different RU size and a different eR. In the example of fig. 5, BPSK may also be used with RU replication/duplication.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example scenario 600 under the proposed solution according to the present disclosure. Scenario 600 may relate to OFDMA with RU repeated/repeated MU ELR for four users. Part (a) of fig. 6 shows an example of four OFDMA users each having er=1/8. Part (B) of fig. 6 shows an example of four OFDMA users each having a different RU size and a different eR. In the example of fig. 6, BPSK may also be used with RU replication/duplication.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example design 700 under the proposed solution according to the present disclosure. Design 700 may relate to a transport function block of an ELR with low-density parity-check (low-density parity check, LDPC) encoded RU DUP. In design 700, a bitstream of data and/or information may be processed as a single spatial stream through a plurality of functional blocks including: pre-forward error correction (pre-forward error correction, pre-FEC) physical layer (PHY) padding, scrambler, LDPC encoder, post-FEC PHY padding, stream parser (spatial stream number N _ss 1), constellation mapper (for bpsk+dcm or BPSK), LDPC tone mapper, frequency-domain (FD) duplication, and spatial mapper. The FD copy function may perform FD repetitions of two (2 x), three (3 x), four (4 x), six (6 x), eight (8 x), and/or nine (9 x). The spatial mapper function can output multiple tone streams to multiple transmit chains (N in number _TX ) For transmission. N (N) _TX Each of the plurality of transmit chains may include a plurality of functional blocks including: inverse discrete fourier transform (inverse discrete Fourier transformation, IDFT), guard Interval (GI) and window insertion, and analog and Radio Frequency (RF).

FIG. 8 illustrates a method according to the present disclosureExample design 800 under the proposed solution. Design 800 may relate to a transmission function block of an ELR with a binary convolutional code (binary convolutional code, BCC) encoded RU DUP. In design 800, a bitstream of data and/or information may be processed as a single spatial stream through a plurality of functional blocks including: pre-FEC PHY padding, scrambler, BCC encoder, post-FEC PHY padding, BCC interleaver, stream parser (spatial stream number N _ss 1), constellation mapper (for bpsk+dcm), FD replica, and spatial mapper. The FD copy function may perform FD repetition of 2x, 3x, 4x, 6x, 8x, and/or 9 x. The spatial mapper function can output multiple tone streams to multiple transmit chains (N in number _TX ) For transmission. N (N) _TX Each of the plurality of transmit chains may include a plurality of functional blocks including: IDFT, GI and window insertion, analog and RF.

Fig. 9 illustrates an example design 900 under the proposed solution according to the present disclosure. Design 900 may relate to modulation, coding rate, and data rate for ELR communications with RU replication/repetition for non-OFDMA SU scenarios with one spatial stream.

Fig. 10 illustrates an example design 1000 under the proposed solution according to the present disclosure. Design 1000 may relate to modulation, coding rate, and data rate for ELR communication with RU duplication/repetition for OFDMA MU scenarios with one spatial stream.

Under various proposed schemes according to the present disclosure, with regard to ELR communication, tone repetition may be performed in the frequency domain and for each RU or MRU. RU/MRU may be based on the IEEE 802.11ax/be tone plan with a 4x parameter set and a subcarrier spacing of 78.125kHz. The number of tone repetitions may be 2x, 3x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 9x, 12x, etc. The tones may be repeated or distributed uniformly over the RU or MRU. For example, for RU/MRU of different sizes, under the proposed scheme, the number of data subcarriers (N _sd ) The following may be possible:

RU242：N _sd ＝234＝2*3*3*13

RU106：N _sd ＝102＝2*3*17

RU52：N _sd ＝48＝2*2*2*2*3

RU26：N _sd ＝24＝2*2*2*3

MRU(26+52)：N _sd ＝72＝2*2*2*3*3

MRU(26+106)：N _sd ＝126＝2*3*3*7

fig. 11 illustrates an example scenario 1100 under the proposed solution according to the present disclosure. Scenario 1100 may relate to FD tone repetition for ELR communications. As shown in FIG. 11, for one symbol, for RU26/52/106/242, N _sd ＝24/48/102/234。

Fig. 12 illustrates an example scenario 1200 regarding tone repetition with residual tones under the proposed scheme according to this disclosure. For some RU sizes and repetition times, there may be the following remaining tones:

RU242：N _sd ＝234＝2*3*3*13

RU106：N _sd ＝102＝2*3*17

RU52：N _sd ＝48＝2*2*2*2*3

RU26：N _sd ＝24＝2*2*2*3

wherein the number of remaining tones = N _sd,ru –N _x,rep *N _sd

Here, N _sd,ru Represents the number of data tones for a given RU, and N _x,rep Indicating the number of tone repetitions. For RU242, for 4x repetition, N _sd =floor (234/4) =58; 4x 58 = 232→2 tones remaining. For RU242, for 8x repetition, N _sd =floor (234/8) =29; 8x 29 = 232→2 tones remaining. For RU106, for 4x repetition, N _sd =floor (102/4) =25; 4x 25 = 100→2 tones remaining. For RU106, for 8x repetition, N _sd =floor (102/8) =12; 8x 12 = 96→6 tones remaining. In scene 1200, there are 2 remaining tones.

Under the proposed scheme, tone repetition may be performed in a round-robin and evenly distributed manner. For example, in the case of the remaining tones, there may be two options. In the first option (option 1), the repetition may continue in the remaining tones. In the second option (option 2), no transmission may be performed in the remaining tones.

Fig. 13 illustrates an example design 1300 under the proposed solution according to the present disclosure. In design 1300, multiple tone repetitions may correspond to respective effective coding rates under the proposed scheme.

Fig. 14 illustrates an example design 1400 for repeated availability without residual tones under a proposed solution according to this disclosure. In design 1400, each of the multiple tone repetitions may be available or viable for RU/MRU of certain sizes without remaining tones under the proposed scheme.

Fig. 15 illustrates an example design 1500 for the number of remaining tones and the number of repetitions for different RU/MRU sizes under a proposed scheme according to this disclosure. In design 1500, each of the multiple tone repetitions may result in zero or some remaining tones for RU/MRU of some size under the proposed scheme.

Fig. 16 illustrates an example design 1600 under the proposed solution according to the present disclosure. Design 1600 may relate to transmission functional blocks and processing flows for tone repetition in the frequency domain. Part (a) of fig. 16 shows a transmission function block and a processing flow for tone repetition in the frequency domain encoded with BCC. The transport function block and the processing flow may include: pre-FEC padding, scramblers, BCC encoders (code rate R1/2, 1/3 or 1/4), BCC interleavers, post-FEC padding, modulation, tone repetition and frequency mapping. The pre-FEC padding function may utilize the new N of RU _sd,short Parameters and repetition times. The BCC interleaver function block can use the new BCC interleaver parameters for the repetition times. The post FEC padding function may utilize the new N of RU _sd,short Parameters and repetition times.

Part (B) of fig. 16 shows a transmission function block and a processing flow for tone repetition in the frequency domain encoded with LDPC. Under the proposed scheme, there may be two approaches. In the first method (method-1), the functional blocks and locations are transportedThe management flow may include: pre-FEC padding, scrambler, LDPC encoder (code rate R1/2, 1/3 or 1/4), post-FEC padding, modulation, tone repetition, tone mapper and frequency mapping. In a second method (method-2), the transport block and the processing flow may include: pre-FEC padding, scrambler, LDPC encoder (code rate R1/2, 1/3 or 1/4), post-FEC padding, modulation, tone mapper, tone repetition and frequency mapping. The pre-FEC padding function may utilize the new N of RU _sd,short Parameters and repetition times. The post FEC padding function may utilize the new N of RU _sd,short Parameters and repetition times. The tone mapper function may utilize the new LDPC tone mapper parameters for the repetition number.

Illustrative implementation

Fig. 17 illustrates an example system 1700 having at least an example apparatus 1710 and an example apparatus 1720 according to an implementation of the disclosure. Each of the apparatus 1710 and 1720 may perform various functions to implement the schemes, techniques, processes, and methods described herein in connection with RU duplication and tone repeat transmission methods for ELR communications, including the various schemes described above with respect to the various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems, and methods, and the processes described below. For example, apparatus 1710 may be implemented in STA 110 and apparatus 1720 may be implemented in STA 120, or vice versa.

Each of device 1710 and device 1720 may be part of an electronic device, which may be a non-AP STA or an AP STA, such as a portable or mobile device, a wearable device, a wireless communication device, or a computing device. When implemented in a STA, each of the apparatuses 1710 and 1720 may be implemented in a smart phone, a smart watch, a personal digital assistant, a digital camera, or a computing device such as a tablet computer, a laptop computer, or a notebook computer. Each of device 1710 and device 1720 may also be part of a machine type device, which may be an IoT device, such as a non-mobile or stationary device, a home device, a wired communication device, or a computing device. For example, each of the device 1710 and the device 1720 may be implemented in a smart thermostat, a smart refrigerator, a smart door lock, a wireless speaker, or a home control center. When implemented in or as a network device, the device 1710 and/or the device 1720 may be implemented in a network node (such as an AP in a WLAN).

In some implementations, each of the devices 1710 and 1720 may be implemented in the form of one or more integrated-circuit (IC) chips, such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more reduced-instruction-set-instruction set computing (RISC) processors, or one or more complex-instruction-set-computing (CISC) processors. In the various aspects described above, each of the apparatus 1710 and 1720 may be implemented in or as a STA or AP. For example, each of the apparatus 1710 and the apparatus 1720 may include at least some of those components shown in fig. 17, such as the processor 1712 and the processor 1722, respectively. Each of apparatus 1710 and apparatus 1720 may also include one or more other components (e.g., an internal power source, a display device, and/or a user interface device) that are not relevant to the proposed solution of the present disclosure, and thus, for simplicity and brevity, such components of apparatus 1710 and apparatus 1720 are neither shown in fig. 17 nor described below.

In one aspect, each of processor 1712 and processor 1722 may be implemented in the form of one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, or one or more CISC processors. That is, even though the singular term "processor" is used herein to refer to processor 1712 and processor 1722, each of processor 1712 and processor 1722 according to the present disclosure may include multiple processors in some implementations and a single processor in other implementations. In another aspect, each of the processors 1712 and 1722 may be implemented in hardware (and optionally firmware) with electronic components including, for example, but not limited to, one or more transistors, one or more diodes, one or more capacitors, one or more registers, one or more inductors, one or more memristors (memristors), and/or one or more varactors, configured and arranged to achieve particular objects in accordance with the present disclosure. In other words, in at least some implementations, each of processor 1712 and processor 1722 is a special purpose machine specifically designed, arranged, and configured to perform specific tasks, including tasks related to transmission methods of RU replication and tone repetition for ELR communications according to various implementations of the present disclosure.

In some implementations, the apparatus 1710 may further include a transceiver 1716 coupled to the processor 1712. The transceiver 1716 may include a transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting and a receiver capable of wirelessly receiving data. In some implementations, the apparatus 1720 may further include a transceiver 1726 coupled to the processor 1722. The transceiver 1726 may include a transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting and a receiver capable of wirelessly receiving data. Notably, although transceiver 1716 and transceiver 1726 are shown external to processor 1712 and processor 1722, respectively, and separate from processor 1712 and processor 1722, in some implementations transceiver 1716 may be part of processor 1712 as a system on chip (SoC) and transceiver 1726 may be part of processor 1722 as a SoC.

In some implementations, the device 1710 may also include a memory 1714 coupled to the processor 1712 and capable of being accessed by the processor 1712 and storing data therein. In some implementations, the device 1720 may also include a memory 1724 coupled to the processor 1722 and capable of being accessed by the processor 1722 and storing data therein. Each of the memory 1714 and the memory 1724 may include a random-access memory (RAM) type such as Dynamic RAM (DRAM), static RAM (SRAM), thyristor RAM (T-RAM), and/or zero-capacitor RAM (Z-RAM). Alternatively or additionally, each of memory 1714 and memory 1724 may include a read-only memory (ROM) type, such as mask ROM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (erasable programmable ROM, EPROM), and/or electrically erasable programmable ROM (electrically erasable programmable ROM, EEPROM). Alternatively or additionally, each of memory 1714 and memory 1724 may include non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) types, such as flash memory, solid state memory, ferroelectric RAM (ferroelectric RAM, fe RAM), magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), and/or phase change memory.

Each of the apparatus 1710 and the apparatus 1720 may be communication entities capable of communicating with each other using various proposed schemes according to the present disclosure. For illustrative purposes, and not limitation, a description of the capabilities of device 1710 (as STA 110) and device 1720 (as STA 120) is provided below. It is noted that although a detailed description of the capabilities, functions and/or technical features of device 1720 is provided below, it may be applied to device 1710, although a detailed description thereof is not provided for the sake of brevity. It is also noted that although the example implementations described below are provided in the context of a WLAN, the same implementations may be implemented in other types of networks.

Under various proposed schemes in accordance with the present disclosure regarding transmission methods of RU replication and tone repetition for ELR communication, a processor 1712 of apparatus 1710 may generate RU or MRU in case apparatus 1710 is implemented in STA110 or as STA110 and apparatus 1720 is implemented in STA 120 or as STA 120 in network environment 100. Further, the processor 1712 may perform ELR communications wirelessly (e.g., with the device 1720) via the transceiver 1716 with either or both of: (a) replication of RU or MRU; and (b) repetition of tones of RU or MRU.

In some implementations, in performing ELR communications, the processor 1712 may utilize a copy of RU or MRU to perform non-OFDMASU ELR communications. In some implementations, in performing non-OFDMASU ELR communications with replication of RU or MRU, the processor 1712 may replicate the RU or MRU by: (i) duplicating 106 tone RU (RU 106) twice (2 x) in case of or in case of er=1/8 for bpsk+dcm modulation, or (ii) duplicating 78 tone MRU (MRU 78) three times (3 x) in case of or in case of er=1/12 for bpsk+dcm modulation, or (iii) in case of or in case of er=1/16 for bpsk+dcm modulation, the 52 tone RU (RU 52) is duplicated four times (4 x), or (iv) the 26 tone RU (RU 26) is duplicated eight times (8 x) in the case of er=1/32 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in the case of er=1/16 for BPSK modulation, or (v) the RU26 is duplicated nine times (9 x) in the case of er=1/36 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in the case of er=1/18 for BPSK modulation.

In some implementations, in performing ELR communications, processor 1712 may perform Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) multi-user (MU) ELR communications using a copy of RU or MRU. In some implementations, in performing OFDMAMU ELR communication with duplication of RU or MRU, the processor 1712 may duplicate RU or MRU by: (i) copy 26 tone RU (RU 26) twice (2 x) on 52 tone RU (RU 52) with r=1/8 for bpsk+dcm modulation or with r=1/4 for BPSK modulation, or (ii) copy RU26 three times (3 x) on 78 tone MRU (MRU 78) with r=1/6 for bpsk+dcm modulation or (iii) copy 52 tone RU (RU 52) twice (2 x) on 106 tone RU (RU 106) with r=1/8 for bpsk+dcm modulation or with r=1/4 for BPSK modulation, or (iv) copy 26 tone RU26 four times (RU 4 x) on 106 with r=1/16 for bpsk+dcm modulation or with r=1/8 for BPSK modulation. In some implementations, in performing OFDMA MU ELR communications with duplication of RUs or MRUs, processor 1712 may duplicate RUs or MRUs associated with multiple users having the same size of RU or MRU such that the same effective encoding rate is achieved for the multiple users. Alternatively, in performing OFDMA MU ELR communications with duplication of RUs or MRUs, processor 1712 may duplicate RUs or MRUs associated with multiple users having different sizes of RUs or MRUs such that different effective encoding rates are achieved for the multiple users.

In some implementations, in performing ELR communications with duplication of RU or MRU, processor 1712 may duplicate RU or MRU with an MCS using BPSK or BPSK plus DCM.

In some implementations, in performing ELR communications, the processor 1712 may perform ELR communications with repetitions of tones of the RU or MRU in the frequency domain, where the tones are evenly distributed across the RU or MRU in a cyclic manner. In some implementations, the processor 1712 may perform certain operations in performing ELR communications with repetitions of tones of RU or MRU. For example, the processor 1712 may perform ELR communications using a repetition of tones of RU or MRU with one or more remaining tones. Further, the processor 1712 may process one or more remaining tones by: (a) continuing to repeat in one or more remaining tones; or (b) not performing transmission on one or more remaining tones.

Exemplary Process

Fig. 18 illustrates an example process 1800 in accordance with implementations of the disclosure. Process 1800 may represent aspects of implementing the various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems and methods described above. More specifically, process 1800 may represent aspects of the proposed concepts and schemes related to a transmission method for RU duplication and tone repetition for ELR communications according to the present disclosure. Process 1800 may include one or more operations, actions, or functions as illustrated by one or more of block 1810 and block 1820. While shown as separate blocks, the various blocks of process 1800 may be divided into additional blocks, combined into fewer blocks, or eliminated, depending on the desired implementation. Further, the blocks/sub-blocks of process 1800 may be performed in the order shown in fig. 18, or in a different order. Further, one or more blocks/sub-blocks of process 1800 may be performed repeatedly or iteratively. Process 1800 may be implemented by apparatus 1710 and apparatus 1720, as well as any variation thereof. For illustrative purposes only and without limiting the scope, process 1800 is described below in the context of a device 1710 implemented in STA110 (acting as a non-AP STA) or as STA110 and a device 1720 implemented in STA120 (acting as an AP STA) or as STA120 for a wireless network (such as a WLAN) in network environment 100 according to one or more of the IEEE 802.11 standards. Process 1800 may begin at block 1810.

At 1810, process 1800 can include: processor 1712 of apparatus 1710 generates RU or MRU. Process 1800 may proceed from 1810 to 1820.

At 1820, process 1800 may include: the processor 1712 wirelessly performs ELR communications via the transceiver 1716 using either or both of the following (e.g., using the device 1720): (a) replication of RU or MRU; and (b) repetition of tones of RU or MRU.

In some implementations, in performing ELR communications, process 1800 may include: the processor 1712 may perform non-OFDMASU ELR communications using RU or MRU replication. In some implementations, in performing non-OFDMA SU ELR communications using replication of RU or MRU, process 1800 may include: processor 1712 may replicate the RU or MRU by: (i) duplicating 106 tone RU (RU 106) twice (2 x) in case of or in case of er=1/8 for bpsk+dcm modulation, or (ii) duplicating 78 tone MRU (MRU 78) three times (3 x) in case of or in case of er=1/12 for bpsk+dcm modulation, or (iii) in case of or in case of er=1/16 for bpsk+dcm modulation, the 52 tone RU (RU 52) is duplicated four times (4 x), or (iv) the 26 tone RU (RU 26) is duplicated eight times (8 x) in the case of er=1/32 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in the case of er=1/16 for BPSK modulation, or (v) the RU26 is duplicated nine times (9 x) in the case of er=1/36 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in the case of er=1/18 for BPSK modulation.

In some implementations, in performing ELR communications, process 1800 may include: processor 1712 may perform OFDMA MU ELR communications using a copy of RU or MRU. In some implementations, in performing OFDMA MU ELR communications using replication of RU or MRU, process 1800 may include: processor 1712 replicates RU or MRU by: (i) copy 26 tone RU (RU 26) twice (2 x) on 52 tone RU (RU 52) with r=1/8 for bpsk+dcm modulation or with r=1/4 for BPSK modulation, or (ii) copy RU26 three times (3 x) on 78 tone MRU (MRU 78) with r=1/6 for bpsk+dcm modulation or (iii) copy 52 tone RU (RU 52) twice (2 x) on 106 tone RU (RU 106) with r=1/8 for bpsk+dcm modulation or with r=1/4 for BPSK modulation, or (iv) copy 26 tone RU26 four times (RU 4 x) on 106 with r=1/16 for bpsk+dcm modulation or with r=1/8 for BPSK modulation. In some implementations, in performing OFDMA MU ELR communications using replication of RU or MRU, process 1800 may include: processor 1712 replicates RU or MRU associated with multiple users having the same size RU or MRU such that the same effective encoding rate is achieved for the multiple users. Alternatively, in performing an OFDMAMU ELR communication using a copy of RU or MRU, the process 1800 may include: processor 1712 replicates RU or MRU associated with multiple users having different sizes of RU or MRU such that different effective encoding rates are achieved for the multiple users.

In some implementations, in performing ELR communications using replication of RU or MRU, process 1800 may include: processor 1712 replicates RU or MRU with MCS using BPSK or BPSK plus DCM.

In some implementations, in performing ELR communications, process 1800 may include: the processor 1712 performs ELR communication in the frequency domain with repetition of tones of RU or MRU, where the tones are evenly distributed across the RU or MRU in a cyclic manner. In some implementations, in performing ELR communications with repetition of tones of RU or MRU, process 1800 may include: the processor 1712 performs certain operations. For example, process 1800 may include: the processor 1712 performs ELR communications with repetitions of tones of RU or MRU having one or more remaining tones. Further, process 1800 may include: processor 1712 processes one or more remaining tones by: (a) continuing to repeat in one or more remaining tones; or (b) not performing transmission on one or more remaining tones.

Additional notes

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

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

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

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

Claims (20)

1. A method, the method comprising:

generating, by a processor of the apparatus, a resource unit RU or multiple RUMRUs; and

wirelessly performing, by the processor, enhanced long-range ELR communications using either or both of:

replication of the RU or MRU; and

repetition of tones of the RU or MRU.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the ELR communication comprises: non-orthogonal frequency division multiple access, non-OFDMA, single-user suilr, communication is performed using a copy of the RU or MRU.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein performing the non-OFDMA SU ELR communication with a copy of the RU or MRU comprises copying the RU or MRU by:

in case of an effective coding rate er=1/8 for binary phase shift keying bpsk+dual carrier modulation DCM modulation or in case of said er=1/4 for BPSK modulation, the 106 tone RURU106 is duplicated 2x, or

In the case of said er=1/12 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in the case of said er=1/6 for BPSK modulation, 78 tones MRUMRU78 is duplicated three times 3x, or

In the case of said er=1/16 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in the case of said er=1/8 for BPSK modulation, the 52 tone RURU52 is duplicated four times 4x, or

In case of said er=1/32 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in case of said er=1/16 for BPSK modulation, 26 tone RURU26 is duplicated eight times 8x, or

The RU26 is duplicated nine times 9x with the er=1/36 for bpsk+dcm modulation or with the er=1/18 for BPSK modulation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the ELR communication comprises: orthogonal frequency division multiple access, OFDMA, multi-user MUELR, communication is performed using a copy of the RU or MRU.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein performing the OFDMA MU ELR communication with the replication of the RU or MRU comprises replicating the RU or MRU by:

in case of effective coding rate er=1/8 for binary phase shift keying bpsk+dual carrier modulation DCM modulation or in case of er=1/4 for BPSK modulation, 26 tone RURU26 is duplicated 2x on 52 tone RURU52, or

In case of said er=1/12 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in case of said er=1/6 for BPSK modulation, said RU26 is duplicated three times 3x on 78-tone MRUMRU78, or

In case of said er=1/8 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in case of said er=1/4 for BPSK modulation, the 52-tone RURU52 is duplicated on the 106-tone RURU106 twice 2x, or

The RU26 is replicated 4x four times on the RU106 with the er=1/16 for bpsk+dcm modulation or with the er=1/8 for BPSK modulation.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein performing the OFDMA MU ELR communication with a copy of the RU or MRU comprises: RU or MRU associated with multiple users having the same size are replicated such that the same effective encoding rate is achieved for the multiple users.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein performing the OFDMA MU ELR communication with a copy of the RU or MRU comprises: RU or MRU associated with multiple users having different sizes are replicated such that different effective encoding rates are achieved for the multiple users.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the ELR communication comprises performing the ELR communication with a copy of the RU or MRU by: the RU or MRU is duplicated by using a modulation and coding scheme MCS using binary phase shift keying BPSK or BPSK plus dual carrier modulation DCM.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the ELR communication comprises: the ELR communication is performed in the frequency domain with repetition of the tones of the RU or MRU, wherein the tones are evenly distributed across the RU or MRU in a cyclic manner.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein performing the ELR communication with the repetition of the tones of the RU or MRU comprises:

performing the ELR communication with a repetition of the tone of the RU or MRU having one or more remaining tones; and

the one or more remaining tones are processed by:

continuing the repetition in the one or more remaining tones; or (b)

No transmission is performed on the one or more remaining tones.

11. An apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

a transceiver configured to communicate wirelessly; and

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

generating a resource unit RU or a plurality of RUs; and

enhanced long-range ELR communications are wirelessly performed via the transceiver using either or both of:

replication of the RU or MRU; and

Repetition of tones of the RU or MRU.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein performing the ELR communication comprises: non-orthogonal frequency division multiple access, non-OFDMA, single-user suilr, communication is performed using a copy of the RU or MRU.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein performing the non-OFDMA SU ELR communication with a copy of the RU or MRU comprises copying the RU or MRU by:

in case of an effective coding rate er=1/8 for binary phase shift keying bpsk+dual carrier modulation DCM modulation or in case of said er=1/4 for BPSK modulation, the 106 tone RURU106 is duplicated 2x, or

In the case of said er=1/12 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in the case of said er=1/6 for BPSK modulation, 78 tones MRUMRU78 is duplicated three times 3x, or

In the case of said er=1/16 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in the case of said er=1/8 for BPSK modulation, the 52 tone RURU52 is duplicated four times 4x, or

In case of said er=1/32 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in case of said er=1/16 for BPSK modulation, 26 tone RURU26 is duplicated eight times 8x, or

The RU26 is duplicated nine times 9x with the er=1/36 for bpsk+dcm modulation or with the er=1/18 for BPSK modulation.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein performing the ELR communication comprises: orthogonal frequency division multiple access, OFDMA, multi-user MUELR, communication is performed using a copy of the RU or MRU.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein performing the OFDMA MU ELR communication with the replication of the RU or MRU comprises replicating the RU or MRU by:

in case of effective coding rate er=1/8 for binary phase shift keying bpsk+dual carrier modulation DCM modulation or in case of er=1/4 for BPSK modulation, 26 tone RURU26 is duplicated 2x on 52 tone RURU52, or

In case of said er=1/12 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in case of said er=1/6 for BPSK modulation, said RU26 is duplicated three times 3x on 78-tone MRUMRU78, or

In case of said er=1/8 for bpsk+dcm modulation or in case of said er=1/4 for BPSK modulation, the 52-tone RURU52 is duplicated on the 106-tone RURU106 twice 2x, or

The RU26 is replicated 4x four times on the RU106 with the er=1/16 for bpsk+dcm modulation or with the er=1/8 for BPSK modulation.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein performing the OFDMA MU ELR communication with a copy of the RU or MRU comprises: RU or MRU associated with multiple users having the same size are replicated such that the same effective encoding rate is achieved for the multiple users.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein performing the OFDMA MU ELR communication with a copy of the RU or MRU comprises: RU or MRU associated with multiple users having different sizes are replicated such that different effective encoding rates are achieved for the multiple users.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein performing the ELR communication comprises performing the ELR communication with a copy of the RU or MRU by: the RU or MRU is duplicated by using a modulation and coding scheme MCS using binary phase shift keying BPSK or BPSK plus dual carrier modulation DCM.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein performing the ELR communication comprises: the ELR communication is performed in the frequency domain with repetition of the tones of the RU or MRU, wherein the tones are evenly distributed across the RU or MRU in a cyclic manner.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein performing the ELR communication with the repetition of the tone of the RU or MRU comprises:

performing the ELR communication with a repetition of the tone of the RU or MRU having one or more remaining tones; and

the one or more remaining tones are processed by:

Continuing the repetition in the one or more remaining tones; or (b)

No transmission is performed on the one or more remaining tones.